Yaqub Beg

Yaqub Beg
Muhammad Yaqub Beg, from the 1898 book by N.Veselovsky
Born	1820 Pskent, Khanate of Kokand
Died	May 30, 1877(1877-05-30)
Occupation	Amir of Kashgaria

Muhammad Yaqub Bek (Persian: یعقوب بیگ) was a Tajik^[1] Butcher who became head of the kingdom of Kashgaria.

Contents 1 Spelling variants 2 Biography 3 The death of Yakub Beg 4 Legacy 5 Footnotes 6 References 7 In literature 8 External links

Spelling variants

In English-language literature, the name of Yaqub Beg has also been spelt as Yakub Beg (Encyclopædia Britannica), Yakoob Beg (Boulger, 1878), or Ya`qūb Beg (Kim Hodong, 2004). Authors using Russian sources have also used the spelling Yakub-bek (Paine, 1996^[2]). A few publications in English written by Chinese authors spell his name Agubo, which is the Pinyin transcription of the Chinese transcription of his name, 阿古柏.

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

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 a few months before its fall to the Russian army under the command of General Vasily Alekseevich Perovsky in 1853. After the fall of the fort he fled to Bukhara.^[3]

By 1865 Yakub Beg had become the commander-in-chief of the army of Kokand. Taking advantage of the Hui uprising in China's Xinjiang province, he captured Kashgar and Yarkand from the Chinese and gradually took control of most of the region, including Aksu, Kucha, and other cities in 1867.^[4] He made himself the ruler of Kashgaria with its capital in Kashgar. At about this time he received the title of Atalik Ghazi ("Champion Father"),^[5] by which he is sometimes known.

He then deposed his former master, the Naqshbandi shaykh Buzurg Khan (Busurg Khan) (the only survived son of Jahangir Khoja) of the White Mountain, in 1867, and declared that he was the Amir.^[6] For the first few years, he was a vassal of the Khan of Kokand, but eventually declared independence.^[4]

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, Turpan, 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.

Yaqub Beg's Uyghur forces declared a Jihad against Chinese Muslims (Dungans) under T'o Ming (Tuo Ming a.k.a. Daud Khalifa) during the Dungan revolt. Islamic jurists under Yaqub Beg mistakenly thought that the Chinese muslims were Shafi'i, and being Hanafi themselves, they decided should wage war against Chinese Muslims. Yaqub Beg enlisted non Muslim Han Chinese militia under Hsu Hsuehkung in order to fight against the Chinese Muslims. T'o Ming's forces were defeated by Yaqub, who planned to conquer Dzungharia. Yaqub intended to seize all Dungan territory.^[7][8][9]

Poems were written about the victories of Yaqub Beg's forces over the Chinese and the Tungans (Chinese Muslims).^[10]

Yakub Beg seized Aksu from Chinese muslim forces and forced them north of the Tien Shan mountains, committing massacres upon the Chinese Muslims (tunganis).^[11]

Yaqub entered into relations and signed treaties with the Russian Empire and Great Britain, but when he tried to get their support against China, he failed.^[12]

Eventually, Qing forces, including Chinese Muslims led by General Cui and General Hua, who spearheaded the attack on Yaqub Beg's forces in Xinjiang, defeated Yaqub Beg and destroyed his army.^[13]

Yakub Beg was disliked by his Turkic muslim subjects, burdening them with heavy taxes and subjecting them to a harsh version of Islamic law.^[14][15]

The death of Yakub Beg

His manner of death is unclear. The Times of London and the Russian Turkestan Gazette both reported that he had died after a short illness.^[16] The contemporaneous historian Musa Sayrami (1836–1917) states that he was poisoned on May 30, 1877 in Korla by the former hakim (local city ruler) of Yarkand, Niyaz Hakim Beg, after the latter concluded a conspiracy agreement with the Qing (Chinese) forces in Jungaria.^[16] however, Niyaz Beg himself, in a letter to the Qing authorities, denied his involvement in the death of Yakub Beg, and claimed that the Kashgarian ruler committed suicide.^[16] Some say (probably, without any basis in fact) that he was killed in battle with the Chinese ^[17]

While the contemporaneous Muslim writers usually explained Yakub Beg's death by poisoning, and the suicide theory was apparently the accepted truth among the Qing generals of the time, modern historians, according to Kim Hodong, think that the natural death (of a stroke) is the most plausible explanation.^[16][18] Contemporaneous western sources say the Chinese got rid of him by poisoning him or some other sort of subversive act.).^[19] Westerners also say he was assassinated.^[20]

The exact date of Yakub Beg's death is also somewhat uncertain. Although Sayrami claimed that he died on April 28, 1877, modern historians think that this is impossible, as Przewalski met him, quite alive, on May 9. The Chinese sources usually gave May 22 as the date of his death, while Kuropatkin thought it to be May 29. In any event, late May, 1877 is though to be the most likely time period.^[16]

Yaqub Beg and his son Ishana Beg's corpses were "burned to cinders", on display, this angered the population in Kashgar, but Chinese troops quashed a rebellious plot by Hakim Khan to rebel.^[21] Four of his son's and two grandons were captured by the Chinese, one son was beheaded, one grandson died, and the rest were castrated and enslaved to soldiers.^[22] Surviving members of Yaqub Beg's family included his 4 sons, 4 grandchildren (2 grandsons and 2 granddaughters), and 4 wives. They either died in prison in Lanzhou, Gansu, or were killed by the Chinese. His sons Yima Kuli, K'ati Kuli, Maiti Kuli, and grandson Aisan Ahung were the only survivors in 1879. They were all underage children, and put on trial, sentenced to an agonizing death if they were complicit in their father's rebellious "sedition", or if they were innocent of their father's crimes, were to be sentenced to castration and serving as a eunuch slave to Chinese troops, when they reached 11 years old.^[23][24][25] In 1879, it was confirmed that the sentence of castration was carried out, Yaqub Beg's son and grandsons were castrated by the Chinese court in 1879 and turned into eunuchs to work in the Imperial Palace.^[26]

Legacy

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 by the Chinese in 1978.^[27]

Footnotes

•  This article incorporates text from A Chinese biographical dictionary, Volume 2, by Herbert Allen Giles, a publication from 1898 now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from China revolutionized, by John Stuart Thomson, a publication from 1913 now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from Appletons' annual cyclopaedia and register of important events, Volume 4, a publication from 1880 now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from Translations of the Peking Gazette, by 1880, a publication from now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from The American annual cyclopedia and register of important events of the year ..., Volume 4, a publication from 1888 now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from Appletons' annual cyclopedia and register of important events: Embracing political, military, and ecclesiastical affairs; public documents; biography, statistics, commerce, finance, literature, science, agriculture, and mechanical industry, Volume 19, a publication from 1886 now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from Johnson's new general cyclopaedia and copperplate hand-atlas of the world: combined and illustrated: being specially adapted for daily use in the family, school, and office, Volume 2, by Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, a publication from 1885 now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from Accounts and papers of the House of Commons, by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, a publication from 1871 now in the public domain in the United States.
•  This article incorporates text from A Chinese biographical dictionary, Volume 2, a publication from 1898 now in the public domain in the United States.

References

• 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)
• Kim Hodong (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 Encyclopædia Britannica
• Yakub Beg Invasion (At Kashgar City official website - quite detailed, although, admittedly, not in very grammatical English)

In literature

• Yakub Beg is a secondary character in the novel Flashman at the Charge, published in 1973.
• Demetrius Charles Boulger, The life of Yakoob Beg; Athalik Ghazi, and Badaulet; Ameer of Kashgar, London: Wm.H. Allen & Co., 1878 (From the Open Library)
• A fictionalization of Yakub Beg's life appears in the novel Tales of Inner Asia by Todd Gibson

External links

• [2] Copper coins of the Rebels- Rashiddin and Yakub Beg.

Persondata
Name	Yakub Beg
Alternative names
Short description	Head of the Kingdom of Kashgaria
Date of birth	1820
Place of birth	Pskent, Khanate of Kokand
Date of death	May 30, 1877
Place of death