Yaqub Beg

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Yaqub Beg
Muhammad Yaqub Beg, from the 1898 book by N.Veselovsky
Born	1820 Pskent, Khanate of Kokand
Died	May 16, 1877
Occupation	Amir of Kashgaria

Muhammad Yaqub Beg (1820 – May 16, 1877) (Tajik/Persian:Муҳаммад Яъқуб Бег/محمَد یعقوب بیگ) was a Tajik adventurer who became head of the kingdom of Kashgaria.

1 Spelling variants
2 Biography
3 Legacy
4 References
5 In Literature
6 External links

[edit] Spelling variants

In English-language literature, the name of Yaqub Beg has also been spelt as Yakub Beg (Encyclopedia Britannica), Yakoob Beg (Boulger, 1878), or Ya`qūb Beg (Kim Hodong, 2004). Authors using Russian sources have also used spelling Yakub-bek(Paine, 1996^[1]). A few publications in English written by Chinese authors spell his name Agubo, which is simply the Pinyin transcription of the Chinese transcription of his name, 阿古柏.

The first name, Muhammad, is subject to the usual variation in spelling as well.

[edit] Biography

Yakub Beg was born in the town of Pskent, in the Khanate of Kokand (now Piskent in the Tashkent Province of Uzbekistan). He rose rapidly through the ranks in the service of the Khanate of Kokand; by the year 1847 he was commander of the fort at Ak-Mechet until it was captured in 1853 by the Russian army under the command of General Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky in 1853. After the fall of the fort he fled to Bukhara.^[2]

By 1865 Yakub Beg had become the commander-in-chief of the army of Kokand. Taking advantage of the Hui uprising in Xinjiang Province, in north-western China, he made himself the ruler of Kashgaria with its capital in Kashgar. He then deposed his former master, the Naqshbandi shaykh Buzurg Khan in 1867, and declared that he was the Amir. For the first few years, he was a vassal of the Khan of Kokand, but eventually declared independence.^[3]

Yakub Beg ruled at the height of The Great Game era when the British, Russian, and Chinese empires were all vying for Central Asia. Kashgaria extended from the capital Kashgar in south-western Xinjiang to Urumqi, Turfan, and Hami in central and eastern Xinjiang more than a thousand kilometers to the north-east, including a majority of what was known at the time as East Turkestan.

Yakub Beg was not particularly admired by his subjects, burdening them with heavy taxes and subjecting them to tyrannical rule. His manner of death is unclear. Some say he was killed in battle with the Chinese ^[4]; others that he committed suicide or had a stroke. Historian Musa Sayrami states that he was poisoned in May, 1877 in Korla by the former hakim of Yarkand, Niyaz Hakim Bek, after the latter concluded a conspiracy agreement with the Qing (Chinese) forces in Jungaria.

[edit] Legacy

Night interview with Yakub Beg, King of Kashgaria, 1868

After his death his state of Kashgaria rapidly fell apart, and Kashgar was reconquered by the Qing Dynasty and later inherited by the Republic of China.

One source says that his tomb was at Kashgar but was razed to the ground by the Chinese in 1878.^[5]

[edit] References

^ "Imperial Rivals: China, Russia, and Their Disputed Frontier", by Sarah C. M. Paine (1996) ISBN 1563247232
^ Soucek, Svat, A History of Inner Asia, (Cambridge University Press:2000), p. 265.
^ ibid.
^ Central and North Asia, 1800-1900 A.D.. metmuseum.org (2006). Retrieved on December 14, 2006.
^ Thwaites, Richard (1986). Real Life China 1978-1983. Rich Communications, Canberra, Australia. Retrieved on December 14, 2006.

Boulger, Demetrius Charles (1878). The Life of Yakoob Beg, Athalik Ghazi and Badaulet, Ameer of Kashgar. London: W. H. Allen. (Full text is available on Google Books; a recent reprint is available as e.g. ISBN 0766188450)
Hodong Kim (2004). Holy War in China: The Muslim Rebellion and State in Chinese Central Asia, 1864-1877. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-4884-5.
Yakub Beg in Encyclopedia Britannica
Yakub Beg Invasion (At Kashgar City official website - quite detailed, although, admittedly, not in very grammatical English)