Uyghur

The Uyghurs are the settled Turkic people of the Tarim and Turpan oases, heirs to a name borne by the Uyghur Khaganate that ruled Mongolia from 744 to 840. After the Kirghiz overthrew it, a branch built the Kingdom of Qocho and turned from Manichaeism to Buddhism.

The Muslim Karakhanids took Buddhist Khotan in the early eleventh century. In 1337 Turpan remained largely Buddhist, while Kashgar and the west had long been Islamic. The Chagatai khanate split in the 1340s, making these lands part of Moghulistan. Tughluq Temür's conversion opened the spread of Islam; by the early sixteenth century Turpan was largely Muslim and the old name faded.

Sufi Khoja factions dominated the basin from the seventeenth century, followed by the Dzungars and the Qing conquest of 1759. The Ush rising of 1765 showed the weight of imperial rule.