The silk road is the route which connected China, with Asia Minor and the Mediterranean. It was a great means of joining these different civilizations together, it's main role was economic but its social role appeared as a consequence.

Spread of Islam to these regions was so unique..

Asians and Chinese civilizations are well established and strong in basement, not a recent or new society.. They were well known with their wisdom and spiritual sciences and tradtions. So, they could be considered a developed society with a great deal of knowledge, reason and good discrimination.

So, with their relations with the Arab merchants, they throughly tested their morals and understood their personalities, they are not silly or foolish to deal with dishonest individuals, they are very well experienced merchants and know exactly were they put their money.

The Muslim merchants were among the direct reasons to spread Islam, due to their great Islamic morals in their behaviours. Islam has too many principles & laws to follow in this Field of life as in all the fields of life, this reflects on the Muslim merchants & establishes the Islamic ethics of business which had contributed much in increasing the number of Muslims, the examples on these ethics are too many but I'll give you some :

1. Cheating is forbidden in everything in Islam, including trade. The Prophet Muhammad PBUH said " من غشنا فليس منا",which means " he who cheats does not belong to us " i.e. to Muslims. The story of this saying is that the prophet wanted to rebuke a man who was selling grains & had put the some of them at the bottom of the tumble so that they would be hidden, Muhammad PBUH asked him about the reason behind such a deed, & he said that those grains were wet due to the rain drops & he wanted to harbour them. Then the prophet asked him to put them at the top of the tumble so not to cheat or deceive people & said that great saying.

2. Muhammad PBUH also said ( رحم الله عبداً سمحاً إذا باع، سمحاً إذا اشترى، سمحاً إذا اقتضى)

What means: "Allah be merciful and forgiving for His servant who is tolerant when selling, tolerant when purchasing, forgiving when necessary"

3. Allah says in the Holy Quran what means :

"Allah doth command you to render back your Trusts to those to whom they are due; And when ye judge between man and man, that ye judge with justice: Verily how excellent is the teaching which He giveth you! For Allah is He Who heareth and seeth all things. "

( Quran : chapter 4 : verse 58 )An-Nisa' (Women)

4. Allah says in the Holy Quran what means:

" 1. Woe to those that deal in fraud,-2. Those who, when they have to receive by measure from men, exact full measure,3. But when they have to give by measure or weight to men, give less than due.4. Do they not think that they will be called to account?-5. On a Mighty Day,6. A Day when (all) mankind will stand before the Lord of the Worlds? "

( Quran : chapter 83 : verses 1 - 6 ) Al-Mutaffifin (Defrauding, The Cheats, Cheating)

5. Allah says in the Holy Quran what means:

"O ye who believe! Fear Allah and be with those who are true (in word and deed)"

( Quran : chapter 9 : verse 119 ) At-Tawba (Repentance, Dispensation)

Also, it's good to remind that Muhammad PBUH was called in Mecca by all the people " the sincere, the honest" even before his prophecy.

6. Refer to the questions listed below for more information on Quran Golden Rules and Islam morals.

The Silk road was only a means that let different civilizations meet, Islamic morals of the Muslim merchants was the principal factor in the spread of Islam along the countries which that road passed by.

As the domesticationof pack animals and the development of shipping technology both increased the capacity for prehistoricpeoples to carry heavier loads over greater distances.

this is one way, hope it helps.

Uyghur people

Kazakhstan -3.8 million

Kyrgyzstan 480,000

Uzbekistan - 8.6 million

Turkey- 84,000

Turkmenistan-12,000

Russia- 4,000

Tajikistan- 18,00

Pakistan- 35,000

Iran- 6,000

Saudi Arabia -20,000

Other Arab countries -6,000

Europe - 8,000

Australia/ other Asian countries - 7,500

Americas -3,500LanguagesUyghur TurkicReligionIslam (mainly Sunni and Sufi)Related ethnic groupsTurkic peoples

The Uyghur (Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر‎, Uyghur?; simplified Chinese: 维吾尔; traditional Chinese: 維吾爾; pinyin: Wéiwú'ěr; IPA: [ʔʊjˈʁʊː][2]) are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today Uyghurs live primarily in East Turkistan (Uyghur Autonomous Region) in the People's Republic of China. An estimated eighty percent of East Turkistan's Uyghurs live in the southwestern portion of the region, the Tarim Basin.[3]

Large diasporic communities of Uyghurs exist in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Smaller communities are found in Mongolia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Turkey, Russia and Taoyuan County of Hunan province in south-central Mainland China.[4] Uyghur neighborhoods can be found in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Sydney, Washington D.C, Munich, Tokyo, Toronto, Istanbul.

The first use of Uyghur as a reference to a political nation occurred during the interim period between the First and Second Göktürk Khaganates (630-684 CE).[5] In modern usage, Uyghur refers to settled Turkic urban dwellers and farmers of Kashgaria or Uyghurstan who follow traditional Central Asian sedentary practices, as distinguished from nomadic Turkic populations in Central Asia. The Bolsheviks reintroduced the term Uyghur to replace the previously used "Turk" or Turki.[6]

Linguist and ethnographer S. Robert Ramsey has argued for inclusion of two other ethnic groups, the Yugur and the Salar, as subgroups of Uyghur (based on similar historical roots for the Yugur, and perceived linguistic similarities for the Salar). These groups are recognized as separate ethnic groups, though, by the Chinese government.[7]

The meaning of Uyghur is unclear. Several theories regarding its origin exist:

• "United Nine Tribes," a replacement for Tokuz-Oguz the tribal alliance of which the Uyghurs were part.[8]
• The Chinese referred to Uyghurs by the ethnonyms Hoy-Hu(Chinese: 回鵠; pinyin: Húihú), Üan-Ga (Chinese:?; Pinyin:?), and Chiu Hsing (Chinese: 九姓; pinyin: jiǔ xìng; literally "the nine clans").[9]
• Another suggested etymology is a composite of quick(Turkic:uigy) and man (Turkic:er/ir/ur) for Quick People.[10]

The earliest record of an Uyghur tribe is from the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 AD). At that time the ethnonym Gaoche(Chinese: 高車; pinyin: Gāochē; literally "wheelwagon") to the Tiele tribes. Later, the term Tiele (Chinese: 鐵勒; pinyin: Tiělè; Turkic: Tele}}) itself was used.[11]

Some names (Dolans, Lopliks, etc. ) (刀郎人、罗布诺尔人（俗作罗布人）) refers to some division of Uyghurs, too.

Uyghur history can be divided into four distinct phases: Pre-Imperial (300 BCE - 630 CE), Imperial (630-840 CE), Idiqut (840-1209 CE), and Mongol (1209-1600 CE), with perhaps a fifth modern phase running from the death of the Silk Road in 1600 CE until the present. In brief, Uyghur history is the story of a small nomadic tribe from the Altai Mountains rising to challenge the Chinese Empire. After the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840 CE, Uyghur resettled to the Tarim Basin, merging with the existing Tocharian population.[12] Ultimately, the Uyghurs became civil servants administering the Mongol Empire.

The ancestors of the Uyghur tribe were Altaic pastoralists called Tiele, who lived in the valleys south of Lake Baikal and around the Yenisei River. The Tiele first appear in history c 357 CE under the Chinese ethnonym Gaoche, referring to the ox-drawn carts with distinctive high wheels used for yurt transportation. Tiele tribal territories had previously been occupied by the Dingling, an ancient Siberian people, some of whom had been absorbed into the Tiele. The Tiele practiced some minor agriculture and were highly developed metalsmiths due to the abundance of easily available iron ore in the Yenisei River.

The Tiele were subjugated by the Xiongnu in c 300 BCE, who put them to work manufacturing weapons. For this reason they have often erroneously been attributed a Xiongnu origin. After the collapse of the Xiongnu empire they were passed as vassal metalsmiths to the Rouran and Hepthalite States.[13]

A Tiele tribe of twelve clans, the Fufuluo (Chinese: 副伏罗; pinyin: Fùfúluó) , gathered enough power to create a state, the A-Fuzhiluo kingdom (481-520 CE), in Dzhungaria. The Fufulo are often listed as Uyghur ancestors in Chinese history, famously in the Suishu.[14]The forebears of the Tiele belonged to those Xiongnu descendants, having the largest divisions of tribes. They occupied the valleys, and were scattered across the vast region west of the Western Sea [Black Sea]

At the area north of the Duluo River (Tuul River), are the Pugu, Tongluo, Weihe (Orkhon Uyghur),[15] Bayegu, Fuluo (Fufuluo), which were all called Sijin (Irkin). Other tribes such as Mengchen, Turuhe, Sijie, Hun (Hunyu), Hu, Xue (Huxue) and so forth, also dwelled in this area. They had a 20,000 strong invincible army.

The names of these tribes differ, but all of them can be classified as Tiele. The Tiele do not have a master, but are subjected to the both Eastern and Western Tujue (Göktürks) respectively. They don't have a permanent residence, and move with the changes of grass and water. Their main characteristics are, firstly, they possessed great ferocity, and yet showed tolerance; secondly, they were good riders and archers; and thirdly, they showed greed without restraint, for they often made their living by looting. The tribes toward the west were more cultivated, for they bred cattle and sheep, but fewer horses. Since the Tujue had established a state, they were recruited as the auxiliary of empire and conquered both east and westward, annexing all of the northern regional lands.

The customs of the Tiele and Tujue are not much different. However, a man of the Tiele lives in his wife's home after marriage and will not return to his own home with his wife until the birth of a child. In addition, the Tiele also bury their dead under the ground.-Suishu, 84

In 546 CE the Fufulo lead the Tiele tribes in a struggle against the Türk tribe in the power vacuum left by the breakup of the Rouran state. As a result of this defeat they were forced into servitude again. This incident marked the beginning of the historic Türk-Tiele animosity that plagued both Göktürk Khanates. (Note: at this time Tiele replaces Gaoche in Chinese history.) At some point during their subjugation, nine Tiele tribes formed a coalition called Tokuz-Oguzes Nine-Tribes which also included the Xueyantuo (Syr-Tardush), Basmyl, Oguz, Khazar , Alans, Kyrgyz, Tuva and Yakut under the leadership of the Xueyantuo.[16]

In 600 CE Sui China allied with Erkin Tegin, Bey of the Uyghur tribe, against the Göktürk Empire, their common enemy. This alliance was the first historical mention of the Uyghur tribe, which then resided in the Tuul River Valley with a population of 10,000 yurts (~40,000 people).[16] In 603 CE the alliance dissolved in the aftermath of Tardu Khan's defeat, but three tribes came under Uyghur control: Bugut, Tongra and Bayirqu.

In 611 CE the Uyghur led by the Xueyantuo defeated a Göktürk invasion; however, in 615 CE they were placed under Göktürk control again by Shipi Qaghan. In 627 CE the Uyghur, now led by Pusa Ilteber, participated in another Tokuz-Oguz revolt against the Göktürks, again spearheaded by the Xueyantuo tribe. In 630 CE the Göktürk Khanate was decisively defeated by the Emperor Tang Taizong. The Uyghur occupied second position after the Xueyantuo in the Tokuz-Oguz. However, in 646 CE when the Uyghur bey, Tumitu Ilteber (吐迷度) was granted the Chinese title Prefect (Chinese: 刺史; pinyin: cìshǐ) it established a legal precedent for Uyghur rule. He overthrew the Xueyantuo and established a short lived Uyghur state over the Mongolian steppe.

From 648-657 CE the Uyghur, under Pojuan Ilteber (婆闰), worked as mercenaries for the Chinese in their annexation of the Tarim Basin. In 683 CE the Uyghur bey Tuchiachi was defeated by Göktürks and the Uyghur tribe moved to the Selenga River Valley. From this base, they struggled against the Second Göktürk Empire.

By 688 CE the Ugyhur were controlled again by the Göktürks. After a series of revolts coordinated with their Chinese allies, the Uyghur emerged as the leaders of the Tokuz-Oguz and Tiele once again. In 744 CE taking advantage of the power shift caused by the Battle of Talas, the Uyghur, with their Basmyl and Qarluq allies, under the command of Qutlugh Bilge Köl, defeated Göktürks. The following year, they founded the Uyghur Khaganate at sacred Mount Ötüken. Control of Mt. Ötüken had been, since the Xiongnu, a symbol of authority over the Mongolian steppe.

Properly called the On Uyghur Toquz-Oghuz Orkhon Khanate, the Uyghur Khaganate stretched from the Caspian Sea to Manchuria and lasted from 745 to 840 CE.[16] It was administered from the imperial capital Ordu-Baliq, the first city built in Mongolia. During the imperial phase, the term Uyghur (Chinese: 维吾尔; pinyin: Wéiwú'ěr) denoted any citizen of the Uyghur Khaganate, as opposed to the Uyghur tribe.

Large numbers of Sogdian refugees came to Ordu-Baliq to escape the Islamic Jihad in their homeland. They converted the Uyghur nobility from Buddhism to Manichaeism. Thus, the Uyghurs inherited the legacy of Sogdian Culture. Sogdians ran the civil administration of the empire. They were helpful in outflanking the Chinese diplomatic policies which had destabilized the Göktürk Khaganate. In 840 CE, following a famine and civil war, the Uyhgur Khaganate was overrun by the Kirghiz, another Turkic people. As a result the majority of tribal groups formerly under Uyghur control migrated to what is now northwestern China, especially to the modern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region.

Yugor, The eastern-most of the three Uyghur states was the Ganzhou Kingdom (870-1036 CE), with its capital near present-day Zhangye in the Gansu province of China. There, the Uyghur converted from Manichaeism to Lamaism (Tibetan and Mongol Buddhism). Unlike other Turkic peoples further west, they did not later convert to Islam. Their descendants are now known as Yugurs (or Yogir, Yugor, and Sary Uyghurs, literally meaning "yellow Uyghurs") and are distinct from modern Uyghurs. In 1028-1036 CE, the Yugors were defeated in a bloody war and forcibly absorbed into the Tangut kingdom.

Karakhoja, The central of the three Uyghur states was the Karakhoja kingdom (created during 856-866 CE), also called the "Idiqut" ("Holy Wealth, Glory") state, and was based around the cities of Turpan (winter capital), Beshbalik (summer capital), Kumul, and Kucha. A Buddhist state, with state-sponsored Buddhism and Manicheism, it can be considered the center of Uyghur culture. The Idiquts (title of the Karakhoja rulers) ruled independently until 1209, when they submitted to the Mongols under Genghis Khan and, as vassal rulers, existed until 1335.

Kara-Khanids, or the Karakhans (Great Khans) Dynasty, was the westernmost of the three Uyghur states. The Karakhans (Karakhanliks) originated from Uyghur tribes settled in the Chu River Valley after 840 and ruled between 940-1212 in Turkistan and Maveraünnehir. They converted to Islam in 934 under the rule of Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan (920-956 AD) and, after taking power over Qarluks in 940, built a federation with Muslim institutions. Together with the Samanids of Samarkand, they considered themselves the defenders of Islam against the Buddhist Uyghur Idiqut. The first capital of the Karahans was established in the city of Balasagun in the Chu River Valley and later was moved to Kashgar.

The reign of the Uyghur's Karakhans is especially significant from the point of view of Turkic culture and art history. During this period mosques, schools, bridges, and caravansarais were constructed in the cities. Kashgar, Bukhara and Samarkand became centers of learning. During this period, Turkic literature developed. Among the most important works of the period is Kutadgu Bilig (English: "The Knowledge That Gives Happiness"), written by Yusuf Balasaghuni between the years 1060-1070, and Lughat-at-Turk(The Turkic dictionary) by Mahmud of Kashgar.

Both the Idiqut and the Kara-Khanid states eventually submitted to the Kara Khitais. After the rise of the Seljuk Turks in Iran, the Kara-Khanids became nominal vassals of the Seljuks as well. Later they would serve the dual-suzerainty of the Kara-Khitans to the north and the Seljuks to the south. Finally all three states became vassals to Genghis Khan in 1209.

Most Uyghur inhabitants of the Besh Balik and Turpan regions did not convert to Islam until the 15th century expansion of the Yarkand Khanate, a Turko-Mongol successor state based in western Tarim. Before converting to Islam, Uyghurs were Tengriist, Manichaeans, Buddhists, or Nestorian Christians.

Main article: Chagatai Khanate

The Chagatai Khanate was a Mongol ruling khanate that initially inherited part of the Mongol Empire that comprised the Uyghur's land controlled by Chagatai Khan (alternative spellings Chagata, Chugta, Chagta, Djagatai, Jagatai), second son of the Mongol emperor Genghis Khan. Chagatai's ulus, or hereditary territory, consisted of the part of the Mongol Empire which extended from the Ili River (today in eastern Kazakhstan) and Kashgaria (in the western Tarim Basin) to Transoxiana (modern Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan). After the death of his father, he inherited most of what are now the five Central Asian states and northern Iran, which he ruled until his death in 1242. These lands later came to be known as the Chagatai Khanate, a descendant empire of the Mongol Empire after the latter's split. These territories would later become the Turco-Mongol states.

After the death of the Chagatayid ruler Qazan Khan in 1346, the Chagatai Khanate was divided into western (Transoxiana) and eastern (Moghulistan/Uyghuristan) halves, which was later known as "Kashgar and Uyghurstan," according Balkh historian Makhmud ibn Vali (Sea of Mysteries, 1640). Kashgar historian Muhammad Imin Sadr Kashgari recorded the country Uyghurstan in his book Traces of Invasion (Asar al-futuh) in 1780. Power in the western half devolved into the hands of several tribal leaders, most notably the Qara'unas. Khans appointed by the tribal rulers were mere puppets. In the east, Tughlugh Timur (1347-1363), an obscure Chaghataite adventurer, gained ascendancy over the nomadic Mongols, and converted to Islam. In 1360, and again in 1361, he invaded the western half in the hope that he could reunify the khanate. At their greatest extent, the Chaghataite domains extended from the Irtysh River in Siberia down to Ghazni in Afghanistan, and from Transoxiana to the Tarim Basin.

Tughlugh Timur was unable to completely subjugate the tribal rulers. After his death in 1363, the Moghuls left Transoxiana, and the Qara'unas' leader Amir Husayn took control of Transoxiana. Tīmur-e Lang (Timur the Lame), or Tamerlane, a Muslim native of Transoxania who claimed descent from Genghis Khan, desired control of the khanate for himself and opposed Amir Husayn. He took Samarkand in 1366, and was recognized as emir in 1370, although he continued to officially act in the name of the Chagatai khans. For over three decades, Timur used the Chagatai lands as the base for extensive conquests, conquering the rulers of Herat in Afghanistan, Shiraz in Persia, Baghdad in Iraq, Delhi in India, and Damascus in Syria. After defeating the Ottoman Turks at Angora, Timur died in 1405 while marching on Ming Dynasty China. The Timurid Dynasty continued under his son, Shah Rukh, who ruled from Herat until his death in 1447.

By 1369, the western half (Transoxonia and further west) of the Chagatai Khanate had been conquered by Tamerlane in his attempt to reconstruct the Mongol Empire. The eastern half, mostly under what is now Xinjiang, remained under Chagatai princes that were at times allied or at war with Timurid princes. Until the 17th century, all the remaining Chagatay domains fell under the theocratic regime of Uyghur Apak Khoja and his descendant, the Khojijans, who ruled East Turkestan.

Both Transoxonia and the Tarim Basin of East Turkestan became known as Moghulistan or Mughalistan, named after the ruling class of Chagatay and Timurid states which descended from the "Moghol" tribe of Doghlat, but was completely Islamicized and Turkified in language. It was the same Moghol Timurid ruling class that established the Timurid rule on the Indian Subcontinent known as the Mughal Empire.

Under the Chagatay Khanate's rule in East Turkestan/Uyghurstan, the culture of the Karakhanids(Uyghurs) became dominant of the largely Muslim state, that the Buddhist populations of the former Karakhoja(Uyghurs) Idikut-ate largely converted into the Muslim faith, and that all Chagatai-speaking Muslims, regardless whether they lived in Turpan or Kashgar, became known by their occupations as Moghols (ruling class), Sarts (merchants and townspeople) and Taranchis (farmers). This triple division of classes among the same Muslim Turkic folk also existed in Transoxonia, regardless whether they were under Timurid or Chagatay, the sense of ethnic kinship between the modern Uyghur and Uzbek peoples remain strong until today.

It is widely believed that the modern Uyghur nation acquired its current demographic composition and its current cultural identity during the East Turkestani Chagatay period. The Chagatay period in East Turkestan was marked by instability and internecine warfare kingdoms, with Kashgar, Yarkant and Qomul as major centers. Some Chagatay princes allied with the Timurids and Uzbeks of Transoxonia, and some sought help from the Buddhist Kalmyks. The Chagatay prince Mirza Haidar Kurgan escaped his war-torn homeland Kashgar in the early 16th century to Timurid Tashkent, only to be evicted by the invading Shaybanids. Escaping to the mercy of his Mughal Timurid cousins, which was then rulers of Delhi, India, he gained his final post as governor of Kashmir and wrote the famous Tarikh-i-Rashidi, widely acclaimed as the most comprehensive work on the Uyghur civilization during the East Turkestani Chagatay reign.

The Khojijans were originally the Aq Tagh tariqa of the Naqshbandi order, which originated in Timurid Transoxonia. Struggles between two prominent Naqshbandi tariqas the Aq Taghlik and the Kara Taghlik engulfed the entire East Turkestani Chagatay domain in late 17th century, which Apaq Khoja finally triumphant both as a national religious and political leader. The last ruling Chagatay princess married one of the ruling Khojijan princes (descendants of Apaq) and became known as Khanum Pasha. She ruled with brutality after the death of her husband, and singlehandedly slaughtered many of her Khojijan and Chagatayid rivals. She was known to have boiled alive the last Chagatayid princess that could have continued the dynasty. The Khojijan Dynasty fell into chaos despite the brutality of Khanum Pasha.

The invading of the Manchu Qing Dynasty over the Jungars brought Manchu military governorship to the Ili Valley north of Tarim basin. Khojijan princes keep putting up struggle against Qing, until Qing was overturned by the Kuomintang.

Large Qing (Manchu) Dynasty forces under the General Zuo Zongtang attacked East Turkestan in 1876. Fearing Tsarist expansion into East Turkestan, Great Britain supported the Manchu invasion forces through loans by British banks (mostly through Boston Bank, located in Hong Kong). After this invasion, East Turkestan was renamed "Xinjiang" or "Sinkiang", which means "New Dominion" or "New Territory", by the Manchu empire on November 18, 1884.

Throughout the Qing Dynasty, the sedentary Uyghur inhabitants of the oases around the Tarim speaking Qarluq/Old Uyghur-Chagatay dialects, were largely known as Taranchi, Sart, ruled by their Moghul rulers of Khojijan. Other parts of the Islamic World still knew this area as Moghulistan or as the eastern part of Turkestan.

Before being renamed 'Xinjiang' by Qing, this eastern part of Turkestan was more often known as Hui Jiang in Manchu, or "The Islamic territory".

The Uyghur identified themselves to each other by their oasis, as 'Keriyanese', 'Khotanese', or 'Kashgari'. The Soviets met with the Uyghur in 1921 during a meeting of Turkic leaders in Tashkent. This meeting established the Revolutionary Uyghur Union (Inqilawi Uyghur Itipaqi), a communist nationalist organization that opened underground sections in principal cities of Kashgaria and was active until 1926, when the Soviets recognized the post Qing East Turkistan Government and concluded trade agreements with it.

By 1920, Uyghur nationalism had already become a grave challenge to the post Qing warlords controlling East Turkistan. Turpan poet Abdulhaliq, having spent his early years in Semey (Semipalatinsk) and the Jadid intellectual centres in Uzbekistan, returned to Sinkiang with a penname that he later styled as a surname: Uyghur. He wrote the famous nationalist poem Oyghan, which opened with the line "Ey pekir Uyghur, oyghan!" (Hey poor Uyghur, wake up!). He was later martyred by the Chinese warlord Sheng Shicai in Turpan in March, 1933 for inciting Uyghur nationalist sentiments through his works.

Meanwhile, the "Great Game" between Russia and Britain was underway in Central Asia, with former ethnic cultures from Afghanistan through Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to Uyghurstan, being divided. Artificial lines have been drawn between Shiite Persian speakers and Sunni Chagatay Turkic speakers within the same Uzbek cultural sphere and gave rise to the modern Tajik and Uzbek nationalities. Whereas the rather similar Sart-Taranchi populations around Kashgar(East Turkistan/Uyghurstan) and Andijan(Uzbekistan) divided into the different ethnicities of Uyghur and Uzbeks, Turpan, Qumul, Korla, Kashgar, Yarkant, Yengihissar, Khotan, Gulja through the Tarim Basin and the edges ofEast Turkistan, were recognized as Uyghur.

Uyghur independence activists staged several uprisings against post Qing and Sheng-Kuomintang rule. Twice, in 1933 and 1944, the Uyghurs successfully regained their independence: the East Turkestan Republic, backed by the Soviet Joseph Stalin.

In 1949, after the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang) lost the civil war in China, East Turkestan's rulers did not agree to form a confederate relation within Mao's People's Republic of China, however, a plane crash killed most of the East Turkestan Republic's supreme leadership. The crash is sometimes alleged to have been a plot by Mao Zedong, because soon after the crash, General Wang Zhen quickly marched on East Turkistan through the deserts, suppressing anti-invasion uprisings. The remaining East Turkestan Republic leadership that fell under secretary Saipidin Eziz quickly accepted Soviet/Chinese rule. Mao turned East Turkistan Republic into the Uyghur Autonomous Region, with the Eastern Turkestan Republicans and remaining Army forced to join the PLA and Saipidin Eziz serving as the region's first CCP governor. Many East Turkestan Republican loyalists, fled into exile in Turkey and Western countries. Yet many other remained and staged anti-CCP ruling activities aimed at regaining their independence.Main article: East Turkestan independence movement

The name Xinjiang is considered offensive by many Uyghur who prefer to use Uyghurstan or Eastern Turkestan (with Turkestan sometimes spelled as Turkistan).There have been many pro-independent events since 1949. The name Uyghurstan or East Turkistan was changed to Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where they were the largest ethnic group until the massive recent influx of the ethnic Han people, and the Uyghurs have become a minority in their homeland.

Many Uyghurs in the diaspora support Pan-Turkic groups. Several organizations such as the East Turkestan Party provide support for the Turkic Uyghurs.

Uyghur political groups have supported peaceful Uyghur nationalism and independence. However, the Chinese Government claims two separatist groups: the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, blamed for 200 attacks between 1990 and 2001, and the recent and still disputed East Turkestan Liberation Organization.In 2009, United States President Barack Obama ordered the release of four Uyghurs from the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay after 7 years of confinement by the George W. Bush Administration following the attacks on September 11, 2001. Though these individuals were not considered terrorists after US investigation, and were never actually convicted of any crime, the Chinese government insists these men are terrorists and has demanded their extradition to China following their relocation to Palau and Bermuda.

In July 2009, a series of violent clashes erupted between Uyghurs, Chinese state police, and Han residents in the city of Ürümqi resulting in at least 2397 Uyghur deaths and 197 Han Chinese deaths with over 6000 Uyghurs injured. soon after the riot began on July 6 over 45000 Uyghurs were arrested and some 5000 Uyghurs have been massly executed.

The relics of the Uyghur culture constitute major collections in the museums of Berlin, London, Paris, Tokyo, St. Petersburg, and New Delhi. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, scientific and archaeological expeditions to the region of Uyghurstan's Silk Road discovered numerous cave temples, monastery ruins, and wall paintings, as well as valuable miniatures, books, and documents. Explorers from Europe, America, and Japan were amazed by the art treasures found there, and soon their reports caught the attention of an interested public around the world. The manuscripts and documents discovered in Uyghurstan/Eastern Turkestan(Xinjiang)reveal the very high degree of civilization attained by the Uyghurs. This Uyghur power, prestige, and civilization, which dominated Central Asia for over a thousand years, went into a steep decline after the Manchu invasion of their homeland. Throughout the history of Central Asia, they left a lasting imprint on both the culture and tradition of the people of central Asia.

Chinese ambassador Wang Yande (939-1006), to the Karakhoja Uyghur Kingdom in 981-984 CE: "I was impressed with the extensive civilization I have found in the Uyghur Kingdom. The beauty of the temples, monasteries, wall paintings, statues, towers, gardens, housings and the palaces built throughout the kingdom cannot be described. The Uyghurs skilfully make things of silver and gold, vases and pitchers.

Most of the early Uyghur literary works were translations of Buddhist and Manichean religious texts, but there were also narrative, poetic, and epic works. Some of these have been translated into German, English, Russian, and Turkish. After the general population's conversion to Islam, world-renowned Uyghur scholars emerged and Uyghur literature flourished. Among hundreds of important works surviving from that era are Qutatqu Bilik (Wisdom Of Royal Glory) by Yüsüp Has Hajip (1069-70), Mähmut Qäşqäri's Divan-i Lugat-it Türk- A Dictionary of Turkic Dialects(1072), and Ähmät Yüknäki's Atabetul Hakayik. Perhaps the most famous and well loved pieces of modern Uyghur literature are Abdurehim Otkur's Iz, Oyghanghan Zimin, Zordun Sabir's Anayurt and Ziya Samedi's (former minister of culture in East Turkistan Government in 50's) novels Mayimkhan and Mystery of the years. Some Uyghur books have been translated into various Western languages.

Ferdinand de Saussure: "Those who preserved the language and written culture of Central Asia were the Uyghurs."

Today, traditional Uyghur medicine can still be found at street stands. Similar to other traditional medicine, diagnosis is usually made through checking the pulse, symptoms, and disease history, and then the pharmacist pounds up different dried herbs, making personalized medicines according to the prescription. Modern Uyghur medical hospitals adopted the Western medical science and medicine and adopted Western pharmaceutical technology to discover new and produce traditional medicines.

There are 77 rock-cut caves at the site. Most have rectangular spaces with rounded arch ceilings often divided into four sections, each with a mural of Buddha. The effect is of entire ceiling covers with hundreds of Buddha murals. Some ceilings are painted with a large Buddha surrounded by other figures, including Indians, Persians and Europeans. The quality of the murals vary with some being artistically naive while others are masterpieces of religious art.

Muqam is the classical musical style. The 12 Muqams are the national oral epic of the Uyghurs. The muqam system developed among the Uyghur in northwest China and Central Asia over approximately the last 1500 years from the Arabic maqamat modal system that has led to many musical genres among peoples of Eurasia and North Africa. Uyghurs have local muqam systems named after the oasis towns of Eastern Turkestan (Uyghurstan or Xinjiang) such as Dolan, Ili, Kumul and Turpan. The most fully developed at this point is the Western Tarim region's 12 muqams, which are now a large canon of music and songs recorded from the traditional performers Turdi Akhun and Omar Akhun among others in the 1950s and edited into a more systematic system. Although the folk performers probably improvised their songs as in Turkish taksim performances, the present institutional canon is performed as fixed compositions by ensembles.

Each of the 12 muqams (named Rak, Čäbbiyat, Segah, Čahargah, Pänjigah, Özhal, Äjäm, Uššaq, Bayat, Nava, Mušavräk, and Iraq), consists of a main section that begins with a long free rhythm introduction, followed by pieces with characteristic rhythmic patterns that gradually increase in speed. These pieces are arranged in the same sequence in each muqam, although not all muqams have the same pieces. These parts are known as täzä, nuskha, small säliqä, jula, sänäm, large säliqä, päshru, and täkit. Some have an associated instrumental piece known as a märghul ("decoration") following it. Although each named piece has its characteristic rhythmic pattern, the melodies differ, so each piece is generally known by the muqam and the piece: for example, "the Rak nuskha" or "the Segah jula".

After the main section, there are two other sections, originally associated with other musical traditions, but included in muqams by performers such as Turdi Akhun and therefore included in the present 12 muqam tradition. The Dastan section includes songs from several of the romantic dastan narratives found widely in Central and South Asia and the Middle East. Each dastan song is followed by an instrumental märghul. The Mäshräp section consists of more lively dance songs that were originally connected with the performances of sama by dervish musicians of Turkistan.

The Uyghur Muqam of East Turkistan has been designated by UNESCO as part of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity.Amannisa Khan, sometimes called Amanni Shahan, (1526-1560) is credited with collecting and thereby preserving the Twelve Muqam.