Keriya

Keriya formed one of the settlements in the Khotan oasis country along the southern Tarim Basin. Under Qing administration it had an aqim beg, a local official responsible for governing the town. The office connected an oasis community to an imperial system that retained Muslim officeholders while supervising their conduct through Qing authorities.

A case recorded for 1792 concerns Keriya's fourth-rank aqim beg, Maimat Nizar. He was accused of forcibly collecting cloth and inducing people under his authority to bring accusations against subordinate begs. The official and his family were sent into the Chinese interior. The episode shows the tensions surrounding local power and the means used to punish its abuse. Cloth levies, relations among officials and complaints by governed households could become matters for the imperial administration, linking Keriya's everyday government with the wider judicial machinery of Qing Xinjiang.