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.
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.
The Ming dynasty in Inner Asia was the expansion of the Ming dynasty's realm and influence in Inner Asia between the 14th and the 16th centuries. The Ming dynasty overthrew and succeeded the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty and sought to avert further incursions by a regime originating from Inner Asia. Wars were fought against the Northern Yuan, which existed as a rump state after the collapse of the Yuan dynasty in 1368, but also against other states in Inner Asia including the Oirat Confederation and Moghulistan (and later its successor state, the Turpan Khanate). As a result, Ming China at the height incorporated Manchuria (Northeast China and Outer Manchuria), much of the regions of Inner Mongolia and Qinghai, and parts of Xinjiang into its realm, and also had some degree of influence in Tibet especially during the reign of the Yongle Emperor.
The early Ming emperors from the Hongwu Emperor to the Zhengde Emperor continued Yuan practices such as hereditary military institutions, demanding Korean and Muslim concubines and eunuchs, having Mongols serve in the Ming military, patronizing Tibetan Buddhism, with the early Ming emperors seeking to project themselves as "universal rulers" to various peoples such as Central Asian Muslims, Tibetans, and Mongols. The Yongle Emperor cited Emperor Taizong of Tang as a model for being familiar with both China and the steppe people. Even though most of the frontier regions were lost to neighbouring states by the late Ming period, Ming emperors had an influence on Tibetan Buddhism even towards the end of the dynasty. Inspired by New Qing History studies, the so-called "New Ming History" studies have also emerged, which similarly attempts to draw attention to the Inner Asian characteristics of the Ming dynasty.