UIGUR, a tribe of Mongol Tartars, called Hiung-nu or Hioung-nou by the Chinese, and known in Europe as the Ouighour, Ougre, Hunigur, Hongre, or Hun. They are the present inhabitants of Kashgar. They dispossessed the Yu-chi about B.c. 200, but about e.c. 60 became subject to China. In A.D. 94 the Chinese annexed the country. According to Prof. Vambery (Bokh ara, p. 81), the Uigur are the most ancient of the Turkish tribes, and formerly inhabited a part of Chinese Tartary, which is now occupied by a mixed population of Turk, Mongol, and Kabrink. The great Uigur horde in Eastern Turkestan became Muhammadans in A.D. 966. The Chinese call them Hoieke, Oihor, and Hoai Hoai. Towards the close of the 8th century A.D., the emperors of the Tang dynasty deported about a million of Uigur families from the neighbourhood of Kashgar, and settled them at Kan-su and Shen si. About A.D. 966, these families embraced Muhammadanism, and under their chief Satuk they conquered Transoxiana, and carried away captive an immense number of Turks of the Turghai tribe. In 972 the majority of these captives were allowed to return to their homes, but many remained, and they were styled Tur ghani or Tunghani, signifying remnant, and cor• rupted into Dungen, but known to the Chinese as Uigur or Hoai Hoai. They are all Muhammadans, but dress like Chinese. They are abstemious, religious, quarrelsome, using the knife, but honest and fond of trade.
The Uigur writing character was the original source of those still used by the Mongol and Manchu, and was itself almost certainly derived from the Old Syriac character through the Nes torians. The modern Tartar characters are written (and, it is presumed, read) in vertical lines from top to bottom of the page, the lines succeeding each other from left to right. Captain Valikh
anoff speaks of the language now in use at Kashgar as being Uigur, but it is not clear whether he means that this term is known to the natives.
They were the first who reduced the Turkish language to writing, borrowing the characters from the Nestorian Christians, who came to their country as early as the 4th century of our era. The manuscripts of this language, written in the chara. eters mentioned, are therefore the znost ancient and valuable data in investigating the history of Central Asia,—nay, of the whole Turkish race. But these monuments are of great scarcity.
Vambery believes he has collected all that has been discovered of the Uigur language, though the Uigur had a literature and were very fond of, books at a thne when the western world was involved in ignorance and barbarism. The most valuable manuscript he obtained bears date 1069, and was written in Kashgar ; it treats of ethics and political subjects, and forms a kind of manual of advice to kings how to govern with justice and success. It reveals the social con dition of this people, and forms the basis of the later regulations by which all Turks are governed. —Yanibery ; _Russians in Central Asia, p. 67 ; Yule's Cathay, p. 206 ; Tinikowski's Journey to Pekin, i. pp. 6, 378, 379 ; Captain Valikhanoff.
UJA, third son of Seoji. a Ralitor Rajput of Kanouj, in a foray on the Saurashtra peninsula, slew Bekumsi, the Chaniara chieftain of Oka mundal, and established himself there. Froni that act his branch of the Rahtor became known as the Badhail.