Where did the Uyghur people originate?
History of the Uyghur people
The history of the Uyghur people, as with the ethnic origin of the people, is an issue 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 Turgun 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. Chinese historians however generally traced the origin of the Uyghurs to the Tiele, some to the Dingling as well as other people mentioned in ancient Chinese texts such as the Guifang. Official Chinese view asserts the Uyghurs to be of Tiele origin, 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 that they claimed were there since the Han Dynasty. Many modern Western scholars however do not consider the modern Uyghurs to be of direct linear descent from the old Uyghur Khaganate of Mongolia, rather they are descendants of a number of people, of which the ancient Uyghurs are but one.
Uyghur nationalism
During the First East Turkestan Republic, the Turkic nationalist ideology of the Republic led to hostility between different Muslim ethnic groups. The Uyghurs and Kirghiz, who were both Turkic Muslim peoples, fought against the Chinese Muslims of southern Xinjiang and sought to expel them with the Han Chinese. This led several Chinese Muslim Generals like Ma Zhancang, Ma Fuyuan, and Ma Hushan to fight against the Uyghur attempts and independence.
Uyghurs
The admixture may be the result of a continuous gene flow from populations of European and Asian descent, or may have been formed by a single event of admixture during a short period of time (the hybrid isolation model). If a hybrid isolation model is assumed, it can be estimated that the hypothetical admixture event occurred about 126 generations ago, or 2,520 years ago assuming twenty years per generation.
Uyghur nationalism
The Uyghur diaspora in the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul, Turkey, is the source of Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party Jihadists in Syria. A Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party fighter in Syria, Ibrahim Mansour, openly gave interviews to the Turkish media where he boasted to fighting the "Assad regime".
Kyrgyzstan
"Kyrgyz" is believed to have been derived from the Turkic word for "forty", in reference to the forty clans of Manas, a legendary hero who united forty regional clans against the Uyghurs. Literally, Kyrgyz means "We are forty". At the time, in the early 9th century AD, the Uyghurs dominated much of Central Asia (including Kyrgyzstan), Mongolia, and parts of Russia and China.
Uyghur Khaganate
Professor James A. Millward described the original Uyghurs as phenotypically East Asian in appearance, before they began to mix with the Caucasoid inhabitants of the Tarim Basin. Millward gives as an example the images of the "Uyghur patrons" at temple 9 in the Bezeklik caves.
History of the Uyghur people
A Tiele tribe of twelve clans, the Fufuluo (), gathered enough power to create a state, the A-Fuzhiluo kingdom (AD 481-520), in Dzhungaria. The Fufulo are often listed as Uyghur ancestors in Chinese history, famously in the "Suishu".
History of the Uyghur people
The Uighur Idiqut, Barchukh, voluntarily submitted Genghis Khan (r.1206-1227) and was given his daughter, Altani (ᠠᠯᠲᠠᠨ) in 1209. From the 1260s onwards, they were directly controlled by the Yuan Dynasty of the Great Khagan Kublai (r.1260-1294). Starting from the 1270s, Mongol princes, Qaidu and Duwa, from Central Asia repeatedly launched raids into Uighurstan to take the control from the Yuan. Most of the Uighurs including the ruling dynasty fled to Gansu (under Yuan Dynasty) due to the conflict between the Mongols. The Uighur troops served the Mongol war machine in Central Asia, China and the Middle East. Because they were one of the many highly developed nations under the Mongols, the Uighurs held high-positions at the Mongol court. Tata-tunga was the first scribe of Genghis Khan and mastermind behind the Uighur-Mongolian script that the Mongols used till now. The founder of the Eretna (1335–1381) in Anatolia was an Uighur commander of the Ilkhanate.
History of Xinjiang
Uyghur nationalist historians such as Turghun Almas claim that Uyghurs were distinct and independent from Chinese for 6000 years, and that all non-Uyghur peoples are non-indigenous immigrants to Xinjiang. However, the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) established military colonies (tuntian) and commanderies (duhufu) to control Xinjiang from 120 BC, while the Tang dynasty (618–907) also controlled much of Xinjiang until the An Lushan rebellion. Chinese historians refute Uyghur nationalist claims by pointing out the 2,000-year history of Han settlement in Xinjiang, documenting the history of Mongol, Kazakh, Uzbek, Manchu, Hui, Xibo indigenes in Xinjiang, and by emphasizing the relatively late "westward migration" of the Huigu (equated with "Uyghur" by the PRC government) people from Mongolia the 9th century. The name "Uyghur" was associated with a Buddhist people in the Tarim Basin in the 9th century, but completely disappeared by the 15th century, until it was revived by the Soviet Union in the 20th century.
Uyghurs
The Yuezhi were driven away by the Xiongnu, but founded the Kushan Empire, which exerted some influence in the Tarim Basin where Kharosthi texts have been found in Loulan, Niya and Khotan. Loulan and Khotan were some of the many city states that existed in the Xinjiang region during the Han Dynasty, others include Kucha, Turfan, Karasahr and Kashgar. The settled population of these cities later merged with incoming Turkic people such as the Uyghurs of Uyghur Khaganate to form the modern Uyghurs.
Nomadic empire
The Uyghur Empire was a Turkic empire that existed in present-day Mongolia and surrounding areas for about a century between the mid 8th and 9th centuries. It was a tribal confederation under the Orkhon Uyghur nobility. It was established by Kutlug I Bilge Kagan in 744, taking advantage of the power vacuum in the region after the fall of the Gökturk Empire. It collapsed after a Kyrgyz invasion in 840.
Uyghurs
In the tenth century, the Karluks, Yagmas, Chigils and other Turkic tribes founded the Kara-Khanid Khanate in Semirechye, Western Tian Shan, and Kashgaria, and later conquered Transoxiana. The Karakhanid rulers were likely to be Yaghmas who were associated with the Toquz Oghuz, and some historians therefore see this as a link between the Karakhanid and the Uyghurs of the Uyghur Khaganate, although this connection is disputed by others.
History of the Uyghur people
In AD 546, the Fufulo led the Tiele tribes in a struggle against the Türk tribe in the power vacuum left by the breakup of the Rouran state. As a result of this defeat, they were forced into servitude again. This incident marked the beginning of the historic Türk-Tiele animosity that plagued both Göktürk Khanates. (Note: at this time "Tiele" replaces "Gaoche" in Chinese history.) At some point during their subjugation, nine Tiele tribes formed a coalition called Tokuz-Oguzes "Nine-Tribes" which also included the Xueyantuo (Syr-Tardush), Basmyl, Oguz, Khazar, Alans, Kyrgyz, Tuva and Yakut under the leadership of the Xueyantuo.
Uyghurs
The ancient people of the Tarim Basin originally spoke different languages such as Saka (Khotanese), Tocharian and Gandhari. The Turkic people who moved into region in the 9th century brought with them their languages which slowly supplanted the original tongues of the local inhabitants. By the 11th century, it was noted by Mahmud al-Kashgari that the Uyghurs (of Qocho) spoke a pure Turkic language, but they also still spoke another language among themselves and have two different scripts. He also noted that the people of Khotan did not know Turkic well, and have their own language and script (Khotanese). Writers of the Karakhanid period, al-Kashgari and Yusuf Balasagun, referred to their Turkic language as "Khāqāniyya" (meaning royal), or the "language of Kashgar", or simply Turkic.
Uyghurs
The ancient Uyghurs believed in Shamanism and Tengrism, then Manichaeism, Buddhism and Church of the East. People in the western Tarim Basin region began to convert to Islam in significant number early in the Kara-Khanid Khanate period. There had been Christian conversions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but these were suppressed by the First East Turkestan Republic government. Modern Uyghurs are now primarily Muslim, and they are the second largest predominantly Muslim ethnicity in China after the Hui.
Uyghurs
During the Dungan Revolt (1862–77), Andijani Uzbeks from the Khanate of Kokand under Buzurg Khan and Yaqub Beg expelled Qing officials from parts of southern Xinjiang and founded an independent Kashgarian kingdom called "Yettishar" "Country of Seven Cities". Under the leadership of Yaqub Beg, it included Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, Aksu, Kucha, Korla, and Turpan.
Uyghur Khaganate
After the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate, the Uyghurs migrated south and established the Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom in modern Gansu and the Kingdom of Qocho near modern Turpan. The Uyghurs in Qocho converted to Buddhism, and, according to Mahmud al-Kashgari, were "the strongest of the infidels" while the Ganzhou Uyghurs were conquered by the Tangut people in the 1030s.
Yenisei Kyrgyz
The Kyrgyz Khagans of the Yenisei Kirghiz Khaganate claimed descent from the Chinese general Li Ling, grandson of the famous Han Dynasty general Li Guang. Li Ling was captured by the Xiongnu and defected in the first century BCE. And since the Tang royal Li family also claimed descent from Li Guang, the Kirghiz Khagan was therefore recognized as a member of the Tang Imperial family. Emperor Zhongzong of Tang had said to them that "Your nation and Ours are of the same ancestral clan (Zong). You are not like other foreigners."
In 758, the Uyghurs killed the Kirghiz Khan, and the Kirghiz came under the rule of the Uyghur Khaganate. However, the Yenisei Kyrghyz spent much of their time in a state of rebellion. In 840 they succeeded in sacking the Uyghur capital, Ordu-Baliq in Mongolia's Orkhon Valley, and driving the Uyghurs out of Mongolia entirely. On February 13 843 at "Kill the Foreigners" Mountain, the Tang Chinese inflicted a devastating defeat upon the Uyghur Qaghan's forces. But rather than replace the Uyghurs as the lords of Mongolia, the Yenisei Kirghiz continued to live in their traditional homeland and exist as they had for centuries. The defeat and collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate triggered a massive migration of Uyghurs from Mongolia into Turfan, Kumul, and Gansu where they founded the Kingdom of Qocho and Gansu Uyghur Kingdom.
When Genghis Khan came to power in the early 13th century, the Yenisei Kirghiz submitted peacefully to him and were absorbed into his Mongol Empire, putting an end to their independent state. During the time of the Mongol Empire, the territory of the Yenisei Kirghiz in northern Mongolia was turned into an agricultural colony called Kem-Kemchik. Kublai Khan, who founded the Yuan Dynasty, also sent Mongolian and Chinese officials (along with colonists) to serve as judges in the Kyrgyz and Tuva regions.
Yukaghir people
The Yukaghir are one of the oldest peoples in North-Eastern Asia. Originally they lived over a huge territory from Lake Baikal to the Arctic Ocean. By the time of the first encounter with Russians, Yukaghir were divided into twelve tribes with around 9,000 people. The Yukagir ethnonym is "Odul" or "Vadul", which means “mighty”.
Ahmad Shah Durrani
Professor James A. Millward described the original Uyghurs as physically Mongoloid, giving as an example the images in Bezeklik at temple 9 of the Uyghur patrons, until they began to mix with the Tarim Basin's original eastern Iranian inhabitants. The modern Uyghurs are now a mixed hybrid of East Asian and Europoid populations.
History of the Uyghur people
The Uyghur identified themselves to each other by their oasis, as 'Keriyanese', 'Khotanese', or 'Kashgari'. The Soviets met with the Uyghur in 1921 during a meeting of Turkic leaders in Tashkent. This meeting established the Revolutionary Uyghur Union (Inqilawi Uyghur Itipaqi), a communist nationalist organization that opened underground sections in principal cities of Kashgaria and was active until 1926, when the Soviets recognized the post Qing Sinkiang Government and concluded trade agreements with it.
Uyghurs in Beijing
After Genghis Khan captured Beijing from the Jin dynasty in 1215, Uyghur noble families serving the Mongol court were sent to administer the city, then renamed Yanjing. These Uyghur nobles were from the Qocho Kingdom, which was formed in the Tarim Basin in 855 and submitted to the Mongols in 1209. Among the Uyghurs who came to Yanjing was Buluhaya, who was a lieutenant of Genghis Khan and given the rank of financial manager. He built a large estate outside the city along the Gaoliang River and moved his mother there. The settlement became known as the "Weiwuercun" or the "Uyghur Village." After Buluhaya's death, he was posthumously honored by Külüg Khan as the Duke of Wei. It is believed that "Weigongcun" or the Village of the Duke of Wei, was so-named because of Buluhaya (布鲁海牙).
History of Mongolia
The Uyghurs, who were subjects to the Göktürks, revolted in 745 and founded the Uyghur Khaganate which replaced the Eastern Turkic Khaganate. The Uyghur kagan Bayanchur established Ordu-Baliq City on the Orkhon river in 751. The Tang Empire invited the Uyghurs to subdue the An Lushan rebellion in 755. Successful campaigns of the Uyghur Khaganate led to a peace with the Tang dynasty of China which paid compensation for the suppression of An in silk and grain for 12 years after 766.
Though a faction of the Uyghurs were Buddhists, the Manichaeism became the official religion of the Khaganate in the 8th century. Nevertheless, the majority of the Uyghurs remained shamanists. The culture and economy of the Uyghur Kaganate were more advanced than those of its predecessors. The Uyghurs used a 12-month calendar and calculated the dates of solar and lunar eclipses. The Uyghurs developed their own writing system based on the Sogdian script. The Tang dynasty surreptitiously encouraged the Yenisei Kirghiz and the Karluks to attack the Uyghurs and the Uyghur Khaganate fell under an invasion of the Yenisei Kirghiz in 840.
Zeytinburnu
The Uyghur diaspora in the Küçükçekmece, Sefaköy, and Zeytinburnu districts of Istanbul, Turkey, are the source of Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party Jihadists in Syria. The Turkey-based Uyghur website "Doğu Türkistan Bülteni", which supports the Turkistan Islamic Party, reported that the Uyghur diaspora in Küçükçekmece and Zeytinburnu were in fear after the assassination of Uzbek Imam Abdullah Bukhari and the Uyghurs were panicking over reports of Chinese loyalist Uyghur agents sent to Istanbul to hunt down separatist Uyghurs as Russia, Iran, and Assad were fighting against the Turkmens and Turkestan Islamic Party Uyghur fighters.
Oghur (tribe)
The Oghurs were the first wave of Turkic-speakers to move west across the steppe. They were followed westward by the Oghuz Turks and then the Kipchaks. Most of the Oghuz turned southwest and left their languages in Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey while the Kipchaks remained on the steppe and became the modern Kazakhs.
History of Kyrgyzstan
The Yenisei Kirghiz lived in the upper Yenisey River valley, central Siberia. Chinese sources of the 2nd century BCE and Muslim sources of the 7th–12th centuries CE describe the Kyrgyz as red-haired with fair complexion and green (blue) eyes. First appearing in Chinese "Records of the Grand Historian" as Gekun or Jiankun (鬲昆 or 隔昆), and later as part of the Tiele tribes, they came under the rule of the Göktürks and Uyghurs. Later Kyrgyzstan it was part of the Kushan empire during Buddhism.
The early Kyrgyz state reached its greatest expansion after defeating the Uyghur Khaganate in 840 CE. Then Kyrgyz quickly moved as far as the Tian Shan range and maintained their dominance over this territory for about 200 years. In the 12th century, however, the Kyrgyz domination had shrunk to the Altay Range and the Sayan Mountains as a result of the rising Mongol expansion. With the rise of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century, the Kyrgyz migrated south. Plano Carpin, an envoy of the Papal states, and William Rubruck, an envoy of France, all wrote about their life under the Mongols. Various Turkic peoples ruled them until 1685, when they came under the control of the Oirats (Dzungars).
Semu
While administratively classified as Semu, many of these groups rather referred to themselves by their self-aware ethnic identities in everyday life, such as Uyghur. Muslims, Persians, Karakhanids and Khwarazmians in particular, were actually mistaken to be Uyghurs or at least, "from the land of the Uyghurs". Therefore, they adopted the label conferred to them by the Chinese: "Huihui", which was a corruption of the name Uyghur, but at the same time distinguishable from the name reserved for Buddhist Turpan Uyghurs proper, "Weiwuer". Of the many ethnic groups classified as "Semu" during the Yuan, only the Muslim Hui managed to survive into the Ming period as a large collective identity with self-awareness of common identity spanning across the whole China.
Yugur
The Turkic-speaking Yugurs are considered to be the descendants of a group of Uyghurs who fled from Mongolia southwards to Gansu after the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840, where they established the prosperous Gansu Uyghur Kingdom (Ganzhou Uyghur Khanate) (870-1036) with capital near present Zhangye at the base of the Qilian Mountains in the valley of the Ruo Shui. The population of this kingdom, estimated at 300,000 in Song chronicles, practised Manichaeism and Buddhism in numerous temples throughout the country.
Onogurs
The Onoghurs (Oghurs), in the 6th and 7th century sources, were mentioned mostly in connection with the Avar and Göktürk conquest of Western Eurasia. According to the 6th century Menander Protector, the ""leader of the Οὐγούρων"" had the authority of the Turk Yabgu Khagan in the region of Kuban River to the lower Don.
History of the Uyghur people
Before being reorganized as the province of 'Xinjiang' by Qing, this region was more often known as Hui Jiang in China, or "Islamic territory".
Tarim mummies
Mair claims that "the earliest mummies in the Tarim Basin were exclusively Caucasoid, or Europoid" with east Asian migrants arriving in the eastern portions of the Tarim Basin around 3,000 years ago while the Uyghur peoples arrived around the year 842. In trying to trace the origins of these populations, Victor Mair's team suggested that they may have arrived in the region by way of the Pamir Mountains about 5,000 years ago.
Uyghurs in Kazakhstan
By 1897, there were already roughly 56,000 Uyghurs in what is today Kazakhstan, according to the Russian Empire Census. In the 1940s, high-ranking Communist Party officials in the Kazakh SSR planned to create an Uyghur autonomous oblast in a large part of the territory of modern-day Almaty Province. However, as the intention of the government was to bring Xinjiang further into the Soviet orbit rather than afford local Uyghurs genuine autonomy, the plan was scrapped after the Communist victory in China in 1949. During the 1950s in China, ethnic tensions and repression of minority separatist movements led to a mass exodus from Xinjiang to the Kazakh SSR, consisting of Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Mongols, and Kyrgyz. Following the Sino-Soviet split and border conflict, the Chinese government closed the Xinjiang–Kazakh SSR border, both to prevent flight by ethnic minorities, and to prevent the penetration of Soviet secret agents into China.
Uyghurs
Since Islam reached them much after Altishahr, personal names of non-Islamic Old Uyghur origin are still used in Qumul and Turfan while people in Altishahr use mostly Islamic names of Persian and Arabic origin. After the establishment of the Soviet Union, many Uyghurs who studied in Soviet Central Asia added Russian suffixes to Russify their surnames and make them look Russian. Names from Russia and Europe are used in Qaramay and Urumchi by part of the population of city-dwelling Uyghurs. Others use names with hard to understand etymologies, with the majority dating from the Islamic era and being of Persian or Arabic derivation.
Uyghur nationalism
The Soviet Union supported Uyghur nationalist propaganda and Uyghur separatist movements against China. The Soviet historians claimed that the Uyghur native land was Xinjiang and Uyghur nationalism was promoted by Soviet versions of history on turcology. Soviet turcologists like D.I. Tikhonov wrote pro-independence works on Uyghur history and the Soviet supported Uyghur historian Tursun Rakhimov wrote more historical works supporting Uyghur independence and attacking the Chinese government, claiming that Xinjiang was an entity created by China made out of the different parts of East Turkestan and Zungharia. These Soviet Uyghur historians were waging an "ideological war" against China, emphasizing the "national liberation movement" of Uyghurs throughout history. The Soviet Communist Party supported the publication of works which glorified the Second East Turkestan Republic and the Ili Rebellion against China in its anti-China propaganda war. Soviet propaganda writers wrote works claiming that Uyghurs lived better lives and were able to practice their culture only in Soviet Central Asia and not in Xinjiang. In 1979 Soviet KGB agent Victor Louis wrote a thesis claiming that the Soviets should support a "war of liberation" against the "imperial" China to support Uighur, Tibetan, Mongol, and Manchu independence. The Soviet KGB itself supported Uyghur separatists against China. Among some Uyghurs, the Soviet Union was viewed extremely favorably and several of them believed that people of Turkic origin ruled the Soviet Union, claiming that one of these Turkic Soviet leaders was Mikhail Gorbachev.
World Uyghur Congress
The World Uyghur Congress is an umbrella term for an organisation of once small, weak and fractious Uyghur nationalist groups, including the World Uyghur Youth Congress, formed in November 1996 and the East Turkestan National Congress. On 18 April 2004, these groups united, with Erkin Alptekin serving as the first president and Dolkun Isa is General Secretary since 2004 of the unified group; he served until 2006, when Rebiya Kadeer was elected as at the second General Assembly meeting held on 24–27 November 2006. The Congress has convened six assemblies since its inception—in 2004, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2016 and 2017. As part of the East Turkestan independence movement, it is a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. The organisation itself is based primarily in Munich, where a large Uyghur diaspora lives. There are known links between the WUC and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.
History of Xinjiang
A 28 year old mixed race woman named Amy whose father was Han and whose mother was Uyghur was interviewed by The Atlantic and she spoke of being estranged from Uyghurs and viewed Uyghur men's appearances negatively. After a Han Chinese man named Xiaohe and a Uyghur woman named Aygul married, the Uyghur women was physically assaulted by her father. A Uyghur family cut off their daughter, a Uyghur woman Ahman who had a Han Chinese husband named Ming. When she had a Han Chinese boyfriend in school her fellow Uyghurs violently assaulted her. Uyghurs are often angered and shun inter-ethnic families with Han men and Uyghur women. These interethnic pairs fled Xinjiang to Beijing.
Oghuz Turks
The Yörük, also Yürüks or Yuruks are a Turkic people ultimately of Oghuz descent, some of whom are still semi-nomadic, primarily inhabiting the mountains of Anatolia and partly Balkan peninsula. Their name derives from the Old-Turkic verb from Eastern Turkish dialect (Çagatay dialekt)- yörü "yörümek", but Western Turkish dialect (Garbi Türkçe) yürü- (yürümek in infinitive), which means "to walk", with the word Yörük or Yürük designating "those who walk, walkers".
Afshar people
The Afshar, also spelled Awshar or Afşar, are one of the Oghuz Turkic peoples. These originally nomadic Oghuz tribes moved from Central Asia and initially settled in what is now Iranian Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan Republic, Eastern Turkey. Later some of them were relocated by the Safavids to Khurasan, Kerman and Mazandaran. Today, they are variously grouped as a branch of the Azerbaijanis and Turkmens or Turkomans. 
Afshars in Iran remain a largely nomadic group, with tribes in central Anatolia, northern Iran, and Azerbaijan. They were the source of the Afsharid, Karamanid dynasties, Baku Khanate, Zanjan Khanate and Urmia Khanate.
History of Central Asia
Turkic expansion began in the 6th century, and following the Göktürk empire, Turkic tribes quickly spread westward across all of Central Asia. The Turkic speaking Uyghurs were one of many distinct cultural groups brought together by the trade of the Silk Route at Turfan, which was then ruled by China's Tang Dynasty. The Uyghurs, primarily pastoral nomads, observed a number of religions including Manichaeism, Buddhism, and Nestorian Christianity. Many of the artefacts from this period were found in the 19th century in this remote desert region.
Uyghur nationalism
Uyghur independence activists express concern over the Han population changing the Uyghur character of the region, yet the historical native land of the Uyghurs is not the whole land of Xinjiang, but Tarim basin. Professor James A. Millward pointed out that the capital of Xinjiang Urumqi was even originally a Han and Hui (Tungan) city with few Uyghur people before recent Uyghur migration to the city, but foreigners mistakenly think that Urumqi was originally a Uyghur city and that the Chinese destroyed its Uyghur character and culture. Moreover, the Han and Hui mostly live in northern Xinjiang Dzungaria, and are separated from areas of historical Uyghur dominance south of the Tian Shan mountains (southwestern Xinjiang), where Uyghurs account for about 90% of the population. While a few people try to give a misportrayal of the historical Qing situation in light of the contemporary situation in Xinjiang with Han migration, and claim that the Qing settlements and state farms were an anti-Uyghur plot to replace them in their land, Professor James A. Millward pointed out that the Qing agricultural colonies in reality had nothing to do with Uyghur and their land, since the Qing banned settlement of Han in the Uyghur Tarim Basin and in fact directed the Han settlers instead to settle in the non-Uyghur Dzungaria and the new city of Urumqi, so that the state farms which were settled with 155,000 Han Chinese from 1760–1830 were all in Dzungaria and Urumqi, where there was only an insignificant amount of Uyghurs, instead of the Tarim Basin oases.
Oghuz Turks
During the 2nd century BC, according to ancient Chinese sources, a steppe tribal confederation known as the Xiongnu and their allies, the Wusun (probably an Indo-European people) defeated the neighboring Yuezhi and drove them out of western China and into Central Asia. Various scholarly theories link the Xiongnu to Turkic peoples and/or the Huns. The first usage of the word "Oghuz" appears to have been the title of "Oğuz Kağan", given in 220 BC to the Xiongnu king Modu Shanyu (or Mau-Tun), who founded the Xiongnu Empire. According to a controversial theory with few scholarly adherents, one transliteration of Yuezhi, as "Hu-chieh", may refer to the Turkic Uyghurs. However, the Yuezhi are widely believed to have spoken an Indo-European language or languages.
List of Uyghur detainees at Guantanamo Bay
Uyghurs are an ethnic group from Central Asia and Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in western China.
History of Xinjiang
Uyghur nationalist historian Turghun Almas and his book Uyghurlar (The Uyghurs) and Uyghur nationalist accounts of history were galvanized by Soviet stances on history, "firmly grounded" in Soviet Turcological works, and both heavily influenced and partially created by Soviet historians and Soviet works on Turkic peoples. Soviet historiography spawned the rendering of Uyghur history found in Uyghurlar. Almas claimed that Central Asia was "the motherland of the Uyghurs" and also the "ancient golden cradle of world culture".
Uyghurs
According to the "New Book of Tang", the Uyghurs who founded the Uyghur Khaganate dispersed after the fall of the Khaganate; some went to live amongst the Karluks, and some moved to Turpan and Gansu. These Uyghurs soon founded two kingdoms and the easternmost state was the Ganzhou Kingdom (870–1036), with its capital near present-day Zhangye, Gansu, China. The modern Yugurs are believed to be descendants of these Uyghurs. Ganzhou was absorbed by the Western Xia in 1036.
Uyghurs
The Uyghurs of the Uyghur Khaganate were part of a Turkic confederation called the Tiele, who lived in the valleys south of Lake Baikal and around the Yenisei River. They overthrew the Turkic Khaganate and established the Uyghur Khaganate.
Turkmens
The modern Turkmen people descend, at least in part, from the Oghuz Turks of Transoxiana, the western portion of Turkestan, a region that largely corresponds to much of Central Asia as far east as Xinjiang. Oghuz tribes had moved westward from the Altay mountains in the 7th century AD, through the Siberian steppes, and settled in this region. They also penetrated as far west as the Volga basin and the Balkans. These early Turkmens are believed to have mixed with native Sogdian peoples and lived as pastoral nomads until the Russian invasion of the 19th century.
Turpan
The Uyghurs established a Kingdom in the Turpan region with its capital in Gaochang or Kara-Khoja. The kingdom was known as the Uyghuria Idikut state or Kara-Khoja Kingdom that lasted from 856 to 1389 AD. The Uyghurs were Manichaean but later converted to Buddhism and funded the construction the cave temples in the Bezeklik Caves. The Uyghurs formed an alliance with the rulers of Dunhuang. The Uyghur state later became a vassal state of the Kara-Khitans, and then as a vassal of the Mongol Empire. This Kingdom was led by the Idikuts, or Saint Spiritual Rulers. The last Idikut left Turpan area in 1284 for Kumul, and then Gansu to seek protection of Yuan Dynasty, but local Uyghur Buddhist rulers still held power until the invasion by the Moghul Khizr Khoja in 1389. The conversion of the local Buddhist population to Islam was completed nevertheless only in the second half of the 15th century.
Yugh people
Yugh people (pronounced ; often written Yug) were part of an indigenous group believed to be survivors of an ancient people who originally lived throughout central Siberia. The Yugh people lived along the Yenisei River from Yeniseisk to the mouth of the Dupches River.
Dungan Revolt (1862–77)
The ethnic group now known as Uyghur people was not known by that name before the 20th century. The Uzbeks of Yaqub Beg were called "Andijanis" or "Kokandis", while the Uyghurs in the Tarim Basin were known as "Turki". Uyghur immigrants from the Tarim Basin to Ili were called "Taranchi". The modern name "Uyghur" was assigned to this ethnic group by the Soviet Union in 1921 at a conference in Tashkent, with the name "Uyghur" taken from the old Uyghur Khaganate. As a result, sources from the period of the Dungan revolt make no mentions of Uyghurs.
Uyghur nationalism
Those that use the term "Uyghurstan" tend to envision a state for the Uyghur people. Those groups that adopt this terminology tended to be allied with the Soviet Union while it still existed (Indeed, Russia incited and aided the rebellion in attempt to annex these regions in the future). Since then some of the leaders of these groups have remained in Russia, Kazakhstan or Kyrgyzstan, or have emigrated to Europe and North America. It is worth noting that none of these identities are exclusive. Some groups support more than one such orientation. It is common to support both an Islamic and Turkic orientation for Xinjiang, for example, the founders of independent Republic in Kashgar in 1933 used names "Turkic Islamic Republic of East Turkestan" and "Eastern Turkestan Republic" the same time.
Migration to Xinjiang
Some Uyghur ultra-nationalist revisionists, worried at the prospect that they are descendants of migrants into Xinjiang and could be seen as invaders and not the indigenous inhabitants, have sought to revise history like Turghun Almas in his book Uyghurlar, claiming that Turkic Uyghurs were always natives of Xinjiang, claiming that the Tocharian Tarim mummies were Uyghurs, claiming Uyghurs invented gunpowder, paper, compass, printing and that Uyghur civilization is 6,000 years old and is the origin of all world civilization.
History of the Uyghur people
Uyghur nationalist historians in the People's Republic of China and the United States posit that the Uyghur people is millennia-old, and can be divided into four distinct phases: Pre-Imperial (300 BC – AD 630), Imperial (AD 630–840), Idiqut (AD 840–1200), and Mongol (AD 1209–1600), with perhaps a fifth modern phase running from the death of the Silk Road in AD 1600 until the present. In brief, Uyghur history is the story of a small nomadic tribe from the Altai Mountains competing with rival powers in Central Asia, including other Altaic tribes, Indo-European empires from the south and west, and Sino-Tibetan empires to the east. After the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate in AD 840, ancient Uyghur resettled from Mongolia to the Tarim Basin, assimilating the Indo-European population, which had previously been driven out of the region by the Xiongnu. Ultimately, the Uyghurs became civil servants administering the Mongol Empire.
History of the Uyghur people
The Khojijans were originally the Aq Tagh tariqa of the Naqshbandi order, which originated in Timurid Transoxiana. Struggles between two prominent Naqshbandi tariqas, the Aq Taghlik and the Kara Taghlik, engulfed the Eastern Chagatai domain in the late 17th century. Apaq Khoja triumphed both as a national religious and political leader. The last ruling Chagatay princess married one of the ruling Khojijan princes (descendants of Apaq) and became known as Khanum Pasha. She ruled brutally after the death of her husband, and singlehandedly slaughtered many of her Khojijan and Chagatayid rivals. She was known to have boiled alive the last Chagatayid princess who could have continued the dynasty. The Khojijan dynasty fell into chaos, despite the brutality of Khanum Pasha.
Oghuz Turks
A number of subsequent tribal confederations bore the name Oghuz, often affixed to a numeral indicating the number of united tribes included. These include references to the "Sekiz-Oghuz" ("eight oghuz") and the "Tokuz-Oghuz" ("nine oghuz"). The tribes of the Sekiz-Oghuz and the Tokuz-Oghuz originally occupied different areas in the vicinity of the Altai Mountains. However, the Transoxanian Oghuz Turks who founded the Oghuz Yabgu State were not the same tribal confederation as the Toquz Oghuz from whom emerged the founders of Uyghur Khaganate.
Salur tribe
Salur, Salyr or Salgur were an ancient Oghuz Turkic people and a sub-branch of the "Üçok" tribal federation. The medieval Karamanid principality in Anatolia belonged to the Karaman branch of the Salur. The Salghurids of Fars (Atabegs of Fars), were a dynasty of Turkmen Salur origin. The patriarchs of the modern Turkmen tribe of Salyr in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, as well as the Salar nationality in China claim descent from the Salur.
History of the Uyghur people
Following the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate, the Uyghur gave up Mongolia and dispersed into present day Gansu and Xinjiang. In 843 Chinese forces watched over Uyghur leftovers located in Shanxi province during a rebellion, until reinforcements arrived. The Uyghur later founded two kingdoms:
History of the Uyghur people
By 1920, Uyghur nationalism had become a challenge to Chinese warlord Yang Zengxin (杨增新) who controlled Siankiang. Turpan poet Abdulhaliq, having spent his early years in Semey (Semipalatinsk) and the Jadid intellectual centres in Uzbekistan, returned to Sinkiang with a pen name that he later styled as a surname: "Uyghur". He wrote the famous nationalist poem Oyghan, which opened with the line "Ey pekir Uyghur, oyghan!" (Hey poor Uyghur, wake up!). He was later martyred by the Chinese warlord Sheng Shicai in Turpan in March, 1933 for inciting Uyghur nationalist sentiments through his works.
History of Turkmenistan
The origins of the Turkmen may be traced back to the Oghuz confederation of nomadic pastoral tribes of the early Middle Ages, which lived in present-day Mongolia and around Lake Baikal in present-day southern Siberia. Known as the Nine Oghuz, this confederation was composed of Turkic-speaking peoples who formed the basis of powerful steppe empires in Inner Asia. In the second half of the 8th century, components of the Nine Oghuz migrated through Jungaria into Central Asia, and Arabic sources located them under the term Guzz in the area of the middle and lower Syrdariya in the 8th century. By the 10th century, the Oghuz had expanded west and north of the Aral Sea and into the steppe of present-day Kazakhstan, absorbing not only Iranians but also Turks from the Kipchak and Karluk ethnolinguistic groups. In the 11th century, the renowned Muslim Turk scholar Mahmud al-Kashgari described the language of the Oghuz and Turkmen as distinct from that of other Turks and identified twenty-two Oghuz clans or sub-tribes, some of which appear in later Turkmen genealogies and legends as the core of the early Turkmen.
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."
Uyghurs
The Karakhanids converted to Islam in the tenth century beginning with Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan, the first Turkic dynasty to do so. Modern Uyghurs see the Muslim Karakhanids as an important part of their history, however, Islamization of the people of the Tarim Basin was a gradual process. The Indo-European Saka Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan was conquered by the Turkic Muslim Karakhanids from Kashgar in the early 11th century, but Uyghur Qocho remained mainly Buddhist until the 15th century, and the conversion of the Uyghur people to Islam was not completed until the 17th century.
History of the Uyghur people
In AD 840, following a famine and civil war, the Uyghur Khaganate was overrun by the Kirghiz, another Turkic people. As a result, the majority of tribal groups formerly under Uyghur control migrated to what is now northwestern China, especially to the modern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region.
Uyghurs
The expansion of the Dzungars into Khalkha Mongol territory in Mongolia brought them into direct conflict with Qing China in the late 17th century, and in the process also brought Chinese presence back into the region a thousand years after Tang China lost control of the Western Regions.
Oghuz Turks
The Oghuz confederation migrated westward from the Jeti-su area after a conflict with the Karluk branch of Uigurs. The founders of the Ottoman Empire were descendants of the Oghuzes. Today, a percentage of the residents of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are descendants of Oghuz Turks and their language belongs to the Oghuz (also known as southwestern Turkic) group of the Turkic languages family.
Minorities in Turkey
Turkey is home to 50,000 Uyghurs. A community of Uyghurs live in Turkey. Kayseri received Uyghurs numbering close to 360 via the UNHCR in 1966–1967 from Pakistan. The Turkey-based Uyghur diaspora had a number of family members among Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan based Uyghurs who stayed behind while the UNHCR and government of Turkey had Kayseri receive 75 Uyghurs in 1967 and 230 Uyghurs in 1965 and a number in 1964 under Alptekin and Bughra. "We never call each other Uyghur, but only refer to ourselves as East Turkestanis, or Kashgarlik, Turpanli, or even Turks."- according to some Uyghurs born in Turkey.
Uyghurs in Pakistan
Some members of ethnic minorities of China, primarily Muslim Uyghurs and Tajiks from Xinjiang, have historically migrated to and settled in the northern parts of Pakistan. The earliest migrants, numbering in the thousands, came in as traders during the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the area that is Pakistan was still under British rule. Most of these Uyghurs used to have warehouses and residences in towns in the North and in parts of upper Punjab and used to travel between Kashgar and Yarkand and these places, regularly. Others came in the 1940s in fear of communist persecution. A few hundred more fled to Pakistan in the aftermath of a failed uprising in Khotan in 1954. Later waves of migration came in 1963 and again in 1974. Some Pakistani descendants who previously lived in Xinjiang, especially at Kashgar, have also moved back to Pakistan with their Uyghur spouses.
Second East Turkestan Republic
Uyghur nationalist historian Turghun Almas and his book Uyghurlar (The Uyghurs) and Uyghur nationalist accounts of history were galvanized by Soviet stances on history, "firmly grounded" in Soviet Turcological works, and both heavily influenced and partially created by Soviet historians and Soviet works on Turkic peoples. Soviet historiography spawned the rendering of Uyghur history found in Uyghurlar. Almas claimed that Central Asia was "the motherland of the Uyghurs" and also the "ancient golden cradle of world culture".
Oghur (tribe)
Five non-Oghur peoples passed through the area. The Huns are mentioned above. The Gokturks formed in Mongolia in 552, reached the Volga about 588 and raided Crimea in 577. They formed the Western Turkic Khaganate. As it weakened its western part contributed to the Khazars. The Avars were driven west by the Gokturks, briefly ruled the western steppe and moved on to Hungary about 580. They were also a mixed people and absorbed many Oghurs. Some time around 800 the Oghuz Pechenegs moved to the area west of the Khazars and the ancestral Hungarians passed through the area. The Oghur lands were later inhabited by the Kipchaks.
History of the Uyghur people
Most Uyghur inhabitants of the Besh Balik and Turpan regions did not convert to Islam until the 15th century expansion of the Yarkand Khanate, a Turko-Mongol successor state based in western Tarim. Before converting to Islam, Uyghurs were Tengriist, Manichaeans, Buddhists, or Nestorian Christians.
Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom
The Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom, also referred to as the Hexi Uyghurs, was established in 894 around Gan Prefecture in modern Zhangye. The kingdom lasted from 894 to 1036; during that time, many of Ganzhou's residents converted to Buddhism.
Uyghur Khaganate
The Uyghurs created an empire with clear Persian influences, particularly in areas of government. Soon after the empire was founded, they emulated sedentary states by establishing a permanent, settled capital, Karabalghasun (Ordu-Baliq), built on the site of the former Göktürk imperial capital, northeast of the later Mongol capital, Karakorum. The city was a fully fortified commercial center, typical along the Silk Road, with concentric walls and lookout towers, stables, military and commercial stores, and administrative buildings. Certain areas of the town were allotted for trade and handcrafts, while in the center of the town were palaces and temples, including a monastery. The palace had fortified walls and two main gates, as well as moats filled with water and watchtowers.
Islamization of Xinjiang
Protected by the Taklamakan Desert from steppe nomads, elements of Tocharian culture survived until the 7th century, when the arrival of Turkic immigrants from the collapsing Uyghur Khaganate of modern-day Mongolia began to absorb the Tocharians to form the modern-day Uyghur ethnic group.
Uyghur nationalism
Han and Hui mostly live in northern Xinjiang (Dzungaria), and are separated from areas of historical Uyghur dominance south of the Tian Shan mountains (southwestern Xinjiang), where Uyghurs account for about 90% of the population.
History of the Uyghur people
Yugur, the easternmost state formed by the Yugur people, was the Ganzhou Kingdom (AD 870–1036), with its capital near present-day Zhangye in the Gansu province of China. There, the Uyghur converted from Manichaeism to Lamaism, Tibetan and Mongol Buddhism. Unlike Turkic peoples further west, they did not later convert to Islam. Their descendants are now known as Yugurs (or "Yogir", "Yugur", and "Sary Uyghurs", literally meaning "yellow Uyghurs") and are distinct from modern Uyghurs. In AD 1028–1036, the Yugurs were defeated in a bloody war and forcibly absorbed into the Tangut kingdom. These Yugurs stayed Lamaist and did not convert to Islam.
Uyghur language
The Uyghur or Uighur language ( , "Уйғур тили", "Uyghur tili", "Uyƣur tili" or , "Уйғурчә", "Uyghurche", "Uyƣurqə"), formerly known as Eastern Turki, is a Turkic language with 10 to 15 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China. Significant communities of Uyghur-speakers are located in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and various other countries have Uyghur-speaking expatriate communities. Uyghur is an official language of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and is widely used in both social and official spheres, as well as in print, radio, and television, and is used as a common language by other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
Uyghur nationalism
The history of the region has become highly politicized, with both Chinese and nationalist Uyghur historians frequently overstating the extent of their groups' respective ties to the region. In reality, it has been home to many groups throughout history, with the Uyghurs arriving from Central Asia in the 10th century. By the 20th century they made up the vast majority of the population. In 1933 and 1944 attempts were made to declare an independent republic, but the first of these collapsed and the second was absorbed into People's Republic of China in 1949. Pro-independence groups maintain that this constitutes an illegal occupation.
History of the Uyghur people
In the eastern portion of the Chagatai Khanate, known as the Eastern Chagatai Khanate to Chinese historians and as Moghulistan to Russian historians, the culture of the Karakhanids dominated the largely Muslim state, and the Buddhist populations of the former Karakhoja Idikut-ate largely converted to the Muslim faith. All Chagatai-speaking Muslims, regardless whether they lived in Turpan or Kashgar, became known by their occupations as Moghols (ruling class), Sarts (merchants and townspeople) and Taranchis (farmers). This triple division of classes among the same Muslim Turkic folk also existed in Transoxiana, regardless whether they were under Timurid or Chagatay.
History of Tuva
The indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Tuva Republic are a Turkic-speaking people of South Siberia, whose language shows strong Samoyedic and Mongolian influences. The name "Tuva" probably derives from a Samoyedic tribe, referred to in 7th-century Chinese sources as Dubo or Tupo, who lived in the upper Yenisei region. These people were known to the Chinese and Mongolians as Uriankhai. Most scholars trace the name to the Uriankhai of the Greater Hinggan Range, a Jurched people who as a result of extensive migrations gave their name to several peoples living in the region from east Siberia and northeast China to the Altai mountains. These should not be confused with the Altai Uriankhai (ethnic Mongolians living in western Mongolia), the Altainor Uriankhai (a Turkic-speaking people in the Altai Republic within the Russian Federation), and the Khovsgolnor Uriankhai (reindeer herders in the eastern Tuva Republic).
Tuvans were subjects of the Uyghur Khanate during the 8th and early 9th centuries AD. The Uyghurs established several fortifications within Tuva as a means of subduing the population. The Uyghur Khanate was overthrown in 840 AD by a rebellion of the Yeniseian Kyrgyz who came from the upper reaches of the Yenisei. During this period, some Uyghurs were absorbed into Tuvan society. The Khirghiz ruled Tuva until the 13th century.
Uyghurlar
Uyghurlar (in English: "The Uyghurs") is a book by historian Turghun Almas on the history of the "6,000 year history" of the Uyghur ethnic group of the Xinjiang region of China. It was published in the People's Republic of China in 1989, at a high point of liberalization of academic freedom and ethnic minority policy in China. It was one of the books of the period that presented an "alternative Uyghur history", based on Soviet historiography during the Sino-Soviet split, that advanced the thesis that the Uyghurs are the historical owner of Xinjiang and should have an independent state. It was also one of the first books to publicize the term East Turkestan, which suggests a kinship to a "West Turkestan" in the independent Central Asian states. In contrast to the official Chinese history of Xinjiang, which states that the region was an integral part of China since the Han dynasty, the book takes a nationalist view, saying that many "Uyghur" states throughout history were independent of, or even dominant over, China.
Uyghurs in Kazakhstan
Uyghurs in Kazakhstan can be roughly divided into three groups based on the time of their ancestors' migration. The earliest, the "yärlik" ("locals"), are those who have been in the country the longest. They came to various areas of Kazakhstan, especially Semirechie, in the late 19th and early 20th century. Most of the more than 200,000 Uyghurs in Kazakhstan trace their roots to the migrations during the 1950s and 1960s. They tend to refer to themselves as "kegänlär", literally "newcomers". Others used to call them "kitailik" ("Chinese"), but now the more commonly used term has become "köchäp kegän"; "kitailik" instead has come to refer to the latest Uyghur newcomers, those who have arrived since the 1990s (also referred to as "wätändin", or "people from the homeland").
Uyghurs
Discovery of well-preserved Tarim mummies of a people European in appearance indicates the migration of an Indo-European people into the Tarim area at the beginning of the Bronze age around 1800 BCE. These people probably spoke Tocharian languages and were suggested by some to be the Yuezhi mentioned in ancient Chinese texts. However, Uyghur activists claimed these mummies to be of Uyghur origin, based partly on a word, which they argued to be Uyghur, found in written scripts associated with these mummies, although other linguists suggest it to be a Sogdian word later absorbed into Uyghur. Later migrations brought peoples from the west and north-west to the Xinjiang region, probably speakers of various Iranian languages such as the Saka tribes. Other people in the region mentioned in ancient Chinese texts include the Dingling as well as the Xiongnu who fought for supremacy in the region against the Chinese for several hundred years. Some Uyghur nationalists also claimed descent from the Xiongnu (according to the Chinese historical text the "Book of Wei", the founder of the Uyghurs was descended from a Xiongnu ruler), but the view is contested by modern Chinese scholars.
Uyghurs
The name "Uyghur" reappeared after the Soviet Union took the 9th-century ethnonym from the Uyghur Khaganate and reapplied it to all non-nomadic Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang, following western European orientalists like Julius Klaproth in the 19th century who revived the name and spread the use of the term to local Turkic intellectuals, and a 19th-century proposal from Russian historians that modern-day Uyghurs were descended from the Kingdom of Qocho and Kara-Khanid Khanate, which had formed after the dissolution of the Uyghur Khaganate. Historians generally agree that the adoption of the term "Uyghur" is based on a decision from a 1921 conference in Tashkent, which was attended by Turkic Muslims from the Tarim Basin (Xinjiang). There, "Uyghur" was chosen by them as the name of their own ethnicity, although the delegates noted that the modern groups referred to as "Uyghur" were distinct from the old Uyghur Khaganate. According to Linda Benson, the Soviets and their client Sheng Shicai intended to foster a Uyghur nationality to divide the Muslim population of Xinjiang, whereas the various Turkic Muslim peoples themselves preferred to identify as "Turki", "East Turkestani", or "Muslim".
History of the Uyghur people
Chinese did not distinguish between the Turki Uyghurs and the Central Asian invaders under Jahangir, killing Turks who tried to bribe Chinese and sought refuge with them. Many Chinese and Chinese Muslims (Dungan) had been killed by Jahangir, so they were eager for revenge.
Uyghurs
The Uyghurs also appear in Chinese records under other names. The earliest record to a Uyghur tribe appears in accounts from the Northern Wei (4th–6th century A.D.). They are described as the ( "High Carts"), now read as "Gāochē" but with the reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciation *[kɑutɕʰĭa]. This in turn has been connected to the Uyghur "Qangqil" ( or Қаңқил). They were later known as the "Tiele" (, "Tiělè").
Uyghurs
Another ethnicity, the Western Yugur of Gansu, have consistently been called by themselves and others the "Yellow Uyghur" ("Sarïq Uyghur"). Some scholars say that the Yugur's culture, language, and religion are closer to the original culture of the original Uyghur Karakorum state than is the culture of the modern Uyghur people of Xinjiang. Linguist and ethnographer S. Robert Ramsey has argued for inclusion of both the Eastern and Western Yugur and the Salar as subgroups of the Uyghur based on similar historical roots for the Yugur and on perceived linguistic similarities for the Salar. These groups are recognized as separate ethnicities, though, by the Chinese government.
Uyghur American Association
The Uyghur American Association (, ULY: Amérika Uyghur Birliki, abbreviated UAA) is an advocacy organization in the United States. It was established in 1998 by a group of Uyghur overseas activists to raise the public awareness of the Uyghur people, who primarily reside in Xinjiang, China, also known as East Turkestan. The Uyghur American Association works to promote the Uyghur culture and human rights issue in the world.
Uyghur language
The historical term "Uyghur" was appropriated for the language that had been known as Eastern Turki by government officials in the Soviet Union in 1922 and in Xinjiang in 1934. Sergey Malov was behind the idea of renaming Turki to Uyghurs. The use of the term Uyghur has led to anachronisms when describing the history of the people. In one of his books the term Uyghur was deliberately not used by James Millward. The name Khāqāniyya was given to the Qarluks who inhabited Kāshghar and Bālāsāghūn, the inhabitants were not Uighur, but their language has been retroactively labelled as Uighur by scholars. The Qarakhanids called their own language the "Turk" or "Kashgar" language, and did not use Uighur to describe their own language, Uighur was used to describe the language of non-Muslims but Chinese scholars have anachronistically called a Qarakhanid work written by Kashgari as "Uighur". The name ""Altishahri-Jungharian Uyghur"" was used by the Soviet educated Uyghur Qadir Haji in 1927.
History of the Uyghur people
Both the Tarim Basin as well as Transoxiana (in modern-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) became known as Moghulistan or Mughalistan, named after the ruling class of Chagatay and Timurid states which descended from the "Moghol" tribe of Doghlat, but was Islamicized and Turkified in language. This Moghol Timurid ruling class established the Timurid rule on the Indian Subcontinent known as the Mughal Empire.
Uyghur Khaganate
The Uyghur Khaganate (or Uyghur Empire or Uighur Khaganate or Toquz Oghuz Country) (Modern Uyghur: ئورخۇن ئۇيغۇر خانلىقى), (Tang era names, with modern Hanyu Pinyin: or ) was a Turkic empire that existed for about a century between the mid 8th and 9th centuries. They were a tribal confederation under the Orkhon Uyghur () nobility, referred to by the Chinese as the "Jiu Xing" ("Nine Clans"), a calque of the name "Toquz Oghuz or Toquz Tughluq".
History of the Uyghur people
Some Uyghur nationalist claimed that they were descended from the Tocharians. Discovered well-preserved Tarim mummies of a people European in appearance indicates the migration of an Indo-European people into the Tarim area at the beginning of the Bronze age around 2,000 BCE. These people probably spoke Tocharian, and were suggested by some to be the Yuezhi mentioned in ancient Chinese text and who later founded the Kushan Empire. The Uyghur claim is based partly on a word, which they argued to be Uyghur, found in written scripts associated with these mummies, although other linguists suggested that it was a Sogdian word later absorbed into Uyghur. Later migrations brought peoples from the west and northwest to the Xinjiang area, probably speakers of various Iranian languages such as the Saka tribes. Other ancient people in the region mentioned in ancient Chinese texts include the Xiongnu who fought for supremacy in the region against the Chinese for several hundred years. Some Uyghur nationalists claimed descent from the Xiongnu (as well as being related to the White Huns), however this view is contested by modern Chinese scholars. This Xiongnu claim originated from various Chinese historical texts; for example, according to Chinese history "Weishu", the founder of the Uyghurs was descended from a Xiongnu ruler.
Uyghurs
Sheng Shicai's introduction of the "Uighur" name for the Turkic people of Xinjiang however was criticized and rejected by Turki intellectuals, such as Pan-Turkist Jadids and East Turkestan independence activists Muhammad Amin Bughra (Mehmet Emin) and Masud Sabri. They demanded that the names "Türk" or "Türki" be used instead as the ethnonyms for their people. Masud Sabri viewed the Hui people as Muslim Han Chinese and separate from his own people, while Bughrain criticized Sheng for his designation of Turkic Muslims into different ethnicities which could sow disunion among Turkic Muslims. After the Communist victory, the Communist Party of China under Mao Zedong continued the Soviet classification, using the term "Uyghur" to describe the modern ethnicity.
Turpan
In 803, the Uyghurs of the Uyghur Khaganate seized Turfan from the Tibetans. The Uyghur Khaganate however was destroyed by the Kirghiz and its capital Ordu-Baliq in Mongolia sacked in 840. The defeat resulted in the mass movement of the Uyghurs out of Mongolia and their dispersal into Gansu and Central Asia, and many joined other Uyghurs already present in Turfan. In the early twentieth century, a collection of some 900 Christian manuscripts dating to the ninth to the twelfth centuries was found at a monastery site at Turfan.
Yugur
The Yugurs, Yughurs, Yugu (), or Yellow Uyghurs, as they are traditionally known, are a Turkic and Mongolic group and one of China's 56 officially recognized ethnic groups, consisting of 13,719 persons according to the 2000 census. The Yugur live primarily in Sunan Yugur Autonomous County in Gansu, China. They are Tibetan Buddhists.
Uyghur dialects
Uyghur is a Turkic language spoken in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, administered by China, by the Uyghur people. It is a language with two standard languages and several dialects. However, these are all mutual intelligible at large, in spite of the various differences.
Uyghur alphabets
Uyghur is a Turkic language with a long literary tradition spoken in Xinjiang, China by the Uyghurs. Today, the Uyghur Arabic alphabet is the official writing system used for Uyghur in Xinjiang. Whereas other alphabets like the Uyghur Latin alphabet and Uyghur Cyrillic alphabets are still in use outside China, especially Central Asia.
History of Xinjiang
Protected by the Taklamakan Desert from steppe nomads, elements of Tocharian culture survived until the 7th century, when the arrival of Turkic immigrants from the collapsing Uyghur Khaganate of modern-day Mongolia began to absorb the Tocharians to form the modern-day Uyghur ethnic group.
Uyghur language
Uyghur is spoken by about 8-11 million people in total. In addition to being spoken primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of Western China, mainly by the Uyghur people, Uyghur was also spoken by some 300,000 people in Kazakhstan in 1993, some 90,000 in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan in 1998, 3,000 in Afghanistan and 1,000 in Mongolia, both in 1982. Smaller communities also exist in Albania, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Turkey, United Kingdom and the United States (New York City).
History of the Uyghur people
In AD 611, the Uyghur led by the Seyanto (Ch. Xueyantuo) defeated a Göktürk invasion; however, in AD 615 they were placed under Göktürk control again by Shipi Qaghan. In AD 627 the Uyghur, now led by Pusa Ilteber, participated in another Tokuz-Oguz revolt against the Göktürks, again spearheaded by the Seyanto tribe. In AD 630 the Göktürk Khanate was decisively defeated by the Emperor Tang Taizong. The Uyghur occupied second position after the Xueyantuo in the Tokuz-Oguz. However, in AD 646 when the Uyghur bey, Tumitu Ilteber (吐迷度) was granted the Chinese title Prefect () it established a legal precedent for Uyghur rule. Chinese crushed the Xueyantuo in 646 and appointed Uyghur khagan as Anbei Protector (安北都護) over the Mongolian steppe.
History of the Uyghur people
Many historians traced the ancestry of the Uyghur tribe to the Altaic pastoralists called Tiele (Tura in Uyghur), who lived in the valleys south of Lake Baikal and around the Yenisei River. The Tiele first appear in history AD 357 under the Chinese ethnonym "Gaoche" (Qangqil in Uyghur), referring to the ox-drawn carts with distinctive high wheels used for yurt transportation. Tiele tribal territories had previously been occupied by the Dingling, an ancient Siberian people, some of whom had been absorbed into the Tiele. The Tiele practiced some minor agriculture and were highly developed metalsmiths due to the abundance of easily available iron ore in the Yenisei River.
History of the Uyghur people
After the death of the Chagatayid ruler Qazan Khan in 1346, the Chagatai Khanate was divided into western (Transoxiana) and eastern (Moghulistan/Uyghuristan) halves, which was later known as "Kashgar and Uyghurstan," according to Balkh historian Makhmud ibn Vali (Sea of Mysteries, 1640). By 1348, the Mogul (Mongol in Persian) khan, Tughlug Timur, had converted, along with their 160,000 subjects. A small Mongol Dynasty, Qara Del, was founded in Hami where the Uighurs also lived in 1389.
Uyghurs
The 12th and 13th century saw the domination by non-Muslim powers: first the Kara-Khitans in the 12th century, followed by the Mongols in the 13th century. After the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, Transoxiana and Kashgar became the domain of his second son, Chagatai Khan. The Chagatai Khanate split into two in the 1340s, and the area of the Chagatai Khanate where the modern Uyghurs live became part of Moghulistan, which meant "land of the Mongols". In the 14th century, a Chagatayid khan Tughluq Temür converted to Islam. His son Khizr Khoja conquered Qocho and Turfan (the core of Uyghuristan) in the 1390s, and the Uyghurs there became largely Muslim by the beginning of the 16th century. After being converted to Islam, the descendants of the previously Buddhist Uyghurs in Turfan failed to retain memory of their ancestral legacy and falsely believed that the "infidel Kalmuks" (Dzungars) were the ones who built Buddhist structures in their area.
Uyghur Khaganate
In 1209, The Qocho ruler Baurchuk Art Tekin declared his allegiance to Genghis Khan, and the Uyghurs became important civil servants in the later Mongol Empire, which adapted the Old Uyghur alphabet as its official script. According to the "New Book of Tang", a third group went to seek refuge among the Karluks. The Karluks, together with other tribes such as the Chigils and Yagmas, later founded the Kara-Khanid Khanate (940–1212). Some historians associate the Karakhanids with the Uyghurs as the Yaghmas were linked to the Toquz Oghuz. Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan, believed to be a Yagma from Artux, converted to Islam in 932 and seized control of Kashgar in 940, giving rise to the new Dynasty, known as "Karakhanids".