View source for Uyghurs

{{Infobox ethnic group
|group= Uyghur<br />{{lang|ug|ئۇيغۇر, ''Уйғур''}}
|image= 
|population=
|region1={{flagcountry|People's Republic of China}}<br/> <small>([[Xinjiang|Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region]])</small> 
|pop1=</small>10,001,302 <small>(2010 census)</small><br/>15,000,000+ <small>([[Uyghur American Association]])</small><ref>{{cite web|title=About Uyghurs|url=http://uyghuramerican.org/about-uyghurs|website=uyghuramerican.org|publisher=[[Uyghur American Association]]|accessdate=26 May 2015}}</ref>{{verification needed|date=April 2017}}
|region2={{flag|Kazakhstan}}
|pop2=223,100 (2009)
|ref2=<ref>Агентство Республики Каписью на 26,1% и составила 10098,6 тыс. человек. Увеличилась численность узбеков на 23,3%, составив 457,2 тыс. человек, уйгур - на 6%, составив 223,1 тыс. человек. Снизилась численность русских на 15,3%, составив 3797,0 тыс. человек; немцев - на 49,6%, составив 178,2 тыс. человек; украинцев – на 39,1%, составив 333,2 тыс. человек; татар – на 18,4%, составив 203,3 тыс. человек; других этносов – на 5,8%, составив 714,2 тыс. человек.</ref>
|region3={{flag|Uzbekistan}}
|pop3=55,220 (2008)
|ref3=
|region4={{flag|Kyrgyzstan}}
|pop4=49,000 (2009)
|ref4=<ref>Национальный статистический комитет Кыргызской Республики : Перепись населения и жилищного фонда Кыргызской Республики 2009 года в цифрах и фактах - Архив Публикаций - КНИГА II (часть I в таблицах) : [http://212.42.101.100:8088/nacstat/sites/default/files/3.1.pdf 3.1. Численность постоянного населения по национальностям]</ref>
|region5={{flag|Turkey}} ([[Minorities_in_Turkey#Uyghurs|Uyghurs in Turkey]])
|pop5=45,800 (2010)
|ref5=<ref name="ShichorCenter2009">{{cite book|author1=Yitzhak Shichor|author2=East-West Center|title=Ethno-diplomacy, the Uyghur hitch in Sino-Turkish relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IR4tAQAAIAAJ|year=2009|publisher=East-West Center|isbn=978-1-932728-80-4|page=16}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last= |first= |date= 8 January 2015 |title= Uygur Ajan Rabia Kadir, Doğu Türkistanlı Mücahidleri İhbar Etti  |url=http://www.islahhaber.net/uygur-ajan-rabia-kadir--dogu-turkistanli-mucahidleri-ihbar-etti-42554.html |newspaper=ISLAH HABER "Özgür Ümmetin Habercisi" |location= |access-date= }}</ref>
|region6={{flag|Russia}}
|pop6=3,696 (2010)
|ref6=<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/population/demo/per-itog/tab5.xls |title=Перепись населения России 2010 года |accessdate=2014-03-03}}</ref>
|region8={{flag|EU}}
|pop8=50,000+ (2014) (Europe Uyghur Union)
|ref8=<ref>[http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/results/nationality_population/nationality_popul1/select_5/?botton=cens_db&box=5.1W&k_t=00&p=100&rz=1_1&rz_b=2_1%20%20%20%20&n_page=5 State statistics committee of Ukraine - National composition of population, 2001 census] (Ukrainian)</ref>
|region9={{flagcountry|Saudi Arabia}}
|pop9= ~50,000 (2013) (Saudi Labor Ministry)
|ref9=<ref>{{cite web|title=Nitaqat rules for Palestinians and Turkistanis eased|url=http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/nitaqat-rules-palestinians-and-turkistanis-eased|website=arabnews.com|publisher=[[Sadui Labor Ministry]]|accessdate= 3 Nov 2015}}</ref>
|region10={{flag|Syria}}
|pop10=3,500 (2015) (Estimated number of [[Turkistan Islamic Party in Syria|Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party members plus families]] in [[Zanbaqi]] (الزنبقي) in [[Jisr al-Shughur]])
|ref10=<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ar.abna24.com/service/important/archive/2015/09/03/709062/story.html |title=قرية الزنبقي السورية أقرب إلى الصين منها الى دمشق + صور }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPlUCyz9-u8 |title=داعش جلب آلاف المقاتلين مع عائلاتهم إلى الرقة }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.harbipress.com/news.php?News=6289 |title= قرية الزنبقي صينية أم سورية! }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=بالفيديو : قرية الزنبقي يتحول الى مستوطنة للأيغور والتركمان |url= http://xeber24.org/nuce/83521.html}}</ref>
|languages= [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]
|religions= [[Sunni Islam]]
|related= [[Karluks]], other [[Turkic peoples]]
}}
{{Contains Chinese text}}
{{Contains Uyghur text}}
The '''Uyghurs''' ({{IPAc-en|uː|ˈ|iː|ɡ|ər|z|,_|ˈ|w|iː|ɡ|ər|z}}; {{ug|ئۇيغۇر, ''Уйғур''|Uyghur&#x202f;}}<ref name=MairPrimer>{{cite web | title=A Little Primer of Xinjiang Proper Nouns | last=Mair | first=Victor | authorlink=Victor Mair | work=[[Language Log]] | accessdate=30 July 2009 | date=13 July 2009 | url=http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1576}}</ref> {{IPA-ug|ʔʊjˈʁʊː|}}) are a [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] [[ethnic group]] living in Eastern and [[Central Asia]]. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the [[Xinjiang|Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region]] in [[China|the People's Republic of China]], where they are one of 55 [[Ethnic minorities in China|officially recognized ethnic minorities]].

They primarily practice Islam, and are a physically diverse ethnic group ranging from Western Eurasian ([[Europeans]], [[Middle Eastern]]) to a more [[East Asian]] appearance.

An estimated 80% of Xinjiang's Uyghurs live in the southwestern portion of the region, the [[Tarim Basin]].{{sfn|Dillon|2004|p=24}} Outside Xinjiang, the largest community of Uyghurs in China is in [[Taoyuan County]], in south-central [[Hunan]].<ref name="english.people.com.cn">{{cite news |title=Ethnic Uygurs in Hunan Live in Harmony with Han Chinese |newspaper=People's Daily|date=29 December 2000 |url=http://english.people.com.cn/english/200012/28/eng20001228_59085.html}}</ref> Outside of China, significant [[diaspora|diasporic]] communities of Uyghurs exist in the Central Asian countries of [[Kazakhstan]], [[Kyrgyzstan]], and [[Uzbekistan]], and in [[Turkey]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/ps053.pdf |title=Ethno-Diplomacy: The Uyghur Hitch in Sino-Turkish Relations |format=PDF |accessdate=2011-08-28}}</ref> Smaller communities are found in [[Afghanistan]], [[Germany]], [[Belgium]], the [[Netherlands]], [[Norway]], [[Sweden]], [[Russia]], [[Saudi Arabia]], [[Australia]], [[Canada]], and the [[United States]].

==Name==
''Uyghur'' is often pronounced {{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|iː|g|ər}} by English speakers, though an acceptable English pronunciation closer to the Uyghur people's pronunciation of it is {{IPAc-en|uː|.|i|ˈ|g|ʊər|}}.{{sfn|Hahn|2006|p=4}}{{sfn|Drompp|2005|p=7}}

Several alternate romanizations also appear: ''Uighur'', ''Uygur'', and ''Uigur'' (''Уиғур'', ''Уйгур'', and ''Уигур''). The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region provincial government recommends that the generic [[ethnonym]] {{IPA|[ʊjˈʁʊː]}}, adopted in the early 20th century,{{sfn|Fairbank|1968|p=364}}{{sfn|Özoğlu|2004|p=16}} be transcribed as "Uyghur".<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.meshrep.com/wforum/viewtopic.php?t=13450 | title=Recommendation for English transcription of the word 'ئۇيغۇر'/《维吾尔》 | author = The Terminology Normalization Committee for Ethnic Languages of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region | date=11 October 2006 | accessdate=14 June 2011}}</ref>

The meaning of the term ''Uyghur'' is unclear. The [[Old Turkic alphabet|Old Turkic]] inscriptions record a word ''uyɣur''{{sfn|Russell-Smith|2005|p=33}} (𐰺𐰍𐰖𐰆<ref name="irq.kaznpu.kz">{{cite web|url=http://irq.kaznpu.kz/?lang=e&mod=1&tid=1&oid=16&m=1|title=TURK BITIG|publisher=}}</ref>) which was transcribed into Chinese as *[ɣuɒiɣət] > ''Huíhé'' ({{zh|c=回纥}}) in [[Tang dynasty]] annals.{{sfn|Mackerras|1968|p=224}} Later, in response to an Uyghur request, this was changed to [ɣuɒiɣuət] > ''Huíhú'' ({{zh|c=回鹘}}) in 788 or 809 as mentioned in the ''[[Old History of the Five Dynasties]]''.{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=155}} Modern etymological explanations have ranged from "to follow, accommodate oneself" and "non-rebellious" (from Turk. uy/uð-) 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.{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=155}} The 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,<ref>Hakan Özoğlu, p. 16.</ref> or was used originally to refer to just one group among several, the others calling themselves [[Toquz Oghuz]].{{sfn|Russell-Smith|2005|p= 32}}

The earliest record of an Uyghur tribe is from the [[Northern Wei]] (386-534 AD). At that time the ethnonym *[kɑutɕʰĭa] > ''Gaoche'' ({{zh|c=高车|p=Gāochē|l=high carts|links=no}}, {{lang-ug|ug=قاڭقىل, ''Қаңқил''|lat=Qangqil}}) was used, and later, [[Tiele people|Tiele]] ({{zh|c=铁勒|p=Tiělè|links=no}}).{{sfn|Mair|2006|pp=137–8}} The first use of ''Uyghur'' as a reference to a political nation occurred during the interim period between the [[Turkic Khaganate|First and Second Göktürk Khaganates]] (630-684 AD).{{sfn|Güzel|2002}}

The term ''Uyghur'' disappeared from historical records in the 15th century but the [[Bolsheviks]] reintroduced the term ''Uyghur'' to replace the previously-used [[Turkic peoples|Turk]] or [[Turki]].<ref>The term ''Turk'' was a generic label used by members of many ethnic groups in Soviet Central Asia. Often the deciding factor for classifying individuals belonging to Turkic nationalities in the Soviet censuses was less what the people called themselves by nationality than what language they claimed as their native tongue. Thus, people who called themselves "Turk" but spoke Uzbek were classified in Soviet censuses as Uzbek by nationality. See Brian D. Silver, "The Ethnic and Language Dimensions in Russian and Soviet Censuses", in Ralph S. Clem, ed., ''Research Guide to the Russian and Soviet Censuses'' (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1986): 70-97.</ref><ref>Ramsey, S. Robert (1987). ''The Languages of China''. Princeton: Princeton University Press, pp. 185–6.</ref>  In modern usage, Uyghur (romanized as {{zh|s={{linktext|维|吾|尔|族}}|p=Wéiwúěr zú}} in Chinese) refers to settled Turkic urban dwellers and farmers of the [[Tarim Basin]] who follow traditional Central Asian sedentary practices, distinguishable from the nomadic Turkic populations in Central Asia.

==Identity==
[[File:KashgarNaan.jpg|thumb|A Uyghur ''girde'' [[naan]] baker]]
[[File:Uyghur blacksmiths - Yengisar Flickr.webm|thumb|Uyghur blacksmiths at work. [[Yengisar]], [[Xinjiang]].]]

Throughout its history, the term ''Uyghur'' has taken on an increasingly expansive definition.  Initially signifying only a small coalition of [[Tiele people|Tiele]] tribes in Northern China, Mongolia, and the [[Altai 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-European languages|Indo-European speakers]] 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 the Uyghur Khaganate, Iranic [[Saka]] tribes, and other Indo-European peoples who inhabited the Tarim Basin before the arrival of the Turkic Uyghurs.<ref name="xinjiang">{{cite book |author1=James A. Millward  |author2=Peter C. Perdue  |lastauthoramp=yes |year=2004 |chapter=Chapter 2: Political and Cultural History of the Xinjiang Region through the Late Nineteenth Century |title= Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland |editor = S. Frederick Starr |publisher= M. E. Sharpe |pages= 40–41 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GXj4a3gss8wC&pg=PA40&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false |isbn= 978-0-7656-1318-9 }}</ref> DNA analyses indicate that the peoples of central Asia such as the Uyghurs are all mixed Caucasian and East Asian.<ref name="Celtic">{{cite news|title = The mystery of China's celtic mummies|url = http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/a-meeting-of-civilisations-the-mystery-of-chinas-celtic-mummies-413638.html|work = [[The Independent]]|date = August 28, 2006|accessdate = 2008-06-28|location=London}}</ref>  Uyghur activists identify with the [[Tarim mummies]], remains of an ancient people who inhabited the region, 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?section=todaysfeatures&xfile=data/todaysfeatures/2005/april/todaysfeatures_april37.xml |title=Genetic testing reveals awkward truth about Xinjiang's famous mummies |publisher=Khaleejtimes.com |date=2005-04-19 |accessdate=2011-08-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/world/asia/19mummy.html?_r=1 | work=The New York Times | first=Edward | last=Wong | title=The Dead Tell a Tale China Doesn't Care to Listen To | date=2008-11-19}}</ref>

===Origin of the modern ethnic concept===
{{quote|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 foreign 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<ref>Lattimore (1973), p. 237.</ref>}}

The term "Uyghur" was not used to refer to any existing ethnic group in the 19th century, but to an ancient people. A late 19th-century encyclopedia titled ''The cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia'' said "the Uigur are the most ancient of Turkish tribes, and formerly inhabited a part of Chinese Tartary (Xinjiang), which is now occupied by a mixed population of Turk, Mongol, and [[Kalmuck]]".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/stream/cyclopdiaindiaa02balfgoog#page/n922/mode/2up |title=The cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia: commercial, industrial and scientific, products of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, useful arts and manufactures|author=Edward Balfour|authorlink=Edward Balfour|year=1885|publisher=[[B. Quaritch]] |edition=3 |location=LONDON |page=952|isbn=|pages=|accessdate=2010-06-28}}(Original from Harvard University)</ref> The inhabitants of Xinjiang were not called Uyghur before 1921/1934. Foreigners called the Turkic-speaking Muslims of the oases "Turki", and the Turkic Muslims in [[Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture|Ili]] were known as "[[Taranchi]]". The Russians and other foreigners referred to them as "Sart",<ref name="Benson1998" /> "Turk", or "Turki".<ref>The term "Turk" was a generic label used by members of many ethnic groups in Soviet Central Asia. Often the deciding factor for classifying individuals belonging to Turkic nationalities in the Soviet censuses was less what the people called themselves by nationality than what language they claimed as their native tongue. Thus, people who called themselves "Turk" but spoke [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]] were classified in Soviet censuses as [[Uzbeks|Uzbek]] by nationality. See Brian D. Silver, "The Ethnic and Language Dimensions in Russian and Soviet Censuses", in Ralph S. Clem, Ed., ''Research Guide to the Russian and Soviet Censuses'' (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1986): 70-97.</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=cF4lMj8skvoC&pg=PA50#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Community matters in Xinjiang, 1880–1949: towards a historical anthropology of the Uyghur|author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann|year=2008|publisher=BRILL|edition=illustrated|page=50|isbn=90-04-16675-0|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref>  In the early 20th century, they would call themselves by different names to different peoples and in response to different inquiries: they called themselves Sarts in front of Kyrgyz and Kazaks, while they called themselves "Chantou" if asked about their identity after identifying as a Muslim first.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ondřej Klimeš|title=Struggle by the Pen: The Uyghur Discourse of Nation and National Interest, c.1900-1949|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdcuBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=8 January 2015|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-28809-6|pages=93–}}</ref><ref name="brophy"/> The term "Chantou" (纏頭, Ch'an-t'ou, meaning "Rag head" or "Turban Head") was used to refer to the Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang,<ref>{{cite book|author=Ondřej Klimeš|title=Struggle by the Pen: The Uyghur Discourse of Nation and National Interest, c.1900-1949|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdcuBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA83&lpg=PA83|date=8 January 2015|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-28809-6|pages=83–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ondřej Klimeš|title=Struggle by the Pen: The Uyghur Discourse of Nation and National Interest, c.1900-1949|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdcuBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA135&lpg=PA135#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=8 January 2015|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-28809-6|pages=135–}}</ref> including by Hui (Tungan) people.<ref name="Forbes1986">{{cite book|author=Andrew D. W. Forbes|title=Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911-1949|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IAs9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA307#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=9 October 1986|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=978-0-521-25514-1|pages=307–}}</ref> These groups of peoples often identified themselves by the oases they came from rather than an ethnic group;<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=DMU8Ue0HECcC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Oasis identities: Uyghur nationalism along China's Silk Road|author=Justin Jon Rudelson|year=1997|publisher=Columbia University Press|edition=illustrated|page=|isbn=0-231-10787-0|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> for example those from [[Kashgar]] may refer to themselves as Kashgarliq or [[Kashgari]], while those from [[Hotan]] called themselves "Hotani".<ref name="brophy">{{cite journal|last=Brophy|first =David|date= 2005 |title=Taranchis, Kashgaris, and the 'uyghur Question' in Soviet Central Asia|journal= Inner Asia |volume=7 |issue=2 |publisher=BRILL |page=170 |jstor=23615693}}</ref><ref name="kim">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AtduqAtBzegC&pg=PA68&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Holy war in China: the Muslim rebellion and state in Chinese Central Asia, 1864–1877|author=Ho-dong Kim|year=2004|publisher=Stanford University Press|edition=illustrated|location=|page=68|isbn=0-8047-4884-5|pages=|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> Other Central Asians once called all the inhabitants of Xinjiang's Southern oases Kashgari.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Brophy|first =David|date= 2005 |title=Taranchis, Kashgaris, and the 'uyghur Question' in Soviet Central Asia|journal= Inner Asia |volume=7 |issue=2 |publisher=BRILL  |page= 166 |jstor= 23615693}}</ref> The term Kashgari is used in Pakistan's Gilgit Baltistan region.<ref name="tribune">{{cite news |last=Mir |first=Shabbir |date=May 21, 2015 |title=Displaced dreams: Uighur families have no place to call home in G-B |url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/889640/displaced-dreams-uighur-families-have-no-place-to-call-home-in-g-b/ |newspaper=The Express Tribune  |location=GILGIT |access-date= }}</ref> The Turkic people also used "Musulman", which means "Muslim", to describe themselves.<ref name="kim" /><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=7OtwAAAAMAAJ |title=war in China: the Muslim rebellion and state in Chinese Central Asia, 1864–1877|author=Ho-dong Kim|year=2004|publisher=Stanford University Press|edition=illustrated |location= |page=3|isbn=0-8047-4884-5|pages=|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang|first=James A.|last=Millward|volume=|edition=illustrated|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA93#v=onepage&q&f=false|page=93|isbn=0231139241|accessdate=10 March 2014| ref = {{harvid||}} }}</ref>

Rian Thum explored the concepts of identity among the ancestors of the modern Uyghurs in [[Altishahr]] (the native Uyghur name for eastern Turkestan or southern Xinjiang) before the adoption of the name "Uyghur" in the 1930s, referring to them by the name "Altishahri" in his article ''Modular History: Identity Maintenance before Uyghur Nationalism''. Thum indicated that Altishahri Turkis did have a sense that they were a distinctive group separate from the Turkic Andijanis to their west, the nomadic Turkic Kirghiz, the nomadic Mongol Qalmaq, and the Han Chinese Khitay before they became known as Uyghurs. There was no single name used by them to refer to themselves, the various native names Altishahris used to refer to themselves were Altishahrlik (Altishahr person), yerlik (local), Turki, and Musulmān (Muslim), the term Musulmān in this situation did not signify religious connotations, because the Altishahris would exclude other Muslim peoples like the Kirghiz when referring to themselves as Musulmān.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Thum |first=Rian |date=6 August 2012 |title= Modular History: Identity Maintenance before Uyghur Nationalism |url= http://www.academia.edu/1558522/Modular_History_Identity_Maintenance_before_Uyghur_Nationalism |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |publisher= The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2012 |volume=  71 |issue= 3|pages=627–653 |doi= 10.1017/S0021911812000629 |accessdate=29 September 2014}}</ref><ref name="Thum2014">{{cite book|author=Rian Thum|title=The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QqOmBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA149#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=13 October 2014|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-96702-1|pages=149–}}</ref> Dr. Laura J Newby has also noted that the sedentary Altishahri Turkic people felt themselves as a separate group from other Turkic Muslims since at least the 19th century.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Empire And the Khanate: A Political History of Qing Relations With Khoqand C.1760-1860 |first=L. J.|last=Newby|volume=Volume 16 of Brill's Inner Asian Library|edition=illustrated|year=2005|publisher=BRILL|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KTmO416hNQ8C&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false |page=2|isbn=9004145508|accessdate=10 March 2014| ref = {{harvid||}} }}</ref>

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,<ref name="Beller-Hann" /> following western European orientalists like [[Julius Klaproth]] in the 19th century who revived the name and spread the use of the term to local Turkic intellectuals,<ref>pp. 169-170 BROPHY, DAVID. 2005. “Taranchis, Kashgaris, and the 'uyghur Question' in Soviet Central Asia”. Inner Asia 7 (2). BRILL: 163–84. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23615693.</ref> and a 19th-century proposal from Russian historians that modern-day Uyghurs were descended from the [[Kingdom of Qocho]] and [[Kara-Khanid Khanate]], which had formed after the dissolution of the Uyghur Khaganate.<ref name="Millward">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA208 |title=Eurasian crossroads: a history of Xinjiang|author=James A. Millward|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=0-231-13924-1|page=208|pages=|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> 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).<ref name="Beller-Hann">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=NKCU3BdeBbEC&pg=PA32#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Situating the Uyghurs between China and Central Asia|author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann|year=2007|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd|isbn=0-7546-7041-4|page=32|pages=|accessdate=2010-07-30}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/PS015.pdf|title=The Xinjiang conflict: Uyghur identity, language policy, and political discourse|author1=Arienne M. Dwyer |author2=East-West Center Washington |year=2005|publisher=East-West Center Washington|edition=illustrated|page=75, note 26|isbn=1-932728-28-7|pages=|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=ibBzE0GpXfkC&pg=PA206&q#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=The modern Uzbeks: from the fourteenth century to the present : a cultural history|author=Edward Allworth|year=1990|publisher=Hoover Press|edition=illustrated|page=206|isbn=0-8179-8732-0|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref><ref name="Akiner2013">{{cite book|author=Akiner|title=Cultural Change & Continuity In|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udjWAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA72#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=28 October 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-15034-0|pages=72–}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Benson1998">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/?id=iNct0NqCP8gC&pg=PA20#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=The Ili Rebellion: the Moslem challenge to Chinese authority in Xinjiang, 1944–1949|author=Linda Benson |year=1990|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|page=30|isbn=0-87332-509-5|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Linda Benson|title=The Ili Rebellion: The Moslem Challenge to Chinese Authority in Xinjiang, 1944-1949|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=suuXIhetjZcC&pg=PA30#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=1990|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-87332-509-7|pages=30–}}</ref> 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".<ref name="Benson1998"/>

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 "[[Five Races Under One Union|Hui nationality]]".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/?id=nhkweJozrS0C&pg=PA171#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=A nation-state by construction: dynamics of modern Chinese nationalism|author=Suisheng Zhao |year=2004|publisher=Stanford University Press|edition=illustrated|page=171|isbn=0-8047-5001-7|pages=|accessdate=2011-06-12}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=YujNjFgTuGMC&pg=PA416#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=The Other Taiwan: 1945 to the present|author=Murray A. Rubinstein|year=1994|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|page=416|isbn=1-56324-193-5 |pages= |accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> The [[Qing dynasty]] and the Kuomintang generally referred to the sedentary, oasis dwelling Turkic Muslims of Xinjiang as "turban-headed Hui" to differentiate them from other Muslim ethnic groups in China.<ref name="Benson1998" /><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=CKc5AQAAIAAJ&q=salar+hui |title=Asia: journal of the American Asiatic Association, Volume 40|author=American Asiatic Association|year=1940|publisher=Asia Pub. Co.|page=660|isbn= |pages= |accessdate=2011-05-08}}</ref><ref>This is in contrast to the [[Hui people]], who were called HuiHui or "Hui" (Muslim) by the Chinese, and the [[Salar people]], who were called "Sala Hui" (Salar Muslim), by the Chinese. The usage of the term "Chan Tou Hui" was considered a slur and was demeaning. (Garnaut, Anthony. 2008. [http://www.ouigour.fr/recherches_et_analyses/Garnautpage_93.pdf From Yunnan to Xinjiang:Governor Yang Zengxin and his Dungan Generals]. Pacific and Asian History, Australian National University. p. 95)</ref> Foreigners traveling in Xinjiang in the 1930s, like [[George W. Hunter (missionary)|George W. Hunter]], [[Peter Fleming (writer)|Peter Fleming]], [[Ella Maillart]], and [[Sven Hedin]], all referred to the Turkic Muslims of the region 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.<ref name="Benson1998" /><ref name="Millward" /><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=BqkAgpmI91UC&pg=PA92&dq=uyghur+soviet+1921+tashkent#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=China and antiterrorism|author=Simon Shen|year=2007|publisher=Nova Publishers|isbn=1-60021-344-8|page=92 |pages= |accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> "Uyghur" replaced "rag-head".<ref>{{cite book|author=Ondřej Klimeš|title=Struggle by the Pen: The Uyghur Discourse of Nation and National Interest, c.1900-1949|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdcuBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA154&lpg=PA154#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=8 January 2015|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-28809-6|pages=154–}}</ref> After the Communist victory, the [[Communist Party of China]] under [[Mao Zedong]] continued the Soviet classification, using the term "Uyghur" to describe the modern ethnic group.<ref name="Benson1998" />

Another ethnic group, the [[Tibetan Buddhist]] [[Yugur|Western Yugur]] of [[Gansu]], have consistently been called by themselves and others the "Yellow Uyghur" (''Sarïq Uyghur'').<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/?id=MT2D_0_eBPQC&pg=PA178#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Oasis identities: Uyghur nationalism along China's Silk Road|author1=Justin Ben-Adam Rudelson |author2=Justin Jon Rudelson |year=1997|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=0-231-10786-2|page=178|pages=|accessdate=2010-10-31}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=icZJJN0wYPcC&pg=PA275&q#v=onepage&q&f=false |author=Dru C. Gladney|title=China inside out: contemporary Chinese nationalism and transnationalism|editors=Pál Nyíri, Joana Breidenbach |year=2005|publisher=Central European University Press|edition=illustrated|isbn=963-7326-14-6|page=275|pages=|accessdate=2010-10-31}}</ref> Linguist and ethnographer S. Robert Ramsey has argued for inclusion of both the Eastern and Western Yugur and the [[Salar people|Salar]] as subgroups of the 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.<ref>{{cite book |last= Ramsey |first= S. Robert |title= The Languages of China |publisher= Princeton University Press |year= 1987 |location= Princeton |pages= 185–6}}</ref> <!--(not in source provided) The Salar were recognized as a distinct and separate ethnic group by the [[Qing dynasty]] before the current Chinese government existed.<ref name="Garnaut">{{Cite web|url=http://www.ouigour.fr/recherches_et_analyses/Garnautpage_93.pdf|title=From Yunnan to Xinjiang:Governor Yang Zengxin and his Dungan Generals|last=Garnaut|first=Anthony|publisher=Pacific and Asian History, Australian National University)|page=95|accessdate=2010-07-14}}</ref>-->

[[Pan-Turkism|Pan-Turkist]] [[Jadid]]s and [[East Turkestan independence movement|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" to be applied to their people. Masud Sabri also viewed the [[Hui people]] as Muslim [[Han Chinese]] and separate from his own people.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=qz3vdkxBt4AC&pg=PA181#v=onepage&q&f=false] {{harvnb|Wei|2002|p=181}}</ref> 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.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA209#v=onepage&q&f=false] {{harvnb|Millward|2007|p=209}}</ref> "Turki" and "Turk" were demanded as ethonyms instead of Uyghur by Turki intellectuals who opposed Sheng Shicai's introduction of the "Uighur" name.<ref>{{cite book|author=Linda Benson|title=The Ili Rebellion: The Moslem Challenge to Chinese Authority in Xinjiang, 1944-1949|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=suuXIhetjZcC&pg=PA31#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=1990|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-87332-509-7|pages=31–}}</ref>

In current usage, ''Uyghur'' refers to settled Turkic urban dwellers and farmers of the [[Tarim Basin]] and [[Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture|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 Lopliks of [[Ruoqiang County]] and the [[Dolan people]], who are thought to be closer to the [[Oirats|Oirat Mongols]] and the [[Kyrgyz people|Kyrgyz]].<ref name="Dis">{{Cite book|title=Dislocating China: Reflections on Muslims, Minorities, and Other Subaltern Subjects|first=Dru|last=Gladney|publisher=C. Hurst|year=2004|page=195}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Singing the Village: Music, Memory, and Ritual Among the Sibe of Xinjiang|first=Rachel|last=Harris|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2004|pages=53, 216}}</ref>  The use of the term Uyghur has led to anachronisms when describing the history of the people.<ref name="ReedRaschke2010">{{cite book|author1=J. Todd Reed|author2=Diana Raschke|title=The ETIM: China's Islamic Militants and the Global Terrorist Threat|url=https://books.google.com/?id=5I2b_hrJO8sC&pg=PA7&dq=anachoristic+uyghur#v=onepage&q=anachoristic%20uyghur&f=false|year=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-36540-9|pages=7–}}</ref> In one of his books the term Uyghur was deliberately not used by James Millward.<ref name="Levey2006">{{cite book|author=Benjamin S. Levey|title=Education in Xinjiang, 1884-1928|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AzEeAQAAMAAJ |year=2006|publisher=Indiana University|page=12}}</ref>

"Turkistani" is used as an alternate ethonym for "Uyghur" by some Uyghurs,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/04/the_uighurs_in_their.php |title=The Uighurs, in their own words |last1= Joscelyn  |first1= Thomas  |last2= |first2= |date=April 21, 2009  |website=The Long War Journal |publisher= |access-date= |quote=}}</ref> for example the Uyghur diaspora in Saudi Arabia have adopted the identity "Turkistani".<ref>https://cess.memberclicks.net/assets/cesr2/CESR3/article%203%20v3n1.pdf p. 18</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://rsq.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/2/12|title=Central Asian refugees in Saudi Arabia: religious evolution and contributing to the reislamization of their motherland|first=Bayram|last=Balci|date=1 January 2007|publisher=|journal=Refugee Survey Quarterly|volume=26|issue=2|pages=12–21|via=rsq.oxfordjournals.org|doi=10.1093/rsq/hdi0223}}</ref> Some Uyghurs in Saudi Arabia adopted the Arabic [[Nisba (onomastics)#Nisba to a place|nisba]] of their home city, such as Al [[Kashgari]] from [[Kashgar]]. Saudi born Uyghur [[Hamza Kashgari]]'s family originated from Kashgar. Uyghurs who migrated from the Tarim Basin to Ürümqi and Dzungaria in the northern portion of Xinjiang during the Qing dynasty were known as [[Taranchi]] meaning "farmer".

''We never call each other Uyghur, but only refer to ourselves as East Turkestanis, or Kashgarlik, Turpanlik, or even Turks.''- according to some Uyghurs born in Turkey.<ref name="Gladney2004">{{cite book|author=Dru C. Gladney|title=Dislocating China: Muslims, Minorities, and Other Subaltern Subjects|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mzxSNM3_vCEC&pg=PA183#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=1 April 2004|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-29776-7|pages=183–}}</ref><ref name="AtabakiO'Kane1998">{{cite book|author1=Touraj Atabaki|author2=John O'Kane|title=Post-Soviet Central Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KwZpAAAAMAAJ|date=15 October 1998|publisher=I. B. Tauris|isbn=978-1-86064-327-9|page=305}}</ref>

==History==
{{Main article|History of the Uyghur people}}
[[File:Uighur princes, Bezeklik, Cave 9, c. 8th-9th century AD, wall painting - Ethnological Museum, Berlin - DSC01747.JPG|thumb|Uyghur princes from Cave 9 of the [[Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves]], Xinjiang, China, 8th to 9th century AD, wall painting]]
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.<ref name="bovingdon">{{cite book |title=The Uyghurs - strangers in their own land |author=Gardner Bovingdon |chapter=Chapter 1 - Using the Past to Serve the Present |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-231-14758-3 }}</ref>  Uyghur historians viewed the Uyghurs as the original inhabitants of Xinjiang with a long history.  Uyghur politician and historian [[Muhammad Amin Bughra|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 [[Turghun Almas]] incorporated discoveries of Tarim mummies to conclude that Uyghurs have over 6400 years of history,<ref name="Tursun">{{cite journal |url=http://www.isn.ethz.ch/isn/Digital-Library/Publications/Detail/?ots591=0c54e3b3-1e9c-be1e-2c24-a6a8c7060233&lng=en&id=105630 |title= The Formation of Modern Uyghur Historiography and Competing Perspectives toward Uyghur History |author= Nabijan Tursun |journal=The China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly |volume= 6 |issue= 3 |pages=87–100 }}</ref> and the [[World Uyghur Congress]] claimed a 4,000-year history in East Turkestan.<ref>{{cite web |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306105709/http://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/?cat=132 |archivedate=March 6, 2016 |url=http://www.uyghurcongress.org/en/?cat=132 |title=Brief History of East Turkestan |work=World Uyghur Congress }}</ref>  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.<ref name="Tursun" />  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 peoples, one of them the ancient Uyghurs.<ref name="xinjiang"/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=fgHlxD4k0z4C&pg=PA135#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Democratization and Identity: Regimes and Ethnicity in East and Southeast Asia|author=Susan J. Henders|editor=Susan J. Henders|year=2006|publisher=Lexington Books|edition=|page=135|isbn=0-7391-0767-4|accessdate=2011-09-09}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The ETIM: China's Islamic Militants and the Global Terrorist Threat|first1=J. Todd|last1=Reed|first2=Diana|last2=Raschke|last=|volume=|edition=|year=2010|publisher=ABC-CLIO|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5I2b_hrJO8sC&pg=PA7#v=onepage&q&f=false|isbn=0313365407|page=7 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang|first=James A.|last=Millward|volume=|edition=illustrated|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA44#v=onepage&q&f=false|page=44|isbn=0231139241|accessdate=10 March 2014| ref = {{harvid||}} }}</ref>

===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 languages]] and were suggested by some to be the [[Yuezhi]] mentioned in ancient Chinese texts.<ref>{{cite book |author = Millward, James A. |year=2007 |title= Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang |publisher= Columbia University Press, New York |page=14|isbn= 978-0-231-13924-3 |url=https://books.google.com/?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA14#v=onepage&q&f=false }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia |author=A. K Narain |chapter= Chapter 6 - Indo-Europeans in Inner Asia |editor = Denis Sinor |page=153 |isbn=978-0-521-24304-9}}</ref> However, Uyghur activists 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 language|Sogdian word]] later absorbed into Uyghur.<ref>{{cite book |title=Xinjiang, China's Muslim Borderland |chapter=Chapter 14 - Contested histories |author=Gardner Bovingdon |editor=S. Frederick Starr |pages=357–358 |isbn=978-0-7656-1318-9 }}</ref>  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. Some Uyghur nationalists also claimed descent from the Xiongnu (according to the Chinese historical text the ''[[Book of Wei]]'', the founder of the Uyghurs was descended from a Xiongnu ruler),{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=155}} but the view is contested by modern Chinese scholars.<ref name="Tursun"/>

The Yuezhi were driven away by the Xiongnu, but founded the [[Kushan Empire]], which exerted some influence in the Tarim Basin where [[Kharosthi]] texts have been found in [[Loulan Kingdom|Loulan]], [[Niya (Tarim Basin)|Niya]] and [[Kingdom of Khotan|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]], [[Karasahr]] 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===
[[File:Uighur Prince.jpg|thumb|left||An 8th-century Uyghur Khagan]]

The Uyghurs of the Uyghur Khaganate were part of a Turkic confederation called the [[Tiele people|Tiele]],{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=157}} who lived in the valleys south of [[Lake Baikal]] and around the [[Yenisei River]].  They overthrew the [[Turkic Khaganate]] and established the [[Uyghur Khaganate]].

The Uyghur Khaganate stretched from the [[Caspian Sea]] to [[Manchuria]] and lasted from 744 to 840.<ref name="xinjiang"/> 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 [[Yenisei Kirghiz]], another Turkic people. As a result, the majority of tribal groups formerly under Uyghur control dispersed and moved out of Mongolia.

===Uyghur kingdoms===
[[File:Dunhuang Uighur king.jpg|thumb|Uyghur king of the Turfan region attended by servants. [[Mogao Caves]], 409, 11th-13th century.]]

According to the ''[[New Book of Tang]]'', the 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]].<ref>[http://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E6%96%B0%E5%94%90%E6%9B%B8/%E5%8D%B7217%E4%B8%8B Xin Tangshu] Original text: 俄而渠長句錄莫賀與黠戛斯合騎十萬攻回鶻城，殺可汗，誅掘羅勿，焚其牙，諸部潰其相馺職與厖特勒十五部奔葛邏祿，殘眾入吐蕃、安西。 Translation: Soon the great chief Julumohe and the Kirghiz gathered a hundred thousand riders to attack the Uyghur city; they killed the Kaghan, executed Jueluowu, and burnt the royal camp. All the tribes were scattered - its ministers Sazhi and Pang Tele with fifteen clans fled to the Karluks, the remaining multitude went to [[Turfan]] and [[Guazhou County|Anxi]].</ref>  These Uyghurs soon founded two kingdoms and the easternmost state was the Ganzhou Kingdom (870–1036), with its capital near present-day [[Zhangye]], Gansu, China. The modern [[Yugur]]s are believed to be descendants of these Uyghurs. Ganzhou was absorbed by the [[Western Xia]] 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 Qocho (modern [[Gaochang]]) and [[Jimsar County|Beshbalik]].  The Kingdom of Qocho lasted from the ninth to the fourteenth century and proved to be longer-lasting than any power in the region, before or since.<ref name="xinjiang"/> The Uyghurs were originally [[Manichaeism|Manichaean]], but converted to Buddhism during this period. Qocho accepted the [[Qara Khitai]] as its 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 [[Chagatai Khanate]] in the 1390s.{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}

===Islamization===
{{main article|Islamicisation and Turkicisation of Xinjiang}}
{{Islam and China|groups}}
In the tenth century, the [[Karluks]], [[Yagma]]s, [[Chigils]] and other Turkic tribes founded the [[Kara-Khanid Khanate]] in [[Semirechye]], Western [[Tian Shan]], and [[Kashgaria]], and later conquered [[Transoxiana]]. The Karakhanid rulers were likely to be Yaghmas who were associated with the [[Toquz Oghuz]], and some historians therefore see this as a link between the Karakhanid and the Uyghurs of the Uyghur Khaganate, although this connection is disputed by others.{{sfn|Millward|2007|p=69}}

The Karakhanids converted to Islam in the tenth century beginning with [[Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan]], the first Turkic dynasty to do so.<ref name="sinor">{{citation|last = Golden|first = Peter. B.|contribution = The Karakhanids and Early Islam|year = 1990|title = The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia|editor-last = Sinor|editor-first = Denis|pages = 357|publisher = Cambridge University Press|isbn = 0-521-2-4304-1}}</ref> Modern Uyghurs see the Muslim Karakhanids as an important part of their history, however, Islamization of the people of the Tarim Basin was a gradual process. The Indo-European [[Sakas|Saka]] Buddhist [[Kingdom of Khotan]] was conquered by the Turkic Muslim Karakhanids from Kashgar in the early 11th century, but Uyghur Qocho remained mainly Buddhist until the 15th century, and the conversion of the Uyghur people to Islam was not completed until the 17th century.

[[File:Chagatai Khanate (1490).png|thumb|left|[[Chagatai Khanate]] ([[Moghulistan]]) in 1490]]

The 12th and 13th century saw the domination by non-Muslim powers: first the [[Kara-Khitans]] in the 12th century, followed by the [[Mongol Empire|Mongols]] in the 13th century.  After the death of [[Genghis Khan]] in 1227, Transoxiana and Kashgar became the domain of his second son, [[Chagatai Khan]].  The [[Chagatai Khanate]] split into two in the 1340s, and the area of the Chagatai Khanate where the modern Uyghurs live became part of [[Moghulistan]], which meant "land of the Mongols".  In the 14th century, a Chagatayid khan [[Tughlugh Timur|Tughluq Temür]] converted to Islam. His son [[Khizr Khoja]] conquered Qocho and Turfan (the core of Uyghuristan) in the 1390s, and the Uyghurs there became largely Muslim by the beginning of the 16th century.<ref name="Millward2007">{{cite book|author=James A. Millward|title=Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA69#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-13924-3|pages=69–}}</ref> After being converted to Islam, the descendants of the previously [[Kingdom of Qocho|Buddhist Uyghurs in Turfan]] failed to retain memory of their ancestral legacy and falsely believed that the "infidel Kalmuks" ([[Dzungar people|Dzungars]]) were the ones who built Buddhist monuments in their area.<ref name="GibbLewis1998">{{cite book|author1=Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb|author2=Bernard Lewis|author3=Johannes Hendrik Kramers |author4=Charles Pellat |author5=Joseph Schacht|title=The Encyclopaedia of Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PJPrAAAAMAAJ|year=1998|publisher=Brill|page=677}}</ref>

From the late 14th through 17th centuries the Xinjiang region became further subdivided into Moghulistan in the north, [[Altishahr]] (Kashgar and the Tarim Basin), and the Turfan area, each often ruled separately by competing Chagatayid descendants, the [[Dughlats]], and later the [[Khoja (Turkestan)|Khojas]].{{sfn|Millward|2007|p=69}}

Islam was also spread by the [[Sufis]], and branches of its [[Naqshbandi]] order were the [[Khoja (Turkestan)|Khojas]] who seized control of political and military affairs in the Tarim Basin and Turfan in the 17th century.  The Khojas however split into two rival factions, the Aqtaghlik Khojas (also called the Afaqiyya) and the Qarataghlik Khojas (the Ishaqiyya). The legacy of the Khojas lasted until the 19th century. The Qarataghlik Khojas seized power in Yarkand where the Chagatai Khans ruled in the Yarkent Khanate, forcing the Aqtaghlik Afaqi Khoja into exile.

===Qing rule===
In the 17th century, the Buddhist [[Dzungar Khanate]] grew in power in [[Dzungaria]]. The [[Dzungar conquest of Altishahr]] ended the last independent Chagatai Khanate, the [[Yarkent Khanate]], after the Aqtaghlik [[Afaq Khoja]] attempt to gain aid from the [[5th Dalai Lama]] and his Dzungar Buddhist followers to help him in his struggle against the Qarataghlik Khojas. The Aqtaghlik Khojas in the Tarim Basin then became vassals to the Dzungars, who extracted heavy taxes and tribute from the Tarim Basin cities.

The expansion of the Dzungars into [[Khalkha Mongols|Khalkha Mongol]] territory in [[Mongolia]] brought them into direct conflict with [[Qing dynasty|Qing China]] in the late 17th century, and in the process also brought Chinese presence back into the region a thousand years after Tang China lost control of the [[Western Regions]].<ref>{{cite book |url= |title=Wild West China: The Taming of Xinjiang |author=Christian Tyler|page=55 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year= 2004 |isbn=978-0813535333 }}</ref>

The [[Dzungar–Qing War]] lasted a decade. During the Dzungar conflict, two Aqtaghlik brothers, the so-called "Younger Khoja" ({{zh|c=霍集占}}), also known as Khwāja-i Jahān, and his sibling, the Elder Khoja ({{zh|c=波羅尼都}}), also known as Burhān al-Dīn, after being appointed as vassals in the Tarim Basin by the Dzungars, first joined the Qing and rebelled against Dzungar rule until the final Qing victory over the Dzungars, then they rebelled against the Qing, an action which prompted the invasion and conquest of the Tarim Basin by the Qing in 1759. The Uyghurs of Turfan and Hami such as [[Emin Khoja]] were allies of the Qing in this conflict, and these Uyghurs also helped the Qing to rule the Altishahr Uyghurs in the Tarim Basin.<ref>{{cite book |author = Millward, James A. |year=2007 |title= Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang |publisher= Columbia University Press, New York |page=101 |isbn= 978-0-231-13924-3 |url=https://books.google.com/?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA101#v=onepage&q&f=false }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|jstor=3107653|title=The Begs of Xinjiang: Between Two Worlds|last=Newby|first=L. J.|volume= 61|issue= 2|date=1998|page=278|doi=10.1017/s0041977x00013811 |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London|publisher=Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African Studies}}</ref>

The [[Ten Great Campaigns|final campaign against the Dzungars in the 1750s]] ended with the [[Dzungar genocide]].  The Qing "final solution" of genocide to solve the problem of the Dzungar Mongols created a land devoid of Dzungars, which was followed by the Qing sponsored settlement of millions of other people in Dzungaria.<ref name="Zungar2">[https://books.google.com/books?id=J4L-_cjmSqoC&pg=PA285 Perdue 2009], p. 285.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=kbpG8QEguXEC&pg=PT183 Tamm 2013],</ref> In northern Xinjiang, the Qing brought in Han, Hui, Uyghur, Xibe,  Daurs, Solons, Turkic Muslim Taranchis and Kazakh colonists, with one third of Xinjiang's total population consisting of Hui and Han in the northern area, while around two thirds were Uyghurs in southern Xinjiang's Tarim Basin.<ref name="ed. Starr 2004">[https://books.google.com/books?id=GXj4a3gss8wC&pg=PA243#v=onepage&q&f=false ed. Starr 2004], p. 243.</ref> In Dzungaria, the Qing established new cities like Ürümqi and Yining.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=MC6sAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA102#v=onepage&q&f=false Millward 1998], p. 102.</ref>  The [[Dzungaria]]n basin itself is now inhabited by many Kazakhs.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=bEzNwgtiVQ0C&pg=PA4#v=onepage&q&f=false Tyler 2004], p. 4.</ref> The Qing therefore unified Xinjiang and changed its demographic composition as well.<ref name="Liu & Faure 1996">[https://books.google.com/books?id=FW8SBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA71#v=onepage&q&f=false Liu & Faure 1996], p. 71.</ref>  The crushing of the Buddhist Dzungars by the Qing led to the empowerment of the Muslim Begs in southern Xinjiang, migration of Muslim Taranchis to northern Xinjiang, and increasing Turkic Muslim power, with Turkic Muslim culture and identity was tolerated or even promoted by the Qing.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=FW8SBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA76#v=onepage&q&f=false Liu & Faure 1996], p. 76.</ref> It was therefore argued by Henry Schwarz that "the Qing victory was, in a certain sense, a victory for Islam".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=FW8SBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA72#v=onepage&q&f=false Liu & Faure 1996], p. 72.</ref>

In [[Beijing]], a community of Uyghurs was clustered around the mosque near the [[Forbidden City]], having moved to Beijing in the 18th century.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=Pk0UAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA64#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=The Middle Kingdom: A Survey of the Chinese Empire and Its Inhabitants |author=  Samuel Wells Williams|year=1848|edition=|publisher=Wiley and Putnam|page=64|isbn=|accessdate=2011-05-08}}</ref>

During the [[Dungan Revolt (1862–77)]], Andijani Uzbeks from the [[Khanate of Kokand]] under [[Buzurg Khan]] and [[Yaqub Beg]] expelled Qing officials from parts of southern Xinjiang and founded an independent Kashgarian kingdom called ''Yettishar'' "Country of Seven Cities". Under the leadership of Yaqub Beg, it included [[Kashgar]], [[Yarkant County|Yarkand]], [[Hotan|Khotan]], [[Aksu, Xinjiang|Aksu]], [[Kucha]], [[Korla]], and [[Turpan]].{{citation needed|date=June 2015}}

Large Qing dynasty forces under Chinese General [[Zuo Zongtang]] attacked Yettishar in 1876.  After this invasion, the two regions of Dzungaria, which had been known as the Dzungar region or the Northern marches of the Tian Shan,<ref>{{cite book|title=Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity, and Empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759-1864|first=James A.|last=Millward|volume=|edition=illustrated|year=1998|publisher=Stanford University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MC6sAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA21#v=onepage&q&f=false|isbn=0804729336|page=21|accessdate=10 March 2014| ref = {{harvid||}} }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Holy War in China: The Muslim Rebellion and State in Chinese Central Asia, 1864-1877|first=Hodong|last=Kim|volume=|edition=illustrated|year=2004|publisher=Stanford University Press|url=https://books.google.com/?id=AtduqAtBzegC&pg=PA218#v=onepage&q&f=false|isbn=0804767238|page=15|accessdate=10 March 2014| ref = {{harvid||}} }}</ref> and the Tarim Basin, which had been known as "Muslim land" or southern marches of the Tian Shan,<ref>{{cite book|title=Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity, and Empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759-1864|first=James A.|last=Millward|volume=|edition=illustrated|year=1998|publisher=Stanford University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MC6sAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA23#v=onepage&q&f=false|isbn=0804729336|page=23|accessdate=10 March 2014| ref = {{harvid||}} }}</ref> were reorganized into a province named ''Xinjiang'' meaning "New Territory".<ref>{{cite book |url= |title=Wild West China: The Taming of Xinjiang |author=Christian Tyler|page=56 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year= 2004 |isbn=978-0813535333 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Inner Asia, Volume 4, Issues 1-2|others=University of Cambridge. Mongolia & Inner Asia Studies Unit|volume=|edition=|year=2002|publisher=The White Horse Press for the Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit at the University of Cambridge|url=https://books.google.com/?id=m1RuAAAAMAAJ&q=Zhunbu&dq=Zhunbu|isbn=0804729336|page=127|accessdate=10 March 2014| ref = {{harvid||}} }}</ref>

===Modern era===
In 1912, the Qing Dynasty was replaced by the [[Republic of China (1912–49)|Republic of China]]. By 1920, Pan-Turkic [[Jadidist]] Islamists had become a challenge to Chinese warlord [[Yang Zengxin]] who controlled Xinjiang. Uyghurs staged several uprisings against Chinese rule. Twice, in 1933 and 1944, the Uyghurs successfully gained their independence (backed by the Soviet Communist leader [[Joseph Stalin]]): the [[First East Turkestan Republic]] was a short-lived attempt at independence around [[Kashgar Prefecture|Kashghar]], and it was destroyed during the [[Kumul Rebellion]] by [[Hui people|Chinese Muslim]] army under General [[Ma Zhancang]] and [[Ma Fuyuan]] at the [[Battle of Kashgar (1934)]]. The [[Second East Turkestan Republic]] was a Soviet puppet Communist state that existed from 1944 to 1949 in the three districts of what is now [[Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture]] during the [[Ili Rebellion]] while the majority of Xinjiang was under the control of the Republic of China. Religious Uyghur separatists from the First East Turkestan Republic like [[Isa Yusuf Alptekin]] and [[Muhammad Amin Bughra]] opposed the Soviet Communist backed Uyghur separatists of the Second East Turkestan Republic under Ehmetjan Qasim and they supported the Republic of China during the Ili Rebellion.

[[File:Xinjiang nationalities by prefecture 2000.png|thumb|Map showing the distribution of ethnicities in [[Xinjiang]] according to census figures from 2000, the prefectures with Uyghur majorities are in blue.]]
Mao declared the founding of the [[China|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 Uyghurs are the largest ethnic group, mostly concentrated in the southwestern Xinjiang.<ref>2000年人口普查中国民族人口资料，民族出版社，2003/9 (ISBN 7-105-05425-5)</ref> (see map, right)
The Xinjiang conflict is an ongoing separatist conflict in China's far-west province of Xinjiang, whose northern region is known as Dzungaria and whose southern region (the Tarim Basin) is known as East Turkestan. Uyghur separatists and independence movements claim that the region is not a part of China, but that the Second East Turkestan Republic was illegally incorporated by the PRC in 1949 and has since been under Chinese occupation.
Uyghur identity remains fragmented, as some support a [[Pan-Islamism|Pan-Islamic]] vision, exemplified by the [[East Turkestan Islamic Movement]], while others support a [[Pan-Turkism|Pan-Turkic]] vision, such as the [[East Turkestan Liberation Organization]]. A third group would like a "Uyghur[[-stan|stan]]" state, such as the [[East Turkestan independence movement]]. As a result, "[n]o 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 are not religious enough.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Constituting the Uyghur in U.S.-China Relations: The Geopolitics of Identity Formation in the War on Terrorism|first=Gaye|last=Christofferson|journal=[[Strategic Insights]]|publisher=Center for Contemporary Conflict|date=September 2002|volume=1|issue=7|url=http://www.nps.edu/Academics/centers/ccc/publications/OnlineJournal/2002/sept02/eastAsia.pdf}}</ref> Mindful not to take sides, Uyghur "leaders" such as [[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]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90002/96417/6695082.html|title=Unveiled Rebiya Kadeer: a Uighur Dalai Lama|date=2009-07-07|accessdate=2010-08-21|publisher=[[People's Daily]]|first=Li|last=Hongmei}}</ref>

== Uyghurs of Taoyuan, Hunan ==
Around 5,000 Uyghurs live around [[Taoyuan County, Hunan|Taoyuan County]] and other parts of [[Changde]] in [[Hunan]] province.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=UuEyAAAAIAAJ&q=Uighurs+are+the+largest+Turkic-speaking+Muslim+people+of+China.+Most+of+them+live+within+the+Xinjiang+Uighur+Autonomous+Region.+An+isolated+group+of+Uighurs+lives,+however,+in+Taoyuan+and+Changde+xian+of+the+Hunan+province.&dq=Uighurs+are+the+largest+Turkic-speaking+Muslim+people+of+China.+Most+of+them+live+within+the+Xinjiang+Uighur+Autonomous+Region.+An+isolated+group+of+Uighurs+lives,+however,+in+Taoyuan+and+Changde+xian+of+the+Hunan+province.|title=The Altaic-speakers of China: numbers and distribution|author=Ingvar Svanberg|year=1988|publisher=Centre for Mult[i]ethnic Research, Uppsala University, Faculty of Arts|isbn=91-86624-20-2|page=7|pages=|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=UlaBw3MUGBEC&pg=PA220&dq=taoyuan+uighur+hunan#v=snippet&q=taoyuan%20uighur%20hunan&f=false|title=Muslim cultures today: a reference guide|author=Kathryn M. Coughlin|year=2006|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=0-313-32386-0|page=220|pages=|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> They are descended from Hala Bashi, a Uyghur leader from [[Turpan]] ([[Kingdom of Qocho]]), and his Uyghur soldiers sent to Hunan by the Ming Emperor in the 14th century to crush the Miao rebels during the [[Miao Rebellions (Ming Dynasty)|Miao Rebellions]] in the Ming Dynasty.<ref name="english.people.com.cn"/><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=MT2D_0_eBPQC&pg=PA178&dq=hunan+uyghur#v=onepage&q=hunan%20uyghur&f=false|title=Oasis identities: Uyghur nationalism along China's Silk Road|author1=Justin Ben-Adam Rudelson |author2=Justin Jon Rudelson |year=1997|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=0-231-10786-2|page=178|pages=|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> The 1982 census records 4,000 Uyghurs in Hunan.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=MpsYAAAAIAAJ&q=After+the+collapse+of+the+Ming+Dynasty,+these+soldiers+continued+to+make+their+homes+in+Changde+and+Taoyuan+in+Hunan.+That+was+how+4000+people+in+Hunan+registered+as+Uygur+nationality+during+the+1982+national+census.&dq=After+the+collapse+of+the+Ming+Dynasty,+these+soldiers+continued+to+make+their+homes+in+Changde+and+Taoyuan+in+Hunan.+That+was+how+4000+people+in+Hunan+registered+as+Uygur+nationality+during+the+1982+national+census.|title=New China's population|author=Zhongguo cai zheng jing ji chu ban she|year=1988|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=0-02-905471-0|page=197|pages=|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=roiuY7bnb80C&pg=PA58&dq=hunan+uyghur#v=onepage&q=hunan%20uyghur&f=false|title=Muslim Uyghur students in a Chinese boarding school: social recapitalization as a response to ethnic integration|author=Yangbin Chen|year=2008|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=0-7391-2112-X|page=58|pages=|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=weYQMv2RqCgC&pg=PA197&dq=arab+fujian#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Islam outside the Arab world|author1=David Westerlund |author2=Ingvar Svanberg |year=1999|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=0-312-22691-8|page=197|pages=|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> Chinese news sources report that they are Muslim.<ref name="english.people.com.cn"/>

The Uyghur troops led by Hala were ordered by the Ming Emperor to crush [[Miao people|Miao]] rebellions and were given titles by him. Jian is the predominant surname among the Uyghur in Changde, Hunan. Another group of Uyghur have the surname Sai. [[Hui people|Hui]] and Uyghur have intermarried in the Hunan area.<ref name="Shih">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=8ePxMW066j8C&pg=PA133&dq=jian+uyghur+hunan#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Negotiating ethnicity in China: citizenship as a response to the state|author=[[Chih-yu Shih]], Zhiyu Shi|year=2002|publisher=Psychology Press,|isbn=0-415-28372-8|page=133|pages=|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> The Hui are descendants of Arabs and Han Chinese who intermarried, and they share the Islamic religion with the Uyghur in Hunan.<ref name="Shih" /> It is reported that they now number around 10,000 people. The Uyghurs in Changde are not very religious, and eat pork.<ref name="Shih" /> Older Uyghurs disapprove of this, especially elders at the mosques in Changde, and they seek to draw them back to Islamic customs.<ref name="Shih" />

In addition to eating pork, the Uyghurs of [[Changde]] Hunan practice other Han Chinese customs, like ancestor worship at graves. Some Uyghurs from Xinjiang visit the Hunan Uyghurs out of curiosity or interest.<ref name="Shih" /> Also, the Uyghurs of Hunan do not speak the [[Uyghur language]], instead, they speak Chinese as their native language, and Arabic for religious reasons at the mosque.<ref name="Shih" />

==Genetics==
{{multiple image
| align     = right
| direction = vertical
| header    = Diversity of Uyghur people
| image1    = Uyghur-elders-sunday-market-Kashgar.jpg
| width1    = 230
| caption1 = Uyghurs in Kashgar
| image2   = Uyghur girl in Turpan, Xinjiang, China - 20050712.jpg
| width2   = 230
| caption2 = A young Uyghur girl in [[Turpan]], Xinjiang, China
| image3   = Khotan-mercado-chicos-d01.jpg
| width3   = 230
| caption3 = Group of boys in Hotan
}}

The Uyghurs are a [[Eurasian (mixed ancestry)|Eurasian]] population with Eastern and Western Eurasian anthropometric and genetic traits. Uyghurs are thus one of the many populations of Central Eurasia that can be considered to be genetically related to European and East Asian populations.  However, various scientific studies differ on the size of each component.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.khazaria.com/genetics/uygurs.html |title=Uygur Genetics - DNA of Turkic people from Xinjiang, China |publisher=Khazaria.com |accessdate=2012-04-06}}</ref> One study, using samples from Hetian ([[Hotan]]) only, found that Uyghurs have 60% European ancestry and 40% East Asian ancestry.<ref name="ajhg">{{cite journal |author1=Shuhua Xu |author2=Wei Huang |author3=Ji Qian |author4=Li Jin  |last-author-amp=yes | title = Analysis of Genomic Admixture in Uyghur and Its Implication in Mapping Strategy |journal=Am J Hum Genet. | date=April 11, 2008 | volume =  82 | issue = 4| pages =  883–89 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.01.017  |pmc=2427216 | pmid=18355773}}</ref>  A further study showed slightly greater European component (52% European) in the Uyghur population in southern Xinjiang, but slightly greater East Asian component (47% European) in the northern Uyghur population.<ref>{{cite journal |author1=Shuhua Xu  |author2=Li Jin   |lastauthoramp=yes | title = A Genome-wide Analysis of Admixture in Uyghurs and a High-Density Admixture Map for Disease-Gene Discovery|journal=Am J Hum Genet. | date=September 2008 | volume =  83 | issue = 3 | pages =  322–36 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.08.001 |pmc=2556439 | pmid=18760393 }}</ref>  Another study used a larger sample of individuals from a wider area, and found only about 30% European component to the admixture.<ref name="cite journal|pmc=2790568">{{cite journal|pmc=2790568|title=Genetic Landscape of Eurasia and "Admixture" in Uyghurs|year=2009|volume=85|issue=6|pmid=20004770|last1=Li|first1=H|last2=Cho|first2=K|last3=Kidd|first3=JR|last4=Kidd|first4=KK|pages=934–7; author reply 937–9|doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2009.10.024|journal=American Journal of Human Genetics}}</ref>  A study on [[Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup|mitochondrial DNA]] (therefore the matrilineal genetic contribution) found the frequency of western Eurasian-specific haplogroup in Uyghurs to be 42.6%, and east-Asian haplogroup to be 57.4%<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Yao YG, Kong QP, Wang CY, Zhu CL, Zhang YP | title = Different matrilineal contributions to genetic structure of ethnic groups in the silk road region in China |journal=Mol Biol Evol. |date=Dec 2004 | volume =  21 | issue = 12 | pages = 2265–80 |url=http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/12/2265.long | pmid=15317881 | doi=10.1093/molbev/msh238}}</ref>  A further study shows that the western-Eurasian patrilineal Y-DNA haplogroup in Uyghurs is around 65% to 70%, and east-Asian Y-DNA haplogroup around 30% to 35%.<ref>Male Demography in East Asia: A North–South Contrast in Human Population Expansion Times, http://www.genetics.org/content/genetics/172/4/2431.full.pdf</ref>

The admixture may be the result of a continuous gene flow from populations of European and Asian descent, or may have been formed by a single event of admixture during a short period of time (the hybrid isolation model). If a hybrid isolation model is assumed, it can be estimated that the hypothetical admixture event occurred about 126 generations ago, or 2,520 years ago assuming 20 years per generation.<ref name="ajhg"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2008/03/uyghurs-are-hybrids/ |title=Uyghurs are hybrids &#124; Gene Expression &#124; Discover Magazine |publisher=Blogs.discovermagazine.com |accessdate=2011-08-28}}</ref>

According to the paper by Li ''et al.'':

{{Quotation|... the western East Asians are more closely related to Uyghurs than the eastern East Asians. ... STRUCTURE cannot distinguish recent admixture from a cline of other origin, and these analyses cannot prove admixture in the Uyghurs; however, historical records indicate that the present Uyghurs were formed by admixture between [[Tocharians]] from the west and Orkhon Uyghurs (Wugusi-Huihu, according to present Chinese pronunciation) from the east in the 8th century AD. The Uyghur Empire was originally located in Mongolia and conquered the Tocharian tribes in Xinjiang. Tocharians such as [[Kroran]] have been shown by archaeological findings to appear phenotypically similar to northern Europeans, whereas the Orkhon Uyghur people were clearly Mongolians. The two groups of people subsequently mixed in Xinjiang to become one population, the present Uyghurs. We do not know the genetic constitution of the Tocharians, but if they were similar to western Siberians, such as the Khanty, admixture would already be biased toward similarity with East Asian populations.|<ref name="cite journal|pmc=2790568"/>}}

The paper further concludes:
{{Quotation|... that the Uyghurs' genetic structure is more similar to East Asians than to Europeans, in contrast to the reports by Xu and Jin, whose work may have been affected by their sparse population coverage. The median line of the Eurasian genetic landscape appears to lie to the west of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. When we have collected more data on these 34 populations, we should be able to refine these estimates.|<ref name="cite journal|pmc=2790568"/>}}

==Culture==

===Religion===
[[File:Khotan-mezquita-d03.jpg|thumb|An [[Khotan Mosque|Uyghur mosque]] in [[Khotan]].]]

The ancient Uyghurs believed in [[Shamanism]] and [[Tengrism]], then [[Manichaeism]], [[Buddhism in Central Asia|Buddhism]] and [[Church of the East]].<ref>[http://www.tanghistory.net/data/articles/d02/621.html 回鹘观音信仰考] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322065047/http://www.tanghistory.net/data/articles/d02/621.html |date=March 22, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://ccbs.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-BJ001/93572.htm |title=回鶻彌勒信仰考 |publisher=Ccbs.ntu.edu.tw |accessdate=2014-03-03}}</ref> People in the western Tarim Basin region began to convert to Islam in significant number early in the Kara-Khanid Khanate period.<ref name="sinor"/> Modern Uyghurs are now primarily [[Muslim]], and they are the second largest Muslim ethnic group in China after the [[Hui people|Hui]].<ref name="Palmer">{{Cite book|title=Chinese Religious Life|first=David|last=Palmer|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=dFaLDKFZpFgC&pg=PA62&lpg=PA62#v=onepage&q&f=false|first2=Glenn|last2=Shive|first3=Philip|last3=Wickeri|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2011|pages=61–62|isbn=9780199731381}}</ref>

The majority of modern Uyghurs are [[Sunni Islam|Sunnis]], although conflicts exist between Sufi and non-Sufi religious orders.<ref name="Palmer"/>  While modern Uyghurs consider Islam to be part of their identity, religious observance varies between different regions. In general, Muslims in the southern region, Kashgar in particular, are more conservative.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MT2D_0_eBPQC&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Oasis identities: Uyghur nationalism along China's Silk Road|author=Justin Jon Rudelson|year=1997|pages=46–47|publisher=Columbia University Press |edition=illustrated|page=|isbn=0-231-10787-0|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> For example, women wearing the full veil (brown cloth covering the head completely) are more common in Kashgar but may not be found in some other cities.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MT2D_0_eBPQC&pg=PA153&lpg=PA153#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Oasis identities: Uyghur nationalism along China's Silk Road|author=Justin Jon Rudelson|year=1997|page=153|publisher=Columbia University Press |edition=illustrated|isbn=0-231-10787-0|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref>  There is also a general split between the Uyghurs and the Hui Muslims in Xinjiang, and they normally worship in different mosques.<ref>{{cite book |title=Xinjiang, China's Muslim Borderland |chapter=Chapter 13 - Islam in Xinjiang |url=https://books.google.com/?id=GXj4a3gss8wC&pg=PA331&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false |author1=Graham E. Fuller  |author2=Jonathan N. Lipman  |lastauthoramp=yes |editor=S. Frederick Starr |pages=331–332 |isbn=978-0-7656-1318-9 |date=2004-03-15 }}</ref>
There had been [[Christianity in Xinjiang|Christian conversions]] in the late 19th and early 20th centuries but these were suppressed.<ref name="UhalleyWu2015">{{cite book|author1=Stephen Uhalley|author2=Xiaoxin Wu|title=China and Christianity: Burdened Past, Hopeful Future|url=https://books.google.com/?id=iPnqBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA274&f=false|date=4 March 2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-47501-9|pages=274–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann|title=Community Matters in Xinjiang, 1880-1949: Towards a Historical Anthropology of the Uyghur|url=https://books.google.com/?id=cF4lMj8skvoC&pg=PA59|year=2008|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-16675-0|pages=59–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Edward Laird Mills|title=Christian Advocate -: Pacific Edition ..|url=https://books.google.com/?id=_vgtAQAAIAAJ&q=swedish+missionaries+1933+persecution&dq=swedish+missionaries+1933+persecution|year=1938|page=986}}</ref>

===Language===
{{Main article|Uyghur language}}
[[File:Map of language areas of Xinjiang.png|thumb|Map of languages in Xinjiang]]

The ancient people of the Tarim Basin originally spoke different languages such as [[Saka language|Saka]] (Khotanese), [[Tocharian languages|Tocharian]] and [[Gāndhārī language|Gandhari]].  The Turkic people who moved into region in the 9th century brought with them their languages which slowly supplanted the original tongues of the local inhabitants. By the 11th century, it was noted by [[Mahmud al-Kashgari]] that the Uyghurs (of Qocho) spoke a pure Turkic language, but they also still spoke another language among themselves and have two different scripts. He also noted that the people of Khotan did not know Turkic well, and have their own language and script ([[Saka language|Khotanese]]).<ref>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=SAX5ohFkcVgC&pg=PA72#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=slamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources|authors=Scott Cameron Levi, Ron Sela |page=72 |publisher=Indiana University Press |year= 2009|isbn= 978-0253353856 }}</ref> Writers of the Karakhanid period, al-Kashgari and [[Yusuf Balasagun]], referred to their Turkic language as ''Khāqāniyya'' (meaning royal), or the "language of Kashgar", or simply Turkic.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Mehmet Fuat Köprülü|author2=Gary Leiser|author3=Robert Dankoff|title=Early Mystics in Turkish Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_v6IWkCLnEwC&pg=PA158#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=2006|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-36686-1|pages=158–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Edmund Herzig|title=The Age of the Seljuqs|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ML2bBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA23|date=30 November 2014|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-78076-947-9|pages=23–}}</ref>

The modern Uyghur language is classed under to the [[Karluk languages|Karluk]] branch of the [[Turkic languages|Turkic language family]]. It is closely related to [[Äynu language|Äynu]], [[Lop language|Lop]], [[Ili Turki language|Ili Turki]], and [[Chagatay language|Chagatay]] (the East Karluk languages), and slightly less closely to [[Uzbek language|Uzbek]] (which is West Karluk).  The Uyghur language is an [[agglutinative language]] and has a [[subject-object-verb]] word order.  It has [[vowel harmony]] like other Turkic languages, and has noun and verb [[Grammatical case|cases]], but lacks distinction of gender forms.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.indiana.edu/~celcar/pamphlets/Uyghur.pdf |title=Uyghur |work=Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region |publisher=Indiana University }}</ref>

Modern Uyghurs have adopted a number of scripts for their language. The [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic script]], known as the [[Chagatay alphabet]], was adopted along with Islam. This alphabet is known as Kona Yëziq (old script). Political changes in the 20th century led to numerous reforms of the writing scripts, for example the [[Cyrillic]]-based [[Uyghur Cyrillic alphabet]], a Latin [[Uyghur New Script]], and later a reformed [[Uyghur Arabic alphabet]] which represents all vowels unlike Kona Yëziq. A new Latin version, the [[Uyghur Latin alphabet]], was also devised in the 21st century.

===Literature===
The literary works of the ancient Uyghurs were mostly translations of Buddhist and Manichaean religious texts,<ref>[http://hk.plm.org.cn/e_book/xz-11348.pdf 西域、 敦煌文献所见回鹊之佛经翻译]{{dead link|date=March 2014}}</ref> but there were also narrative, poetic, and epic works apparently original to the Uyghurs.  However, it is the literature of Kara-Khanid period that is considered by modern Uyghurs to be the important part of their literary traditions.  Amongst these are Islamic religious texts and histories of Turkic peoples, and important works surviving from that era are ''[[Kutadgu Bilig]]'' "Wisdom of Royal Glory" by [[Yusuf Khass Hajib]] (1069–70), [[Mahmud al-Kashgari]]'s ''Dīwānu l-Luġat al-Turk'' "A Dictionary of Turkic Dialects" (1072), and Ehmed Yükneki's ''Etebetulheqayiq''. Modern Uyghur religious literature includes the [[Taẕkirah]], biographies of Islamic religious figures and saints.<ref name="Thum2014 2">{{cite book|author=Rian Thum|title=The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pP6EBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA113&dq=tazkirah&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CCkQ6AEwA2oVChMIhezNksWPyQIViecmCh29Kw_s#v=onepage&q=tazkirah&f=false|date=13 October 2014|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-59855-3|pages=113–}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Thum |first=Rian |last2= |first2= |date=6 August 2012 |title= Modular History: Identity Maintenance before Uyghur Nationalism |url= http://www.academia.edu/1558522/Modular_History_Identity_Maintenance_before_Uyghur_Nationalism |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |publisher= The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2012 |volume=  71 |issue= 03|pages=632 |doi= 10.1017/S0021911812000629 |accessdate=29 September 2014}}</ref> [[Robert Barkley Shaw]] translated extracts from the Tazkiratu'l-Bughra which was about the Muslim Turkic conquest of the "infidel" Khotan.<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert Shaw|title=A Sketch of the Turki Language: As Spoken in Eastern Turkistan ...|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dw7gAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA102#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=1878|pages=102–109}}{{cite book|author=Asiatic Society (Calcutta, India)|title=Journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0G0yAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA325#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=1877|pages=325–347}}{{cite book|title=Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qLoIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA325#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=1877|publisher=G.H. Rouse, Baptist Mission Press|pages=325–347}}{{cite book|author=Robert Shaw|title=A Sketch of the Túrkí Language as Spoken in Eastern Túrkistán (Káshgar & Yarkand) Together with a Collection of Extracts|url=https://books.google.com/?id=JlpIAQAAMAAJ&q=nucta+rashid&dq=nucta+rashid|year=1875|publisher=Printed at the Central jail Press|pages=i–xxix}}</ref> The Turki-language ''Tadhkirah i Khwajagan'' was written by M. Sadiq Kashghari.<ref name="Storey2002">{{cite book|author=C. A. Storey|title=Persian Literature: A Bio-Bibliographical Survey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VleM1pOXgdQC&pg=PA1026&dq=Semyonov+chahars&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjjhNW8xInKAhWDRiYKHQJAC4YQ6AEIVzAH#v=onepage&q=Semyonov%20chahars&f=false|date=February 2002|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-947593-38-4|pages=1026–}}</ref> Between the 1600s and 1900s many Turki language tazkirah manuscripts devoted to stories of local sultans, martyrs and saints were written.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/review/xinjiang-stories-nile-green-rian-thum-sacred-routes-uyghur-history|title=Xinjiang Stories - Los Angeles Review of Books|publisher=}}</ref> Perhaps the most famous and best-loved pieces of modern Uyghur literature are [[Abdurehim Ötkür]]'s ''Iz'', ''Oyghanghan Zimin'', [[Zordun Sabir]]'s ''Anayurt'' and [[Ziya Samedi]]'s novels ''Mayimkhan'' and ''Mystery of the years''.{{Citation needed|date=March 2008}}

===Music===
{{listen|filename=Chirayliq.ogg|title=Uyghur folk music with modern influence|description=An example of modern Uyghur music}}
[[File:Uyghur Meshrep.jpg|thumb|Uyghur Meshrep musicians in Yarkand.]]

[[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 [[maqama]]t 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]], such as [[Dolan people|Dolan]], [[Ghulja|Ili]], [[Kumul (city)|Kumul]] and [[Turpan]]. The most fully developed at this point is the Western [[Tarim Basin|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 [[Taqsim|taksim]] performances, the present institutional canon is performed as fixed compositions by ensembles.

The Uyghur Muqam of Xinjiang has been designated by UNESCO as part of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unesco.org/culture/ich/index.php?RL=21 |title=UNESCO Culture Sector - Intangible Heritage - 2003 Convention : |publisher=Unesco.org |accessdate=2011-08-28}}</ref>

[[Amannisa Khan]], sometimes called Amanni Shahan, (1526–1560) is credited with collecting and thereby preserving the Twelve Muqam.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kashi.gov.cn/English/Tourism/Customs/12muqams.htm |title=Kashgar Welcome You! |publisher=Kashi.gov.cn |accessdate=2011-08-28}}</ref> 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|duttar]]".

===Dance===
[[Sanam (dance)|Sanam]] is a popular folk dance among the Uyghur people.<ref>{{cite book|title=Imagined Differences: Hatred and the Construction of Identity|editor1-first=Günther|editor1-last=Schlee|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|year=2002|chapter=Temperamental Neighbours: Uighur-Han Relations in Xinjiang, Northwest China|last=Bellér-Hann|first=Ildikó|page=66|quote=The fact that many young girls hope to pursue careers as folk dancers is perhaps another indication that the stereotype promoted by the Chinese authorities of the colourful, exotic minorities who dance and sing is not a pure Chinese invention: the Uighur themselves regard this as an important expression of their identity.}}</ref>  It is commonly danced by people at weddings, festive occasions, and parties.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://people.cs.pitt.edu/~mehmud/uyghur/music_dance.html |title=Uyghur Music |author=Mehmud Abliz }}</ref>  The dance may be performed with singing and musical accompaniment.  Sama is a form of group dance for [[Newruz]] (New Year).  Some dances may be alternate between singing and dancing, and Uyghur hand-drums called ''[[dap (drum)|dap]]'' are commonly used as accompaniment for Uyghur dances.

===Art===
[[File:Turpan-bezeklik-pinturas-d02.jpg|thumb|Wall painting at [[Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves|Bezeklik caves]] in Flaming Mountains, Turpan Depression.]]
[[File:Khotan-fabrica-alfombras-d09.jpg|thumb|Xinjiang carpet factory]]

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 miniatures, books, and documents. There are 77 [[Rock cut architecture|rock-cut]] caves at the site. Most have rectangular spaces with rounded [[arch]] [[ceiling]]s often divided into four sections, each with a [[mural]] of  [[Gautama Buddha|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 naïve while others are masterpieces of religious art.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.showcaves.com/english/cn/misc/Bezeklik.html |title= Bizaklik Thousand Buddha Caves |publisher= ''www.showcaves.com'' |accessdate= 2007-09-21 }}</ref>

===Education===
Historically, the education level of Old Uyghur people was higher than the other ethnic groups around them. The Buddhist Uyghurs of Qocho became the civil servants of Mongol Empire and Old Uyghur Buddhists enjoyed a high status in the Mongol empire. In the Islamic era, education may be provided by the mosques and madrassas.  During the Qing era, Chinese Confucian schools were also set up in Xinjiang,<ref name="education">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA142 |title=Eurasian crossroads: a history of Xinjiang|author=James A. Millward|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=0-231-13924-1|pages=142–148 |accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> and in the late 19th century Christian missionary schools.<ref name="benson"/>

In the late nineteenth and early 20th century, school were often located in mosques and ''[[madrassah]]''. Mosques ran the informal schools, known as [[Maktab|mektep]] or ''maktab'', attached to the mosques,<ref>{{cite book|author=S. Frederick Starr|title=Xinjiang: China's Muslim Borderland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GXj4a3gss8wC&pg=PA192#v=onepage&q=schools&f=false|date=15 March 2004|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|isbn=978-0-7656-3192-3|pages=192–}}</ref> The ''maktab'' provided most of the education and its curriculum was primarily religious and oral.<ref>{{cite book|author=James A. Millward|title=Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA146|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-13924-3|pages=145–147}}</ref>  Boys and girls may be taught in separate schools, some of which may also offer modern secular subjects in the early 20th century.<ref name="education"/><ref name="benson"/><ref>{{Cite book|title = East Turkestan history|last = Muhammad emin|first = Bughra|publisher = |year = 1941|isbn = |location = Kabul|pages = 155}}</ref> In Madrasas, poetry, logic, Arabic grammar, and Islamic law were taught.<ref>{{cite book|author=Rian Thum|title=The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QqOmBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA63#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=13 October 2014|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-96702-1|pages=63–}}</ref> In the early 20th century, the [[Jadid]]ists Turkic Muslims from Russia spread new ideas on education,<ref>{{cite book|author=Andrew D. W. Forbes|title=Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang 1911-1949|url=https://books.google.com/?id=IAs9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17|date=9 October 1986|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=978-0-521-25514-1|pages=17–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann|title=Situating the Uyghurs Between China and Central Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NKCU3BdeBbEC&pg=PA166#v=onepage&q=schools&f=false|year=2007|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-7041-4|pages=166–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=James A. Millward|title=Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA148#v=onepage&q=schools%20mosques&f=false|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-13924-3|pages=148–}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ondřej Klimeš|title=Struggle by the Pen: The Uyghur Discourse of Nation and National Interest, c.1900-1949|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rdcuBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA80#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=8 January 2015|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-28809-6|pages=80–}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://faculty.washington.edu/stevehar/Ibrahim.pdf |title= Ibrahim's story |author=William Clark |journal= Asian Ethnicity|volume= 12 |issue=2 |pages= 203–219}}</ref> and popularized the identity of "Turkestani".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/uyghur|title=What Is a Uyghur? - Los Angeles Review of Books|publisher=}}</ref>

In more recent times, religious education is highly restricted in Xinjiang, and the Chinese authority had sought to eradicate any religious school they considered illegal.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=NKCU3BdeBbEC&pg=PA168#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Situating the Uyghurs between China and Central Asia|author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann|year=2007|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd|isbn=0-7546-7041-4|page=168}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Madrasa in Asia: Political Activism and Transnational Linkages |editors= Farish A. Noor, Yoginder Sikand, Martin van Bruinessen |author=Jackie Amijo |chapter=Chapter 6 - Muslim Education in China |pages=185–186 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |year= 2008  }}</ref> Although Islamic private schools (Sino-Arabic schools (中阿學校)) have been supported and permitted by the Chinese government among Hui Muslim areas since the 1980s, this policy does not extend to schools in Xinjiang due to fear of separatism.<ref name="VersteeghEid2005">{{cite book|author1=Kees Versteegh|author2=Mushira Eid|title=Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics: A-Ed|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SuNiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA383|year=2005|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-14473-6|pages=383–}}</ref><ref>[http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/rss/31-1_007.pdf ALLÈS & CHÉRIF-CHEBBI & HALFON 2003], p. 14.</ref><ref name="Relations2005">{{cite book|author=Senate (U S ) Committee on Foreign Relations|title=Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, 2004|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=04dlwzB2SvcC&pg=PA159#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=August 2005|publisher=Government Printing Office|isbn=978-0-16-072552-4|pages=159–}}</ref>

Beginning in the early 20th century, secular education became more widespread. Early in the [[PRC]] era, Uyghurs may have a choice from two separate secular school systems, one conducted in their own language, and one offering instructions only in Chinese.<ref>{{Cite book|title = English language education across greater China|last = Anwei|first = Feng|publisher = |isbn = |location = |pages = 262}}</ref>  Many Uyghurs link the preservation of their cultural and religious identity with the language of instruction in schools and therefore prefer the Uyghur language school.<ref name="benson">{{cite book |title=Xinjiang, China's Muslim Borderland |chapter=Chapter 7 - Education and Social Mobility among Minority Populations in Xinjiang |url=https://books.google.com/?id=GXj4a3gss8wC&pg=PA191&dq=#v=onepage&q&f=false|author=Linda Benson |editor=S. Frederick Starr |pages=190–215 |isbn=978-0-7656-1318-9 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MT2D_0_eBPQC&pg=PA128&lpg=PA128#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=Oasis identities: Uyghur nationalism along China's Silk Road|author=Justin Jon Rudelson|year=1997|pages=127–129|publisher=Columbia University Press |edition=illustrated|page=|isbn=0-231-10787-0|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref>  However, from the mid-1980s onward, the Chinese government began to reduce teaching in Uyghur, and starting mid-1990s also began to merge some schools from the two systems.  By 2002 [[Xinjiang University]], originally a bilingual institution, had ceased offering courses in the Uyghur language.  From 2004 onward, the government policy is that classes should be conducted in Chinese as much as possible, and in some selected regions, instruction in Chinese began in the first grade.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Xinjiang Conflict: Uyghur Identity, Language Policy, and Political Discourse |url= http://www.eastwestcenter.org/fileadmin/stored/pdfs/PS015.pdf |author=Arienne M. Dwyer |publisher=East-West Center Washington |year=2005 |pages=34–41 |isbn= }}</ref>
The level of education attainment among Uyghurs is generally lower than that of the Han Chinese; this may be due to the  cost of education, the lack of proficiency in the Chinese language (now the main medium of instruction) among many Uyghurs, and a poorer employment prospect for Uyghur graduates.<ref>{{cite journal |url= http://sites.miis.edu/comparativeeducation/files/2013/01/Education-Integration-and-the-Uyghurs.pdf |title=The Xinjiang Class: Education, Integration, and the Uyghurs |author=Timothy A. Grose |journal=Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs |volume= 30 |issue= 1 |year = 2010 |pages=97–109 |doi=10.1080/13602001003650648}}</ref> Uyghurs in China, unlike the [[Salar people|Salar]] and [[Hui people|Hui]] who are also mostly Muslim, generally do not oppose [[coeducation]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qRSOAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA202#v=onepage&q&f=false|title=China's universities, 1895–1995: a century of cultural conflict|author=Ruth Hayhoe|year=1996|publisher=Taylor & Francis|page=202|isbn=0-8153-1859-6|pages=|accessdate=2010-06-29}}</ref>  Girls however may be withdrawn from school earlier than boys.<ref name="benson"/>

===Medicine===
Their traditional medicine is [[Unani]] (Greek) medicine.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Justin Jon Rudelson|author2=Justin Ben-Adam Rudelson|title=Oasis Identities: Uyghur Nationalism Along China's Silk Road|url=https://books.google.com/?id=MT2D_0_eBPQC&pg=PA84&dq=rudelson+unani#v=onepage&q=rudelson%20unani&f=false|year=1997|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-10786-0|pages=84–}}</ref> Sir [[Percy Sykes]] described the medicine as "based on the ancient Greek theory" and mentioned how ailments and sicknesses were treated in ''Through Deserts and Oases of Central Asia''.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=BC5yAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA318#v=onepage&q&f=false Sykes & Sykes 1920], p. 317-321.</ref> Today, traditional 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 modern medical science and medicine and applied evidence-based pharmaceutical technology to traditional medicines. Historically, Uyghur medical knowledge has contributed to Chinese medicine in terms of medical treatments, medicinal materials and ingredients, and symptom detection. It introduced to Chinese medicine the medical use of snakes, opium and many new kinds of plants.<ref>{{Cite book|title = 中国医学百科全书：维吾尔医学|publisher = 上海科学技术出版社|date = 2005-09-01|isbn = 9787532377930|location = China|pages = }}</ref> During the Qing era the Uyghurs used Chinese medicine.<ref name="Bellér-Hann2008">{{cite book|author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann|title=Community Matters in Xinjiang, 1880-1949: Towards a Historical Anthropology of the Uyghur|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cF4lMj8skvoC&pg=PA81#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=2008|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-16675-0|pages=81–}}</ref>

===Cuisine===
{{Main article|Xinjiang cuisine}}
[[File:Uyghur polu closeup.JPG|thumb|Uyghur ''[[Pilaf|polu]]'' (پولۇ, ''полу'')]]
Uyghur food shows both [[Central Asian cuisine|Central Asian]] and [[Chinese cuisine|Chinese]] elements. A typical Uyghur dish is ''polu'' (or [[pilaf]]), a dish found throughout Central Asia. In a common version of the Uyghur ''polu'', carrots and mutton (or chicken) are first fried in oil with onions, then rice and water are added, and the whole dish is steamed. Raisins and dried apricots may also be added. ''Kawaplar'' ([[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]: ''Каваплар'') or ''[[chuanr]]'' (i.e., [[kebab]]s or grilled meat) are also found here. Another common Uyghur dish is ''leghmen'' (لەغمەن, ''ләғмән''), a noodle dish with a stir-fried topping usually made from mutton and vegetables, such as tomatoes, onions, green bell peppers, chili peppers, and cabbage. This dish is likely to have originated from the Chinese ''[[lamian]]'', but its flavor and preparation method are distinctively Uyghur.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/?id=NKCU3BdeBbEC&pg=PA190#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Situating the Uyghurs between China and Central Asia|chapter= Chapter 10, ''Polo'', ''läghmän'', ''So Säy'': Situating Uyghur Food Between Central Asia and China|author=M Critina Cesàro|year=2007|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd|isbn=0-7546-7041-4|pages=185–202|accessdate=2010-07-30}}</ref>

Uyghur food (''Уйғур Йәмәклири'', ''Uyghur Yemekliri'') is characterized by [[Lamb and mutton|mutton]], [[beef]], [[Camel#Meat|camel]] (solely [[Bactrian camel|bactrian]]), [[Chicken (food)|chicken]], [[goose]], [[carrot]]s, [[tomato]]es, [[onion]]s, [[Capsicum|peppers]], [[eggplant]], [[celery]], various [[Dairy product|dairy foods]], and [[fruit]]s.

A Uyghur-style breakfast consists of [[tea]] with home-baked [[bread]], [[hardened yogurt]], [[olive]]s, [[honey]], [[raisin]]s, and [[almond]]s. Uyghurs like to treat guests with tea, [[naan]], and fruit before the main dishes are ready.

''[[Sangza]]'' ([[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]: ساڭزا, ''Саңза'') are crispy fried [[wheat flour]] dough twists, a holiday specialty. ''[[Samosa|Samsa]]'' ([[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]: سامسا, ''Самса'') are lamb [[pie]]s baked in a special brick oven. ''[[Youtazi]]'' is steamed multi-layer bread. ''[[Göshnan]]'' ([[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]: گۆشنان, ''Гөшнан'') are pan-grilled lamb pies. ''[[Pamirdin]]'' ([[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]: ''Памирдин'') are baked pies stuffed with lamb, carrots, and onions. ''[[Chorba|Shorpa]]'' is lamb [[soup]] ([[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]: شۇرپا, ''Шорпа''). Other dishes include ''[[Tohax|Toghach]]'' ([[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]: ''Тоғач'') (a type of [[tandoor bread]]) and ''[[Doner kebab|Tunurkawab]]'' ([[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]: ''Тунуркаваб''). ''Girde'' ([[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]: ''Гирде'') is also a very popular [[bagel]]-like bread with a hard and crispy crust that is soft inside.

Due to a price gouging scam involving a traditional Uyghur nut cake ({{zh|t=切糕|p=qiēgāo|l=nut cake}})<ref>http://spot.cnair.com/tese/xinjiang/qiegao.htm http://www.visitourchina.com/blog/detail-326.html http://ginjaturtles.com/index.php/blog/guangzhou-china/</ref> or ({{zh|t=核桃糕|p=hétao gāo|l=walnut cake}}) or [[w:zh:瑪仁糖|瑪仁糖]] ({{zh|t=瑪仁糖|p=mǎréntáng}}) sold by Uyghur vendors called [[w:zh:切糕党|切糕党]] ({{zh|t=切糕党|p=qiēgāo dǎng|l=nut cake party}}), ethnic tensions have risen.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://offbeatchina.com/an-unbelievably-expensive-piece-of-xinjiang-nut-cake-and-what-it-tells-about-the-ethnic-policy-in-china |title=An unbelievably expensive piece of Xinjiang nut cake and what it tells about the ethnic policy in China |date= December 4, 2012|work=Offbeat China }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= http://world.time.com/2012/12/05/dont-let-them-eat-cake-how-ethnic-tensions-in-china-explode-on-the-streets/ |title=Don’t Let Them Eat Cake: How Ethnic Tensions in China Explode on the Streets |author= Austin Ramzy |date=December 5, 2012 |work=Time}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.businessinsider.com/xinjiang-nut-cake-scandal-in-china-2012-12  |title =Chinese Racial Tensions Flare Over An Overpriced Nut Cake |author=Adam Taylor |date=December 4, 2012 |work=Business Insider }}</ref>

[[File:Uyghur-Dopa-Maker.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|left|Dopa Maker, traditional Uyghur hats, Kashgar]]

===Clothing===
{{see also|Uzbeks#Attire}}

[[Chapan]] is worn by Uyghurs. [[Doppa]] is headgear worn by Uyghur men. Another headwear, Salwa telpek (''салва тәлпәк'', ''salwa tälpäk'') is worn by Uyghurs.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NKCU3BdeBbEC&pg=PA91#v=onepage&q&f=false Friederich 2007], pp.91-92.</ref>

[[File:Uyghur-redhead.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|Uyghur girl in clothing made of fabric with design distinctive to the Uyghurs]]

[[Yengisar County|Yengisar]] (يېڭىسار, ''Йеңисар'') is famous for manufacturing Uyghur handcrafted knives,<ref name="Witness">{{Cite book|title=China|publisher=Eye Witness Travel Guides|pages=514}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://silkroadtours.com.cn/two-weeks-wild-scenery-of-xinjiang/|title=Two Weeks Wild scenery of Xinjiang - Silk Road Tours China|publisher=}}</ref> called "Yingjisha" knife (英吉沙刀) or (英吉沙小刀) in Chinese.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.china.com.cn/aboutchina/txt/2009-07/09/content_18103305.htm  |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219070822/http://www.china.com.cn/aboutchina/txt/2009-07/09/content_18103305.htm |archivedate=December 19, 2013 |title= 新疆的英吉沙小刀(组图) |publisher=china.com.cn}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.e56.com.cn/minzu_eng/weiwuerzu.asp |title= The Uyghur Nationality |work=Oriental Nationalities}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.techanyi.com/xinjiang/kashi/11095.html |title =英吉沙小刀}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://yuliang.kinja.com/specialties-and-sports-of-the-uyghur-ethnic-minority-1677647115|title=Specialties and Sports of the Uyghur Ethnic Minority|first=|last=wangyuliang|publisher=}}</ref> The Uyghur word for knife is pichaq (پىچاق, ''пичақ'') and the word for knives is pichaqchiliq (پىچاقچىلىقى, ''пичақчилиқ'').<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uy.ts.cn/dihan/2013-11/06/content_312722.htm|title=شىنجاڭ دېھقانلار تورى|publisher=}}</ref> Uyghur artisan craftsmen in Yengisar are known for their knife manufacture.  Uyghur men carrying knives on their body is a major part of Uyghur culture. The knives are intended to demonstrate the masculinity of the wearer<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sinobuy.cn/theme/longLock/yjshd.html|title= 英吉沙小刀|publisher=sinobuy.cn}}</ref> but have also led to ethnic tension.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.chinafile.com/reporting-opinion/postcard/strangers |title=The Strangers: Blood and Fear in Xinjiang |first= James |last=Palmer |date=September 25, 2013 |work=China File }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.todayonline.com/chinaindia/china/kunming-attack-further-frays-ties-between-han-and-uighurs |title=Kunming attack further frays ties between Han and Uighurs |date=March 5, 2014 |work=Today }}</ref>  Limitations were placed on knife vending due to terrorism and violent assaults where they were utilized.<ref>http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-c1-china-uighur-knives-20140917-story.html</ref>

In the early 20th century, face covering veils with caps velvet with trimmed with otter fur were worn in the streets by Turki women in public in Xinjiang as witnessed by the adventurer Ahmad Kamal in the 1930s.<ref name="Kamal2000">{{cite book|author=Ahmad Kamal|title=Land Without Laughter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bM2fGu9nnPUC&pg=PA110|date=1 August 2000|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=978-0-595-01005-9|pages=110–}}</ref> Travelers of the period Sir [[Percy Sykes]] and Ella Sykes wrote that in Kashghar women went into the bazar "transacting business with their veils thrown back" but mullahs tried to enforce veil wearing and were "in the habit of beating those who show their face in the Great Bazar"."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BC5yAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA61#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Through Deserts and Oases of Central Asia|authors=Ella Constance Sykes, Sir Percy Molesworth Sykes |year=1920|page= 61}}</ref> Uyghur women who had non-Muslim Han Chinese husbands did not wear veils due to their slackness in regards to religion in the period after Yaqub Beg's rule ended.<ref>{{cite book|author=Joanne N. Smith Finley|title=The Art of Symbolic Resistance: Uyghur Identities and Uyghur-Han Relations in Contemporary Xinjiang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LQBBAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA309#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=9 September 2013|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-25678-1|pages=309–}}</ref> Belonging to different social statuses meant a difference in how rigorously the veil was worn.<ref name="Bellér-Hann2008 2">{{cite book|author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann|title=Community Matters in Xinjiang, 1880-1949: Towards a Historical Anthropology of the Uyghur|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cF4lMj8skvoC&pg=PA193#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=2008|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-16675-0|pages=193–}}</ref>

Qing era Muslim Turkestani men cut all the hair off their head.<ref name="CrossleySiu2006">{{cite book|author1=Pamela Kyle Crossley|author2=Helen F. Siu|author3=Donald S. Sutton|title=Empire at the Margins: Culture, Ethnicity, and Frontier in Early Modern China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EtNVMUx9qIIC&pg=PA127#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=January 2006|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-23015-6|pages=127–}}</ref> It was observed that the ''Turki Muhammadan, accustomed to shelter this shaven head under a substantial fur-cap when the temperature is so low as it was just then.'' by Sir Aurel Stein.<ref name="Bellér-Hann2008 3">{{cite book|author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann|title=Community Matters in Xinjiang, 1880-1949: Towards a Historical Anthropology of the Uyghur|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cF4lMj8skvoC&pg=PA80#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=2008|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-16675-0|pages=80–}}</ref> No hair cutting for men took place on the ''ajuz ayyam''.<ref name="Bellér-Hann2008 4">{{cite book|author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann|title=Community Matters in Xinjiang, 1880-1949: Towards a Historical Anthropology of the Uyghur|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cF4lMj8skvoC&pg=PA397#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=2008|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-16675-0|pages=397–}}</ref> High status Begs were permitted to adopt queues when they begged for it after the war with [[Jahangir Khoja]]<ref name="Millward1998">{{cite book|author=James Millward|title=Beyond the Pass: Economy, Ethnicity, and Empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759-1864|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7ir2CAAAQBAJ&pg=PA204#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=1 June 1998|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-9792-4|pages=204–}}</ref>

===Names===
Since Islam reached them much after Altishahr, personal names of non-Islamic Old Uyghur origin are still used in Qumul and Turfan while people in Altishahr use mostly Islamic names of Persian and Arabic origin.<ref name="Bellér-Hann2007 5">{{cite book|author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann|title=Situating the Uyghurs Between China and Central Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NKCU3BdeBbEC&pg=PA113#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=2007|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-7041-4|pages=113–}}</ref> After the establishment of the Soviet Union, many Uyghurs who studied in Soviet Central Asia added Russian suffixes to Russify their surnames and make them look Russian.<ref name="Bellér-Hann2007 6">{{cite book|author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann|title=Situating the Uyghurs Between China and Central Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NKCU3BdeBbEC&pg=PA115#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=2007|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-7041-4|pages=115–}}</ref> Names from Russia and Europe are used in Qaramay and Urumchi by part of the population of city dwelling Uyghurs. Others use names with hard to understand etymologies, with the majority dating from the Islamic era and being of Persian or Arabic derivation.<ref name="Bellér-Hann2007 7">{{cite book|author=Ildikó Bellér-Hann|title=Situating the Uyghurs Between China and Central Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NKCU3BdeBbEC&pg=PA117#v=onepage&q&f=false|year=2007|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-7041-4|pages=117–}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[List of Uyghurs]]
*[[Meshrep]]
*[[Uyghur timeline]]
*[[Uyghur people in Beijing]]
*[[East Turkestan independence movement]]
* [[Makan Map]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
* {{PD-old-text|title=The cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia: commercial, industrial and scientific, products of the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, useful arts and manufactures|year=1885|author=Edward Balfour}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Austin|first=Peter|authorlink=Peter Austin (linguist)|title=One Thousand Languages: Living, Endangered, and Lost|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q3tAqIU0dPsC|year=2008|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-25560-9}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Coene|first=Frederik|title=The Caucasus - An Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FqFMmVbfRfEC|year=2009|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-203-87071-6}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Dillon|first=Michael|title=Xinjiang: China's Muslim Far Northwest|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oWj9NreO9zYC|year=2004|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-203-16664-2}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Drompp|first=Michael Robert|title=Tang China And The Collapse Of The Uighur Empire: A Documentary History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NB6DEdAxLOsC|year=2005|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-14129-4}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last1=Fairbank|first1=John King|authorlink1=John K. Fairbank|last2=Chʻen|first2=Ta-tuan|title=The Chinese world order: traditional China's foreign relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I1jlAAAAIAAJ|year=1968|publisher=Harvard University Press}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Golden|first=Peter B|title=An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples: Ethnogenesis and State-formation in Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5B6xMQEACAAJ|date=1 January 1992|publisher=O. Harrassowitz|isbn=978-3-447-03274-2}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Güzel|first=Hasan Celal|authorlink=Hasan Celal Güzel|title=The Turks: Early ages|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HGBtAAAAMAAJ|year=2002|publisher=Yeni Türkiye}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Hahn|first=Reinhard F.|title=Spoken Uyghur|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=icZf7TNgnuIC|year=2006|publisher=University of Washington Press|isbn=978-0-295-98651-7}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last1=Köprülü|first1=Mehmet Fuat |authorlink1=Mehmet Fuat Köprülü|last2=Leiser|first2=Gary|last3=Dankoff|first3=Robert|title=Early Mystics in Turkish Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_v6IWkCLnEwC|year=2006|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-36686-1}}
* {{cite journal|last1=Lattimore|first1=Owen|authorlink1=Owen Lattimore|title=Return to China's Northern Frontier|journal=The Geographical Journal|date=1973|volume=139|issue=2|pages=233–242|ref=harv|doi=10.2307/1796091|jstor=1796091}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Mackerras|first=Colin|title=The Uighur Empire (744-840): According to the T'ang Dynastic Histories|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zOWrnQEACAAJ|year=1968|publisher=Centre of Oriental Studies, Australien National Univ.}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Mair|first=Victor H|authorlink=Victor H. Mair|title=Contact And Exchange in the Ancient World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8-OilJCX1moC&pg=PA138|year=2006|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-2884-4}}
* {{cite book|last=Millward|first=James A.|title=Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA69|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-13924-3|page=69|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Özoğlu|first=Hakan|authorlink=Hakan Özoğlu|title=Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State: Evolving Identities, Competing Loyalties, and Shifting Boundaries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p032TMrEI5oC|year=2004|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-5994-2}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Russell-Smith|first=Lilla|title=Uygur Patronage In Dunhuang: Regional Art Centres On The Northern Silk Road In The Tenth and Eleventh Centuries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hzsnT67gykkC&pg=PA33|year=2005|publisher=BRILL|isbn=90-04-14241-X}}
* {{cite book|last=Tetley|first=G. E. |title=The Ghaznavid and Seljuk Turks: Poetry as a Source for Iranian History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6qs0Wy-Z2VkC|date=17 October 2008|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-203-89409-5|ref=harv}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last1=Walcott|first1=Susan M.|last2=Johnson|first2=Corey|title=Eurasian Corridors of Interconnection: From the South China to the Caspian Sea|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OkAVAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA65|date=12 November 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-07875-1}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last1=Wei|first1=C. X. George|last2=Liu|first2=Xiaoyuan|title=Exploring Nationalisms of China: Themes and Conflicts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qz3vdkxBt4AC|year=2002|publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=978-0-313-31512-1}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|2}}
*[http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/texts/chinethn.html Chinese Cultural Studies: Ethnography of China: Brief Guide 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.
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Berlie|first=Jean A|authorlink=Jean Berlie|title=Islam in China: Hui and Uyghurs Between Modernization and Sinicization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JEyVQAAACAAJ|year=2004|publisher=White Lotus Press|isbn=978-974-480-062-6}}
*Findley, Carter Vaughn. 2005. ''The Turks in World History''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-516770-8, ISBN 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
*{{cite book |last= Kaltman |first= Blaine |title= Under the Heel of the Dragon: Islam, Racism, Crime, and the Uighur in China |year= 2007 |publisher= [[Ohio University Press]] |location= Athens |isbn=978-0-89680-254-4}}
*Kamberi, Dolkun. 2005. ''Uyghurs and Uyghur identity''. Sino-Platonic papers, no. 150. Philadelphia, PA: Dept. of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania.
*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 978-0-7656-1318-9.
*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.
* Thum, Rian. ''The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History'' (Harvard University Press; 2014) 323 pages 
*Tyler, Christian. (2003). ''Wild West China: The Untold Story of a Frontier Land''. John Murray, London. ISBN 0-7195-6341-0.

{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|Uyghurs}}
*[http://cartogracy.com/conflict/uighurs Cartogracy: Uighur Independence Movement]
*[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/612772/Uighur Britannica Uighur people]
*[http://www.uyghurensemble.co.uk London Uyghur Ensemble] Uyghur Culture and History; multimedia site-links to cultural and historical background, current news, research materials and photographs.
*[http://www.uyghurnews.com Uyghur News] News aggregator representing the views of Uyghur activists
*[http://homepages.utoledo.edu/nlight/uyghpg.htm Introduction to Uyghur Culture and History] Links to cultural and historical background, current news, research materials and photographs.
*[http://www.360doc.com/content/12/0813/22/276037_230028707.shtml Map share of ethnic by county of China]
{{Turkic peoples}}
{{Ethnic groups in China}}
{{Xinjiang topics}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uyghur}}
[[Category:Uyghurs| ]]
[[Category:History of the Turkic peoples]]
[[Category:Turkic peoples of Asia]]
[[Category:Islam in China]]
[[Category:Muslim communities of China]]
[[Category:Turkic tribes]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups officially recognized by China]]