- Tocharians and shaka-s → uighur (with significant genetic input)
The Uighur Turks, who absorbed the earlier Indo-European Tocharian civilization, showed how a genuine steppe potentate, which mixes militarism directed against sedentary populations and trade with them, could emerge. Notably, they laid the foundations for many aspects of the government of a steppe empire, which the later Mongols would adopt. These included the first script of the Chingizid Mongols. Ironically, they were a major bulwark against the spread of Mohammedanism into the eastern steppes; thus, they allowed the survival and subsequent efflorescence of heathen steppe cultures.
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Founding in Mongolia
Uighurs were the most powerful members of the Turkic Oghuz confederation, which included other clans such as the Khaljis. The yabghu of the Uighurs, Etmish Qutlugh Bilge, was a vassal of the Blue Turks when they were at the height of their glory under Kul Tegin and Bilge Kha’Khan. The pretender Özmish Khan seized the Blue Turk throne, three Altaic tribes, namely the Basmils from the region around modern Kucheng, the Uighurs from the region between the Kobdo and Selenga river, and the Qarluqs from Eastern end of the Balkash Lake, tried to seize the empire of Mongolia. … The Uighurs seized Mongolia and allowed the 3 Qarluq tribes to keep the western reaches of the original Blue Turk empire. The lord of the Uighurs crowned himself as Etmish Qutlugh Bilge Köl Kha’Khan, the supreme ruler of all Altaic tribes. Soon after this he died (747) and the empire passed to his youngest son, Kul Mayanchur Kha’Khan.
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Trade consolidation
Mayanchur Kha’Khan set up trading outposts with the Chinese where a large number of goods such as horses, yaks, camels, reindeer, fur, wool, silk, jade, metals, medicines and diamonds were traded. The Uighurs used their wider network of subject tribes to become a nexus point for goods. … There were embassies from various Turkic tribes, Chinese, Tibetans, Indians and Arabs that called upon the Kha’Khan to negotiate trading deals. This point clearly illustrates the power the Uighurs gained by taking control of the Central Asian trading hubs. They also set up a courier service throughout Mongolia and other conquered domains. These developments allowed the Uighur reap the best of their nomadic steppe world as well as those of the settled civilizations. Mayanchur seeing an opportunity to meddle in Chinese affairs offered to help. He came down with his Uighur cavalry and besieged Changan and forced An Lu-shan to relinquish the city. … The Chinese emperor paid him a fine of gold and 20000 rolls of pure silk before he agreed to relinquish the city. He also took the Chinese princess as a wife and returned to Mongolia after receiving the promise that the Chinese would annually send him the same amount of silk and gold thenceforth. … On November 20th 762 CE, Tengri Bögü’s cavalry force of invaded China … Finally the Uighur Kha’Khan decided to leave China after forcing on the Chinese ruler an agreement where by the Chinese would trade any goods the Uighurs wanted at a price set by them. Any Chinese trader passing through Central Asia also had to pay a hefty fine to Uighurs.
In the following year the Uighurs decided to restore the full extant of the unified Turkic empire, as under the Blue Turks, and attacked the Kirghiz to the north. The Kirghiz apparently were trying to contact the Chinese, Arabs and Tibetans for trade relationships.
Expansion
In 751 CE the Chinese armies faced huge defeats in Talas at the hands of the Qarluqs led by yabghu Tun Bilge and the Moslem Arabs, and in the South at hands of the Thais. … The imperialist Chinese emperor, Hsuan Tsung’s empire lay in shambles: within his lifetime had raised China to its greatest heights and now he was beaten and fled for his life to Szechwan. He died there in despair and was succeeded by his son Su-tsung. He humbly sought the aid of the Uighur Kha’Khan to relieve him from the march of An Lu-shan.
Manichaean phase
During his stay in China, the Kha’Khan met several Manichaeists who had fled from the from the ex-Iranian lands of Soghdiana under the onslaught of the Islamic Jihad. Their syncretic religion easily accommodated his Turko-Mongol pantheon, as is, and impressed him with their cosmology and astrology. The Kha’Khan became a convert to Manichaeism and made it his state religion. He underwent a profound change like ashoka and gave up eating meat, drinking alcohol and even banned diary products. … In 779 CE as the Kha’Khan was raptly hearing a lecture on Manichaeism in his pavilion, Tun Baga Tarkhan led a large force of rebels who beheaded the Kha’Khan, his relatives and close followers. … Tun Baga died in 789 leaving the Uighurs shaken on all fronts. They elected the royal Bulmish Qülug Bilge as the grand Kha’Khan and his valiant son Qut Bulmish Alp Bilge as the commander of the army. He restored order in the Uighur realm by restoring Manichaeism and adapting it to fit the tastes of the Mongolian population.
The Indian ambassadors to his court obtained sanctions to construct temples in the vicinity of Khotan that had a large number of Indian vaishyas. A temple of rudra was constructed in Dandan-uliq and temples to indra and the tathAgata vairochana in Balawaste.
They then suppressed Qarluq Tibetan alliance. " Bulmish Qülug Bilge died in 795 CE and was succeeded till 808 CE by a series of his brothers. In 808 CE his son, the commander of the Uighur army and the hero of many battles, ascended the throne under the full dynastic name Ai Tengrida Qut Bulmish Alp Bilge Kha’Khan. He was hailed as the “celestial Kha’Khan” and led the Uighurs to their military successes.
His deeds were celebrated in the stone inscriptions on the west bank of the Orkhon River in central Mongolia in Old Altaic, Middle Iranian and Chinese (not to be confused with earlier Gok Turk inscriptions). The Kha’Khan had the Iranian script formalized for the Uighur dialect and introduced the printing press in his domains.
…The Kha’Khan also made the Chinese Emperor build Manichaeist temples in China and threatened action in the event of their persecution under Chinese Legalism."
Manichaeist defence abroad
It was at this point that the news reached the Kha’Khan the Arabs were savagely persecuting the Manichaeist, and killing or converting them forcibly to Islam. At the same time he also noted that subjugated Qarluq and Tibetans were trying to make common cause. So in 820 CE Qut Bulmish decided to conduct a massive campaign to simultaneously destroy the Qarluqs and the Arabs. Moslems were executed in the Uighur realm in retaliation, and the horses were fattened over autumn in Mongolia in preparation for the great westward thrust. …
Using lassoes they dragged down the Qarluqs and slaughtered them by attacking them at close quarters. The Tibetans were brought down by the Uighur archers and the survivors fled in all directions. The Uighurs then dallied to distract the Arab holy warriors in Ferghana and Ushrusana. In spring of 821 CE, the Uighur Kha’Khan forded the Syr Darya and attacked the first Arab army led by Ahmed ibn Assad. The Arabs fell prey to the usual feigned retreat trick and were annihilated by the Uighurs. The Uighurs restored the property of the Manichaeists and looted the Arab treasuries. Then the Uighur army appeared to move further west but suddenly turned north to cross the Sughda River and seized Ushrusana. Here, the Ghazis under Yahya ibn Assad declared a Jihad on the Uighurs but were crushed by the latter and retreated in total chaos. Having raided the Arab cities thoroughly the Uighur Kha’Khan returned to Mongolia, rich in booty.
End
In 840 CE the great Kirghiz army of several tens of thousand horsemen invaded Ordu Baligh, and it is remarkable the powerful Uighur war-machine collapsed so completely against it. It was overwhelmed by the Kirghiz and is said to have “drowned in blood”. Alp Külug Kha’Khan fought relentlessly till the very end and after his horse was killed he was captured and beheaded. His grand golden tent was looted and ripped apart, and Ordu Baligh was razed to ground. The Kirghiz then seized all other Uighur cities in Mongolia and burnt them down completely. A Chinese observer noted: “The Uighurs were blown away all over the barbarian land”. Some fled towards the Qarluq lands they had captured, but were killed by the Qarluqs. Others fled to Tibet, where the Tibetans long seeking revenge captured them and handed back to the Kirghiz. The 13 elite clans fled to China and were arrested or driven back. All the Manichaeist temples in China were demolished and the priests executed. Other groups fled to Agni, Kucha and Qocho and some of them were overwhelmed and assimilated by the Moslems.
States outside mongolia
The surviving Uighurs finally rallied back and established 3 Uighur principalities: 1) The Kanchow Uighur kingdom 2) Qara Khanid kingdom 3) the Qara Khoja Kingdom. The first of these was destroyed by the Tibetan tribes of Tangut and Xia-Xia during their expansion into central Asia in the 1100s of CE. The Qara Khanids were a mixed group that included the Qarluq Turks and was converted to Islam in the 10th century. The Mongols of the Qara Kitai Empire destroyed the Qara Khanid kingdom during their great conflict with the Islamic west.
Qara Khoja Buddhist state, Islamization
The last of these the Qara Khoja went on to found a tantric bauddha state under the model that was exported from India and continued the cultural renaissance of the Uighurs, producing several works of arts and medicine.
They became vassals of Chingiz Kha’Khan and his successors and were important officials of the Mongol empire and gave them their first script. The Uighurs had a special relationship with the family of Chingiz Khan because their lord was married to his daughter. Thus even though Uighuristan was annexed by Chingiz they retained their cities and had certain control over their territory with Chingiz’s daughter acting as the viceroy. Chingiz also recognized that the Uighurs had the most advanced civilization among the Altaic peoples and saw them as civilizational teachers of the Mongols and wanted to preserve their knowledge systems for the benefit of the Mongols – e.g. their script was derived from the Uighur script. Subsequently, Qubilai retained this special relationship vis-a-vis Uighuristan. " MT
… But now having taken the adjoining mountainous territory Qaidu decided to dispossess the Uighurs completely. His troops swept down upon the Uighurs in 1267 CE, sacking and burning their cities. Their capital Besh Baliq was besieged and they were forced to flee eventually. This caused immense harm to the Uighurs and was to ultimately weaken them for their later capitulation to the West Asian delusion. It also brought end to the Altaic civilizational center that Chingiz had cultivated." MT
Finally, in 1397 CE, Khizr Khawaja and Timur-I-lang declared a Jihad on them, extirpated the Qara Khoja Uighur kingdom and converted the survivors to Mohammedanism.
On the way he found the Uighurs had assembled a civilization in the steppes that eschewed violence and lived by the principles of Buddhism in Sairam and Qara’Shahar. Timur saw in them ultimate kaffirs and incited his men not to waste the opportunity of the great Jihad on the idolaters. The Uighurs were now a mere shadow of their great past and were now militarily deadened by the renunciatory teachings of Buddhism. They made no iron weapons but bronze statues of the Bodhisattva and their leader no bore no likeness to their great khans of yore but was a peace-mongering Idiqut like the modern Dalai Lama. Timur fell upon them with the utmost ferocity simply erasing their kingdom with pure slaughter. Unable to defend themselves before the ghazis the Uighurs fled in every direction, but Timur’s squadrons caught them wherever they went and slit their throats. The survivors were forcibly converted to Islam or tortured to death. Thus the Uighur culture passed out on the sands of the Gobi into scrolls of history.
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