Uighur Turks

Dominant Turkic people of the eastern steppes, frequently allied with the Chinese from 744 until 840, when they were defeated by the Kirghiz, another Turkic people. The Uighurs withdrew to the northern Tarim and western Gansu, where they ruled until 1028. The Uighurs had from the 760s embraced Manicheism and advanced the religion in China. They still comprise a significant ethnic minority in modern China.