198 wilkens
power of the East Uyghur Empire in Mongolia, until they were overthrown by
the Ädiz in 795. The population, which the Uyghurs encountered in Gansu at
that time, was predominantly Tibetan due to the Tibetan occupation of the
region (786–848) and—to a lesser extent—Chinese.32 The Ganzhou Uyghurs
extended their political and economic influence in the region during the Five
Dynasties (907–960). There was a constant struggle for hegemony in Northwest
Gansu with Shazhou (沙州, that is Dunhuang 敦煌), where another group of
Uyghurs had settled.33 The Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom was an important hub
for trade between the Tarim basin and China proper.
The other Uyghur group founded the West Uyghur Kingdom (847)34 also
known as the Tianshan (天山) Uyghur Kingdom35 with its capital first at
Solmı (Ark/Karašahr, Chin. Yanqi 焉耆)36 and later at Beš Balık (Chin. Beiting
北庭),37 located at the Northern slopes of the Tianshan range. Kočo (< Chin.
32 Pinks, Uiguren von Kan-chou, 62.
33 Ibid., 69–71.
34 Brose, Michael C., “Uyghur Technologists of Writing and Literacy in Mongol China,”
T’oung Pao 91.4–5 (2005): 403.
35 Also common is the designation Gaochang Uyghur Kingdom.
36 See Moriyasu, Takao, “Chronology of West Uighur Buddhism: Re-examination of the
Dating of the Wallpaintings in Grünwedel’s Cave No. 8 (New: No. 18), Bezeklik,” in Aspects
of Research into Central Asian Buddhism. In memoriam Kōgi Kudara, ed. Peter Zieme
(Turnhout: Brepols, 2008), 213 and footnote 42 (with further references).
37 Beš Balık remained the capital of the West Uyghurs for a very long time until during
Qaidu’s rebellion the government moved to Kara Kočo. Abe, Takeo, “Where was the
Capital of the West Uighurs?” in Silver Jubilee Volume of the Zinbun-kagaku-kenkyūsho,
ed. Shigeki Kaizuka (Kyoto: Nissha Print, 1954), dates this event to the year 1266; Biran,
Michal, Qaidu and the Rise of the Independent Mongol State in Central Asia (Richmond:
Curzon Press, 1997), 42, however, to 1270. Yuan and Chagatay sources refer to (Kara) Kočo
as the centre of the Uyghurs. See Matsui, Dai, “A Mongolian Decree from the Chagataid
Khanate Discovered at Dunhuang,” in Aspects of Research into Central Asian Buddhism.
In memoriam Kōgi Kudara, ed. Peter Zieme (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008), 165. For Uyghur
sources mentioning Kočo as a political centre see Matsui, “Mongolian Decree,” 165
(n. 23). The late “commemorative inscription” speaks of the kao čaŋ oŋ (< Chin. Gaochang
wang 高昌王). See Geng, Shimin, and James Hamilton, “L’inscription ouïgoure de la stèle
commémorative des Iduq Qut de Qočo,” Turcica 13 (1981): 20 (III, 50) = Balati 巴拉提,
Kahaer 卡哈尔, Liu Yingsheng 刘迎胜, “Yiduhu gaochang wang shixun bei huihuwen
beiwen zhi jiaokan yu yanjiu 亦都护高昌王世勋碑回鹘文碑文之校勘与研究 [Study
Regarding the Uyghur Inscription of the Stele of the Family Achievements of the Idok Kut
Gaochang Wang],” Yuanshi ji beifang minzushi yanjiu jikan 元史及北方民族史研究集
刊 [Studies in the History of the Yuan Dynasty and of the Northern Nationalities] 8 (1984):
67 (line 155). The commemorative inscription is a bilingual text (Chinese and Old Uyghur,
found in 1933 North of Wuwei (武威, former Liangzhou 凉州) in Gansu. It was erected