Almalik (also transcribed Almaliq) was a medieval city in Central Asia's Ili river basin. Its site is located within the present-day Huocheng County in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, between the city of Yining and the border with Kazakhstan.
Almalik was originally one of Karluk cities in the Turkic Kaganates. It is known from the accounts of the Persian historians and Chinese travellers of the Mongol era (13th to 15th centuries), in particular the Daoist Qiu Chuji (a.k.a. Chang Chun) (1221).
According to the travel notes of Genghis Khan's chief adviser Yelü Chucai, the city of Almalik was situated between Tian Shan and Ili River. There were plenty of crab apple trees around Almalik. The native people called the crab apple "almalik", giving the name to the city.
An account by a Persian historian tells that in 1211, Prince Ozar of Almalik acknowledged the supremacy of Genghis Khan. The king was later killed by the Gurkhan of Karakitai. Genghis Khan ordered the king's son Siknak Tekin to succeed him as king of Almalik, and gave him the only daughter of his elder son Jochi for marriage. In 1219, when Genghis Khan led his host on campaign to Persia, Siknak Tekin followed him.[1]
The marriage between the ruler of Almaliq and a granddaughter of Genghis Khan demonstrates the city's importance at the time. Home to people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and religions, the city became an important Islamic center under the rule of Tughluq Temur from ca.1351 to 1363. Tughluq Temür's tomb can still be seen in the town. Inscriptions also show the presence of Nestorian Christians in the town in the third quarter of the fourteenth century.[2]
The ancient city of Almalik is not to be confused with Olmaliq (whose name was traditionally transcribed as Almalyk), a new mining city in Uzbekistan founded in 1951.[3]