現代のヤンチ市は、浅いボステン湖の西約24キロメートル（15マイル）に位置しています。この湖は東西約81キロメートル（50マイル） 、南北約48キロメートル（30マイル）で、表面積は約1,000平方キロメートル（390平方マイル）あり、新疆ウイグル自治区で最大級の湖の一つです。漢の時代から魚の豊富さで知られています。この湖はカイドゥ川から水が供給され、コンチ川[ a ]がそこからコルラを通り、タクラマカン砂漠を横断してロプノールへと流れ出ています。この地域には他にも多数の小さな湖があります。
The city, referred to in classical Chinese sources as Yanqi, was located on the branch of the Silk Route that ran along the northern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin.
History
The earliest known inhabitants of the area were an Indo-European people who apparently referred to themselves and the city as Ārśi (pronounced "Arshi"). Their language, since it was rediscovered in the early 20th century, has been known as "Tocharian A" (a misnomer resulting from an assumed relationship to the Tukhara of Bactria). The people and city were also known as Agni, although this may have been a later exonym, derived from the word for "fire" in an Indo-Iranian language such as Sanskrit (cognate to English "ignite"). The 7thcentury Buddhist monk Xuanzang transliterated Agni into Chinese as O-ki-ni 阿耆尼 (MCZS: *ʔɑ-ɡiɪ-ɳˠiɪstandard: Āqíní).[2][3]
Ārśi was bordered by related Tocharian cultures, many of which also spoke related languages: Kuča (or Kucha), Gumo (later Aksu) to the west, Turfan (Turpan) to the east and to the south, Krorän (Loulan).
In China, Han dynasty sources describe Yanqi (Ārśi / Agni) as a relatively large and important neighboring kingdom. According to Book of Han, the various states of the "Western Regions", including Yanqi, were controlled by the nomadic Xiongnu, but later came under the influence of the Han dynasty, following a Han show of force against Dayuan (Fergana) in the late 2ndcenturyBCE.[4]
The Tarim Basin in the 3rdcentury, showing the so-called Tocharian and related states.
It is their custom to serve "Heavenly God(s)" but they also show reverence and trust in the doctrines of the Buddha. They especially celebrate these days: The eighth day of the second month, and the eighth day of the fourth month. All the country abstains and does penance according to the teachings of Śākya, and follows His Way.
The climate is cold, and the land good and fertile. For cereals, they have rice, millet, pulse, wheat, and barley. For animals, they have camels, horses, cows, and sheep. They raise silk-worms but do not make silk, merely using [the silk fiber] for padding. It is their custom to relish grape wine, and also to love music. It is some ten li north of a body of water, and has an abundance of fish, salt, and rushes. In the fourth year of the period Pao-ting, its king sent an envoy to present its renowned horses.[6][7]
Turkish dignitaries visiting king Varkhuman in Samarkand. One of them is labeled as coming from Argi (Karashahr in modern Xinjiang). Afrasiab mural, probably painted between 648 and 651CE.[8][9]
By the mid-9th century, the area had been conquered by the Uyghur Khaganate and the Tocharian languages were fading from use. Agnideśa became widely known by the Uyghur Turkic name Karasahr (or Karashar), meaning "black city". The influence of Islam grew, while older religions such as Buddhism and Manichaenism declined.
Between the mid-13thcentury and the 18thcentury, Karasahr was part of the MongolChagatai Khanate.
Karashahr may have been known to late medieval Europeans as Cialis, Chalis, or Chialis,[b] although Korla, Krorän, and other city names are instead favored by some scholars.
↑The period's books such as Ricci & Trigault (1615),[10] or later works drawing on those (e.g., Fang (1976)[11]) usually go for Cialis, but some maps use the more anglicized form, Chialis.
↑Hulsewé, A.F.P. (1979). China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125BC – AD23: An annotated translation of chapters61 and 96 of the history of the former Han dynasty. Leiden, NL: E. Brill. pp.73–80. ISBN90-04-05884-2.
↑Miller, Roy Andrew, ed. (1959). Accounts of Western Nations in the History of the Northern Chou Dynasty. Translated by Miller. University of California Press. pp.9–10.
↑Baumer, Christoph (18 April 2018). The History of Central Asia. Bloomsbury Publishing. p.243. ISBN978-1-83860-868-2, in 4volumes.
↑Whitfield, Susan (2004). The Silk Road: Trade, travel, war, and faith. British Library / Serindia Publications. p.110. ISBN978-1-932476-13-2.
