Altishahr

From Uyghur ئالتىشەھەر (altisheher, literally “six cities”).

Altishahr

1. (historical) The Tarim Basin region, an endorheic basin and cultural region of the Xinjiang autonomous region, China.
   • 2014 August 24, Mark O'Neill, “Ancient manuscripts tell of proud, independent people”, in South China Morning Post‎^[1], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 February 2017, Lifestyle‎^[2]:

     Chinese scholars organise Altishahr's history by the dynasties, even during those dynasties when they had no control over it. They treat the region as a border area of the motherland, instead of a place with its own history and traditions. "This approach has doomed standard histories in the eyes of most [Uygurs]," Thum writes.
     Altishahr did not become part of the Chinese empire until 1759, when the emperor, Qianlong, sent an enormous army to conquer the Dzungar Mongols who then controlled the region. The Dzungar were defeated, leaving the Qing empire in control of Altishahr.

   • 2017, Scott C. Levi, “A New Uzbek Dynasty, 1709–1769”, in The Rise and Fall of Khoqand, 1709-1876: Central Asia in the Global Age (Central Eurasia in Context Series)‎^[3], University of Pittsburgh Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, pages 36–37:

     The Qing conquests did not end with the victory of the Jungars. The Qianlong emperor sought to make his victory so decisive that any Jungars who may have escaped extermination would not even be able to find a foothold in their former territory from which they could mount a recovery. With this in mind, the Qing next turned attention southward to Altishahr, a Jungar possession that, at 350,000 square miles, is more than twice the size of modern Uzbekistan and consisted of the six oases towns of modern Xinjiang—usually Kashgar, Yarkand, Aqsu, Yangi Hisar, Turfan, and Khotan, though other towns are sometimes included in the list of “six,” and in Turkic sources the region is often referred to as Yetishahr, or the “Seven Cities” region.

Used in the 18th and 19th centuries. American scholar Rian Thum suggested using the term rather than Uyghuristan, Xinjiang and East Turkestan.^[1]