Salar people
The Salar people (Salar: Salır; Chinese: 撒拉族; pinyin: Sālāzú) are an ethnic minority of China who largely speak Salar, in the Oghuz branch of Turkic languages.
The Salar people numbered 104,503 people in the last census of 2000. They live mostly in the Qinghai-Gansu border region, on both sides of the Yellow River, namely in Xunhua Salar Autonomous County and Hualong Hui Autonomous County of Qinghai and the adjacent Jishishan Bonan, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County of Gansu. There are also Salars in Xinjiang (in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture).
They are a patriarchal agricultural society and are predominantly Muslim.
History
Origin stories
According to Salar tradition, they are the descendants of the Salur tribe, belonging to the Oghuz Turks tribe of the Western Turkic Khaganate. During the Tang dynasty, the Salur tribe dwelt within China's borders — later moving west towards Central Asia.
The two brothers Haraman and Ahman, forefathers of the present day Salar tribe once lived in the Samarkand area. They were highly ranked at local Islamic mosques, thus led to prosecution from local king and rulers. The two brothers fled along with eighteen members of the tribe on a white camel with water, soil, and a Koran before heading east. The group trekked through the northern route of the Tian Shan mountain ranges into the Jiayuguan pass and passing through the present day Suzhou District, Ganzhou district, Ningxia, Qinzhou District, Gangu County, and eventually stopping at the present Xiahe County
