Uyghur Khaganate

Uyghur Khaganate
744–848
Capital	Ordu Baliq
Religion	Manicheism
Government	Monarchy
Uyghur Khagans
• 744–747	Qutlugh Bilge Köl
• 841–847	Öge Khan
History
• Established	744
• Disestablished	848
Area
800	3,100,000 km2 (1,200,000 sq mi)
Preceded by Succeeded by Göktürk Empire Kara-Khanid Khanate Yenisei Kirghiz

The Uyghur Khaganate, or, Uyghur Empire or Uighur Khaganate or Toquz Oghuz Country (Mongolian: Уйгурын хаант улс, Tang era names, with modern Hanyu Pinyin: traditional Chinese: 回鶻; simplified Chinese: 回鹘; pinyin: Huí​hú​ or traditional Chinese: 回紇; simplified Chinese: 回纥; pinyin: Huíh​é​) 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 (回鶻) nobility, referred to by the Chinese as the Jiu Xing ("Nine Clans"), a calque of the name Toquz Oghuz.

The rise of Uyghurs in Mongolia

In 742, the Uyghur, Karluk, and Basmyl tribes rebelled against the ruling Göktürk Khaganate. The Basmyls captured the Göktürk capital Ötügen and their king Özmish Khan in 744, effectively taking charge of the region. However a Uyghur-Karluk alliance against the Basmyls was formed later the same year. The coalition defeated the Basmyls and beheaded their king. The Basmyl tribes were effectively destroyed; their people sold to the Chinese or distributed amongst the victors. The Uyghur leader became the khagan in Mongolia, and the Karluk leader the yabghu. This arrangement however lasted less than a year, as hostilities between the Uyghurs and Karluks forced the Karluks to migrate westward into the western Türk-Türgesh lands.

The Uyghur leader was from the Yaghlakar clan (Old Turkic: , Jaγlaqar, simplified Chinese: 药罗葛; traditional Chinese: 藥羅葛; pinyin: yaoluogě; Wade–Giles: yao-lo-ko), and known in Chinese sources as Guli peiluo (Chinese: 骨力裴羅). He took the title of Qutlugh Bilge Köl Kaghan (Glorious, wise, mighty kaghan) as the supreme ruler of all the Turko-Mongol tribes and built his capital at Ordu Baliq (Karabalghasun). According to Chinese sources, the territory of the Uyghur Empire then reached "on its the 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 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 Chinese, Bayanchur Khan used the profits to build the capital, Ordu Baliq ("City of Court"), and another city, Bai Baliq ("Rich City"), further up the Selenge River. The new khagan then embarked on a series of campaigns to bring all the steppe peoples under his banner. During this time the Empire vastly expanded, with Sekiz Oghuz, Qïrghïz, Qarluqs, Türgish, Toquz Tatars, Chiks and the remnants of the Basmïls coming under Uyghur rule.

The rebellion of An Lushan in the Tang empire in 755 forced the Chinese emperor Suzong to turn to Bayanchur Khan for assistance in 756. The khagan agreed, ordered his eldest son to provide military service to the Tang emperor, and helped to quell several rebellions, as well as to defeat an invading Tibetan army from the south and to take from rebels together with Tang forces both capitals, western Chang'An and eastern Luoyang. As a result, the Uyghurs received tribute from the Chinese in 757 in 20,000 rolls of silk and Bayanchur Khan was given the daughter of the Chinese Emperor to marry (princess Ninguo), while Emperor Suzong was given Uyghur princess.

In 758, the Uyghurs turned their attentions to a rival steppe tribe, the Kyrgyz to the north. Bayanchur Khan destroyed several of their trading outposts before slaughtering a Kyrgyz army and executing their Khan.

In 759, Bayanchur Khan died after drinking heavily at a celebration. His son Tengri Bögü succeeded him as Khagan Qutlugh Tarkhan sengün.

Golden Age

Uyghur Khanate in geopolitical context c. 820 CE

During the reign of Tengri Bögü the Uyghurs reached its height of power. In 762, with the help of Tengri Bögü, the Tang Emperor Daizong finally quelled the An Lushan rebellion (then under the leadership of Shi Chaoyi) and the eastern capital Luoyang was recaptured. Treaty of Peace and Alliance was concluded with Tang, which had obligation to pay 40 rolls of silk to Uyghur Empire in exchange for every horse brought by the Uyghurs, also Uyghurs who were living in Tang China all were considered as " guests " and freed from payment any taxes and accommodation costs.

Khagan Tengri Bögü met with Manichaean priests from Iran while on campaign, and was converted to Manicheism, adopting it as the official religion of the Uyghur Empire in 763. One effect of this conversion was the increase in influence of the Sogdians in the Uyghur court. In 779 Tengri Bögü, incited by his Sogdian advisers, planned an invasion of China to take advantage of the accession of a new Emperor Dezong. However, Tengri Bögü's uncle, Tun Bagha Tarkhan, opposed this plan:

Tun Bagha became annoyed and attacked and killed him and, at the same time, massacred nearly two thousand people from among the kaghan's family, his clique and the Sogdians.

The rebellion supposedly was sponsored by Tang Ambassador in Uyghur Empire. Tun Bagha Tarkhan ascended the throne with title Alp Qutlugh Bilge ("Victorious, glorious, wise") and enforced a new set of laws, which he designed to secure the unity of the khaganate, He also moved against the Kyrgyz once more, finally bringing them under the Uyghur Khaganate's control.

Decline

The power of Uyghur Empire declined and the empire started to fragment after Tun Bagha Tarkhan's death in 789. The Tibetans took from Uyghurs the area of Beshbalik, and the Karluks captured Fu-tu valley, which brought considerable fear to the Uyghur people. In 795, the khagan bearing the title Qutlugh Bilge died, and the Yaghlakar dynasty came to an end. A general named Qutlugh, declared himself the new khagan, under the title Tängridä ülüg bulmïsh alp kutlugh ulugh bilgä kaghan ("Greatly born in moon heaven, victorious, glorious, great and wise Kaghan"), founding a new dynasty, the Ediz (Chinese: A-tieh). With solid leadership once more, the Khaganate averted collapse. Qutlugh became renowned for his leadership and management of the empire. Although he consolidated the empire, he failed to restore it to its previous power. On his death in 808, the empire began to fragment once again. He was succeeded by his son, who went on to improve trade in inner Asia. The last great khagan of the Empire was a khagan with unknown name, bearing the title Kün tengride ülüg bulmïsh alp küchlüg bilge ("Greatly born in sun heaven, victorious, strong and wise"), whose achievements included improved trade up till the region of Sogdiana, and on the battlefield he repulsed a force of invading Tibetans in 821. This khagan died in 824 and was succeeded by a brother, Qasar, who was murdered in 832, inaugurating a period of anarchy. In 839 the legitimate khagan was forced to commit suicide, and a usurping minister named Kürebir seized the throne with help of invited 20,000 horsemen of Shato 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.

Collapse

The following spring, in 840, one of 9 Uyghur ministers, Kulug Bagha, rival of Kurebir, fled to the Kyrgyz tribe 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 (Hesa) and promptly beheaded him. The Kyrgyz went on to destroy other Uyghur cities throughout their empire, burning them to the ground. The last legitimate khagan, Öge, was assassinated in 847, having spent his 6-year reign in fighting the Kyrgyz,the supporters of his rival Ormïzt, a brother of Kürebir, and Tang China boundary troops in Ordos and Shaanxi, which he invaded in 841. The Kyrgyz invasion destroyed the Uyghur Empire, causing a diaspora of Uyghur people across Central Asia.

After the Empire

The two kingdoms of Yugor (848–1036) in Gansu, and Kara-Khoja (856–1369) near Turpan were formed by the Uyghurs who fled (southwest and west respectively) from the Yenisei Kyrgyz, several years after the fall of the empire. Kara-Khanid Khanate (940-1212) also is believed to be created by branch of Uyghurs ( Yagma ) who were converted into Islam in 934 under the leadership of Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan from Artush near Kashgar. The Kara-Khoja ruler Idiqut Barchuq declared his allegiance to Genghis Khan in 1209, and the Uyghurs became important civil servants in the later Mongol Empire, which adopted the Uyghur script as its official script.

List of Uyghur Khagans

The following list is based on Dennis Sinor, "The Uighur Empire of Mongolia," Studies in Medieval Inner Asia, Variorum, 1997, V: 1-25. Because of the complex and inconsistent Uyghur and Chinese titulatures, references to the rulers now typically include their number in the sequence, something further complicated by the non-inclusion of an unnamed ephemeral son of 4 between 5 and 6 in 790, and the inclusion of a spurious reign between 7 and 9.

1. 744–747 Qutlugh bilge köl (K'u-li p'ei-lo)
2. 747–759 El-etmish bilge (Bayan Chur, Mo yen ch'o), son of 1
3. 759–779 Qutlugh tarqan sengün (Tengri Bögü, Teng-li Mou-yü), son of 2
4. 779–789 Alp qutlugh bilge (Tun bagha tarkhan), son of 1
5. 789–790 Ai tengride bulmïsh külüg bilge (To-lo-ssu), son of 4
6. 790–795 Qutlugh bilge (A-ch'o), son of 5
7. 795–808 Ai tengride ülüg bulmïsh alp qutlugh ulugh bilge (Qutlugh, Ku-tu-lu)
8. 805–808 Ai tengride qut bulmïsh külüg bilge (spurious reign: tenure belongs to 7, name to 9)
9. 808–821 Ai tengride qut bulmïsh külüg bilge (Pao-i), son of 7
10. 821–824 Kün tengride ülüg bulmïsh alp küchlüg bilge (Ch'ung-te), son of 9
11. 824–832 Ai tengride qut bulmïsh alp bilge (Qasar, Ko-sa), son of 9
12. 832–839 Ai tengride qut bulmïsh alp külüg bilge (Hu), son of 10
13. 839–840 Kürebir (Ho-sa), usurper
14. 841–847 Öge, son of 9

1. 744–747 Kutlug Bilge Köl Kagan
2. 747–759 Bayan Çor
3. 759–779 Bögü Kagan
4. 779–789 Tun Baga Tarkan
5. 789–790 Ay Tengride Kut Bulmış Külük Bilge Kagan
6. 790–795 Kutluk Bilge Kagan
7. 795–808 Ay Tengride Ülüg Bulmış Alp Ulug Kutlug Bilge Kagan
8. 805–808 Ay Tengride Kut Bulmış Alp Külük Bilge Kagan
9. 808–821 Ay Tengride Kut Bulmış Alp Bilge Kagan
10. 821–824 Kün Tengride Ülüg Bulmış Alp Küçlüg Bilge Kagan
11. 824–832 Alp Bilge Hasar Tigin Tengri Kagan
12. 832–839 Alp Külüg Bilge Kagan
13. 841–847 Üge Kagan

See also

• Historic states represented in Turkish presidential seal
• An Shi Rebellion
• Ethnic groups in Chinese history
• Guo Ziyi
• Uyghur people

Further reading

• Mackerras, Colin (1990), "Chapter 12 - The Uighurs", in Sinor, Denis (ed.), The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Cambridge University Press, pp. 317–342, ISBN 0 521 2,4304 1 {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Mackerras, Colin, The Uighur Empire: According to the T'ang Dynastic Histories, A Study in Sino-Uighur Relations, 744-840. Publisher: Australian National University Press, 1972. 226 pages, ISBN 0-7081-0457-6
• Jiu Tangshu (舊唐書) Book of Tang Chapter 195 (in Chinese)
• Xin Tangshu (新唐書) New Book of Tang, chapter 217, part 1 and part 2 (in Chinese). Translation in English here (most of part 1 and beginning of part 2).