page_title: Sultan Said Khan
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Sultan Said Khan / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: 1517 Yarkent and Turpan
context_page_description: Sultan Said Khan ruled the Yarkent Khanate from September, 1514, to July, 1533. He was born in 1487 in Moghulistan and was a direct descendant of the first Moghul Khan, Tughlugh Timur, who had founded the state of Moghulistan in 1348 and ruled until 1363. The Moghuls were turkicized Mongols who had converted to Islam.
  Some English sources refer to this ruler as Abusaid.
context_section_description: When the Chagatai ulus, which embraced both East and West Turkestan, collapsed, the result was the creation of two different states: Maverannahr in West Turkestan, with its capital at Samarkand, where Timur the Great came to power in 1370, and Moghulistan, with its capital at Almalik, near the present-day town of Gulja, in the Ili valley. Moghulistan embraced settled lands in Eastern Turkestan as well as nomad lands north of Tangri Tagh.  The settled lands were known at the time as Manglai Sobe or Mangalai Suyah, which translates as Shiny Land, or Advanced Land Which Faced the Sun.  These lands included west and central Tarim oasis-cities, such as Khotan, Yarkand, Yangihisar, Kashgar, Aksu, and Uch Turpan; and hardly involved eastern Tangri Tagh oasis-cities, such as Kucha, Karashahr, Turpan and Kumul, where a local Uyghur administration and buddhist population still existed.  The nomadic areas comprised the present Kyrgyzstan and part of Kazakhstan, including Jettisu, the area of seven rivers.
  The ruler of Aksu, the dughlat emir Puladchi, brought a young, 18-year-old, Tughluk Timur from the Ili valley in 1347, and in a kurultai declared him a grandson of Duwa Khan, the great-grandson of Chagatai Khan and ruler of the Chagatai Khanate between 1282 and 1307.  Puladchi forced all moghuls to recognize Tughluk as Khan. Khans from Chagatai, the second son of Genghis Khan, to Tughluk Timur are known as "Chagatai khans", and from Tughluk Timur to his descendants as "Moghul khans".
  Moghulistan existed around 100 years, and then split into three parts: Yarkand state (mamlakati Yarkand), with its capital at Yarkand, which embraced all the settled lands of Western Kashgaria, still nomad Moghulistan which embraced the nomad lands north of Tengri Tagh, and Uyghurstan which embraced the settled lands of Eastern Kashgaria, Turpan and Kumul Basins. The founder of Yarkand state was Mirza Abu Bakr, who was from the dughlat tribe.  In 1465, he raised a rebellion, captured Yarkand, Kashgar, and Khotan, and declared himself an independent ruler, successfully repelling attacks by the Moghulistan rulers Yunus Khan and his son Akhmad Khan, or Ahmad Alaq, named Alach, "Slaughterer", for his war against the kalmyks. In 1462 moghul khan Dost Muhammad took residency in Aksu, denying nomad style of life, and as result Eastern Kashgaria cities, such as Aksu, Uchturpan, Bai, Kucha, Karashar, and also Turpan and Kumul,  separated into Eastern Khanate or Uyghurstan.
  Dughlat emirs had ruled the country that lay south of Tangri-Tagh in the Tarim Basin from the middle of the thirteenth century, on behalf of Chagatai Khan and his descendants, as their satellites.  The first dughlat ruler, who received lands directly from the hands of Chagatai, was amir Babdagan or Tarkhan.  The capital of the emirate was Kashgar, and the country was known as Mamlakati Kashgar. Although the emirate, representing the settled lands of Eastern Turkestan, was formally under the rule of the moghul khans, the dughlat emirs often tried to put an end to that dependence, and raised frequent rebellions, one of which resulted in the separation of Kashgar from Moghulistan for almost 15 years (1416–1435).
  Mirza Abu Bakr ruled Yarkand for 48 years and his ruling was featured by creation of unique and highly effective penitentiary system, that had no analog in other countries. After discovering, by occasion, 29 large bowls, filled with gold sand and silver coins (Balysh), during excavation in the old city of Yarkand, Mirza Abu Bakr ordered to start excavations throughout the whole country in all old cities of towns and in abounded cities of Taklamakan Desert  as well. To get workforce for performing of mass excavations he used convicts, both males and females of any age. The place of site of excavation was named Kazyk  and numerous barracks for convicts and the guards were erected, convicts were sent to Kazyks by stages from all over the country and excavation works were continuing the whole year without interruptions. Using this forced labour system he collected during his reign very larg
caption: Yarkent and Turpan Khanates in 1517 at the beginning of rule of Sultan Said Khan (1514-1533)
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