What do you think?
Rate this book
The Chinese Sultanate: Islam, Ethnicity, and the Panthay Rebellion in Southwest China, 1856-1873
The Muslim-led Panthay Rebellion was one of five mid-nineteenth-century rebellions to threaten the Chinese imperial court. The Chinese Sultanate begins by contrasting the views of Yunnan held by the imperial center with local and indigenous perspectives, in particular looking at the strong ties the Muslim Yunnanese had with Southeast Asia and Tibet. Traditional interpretations of the rebellion there have emphasized the political threat posed by the Muslim Yunnanese, but no prior study has sought to understand the insurrection in its broader muti-ethnic borderland context. At its core, the book delineates the escalating government support of premeditated massacres of the Hui by Han Chinese and offers the first in-depth examination of the seventeen-year-long rule of the Dali Sultanate.
279 pages, Hardcover
First published November 30, 2005
118 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
March 29, 2024
An unknown history
Between 1856 and 1873 nearly a million people died in battle and in civilian massacres in China's Yunnan Province which borders Tibet, Burma, Laos and Vietnam as well as two other Chinese provinces. Unfamiliar with the Chinese literature on the subject, I can say that there is hardly a single book in English on the subject beyond the present volume yet the American Civil War with a similar level of casualties has produced thousands of volumes.
The Panthay Rebellion began during the larger, catastrophic Taiping Rebellion which lasted from 1850 to 1864. Both were against the Manchu or Qing Dynasty based in Beijing, but the nature of each was quite different. The Taipings were led by a religious figure who had had some connection to Christian teachings, but absorbed them in his own way. That war involved millions of fighters and led to the greatest casualty count in the world in the 19th century. The Panthay Rebellion was much smaller by comparison. It pitted a coalition of Muslims, non-Han minorities and some Han contrarians against the Qing rulers and aggressive Chinese settlers who especially wanted to eliminate Muslim competition for land and trade. I was intrigued by the historical comparison with Anglo settlers and Native Americans. (My idea, not the author’s.) The Han Chinese moved into Yunnan from overcrowded eastern and central provinces to gain land and to dominate trade routes. This was an increasingly intense process between 1775 and 1850, very similar to what was happening in the USA. Today we criticize what happened in America as if it were unique, but I saw that a very similar history occurred in China. The aboriginal population were pushed into less-desirable areas, while the Muslims were challenged in business and in urban areas. New settlers claimed that the aboriginal peoples were lazy and dim-witted (maybe because they didn’t want to hand over their lands or speak Mandarin Chinese!)
Ultimately, Han Chinese officials zeroed in on Muslims as the “opposition” and tried to rid the province of them, resorting to massacres, pogroms, and simple discrimination. When Muslims fought back, the Qing officials tried to paint the revolt as “Muslims vs. Han” (the Muslims were racially Chinese so the word “Chinese” to describe the Qing side of the affair is not accurate), but the aborigines or Yi, as they were called, sided with the Muslims. Like the Native Americans, they were disregarded by the distant central government and classed as “primitive”. The only good Muslim or aborigine was one who conformed to Chinese ways, language, and laws, adopted the queue hairstyle, etc. The author stresses that there has never been much reflection (before this book) on the causes of the Panthay Rebellion. The Chinese point of view long held that the Muslims were “rebellious”. But for a while, especially in the years 1867-68, a Muslim sultanate in Yunnan was established which included all the ethnic/religious groups of the region. Even though Arabic was used as an official language, the anti-Qing stance was central, not forcing Islam onto non-Muslims. This book tells in interesting detail how and why a Muslim sultanate could happen. The end was even more massacres of the defeated Muslim population. Plagues struck the devastated province, many people fled to Burma and Thailand. Yunnan’s population diminished by 50%, the Muslim population by 90%.
I found this book very interesting and clearly written.
Between 1856 and 1873 nearly a million people died in battle and in civilian massacres in China's Yunnan Province which borders Tibet, Burma, Laos and Vietnam as well as two other Chinese provinces. Unfamiliar with the Chinese literature on the subject, I can say that there is hardly a single book in English on the subject beyond the present volume yet the American Civil War with a similar level of casualties has produced thousands of volumes.
The Panthay Rebellion began during the larger, catastrophic Taiping Rebellion which lasted from 1850 to 1864. Both were against the Manchu or Qing Dynasty based in Beijing, but the nature of each was quite different. The Taipings were led by a religious figure who had had some connection to Christian teachings, but absorbed them in his own way. That war involved millions of fighters and led to the greatest casualty count in the world in the 19th century. The Panthay Rebellion was much smaller by comparison. It pitted a coalition of Muslims, non-Han minorities and some Han contrarians against the Qing rulers and aggressive Chinese settlers who especially wanted to eliminate Muslim competition for land and trade. I was intrigued by the historical comparison with Anglo settlers and Native Americans. (My idea, not the author’s.) The Han Chinese moved into Yunnan from overcrowded eastern and central provinces to gain land and to dominate trade routes. This was an increasingly intense process between 1775 and 1850, very similar to what was happening in the USA. Today we criticize what happened in America as if it were unique, but I saw that a very similar history occurred in China. The aboriginal population were pushed into less-desirable areas, while the Muslims were challenged in business and in urban areas. New settlers claimed that the aboriginal peoples were lazy and dim-witted (maybe because they didn’t want to hand over their lands or speak Mandarin Chinese!)
Ultimately, Han Chinese officials zeroed in on Muslims as the “opposition” and tried to rid the province of them, resorting to massacres, pogroms, and simple discrimination. When Muslims fought back, the Qing officials tried to paint the revolt as “Muslims vs. Han” (the Muslims were racially Chinese so the word “Chinese” to describe the Qing side of the affair is not accurate), but the aborigines or Yi, as they were called, sided with the Muslims. Like the Native Americans, they were disregarded by the distant central government and classed as “primitive”. The only good Muslim or aborigine was one who conformed to Chinese ways, language, and laws, adopted the queue hairstyle, etc. The author stresses that there has never been much reflection (before this book) on the causes of the Panthay Rebellion. The Chinese point of view long held that the Muslims were “rebellious”. But for a while, especially in the years 1867-68, a Muslim sultanate in Yunnan was established which included all the ethnic/religious groups of the region. Even though Arabic was used as an official language, the anti-Qing stance was central, not forcing Islam onto non-Muslims. This book tells in interesting detail how and why a Muslim sultanate could happen. The end was even more massacres of the defeated Muslim population. Plagues struck the devastated province, many people fled to Burma and Thailand. Yunnan’s population diminished by 50%, the Muslim population by 90%.
I found this book very interesting and clearly written.
Displaying 1 of 1 review