MUSLIM HERO
1. YUNUS KHAN
Another great Uyghur Muslim hero whose name has been written in the history books in Gold letters. ‘Yunus Khan’ is the father and the predecessor to the previously discussed Uyghur king ‘Mahmood Khan’. Born in 1416 A.D., ‘Yunus Khan’ was the eldest son of ‘Uwais Khan’ who was also a religious and mighty Uyghur king of that period. ‘Yunus Khan’ in his time has ruled over the areas of ‘Tashkent’ and ‘Western Moghulistan’. The story of acquiring these lands is pretty interesting and also full of bravery. After the death of ‘Uwais Khan’, ‘Yunus Khan’ did not have any large support from the fellow Moghuls on succeeding his father. Instead, a large number of Moghuls were favouring his younger Brother ‘Esen Buqa’ to succeed ‘Uwais Khan’. Yunus along with his supporters fled to ‘Transoxania’ to meet ‘Ulugh Beg (the leader of ‘Timurid Dynasty’)’. After reaching Transoxania, ‘Ulugh Beg’ immediately imprisoned ‘Yunus Khan’ along with all his supporters, however ‘Shah Rukh (the father of Ulugh Beg)’ took charge and took great care of ‘Yunus Khan’ and his group. ‘Shah Rukh’ later sent ‘Yunus Khan’ to ‘Yazd’ to study under ‘Maulana Sharaf Ad-Din Ali Yazdi’ who was later very much impressed by Yunus’s mind skills and grasping powers. According to ‘Maulana Muhammad Kazi (famous religious personality of Yazd in that period)’, ‘Yunus Khan’ was a religious man with a long beard according to Sunnah and possessed great talking and leadership skills.
Muslim hero
The Moghuls under Yunus’s younger brother ‘Esen Buqa’ did many raids into the territory of ‘Abu Sa’id (the Timurid ruler)’. Being angry and worried from Esen Buqa’s continuous raids onto his territory, ‘Abu Sa’id’ called for ‘Yunus Khan’ and his group for the support. Abu Sa’id was well aware of the family history of ‘Yunus Khan’ and he also knew that Yunus always wanted to sit at his father’s throne. Taking advantage of this, he asked for the help of ‘Yunus Khan’ and his group to tackle his Younger brother ‘Esen Buqa’. Abu Sa’id made Yunus the head of the army and as expected his leadership and mind skills gained the support of several amirs. He tried many times to defeat and dethrone his younger brother in different battles. However, he failed badly and Esen Buqa’s army managed all the battles well towards victory. The main possible reason despite Yunus’s support from a large number of allies was because of Yunus’s inexperience in war tactics. Luckily, ‘Esen Buqa’ in the year 1462 died and the Moghuls were again pitted into two. The first group was supporting ‘Esen Buqa’s son ‘Dost Muhammad’ while the other half were supporting ‘Yunus Khan’ for the successorship. Dost Muhammad did not have support from ‘Saniz Mirza (an ally of Esen Buqa)’ and was expelled from Kashgar. ‘Dost Muhammad’ later plundered ‘Kashgar’ after the death of ‘Saniz Mirza’ to avenge his expulsion from ‘Kashgar’. Later, ‘Dost Muhammad’ also died and it became easy for ‘Yunus Khan’ to capture all the related lands. ‘Yunus Khan’ in his life had great relations with the Timurids and Abu Sa’id was the mentor of Yunus Khan. However, Yunus’s relations with ‘Sultan Ahmad (the Timurid ruler of Samarkand)’ and ‘Omar Sheikh’ of Ferghana started worsening after the death of Abu Sa’id. By 1484, Yunus Khan took the land of Tashkent and Western Moghulistan by taking the advantage of conflicts between ‘Sultan Ahmed’ and ‘Omar Sheikh’.
The Baburnama of ‘Babur’ mentions the genealogy of ‘Yunus Khan’ on page 19. According to Babarnama, Yunus Khan was the descendent of ‘Chagatai Khan’ who was the second son of Genghis Khan. Yunus Khan married two wives in his life at the age of 40. From one wife, he had three daughters. One of her daughters, ‘Kutlugh Nigar Khanam’ was married to Abu Sa’id’s fourth son ‘Umar Sheikh Mirza’ and she bore a son named ‘Babur’, who later became the Mughal king of India.
The second wife of ‘Yunus Khan gave birth to two sons and two daughters.
The two sons were ‘Mahmood Khan’ and ‘Ahmad Alaq’ who later ruled ‘Tashkent’, ‘Western and Eastern Moghulistan’. The ‘Tashkent’ and ‘Western Moghulistan’ were ruled by ‘Mahmood Khan’, while the ‘Eastern ‘Moghulistan was ruled by his younger brother ‘Ahmad Alaq’.
2. MAQSUD SHAH
‘Maqsud Shah’ was the ruler of ‘Kumul Khanate (famous Khanate within the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China)’ who reigned between 1882-1930. Born to ‘Muhammad Shah’ in 1864, ‘Maqsud Shah’ immediately replaced his father as a successor after his death in 1882. He was also the direct descendent of ‘Chagatai Khan’ and was a fluent speaker of Chinese. He used to speak Chinese in a Turkic accent and used to wear traditional Chinese clothes. The ‘Kumul Khanates’ were the vassals of the ‘Qing Dynasty of China’. This ‘Qing Dynasty’ was later overthrown by the ‘Republic of China’ and the new Government appointed the new Governor of Xinjiang named ‘Yang Zengxin’. ‘Yang Zengxin’ however had great relations with the Kumul Khanate, as Yang Zengxin was also the supporter of Monarchy, and thus the Bondsmen agreement of ‘Kumul Khanate’ with the ‘Republic of China’ survived. Later, when ‘Jin Shauren’ in 1928 succeeded ‘Yang Zengxin’ after his assassination,
a huge rebellion broke out in the succeeding years. The era of ‘Jin Shauren’ is marked as the era of huge corruption and destruction of Xinjiang.
‘Maqsud Shah’ died in the year 1930 and after his demise, the ‘Kumul Khanate’ was replaced with the three provincial administrative districts of ‘Hami’, ‘Yihe’, and ‘Yiwu’ by ‘Jim Shauren’.
After this incident, ‘Nasir’, the heir of ‘Maqsud Shah’ was not allowed the throne due to which ‘Kumul rebellion’ was started.
This was the ending of the ‘Kumul Khanate’ ruling the area for a large period.
3 . YUSUF BALASAGUNI
‘Yusuf Balasaguni’ is a famous Uyghur Philosopher, poet, Statesmen, and Maturidi Theologian born in the 12th century. His famous works have contributed a lot to the Muslim Renaissance during that era. Yusuf Balasaguni was born in the city of ‘Balasagun’ in Modern day Kyrgystan. His father was a rich man and also one of the great scholars with unique wisdom. The exact birth date of this famous Uyghur Muslim personality is not known exactly. To some historians, Yusuf Balasaguni was born in 1018 A.D., while to some historians, he was born in 1019 or 1020 A.D.
He was a person with amazing intelligence and sharp memory and was an avid reader of books. He completed his primary education in his own city. He always used to keep himself busy in reading and researching various Islamic literature. His source of inspiration was ‘Avicenna’, ‘Al Farabi’, and ‘Ferdousi’.
‘Yusuf Balasaguni’ has written various poetries for Islamic Literature. Following the footsteps of ‘Avicenna’, ‘Al Farabi’, and ‘Ferdousi’. Yusuf Balasaguni wrote the Islamic literature ‘Kutadgu Bilig’, which is also known as the book of blessed knowledge and was the first Islamic Literature ever written in the Turkic language during the Muslim Renaissance. The famous literature ‘Kutadgu Bilig’ written by him was completed around 1070 A.D. in Kashgar (the city in Southern Xinjiang).
Just like there is confusion related to the birth date of Yusuf Balasaguni, no one knows exactly when he died. According to large authentic Historical sources, ‘Yusuf Balasaguni’ died at the age of ‘56’ in ‘Kashgar’, although the place of his death is also disputed. His grave in Kashgar is decorated with unique Islamic, Chinese and Turkic calligraphy.
His highness can be judged from the fact that various streets and roads in Kyrgystan bear his name, and the Kyrgyz currency of 1000 soms also bears his image. In 2002, the Kyrgyzstan Government named ‘Kyrgyz National University after his name.
His tomb was built in the year 1865 in Kashgar, however, it was broken during the ‘Cultural Revolution’ in 1972. The tomb of Yusuf Balasaguni was again restored to its original place after the death of ‘Mao Zedong’.