ABSTRACT
MUSLIM REBELLIONS During the Qing dynasty, China’s Muslims acquired a reputation among their Han neighbours for ferocious and disorderly behaviour. There was some resistance to the Manchu conquest of Muslim territories in the late 17th century, but it was in the late 19th century during three outbreaks of harsh and brutal communal violence, usually known as the Muslim rebellions, that this reputation was confirmed. From 1856 to 1873, Muslims in Yunnan (known as Panthays, from the Burmese word for Muslim) rose up against their Chinese overlords and their leader, Du Wenxiu, declared himself the ruler of an independent Muslim sultanate. The insurrection in Shaanxi and Gansu which occurred between 1862 and 1878 destroyed whole regions of north-western China, and the Hui Muslim population was drastically reduced and faced the real possibility of extinction. From 1873 to 1877, the region around Kashghar and part of northern Xinjiang was ruled as an independent state after the rebellion led by Yakub Beg. Finally, conflict between Muslims and local Han landlords and officials led to lawlessness on the Gansu and Qinghai border in 1895. These insurrections devastated the border regions of China and left behind a legacy of mutual suspicion between Muslims and Han Chinese and Chinese officials have ever since feared the possibility of Muslim separatism. CHU W en-djang, The Moslem Rebellion in North-West China, 1862-1878: A Study o f G overnm ent M inority Policy (The Hague: M outon 1966).
