Descendants of Yaqub Beg

[JesusA (imported)]

Yaqub Beg was a Tajik (Central Asian Turkic-language speaking Moslem) who rose through the military ranks of the Khanate of Kokand and later took advantage of an uprising of Chinese Moslems (Hui) in modern Xinjiang Province to invade and conquer a large area. He established a new country that he named Kashgaria. He entered into treaty relations with both the Russian Empire and Great Britain and tried to obtain their help in pushing the Chinese further east.

Yaqub Beg was eventually defeated by the Qing army and Kashgaria again became a part of the Chinese Empire.

At the time of his defeat, Yaqub Beg had four sons and four grandchildren (2 boys and 2 girls). An adult son was beheaded for his part in the war. Three sons and the two grandsons were below the age of 16 and were sentenced to the traditional punishment for sons and grandsons of rebels - they were sentenced to castration. One grandson died before the sentence could be carried out, the others were castrated in 1879.

A great grandson of Yaqub Beg (descendant of one of the daughters) is currently a newscaster in Turkey.

At the time that Eastern Turkistan again passed into the hands of China, there were taken prisoners four sons, two grandsons, two granddaughters, and four wives of Yakoob Beg. Some of these were executed and others died; but in 1870 there remained in prison at Lanchanfoo, the capital of Kan-suh, Maiti Kuli, aged fourteen; Yima Kuli, aged ten; K'ati Kuli, aged six, sons of Yakoob Beg; and Aisan Ahung, aged five, his grandson. These wretched little boys were treated like state criminals. They arrived in Kan-suh in February 1879, and were sent on to the provincial capital to be tried and sentenced by the Judicial Commissioner there for the awful crime of being sons of their father. In the course of time the Commissioner made a report of the trial, which he concluded as follows:

In cases of sedition, where the law condemns the malefactors to death by the slow and paintul process, the children and grandchildren, if it be shown that they were not privv to the treasonable designs of their parents, shall be delivered, no matter whether they have attained full age or not, into the hands of the imperial household to be made eunuchs of, and shall be forwarded to Turkistan and given over as slaves to the soldiery. If under the age of ten, they shall be confined in prison until they shall have reached the age of eleven, wliereupon they shall he handed to the imperial household to oe dealt with according to law. In the present case, Yakoob Beg's sons Maiti Kuli, Yima Kuli, and K'ati Kuli, and the rebel chief Beg Kuli's son, Aisan Ahung, are all under age, and were not, it has been proved, privy to the treasonable designs of their parents. They have, therefore, to be handed to the imperial household to he dealt with in accordance with the law, which prescribes that, in cases of sedition, the Sons and grandsons of malefactors condemned to deatli by the'slow and painful process, if it be shown that they were not privy to the treasonable designs of their parents, shall, whether they have attained full age or not, be delivered into the hands of the imperial household to be made eunuchs of, and shall be sent to Turkistan to be given as slaves to the soldiery. But, as these are rebels from Turkistan, it is requested that they may, instead, be sent to the Amoor region, to be given as slaves to the soldiery there.

As Maiti Kuli is fourteen, it is requested that he may be delivered over to the imperial household as soon as the reply of the Board is received. Yima Kuli is just ten , K'ati Kuli and Aisan Ahung are under ten: they have, therefore, to be confined In prison until they attain the age of eleven, when thev will be delivered over to the imperial household to "be dealt with according to law..

Appletons' Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events: Embracing Political, Military, and Ecclesiastical Affairs; Public Documents; Biography, Statistics, Commerce, Finance, Literature, Science, Agriculture, and Mechanical Industry. New York: D. Appleton and Company. Vol. 4 (1888), page 145.

http://archive.org/stream/appletonsannu ... 4/mode/2up

Downloaded: 23 May 2013

[Dave (imported)]

...

if it be shown that they were not privy to the treasonable designs of their parents, shall, whether they have attained full age or not, be delivered into the hands of the imperial household to be made eunuchs of, and shall be sent to Turkistan to be given as slaves to the soldiery.

...

I almost missed that line about Eunuchs. History has never been my strong subject.

I think it would make a great premise for a short story.

Thanks