Uighur

Uighur or Uigur [wē′goor]

n.

〚Uighur name < ?〛

1. a member of a Turkic people, living mainly in W China and Uzbekistan, that ruled in Mongolia and Turkestan in the Middle Ages

2. the Turkic language of this people

adj.

of the Uighurs or their language or culture

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or Uygur

A Turkic-speaking people of Central Asia who live largely in northwestern China.

About 8,000,000 Uighurs live in China today, and some 300,000 in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. They are among the oldest Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia, first mentioned in Chinese records from the 3rd century AD. In the 8th century they established a kingdom, which was overrun in 840. A Uighur confederacy (745–1209), established around the Tien Shan, was overthrown by the Mongols. This confederacy came to the aid of China's Tang dynasty during the An Lushan Rebellion. The Uighurs of that time professed a Manichaean faith.

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▪ people

Chinese (Pinyin)  Uygur  

      Turkic-speaking people of interior Asia who live for the most part in northwestern China, in the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang; (Sinkiang, Uygur Autonomous Region of) a small number live in the Central Asian republics. There were nearly 9 million Uighurs in China and about 300,000 in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan in the early 21st century.

      The Uighur language is part of the Turkic group of Altaic languages, and the Uighur are among the oldest Turkic-speaking peoples of Central Asia. They are mentioned in Chinese records from the 3rd century AD. They first rose to prominence in the 8th century, when they established a kingdom along the Orhon River in what is now north-central Mongolia. In 840 this state was overrun by the Kyrgyz, however, and the Uighur migrated southwestward to the area around the Tian Shan (mountains). There the Uighur formed another independent kingdom in the Turfan region, but this was overthrown by the expanding Mongols in the 13th century.

      The Uighur are, in the main, a sedentary, village-dwelling people, who live in the network of oases formed in the valleys and lower slopes of the Tian Shan, Pamirs, and related mountain systems. The region is one of the most arid in the world; hence, for centuries they have practiced irrigation to conserve their water supply for agriculture. Their principal food crops are wheat, corn (maize), kaoliang (a form of sorghum), and melons. The chief industrial crop is cotton, which has long been grown in the area. Many Uighur are employed in petroleum extraction, mining, and manufacturing in urban centres.

      The chief Uighur cities are Urumqi (Ürümqi), the capital of Xinjiang, and Kashgar, an ancient centre of trade near the Russian-Chinese border. The Uighur have lacked political unity in recent centuries, except for a brief period during the 19th century when they were in revolt against Beijing. Their social organization is centred on the village. The Uighur of Xinjiang are Sunnite Muslims.

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