Turpan Khanate

The Turpan Khanate (Chinese: 吐魯番汗國), also known as the Eastern Moghulistan, Kingdom of Uyghurstan or Turfan Khanate, was a Sunni Muslim Turco-Mongol khanate ruled by the descendants of Chagatai Khan. It was founded by Ahmad Alaq in 1487 based in Turpan as the eastern division of Moghulistan, itself an eastern offshoot of the Chagatai Khanate.

Most territories of the Turpan Khanate were conquered by the Yarkent Khanate, the western offshoot of Moghulistan, in 1570.

In 1487, Ahmad Alaq gained independence from his brother Mahmud, and ruled the northern part of the Tarim Basin from Turpan in the east (now Gaochang, Turpan in Xinjiang). Under Ahmad Araq and his eldest son Mansur, Turpan became more Muslim.

Ahmad Alaq made peace with the Ming China, which had been in conflict over the control of the Kara Del in Hami since the time of his father Yunus Khan, and exchanged envoys. In the early 1500s, Ahmad Alaq was defeated and killed in a battle against Muhammad Shaybani of the Khanate of Bukhara.

Mansur, who succeeded Ahmad Araq to the throne, occupied Turpan and Aksu. Mansur defeated his brother Sultan Said Khan who ruled the western Moghulistan and exiled him. Mansur fought again with the Ming dynasty over the Hami-based Kara Del kingdom, and Mansur conquered the kingdom and brought the region under his control in 1513. With the conquest Buddhists from the Hami area migrated to Ming-controlled territory, and Buddhists from areas west of Hami disappeared. Historian Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat characterized Mansur's battle with the Ming dynasty over Hami as a "holy war".

While Mansur was fighting against Ming China, Sultan Said Khan was under the protection of his cousin, Babur of the Timurid dynasty, in Kabul. In response to Babur's capture of Samarkand, the Mir of Duglat captured the Ferghana Valley and presented it to Sultan Said Khan. Using this as a foothold, Sultan Said Khan returned to Moghulistan and defeated Mirza Abu Bakr Dughlat in Dughlat, and in 1514 declared himself Khan. There was also a faction in the Duglat division that opposed Abu Bakr, and Mirza Muhammad Haidar and others supported Sultan Said Khan.

At first, the brothers Mansur Khan and Sultan Said Khan were at odds, but eventually they reconciled, and the Khans of Moghulistan existed side by side in the east and west. Sultan Said attempted to advance into the steppe region to the west, but was blocked by the Uzbeks and Kazakhs, and ended up taking possession of the western Tarim Basin, centered on Kashgar and Yarkand. As a result, the government of Sultan Said Khan and his descendants came to be known as the Yarkent Khanate.

From the 16th century onwards, the leaders of the Khojas came to have a strong influence, replacing the Dughlat faction, which had traditionally had a strong influence in Moghulistan.