Turkestan and The Kazakhs
Naqshbandi Sufi Imams had replaced the Chagatayid Khans in the early 17th century. They defeated the White Mountain. The exiled ruler Afaq of the White Mountain asked the Dalai Lama for military assistance in 1677. By the request of the latter, Galdan overthrew the Naqshbandu Black Mountain and installed Afaq as his client ruler there. Galdan decreed that the Turkestanis would be judged by their own law except in cases affecting the Zunghar Empire. The Zunghars kept control over the Tarim Basin until 1757.
In 1680 the Black Kyrgyz raided Moghulistan and occupied Yarkend. The inhabitants of Yarkend appealed to Galdan Khan for help. The Zunghars conquered Kashgar and Yarkend; and Galdan had its ruler chosen by its inhabitants. Then he invaded the north of Tengeri Mountain in modern Kazakhstan the next year; he defeated Tauke Khan's Kazakhs but failed to take Sayram. He conquered Turfan and Hami the next year. In 1683 Galdan's armies under Tsewen Rabtan reached Tashkent and the Syr Darya and crushed two armies of the Kazakhs. After that Galdan subjugated the Black Khirgizs and ravaged the Fergana valley. From 1685 Galdan's forces aggressively pushed the Kazakhs. While his general Rabtan took Taraz, and his main force forced the Kazakhs to migrate westwards.
In 1687, he besieged the city of Hazrat-e Turkestan, an important religious pilgrimage center for the Muslim Kazakhs, but could not take it.
Read more about this topic: Galdan Boshugtu Khan