Yettishar

{{Main|Dungan Revolt (1862–1877)}}

{{more citations needed section|date=September 2020}}

By the 1860s, Xinjiang had been under Qing rule for a century. The area had been conquered in 1759 from the Dzungar KhanatePeter Perdue, China marches west: the Qing conquest of Central Eurasia. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2005. whose core population, the Oirats, subsequently became the targets of genocide. However, Xinjiang consisted mostly of semi-arid or desert lands, which were not attractive to potential Han settlers aside from a few traders. Consequently, Turkic peoples such as the Uyghurs settled in the area instead.

The Uyghurs were not known by their present name until the early 20th century. The Uzbeks that dwelled close to present-day Xinjiang were collectively called "Andijanis" or "Kokandis", while the Uyghurs in the Tarim Basin were known as "Turki", likely due to their Turkic language. There were also Uyghur immigrants residing in the Ili area who were called "Taranchi". The modern term "Uyghur" was assigned to the Turki by the then newly created Soviet Union in 1921 at a conference in Tashkent. As a result, sources from the period of the Dungan Revolt make no mentions of Uyghurs. The conflict was mainly an ethnic and religious war fought by Muslims (particularly Hui) in China's Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Ningxia and Gansu provinces, from 1862 to 1877.

Thousands of Muslim refugees from Shaanxi fled to Gansu. Some of them formed significant battalions in eastern Gansu, intending to reconquer their lands in Shaanxi. While the Hui rebels were preparing to attack Gansu and Shaanxi, Yakub Beg, an ethnic Uzbek or Tajik commander from the Kokand Khanate, fled from the Khanate in 1865 after losing Tashkent to the Russians, settled in Kashgar, and soon managed to take complete control of the oasis towns surrounding the Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang.

File:YakubBey.jpg]]

Yakub Beg was born in the town of Piskent, in the Khanate of Kokand (present-day Uzbekistan). During the Dungan Revolt, he conquered the Tarim Basin{{cite book|author=James A. Millward|title=Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA117|year=2007|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-13924-3|pages=117–}} and enthroned himself as the ruler of Yettishar when the Chinese were expelled from the region in 1864. During his short-lived reign, Yakub Beg entered into relations with the British and Russian Empires, and signed respective treaties with each. However, he failed to receive meaningful assistance from the two great powers when he was in need of their support against the Qing.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/achinesebiograp01gilegoog|title=A Chinese biographical dictionary, Volume 2|author=Herbert Allen Giles|year=1898|publisher=B. Quaritch|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/achinesebiograp01gilegoog/page/n912 894]|access-date=13 July 2011}}

Yakub Beg was given the title of "Athalik Ghazi" or "Champion Father of the Faithful" by the Emir of Bukhara in 1866. The Ottoman Sultan presented him with the title of Emir.{{cite book|last=Boulger|first=Demetrius Charles|title=The Life of Yakoob Beg, Athalik Ghazi and Badaulet, Ameer of Kashgar|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeyakoobbegat01boulgoog|year=1878|publisher=W. H. Allen|location=London}}{{rp|118, 220}}

Yakub Beg's rule was unpopular among the native population of Yettishar. One of his Kashgari subjects, a warrior and the son of a chieftain, described his rule with the following: "During Chinese rule there was everything; now there is nothing." A substantial decrease in trade also ensued during his years in power.{{cite book|title=The life of Yakoob Beg: Athalik ghazi, and Badaulet; Ameer of Kashgar|author=Demetrius Charles de Kavanagh Boulger|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeyakoobbegat01boulgoog|quote=. As one of them expressed it, in pathetic language, "During the Chinese rule there was everything; there is nothing now." The speaker of that sentence was no merchant, who might have been expected to be depressed by the falling-off in trade, but a warrior and a chieftain's son and heir. If to him the military system of Yakoob Beg seemed unsatisfactory and irksome, what must it have appeared to those more peaceful subjects to whom merchandise and barter were as the breath of their nostrils?|year=1878|access-date=18 January 2012|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifeyakoobbegat01boulgoog/page/n170 152]|publisher=W. H. Allen}} Yakub Beg was disliked by his Turkic subjects, who were with heavy taxes and a harsh interpretation of Sharia.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5LgjunIn1CEC&pg=PA449 |title=A history of China|author=Wolfram Eberhard|year=1966|publisher=Plain Label Books|page=449|isbn=1-60303-420-X|access-date=30 November 2010}}{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/chinaslastnomads0000bens |url-access=registration |title=China's last Nomads: the history and culture of China's Kazaks|author1=Linda Benson |author2=Ingvar Svanberg |year=1998|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|page=[https://archive.org/details/chinaslastnomads0000bens/page/19 19]|isbn=1-56324-782-8|access-date=30 November 2010}}

South Korean historian Hodong Kim argues that Yakub Beg's disastrous and inexact commands failed the locals and they in turn welcomed the return of Chinese troops.{{rp|172}} Qing general Zuo Zongtang wrote that: "The Andijanis are tyrannical to their people; government troops should comfort them with benevolence. The Andijanis are greedy in extorting from the people; government troops should rectify this by being generous."{{cite book|author=John King Fairbank|title=The Cambridge History of China: Late Chʻing, 1800–1911, pt. 2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pEfWaxPhdnIC&pg=PA221|year=1978|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-22029-3|pages=221–}}

{{main|Qing reconquest of Xinjiang}}

File:Yarkand Governor's Guard.jpg

File:Хотанские уйгуры, Йеттишяр.jpg

In the late 1870s, the Qing decided to reconquer Xinjiang with Zuo Zongtang, previously a general in the Xiang Army, as commander-in-chief. His subordinates were the Han General Liu Jintang and Manchu leader Jin Shun.{{rp|240|quote=Meanwhile, under Liu Chin-t'ang and the Manchu General Chin-shun, Tso's offensive in Sinkiang had started.}} As General Zuo moved into Xinjiang to crush the Muslims under Yakub Beg, he was joined by Dungan Khufiyya Sufi General Ma Anliang and his forces, which were composed entirely of Dungan Muslims.{{cite book|title=Tso Tsung-tʼang and the Muslims: statecraft in northwest China, 1868–1880|author=Lanny B. Fields|year=1978|publisher=Limestone Press|page=81|isbn=0-919642-85-3}} In addition, General Dong Fuxiang had an army of both Han and Dungan people, and his army took the Kashgar and Khotan areas during the reconquest.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4EqRBIz9GtgC&pg=PA72|title=Ethnicity and the military in Asia|author=DeWitt C. Ellinwood|year=1981|publisher=Transaction Publishers|page=72|isbn=0-87855-387-8|access-date=28 June 2010}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AtduqAtBzegC&pg=PA176|title=Holy war in China: the Muslim rebellion and state in Chinese Central Asia, 1864-1877|author=Ho-dong Kim|year=2004|publisher=Stanford University Press|page=176|isbn=0-8047-4884-5|access-date=28 June 2010}} The Shaanxi Gedimu Dungan Generals Cui Wei and Hua Decai, who had defected back to the Qing, also joined General Zuo's attack on Yakub Beg's forces.{{cite journal|last=Garnaut|first=Anthony|title=From Yunnan to Xinjiang:Governor Yang Zengxin and his Dungan Generals|year=2008|journal=Études orientales|issue=25|publisher=Pacific and Asian History, Australian National University|url=http://www.ouigour.fr/recherches_et_analyses/Garnautpage_93.pdf|access-date=14 July 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110721015040/http://www.ouigour.fr/recherches_et_analyses/Garnautpage_93.pdf|archive-date=21 July 2011}}

General Zuo implemented a conciliatory policy toward the Muslim rebels, pardoning those who did not rebel and surrendered if they had joined Yakub Beg's forces only for religious reasons. Rebels received rewards for defecting and assisting the Qing against their former compatriots. General Zuo informed General Zhang Yao that the Andijanis (i.e. Yakub Beg's forces) had mistreated the local populace, and he should therefore treat the locals "with benevolence" to win their favour.{{cite book|editor-first1=John King |editor-last1=Fairbank|editor-first2=Kwang-Ching |editor-last2=Liu |editor-first3=Denis Crispin |editor-last3=Twitchett|year=1980|editor1-link=John K. Fairbank|editor2-link=Kwang-Ching Liu|editor3-link=Denis Twitchett|title=Late Ch'ing, 1800–1911|series=Volume 11, Part 2 of The Cambridge History of China Series|edition=illustrated|isbn=0-521-22029-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pEfWaxPhdnIC|access-date=18 January 2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}{{rp|241]|quote=From Su-chou, Tso wrote to Chang Yueh, who was to leave Hami on an invasion of Turfan, saying it was good policy to treat the inhabitants of southern Sinkiang well. 'The Andijanis are tyrannical to their people; government troops should comfort them with benevolence. The Andijanis are greedy in extorting from the people; the government troops should rectify this by being generous.'}} Zuo wrote that the main targets were only the "die-hard partisans" and their leaders, Yakub Beg and Bai Yanhu.{{rp|241|quote=To Liu Chin-t'ang, Tso wrote that the two chief enemies to catch were Ya'qub Beg and Pai Yen-hu along with their 'diehard partisans' (ssu-tang).}} A Russian wrote that soldiers under General Liu "acted very judiciously with regard to the prisoners whom he took{{nbsp}}... His treatment of these men was calculated to have a good influence in favour of the Chinese."{{rp|241|quote=Tso did not find fault with the indigenous inhabitants of Altishahr. After the short Ta-fan-ch'eng campaign. Liu Chin-t'ang was reported by the Russians to have 'acted very judiciously with regard to the prisoners whom he took{{nbsp}}... His treatment of these men was calculated to have a good influence in favour of the Chinese.'}} In contrast to General Zuo, the Manchu commander Dorongga viewed all Muslims as the enemy and sought to indiscriminately massacre them.

General Liu's army had modern German artillery, which Jin's forces lacked; Jin's advance was consequently not as rapid as Liu's. After Liu bombarded Kumuti, rebel casualties numbered 6,000 dead while Bai Yanhu was forced to flee. Thereafter Qing forces entered Ürümqi unopposed. Zuo wrote that Yakub Beg's soldiers had modern Western weapons but were cowardly: "The Andijani chieftain Yakub Beg has fairly good firearms. He has foreign rifles and foreign guns, including cannon using explosive shells [Kai Hua Pao]; but his are not as good nor as effective as those in the possession of our government forces. His men are not good marksmen, and when repulsed they simply ran away."{{rp|241|quote=In a belt of towns north of Urumchi, the Sinkiang Tungans made their last stand as a cohesive group. The heavily walled city of Ku-mu-ti, fifteen miles north-east of Urumchi, was attacked by Liu Chin-t'ang's big German guns. Tso reported that 6,000 Muslims were killed and 215 captured; only a few, including Pai Yen-hu, escaped. The very next day, on 18 August, Urumchi fell without resistance … Tso, who directed battles from his headquarters at Su-chou, noted in a letter to a colleague: 'The Andijani chieftain [Ya'qub Beg] has fairly good firearms. He has foreign rifles and foreign guns, including cannon using explosive shells [k'ai-hua p'ao]; but his are not as good nor as effective as those in the possession of our government forces. His men are not good marksmen, and when repulsed they simply ran away.'}}

In December 1877, all of Kashgar was reconquered. Muhammad Ayub and his Dungan detachments took refuge in Russian possessions. Qing rule was restored over all of Xinjiang, except for the Ili region, which was returned by Russia to China under the 1881 Treaty of Saint Petersburg.{{cite book|title=Historical Atlas of the 19th Century World, 1783–1914|year=1998|publisher=Barnes & Noble Books|isbn=978-0-7607-3203-8|page=519}}

{{main|Yakub Beg of Yettishar#Death}}

The manner of Yakub Beg's death is unclear. The Times of London and the Russian Turkestan Gazette both reported that he had died after a short illness.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AtduqAtBzegC&pg=PA167|title=Holy War in China: The Muslim Rebellion and State in Chinese Central Asia, 1864–1877|last=Kim|first=Hodong|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=2004|isbn=9780804767231}}{{rp|167–169}} The contemporaneous historian Musa Sayrami (1836–1917) states that he was poisoned on 30 May 1877 in Korla by the former hakim (local city ruler) of Yarkand, Niyaz Hakim Beg, after the latter conspired with Qing forces in Dzungaria.{{rp|167–169}} However, Niyaz Beg himself, in a letter to the Qing authorities, denied his involvement in the death of Yakub Beg, and claimed that the Yettishar ruler committed suicide.{{rp|167–169}} Some say that he was killed in battle with the Chinese.{{cite web

|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/10/nc/ht10nc.htm

|title=Central and North Asia, 1800–1900 A.D.

|year=2006

|access-date=14 December 2006

|publisher=metmuseum.org

|archive-date=14 December 2006

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061214003017/http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/10/nc/ht10nc.htm

|url-status=dead

}} According to South Korean historian Hodong Kim, most scholars agree that natural death (of a stroke) is the most plausible explanation.{{rp|167–169}}

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Category:Xinjiang

Category:Former countries in Chinese history

Category:1865 by country

Category:Vassal states of the Ottoman Empire