Burhan Shahidi

Burhan Shahidi was born in 1894 in the Russian Kazan Governorate to a Tatar family. His family was poor and he received little schooling in his early years. In 1912, after the Qing Dynasty was overthrown, he accompanied Tatar merchants to Dihua (now Ürümqi) in Xinjiang and worked as an apprentice and store-clerk.(Chinese) [http://www.xyscnet.com/html/xiyangwenxin/shenghuoxisu/2010/1101/3028.html "新疆风云人物 数朝元老包尔汉"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180823210622/http://www.xyscnet.com/html/xiyangwenxin/shenghuoxisu/2010/1101/3028.html |date=23 August 2018 }} 1 November 2010

File:Burhan Shahidi2.jpg

In 1914, he was able to apply and receive Chinese citizenship from the Republic of China on account of his family's ancestry.(Chinese) [http://www.globalview.cn/ReadNews.asp?NewsID=22591 "包尔汉率新疆省政府起义始末" 《青年参考》 2009-09-01] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101129082746/http://www.globalview.cn/ReadNews.asp?NewsID=22591 |date=29 November 2010 }} He spoke Tatar, Uyghur, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Turkish and some Arabic and acted as the interpreter for Yang Zengxin, the leader of Xinjiang at the time. Jadid leader Ismail Gasprinski inspired Shahidi.{{cite book|author=James A. Millward|title=Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hG-iQwPn86EC&pg=PA174|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-13924-3|pages=174}}

In 1929, he was sent to Weimar Germany by Xinjiang's next leader Jin Shuren and studied political-economy in Berlin. He returned to Xinjiang in 1933 and held a number of roles in the provincial government including manager of a land development company.{{cite book | title=当代中国著名民族学家百人小传 | publisher=中央民族大学出版社 | series=民族经济学文库 | year=2006 | isbn=978-7-81056-979-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qumAAAAAIAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=8}} He played a key role in the Xinjiang Nationalities Congress of 1934. At this Congress, the ethnonym Uyghur was adopted to describe the majority Turkic Muslims in the oases of the Tarim Basin.Gladney 2004: 217

In 1935, he became a member of the Xinjiang People's Anti-Imperialist Federation ({{lang-zh|新疆民众反帝联合会}}),{{cite book | title=新疆与祖国关系史论 | publisher=Xinjiang People's Press | year=2008 | isbn=978-7-228-12092-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1FYfAQAAMAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=215}} initially serving as deputy minister of the Popular Department, and subsequently as acting vice-chairman of the Federation in 1936. During this time, he met Yu Xiusong, a CCP member and the chairman of the Federation, and began to study the history of the CPC's struggles, as well as its principles and objectives.{{cite book | title=开国元勋: 共和国首屆政要纪实 | publisher=Contemporary China Publishing House | issue=第 2 卷 | year=2002 | isbn=978-7-80092-867-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IwlgAAAAIAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=1575}}

In 1937, he was dispatched by the next governor, Sheng Shicai, to the Soviet Union to serve as a consular official in the border district of Zaysan. The following year, he was recalled by Sheng and imprisoned until 1944.{{cite book | author=中国社会科学院. 近代史硏究所 | title=民国人物传 | publisher=中华书局 | series=中华民国史资料丛稿 | issue=第 11 卷 | year=1978 | isbn=978-7-101-02394-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GnnTAAAAMAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=68}}{{cite book | title=新中国第一代: 省(市, 区)委书记, 省(市, 区)长卷 | publisher=湖南人民出版社 | issue=第 2 卷 | year=1999 | isbn=978-7-5438-2135-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vo66AAAAIAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=453}} While in prison, Shahidi wrote a Uyghur-Chinese-Russian Dictionary and translated Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principles into Uyghur.{{cite book | author=中国人民政治协商会议. 新疆维吾尔自治区委员会. 文史资料研究委员会 | title=新疆文史资料选辑 | publisher=Xinjiang People's Press | issue=第 20 卷 | year=1985 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ij8FAAAAMAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=73}}

File:新疆汉族文化促进总会成立.jpg (1st row, 3rd from left).]]

He was released by Wu Zhongxin, the Chinese Nationalist official who replaced Sheng Shicai. In 1946, Shahidi became the vice-chairman of a provincial coalition government formed between the Chinese Nationalists and the revolutionaries who had founded the Second East Turkestan Republic (Second ETR) in the "Three Districts".Benson 1990: 63, 70 He was considered a political moderate between the Nationalist Chinese and Second ETR members of the coalition.Benson 1990: 63

In 1947, Shahidi was transferred to Nanjing and became an official in the central government under Chiang Kai-shek. Later that year, he led a Xinjiang performance troupe to Taiwan and toured Keelung, Taipei, Taichung, and Kaoshiung. The tour came shortly after the February 28 Incident, which left many islanders hostile to mainlanders. Shahidi gave speeches that appealed to national unity.

In 1948, he returned to Xinjiang and became the president of the Xinjiang Academy, the precursor to the Xinjiang University. He favored Chinese nationalism and disagreed with Turkic nationalist positions of Muhammad Amin Bughra. In January 1949, he replaced Masud Sabri as the chairman of Xinjiang Provincial Government.Benson 1990: 155 Sabri was anti-Soviet and opposed the Soviet-backed Ehmetjan Qasim (Akhmedjan Kasimov), who was the vice-chairman of the provincial government.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KWHREtBHNqYC&q=masud+sabri+uighur+kuomintang+connections|title=Biographical Dictionary of Republican China, Volume 1|author=Howard L. Boorman|editor=Howard L. Boorman |editor2=Richard C. Howard|year=1967|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-08955-5|page=4|access-date=6 June 2011}} He helped stabilize the province's finances, which was ravaged by the spread of inflation throughout Nationalist China, by restoring the local currency.Starr 2004: 85 Anti-Soviet sentiment was espoused by Isa Yusuf Alptekin while Pro Soviet sentiment was espoused by Shahidi. The Soviets were angered by Isa.{{cite book|author1=Jeremy Brown|author2=Paul Pickowicz|title=Dilemmas of Victory: The Early Years of the People's Republic of China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SK7Jdfnf9RIC&pg=PA188|year=2007|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-02616-2|pages=188–}}

In September of that year, he negotiated with Deng Liqun, the Chinese Communist representative sent by Mao Zedong to the province during the waning days of the Chinese Civil War. On 26 September, Shahidi joined Nationalist general Tao Zhiyue in announcing the surrender of the province to the People's Liberation Army, paving the way for the "peaceful liberation" of Xinjiang. A week later, the People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded in Beijing.{{cite book | author=《统一战线人物志》编写组 | title=统一战线人物志 | publisher=华文出版社 | issue=第 1 卷 | year=2007 | isbn=978-7-5075-1930-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mndKAQAAIAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=363}}

File:The leaders of CCP with Saifuddin Azizi, Burhan Shahidi, Deng Liqun.jpg, Liu Shaoqi, Saifuddin Azizi, Mao Zedong, Burhan Shahidi, Zhou Enlai, Deng Liqun and Delin (Sibo translator of Saifuddin).]]

On 17 December 1949, the Xinjiang Provincial People's Government was established, and Shahidi became the chairman. Saifuddin Azizi was the deputy chairman. He was introduced to the Chinese Communist Party by Wang Zhen and Xu Liqing at the end of the year.{{cite book | author=中国人民革命军事博物馆 | title=軍事史林 | publisher=军事史林杂志社 | year=2004 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VZflAAAAMAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=35}}{{cite book | title=中国共产党与新疆民族问题 | publisher=Xinjiang People's Press | year=2004 | isbn=978-7-228-09185-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mhlBAAAAMAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=43}} In December, he joined the Northwest Military and Political Committee, assumed the role of Chairman of the Xinjiang Provincial People's Government, and became President of the Xinjiang Academy. He chaired the First Committee of the Whole of the Xinjiang Provincial People's Government, which ratified the “Current Policy of Governance of the Xinjiang Provincial People's Government Committee.”{{cite book | author=新疆维吾尔自治区地方志编纂委员会 | title=新疆通志: 共产党志. 第十四卷 | publisher=Xinjiang People's Press | series=新疆维吾尔自治区地方志丛书 | year=2001 | isbn=978-7-228-06380-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E7bmAAAAMAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=395}} In 1952, he headed the preparatory committee to create the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).

File:Xi Zhongxun, Saifuddin Azizi, Burhan Shahidi.jpg (middle) and Saifuddin Azizi (left) in July 1952, after successfully quelling the Ospan Batyr insurgency.]]

Shahidi was a co-founder and the first chairman of the Islamic Association of China. In this capacity, he became an able diplomat in the PRC's outreach to the Islamic world.Shichor 1979: 19, 20 & 59 In February 1956, he led a cultural and religious delegation on a tour of Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Syria and Lebanon. As a direct result of his diplomatic work, Egypt under President Gamal Abdel Nasser in May 1956 became the first country in Middle East to recognize the PRC and sever ties with the Republic of China on Taiwan. It was the first country to recognize Beijing in six years and the recognition broke the diplomatic blockade imposed by the West. In July, he returned to the region leading China's hajj mission to Saudi Arabia, where he met King Saud and visited King Hussein of Jordan, though neither country had diplomatic relations with the PRC.Gladney 1999: 138 On the same trip, he also met with President Nazim al-Kudsi of Syria and Amir Muhammad al-Badr of North Yemen.Shichor 1979: 44-45 Both countries switched their recognition to the PRC in 1956.

On 4 November 1956, Shahidi and Hu Yaobang, Guo Moruo helped lead a massive public rally and parade in Beijing with over 400,000 people in Tiananmen Square to support Egypt and denounce Anglo-French imperialism in the Suez Crisis.{{cite book | author=《中华人民共和国日史》 编委会 | title=中华人民共和国日史 | publisher=四川人民出版社 | issue=第 7 卷 | year=2003 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L4BeAAAAIAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=352}} In the spring of 1959, he led a delegation to Iraq to support Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim who had overthrown the Iraqi monarchy the previous year and founded a pro-socialist republic.{{cite book | title=中华人民共和国外交大事记 | publisher=World Affairs Press | issue=第 2 卷 | year=1997 | isbn=978-7-5012-1493-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DHi6AAAAIAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=99}}(Chinese with photographs) [http://www.chinasights.com/shtml/h_prc_1959_yilake.shtml Chinainsights.com] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161111061752/http://www.chinasights.com/shtml/h_prc_1959_yilake.shtml |date=11 November 2016 }} Last Accessed 13 November 2010Shichor 1979: 87 He assumed the presidency of Xinjiang University in October 1960.{{cite book | title=中国西北少数民族通史 | publisher=民族出版社 | issue=第 13 卷 | year=2009 | isbn=978-7-105-09929-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WCgRAQAAMAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=511}}

In February 1962, he served as the director of the Institute of Ethnic Studies at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In April, he assumed the role of vice-president of the Asian-African Society of China.{{cite book | title=曲折与发展: 1962-1965 | publisher=吉林人民出版社 | series=中华人民共和国实录 | year=1994 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5_FdAAAAIAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=678}} Following the Yi–Ta incident in Xinjiang in June–July, he was instructed to return to Xinjiang to aid the CCP Xinjiang Autonomous Region in managing the incident's repercussions.{{cite book | author=新疆维吾尔自治区地方志编纂委员会 | title=新疆通志: 共产党志. 第十四卷 | publisher=Xinjiang People's Press | series=新疆维吾尔自治区地方志丛书 | year=2001 | isbn=978-7-228-06380-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E7bmAAAAMAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=454}}

Shahidi supervised Chinese Muslim participation in the hajj until the Cultural Revolution, when he was accused of being a collaborator and a foreigner, and imprisoned for eight years. In January 1980, he assumed the presidency of the China Turkic Language Research Society ({{lang-zh|中国突厥语研究会}}); in March, he was rehabilitated and reinstated as a CCP member; in April, he was appointed honorary president of the Islamic Association of China; in August, he was elected honorary president of the China Ethnic Ancient Texts and Writings Research Society ({{lang-zh|中国民族古文字研究会}});{{cite book | last=Fang | first=Y. | author2=中国社会科学院. 民族学与人类学研究所 | author3=民族出版社 | author4=China Social Sciences Press | title=中国民族硏究年鉴 | publisher=中央民族出版社 | year=1999 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xmOFAAAAIAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=136}} and in September, he was co-opted as a vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC),{{cite book | title=中国共产党历史大辞典 | publisher=中国国际广播出版社 | year=1991 | isbn=978-7-80035-874-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LS-4AAAAIAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=591}} and then served as a vice-chairman of the second, third, fifth, sixth and seventh Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee.{{cite book | title=中国共产党组织史资料汇编: 领异机构沿革和成员名录(1大至14大) | publisher=中共中央党校出版社 | year=1995 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qv0MAAAAYAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=}} His memoir, Fifty Years in Xinjiang ({{lang-zh|《新疆五十年》}}) was published in 1984.{{cite book | title=文献与综述：中华学人文革论文集（一） | publisher=Remembering Publishing, LLC | year=2020 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PQnfEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA244 | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=244}}

In 1985, to support the return of the critically endangered Père David's deer to China, Shahidi helped found and chair the China Milu Foundation,{{cite book | author=北京博物馆学会 | title=北京博物馆年鉴 | publisher=北京燕山出版社 | year=1989 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SsrmAAAAIAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=614}} now known as the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation.[http://www.cbcgdf.org/about.aspx About CBCGDF, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation] Accessed 25 April 2013{{cite book | title=中国环境科学学会: 当代中国环境科技社团 | publisher=中國環境科學出版社 | year=1992 | isbn=978-7-80093-120-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gfUZAAAAMAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=344}}{{cite book | title=中国民间组织30年: 走向公民社会, 1978-2008 | publisher=社会科学文献出版社 | series=改革开放研究丛书 | year=2008 | isbn=978-7-5097-0384-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1QcSAQAAMAAJ | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03 | page=157}}

He died on 27 August 1989 in Beijing and is buried in Ürümqi Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery, the foothills of the Tian Shan in Xinjiang.{{cite web | title= 包尔汉 | website=中国共产党新闻网--人民网 | date=2013-02-26 | url=http://cpc.people.com.cn/daohang/n/2013/0226/c357214-20604566.html | language=zh | access-date=2025-01-03}}

• Chinese Tatars

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book | last= Benson | first= Linda | year= 1990 | title= The Ili Rebellion: the Moslem challenge to Chinese authority in Xinjiang, 1944–1949 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=suuXIhetjZcC | publisher= M.E. Sharpe | isbn= 978-0-87332-509-7 | ref=Benson }}
• {{cite book | last = Gladney | first = Dru C. | chapter = The Salafiyya Movement in Northwest China: Islamic Fundamentalism among the Muslim Chinese? | url = http://www.drugladney.com/articles/salafiyya.pdf | year = 1999 | title = Muslim Diversity: Local Islam in Global Contexts | editor = Leif Manger | location = Surrey | number = 26 | pages = 102–149 | publisher = Curzon Press | series = Nordic Institute of Asian Studies | isbn = 978-0-7007-1104-8 | ref = Gladney1999 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060720063645/http://www.drugladney.com/articles/salafiyya.pdf | archive-date = 20 July 2006 }}
• {{cite book | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ddddmhXofKoC&pg=PA217 |title=Dislocating China: reflections on Muslims, minorities, and other subaltern subjects |first=Dru C. |last=Gladney |year=2004 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |ref=Gladney2004 |isbn=978-0-226-29775-0 }}
• {{cite book |last= Shichor |first= Yitzhak |year= 1979 |title= The Middle East in China's Foreign Policy, 1949–1977d |url= https://archive.org/details/middleeastinchin0000shic |publisher= Cambridge University Press |location= Cambridge |isbn= 978-0-521-22214-3 |ref= Shichor |url-access= registration }}
• {{cite book |last=Starr |first=Frederick |year=1985 |title = Xinjiang: China's Muslim borderland |chapter = Chapter 3. Political History and Strategies of Control, 1884–1978 James A. Millward and Nabijan Tursun |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FHq7lb1Pb8UC |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |location=Armonk |isbn= 978-0-7656-1317-2 |ref=Starr}}

{{refend}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Burhan Shahidi}}

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{{Succession box | before = none | title = Co-Vice Chairman of the Xinjiang Provincial Coalition Government (along with Ehmetjan Qasim)| years = 1946–1947| after = Abdul Kerim Han Maksum}}

{{Succession box | before = Masud Sabri | title = Chairman of the Xinjiang Provincial Coalition Government | years = Jan.–Dec. 1949 | after = none}}

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{{s-title |title = Chairman of the Xinjiang Provincial People's Government | years = Dec. 1949 – 1955 }}

{{s-after |after = Saifuddin Azizi |as = Chairman of the XUAR People's Committee }}

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{{Xinjiang leaders}}

{{CPPCC Vice-Chairpersons}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shahidi, Burhan}}

Category:1894 births

Category:1989 deaths

Category:People from Tatarstan

Category:People from Tetyushsky Uyezd

Category:Volga Tatar people

Category:Chinese Communist Party politicians

Category:Vice chairpersons of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

Category:Political office-holders in Xinjiang

Category:Jadids

Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to China

Category:Chinese Tatars

Category:Chairmen of the CPPCC Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Committee

Category:Delegates to the 2nd National People's Congress

Category:Delegates to the 3rd National People's Congress

Category:Members of the 1st Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

Category:Members of the 2nd Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference

Category:Members of the 4th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference