The Kyrgyz in written sources from the reign of Emir Timur

Research Article

Abstract

This study analyses information about the Kyrgyz in sources dating from the reign of Emir Timur, that is, from the last third of the fourteenth to the early fifteenth century. The study is particularly relevant because a source-critical analysis of two medieval works – Maṭlaʿ al-saʿdayn wa majmaʿ al-baḥrayn (The Rise of the Two Auspicious Constellations and the Confluence of the Two Seas) by ʿAbd al-Razzāq Samarqandī and ʿAjāʾib al-maqdūr fī tārīkh-i Taymūr (The Wonders of Predestination in the History of Timur) by Aḥmad ibn ʿArabshāh –  makes it possible to determine the chronological and geographical framework within which the main body of Kyrgyz tribes appeared in the mountains of the Western Tian Shan. These works were examined using the traditional chronological method of historical source criticism. Additional sources were also consulted to assess the reliability of the information about the Kyrgyz found in the work of ʿAbd al-Razzāq Samarqandī. The Kyrgyz are mentioned in Maṭlaʿ al-saʿdayn wa majmaʿ al-baḥrayn in connection with the campaign into Moghulistan undertaken by the Timurid prince Iskandar. This evidence makes it possible to localise the Kyrgyz tribes in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries in the northern regions of Moghulistan, in the southern part of the Altai Mountains near the city of Beshbaliq. It is suggested that at that time the Kyrgyz tribes occupied the mountain valleys of the southern spurs of the Mongolian Altai, while partly extending into the Eastern Tian Shan, including the areas of the Bogdo-ula and Barköl Tagh mountain systems. In addition, the Russian translation of Aḥmad ibn ʿArabshāh's ʿAjāʾib al-maqdūr fī tārīkh-i Temür was examined. In its description of the military contingent stationed in the fortress of Ashpara, on the eastern borders of Emir Timur's empire, a tümen of "Chagatai Kyrgyz" is mentioned. This translation was made by Kh. Bababekov from the Uzbek translation by U. Uvatov. Its analysis, together with recourse to the Arabic text and the English translation of ʿAjāʾib al-maqdūr fī tārīkh-i Taymūr, showed that the term qirghī had been erroneously rendered as "Kyrgyz." The analysis therefore indicates that the sources examined contain no reliable reference to the Kyrgyz in the Western Tian Shan during the reign of Emir Timur. Consequently, the absence of evidence for the Kyrgyz in the Western Tian Shan during Emir Timur's reign suggests that the Kyrgyz, as a consolidated ethnic group, did not establish themselves in these lands until after the fourteenth century.