* The author of the Jahán Kushai (writing about 1259 A.D.) has perhaps
better reason for making the Uighur country the western border of Moghulistan
than Mirza Haidar gives him credit for. He is alluding, no doubt, to the king-
dom of the Ilak Kháns in Turkistan and to Mavara-un-Nahr, which was under
ihe rule of an Uighur dynasty down to about the year 1213, and consequently
almost to within the writer's own lifetime. (See note, p. 287.)

* It was towards the end of the career of Chingiz, that Shédarku became king
of Tangut; indeed the campaign which Chingiz undertook against that country,
at the close of the year 1225, was his last. 'langut was, as Mirza Haidar says,
à powerful kingdom at that time. It played a great part in Chinese history for
about a hundred years, and Tangut rulers conquered large tracts of territory
from the Chinese and the Uighurs. It may be said to have ineluded, in its best
days, all the regions lying between Turfan and the Chinese province of Shansi,


together with Zaidam—the homeland of the people—and some portions of northern
Tibet. 'The name of the king here mentioned is yariously written—Shédarku


and Description of. Moghulistán. He 361


—. In the same way, some of the towns in Moghulistán are men-
 tioned by name and described, in standard works. Among them is
DBalá-Sákun, which in the Swvar-i-Akálim is reckoned among the
cities of Khitái, and called * Khán Báligh'; while in Moghulistán
and Kará Khitái they have written the same *Balá Sákun.' "They
— have applied the name to no other city.' In books of repute and


- Bhidurgho, Shidasku, etc.—while, according to the Tabákat-i-Násiri, he styled
— himself the Tingri Khan (or Heavenly King), and was known to the Chinese as
Li-Hien. 'The country also is found mentioned under many names and corrup-
— tions of names.  T'angut, Tíingit, Koshi, Kashin, etc., are the most common among
. western Asiatie writers; Hsia and Hosí among the Chinese. Indeed it is this

last name, meaning * west'of the river" (i.e. the Yellow River) that has been
corrupted into XKoshZ, etc. 'lhe Tibetans seem to have known itas Ményog. By
Mirza Haidar's time Tangut had sunk to very small proportions, and it is now
only a geographical expression, for there is no separate state bearing the name.
