t positions once more,
unhappily without in any case achieving with the severance of their
connection with China any perceptible amelioration in their lot--indeed,
on almost every occasion only binding themselves with harder fetters,
and sinking into a deeper state of servitude. When the petty princelets
of Kashgar, Yarkand, Turfan, and the rest broke away from their
allegiance to Pekin, and when the imperial resources were unable to
coerce their rebellious subjects, the whole country passed under the
hands of their feudatories, who split up into innumerable factions,
waged continuous war, and sacrificed the happiness and welfare of the
subject people to a desire to promote their own individual interests. As
the barons and counts of Italy in the Middle Ages devastated some of the
fairest provinces of Europe, so these Oigur princes fought for their own
hand in the valleys of the Artosh and the Ili. It is very possible that
this state of things would have continued until China became
sufficiently strong and settled to reassert once more her dormant rights
over her lost provinces, but that a new force appeared on the western
frontiers of Kashgar. As early as 676 the Arabs, under Abdulla Zizad,
had crossed over from Persia, and were carrying destruction and terror
in their course along the banks of the Oxus. At that moment a beautiful
and gifted queen, named Khaton, ruled for her son in Bokhara. She had
not long been left a widow when her country was threatened by this
unexpected and terrible invasion. Although assistance came to the queen
from all the neighbouring States, including Kashgar, she was defeated
twice in the open field, and compelled to seek safety within the walls
of her capital. But the Arab leader was unable to take the city by
storm, and slowly retired, with a large number of captives and an
immense quantity of booty, back to Persia. Some years later the Arabs
again returned, but withdrew on the payment of a heavy indemnity.
Another chief, Kutaiba, was still more successful, for on one occasion
he carried fire and sword through Kashgar to beyond Kucha. This was the
first occasion on which the doctrines of Mahomed had been carried into
the realms of China, and with so cogent an argument as the sword it is
not wonderful that some hold was secured on the country. Subsequent
expeditions in the next few centuries strengthened this beginning, and
it was not long before the ruling classes of Kashgar became infected