Āmānnisā Khan Nāfisi, also known as Amanni Shahan (; ; 1526–1560), was a

concubine Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive. Concubi ...

Abdurashid Khan Abdurashid Khan ( ug, عبد الرشيد خان) (1508-1560) was the ruler of the Yarkent Khanate in modern-day Yarkant County, Xinjiang between 1533 and 1560. Biography Abdurashid Khan was a descendant of the first Moghul Khan Tughluk Timur K ...

of the

Yarkent Khanate The Yarkent Khanate, also known as the Yarkand Khanate and the Kashghar Khanate, was a Sunni Muslim Turkic state ruled by the Mongol descendants of Chagatai Khan. It was founded by Sultan Said Khan in 1514 as a western offshoot of Moghulistan, ...

. She is credited with collecting and thereby preserving the

Twelve Muqam A Muqam ( ug, ئۇيغۇر مۇقامى, ucy=Муқам; zh, s=木卡姆, p=Mùkǎmǔ) is the melody type used in the music of the Uyghurs, that is, a musical mode and set of melodic formulas used to guide improvisation and composition. Twelve ...

, which is today considered a musical style of the

Uyghur people The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. The Uyghu ...

Northwest China Northwest China () is a statistical region of China which includes the autonomous regions of Xinjiang and Ningxia and the provinces of Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai. It has an area of 3,107,900 km2. The region is characterized by a (semi-)arid con ...

. The Muqam of Xinjiang has been designated by UNESCO as part of the Intangible Heritage of Humanit

Amannisa Khan was born on the banks of the Tizinafu River in an area inhabited by the pre-Uyghur

Dolan people Dolan ( Uyghur: دولان, Долан; Simplified Chinese: 刀朗 or 多朗) refers to a people or region of what is now Xinjiang Province, China. People who call themselves Dolan can be found in Awat County, the Yarkand River valley, the Tarim ...

, which is modern-day

Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County (also known as Taxkorgan County, sometimes spelled Tashkurgan, Tashkorgan and Tash Kurghan Tadzhik Autonomous Hsien) is an autonomous county of Kashgar Prefecture in Western Xinjiang, China. The county seat is t ...

. Her father, Muhamode, was a forester. When she was thirteen years old, Abdurashid Khan burst into her father's shack during hunting and demanded to hear a song. She dedicated a

ghazal The ''ghazal'' ( ar, غَزَل, bn, গজল, Hindi-Urdu: /, fa, غزل, az, qəzəl, tr, gazel, tm, gazal, uz, gʻazal, gu, ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a ...

to his benevolence and he was so impressed that he paid her father the

bride price Bride price, bride-dowry ( Mahr in Islam), bride-wealth, or bride token, is money, property, or other form of wealth paid by a groom or his family to the woman or the family of the woman he will be married to or is just about to marry. Bride dow ...

to take her. She became

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

of the Yarkand Khanate, composing Muqams and other musical works for which her husband supposedly took credit. She experienced

maternal death Maternal death or maternal mortality is defined in slightly different ways by several different health organizations. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines maternal death as the death of a pregnant mother due to complications related to pre ...

at age 34 and her remains were buried in Royal Cemetery Park near Yarkent. The only known source mentioning her by name is the 1854 History of Musicians (Tavārikh-i mūsīqiyyūn) by Mu'jiz (Mojize).Nathan Light. Intimate Heritage; Creating Uyghur Muqam Song in Xinjiang. Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2008, pp. 165-69. That manuscript was translated into the modern

Uyghur language The Uyghur or Uighur language (; , , , or , , , , CTA: Uyğurçä; formerly known as Eastern Turki), is a Turkic language written in a Uyghur Perso-Arabic script with 8-11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xi ...

by the Nationalities Research Institute of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republi ...

in 1982. She was promoted as a cultural hero by the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

for certain approved characteristics, including being born in the area and being from a background of poverty and close to peasants.

Saifuding Aizezi Saifuddin Azizi ( ug, سەيپىدىن ئەزىزى; 12 March 1915 – 24 November 2003), also known as Seypidin Azizi, Saif al-Dīn ʿAzīz, Saifuding Aizezi and Saifuding, was the first chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the ...

, the first Chinese Communist leader of Xinjiang, published a play about her in 1983, which portrayed Amannisa's conflict with Abdurashid's first wife, Yadigar. In the 1990s, a mausoleum was built in her birthplace to honour her contribution to Uyghur culture.

External links

1526 births 1560 deaths Deaths in childbirth {{Asia-royal-stub