The Ouigours, known by that name since the year 629, were once the ruling race in the regions which now form the khanates of Khiva and Bokhara, and had been the first of the tribes of Central Asia to have a script of their own.

This they formed from the Estrangelo Syraic of the Nestorians, who appeared in China in the early part of the seventh century.

The Manchu written language, therefore, is lineally descended from Syraic; indeed, the family likeness of both Manchu and Mongol to the parent stem is quite obvious, except that these two scripts, evidently influenced by Chinese, are written vertically, though, unlike Chinese, they are read from left to right.

Thirty-three years later various improvements were introduced, leaving the Manchu script precisely as we find it at the present day.
In 1613, Nurhachu had gathered about him an army of some forty thousand men; and by a series of raids in various directions, he further gradually succeeded in extending considerably the boundaries of his kingdom.

There now remained but one large and important State, towards the annexation of which he directed all his efforts.