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Introduction: The Land, the People, and the Politics in a Historical Context

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Part of the book series: Politics and History in Central Asia ((PSPSCA))

Abstract

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region—or Eastern Turkistan, as the Uyghurs call it—is one of the ancient cradles of civilization. Remnants of this ancient civilization can be seen in archaeological findings and popular mummies. This introductory chapter provides a detailed geographical account and an analysis of the region within a geo-economic concept. The historic Silk Road had a great impact on the region, and vice versa. The historical context begins with the initial evidence of humans in the region, which date to more than four thousand years ago. The political struggle between Han and Xiongnu began in the second century BCE in the region. This struggle continued with different powers until modern times. The most famous struggle was “The Great Game” of the nineteenth century. This chapter describes these power struggles briefly and concludes with a glance to the developments of the region under the rule of the People’s Republic of China.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The naming of the region is an important debate between Uygur , Chinese, and sometimes Western scholars. China stresses the official name of the region, whereas Uygur scholars indicate that Eastern Turkistan is the original name. They further point out that Xinjiang is an artificial name and this term has a short history. Sometimes, Western scholars also get involved in this dispute. The ancient Chinese name for the region is Western Regions . In this introductory chapter, I generally (although not strictly) use the terms Eastern Turkistan and Western Regions when describing the historical discourse and the term Xinjiang when describing recent events.

  2. 2.

    Owen Lattimore, Pivot of Asia: Sinkiang a nd the Inner Asian Frontiers of China and Russia , Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1950.

  3. 3.

    A. P. Derevyanko and Lü-Zun E, “Upper Palaeolithic cultures”, History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Vol. 1, edited by A. H. Dani & V. M. Masson, Paris: UNESCO Publishing, 1992, p. 107.

  4. 4.

    Elizabeth Wayland Barber, The Mummies of Ürümchi, New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999, plates 1 and 9. For a good and detailed discussion of popularization of the mummies and of some misunderstandings please refer to James A. Millward, Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang, New York: Columbia University Press, 2007, pp. 15–17.

  5. 5.

    Another Stop on a Long, Improbable Journey (NYT—Feb 20, 2011 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/21/arts/design/21silk.html?_r=0); After Mummy Mix-Up, Philly Unwraps Museum Exhibit (Foxnews—Feb 21, 2011 http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2011/02/21/mummy-mix-philly-unwraps-museum-exhibit.html).

  6. 6.

    Shiji p. 2896; Han Shu p. 3757.

  7. 7.

    Shiji pp. 3157–3180.

  8. 8.

    Konuralp Ercilasun, “Silk Road as a Sub-Global Region: A Sphere Emerging from the Interaction of Cultural and Economic Fields”, in International Seminar on Reviving the Silk Route: New Initiatives and Engagements for the 21st Century, The Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), International Center, Goa, India, 9–10 February 2007. https://www.google.com.tr/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiKnYr35q3JAhXBCywKHWc9Cf8QFggfMAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.centralasia-southcaucasus.com%2Fdocs%2FSilk%2520Route%2FPaper_Konulrap_Ercilasun.doc&usg=AFQjCNHrabBklqNHPZMdxyjpyOLk7pQ6_w

  9. 9.

    Yü Ying-shih, Trade and Expansion in Han China: A Study in the Structure of Sino-Barbarian Economic Relations, Berkeley and LA: University of California Press, 1967, pp. 139–140.

  10. 10.

    Han Shu p. 3872.

  11. 11.

    Yü Ying-shih, Trade and Expansion in Han China: A Study in the Structure of Sino-Barbarian Economic Relations, p. 142.

  12. 12.

    William Montgomery McGovern. The Early Empires of Central Asia, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1939, pp. 226–230. Bahaeddin Ögel, Büyük Hun İmparatorluğu Tarihi II (History of the Great Xiongnu Empire II), Ankara: Ministry of Culture Publications, 1981, pp. 245–247, 260–262.

  13. 13.

    Konuralp Ercilasun, Tarihin Derinliklerinden 19. Yüzyıla Kâşgar (Kashgar till the 19th Century), Ankara: TTK Publications, p. 19.

  14. 14.

    L. Ligeti, Bilinmeyen İç Asya (Unknown Inner Asia), tr. Sadrettin Karatay, Ankara: TDK Publications, 1986, p. 240.

  15. 15.

    Hou Han Shu pp. 2926–2927.

  16. 16.

    Unlike the Han dynasty, the Wei dynasty was not founded by ethnic Chinese. The rulers were from the origin of Tabgach , which migrated from the steppes. They ruled the steppe area and China up to the shores of Yangtse River for almost two centuries. Because most of their population were Chinese, they were gradually sinified, especially during the second half of the fifth century. İbrahim Kafesoğlu, Türk Milli Kültürü (Turkic National Culture), İstanbul: Ötüken Publications, 1997, pp. 90–93.

  17. 17.

    Bei Shi pp. 3205–3206.

  18. 18.

    Wei Shu p. 2268, Sui Shu p. 1852.

  19. 19.

    Howard J. Wechsler, “T’ai-tsung (reign 626–49) the consolidator”, The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 3, ed. Denis Twittchet, Taipei: Caves Books Limited, 1989, p. 227.

  20. 20.

    Denis Twittchet, Howard J. Wechsler, “Kao-tsung (reign 649–83) and the empress Wu: the inheritor and the usurper”, The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 3, pp. 285–286.

  21. 21.

    Hüseyin Salman, Türgişler (The Turgesh), Ankara: Ministry of Culture Publications, 1998, pp. 17–24, 42–46.

  22. 22.

    Konuralp Ercilasun, Tarihin Derinliklerinden 19. Yüzyıla Kâşgar (Kashgar till the 19th Century), p. 24.

  23. 23.

    Hüseyin Salman, Türgişler (The Turgesh), pp. 81–82.

  24. 24.

    S. G. Klyashtornıy—T. İ. Sultanov, Kazakistan Türkün Üç Bin Yılı (Kazakhstan: A History of Three Thousand Years), tr. D. Ahsen Batur, İstanbul: Selenge Publications, 2003, pp. 117–118.

  25. 25.

    For Uyghur migrations Özkan İzgi, Çin Elçisi Wang Yen-te’nin Uygur Seyahatnamesi (The Travel of Wang Yen-te: A Chinese Envoy to Uyghurs), Ankara: TTK Publications, 1989, pp. 25–26.

  26. 26.

    Peter B. Golden, “The Karakhanids and Early Islam”, The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, edited by Denis Sinor, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 360. Reşat Genç, Karahanlı Devlet Teşkilatı (The State Structure of Karakhanids), Ankara: Ministry of Culture Publications, 1981, pp. 44–45. Reşat Genç, “Karahanlılar” (The Karakhanids), Türkler ( Turks ), vol. 4, Ankara: Yeni Türkiye Publications, pp. 449–450.

  27. 27.

    İbrahim Kafesoğlu, Türk Milli Kültürü (Turkic National Culture), pp. 90–93.

  28. 28.

    Peter B. Golden, “The Karakhanids and Early Islam”, p. 367.

  29. 29.

    Herbert Franke, “The Forest Peoples of Manchuria: Kitans and Jurchens”, The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, edited by Denis Sinor, p. 410.

  30. 30.

    V. V. Barthold, Moğol İstilasına Kadar Türkistan (Türkistan Down to the Mongol Invasion), Ankara: TTK Publications, 1990, p. 390.

  31. 31.

    Özkan İzgi, Çin Elçisi Wang Yen-te’nin Uygur Seyahatnamesi (The Travel of Wang Yen-te: A Chinese Envoy to Uyghurs), p. 30.

  32. 32.

    V. V. Barthold, Moğol İstilasına Kadar Türkistan (Türkistan Down to the Mongol Invasion), p. 390.

  33. 33.

    Özkan İzgi, Çin Elçisi Wang Yen-te’nin Uygur Seyahatnamesi (The Travel of Wang Yen-te: A Chinese Envoy to Uyghurs), p. 30.

  34. 34.

    Rene Grousset, Bozkır İmparatorluğu (Empire of the Steppes), tr. M. Reşat Uzmen, İstanbul: Ötüken Publications, 1980, pp. 319–327. Mustafa Kafalı, Çağatay Hanlığı 1227–1345 (Chagatai Khanate 1227–1345), Ankara: Berikan Publications, 2005, p. 115.

  35. 35.

    Jean-Paul Roux, Orta Asya: Tarih ve Uygarlık (Central Asia: History and Civilization), tr. Lale Arslan, İstanbul: Kabalcı Publications, 2001, pp. 332–333.

  36. 36.

    Rene Grousset, Bozkır İmparatorluğu (Empire of the Steppes), pp. 396–400. Zeki Velidi Togan , Bugünkü Türkili Türkistan ve Yakın Tarihi (Contemporary Turkistan and Its Modern History), İstanbul: Enderun Publications, 1981, pp. 102–105.

  37. 37.

    Rene Grousset, Bozkır İmparatorluğu (Empire of the Steppes), p. 452. W. Barthold, “Duglat”, İslam Ansiklopedisi (Encyclopedia of Islam—Turkish Version), Vol. 3, Ankara: Ministry of Education Publications, 1963, p. 652.

  38. 38.

    See for ex. Rene Grousset, Bozkır İmparatorluğu (Empire of the Steppes), p. 396 and Jean-Paul Roux, Orta Asya: Tarih ve Uygarlık (Central Asia: History and Civilization), p. 353.

  39. 39.

    Jean-Paul Roux, Moğol İmparatorluğu Tarihi (History of the Mongol Empire), tr. Aykut Kazancıgil and Ayşe Bereket, İstanbul: Kabalcı Publications, 2001, pp. 443–445.

  40. 40.

    D. Pokotilov, History of the Eastern Mongols during the Ming Dynasty from 1368 to 1631, Arlington, Virginia: University Publications of America, pp. 48–51. Ming Shi, pp. 8500–8501.

  41. 41.

    Henry H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, Vol. 2, Taipei: Cheng-wen Publishing Company, 1970, pp. 688–689. Konuralp Ercilasun, “Batı Moğollarını İfade eden Terimler Üzerine” (On the Terms related to the Western Mongols), Türk Tarihçiliğine Katkılar: Mustafa Kafalı Armağanı (Contributions to the Turkic History - Dedicated to Mustafa Kafalı), edited by Üçler Bulduk & Abdullah Üstün, Ankara: TKAE Publishing, 2013, p. 106.

  42. 42.

    Rene Grousset, Bozkır İmparatorluğu (Empire of the Steppes), p. 460. Muhammed Bilal Çelik, Yarkent Hanlığı’nın Siyasi Tarihi (Political History of Yarkent Khanate), İstanbul: IQ Publications, 2013, p. 226.

  43. 43.

    Jean-Paul Roux, Orta Asya: Tarih ve Uygarlık (Central Asia: History and Civilization), p. 385. Konuralp Ercilasun, Tarihin Derinliklerinden 19. Yüzyıla Kâşgar (Kashgar till the 19th Century), p. 34.

  44. 44.

    İsenbike Togan , “Islam in a Changing Society: The Khojas of Eastern Turkistan”, Muslims in Central Asia: Expressions of Identity and Change, edited by Jo-Ann Gross, Durkham, London: Duke University Press, 1992, pp. 137–138. İsenbike Togan , “Chinese Turkistan Under the Khojas (1678–1759)”, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. 5, California: Mazda Publishers, 1991, p. 475.

  45. 45.

    Henry H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, Vol. 2, p. 623.

  46. 46.

    Rene Grousset, Bozkır İmparatorluğu (Empire of the Steppes), pp. 493–496.

  47. 47.

    Lin An-hsien, Qingchao zai Xinjiangde Han Hui Geli Zhengtse (The Segregation Policy of the Qing Dynasty in Xinjiang), Taipei: Taiwan Shangwu Publishing, 1988, p. 57. L. J. Newby, “The Begs of Xinjiang: Between Two Worlds”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 61 (1998), No. 2, pp. 286–287.

  48. 48.

    Konuralp Ercilasun, Tarihin Derinliklerinden 19. Yüzyıla Kâşgar (Kashgar till the 19th Century), p. 128.

  49. 49.

    Joseph Fletcher. “The heyday of the Ch’ing order in Mongolia, Sinkiang and Tibet ”, in The Cambridge History of China: Late Ch’ing 1800–1911 (Part 1), vol. 10, ed. John K. Fairbank. Cambridge, London, New York & Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 377–378.

  50. 50.

    Demetrius Charles Boulger. The Life of Yakoob Beg, Athalik Ghazi and Badaulet, Ameer of Kashgar. London, 1878, p. 253. There is a detailed study on this period: Ahmet Rıza Bekin, Yakup Bey Devrinde Çin Türkistanında Siyasal ve Kültürel Durum (Social and Cultural History of Chinese Turkistan in the Yakup Bek Era), PhD. Thesis, Ankara University, 1968.

  51. 51.

    Mehmet Emin Buğra . Doğu Türkistan—Tarihî, Coğrafî ve Şimdiki Durumu (Eastern Turkistan: History, Geography and Current Situation). Istanbul. 1952, pp. 27–28.

  52. 52.

    James A. Millward, Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang, pp. 137–139. Millward indicated that the “Chinese annexation” concept of Xinjiang was not a Chinese annexation, but rather “a fundamental shift in governing principles of the Qing empire as a whole” (p. 138). Indeed, this fundamental shift was a result of the gradual sinicization of the dynasty and was not limited to the Western Regions only. Thus, Millward continued with the debate in the Chinese court on provincialization, mentioning that for the advocates of provincehood “sinicisation of the local non-Chinese population went hand-in-hand with provincialization” (ibid).

  53. 53.

    For a detailed study of this period, please refer to Andrew D. Forbes, Warlords, and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: A Political History of Republican Sinkiang, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. For a Chinese study of the period until the end of 1920s, please refer to Li Xincheng, Yang Zengxin zai Xinjiang (Minguo yuan nian—Minguo shiqi nian), Taibei: Guoshiguan, 1993.

  54. 54.

    James A. Millward, Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang, pp. 201–202. Millward provided a good analysis on the name and the character of the republic.

  55. 55.

    Amaç Karahoca, Doğu Türkistan—Çin Müstemlekesi, İstanbul, 1960, pp. 15–16.

  56. 56.

    For the general republican trend in Asia, please refer to Konuralp Ercilasun, “Türk Uygarlığında Cumhuriyet Evresinin Başlangıcı (1910–1950)” (The Beginning of the Republican Era in the Turkic Civilization), Turkic Civilization Studies I in commemoration of Professor Karybek Moldobaev, edited by İlhan Şahin & Güljanat Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun, İstanbul: İSTESOB Publications, 247–255.

  57. 57.

    A. Merthan Dündar, Panislâmizm’den Büyük Asyacılığa: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu, Japonya ve Orta Asya (Ottomans , Japan and Central Asia: From Panislamism to Great Asianism), İstanbul: Ötüken Publications, 2006, pp. 235–250.

  58. 58.

    There are a handful of studies on this second republic and afterwards, including the following: Linda Benson, The Ili Rebellion: The Moslem Challenge to Chinese Authority in Xinjiang 1944–1949, London: M.E. Sharpe Inc., 1990. İklil Kurban, Şarki Türkistan Cumhuriyeti (1944–1949) (Eastern Turkistan Republic 1944–1949), Ankara: TTK Publications, 1992. Gülçin Çandarlıoğlu, Özgürlük Yolu: Nurgocay Batur’un Anılarıyla Osman Batur (Path to Freedom: Nurgocay Batur’s Memories on Osman Batur), İstanbul: Doğu Kütüphanesi, 2006.

  59. 59.

    Konuralp Ercilasun, “Doğu Türkistan—1” (Eastern Turkistan), Türk Yurdu, No. 93 (May 1995), p. 21.

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  1. History Department, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

    Konuralp Ercilasun

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  1. Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

    Güljanat Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun

  2. Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

    Konuralp Ercilasun

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Ercilasun, K. (2018). Introduction: The Land, the People, and the Politics in a Historical Context. In: Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun, G., Ercilasun, K. (eds) The Uyghur Community. Politics and History in Central Asia. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52297-9_1

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