Uyghur people

Further information: Uyghur Muslims

The Uyghurs (wee-ger; 维吾尔人) are a Turkic people and a Central Asian ethnic group, living mainly in Xinjiang, nowadays a province located in the far northwest of China. Over 11 million Uyghurs live there, far more than any other part of the world.

Uyghur
ئۇيغۇر

Uyghur couple in Khotan
Regions with significant populations
China (Xinjiang)	11,303,355[1]
Kazakhstan	223,100 (2009)[2]
Uzbekistan	55,220 (2008)
Kyrgyzstan	49,000 (2009)[3]
Turkey (Uyghurs in Turkey)	45,800 (2010)[4][5]
Saudi Arabia	~50,000 (2013) (Saudi Labor Ministry)[6]
Syria	~3,500 (2015) (Uyghur Turkistan Islamic Party members plus families in Zanbaqi (الزنبقي) in Jisr al-Shughur)[7][8][9][10]
Pakistan (Uyghurs in Pakistan)	~1,000 families (2010)[11]
Russia	3,696 (2010)[12]
Ukraine	197 (2001)[13]
Languages
Uyghur
Religion
Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
other Turkic peoples

Many Uyghurs also live in Beijing, Shanghai^[14] and Taoyuan County (Hunan, South-Central China).^[15] There are Uyghur diasporic communities in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Mongolia. However, the vast majority of Uyghurs live in their native homeland Xinjiang.

Uyghurs are mainly Muslim and speak Uyghur, a Turkic language. The Uyghur alphabet is based on the Arabic alphabet.

Most Uyghurs were originally from the ancient Karluk tribes of the Kara-Khanid Khanate and immigrated to what is now Xinjiang during the 8th or 9th centuries AD. Modern Uyghurs identify with the Karakhanids even though the name Uyghur was taken from the Manichaean Uyghur Khaganate and the Buddhist state of Qocho.^[16][17]

At a conference in Tashkent in 1921, representatives of the New Uyghur-speaking population of West Turkestan, whose language does not go back directly to the Old Uyghur of Mongolia, or only to a small extent, adopted the name "Uyghurs" for themselves.^[18][19]

Some Uyghurs seek independence from China.^[20]

See also: Movies banned in China and Political problems of China