Khoja (Turkestan)

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Shaykh Khwaja Ahrar (Master of the free)

Khoja or Khwaja (

Shaykh Khwaja Ahrar.[1] The Khojas often were appointed as administrators by Mongol rulers in the Altishahr or present-day region of Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, China
.

The Khojas of Altishahr claimed to be Sayyids (descendants of Muhammad) and they are still regarded as such by the fraternity people of Altishahr. Although Ahmad Kasani himself, known as Makhdūm-i-Azam or "Great Master" to his followers, never visited Altishahr (today's Tarim Basin), many of his descendants, known as Makhdūmzādas and bearing the title Khoja (properly written and pronounced Khwaja) played important parts in the region's politics from the 17th to 19th centuries.

On the death of Aḥmad Kāsānī, a division took place among the Khojas which resulted in one party becoming followers of the Makhdum's elder son Khoja Muhammad Amin better known as Ishan-i-Kalan and another attaching themselves to his younger son Khoja Muhammad Ishaq Wali. The followers of Ishan-i-Kalan seem to have acquired the name of Aq Taghliqs or White mountaineers and that of Ishaq Qara Taghliqs or Black mountaineers but these names had no reference to the localities where their adherents lived. All were inhabitants of the lowlands and cities of Eastern Turkistan but each section made allies among the

Kashghar were known as the White mountaineers and the Kyrgyz tribes of the Pamir, Karakoram and Kunlun as the Black mountaineers with Yarkand
as their main city of influence, such that the Khojas came to assume the designations of their Kyrgyz allies.

The Chagatai language Tadhkirah i Khwajagan (a Tadhkirah) was written by M. Sadiq Kashghari.[2]

List of Khojas

Note: The following list is incomplete and, at times, possibly slightly inaccurate. It also excludes several collateral lines that ruled over minor territories and were relatively unimportant.

Aq Taghliq (The White Mountaineers) Qara Taghliq (The Black Mountaineers)
Khoja
خواجہ
Makhdum-i-Azam (The Great Master)
مخدوم اعظم
Makhdum-i-Nura (The Great Light)
Hazrat Khoja Khavand Mahmud Shihab-ud-din
حضرت خواجہ خاوند محمود شہاب الدین
Ahmad Kasani
 ?
? – 1542 C.E.
Ishan-i-Kalān
ایشان کلاں
Khoja Muhammad Amin
محمد امین 		Khoja Muhammad Ishaq Wali
محمد اسحاق ولی
? – 1599 C.E.
Khoja Muhammad Yusuf

محمد یوسف
?C.E. 		Khoja Shadi
Afaq Khoja (Master of Horizons)
آفاق خواجہ
Khoja Hidāyatullah
هداية اللہ
? – 1693/94 C.E. 		Khoja Ubaydullah (Khoja Abdullah?)
The
Zunghar Khanate under Galdan Boshugtu Khan had in 1680 conquered the Tarim Basin and allowed the Khojas administrative hold over the region beginning with Afaq Khoja
.
Afaq Khoja (Master of Horizons)
آفاق خواجہ
Khoja Hidāyatullah
هداية اللہ
? – 1693/94 C.E.
Khan Khojan
خان خواجہ جان
Khoja Yahya
خواجہ یحیی
? – 1693/94 C.E. 		Khoja Daniyal
خواجہ دانیال
Khoja Akbash
خواجہ اکباش
Khoja Ahmed
خواجہ احمد
Tsewang Arabtan had in 1720 C.E. appointed Khoja Daniyal as administrator of Altishahr (or the Six Cities) but with Oirat
overseers, thus making the Qara Taghliq as overall masters.
1720 – 1754 C.E.
The
Khotan went to Khoja Abdullah; and the main city Kashgar went to Khoja Yusuf
since his mother was an Oirat Noyan.
Zunghar Khanate
's hold.
1754 – 1757 C.E.
The
Ghulja. They were Khoja Burhan-ud-din and Khan Khoja. Khan Khoja was kept as hostage whereas Khoja Burhan-ud-din
was sent with Oirat, Chinese and Turks to re-conquer the Altishahr which was achieved in 1758 C.E.
Ili River). In this war four of the sons of the Aq Taghliq family were killed in fight and two were taken prisoners to Beijing for execution there. Only one son of Khoja Burhan-ud-din escaped; His name was Khoja Sa'adat Ali commonly called Sarimsak. He had escaped to Khanate of Kokand. He had three sons there; Yusuf Khoja who lived at Bukhara then there was Bahauddin and lastly Jahangir Khoja
who would raise a rebellion against the Chinese in 1825 C.E.
1758 C.E.
The
Lake Balkash and the Alatagh
. Thus Chinese rule remained undisturbed till 1816 C.E.
Kashghar. He rebelled and with a party of Kyrgyz
raided the Chinese outposts. He was soon captured and executed but his son Ashraf Beg carried on the war till he shared the same fate. His young brother, however, was sent to Beijing where he was executed on attaining full age.
1816 C.E.
Qing dynasty ruled without disturbance again till 1825 C.E.
Ghulja
where they were settled as serfs under the name of Taranchi or those who sweat i.e. laborers.
1825 – 1828 C.E.
Qing dynasty rule restored.
Ghulja was delayed for want of carriage. This advance of the Kokand army roused the hostility of Emirate of Bukhara against Andijan and Muhammad Ali Khan to avert the attack threatened by Nasr-Allah Khan bin Haydar Tora at once recalled his General Haq Quli Beg
and Yusuf unable to hold his position unsupported amongst the fickle Muslims of Kashghar returned with him in November or December after a rule of only ninety days.
1830 C.E.
Qing dynasty changed its policy in the region due to the rising influence and power of the Khanate of Kokand under Muhammad Ali Khan and practically gave up control of the trade and certain revenues of the region in a treaty to him in 1831–32 C.E. On his part Muhammad Ali Khan was to restrain the Khojas and he consequently strictly watched their movements.
Zuhur-ud-din
ظہور الدین
1832 – 1846 C.E.
Revolt of Haft Khojajan
(Revolt of the Seven Khojas)
It was conducted by that number of the members of the Aq Taghliqs. The eldest of these was Ehsan Khan Khoja commonly called Katta Tora or Great Lord and amongst the others were Khoja Buzurg Khan, Khoja Wali Khan, Khoja Kichik Khan and Khoja Tawakkul Khan all of whom subsequently figured in the conquest of the country by Yaqub Beg Atalik Ghazi.
1846 C.E.
Kashghar and appointed the others to the surrounding towns and settlements. He and his kinsmen began to pillage the houses of the government officials appointed by the Chinese and seizing their wives and daughters to stock their harems at once abandoned themselves to a course of unbridled licentiousness and debauchery their troops the while besieging the Chinese garrison shut up in the Mangshin. But within 75 days the Chinese arrived and defeated the Khojas at the Battle of Kok Rabat
.
1846 C.E.
Qing dynasty rule restored.
Ahmed Wang
احمد وانگ
1846 – 1857 C.E.
Kashghar but on each occasion were repulsed at the frontier pickets owing to their numerical weakness. In the spring on 16 May 1857, however, Khoja Wali Khan after performing the prayers of Ramadan set out from Kokand with seven Kashghar emissaries and a small band of trusty adherents to carry out a preconcerted enterprise against the Chinese. They arrived at the Ocsalar Fort belonging to Kokand on the Ush-Turfan and Kashghar road at night and surprising the little garrison killed the commandant and won over the soldiers to join the Khoja. Gradually his ranks swelled. At the same time some scouts sent out by the Chinese were captured and brought to Wali Khan who inaugurated his bloody career by at once striking off their heads with his own hand. He then pushed on and crossing the Kizil ford surprised the picket there as they slumbered under the effects of their opium pipes and slew every soul of them and at dawn appeared before the Kum Darwaza or Sand Gate on the south side of the city of Kashgar
. He took the city and was welcomed as Buzurg Khan Tora. In the confusion Ahmad Wang the Muslim governor on the part of the Chinese with a few others escaped by the opposite gate and took refuge in the Mangshin or Yangishahr with the Chinese garrison. He began to consolidate his rule and sent commanders to take remaining Chinese forts. But the Chinese relief force rescued the besieged and recovered lost territories forcing Wali Khan to flee but was captured and brought before Muhammad Khudayar Khan, the Khan of Kokand. And thus after a rule of only a 115 days in September, 1857 ended the last of the Khoja revolts.
May – September 1857 C.E.
Kashgaria
with its capital in Kashgar. At about this time he received the title of Atalik Ghazi.
  • Blue row signifies progenitor of the Khojas of Altishahr.
    • Green rows signify The Aq Taghliqs.
      • Pink rows signify the Qara Taghliqs.
        • Orange rows signify Chinese governors.

See also

Literature

  • Kim Hodong, "Holy War in China: The Muslim Rebellion and State in Chinese Central Asia, 1864–1877". Stanford University Press (March 2004).
    ISBN 0-8047-4884-5
    . (Searchable text available on Amazon.com)
  • Gladney, Dru. "The Salafiyya Movement in Northwest China: Islamic Fundamentalism among the Muslim Chinese?"
    Originally published in "Muslim Diversity: Local Islam in Global Contexts". Leif Manger, Ed. Surrey: Curzon Press. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, No 26. pp. 102–149.
  • Ahmad Kasani Archived 19 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine in Encyclopædia Iranica (special fonts required to properly view)
  • Azim Malikov, Kinship systems of Xoja groups in Southern Kazakhstan in Anthropology of the Middle East, Volume 12, Issue 2, Winter 2017, pр.78-91
  • Azim Malikov, Sacred Lineages in Central Asia: Translocality and Identity in Mobilities, Boundaries, and Travelling Ideas: Rethinking Translocality Beyond Central Asia and the Caucasus edited by Manja Stephan-¬Emmrich and Philipp Schröder (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers), 2018, pp. 121–150
  • Azim Malikov, Khoja in Kazakhstan: identity transformations in Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Department 'Integration and Conflict' Field Notes and research Projects VI CASCA – Centre for Anthropological Studies on Central Asia: Framing the Research, Initial Projects. Eds.: Günther Schlee. Halle/Saale, 2013, pp. 101–107

References

  1. ^ The letters of Khwāja ʻUbayd Allāh Aḥrār and his associates. Translated by Jo-Ann Gross. Leiden: BRILL, 2002.
  2. ISBN 978-0-947593-38-4
    .
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