river running east of the center of the city. Kāsgharī also later notes the verb seyremlen-, 'to become shallow,' with the phrase sūw seyremlendī, 'the water became shallow (or scanty)'. History The modern city of Sayram celebrated its 3,000th year of continued habitation in 1999. Sayram is a city on the frontier between irrigated farmland and the pastures of the Dasht-i Qipchaq. It has a long history of commercial and political importance as a border town and has been the site of numerous conquests and reconquests. Sayram steadily lost its importance as an important trading hub after a time of rapid growth due to the internal warriors of the local feudal lords at the beginning of the 18th century and there is only one village with the same name on its position today. Earliest history Some local historians have attempted to find proof of Sayram's prehistory in the holy book of the Zoroastrian faith. They state that the first recorded mention of Sayram is in the Avesta, the holy book of Zoroastrianism. There are several names mentioned, though it is possible they refer to people, places, cities, or geographic features. Historian Richard Frye states that "even guesses about their identity do not help us in reconstructing history." The word appearing in the Avesta is Sairima, which some historians equate with the name Sayram. There is mention of a river, and a land or people called Sairima elis, or people or land of/near Sayram. Before Islam In the 7th century, the Western Turkic Confederation consisted of five Tu-lu and five Nu-shih-pi tribes, known collectively as the On Oq (Ten Arrows) and by the Chinese as Shih Hsing (Ten Clans). In 642, the khaqan (khan) of the Tu-lu Turkic tribe took refuge in Isfijab from the Nu-shih-pi. After the expulsion of the heretical sects of Christianity, there came a large number of Christians to Central Asia and the East. Largest among them were the Nestorians, who were condemned at the First Council of Ephesus in 431. There was a community of Nestorian Christians in Sayram when Islam first came to Sayram in 766 AD who resisted conversion. Buddhism was also prevalent in Central Asia at that time. Islamic Conquest Sayram was already an important trading site in the centuries before the Arab Conquest. Islam was brought to Sayram and its neighboring cities by a detachment of Arabic and Arabic-speaking soldier-missionaries from the