Islam in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives - Islamic Books ...

Islam in China 1 7 3rather recent phenomenon related to Great Game rivalries, Sino-Soviet geopoliticalmaneuverings, and Chinese nation-building (Gladney 1990, 3). Althougha collection of nomadic steppe peoples known as the “Uyghur” existedfrom before the eighth century, this identity was lost from the fifteenththrough the twentieth centuries. In the historical record, we find the beginningsof the Uyghur Empire following the fall of the Turkish Khanate(552–744 C.E.), when Chinese historians first mention a people called the Huiheor Hui-hu. At that time, the Uyghur were but a collection of nine nomadictribes, who initially, in confederation with other Basmil and Karlukh nomads,defeated the Second Turkish Khanate and then dominated the federation underthe leadership of Koli Beile in 742.The Uyghur gradually became sedentary, and they defeated the Tu r k i s hKhanate precisely as trade with the unified Tang state (618–907) was becomingespecially lucrative. During that time, sedentarization and interaction withthe Chinese state was accompanied by socioreligious change: The traditionalshamanistic Turkic-speaking Uyghur came increasingly under the influence ofPersian Manichaeanism, Buddhism, and eventually, Nestorian Christianity. Extensivetrade and military alliances along the old Silk Road with the Chinesestate developed to such an extent that the Uyghur gradually adopted manyChinese cultural and even agricultural practices. Conquest of the Uyghur capitalof Karabalghasun in Mongolia by the nomadic Kyrgyz in 840 led to furthersedentarization and to the crystallization of Uyghur identity. At the time of thisattack, the Uyghur received no assistance from the Tang Chinese state, who bythen may have become intimidated by the wealthy Uyghur Empire and thuswould not lament the breakup of this potential rival for power in the region.One group of Uyghur moved out to what is now Turpan. There, they took advantageof the unique socioecology of the glacier-fed oases surrounding theTaklimakan and were able to preserve their merchant and limited agrarianpractices, gradually establishing Khocho, or Gaochang, the great Uyghur citystatethat lasted for four centuries (850–1250).From that time on, the people of Turpan-centered “Uyghuristan” who resistedIslamic conversion until the seventeenth century were the last to beknown as “Uyghur.” Muslims in that region, on the other hand, were referredto either by the name of their local oasis settlement or by the generic term“ Turki.” Thus, with the further spread of Islam in the region, the ethnonym“Uyghur” faded from the historical record. It was not until 1760 that theManchu Qing dynasty exerted full and formal control over the region, establishingit as their “new dominions” (Xinjiang). This administration lasted for ac e n t u ry before it fell to the Yakub Beg rebellion (1864–1877) and expandingRussian influence. 4 The end of the Qing dynasty in 1912 and the rise of GreatGame rivalries among China, Russia, and Great Britain saw the region torn bycompeting loyalties. The period was marked by two short-lived and drastically