Abakh Khoja
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abakh Khoja, Apak Khoja, or more properly[1] Āfāq Khwāja (? - 1693/94) was a religious and political leader in Kashgaria (in modern-day southern Xinjiang). He was also known as Khwāja Hidāyat Allāh (Hidayetullah Khoja).
Contents |
[edit] Name spelling
In Chinese, Afaq Khoja's name is usually written as 阿帕克霍加 (Apake Huojia) or 阿帕尔霍加 (Apa'er Huojia), occasionally just 阿帕霍加 (Apa Huojia); khoja may also appear as 和卓 (huozhuo).
[edit] Life of Afaq Khoja
Afaq Khoja was a great-grandson of the famous Naqshbandi Sufi teacher, Ahmad Kasani (? - 1534) (also known as Makhdūm-i`Azam, 'the Great Master'), and was revered as a Sufi teacher in his own right. Among some Uyghur Muslims, he was considered a sayid, who is a relative of the prophet Muhammad.
Afaq Khoja seized power from the Chagatay dynasty of Yarkand by inviting Dzungar invaders through the secret diplomacy of the Dalai Lama. Afaq Khoja was a powerful ruler, controlling East Turkistan including Khotan, Yarkand, Korla, Kucha and Aksu as well as Kashgar.
As a result of the conflict with Ishaqi khojas, Afaq khoja was at one point expelled from Kashgaria, and is said to have invited the Dzungars in 1678. The Dzungars, led by Galdan Boshughtu Khan (?-1696) then made Afaq and his descendants only nominal ruler of Kashgaria.
[edit] Afaq Khoja and Islam in China
Afaq Khoja's influence spread far outside of Xinjiang. From 1671-72, he was preaching in Gansu (which then included parts of modern Qinghai province), where his father Muhammad Yusuf had preached before. On that tour, he visited Xining (today's Qinghai province), Lintao, and Hezhou (now Linxia), and was said to convert some Hui and many Salars there to Naqshbandi Sufism. According to the Chinese (Hui) followers of the Qadiriyya Sufi school, when Afāq Khoja was in Xining in 1672, he gave his blessing to 16-year-old Qing Jingyi (later also known as Hilal al-Din, or Qi Daozu (1656-1719)), who was then to introduce Qadiriyya into China proper. His two other spiritual descendants, Ma Laichi and Ma Mingxin, went to study in Central Asia and Arabia, and upon return to China founded to other Naqshbandi menhuans (brotherhoods) there: the Khufiyya and the Jahriyya, respectively.[2]
[edit] The Afaqis
Khoja Afaq's descendants, known as the Āfāqi khojas, or the Aq Taghliqs, i.e. 'White Mountaineers', played an important part in East Turkestan's politics for almost two centuries after Afāq's death. They first ruled Kashgaria as Dzungars' vassals, but after the death of Dzungars' Galdan Khan managed to gain independence for a while.
The next strong Dzungar ruler, Tsewang Rabtan (?-1727), subjugated Kashgaria again; to stay on the safe side, Dzungars this time were now to keep the Afaqi Khojas as hostages in the Ili region, and rule Kashgarian cities through Afaqis' rivals, the Ishaqi khojas.
In the 1750s, two Afaqi Khoja descendents- brothers, Burhān al-Dīn and Khwāja-i Jahān, who had been held by Dzungars as hostages in Ili, aided the Manchu Qing emperor Kangxi in annihilating the Dzungars and establishing Qing hegemony over Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin. However, as the two khojas sought more independence for themselves, they soon came into conflict with the Qing power. Having lost Yarkand and Kashgar to the Qing armies in 1759, they fled to Badakhshan, where they were promptly killed by the local ruler, Sultān Shāh, who sent their heads to the Qing.
Accoridng to a legend, Iparhan, granddaughter of Apak Khoja was given to emperor Qianlong as concubine. Under Qing auspice, Khojijan rulers of city states often fell out of favor of the hegemonic power and had to flee to Uzbek protection in the Khanate of Kokand.
By 19th century, prominent Afaqi Khojas (Khojijans) in exile in Kokand sought to influence their former domains through preaching or allying with new imperialist powers of Russia and Great Britain. It was during the 1800s that two major attempts were launched from Kokand to claim the "Six City State of Tarim Basin" from Qing domination. These were the British-supported Jihangir Rebellion (1826-1827) and the usurpation of Kashgaria by Kokand retainer Yaqub Beg (1864-1877) who recognized Ottoman suzerainty.
Well into 20th century, there were still local princely families of Khojijan descent. Chinese warlord and Governor of Sinkiang Sheng Shicai (April,1933- August,1944) restored the status of several of these local rulers to facilitate his rule.
[edit] Afāq Khoja Mausoleum
Afāq Khoja's mausoleum is considered the holiest Muslim site in Xinjiang. It is located at the Haohan Village (浩罕村) in the northeastern suburbs of Kashgar, some 5 km from the city centre. First built ca. 1640, initially as Muhammad Yusuf tomb, the beautiful tiled mausoleum contains the tombs of five generations of the Afāqi family, providing resting places for its 72 members, both men and women.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Khwāja Āfāq, or Khoja Afaq, is a spelling preferred by modern schlars, e.g. Kim (2004) or Gladney (1999)
- ^ Gladney (1999)
[edit] Literature
- Kim Hodong, "Holy War in China: The Muslim Rebellion and State in Chinese Central Asia, 1864-1877". Stanford University Press (March 2004). ISBN 0804748845. (Searchable text available on Amazon.com)
- Dru C. Gladney (1999), "The Salafiyya Movement in Northwest China: Islamic Fundamentalism among the Muslim Chinese?" Originally published in "Muslim Diversity: Local Islam in Global Contexts". Leif Manger, Ed. Surrey: Curzon Press. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, No 26. Pp. 102-149.
- Abakh Khoja Tomb
