Part One
TRANSOXANIA AND KHURASAN
(G. A. Pugachenkova)

Part Two
SOUTHERN CENTRAL ASIA
(A. H. Dani)

Part Three
EASTERN CENTRAL ASIA
(Liu Yingsheng)

The region of Central Asia lying to the east of Transoxania and Khwarazm, comprising Semirechye and the lands along the upper Ili river; Xinjiang, with its oasis towns along the northern and southern rims of the Taklamakan desert; and the great expanse of the Mongolian steppelands, deserts and mountains, all experienced many movements of peoples and tribes and many changes in military and political domination during the period in question (these are described in Volume IV, Part One, Chapters 9, 11, 12, 13 and 16). Despite the ravages of war and the encroachments of nomadic groups, urban life nevertheless managed to survive, and at times flourish, in the region, especially at such favoured spots as the oases and the river valleys running down from the Pamir, T’ien Shan and Altai mountains.

The most prosperous oasis region of eastern Central Asia was Turfan, where agriculture was well developed. It was also situated on the route to inland China via the northern rim of the Tarim basin, and hence has always been a meeting-place for influences from east and west. The population here was denser than in other parts of eastern Central Asia, with urbanization developed since ancient times. In the Northern Wei period (386–534), there were eight towns in Turfan, but at the beginning of the seventh century the number of towns apparently increased, the most important of them being Lukchun, Kocho, Turfan, Yar Khoto and Toqsan.

LUKCHUN

Lukchun is mentioned in Chinese sources for the Eastern Han period (25–220). At the beginning of the fifteenth century, an envoy of the Ming government, Chen Cheng, passed through here several times. According to his description, the city wall of Lukchun was rectangular in shape and about 1 or 1.5 km long. In the area around the town there were gardens and fields and running water. The site of the ancient Lukchun town still exists; it is rectangular in shape, about 1,000 m from east to west, and 400 m from north to south. The original height of the city wall, built with pis, must have been 12 m, with the width at the top about 3 m, and at the bottom about 5 m.

KOCHO

Kocho was known from the period of the Northern Dynasties. From the Han until the T’ang period, most of the inhabitants of Kocho were Chinese from inland China transplanted there. There were also Manichaean temples. At the beginning of the fifteenth century, when Chen Cheng passed through, he noted that Kocho (which used to have a large population) was no longer prosperous and that the Buddhist temples were in ruins. Under Turkish influence, Kocho was also called Kara Kocho. It is situated in the Idiqut Shahri of the Turfan basin. The outer city wall was built of pis in the T’ang period and it was more than 5 km long and rectangular in shape; its original height must have been 12 in and it was 6–7 in thick. A defending trench surrounded the city wall. The whole site measures 2,200,000 km².

TURFAN

Turfan first appears as such in Chinese sources in the description of the fourth year of the Yon Le period (1406) of the Ming Shi Lu [The Official Dally Record of the Ming Government], and this name also appears in a Khotanese Saka manuscript in the Stael-Holstein Collection. Since An Le was its Chinese name, Turfan must have been the local name for the town. According to Chen Cheng’s description, at the beginning of the fifteenth century the city wall was 0.51 km long. The Ming envoy found many people and houses there, and also large numbers of Buddhist temples. Shortly afterwards, in 1420, when Ghiyth al-Din Naqqsh passed through it, he also found beautiful Buddhist temples.

YAR KHOTO

Yar Khoto (in Chinese, Jao He) had existed before the time of the Han dynasty. But when Chen Cheng came there, he found the area of the town to be no larger than 1 km, with only some 100 familles, though there were many ancient temples. Some ancient inscriptions still existed on these buildings, but the town was almost abandoned at that time. Yar Khoto was built on an earth mound between two valleys (Fig. 68). The area covered by houses was 220,000 m. The main street, running north-south, is 350 m long and 10 m wide; excavated in the earth, its surface is lower than the level of the houses along both sides. In the eastern part of the town there is another main street, about 300 m long but less than 10 m wide, with an east-west street connecting these two parallel main axes. Along the two sides of the main streets are many smaller lanes; 90 per cent of the houses in the town were built in the yards along the Street, surrounded by 6–7 m-high walls. The gates of the yards usually faced the lane rather than the street. Domestic houses were built of mud, obtained by digging out the courtyard of the house and using this for the walls. Then cave dwellings and storerooms were dug into the surfaces of the wall. Wells in the yards could be as deep as 40 m.

This area is mainly steppeland and mountain pasture. East of it was Uighur territory, north of it was the territory of the Naiman, west of it were the middle reaches of the Ili river, and to the south was the T’ien Shan. In the more favoured, lower regions, urban settlements developed from ancient times.

BESHBALK

Beshbalk (Turkish, Five Towns) was also called Bel Ting by the Chinese, meaning ‘Northern Court’. The name Beshbalk first appears in the description of the events of 713 given in the ancient Turkish Kl Tegin inscription. The lexicographer Mahmd al-Kashghari described it as one of the largest of the five towns of the Uighurs. After the fall of the Uighur Kaghanate of Mongolia in 840, some of the Uighurs fled to the eastern region of the T’ien Shan, and these were named the Kocho Uighurs by the Chinese; Beshbalk was the summer residence of the Uighur Khans, and the political centre of the Kocho Uighurs.

In the early thirteenth century, the Idiqut of the Uighurs submitted to Chinggis Khan. Beshbalk became a part of the Mongol empire controlled from the capital Karakorum, but still ruled by the Idiqut. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, it finally became a part of the Chaghatay Khanate, but its political importance was apparently reduced, and towards the end of the fifteenth century, Beshbalk was gradually abandoned.

At the end of the tenth century, Wang Yande, the envoy of the Northern Song dynasty, mentions in his record that within the town were the Gao Tai temple and the Ying Yun Tai Ning temple and that the local people were skilled craftsmen, famed for metallurgy and the making of jade ornaments.

The present site of Beshbalk is at Jimsar in Xinjiang. It consisted of five parts: an outer town; the northern gate district of the outer town; the extended town of the west; the inner town; and a small settlement within the inner town. The outer town had an irregular rectangular shape; the distance between north and south was greater than that between east and west. The Wall of the outer town was 4,430 m long and was made of pis. There was a gate, and there were defensive structures on each side of the wall and at the base of the buildings at each corner. This part of the city must have been built in the time of the T’ang dynasty. There was a fortress at the northern city wall, and leading out of it was the northern gate town, the gate of which faced east. This part of the city must also have been built in the Fang period. From the western wall of the outer town to the gate there was an extended town, measuring 690 m long from north to south and 310 in wide from west to east, and again datable to T’ang times. In the middle of the outer town, a little to the north, stood an inner town, around the four sides of which was a trench; this part must have been built in the Kocho Uighur period. In the eastern part of the inner town, a little to the north, was a small settlement, attributable to the same period.