44 
HISTORY OF THE KHOJAS OF E N.STERN-TUREISTAN, 
dances about and tries to shake him off.’ Presently the Khan asked the 
same question, privately, of the other, who replied : ‘ My horse is 
oppressed by the load of sins which he carries in my person, whereas my 
friend’s sanctity is so great that his horse, desiring to fly to the heavens 
with him, continues to spring up from the earth in his endeavour to 
do so.’ ” 
Yusuf’s youngest brother was Kbdu-llah. who had four sons :— 
1, Shamsu-d-Dln ; 2, Yahya ; 3, Ahmad ; 4 ‘Abid. 
Abdu-llah lived at Aksu and when his brother, Khamosh, died there, 
he gave over his own government of Khutan to his son Shamsu-d-Din. 
He himself also died at Aksu; after which Shamsu-d-Din and Yahya 
obtained Khutan. 
Yusuf went to Ila. 31 He found the Qalmaqs in trouble among them¬ 
selves and concluded that the longed for opportunity to strike for inde¬ 
pendence was come. He took counsel with Khush Kipak Beg, the Gov¬ 
ernor of Kashghar, who was also at Ila and sent him back to Kashghar to 
fortify the city and prepare for war, telling the Qalmaqs that this was done 
as a precaution against irruptions. But he sent a letter to Umar Mirza, 
the Chief of the Kirghiz-Kipchaks, living in the Ila district, and planned 
an insurrection in concert with them. He could not obtain leave from 
his Qalmaq masters to return to Kashghar; so he resorted to artifice. 
He sent off a servant with orders to go a few days’ march and then come 
back in haste bearing a prepared letter, which reported that the Kir gh iz 
had attacked Kashghar, and that Yusuf’s presence was required. The 
Qalmaqs at first decided to send an army, but being themselves in diffi¬ 
culties, they were finally compelled to give up this idea and to depute 
Yusuf. He pretended unreadiness and offered to send his sons instead, 
saying that if they failed, he would go himself. In this way he hoped to 
release his sons. 32 His proposal was agreed to, but, according to a pre¬ 
arranged plan, the sons sent back word that the task was beyond them, 
81 In Muhammad Sadiq’s text it is said that Yusuf used frequently to pay visits 
to Ila, his chief object being— “ to obtain an insight into the affairs of the infidels. 
He was waiting for a disturbance to take place among them that he might seize the 
opportunity to use the remorseless sword of Islam.On one occasion 
he found that the Tura (Chief) of the Qalmaqs had been changed, and that dissension 
and disturbance prevailed among them. ” Galdan Chiring’s death occurred in 1745, 
and gave rise to several years of disturbances among the Qalmaqs, as has been mentioned 
in the Introduction. The occasion of Yusuf’s visit, here alluded to in the Epitome, 
was apparently at the time when Ta-wa-tze had just become Chief, (viz,, 1754) or shortly 
previous to it, perhaps about 1753. 
82 The text of Muhammad Sa liq mentions only one 6on in connection with this 
incident, and names him— Khwaja Abdu-llah. 
