UIGURS

Uighurs, or Uygursall: wēˈgoorz, Turkic-speaking people of Asia who live mainly in W China. They were the Yue-che of ancient Chinese records and first rose to prominence in the 7th cent. when they supported the T'ang Chinese in central Asia. In 744 the Uigurs seized control of Mongolia and established their capital on the Orkhon River, near the site of later Karakorum. Ousted (840) from Mongolia by the Kyrgyz, they moved to Turpan, in Xinjiang, China, where they founded an empire that lasted until the Mongol onslaught of the 13th cent. Unlike other peoples of central Asia, the Uigurs were not exclusively nomadic but practiced some agriculture and trade. They were converted to Manichaeism but later became Sunni Muslims. The Uigurs transmitted their script to the Mongols. A movement promoting Uigur independence has existed for many years. From the time of the Chinese Communist victory (1948) to the end of the 20th cent. there were about two dozen antiseparatist crackdowns by the Chinese government. Today half of the population of Xinjiang (reorganized as the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in 1955) is of Uigur descent; there they number about 8 million.

See C. Mackerras, ed., The Uighur Empire (1968, repr. 1973).

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