Etymology of the ancient names for the Uyghurs

Interesting etymology of the ancient names for the Uyghurs
[Master Chen says]

During the Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.), the name for the Uyghurs was “回 纥 Hui He”. It was changed by the Tang imperial court to ” 回 鹘 Hui hu” “.

“回 Hui” refers to the “Hui” or “回回 Hui Hui” as in “回教 Hui jiao”, the “Hui religion” and “回教徒 Hui jiao tu” or “the people of the religion of Hui”. “回 Hui” refers to Chinese Muslims.

The character “鹘 he” ” of the original name ” 回 鹘 Hui” he” ” consists of a radical for “丝 silk” and the character “乞 qi”‘, meaning “to beg”.

Etymologically, the character “紇 he” in “回 纥 hui he” would mean “a beggar named Hui with silk worn on the side”.

Chinese folklore says that the wife of the Yellow Emperor named Lei Zu invented the art of silkworm culture and taught the people how to weave silk from cocoons produced by the silkworm. Thus silk would also mean cloth in ancient times. Raw silk is white.

The original term “回 纥 Hui” He” ” could then refer to those who wore white Muslim robes.

The Tang imperial court changed the name ” 回 纥 Hui” He” ” to ” 回 鹘Hui” hu” “. “鹘 Hu” ” is a falcon. ” 回 鹘 Hui” hu” ” would then mean “falcon of the Hui” “. The falcon swoops down to catch prey. This could then refer to the people who swooped down.

The Tang imperial court bestowed the name ” 回 鹘 Hui Hu” ” or “falcon of Hui” on the people called “回 纥 Hui” He” ” or the “beggars named Hui who wore cloth”.

The term ” 回 鹘 Hui Hu” ” or “Hui falcon” could then refer to the people of the falcon or falconry. In this reference, there are two possible origins of the “Hui people of falconry”.

One origin of the “people of falconry” could have been the hunters with raptors. This practice has been traced to the Altai (Altay) Mountains in western Mongolia, and the falcon was a symbolic bird of ancient Mongol tribes. During the Turkic Period of Central Asia in the 7th century A.D., rock carvings in Kyrgyz descibed hunting on horseback with raptors.

The other origin of the “people of falconry” could have been the Arab falconers.

The term ” Hui Hu” ” could refer to either those “people of falconry” who came from the altai turkic peoples, or the Arab falconers from the west.

The reason for changing the original name from one that can be interpreted as the “Hui beggars who wear silk (cloth)” to the name “Hui falcon” by the Tang imperial court is not known.

My thought is that the original name referred to the Arabs from the west, and the official name given by the Tang imperial court was a more inclusive name that would also include the “people of falconry” from the Altai.

The term ” 回 鹘 Hui Hu” ” would then refer to both the Arab falconers and their people with Indo-European, Persian, and Middle Eastern facial features and skin color, and the Altai falconers and their people with oriental and Mongol facial features. These distinct features were mixed, yielding the distinct European-Mongol facial characteristics of the Uyghurs of today.

This would also suggest that the Hui He of Asian facial features who originated in the Baikal Lake and Selenga River region, supposedly according to that Chinese historian Yi Ming, moved west and the Caucasians moved east as the Chechen Man of the Gobi and the female Caucasian mummy did some 6,000 years ago. And the two groups mingled their genes to produce the uniquely mixed facial features of the present day Uyghurs.

The Chinese character ” 回hui” ” consists of one small square inside a big square. One interpretation is that the character represents a small mouth inside a big mouth. Ideographically, however, it may be a line drawing representation of dried cow dung or horse manure or camel dung and the Muslim turban as seen from above.

In the Xinhua Zidian, the term ” 回 纥 Hui” He” ” is defined as “an ancient people of the northwest in the Tang dynasty.”

This definition is too general to pinpoint the Altai origin of the Hui people. It does negate the Baikal Lake and Selenga River valley origin of the Hui. However, this definition does not preclude the possibility of an ancient people who had settled in the northwest before the beginning of the Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.), say around 600 A.D.

My thought is that the Hui originally referred to the people from the Registan area in present day Afghanistan who have European-Persian facial features and who are Muslim and who migrated north into the Tarim Basin and western Xinjiang to become the Uyghurs.