Duwa

He was the longest reigning monarch of the Chagatayid Khanate and accepted the nominal supremacy of the Yuan dynasty as Great Khan before his death.

In 1282, Kaidu appointed Duwa as head of the Chagatai Khanate, in an effort to gain peace between himself and the sons of Baraq, who had ravaged Central Asia for much of the past ten years.

The following year, Kaidu and Duwa launched an expedition against Beshbalik, defeated the Yuan forces there and captured the city.

Idiqut Khochqar reinforced Kara-Khoja defenses while all Uyghur cities in Dzungaria were abandoned by its population and turned into rubble within a few years as a result of these Mongol attacks.

Duwa then laid siege to Kara Khoja (present Idiqut Shahri near Turpan) for six months with his brother Buzma by 120,000 troops.

[4] Nevertheless, the Mongol princes had failed to take the city by assaults during six months and finally Idiqut Khochqar managed to have the siege lifted only by giving Duwa his daughter in marriage, and probably financial compensation as well.

Kaidu's attempts to spread his power within the Ilkhanate gave Duwa an excuse to invade that Mongol kingdom in early 1295.

Supported by Kaidu's son Sarban, he invaded Khurasan and Mazandaran while the Ilkhanid commanders were involved in a succession struggle far to the west.

A similar attempt on Herat never happened, since Duwa feared he would fail; he soon after was recalled by Kaidu back to Central Asia, and the campaign ended.

In 1298 or 1299 Duwa appointed his son Kutluk Khoja as head of the Qara'unas, a Mongol group that controlled a large part of Khurasan.

On the eastern front Duwa convinced the border commander of Yuan, Qaishan, to strike and defeat Chapar's brother Orus in June 1306.

Duwa's successes in recreating the Central Asian state also proved to be transitory; less than forty years later, the eastern part of the khanate would split off, and in the 1370s the western khans would be reduced to puppets by Timur.