The Uyghur (; |t=|p=Wéiwú'ěr}}; ) are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China. An estimated 80% of Xinjiang's Uyghurs live in the southwestern portion of the region, the Tarim Basin.
The largest community of Uyghurs outside Xinjiang in China is in Taoyuan County, in south-central Hunan province. Outside of China, significant diasporic communities of Uyghurs exist in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
Name
According to the Xinjiang provincial government, the preferred English transcription of the Uyghur
ethnonym is "Uyghur". It is typically pronounced by English speakers. Several alternate romanizations also appear:
Uighur, Uygur and
Uigur.
The meaning of the term Uyghur is unclear. Several theories regarding its origin exist:
"United Nine Tribes," a replacement for Tokuz-Oguz the tribal alliance of which the Uyghurs were part.
The Chinese referred to Uyghurs by the ethnonyms Hoy-Hu (|w=Hui Ho}), Üan-Ga (Chinese:?; Pinyin:?), and Chiu Hsing ().
Another suggested etymology is a composite of quick (Turkic:uigy) and man (Turkic:er/ir/ur) for Quick People.
The earliest record of an Uyghur tribe is from the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 AD). At that time the ethnonym Gaoche () to the Tiele tribes. Later, the term Tiele (; Turkic: Tele) itself was used.
Some names (Dolans, Lopliks, etc. ) (刀郎人、罗布诺尔人（俗作罗布人）) refer to some division of Uyghurs, too.
Identity
baker]]
Throughout history, the term
Uyghur has taken on an increasingly expansive definition. Initially signifying only a small coalition of
Tiele tribes in Northern China, Mongolia, and the
Altay Mountains, it later denoted citizenship in the
Uyghur Khaganate. Finally it was expanded to an ethnicity, whose ancestry originates with the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 842 AD, which caused Uyghur migration from
Mongolia into the Tarim Basin. This migration assimilated and replaced the
Indo-Europeans of the region to create a distinct identity, as the language and culture of the Turkic migrants eventually supplanted the original Indo-European influences. This fluid definition of
Uyghur and the diverse ancestry of modern Uyghurs are a source of confusion about what constitutes true Uyghur
ethnography and
ethnogenesis.
Uyghur activists identify with the Tarim mummies, but research into the genetics of ancient Tarim mummies and their links with modern Uyghurs remain controversial, both to Chinese government officials concerned with ethnic separatism, and to Uyghur activists concerned that research could affect their claims of being indigenous to the region. In comparing the DNA of the mummies to that of modern day Uyghur peoples, Victor H. Mair's team found some genetic similarities with the mummies, but "no direct links", concluding that the mummies are Caucasoid, and that "the Uighur peoples arrived after the collapse of the Orkon Uighur Kingdom, largely based in modern day Mongolia, around the year 842."
Origin of modern nationality
Uyghur was not used to refer to any existing ethnic group in the 19th century, the "Uigur" people were referred to in the past tense, as an "ancient" people who no longer existed. For instance, a late 19th-century encyclopedia said that "Chinese Tartary" (Xinjiang) was at the time "occupied by a mixed population of Turk, Mongol, and Kalmuk". The inhabitants of Xinjiang were not called Uyghur before 1921/1934. Westerners called the Turkic speaking Muslims of the Oases "
Turki", and the Turkic muslims in Ili were known as "
Taranchi". The Russians and other foreigners used the names "Sart" for them. These groups of peoples identified themselves by the oases they came from, not by an ethnic group.
The name "Uyghur" reappeared after the Soviet Union took the ninth-century ethnonym, from the Uyghur Khaganate, and reapplied it to all non-nomadic Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang, 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 ethnic group, although the delegates noted that the modern groups referred to a "Uyghur" were distinct from the old Uyghur Khaganate. According to Linda Benson, the Soviets and the Kuomintang intended to foster a Uyghur nationality in order to divide the Muslim population of Xinjiang, whereas the various Turkic Muslim peoples themselves preferred to identify as "Turki", "East Turkestani", or "Muslim".
On the other hand, the ruling regime of China at that time, the Kuomintang, grouped all Muslims, including the Turkic-speaking people of Xinjiang, into the "Hui nationality". They generally referred to the Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang as "Chan Tou Hui" (turban-headed Muslim). Westerners traveling in Xinjiang in the 1930s, like George W. Hunter, Peter Fleming, Ella K. Maillart, and Sven Hedin all referred to the Turkic Muslims of the region not as Uyghur, but as "Turki", in their books. Use of the term "Uyghur" was unknown in Xinjiang until 1934, when the governor Sheng Shicai came to power in Xinjiang. Sheng adopted the Soviets' ethnographic classification rather than the Kuomintang one, and became the first to officially promulgate the use of the term "Uyghur" to describe the Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang. After the Communist victory, the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Zedong continued the Soviet classification, using the term Uyghur to describe the modern ethnic group. Scholars like Joana Breidenbach 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 both the Yugur and the Salar as subgroups of Uyghur (based on similar historical roots for the Yugur, and perceived linguistic similarities for the Salar). These groups are recognized as separate ethnic groups, though, by the Chinese government.
In current usage, Uyghur refers to settled Turkic 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.
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 three areas: present day Gansu, Xinjiang, and the Chu River the West of Tian Shan (Tengri-Tag) Mountains.
Yugor, the easternmost of the three Uyghur states, was the Ganzhou Kingdom (AD 870–1036), with its capital near present-day Zhangye in the Gansu province of China.
Karakhoja, the most central of the three Uyghur states, was the Karakhoja Kingdom (created during AD 856–866), also called the "Idiqut" ("Holy Wealth, Glory") state. The Idiquts (title of the Karakhoja rulers) ruled independently until 1209, when they submitted to the Mongols under Genghis Khan and, as vassal rulers, existed until 1335.
Kara-Khanids, or the Karakhans (Great Khans) Dynasty, was the westernmost of the three Uyghur states.
Both the Idiqut and the Kara-Khanid states eventually submitted to the Kara Khitais. After the rise of the Seljuk Turks in Iran, the Kara-Khanids became nominal vassals of the Seljuks as well. Later they would serve the dual-suzerainty of the Kara-Khitans to the north and the Seljuks to the south. All three states became vassals to Genghis Khan in 1209.
The Chagatai Khanate was a Mongol ruling khanate that initially inherited the part of the Mongol Empire that comprised the Uyghur's land controlled by Chagatai Khan, second son of the Mongol emperor 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).
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 Qing dynasty conquered East Turkestan 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 East Turkestan, 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, East Turkestan was renamed "Xinjiang" or "Sinkiang", which means "New Dominion" or "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)
Uyghur nationalism
.]]
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.
Recently Rebiya Kadeer was banned from entering Taiwan for three years. She had been invited by a Taiwanese arts organization to attend screenings of The 10 Conditions of Love, a documentary about her life story. Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) government claimed its rejection of Kadeer was "based on security needs." Kadeer said "it is unfortunate to see that KMT policy is increasingly mirroring Chinese policy on human rights. Under the Ma administration, all Chinese officials can freely travel to Taiwan. However, His Holiness the Dalai Lama was snubbed and I am prohibited from going there to attend a film screening."
Uyghurs of Taoyuan, Hunan
Around 5,000 Uyghurs live around
Taoyuan County and other parts of
Changde in
Hunan province. They are descended from a Uyghur leader, Hala Bashi, from
Turpan, sent to Hunan by the Ming Emperor in the 14th century, to crush the Miao rebels during the
Miao Rebellions (Ming Dynasty). Along with him came Uyghur soldiers from whom the Hunan Uyghurs also descend. The 1982 census records 4,000 Uyghurs in Hunan. They have genealogies which survive 600 years later to the present day. Genealogy keeping is a Han Chinese custom which the Hunan Uyghurs adopted. These Uyghurs were given the surname Jian by the Emperor. There is some confusion as to whether they practice Islam or not. Some say that they have assimilated with the Han and do not practice Islam anymore, and only their genealogies indicate their Uyghur ancestry. Chinese news sources report that they are Muslim. The Hui are descendants of Arabs and Han Chinese who intermarried, and they share the Islamic religion with the Uyghur in Hunan. Another paper by Li and Kidd found only about 30% European admixture.
Genetic history
Culture
in Khotan.]]
Most Uyghurs are Muslim, and practice Sufism. The relics of the Uyghur culture constitute major collections in the museums of Berlin, London, Paris, Tokyo, St. Petersburg, and New Delhi. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, scientific and archaeological expeditions to the region of Xinjiang's Silk Road discovered numerous cave temples, monastery ruins, and wall paintings, as well as valuable miniatures, books, and documents. Explorers from Europe, America, and Japan were amazed by the art treasures found there, and soon their reports caught the attention of an interested public around the world. Throughout the history of Central Asia, the Uyghurs left a lasting imprint on both the culture and tradition of the people of central Asia.
Chinese ambassador Wang Yande (939–1006), to the Karakhoja Uyghur Kingdom in AD 981–984:
"I was impressed with the extensive civilization I have found in the Uyghur Kingdom. The beauty of the temples, monasteries, wall paintings, statues, towers, gardens, housings and the palaces built throughout the kingdom cannot be described. The Uyghurs skilfully make things of silver and gold, vases and pitchers."
Education
Uyghurs in China, unlike the
Salar and
Hui who are also mostly Muslim, generally do not oppose
coeducation (grouping male and female students together).
Literature
Most of the early Uyghur literary works were translations of Buddhist and Manichean religious texts, but there were also narrative, poetic, and epic works original to the Uyghurs. Some of these have been translated into German, English, Russian, and Turkish. Among hundreds of important works surviving from that era are Qutatqu Bilik (Wisdom Of Royal Glory) by Yüsüp Has Hajip (1069–70), Mähmut Qäşqäri's Divan-i Lugat-it Türk- A Dictionary of Turkic Dialects(1072), and Ähmät Yüknäki's Atabetul Hakayik. Perhaps the most famous and best loved pieces of modern Uyghur literature are Abdurehim Otkur's Iz, Oyghanghan Zimin, Zordun Sabir's Anayurt and Ziya Samedi's (former minister of culture in Sinkiang Government in 50's) novels Mayimkhan and Mystery of the years.
Ferdinand de Saussure: "Those who preserved the language and written culture of Central Asia were the Uyghurs."
Medicine
The Uyghurs had an extensive knowledge of medicine and medical practice. Chinese
Song Dynasty (906–960) sources indicate that an Uyghur physician named Nanto traveled to China and brought with him many kinds of medicine unknown to the Chinese. There were 103 herbs used in Uyghur medicine recorded in a medical compendium by
Li Shizhen (1518–1593), a
Chinese medical authority.
Tatar scholar, professor Reşit Rahmeti Arat in
Zur Heilkunde der Uighuren (Medical Practices of the Uyghurs) published in 1930 and 1932, in Berlin, discussed Uyghur medicine. Relying on a sketch of a man with an explanation of acupuncture, he and some Western scholars suspect that acupuncture was not a Chinese, but an Uyghur discovery.
Today, traditional Uyghur medicine can still be found at street stands. Similar to other traditional medicine, diagnosis is usually made through checking the pulse, symptoms, and disease history, and then the pharmacist pounds up different dried herbs, making personalized medicines according to the prescription. Modern Uyghur medical hospitals adopted Western medical science and medicine and adopted Western pharmaceutical technology to discover new and produce traditional medicines.
Art
in Flaming Mountains, Turpan Depression.]]
There are 77
rock-cut caves at the site. Most have rectangular spaces with rounded
arch ceilings often divided into four sections, each with a
mural of
Buddha. The effect is of an entire ceiling covered with hundreds of Buddha murals. Some ceilings are painted with a large Buddha surrounded by other figures, including Indians, Persians and Europeans. The quality of the murals vary with some being artistically naive while others are masterpieces of religious art.
Music
, a local musical instrument)]]
Muqam is the classical musical style. The
12 Muqams are the national oral epic of the Uyghurs. The muqam system developed among the Uyghur in northwest
China and
Central Asia over approximately the last 1500 years from the Arabic
maqamat modal system that has led to many musical genres among peoples of
Eurasia and
North Africa. Uyghurs have local muqam systems named after the oasis towns of
Xinjiang (
Eastern Turkestan), such as
Dolan,
Ili,
Kumul and
Turpan. The most fully developed at this point is the Western
Tarim region's 12 muqams, which are now a large canon of music and songs recorded from the traditional performers
Turdi Akhun and
Omar Akhun among others in the 1950s and edited into a more systematic system. Although the folk performers probably improvised their songs as in Turkish
taksim performances, the present institutional canon is performed as fixed compositions by ensembles.
Each of the 12 muqams (named Rak, Čäbbiyat, Segah, Čahargah, Pänjigah, Özhal, Äjäm, Uššaq, Bayat, Nava, Mušavräk, and Iraq), consists of a main section that begins with a long free rhythm introduction, followed by pieces with characteristic rhythmic patterns that gradually increase in speed. These pieces are arranged in the same sequence in each muqam, although not all muqams have the same pieces. These parts are known as täzä, nuskha, small säliqä, jula, sänäm, large säliqä, päshru, and täkit. Some have an associated instrumental piece known as a märghul ("decoration") following it. Although each named piece has its characteristic rhythmic pattern, the melodies differ, so each piece is generally known by the muqam and the piece: for example, "the Rak nuskha" or "the Segah jula".
After the main section, there are two sections, originally associated with other musical traditions, but included in muqams by performers such as Turdi Akhun and therefore included in the present 12 muqam tradition. The Dastan section includes songs from several of the romantic dastan narratives found widely in Central and South Asia and the Middle East. Each dastan song is followed by an instrumental märghul. The Mäshräp section consists of more lively dance songs that were originally connected with the performances of sama by dervish musicians of Turkistan.
The Uyghur Muqam of Xinjiang has been designated by UNESCO as part of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
Amannisa Khan, sometimes called Amanni Shahan, (1526–1560) is credited with collecting and thereby preserving the Twelve Muqam.
Russian scholar Pantusov writes that the Uyghurs manufactured their own musical instruments; they had 62 different kinds of musical instruments and in every Uyghur home there used to be an instrument called a "dutar".
Cuisine
See also
Tocharians
List of Uyghurs
Kushan Empire
Uyghur timeline
Ugrians
Meshrep
References
Further reading
Chinese Cultural Studies: Ethnography of China: Brief Guide at acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu
Beckwith, Christopher I. (2009). Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13589-2.
Findley, Carter Vaughn. 2005. The Turks in World History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516770-8; 0-19-517726-6 (pbk.)
.
Hessler, Peter. Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006.
Hierman, Brent. "The Pacification of Xinjiang: Uighur Protest and the Chinese State, 1988-2002." Problems of Post-Communism, May/Jun2007, Vol. 54 Issue 3, pp 48–62
Human Rights in China: China, Minority Exclusion, Marginalization and Rising Tensions, London, Minority Rights Group International, 2007
Kamberi, Dolkun. 2005. Uyghurs and Uyghur identity. Sino-Platonic papers, no. 150. Philadelphia, PA: Dept. of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania.
Mackerras, Colin. Ed. and trans. 1972. The Uighur Empire according to the T'ang Dynastic Histories: a study in Sino-Uyghur relations 744–840. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 0-87249-279-6
Millward, James A. and Nabijan Tursun, (2004) "Political History and Strategies of Control, 1884–1978" in Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland, ed. S. Frederick Starr. Published by M. E. Sharpe. ISBN 978-0765613189.
Millward, James A. (2007). Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang. Columbia University Press, New York. ISBN 978-0-231-13924-3.
Rall, Ted. Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East? New York: NBM Publishing, 2006.
Rudelson, Justin Ben-Adam, Oasis identities: Uyghur nationalism along China's Silk Road, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Tyler, Christian. (2003). Wild West China: The Untold Story of a Frontier Land. John Murray, London. ISBN 0-7195-6341 0.
Islam in China, Hui and Uyghurs: between modernization and sinicization, the study of the Hui and Uyghurs of China, Jean A. Berlie, White Lotus Press editor, Bangkok, Thailand, published in 2004. ISBN 9744800623, 9789744800626.
External links
London Uyghur Ensemble Uyghur Culture and History; Multimedia site-links to cultural and historical background, current news, research materials and photographs.
Introduction to Uyghur Culture and History Links to cultural and historical background, current news, research materials and photographs.
Britannica Uighur people
Note on Uyghur Literature Center for the Art of Translation
Category:Islam in China
Category:Muslim communities of China
