China’s Silk Road - Historical Influence and Development in Xinjiang
Asian Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies,
,
Page 31-37
Abstract
Recently, the Silk Road became revived by the People’s Republic of China as the global economic power, including the contacts along its ancient routes. Beijing is aiming to reactivate the Silk Road that once linked China with Central and Southeast Asia, the Gulf States, Africa, and Europe. Many among them are nowadays Islamic states, in particular along the continental path. Taking this into account, the historic and archaeological heritage highlights the influence on nowadays’ economic, political, social, and ecological implications and consequences. Different ideologies are the main challenges for this new initiative. The present article focuses as a descriptive narrative on the history, development and position of Islam in Central Asia, mainly in Xinjiang and its inhabitants the Uyghurs. Uyghurs and Han share their history, not only by conflicts but also by trade and cultural exchange. The author’s field research (by archaeological surveys, as well as interviews with inhabitants) reflects the contradiction of those regions sometimes forgotten in the world, but on the other hand, becoming the center of global trade.
Keywords:
- Xinjiang
- Uyghur
- An Lushan
- Central Asia
- Silk Road
How to Cite
Feldbacher, R. (2020). China’s Silk Road - Historical Influence and Development in Xinjiang. Asian Journal of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, 3(2), 31-37. Retrieved from https://journalajl2c.com/index.php/AJL2C/article/view/30120
References
Gulacsi Z, BeDuhn J. It has to be emphasized that all religions went further east, finding fertile ground in imperial China’s capital. The Religion of Wirkak and Wiyusi: The Zoroastrian Iconographic Program on a Sogdian Sarcophagus from Sixth-Century Xi’an. Bulletin of the Asia Institute. 2016;26:1-32.
Plenty of written sources have been found, referring to a recent translation: Morano E. Manichaean Sogdian Cosmogonical Texts in Manichaean Script. In: Hao C, Editor. Competing Narratives between Nomadic People and Their Sedentary Neighbours. Szeged. 2019;195-205.
Zhang Z. The Second Jewish-Persian Letter, ca. 790 [trans.]. In: Hansen V. The Silk Road: A new history with documents. New York: Oxford University Press. 2017;381-382.
Dickens M. Multilingual Christian manuscripts from Turfan. Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies. 2009;9:22-42.
O'Brien B. It is worth to mention that Buddhism suffered persecution in mainland China from the 9th century on, though it thoroughly permeated Chinese culture and influenced its rival religions of Confucianism and Taoism. History of Buddhism in China: The First Thousand Years. Learn Religions; 2019.
Available:learnreligions.com/buddhism-in-china-the-first-thousand-years-450147
Their expansion went along with what is generally called “Mongolian Peace” (their term for peace, îlî or el also meant “submission”), see: Favereau M. The Mongol Peace and Global Medieval Eurasia, Realising Eurasia. In: Hann C, Editor. Empire and Connectivity during Three Millennia. Leipzig: Leipziger Univ.-Verlag; Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung. 2018;28(4):51.
Slobodník M. The early policy of Emperor Tang Dezong (779-805). Towards Inner Asia. Asian and African Studies. 1997;6(2): 184-187.
Wechsler HJ. T'ai-tsung (reign 624–49) the consolidator. In: Twitchett D, Editor. Sui and T'ang China, 589–906, Part 1. The Cambridge History of China 3. Cambridge University Press. 1979;220.
Ibd., 225.
Buddhism survived in some areas in Uyghuristan (Turfan and Qocho) during the Ming dynasty. After being converted to Islam, the descendants of the previously Buddhist Uyghurs in Turfan failed to retain memory of their ancestral legacy and falsely believed that the “infidel Kalmuks” (Dzungars) were the ones who built Buddhist monuments in their area. Kim K. Saintly Brokers: Uyghur Muslims, Trade, and the Making of Qing Central Asia, 1696-1814. ProQuest. 2008;75.
Tombs near Jiaohe date back to 300 BCE, with remains of Caucasians who maybe had been the first inhabitants. Interesting to overserve are the cultural ties: While the population of Kucha remained between the 5th century until the mid-7th chiefly Indo-Iranian in character, Gaochang gradually adapted the Tang aesthetics. Grousset R. The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press. 1970;98–99.
Its inhabitants became vassal of the Western Turks in the early 600s, until the Tang emperor Dezong controlled the Central Asian region, having conquered Turfan in 640 and Kucha in 648. Khotan was allied to the Tang. Skaff JK. Tang Military Culture and Its Inner Asian Influences. In: Nicola Di Cosmo, editor. Military Culture in Imperial China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2009;183–185. Hansen V. The Silk Road: A new history. Oxford University Press. 2012;211.
On the other hand, from 650 onward the Tibetans gained immensely in power, and pushed from the south into the Tarim basin. In 678 they inflicted a heavy defeat on the Chinese, and it costed the Tang decades of diplomatic effort before they attained, in 699, their aim of breaking up the Tibetans’ realm and destroying their power. Though, after the Chinese defeat by the Arabs, the Tibetans cut all communication between China and the West again in 766. Millward JA. Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang. Columbia University Press. 2007;33–41.
Inaba M. Arab soldiers in China at the time of the An-Shi Rebellion. The Memoirs of the Toyo Bunko. 2010;68:35-42.
The Chinese emperor, along with the Turkish, Arab, Indian and the Byzantine Roman rulers, were known to Islamic writers as the world’s “five great kings”. Biran M. The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian History: Between China and the Islamic World. Cambridge University Press. 2005;97.
Millward JA. Eurasian crossroads: A history of Xinjiang. Columbia University Press. 2007;55. Thum R. Modular history: Identity maintenance before Uyghur nationalism. The Journal of Asian Studies. The Association for Asian Studies. 2012b;71(3):632.
Di Castro AA, Vicziany M, Zhu X. The Kashgar Oasis in Buddhist and Pre Buddhist times: The archaeological and environmental record. In: Betts AVG, Vicziany M, Jia P, Di Castro AA, Editors. The Cultures of Ancient Xinjiang, Western China: Crossroads of the Silk Roads. Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. 2019;150, 153.
Buddhism lost territory to Islam during the Karakhanid reign around the Kashgar area, and when war ensued between Islamic Kashgar and Buddhist Khotan, it eventually ended in the conquest of Khotan by Kashgar. A Karakhanid even wrote about the conquest that had been described as Jihad (Holy War). Moriyasu T. Die Geschichte des uigurischen Manichäismus an der Seidenstrasse: Forschungen zu manichäischen Quellen und ihrem geschichtlichen Hintergrund. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. 2004;207. Michell G, Gollings J, Vicziany M, Tsui YH. Kashgar: Oasis City on China's Old Silk Road. Frances Lincoln. 2008;13.
A sinicized Khitan empire, until they had been usurped by the Naimans in 1211. Biran M. The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian History: Between China and the Islamic World. Cambridge University Press. 2005;2.
The Karakhanid heritage belongs to the most enduring cultural heritage among coexisting cultures in Central Asia from the 9th to the 13th centuries. Soucek 2000, Chapter 5. In some cases, the Karakhanids could rule under the suzerainty of the Kara-Khitai. Golden PB. Chapter 13 - The Karakhanids and Early Islam. In: Sinor D, editor. The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Cambridge University Press. 1990;357.
Biran 2005, 102; Millward. 2007;42.
Two major branches of the Turkic language family, the Chagatay and the Kypchak flourished under the Karakhanids and therefore combined nomadic Turkic culture with the Islamic one, most of the Central Asian regions until nowadays influenced; sedentary institutions spread east even into Gaochang / Kara-Khoja. Biran M. The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian History: Between China and the Islamic World. Cambridge University Press. 2005;96.
Ibd., 194-196.
Ramadan HM. Understanding Islamic Law: From Classical to Contemporary. Rowman Altamira. 2006;24-29.
Turkish rulers (Seljuk and Ottomans) belonged to the earliest adopters of the relatively more flexible Hanafi faith and introduced it by their eastward expansion through Central Asia and into South Asia. Nazeer A. Islam in Global History. Volume One: From the Death of Prophet Muhammed to the First World War. Xlibris. 2001;112-114.
Hallaq WB. An introduction to Islamic Law. Cambridge University Press. 2009;31.
That branch expanded mainly by maritime expansion into many East African coastal and Asian regions, particularly from the 12th through the 18th century. Pouwels RL. Horn and Crescent: Cultural Change and Traditional Islam. Cambridge University Press. 2002;88-90.
It is the moreover the earliest school of Islam in China. Lipman JN. Familiar Strangers: A history of Muslims in Northwest China. University of Washington Press; 1997.
Johns AH. Sufism in Southeast Asia: Reflections and reconsiderations. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 1995;26(1): 169–183.
The Sufism became introduced to China at the end of the Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Burckhardt T. Art of Islam: Language and Meaning. Bloomington: World Wisdom. 2009;223.
Bovingdon G. The Uighurs. Strangers in their own land. New York. 2010;11.
Jahanzeb K, Waseem K, Taimoor K. Central Asian Republics’ relations with its neighbors and the US. Journal of Management Info. 2016;12(1):8-13. Here mainly: 10.
Hakan A. The reconstruction of the name Yuezhi 月氏 / 月支. International Journal of Old Uyghur Studies. 2019;1(2):260-262.
More about the peoples of the past: Grousset R. The empire of the steppes: A history of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press. 1970;35-37.
Gorelova LM. Manchu grammar. Brill. 2002;49.
Nicolini-Zani M. La via radiosa per l’Oriente: I testi e la storia del primo incontro del cristianesimo con il mondo culturale e religioso cinese (secoli VII-IX). 2006;121.
Khan SM, Faisal Javaid F. Central Asia region: A hub of Chinese interest. WALIA. 2018;34(1):159-161.
During the period of Uighur literary language of Chagatai, a lot of Arabic and Persian words had been borrowed. In the later development, borrowed Arabic words had undergone some voice changes. Ayshemgul A. Chaghatay language is the bridge between Old Turkic and modern Uyghur language. Uluslararası Uygur Araştırmaları Dergisi 7. Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli Üniversitesi. 2016;26-32.
Plenty of written sources have been found, referring to a recent translation: Morano E. Manichaean Sogdian Cosmogonical Texts in Manichaean Script. In: Hao C, Editor. Competing Narratives between Nomadic People and Their Sedentary Neighbours. Szeged. 2019;195-205.
Zhang Z. The Second Jewish-Persian Letter, ca. 790 [trans.]. In: Hansen V. The Silk Road: A new history with documents. New York: Oxford University Press. 2017;381-382.
Dickens M. Multilingual Christian manuscripts from Turfan. Journal of the Canadian Society for Syriac Studies. 2009;9:22-42.
O'Brien B. It is worth to mention that Buddhism suffered persecution in mainland China from the 9th century on, though it thoroughly permeated Chinese culture and influenced its rival religions of Confucianism and Taoism. History of Buddhism in China: The First Thousand Years. Learn Religions; 2019.
Available:learnreligions.com/buddhism-in-china-the-first-thousand-years-450147
Their expansion went along with what is generally called “Mongolian Peace” (their term for peace, îlî or el also meant “submission”), see: Favereau M. The Mongol Peace and Global Medieval Eurasia, Realising Eurasia. In: Hann C, Editor. Empire and Connectivity during Three Millennia. Leipzig: Leipziger Univ.-Verlag; Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung. 2018;28(4):51.
Slobodník M. The early policy of Emperor Tang Dezong (779-805). Towards Inner Asia. Asian and African Studies. 1997;6(2): 184-187.
Wechsler HJ. T'ai-tsung (reign 624–49) the consolidator. In: Twitchett D, Editor. Sui and T'ang China, 589–906, Part 1. The Cambridge History of China 3. Cambridge University Press. 1979;220.
Ibd., 225.
Buddhism survived in some areas in Uyghuristan (Turfan and Qocho) during the Ming dynasty. After being converted to Islam, the descendants of the previously Buddhist Uyghurs in Turfan failed to retain memory of their ancestral legacy and falsely believed that the “infidel Kalmuks” (Dzungars) were the ones who built Buddhist monuments in their area. Kim K. Saintly Brokers: Uyghur Muslims, Trade, and the Making of Qing Central Asia, 1696-1814. ProQuest. 2008;75.
Tombs near Jiaohe date back to 300 BCE, with remains of Caucasians who maybe had been the first inhabitants. Interesting to overserve are the cultural ties: While the population of Kucha remained between the 5th century until the mid-7th chiefly Indo-Iranian in character, Gaochang gradually adapted the Tang aesthetics. Grousset R. The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press. 1970;98–99.
Its inhabitants became vassal of the Western Turks in the early 600s, until the Tang emperor Dezong controlled the Central Asian region, having conquered Turfan in 640 and Kucha in 648. Khotan was allied to the Tang. Skaff JK. Tang Military Culture and Its Inner Asian Influences. In: Nicola Di Cosmo, editor. Military Culture in Imperial China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 2009;183–185. Hansen V. The Silk Road: A new history. Oxford University Press. 2012;211.
On the other hand, from 650 onward the Tibetans gained immensely in power, and pushed from the south into the Tarim basin. In 678 they inflicted a heavy defeat on the Chinese, and it costed the Tang decades of diplomatic effort before they attained, in 699, their aim of breaking up the Tibetans’ realm and destroying their power. Though, after the Chinese defeat by the Arabs, the Tibetans cut all communication between China and the West again in 766. Millward JA. Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang. Columbia University Press. 2007;33–41.
Inaba M. Arab soldiers in China at the time of the An-Shi Rebellion. The Memoirs of the Toyo Bunko. 2010;68:35-42.
The Chinese emperor, along with the Turkish, Arab, Indian and the Byzantine Roman rulers, were known to Islamic writers as the world’s “five great kings”. Biran M. The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian History: Between China and the Islamic World. Cambridge University Press. 2005;97.
Millward JA. Eurasian crossroads: A history of Xinjiang. Columbia University Press. 2007;55. Thum R. Modular history: Identity maintenance before Uyghur nationalism. The Journal of Asian Studies. The Association for Asian Studies. 2012b;71(3):632.
Di Castro AA, Vicziany M, Zhu X. The Kashgar Oasis in Buddhist and Pre Buddhist times: The archaeological and environmental record. In: Betts AVG, Vicziany M, Jia P, Di Castro AA, Editors. The Cultures of Ancient Xinjiang, Western China: Crossroads of the Silk Roads. Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. 2019;150, 153.
Buddhism lost territory to Islam during the Karakhanid reign around the Kashgar area, and when war ensued between Islamic Kashgar and Buddhist Khotan, it eventually ended in the conquest of Khotan by Kashgar. A Karakhanid even wrote about the conquest that had been described as Jihad (Holy War). Moriyasu T. Die Geschichte des uigurischen Manichäismus an der Seidenstrasse: Forschungen zu manichäischen Quellen und ihrem geschichtlichen Hintergrund. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. 2004;207. Michell G, Gollings J, Vicziany M, Tsui YH. Kashgar: Oasis City on China's Old Silk Road. Frances Lincoln. 2008;13.
A sinicized Khitan empire, until they had been usurped by the Naimans in 1211. Biran M. The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian History: Between China and the Islamic World. Cambridge University Press. 2005;2.
The Karakhanid heritage belongs to the most enduring cultural heritage among coexisting cultures in Central Asia from the 9th to the 13th centuries. Soucek 2000, Chapter 5. In some cases, the Karakhanids could rule under the suzerainty of the Kara-Khitai. Golden PB. Chapter 13 - The Karakhanids and Early Islam. In: Sinor D, editor. The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Cambridge University Press. 1990;357.
Biran 2005, 102; Millward. 2007;42.
Two major branches of the Turkic language family, the Chagatay and the Kypchak flourished under the Karakhanids and therefore combined nomadic Turkic culture with the Islamic one, most of the Central Asian regions until nowadays influenced; sedentary institutions spread east even into Gaochang / Kara-Khoja. Biran M. The Empire of the Qara Khitai in Eurasian History: Between China and the Islamic World. Cambridge University Press. 2005;96.
Ibd., 194-196.
Ramadan HM. Understanding Islamic Law: From Classical to Contemporary. Rowman Altamira. 2006;24-29.
Turkish rulers (Seljuk and Ottomans) belonged to the earliest adopters of the relatively more flexible Hanafi faith and introduced it by their eastward expansion through Central Asia and into South Asia. Nazeer A. Islam in Global History. Volume One: From the Death of Prophet Muhammed to the First World War. Xlibris. 2001;112-114.
Hallaq WB. An introduction to Islamic Law. Cambridge University Press. 2009;31.
That branch expanded mainly by maritime expansion into many East African coastal and Asian regions, particularly from the 12th through the 18th century. Pouwels RL. Horn and Crescent: Cultural Change and Traditional Islam. Cambridge University Press. 2002;88-90.
It is the moreover the earliest school of Islam in China. Lipman JN. Familiar Strangers: A history of Muslims in Northwest China. University of Washington Press; 1997.
Johns AH. Sufism in Southeast Asia: Reflections and reconsiderations. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 1995;26(1): 169–183.
The Sufism became introduced to China at the end of the Ming and early Qing Dynasties. Burckhardt T. Art of Islam: Language and Meaning. Bloomington: World Wisdom. 2009;223.
Bovingdon G. The Uighurs. Strangers in their own land. New York. 2010;11.
Jahanzeb K, Waseem K, Taimoor K. Central Asian Republics’ relations with its neighbors and the US. Journal of Management Info. 2016;12(1):8-13. Here mainly: 10.
Hakan A. The reconstruction of the name Yuezhi 月氏 / 月支. International Journal of Old Uyghur Studies. 2019;1(2):260-262.
More about the peoples of the past: Grousset R. The empire of the steppes: A history of Central Asia. Rutgers University Press. 1970;35-37.
Gorelova LM. Manchu grammar. Brill. 2002;49.
Nicolini-Zani M. La via radiosa per l’Oriente: I testi e la storia del primo incontro del cristianesimo con il mondo culturale e religioso cinese (secoli VII-IX). 2006;121.
Khan SM, Faisal Javaid F. Central Asia region: A hub of Chinese interest. WALIA. 2018;34(1):159-161.
During the period of Uighur literary language of Chagatai, a lot of Arabic and Persian words had been borrowed. In the later development, borrowed Arabic words had undergone some voice changes. Ayshemgul A. Chaghatay language is the bridge between Old Turkic and modern Uyghur language. Uluslararası Uygur Araştırmaları Dergisi 7. Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli Üniversitesi. 2016;26-32.
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