Notes on the History of the Uigurs in the Late Middle Ages

THE UIGURS, one of the oldest Turkish tribes, established their state on the banks of the River Selenga in present day Outer Mongolia in the 7th and the 8th century A. D. In the second half of the 8th century they started colonizing Eastern Turkestan. This country before long became their headquarters. The capital of the medieval Uigur kingdom in Eastern Turkestan was known as Besbalyk ( The Five Cities ). This was first identified as the present day Urumchi.' Later Bretschneider suggested that Besbalyk should be identified with Pei-ting ( Northern Court ) mentioned in the description of the journey of the Taoist monk Chang chun, 1221-1224 A. D.2 Pei-ting apparently was situated somewhere between Urumchi and Guchen. In 1908 a Russian scholar, B. V. Dolbezhev, explored the ruins of the medieval city known as Pocheng-tsu, near Jimisar (Jimasa), about thirty miles from Guchen and identified them as the ruins of Besbalyk.3 In 1914 Sir Aurel Stein visited the same ruins near Jimasa, made another plan of them and also identified them as Besbalyk.4 Apparently the identification is final and should be accepted. In the 12th century the Uigurs were obliged to recognize the suzerainty of the Kara-Kitai. Later, in the beginning of the 13th century, the Uigur prince (Idykut) became the vassal of the Mongol conqueror, Chingis Khan.5 The Mongol Empire disintegrated in the second half of the 13th century. Princes, belonging to different branches of the House of Chingis Khan, vied for control of Eastern

Ancient history · Middle Ages · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Linguistics and Cultural Studies · Linguistics and language evolution

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