Khoja (Turkestan)

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Khwāja or Khoja, a Persian word literally meaning 'master', was used in Central Asia as a title of the descendants of the famous Central Asian Naqshbandi Sufi teacher, Ahmad Kasani (1461-1542). The khojas often played, or aspired to play, ruling roles in the Turkic communities of Xinjiang.

Although Ahmad Kasani himself, known as Makhdūm-i`Azam ("Great Master") to his followers, never visited East Turkestan (today's Xinjiang), many of his descendants, known as Makhdūmzādas, and bearing the title of khwāja (khoja) played important parts in the region's politics during 17th through 19th century.

[edit] Ishaqīs (Qara Taghliqs)

Ahmad Kasani's second son, Muhammad Ishāq Walī (? - 1599) spent several years in East Turkestan. His followers were known as Qara Taghliq, i.e. 'those of the Black Mountains'.

[edit] Āfāqīs (Aq Taghliqs)

Another line of khojas descends from Muhammad Amīn (also known as Ishān-i Kalān), the eldest son of Ahmad Kasan. The first of them to come to East Turkestan was Muḥammad Amīn's son, Khoja Yūsuf (? - 1652/53). This branch of Makhdūmzādas established themselves in Yarkand, and became known as Āfāqīs (after Khoja Hidāyat Allāh, also known as Khoja Āfāq (? - 1693/94), the son of Khoja Yūsuf), or Aq Taghliq, i.e. the 'those of the White Mountains'.

[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, "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.
• Ahmad Kasani in Encyclopedia Iranica (special fonts required to properly view)