Indeed, it is not easy to point out the mutual limits of their
territories, and these must have been somewhat complex, for we find Kaidu
and Borrak Khan of Chaghatai at one time exercising a kind of joint
sovereignty in the cities of Bokhara and Samarkand. Probably, indeed, the
limits were in a great measure tribal rather than territorial. But it
may be gathered that Kaidu's authority extended over Kashgar and the
cities bordering the south slopes of the Thian Shan as far east as Kara
Khoja, also the valley of the Talas River, and the country north of the
Thian Shan from Lake Balkhash eastward to the vicinity of Barkul, and in
the further north the country between the Upper Yenisei and the Irtish.
Kaidu died in 1301 at a very great age. He had taken part, it was said, in
41 pitched battles. He left 14 sons (some accounts say 40), of whom the
eldest, called Shabar, succeeded him. He joined Dua Khan of Chaghatai in
making submission to Teimur Kaan, the successor of Kublai; but before
long, on a quarrel occurring between the two former, Dua seized the
territory of Shabar, and as far as I can learn no more is heard of the
house of Kaidu. Vambery seems to make the Khans of Khokand to be of the
stock of Kaida; but whether they claim descent from Yunus Khan, as he
says, or from a son of Baber left behind in his flight from Ferghana, as
Pandit Manphul states, the genealogy would be from Chaghatai, not from
Kaidu.
NOTE 2. - "To the N.N.W. a desert of 40 days' extent divides the states of
Kublai from those of Kaidu and Dua. This frontier extends for 30 days'
journey from east to west. From point to point," etc.; see continuation of
this quotation from Rashiduddin, in Vol. I. p. 214.
[1] The Jaihun or Oxus.
CHAPTER II.
OF CERTAIN BATTLES THAT WERE FOUGHT BY KING CAIDU AGAINST THE ARMIES OF
HIS UNCLE THE GREAT KAAN.
Now it came to pass in the year of Christ's incarnation, 1266, that this
King Caidu and another prince called YESUDAR, who was his cousin,
assembled a great force and made an expedition to attack two of the Great
Kaan's Barons who held lands under the Great Kaan, but were Caidu's own
kinsmen, for they were sons of Chagatai who was a baptized Christian, and
own brother to the Great Kaan; one of them was called CHIBAI, and the
other CHIBAN.[NOTE 1]
Caidu with all his host, amounting to 60,000 horse, engaged the Kaan's two
Barons, those cousins of his, who had also a great force amounting to more
than 60,000 horsemen, and there was a great battle.
