The meaning of the term Uyghur is unclear. Most Uyghur linguists and historians regard the word as coming from uyughur (uyushmaq in modern Uyghur language), literally meaning 'united' or 'people who tend to come together'. The Turkic runic inscriptions record a word uyɣur, which was transcribed into Chinese as Huí Hé in Chinese Tang dynasty annals. Later, in response to an Uyghur request, this was changed to Huí Hú in 788 or 809. Chinese history Jiu Wudai Shi interprets the term Huí Hú literally as the "rapidity with which they turned around and swooped down like a falcon".
Modern etymological explanations have ranged from "to follow, accommodate oneself" and "non-rebellious" to "to wake, rouse, stir" (from oðğur-), none of which is thought satisfactory because the sound shift ð/ḏ > y did not appear to have taken place by this time. he etymology therefore cannot be accurately determined, and historically the groups it denoted were not ethnically fixed, since it denoted a political rather than a tribal identity, or was used originally to refer to just one group among several, the others calling themselves Toquz Oghuz.
The earliest record of an Uyghur tribe is from the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534). At that time the ethnonym Gaoche was used, and later, Tiele. The first use of Uyghur as a reference to a political nation occurred during the interim period between the First and Second Göktürk Khaganates (630-684).
The term Uyghur disappeared from historical records in the 15th century, but the Bolsheviks reintroduced the term Uyghur to replace the previously used Turk or Turki. In modern usage, Uyghur refers to settled Turkic urban dwellers and farmers of Kashgaria or Uyghurstan who follow traditional Central Asian sedentary practices, as distinguished from nomadic Turkic populations in Central Asia.
Identity
Throughout its 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 into an ethnicity whose ancestry originates with the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate in the year 842, 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 create confusion about what constitutes true Uyghur ethnography and ethnogenesis.
Contemporary scholars consider modern Uyghurs to be the descendants of a number of people, including the ancient Uyghurs of Mongolia who arrived at the Tarim Basin after the fall of Uyghur Khaganate, Iranian Saka tribes, and other Indo-European peoples who inhabited the Tarim Basin before the arrival of the Mongolian Uyghurs. DNA analyses indicate that the peoples of central Asia such as the Uyghurs are all mixed Caucasian and East Asian.
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.
Origin of the modern ethnic concept
- "The Uighurs are the people whom old Russian travellers called Sart (a name which they used for sedentary, Turkish-speaking Central Asians in general), while Western travellers called them Turki, in recognition of their language. The Chinese used to call them Ch'an-t'ou ('Turbaned Heads') but this term has been dropped, being considered derogatory, and the Chinese, using their own pronunciation, now called them Weiwuerh. As a matter of fact there was for centuries no 'national' name for them; people identified themselves with the oasis they came from, like Kashgar or Turfan."" — Owen Lattimore, "Return to China's Northern Frontier." The Geographical Journal, Vol. 139, No. 2, June 1973
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", "Turk", or "Turki" for them. These groups of peoples identified themselves by the oases they came from, not by an ethnic group. Names such as Kashgarliq to mean Kashgari were used. The Turkic people also used "Musulman", which means "Muslim", to describe themselves.
The name "Uyghur" reappeared after the Soviet Union took the 9th-century ethnonym from the Uyghur Khaganate and reapplied it to all non-nomadic Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang, following a 19th-century proposal from Russian historians that modern-day Uyghurs were descended from the Turpan Kingdom and Kara-Khanid Khanate, which had formed after the dissolution of the Uyghur Khaganate. 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 as "Uyghur" were distinct from the old Uyghur Khaganate. According to Linda Benson, the Soviets and their client Sheng Shicai intended to foster a Uyghur nationality 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". The Qing and the Kuomintang generally referred to the sedentary, oasis dwelling Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang as "Chan Tou Hui" (turban-headed Muslim) to differentiate them from other Muslim ethnic groups in China. 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 there. Sheng adopted the Soviets' ethnographic classification rather than that of the Kuomintang and became the first to promulgate the official 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.
Another ethnic group, the Buddhist Yugur of Gansu, by contrast, have consistently been called by themselves and others the "Yellow Uyghur" (Säriq Uyghur). Some scholars 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 of both the Yugur and the Salar as subgroups of Uyghur (based on similar historical roots for the Yugur and on perceived linguistic similarities for the Salar). These groups are recognized as separate ethnic groups, though, by the Chinese government.
Pan-Turkic Jadidists and East Turkestan Independence activists Muhammad Amin Bughra (Mehmet Emin) and Masud Sabri rejected the Soviet imposition of the name "Uyghur" upon the Turkic people of Xinjiang. They wanted instead the name "Turkic ethnicity" (Tujue zu in Chinese) to be applied to their people. Masud Sabri also viewed the Hui people as Muslim Han Chinese and separate from his own people. The names "Türk" or "Türki" in particular were demanded by Bughra as the real name for his people. He criticized Sheng Shicai for his designation of Turkic Muslims into different ethnicities which could sow disunion among Turkic Muslims.
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. However, the Chinese government has also designated as "Uyghur" certain peoples with significantly divergent histories and ancestries from the main group. These include the Loplik people and the Dolan people, who are thought to be closer to the Oirat Mongols and the Kyrgyz.
History
The history of the Uyghur people, as with the ethnic origin of the people, is a matter of contention between Uyghur nationalists and the Chinese authority. Uyghur historians viewed the Uyghurs as the original inhabitants of Xinjiang with a long history. Uyghur politician and historian Muhemmed Imin Bughra wrote in his book A history of East Turkestan, stressing the Turkic aspects of his people, that the Turks have a 9000-year history, while historian Turgun Almas incorporated discoveries of Tarim mummies to conclude that Uyghurs have over 6400 years of history, and the World Uyghur Congress claimed a 4,000-year history.
However, official Chinese view asserts that the Uyghurs in Xinjiang originated from the Tiele tribes and only became the main social and political force in Xinjiang during the ninth century when they migrated to Xinjiang from Mongolia after the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate, replacing the Han Chinese they claimed were there since the Han Dynasty. Many contemporary Western scholars, however, do not consider the modern Uyghurs to be of direct linear descent from the old Uyghur Khaganate of Mongolia. Rather, they consider them to be descendants of a number of people, one of them the ancient Uyghurs.
Early history
Discovery of well-preserved Tarim mummies of a people European in appearance indicates the migration of an Indo-European people into the Tarim area at the beginning of the Bronze age around 2,000 BCE. These people probably spoke Tocharian, and were suggested by some to be the Yuezhi mentioned in ancient Chinese text. Uyghur nationalists claimed these mummies to be of Uyghur origin, based partly on a word, which they argued to be Uyghur, found in written scripts associated with these mummies, although other linguists suggest it to be a Sogdian word later absorbed into Uyghur.
Later migrations brought peoples from the west and northwest to the Xinjiang region, probably speakers of various Iranian languages such as the Saka tribes. Other people in the region mentioned in ancient Chinese texts include the Dingling as well as the Xiongnu who fought for supremacy in the region against the Chinese for several hundred years. The Dingling is seen by early Chinese history books to be the ancestors of the ancient Uyghurs. Some Uyghur nationalists also claimed descent from the Xiongnu (according to Chinese history Weishu, the founder of the Uyghurs was descended from a Xiongnu ruler), but the view is contested by modern Chinese scholars.
The Yuezhi were driven away by the Xiongnu, but founded the Kushan Empire which exerted some influence in the Tarim Basin where Kharoshti scripts used by the Kushan Empire have been found in Loulan, Niya and Khotan. Loulan and Khotan were some of the many city states that existed in the Xinjiang region during the Han Dynasty, others include Kucha, Turfan, Karashahr and Kashgar. The settled population of these cities later merged with incoming Turkic people such as the Uyghurs of Uyghur Khaganate to form the modern Uyghurs.
Uyghur Khaganate
The Uyghurs of the Uyghur Khaganate were part of a Turkic confederation called the Tiele, who lived in the valleys south of Lake Baikal and around the Yenisei River. They overthrew the Göktürk Khaganate and established the Uyghur Khaganate.
The Uyghur Khaganate stretched from the Caspian Sea to Manchuria and lasted from 745 to 840. It was administered from the imperial capital Ordu-Baliq, one of the biggest ancient cities built in Mongolia. In 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 dispersed and moved out of Mongolia.
Uyghur kingdoms
According to Tang Dynasty history Xin Tangshu, the ancient Uyghurs who founded the Uyghur Khaganate dispersed after the fall of the Khaganate; some went to live amongst the Karluks, and some moved to Turpan and Gansu. These Uyghurs soon founded two kingdoms, the easternmost state was the Ganzhou Kingdom (870–1036), with its capital near present-day Zhangye in the Gansu province of China. The modern Yugur people are believed to be descendants of the Old Uyghur people. The kingdom was absorbed by the Tanguts in 1036..
The second Uyghur kingdom, the Kingdom of Qocho (also known as Uyghuristan in its later period), was founded in the Turpan area with its capital in Gaochang (Qocho) and Beshbalik. The Qocho Kingdom lasted from the ninth to the fourteenth century, and proved to be longer-lasting than any power in the region, before or since. The Uyghurs were originally Manichaean, but converted to Buddhism in Qocho.
The Qocho Kingdom accepted the Kara-Khitans as the overlord in 1130s, and in 1209 submitted voluntarily to the rising Mongol Empire. The Uyghurs of Kingdom of Qocho were allowed significant autonomy and played an important role as civil servants to the Mongol Empire, but was finally destroyed by the Chaghataid Mongols in the 1390s.
Source : Wikipedia.
