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 THE UYGHUR
COMMUNITY
Diaspora, Identity
and Geopolitics

EDITED BY
GÜLJANAT KURMANGALIYEVA ERCILASUN
AND KONURALP ERCILASUN

POLITICS
AND HISTORY
IN CENTRAL ASIA
Politics and History in Central Asia

Series editor
Timur Dadabaev
University of Tsukuba
Tsukuba, Japan
In the past few decades, Central Asia has drawn the attention of academic
and business communities as well as policy professionals because of its
geostrategic importance (being located between Russia and China and in
close proximity to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, and India), its
international stability, and its rich energy resources. The region also faces
challenges, such as post-conflict peacebuilding, impacts of the Afghan
conflict, a number of recent inter-ethnic conflicts, and post-Socialist devel-
opment paradigms. Approaching the problems and issues related to this
region requires a multi-disciplinary perspective that takes into account
political science, international relations, political economy, anthropology,
geography, and security studies. The Politics and History in Central Asia
series serves as a platform for emerging scholarship on this understudied
region.

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/14540
Güljanat Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun
Konuralp Ercilasun
Editors

The Uyghur
Community
Diaspora, Identity and Geopolitics
Editors
Güljanat Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun Konuralp Ercilasun
Gazi University Gazi University
Ankara, Turkey Ankara, Turkey

Politics and History in Central Asia

ISBN 978-1-137-53144-5    ISBN 978-1-137-52297-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52297-9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017955048

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
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The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-
lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
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Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

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The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A.
 Foreword

In recent years, studies on the Uyghurs of China have become more popu-
lar globally. Consequently, the Western world is becoming more familiar
with China’s remote western region. This popularization is related to vari-
ous factors. One of these factors is the rise of China as a global economic
power, which results in increased popular interest from the rest of the
world. Another factor is the potential for tensions in the region after the
Urumqi clashes of 2009. In fact, the Urumqi incident seemed to be an
important turning point in the region’s recent history. The Chinese state
tightened its rules after this incident, which in turn created a counter-­
effect in the region. China has been facing more and more incidents in the
region since the “strike-hard” operations that were conducted after the
Urumqi incident. The third factor may be defined as the new, stricter
regulations of the government, such as restrictions on fasting and the pro-
hibition of entrance to mosques for some groups of the native population.
These restrictions attracted attention toward the region.
A boom in interest has also occurred in English-language scholarly
publications. Although there was already an increasing number of studies
on the region and its people since 1990, this trend accelerated tremen-
dously after the Urumqi incident.1 In fact, an early edited book by
S. Frederick Starr is a crucial academic work that underlined the impor-
tance of the topic and popularized it in the Western world. The 2009
incidents further popularized the field. It seems that this interest is going
to continue and more publications (both scholarly and fiction) are likely to
appear in the future.

v
vi FOREWORD

This book aims to analyze the Uyghur issue with its traditional, histori-
cal, geopolitical, and religious roots. The book starts with an introductory
chapter that summarizes the region’s geographical features and historical
discourse. By concentrating on identity and diaspora studies, the book
gives a comprehensive and updated view of the relations between the
Uyghur community and Chinese state. Furthermore, the book presents
research dealing with Chinese-Uyghur relations and their impacts on
geopolitics.
The second chapter which is written by Güljanat Kurmangaliyeva
Ercilasun focuses on the early stages of Eastern Turkestanese-Chinese rela-
tions according to the travelogue of a nineteenth-­century scholar-official
and analyses the formation and development of identity in the region.
Nabijan Tursun contributed a chapter that describes the internal and
external factors of Uyghur identity development, especially during the first
half of the twentieth century. Colin Mackerras e­ laborates on the religious
angle of the identity of the Uyghurs from the twentieth century through
the contemporary period.
The next chapters present diaspora studies. Işık Kuşçu Bonnenfant
deals with the theoretical foundation of diaspora politics. Suchandana
Chatterjee focuses on the formation of the Uyghur community in
Kazakhstan; her chapter constitutes an example of local history of the
Uyghur issue. Another chapter on this topic was written by Yitzhak
Shichor, who makes a profound analysis of the possibility of dialogue
between the Uyghur diaspora and the Chinese state.
The final chapters of the book focus on geopolitics. Erkin Emet pres-
ents a narrative report of the Urumqi incidents and the official and unof-
ficial reactions. Erkin Ekrem’s chapter focuses on the relations between
China and Turkey, which have experienced ups and downs during the last
few years.
Since the topic is very sensitive, it has reflected on the terms.
Therefore, authors’ terminology was maintained, and unity of the terms
was not obliged. Thus, different variations of the terms are all indicated
in the Index. By focusing on identity, diaspora, and geopolitics, we
believe that this volume will contribute greatly to Uyghur and Chinese
studies.
 Foreword 
   vii

Notes
1. There have been a number of publications on Uyghurs and Xinjiang in the
beginning of the century through 2009. The most prominent ones include
the following: Michael Dillon, Xinjiang: China’s Muslim Far Northwest,
London, New York: Routledge, 2004; S. Frederick Starr (ed.), Xinjiang:
China’s Muslim Borderland, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2004; Arienne
M. Dwyer, The Xinjiang Conflict: Uyghur Identity, Language Policy, and
Political Discourse, Washington D.C.: East-West Center Washington, 2005;
James Millward, Eurasian Crossroads: A history of Xinjiang, New York:
Columbia University Press, 2007; Colin Mackerras and Michael Clarke
(eds.), China, Xinjiang and Central Asia: History, Transition and
Crossborder Interaction into the 21st Century, London: Routledge, 2009.
The boom can be traced after 2009 by the publications such as Gardner
Bovingdon, The Uyghurs: Strangers in Their Own Land, New York:
Columbia University Press, 2010; Michael Clarke, Xinjiang and China’s
Rise in Central Asia—A History, London: Routledge, 2011; Nick
Holdstock, The Tree That Bleeds: A Uighur Town on the Edge, Edinburgh:
Luath Press Ltd., 2011; Rian Thum, The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History,
Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2014; Michael Dillon,
Xinjiang and the Expansion of Chinese Communist Power: Kashgar in the
Early Twentieth Century, London: Routledge, 2014; Yu-Wen Chen, The
Uyghur Lobby: Global Networks, Coalitions and Strategies of World Uyghur
Congress, New York: Routledge, 2014; Shaoying Zhang and Derek McGhee,
Social Policies and Ethnic Conflict in China: Lessons from Xinjiang, London:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2014; Nick Holdstock, China’s Forgotten People:
Xinjiang, Terror and the Chinese State, London, New York: I.B. Tauris,
2015; Joanne Smith Finley and Xiaowei Zhang (eds.), Language, Education
and Uyghur Identity in Urban Xinjiang, New York: Routledge, 2015;
Rongxing Guo, China’s Spatial (Dis)integration: Political Economy of the
Interethnic Unrest in Xinjiang, Boston: Elsevier, 2015; Ondrej Klime,
Struggle By the Pen: The Uyghur Discourse of Nation and National Interest c.
1900-1949, Leiden: Brill, 2015. It seems that this interest will continue to
increase in the future.
 Contents

Introduction: The Land, the People, and the Politics

in a Historical Context   1
Konuralp Ercilasun

A View from the Nineteenth Century: Eastern

Turkistanese-Chinese Cultural Relations
in Chokan Valikhanov’s Works  17
Güljanat Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun

Factors and Challenges of Uyghur Nationalism

in the Early Twentieth Century  27
Nabijan Tursun

Religion and the Uyghurs: A Contemporary Overview  59

Colin Mackerras

Constructing the Uyghur Diaspora: Identity

Politics and the Transnational Uyghur Community  85
Işık Kuşçu Bonnenfant

Bordered Conscience: Uyghurs of Central Asia 105

Suchandana Chatterjee

ix
x CONTENTS

Dialogue of the Deaf: The Role of Uyghur

Diaspora Organizations Versus Beijing 121
Yitzhak Shichor

Urumqi Clashes: The Reactions and the Aftermath 137

Erkin Emet

The Uyghur Factor in Turkish-Chinese Relations

After the Urumqi Events 153
Erkin Ekrem

Index 179
 Notes on Contributors

Suchandana Chatterjee is Senior Academic Fellow of Indian Council of

Historical Research, New Delhi, India. Her research topic is “Revisiting the role
of Indians in Central Asia: A Reappraisal of Eurasia’s Regional Dynamics.” She is
also Honorary Associate, China Centre, University of Calcutta. Her research inter-
ests include connected spaces, shared histories, and shifting identities of Eurasia.
During 1993–2015, as Research Associate and Fellow of Maulana Abul Kalam
Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Kolkata, India, she worked on projects sponsored
by the Ministry of Culture, Government of India related to Central Asia, Eurasia,
and Buddhism in Asia. Her latest publication is Images of Post-Soviet Kazakhstan:
A Cosmopolitan Space with Borderland Anxieties (Delhi: KWP, 2017). She was
awarded a doctorate degree in 2002 by the Department of Arts (History),
University of Calcutta for her thesis Emirate of Bukhara, 1868–1924: Encounters
with Transition. She is based in Kolkata.
Erkin Ekrem is Associate Professor in the Department of History, Hacettepe
University, Ankara, Turkey. He was born in the Chinese city of Lanzhou and stud-
ied there until the end of high school. Between 1981 and 1986, he got his BA
from Xinjiang Chinese Medical Faculty (today’s Xinjiang Medical University) and
worked as an orthopedist in Xinjiang City Hospital between 1986 and 1991. He
received his MA and PhD from the History Department of Hacettepe University.
He has written many articles on the ancient history of Turks and published many
analyses on China and Chinese-Turkish relationships.
Erkin Emet is Associate Professor at the Department of Modern Turkic Studies
at Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey. He holds a BA in Uyghur Language and
Literature from Beijing University, China. He earned his PhD from Ankara
University with a dissertation titled East Turkistan Uyghur Dialects (Kashgar,
Lopnor, Kumul and Hoten Dialects). He has published many articles and books on

xi
xii Notes on Contributors

Uyghur culture, language, and literature. He has also many publications on the
current situation of Uyghurs and the policies of the People’s Republic of China.
Konuralp Ercilasun is a Professor in the History Department at Gazi University,
in Ankara, Turkey. He holds a BA in History from Ankara University and an MA
from the National Cheng-chi University, Taipei. He earned his PhD from Ankara
University. Ercilasun has worked and lectured in Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and the
Republic of Korea. He published several articles on the steppe regions, Xiongnu,
Chinese historical documents, and the modern era of Mongols. Ercilasun co-
authored the Turkish annotated edition of the Xiongnu chapter in Han Shu. He
also wrote a book on Kashgar from the ancient times through the nineteenth
century.
Güljanat Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun is an Associate Professor at the Department
of Modern Turkic Studies at Gazi University, Ankara. She holds a BA in History
and an MS in Political Science from the Middle East Technical University, Turkey.
She earned her PhD in History from the Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University,
Kyrgyzstan. Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun’s publications are mainly on various aspects
of the political and social history of the Kazakhs and Kyrgyzs, especially the Soviet
period, intelligentsia, collectivization, religion, women, and family institutions.
Her current research focuses on the Kazakh and Kyrgyz societies in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries, as well as oral history and memory studies.
Işık Kuşçu Bonnenfant is an Associate Professor at the International Relations
Department of Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. She received
her PhD in December 2008 from the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at
Indiana University. She was a visiting scholar at the Davis Center, Harvard
University for the 2016–2017 academic year. She received the British Academy
Newton International Fellowship for 2016–2018. Her research interests cover the
former Soviet region (FSU), migration, diaspora politics, ethnic migration, and
peace and conflict studies. She has published in journals such as International
Migration, Central Asian Survey, and Nationalities Papers.
Colin Mackerras is Professor Emeritus at Griffith University, Australia, and a
Fellow of the Academy of Humanities of Australia. A Sinologist, he has visited and
worked in China numerous times, and researched many aspects of China’s past and
present. He has published widely, including on the Uyghurs and China’s other
ethnic minorities. His many authored books include China’s Ethnic Minorities and
Globalisation (RoutledgeCurzon, 2003). In addition, he has carried out primary
research on Uyghur history in The Uighur Empire According to the T’ang Dynastic
Histories, A Study in Sino-Uighur Relations 744–840 (Australian National
University Press, 1972).
 Notes on Contributors 
   xiii

Yitzhak Shichor PhD (the London School of Economics), is Professor Emeritus

of Political Science and Asian Studies at the University of Haifa, and Michael
William Lipson Chair Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
He was Dean of Students at the Hebrew University and Head of Tel-Hai Academic
College. His main research interests include China’s arms transactions and defense
conversion, Middle East policy, international energy relations, labor export, Sino-
Uyghur relations, and Xinjiang. Recently, he published “Crackdown: Insurgency
and Counterinsurgency in China,” in Insurgencies and Counterinsurgencies:
National Styles and Strategic Cultures (Beatrice Heuser et al., Eds. London:
Cambridge University Press, 2016, pp. 95–112).
Nabijan Tursun is a senior editor at the Uyghur Service of Radio Free Asia,
Washington DC. He is an expert on Sino-Russian relations and Uyghurs with a
PhD from the Oriental Studies Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Moscow. He received his BA from Central University for Nationalities, Beijing.
Dr. Tursun is one of the co-authors of Xinjiang: China’s Muslim Borderland. He
is the author of The Uyghur Reader, The Issues of Uyghur Ethnogenesis in the Chinese
Historiography (Russian), and The Issues of Uyghur Political History in the Chinese
Historiography (Russian). He presented papers in many international conferences
relating to Central Eurasia. He has also taught for many years and provided pre-
sentations at institutions in the United States, post-Soviet Russia, China, and
Turkey.
 List of Figures

Fig. 1 Clothes of the Uyghurs of Eastern Turkistan 20

Fig. 2 Uyghurs of Eastern Turkistan 21
Fig. 3 Hairstyles and hats of Uyghur women of Eastern Turkistan 22

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

Konuralp Ercilasun

The Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region—or Eastern Turkistan, as the

Uyghurs call it1—is one of the ancient points of civilization. Remnants of
this ancient civilization show themselves in archaeological finds and popular
mummies from four thousand years ago. The region was home to a great
variety of people who mostly belonged to or were influenced by the steppe
culture. Lattimore characterized the region as the pivot of Asia2 because it
was the main region affecting all of its surroundings during a long course of
history. Thus, the geographic location and landscape characteristics of the
region are summarized in this introductory chapter. The People’s Republic
of China has claimed that China had contact with Xinjiang since ancient
times by hinting that the word “contact” means “governing.” Conversely,
the Uyghur diaspora and other scholars have argued that Eastern Turkistan
was a distant and distinct region from China throughout history. Taking this
debate into consideration, the history of the region with a special emphasis
on governing powers are also summarized in this chapter.
Eastern Turkistan is one of the most distant lands from the sea. This
situation led to the claim that the geographical center of Asia is located near
Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. Whether it is the real geographical center

K. Ercilasun (*)
History Department, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey

© The Author(s) 2018 1

G. Kurmangaliyeva Ercilasun, K. Ercilasun (eds.),
The Uyghur Community, Politics and History in Central Asia,
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52297-9_1
2 K. ERCILASUN

or not, the region certainly played an important role in history, which sup-
ports Lattimore’s definition. The reason that Eastern Turkistan played an
important role was its geopolitical (or maybe more accurately, geo-eco-
nomical) location as a key point on the Silk Road. It was located between
the steppe zone and several agricultural regions. Agricultural people in dif-
ferent regions had unique styles of production. Steppe people had a surplus
of flocks and leather, which they could offer to the agricultural zones. More
importantly, steppe people had the ability to mobilize easily, which made
them perfect carriers of goods. Eastern Turkistan, as an intersection point,
benefitted very much from this location, but sometimes it suffered too.
An examination of the geographic condition of the region shows arduous
ranges, wide steppelands, springs of rivers, and oases scattered among vast
deserts. The Altai Mountains, Karakorum Mountains, and Kunlun Mountains
form the geographic borders of the region to the north and south. Another
mountain range, the Tian Shan (Tengri Taghliri), lies between these two
ranges, but closer to the northern part. Beginning from the eastern parts of
Xinjiang, the Tian Shan reaches high elevations in the south of Urumqi and
continues in a western direction until entering Kyrgyzstan.
The land that lies to the north of Tian Shan is called Zungharia and is
mostly dominated by steppeland. This region, which is suitable for animal
husbandry, hosts plenty of important rivers and lakes. The Irtish and Ili
rivers originate from the mountains of Zungharia. Lakes Sairam, Ebinuur,
Manas, Urungu and Barköl—all nourished by regional rivers—are scat-
tered around Zungharia.
The eastern part of Xinjiang contains the Turpan basin, one of the low-
est points on the earth. This location has been known for its fruit-growing
ability since ancient times, especially for grapes and melons. It is also
famous for its earliest annual maturation of fruits. Turpan and Kumul
(Hami) in the east are areas where the Chinese first imported some fruits,
such as melons and watermelons.
The greater part of Xinjiang—the Tarim Basin—lies to the south of the
Tian Shan Mountains. The Tarim Basin has had different names throughout
history, including Kashgaria, Altishahr, and Yitishahr. The Chinese court
also named this area Nanjiang (Southern Frontier) in modern times, an
expression that points to its location in reference to the Tian Shan Mountains.
The Tarim Basin is the land of the Tarim River and Taklamakan Desert.
The Karakorum Mountains and Kunlun Mountains mark the southern
end of this region, separating it from the Tibetan Plateau. The Tarim River
flows through the desert. In the past, it reached Lake Lobnor from time
 INTRODUCTION: THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND THE POLITICS... 3

to time. However, nowadays, most of its water evaporates because of the

hot temperatures. Lake Lobnor, which was once fed by the Tarim River, is
largely dried up now because the river ends deep in the desert. The Tarim
River has plenty of tributaries that are important both geographically and
socially. Both its tributaries and the Tarim River itself were oases around
which ancient people could develop agriculture and gather. Most of these
tributaries bear the same name as the ancient cities that appeared just
beside them. Thus, when you look at a map, you will notice that Aksu,
Kashgar, Yarkent, Hotan, Keriya, and Cherchen are both toponyms and
hydronyms.
Oasis farming developed in the early settlements of the Tarim Basin in
ancient times. When these settlements became more populated, some
individuals abandoned agriculture and began their involvement in inter-
city trade by forming caravans. These caravans were the core of the Silk
Road trade that would develop later. Caravans also transformed local set-
tlements into the well-known trade cities of ancient and medieval times.
Zungharia was the location of mostly nomadic pastoralists, whereas the
Tarim Basin was mainly the homeland of oasis agriculturalists and traders.
However, nomadic pastoralists in the north dominated the south most of
the time. When there was strong organization in the steppe, it controlled
the Tarim Basin either directly or indirectly. However, when there was
turmoil in the steppe zone, nomadic tribes fled from the steppe and filled
the oasis cities of Tarim Basin. Thus, the region was strongly influenced by
the nomadic culture.
From archaeological finds, it is known that humans were living in the
region during the Paleolithic era.3 Settlements existed before 2000 BC—a
fact that has been ratified by the discovery of ancient sites during the twen-
tieth century. Mummies found at these sites have been a point of interest
in the West during the last two decades. The most famous mummies are
the Kroran (Loulan) Beauty and the Cherchen Man, who were dated to
2000 BC and 1000 BC, respectively.4 The popularization of and research
into these mummies led to another debate between the Uyghur diaspora
and China. Along with the research regarding these mummies, Uyghurs
claimed that the mummies provided inarguable evidence that their ances-
tors were the first inhabitants of Eastern Turkistan. This claim and the
research findings of Western scholars disturbed the Chinese authorities. A
minor crisis ensued when the mummies were sent to the United States for
an exhibition in 2011.5
4 K. ERCILASUN

Written texts were not found in the steppe zone in general or in Eastern
Turkistan specifically until later times. Moreover, the record-loving cen-
ters of central China, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and Iran are too far away to
provide any information about the region. More reliable and continuous
accounts of the region coincide with the rise of the Xiongnu in the steppe
in the third century BCE. Accounts dedicated to the Xiongnu and the
region can be found in early Chinese dynastic records. Modun, the famous
Chanyu of Xiongnu, wrote a letter to the Chinese emperor in 176 BCE
and stated that he had subjugated Loulan, Wusun, Hujie, and twenty-six
states.6 This was the first account of the region in terms of subjugation in
Chinese texts.
The first written account of a Chinese encounter with Eastern Turkistan
came half a century later from the letter of Modun. The Chinese emperor
of the Han dynasty, seeking an alliance against Xiongnu, sent an envoy to
the region in 138 BCE. Zhang Qian, the Chinese envoy, returned to
China only in 126 BCE after a hazardous journey. He had twice been
captured by Xiongnu. Moreover, the Yuezhi, who had been pushed by the
Xiongnu, turned down the offer of an alliance with Han China. However,
Zhang Qian brought valuable information on the region, which had been
called the Western Regions by China. In his report, Zhang Qian gave
information about the countries in the region, including their location,
history, and military power.7 This report was a new discovery for the Han
Chinese court. From this report, the Chinese court understood that the
states in the Western Regions were fundamental for the economic power
of Xiongnu. Considering the information brought by Zhang Qian, China
developed a new policy that depended on separating the region from the
Xiongnu to undermine its economic base. Thus, the ancient version of a
Great Game began between Han China and Xiongnu.8
Han China attacked and defeated Fergana in 101 BCE. After this mili-
tary campaign, most states in Eastern Turkistan sent their envoys to the
Chinese army and offered tributes. However, this was a dual subjugation
for the city-states of Eastern Turkistan because they also continued to give
tributes to Xiongnu. In addition, they were still giving more importance
to Xiongnu envoys than the Han Chinese delegations.9 A Xiongnu garri-
son in the region was charge of collecting taxes from the city-states and
controlling them at the beginning of the first century BC.10
The Xiongnu control of the region collapsed in the second half of the
century. After the split, one portion of Xiongnu came under the control of
Han China and the other portion migrated to the environs of Issyk Köl.
 INTRODUCTION: THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND THE POLITICS... 5

Han China defeated the western part and dominated the Western Regions.
During its rule in Eastern Turkistan, Han China founded a new bureau
named the Military Governorate of Western Regions. The Governorate
was modeled on the previous Xiongnu local garrison. It was in charge of
collecting tributaries and acted as a mediator between the city-states when
there was a dispute.11
The same pattern was repeated a century later. Xiongnu overthrew the
Han hegemony at the beginning of the first century and then controlled
Eastern Turkistan once more. There was a local rival for Xiongnu from one
of the cities of Western Regions. The Yarkent king declared himself as
“Chanyu” in 41 AD and competed with the Xiongnu for the supremacy of
the Western Regions.12
However, the Xiongnu power split a second time and southern Xiongnu
came under the rule of Han China in the middle of the century. The con-
trol of Eastern Turkistan frequently changed between Northern Xiongnu
and Han China in the second half of the century. Finally, Han China
established its power in the Western Regions during the second century.13
However, the Han Chinese control of the region was not continuous. In
fact, the southern part of the region seems to have been under the rule of
the Kushan Empire.14 Moreover, there were plenty of challenges from the
region itself against this rule. For example, Han China sent a troop of
more than 30,000 soldiers against Kashgar, a city-state that had been
expanded and dominated some other cities, in 170 AD. However, the
Chinese army could not take hold of a small city under the rule of the
Kashgar king, even in a siege of forty days.15
The fall of the Han dynasty in 220 AD ended Chinese rule over the
Western Regions. The city-states of the region either established their inde-
pendent rules or came under the rule of other empires, such as the Kushans
and Hepthalites, during this period. The cities in the Western Regions then
began to give tributes to the Wei dynasty,16 a sinified rule from the steppe,
between 435 and 440.17
A dramatic change in the steppes during the middle of the sixth century
affected the region deeply. Bumin, a leader of Ancient Turks, marched
against and defeated his superior Rouran Kaghanate in 552. This was the
beginning of a new rule in the steppe, which resulted in the domination of
Eastern Turkistan again by a steppe power. The cities were either sending
tributes or giving taxes to the Ancient Turks.18 This situation continued for
almost a century, until China became powerful under the Tang dynasty and
expanded its rule to Western Regions by 648.19 This time there was another
6 K. ERCILASUN

rival: Tibet, the southern neighbor of the region, became powerful and
occasionally enforced its dominance, especially in the southern part of the
Western Regions.20 A third rival emerged at the end of the seventh century
in the Issyk Köl area. This rival was named the Turgesh Kaghanate, which
was established in 690. The Turgesh Kaghanate also sometimes disturbed
the rule of Tang China in the Western Regions. Meanwhile, the kaghanate
of Ancient Turks was re-established and subjugated the Turgesh. Thus, the
Western Regions came under the rule of the Ancient Turks once again. In
the first half of the eighth century, the Turgesh kaghanate enjoyed more
independent activities in the region.21
The Islamic Arabs, a new power from the west, had appeared by the
decline of the Turgesh Kaghanate towards the middle of the eighth cen-
tury. At the same time, the ruler of the steppes had also changed and the
Uyghur Kaghanate dominated the land that is now known as Mongolia.
However, the rivalry was between the Arabs and China at that time; these
two rivals waged war in the Talas region in 751. This war had great
­implications for Tang China, which was the defeated party. Many warlords
emerged and strived for power, endangering the sovereignty of the Tang
dynasty. Interestingly, the Arabs, the winning party, also removed their
forces from the region because of the power struggle in their center.22 This
power vacuum resulted in the expansion of Uyghur Kaghanate’s domina-
tion of the region in the 750s.23
Uyghur’s dominance was sometimes disturbed not only by Tibet, but
also by the Karluks. The Karluks were internal rivals of the Kaghanate clan
and migrated into the region after being defeated in the power struggle
for the steppe supremacy. Nevertheless, the Uyghur supremacy continued
until the fall of the Kaghanate in 840.24
The year 840 was an important turning point for the region. In this year,
many clans poured into the region because of a decline in the steppe’s
power.25 The region became very populated during this time, which may
have caused the emergence of the native powers of the region. One of them
was the Karakhanids, who were established in the ninth century and ruled
the southern parts of the region at the beginning of their sovereignty. The
other power was the Turpan Uyghur Kingdom, which was the northeast-
ern neighbor of the Karakhanids.
The period between the fall of the Uyghur Kaghanate and the rise of
Chinggis Khan was the era of booming cities in the region. The cities of the
Tarim and Turpan basins flourished culturally and became important cen-
ters. Cities of the Tarim basin became representatives of Islamic culture after
 INTRODUCTION: THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND THE POLITICS... 7

the tenth century, whereas Turpan-Beshbalyk became the representative of

Buddhist culture. The two sovereignties, which both depended upon steppe
heritage, struggled with each other mostly due to religious reasons.
Although they did not manage to destroy each other, the Karakhanids
expanded their power westward and captured Transoxiana.26 Meanwhile,
the kingdom of Turpan Uyghur nominally accepted the supremacy of Tang
China.27 In the succeeding centuries, the Turpan kingdom could not match
the military or territorial power of the Karakhanids. However, both coun-
tries were affected by global developments, such as the rise of the Saljuks,28
the migration of the Kitans,29 and the flight of the Kuchluk.30 All three pow-
ers enjoyed supremacy over one or another of these native states.
At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Turpan Uyghur leader
Barchuk Art Tigin acted wisely by voluntarily submitting to Chinggis
Khan.31 Meanwhile, the Eastern Karakhanids who possessed Kashgar
diminished—not only due to the clashes between Kara Khitay and
Kuchluk, but also because of internal revolts.32 The rise of Chinggis Khan
gave the Uyghurs new opportunities in this new global empire. Because of
his voluntary submission and active participation in the military cam-
paigns, Barchuk Art Tigin was accepted as the fifth son of Chinggis Khan
and was given important posts.33 The Uyghur leaders enjoyed relative
autonomy in their land and some of them served in several posts, ranging
from China to Anatolia.
Beginning in the second half of the thirteenth century, Eastern
Turkistan became a place of shelter for the rivals of the Great Khanate of
Chinggisids, as well as for the rivals of the Kubilay and Chagatay Khanates.
One of these rivalries was that between Kaidu and Kubilay. Kaidu pro-
claimed himself as the Great Khan and controlled the Ili and Tarim regions
in 1267. Another rivalry occurred for the post of the Chagatay Khanate
between Tarmashirin and Jangshi during 1333–1334. As a result, Jangshi
controlled the Ili Valley and some of the local tribes gained power.34 The
Dughlats, who were one of the local tribes, controlled the region after
Jangshi’s death.35
The second half of the fourteenth century witnessed the appearance of
Temür in Mawarannahr (Transoxiana). After consolidating his power in
the Chagatay Khanate in 1370, Temür expanded his territory in every
direction. He dominated the Tarim region in 1390.36 However, Dughlat
leaders were still active in other parts of Eastern Turkistan. Thus, they
took back the Tarim region after Temür’s death.37 Some research refers to
this Dughlat power as the Eastern Chagatay Khanate.38
8 K. ERCILASUN

Meanwhile, the Oirats, another Mongol tribe, were gaining power in

the north.39 They would enter the picture in the fifteenth century and
would expand their land under the leadership of Esen Taishi during the
middle of the century. Esen Taishi was strong enough to capture the
Chinese emperor and besiege Beijing in 1449 in the east.40 After just a few
years, Uz Temür, one of his successors, would crush Abulkhair Khan, a
powerful Shibanid leader of Turkistan during 1455–1457 in the west.41
One of the princes from the Chagatay lineage entered the Tarim Basin
due to the fall of Timurid Empire at the beginning of the sixteenth century.
The Chagataid prince Sultan Said Khan occupied the Tarim Basin and
established his khanate, which is known as Yarkent Khanate, in 1514.
Dughlats were still enjoying some power at the beginning of this new khan-
ate. However, the successors of Sultan Said Khan broke down their power.42
During the sixteenth century, Yarkent Khanate consolidated its rule in the
region. The armies of the khanate raided Gansu in the east and Tibet in the
South.43 However, the power politics of the khanate were complicated. The
Khojas, who were assumed to be descendants of the Prophet Muhammad,
had considerable social respect and support. Moreover, this Khoja power
was divided into at least two sects.44 To make things more complicated,
there was a rivalry between members of the khanate family. Thus, during the
seventeenth century, there were four parties struggling for power and mak-
ing cross-alliances against each other.
On the other hand, the Oirats, who were the masters of north of Tian
Shan, were succeeded by the Zunghars during the seventeenth century.
Both the former Oirats and their successors the Zunghars had been candi-
dates for the Mongol leadership since the fifteenth century. However, they
had failed to achieve their goal for Mongol supremacy. Consequently, they
turned their attention towards western and southern territories to become
the sole rulers of the steppe. Taking advantage of the civil strife in the
Yarkent Khanate, the Zunghars entered the Tarim basin and helped one of
the parties to come to power. As a result, the Khojas secured their position
as vassals of the Zunghars in 1678.45
Although there were uprisings, the vassal status of the Tarim basin con-
tinued until the second half of the eighteenth century. A new authority
had been rising in the east since the beginning of the seventeenth century.
The Manchus occupied Beijing and established a new dynasty (the Qing
dynasty) in China in 1644. They also subjugated Southern and Eastern
Mongols during the seventeenth century. As a result, the Zunghars and
Manchus engaged in a furious struggle during the eighteenth century.
 INTRODUCTION: THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND THE POLITICS... 9

The Manchus were the victorious side of this strife: they took complete
control of the Zunghar basin in 1757 and the Tarim Basin in 1759.46
Another important outcome of this struggle was the elimination of the
Zunghar population as a result of bloody warfare.
The Manchus studied the structure of the region carefully before they
established their administration, an organization of three different admin-
istrative systems in Eastern Turkistan. In the Zunghar basin, they expanded
their banner system of Mongolia. In the northern cities of Urumqi, Turpan,
and Hami, they established the province system, which was useful for gov-
erning the sedentary population. In the Tarim basin, the Manchus inte-
grated the previous administrative structure with their imperial Qing rule
by excluding the Khojas from the region.47 As a result, the Khojas found
shelters in the western states such as Bukhara, Khokand, and Afghanistan.
Although there were a plenty of Qing garrisons in the region, the new
Qing rule was very careful to separate this outside military power from the
local population, especially in the Tarim basin. The military regime was not
so recognizable for a common city dweller of the Tarim basin.48 Thus, only
one large uprising was seen during the first fifty years of Qing control.
From the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Khokand Khanate,
which was a neighbor of the Tarim basin, had been gaining influence in
the region. Many Khojas had fled to the land of this khanate after the Qing
occupation. The Khans of Khokand supported these Khojas to establish
their power in the Tarim basin. Consequently, a chain of uprisings began
in the region. The first uprising was in 1815 and another one erupted in
1824. Unable to suppress the continuous rebellions, the Manchus were
obliged to give some privileges to Khokand in the Tarim basin in 1833.49
However, this concession did not put an end to the problems of the
Manchu rule. The region continued to disobey the Manchu court and
finally broke away totally in the 1860s. At that time, Yakup Bek, originally
a commander of the Khokand Khanate, had founded his own khanate in
Eastern Turkistan and established diplomatic relations with Russia and
Britain. By enjoying independency, his rule continued until his death in
May 1877.50 Then the Qing court, which was already sinicisized, main-
tained the help of Russia and defeated the remnants of the Khanate in one
year.51 The new Qing rule was totally different than the previous one. The
two-century-long rule in China resulted in a gradual sinicization of the
Manchus; this process was completed in the second half of the nineteenth
century. The court now had more of the characteristics of a Chinese reign
than before. Thus, the Qing court gave up the old style of indirect
10 K. ERCILASUN

governing of the region and consolidated its power by establishing a prov-

ince, which would be governed in the same way as the Chinese provinces
of the empire. When comparing the two periods of the Qing court in
Eastern Turkistan, the first era can be called “Manchu rule” and the sec-
ond era “Chinese rule,” although they were the same dynasty. The other
change was in the official name of the region. The Eastern Turkistan or
Western Regions of ancient and medieval times became Xinjiang in 1884.52
China fell into turmoil in the first half of the twentieth century. Xinjiang
was under the strict rule of Chinese warlords during this period.53 A
Kashgar-based uprising began in 1933 which resulted in the declaration of
Eastern Turkistan Republic.54 Although this movement affected a vast ter-
ritory, it did not last long. The Soviet Union on the one side and the
Chinese warlords and Dungan warlords on the other posed a great threat
to the Republic. Under the pressure of these threats, the government was
dissolved at the beginning of 1934.55 The declaration of a “republic” can
be regarded as a new phase in the development of the society and can be
understood by the developments in a greater area. The forms of the Central
Asian states were khanates or emirates until the beginning of the twentieth
century. However, Central Asian people declared many short-­lived repub-
lics after the fall of the Russian Tsarist Empire. This was one of the out-
comes of a modernization movement, Jadidism, which had been in
progress among Russian Muslims since the nineteenth century. This move-
ment also had some repercussions in Xinjiang, such as the establishment of
Jadid schools in Kashgar. Another development that should be mentioned
was the overthrow the monarchy in China in 1912, although the effect of
Jadidism was more fundamental. Thus, the twentieth century movements
in Eastern Turkistan came out as republican trends.56 There was a Japanese
attempt at positioning a Sultan of Eastern Turkistan from Ottoman
descent. However, this attempt was not successful, not only because of the
Japanese withdrawal but also because of local resistance.57
After the fall of the Republic of Eastern Turkistan, the region came under
Soviet influence. The governor of Xinjiang kept a foot in both Russia and
China for almost a decade. His tricky politics resulted in many revolts and in
the declaration of a second “Eastern Turkistan Republic” in the northern
part of Xinjiang in 1944. This republic lasted five years, although it had many
internal conflicts. While the Republic was still alive, a joint government
formed in Urumqi in 1946, consisting of Uyghur, Kazak, Chinese, and
Dungan members. Some members of the joint government were the repre-
sentatives of the Eastern Turkistan Republic. However, Soviet Russia has
 INTRODUCTION: THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND THE POLITICS... 11

been still influencing the region and the Eastern Turkistan Republican
Government. Soviet Russia compromised with China because of the estab-
lishment of the Communist Chinese government in 1949. The leaders of the
Eastern Turkistan Republic boarded a plane for Beijing under the influence
of Soviet Russia, after which it was announced that the plane had crashed and
the passengers were dead. In fact, they were imprisoned in Beijing. Thus, the
Chinese army leader in Xinjiang declared subordination to the Peoples’
Republic of China. However, local resistance continued until 1951.58
The new Chinese government established the Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region in 1955, although its position was not so secure in
the region. There were plenty of uprisings against the new Chinese admin-
istration, including three large uprisings during the 1950s and three more
during the 1960s.59 Tensions continued in the second half of the 1980s.
The most well-known clashes were the 1990 Barın and the 1997 Ili (Gulja)
clashes. Finally, the tensions peaked after the 2009 Urumqi clashes.
The controlling powers of Eastern Turkistan from ancient times can be
summarized as follows. With regard to the Chinese government, some
pure Chinese dynasties of Han and Tang governed the region. There were
also many sinified steppe rulers of China, such as Liao, and Qing, who also
governed the region. The sinicization of the last empire was absolute.
Therefore, when the Qing Empire governed the region in the second half
of the nineteenth century, it was a sole Chinese rule. The Republic of
China nominally ruled the region because the main power was in the hands
of the Chinese governors of the region, who can also be counted as war-
lords. The last governing power was the People’s Republic of China.
When other governing powers are considered, different types of rules
are apparent. One type of domination can be regarded as local domina-
tion, in which the capital of the state is in the region. The self-governing
city-states of the earliest times fall into this category. In some cases, a city-­
state became more powerful than the others and governed the neighbor-
ing cities, such as the Yarkent Kingdom of the first century and the Kashgar
Kingdom of the second century. Other powers that fall into this category
include the Karakhanids, the Turpan Uyghur Kingdom, the Yarkent
Khanate, the Zunghars, the Yakup Bek Khanate, and the Republics of
Eastern Turkistan. In fact, most of the rulers on this second list originated
from the steppe because the region had been integrated into steppe poli-
tics for many centuries. The steppe powers also governed the region as the
periphery of their realm. These powers include the rule of the Xiongnu,
Xianbei, Rouran, Ancient Turks, Orkhon Uyghur, Kara Khitay, Chinggisid,
12 K. ERCILASUN

Chagataid, and Timurid Khanates. The capital was either in the Orkhon
valley in Mongolia or at Mawarannahr. Kushans and Hephtalites, who
were both of steppe origin but had their core center in Afghanistan and
India, also principally ruled the southern part of the region.

Notes
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 origi-
nal 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 histori-
cal discourse and the term Xinjiang when describing recent events.
2. Owen Lattimore, Pivot of Asia: Sinkiang and the Inner Asian Frontiers of
China and Russia, Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1950.
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. 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 misunderstand-
ings please refer to James A. Millward, Eurasian Crossroads: A History of
Xinjiang, New York: Columbia University Press, 2007, pp. 15–17.
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. Shiji p. 2896; Han Shu p. 3757.
7. Shiji pp. 3157–3180.
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=0ah
UKEwiKnYr35q3JAhXBCywKHWc9Cf8QFggfMAE&url=http%3A%2F%
2Fwww.centralasia-southcaucasus.com%2Fdocs%2FSilk%2520Route%2FPa
 INTRODUCTION: THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND THE POLITICS... 13

per_Konulrap_Ercilasun.doc&usg=AFQjCNHrabBklqNHPZMdxyjpyOL
k7pQ6_w
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. Han Shu p. 3872.
11. Yü Ying-shih, Trade and Expansion in Han China: A Study in the Structure
of Sino-Barbarian Economic Relations, p. 142.
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 Imparatorluğ u Tarihi II (History of the Great Xiongnu
Empire II), Ankara: Ministry of Culture Publications, 1981, pp. 245–247,
260–262.
13. Konuralp Ercilasun, Tarihin Derinliklerinden 19. Yüzyıla Kâşgar (Kashgar
till the 19th Century), Ankara: TTK Publications, p. 19.
14. L. Ligeti, Bilinmeyen İç Asya (Unknown Inner Asia), tr. Sadrettin Karatay,
Ankara: TDK Publications, 1986, p. 240.
15. Hou Han Shu pp. 2926–2927.
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. Bei Shi pp. 3205–3206.
18. Wei Shu p. 2268, Sui Shu p. 1852.
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. 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. Hüseyin Salman, Türgişler (The Turgesh), Ankara: Ministry of Culture
Publications, 1998, pp. 17–24, 42–46.
22. Konuralp Ercilasun, Tarihin Derinliklerinden 19. Yüzyıla Kâşgar (Kashgar
till the 19th Century), p. 24.
23. Hüseyin Salman, Türgişler (The Turgesh), pp. 81–82.
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.
14 K. ERCILASUN

25. For Uyghur migrations Özkan I ̇zgi, 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. 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. I ̇brahim Kafesoğlu, Türk Milli Kültürü (Turkic National Culture),
pp. 90–93.
28. Peter B. Golden, “The Karakhanids and Early Islam”, p. 367.
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. V. V. Barthold, Moğol I ̇stilasına Kadar Türkistan (Türkistan Down to the
Mongol Invasion), Ankara: TTK Publications, 1990, p. 390.
31. Özkan I ̇zgi, Çin Elçisi Wang Yen-te’nin Uygur Seyahatnamesi (The Travel
of Wang Yen-te: A Chinese Envoy to Uyghurs), p. 30.
32. V. V. Barthold, Moğol I ̇stilasına Kadar Türkistan (Türkistan Down to the
Mongol Invasion), p. 390.
33. Özkan I ̇zgi, Çin Elçisi Wang Yen-te’nin Uygur Seyahatnamesi (The Travel
of Wang Yen-te: A Chinese Envoy to Uyghurs), p. 30.
̇
34. Rene Grousset, Bozkır Imparatorluğ u (Empire of the Steppes), tr. M. Reşat
Uzmen, I ̇stanbul: Ötüken Publications, 1980, pp. 319–327. Mustafa
Kafalı, Çağatay Hanlığı 1227–1345 (Chagatai Khanate 1227–1345),
Ankara: Berikan Publications, 2005, p. 115.
35. Jean-Paul Roux, Orta Asya: Tarih ve Uygarlık (Central Asia: History and
Civilization), tr. Lale Arslan, I ̇stanbul: Kabalcı Publications, 2001,
pp. 332–333.
36. Rene Grousset, Bozkır I ̇mparatorluğu (Empire of the Steppes), pp. 396–
400. Zeki Velidi Togan, Bugünkü Türkili Türkistan ve Yakın Tarihi
(Contemporary Turkistan and Its Modern History), I ̇stanbul: Enderun
Publications, 1981, pp. 102–105.
̇
37. Rene Grousset, Bozkır I mparatorluğu (Empire of the Steppes), p. 452.
W. Barthold, “Duglat”, I slaṁ Ansiklopedisi (Encyclopedia of Islam—Turkish
Version), Vol. 3, Ankara: Ministry of Education Publications, 1963, p. 652.
̇
38. See for ex. Rene Grousset, Bozkır Imparatorluğ u (Empire of the Steppes),
p. 396 and Jean-Paul Roux, Orta Asya: Tarih ve Uygarlık (Central Asia:
History and Civilization), p. 353.
̇
39. Jean-Paul Roux, Moğol Imparatorluğ u Tarihi (History of the Mongol Empire),
̇
tr. Aykut Kazancıgil and Ayşe Bereket, I stanbul: Kabalcı Publications, 2001,
pp. 443–445.
 INTRODUCTION: THE LAND, THE PEOPLE, AND THE POLITICS... 15

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. Henry H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, Vol. 2, Taipei: Cheng-wen
Publishing Company, 1970, pp. 688–689. Konuralp Ercilasun, “Batı
Moğollarını I ̇fade 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. Rene Grousset, Bozkır Imparatorluğ u (Empire of the Steppes), p. 460.
Muhammed Bilal Çelik, Yarkent Hanlığı’nın Siyasi Tarihi (Political
History of Yarkent Khanate), I ̇stanbul: IQ Publications, 2013, p. 226.
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. I senbike 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. I senbike Togan, “Chinese Turkistan Under the Khojas
(1678–1759)”, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. 5, California: Mazda Publishers,
1991, p. 475.
45. Henry H. Howorth, History of the Mongols, Vol. 2, p. 623.
̇
46. Rene Grousset, Bozkır Imparatorluğ u (Empire of the Steppes), pp. 493–496.
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. Konuralp Ercilasun, Tarihin Derinliklerinden 19. Yüzyıla Kâşgar (Kashgar
till the 19th Century), p. 128.
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. 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. Mehmet Emin Buğra. Doğu Türkistan—Tarihî, Coğrafî ve Şimdiki Durumu
(Eastern Turkistan: History, Geography and Current Situation). Istanbul.
1952, pp. 27–28.
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Pee-wee Harris
in camp
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Title: Pee-wee Harris in camp

Author: Percy Keese Fitzhugh

Illustrator: Harold S. Barbour

Release date: November 25, 2023 [eBook #72220]

Language: English

Original publication: New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1922

Credits: Roger Frank and Sue Clark

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEE-WEE

HARRIS IN CAMP ***
PEE-WEE HARRIS IN CAMP
“I’LL CLOSE MY EYES AND TRY TO GO STRAIGHT,” SAID PEE-WEE.
 PEE-WEE HARRIS
IN CAMP
BY
PERCY KEESE FITZHUGH
Author of
THE TOM SLADE BOOKS, THE ROY BLAKELEY BOOKS
THE PEE-WEE HARRIS BOOKS

ILLUSTRATED BY
H. S. BARBOUR

Published with the approval of

THE BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA

GROSSET & DUNLAP

PUBLISHERS : : NEW YORK

Made in the United States of America

 Copyright, 1922, by
GROSSET & DUNLAP
 Pee-Wee Harris in Camp, also in Dutch; also in hot water, in
cold water, on the stage, in politics, and in the raspberry jam.
Including the true facts concerning his size (what there is of it)
and his heroism (such as it is), his voice, his clothes, his
appetite, his friends, his enemies, his victims. Together with the
thrilling narrative of the rise and fall of the Hop-toad Patrol, as
well as other delectable particulars touching the one time
mascot of the Ravens, sometimes known as the Animal Cracker
Patrol. How he foiled, baffled, circumvented and triumphed over
everything and everybody (except where he failed) and how
even when he failed he succeeded. The whole recorded in a
series of screams and told with neither muffler nor cut-out.
 CONTENTS
I HE OPENS THE DOOR, THEN OPENS HIS MOUTH
II HE PLAYS HIS PART
III SUCH IS FAME
IV HE ADVANCES
V HE STORMS THE INNER FORTRESS
VI CARRIED BY A MINORITY
VII MENTAL TELEGRAPHY
VIII A PREDICAMENT
IX PEE-WEE’S PAST REVEALED
X PEE-WEE’S ENTERPRISE
XI BILLY SIMPSON’S CHANCE
XII ADVICE FROM THE VETERAN
XIII AN INSPIRATION
XIV THE AUTOCRAT
XV BON VOYAGE
XVI REGULATION SEVEN
XVII TEARS
XVIII THE BATTLE OF THE BURS
XIX SAIL ON, THOU BOTTLE
XX THE NIGHT BEFORE
XXI SCOUTS AND SCOUTS
XXII THE VOICE OF SCOUT HARRIS
XXIII MOBILIZING
XXIV A PROMISE
XXV BIG BUSINESS
XXVI MAROONED
XXVII RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL
XXVIII BRENT AND PEE-WEE
XXIX BRENT AND SIMPSON
XXX THE COMING EVENT
 CONTENTS

XXXI THE SAND-BAG

XXXII SOMETHING BIG
XXXIII AND SOMETHING BIGGER

PEE-WEE HARRIS IN CAMP

 CHAPTER I—HE OPENS THE DOOR, THEN
OPENS HIS MOUTH
“I’m going to brand a horse with a hot iron! I’m going to brand a
double cross on him! I’m going to brand it on his hip! I’m going to get
ten dollars!”
These were strange words to issue from the lips of a boy scout.
Yet they were uttered by no less a scout than Pee-Wee Harris, the
scout of scouts, the scout who made scouting famous, the only
original scout, the scout who put the rave in Raven Patrol. They were
uttered by Scout Harris who was so humane that he loved butterflies
because they reminded him of butter and who would not harm a
piece of pudding-stone because it aroused his tender recollections of
pudding.
“I’m going to brand him to-morrow night!” he repeated cruelly. “Is
there any pie left in the pantry?”
What act of inhuman cruelty he meditated against the poor,
defenseless pie only his own guilty conscience knew. Before his
mother was able to answer him from upstairs he had branded a
piece of pie with his teeth.
Pee-wee’s mother did not come down, but she put her foot down.
“I don’t know what you mean,” she called, “but you’re not going to
do it. There is one piece of pie in the pantry unless you have eaten it
already.”
Pee-wee ascended the stairs armed with a dripping slice of
rhubarb pie which left a scout trail up the wild, carpeted steps and
through the dim, unfathomed fastnesses of the upper hall.
“I’m brandhorse,” he repeated, wrestling with a large mouthful of
pie, “I’mgngtendlrs.”
The bite of pie conquered, Pee-wee proceeded to enlighten his
mother as to his latest enterprise.
 “You know the—”
“Don’t eat while you’re talking,” said Mrs. Harris.
“You know the Punkhall Stock Company?” Pee-wee continued
excitedly. “They’re coming to the Lyric Theatre next week. They’re
going to play New York successes. They advertised for a boy to
brand a horse and I went to see the man and his name is
Rantrnetolme—”
“Stop! Wait a minute; now go on. And don’t take another bite till
you finish.”
“Mr. Ranter he’s manager and he said I’d do and I only have to be
in that one play and I only have to be on the stage one minute and I’ll
get ten dollars and everybody’ll clap and I bet you’ll be glad and it—
anyway, it isn’t a hot iron at all, but it’s painted red so it will look hot
and it doesn’t hurt the horse only it looks as if it did, so can I do it?”
he concluded breathlessly. “You can’t say that red paint will hurt a
horse,” he added anxiously. “Gee whiz, I wouldn’t be cruel, but red
paint can’t hurt anybody.”
“What is the name of this play?” Pee-wee’s mother asked.
“The name of it is Double-crossed and I’ll tell you all about it, it’s a
dandy play, a man has a double cross for trade-mark, see? And he’s
a villain and he gets a kid to crawl through a hole in the fence, it’s out
west in Arizona, and that kid has to brand one of the other man’s
horses so the man will admit the horse belongs to the other man and
the other man can take him, see? That’s what you call a plot. The
man beats me if I say I won’t do it, so I do it and I don’t say anything
at all and after the play is over I get ten dollars, so will you come and
see me?”
“Where is the boy who usually does that?” Mrs. Harris asked,
rather ruefully.
“They get a different boy in every town,” Pee-wee said, “because
Mr. Ranter, he says it’s cheaper to do that than it is to pay his
railroad fare all over the country, so can I do it? The iron isn’t really
hot. So can I do it? Roy Blakeley and all the troop are coming to see
me and maybe they’re going to get a flashlight and they’re going to
clap a lot. So can I do it? I’m going to do good turns with the ten
dollars so if you stand up for good turns like you told Mr. Ellsworth,
you’d better let me do it or else that shows you don’t believe in good
turns. So can I do it?”
In the interval of suspense which followed, Pee-wee strengthened
his spirit with a bite of pie and stood ready to take still another upon
the first hint of an adverse decision.
“I don’t like the idea of you going on the stage with actors,
especially with the Punkhall Stock Company,” said Mrs. Harris
doubtfully. “What would your Aunt Sophia say if she should hear of
it?”
“How can she hear of it when she’s deaf?” said Pee-wee.
“Anyway, they never hear of things in North Deadham. I only have to
be on the stage about one minute and I don’t have to talk and I’d
rather do it than—than—have a bicycle on Christmas. So can I do
it?”
“I hope you don’t impersonate a scout,” said Mrs. Harris,
weakening gradually.
“I’m the son of a cowboy that owns a ranch,” Pee-wee vociferated,
“and his name is Deadshot Dan, and he gave me some peanuts
when Mr. Ranter was talking to me. Gee whiz, you can tell from that
that he’s not really bad, can’t you? Mr. Punkhall was there too, and
he said I’d do it fine and they’ll show me how to do it at a rehearsal
to-morrow morning and it doesn’t really hurt the horse, so can I do
it?”
“You remember how scandalized your Aunt Sophia Primshock
was when you kept a refreshment shack by the roadside? We have
to think of others, Walter. Aunt Sophia would be—I can’t think what
she’d be if she knew you joined the Punkhall Stock Company. And
your cousin Prudence who is going to Vassar! I had to listen to their
criticisms the whole time while I was visiting them, and your father
thought they were right.”
Poor Mrs. Harris lived in mortal terror of the Primshock branch of
the family which occupied the big old-fashioned house at North
Deadham. No stock companies, no movies even, ever went there.
No popular songs or current jokes or wise cracks of the day
penetrated to that solemn fastness. All that ever reached there,
apparently, were the tidings of Pee-wee’s sensational escapades, his
floundering around the country in a ramshackle railroad car, his
being carried off in an automobile, and, worst of all, his epoch-
making plunge into the retail trade when he had sold and sung the
praises of hot frankfurters by the road-side.
“I’m afraid she’d think it—unwise,” Mrs. Harris said in her gentle,
half yielding manner.
“Ah now, Mudgy,” Pee-wee pleaded; “I told those men I’d do it and
a scout has to keep his word, gee whiz, you have to admit that. And
Aunt Sophia doesn’t have to know anything about it and I promise, I
promise, not to tell her, and anyway Prudence has joined the Girl
Scouts and maybe by this time she’s got to be kind of wild—kind of;
and anyway I’ll never tell them so they can’t jump on you and if I say
I won’t, I won’t because a scout’s honor is to be trusted. So can I do
it? I won’t buy gumdrops with the ten dollars if you’ll let me do it.”
“Good gracious! Ten dollars worth of gumdrops!” said Mrs. Harris.
“Sure, that’s nothing,” said Pee-wee.
 CHAPTER II—HE PLAYS HIS PART
We need not dwell upon Pee-wee’s career on the stage. It was
almost as short as he was. He crawled through a hole in a fence and
had no difficulty in finding the right horse, since there was only one
there.
He held the iron (painted red) against the horse’s hip, then
withdrew across the stage and was seen no more. The deed of
villainy had been done, the double cross of the thieving ranchman
had been branded upon the horse he coveted and was resolved to
win “by fair means or foul.” Those were the tragic words he had
used.
There was nothing so very terrible about Pee-wee’s new
adventure and Mr. and Mrs. Harris were rather proud of the way in
which he acquitted himself. He broke his ten dollar bill in Bennett’s
Fresh Confectionery, where he treated the members of his troop with
true actorish liberality. Two sodas each they had, and gumdrops flew
like bullets in the play.
“Roy’s got your picture,” said Westy Martin; “I hope it comes out
all right. He’s going to hang it in the cellar.”
“How did it seem not speaking for thirty seconds?” Roy asked.
“He timed you with his stop watch,” Artie Van Arlen said. “Did you
see us in the front seats?”
“Now you see, it’s good to be small,” Pee-wee said. “They chose
me because I could get through that hole in the fence. Fat Blanchard
wanted to get the job but they wouldn’t give it to him because they
were afraid he’d get stuck half way through the hole. That horse is
awful nice, he likes being branded I guess; anyway he wasn’t mad
about it because he licked my hand twice.”
“If I had my way I’d lick you a couple of dozen times,” said Roy.
“Did you tell him about how you won the animal first aid badge?”
 “Who?”
“The horse; did you tell him how that makes you a star scout?”
“What does the horse care?” Westy asked. “He’s a star actor,
that’s better than a star scout.”
“I guess he had to go on the stage on account of the automobile
driving him out of business, hey?” Roy said.
“Anyway, I like horses,” Pee-wee said.
“Sure,” said Roy, “and you like horse radish and horse chestnuts
too. No wonder you like horses, you’re always kicking.”
“Maybe some day I’ll play—maybe I’ll play Julius Caesar,” said
Pee-wee proudly.
“Sure, maybe you’ll play checkers,” said Roy; “come on home, it’s
late.”
“Let’s have one more soda,” said Pee-wee.
“Which one of us will have it?” Roy asked.
“One each,” said Pee-wee; “I’ll treat. The first ones were on
account of my acting in that play, kind of to celebrate, and these will
be on account of my getting to be a star scout. Will you?”
“For your sake we will,” said Roy, as they all lined up again at the
soda fountain. “I hate to think what will happen when you get to be
an eagle scout.”
“We’ll have a soda for every badge, hey?” said Pee-wee,
immediately enthusiastic over the idea.
“That’ll be twenty-one sodas each.”
“Good night!” said Roy.
“And we’ll have chocolate ones on account of that being my patrol
color, hey? Only I’m going to start a new patrol before that and
maybe I’ll have red for our patrol color so we’ll have strawberry
sodas, hey? Because, anyway, I’m going to be an eagle scout next
summer.”
“Tell us all about that,” said Dorry Benton of the Silver Foxes.
“I’ve got a lot of plans,” said Pee-wee, between mouthfuls of
dripping ice cream.
“Have you got them with you?” Wig Weigand asked.
 “I’m going to start a patrol up at Temple Camp and I’m going to be
the leader of it on account of being a star scout and I’m going to
enter one of my scouts for the marksmanship contest—”
“G-o-o-d night!” interrupted Roy.
“A tall chance a tenderfoot stands of winning that,” Dorry laughed.
“I—I bet you I can think of a way, all right,” Pee-wee vociferated.
“Didn’t I fix it so Worry Chesley could get the gold cross?”
“Yes?”
“Sure; didn’t I fall off the springboard so he could save my life?”
“And the raving Ravens will have to go on raving without their little
mascot?” Doc. Carson asked.
“Sure, let them rave,” said Pee-wee; “gee whiz, I can rave without
them.”
“Oh, absolutely,” Roy said.
“If I’m a star scout that means I’m a hero, doesn’t it?” Pee-wee
asked, his soda glass tilted up so that he might capture the last
dregs. “If a scout has ten merit badges—”
“That means he has to treat to soda ten times,” said Roy; “it’s on
page forty-eleven of the handbook. If he treats to soda fifteen times
he’s a soda scout and he can wear the soda badge, all down the
front of his coat, just like you. Come on, let’s go home, Mr. Bennett
wants to shut up.”
“I wouldn’t shut up for anybody,” Pee-wee said.
 CHAPTER III—SUCH IS FAME
Pee-wee’s plans, indeed, were more numerous than the
miscellaneous possessions which he displayed upon his scout
regalia and which set him off like a sort of animated Christmas tree.
If his active brain could have been revealed to view it would have
been found decorated with plans of every description; schemes and
enterprises would have been seen dangling from it, as his jack-knife
and his compass and his cooking pan and his watch and his coil of
rope were seen dangling from his belt and jacket. His mind was a
sort of miniature attic, full of junk. An artist familiar with rummage
sales might picture our scout hero in all his glory. But alas, no artist
could picture his brain!
At the time of the beginning of this odd train of happenings, Pee-
wee had cause to be both proud and satisfied. For one thing he had
eight dollars and sixty cents, the rest of his ten dollars having gone
to Bennett’s.
The animal first aid badge which he had lately won, being his
tenth award, had made him a star scout. The badge itself had not yet
been tendered him but this would be done by the exalted powers
when he reached Temple Camp. It would be done with befitting
ceremony. It was not necessary for anyone to tell Pee-wee that he
was a hero; he admitted it. After he had received his rank of star
scout all of the pioneer1 scouts at camp would rally to his standard,
clamoring for admittance to his new, and altogether unique, patrol.
So Pee-wee’s path of glory was mapped out, as far as it was
possible for the human imagination to map it. The new patrol was to
be called the Hop-toad Patrol, because it was by tracking a hop-toad
to its savage lair that Pee-wee had won the stalking badge, one of
the stepping stones to his pedestal of glory.
But the fame of Scout Harris had already gone further than he
knew; it had penetrated to North Deadham, and had appealed to