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Important Crossroads and the Chinese Occupation in the History of Eastern Turkistan / Prof Alaeddin Yalcinkaya<br />

Khan. The Muslim Turks in Eastern Turkistan suffered greatly during the era of<br />

Jagatai Khan and other shaman Khans. However, this suffering came to an end<br />

when Mubarek Shah took all of Eastern Turkistan completely under his control.<br />

The Jagatai Khanate was divided into two in 1340, into the Eastern and the<br />

Western parts. Tugluk Tamburlaine, the Eastern Jagatai Khan who governed the<br />

east of the Pamir Mountains, (1359-1370) re-united the Jagatai Khanate during<br />

his reign. 7<br />

Nevertheless, Tamburlaine, who was in the service of the Samarqand Amir,<br />

took advantage of the lack of authority that was caused by the weakening of the<br />

Jagatai Khanate, and seized control of the neighboring provinces, establishing<br />

the Tamburlaine State in 1370. He took control of all of Turkistan over a very<br />

short period of time and included many other states into his borders. When he<br />

died in 1405, the state lost all the territories other than that of Turkistan. Eastern<br />

Turkistan remained under the rule of the Tamburlaine State until the death of<br />

Uluğ Khan. Although there was no longer a formal Jagatai state, the khans who<br />

were descendents from this family continued to rule Eastern Turkistan. The khans<br />

that ruled Eastern Turkistan until the early 17 th century were from the Jagatai<br />

family; that is namely Abdülkerim Khan and later his brother Muhammed Khan.<br />

In this era, struggles and conflicts among the sons of Genghis and Tamburlaine,<br />

as well as the neighboring Turkic states often had an effect on Eastern Turkistan.<br />

This was a glorious period in terms of science and culture, if not in terms of<br />

political unity and hegemony outside the region; many great people were educated<br />

in the realms of science and culture. The period from the early 17 th century to the<br />

Chinese occupation in 1757 is known as the Era of the Hodjas.<br />

The era of the Hodjas and Chinese invasions<br />

Abdülkerim Khan, who ruled between 1559 and 1591, invited Hodja Ishak<br />

Veli, the son of Mahmud-i Azam, a great scholar from Western Turkistan, to<br />

his country to establish unity in Eastern Turkistan. Hodja Ishak Veli traveled<br />

around the whole of Eastern Turkistan and reminded the people that Muslims<br />

are brothers and sisters, and invited people to unity and solidarity. Unity and<br />

solidarity were significantly increased in the country, and this prevented the<br />

disintegration of the state. Later, many hodjas, descendants of leading sheiks and<br />

scholars in Western Turkistan, such as Hodja Mahmud-i Azam, Hodja Ahmed<br />

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