The Uighurs, ancestors of the Uygurs, once established regimes including the Qocho Uighur Kingdom in Xinjiang. Were the Qocho Uighurs (Gaochang Huihu in Chinese pinyin) a foreign ethnic group? This is a question often raised in studies of Xinjiang's history.

It is recorded clearly in historical documents that the Qocho Uighurs came from Mobei (the northern desert region) under the rule of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), and so were a native ethnic group in China. The Qocho Uighur regime accepted the enfeoffment of the central government, and always kept close ties with the latter.

Where did the Uighurs come from?

The ancestors of the Qocho Uighurs were the Ouigour, a native Chinese ethnic group that established the Ouigour Khanate, a regional government in the northern deserts of China, in the 840s. The territory of this khanate spanned from the Xing'anling Mountains in the east to the Altai Mountains in the west. These places were under the Tang's rule back then. In 788, the Ouigour ruler wrote to the Tang emperor, requesting him to change the Chinese name of his people from 回纥 (Huihe in Chinese pinyin, known as Ouigour) into 回鹘 (Huihu in Chinese pinyin, known as Uighur).

Over roughly a century from 744 to 840, the Ouigour (Uighurs) was a Jimi prefecture (prefectures established by ancient Chinese courts in remote ethnic minority areas) of the Tang Dynasty. The Ouigour Khanate had 13 khans, of which 12 were recognized by the Tang government and declared themselves a vassal of the Tang emperor. Ouigour ministers were directly appointed and removed by the Tang government, and the Ouigour military was also subject to the direct control of the central government. After the An-Shi Rebellion broke out in 755, senior Tang generals including Guo Ziyi quelled the rebellion with the help of the Ouigour troops.

The Ouigour (Uighurs) sold horses in exchange for silk, tea and grain from the Tang Dynasty, and transported part of the silk fabrics to be sold in Central Asia. Back then, people living in Chang'an (the Tang capital, the present-day Xi'an, Shaanxi province) and Luoyang loved wearing Uighur clothing. When it came to the fashion scene in the Tang capital, Lady Huarui (c. 883–926), a poet of the Later Shu kingdom wrote, "Maids in Uighur costume riding Uighur horses," which suggests prevalent economic and cultural exchanges between the Central Plains and the Uighur.

How did the Uighurs migrate to Xinjiang?

The Uighurs began to migrate westward from Mobei in the 940s. This migration was due to intensifying conflicts between the Khan and Uighur nobility, which began in the early 9th century and finally led to the disintegration of the Uighur tribes. During the same period, Mobei was hit by natural disasters, including heavy snow and piercing wind, causing deaths of many goats and horses. Soon, also came a plague that made it even harder for the Uighur tribes to keep a foothold in Mobei.

In 840, the Uighur Khanate was overthrown by the Kirgiz. One part of the Uighurs migrated to the inland and intermingled with the local Han Chinese, and the rest split into three branches: One branch migrated to the Turpan Basin and an area called Jimsar today in Xinjiang, where they founded the Qocho Uighur Kingdom; another branch migrated to the Hexi Corridor, where they mingled and integrated with local tribes, giving rise to the present-day Yugur ethnic group; and a third branch migrated to an area west of the Pamirs (called Congling in ancient times) and later populated areas from Central Asia to Kashgar (present-day Kashi City), Xinjiang, where they established the Kara-Khanid Khanate together with other tribes, including the Qarluqs and the Yaghmas.

The branch of the Uighurs migrating to the Turpan Basin, upon arriving in Karasahr (or Yanqi), gathered their tribesmen dispersed across Anxi (the area governed by Anxi protectorate set up by the Tang government in the Western Regions) and recovered from the crisis over time. They established the Anxi Uighur regime in Karasahr. In the second year of Dazhong's reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (848), Pang Teqin, chief of the Anxi Uighur regime, declared himself to be Khan. Pang Teqin sent envoys to the Tang Dynasty three times, requesting the conferring of the title. Over the next dozen years, Pang Teqin (Menglig Qaghan) sent tributes to the Tang government several times.

In 866, the Uighur forces in Beiting, who formerly submitted to Pang Teqin, became increasingly stronger and defeated Tubo who had ruled Beiting, before capturing Luntai (present-day Urumqi), Qingzhen (present-day Manas), and Xizhou (present-day Turpan area). Thus, the Beiting Uighurs became a major political force that took the place of the Anxi Uighur, and reported this victory to the Tang court. In 913, the Beiting Uighur regime moved to Qocho (present-day Karakhoja, Turpan), where the Qocho Uighur Kingdom was founded. As a result, the Beiting Uighurs became known as "Qocho Uighurs."

Later, the Qiuci Uighurs became subordinated to the Qocho Uighur. From then on, different names such as Qocho Uighurs, Xizhou Uighurs, Qiuci Uighurs, and Arslan Uighurs referred to the same Uighurs inhabiting the former Beiting and Anxi protectorates of the Tang Dynasty and the Qocho-centered regional government these Uighurs established.

What are the relations between the Qocho Uighurs and the Central Government?

Qocho, one of the areas in Xinjiang that had the closest ties with the Central Plains, was most deeply influenced by the Central Plains culture and became the most economically and culturally developed area since the early Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD220). After the Uighurs migrated here, they gradually shifted from nomadism to an agricultural settlement under the influence of the Central Plains and its advanced farming culture, and converted from Manichaeism to Buddhism. The ensuing rapid advances in economy and culture made Qocho Uighur Kingdom one of the three well-matched regional regimes in Xinjiang, with the other two being the Kingdom of Yutian (or Khotan) and the Kara-Khanid Khanate.

Qocho Uighur, as a regional government in China at that time, maintained close political, economic and cultural ties with the central government and other regional regimes. In the year when the Later Zhou (951–960), the last of the Five Dynasties, was founded, envoys sent by the Qocho Uighur Kingdom visited Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng, Henan) with a large quantity of tributes, establishing a tributary relationship with the Later Zhou.

After the Song Dynasty (960-1279) was founded, the Qocho Uygur regime sent a group of envoys to the Song capital to establish political and economic ties with the imperial court. The Khan of Qocho Uighurs at this time claimed to be a nephew of the Song emperor to show his close and friendly relationship with the Song court. In 981, the imperial court sent a group of envoys to Qocho that were warmly-received and entertained by the King of Qocho. After they left, the Qocho Uighur Kingdom sent envoys to the Song court to express their gratitude to the emperor.

The Qocho Uighurs maintained friendly relations with the Liao Dynasty (907-1125), which ruled northern China. After Yelü Abaoji, the chieftain of the Qidan (Khitan) tribes, established the Liao Dynasty and declared himself emperor, the Qocho Uighurs sent a mission to pay tribute. Their ties grew closer as Qidan's sphere of influence expanded to the north of the Tianshan Mountains. The Liao central government even assigned chiefs and principal government officials to manage Qocho Uighur.

After the Western Liao (1124-1218) was established, the Qocho Uighur Kingdom became a vassal of the new dynasty. During Genghis Khan's western expeditions (1219–1260), the Qocho Uighur Kingdom was the first to submit to the Mongols, becoming part of the Beshbalik Province (present-day Jimsar county, Xinjiang).

How did Qocho Uighurs convert to Islam?

Buddhism was dominant in Xinjiang for more than 1,000 years, from the first century B.C. to the early 10th century. Qocho Uighur's conversion from Buddhism to Islam was largely the result of conquest and coercion.

Islam spread to Central Asia in the middle of the ninth century, coinciding with Arab military conquests. The Samanid Kingdom, which bordered Xinjiang, provoked a religious war against the Kara-Khanid Khanate, capturing large portions of its territory.

The Samanid Kingdom then had an internal strife, and Prince Nasr fled to Kashgar (present-day Kashi, Xinjiang) after failing in the fight for the throne. The prince ordered the construction of the Great Mosque of Artux—Xinjiang's first mosque—and converted Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan—an important member of the Kara-Khanid Khanate - to Islam. Satuq Bughra Khan took power in 910 after staging a palace coup. Since then, Satuq Bughra Khan has used his power to impose Islam. In 960, Satuq Bughra Khan's son Musa, declared Islam the state religion of the Kara-Khanid Khanate.

Many Buddhist monks and monasteries in the Kara-Khanid Khanate were brutally persecuted by the empire and forced to convert to Islam. Because of their generations-long devotion to Buddhism, the Kingdom of Yutian supported Buddhists in Kashgar (present-day Kashi) in their revolt against forced religious conversion. On this ground, the Kara-Khanid Khanate waged a decades-long religious war against Yutian. The Yutian Buddhists revolt lasted more than a half-century. Ultimately, the Yutians failed in this struggle and were forced to accept Islam.

The Uighurs who migrated westward from Mobei initially practiced Manichaeism, but many of them converted to Buddhism after moving to Xinjiang. The Qocho Uighurs aided Yutian in the religious conflict between the Karakhanids and Yutian. As a result, after destroying the Kingdom of Yutian, the Kara-Khanid Khanate declared war on the Qocho Uighurs. The Karakhanid troops attacking the Qocho Uighurs massacred the Uighurs who did not believe in Islam, while the Qocho Uighurs resisted tenaciously. As the war progressed, Ahmad Tughan Khan of the Kara-Khanid Khanate became increasingly ill, forcing the Karakhanids to call it off. As a result, the war against the Qocho Uighurs proved futile.

Buddhism remained prevalent in the Qocho Uighur Kingdom, which stretched from Hami in the east to Aksu in the west, and from the Ili River in the north to Yutian in the south. The Qocho Uighur Kingdom coexisted with the Islamist Kara-Khanid Khanate. As a result, a multi-religious landscape emerged, with Buddhism predominating over northern Xinjiang and Islam over southern Xinjiang. This religious landscape lasted for approximately 600 years.

The spread of Islam in Xinjiang experienced another surge during the Chagatai Khanate (1225-1346), following the Kara-Khanid Khanate period in the 10th century. Tughluk Timur Khan of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate (a regional regime in Xinjiang, China, established by Chagatai descendants and ruling the Tianshan Mountains areas from the 14th to 17th centuries) forced conversions to Islam by conquering Qiuci, a state with over 1,000 years of Buddhist culture at the intersection of Islamist and Buddhist territories. Khizr Khoja, the third khan of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, later waged another war against Qocho areas that had not yet converted to Islam, forcing locals to accept Islam. In the early 16th century, Islam drove Buddhist forces out of Hami and spread to the easternmost part of Xinjiang.

The author is Zhu Baozhang, former Associate Counsel of the Ethnic Affairs Commission (Religious Affairs Administration), Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Liu Xian /Editor    Deng Zhiyu /Translator

Yang Xinhua /Chief Editor    Ren Qiang /Coordinator

Liu Li /Reviewer

Zhang Weiwei /Copyeditor    Tan Yujie /Image Editor

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