Editor's Notes: Xinjiang has historically been an area where various ethnic groups of the Chinese nation have lived together, many cultures have communicated with each other, and different religions have coexisted since ancient times. The Uygur ethnic group, with long time migration and integration on this land, has become one of the main ethnic groups in Xinjiang, and the majority of its ancestors are the Ouigours in Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907) in China.

Turkic peoples in history

During the Shang (1600-1046 BC) and Zhou dynasties (1046-256 BC), the northern nomads were known as "Beidi", or "Di in the north". Later, during the Qin (221-207 BC) and Han dynasties (207 BC-AD 220), they were referred to as "Dingling". Later on, they were called "Tiele". In the 6th century, the Ashina clan of the Tiele people rose to power. United with other Tiele tribes, they overthrew the Rouran Khanate, which had ruled the Mongolian steppes, and established the Turkic Khanate in 552. Since then, the term "Turk" has been used to refer to them.

At the height of the Turkic Khanate's power, its territory extended from the Hinggan Mountains in the east to the area north of the Syr Darya in Central Asia in the west, which is the present-day Kazakh Steppe, and to the Yin Mountains in the south. The Central Plains was in a state of fragmentation before the Sui Dynasty (581-618). Kingdoms such as the Northern Qi and the Northern Zhou had, at a time, acknowledged the Turkic Khanate as their suzerain and even paid tribute.

After the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, the Central Plains were unified and strengthened, while the previous powerful Turkic Khanate gradually submitted to the Sui Dynasty, and was later split into eastern and western parts. The eastern part resided in the Mongolian steppes, while the western part led a nomadic way of life in the Junggar Basin and the eastern regions of the Kazakh steppes, situated to the north of the Syr Darya River.

After the fall of the Sui Dynasty, the Turkic Khanate was once again in opposition to the Tang Dynasty. Following Tang Dynasty's quelling down of both the eastern and the western Turkic Khanates, the Tang central government established several military and administrative institutions. Officials and soldiers were dispatched to govern the territories that were once under the control of the Turkic Khanates. Consequently, most of the Turkic tribes became part of the population of the Tang Dynasty, and the lands controlled by the Turkic Khanate became part of Tang's territory.

Later on, some Turkic tribes briefly reestablished their Khanate on the Mongolian steppes, known as the Second Turkic Khanate. However, it wasn't long before the Tang Dynasty, joined forces with the Ouigour tribes, brought about the demise of the Second Turkic Khanate, leading to the westward migration of some nomadic Turkic tribes and their mixing with local tribes in Central and West Asia. Ever since then, Turks have disappeared from China's northern regions.

The relationship between the Ouigours and the Turks

Today's "Uygur" was historically known as "Ouigour" which was changed to "Uighur" in 788. Both names are transliterations of the Turkic term "Uygur" — the name of a tribe from the Mongolian steppes — at different stages.

After the Turkic Khanate was established, both the Ouigour and the Tiele tribes came under its rule. The Turkic Khanate was a slave-based regime with cruel governance. In their diehard resistance against the Turkic Khanate, the Ouigour people received support from the Tang Dynasty and thereby grew in power.

In 744, the Tang Dynasty conquered the Turkic Khanate. Among the numerous Tiele tribes in the Mongolian steppes, the Ouigour tribe emerged as the most powerful one. After securing recognition from the Tang Dynasty, the Ouigours rose as the dominant force in the northern steppes and absorbed other Tiele tribes, establishing the Ouigour Khanate.

In the year 839 (the fourth year of the Kaicheng Period in Tang Dynasty), the northern steppes encountered unprecedented natural disasters. In the meantime, nobles vying for the position of Khan brought about internal strife. As a result, the Ouigour Khanate began to decline and collapsed in the following year.

Afterwards, some Ouigour tribes chose to remain in the northern steppes, gradually integrating into the later Mongol population. Meanwhile, other Ouigour tribes split into several smaller ones and departed from the northern steppes under the leadership of different chieftains. Their moved either southward or westward because the only suitable pasturelands for them were located in Monan (the region situated to the south of the vast deserts on the Mongolian Plateau) and the Junggar Basin.

The impact of the Ouigours' westward migration on Xinjiang

Following the collapse of the Ouigour Khanate in the northern steppes, a group of Ouigours led by their noble chieftain, later conferred the title as Kutlug Bilge Khagan, embarked on a westward migration.

They followed the traditional steppe routes, initially arriving in Beiting (present-day Jimsar County in Xinjiang). In order to secure sufficient pastureland, they gradually dispersed. Some tribes continued their westward journey, primarily settling along the shores of Lake Issyk-Kul, which is now within the territory of Kyrgyzstan, and the Ili River Valley, where they established the Kara-Khanid Khanate. Most of the Ouigours who migrated westward remained within present-day Xinjiang, where they established the Uighur Kingdom of Gaochang (present-day Turpan).

In essence, after the Ouigours migrated westward into Xinjiang, they established two new regimes at the eastern and western ends of the Tarim Basin. The original inhabitants of the basin were oasis-dwelling agricultural people. As nomadic people, the Ouigours possessed superior military capabilities. Over a span of more than a century, they gradually subdued the indigenous people of diverse oases, gaining control over the entire Tarim Basin.

Ethnic groups in the Tarim Basin of southern Xinjiang before Ouigours' arrival

Prior to the Ouigours' migration into the Tarim Basin, the local population displayed remarkable diversity and complexity, unrivaled by many other regions. The oases in the Tarim Basin played a pivotal role as crossroads for east-west trade and the Silk Road. Due to its highly strategic location, the region experienced continuous southward invasions by northern nomadic tribes. As a result, this region became a crossroads for the interactions of various cultures and ethnicities from different directions.

During the Western Han Dynasty, historical records written in Chinese provided detailed accounts of various aspects of the people residing in the oases of the Tarim Basin. Before the Western Han government established the Protectorate of the Western Regions, there were altogether 36 kingdoms in these oases, characterized by settled agricultural communities. The populations of these kingdoms varied, ranging from larger kingdoms with several tens of thousands of inhabitants to smaller ones with populations ranging from several hundreds to a few thousands. This region was inhabited by a diverse array of peoples, including the "Hu" people (a term often used to describe non-Han Chinese peoples residing in the historical Western Regions), with high-bridged noses and deep-set eyes, the Qiang people exhibiting Mongoloid features, and Han People. Prior to the Ouigours' arrival, the languages predominantly spoken in the Tarim Basin were Indo-European languages, specifically the Tocharian languages and Saka languages. In addition, old Tibetan and Chinese were also spoken. The Uygur language and script were not yet prevalent.

The southern Xinjiang after the Ouigours' arrival in Tarim Basin

The Ouigours who migrated westward established political power in various regions, including Turpan, Kashi, and areas west of the Congling Mountains. They gradually expanded their influence from both the eastern and western ends towards the central Tarim Basin. Eventually, in 1006, the Kingdom of Khotan, the last kingdom of the indigenous people in the heartland of the basin fell apart. Since then, in the Tarim Basin, only the Gaochang regime established by the Ouigours and the Kara-Khanid Khanate remained in confrontation.

The indigenous people of the Tarim Basin gradually abandoned their own written and spoken languages, and began to take Turkic language and Khwarazmian script. This marked the establishment of Ouigour rule in the Tarim Basin and the beginning of Turkicization in the region. The Ouigours gradually abandoned their traditional nomadic culture and embraced the local agrarian culture with higher economic and cultural levels.

At the time, in the Tarim Basin, the conditions to form a unified ethnic group were inadequate. On one side, the integration between the indigenous peoples and the Ouigour people had not fully completed. In other words, the process of linguistic Turkicization among the indigenous population and the Ouigour's absorption and learning of agrarian culture had not come to an end. On the other side, the confrontation between the Gaochang regime and the Kara-Khanid Khanate due to the religious discrepancy had left them no room for unifying as one ethnic group.

In terms of religious belief, the Kara-Khanid Khanate in the west part of the Tarim Basin held Islam as their state religion, while the inhabitants of the eastern Gaochang Uigour Kingdom were primarily Buddhists and Manichaeans. The difference in religion caused the cultural and psychological gaps. Politically, the two sides, like water and fire, were in a state of hostility.

In the later days of Yuan Dynasty, the Tarim Basin was in a state of division and turmoil. Meanwhile, Islam continued to expand eastward, and till 16th century, Buddhism has been driven out of Turpan.

In 1514, the Tarim Basin became unified and the 500-year religious struggle came to an end. The entire population of the Tarim Basin embraced Islam. The establishment of a unified government and religion transformed the narrow religious and regional consciousness of the past into a collective national identity that encompassed all residents of the basin. Indeed, during this time, the cultural, customary, and ancestral fusion between the Ouigours and the indigenous population of the Tarim Basin was completed. As a result, the modern concept of the Uygur ethnic group emerged.

How the origin of the Uygur ethnic group was distorted and exploited by Pan-Turkism

In discussions and policy-making concerning minority's rights, international academic circle and governments of numerous countries normally divide minorities into several categories, and hold the idea that different categories have different levels of priority in national allocation of political and economic resources.

Generally speaking, minorities are categorized into three groups including ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples and immigrant minorities, among which indigenous peoples are considered to have the highest priority in obtaining resources.

In order to separate China, "East Turkestan" and "Xinjiang separatists" have been continuously distorting the history of Xinjiang and that of the Uygur ethnic group, claiming that the Uygur people are the earliest residents of Xinjiang, the indigenous people in Xinjiang. They also claimed that their ancestors had been living in Xinjiang since the Stone Age, that the various states in the Western Regions during the Han Dynasty, such as the Thirty-Six Kingdoms, were established by the Uygur people, and that other ethnic groups in Xinjiang were immigrants from outside the region.

It should also be noted that in the late Qing Dynasty, the Central Asian Uzbek warlord Yakub Beg temporarily occupied a large part of Xinjiang and sold Uygur people as slaves to Turkey.

The pseudo-state "Kokand Khanate" established by Yaqub Beg received support from the Ottoman Sultan of the Ottoman Empire at that time. Yaqub Beg regarded the Ottoman Sultan as the sovereign ruler of his pseudo-state. In 1878, Zuo Zongtang led his troops to quell down the "Kokand Khanate" and restored Xinjiang, putting an end to the ambitions of the Ottoman Sultan over Xinjiang.

It is self-evident that there is no historical connection between the Uygur and Turkey. Yet under the pernicious influence of Pan-Turkism, there are still individuals believing and propagating the misconception that the Uygur and Turkey are of the same family.

It is the foremost responsibility of historians to reveal the truth of history. The historical fact is that the ancestors of the Uygur ethnic group, known as the Ouigours, who dwelled on the original Mongolian steppes, and the Turkic people who centered around the Ashina clan, are two distinct groups.

From the 6th to the 8th century, both sides engaged in a 200-year-long war on the Mongolian steppes. In the mid-8th century, the conflict came to an end with the defeat of the Turkic people and their subsequent migration to Central and West Asia.

The Uygur's ancestors, the Ouigours, migrated to Xinjiang from the Mongolian steppes in the mid-9th century and were not the earliest inhabitants of the Tarim Basin. Apart from belonging to the Turkic language family within the Altaic language group (albeit different branches), the Uygur ethnic group has no historical connection with Turkey.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of DeepChina.

The author is Yang Shengmin, professor of Minzu University of China.