Uyghur People - History

History

Uyghur history 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. After the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate in AD 840, 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.

The ancestors of the Uyghur tribe were Turkic pastoralists called Tiele, who lived in the valleys south of Lake Baikal and around the Yenisei River.

The Uyghur Khaganate stretched from the Caspian Sea to Manchuria and lasted from AD 745 to 840. It was administered from the imperial capital Ordu-Baliq, one of the biggest ancient cities built in Mongolia. 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.

Following the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate, the Uyghurs established kingdoms in present day Gansu and Xinjiang.

Yugor, 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.

Kara-Khoja Kingdom, this Uyghur state was the Karakhoja Kingdom (created during AD 856–866 near Turfan), also called the "Idiqut" ("Holy Wealth, Glory") state. The Idiquts (title of the Karakhoja rulers) ruled independently until the 1120s, when they submitted to the Qara Khitai, then continued as vassal rulers under the Mongols from 1209.

Kara-Khanids, or the Karakhans (Black Khans) Dynasty, was a state formed by the a confederation of Karluks, Chigils, Yaghma and other tribes in Semirechye, Western Tian Shan and Kashgaria, and who later conquered Transoxiana.

The Uighur Idiqut, Barchukh, voluntarily submitted Genghis Khan (r.1206-1227) and was given his daughter, Altani (ᠠᠯᠲᠠᠨ).

The Chagatai Khanate was a Mongol ruling khanate controlled by Chagatai Khan, second son of Genghis Khan. Chagatai's ulus, or hereditary territory, consisted of the part of the Mongol Empire which extended from the Ili River (today in eastern Kazakhstan) and Kashgaria (in the western Tarim Basin) to Transoxiana (modern Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan). The exact date that the control of Turfan and other areas of Uighurstan was transferred to another Mongol Dynasty, Chagatai Khanate, is unclear.). Many scholars claim Chagatai Khan (d.1241) inherited Uighurstan from his father, Genghis Khan, as appanage in the early 13th century. By 1330s, the Chagatayids exercised the full authority over the Uighur Kingdom in Turfan.

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 Balkh historian Makhmud ibn Vali (Sea of Mysteries, 1640). The Chagatayid Mongols of Moghulistan converted to Islam in 1359.

The Qing dynasty conquered Xinjiang in the 18th century.

In Beijing, a community of Uyghurs was clustered around the Mosque near the Forbidden City, having moved to Beijing in the 1700s.

In the Dungan revolt (1862–1877) of 1864, the Uyghurs were successful in expelling the Qing Dynasty officials from parts of southern Xinjiang, and founded an independent Kashgaria kingdom, called Yettishar (English: "country of seven cities"). Under the leadership of Yakub Beg, it included Kashgar, Yarkand, Hotan, Aksu, Kucha, Korla and Turpan. Large Qing Dynasty forces under Chinese General Zuo Zongtang attacked Kashgaria in 1876. After this invasion, the region, which had been known as the Xiyu special administrative area, was reorganized into a province named "Xinjiang", which when literally translated means "New Territory".

In 1912, the Qing Dynasty was replaced by the Republic of China. By 1920, Pan-Turkic Islamists had become a challenge to Chinese warlord Yang Zengxin (杨增新) who controlled Siankiang.

Uyghurs staged several uprisings against Chinese rule. Twice, in 1933 and 1944, the Uyghurs successfully regained their independence(backed by the Soviet Communist leader Joseph Stalin): the First East Turkestan Republic was a short-lived attempt at independence of land around Kashghar, and it was destroyed by Chinese Muslim army under General Ma Zhancang and Ma Fuyuan at the Battle of Kashgar (1934). The Second East Turkistan Republic was a Soviet puppet Communist state which existed from 1944 to 1949 in what is now Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture.

Mao declared the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. He turned the Second East Turkistan Republic into the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, and appointed Saifuddin Azizi as the region's first Communist Party governor. Many Republican loyalists fled into exile in Turkey and Western countries. The name Xinjiang was changed to Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where they are the largest ethnic group and Uyghurs are mostly concentrated in the southwestern Xinjiang. (see map, right)

The Uyghur identity remains fragmented, as some support a Pan-Islamic vision, exemplified in the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, others support a Pan-Turkic vision, as in the East Turkestan Liberation Organization and a third group would like a "Uyghurstan" state, as in the East Turkestan independence movement. As a result, "No Uyghur or East Turkestan group speaks for all Uyghurs, although it might claim to", and Uyghurs in each of these camps have committed violence against other Uyghurs who they think are too assimilated to Chinese or Russian society or not religious enough. Mindful not to take sides, Uyghur leaders like Rebiya Kadeer mainly try to garner international support for the "rights and interests of the Uyghurs", including the right to demonstrate, although the Chinese government has accused her of orchestrating the deadly July 2009 Ürümqi riots.