Aksu Prefecture
Aksu Prefecture is located in west-central Xinjiang, China. It has an area of and 2.714 million inhabitants at the 2020 census whom 715,319 lived in the built-up area made up of Aksu urban district. The name Aksu is Turkic for 'white water'. Aksu Prefecture has a long international boundary with Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
Etymology
The name Aksu comes from the name of the Aksu River which is Turkic for 'white water'. The name is similar to that of the nearby Zhetysu region which means 'seven rivers'. The name of Aksu Prefecture's Onsu County means 'ten water' in Uyghur and other Turkic languages, and Kizilsu in Kizilsu Kyrgyz Autonomous Prefecture means 'red water'—all of these names consist of a descriptor followed by su.History
In 717 AD, the Arabs, guided by their Turgesh allies, besieged Buat-ɦuɑn and Dai-dʑiᴇk-dʑiᴇŋ in the Battle of Aksu. On August 15, the Arabs, Tibetan Empire, and Suluk Khan of the Türgesh Khaganate formed an alliance to besiege the city of Dai-dʑiᴇk-dʑiᴇŋ. The Tang army, commanded by Tang Jiahui, allied with Karluks and Ashina Xian of Western Turkestan to alleviate the siege. The Arab army faced a counterattack and withdrew to Tashkent, where numerous Arab soldiers were captured but later released upon the payment of a ransom by the Umayyad caliphs. Subsequent to the conflict, the Arabs were displaced from the northern section of the Hezhong region. The Turks re-engaged with the Tang and then launched an assault on the Arabs in Fergana.Following 720, the Tubo forces advanced northward into the Tarim Basin, while the Tang army re-entered Anxi in the 740s. The Battle of Talas in 751 inflicted severe losses on the Tang army, resulting in the original four towns of Anxi falling under the influence of the Tibetan Empire and Qocho. The city of Togang was reestablished under Tubo control in 790. By 840, the Qocho disintegrated, with a portion of the Qocho population establishing the Qocho Empire as their base and adopting the Turkic designation Aksu. Following the eleventh century, Aksu commenced its Islamization under the influence of the Kura Khanate. In the twelfth century, Aksu, together with the Gaochang Qocho, became incorporated into Western Liao.
Geography
The prefecture occupies the northwestern part of the Tarim Basin and the southern slopes of the Tian Shan. The southern part of the prefecture is within the Taklamakan desert. Agriculture is only possible in the areas irrigated by the Tarim River and its glacier-fed tributaries, the Aksu River and the Muzart River. Aksu Prefecture surrounds Aral, Xinjiang.Administrative divisions
Aksu Prefecture is divided into 2 county-level cities and 8 counties:Demographics
, 2,051,412 of the 2,561,674 residents of the county were Uyghur, 475,323 were Han Chinese and 34,939 were from other ethnic groups.As of 1999, 75.0% of the population of Aksu Prefecture was Uyghur and 23.7% of the population was Han Chinese.