Jimsar County is a county in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture,

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

, China. It contains an area of . According to the 2002 census, it has a population of 130,000. Near the town of Jimsar are the ruins of the ancient city of Beiting ( zh, c=北庭, p=Běitíng) or Ting Prefecture ( zh, c=庭州, p=Tíngzhōu), the headquarters of the Beiting Protectorate during the 8th century. It was later known as Beshbalik ( zh, c=别失八里) and became one of the capitals of the

Uyghur Khaganate The Uyghur Khaganate (also Uyghur Empire or Uighur Khaganate, self defined as Toquz-Oghuz country; , Tang-era names, with modern Hanyu Pinyin: or ) was a Turkic empire that existed for about a century between the mid 8th and 9th centuries. It ...

and then the

Kingdom of Qocho Kingdom commonly refers to: * A monarchic state or realm ruled by a king or queen. ** A monarchic chiefdom, represented or governed by a king or queen. * Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy Kingdom may also refer to: Arts and me ...

History

The name Beshbalik first appears in history in the description of the events of 713 in the Turkic Kul Tigin inscription. It was one of the largest of five towns in the

. The Tibetans briefly held the city in 790. Established in 1902 as a county, it was known as Fuyuan (孚远) until 1952, when its name was changed to Jimsar. The modern city Jimsar is located at 43°59'N, 89°4'East; It is a location of the Uyghur ancient southern capital Beshbalik or Beshbalyq. "Balıq" means city in Old Turkic language, so the meaning of Beshbalik/Beshbalyq is "Five cities". This city name appeared in

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

record as both 五城(Wǔ Chéng, means 5 cities) or 别失八里(bié shī bā lǐ). It became the Uyghur main capital after a disastrous results of the

Yenisei Kirghiz The Yenisei Kyrgyz () were an ancient Turkic people who dwelled along the upper Yenisei River in the southern portion of the Minusinsk Depression from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE. The heart of their homeland was the forested T ...

attack on the Uyghur northern capital Karabalgasun (''Khanbalyk''). After the attack, a significant part of the Uyghur Khaganate population fled to the area of the present Jimsar County and Tarim Basin in general in 840, where they founded the

. The Uyghurs submitted to

Genghis Khan Genghis Khan (born Temüjin; August 1227), also known as Chinggis Khan, was the founder and first khan (title), khan of the Mongol Empire. After spending most of his life uniting the Mongols, Mongol tribes, he launched Mongol invasions and ...

in 1207. Beshbalik consisted of five parts: an outer town, the northern gate of the outer town, the extended town of the west, the inner town and a small settlement within the inner town. At first, the city was the political center of the Uyghur Idiquit (monarch) and his

Mongol Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China (Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family of M ...

queen, Altalun, daughter of Genghis Khan under the

Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire was the List of largest empires, largest contiguous empire in human history, history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Euro ...

in the first half of the 13th century.

Alans The Alans () were an ancient and medieval Iranian peoples, Iranic Eurasian nomads, nomadic pastoral people who migrated to what is today North Caucasus – while some continued on to Europe and later North Africa. They are generally regarded ...

were recruited into the Mongol forces with one unit called "Right Alan Guard" which was combined with "recently surrendered" soldiers, Mongols, and Chinese soldiers stationed in the area of the former

and in Besh Balikh the Mongols established a Chinese military colony led by Chinese general Qi Kongzhi (Ch'i Kung-chih). Due to military struggles between the

Chagatai Khanate The Chagatai Khanate, also known as the Chagatai Ulus, was a Mongol and later Turkification, Turkicized khanate that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan, second son of Genghis Khan, and his descendants and successors. At its height in the l ...

and the Yuan dynasty during the reign of

Kublai Khan Kublai Khan (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder and first emperor of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. He proclaimed the ...

, the city was abandoned and lost its prosperity in the late 13th century. The ''

History of Yuan The ''History of Yuan'' (), also known as the ''Yuanshi'', is one of the official Chinese historical works known as the '' Twenty-Four Histories'' of China. Commissioned by the court of the Ming dynasty, in accordance to political tradition, t ...

'' records the name as both Wu-ch'eng 五城 (5 cities) and Bie-shi-ba-li 别失八里. Jimsar city was established in the south of the ruins of Beshbalik.Paul Allan Mirecki, Jason BeDuhn, ''Emerging from Darkness: Studies in the Recovery of Manichaean Sources,'' p. 106

Subdivisions

Jimsar County is made up of 6

towns A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

and 3

townships A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

Climate

Notes and references

References

* Beckwith, Christopher I. (2009). ''Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present''. Princeton University Press. . * Area map http://www.maplandia.com/china/xinjiang-uygur/jimsar/jimsar/ {{authority control County-level divisions of Xinjiang Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture