Turkic peoples
Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West Asia, West, Central Asia, Central, East Asia, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members ...
began settling in the
Tarim Basin
The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in Xinjiang, Northwestern China occupying an area of about and one of the largest basins in Northwest China.Chen, Yaning, et al. "Regional climate change and its effects on river runoff in the Tarim Basin, Ch ...
in the 7th century. The area was later settled by the Turkic
Uyghurs
The Uyghurs,. alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central Asia and East Asia. The Uyghurs are recognized as the ti ...
, who founded the
Qocho Kingdom there in the 9th century.
The historical area of what is modern-day
Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
consisted of the distinct areas of the Tarim Basin (also known as
Altishahr) and
Dzungaria. The area was first populated by the
Tocharians
The Tocharians or Tokharians ( ; ) were speakers of the Tocharian languages, a group of Indo-European languages known from around 7,600 documents from the 6th and 7th centuries, found on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin (modern-day Xinj ...
and the
Saka
The Saka, Old Chinese, old , Pinyin, mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit (Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples, Eastern Iranian peoples who lived in the Eurasian ...
, who were
Indo-Europeans and practiced
Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
. The Tocharian and Saka peoples came under
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...
and then
Chinese rule during the
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...
as the
Protectorate of the Western Regions
The Protectorate of the Western Regions () was an imperial administration (a Protectorate (imperial China), protectorate) situated in the Western Regions administered by Han dynasty, Han dynasty China and its successors on and off from 59 or 6 ...
due to wars between the Han dynasty and the Xiongnu. The
First Turkic Khaganate
The First Turkic Khaganate, also referred to as the First Turkic Empire, the Turkic Khaganate or the Göktürk Khaganate, was a Turkic khaganate established by the Ashina clan of the Göktürks in medieval Inner Asia under the leadership of Bu ...
conquered this region in 560, and in 603, after a series of civil wars, the First Turkic Khaganate was separated into the
Eastern Turkic Khaganate
The Eastern Turkic Khaganate ( zh, t=東突厥, p=Dōng Tūjué or Dōng Tújué) was a Turkic khaganate formed as a result of the internecine wars in the beginning of the 7th century (AD 581–603) after the First Turkic Khaganate (found ...
and the
Western Turkic Khaganate
The Western Turkic Khaganate () or Onoq Khaganate () was a Turkic khaganate in Eurasia, formed as a result of the wars in the beginning of the 7th century (593–603 CE) after the split of the First Turkic Khaganate (founded in the 6th century o ...
, with Xinjiang coming under the latter. The region then became part of the
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
as the
Protectorate General to Pacify the West after the
Tang campaigns against the Western Turks. The Tang dynasty withdrew its control of the region in the Protectorate General to Pacify the West and the
Four Garrisons of Anxi after the
An Lushan Rebellion, after which the Turkic peoples and the other native inhabitants living in the area gradually converted to
Islam
Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...
following
the Muslim conquest of Central Asia.
Background

The Turfan and Tarim Basins were populated by speakers of
Tocharian languages
The Tocharian (sometimes ''Tokharian'') languages ( ; ), also known as the ''Arśi-Kuči'', Agnean-Kuchean or Kuchean-Agnean languages, are an extinct branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken by inhabitants o ...
and
Saka
The Saka, Old Chinese, old , Pinyin, mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit (Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples, Eastern Iranian peoples who lived in the Eurasian ...
languages. Different historians suggest that either the Sakas or Tokharians made up the
Yuezhi
The Yuezhi were an ancient people first described in China, Chinese histories as nomadic pastoralists living in an arid grassland area in the western part of the modern Chinese province of Gansu, during the 1st millennium BC. After a major defea ...
people who lived in Xinjiang. During the
Han dynasty
The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...
, the Tocharians and Sakas of
Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
came under a Chinese protectorate in 60 BC, with the Chinese protecting the Tocharian and Saka city states from the nomadic
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...
who were based in Mongolia.
In the 6th through 8th centuries, the region was subject several incursions from the
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of Nomad, nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese historiography, Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, t ...
,
Muslims
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
,
Göktürks
The Göktürks (; ), also known as Türks, Celestial Turks or Blue Turks, were a Turkic people in medieval Inner Asia. The Göktürks, under the leadership of Bumin Qaghan (d. 552) and his sons, succeeded the Rouran Khaganate as the main powe ...
, Tibetans, and Turkic nomads. Arab sources claim that first recorded incursion into the Tarim Basin by an Islamic force is the alleged attack on Kashgar by
Qutayba ibn Muslim in 715
but some modern historians entirely dismiss this claim. The
Tang dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...
defeated an
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate or Umayyad Empire (, ; ) was the second caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty. Uthman ibn Affan, the third of the Rashidun caliphs, was also a membe ...
coalition at the
Battle of Aksu (717). The Umayyad commander Al-Yashkuri and his army fled to Tashkent after they were defeated.
The Chinese however were later defeated by the
Abbasid
The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the prophets and messengers in Islam, Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 C ...
Arabs in the
Battle of Talas (751).
Tang China lost control of Xinjiang after it was forced to withdraw its garrisons during the
An Lushan Rebellion. During the rebellion China received aid from the Uyghur Khaganate in crushing An Lushan's rebels, however, multiple provocations by the Uyghurs such as selling bad quality horses to China, practicing usury when lending to Chinese, and sheltering Uyghurs who committed murder resulted in a major deterioration in relations between China and the Uyghur Khaganate. Tang China then allied with the
Yenisei Kirghiz and defeated and destroyed the Uyghur Khaganate in a war, triggering the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate which caused Uyghurs to migrate from their original lands in Mongolia southwestwards into Xinjiang.
Protected by the
Taklamakan Desert
The Taklamakan Desert ( ) is a desert in northwest China's Xinjiang region. Located inside the Tarim Basin in Southern Xinjiang, it is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, the Pamir Mountains to the west, the Tian Shan range to the ...
from steppe nomads, elements of Tocharian culture survived until the 7th century, when the arrival of Turkic immigrants from the collapsing
Uyghur Khaganate
The Uyghur Khaganate (also Uyghur Empire or Uighur Khaganate, self defined as Toquz-Oghuz country; , Tang-era names, with modern Hanyu Pinyin: or ) was a Turkic empire that existed for about a century between the mid 8th and 9th centuries. It ...
of modern-day
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
began to absorb the Tocharians to form the modern-day
Uyghur ethnic group.
Kara-Khanid conquest of Khotan
By the 10th century, the area was ruled by the
Kingdom of Khotan
The Kingdom of Khotan was an ancient Buddhism, Buddhist Saka kingdom located on the branch of the Silk Road that ran along the southern edge of the Taklamakan Desert in the Tarim Basin (modern-day Xinjiang, China). The ancient capital was origina ...
and
Shule Kingdom when the first
Turkic began migrating into the area. The Saka Kings were still culturally-influenced by the Buddhist homeland of Northern India, with their rulers adopting
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
names and titles. The rulers of Khotan grew anxious of hostilities with Turkish khanates, as evidenced by the Mogao grottoes, were they commissioned painting number of divine figures along with themselves. By the time the
Uyghurs
The Uyghurs,. alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic peoples, Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central Asia and East Asia. The Uyghurs are recognized as the ti ...
and the
Kara-Khanids invaded, Khotan was the only state in the area that had not come under Turkic rule.
The Kara-Khanids formed from several Turkic groups that had increasingly settled portions of the Kashgar area.
The tribes are thought to have converted to Islam following the conversion of
Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan in 934. Khotan conquered Kashgar in 970, after which a long war ensued between Khotan and the Kara-Khanids.
The Karakhanids fought Khotan until sometime before 1006 when the Kingdom was conquered by Yusuf Qadir Khan. The attacks likely related to Khotanese requests for aid when China.
Relations with China factored heavily in the war. In 970, after the Khotanese capture of Kashgar, an elephant was sent as tribute by Khotan to Song dynasty China. After the Qara Khanid Turkic Muslims defeated the Khotanese under Yusuf Qadir Khan at or before 1006, China received a tribute mission in 1009 from the Muslims.
Following the war, a Buddhist revival occurred in the
Tangut Empire, located in contemporary
Western Xia
The Western Xia or the Xi Xia ( zh, c=, w=Hsi1 Hsia4, p=Xī Xià), officially the Great Xia ( zh, c=大夏, w=Ta4 Hsia4, p=Dà Xià, labels=no), also known as the Tangut Empire, and known as Stein (1972), pp. 70–71. to the Tanguts ...
, following the attacks on the Buddhist states in the region.
The Empire became a safe haven for Indian Buddhist monks who were attacked and forced to flee to Tangut.
Legacy
Many of the Muslim soldiers who died fighting the region's Buddhist kingdoms are regarded as
martyrs
A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...
(''shehit''), and are visited by pilgrims at shrines called
mazar.
For instance, the killing of the martyr Imam Asim led to his grave being worshiped in a massive annual ceremony called the ''Imam Asim Khan festival''.
According to Michael Dillon, the conquest of the region is still recalled in the forms of the Imam Asim Sufi shrine celebration.
However, due to the ongoing
persecution of Uyghurs in China
Since 2014, the government of the People's Republic of China has committed a series of ongoing human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang which has often been characterized as persecution or as ...
, the pilgrimage has no active participants, and the mosque at the shrine has been demolished.
Taẕkirah is literature written about Sufi Muslim saints in
Altishahr. Written sometime in the period from 1700 to 1849, the Eastern Turkic language (modern Uyghur) '' Taẕkirah of the Four Sacrificed Imams'' provides an account of the Muslim Kara-Khanid war against the Khotanese Buddhists. The ''Taẕkirah'' uses the story of the Four Imams as a device to frame the chronicle, the Four Imams being a group of Islamic scholars from Mada'in city (possibly in modern-day Iraq), who travelled to help the Islamic conquest of Khotan, Yarkand, and Kashgar by the Kara-Khanid leader Yusuf Qadir Khan. The legend of the conquest of Khotan is also given in the hagiology known as the Tazkirat or "Chronicles of Boghra".
[Sir Percy Sykes and Ella Sykes. Sykes, Ella and Percy Sykes]
pages 93-94, 260-261 ''Through deserts and oases of Central Asia.''
London. Macmillan and Co. Limited, 1920. Extracts from the Tazkiratu'l-Bughra on the Muslim war against the Khotan was translated by
Robert Barkley Shaw.
Contemporary poems and attitudes are recorded in the dictionary of the Turkic lexicographer
Mahmud al-Kashgari and in the text
Hudud al-'Alam
The ''Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam'' (, "Boundaries of the World," "Limits of the World," or in also in English "The Regions of the World") is a 10th-century geography book written in Persian by an anonymous author from Guzgan (present day northern Afg ...
. Kashgari's dictionary contains disparaging references to Buddhists.
The antagonistic attitude towards
Dharmic religions
Indian religions, sometimes also termed Dharmic religions or Indic religions, are the religions that originated in the Indian subcontinent. These religions, which include Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism,Adams, C. J."Classification o ...
is striking in comparison to several earlier Islamic texts that portrayed Buddhism in a more charitable light, such as the works of
Yahya ibn Khalid.
Elverskog states that the attitudes in
Hudud al-'Alam
The ''Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam'' (, "Boundaries of the World," "Limits of the World," or in also in English "The Regions of the World") is a 10th-century geography book written in Persian by an anonymous author from Guzgan (present day northern Afg ...
are dissonant, containing both accurate and libelous descriptions of Khotanese Buddhists (including a claim that the Khotanese are cannibals). He argues that these accounts were a way to dehumanize the residents of Khotan and encourage the conquest of the region.
The conquest of Khotan led to the destruction of Buddhist art, motivated by Islamic
iconoclasm
Iconoclasm ()From . ''Iconoclasm'' may also be considered as a back-formation from ''iconoclast'' (Greek: εἰκοκλάστης). The corresponding Greek word for iconoclasm is εἰκονοκλασία, ''eikonoklasia''. is the social belie ...
.
The iconoclastic fervor is captured by a poem or folk song recorded in
Mahmud al-Kashgari's Turkic dictionary.
Robert Dankoff believes the poem refers to the Qarakhanids' conquest Khotan's despite the text's claim that it refers to an attack on the
Uyghur Khaganate
The Uyghur Khaganate (also Uyghur Empire or Uighur Khaganate, self defined as Toquz-Oghuz country; , Tang-era names, with modern Hanyu Pinyin: or ) was a Turkic empire that existed for about a century between the mid 8th and 9th centuries. It ...
.
Chagatai incursions
In the 1390s, the Chagatai ruler
Khizr Khwaja launched a holy war against the
Kingdom of Qocho
Kingdom commonly refers to:
* A monarchic state or realm ruled by a king or queen.
** A monarchic chiefdom, represented or governed by a king or queen.
* Kingdom (biology), a category in biological taxonomy
Kingdom may also refer to:
Arts and me ...
and
Turfan
Turpan () or Turfan ( zh, s=吐鲁番) is a prefecture-level city located in the east of the autonomous region of Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and a population of 693,988 (2020). The historical center of the prefectural area has shifted ...
.
Although Khizr Khwaja claimed to have converted to these kingdoms to Islam, the conversion was more gradual. Travellers passing through the area in 1420 remarked on the rich Buddhist temples, and only after 1450 were substantial numbers of mosques reported. As a consequence of the imposition of Islam, the city of
Jiaohe was abandoned in the 15th century. Buddhist presence in Turfan is thought to have ended by the 15th century.
In the early 16th century, the Chagatai ruler
Mansur Khan attacked
Qara Del, a Mongolian-ruled and Uighur-populated Buddhist Kingdom east of Turfan, invading and forcibly converting the population to Islam. It was reported that between Khitay and Khotan the Sarigh Uyghur tribes who were "impious" resided, and they were targeted for ghazat (holy war) by Mansur Khan following 1516.
Legacy
Following the Chagatai and Kara-Khanid invasions, many residents of the Qocho and Qara Del converted to Islam.
Residents of area previously ruled by Qocho failed to retain memory of the region's religious history and believed that the murals in the
Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves were built by the
Dzungars. Motivated by
aniconism
Aniconism is the cultural absence of artistic representations ('' icons'') of the natural and supernatural worlds, or it is the absence of representations of certain figures in religions. The prohibition of material representations may only extend ...
, they damaged many of the murals. Buddhist influences still remain among the Turfan Muslims.
Many in Qumul and Turfan continue to use personal names of
Old Uyghur
Old Uyghur () was a Turkic language spoken in Qocho from the 9th–14th centuries as well as in Gansu.
History
Old Uyghur evolved from Old Turkic, a Siberian Turkic language, after the Uyghur Khaganate broke up and remnants of it migrated ...
origin.
See also
*
Spread of Islam
The spread of Islam spans almost 1,400 years. The early Muslim conquests that occurred following the death of Muhammad in 632 CE led to the creation of the caliphates, expanding over a vast geographical area; conversion to Islam was boosted ...
*
Turkification
Turkification, Turkization, or Turkicization () describes a shift whereby populations or places receive or adopt Turkic attributes such as culture, language, history, or ethnicity. However, often this term is more narrowly applied to mean specif ...
*
History of Xinjiang
Xinjiang consists of two main regions, geographically separated by the Tianshan Mountains, which are historically and ethnically distinct: Dzungaria to the north, and the Tarim Basin (currently mainly inhabited by the Uyghur people, Uyghurs) t ...
*
Persecution of Buddhists
References
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
{{Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Islamization
History of Xinjiang
Persecution by Muslims
Persecution of Buddhists
Anti-Buddhism
Violence in China
History of Islam in China
Islamic fundamentalism
Persecution of Buddhists by Muslims