Babur was born in 1481, and was chosen to
succeed his father Uman Sheikh on the throne of Khokand, by the nobles
of that state, when he was only twelve years of age. This conqueror of
India influenced but indirectly the fortunes or Kashgar. His career was
in another sphere, and it is not necessary here to enter into any
description of his life, such as has been given of his predecessors
Genghis Khan and Timour.

Said, having overcome Ababakar, employed himself in extending his rule
over the neighbouring states. He was seized with the desire of occupying
that mountainous region, which is divided into almost as many petty
states as it contains mountain chains, lying between our Indian
frontier and the Pamir and Badakshan. But although he employed all his
resources in endeavouring to subject the Kafirs of Bolor, or Kafiristan
as it is now called, he was unable to make any permanent additions in
this direction. In other years he carried fire and sword into Tibet and
Cashmere; and it was when returning from one of these expeditions, in
the year 1532, that he expired from the effects of the rarefied
atmosphere, near the Karakoram pass. His death was the signal for the
outbreak of fresh disturbances. His legitimate sons were ousted by
Rashid, the son of Said by a slave, who had already distinguished
himself as a general in the wars against Kafiristan and Tibet, and on
the death of Rashid after a brief reign, the confusion became, if
possible, worse confounded. It would be tedious in the extreme to follow
the variations that now took place. Benedict Goes, a Portuguese
missionary and traveller, found a ruler named Mahomed Khan on the throne
in 1603, by whom he was hospitably received; but as he had placed the
sister of the Khan, when returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, under an
obligation to him, this is scarcely a fair criterion either of the
personal merits of this ruler, or of the state of civilization to which
the country had attained.

It was now that the Khoja family appeared prominently upon the scene.
Two factions were playing the parts of Montagu and Capulet in Eastern
Turkestan in the earlier years of the seventeenth century. They were
known as the Aktaghluc and Karataghluc, and in the course of their
strife the leader of the former called in to his aid the Khoja Kalar of
Khodjent, a descendant of Azmill before mentioned. It was in the year
1618 that this Khoja first came to Kashgar, and his grandson,
Hadayatulla,