TURKESTAN

Chinese conflict The Dungan revolt (18621877) and Panthay Rebellion (18561873) by the Hui were also set off by racial antagonism and class warfare, rather than the mistaken assumption that it was all due to Islam that the rebellions [76] broke out. During the Dungan revolt fighting broke out between Uyghurs and Hui. In 1936, after Sheng Shicai expelled 20,000 Kazakhs from Xinjiang to Qinghai, the Hui led by General Ma [77][78] Bufang massacred their fellow Muslims, the Kazakhs, until there were 135 of them left. Tensions with Uyghurs and Hui arose because Qing and Republican Chinese authorities used Hui troops and officials [79] to dominate the Uyghurs and crush Uyghur revolts. Xinjiang's Hui population increased by over 520 percent between 1940 and 1982, an average annual growth of 4.4 percent, while the Uyghur population only grew at 1.7 percent. This dramatic increase in Hui population led inevitably to significant tensions between the Hui and Uyghur Muslim populations. Some old Uyghurs in Kashgar remember that the Hui army at the Battle of Kashgar (1934) massacred 2,000 to 8,000 Uyghurs, which causes tension as more Hui moved into Kashgar from other parts [80] of China. Some Hui criticizeUyghur separatism, and generally do not want to get involved in conflict in other [81] countries over Islam for fear of being perceived as radical. Hui and Uyghur separate from each other, praying [82] and attending different mosques. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_war] Policies towards Muslims Lenin in his earlier writings had professed a desire to eliminate Islam, while recognizing the importance of using [53] Muslim support for their cause. After the revolution, Lenin had promised national autonomy and religious freedom for Muslims. Muslim reformists had emphasized women's role in the mosque. Sultan Galiev had claimed that Islam had stronger civicpolitical motives than other faiths and should be treated more cautiously by the communists as well as that there [63] should be very limited propaganda against them with no direct attacks.
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Muslims had their own People's Commisariat for Muslim Affairs established in 1918 underneath the administration of mullah Nur-Vakhitov (the only clerical person to ever occupy a state office in Soviet History). Both Muslims and Protestants enjoyed relative toleration until 19281929 and were allowed activities banned to the Orthodox church [64] (including publications, seminaries, youth work, etc.) The soviets offered the Muslims free public education on a [53] massive scale, which had not been available under the tsars. Through this the region of Central Asia, which had formerly been one of the least educated areas of the Russian empire, would become comparable to the rest of the [53] country. The underdeveloped region was also industrialized at an impressive rate. The Baku Muslim clergy in 1923 praised the Soviet regime for having saved Persia and Turkey from 'predatory [65] England'. Sultan Galiev was the leader of a group of Central Asian Marxists that attempted to reform Islam to make it more modern as well as to support atheism in the Central Asian states. He was allied with Lenin, who used him as an intermediary between the government and the peoples of Central Asia. Galiev had controversial ideas within the communist party about creating an autonomous communist state in the Muslim areas of Central Asia that would be called Turkestan. The party reacted against this idea of a unified and autonomous Muslim state by choosing to divide Central Asia into different republics (Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) [53] in 1924. Many militant Muslims who had originally sided with the bolsheviks were upset by this turn of [citation needed] events . By the mid 1920s Islamic courts became irrelevant to criminal or civil suits, and they were replaced by Soviet courts. Islamic courts were rapidly eliminated and Islamic studies were removed from education, along with other religious teaching throughout the country. About 8000 Islamic schools existed in Central Asria prior to the revolution, and by [53] 1928 all of them had been shut down. The language and alphabet reforms also cut off the people of Central Asia from Arabic literature. Galievs ideas would be attacked in the late 1920s and the anti-religious campaign would reject any policy of special treatment for Islam, and would attack it alongside the other religions. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USSR_anti-religious_campaign_(1921%E2%80%931928)]

Turkestan, spelled also as Turkistan, literally means "Land of the Turks". The term Turkestan is of Persian origin and was believed to have never been in use to denote a single nation [1] although it was at one time ruled by an Emperor. It was first used by Persian geographers to describe the place of [2] Turkish peoples. After Persia had been considerably weakened by its defeat in 1860, Imperial Russia stepped up its campaign to wrest full control over the Central Asian region from Persian dominance and on their way southward, the Russians took the city of Turkestan (in present day Kazakhstan) in 1864. Mistaking its name for that [2][3] of the entire region, they adopted the appellation of "Turkestan" for their new territory. Today the term is used to describe a region which is inhabited mainly by Turkic peoples in Central Asia. It includes present[4][5] day Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang. Many would also include Turkic regions of Russia (Tatarstan & parts of Siberia) as well. Turkestan was at one time ruled by Emperor Gustasp. Gustap reigned at the time of Zoroaster's birth, which is [7] prior to 583 B.C. Additional documents indicate that Turkestan's history dates back to at least the third millennium BC. Many artifacts were produced in that period, and much trade was conducted. The region was a focal point for cultural diffusion, as the Silk Road traversed it. Turkestan covers the area of Central Asia and acquired its "Turkic" character from the 4th to 6th centuries AD with the incipient Turkic expansion.
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Turkic sagas, such as the Ergenekon legend, and written sources such as the Orkhon Inscriptions state that Turkic peoples originated in the nearby Altay Mountains, and, through nomadic settlement, started their long journey westwards. Huns conquered the area after they conquered Kashgaria in the early 2nd century BC. With the [8] dissolution of the Huns' empire, Chinese rulers took over Eastern Turkestan. Arab forces captured it in the 8th century. The Persian Samanid dynasty subsequently conquered it and the area experienced economic [8] success. The entire territory was held at various times by Turkic forces, such as the Gktrks until the conquest by Genghis Khan and the Mongols in 1220. Genghis Khan gave the territory to his son, Chagatai and the area [8] [8] became the Chagatai Khanate. Timur took over the area in 1369 and the area became the Timurid Empire. Known as Turan to Iranians, western Turkestan has also been known historically as Sogdiana, Ma wara'u'n-nahr (by its Arab conquerors), and Transoxiana by Western travellers. The latter two names refer to its position beyond the River Oxus when approached from the south, emphasizing Turkestan's long-standing relationship with Iran, the Persian Empires and the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates. The regions of Central Asia lying between Siberia on the north; Tibet (now China), British India (now Pakistan), Afghanistan, and Iran on the south; the Gobi Desert on the east; and the Caspian Sea on the west.[9] It has been referenced in many Turkic and Persian sagas and is an integral part of Turan.[citation needed] Oghuz Turks (also known as Turkmens), Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Khazars, Kyrgyz, Hazara and Uyghurs are some of the Turkic inhabitants of the region who, as history progressed, have spread further into Eurasia forming such Turkic nations as Turkey and Azerbaijan, and subnational regions like Tatarstan in Russia and Crimea in Ukraine. Tajiks and Russians form sizable non-Turkic minorities. It is subdivided into Afghan Turkestan and Russian Turkestan in the West, and Xinjiang (previously Chinese Turkestan) in the East. The Tian Shan and Pamir ranges form a rough division between the latter two.[citation needed]' The region became part of the Russian Empire in the 1860s, and is thus sometimes called Russian Turkestan or the (Turkestanskii Krai). After the Russian Revolution, a Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union was created, which was eventually split into the Kazakh SSR (Kazakhstan), Kyrgyz SSR (Kyrgyzstan), Tajik SSR (Tajikistan), Turkmen SSR (Turkmenistan) and Uzbek SSR (Uzbekistan). During the course of their World War II attempts to occupy much of the western USSR, the government of Nazi Germany intended to establish a German-ruled civil regime in Soviet-held Central Asia. Captured soldiers of Turkestani and/or Muslim backgrounds were drafted in large numbers into the Ostlegionen of the Wehrmacht, but aside from several air attacks on some industrial and military targets in the western parts of the region German forces never even approached the area, having been stopped at the Battle of Stalingrad. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Central Asian republics gained their independence. Eastern Turkestan was called the Western Regions in Chinese historic records. Turkestan has been experiencing Chinese influence largely due to Silk Road trading way. The first Chinese military campaigns in Turkestan dates to the Battle of Loulan in the 2nd century BC, and were largely successful. Nomadic empires that have held power in the region since are chronologically, the Xiongnu tribes, Uighur Empire, Turkic Kaganate, Kara-Khanid Khanate, Great Seljuk Empire, Mongol Empire, Golden Horde, and the Kazakh Khanate. Uighur tribes started to settle in the most east of Turkestan from the 8th century on after the collapse of Uighur Empire.

A summary of Classical sources on the Seres (Greek and Roman name of China) (essentially Pliny and Ptolemy) gives the following account: The region of the Seres is a vast and populous country, touching on the east the Ocean and the limits of the habitable world, and extending west nearly to Imaus and the confines of Bactria. The people are civilised men, of mild, just, and frugal temper, eschewing collisions with their neighbours, and even shy of close intercourse, but not averse to dispose of their own products, of which raw silk is the staple, but which include also silk stuffs, furs, and iron of remarkable quality. Henry Yule, Cathay and the Way Thither East Turkestan (also Eastern Turkistan, Chinese Turkestan, and other variants) is a controversial political term with multiple meanings depending on context and usage. Historically, the term was invented by Russian Turkologists in the 19th century to replace the term Chinese Turkestan, which referred to the Tarim Basin in the southwestern part of Xinjiang province of the Qing Dynasty. The medieval Arab toponym "Turkestan" and its derivatives were not used by the local population of the greater region, and China had its own name for an overlapping area since the Han Dynasty as Xiyu, with the parts controlled by China termed Xinjiang from the 18th century onward. The historical Uyghur name is Qurighar (; today, Qurighar Uyghur is co-used with Shinjang Uyghur by Uyghurs). Starting in the 20th century, Uyghur separatists and their supporters used East Turkestan (or "Uyghurstan") as an appellation for the whole of Xinjiang, or for a future independent state in present-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. They reject the name of Xinjiang because of an allegedly Chinese perspective reflected in the name and prefer East Turkestan to emphasize connection to other westerly Turkic groups. However, even in nationalist writing, East Turkestan retained its older, more narrow geographical meaning. In China, the term has negative connotations because of its origins in European colonialism and present use by militant groups. The government of China actively discourages its use.