Topic summary
Uyghur people
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Uyghurs.
Prior to the 20th century, the Uyghurs did not have a common unifying ethnonym. The name "Uyghur" was used to refer to the non-Muslim inhabitants of Qocho, mainly Buddhists, who resisted conversion to Islam until the 16th century. The name fell out of use afterward and the region inhabited by the modern Uyghur people came under the rule of the Qing dynasty following the Dzungar–Qing Wars in the 18th century. Settlers of various ethnicities were relocated to Dzungaria, which was later combined with the Tarim Basin to the south to become Xinjiang Province.