otan formed an alliance with the rulers of Dunhuang until the arrival of Muslim invaders.
End of Buddhist Khotan
During late tenth century, Khotan became engaged in a struggle against the Muslim Karakhanids. Initially they had some success, briefly capturing Kashgar from the Karakhanids in 970, but in 1006, the Karakhanid Yusuf Kadr Khan of Kashgar conquered Khotan, ending Khotan's existence as an independent state. The Karakhanid writer Mahmud al-Kashgari wrote in a short poem about the conquest:
“ We came down on them like a flood, We went out among their cities, We tore down the idol-temples, We shat on the Buddha's head! ”
Marco Polo visited Khotan between 1271 and 1275 and remarked that the people were "all followers of Mahommet
