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Dr. Nur Luke was a Uyghur Bible translator from Hotan who converted to Christianity. [1] He fled Xinjiang in the 1930s and together with Gustaf Ahlbert and Oskar Hermannson finished the translation of the Uyghur Bible in India. This was published by the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1946. Luke also wrote about the social structure of the Uyghur, noting 97-98 percent illiteracy. [2]
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The Uyghurs, alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. The Uyghurs are recognized as native to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China. They are one of China's 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities. The Uyghurs are recognized by the Chinese government as a regional minority and the titular people of Xinjiang.
East Turkestan is a loosely-defined geographical and historical region in the western provinces of the People's Republic of China, which varies in meaning by context and usage. The term was coined in the 19th century by Russian Turkologists, including Nikita Bichurin, who intended the name to replace the common Western term for the region, Chinese Turkestan, which referred to the Tarim Basin in the southwestern part of Xinjiang during the Qing dynasty. The medieval Persian toponym "Turkestan" and its derivatives were used by the local population as early as the 7th century. Historical manuscripts, dating back to the 7th and 9th century, found in the Turpan and Khotan regions show that the name Turkestan was used to describe the region. The opening of the 11th century literary work Kutadgu Bilig by Kara-Khanid statesman Yusuf Khass Hajib also describes the region as Turkestan. Beginning in the 17th century Altishahr which means "Six Cities" in Uyghur became the Uyghur name for Tarim Basin, Uyghurs also called the Tarim Basin "Yettishar," which means "Seven Cities," and even "Sekkizshahr" which means "Eight Cities" in Uyghur. Chinese dynasties from the Han dynasty to Tang dynasty had called an overlapping area the "Western Regions". The parts of this area conquered by Manchu Qing Dynasty were termed "Xinjiang" from the 18th century on.
Turghun Almas was a Uyghur historian and poet born in Kashgar. He was criticized for his "support for ethnic nationalist separatists" by Wang Lequan. He was jailed from 1943 to 1946 and again from July 1947 to April 1949 for his political activities. In 1950 he became an editor for the Azadliq (Freedom) newspaper.
Uyghurlar is a book by historian Turghun Almas on the history of the "6,000 year history" of the Uyghur ethnic group of the Xinjiang region of China. It was published in the People's Republic of China in 1989, at a high point of liberalization of academic freedom and ethnic minority policy in China. It was one of the books of the period that presented an "alternative Uyghur history", based on Soviet historiography during the Sino-Soviet split, that advanced the thesis that the Uyghurs are the historical owner of Xinjiang and should have an independent state. It was also one of the first books to publicize the term East Turkestan, which suggests a kinship to a "West Turkestan" in the independent Central Asian states. In contrast to the official Chinese history of Xinjiang, which states that the region was an integral part of China since the Han dynasty, the book takes a nationalist view, saying that many "Uyghur" states throughout history were independent of or even dominant over, China.
The East Turkestan independence movement is a political movement that seeks the independence of East Turkestan, a large and sparsely-populated region in northwest China, as a nation state for the Uyghur people. The region is currently administered as a province-level subdivision of the People's Republic of China (PRC), under the official name Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR). The East Turkistan independence movement is primarily led by the East Turkistan Government in Exile and supported by the East Turkistan National Awakening Movement. Within the movement, there is widespread support for the region to be renamed, since "Xinjiang" is seen by independence activists as a colonial name. "East Turkestan" is the best-known proposed name as it is the historical geographic name of the region and the name of the two independent states that briefly existed in the region in the first half of the 20th century.
Xinjiang historically consisted of two main geographically, historically, and ethnically distinct regions with different historical names: Dzungaria north of the Tianshan Mountains; and the Tarim Basin south of the Tianshan Mountains, currently mainly inhabited by the Uyghurs. They were renamed Xinjiang in 1884, meaning "new frontier," when both regions were conquered by the Manchu Qing dynasty after the Dungan revolt (1862–1877).
George W. Hunter MBE was a Scottish Protestant Christian missionary of the China Inland Mission who worked in China and Turkestan.
Kazakhs are a Turkic ethnic group and are among the 56 ethnic groups officially recognized by the People's Republic of China.
Dolan refers to a people or region of what is now Xinjiang Province, China. People who call themselves Dolan can be found in Awat County, the Yarkand River valley, the Tarim River valley and the Lop Nur region of present-day Xinjiang. Though modern Dolan people now speak the vernacular dialect, the term refers to an earlier culture and civilization in the region. The history of this people is little known. Some scholars and travelers believed the Dolan of the Yarkand River valley to be a Kazakh or Kyrgyz group that settled in the area during the Qing dynasty. This belief was based on their noticeably different physiognomy and language and their semi-nomadic lifestyles.
Xinjiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest of the country at the crossroads of Central Asia and East Asia. Being the largest province-level division of China by area and the 8th-largest country subdivision in the world, Xinjiang spans over 1.6 million square kilometres (620,000 sq mi) and has about 25 million inhabitants. Xinjiang borders the countries of Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The rugged Karakoram, Kunlun and Tian Shan mountain ranges occupy much of Xinjiang's borders, as well as its western and southern regions. The Aksai Chin and Trans-Karakoram Tract regions, both administered by China, are claimed by India. Xinjiang also borders the Tibet Autonomous Region and the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai. The most well-known route of the historic Silk Road ran through the territory from the east to its northwestern border.
Uyghurs in Kazakhstan, or Uyghur Kazakhstanis, form the country's fifth-largest ethnic group, according to the 2009 census.
The Kumul Rebellion was a rebellion of Kumulik Uyghurs from 1931 to 1934 who conspired with Hui Chinese Muslim Gen. 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. Various groups rebelled, and 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.
Qocho or Kara-Khoja, also known as Idiqut, was a Uyghur kingdom created in 843, with strong Chinese Buddhist and Tocharian influences. It was founded by Uyghur refugees fleeing the destruction of the Uyghur Khaganate after being driven out by the Yenisei Kirghiz. They made their summer capital in Qocho and winter capital in Beshbalik. Its population is referred to as the "Xizhou Uyghurs" after the old Tang Chinese name for Gaochang, the Qocho Uyghurs after their capital, the Kucha Uyghurs after another city they controlled, or the Arslan (lion) Uyghurs after their king's title.
Migration to Xinjiang is both an ongoing and historical movement of people, often sponsored by various states who controlled the region, including the Han dynasty, Qing dynasty, Republic of China and People's Republic of China.
Altishahr, also known as Kashgaria, is a historical name for the Tarim Basin region used in the 18th and 19th centuries. The term means 'Six Cities' in Turkic languages, referring to oasis towns along the rim of the Tarim, including Kashgar, in what is now southern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.
The Manchu-led Qing dynasty of China ruled over Xinjiang from the late 1750s to 1912. In the history of Xinjiang, the Qing rule was established in the final phase of the Dzungar–Qing Wars when the Dzungar Khanate was conquered by the Qing dynasty, and lasted until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912. The post of General of Ili was established to govern the whole of Xinjiang and reported to the Lifan Yuan, a Qing government agency that oversaw the empire's frontier regions. Xinjiang was turned into a province in 1884.
Christianity is a minority religion in the Xinjiang region of the People's Republic of China. The dominant ethnic group, the Uyghur, are predominantly Muslim and very few are known to be Christian. Christianity in Xinjiang is the religion of 1% of the population according to the Chinese General Social Survey of 2009.
Chris Hann is a British social anthropologist who has done field research in socialist and post-socialist Eastern Europe and the Turkic-speaking world. His main theoretical interests lie in economic anthropology, religion, and long-term history. After holding university posts in Cambridge and Canterbury, UK, Hann has worked since 1999 in Germany as one of the founding Directors of the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle/Saale.
In the 18th century, the Qing dynasty conquered Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin, uniting them as Xinjiang. Qing-rule negatively affected the position of women in society.
Han Chinese chauvinism is a political ideology that speaks out for the ethnic Han Chinese people and its uniqueness throughout human history. It differs from Chinese chauvinism, because it is only used in reference to people who are of Han Chinese ethnicity, the main ethnicity of China. Han chauvinists believe that the current influence from the West has downgraded the development of China's own cultural customs, and in response, it has become instrumental in leading the increasingly traditionalist movement, which was launched in 2001. Participants come together both online and in person in cities across China to revitalize their vision of the authentic “Great Han” and corresponding “real China” through traditional ethnic dress and Confucian ritual.