Editing Turpan (section)

===15th and 16th centuries===
{{See also|Turpan Khanate|Ming–Turpan conflict}}

Buddhist images and temples in Turfan were described in 1414 by the Ming diplomat [[Chen Cheng (Ming dynasty)|Chen Cheng]].<ref>Rossabi, M. 1972. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/41926952 "Ming China and Turfan, 1406–1517"]. Central Asiatic Journal 16 (3). Harrassowitz Verlag: 212.</ref><ref name="Rossabi2014">{{cite book|author=Morris Rossabi|title=From Yuan to Modern China and Mongolia: The Writings of Morris Rossabi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GXejBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA45|date=28 November 2014|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-04-28529-3|pages=45–}}</ref>

As late as 1420, the [[Timurid dynasty|Timurid]] envoy [[Ghiyāth al-dīn Naqqāsh]], who passed through Turpan on the way from [[Herat]] to [[Beijing]], reported that many of the city's residents were "[[Kafir|infidels]]". He visited a "very large and beautiful" temple with a statue of [[Shakyamuni]]; in one of the versions of his account it was also claimed that many Turpanians "[[Christianity in China|worshipped the cross]]".<ref>{{citation|title= A History of Cathay: a translation and linguistic analysis of a fifteenth-century Turkic manuscript |first= Ildikó|last= Bellér-Hann |publisher= Indiana University, Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies|year= 1995|place=  Bloomington|isbn=0-933070-37-3|page=159}}. Christianity is mentioned in the Turkic translation of Ghiyāth al-dīn's account published by Bellér-Hann, but not in the earlier Persian versions of his story.</ref>

[[File:Nieuhof-p-189-Mogolsche-gezant-Lach-van-Kley-plate-315.jpg|thumb|left|"[[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] embassy", seen by the Dutch visitors in Beijing in 1656. According to Lach & Kley (1993), modern historians (namely, [[Luciano Petech]]) think that the emissaries portrayed had come from Turpan, rather than all the way from the Moghul India.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lach |first1=Donald F. (Donald Frederick) |title=Asia in the making of Europe |date=1965 |publisher=Chicago : University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-46733-7 |page=238 |url=https://archive.org/details/asiainmakingofeu0003lach_w4t0-c1/page/n237/mode/2up|quote="Nieuhof’s report of a Mughul embassy to Peking was taken at face value by C. B. K. Roa Sahib, “Shah Jehan’s Embassy to China, 1656 a.d.,” Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, Silver Jubilee Number XXV (1934–35), 117–21. By examination of the Chinese sources, Luciano Petech concluded that Nieuhof was mistaken in this identification. He argues, quite convincingly, that these were probably emissaries from Turfan in central Asia. See Petech, “La pretesa ambascita di Shah Jahan alia Cina,” Rivista degli studi orientali, XXVI (1951), 124–27."}}</ref>]]
The Moghul ruler of Turpan [[Yunus Khan]], also known as Ḥājjī 'Ali (ruled 1462–1478), unified [[Moghulistan]] (roughly corresponding to today's Eastern Xinjiang) under his authority in 1472. Around that time, a [[Ming–Turpan conflict|conflict]] with the [[Ming dynasty|Ming China]] started over the issues of [[List of tributaries of Imperial China|tribute trade]]: Turpanians benefited from sending "tribute missions" to China, which allowed them to receive valuable gifts from the Ming emperors and to do plenty of trading on the side; the Chinese, however, felt that receiving and entertaining these missions was just too expensive. (Muslim envoys to the early Ming China were impressed by the lavish reception offered to them along their route through China, from [[Suzhou District|Suzhou]] to [[Beijing]], such as described by Ghiyāth al-dīn Naqqāsh in 1420–1421.<ref>{{harvnb|Bellér-Hann|1995|pp=160–175}}</ref>)

[[File:Turpan-karez-maqueta-d01.jpg|thumb|200px|A model of the [[Turpan water system]], (karez) in the Turpan Water Museum: Water is collected from mountains and channeled underground to grape vineyards.]]

Yunus Khan was irritated by the restrictions on the frequency and size of Turpanian missions (no more than one mission in 5 years, with no more than 10 members) imposed by the Ming government in 1465 and by the Ming's refusal to bestow sufficiently luxurious gifts on his envoys (1469). Accordingly, in 1473 he went to war against China, and succeeded in capturing [[Hami]] in 1473 from the Oirat Mongol Henshen and holding it for a while, until Ali was repulsed by the Ming dynasty into Turfan. He reoccupied Hami after Ming left. Henshen's Mongols recaptured Hami twice in 1482 and 1483, but the son of Ali, [[Ahmad Alaq]], who ruled Eastern Moghulistan or [[Turpan Khanate]], reconquered it in 1493 and captured the Hami leader and the resident of China in Hami (Hami was a vassal state to Ming). In response, the Ming dynasty imposed an economic blockade on Turfan and kicked out all the Uyghurs from Gansu. It became so harsh for Turfan that Ahmed left. Ahmed's son [[Mansur Khan (Moghul Khan)|Mansur]] succeeded him and took over Hami in 1517.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vWLRxJEU49EC&pg=PA323 |title=International Dictionary of Historic Places: Asia and Oceania |author1=Trudy Ring |author2=Robert M. Salkin |author3=Sharon La Boda |year=1996 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=1-884964-04-4 |page=323}}</ref><ref name=bio>{{harvnb|Goodrich|Fang|1976}}</ref> These conflicts were called the [[Ming–Turpan conflict]].

Several times, after occupying Hami, Mansur tried to attack China in 1524 with 20,000 men, but was beaten by Chinese forces. The Turpan kingdom under Mansur, in alliance with [[Oirats|Oirat Mongols]], tried to raid Suzhou in Gansu in 1528, but were severely defeated by Ming Chinese forces and suffered heavy casualties.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JWpF-dObxW8C&pg=PA1037 |title=Dictionary of Ming Biography, 1368–1644|author1=Luther Carrington Goodrich |author2=Chao-ying Fang |year=1976 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=0-231-03833-X |page=1038}}</ref> The Chinese refused to lift the economic blockade and restrictions that had led to the battles and continued restricting Turpan's tribute and trade with China. Turfan also annexed [[Hami]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=riPEes0xs-YC&pg=PA177 |title=From Ming to Ch'ing: Conquest, Region, and Continuity in Seventeenth-Century China |author1=Jonathan D. Spence |author2=John E. Wills Jr. |author3=Jerry B. Dennerline |year=1979 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=0-300-02672-2 |page=177}}</ref>