David Brophy is a Lecturer in Modern Chinese History at the University of Sydney.
This work on the Uyghurs, a 10-million strong Turkic Muslim
minority residing mainly in Xinjiang in western China, is a welcome
contribution to a recent rise in Uyghur studies…A remarkable
account of a people searching for identity at the intersection of
empire.
*Choice*
Nothing I have read in the last fifteen years comes close to this
work in terms of intellectual breadth, rigorous analysis, and
contribution to the field. This book will not only revolutionize
thinking about the history of the Uyghur nation and the political
history of Xinjiang during this period, it will set a new bar for
future scholarship and inspire readers to think again about the
processes, challenges, and opportunities within shifting political
landscapes that lead to the creation of nations.
*Laura Newby, University of Oxford*
Drawing on sources in several languages, this book demonstrates how
the idea of a Uyghur nation emerged in the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries. Brophy shows how intellectuals in
Taranchi and Kashgari communities along the Xinjiang–Russian
border, inspired by academic writings on ancient Uyghurs,
negotiated a new concept of Uyghur identity. This study is a
valuable contribution to our understanding of the Uyghur national
idea, and to Central Asian and Xinjiang studies.
*Ablet Kamalov, Institute of Oriental Studies, Almaty,
Kazakhstan*
Uyghur Nation breaks new ground in the study of modern Xinjiang.
David Brophy takes a transnational approach to the formation of a
‘Chinese’ ethnic group, offering a convincing account of the impact
of tsarist and particularly Soviet institutions, evolutions, and
interventions on the Qing and then Republican Chinese frontiers. He
also demonstrates that the idea of a Uyghur nation had a
conflicted, cross-border, twentieth-century history. Perhaps most
important, he unites political, intellectual, social, religious,
even economic history to create a story rooted in local conditions,
not simple national or ethnic categories. He has written a
strikingly original and impressive book.
*Jonathan Lipman, Mount Holyoke College*
In Uyghur Nation, Brophy transforms our understanding of the
history of the Uyghurs. At the center of Brophy’s attention is the
question of how the Muslims of Chinese Turkistan came to imagine
themselves as Uyghur. He traces the emergence of Uyghurist
discourse by placing Uyghur history firmly where it belongs—in the
very center of Eurasia at the crossroads of three empires. Brophy
relates the emergence of Uyghurist discourse to developments in
Muslim societies of Xinjiang and beyond as they came to terms with
pressures and influences from the Qing, the Russian, and the
Ottoman empires. Prodigiously researched across many archives and
in multiple languages, Uyghur Nation is a major work of
transnational history that deserves a wide readership.
*Adeeb Khalid, Carleton College*
David Brophy’s Uyghur Nation offers a fresh perspective on Uyghur
history by using Russian, Chinese and Turkic sources to chart the
development of the discourses that would ultimately produce the
modern Uyghur identity… What is remarkable is that a ‘palimpsest of
Islamic, Turkic and Soviet notions of national history and
identity’ created by activists outside Xinjiang could have
resonated so widely among Xinjiang’s diverse population. In this
respect, the Uyghur case is probably unique, and David Brophy’s
book thus deserves to be read by anyone with an interest in
nation-building.
*Times Literary Supplement*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |