clans into what became known as the Zunghar Khanate in the 1600s saw much of what is now southern Kazakhstan leave the control of the Kazakh Khans. The historian Barthold argued that only after Galdan Boshugtu Khan, the Khong Tayiji of the Zunghars, had successfully conquered and destroyed the power of Sayram did he move his encampment west to the valley of the Ili, ensuring his control of Zhetysu east of Sayram. Galdan sent forces against Sayram in 1681, which must have been unsuccessful because they returned in 1683, when Barthold tells us that his commander Rabtan (probably Tsewang Rabtan took the city and razed it. Sayram was slowly rebuilt, likely with the support of the merchants of Central Asia and the leadership of the Kazakhs. This knowledge comes from the fact that the city appears again as a target of Zunghar aggression forty years later. In 1723, the year of the Barefooted Flight of the Kazakhs, Sayram, Turkistān, and Tashkent passed under the control of the Qalmaqs and remained within their control until their destruction by the Chinese in 1758. Sayram under the Khanate of Kokand The city of Sayram was taken by the Ming of the Kokand Khanate in 1810. The local Qazaq population, and possibly the local sedentary population, revolted against Kokand control in 1820-1. There is little mention of Sayram in regional histories until its fall to the Russians in 1864, by which time the nearby city of Chimkent had already begun to eclipse Sayram in local importance. Sayram under the Russians After the Russian conquest in 1864, several new villages were founded around Sayram. They were found to be prosperous by I. I. Geier, a local Russian journalist/historian writing in the first decade of the 20th century, though Sayram was still noted for its superior wheat, horse market, historical background, and many tombs. Sayram under the Soviet Union During National delimitation, the area of Sayram was at one point part of the Turkistan ASSR. At that time, the majority of modern-day Kazakhstan, including the steppe regions, were part of the separate Kirgizistan ASSR. After this period of border drawing and redrawing, Sayram eventually became part of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. It remains in the successor independent country of the Kazakh SSR, Kazakhstan. Demographics The population of over 40,000 is roughly 95% Uzbek, 3% Kazakh, and 1% Russian, with the remainder being Uzbek-speaking Azeris, Chechens