Qarakhanid Trade Cities

Type Object Region Central Asia Time 1071–1080

Trade cities such as Kashgar, Balasagun, Samarkand, and Bukhara controlled by the Qarakhanid along the Silk Road, core nodes of 11th-century Central …

Timeline

1071Kashgar and Samarkand · Central AsiaAfter the Qarakhanid split into eastern and western branches, Kashgar controlled the Tarim Basin and the trade routes north and south of the Tianshan, while Samarkand and Bukhara governed the agricultural zone of Transoxiana and trade toward Persia, forming a complementary pattern of urban division of labor.
1071–1080Bukhara · BukharaThe trade cities regulated merchant transactions through Friday markets, tariff collection, and official coinage (dinars); silk, cotton cloth, horses, and spices were distributed here, and Sogdian and Muslim merchants used Persian and Turkic as lingua francas for intermediary trade.
1075–1080Balasagun · Chu River BasinAfter the Battle of Manzikert, Seljuk power penetrated deep into Anatolia; Qarakhanid cities linked up with the Seljuk postal relay system via steppe trade routes, with livestock, furs, and oasis agricultural products flowing in both directions, and urban economies benefiting from cross-imperial trade expansion.

Sources

Karakhanid Khanate https://www.britannica.com/topic/Karakhanid-dynasty
The Cambridge History of Inner Asia: The Chinggisid Age — Denis Sinor (ed.) (1990)