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Mark O'Neill


The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History
	by Rian Thum
	Harvard University Press
	
The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History may be a scholarly book about the manuscripts of Uygur history and not politics, but it is timely. Beijing is facing the most serious armed threat to its rule in Xinjiang since the 1950s, especially in the southern areas. In recent weeks dozens of people have been killed, including the chief imam of a major mosque in Kashgar.
This book will help the general reader understand the Uygurs' version of their history - that of a distinct people who have occupied their region for many centuries. These manuscripts, written in their own language, contain the stories and personalities that constitute their historical memory.
For Beijing, however, Xinjiang has always been a part of the nation and the Uygurs one of its many minorities. It denies their national identity and distinct history.
To describe the region, author Rian Thum does not use the term "Xinjiang", which means "New Territories", nor "East Turkestan", the state that existed in 1933-34 and 1944-49 and is used by those who want a separate state. Instead, he uses "Altishahr" , a politically neutral word that means "six cities" and covers the area traditionally inhabited by those who now call themselves Uygurs. The story he tells stretches from the 17th century to the present.
Until the 1930s, the Uygur cultural world was dominated by manuscripts, especially tazkirah, which were read out to audiences at the tombs of local saints. "Surviving shrine graffiti demonstrate that pilgrims criss-crossed Altishahr, binding the inhabitants of the various oases together through a network of travel and spreading local historical narratives - recited at the shrines - across the region," Thum writes.
People learned history through these recitations while sharing food, songs and prayers.
The most famous saint is Afaq Khoja, who is buried in a beautiful tomb set among poplar trees on the outskirts of Kashgar. For centuries after his death in 1694, he was revered as the holiest man of his era, his words and deeds recounted.
After Beijing took over the region, publications were severely censored. "Almost no history at all was produced in the [Uygur] language until the 1980s. The Afaq tazkirah receded from prominence. The last known copy was made for a Swedish missionary in 1929. Worship at the Afaq Khoja shrine was restricted and, during the Cultural Revolution, brought almost to a complete halt." Also, the tomb was changed from a place of pilgrimage to a tourist site controlled by a private company.
Chinese scholars organise Altishahr's history by the dynasties, even during those dynasties when they had no control over it. They treat the region as a border area of the motherland, instead of a place with its own history and traditions. "This approach has doomed standard histories in the eyes of most [Uygurs]," Thum writes.
Altishahr did not become part of the Chinese empire until 1759, when the emperor, Qianlong, sent an enormous army to conquer the Dzungar Mongols who then controlled the region. The Dzungar were defeated, leaving the Qing empire in control of Altishahr.
It was a huge drain on Qing resources: officials frequently advised the emperors to abandon it, but they refused. Despite numerous rebellions, the Qing remained in control until it was overthrown in 1911. Despite the chaos of the Republican period, it remained under Chinese control, except for the brief periods of independence.
The new China modelled its borders on that of the Qing. It created a new history that made previous interludes of China-based domination, in the Han and Tang dynasties, as part of a narrative that Altishahr had always been a part of the single Chinese nation that had existed for millennia.
For the general reader, this is a dense book. Thum, assistant professor of history at Loyola University in New Orleans, discusses the different manuscripts and personalities involved; the details will be of interest to scholars of the Uygur people.
Thum's book has merit for us because Xinjiang is virtually closed to the outside world. It is hard to know what is going on and what is behind the violence. Thum has been there frequently and can give valuable testimony - and it does not accord with what is described by the official media.
"Many of the current inhabitants of Altishahr, most of whom self-identify as [Uygurs], contest the official Chinese histories and a large number of [Uygurs], probably a very strong majority, see Chinese rule over the region as illegitimate," he writes.
"The Chinese government's heavy-handed security policies prevent independent systematic opinion polls but in a dozen years of regular visits to the region, I have rarely heard [Uygurs] express support for PRC rule and frequently encountered aspirations for an independent state. Such views are especially pervasive outside the regional capital and, since the uprisings of 2009, increasingly mixed with ethnic animosity."


Ancient manuscripts tell of proud, independent people

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