Yaqub Beg

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Yaqub Beg
200px
Muhammad Yaqub Beg, from the 1898 book by N.Veselovsky
Born 1820
Pskent, now Panjakent Khanate of Kokand
Died May 30, 1877(1877-05-30)
Occupation Amir of Kashgaria

Muhammad Yaqub Bek (محمد یعقوب بیگ) (Tajiki: Яъқуб-бек) (1820 – 30  May 1877) was a Tajik adventurer who became head of the kingdom of Kashgaria.

Spelling variants

In English-language literature, the name of Yaqub Beg has also been spelt as Yakub Beg (Encyclopædia Britannica), Yakoob Beg (Boulger, 1878), or Ya`qūb Beg (Kim Hodong, 2004). Authors using Russian sources have also used the spelling Yakub-bek (Paine, 1996[1]). A few publications in English written by Chinese authors spell his name Agubo, which is the Pinyin transcription of the Chinese transcription of his name, 阿古柏. (Chinese: 阿古柏帕夏; pinyin: Āgǔbó pàxià)

The first name, Muhammad, is subject to the usual variations in spelling as well.

Biography

Yakub Beg was born in the town of Pskent, in the Khanate of Kokand (now Panjakent or Panjikent in Tajikistan). He rose rapidly through the ranks in the service of the Khanate of Kokand; by the year 1847 he was commander of the fort at Ak-Mechet until a few months before its fall to the Russian army under the command of General Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky in 1853. After the fall of the fort he fled to Bukhara.[2]

Yakub Beg

By 1865 Yakub Beg had become the commander-in-chief of the army of Kokand. Taking advantage of the Hui uprising in China's Xinjiang province, he led his Andijani army to capture Kashgar and Yarkand from the Chinese and gradually took control of most of the region, including Aksu, Kucha, and other cities in 1867.[3] He made himself the ruler of Kashgaria with its capital in Kashgar. At about this time he received the title of Atalik Ghazi ("Champion Father"),[4] by which he is sometimes known.

He then deposed his former master, the Naqshbandi shaykh Buzurg Khan (Busurg Khan) (the only survived son of Jahangir Khoja) of the White Mountain Khoja, in 1867, and declared that he was the Amir.[5] For the first few years, he was a vassal of the Khan of Kokand, but eventually declared independence.[3]

Yakub Beg ruled at the height of The Great Game era when the British, Russian, and Chinese empires were all vying for Central Asia. Kashgaria extended from the capital Kashgar in south-western Xinjiang to Urumqi, Turpan, and Hami in central and eastern Xinjiang more than a thousand kilometers to the north-east, including a majority of what was known at the time as East Turkestan.

Yaqub Beg's Turkic Kokandi Andijani Uzbek forces declared a Jihad against Chinese Muslim rebels (Dungans) under T'o Ming (Tuo Ming a.k.a. Daud Khalifa) during the 1862–1877 Dungan revolt both due to the fear of them engaging in a land grab and because as followers of the Muslim Shafi'i school of thought, they could not be allies to Beg's Hanafi forces. Yaqub Beg enlisted non Muslim Han Chinese militia under Hsu Hsuehkung in order to fight against the Chinese Muslims in the Battle of Ürümqi (1870). T'o Ming's forces were defeated by Yaqub, who planned to conquer Dzungaria. Furthermore, Yaqub intended to seize all Dungan territory.[6][7][8]

Poems were written about the victories of Yaqub Beg's forces over the Chinese and the Dungans (Chinese Muslims).[9]

Yakub Beg seized Aksu from Chinese Muslim forces and forced them north of the Tian Shan mountains, committing massacres upon the Chinese Muslims (tunganis).[10]

Yaqub Beg gave himself the title "Athalik Ghazi, Champion Father of the Faithful", and was known for his crushing of both non Muslim and Muslim Chinese alike.[11]

Yaqub entered into relations and signed treaties with the Russian Empire and Great Britain, but when he tried to get their support against China, he failed.[12]

Eventually, Qing dynasty forces led by Zuo Zongtang, including Chinese Muslims led by General Cui and General Hua, who spearheaded the attack on Yaqub Beg's forces in Xinjiang, defeated Yaqub Beg and destroyed his army.[13] Xinjiang was reconquered by the Qing.

Yakub Beg was disliked by his Turkic Muslim subjects, burdening them with heavy taxes and subjecting them to a harsh version of Islamic Sharia law.[14][15]

It was written by Zuo Zongtang that "The Andijanis are tyrannical to their people; government troops should comfort them with benevolence. The Andijanis are greedy in extorting from the people; government troops should rectify this by being generous."[16]

Yaqub Beg's rule was unpopular among the natives with one of the local Kashgaris, a warrior and a chieftain's son, commenting: "During the Chinese rule there was everything; there is nothing now." There was also a falling-off in trade.[17]

The local Uyghurs of Altishahr came to view Yaqub Beg as a Kokandi foreigner and his Kokandi associates behaved ruthlessly to the local Uyghurs, an anti Yaqub Beg poem was written by the Uyghur:[18]

From Peking the Chinese came, like stars in the heaven.
The Andijanis rose and fled, like pigs in the forest.
They came in vain and left in vain, the Andijanis!
They went away scared and languidly, the Andijanis!
Every day they took a virgin, and
They went hunting for beauties.
They played with the dancing boys,
Which the Holy Law has forbidden.

The death of Yakub Beg

Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. His manner of death is unclear. The Times of London and the Russian Turkestan Gazette both reported that he had died after a short illness.[19] The contemporaneous historian Musa Sayrami (1836–1917) states that he was poisoned on May 30, 1877 in Korla by the former hakim (local city ruler) of Yarkand, Niyaz Hakim Beg, after the latter concluded a conspiracy agreement with the Qing (Chinese) forces in Jungaria.[19] However, Niyaz Beg himself, in a letter to the Qing authorities, denied his involvement in the death of Yakub Beg, and claimed that the Kashgarian ruler committed suicide.[19] Some say (probably, without any basis in fact) that he was killed in battle with the Chinese. [20]

While contemporaneous Muslim writers usually explained Yakub Beg's death by poisoning, and the suicide theory was apparently the accepted truth among the Qing generals of the time, modern historians, according to Kim Hodong, think that natural death (of a stroke) is the most plausible explanation.[19][21] Contemporaneous western sources say the Chinese got rid of him by poisoning him or some other sort of subversive act.[22] Westerners also say he was assassinated.[23]

The exact date of Yakub Beg's death is also somewhat uncertain. Although Sayrami claimed that he died on April 28, 1877, modern historians think that this is impossible, as Przewalski met him on May 9. The Chinese sources usually give May 22 as the date of his death, while Aleksey Kuropatkin thought it to be May 29. Late May, 1877 is therefore thought to be the most likely time period.[19]

Yaqub Beg and his son Ishana Beg's corpses were "burned to cinders" in public. This angered the population in Kashgar, but Chinese troops quashed a rebellious plot by Hakim Khan to rebel.[24] Four of his sons and two grandsons were captured by the Chinese; one son was beheaded, one grandson died, and the rest were castrated and enslaved to soldiers.[25] Surviving members of Yaqub Beg's family included his 4 sons, 4 grandchildren (2 grandsons and 2 granddaughters) and 4 wives. They either died in prison in Lanzhou, Gansu, or were killed by the Chinese. His sons Yima Kuli, K'ati Kuli, Maiti Kuli, and grandson Aisan Ahung were the only survivors in 1879. They were all underage children, and put on trial, sentenced to an agonizing death if they were complicit in their father's rebellious "sedition", or if they were innocent of their father's crimes, were to be sentenced to castration and serving as a eunuch slave to Chinese troops, when they reached 11 years old.[26][27] In 1879, it was confirmed that the sentence of castration was carried out, Yaqub Beg's son and grandsons were castrated by the Chinese court in 1879 and turned into eunuchs to work in the Imperial Palace.[28]

Legacy

Night interview with Yakub Beg, King of Kashgaria, 1868

After his death his state of Kashgaria rapidly fell apart, and Kashgar was reconquered by the Qing dynasty and later inherited by the Republic of China.

Yaqub Beg makes a notable appearance in the second half of George Macdonald Fraser's novel Flashman at the Charge.

One source says that his tomb was at Kashgar but was razed by the Chinese in 1878.[29]

See also

Footnotes

  •  This article incorporates text from A Chinese biographical dictionary, Volume 2, by Herbert Allen Giles, a publication from 1898 now in the public domain in the United States.
  •  This article incorporates text from China revolutionized, by John Stuart Thomson, a publication from 1913 now in the public domain in the United States.
  •  This article incorporates text from Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events, Volume 4, a publication from 1880 now in the public domain in the United States.
  •  This article incorporates text from Translations of the Peking Gazette, by 1880, a publication from now in the public domain in the United States.
  •  This article incorporates text from The American annual cyclopedia and register of important events of the year ..., Volume 4, a publication from 1888 now in the public domain in the United States.
  •  This article incorporates text from Appletons' annual cyclopedia and register of important events: Embracing political, military, and ecclesiastical affairs; public documents; biography, statistics, commerce, finance, literature, science, agriculture, and mechanical industry, Volume 19, a publication from 1886 now in the public domain in the United States.
  •  This article incorporates text from Johnson's new general cyclopaedia and copperplate hand-atlas of the world: combined and illustrated: being specially adapted for daily use in the family, school, and office, Volume 2, by Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, a publication from 1885 now in the public domain in the United States.
  •  This article incorporates text from Accounts and papers of the House of Commons, by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, a publication from 1871 now in the public domain in the United States.
  •  This article incorporates text from A Chinese biographical dictionary, Volume 2, a publication from 1898 now in the public domain in the United States.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ "Imperial Rivals: China, Russia, and Their Disputed Frontier", by Sarah C. M. Paine (1996) ISBN 1-56324-723-2
  2. ↑ Soucek, Svat, A History of Inner Asia, (Cambridge University Press:2000), p. 265.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Shaw, Robert. Visits to High Tartary, Yarkand and Kashgar. John Murray, London. (1871). Reprint with new introduction (1984): Oxford University Press, pp. 53-56. ISBN 0-19-583830-0.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.(Original from the New York Public Library)
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.(Original from Oxford University)
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.(STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY)
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 Kim (2004), pp. 167-169
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ The stroke (Russian: удар) version e.g. here: N. Veselovsky (Н. Веселовский), Badaulet Yaqun Beg, Ataliq of Kashgar (Бадаулет Якуб-бек, Аталык Кашгарский), in «Записки Восточного отделения Русского археологического общества», No. 11 (1899).
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.(STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY)[1]
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.(Original from the University of California)REPRINTED FROM THE "NORTH-CHINA HERALD AND SUPREME COURT AND CONSULAR GAZETTE."
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Sources

In literature

External links

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