Misplaced Pages

#843156

139-456: The ecoregion is mostly located in the eastern region of Tajikistan, on a high plateau with broad valleys and steeply-sloping mountains. The ecoregion measures about 275 km west-to-east, and 250 km north-to-south. Major mountain ranges radiate outwards: the Tian Shan to the northeast, Hindu Kush to the west, Karakoram to the south and Himalayas to the south and east. The Pamir also sit in

278-619: A Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central Asia and East Asia . The Uyghurs are recognized as the titular nationality of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China . They are one of China's 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities . The Uyghurs have traditionally inhabited a series of oases scattered across the Taklamakan Desert within

417-402: A Tundra or Alpine climate ( Köppen climate classification (ET) ). Lower elevations trend into a Subarctic climate (Dsc) (mean temperatures may rise above 10 °C (50 °F) for 1–3 months each summer). Most of the territory is cold- or semi-desert. Large areas at high altitudes are devoid of vegetation due to the harsh polar climate. At the lowest elevations, the gravely terrain

556-610: A Uyghur tribe appears in accounts from the Northern Wei (4th–6th century A.D.), wherein they were named 袁紇 Yuanhe (< MC ZS * ɦʉɐn-ɦət ) and derived from a confederation named 高车 / 高車 ( lit. "High Carts"), read as Gāochē in Mandarin Chinese but originally with the reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciation *[kɑutɕʰĭa], later known as the Tiele ( 铁勒 / 鐵勒 , Tiělè ). Gāochē in turn has been connected to

695-808: A consequence of the Han–Xiongnu War from 133 BC to 89 AD, the Tarim Basin region of Xinjiang in Northwest China, including the Saka-founded oasis city-state of Khotan and Kashgar, fell under Han Chinese influence, beginning with the reign of Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC) of the Han dynasty . Much like the neighboring people of the Kingdom of Khotan , people of Kashgar, the capital of the Shule Kingdom , spoke Saka , one of

834-649: A flood, We went out among their cities, We tore down the idol-temples, We shat on the Buddha's head! In Turkic: kälginläyü aqtïmïz kändlär üzä čïqtïmïz furxan ävin yïqtïmïz burxan üzä sïčtïmïz The Buddhist Uyghurs of the Kingdom of Qocho and Turfan embraced Islam after conversion at the hands of the Muslim Chagatai Khizr Khwaja. Kara Del was a Mongolian ruled and Uighur populated Buddhist Kingdom. The Muslim Chagatai Khan Mansur invaded and used

973-569: A genetically isolated local population that "adopted neighbouring pastoralist and agriculturalist practices, which allowed them to settle and thrive along the shifting riverine oases of the Taklamakan Desert." These mummified individuals were long suspected to have been " Proto-Tocharian -speaking pastoralists", ancestors of the Tocharians , but the authors of this study found no genetic connection with Indo-European -speaking migrants, particularly

1112-690: A link between the Karakhanid and the Uyghurs of the Uyghur Khaganate, although this connection is disputed by others. 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-Iranian Saka Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan

1251-456: A matter of fact there was for centuries no 'national' name for them; people identified themselves with the oasis they came from, such as Kashgar or Turfan. The term "Uyghur" was not used to refer to a specific existing ethnicity in the 19th century: it referred to an 'ancient people'. A late-19th-century encyclopedia entitled The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia said "the Uigur are

1390-534: A number of Mongol nomadic tribes. These tribes resented the conversion of khan Tarmashirin to Islam and the move of the khan to the sedentary areas of Transoxiana . They were behind the revolt that ended in Tarmashirin's death. One of the khans that followed Tarmashirin, Changshi , favored the east and was non-Muslim. In the 1340s as a series of ephemeral khans struggled to hold power in Transoxiana, little attention

1529-673: A people European in appearance indicates the migration of a European-looking people into the Tarim area at the beginning of the Bronze Age around 1800 BC. These people may have been of Tocharian origin, and some have suggested them to be the Yuezhi mentioned in ancient Chinese texts. The Tocharians are thought to have developed from the Indo-European speaking Afanasevo culture of Southern Siberia (c. 3500–2500 BC). A study published in 2021 showed that

SECTION 10

#1733093780844

1668-513: A southwest and northeast differentiation in the population, partially caused by the Tianshan Mountains which form a natural barrier, with gene flows from the east and west. The study identifies four major ancestral components that may have arisen from two earlier admixed groups: one that migrated from the west harbouring a West-Eurasian component associated with European ancestry (25–37%) and a South Asian ancestry component (12–20%) and one from

1807-566: A tight-knit partnership, with intermarriage between Dunhuang and Khotan's rulers and Dunhuang's Mogao grottos and Buddhist temples being funded and sponsored by the Khotan royals, whose likenesses were drawn in the Mogao grottoes. Halfway in the 10th century Khotan came under attack by the Karakhanid ruler Musa, a long war ensued between the Turkic Karakhanid and Buddhist Khotan which eventually ended in

1946-658: A tomb dated to as early as the 7th century BC. According to the Sima Qian 's Shiji , the nomadic Indo-European Yuezhi originally lived between Tengri Tagh ( Tian Shan ) and Dunhuang in Gansu , China. However, the Yuezhi were assaulted and forced to flee from the Hexi Corridor of Gansu by the forces of the Xiongnu ruler Modu Chanyu , who conquered the area in 177–176 BC (decades before

2085-510: A town named after its Saka inhabitants (i.e. saγlâ ). Although the ancient Chinese called Khotan Yutian (于闐), its more native Iranian names during the Han period were Jusadanna (瞿薩旦那), derived from Indo-Iranian Gostan and Gostana , the names of the town and region around it, respectively. Around 200 BCE, the Yuezhi were overrun by the Xiongnu . The Xiongnu then tried to invade the western region of China, but ultimately failed and lost control of

2224-532: Is actually the earliest fortified urban settlement in the entire region, covering 6 hectares, and developed in four phases between c. 770 BC and 80 AD. Spouted jars were found at this site, similar to those of Chawuhu culture, and buckles and moulds with animal motifs resemble steppe traditions. Another people in the region besides these Tarim people were the Indo-Iranian Saka people, who spoke various Eastern Iranian Khotanese Scythian or Saka dialects. In

2363-654: Is currently no road east across the Kumtag Desert to Dunhuang, but caravans somehow made the crossing through the Yangguan pass south of the Jade Gate. The whole Tarim Basin and the Taklamakan Desert are surrounded by railroads. The Southern Xinjiang Railway branches from the Lanxin Railway near Turpan, follows the north side of the basin to Kashgar, and curves southeast to Khotan, while Hotan–Ruoqiang railway loops around

2502-401: Is marked by halophytes (salt-tolerant plants), such as various types of Salicornia . Higher up, the steppe terrain is characterized by sub-shrubs such as Acantholimon , sagebrush ( Artemisia ), and needle-grass ( Stipa ). Somewhat higher steppe terrain includes tufted grasses ( Festuca ). Several notable species of mammals inhabit the area, including the vulnerable Snow leopard ,

2641-804: Is now replaced by the Karakoram Highway south from Kashgar. To the west of Kashgar via the Irkeshtam border crossing is the Alay Valley , which was once the route to Persia. Northeast of Kashgar the Torugart pass leads to the Ferghana Valley . Near Uchturpan the Bedel Pass leads to Lake Issyk-Kul and the steppes. Somewhere near Aksu the difficult Muzart Pass led north to the Ili River basin (Kulja). Near Korla

2780-465: Is of some importance historically. My own preference is for an explanation connecting it semantically with the name Saka, for the Iranian inhabitants of Khotan... In Northwest China , Khotanese-Saka-language documents, ranging from medical texts to Buddhist literature , have been found, primarily in Khotan and Tumshuq (northeast of Kashgar). They largely predate the arrival of Islam to the region under

2919-648: Is the Kunlun Mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau . The Taklamakan Desert dominates much of the basin. The historical Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin is Altishahr ( Traditional Uyghur : آلتی شهر , Chinese : 六城 ), which means 'six cities' in Uyghur . The region was also called Little Bukhara or Little Bukharia . Xinjiang consists of two main geographically, historically, and ethnically distinct regions with different historical names, Dzungaria and

SECTION 20

#1733093780844

3058-483: Is usually pronounced in English as / ˈ w iː ɡ ʊər , - ɡ ər / WEE -goor, -⁠gər (and thus may be preceded by the indefinite article "a"), although some Uyghurs advocate the use of a more native pronunciation / ˌ uː i ˈ ɡ ʊər / OO -ee- GOOR instead (which, in contrast, calls for the indefinite article "an"). The term's original meaning is unclear. Old Turkic inscriptions record

3197-686: The Achaemenid era Old Persian inscriptions found at Persepolis , dated to the reign of Darius I (r. 522–486 BC), the Saka are said to have lived just beyond the borders of Sogdiana . Likewise, an inscription dated to the reign of Xerxes I (r. 486–465 BC) has them coupled with the Dahae people of Central Asia. The contemporary Greek historian Herodotus noted that the Achaemenid Persians called all Indo-Iranian Scythian peoples "Saka". They were known as

3336-566: The Afanasievo or BMAC cultures. The Uighurs are the people whom old Russian travelers called " Sart " (a name they used for sedentary, Turkish-speaking Central Asians in general), while Western travelers called them Turki, in recognition of their language. The Chinese used to call them "Ch'an-t'ou" ('Turbaned Heads') but this term has been dropped, being considered derogatory, and the Chinese, using their own pronunciation, now called them Weiwuerh. As

3475-635: The Chinese government has been accused by various organizations, such as Human Rights Watch of subjecting Uyghurs living in Xinjiang to widespread persecution , including forced sterilization and forced labor. Scholars estimate that at least one million Uyghurs have been arbitrarily detained in the Xinjiang internment camps since 2017; Chinese government officials claim that these camps, created under CCP general secretary Xi Jinping 's administration , serve

3614-644: The Dzungar genocide . The Qing "final solution" of genocide to solve the problem of the Dzungar Mongols created a land devoid of Dzungars, which was followed by the Qing sponsored settlement of millions of other people in Dzungaria. In northern Xinjiang, the Qing brought in Han, Hui, Uyghur, Xibe, Daurs, Solons, Turkic Muslim Taranchis and Kazakh colonists, with one third of Xinjiang's total population consisting of Hui and Han in

3753-622: The Eastern Iranian languages . As noted by the Greek historian Herodotus, the contemporary Persians labelled all Scythians "Saka". Indeed, modern scholarly consensus is that the Saka language, ancestor to the Pamir languages in northern India and Khotanese in Xinjiang , belongs to the Scythian languages . During China's Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), the region once again came under Chinese suzerainty with

3892-692: The Four Garrisons of Anxi . Tang hegemony beyond the Pamir Mountains in modern Tajikistan and Afghanistan ended with revolts by the Turks, but the Tang retained a military presence in Xinjiang. These holdings were later invaded by the Tibetan Empire to the south in 670. For the remainder of the Tang dynasty, the Tarim Basin alternated between Tang and Tibetan rule as they competed for control of Central Asia. As

4031-864: The Han Chinese conquest and colonization of western tip of Gansu or the establishment of the Protectorate of the Western Regions ). In turn the Yuezi attacked and pushing the Sai (i.e. Saka) west into Sogdiana, where in the mid-2nd century BC the latter crossed the Syr Darya into Bactria , but also into the Fergana Valley where they settled in Dayuan , south towards northern India, and eastward as well, where they settled in some of

4170-661: The Kaidu river . Structures made of mud bricks were found at Xintala , showing building techniques similar to those seen in early oasis sites in western Central Asia, as well as in Yanbulake . There were no burials in Xintala culture, and its settlements were small. Autosomal genetic evidence suggests that the earliest Tarim people arose from locals of primarily Ancient North Eurasian descent with significant Northeast Asian admixture. The Tarim mummies have been found in various locations in

4309-518: The Kara-Khanid Khanate in Semirechye , Western Tian Shan , and Kashgaria . The Karakhanids became the first Islamic Turkic dynasty in the tenth century when Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan converted to Islam in 966 while he controlled Kashgar. Satuq Bughra Khan and his son directed endeavors to preach Islam among the Turks and engage in conquests. Satok Bughra Khan's nephew or grandson Ali Arslan

Pamir alpine desert and tundra - Misplaced Pages Continue

4448-535: The Kazakh Steppe with several roads east. The Dzungarian Gate was once a migration route and is now a road and rail crossing . Tacheng or Tarbaghatay is a crossroads and former trading post. The Tarim Basin is the result of an amalgamation between an ancient microcontinent and the growing Eurasian continent during the Carboniferous to Permian periods, a process which ended in the earliest Triassic with

4587-480: The Kingdom of Qocho and Kara-Khanid Khanate 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 , attended by Turkic Muslims from the Tarim Basin (Xinjiang). There, "Uyghur" was chosen by them as the name of their ethnicity, although they themselves note that they were not to be confused with

4726-660: The Mongol Empire , but was finally destroyed by the Chagatai Khanate by the end of the 14th century. 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

4865-450: The Taklamakan Desert , one south, and a middle one connecting both through the Lop Nor region. In the early period, beginning around 2000 BC, there were six different cultural zones in the Tarim Basin, and bronze began to appear. One of these cultures was the Xintala culture ( c.  1700 –1500 BC), near the site of Yanqi, also known as Karashar , to the north and east of the Tarim, at

5004-533: The Tarim Basin . The rest of Xinjiang's Uyghurs mostly live in Ürümqi , the capital city of Xinjiang , which is located in the historical region of Dzungaria . The largest community of Uyghurs living outside of Xinjiang are the Taoyuan Uyghurs of north-central Hunan 's Taoyuan County . Significant diasporic communities of Uyghurs exist in other Turkic countries such as Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Uzbekistan and Turkey. Smaller communities live in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Australia, Russia and Sweden. Since 2014,

5143-459: The Tarim Basin . These oases have historically existed as independent states or were controlled by many civilizations including China , the Mongols , the Tibetans , and various Turkic polities. The Uyghurs gradually started to become Islamized in the 10th century, and most Uyghurs identified as Muslims by the 16th century. Islam has since played an important role in Uyghur culture and identity. An estimated 80% of Xinjiang's Uyghurs still live in

5282-401: The Tiele , who lived in the valleys south of Lake Baikal and around the Yenisei River . They overthrew the First Turkic Khaganate and established the Uyghur Khaganate . The Uyghur Khaganate lasted from 744 to 840. It was administered from the imperial capital Ordu-Baliq , one of the biggest ancient cities built in Mongolia. In 840, following a famine and civil war, the Uyghur Khaganate

5421-455: The Toquz Oghuz . The name fell out of use in the 15th century, but was reintroduced in the early 20th century by the Soviet Bolsheviks to replace the previous terms Turk and Turki . The name is currently used to refer to the settled Turkic urban dwellers and farmers of the Tarim Basin who follow traditional Central Asian sedentary practices, distinguishable from the nomadic Turkic populations in Central Asia. The earliest record of

5560-454: The Turkic Kara-Khanids . Similar documents in the Khotanese-Saka language were found in Dunhuang dating mostly to the 10th century. After the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate of modern-day Mongolia , Uyghur people migrated to the Tarim Basin and mixed with the Tocharians and converted to their religion, and adopted their method of oasis agriculture. In the tenth century, the Karluks , Yagmas , Chigils and other Turkic tribes founded

5699-419: The Uyghur Qangqil ( قاڭقىل or Қаңқил). Throughout its history, the term Uyghur has had an increasingly expansive definition. Initially signifying only a small coalition of Tiele tribes in northern China, Mongolia and the Altai Mountains , it later denoted citizenship in the Uyghur Khaganate . Finally, it was expanded into an ethnicity whose ancestry originates with the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate in

Pamir alpine desert and tundra - Misplaced Pages Continue

5838-431: The Uyghur Khaganate of medieval history. 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 preferred to identify themselves as "Turki", "East Turkestani" or "Muslim". On the other hand, the ruling regime of China at that time, the Kuomintang , grouped all Muslims, including

5977-433: The World Uyghur Congress claimed a 4,000-year history in East Turkestan. However, the official Chinese view, as documented in the white paper History and Development of Xinjiang , asserts that the Uyghur ethnic group formed after the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840, when the local residents of the Tarim Basin and its surrounding areas were merged with migrants from the khaganate. The name "Uyghur" reappeared after

6116-567: The "Uighur" name for the Turkic people of Xinjiang 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 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 people, while Bughrain criticized Sheng for his designation of Turkic Muslims into different ethnicities which could sow disunion among Turkic Muslims. After

6255-419: The "Yellow Uyghur" ( Sarïq Uyghur ). Some scholars say the Yugurs' 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 argues for inclusion of both the Eastern and Western Yugur and the Salar as sub-groups of the Uyghur based on similar historical roots for

6394-540: The 10th century "makes it likely that the ruler of Khotan was a speaker of Iranian ." Furthermore, he elaborated on the early name of Khotan: The name of Khotan is attested in a number of spellings, of which the oldest form is hvatana , in texts of approximately the 7th to the 10th century AD, written in an Iranian language itself called hvatana by the writers. The same name is attested also in two closely related Iranian dialects, Sogdian and Tumshuq ...Attempts have accordingly been made to explain it as Iranian, and this

6533-404: 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. From the late 14th through 17th centuries,

6672-401: The 1930s, referring to them by the name "Altishahri" in his article Modular History: Identity Maintenance before Uyghur Nationalism . Thum indicated that Altishahri Turkis did have a sense that they were a distinctive group separate from the Turkic Andijanis to their west, the nomadic Turkic Kirghiz, the nomadic Mongol Qalmaq and the Han Chinese Khitay before they became known as Uyghurs. There

6811-467: The 19th century. The name "Uyghur" reappeared after the Soviet Union took the 9th-century ethnonym from the Uyghur Khaganate , then reapplied it to all non-nomadic Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang. It followed 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

6950-409: The 2004 book Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland that there is "scant evidence" to support Uyghur claims that their population within China exceeds 20 million. A study of mitochondrial DNA (2004) (therefore the matrilineal genetic contribution ) found the frequency of Western Eurasian-specific haplogroup in Uyghurs to be 42.6% and East Asian haplogroup to be 57.4%. Uyghurs in Kazakhstan on

7089-414: The 3rd century, bearing dual inscriptions in Chinese and Gandhari Prakrit in the Kharosthi script. Although Prakrit was the administrative language of nearby Shanshan , 3rd-century documents from that kingdom record the title hinajha (i.e. "generalissimo") for the king of Khotan, Vij'ida-simha, a distinctively Iranian-based word equivalent to the Sanskrit title senapati , yet nearly identical to

SECTION 50

#1733093780844

7228-440: The 4th century AD. There may also be an Indian component as the founding legend of Khotan suggests that the city was founded by Indians from ancient Taxila during the reign of Ashoka . 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

7367-558: The Afaqi (White Mountain) and the Ishaqi (Black Mountain). The Ishaqi defeated the Afaqi and the Afaq Khoja invited the 5th Dalai Lama (the leader of the Tibetans ) to intervene on his behalf in 1677. The Dalai Lama then called on his Dzungar Buddhist followers in the Dzungar Khanate to act on the invitation. The Dzungar Khanate conquered the Tarim Basin in 1678, during the Dzungar conquest of Altishahr , after which they set up Afaq Khoja as their puppet ruler. Xinjiang did not exist as one unit until 1884 under Qing rule. It consisted of

7506-423: The Alagou sites near the Turfan basin, and north to the region close to Ürümqi . Earlier diggings in the southern Tarim Basin, in the 1990s, suggested that Yuansha (Djoumbulak Koum) in the Keriya river valley was the earliest fortified urban site, from around 400 BC, but new surveys and excavations between 2018 and 2020, showed that the site Kuiyukexiehai'er (Koyuk Shahri), located in the northern Tarim Basin,

7645-414: The Aqtaghlik Afaqi Khoja into exile. In the 17th century, the Buddhist Dzungar Khanate grew in power in Dzungaria . The Dzungar conquest of Altishahr ended the last independent Chagatai Khanate, the Yarkent Khanate , after the Aqtaghlik Afaq Khoja sought aid from the 5th Dalai Lama and his Dzungar Buddhist followers to help him in his struggle against the Qarataghlik Khojas. The Aqtaghlik Khojas in

7784-554: The Communist victory, the Chinese Communist Party under Chairman Mao Zedong continued the Soviet classification, using the term "Uyghur" to describe the modern ethnicity. In current usage, Uyghur refers to settled Turkic-speaking urban dwellers and farmers of the Tarim Basin and Ili who follow traditional Central Asian sedentary practices, as distinguished from nomadic Turkic populations in Central Asia. However, Chinese government agents designate as "Uyghur" certain peoples with significantly divergent histories and ancestries from

7923-416: The Dzungar conflict, two Aqtaghlik brothers, the so-called "Younger Khoja" ( Chinese : 霍集佔 ), also known as Khwāja-i Jahān, and his sibling, the Elder Khoja ( Chinese : 波羅尼都 ), also known as Burhān al-Dīn, after being appointed as vassals in the Tarim Basin by the Dzungars, first joined the Qing and rebelled against Dzungar rule until the final Qing victory over the Dzungars, then they rebelled against

8062-471: The First and Second Göktürk Khaganates (AD   630–684). The Old History of the Five Dynasties records that in 788 or 809, the Chinese acceded to a Uyghur request and emended their transcription to 回鹘 / 回鶻 (Mandarin: Huíhú , but [ɣuɒiɣuət] in Middle Chinese). Modern etymological explanations for the name Uyghur range from derivation from the verb "follow, accommodate oneself" and adjective "non-rebellious" (i.e., from Turkic uy/uð- ) to

8201-522: The Karakhanid leader. The "infidels" were defeated and driven towards Khotan by Yusuf Qadir Khan and the four Imams, but the Imams were assassinated by the Buddhists prior to the last Muslim victory. After Yusuf Qadir Khan's conquest of new land in Altishahr towards the east, he adopted the title "King of the East and China". In 1006, the Muslim Kara-Khanid ruler Yusuf Kadir (Qadir) Khan of Kashgar conquered Khotan, ending Khotan's existence as an independent state. The Islamic conquest of Khotan led to alarm in

8340-415: The Khotanese Saka hīnāysa attested in contemporary documents. This, along with the fact that the king's recorded regnal periods were given in Khotanese as kṣuṇa , "implies an established connection between the Iranian inhabitants and the royal power", according to the late Professor of Iranian Studies Ronald E. Emmerick (d. 2001). He contended that Khotanese-Saka-language royal rescripts of Khotan dated to

8479-402: The Qing in the Revolt of the Altishahr Khojas (1757–1759), an action which prompted the invasion and conquest of the Tarim Basin by the Qing in 1759. The Uyghurs of Turfan and Hami such as Emin Khoja were allies of the Qing in this conflict, and these Uyghurs also helped the Qing rule the Altishahr Uyghurs in the Tarim Basin. The final campaign against the Dzungars in the 1750s ended with

SECTION 60

#1733093780844

8618-482: The Sai (塞, sāi, sək in archaic Chinese) in ancient Chinese records. These records indicate that they originally inhabited the Ili and Chu River valleys of modern Kazakhstan . In the Chinese Book of Han , the area was called the "land of the Sai", i.e. the Saka. A people believed to be Saka has also been found in various locations in the Tarim Basin, for example in the Keriya region at Yumulak Kum (Djoumboulak Koum, Yuansha) around 200 km east of Khotan, with

8757-448: The Soviet Union took the 9th-century ethnonym from the Uyghur Khaganate, then reapplied it to all non-nomadic Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang. 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. Discovery of well-preserved Tarim mummies of

8896-411: The Tahe oil field. Below the level enriched with gas and oil is a complex Precambrian basement believed to be made up of the remnants of the original Tarim microplate , which accrued to the growing Eurasian continent in Carboniferous time. The snow on K2 , the second-highest mountain in the world, flows into glaciers which move down the valleys to melt. The melted water forms rivers which flow down

9035-430: The Tarim Basin ( Altishahr ), which Qing China unified into Xinjiang province in 1884. At the time of the Qing conquest in 1759, Dzungaria was inhabited by steppe-dwelling, nomadic Mongolic-speaking , Tibetan Buddhist Dzungars , while the Tarim Basin (Altishahr) was inhabited by sedentary, oasis-dwelling, Turkic-speaking Uyghur Muslim farmers. Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin were each governed separately until

9174-417: The Tarim Basin and Turfan in the 17th century. The Khojas however split into two rival factions, the Aqtaghlik ("White Mountainers") Khojas (also called the Afaqiyya ) and the Qarataghlik ("Black Mountainers") Khojas (also called the Ishaqiyya). The legacy of the Khojas lasted until the 19th century. The Qarataghlik Khojas seized power in Yarkand where the Chagatai Khans ruled in the Yarkent Khanate, forcing

9313-401: The Tarim Basin then became vassals to the Dzungars. 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 . The Dzungar–Qing War lasted a decade. During

9452-436: The Tarim basin, rebelled against the Moghulistan Khanate and broke away. Five years later Sultan Said Khan , a brother of the Khan of Moghulistan in Turfan , conquered the Dughlats but established his own Yarkent Khanate instead. By the early 17th century, the Naqshbandi Sufi Khojas , descendants of Muhammad , had replaced the Chagatayid Khans as rulers of the Tarim Basin. There was a struggle between two Khoja factions:

9591-422: The Tien Shan join the Tarim, the largest being the Aksu . Rivers flowing north from the Kunlun are usually named for the town or oasis they pass through. Most dry up in the desert; only the Hotan River reaches the Tarim in good years. An exception is the Qiemo River which flows northeast into Lop Nor. Ruins in the desert imply that these rivers were once larger. The original caravan route seems to have followed

9730-428: The Turkic Muslims of the region as "Turki" in their books. Use of the term Uyghur was unknown in Xinjiang until 1934. The area governor, Sheng Shicai , came to power, adopting the Soviet ethnographic classification instead of the Kuomintang's and became the first to promulgate the official use of the term "Uyghur" to describe the Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang. "Uyghur" replaced "rag-head". Sheng Shicai's introduction of

9869-427: The Turkic-speaking people of Xinjiang, into the " Hui nationality ". The Qing dynasty and the Kuomintang generally referred to the sedentary oasis-dwelling Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang as "turban-headed Hui" to differentiate them from other predominantly Muslim ethnicities in China. In the 1930s, foreigners travelers in Xinjiang such as George W. Hunter , Peter Fleming , Ella Maillart and Sven Hedin , referred to

10008-520: The Uyghurs as the original inhabitants of Xinjiang with a long history. Uyghur politician and historian Muhammad Amin Bughra wrote in his book A History of East Turkestan , stressing the Turkic aspects of his people, that the Turks have a continuous 9000-year-old history, while historian Turghun Almas incorporated discoveries of Tarim mummies to conclude that Uyghurs have over 6400 years of continuous history, and

10147-647: The Xinjiang region became further subdivided into Moghulistan in the north, Altishahr (Kashgar and the Tarim Basin), and the Turfan area, each often ruled separately by competing Chagatayid descendants, the Dughlats , and later the Khojas . Islam was also spread by the Sufis , and branches of its Naqshbandi order were the Khojas who seized control of political and military affairs in

10286-624: 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. 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

10425-511: The Yuezhi, albeit under slightly different names. After the Han dynasty, the kingdoms of the Tarim Basin began to have strong cultural influences on China as a conduit between the cultures of India and Central Asia and China. Indian Buddhists had previously travelled to China during the Han dynasty, but the Buddhist monk Kumārajīva from Kucha , who visited China during the Six Dynasties period

10564-881: The Yugur and on perceived linguistic similarities for the Salar. " Turkistani " is used as an alternate ethnonym by some Uyghurs. For example, the Uyghur diaspora in Arabia, adopted the identity " Turkistani ". Some Uyghurs in Saudi Arabia adopted the Arabic nisba of their home city, such as " Al- Kashgari " from Kashgar . Saudi-born Uyghur Hamza Kashgari 's family originated from Kashgar. The Uyghur population within China generally remains centered in Xinjiang region with some smaller subpopulations elsewhere in

10703-671: The campaigns of conquest by Emperor Taizong of Tang (r. 626–649). From the late 8th to 9th centuries, the region changed hands between the Chinese Tang Empire and the rival Tibetan Empire . By the early 11th century the region had fallen to the Muslim Turkic peoples of the Kara-Khanid Khanate , which led to both the Turkification of the region and its conversion from Buddhism to Islam . Suggestive evidence of Khotan's early link to India are minted coins from Khotan dated to

10842-702: The closure of the Palaeo-Asian Ocean. At present, deformation around the margins of the basin is resulting in the microcontinental crust being pushed under Tian Shan to the north, and Kunlun Shan to the south. A thick succession of Paleozoic , Mesozoic and Cenozoic sedimentary rocks occupy the central parts of the basin, locally exceeding thicknesses of 15 km (9 mi). The source rocks of oil and gas tend to be mostly Permian mudstones and, less often, Ordovician strata which experienced an intense and widespread early Hercynian karstification . The effect of this event are e.g. paleokarst reservoirs in

10981-728: The conquest of Khotan by Kashgar by the Karakhanid leader Yusuf Qadir Khan around 1006. Accounts of the Muslim Karakhanid war against the Khotanese Buddhists are given in Taẕkirah of the Four Sacrificed Imams written sometime in the period from 1700 to 1849 which told the story of four imams from Mada'in city (possibly in modern-day Iraq) who traveled to help the Islamic conquest of Khotan, Yarkand, and Kashgar by Yusuf Qadir Khan,

11120-553: The conquest. The settled population of these cities later merged with the incoming Turkic people, including the Uyghurs of Uyghur Khaganate, to form the modern Uyghurs. The Indo-European Tocharian language later disappeared as the urban population switched to a Turkic language such as the Old Uyghur language . The early Turkic peoples descended from agricultural communities in Northeast Asia who moved westwards into Mongolia in

11259-471: The country, such as in Taoyuan County where an estimated 5,000–10,000 live. The size of the Uyghur population, particularly in China, has been the subject of dispute. Chinese authorities place the Uyghur population within the Xinjiang region to be just over 12 million, comprising approximately half of the total regional population. As early as 2003, however, some Uyghur groups wrote that their population

11398-580: The creation of Xinjiang in 1884 . The Chinese called this the Tien Shan Nan Lu or Tien Shan South Road, as opposed to the Bei Lu north of the mountains. Along it runs the modern highway and railroad while the middle Tarim River is about 100 km south. The caravans met in Kashgar before crossing the mountains. Bachu or Miralbachi; Uchturpan north of the main road; Aksu on the large Aksu River ; Kucha

11537-630: 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, Genghisid Mongol nobilities also followed him to convert to Islam. His son Khizr Khoja conquered Qocho and Turfan (the core of Uyghuristan) in

11676-505: The descendants of a number of peoples, including the ancient Uyghurs of Mongolia migrating into the Tarim Basin after the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate, Iranic Saka tribes and other Indo-European peoples inhabiting the Tarim Basin before the arrival of the Turkic Uyghurs. Uyghur activists identify with the Tarim mummies , remains of an ancient people inhabiting the region, but research into

11815-635: The desert. 218 runs from Charkilik to Korla along the former course of the Tarim, forming an oval whose other end is Kashgar. The Tarim Desert Highway , a major engineering achievement, crosses the center from Niya to Luntai . The new Highway 217 follows the Khotan River from Khotan to near Aksu . A road follows the Yarkant River from Yarkand to Baqu . East of the Korla-Charkilik road, travel continues to be very difficult. Rivers coming south from

11954-506: The diversity of cytochrome B further suggests Uyghurs are closer to Chinese and Siberian populations than to various Caucasoid groups in West Asia or Europe. However, there is significant genetic distance between the Xinjiang's southern Uyghurs and Chinese population, but not between the northern Uyghurs and Chinese. A Study (2016) of Uyghur males living in southern Xinjiang used high-resolution 26 Y-STR loci system high-resolution to infer

12093-590: The earliest Tarim Basin cultures had high levels of Ancient North Eurasian ancestry, with smaller admixture from Northeast Asians . Uyghur activist Turgun Almas claimed that Tarim mummies were Uyghurs because the earliest Uyghurs practiced shamanism and the buried mummies' orientation suggests that they had been shamanists; meanwhile, Qurban Wäli claimed words written in Kharosthi and Sogdian scripts as "Uyghur" rather than Sogdian words absorbed into Uyghur according to other linguists. Later migrations brought peoples from

12232-821: The early 20th century they identified themselves by different names to different peoples and in response to different inquiries: they called themselves Sarts in front of Kazakhs and Kyrgyz while they called themselves "Chantou" if asked about their identity after first identifying as a Muslim. The term "Chantou" ( 纏頭 ; Chántóu , meaning "Turban Head") was used to refer to the Turkic Muslims of Altishahr (now Southern Xinjiang ), including by Hui (Tungan) people. These groups of peoples often identify themselves by their originating oasis instead of an ethnicity; for example those from Kashgar may refer to themselves as Kashgarliq or Kashgari , while those from Hotan identity themselves as "Hotani". Other Central Asians once called all

12371-469: The east and Dunhuang's Cave 17, which contained Khotanese literary works, was closed shut possibly after its caretakers heard that Khotan's Buddhist buildings were razed by the Muslims, the Buddhist religion had suddenly ceased to exist in Khotan. The Karakhanid Turkic Muslim writer Mahmud al-Kashgari recorded a short Turkic language poem about the conquest: English translation: We came down on them like

12510-400: The east, harbouring a Siberian ancestry component (15–17%) and an East Asian ancestry component (29–47%). In total, Uyghurs on average are 33.3% West Eurasian, 32.9% East Asian, 17.9% South Asian, and 16% Siberian. Western parts of Xinjiang are more West Eurasian components than East Eurasian. It suggests at least two major waves of admixture, one ~3,750 years ago coinciding with the age range of

12649-626: The eastern Tarim Basin such as Loulan , the Xiaohe Tomb complex , and Qäwrighul . These mummies have previously been suggested to be of Tocharian origin, but recent evidence suggests that the mummies belonged to a distinct population unrelated to later Indo-European pastoralists, such as Afanasievo. In the Iron Age , the Chawuhu culture (c. 1000–400 BC) flourished in the Yanqi (Karashar) oasis, and also reached

12788-497: The endangered Himalayan brown bear subspecies, the near-endangered Marco Polo sheep , and various other types of sheep and goats. The Long-tailed marmot is common. [REDACTED] Media related to Pamir alpine desert and tundra at Wikimedia Commons Tarim Basin The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Xinjiang , Northwestern China occupying an area of about 888,000 km (343,000 sq mi) and one of

12927-521: The finding of a vast, carbon-rich underground sea beneath the basin. It is speculated that the Tarim Basin may be one of the last places in Asia to have become inhabited: It is surrounded by mountains and irrigation technologies might have been necessary. The Northern Silk Road on one route bypassed the Tarim Basin north of the Tian Shan mountains and traversed it on three oases-dependent routes: one north of

13066-454: The genetic relationships between the Uyghur population and European and Asian populations. The results showed the Uyghur population of southern Xinjiang exhibited a genetic admixture of Eastern Asian and European populations but with slightly closer relationship with European populations than to Eastern Asian populations. An extensive genome study in 2017 analyzed 951 samples of Uyghurs from 14 geographical subpopulations in Xinjiang and observed

13205-527: The genetics of ancient Tarim mummies and their links with modern Uyghurs remains problematic, both to Chinese government officials concerned with ethnic separatism and to Uyghur activists concerned the research could affect their indigenous claim. A genomic study published in 2021 found that these early mummies had high levels of Ancient North Eurasian ancestry (ANE, about 72%), with smaller admixture from Ancient Northeast Asians (ANA, about 28%), but no detectable Western Steppe-related ancestry . They formed

13344-585: The goals of ensuring adherence to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ideology, preventing separatism , fighting terrorism , and providing vocational training to Uyghurs. Various scholars, human rights organizations and governments consider abuses perpetrated against the Uyghurs to amount to crimes against humanity , or even genocide . In the Uyghur language , the ethnonym is written ئۇيغۇر in Arabic script , Уйғур in Uyghur Cyrillic and Uyghur or Uygur (as

13483-458: The inhabitants of Xinjiang's Southern oases Kashgari, a term still used in some regions of Pakistan. The Turkic people also used "Musulman", which means "Muslim", to describe themselves. Rian Thum explored the concepts of identity among the ancestors of the modern Uyghurs in Altishahr (the native Uyghur name for Eastern Turkestan or Southern Xinjiang) before the adoption of the name "Uyghur" in

13622-415: The largest basins in Northwest China. Located in China's Xinjiang region, it is sometimes used synonymously to refer to the southern half of the province, that is, Southern Xinjiang or Nanjiang ( Chinese : 南疆 ; pinyin : Nánjiāng ), as opposed to the northern half of the province known as Dzungaria or Beijiang. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its southern boundary

13761-550: The last vestiges of the Indo-Greek Kingdom, expanded back into the Tarim Basin in the 1st–2nd centuries CE, where they established a kingdom in Kashgar and competed for control of the area with nomads and Chinese forces. The Yuezhi or Rouzhi ( Chinese : 月氏 ; pinyin : Yuèzhī ; Wade–Giles : Yüeh -chih , [ɥê ʈʂɻ̩́] ) were an ancient people first reported in Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in

13900-402: The late 3rd millennium BC, where they adopted a pastoral lifestyle. By the early 1st millennium BC, these peoples had become equestrian nomads . In subsequent centuries, the steppe populations of Central Asia appear to have been progressively Turkified by East Asian nomadic Turks, moving out of Mongolia. The Uyghurs of the Uyghur Khaganate were part of a Turkic confederation called

14039-812: The long run, supplying one-fifth of the country's total oil supply by 2010, with an annual output of 35 million tonnes . On June 10, 2010, Baker Hughes announced an agreement to work with PetroChina Tarim Oilfield Co. to supply oilfield services, including both directional and vertical drilling systems, formation evaluation services, completion systems and artificial lift technology for wells drilled into foothills formations greater than 7,500 meters (24,600 feet) deep with pressures greater than 20,000 psi (1,400 bar) and bottom-hole temperatures of approximately 160 °C (320 °F). Electrical submersible pumping (ESP) systems will be employed to dewater gas and condensate wells. PetroChina will fund any joint development. In 2015, Chinese researchers published

14178-655: The main group. These include the Lopliks of Ruoqiang County and the Dolan people , thought to be closer to the Oirat Mongols and the Kyrgyz . The use of the term Uyghur 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. Another ethnicity, the Western Yugur of Gansu , identify themselves as

14317-715: The many city-states that existed in the Xinjiang region during the Han dynasty ; others include Kucha , Turfan , Karasahr and Kashgar . These kingdoms in the Tarim Basin came under the control of China during the Han and Tang dynasties. During the Tang dynasty they were conquered and placed under the control of the Protectorate General to Pacify the West , and the Indo-European cultures of these kingdoms never recovered from Tang rule after thousands of their inhabitants were killed during

14456-495: The middle of different climates and habitats: the Alai woodlands to the west and north, and the dry Tarim Basin to the east. The average elevation in the Pamir is 4,200 meters, with the highest peak ( Kongur Tagh ) at 7,649 meters. Many climate zones are found in the ecoregion, due to the altitude zones and geographic surroundings. Typical high elevations exhibit a climate classification of

14595-609: The most ancient of Turkish tribes and formerly inhabited a part of Chinese Tartary (Xinjiang), now occupied by a mixed population of Turk, Mongol and Kalmuck ". Before 1921/1934, Western writers called the Turkic-speaking Muslims of the oases "Turki" and the Turkic Muslims who had migrated from the Tarim Basin to Ili , Ürümqi and Dzungaria in the northern portion of Xinjiang during the Qing dynasty were known as " Taranchi ", meaning "farmer". The Russians and other foreigners referred to them as "Sart", "Turk" or "Turki". In

14734-503: The mountains and into the Tarim Basin, never reaching the sea. Surrounded by desert, some rivers feed the oases where the water is used for irrigation while others flow to salt lakes and marshes. Lop Nur is a marshy , saline depression at the east end of the Tarim Basin. The Tarim River ends in Lop Nur. The Tarim Basin is believed to contain large potential reserves of petroleum and natural gas . Methane comprises over 70 percent of

14873-440: The mummies with European feature found in Xinjiang, and another occurring around 750 years ago. A 2018 study of 206 Uyghur samples from Xinjiang, using the ancestry-informative SNP (AISNP) analysis, found that the average genetic ancestry of Uyghurs is 63.7% East Asian-related and 36.3% European-related. The history of the Uyghur people, as with the ethnic origin of the people, is a matter of contention. Uyghur historians viewed

15012-405: The natural gas reserve, with variable contents of ethane (<1% – c. 18%) and propane (<0.5% – c. 9%). China National Petroleum Corporation 's comprehensive exploration of the Tarim basin between 1989 and 1995 led to the identification of 26 oil- and gas-bearing structures. These occur at deeper depths and in scattered deposits. Beijing aims to develop Xinjiang into China's new energy base for

15151-529: The ninth to the fourteenth century and proved to be longer-lasting than any power in the region, before or since. The Uyghurs were originally Tengrists , shamanists, and Manichaean , but converted to Buddhism during this period. Qocho accepted the Qara Khitai as its overlord in the 1130s, and in 1209 submitted voluntarily to the rising Mongol Empire . The Uyghurs of Kingdom of Qocho were allowed significant autonomy and played an important role as civil servants to

15290-499: The north side of the basin. Formerly it continued to Loulan , but some time after 330 AD it turned southeast near Korla toward Charkilik , and Loulan was abandoned. The Tarim ended at the now-dry Lop Nur, which occupied a shifting position east of Loulan. Eastward is the fabled Jade Gate which the Chinese considered the gateway to the Western Regions . Beyond that was Dunhuang with its ancient manuscripts and then Anxi at

15429-800: The northern Uyghur population. A different study by Li et al. (2009) used a larger sample of individuals from a wider area and found a higher East Asian component of about 70% on average, while the European/West Asian component was about 30%. Overall, Uyghur show relative more similarity to "Western East Asians" than to "Eastern East Asians". The authors also cite anthropologic studies which also estimate about 30% "Western proportions", which are in agreement with their genetic results. A study (2013) based on autosomal DNA shows that average Uyghurs are closest to other Turkic people in Central Asia and China as well as various Chinese populations. The analysis of

15568-671: The northern area, while around two thirds were Uyghurs in southern Xinjiang's Tarim Basin. In Dzungaria, the Qing established new cities like Ürümqi and Yining. The Dzungarian basin itself is now inhabited by many Kazakhs. The Qing therefore unified Xinjiang and changed its demographic composition as well. The crushing of the Buddhist Dzungars by the Qing led to the empowerment of the Muslim Begs in southern Xinjiang, migration of Muslim Taranchis to northern Xinjiang, and increasing Turkic Muslim power, with Turkic Muslim culture and identity

15707-485: The oasis city-states of the Tarim Basin. Whereas the Yuezhi continued westward and conquered Daxia around 177–176 BC, the Sai (i.e. Saka), including some allied Tocharian peoples , fled south to the Pamirs before heading back east to settle in Tarim Basin sites like Yanqi (焉耆, Karasahr ) and Qiuci (龜茲, Kucha ). The Saka are recorded as inhabiting Khotan by at least the 3rd century and also settled in nearby Shache (莎車),

15846-495: The other hand were shown to have 55% European/Western Eurasian maternal mtDNA. A study based on paternal DNA (2005) shows West Eurasian haplogroups (J and R) in Uyghurs make up 65% to 70% and East Asian haplogroups (C, N, D and O) 30% to 35%. One study by Xu et al. (2008), using samples from Hetian ( Hotan ) only, found Uyghurs have about an average of 60% European or West Asian (Western Eurasian) ancestry and about 40% East Asian or Siberian ancestry (Eastern Eurasian). From

15985-515: The region to the Chinese. The Han Chinese wrested control of the Tarim Basin from the Xiongnu at the end of the 1st century under the leadership of General Ban Chao (32–102 CE), during the Han-Xiongnu War . The Chinese administered the Tarim Basin as the Protectorate of the Western Regions . The Tarim Basin was later under many foreign rulers, but ruled primarily by Turkic, Han, Tibetan, and Mongolic peoples. The powerful Kushans , who conquered

16124-475: The same area, it is found that the proportion of Uyghur individuals with European/West Asian ancestry ranges individually from 40.3% to 84.3% while their East Asian/Siberian ancestry ranges individually from 15.7% to 59.7%. Further study by the same team showed an average of slightly greater European/West Asian component at 52% (ranging individually from 44.9% to 63.1%) in the Uyghur population in southern Xinjiang but only 47% (ranging individually from 30% to 55%) in

16263-658: The south and west side of the Traim. They are part of the Taklimakan Desert railway loop, joined together with sections of the Golmud–Korla railway , Hotan–Ruoqiang railway , Kashgar–Hotan railway , and Southern Xinjiang railway . The main road from eastern China reaches Ürümqi and continues as highway 314 along the north side to Kashgar. Highway 315 follows the south side from Kashgar to Charkilik and continues east to Tibet. There are currently four north–south roads across

16402-526: The south side. At the time of the Han dynasty conquest, it shifted to the center (Jade Gate-Loulan-Korla). When the Tarim changed course about 330 AD it shifted north to Hami . A minor route went north of the Tian Shan. When there was war on the Gansu Corridor trade entered the basin near Charkilik from the Qaidam Basin . The original route to India seems to have started near Yarkand and Kargilik, but it

16541-507: The standard Chinese romanization , GB 3304–1991) in Latin ; they are all pronounced as [ʔʊjˈʁʊːr] . In Chinese , this is transcribed into characters as 维吾尔 / 維吾爾 , which is romanized in pinyin as Wéiwú'ěr . In English, the name is officially spelled Uyghur by the Xinjiang government but also appears as Uighur , Uigur and Uygur (these reflect the various Cyrillic spellings Уиғур, Уигур and Уйгур). The name

16680-437: The sword to make the population convert to Islam. After being converted to Islam, the descendants of the previously Buddhist Uyghurs in Turfan believed that the "infidel Kalmuks" ( Dzungars ) were the ones who built Buddhist monuments in their area, in opposition to the current academic theory that it was their own ancestral legacy. The eastern regions of the Chagatai Khanate in the early 14th century had been inhabited by

16819-562: The traditional Uyghur name for it was Altishahr ( Uyghur : التى شهر , romanized :  Altä-shähär , Алтә-шәһәр ). It was formerly the area of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate 東察合台汗國, land of the Uyghur people before being conquered by the Dzungars. The population of the Tarim Basin is estimated at approximately 5.5 million. Uyghurs The Uyghurs , alternatively spelled Uighurs , Uygurs or Uigurs , are

16958-611: The two separate political entities of Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin (Eastern Turkestan). Dzungharia or Ili was called Zhunbu 準部 (Dzungar region) Tianshan Beilu 天山北路 (Northern March), "Xinjiang" 新疆 (New Frontier), or "Kalmykia" (La Kalmouquie in French). It was formerly the area of the Dzungar (or Zunghar) Khanate 準噶爾汗國, the land of the Dzungar people . The Tarim Basin was known as "Tianshan Nanlu 天山南路 (southern March), Huibu 回部 (Muslim region), Huijiang 回疆 (Muslim frontier), Chinese Turkestan , Kashgaria, Little Bukharia, East Turkestan ", and

17097-454: The verb meaning "wake, rouse or stir" (i.e., from Turkic oðğur- ). None of these is thought to be satisfactory because the sound shift of /ð/ and /ḏ/ to /j/ does not appear to be in place by this time. The etymology therefore cannot be conclusively determined and its referent is also difficult to fix. The "Huihe" and "Huihu" seem to be a political rather than a tribal designation or it may be one group among several others collectively known as

17236-621: The west and northwest to the Xinjiang region, probably speakers of various Iranian languages such as the Saka tribes, who were closely related to the European Scythians and descended from the earlier Andronovo culture , and who may have been present in the Khotan and Kashgar area in the first millennium BC, as well as the Sogdians who formed networks of trading communities across the Tarim Basin from

17375-470: The west end of the Gansu Corridor . Settlements include Kashgar; Yangi Hissar , famous for its knives; Yarkand , once larger than Kashgar; Karghalik (Yecheng), with a route to India; Karakash ; Khotan , the main source of Chinese jade; eastward the land becomes more desolate; Keriya (Yutian); Niya (Minfeng); Qiemo (Cherchen); Charkilik (Ruoqiang). The modern road continues east to Tibet. There

17514-716: The western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defeat by the Xiongnu, in the 2nd century BC, the Yuezhi split into two groups: the Greater Yuezhi ( Dà Yuèzhī 大月氏) and Lesser Yuezhi ( Xiǎo Yuèzhī 小月氏). They introduced the Brahmi script, the Indian Prakrit language for administration, and Buddhism , playing a central role in the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to Eastern Asia. Three pre-Han texts mention peoples who appear to be

17653-520: The word uyɣur (Old Turkic: 𐰆𐰖𐰍𐰆𐰺 ); an example is found on the Sudzi inscription, "I am khan ata of Yaglaqar , came from the Uigur land." (Old Turkic: Uyγur jerinte Yaγlaqar qan ata keltim ). It is transcribed into Tang annals as 回纥 / 回紇 (Mandarin: Huíhé , but probably *[ɣuɒiɣət] in Middle Chinese ). It was used as the name of one of the Turkic polities formed in the interim between

17792-509: The year 842, causing Uyghur migration from Mongolia into the Tarim Basin. The Uyghurs who moved to the Tarim Basin mixed with the local Tocharians , and converted to the Tocharian religion, and adopted their culture of oasis agriculture. The fluid definition of Uyghur and the diverse ancestry of modern Uyghurs create confusion as to what constitutes true Uyghur ethnography and ethnogenesis . Contemporary scholars consider modern Uyghurs to be

17931-533: Was captured by the Tang in 644 and the kingdom of Kucha was conquered in 649 . The expansion into Central Asia continued under Taizong's successor, Emperor Gaozong , who dispatched an army in 657 led by Su Dingfang against the Western Turk qaghan Ashina Helu . Ashina was defeated and the khaganate was absorbed into the Tang empire. The Tarim Basin was administered through the Anxi Protectorate and

18070-524: Was being vastly undercounted by Chinese authorities, claiming that their population actually exceeded 20 million. Population disputes have continued into the present, with some activists and groups such as the World Uyghur Congress and Uyghur American Association claiming that the Uyghur population ranges between 20 and 30 million. Some have even claimed that the real number of Uyghurs is actually 35 million. Scholars, however, have generally rejected these claims, with Professor Dru C. Gladney writing in

18209-411: 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. 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

18348-501: Was no single name used for their identity; various native names Altishahris used for identify were Altishahrlik (Altishahr person), yerlik (local), Turki and Musulmān (Muslim); the term Musulmān in this situation did not signify religious connotations, because the Altishahris exclude other Muslim peoples like the Kirghiz while identifying themselves as Musulmān. Dr. Laura J Newby says the sedentary Altishahri Turkic people considered themselves separate from other Turkic Muslims since at least

18487-423: Was once an important kingdom; Luntai ; Korla , now a large town; Karashar near Bosten Lake ; Turpan north of the Turpan Depression and south of the Bogda Shan ; Hami ; then southeast to Anxi and the Gansu Corridor . Most of the basin is occupied by the Taklamakan Desert which is too dry for permanent habitation. The Yarkand , Kashgar and Aksu Rivers join to form the Tarim River which runs along

18626-410: Was overrun by the Yenisei Kirghiz , another Turkic people. As a result, the majority of tribal groups formerly under Uyghur control dispersed and moved out of Mongolia. The Uyghurs who founded the Uyghur Khaganate dispersed after the fall of the Khaganate, to live among the Karluks and to places such as Jimsar , Turpan and Gansu . These Uyghurs soon founded two kingdoms and the easternmost state

18765-408: Was paid by the Chagatayids to the eastern regions. As a result, the eastern tribes there were virtually independent. The most powerful of the tribes, the Dughlats , controlled extensive territories in Moghulistan and the western Tarim Basin. In 1347 the Dughlats decided to appoint a khan of their own, and raised the Chagatayid Tughlugh Timur to the throne. In 1509 the Dughlats, vassal rulers of

18904-421: Was particularly renowned. Music and dances from Kucha were also popular in the Sui and Tang periods. During the Tang dynasty , a series of military expeditions were conducted against the oasis states of the Tarim Basin, then vassals of the Western Turkic Khaganate . The campaigns against the oasis states began under Emperor Taizong with the annexation of Gaochang in 640. The nearby kingdom of Karasahr

19043-463: Was slain by the Buddhists during the war. Buddhism lost territory to the Turkic Karakhanid Satok Bughra Khan during the Karakhanid reign around Kashgar. The Tarim Basin became Islamicized over the next few centuries. In the tenth century, the Buddhist Iranic Saka Kingdom of Khotan was the only city-state that was not conquered yet by the Turkic Uyghur (Buddhist) and the Turkic Karakhanid (Muslim) states. The Buddhist entitites of Dunhuang and Khotan had

19182-510: Was the Ganzhou Kingdom (870–1036) which ruled parts of Xinjiang, 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. The second Uyghur kingdom, the Kingdom of Qocho ruled a larger section of Xinjiang, also known as Uyghuristan in its later period, was founded in the Turpan area with its capital in Qocho (modern Gaochang ) and Beshbalik . The Kingdom of Qocho lasted from

19321-421: Was the Iron Gate Pass and now the highway and railway north to Ürümqi. From Turfan the easy Dabancheng pass leads to Ürümqi. The route from Charkilik to the Qaidam Basin was of some importance when Tibet was an empire. North of the mountains is Dzungaria with its central Gurbantünggüt Desert , Ürümqi, and the Karamay oil fields. The Kulja territory is the upper basin of the Ili River and opens out onto

#843156