Kharashahr - Kharashahr (English spelling)

Yanqi is a town in Yanqi Hui Autonomous County, located at the southern foot of the eastern Tianshan Mountains in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China, and is the seat of the county government. Known to the Chinese as Yanqi since the Han Dynasty, Yanqi is an oasis city that occupied a key position on the Northern Western Regions Route. It not only connects the Turfan region in the east with the Kucha region in the west, but also connects to the grasslands and nomadic areas of the Northern Tianshan Route in the north, and to Miran, Loulan, and even Dunhuang on the Southern Western Regions Route in the south and southeast.

During the Han and Tang dynasties, when Yanqi maintained its independence as a state, the indigenous people were the Tocharians, who were of Indo-European descent and mainly engaged in oasis agriculture and caravan trade. Since ancient times, Buddhism, especially the Hinayana Sarvastivada school, has been popular, and the Shorcuk ruins were once the center of Tocharian Buddhism. In the 2nd century BC, the state was indirectly ruled by the Xiongnu, but continued to be subject to pressure from surrounding great powers such as the Western Han, Eastern Han, Xianbei, Rouran, Turks, and Tang. After coming under the control of the Western Uighur Kingdom in the late 9th century, the inhabitants became increasingly Turkic. In the 13th century, with the rise of the Mongol Empire and the inhabitants being included in the Chagatai Khanate, the inhabitants became Islamic. The Chinese name Yanqi is a transcription of the original words Argi and Ark, or a similar phonetic transcription. Since the Western Uyghur Kingdom period, it was called Sölmi during the Yuan Dynasty, Čališ during the Ming Dynasty, and Karashahr is the name it has been called since the Qing Dynasty.

[Takao Moriyasu January 19, 2018]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

中国、新疆(しんきょう)ウイグル自治区、東部天山(てんざん)地方の南麓にある焉耆(えんき)回族自治県の鎮で、同自治県の政府所在地。中国人には漢代以来焉耆の名で知られ、西域(せいいき)北道の要衝を占めたオアシス都市である。東のトゥルファン地方と西のクチャ地方を結ぶだけでなく、北は天山北路の草原・遊牧地帯と、南ないし南東は西域南道のミーラン、楼蘭(ろうらん)、さらには敦煌(とんこう)とも通じている。

　漢代から唐代まで焉耆国として独立を保っていたころの先住民は、インド・ヨーロッパ系のいわゆるトカラ人で、彼らはおもにオアシス農業と隊商貿易に従事していた。古来、仏教とくに小乗系の説一切有部(せついっさいうぶ)の信仰が盛んで、ショルチュク遺跡はかつてのトカラ仏教の中心地であった。紀元前2世紀に匈奴(きょうど)の間接支配を受けたことがあるが、その後も前漢、後漢(ごかん)、鮮卑(せんぴ)、柔然(じゅうぜん)、突厥(とっけつ)、唐など、周辺の大勢力の圧力を被り続けた。9世紀後半に西ウイグル王国の支配下に入ってから、住民のトルコ化が進んだ。13世紀にモンゴル帝国が台頭し、この地がチャガタイ・ハン国に含まれてから、住民はイスラム化した。漢名の焉耆は原語のアルギArgi、アルクArkないしはそれに近い音を写したもの。西ウイグル王国時代から元代にはスルミSölmi、明(みん)代にはチャリッシュČališとよばれ、カラシャールは清(しん)代以降の呼称である。

［森安孝夫　2018年1月19日］

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