Uyghur Khaganate

The Uyghur Khaganate was a Turkic steppe empire centred on the Orkhon Valley of modern Mongolia, founded in 744 CE when the Uyghurs, allied with the Basmyl and Karluk tribes, overthrew the Second Turkic (Gokturk) Khaganate.

Its founder, Qutlugh Bilge Kol Qaghan, established Uyghur supremacy over the Mongolian steppe, and his successors built the imperial capital at Ordu-Baliq (Karabalghasun/Khar Balgas) in the Orkhon Valley, one of the earliest substantial urban centres of the nomadic world. The khaganate became a pivotal regional power and a crucial ally of Tang China, providing decisive cavalry support during the An Lushan Rebellion (755-763) in exchange for lucrative silk-for-horses trade and prestige. Under Bogu (Mouyu) Qaghan, the Uyghurs adopted Manichaeism as the state religion around 762, making them the only steppe empire to embrace this faith, which deepened ties with influential Sogdian merchants who dominated Silk Road commerce. The empire fostered literacy through the Old Uyghur script and accumulated wealth from trade and tribute. It collapsed in 840 when the Yenisei Kyrgyz, invited by a rival faction amid famine, harsh winters, and internal strife, invaded with a large mounted force and sacked Ordu-Baliq. The dispersed Uyghurs migrated southwest to the Tarim Basin and Gansu, founding successor states whose culture profoundly shaped later Central Asian and Mongol civilisation.