Brief history of
Uyghurs in
Xinjiang (by
Sogdia)
** Before
Chinese Han Dynasty 200 BC:
Central Asia was a region predominately occupied by ancient
Persian tribes such as the sedentary
Sogdians ( 粟特), Chorasmians (花剌子模) and, the semi-nomadic such as
Scythians (斯基泰, 西徐亞, 塞種), and
Alans (奄蔡). The ancient sedentary population played an important role in the history of Central Asia.
Tajiks,
Pashtuns (普什图),
Pamiris (塔吉克) and other Persian groups are still present in the region. The ancient
Persian language (
Dari) is still the official language in
Afganistan and in some areas in
Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan.
Turkic group of people, such as Uyghurs, came to Central Asia very late in history (after 800 AD), much later than
Han Chinese did in 200 BC.
** Chinese Han Dynasty in Xinjiang (206 BC to
220 AD):
Han Chinese extended its power influence in the forms of territory and protectorates in today's Xinjiang, part of
Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Today's Xinjinag was again under the power influence (protectorates and territory) of
Tang Dynasty (618-907AD) and became territory of
Qing Dynasty (1644-1911AD).
Peoples Republic of China has taken over the territory sovereignty over Xinjiang from Qing Dynasty and
Republic of China.
**
Uyghur emigrated in Xinjiang (840-850 AD):
Uyghur
Empires (742-848 AD, 回纥 or 回鶻) was in today's
Mongolia with the capital at
Ordu Baliq that located
300 km west of
Ulaanbaatar (close to
Town of Hotont) and it was annihilated by
Kyrgyz tribe in 848
AD. The Kyrgyz destroyed and burned down every Uyghur cities and villages throughout the empire. Three groups of Uyghurs escaped from the annihilation. One group escaped to today's
Gansu area and assimilated with Han Chinese. Another group escaped to today's
Turpan in central Xinjiang. The last group escaped further west and scattered over today's
Kashgar in south Xinjiang, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajkistan and Uzbekistan.
Uyghurs has never had appreciable presence in north Xinjiang. They are mostly concentrated in Kashgar,
Khotan, Aksu, and
Kizilsu areas in south Xinjiang and Turpan in central Xinjiang. Uyghur is about 46% of the total population in Xinjiang, Han 40% and Kazak 7%. To call Xinjiang as "UYGHUR"
Autonomous Region" is highly debatable.
**
Xiongnu,
Turkics and
Turks
Turkics/Turks are Turko-Mongolian
Tribes originated from today's Mongolia area. The ancesters of Uyghurs (
维吾尔) is Xiongnu (匈奴). The earliest written record of Xiongnu or
Turk (
Tujue, 突厥) in history was in
Han Dynasty around 200BC. The earliest use of the term "Uyghur" in history was in
Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534
AD). Earlier historical written records of Xiongnu, Turk or Uyghur are all done by Han Chinese because they lacked the ability of reading and writing.
The Reading and writing is an essential for any moderate sophisticated society during the evolution. Some civilization had never reached to such level of sophistication before it vanished. The transition from nomadic to sedentary is an important evolution in the early human civilization history. The four oldest human civilizations all arose on the basins of major rivers; Tigris-Euphrates,
Nile,
Indus and
Yellow Rivers, where the fertile alluvial farm lands were easily found.
Farming, villages, cities, state-nation, different social classes, political and economic systems are the backbone of the civilization
. In the process of evolution, the need for written records for economic and political affairs occurred naturally. That was why all these old civilization had evolved the writings as earlier as in 5000BC or 6000BC
The relatively primitive nature of
Turkish/
Turkic culture has always influenced by the outside cultures.
First the Persian influence, then
Arab, and
European is the most recently.
All
Turkic people have learnt how to read and write very late in human hostory. Uyghur was the first Turkic group learnt the reading and writing after they emigrated from Kyrgyz annihilation in Mongolia to today's
Turpan and
Tarim Basin. The writing script they used was from the ancient Persian
Sogdiana script.
Arab had huge influence on Turks/Turkics after 800 or 900 AD as Turks/Turkics have adapted
Islam religion and change into the
Arabic scripts in writing.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern
Turkey, wanted to Europeanize Turks in
1920s with the intention to get rid of Arabic influence. He wanted Turks to dress like
Europeans, and write like Europeans. However, after almost 60 years of continuous efforts, Turkey is still not accepted as the full membership at EU.
Thanks to the
Chinese government for preserving the minority culture, All the Turkic minorities, including Uyghur, still uses the Arab writing script as today. All other Turkic or Turkish groups in other countries have changed to either
Russian Cyrillic or
Latin alphabet.
- published: 10 Jul 2009
- views: 227451