The Uyghurs, alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs, or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central Asia and East Asia. They speak Uyghur, a Karluk language that shares the same origin with Uzbek. The Uyghurs are recognized as the titular nationality of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China. They are one of China's 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities.
The Uyghurs are genetically related to West Eurasians, East Asians, Siberians, South Asians and can trace their ancestry to various peoples and cultures, such as the Tocharians, Uyghur Khanate, Qocho, Kara-Khanid Khanate, and Qara Khitai, that had inhabited or migrated to the region. They were historically influenced and often ruled by neighboring Chinese, Mongol, Tibetan, and Turkic civilizations. Originally followers of many belief systems, inhabitants of the region were gradually converted to Islam after the 10th century, especially under the Chagatai Khanate. By the 16th century, most of them identified as Muslims and no longer recognized symbols of their Buddhist past. Islam continues to play an important role in Uyghur culture and identity.
Prior to the 20th century, the Uyghurs did not have a common unifying ethnonym. The name "Uyghur" was used to refer to the non-Muslim inhabitants of Qocho, mainly Buddhists, who resisted conversion to Islam until the 16th century. The name fell out of use afterward and the region inhabited by the modern Uyghur people came under the rule of the Qing dynasty following the Dzungar–Qing Wars in the 18th century. Settlers of various ethnicities were relocated to Dzungaria, which was later combined with the Tarim Basin to the south to become Xinjiang Province.
Until 1921, the inhabitants of the Tarim Basin identified themselves by terms such as yerlik ("locals"), Musulman khalq ("Muslim people"), or by regional designations including Kashgarlik and Yarkandlik. In the twentieth century, under the influence of movements advocating autonomy, the need for a common ethnic designation emerged. In a conference held by the Soviet Union, Turkic intellectuals from all over the Tarim Basin gathered in Tashkent and adopted the ethnonym "Uyghur" for their people, although they were aware of the differences between the modern and ancient Uyghurs. The extent of the Uyghur Khaganate's territory did not reach the entire area inhabited by modern Uyghurs such as western Kashgaria. Later Chinese governments continued to use the name "Uyghur" as an umbrella category for the people of the Tarim Basin.
More Uyghurs live in the Tarim Basin than in northern Xinjiang. Several thousand reside in Taoyuan, Hunan. Significant diasporic Uyghur communities exist in Turkic countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkey, in addition to smaller ones elsewhere. "The rest of the Diaspora is settled in Turkey (about 10,000 people) and, in smaller numbers, in Germany, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Canada, the US, India and Pakistan."
Since 2014, the Chinese government has been accused of subjecting Uyghurs in Xinjiang to widespread persecution, including arbitrary arrest and detention, forced sterilization, and forced labor. The Chinese government denies the accusations.
Ethnonym
Historical ethnonyms The Karluk Turkic speaking group in modern-day Xinjiang lacked well-established ethnic endonyms before the 20th century. They would simply identify themselves as "Muslims" or "Sarts" (meaning merchant, trader, or caravan leader),Golden, Peter B. An Introduction to the History of Turkic Peoples (1992). p. 150Foltz, Richard A History of the Tajiks: Iranians of the East Note 27 for Chapter 4 or by their originating oasis such as "Kashgari" for people from Kashgar or "Hotani" for people from Hotan.
From the 18th to early 20th century, Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang was commonly referred to as Chanhui (Chinese: ) or Chantou Huihui (Chinese: ) (still officially used in Mongolia), which is a Chinese exonym literally meaning turban-wearing Muslims, to be distinguished from Chinese Muslims (nowadays Hui people), commonly referred to as Hanhui (Chinese: ), literally meaning Han Chinese Muslims. Although the term "Hui (Chinese: )" or "Huihui (Chinese: )" originates from the term "Uyghur" (Chinese: ), which refers to a Siberian Turkic speaking, instead of Karluk Turkic speaking, ethnic group speaking the "Old Uyghur language", who established the Uyghur Khaganate, Qocho Uyghur Kingdom, and Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom, the term was later applied to people who believe in any of the Abrahamic religions, such as Judaist Jews (), Christian Ossetians (), Muslim Chams (), etc. during the Mongol Empire, and gradually applied specifically to people who believe in Islam, such as Hui people (), Baihui (), (), etc. until nowadays.
Although the semantic meaning of the term "Hui (Chinese: )" shifted from the Old Uyghur speaking people to Muslims, the Old Uyghur speaking people themselves were predominately non-Muslims. None of Uyghur Khaganate, Qocho Uyghur Kingdom, and Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom established Islam as the official religion of their states, and their direct descendant, which was renamed as Yugur people, speaking the Neo-Uyghur language predominately practise Buddhism until nowadays, just like their Old Uyghur ancestors. Nevertheless, due to this semantic connection, ethnonyms of three of the 56 officially recognised ethnic groups in the People's Republic of China, who are Hui, Yugurs, and Uyghurs, share the same etymological origin. Although Yugurs and Uyghurs both speak Turkic languages, the Yugur (Neo-Uyghur) language, just like the Old Uyghur language, belongs to the Siberian Turkic branch, and Uyghur language belongs to th Karluk Turkic branch. The two ethnic groups are also genetically very distinct from each other.
Usage of the modern ethnonym "Uyghur" A minority of the modern-day Uyghurs were descendants of the Qocho Uyghur Kingdom based in nowadays Eastern Xinjiang, who spoke the Siberian Turkic Old Uyghur language and predominately practised Buddhism. They were linguistically, religiously and culturally assimilated to the vast majority of Karluk Turkic Chagatai language speaking Muslims in the Chagatai Khanate after the Chagatai conquest. Since then, the Uyghur identity in the modern-day Xinjiang had perished until the term "Uyghur" was revived in 1921.
One thing worth to mention is that after the split of the Eastern Chagatai Khanate, its minor successor, the Turpan Khanate based in Eastern Xinjiang, was externally referred to as "Uyghurstan" due to Eastern Xinjiang's historical connection to the Qocho Uyghur Kingdom, even if the local population had started speaking the Karluk Turkic Chagatai language and practised Islam, whereas the major successor, Yarkent Khanate based in the Tarim basin, which later conquered the Turpan Khanate, was externally referred to as "Kashghar Khanate".
The modern application of the term "Uyghur" to the Karluk Turkic speaking people was in fact a 20th century invention. The Tashkent conference held in the Soviet Union in 1921 gathered Turkic Muslims from the Tarim Basin, who decided to use the term "Uyghur" as the group's modern ethnonym, although they themselves also realised that their ethnicity should not be confused with that of the Uyghur Khaganate of the Medieval history. This usage was then formally accepted by the Soviet Union, and an Uighur raion was established in the modern-day Kazakhstan bordering China. Hoping to divide the Muslim population of Xinjiang, the Sheng Shicai ruled Xinjiang government in China later accepted the modern usage of the term "Uyghur" from the Soviet Union, but the group in Xinjiang was further divided to Uyghurs and Taranchis (modern Uyghurs in Ili) among the 14 ethnic groups recognised at the time. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the Taranchis were officially counted into the Uyghurs.
Etymology of the term "Uyghur" In the Uyghur language, the ethnonym is written in Arabic script, Уйғур in Uyghur Cyrillic and Uyghur or Uygur (as the standard Chinese romanization, GB 3304–1991) in Latin; they are all pronounced as . In Chinese, this is transcribed into characters as / , which is romanized in pinyin as Wéiwú'ěr.
In English, the name is officially spelled Uyghur by the Xinjiang government but also appears as Uighur, Uigur and Uygur (these reflect the various Cyrillic spellings Уиғур, Уигур and Уйгур). The name is usually pronounced in English as (and thus may be preceded by the indefinite article "a"), although some Uyghurs advocate the use of a more native pronunciation instead (which, in contrast, calls for the indefinite article "an").
The term's original meaning is unclear. Old Turkic inscriptions record the word uyɣur (); an example is found on the Sudzi inscription, "I am khan ata of Yaglaqar, came from the Uigur land." ().Sudzi inscription, text at Türik Bitig It is transcribed into Tang annals as / (Mandarin: Huíhé, but probably *[ɣuɒiɣət] in Middle Chinese). It was used as the name of one of the Turkic polities formed in the interim between the First and Second Göktürk Khaganates (AD630–684). The Old History of the Five Dynasties records that in 788 or 809, the Chinese acceded to a Uyghur request and emended their transcription to / (Mandarin: Huíhú, but [ɣuɒiɣuət] in Middle Chinese).Jiu Wudaishi, "vol. 138: Huihu" quote: "回鶻，其先匈奴之種也。後魏時，號爲鐵勒，亦名回紇。唐元和四年，本國可汗遣使上言，改爲回鶻，義取旋搏擊，如之迅捷也。" translation: "Huihu, their ancestors had been a kind of Xiongnu. In Later Wei time, they were also called Tiele, and also named Huihe. In the fourth year of Tang dynasty's Yuanhe era [809 CE], their country's Qaghan sent envoys and requested [the name be] changed to Huihu, whose meaning is taken from a strike-and-return action, like a swift and rapid falcon."
Modern etymological explanations for the name Uyghur range from derivation from the verb "follow, accommodate oneself" and adjective "non-rebellious" (i.e., from Turkic uy/uð-) to the verb meaning "wake, rouse or stir" (i.e., from Turkic oðğur-). None of these is thought to be satisfactory because the sound shift of /ð/ and /ḏ/ to /j/ does not appear to be in place by this time. The etymology therefore cannot be conclusively determined and its referent is also difficult to fix. The "Huihe" and "Huihu" seem to be a political rather than a tribal designationHakan Özoğlu, p. 16. or it may be one group among several others collectively known as the Toquz Oghuz. The name fell out of use in the 15th century, but was reintroduced in the early 20th century by the Soviet Bolsheviks to replace the previous terms Turk and Turki. The name is currently used to refer to the 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.