Ispah, or
Bosiyü
Language: Bùlùo, Persian, Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Dungan, Uyghur, various others
Ancestry: Turco-Persian and Chinese (mainly Northern Han, Northeastern Han, and Hui), with some Mongol, Uyghur, and other nomadic influence.
Religion: Sunni Islam, small Shia minority; often influenced by the
menhuan, or native Chinese Sufi orders
Description: Timur's last ambition was to conquer China, and thus reunite the empire of the Great Khans. But while campaigning against the Ming Dynasty, he fell ill and died at Otrar (a Silk Road city at the Timurid-Ming border) in 1405. He was 68 years old, so I don't know if he could have done it anyway. However, in this timeline, his illustrious descendant Babur fulfils his ambition -- rather than going south to conquer India and found the Mughal Empire (as he did in OTL) Babur goes east, first conquering Dzungaria and Uyghurstan before moving on to conquering the northern part of the Ming Dynasty in 1526. Taking Beijing as his capital and renaming it Khanbaliq, Babur founded the
Ispah Empire (
Ispah being the Chinese pronunciation of "
sepah," a Persian word for cavalry -- in Turkish, "
sipahi"; in English, "Sepoy"). The Ispah Empire is also sometimes called the
Bosiyü (Persian) Empire.
In OTL, the Mughal conquest of India led to much cross-cultural exchange, leading to the development of Indo-Persian culture. This included the development of Urdu -- the language of the
Urd ("horde"), which was originally a pidgin of Persian, Chaghatai Turkish, Pashto, and various regional languages like Punjabi and Pahari. Likewise, Ispah culture saw the rise of Bùlùo ("horde") -- a dialect of Persian with a heavy Chinese influence. The Ispah ruling classes were (and remain) Muslim, and though Islam made some inroads among the native Chinese, Muslims are still the minority in China, much as they are in OTL India.
Babur's grandson, Akbar, would briefly move his capital to Xanadu, much as OTL Akbar moved to Fatehpur-Sikri; and also as IOTL, he would move back to his traditional capital at Khanbaliq, after the wells in his new capital dried up. Akbar would attempt to style himself as a more traditional Chinese Emperor, even calling himself the "Son of Heaven" and claiming that his rule was divine -- much as he did in India OTL, styling himself as a divine ruler and seeking the legitimacy of Brahmins and Jains. This would be deeply offensive to orthodox Muslims like his grandson, Shah Jahan, who would be a
tolerant ruler, but would make it clear that the Ispah Empire was under
Islamic law, not Confucian or any other. So while Shah Jahan would patronise Confucian scholarship, he would also enforce Islamic law as a matter of policy, and would build a network of grand mosques to encourage the Islamisation of China. Instead of the Grand Mosque of Delhi and the Taj Mahal, he would be known for the Imperial Mosque of Khanbaliq and the
Xīn'ài de Língmù ("Beloved Mausoleum"). The reign of Aurangzeb would see the empire reach its greatest territorial heights -- Aurangzeb would conquer the Ispah's rivals in southern China, much as IOTL he would conquer the Deccan. However, Aurangzeb's reign would suffer many rebellions due to overextension, regional factionalism, and Ispah-Han tensions -- much as OTL would see the rise of the Marathas, Aurangzeb in this timeline would face the Red Turban Rebllion (who took their name from the Han rebels against the Mongol Yuan Dynasty). The Ispah would hold their power base in northern China, but Ispahi control over southern and central China would be contentious at best.
Regardless -- under the Ispahs, Islam became a part of Chinese society, about as much as Confucianism, Taoism, or Legalism. The Ispah also introduced a number of Turco-Persian arts and cultural affects which China never really lost -- for example, Persian styles of poetry became popular in native Chinese languages; Turco-Persian dishes like samosas and kebabs became a part of Chinese cuisine, using native Chinese ingredients; and new martial arts emerged like
Pǔlǔshì (from
Furusiyyah) and Chinese styles of
Pahlivani wrestling
.