The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History

Thum, Rian

ISBN 10: 0674598555 / ISBN 13: 9780674598553

Published by Harvard University Press, 2014

About this Item

For 250 years the Turkic Muslims of Altishahr, who now call themselves Uyghurs, have cultivated a sense of history and identity that challenges Beijing s national narrative. The roots of this history run deeper than recent conflicts, Rian Thum says, to a ti.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674598555
• ISBN 13: 9780674598553
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

For 250 years, the Turkic Muslims of Altishahr―the vast desert region to the northwest of Tibet―have led an uneasy existence under Chinese rule. Today they call themselves Uyghurs, and they have cultivated a sense of history and identity that challenges Beijing’s official national narrative. Rian Thum argues that the roots of this history run deeper than recent conflicts, to a time when manuscripts and pilgrimage dominated understandings of the past. Beyond broadening our knowledge of tensions between the Uyghurs and the Chinese government, this meditation on the very concept of history probes the limits of human interaction with the past.

Uyghur historical practice emerged from the circulation of books and people during the Qing Dynasty, when crowds of pilgrims listened to history readings at the tombs of Islamic saints. Over time, amid long journeys and moving rituals, at oasis markets and desert shrines, ordinary readers adapted community-authored manuscripts to their own needs. In the process they created a window into a forgotten Islam, shaped by the veneration of local saints.

Partly insulated from the rest of the Islamic world, the Uyghurs constructed a local history that is at once unique and assimilates elements of Semitic, Iranic, Turkic, and Indic traditions―the cultural imports of Silk Road travelers. Through both ethnographic and historical analysis, The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History offers a new understanding of Uyghur historical practices, detailing the remarkable means by which this people reckons with its past and confronts its nationalist aspirations in the present day.

About the Author

Rian Thum is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Manchester.