Statue of Amannisa Khan

Amannisa Khan (1526–1560) was the princess consort of Abdurashid Khan, the third monarch of the Yarkand Khanate. She was born into a poor family of folk artists in Xiahetatar Village along the Tiznap River (present-day Xaftuluk Village, Karasu Township, Shache County). After only two years of schooling, she began singing and playing musical instruments with her father. By the age of 14, she could compose poems and melodies. Thanks to her intelligence and beauty, she was chosen by the khan to enter the palace as his concubine.

After entering the royal palace, Amannisa Khan soon grew into a renowned poet and musician. She composed, played and sang a great number of poems and literary works on her own. Her surviving masterpieces include The Collection of Nafis Poems, Beautiful Sentiments and Negotiations of the Soul.

Her most remarkable achievement was classifying and reorganizing the orally transmitted folk poems and Muqam music popular at that time. She further revised and adapted the newly compiled Muqams by incorporating traditional Uyghur folk musical structures such as Chon Nahma, Dastan and Meshrep, making extraordinary contributions to the collection and research of ethnic music.

Sadly, this talented woman passed away from difficult childbirth at the age of 34. The brilliant musical genius ended her short life amid the agonies of childbirth