Collection Name: An Historical Atlas of Central Asia book

Author: YURI BREGEL

Date: 1944 | Short Title: . | Publisher: S. G. Klyashtorny, | Publisher Location:----

Type: Atlas Map

Place : Central Asia

Full Title:
An Historical Atlas of Central Asia" written by Yuri Bregel. This is stated on Page no17 of this book.

Note:

In the first half of the 7th century two formidable new powers emerged at the opposite frontiers of Central Asia: the Arab Caliphate in the west and Tang China in the east. The Tang dynasty came to power in China in 618, and it soon began a westward expansion, taking advantage of the weakening of both Türk qaghanates, the eastern and the western (see map 7). This expansion took place under the emperor Taitsung (627-649), and it began with the conquest of Qocho and Bishbalïq in 640; Qarashahr submitted to the Tang in 644, while Kashghar and Hotan began to send tribute missions to China even earlier. By 650 all states of the Tarim basin recognized the supreme authority of the Tang. A prominent (if not the key) role in this conquest was played by the Turkic confederates of the Tang. Direct administrative control was established by the Tang only in the three easternmost oases of the region: Hami, Turfan (Qocho), and Bishbalïq (Beiting). In the city-states of the Tarim basin the old dynasties remained, but had to pledge allegiance to the Tang; they were granted honorary titles and insignia, but were under the control of the Protector-General of the “Pacified West” (Anxi), whose seat was first in Qocho, but, later, beginning in 657, in Kucha. Tang troops were stationed in four key cities called the “Four Garrisons”: Kucha, Kashghar, Hotan, and Qarashahr; the entire region was sometimes called the “Four Garrisons.”


In the second half of the 7th century Tang rule in the Tarim basin was challenged by a new great power in Central Asia, the Tibetan Empire. It emerged in the 1st quarter of the 7th century, when several Chiang (Tibetan) tribes along the Chinese border were united under one ruler. In the 2nd quarter of the century the Tibetan state, which had originated in the south of the Tibetan plateau, greatly expanded to the north, south, and east. At the end of the 650s Tibet annexed Little Bolor (Balur) and Wakhan. In 663 Tibet defeated the Tuyuhun (Togons) and annexed their territory. In the 660s a part of the Western Türks submitted to (or became allied with) Tibet; they jointly attacked Kashghar and, in 665, Hotan. In 670 Tibet began a full-scale invasion of the Tarim basin, having first routed the Chinese army in the region of Koko-nor. After this Tibet dominated the entire Tarim basin for 22 years, while the “Four Garrisons” of the Tang were evacuated (although Kucha was captured by the Tibetans only in 677). In 679 a Tang military commander was able to conduct a campaign north of the Tien-Shan, in the course of which he defeated the Western Türks in this region and captured the city of Suyab, and from 679 to 719 Suyab was listed among the “Four Garrisons” instead of Qarashahr; this victory, however, did not change the situation in the Tarim basin. Soon after this a resurgence of power of both the eastern and western Türks occured. Between 679 and 689 the Eastern Türks rebelled against China and restored their qaghanate. Its center was, as in the first qaghanate, in central Mongolia, and its western limit was the Altay mountains. A little later, in 699, Üch Elig, the chieftain of the Türgesh, one of the five Dulu tribes of the Western Türks, defeated and banished a puppet ruler of the Western Türks who had been installed by the Tang, and established his authority on the entire territory of the Western Türks, from Chach to Bishbalïq, thus founding a new, Türgesh, qaghanate. By that time the situation in the Tarim basin had changed again. By the early 690s Tibet was weakened by internal feuds, and in 692 Tang troops occupied Kucha, apparently without much fighting; the “Four Garrisons” were restored, although this probably happened gradually, and Kashghar remained independent until 728.