Uyghurs
The history of the Uyghur people, as with the ethnic origin of the people, is a matter of contention between Uyghur nationalists and the Chinese authority. Uyghur historians viewed the Uyghurs as the original inhabitants of Xinjiang with a long history. Uyghur politician and historian Muhemmed Imin Bughra wrote in his book "A History of East Turkestan", stressing the Turkic aspects of his people, that the Turks have a 9000-year history, while historian Turghun Almas incorporated discoveries of Tarim mummies to conclude that Uyghurs have over 6400 years of history, and the World Uyghur Congress claimed a 4,000-year history in East Turkestan. However, the official Chinese view asserts that the Uyghurs in Xinjiang originated from the Tiele tribes and only became the main social and political force in Xinjiang during the ninth century when they migrated to Xinjiang from Mongolia after the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate, replacing the Han Chinese they claimed were there since the Han Dynasty. Many contemporary Western scholars, however, do not consider the modern Uyghurs to be of direct linear descent from the old Uyghur Khaganate of Mongolia. Rather, they consider them to be descendants of a number of peoples, one of them the ancient Uyghurs.
Uyghurs in Beijing
During the Tang dynasty, the ancient Uyghur Kingdom and the Tang government had close relations and large numbers of ancient Uyghurs of Mongolia including merchants and soldiers migrated to Youzhou (modern Beijing). The Tang governor of Youzhou, Zhu Tao, who rebelled against the Tang dynasty in 783, had a Uyghur wife and 3,000 Uyghur cavalry under his command. After the Uyghur Kingdom was conquered by the Yenisei Kirghiz in 840, many Uyghurs fled south to Tang China and some 30,000 settled in Youzhou. In the Liao dynasty, Youzhou became the Southern Capital of the Liao and Uyghurs merchants lived in a part of the city known as the "Weiwuerying" or the "Uyghur Camp."