When the Tanguts conquered the Ganzhou Uyghur kingdom (the khagan Guizhong Baoshun Khagan died in 1028 and the kingdom was annexed in 1036), the Ganzhou Uyghurs settled at Dunhuang (Shazhou) and Guazhou, and a group that settled between Dunhuang and the Qaidam basin 'came to be known as the Yellow Head Uyghurs', Buddhist pastoral nomads, called the Sali Uyghurs in the 13th century (English Wikipedia, Ganzhou Uyghur Kingdom).
Their descendants are the Yugurs. The campaign board puts them in the Qilian foothills south of Ganzhou under Tangut rule. For 1200 the sources we could read name no chief and no dated event; we draw the range from the campaign board and from the modern Yugur homeland around Hongwansi.
Who holds it
- Title
- Tribal chiefs of the Yellow-Head Uyghurs under the Gansu district
- Since
- not known
- Born
- not known
- Family
- not known
- Confidence
- low
No chief or headman is named for 1200 in the sources we could read.
Overlord
The emperor Huanzong, through the military district whose ground the people range over.
What it holds
- Mountain pastures of the Qilian north slope
How it was acquired
By the Tangut conquest of the Ganzhou Uyghur kingdom, 1028 to 1036; the dispersal into the Qilian is not dated.
Allies and rivals
The Gansu district commander and the prefects of Ganzhou and Suzhou; the Tibetan tribes of the mountains to the east and south.
How things stand that morning
Herding in the north slope of the Qilian under the Gansu district; Buddhist; tributary to Xia, ruled through their own chiefs (not named).
Wealth
Sheep and horses; fairs at Ganzhou and Suzhou; no figures.
Military
Tribal levy under the district commander; no numbers.
Customs
Buddhist (English Wikipedia). Their relations with the Mati Temple caves in the same hills are not documented for 1200.
Places of note
- Hongwansi (modern Yugur seat): Centre of the modern Yugur homeland; used here only to place the range.
Where the sources disagree
- Board (sari-uyghurs): 'descendants of the Ganzhou Uyghur kingdom the Tanguts conquered in 1028'. English Wikipedia agrees on 1028 for the defeat and gives 1036 for the annexation; its name for the group is 'Sali', not 'Sari', and it puts the Yellow Head Uyghurs between Dunhuang and the Qaidam basin rather than only south of Ganzhou.
- The English Wikipedia article on the Yugurs and the Mati Temple could not be fetched (see the report); the range is therefore drawn from the campaign board and from memory of the modern homeland.
Evidence: One English Wikipedia paragraph and the campaign board; the 12th-century people have no dated record.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: The range is drawn from the modern homeland and the campaign board's note; no source gives a boundary for 1200.
Primary sources for Great Xia
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
- Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
- Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
- The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Compendium of Chronicles: the Turkic and Mongol tribes and the life of Chinggis Khan, Rashid al-Din Hamadani (about 1300 to 1311, in the Ilkhanate). The fullest description of who held what on the steppe around 1200, written a century later from Mongol court records (the Altan Debter) and from informants such as Bolad Chingsang. Read online
- History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
- History of the Song, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345, from the Song veritable records, state histories and the Huiyao). The official history of the Southern Song, which ruled from Lin'an (Hangzhou) in 1200. Read online
5 more in the sources library for The Tarim, the Uyghurs and Xia.
Sources and studies
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.