Islam has been practiced in China since the 7th century CE. There are an estimated 17–25 million Muslims in China, less than 2 percent of the total population. Though Hui Muslims are the most numerous group, the greatest concentration of Muslims reside in northwestern China's Xinjiang autonomous region, which contains a significant Uyghur population. Lesser yet significant populations reside in the regions of Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai. Of China's 55 officially recognized minority peoples, ten of these groups are predominantly Sunni Muslim.
Muhammad Amin Bughra, sometimes known by his Han name Mao Deming and his Turkish name Mehmet Emin Buğra (1901–1965), was a Uyghur Muslim leader who planned to set up a sovereign state, the First East Turkestan Republic. Muhammad Amin Bughra was a Jadidist.
Sabit Damolla was an East Turkestan independence movement leader who led the Hotan rebellion against the Xinjiang Province government of Jin Shuren and later the Uyghur leader Khoja Niyaz. He is widely known as the first and only prime minister of the short-lived Turkic Islamic Republic of East Turkestan from November 12, 1933, until the republic's defeat in May 1934.
Khoja Niyaz, also Khoja Niyaz Haji, was a Uyghur independence movement leader who led several rebellions in Xinjiang against the Kumul Khanate, the Chinese governor Jin Shuren and later the Hui warlord Ma Zhongying. He is best remembered as the first and only president of the short-lived Islamic Republic of Eastern Turkestan from November 1933 until the republic's defeat in April 1934.
The New 36th Division was a cavalry division in the National Revolutionary Army. It was created in 1932 by the Kuomintang for General Ma Zhongying, who was also its first commander. It was made almost entirely out of Hui Muslim troops, all of its officers were Hui, with a few thousand Uighurs forced conscripts in the rank and file. It was commonly referred to as the "KMT 36th Division", or "Tungan 36th Division".
The Soviet invasion of Xinjiang was a military campaign of the Soviet Union in the Chinese northwestern region of Xinjiang in 1934. White Russian forces assisted the Soviet Red Army.
The Ili Rebellion was a separatist uprising by the Turkic peoples of northern Xinjiang against the Kuomintang government of the Republic of China, from 1944 to 1946. The Ili Rebellion began with the East Turkestan National Revolution, known in Chinese historiography as the Three Districts Revolution, which saw the establishment of the Second East Turkestan Republic. The leadership was dominated by Uyghurs but the population consisted mostly of Kazakhs.
Ma Shaowu was a Chinese warlord and military commander who was a member of the Xinjiang clique during China's Warlord Era and the Xinjiang Wars.
Abdullah Bughra was a Uighur Emir of the First East Turkestan Republic. He was the younger brother of Muhammad Amin Bughra and older brother of Emir Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra. He commanded Uighur and Kirghiz forces during the Battle of Kashgar (1934) against the Chinese Muslim 36th Division. The Chinese Muslims were loyal to the Chinese government and wanted to crush the Turkic Muslim Uighurs and Kirghiz in revenge for the Kizil massacre. He also had Afghan bodyguards protecting him. He was killed in 1934 at Yarkand by Chinese Muslim troops under general Ma Zhancang. All of Abdullah's fighters were killed, but his body was never found, which later gave rise to speculations about his fate.
Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra was an Uighur Emir of the First East Turkestan Republic. He was the younger brother of Muhammad Amin Bughra and Abdullah Bughra. He commanded Uighur and Kirghiz forces during the Battle of Kashgar (1934) against the Chinese Muslim 36th Division. The Chinese Muslims were loyal to the Republic of China government and wanted to crush the Turkic Muslim Uighurs and Kirghiz in revenge for the Kizil massacre, in which Nur Ahmad Jan Bughra had taken part. He was killed on April 16, 1934, at Yangi Hissar by Chinese Muslim troops under generals Ma Zhancang and Ma Fuyuan. All of Nur Ahmad Jan's 2,500 Uighur and Kirghiz fighters were exterminated by the 10,000 strong Chinese Muslim army.
Timur Beg, also known as Timur Sijan, was a Uighur rebel military leader in Xinjiang in 1933. He was involved in the 1933 Battle of Kashgar and participated before in Turpan Rebellion (1932). He associated with the Turkic nationalist Young Kashgar Party and appointed himself as "Timur Shah". He and other Uighurs like the Bughra brothers wanted to secede from China. In August 1933 his troops were attacked by the Chinese Muslim 36th Division of the National Revolutionary Army under General Ma Zhancang. Timur was shot and killed in Kashgar.
Yulbars Khan, courtesy name Jingfu (景福), was a Uyghur chieftain and Kuomintang general during the Chinese Civil War. He entered the service in the Kumul Khanate of Muhammad Khan of Kumul and later his son Maksud Shah. He served as an advisor at the court, until when Maksud died in March 1930, governor Jin Shuren abolished the khanate. Yulbars then conspired with Khoja Niyaz and Ma Zhongying to overthrow Jin in the Kumul Rebellion. According to some people, Ma restrained Yulbars from traveling to Nanking to ask the Kuomintang for help, Ma earlier had an agreement with the Kuomintang that if he seized Xinjiang, he would be recognized by the Kuomintang as its leader.
In the 1933 Battle of Kashgar, Gen. Ma Zhancang signed a secret agreement with the daotai of Kashgar, Ma Shaowu, and his Chinese Muslim troops joined the Han Chinese garrison inside the yamen in Kashgar and helped them repulse Uighur and Kirghiz attacks led by Abdullah Bughra. Turkic Uighur and Kirghiz forces led by the Uighur Timur Beg had been attacking Chinese Muslim villages and pillaging them. During the fighting Timur Beg was shot and then beheaded by Ma Zhancang's forces, his head being put on display at the Idgah mosque. When more Chinese Muslim troops arrived, they reinforced the Chinese garrison inside Kashgar. Osman Ali, the Kirghiz rebel, attempted to attack the yamen, but was driven back with heavy losses. He then proceeded to loot the city.
The Kuomintang Islamic insurgency was a continuation of the Chinese Civil War by Chinese Muslim Kuomintang Republic of China Army forces mainly in Northwest China, in the provinces of Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang, and another insurgency in Yunnan.
The Kumul Rebellion was a rebellion of Kumulik Uyghurs from 1931 to 1934 who conspired with Hui Chinese Muslim General Ma Zhongying to overthrow Jin Shuren, governor of Xinjiang. The Kumul Uyghurs were loyalists of the Kumul Khanate and wanted to restore the heir to the Khanate and overthrow Jin. The Kuomintang wanted Jin removed because of his ties to the Soviet Union, so it approved of the operation while pretending to acknowledge Jin as governor. The rebellion then catapulted into large-scale fighting as Khotanlik Uyghur rebels in southern Xinjiang started a separate rebellion for independence in collusion with Kirghiz rebels. The various groups of rebels were not united. The main part of the war was waged by Ma Zhongying against the Xinjiang government. He was supported by Chiang Kai-shek, the Premier of China, who secretly agreed to let Ma seize Xinjiang.
The Kumul Khanate was a semi-autonomous feudal Turco-Mongol khanate within the Qing dynasty and then the Republic of China until it was abolished by Xinjiang governor Jin Shuren in 1930. The khanate was located in present-day Hami prefecture of Xinjiang.
Maqsud Shah, was the Uyghur Jasagh Prince (Qinwang) of the Kumul Khanate in China from 1882 to 1930, he was the final ruler of the Borjigid dynasty.
Ma Zhongying, also Ma Chung-ying, nickname Commander Ga, was a Hui Chinese Muslim warlord during the Warlord era of China. His birth name was Ma Buying. Ma was a warlord of Gansu Province in China during the 1930s. His alliance with the Kuomintang (KMT) brought his predominantly Chinese Muslim troops under the control of the KMT as the New 36th Division with Ma Zhongying as its commander. He was ordered to overthrow Jin Shuren, the governor of Xinjiang. After several victories over provincial and White Russian forces, he attempted to expand his territory into southern Xinjiang by launching campaigns from his power base in Gansu, but was stopped by Xinjiang warlord Sheng Shicai with Soviet support in 1934.
Masud Sabri, also known as Masʿūd Ṣabrī, was an ethnic Uyghur politician of the Republic of China who served as the governor of Xinjiang during the Ili Rebellion. He received education at Kulja and Istanbul and was a Pan-Turkist. Chiang Kai-shek appointed him the first Uyghur governor of Xinjiang.
On the early morning of Wednesday, 30 July 2014, Juma Tahir, the imam of China's largest mosque, the Id Kah Mosque in northwestern Kashgar, was stabbed to death by three young male Uyghur extremists. Religious leaders across denominations condemned the attack.
