Baurchuk Art Tekin

Baurchuk Art Tekin (known also as Idikut Baurchuk, Idikut Barchuq) was a ruler, with a title of Idikut, of the Buddhist Uyghur Kara-Khoja Kingdom (856-1389) in Beshbalik (near present-day Ürümqi), Kara-Khoja (near present-day Turpan, known also as Idikut-Shahri) and Kumul between 1208 and 1235. As a result of his policies, Uyghuria joined the Mongol Empire as its fifth Ulus (district) in 1211.

In 1209, Baurchuk sparked a rebellion against the Kara-Khitai Gurkhan, who had forced the Uyghurs into paying tribute. He killed the Gurkhan's envoy Shaukam and sent an embassy to Genghis Khan, asking for his help. The Mongol ruler accepted Baurchuk's deputation and pledged his support.

During the following year or two, Baurchuk mounted military expeditions against Naimans and killed four sons of their ruler Dayan Khan. After this show of loyalty to Genghis Khan, he was received by the latter in Mongolia (1211), married his daughter Altun Begi and was declared by Genghis Khan to be his fifth son, after Jochi, Chagatay, Ögedei and Tolui.[1]

In September 1219, Baurchuk joined Genghis Khan in an attack against the Khwarezmian Empire, personally commanding 10,000 tuman troops and taking part in the siege of Otrar and Nishapur (razed to ground by Mongols). In the spring of 1226, he took an active part in the two-year Mongol expedition against the Tangut Kingdom (known as Western Xia in Chinese chronicles), led by Genghis Khan himself and completed in almost full annihilation of the Tangut people, who were declared to be responsible for Genghis Khan's death under the walls of besieged Tangut capital,[2] in September, 1227. Baurchuk's participation in the expedition for destruction of the Tangut state was motivated not only by his obligations as ally of the Mongols, but also by the enmity that existed between the Tanguts and the Uyghurs since the destruction of the Buddhist/Manichaean Uyghur Kingdom in Gansu (848–1036) two centuries before, during the Uyghur-Tangut war of 1028–1036, followed by mass killings of its inhabitants. The population of Tangut Kingdom was reduced from around 3,000,000 people to less than one hundred thousand, which eventually had been assimilated by other ethnic groups, mostly of Mongolic, Turkic and Tibetan origins.

The present Tungan (Hui) people of autonomous Ningxia region can be considered as descendants of the Tangut people. The name Ningxia in Chinese means "Tranquillized or Quelled Xia".

Notes
  1. Yuan Shi, composed in 1370 by Bureau of History of Ming Dynasty China, volume 122 contains biography of Baurchuk Art Tekin.
  2. Present Yinchuan- the capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of People's Republic of China

References
  • Brose, Michael C. Subjects and Masters: Uyghurs in the Mongol Empire Bellingham, WA: Western Washington University Center for East Asian Studies, 2007.
  • Kutlukov, M. "Mongol Rule in Eastern Turkestan". Moscow, Nauka, 1970.


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