Amannisa Khan

Āmānnisā Khan Nāfisi, also known as Amanni Shahan (; ; c. 1526–1560), was a concubine of Abdurashid Khan of the Yarkent Khanate. She is credited with collecting and thereby preserving the Twelve Muqam, which is today considered a musical style of the Uyghur people of Northwest China. The Muqam of Xinjiang has been designated by UNESCO as part of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

Amannisa Khan was born on the banks of the Tizinafu River in an area inhabited by the pre-Uyghur Dolan people, which is modern-day Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County. Her father, Muhamode, was a forester. When she was thirteen years old, Abdurashid Khan was hunting and occasionally heard her singing. Soon, he burst into her father's shack and demanded to hear a song. She dedicated a ghazal to his benevolence and he was so impressed that he paid her father the bride price to take her. She became Queen of the Yarkand Khanate, composing Muqams and other musical works for which her husband supposedly took credit. That manuscript was translated into the modern Uyghur language by the Nationalities Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1982.

In the 1990s, a mausoleum was built in her birthplace to honour her contribution to Uyghur culture.