Abul-Ghazi on the 12th Century
Abul-Ghazi, in the chapter "On the People of China," writes: "There are two Chinas: one of them is called Kara-Kitai. Many families of the Kara-Kitai, for some reason, rebelled against their rulers and, fleeing from there, moved to the Kyrgyz Lands." He further writes: "Considering the local inhabitants as newcomers, they began to steal cattle from them, and therefore could not settle there, moving to the land of Idil (most likely referring to Emel — E. u. K.); having founded a city there, they settled in it and began to cultivate the land. This land became populated: from everywhere, those who had lost their possessions, hungry, exhausted, poor, and people of all sorts gathered in this city; the population increased to forty thousand families.
At that time, the ruler of Jurjita, a large region, was at war with the ruler of Kara-Kitai, Ming, defeated him, seized his territory, and ordered him to be executed. This ruler had a high-ranking nobleman, a bek named Nusi-Tayif; he, along with many officials and people, fled to the Kyrgyz land. This was in the five hundred thirtieth year of the era (1119 AD). From there, he moved to the Chinese city of Imil. He was a wise and judicious man: having lived there for up to two years, he spread his name and glory in all four directions. He was a descendant of Afrasiab.
In the city of Balasagun, there was a khan named Ilek-Nukrak. The Mongols call this city Gu-balyg: Gu means good, balyk means city, so in translation, its name means good city. In this fortified city, there were many Turks, especially Kangli; they plundered and devastated his region and laid waste to his fields. Therefore, Ilek-khan sent a man to the Bek, a native of China, inviting him to himself and promising to hand over his domain to him. He came, became the ruler of the land, made Ilek his noker, and commanded that from that day on, no one should call him Ilek-khan, but rather Ilek-Turkman; he took the name Gur-khan for himself."
The information conveyed by Abul-Ghazi above pertains to events occurring in the first half of Abul-Ghazi's ("The Genealogy of the Turks"), which have already been discussed in this work, and as we can see, they differ somewhat in Abul-Ghazi's account. This could be related not only to confusion on his part when compiling this narrative but also to the existence of other data he had concerning the first half of the 12th century.
Interestingly, in these reports, Abul-Ghazi mentions that the "descendant of Afrasiab," who could have been the last head of the Eastern Karakhanids, Ibrahim ibn Ahmed, moved to the "city of Imil." This could refer to the Kyrgyz campaign against Beijun (Beshbalyk), or the Kyrgyz could also have conquered a city in the valley of the Imil River, which belonged to the Kara-Kitai.
Incidentally, according to the information attributed to some Nusi-Tayif, supposedly a "high-ranking nobleman bek" under the Jurjita ruler (or perhaps the Kara-Kitai?), he (i.e., Nusi-Tayif) somewhat resembles Almambet, one of the characters in the epic "Manas."
Abul-Ghazi does not specify all the sources from which he drew "each tale." During his ten-year stay in Persia, Abul-Ghazi became acquainted with Persian writers about the Mongols and Turks; ...Abul-Ghazi, in compiling the Genealogy of the Turks, had at his disposal, as he himself states, eighteen historical works on the Chingizids."