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Central Asia · Timur and the khanates

East Turkestan

15th-century Altishahr

This section treats the Tarim Basin region of what is now southern Xinjiang, China, as a unit of historical geography in the 1400s, together with the terminology applied to it in later centuries.

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Existed
15th-century Altishahr
Shown on the map
1463–1474
Peak area
1.1M km²
Region
Central Asia

Overview

This section treats the Tarim Basin region of what is now southern Xinjiang, China, as a unit of historical geography in the 1400s, together with the terminology applied to it in later centuries.

Geography and names

The Tarim Basin — the ring of oasis towns around the Taklamakan Desert, south of the Tian Shan — was historically, geographically, and ethnically distinct from the Dzungarian (Junggar) Basin to the north. In the 15th century it had no single name of its own; contemporaries referred to its cities individually, and the whole southern region was nominally part of Moghulistan (the Eastern Chagatai Khanate), called "Nanjiang" or the "Southern Tian Shan route" in Chinese usage. The Turkic name "Altishahr" ("Six Cities," from Turkic alti "six" + Persian shahr "city") is a later designation, used by Turkic-speaking inhabitants in the 18th–19th centuries and adopted by some Western sources; it referred loosely to oasis towns such as Kashgar, Yarkand, Khotan, Aksu, Yengisar, and Maralbexi (the exact list varied by author; "Four Cities," "Seven Cities," and "Eight Cities" variants also existed, as did the Western term "Kashgaria"). Qing sources called the region Nanlu ("Southern Circuit"), Huijiang ("Muslim Frontier"), or Huibu.

The term "East Turkestan"

"East Turkestan" (Uyghur: Sherqiy Türkistan) is likewise a later, externally coined geographic term. "Turkestan" ("region of the Turks") was defined by Arab geographers of the 9th–10th centuries as the lands northeast of the Syr Darya. "East Turkestan" was coined in the 19th century by Russian Turkologists — the explorer Timovski used "East Turkestan" for the Tarim Basin in 1805, and in 1829 the sinologist Nikita Bichurin proposed it to replace the common Western term "Chinese Turkestan." After Russia organized its Central Asian holdings as "Russian Turkestan" in 1867, Western writers divided Turkestan into a Russian and a Chinese (eastern) part. In the 20th century the term acquired political meaning, used by the short-lived First (1933–34) and Second (1944–46) East Turkestan Republics and subsequently by Uyghur separatist movements for all of Xinjiang; the government of China regards it as a political rather than geographic term. It is mentioned here strictly as etymology and historiographic vocabulary, not as a 15th-century usage.

The region in the 1400s

In the 15th century the Tarim oasis cities were nominally subject to the Chagatai khans of Moghulistan, but actual local control rested with the Mongol Dughlat amirs in the western oases (Kashgar, Yarkand) and with Naqshbandi Sufi networks elsewhere. The eastern cities — Turfan and Hami — formed a distinct sub-region. Turfan (with Qocho) had been the centre of the Buddhist Kingdom of the Uyghurs; the last recorded Uyghur khan was forcibly converted to Islam in the 1380s–90s when the Moghul khan Khizr Khoja waged holy war against "Khitay" (Turfan/Qocho), ending the Uyghur polity; the term "Uyghurstan" survived in Muslim sources for the Kumul–Turfan area. A separate Moghul khanate was established at Turfan in the mid-15th century. Hami (Qamul) was ruled by the Mongol principality of Kara Del (1383–1513), a dependency of Ming China, until Mansur Khan of Turfan captured it in 1513, making the Moghuls direct neighbours of the Ming.

Economy, culture, and religion

The oasis towns lived from irrigated agriculture and Silk Road caravan trade. After Tughlugh Timur's conversion (1354) and the Moghuls' alliance with the Ming (which opened caravan trade and tribute missions), commerce with China enriched the khans and amirs. Islamization and Turkification of the region — begun under the Kara-Khanids — were completed during this period, while the old Tocharian and Sogdian linguistic heritage had long vanished; the sedentary Turkic-speaking Muslim population of the oases are the ancestors of today's Uyghurs. The region's loose structure of competing city-states under Dughlat amirs, Moghul khans, and Sufi khojas set the stage for Sultan Said Khan's conquest of the western Tarim in 1514 (the Yarkent Khanate) and the later khoja regimes.

Common questions

What was East Turkestan?
This section treats the Tarim Basin region of what is now southern Xinjiang, China, as a unit of historical geography in the 1400s, together with the terminology applied to it in later centuries.
When did East Turkestan exist?
East Turkestan existed 15th-century Altishahr. On this map it is drawn 1463–1474.
How large was East Turkestan?
At its greatest extent drawn on this map, East Turkestan covered about 1.1 million km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Who ruled East Turkestan?
In the 15th century the Tarim oasis cities were nominally subject to the Chagatai khans of Moghulistan, but actual local control rested with the Mongol Dughlat amirs in the western oases (Kashgar, Yarkand) and with Naqshbandi Sufi networks elsewhere. The eastern cities — Turfan and Hami — formed a distinct sub-region.
What did the economy and culture of East Turkestan rest on?
The oasis towns lived from irrigated agriculture and Silk Road caravan trade. After Tughlugh Timur's conversion (1354) and the Moghuls' alliance with the Ming (which opened caravan trade and tribute missions), commerce with China enriched the khans and amirs.

Sources

Every source below was consulted while writing this entry.

This entry was written from the sources above and last updated .

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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