Turpan has long been the centre of a fertile
oasis (with water provided by the
karez canal system) and an important trade centre. It was historically located along the
Silk Road. At that time, other kingdoms of the region included
Korla and
Yanqi. Along with city-states such as
Krorän (Loulan) and
Kucha, Turpan was inhabited by people speaking the Indo-European
Tocharian languages up to at least the 8th century AD. Manuscripts from the 5th to the 8th century AD shows that the Tocharian A (Turfanian, Agnean, or East Tocharian; natively ārśi) of Qarašähär (ancient Agni, Chinese Yanqi and Sanskrit Agni) and Turpan (ancient Turfan and Xočo) was used in the region for administration and religious texts. The
Jushi Kingdom ruled the area in the 1st millennium BC, until it was conquered by the Chinese
Han dynasty in 107 BC. It was subdivided into two kingdoms in 60 BC, between the Han and its enemy the
Xiongnu Empire. The city changed hands several times between the Xiongnu and the Han, interspersed with short periods of independence. Nearer Jushi has been linked to the Turpan Oasis, while Further Jushi to the north of the mountains near modern
Jimsar. After the fall of the Han dynasty in 220, the region was virtually independent but tributary to various dynasties. Until the 5th century AD, the capital of this kingdom was
Jiaohe (modern Yarghul west of Turpan). Many
Han Chinese along with
Sogdians settled in Turfan during the post Han dynasty era. The Chinese character dominated Turfan in the eyes of the Sogdians. Kuchean speakers made up the original inhabitants before the Chinese and Sogdian influx. The oldest evidence of the use of
Chinese characters was found in Turfan in a document dated to 273 AD. In 327, the Gaochang
Commandery (
jùn) was created in the Turfan area by the
Former Liang under
Zhang Jun. The Chinese set up a military colony/garrison and organized the land into multiple divisions. Han Chinese colonists from the Hexi region and the central plains also settled in the region. Gaochang was successively ruled by the
Former Liang,
Former Qin and
Northern Liang. In 439, remnants of the
Northern Liang, led by
Juqu Wuhui and
Juqu Anzhou, fled to Gaochang where they would hold onto power until 460 when they were conquered by the
Rouran Khaganate.
Gaochang Kingdom , Qocho (Gaochang) 683–770 CE At the time of its conquest by the Rouran Khaganate, there were more than ten thousand
Han Chinese households in Gaochang. The Rouran Khaganate, which was based in Mongolia, appointed a Han Chinese named Kan Bozhou to rule as King of Gaochang in 460, and it became a separate vassal kingdom of the Khaganate. Kan was dependent on Rouran backing. Yicheng and Shougui were the last two kings of the Chinese Kan family to rule Gaochang. At this time the
Gaoche was rising to challenge power of the Rouran in the
Tarim Basin. The Gaoche king
Afuzhiluo killed King Kan Shougui, who was the nephew of Kan Bozhou. and appointed a Han from
Dunhuang, named Zhang Mengming (張孟明), as his own vassal King of Gaochang. Gaochang thus passed under Gaoche rule. Later, Zhang Mengming was killed in an uprising by the people of Gaochang and replaced by Ma Ru (). In 501, Ma Ru himself was overthrown and killed, and the people of Gaochang appointed Qu Jia () from Jincheng Commandery as their king. While the material civilization of
Kucha to its west in this period remained chiefly Indo-Iranian in character, in Gaochang it gradually merged into the
Tang aesthetics. Qu Wentai, King of Gaochang, was a main patron of the Tang pilgrim and traveller
Xuanzang. had a history of commerce and trade along the Silk Road already centuries old; it had many inns catering to merchants and other travelers, while numerous brothels are recorded in
Kucha and
Khotan. According to Valerie Hansen, even before the Tang conquest, Han ethnic presence was already so extensive that the cultural alignment of the city led to Turpan's name in the
Sogdian language becoming known as "Chinatown" or "Town of the Chinese". As late as the tenth century, the Persian source Hudud Al-Alam continued to refer to the town as Chīnanjkanth (Chinese town). In
Astana Cemetery, a contract written in Sogdian detailing the sale of a Sogdian girl to a Chinese man was discovered dated to 639 AD. Individual
slaves were common among silk route houses; early documents recorded an increase in the selling of slaves in Turpan. Twenty-one 7th-century marriage contracts were found that showed, where one Sogdian spouse was present, for 18 of them their partner was a Sogdian. The only Sogdian men who married Chinese women were highly eminent officials. Several commercial interactions were recorded, for example a camel was sold priced at 14 silk bolts in 673, and a
Chang'an native bought a girl age 11 for 40 silk bolts in 731 from a Sogdian merchant. Five men swore that the girl was never free before enslavement, since the
Tang Code forbade commoners to be sold as slaves. Seventh or 8th century
dumplings and
wontons were found in Turfan.
Uyghur rule In 803, the
Uyghurs of the
Uyghur Khaganate seized Turfan from the Tibetans. The Uyghur Khaganate however was destroyed by the
Kirghiz and its capital
Ordu-Baliq in Mongolia sacked in 840. The defeat resulted in the mass movement of the Uyghurs out of Mongolia and their dispersal into Gansu and Central Asia, and many joined other Uyghurs already present in Turfan. In the early twentieth century, a collection of some 900 Christian manuscripts dating to the ninth to the twelfth centuries was found by the
German Turfan expeditions at a monastery site at Turfan.
Idikut kingdom scene, Turpan, 10th–12th century. The Uyghurs established a Kingdom in the Turpan region with its capital in
Gaochang or Kara-Khoja. The kingdom was known as the Uyghuria Idikut state or
Kara-Khoja Kingdom that lasted from 856 to 1389 AD. The Uyghurs were
Manichaean but later converted to
Buddhism and funded the construction of cave temples in the
Bezeklik Caves. The Uyghurs formed an alliance with the rulers of
Dunhuang. The Uyghur state later became a vassal state of the
Kara-Khitans and then as a vassal of the
Mongol Empire. This Kingdom was led by the Idikuts or Saint Spiritual Rulers. The last Idikut left Turpan area in 1284 for
Kumul and then
Gansu to seek protection of the
Yuan dynasty, but local Uyghur Buddhist rulers still held power until the invasion by the
Moghul Khizr Khoja in 1389.
Turfan expeditions German scientists conducted archaeological expeditions, known as the
German Turfan expeditions, at the beginning of the 20th century (between 1902 and 1914). They discovered paintings and other art treasures that were transported to the
Museum of Asian Art in
Berlin. Artifacts of Manichaean and Buddhist provenance were also found in Turfan. During World War II, many of these artifacts were destroyed or looted.
Turfan fragments Uyghur,
Persian, Sogdian and Syriac documents have been found in Turfan. Turfan also has documents in
Middle Persian. All these are known as the Turfan fragments. They comprise a collection of over 40,000 manuscripts and manuscript fragments in 16 different languages and 26 different typefaces in different book forms. They are in the custody of the
Berlin State Library where their study continues. These writings deal with Buddhist as well as Christian-Nestorian, Manichaean and secular contents. The approximately 8,000
Old Turkic Buddhist texts make up the largest part of this. A whole series of
Sogdian Buddhist scriptures were found in Turpan (and also in
Dunhuang), but these date from the
Tang dynasty (618–907) and are translations from Chinese. Earlier Sogdian Buddhist texts could not be found. Christian texts exist mainly in Syriac and Sogdian, but also as Syriac-Sogdian bilinguals (bilingual texts), as well as some Turkish-Nestorian fragments. They include fragments of Sogdian translations of works by
Isaac the Syrian. Manichaean texts survive in Middle Persian, Parthian, Sogdian and Uyghur; the Sogdian and Uyghur documents show a notable adaptation to Buddhism, but there is also evidence of a reverse influence. Important parts of the
Gospel of Mani were found here, for example. Also, parts of the
Arzhang (Book of Pictures), one of the holy books of Manichaeism were discovered. Most of the Buddhist texts survive in only fragmentary form. There are several Indian
Sanskrit texts from various schools of
Mahayana and
Hinayana, Uyghur texts that are mostly translations from Sanskrit, Tocharian and, starting in the 9th century, increasingly from the Chinese. Many of the Uyghur documents and fragments of Buddhist scriptures edited to date include didactic texts (
sutras) and philosophical works (the
abhidharma). In contrast to the other Buddhist contents, the monastic discipline texts (the
vinaya) did not seem to be translated, but rather taught and studied in Sanskrit.
Conversion to Islam The conversion of the local Buddhist population to Islam was completed in the second half of the 15th century. After being converted, the descendants of the previously
Buddhist Uyghurs in Turfan failed to retain memory of their ancestral legacy and falsely believed that the "infidel Kalmuks" (
Dzungars) were the ones who built Buddhist monuments in their area.
15th and 16th centuries Buddhist images and temples in Turfan were described in 1414 by the Ming diplomat
Chen Cheng. As late as 1420, the
Timurid envoy
Ghiyāth al-dīn Naqqāsh, who passed through Turpan on the way from
Herat to
Beijing, reported that many of the city's residents were "
infidels". He visited a "very large and beautiful" temple with a statue of
Shakyamuni; in one of the versions of his account it was also claimed that many Turpanians "
worshipped the cross". embassy", seen by the Dutch visitors in Beijing in 1656. According to Lach & Kley (1993), modern historians (namely,
Luciano Petech) think that the emissaries portrayed had come from Turpan, rather than all the way from the Moghul India. The Moghul ruler of Turpan
Yunus Khan, also known as Ḥājjī 'Ali (ruled 1462–1478), unified
Moghulistan (roughly corresponding to today's Eastern Xinjiang) under his authority in 1472. Around that time, a
conflict with the
Ming China started over the issues of
tribute trade: Turpanians benefited from sending "tribute missions" to China, which allowed them to receive valuable gifts from the Ming emperors and to do plenty of trading on the side; the Chinese, however, felt that receiving and entertaining these missions was just too expensive. (Muslim envoys to the early Ming China were impressed by the lavish reception offered to them along their route through China, from
Suzhou to
Beijing, such as described by Ghiyāth al-dīn Naqqāsh in 1420–1421.) , (karez) in the Turpan Water Museum: Water is collected from mountains and channeled underground to grape vineyards. Yunus Khan was irritated by the restrictions on the frequency and size of Turpanian missions (no more than one mission in 5 years, with no more than 10 members) imposed by the Ming government in 1465 and by the Ming's refusal to bestow sufficiently luxurious gifts on his envoys (1469). Accordingly, in 1473 he went to war against China, and succeeded in capturing
Hami in 1473 from the Oirat Mongol Henshen and holding it for a while, until Ali was repulsed by the Ming dynasty into Turfan. He reoccupied Hami after Ming left. Henshen's Mongols recaptured Hami twice in 1482 and 1483, but the son of Ali,
Ahmad Alaq, who ruled Eastern Moghulistan or
Turpan Khanate, reconquered it in 1493 and captured the Hami leader and the resident of China in Hami (Hami was a vassal state to Ming). In response, the Ming dynasty imposed an economic blockade on Turfan and kicked out all the Uyghurs from Gansu. It became so harsh for Turfan that Ahmed left. Ahmed's son
Mansur succeeded him and took over Hami in 1517. These conflicts were called the
Ming–Turpan conflict. Several times, after occupying Hami, Mansur tried to attack China in 1524 with 20,000 men, but was beaten by Chinese forces. The Turpan kingdom under Mansur, in alliance with
Oirat Mongols, tried to raid Suzhou in Gansu in 1528, but were severely defeated by Ming Chinese forces and suffered heavy casualties. The Chinese refused to lift the economic blockade and restrictions that had led to the battles and continued restricting Turpan's tribute and trade with China. Turfan also annexed
Hami.
18th and 19th centuries The Imin mosque of Turfan was built in 1779.
Francis Younghusband visited Turpan in 1887 on his overland journey from
Beijing to India. He said it consisted of two walled towns, a Chinese one with a population of no more than 5,000 and, about a mile (1.6 km) to the west, a Turk town of "probably" 12,000 to 15,000 inhabitants. The town (presumably the "Turk town") had four gateways, one for each of the cardinal directions, of solid brickwork and massive wooden doors plated with iron and covered by a semicircular bastion. The well-kept walls were of mud and about 35 ft (10.7 m) tall and 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 m) thick, with loopholes at the top. There was a level space about 15 yards (14 m) wide outside the main walls surrounded by a musketry wall about 8 ft (2.4 m) high, with a ditch around it some 12 ft (3.7 m) deep and 20 ft (6 m) wide. There were drumtowers over the gateways, small square towers at the corners and two small square bastions between the corners and the gateways, "two to each front". Wheat, cotton, poppies, melons and grapes were grown in the surrounding fields. Turpan grapes impressed other travelers to the region as well. The 19th-century Russian explorer
Grigory Grum-Grshimailo, thought the local raisins may be "the best in the world" and noted the buildings of a "perfectly peculiar design" used for drying them called
chunche. Mongols, Chinese and Chantos all lived in Turfan during this period.
20th and 21st centuries In 1931, a Uyghur rebellion broke out in the region, after a Chinese commander tried to forcibly marry a local girl. The Chinese responded by indiscriminately attacking Muslims; this turned the entire countryside against the Chinese administration and the Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Tungans joined the rebels. On 31 March 1995, Turpan and
Dunhuang became sister cities. == Geography ==