encouraging Han settlement lead to Turpan's name in Sogdian language becoming known as “Chinatown” or "Town of the Chinese". In Astana, a contract written in Sogdian detailing the sale of a Sogdian girl to a Chinese man was discovered dated to 639 AD. Wu Zhen, who worked on the Astana site asserted that, despite the fact that individual slaves were common among silk route houses, from early Niya documents an increase in the selling of slaves was recorded in Turpan documents.
Rong Xinjiang has located 21 7th century marriage contracts where one Sogdian spouse was present, 18 out of these 21 showed the other partner was also a Sogdian. The only Sogdian men who married Chinese women were highly eminent officials. Several commercial interactions were recorded Kang Wupoyan sold a camel to a commander of a company priced at 14 silk bolts in 673. a merchant from Samarkand (Kangzhou) although he did not live in there. A Chang'an native called Tang Rong bought a girl aged 11 for 40 silk bolts in 731 from a Sogdian merchant. Five men swore that the girl was never free before enslavement, since The Tang Code forbade commoners to be sold as slaves.
The Uyghurs established a Kingdom near Turpan (known as the Uyghuria Idikut state or Kara-Khoja Kingdom) that lasted from 856 to 1389 AD, in its later period surviving as a vassal of the Mongol Empire. This Kingdom, led by Idikuts, or Saint Spiritual Rulers, was established after the fall of the Uyghur Empire to the Kyrgyz Turks. Last Idikut left Turpan area in 1284 for Kumul, then Gansu to seek protection of Yuan Dynasty, but local uyghur Buddhist rulers still held power until Invasion of Moghul Hizir Khoja in 1389. The conversion of the local Buddhist population to Islam was completed nevertheless only in the second half of the 15th century
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
