The Turkic-speaking Yugurs are considered to be the descendants of a group of Old Uyghurs who fled from Mongolia southwards to Gansu after the collapse of the Uyghur Khaganate in 840, where they established the prosperous Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom (870-1036) with capital near present Zhangye at the base of the Qilian Mountains in the valley of the Ruo Shui.[5]
In 1037, the Yugur came under Tangut domination.[6] As a result of Khizr Khoja’s invasion of Qumul, many residents who rejected conversion escaped to nearby Dunhuang and Hunan in China proper. These became the ancestors of the modern Yellow Uyghurs, who have remained
Buddhists to the present day.[7]
In 1893, Russian explorer Grigory Potanin, the first Western scientist to study the Yugur, published a small glossary of Yugur words, along with notes on their administration and geographical situation.[8]
Language
About 4,600 Yugurs speak Western Yugur (a Turkic language) and about 2,800 Eastern Yugur (a Mongolic language). Western Yugur has preserved many archaisms of Old Uyghur.[9][10]
Both Yugur languages are now unwritten, although the Old Uyghur alphabet was in use in some Yugur communities until the end of 17th century.[11]
1 Central Asian (i.e. Turkmeni, Afghani and Iranian) Turkmens, distinct from Levantine (i.e. Iraqi and Syrian) Turkmen/Turkoman minorities, who mostly adhere to an Ottoman-Turkish heritage and identity.
2 In traditional areas of Turkish settlement (i.e. former Ottoman territories).