Moghulistan in the context of "Ming dynasty in Inner Asia"

Hotan Prefecture (see also § Etymology) is located in the Tarim Basin region of southwestern Xinjiang, China, bordering the Tibet Autonomous Region to the south and Union Territory of Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan to the west. The vast majority of the Aksai Chin region which is disputed between China and India is administered as part of Hotan Prefecture. The seat of Hotan Prefecture is Hotan and its largest county by population is Karakax County. The vast majority of the residents of the prefecture are Muslim Uyghurs and live around oases situated between the desolate Taklamakan Desert and Kunlun Mountains.

The region was the center of the ancient Iranian Saka Buddhist Kingdom of Khotan. Later, the region was part of the Kara-Khanid Khanate, followed by the Qara Khitai, Chagatai Khanate, Moghulistan and the Dzungar Khanate, which was conquered by the Qing dynasty of China. Hotan became part of Xinjiang under Qing rule. In the 1930s, the Khotan Emirate declared independence from China. The People's Liberation Army entered Hotan in 1949.

The Chagatai Khanate, also known as the Chagatai Ulus, was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that comprised the lands ruled by Chagatai Khan, second son of Genghis Khan, and his descendants and successors. With the division of the Mongol Empire after 1259, it became a functionally separate khanate. At its height in the late 13th century, the khanate extended from the Amu Darya south of the Aral Sea to the Altai Mountains on the border of modern-day Mongolia and China, roughly corresponding to the area once ruled by the Qara Khitai (Western Liao dynasty).

Initially, the rulers of the Chagatai Khanate recognized the supremacy of the Great Khan, but by the reign of Kublai Khan, Ghiyas-ud-din Baraq no longer obeyed the emperor's orders. From 1363, the Chagatais progressively lost Transoxiana to the Timurids. The reduced realm came to be known as Moghulistan, which lasted until the late 15th century, when it broke off into the Yarkent Khanate and Turpan Khanate. In 1680, the remaining Chagatai domains lost their independence to the Dzungar Khanate. Finally, the Kumul Khanate, an autonomous division of China established during the Qing dynasty in 1696 and governed by descendants of Chagatai Khan, was abolished during the Republic of China in 1930, ending the dynasty.

Uriankhai (/ˈʊriənˌxaɪ/ UUR-ee-ən-KHY) is a term of address applied by the Mongols to a group of forest peoples of the North, who include the Turkic-speaking Tuvans and Yakuts, while sometimes it is also applied to the Mongolian-speaking Altai Uriankhai. The Uriankhai included the western forest Uriankhai tribe and the Transbaikal Uriankhai tribe, with the former recorded in Chinese sources as Chinese: 兀良哈; pinyin: Wùliánghā.

Saray Mulk Khanum (Chagatai: سرای ملک خانم; c. 1341 – 1408) was a senior consort of the Timurid Empire as the chief consort of Timur, also known as Tamerlane the Great, the founder of the Timurid Empire as well as the Timurid dynasty.

By birth, she was a princess of Moghulistan as a daughter of Qazan Khan ibn Yasaur and was also a direct descendant of Genghis Khan.

Umar Shaikh Mirza II (Persian: عمر شیخ میرزا دوم; 1456–1494) was the Timurid ruler of the Fergana Valley. He was the fourth son of Abu Sa'id Mirza, the emperor of the Timurid Empire in what is now Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and eastern Iran.

His first wife and chief consort was Qutlugh Nigar Khanum, a princess of the Chagatai Khanate and daughter of Yunus Khan of Moghulistan. Umar Shaikh had two other wives and had three sons and five daughters from his wives. His eldest son was Babur Mirza from his wife Qutlugh Nigar Khanum. His sons from this other two wives were Jahangir Mirza II and Nasir Mirza. His eldest son Babur Mirza founded the Mughal Empire in 1526 and was the first Mughal Emperor of India.

The Yarkent Khanate, also known as the Yarkand Khanate and the Kashghar Khanate, was a Sunni Muslim Turkic state ruled by the Turkified Mongol descendants of Chagatai Khan who had intermixed with the local Uyghur Turkic population. It was founded by Sultan Said Khan in 1514 as a western offshoot of Moghulistan, itself an eastern offshoot of the Chagatai Khanate. It was eventually conquered by the Dzungar Khanate in 1705.

The Turpan Khanate (Chinese: 吐魯番汗國), also known as the Eastern Moghulistan, Kingdom of Uyghurstan or Turfan Khanate, was a Sunni Muslim Turco-Mongol khanate ruled by the descendants of Chagatai Khan. It was founded by Ahmad Alaq in 1487 based in Turpan as the eastern division of Moghulistan, itself an eastern offshoot of the Chagatai Khanate.

Most territories of the Turpan Khanate were conquered by the Yarkent Khanate, the western offshoot of Moghulistan, in 1570.