Uyghurs, China’s Most Persecuted Ethnicity
"A Turkic ethnicity in China, the Uyghurs have a disputed history. Many Uyghur historians assert that the Uyghurs are the original inhabitants of Xinjiang, with claims of history spanning at least 4,000 years. Among them is Muslim leader Muhemmed Imin Bughra, who wrote in “A History of East Turkestan” that the group, with respect to Turkic aspects, has been around for 9,000 years."
"The
World Uyghur Congress, an international organization of exiled Uyghur groups, subscribes to a 4,000-year history in East Turkestan. It claims that contact between Uyghurs — who originally practiced Shamanism — and Muslims took place as early as the 9th century, ahead of the Manchu Invasion in 1759. The Uyghurs, as well as “other people” in East Turkestan, revolted 42 times against Manchu rule, which ended in 1862. While they were expelled two years later, the Manchu returned in 1876, renaming East Turkestan to Xinjiang after eight years of war on Nov. 18, 1884.
On the other hand, Chinese authorities trace the Uyghurs’ origin to the Tiele, a confederation of nine Turkic peoples in northern China that emerged after the disintegration of Xiongnu, a confederation of nomadic peoples that inhabited the eastern Asian Steppe from the 3rd century B.C. to the 1st century A.D. In this version of history, the Uyghurs only became the main socio-political force in Xinjiang when they migrated from Mongolia following the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate. They replaced the Han Chinese, which allegedly had occupied the region since the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – 220 A.D.)."
