page_title: Karasahr
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Karasahr / History
caption_attribution_description: Tarim Basin in the 3rd century A.D.
context_page_description: Karasahr or Karashar, which was originally known, in the Tocharian languages as Ārśi and Agni or the Chinese derivative Yānqí, 焉耆, is an ancient town on the Silk Road and the capital of Yanqi Hui Autonomous County in the Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Xinjiang, in Northwestern China.
  As of the 2000 Chinese census it had a population of 29,000, growing to 31,773 persons in 2006; 16,032 persons of which were Han, 7781 people Hui, 7,154 people Uygur, 628 Mongol and 178 other ethnicities and an agricultural population of 1078 people.
  The town has a strategic location, being located on the Kaidu River, China National Highway 314 and the Southern Xinjiang Railway and is an important material distribution center and regional business hub. The town administers ten communities. It has a predominately Muslim population and contains many mosques.
context_section_description: The earliest known inhabitants of the area were an Indo-European people who apparently referred to themselves and the city as Ārśi (pronounced "Arshi"). Their language, since it was rediscovered in the early 20th century, has been known as "Tocharian A" (a misnomer resulting from an assumed relationship to the Tukhara of Bactria). The people and city were also known as Agni, although this may have been a later exonym, derived from the word for "fire" in an Indo-Iranian language such as Sanskrit (cognate to English "ignite"). The 7th century Buddhist monk Xuanzang transliterated Agni into Chinese as O-ki-ni. 
  Ārśi was bordered by related Tocharian cultures, many of which also spoke related languages: Kuča (or Kucha), Gumo (later Aksu) to the west, Turfan (Turpan) to the east and to the south, Krorän (Loulan).
  In China, Han dynasty sources describe Yanqi (Ārśi/Agni) as a relatively large and important neighboring  kingdom. According to Book of Han, the various states of the "Western Regions", including Yanqi, were controlled by the nomadic Xiongnu, but later came under the influence of the Han dynasty, following a Han show of force against Dayuan (Fergana) in the late 2nd century BC.
  From the 1st Century BCE onwards, many populations in the Tarim Basin, including the Ārśi underwent conversion to Buddhism and, consequently, linguistic influence from Indo-Iranian languages, such as Pali, Sanskrit, Bactrian, Gandhari and Khotanese (Saka). The city of Ārśi became commonly known as Agni, almost certainly derived from the Sanskrit अग्नि "fire". Names such as Agnideśa (अग्निदेश) and Agni-visaya, both of which are Sanskrit for "city of fire", are also recorded in Buddhist scriptures.
  
  According to the Book of the Later Han, General Ban Chao went on a punitive campaign against Yanqi in 94 AD after they attacked and killed the Protector General Chen Mu and Vice Commandant Guo Xun in 75 AD.  The king of Yanqi was decapitated and his head displayed in the capital. Later rebellions were subdued by Ban Chao's son Ban Yong in 127. 
  It has "15,000 households, 52,000 individuals, and more than 20,000 men able to bear arms. It has high mountains on all four sides. There are hazardous passes on the route to Qiuci (Kucha) that are easy to defend. The water of a lake winds between the four mountains, and surrounds the town for more than 30 li [12.5 km]."(Book of the Later Han, 5th Century CE.)
  Agnideśa became a tributary state of Tang China in 632. In 644, during the Tang expansion into the Tarim Basin, Emperor Taizong of Tang launched a military campaign against Yanqi after the kingdom allied itself with the Turks.  The Four Garrisons of Anxi was established with one based at Yanqi.
  According to Book of Zhou (completed in 636) the kingdom of Yanqi (Karashahr) was a small country with poor people and nine walled towns, and described the country and their custom thus: 
   Wedlock is about the same as among the Chinese.  All the deceased are cremated and then buried. They wear mourning for seven full days, after which they put it off.  The adult men all trim their hair to make a head decoration.  Their written characters are the same as those of India.  It is their custom to serve "Heavenly God(s)" but they also show reverence and trust in the law of the Buddha.  They especially celebrate these days: the eighth day of the second month, and the eighth day of the fourth month. All the country abstains and does penance according to the teachings of Śākya, and follows His Way.
  The climate is cold, and the land good and fertile.  For cereals, hey have rice, millet, pulse, wheat, and barley.  For animals, they have camels, horses, cows, and sheep.  They raise silk-worms but do not make silk, merely using [the silk fiber] for padding.  It is their custom to relish grape wine, and also to love music.  It is some ten li north of a body of water, and has an abundance of fish, salt, and rushes.  In the fourth year of the period Pao-ting, its king sent an envoy to present its renowned horses. (Zhoushu, published 636 CE; translation by Roy Andrew Miller.)
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caption: The Tarim Basin in the 3rd century, showing the so-called Tocharian and related states.
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