Editing History of Kyrgyzstan (section)

==Early medieval times==
[[File:The siege and battle of Isfarah. Babur and his army assaults the fortress of Ibrāhīm Sārū.jpg|thumb|The siege and battle of Isfarah. Babur and his army assaults the fortress of Ibrāhīm Sārū (painting circa 1589–90)]]
The first Turks to form a state in the territory of Central Asia (including Kyrgyzstan) were [[Göktürks]] or Kök-Türks. Known in medieval Chinese sources as Tujue (突厥 tú jué), the Göktürks under the leadership of [[Bumin Khan|Bumin/Tuman Khan/Khaghan]] (d.&nbsp;552) of [[Ashina tribe]] or dynasty and his sons established the first known Turkic state in 551 in the general area of territory that had earlier been occupied by the Xiongnu, and expanded rapidly to rule wide territories in Central Asia. The Göktürks split into two rival [[Khanates]], of which the western one disintegrated in 744.

The first kingdom to emerge from the [[Göktürk]] Khaganate was the Buddhist [[Uyghur Empire]] that flourished in the territory encompassing most of Central Asia from 744 to 840.

After the Uyghur empire disintegrated, a branch of the Uyghurs migrated to oasis settlements in the [[Tarim Basin]] and [[Gansu]], such as [[Gaochang]] (Karakhoja) and [[Hami City]] (Kumul), and set up a confederation of decentralized Buddhist states called Kara-Khoja. Others, mainly closely related to the Uyghurs (the [[Karluks]]), occupying the western Tarim Basin, [[Ferghana Valley]], [[Jungaria]] and parts of modern [[Kazakhstan]] bordering the Muslim Turco-Tajik [[Khwarazm]] Sultanate, converted to Islam no later than the 10th century and built a federation with Muslim institutions called Kara-Khanlik, whose princely dynasties are called [[Karakhanids]] by most historians. Its capital, [[Balasagun]] flourished as a cultural and economic centre.

The Islamized [[Karluks|Karluk]] princely clan, the Balasagunlu Ashinalar (or the [[Karakhanids]]) gravitated toward the Persian Islamic cultural zone after their political autonomy and suzerainty over Central Asia was secured during the 9–10th century.

As they became increasingly [[Persianization|Persianized]] they settled in the more Indo-Iranian sedentary centers such as [[Kashgaria]], and became detached from the nomadic traditions of fellow [[Karluks]], many of whom retained cultural elements of the Uyghur Khanate.

The principality was significantly weakened by the early 12th century and the territory of modern Kyrgyzstan was conquered by the [[Mongols|Mongolic]] [[Khitan people]]. The [[Kara-Khitan Khanate]] ({{zh|links=no|t= 西遼|s=西辽|p=Xī Liáo}}; 1124–1218), also known as Western Liao, was established by [[Yelü Dashi]] (耶律大石) who led around 100,000 Khitan remnants after escaping the [[Jin dynasty (1115–1234)|Jurchen]] conquest of their native country, the Khitan dynasty.

The Khitay conquest of Central Asia can thus be seen as an internecine struggle within the Karluk nomadic tribe, played out as dynastic conflict between the conquering Buddhist Khitay elites and the defending Kara-Khanid princes. This conflict resulted in the subjugation of the latter by the former and in the subjugation of the [[Muslim]] [[Karluks]] by their kin.