An Edition and Translation of Tarikh-i Hamidi, a 19th-Century Uyghur History of Eurasia

FAIN: FEL-262358-19

Eric Schluessel
University of Montana (Missoula, MT 59801-4494)

Translation from Chaghatay (a Central Asian language) of a 19th-century Uyghur history of Eurasia.

The Tarikh-i Hamidi is a history of the nineteenth century as written by a scholar living at the crossroads of Eurasia. Its author Mullah Musa Sayrami (1836-1917) belonged to what is now called the Uyghur people, the Turkic-speaking, Sunni Muslim majority of China’s Xinjiang region. Sayrami’s narrative of the nineteenth century in Xinjiang and beyond, including the origins of humanity and the history of China, reveal a complex colonial mentality from beyond the Western-dominated sphere, as his history adapts traditional Islamic historiography to explain his present world of Chinese rule and imperial competition. This project will produce a first-ever scholarly edition and English translation of this celebrated work of Uyghur history, which reveals the sociocultural changes that took place in this Muslim society at the turn of the century. The edition will facilitate research on this difficult text, and the translation will bring an eminent Uyghur writer’s work to a global audience.

Associated Products

An Uyghur History of Turn-of-the-Century Chinese Central Asia (Blog Post)
Title: An Uyghur History of Turn-of-the-Century Chinese Central Asia
Author: Eric Schluessel
Abstract: How did Uyghurs see Chinese rule in the nineteenth century? One text gives surprising answers.
Date: 07/10/2019
Primary URL: https://themaydan.com/2019/07/an-uyghur-history-of-turn-of-the-century-chinese-central-asia/
Blog Title: An Uyghur History of Turn-of-the-Century Chinese Central Asia
Website: The Maydan

The Tarikh-i Hamidi: A Late-Qing Uyghur History (Book)
Title: The Tarikh-i Hamidi: A Late-Qing Uyghur History
Author: Musa Sayrami
Abstract: The Tarikh-i Ḥamidi is an epic and tragic history from the region of Xinjiang in northwest China, the homeland of the Muslim-majority Uyghur people. Written in the early twentieth century, it chronicles a mass rebellion by the Muslims of Xinjiang against the China-based Qing empire from its beginnings in 1864 to the Qing reconquest of 1877 and its aftermath. Its author, Musa Sayrami, was an eyewitness to and participant in the rebellion, and he later became a servant to the state that arose from it: an emirate led by the Central Asian military commander Yaʿqub Beg. Sayrami documents the optimism of the rebellion’s early days, when local Muslims rose up to demand justice, as well as the tragedies that resulted from its leaders’ hubris. Yaʿqub Beg’s state offered hope for Islamic rule, but he turned out to be a flawed ruler, and the Qing reconquered the region. The narrative alternates dramatic scenes of battles and intrigue with colorful legends and reflections on the nature of politics. Sayrami wrote not only to record events being lost from memory three decades after the uprising but also to account for why the Islamic rebellion had failed. He draws on traditional Islamic scholarship to analyze the relationship between Qing and Islamic power, developing an incisive argument about politics and empire. Presenting a distinctly Uyghur perspective on China, Eurasia, and the world, the Tarikh-i Ḥamidi is at once an invaluable lens on a period of flux and a cornerstone of Uyghur writing.
Year: 2023
Primary URL: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-tarikh-i-hamidi/9780231210034
Primary URL Description: Columbia University Press website
Secondary URL: https://worldcat.org/title/1355043132
Secondary URL Description: WorldCat entry
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Type: Translation
ISBN: 9780231210034
Translator: Eric Schluessel
Copy sent to NEH?: No

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