Overview
Bilge Kül Qadir Khan is the first ruler of the Karakhanid line as later Muslim historians recorded it. He is said to have taken the title of qaghan after the Yenisei Kyrgyz destroyed the Uyghur Khaganate in 840. Almost nothing about him is certain: the sources that name him were written three or more centuries later.
Rise to Power
Historians disagree on his origin. Omeljan Pritsak argued that he belonged to the ruling house of the Karluks and claimed the supreme title once the Uyghur qaghans were gone; others link the dynasty to the Chigil or Yaghma tribes. A Chinese proposal that he was the Uyghur prince Pang Tegin has found little support.
Rule and Achievements
- Is placed in the lands around Balasagun, Kashgar and Talas in the second half of the ninth century
- The Samanid emir Ismail took Talas from the Turks in 893, the year modern lists give for his death; whether the two are linked is unknown
Legacy
His name survives in the work of Jamal Qarshi, a thirteenth-century historian of Kashgar. Modern lists start the dynasty with him, but his reign of c. 840–893 is a reconstruction rather than a record.