Han Khan

Chapter 110, Migration of the Uighurs

The composition of the Karakhanid Khanate was very complex, including a large number of Uighurs who migrated westward, the Tiele people who migrated westward hundreds of years earlier, the Wusun people, Kangli people, and tribes of the Western Turks who remained in the Seven Rivers Steppe, as well as a large number of Sogdians and Persians who refused to believe in the Arab religion.

Among them, Pang Teqin, who was the origin of the ruling family of the Karakhanid Khanate, and many of his tribesmen were Uighurs.

The Uighurs were originally a branch of the Tiele tribes, a group of people living in the forests, tundra and grasslands south of Lake Baikal. They were oppressed by the Xiongnu and formed the Tiele Alliance.

There are a large number of so-called yellow and white people in this tribal group. They have experienced a long period of integration and, due to the oppression of the Xiongnu and Xianbei, they have continuously migrated westward and merged with more Scythians living in the Central Asian grasslands.

The Tiele people living in the Eastern Grassland have more characteristics of the Eastern Grassland, with black hair, brown and black glasses, and yellower skin.

The Tiele people living in the western part of Jinshan became a transitional population of yellow and white mixed races.

The Tiele people were called Gaoche by the Xianbei people because they used a kind of large cart with "tall wheels and many spokes".

The Gaoche people were divided into many tribes, including fifteen tribes such as Yuanhe, Xueyantuo, Qibi, etc.

During the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Tiele people, also known as the Yuanhe among the Gaoche people, roamed the Ili River, Orkhon River and Selenge River basins and were enslaved by the Turkic blue noble Ashina.

During the Sui Dynasty, they were called Weihe, which was in the first year of Sui Daye.

In order to resist the oppression of the Turks, the Yuanhe tribe formed an alliance with Pugu, Tongluo, Bayegu and others, and were collectively called Huihe.

And these Uighur tribal alliances composed of many Tiele people were an important part of the Turkic Khanate more than 300 years ago and gradually became stronger.

These Tiele people were oppressed by the Turks, paid tribute to them, served in the military, and fought everywhere.

Due to war and pressure, they continued to migrate westward, all the way to the distant northern shore of the Black Sea, conquering and assimilating the Scythians living on the west side of the Golden Mountains.

During the Turkic Khanate, the Tiele people followed the Turks in their wars, migrated everywhere, and had expanded to all parts of the Eurasian steppes.

However, due to the division of classes, in the Turkic Khanate, they were people from a separate Turkic tribe, or as the Turks said, they were the Black Turks of the Khanate, which means subjects or slaves, and were oppressed and ruled by the blue nobles Ashina, Ashide, and other real Turks.

Unable to bear the exploitation and oppression of the Ashina nobles, the Huihe tribe united with the Pugu, Tongluo, and Bayegu tribes to revolt and get rid of the rule of the Turks. In the struggle of resistance, the Huihe became stronger.

Later, the Uighur chief Tumidu led his people to submit to the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty established the Yanran Protectorate in the Uighur pastureland.

More than a hundred years later, the Huihe tribe joined forces with the Basmi tribe and the Karluk tribe to defeat the Western Turks.

Two years later, the Huihe tribe joined forces with the Karluk tribe to defeat the Basmi tribe.

From then on, they became the supreme ruling ethnic group in the Mobei grasslands, and established the Huihe state with the river-dense grasslands around Mount Yanran as its center.

In the second year after the founding of the Uighur state, its leader, Guli Peiluo, was canonized as Khan Huairen by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang.

In the third year of Zhenyuan (787), the Uighur Khan Donmohe requested the Tang Dynasty to change the name of his tribe from "Uighur" to "Uighur", which means "as swift as a falcon". Emperor Dezong of Tang approved Donmohe's request, and from then on, the Uighurs began to use the name "Uighur".

The ethnic groups ruled by the Uighurs were still the various tribes of the Tiele people living in the forests and grasslands, as well as the Tatars, Khitans and remnant tribes of the Turks who migrated from the east.

These ruled tribes still used their previous tribal names, but gradually they called themselves Uighurs.

The Uighurs gradually conquered westwards and sent troops to help the Tang Dynasty quell the Anshi Rebellion, thereby gaining the right to plunder some Tang cities.

Later, they gradually controlled the areas north and south of the Tianshan Mountains in the Western Regions of the former Tang Dynasty, such as Beiting, Gaochang, Qiuci, Yuldus Grassland (Bayinguoleng), Qihe Grassland, Central Asia, Bakhtin (Fergana Basin), and controlled the main Silk Road for east-west trade. The Uighur state ruled the Mobei grassland for nearly 100 years. Since the beginning of the Kaicheng period of the Tang Dynasty (840 AD), the Mobei grassland has suffered severe black and white disasters (drought and snow disasters) year after year.

A large number of cattle, sheep, tribesmen and slaves starved to death or froze to death. The Uighur political situation became chaotic. The various tribes fought against each other for slaves, cattle, sheep and pastures, and epidemics broke out.

Because of the conflict with the Khan, the Uighur leader Qu Changjulu Mohe led 10 cavalry of the Kyrgyz people in the Yenisei River basin to attack the Uighurs. Zhangxin Khan was killed and the capital city of Harabalahhasun was burned.

Heye Teqin was supported by the nobles and clansmen to become Khan.

At that time, the Uighurs suffered from famine and epidemics, and civil strife continued. Then they were defeated by their own tribe, the Kyrgyz, and the Khan and Juluwu were killed, and the Uighur Khanate collapsed and scattered.

The Uighur Khanate founded by Guli Peiluo was destroyed in the northern desert.

The Uighur Khanate collapsed, and the Uighurs fled in all directions. Some moved southward to the Central Plains and merged with the Han people; others moved westward.

Among the Uighurs who fled westward, some stayed in Beiting, Gaochang and Qiuci. Under the leadership of Pugu Jun, they established the Gaochang Uighurs.

Some other Uighurs, led by the Khan's nephew Pang Teqin, fled to the Seven Rivers Steppe, which had migrated earlier to the south of Lake Balkhash, and joined the Qarluk alliance.

These Uighurs who migrated westward to join the Karluk tribal alliance gradually became the actual rulers of the alliance after decades of recuperation, and the name "Karluk Khanate" disappeared from historical records.

The Uighurs who migrated westward to the Seven Rivers Grassland, led by the Khan's nephew Pang Teqin, established the Karakhanid Dynasty, or the Khan Dynasty or the Black Khan Dynasty in Balasagun.

Pang Teqin then marched east and west, conquering the area south of Lake Balkhash, the Transoxiana region, and the Kashgar and Ilishui River Valley areas.

The nomadic tribes of Qarluk, Yangma, Chishi, Duxi, Khitan and others in the above-mentioned areas were all incorporated into the rule of the Karakhanid Khanate.

The lights in the Jinhan Camp in the Great Lakes Basin are bright because today is Saturday, which is Sunday.

So the Jin Han people in the camp had just finished praying under the leadership of the emperor and several main priests.

After the event, everyone dispersed, leaving only Zhang Sheng, Zhang Zhongxian, Koza, and the Karakhanids Sara and Ilhan in the temple.

Zhang Sheng ordered his men to assign tents to the remaining one hundred or so Karakhanid cavalrymen and station them outside the outer camp.

At this time, Sarah and her brother Ilhan, both Karakhanids, were in a state of great shock.

They were shocked by the magnificent and solemn temple located next to the large lake basin at the foot of the Golden Mountain. Its bricks, tiles, red walls, heavy gate and bronze bell on the minaret all seemed out of place with the grassland.

Shocked, when the bronze bell rang, all the Jinhan people put down their work, washed their hands, faces and feet, walked to the temple, and under the leadership of several elders in white clothes and long beards, knelt down to pray and recite scriptures with a solemn, orderly and pious posture.

Seeing this scene, Sarah suddenly thought of the Samanids and Arabs to the west and south of Karakhanid Khanate, as well as the Nestorians and Manichaeans in the Karakhanid Khanate.

In addition, since entering the Tang camp, the two men discovered that there were many ethnic groups under the rule of the Tang people, including Tang people, Uighurs, Tatars, Kyrgyz, Tibetans, Sai people... but they all called themselves Jin Han people, whether they were slaves or subjects of the Tang people.

The two Karakhanids, Ilhan and Sarah, were extremely shocked. The two siblings looked at each other and understood what the other was thinking.

Sarah quickly signaled to her brother Ilhan not to say anything.

(End of this chapter)