The Uyghur Khaganate was a Turkic empire that existed for about a century between the mid
8th and 9th centuries. They were a tribal confederation under the Orkhon Uyghur nobility,
referred to by the Chinese as the Jiu Xing , a calque of the name Toquz Oghuz or Toquz
Tughluq. History
Rise In 657 the Western Turkic Khaganate was defeated
by the Tang dynasty, after which the Uyghurs defected to the Tang. Prior to this the Uyghurs
had already shown an inclination towards alliances with the Tang when they fought with them against
the Tibetan Empire and Turks in 627.
In 742, the Uyghurs, Karluks, and Basmyls rebelled against the Second Turkic Khaganate.
In 744 the Basmyls captured the Turk capital of Ötüken and killed the reigning Özmiş
Khagan. Later that year a Uyghur-Karluk alliance formed against the Basmyls and defeated them.
Their khagan was killed and the Basmyls ceased to exist as a people. Hostilities between
the Uyghurs and Karluks then forced the Karluks to migrate west into Zhetysu and conflict
with the Türgesh, whom they defeated and conquered in 766.
The Uyghur khagan's personal name was Qullığ Boyla . He took the title Kutlug I Bilge Kagan
"Glorious, wise, mighty khagan", claiming to be the supreme ruler of all the tribes.
He built his capital at Ordu-Baliq. According to Chinese sources, the territory of the Uyghur
Empire then reached "on its eastern extremity, the territory of Shiwei, on the west the Altai
Mountains, on the south it controlled the Gobi Desert, so it covered the entire territory
of the ancient Xiongnu".
In 745 the Uyghurs killed the last khagan of the Göktürks, Báiméikèhán Gǔlǒngfú
, and sent his head to the Tang.
Tribal Composition Tang Huiyao, vol. 98, listed nine Toquz Oghuz
surname tribes ; another list of tribes was recorded in the Old Book of Tang and the New
Book of Tang. According to Japanese scholars Hashimoto, Katayama, and Senga, each name
in the lists in the Books of Tang recorded each subtribal surname of each chief, while
the other list in Tang Huiyao recorded the names of the Toquz Oghuz tribes proper. Walter
Bruno Henning linked nine names recorded in the Saka language "Staël-Holstein Scroll"
with those recorded by Han Chinese authors. Golden Age
In 747, the Qutlugh Bilge Köl Kaghan died, leaving his youngest son, Bayanchur Khan to
reign as Khagan El etmish bilge "State settled, wise". After building a number of trading
outposts with the Tang, Bayanchur Khan used the profits to construct the capital, Ordu-Baliq,
and another city further up the Selenga River, Bai Baliq. The new khagan then embarked on
a series of campaigns to bring all the steppe peoples under his banner. During this time
the Empire expanded rapidly and brought the Sekiz Oghuz, Kyrgyz, Karluks, Turgesh, Toquz
Tatars, Chiks and the remnants of the Basmyls under Uyghur rule.
In 755 An Lushan instigated a rebellion against the Tang dynasty and Emperor Suzong of Tang
turned to Bayanchur Khan for assistance in 756. The khagan agreed and ordered his eldest
son to provide military service to the Tang emperor. Approximately 4,000 Uyghur horsemen
assisted Tang armies in retaking Chang'an and Luoyang in 757. After the battle at Luoyang
the Uyghurs looted the city for three days and only stopped after large quantities of
silk were extracted. For their aid, the Tang sent 20,000 rolls of silk and bestowed them
with honorary titles. In addition the horse trade was fixed at 40 rolls of silk for every
horse and Uyghurs were given "guest" status while staying in Tang China. The Tang and
Uyghurs conducted an exchange marriage. Bayanchur Khan married Princess Ninguo while a Uyghur
princess was married to a Tang prince. The Uyghur Khaganate exchanged princesses in marriage
with Tang dynasty China in 756 to seal the alliance against An Lushan. The Uyghur Khagan
Bayanchur Khan had his daughter Uyghur Princess Pijia married to Tang dynasty Chinese Prince
Li Chengcai , Prince of Dunhuang , son of Li Shouli, Prince of Bin. while the Tang dynasty
Chinese princess Ningguo 寧國公主, daughter of Emperor Suzong, married Uyghur Khagan Bayanchur.
In 758, the Uyghurs turned their attention to the northern Yenisei Kyrgyz. Bayanchur
Khan destroyed several of their trading outposts before slaughtering a Kyrgyz army and executing
their Khan.
In 759 the Uyghurs attempted to assist the Tang in stamping out the rebels but failed.
Bayanchur Khan died and his son Tengri Bögü succeeded him as Khagan Qutlugh Tarkhan sengün.
In 762 Tengri Bögü planned to invade the Tang with 4,000 soldiers but after negotiations
switched sides and assisted them in defeating the rebels at Luoyang. After the battle the
Uyghurs looted the city. When the people fled to Buddhist temples for protection, the Uyghurs
burnt them down, killing over 10,000. For their aid, the Tang was forced to pay 100,000
pieces of silk to get them to leave. During the campaign the khagan encountered Manichaean
priests who converted him to Manichaeism. From then on the official religion of the
Uyghur Khaganate became Manichaeism.
Decline In 779 Tengri Bögü planned to invade the
Tang dynasty based on the advice of his Sogdian courtiers. However, Tengri Bögü's uncle,
Tun Bagha Tarkhan, opposed this plan and killed him and "nearly two thousand people from among
the kaghan's family, his clique and the Sogdians." Tun Bagha Tarkhan ascended the throne, with
the title Alp Qutlugh Bilge , and enforced a new set of laws, which he designed to secure
the unity of the khaganate. During his reign Manichaeism was suppressed, but his successors
restored it as the official religion.
In 780 a group of Uyghurs and Sogdians was killed while leaving Chang'an with tribute.
Tun demanded 1,800,000 strings of cash in compensation and the Tang agreed to pay this
amount in gold and silk.
In 789 Tun Bagha Tarkhan died and his son, Tolossu, succeeded him. The Karluks took this
opportunity to encroach on Uyghur territory and annexed the Futu valley.
In 790 the Uyghurs and Tang forces were defeated by the Tibetans at Ting Prefecture . Tolossu
died and his son, A-ch'o, succeeded him as Qutlugh Bilge.
In 795 Qutlugh Bilge died and the Yaghlakar dynasty came to an end. A general named also
called Qutlugh declared himself the new khagan, under the title Ay Tängridä ülüg bulmïsh
alp kutlugh ulugh bilgä kaghan , founding a new dynasty, the Ädiz .
In 803 the Uyghurs captured Qocho.
In 808 Qutlugh died and his son Baoyi succeeded him. In the same year the Uyghurs seized Liang
Prefecture from the Tibetans.
In 821 Baoyi died and his son Chongde succeeded him. Chongde was considered the last great
khagan of the Uyghur Khaganate and bore the title Kün tengride ülüg bulmïsh alp küchlüg
bilge . His achievements included improved trade up with the region of Sogdia, and on
the battlefield he repulsed a force of invading Tibetans in 821.
In 822 the Uyghurs sent troops to help the Tang in quelling rebels. The Tang refused
the offer but had to pay them 70,000 pieces of silk to go home.
In 823 the Tibetan Empire waged war on the Uyghurs.
In 824 Chongde died and was succeeded by a brother, Qasar.
In 832 Qasar was murdered. He was succeeded by the son of Chongde, Hu. In the same year
the Tibetan Empire ceased to make war on the Uyghurs.
Fall In 839 Hu was forced to commit suicide and
a minister named Kürebir seized the throne with the help of 20,000 Shatuo horsemen from
Ordos. In the same year there was a famine and an epidemic, with a particularly severe
winter that killed much of the livestock the Uyghur economy was based on.
In 840, one of nine Uyghur ministers, Kulug Bagha, rival of Kurebir, fled to the Yenisei
Kyrgyz and invited them to invade from the north. With a force of around 80,000 horsemen,
they sacked the Uyghur capital at Ordu-Baliq, razing it to the ground. The Kyrgyz captured
the Uyghur Khagan, Kürebir , and promptly beheaded him. They went on to destroy other
cities throughout the Uyghur empire, burning them to the ground. Öge, son of Baoyi, became
khagan of the defeated Uyghur khaganate.
In 841 Öge led the Uyghurs in an invasion of Shaanxi.
In 843 a Tang army led by Shi Xiong attacked the Uyghurs displaced by the fall of their
khaganate and slaughtered 10,000 Uyghurs on February 13, 843 at "Kill the Barbarians"
Mountain .
In 847 the penultimate Uyghur khagan, Öge, was killed after having spent his six-year
reign fighting the Kyrgyz, the supporters of his rival Ormïzt, a brother of Kürebir,
and Tang dynasty troops in Ordos and Shaanxi.
Successors The Yenisei Kyrgyz who replaced the Uyghur
Khaganate were unsophisticated and had little interest in running the empire which they
had destroyed. They held the territory from Lake Baikal in the east to the Irtysh River
in the west and left Kulug Bagha, the Uyghur who defected to them, in charge of the Orkhon
Valley. During the reign of Emperor Yizong of Tang , there were three recorded contacts
between the Tang and Kyrgyz, but the nature of their relationship remains unclear. Tang
policy makers argued that there was no point in building any relations with the Kyrgyz
since the Uyghurs no longer threatened them. The Khitans seized the Orkhon Valley from
the Kyrgyz in 890 and no further opposition from the Kyrgyz is recorded.
The Khitan ruler Abaoji did extend his influence onto the Mongolian Plateau in 924, but there
is no indication whatsoever of any conflict with the Kyrgyz. The only information we have
from Khitan sources regarding the Kyrgyz indicates that the two powers maintained diplomatic
relations. Scholars who write of a Kyrgyz "empire" from about 840 to about 924 are describing
a fantasy. All available evidence suggests that despite some brief extensions of their
power onto the Mongolian Plateau, the Kyrgyz did not maintain a significant political or
military presence there after their victories in the 840s.
— Michael Drompp After the fall of the Uyghur Khaganate, the
Uyghurs migrated south and established the Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom in modern Gansu and
the Kingdom of Qocho near modern Turpan. The Uyghurs in Qocho converted to Buddhism, and,
according to Mahmud al-Kashgari, were "the strongest of the infidels", while the Ganzhou
Uyghurs were conquered by the Tangut people in the 1030s. Even so, Kashjgari praised contemporary
Uyghurs as bilingual Turkophones whose Turkic dialect remained "pure" and "most correct"
; meanwhile, Kashgari derided other bilingual Turkophones , for incorporating foreign loanwords
and "slurring" in their speeches In 1134, Qocho became a vassal of Yelü Dashi's nascent
Qara Khitai empire. In 1209, the Qocho ruler Baurchuk Art Tekin declared his allegiance
to Genghis Khan, and the Uyghurs became important civil servants in the later Mongol Empire,
which adapted the Old Uyghur alphabet as its official script. According to the New Book
of Tang, a third group went to seek refuge among the Karluks.
The Karluks, together with other tribes such as the Chigils and Yagmas, later founded the
Kara-Khanid Khanate . Some historians associate the Karakhanids with the Uyghurs as the Yaghmas
were linked to the Toquz Oghuz. Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan, believed to be a Yagma from Artux,
converted to Islam in 932 and seized control of Kashgar in 940, giving rise to the new
dynasty, known as Karakhanids.