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Uyghur people

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The Uyghur (English commonly Uighur; Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر; Simplified Chinese: }}}; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Turkish: Uygur) are a Turkic people, forming one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China. In China, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (also known as East Turkestan). Uyghurs live in Kazakhstan, Kirgizistan and Uzbekistan as a major minority ethnic group. There is a large Uyghur community in Turkey. A small community of Uyghurs also exists in Taoyuan County of Hunan province in South-central China. Uyghur neighborhoods also exist in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai.

Contents

Identity

Map of the Western (purple) and Eastern (blue) Göktürk khaganates at their height, c. AD 600. Lighter areas show direct rule; darker areas show spheres of influence.
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Map of the Western (purple) and Eastern (blue) Göktürk khaganates at their height, c. AD 600. Lighter areas show direct rule; darker areas show spheres of influence.

Historically the term "Uyghur" (meaning "united" or "allied") was applied to a group of Turkic-speaking tribes that lived in what was Mongolia. Along with the so-called Kokturks (also known as Göktürks) the Uyghurs were one of the largest and most enduring Turkic peoples living in Central Asia. According to the Book of Sui, Uyghurs early ancestors were called Tieles or Turas. Groups such as Xueyantuo(Syr-Tardush), Basmil (Baximi), Oguz (Wuhu), Uyghur (Weihu), and the northern most Yakut (Guligan) from the Lake Baikal are the Tiele tribes. The forebear of the Tiele belonged to those of Xiongnu descendants. Uyghurs existed as a tribal federation ruled by the Juan Juan from 460–545, and then by the Hephthalites from 541–565 before being taken over by the Göktürk empire (Khaganate).

Known as Huíhé (Simplified Chinese: }; Traditional Chinese: ), Weihu or Huihu in Chinese sources, under Khutlugh Bilge Kul Khagan's leadership, they established a Khaganate (empire) in the 8th century, replacing the Göktürks. Their ethnonym Huihu is the origin of the term Huíhuí (回回) that came to be used for Muslim in Chinese and is now used for the Hui minority in China.

Uyghurs live mainly in Xinjiang, China, where they are the largest ethnic group, together with Han Chinese, Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Russians. "Xinjiang" is the Han Chinese name for the province meaning "New Frontier." Uyghurs often refer to the region as East Turkestan.

History

Before the Uyghur Empire was founded the steppes from Mongolia to Central Asia were ruled by the Turkic Empire. The first Turkic Empire was destroyed by Emperor Li Shi-min of the Tang Dynasty and the second Turkic Empire was rebuilt during the reign of Empress Wu. At the time the Uyghur was a subject tribe under the Turks. In 744 the Uyghur, together with other subject tribes (the Basmil and Kharlukh), defeated the Turkic Empire and its allies and founded the Uyghur Empire at Ötüken. Their empire stretched from the Caspian Sea to Manchuria and lasted from 745 to 840. It was administered from the imperial capital Ordu Baliq.

In 840, following a famine and a civil war, they were overrun by the Kirghiz, another Turkic people. The result was that the majority of tribal groups formerly under the umbrella of the Uyghurs migrated to what is now north western China, especially modern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region.

Joined by other Turkic tribal groups living in Zungaria and the Tarim Basin, they established the Karakhoja kingdom that lasted until 1209 when they submitted to the Mongols under Genghis Khan. Others, occupying the western Tarim Basin (Fergana Valley) and parts of Kazakhstan bordering the Muslim Turco-Tajik Sultanate, converted to Islam before the 11th century and built a federation with Muslim institutions, whose princely dynasties are called Kara-Khanid Khanate by historians. The Karakhoja(Idiqut) Uyghurs, whose empire shared a border with Karakhanids, were Buddhist. As of 999-1000, The Karakhanids' capital was in Balasagun. Together with the Samanids of Samarkand they considered themselves the defenders of Islam against the Buddhist Uyghur Karakhoja Kingdom of Turpan and Hami and the Buddhist Scythian-Tocharian kingdom of Khotan.

After the rise of the Seljuk Turks in Iran the Kara-Khanids ('black khans dynasty') became nominal vassals of the Seljuks. Later they would serve the dual-suzerainty of the Kara-Khitans to the north and the Seljuks to the south.

In his, now dated, book Empire Of The Steppes René Grousset reports that the Uyghurs took up a settled agricultural lifestyle in the Tarim. They had an opportunity to resume nomadism after the Kirghiz were driven out of Mongolia by other tribes but the Uyghurs chose not to do so.

Map of the Uyghur Khaganate and areas under its dominion (in yellow) at its height, c. AD 820.
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Map of the Uyghur Khaganate and areas under its dominion (in yellow) at its height, c. AD 820.

A small number of Uyghurs also migrated to what is now the Gansu province in China, around the late 9th century, where they converted from Manicheism to Lamaism (Tibetan & Mongol Buddhism). Unlike other Turkic peoples further west they did not later convert to Islam. Thus they are unusual among Turkic peoples. Their descendants live there to this day, they are now known as Yugurs and are distinct from modern Uyghurs.

Most inhabitants in the Besh Balik and Turfan regions did not convert to Islam until the 15th century expansion of the Yarkand Khanate, a Turko-Mongol successor state based in the western Tarim.

Before converting to Islam, Uyghurs included Manichaeans, Buddhists and even some Nestorian Christians. It is probable that, genetically and culturally, modern Uyghurs descend from the nomadic tribes of Mongolia, from the Turkic subjects of the Mongols as well as from the many Indo-European-speaking groups who preceded them in the Tarim Basin oasis-cities. Today one can still see Uyghurs with light-coloured skin and hair. Modern genetic study shows Uyghurs are geneticly closest to other central asian Turkic people [link] and modern Turkey Turks [link].

Currently Turkic and Islamic cultural elements are dominant in the Tarim, which reflects Turkic emigration to that region especially during the Mongol period. The same situation has resulted in the replacement of previous religious traditions by Islam.

This has had an effect on modern politics because of a very long off-and-on relationship—politically, militarily and culturally—with China. Chinese rule was, in the remote past in these regions, solid at times until the An Lu Shan Rebellion and the Battle of Talas—both in the 750s. This history goes a long way to explain the troubled relationship with past and present Chinese institutions and with the dominant Chinese ethnic group, the Han Chinese.

Modern usage of the Uyghur ethnonym is used to give an ethnic definition to a traditional Central Asian distinction between nomads and settled farmers. It refers to the descendants of settled Turkic urban oasis-dwelling and agricultural populations of Xinjiang as opposed to those Turkic groups that remained nomadic.

'Uyghur' is widely credited as having been used for the first time in 1921 with the establishment of the Organization of Revolutionary Uyghur (Inqilawi Uyghur Itipaqi), a Communist nationalist group with intellectual and organizational ties to the Soviet Union. There is some evidence that Uyghur students and merchants living in Russia had already embraced the name prior this date, drawing on Russian studies that claimed a linkage between the historical khanate and Xinjiang's current inhabitants.

Official recognition of the Uyghurs came under the rule of Sheng Shicai who deviated from the official Kuomintang five races of China stance in favor of a Stalinist policy of delineating fourteen distinct ethnic nationalities in Xinjiang.

Uyghurs today

Following 9/11, China stated its support to the United States of America in the war on terror and many human rights organizations are concerned that this is being used as a pretext to crack down on ethnic Uyghurs. Most Uyghur exile groups today claim their cultural rights are being suppressed by the Chinese government and that the PRC responds to Uyghur expressions of their culture, religion or demands for independence with human rights violations. A large proportion of the Uyghur diaspora supports Pan-Turkic groups and there are several organisations such as the East Turkestan Party. The name Xinjiang is considered offensive by many advocates of independence who prefer to use historical or ethnic names such as Chinese Turkestan, East Turkestan (with Turkestan sometimes spelled as Turkistan) or Uyghuristan.

Though most Uyghur separatists support peaceful, secular Uyghur nationalism, there are some radical Islamic militant groups (such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement) vying for independence as well. This has caused much confusion with regard to names and belief of Uyghur political groups. Often the Chinese government refers to general East Turkestan to refer to terrorists.

Notable Uyghurs

Famous Uyghurs and people claimed to be Uyghur include:

Turghun Almas, historian, author of Uyghurlar and History of Huns
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Turghun Almas, historian, author of Uyghurlar and History of Huns

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References

External links

Language

Guantanamo Uyghur FOIA Documents

See also

 

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