Khoja (Turkestan)
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Khoja or Khwaja ( kk, Қожа; ug, خوجا; fa, خواجه; tg, хӯҷа; uz, xo'ja; ), a Persian word literally meaning 'master' or ‘lord’, was used in
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
as a title of the descendants of the noted Central Asian
Naqshbandi The Naqshbandi ( fa, نقشبندی)), Neqshebendi ( ku, نه‌قشه‌به‌ندی), and Nakşibendi (in Turkish) is a major Sunni order of Sufism. Its name is derived from Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari. Naqshbandi masters trace their ...
Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
teacher,
Ahmad Kasani Aḥmad Khwājagī b. Jalāl ad-Dīn al-Kāsānī ( fa, احمد خواجگی بن جلال‌الدین کاسانی; uz, Ahmad Xojagi b. Jaloliddin Kosoniy; died 1542–43), revered as the Makhdūm-i Aʿẓam ( fa, مخدوم اعظم; uz, Max ...
(1461–1542) or others in the Naqshbandi intellectual lineage prior to Baha al-din Naqshband. The most powerful religious figure in the late Timurid era was the Naqshbandi
Shaykh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliteration of Arabic, transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonl ...
Khwaja Ahrar Nassiruddin Ubaidullah Ahrar (1404-1490 AD) (in Persian: ناصرالدین عبیدالله احرار) more popularly known as Khwaja Ahrar (in Persian: خواجه احرار) was a Hanafi Maturidi member of the Golden Chain of the Naqshban ...
.The letters of Khwāja ʻUbayd Allāh Aḥrār and his associates. Translated by Jo-Ann Gross. Leiden: BRILL, 2002. The Khojas often were appointed as administrators by Mongol rulers in the
Altishahr Altishahr (, , ; romanized: ''Altä-şähär'' or ''Alti-şähär''), also known as Kashgaria, is a historical name for the Tarim Basin region used in the 18th and 19th centuries. The term means 'Six Cities' in Turkic languages, referring to oasis ...
or present-day region of
Tarim Basin The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Northwest China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, China." Hydr ...
in
Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. The Khojas of Altishahr claimed to be
Sayyid ''Sayyid'' (, ; ar, سيد ; ; meaning 'sir', 'Lord', 'Master'; Arabic plural: ; feminine: ; ) is a surname of people descending from the Prophets in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad through his grandsons, Hasan ibn Ali and Husayn ibn Ali ...
s (descendants of
Muhammad Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد;  570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
) and they are still regarded as such by the fraternity people of Altishahr. Although Ahmad Kasani himself, known as ''Makhdūm-i-Azam'' or "Great Master" to his followers, never visited Altishahr (today's Tarim Basin), many of his descendants, known as ''Makhdūmzādas'' and bearing the title ''Khoja'' (properly written and pronounced ''Khwaja'') played important parts in the region's politics from the 17th to 19th centuries. On the death of Aḥmad Kāsānī, a division took place among the Khojas which resulted in one party becoming followers of the Makhdum's elder son Khoja Muhammad Amin better known as Ishan-i-Kalan and another attaching themselves to his younger son Khoja Muhammad Ishaq Wali. The followers of Ishan-i-Kalan seem to have acquired the name of Aq Taghliqs or White mountaineers and that of Ishaq Qara Taghliqs or Black mountaineers but these names had no reference to the localities where their adherents lived. All were inhabitants of the lowlands and cities of Eastern Turkistan but each section made allies among the Kyrgyz of the neighboring mountains and apparently subsidized them in their internecine battles. The Kyrgyz tribes of the Western
Tian Shan The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...
ranges lying to the north of
Kashghar Kashgar ( ug, قەشقەر, Qeshqer) or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is an oasis city in the Tarim Basin region of Southern Xinjiang. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, near the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan ...
were known as the White mountaineers and the Kyrgyz tribes of the
Pamir Pamir may refer to: Geographical features * Pamir Mountains, a mountain range in Central Asia ** Pamir-Alay, a mountain system in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, part of the Pamir Mountains *A pamir (valley) is a high plateau or valley surro ...
,
Karakoram The Karakoram is a mountain range in Kashmir region spanning the borders of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwest extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range falls under the ...
and
Kunlun The Kunlun Mountains ( zh, s=昆仑山, t=崑崙山, p=Kūnlún Shān, ; ug, كۇئېنلۇن تاغ تىزمىسى / قۇرۇم تاغ تىزمىسى ) constitute one of the longest mountain chains in Asia, extending for more than . In the bro ...
as the Black mountaineers with
Yarkand Yarkant County,, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also Shache County,, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also transliterated from Uyghur as Yakan County, is a county in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous ...
as their main city of influence, such that the Khojas came to assume the designations of their Kyrgyz allies. The
Chagatai language Chagatai (چغتای, ''Čaġatāy''), also known as ''Turki'', Eastern Turkic, or Chagatai Turkic (''Čaġatāy türkīsi''), is an extinct Turkic literary language that was once widely spoken across Central Asia and remained the shared literar ...
''Tadhkirah i Khwajagan'' (a
Tadhkirah Tadhkirah (), Arabic for "memorandum" or "admonition", is frequently used as part of the title of literary works of the nature of authoritative collections or summaries. It may refer to the following works: *''al-Tadhkira al-Harawiya fi al-hiyal ...
) was written by M. Sadiq Kashghari.


List of Khojas

''Note: The following list is incomplete and, at times, possibly slightly inaccurate. It also excludes several collateral lines that ruled over minor territories and were relatively unimportant.'' *''Blue row signifies progenitor of the Khojas of Altishahr''. **''Green rows signify The Aq Taghliqs''. ***''Pink rows signify the Qara Taghliqs''. ****''Orange rows signify Chinese governors''.


See also

*
Jahangir Khoja Jahanghir Khoja, Jāhangīr Khwāja or Jihangir Khoja (, جهانگير خوجة; ; 1788 – 1828), was a member of the influential East Turkestan Afaqi Khoja (Turkestan), khoja clan, who managed to wrest Kashgaria from the Qing dynasty, Qin ...
*
Khwaja Ahmad Yasavi Ahmad Yasawi ( kk, Қожа Ахмет Ясауи, Qoja Ahmet Iasaui, قوجا احمەت ياساۋٸ; fa, خواجه اَحمدِ یَسوی, Khwāje Ahmad-e Yasavī; 1093–1166) was a Turkic poet and Sufi, an early mystic who exerted a po ...
(a Sufi
Shaykh Sheikh (pronounced or ; ar, شيخ ' , mostly pronounced , plural ' )—also transliteration of Arabic, transliterated sheekh, sheyikh, shaykh, shayk, shekh, shaik and Shaikh, shak—is an honorific title in the Arabic language. It commonl ...
who was held in high esteem among Central Asian Turkic peoples) *
Turkistan Turkestan, also spelled Turkistan ( fa, ترکستان, Torkestân, lit=Land of the Turks), is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and Xinjiang. Overview Known as Turan to the Persians, western Turke ...
or Yasi, birthplace of Yasavi, in present-day Kazakhstan * Khoja
Nasreddin Nasreddin () or Nasreddin Hodja (other variants include: Mullah Nasreddin Hooja, Nasruddin Hodja, Mullah Nasruddin, Mullah Nasriddin, Khoja Nasriddin) (1208-1285) is a character in the folklore of the Muslim world from Arabia to Central Asi ...
*
Dzungar conquest of Altishahr The Dzungar conquest of Altishahr resulted in the Tibetan Buddhist Dzungar Khanate in Dzungaria conquering and subjugating the Genghisid-ruled Chagatai Khanate in Altishahr (the Tarim Basin). It put a final end to the independence of the Chagatai K ...
*
Āfāqī Khoja Holy War In 1759, the Qing dynasty of China defeated the Dzungar Khanate and completed the conquest of Dzungaria. Concurrent with this conquest, the Qing occupied the Altishahr region of Eastern Turkestan which had been settled by the followers of the Mus ...
*
Fragrant Concubine The Fragrant Concubine ( zh, c=香妃, w=Hsiang Fei, p=Xiāng Fēi; ug, ئىپارخان / / ) is a figure in Chinese legend who was taken as a consort by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty in the 18th century. Although the stories about he ...


Literature

* Kim Hodong, "Holy War in China: The Muslim Rebellion and State in Chinese Central Asia, 1864–1877". Stanford University Press (March 2004). . (Searchable text available on Amazon.com) * Gladney, Dru
"The Salafiyya Movement in Northwest China: Islamic Fundamentalism among the Muslim Chinese?"
Originally published in "Muslim Diversity: Local Islam in Global Contexts". Leif Manger, Ed. Surrey: Curzon Press. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, No 26. pp. 102–149.

in
Encyclopædia Iranica ''Encyclopædia Iranica'' is a project whose goal is to create a comprehensive and authoritative English language encyclopedia about the history, culture, and civilization of Iranian peoples from prehistory to modern times. Scope The ''Encycl ...
(special fonts required to properly view) * Azim Malikov, Kinship systems of Xoja groups in Southern Kazakhstan in Anthropology of the Middle East, Volume 12, Issue 2, Winter 2017, pр.78-91 * Azim Malikov, Sacred Lineages in Central Asia: Translocality and Identity in Mobilities, Boundaries, and Travelling Ideas: Rethinking Translocality Beyond Central Asia and the Caucasus edited by Manja Stephan-¬Emmrich and Philipp Schröder (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers), 2018, pp. 121–150 * Azim Malikov, Khoja in Kazakhstan: identity transformations in Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology Department 'Integration and Conflict' Field Notes and research Projects VI CASCA – Centre for Anthropological Studies on Central Asia: Framing the Research, Initial Projects. Eds.: Günther Schlee. Halle/Saale, 2013, pp. 101–107


References

{{reflist Islamic honorifics Islam in China History of Xinjiang