The history of eastern Central Asia – a region also known as Moghulistan, Eastern Turkestan, Chinese Turkestan, Xinjiang and by a variety of other historical names – is more than usually influenced by geography and environment. Generally speaking, the northern half (the slopes of the Tianshan and plains and desert of the Zungharian Basin) suits horse breeding and nomadism; to the south, oases of the Tarim and Turfan basins provide fertile farmland, urban religious centres and a chain of commercial entrepots. As a result of this geography, southern Xinjiang was, since long before the Chinggisid age, a prime target for nomadic conquerors who coveted the grain, tax and tribute revenue available from the oases and who on the strength of their cavalry were easily able to dominate the peoples settled in the oasis towns.

In this regard, the pattern of nomadic-settled relations in eastern Central Eurasia resembles that of western Central Eurasia (Transoxania), with which its politics and ruling families were often linked. From the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries, the frontiers of Moghulistan (land of the Moghuls, or the Islamized Turko-Mongol tribes of the east) ranged across what is now northern Xinjiang, Eastern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, depending on the fortunes of the khans and those of the Uzbeks, Qazaqs, Qïrghïz and Oirats (‘Qalmaqs’) moving into those same pastures.