Uyghur History In Britanica

Uyghur History in Britanica Chinese (Pinyin) Uygur, Turkic-speaking people of interior Asia who live for the most part in northwestern China, in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang; a small number live in the Central Asian republics. There were more than 7,700,000 Uighurs in China in the late 20th century, most of them in Sinkiang; there were also some 300,000 in Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, and Kyrgyzstan. The Uighur language is part of the Turkic language group, and the Uighur are among the oldest Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia. They are mentioned in Chinese records from the 3rd century AD. They first rose to prominence in the 8th century, when they established a kingdom along the Orhon River in what is now north-central Mongolia. In 840 this state was overrun by the Kyrgyz, however, and the Uighur migrated southwestward to the area around the Tien Shan (mountains). There the Uighur formed another independent kingdom in the Turfan region, but this was overthrown by the expanding Mongols in the 13th century. The Uighur are, in the main, a sedentary, village-dwelling people, their habitat being the network of oases formed in the valleys and lower slopes of the Tien Shan, Pamirs, and related mountain systems. The region is one of the most arid in the world; hence, for centuries they have practiced irrigation to conserve their water supply for agriculture. Their principal food crops are wheat, corn (maize), kaoliang (a form of sorghum), and melons. The chief industrial crop is cotton, which has long been grown in the area. Many Uighur are employed in petroleum extraction, mining, and manufacturing in urban centres. The chief Uighur cities are Urumchi, the capital of Sinkiang, and Kashgar, an ancient centre of trade near the Russo-Chinese border. The Uighur have lacked political unity in recent centuries, except for a brief period during the 19th century when they were in revolt against Peking. Their social organization is centred on the village. The Uighur of Sinkiang are Sunnite Muslims. The figural arts found new patrons in eastern Turkistan among the Turkic Uighurs, who while living in T'ang dynasty China had been influenced by Manichaean figurative art. The overthrow in China in AD 846 of Buddhism by official Confucianism forced the Buddhist Uighurs to migrate to eastern Turkistan. Gradually, they gained control over the Tien Shan region, Turfan, and the northeastern section of the Tarim Basin. The Turkic Uighurs especially favoured portraiture. In the 7th and 8th centuries Uighur artists already had acquired great proficiency in rendering

likenesses in a style heavily influenced by Chinese portraiture of the T'ang period. These portraits were painted on silk and were frequently inscribed with the sitter's name.

The Uighur kingdom The Kyrgyz invasion, while putting an end to Uighur power, did not annihilate the people. Fleeing Uighur groups settled on the Chinese border in what is now Kansu province and in East Turkestan in the Turfan (T'u-lu-p'an) region, which had been an Uighur protectorate since the end of the 8th century. Falling back now on the Turfan oases and setting up their capital city in Kucha (K'u-ch'e), the fugitive Uighurs created a remarkably stable and prosperous kingdom that lasted four centuries (c. 850–1250). Because of the dry climate of the region, many buildings, wall paintings, and manuscripts written in a variety of languages have been preserved. They reveal a complex, refined civilization in which Buddhism, Manichaeism, and Christianity existed side by side, practiced by Turks as well as by Tokharians, Sogdians, and other Iranian peoples in the region. When the time of the Mongol conquests came, the Uighurs lived up to their best cultural traditions. Realizing that resistance would be vain and would lead only to the destruction of his country, Barchuk, the ruler of the Uighurs of Kucha, of his own free will submitted to the Mongols. Uighur officials and scribes were the first “civil servants” of the Mongol empire and exerted a beneficial civilizing influence on the conquerors. The Sogdian script used by the Uighurs was adopted by the Mongols, who in turn passed it on to the Manchus. Side by side with the Cyrillic alphabet, it is still in use in Mongolia.

Uighur language also called New-uighur, member of the Turkic subfamily of the Altaic language family, spoken by Uighurs in the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang of northwestern China and in portions of Uzbekistan, Kazakstan, and Kyrgyzstan. The modern Uighur language, which was based on the Taranchi dialect spoken in Russia prior to the Russian Revolution of 1917, is classified with Uzbek in the southeastern (Uighur-Chagatai) branch of the Turkic languages. The Turkic language known as Yellow Uighur was

closely related to Uighur but subsequently developed in isolation from it. The Uighur literary language was originally written in Arabic script; but a modified Latin alphabet was officially adopted in 1930, and in 1947, a modified Cyrillic alphabet was adopted within the Soviet Union. In China the Arabic script continues to be widely used for writing Uighur. See also Turkic languages.

Sinkiang, Uighur Autonomous Region of Wade-Giles romanization Hsin-chiang Wei-wu-erh Tzu-chih-ch'ü , Pinyin Xinjiang Uygur Zizhiqu autonomous region occupying the northwestern corner of the People's Republic of China. The region is bordered by Mongolia to the northeast, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan to the northwest, Afghanistan and the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir to the southwest, the Tibet Autonomous Region to the southeast, and the Chinese provinces of Tsinghai and Kansu to the east. Southern Sinkiang came under the loose control of China's Western Han dynasty around 100 BC. Local Uighur leaders retained their autonomy after the decline of the Han. The area became part of the T'ang dynasty's empire in the 7th century AD, and in the 13th century it was conquered by the Mongol leader Genghis Khan. The Ch'ing dynasty took control of the area in the 18th century, and it was made a province of China in 1884. Because of the region's remote location, it was governed by semi-independent warlords rather than the central government. It came under the rule of the Chinese communist government in 1949 and became the Uighur Autonomous Region of Sinkiang in 1955. The capital city is Urumchi (Wu-lu-mu-ch'i). China's largest political unit, Sinkiang is an area of lonely rugged mountains and vast desert basins. It can be divided into five physiographic regions from north to south: the Northern Highlands, the Dzungarian Basin, the Tien Shan (“Celestial Mountains”), the Tarim Basin, and the Kunlun Mountains. The Northern Highlands extend in a semicircle along the Mongolian border. The Dzungarian Basin is surrounded by mountains on the south, northeast, and northwest and is open on the east and west. South of this, the Tien Shan, occupying nearly one-fourth of the region, is perpetually covered by snow with numerous long glaciers descending its slopes. Still further south, the Tarim Basin is surrounded

by mountains on three sides and consists of a central desert and isolated oases. The Takla Makan Desert at the centre of the basin covers more than 105,000 square miles (272,000 square km) and is absolutely barren. The Kunlun Mountains, with elevations up to 24,000 feet (7,300 m), form an almost impenetrable barrier at their central part. Remote from the ocean and enclosed by high mountains, Sinkiang has a continental dry climate; annual temperature extremes are great, and rainfall is very slight. There are more than 40 different ethnic groups living in Sinkiang. The largest are the Uighurs (q.v.) and the Han (Chinese). The Uighurs are a Muslim Turkic-speaking people who constitute almost 50 percent of Sinkiang's population. Other groups include the Mongolians and Khalkha Mongols, Hui (Chinese Muslims), Kazaks, Uzbeks, Tungusic-speaking Manchus and Sibos, Tajiks, Tatars, Russians, and Tahurs. The population is evenly divided between the Dzungarian and Tarim basins. About 40 percent of the people in the north practice farming, while about the same proportion in the south are pastoralists. The region has four major cities: Urumchi, Karamay (K'o-la-ma-i), Kuldja (I-ning), and Kashgar (K'a-shih). Because of its dry climate, Sinkiang depends almost entirely on irrigation for cultivation of the land. The main crops grown are wheat (spring and winter), corn (maize), rice, kaoliang (sorghum), and millet. Sinkiang is one of China's main fruit-producing regions; its sweet Ha-mi (Hami) melons, seedless Turfan (Turpan) grapes, and Ili apples are well known. Sheep and horses are the principal livestock. Mineral resources include deposits of lead, zinc, copper, molybdenum, and tungsten. High yield oilfields are located between Urumchi and Karamay and in the Tarim Basin. Heavy industry includes an iron and steel works and a cement factory at Urumchi and a farm-tool plant at Kashgar. Industries processing agricultural products have been established within the region near the source of raw materials. Sinkiang has a good road system. There is a railway which crosses the region from Kansu province to Urumchi; a southern branch line connects Turfan with K'u-erh-le (Korla). Air service is centred in Urumchi. Area 635,900 square miles (1,646,900 square km). Pop. (1990) 15,155,778; (1996 est.) 16,610,000.

Eretna Dynasty dynasty that succeeded the Mongol Il-Khanid rulers in central Anatolia and ruled there from c. 1343 to 1380. The dynasty's founder, Eretna, was an officer of Uighur (Uyghur) origin in the service of Demirtaş, the Il-Khanid governor of Anatolia, who revolted (1326) against the Il-Khanid ruler Abū Sa□ıd and escaped to Egypt. Eretna then became governor of Anatolia under the suzerainty of Ḥasan the Elder, ruler of Azerbaijan. After Ḥasan the Elder was defeated by Ḥasan the Younger, son of Demirtaş, Eretna in 1337 received the protection of the Mamlūk sultan of Egypt. In 1343, however, Eretna defeated Ḥasan the Younger and emerged as an independent ruler over territories that included Niğde, Ankara, Amasya, Tokat, Samsun, and Erzincan; he made Sivas and later Kayseri his capital. Eretna was a scholarly man and a just ruler, whose people called him Köse Peygamber (Prophet with the Scanty Beard). Under Eretna's successors, local rulers rebelled; the principality lost territories in the west to the Ottomans and the Karamans and in the east to the Turkmen Ak Koyunlu state. In 1380 Mehmed II, the last Eretna ruler, was killed, and Burhaneddin, a former vizier, proclaimed himself sultan over Eretna lands.