TY - BOOK ID - 7217106 TI - The sacred routes of Uyghur history PY - 2014 SN - 9780674598553 0674598555 PB - Cambridge Harvard University Press DB - UniCat KW - Uighur (Turkic people) KW - Manuscripts, Uighur KW - Islam KW - Pilgrims and pilgrimages KW - Sacred space KW - Nationalism KW - Historiography KW - Travel KW - Intellectual life KW - Religion KW - History KW - Manuscripts KW - Takla Makan Desert Region (China) KW - History, Local KW - S25/0500 KW - S25/0300 KW - Xinjiang--History (Uigurs come here) KW - Xinjiang--Geography, description and travel KW - Geschichtsbewusstsein. KW - Heiligenverehrung. KW - Heliga platser. KW - Historiografi. KW - Islam. KW - Kulturelle Identität. KW - Manuscripts, Uighur. KW - Nationalbewusstsein. KW - Nationalism. KW - Pilgrimer och pilgrimsfärder. KW - Pilgrims and pilgrimages. KW - Sacred space. KW - Uiguren. KW - Uigurer KW - Uiguriska handskrifter. KW - Wallfahrt. KW - Manuscripts. KW - History. KW - Historiography. KW - Intellectual life. KW - Religion. KW - Travel. KW - Historia. KW - Idéhistoriska aspekter. KW - China KW - Sinkiang. KW - Takla Makan Desert (China) KW - History, Local. KW - Uighur (Turkic people) - Historiography KW - Uighur (Turkic people) - Travel KW - Uighur (Turkic people) - Intellectual life KW - Uighur (Turkic people) - Religion KW - Manuscripts, Uighur - History KW - Islam - China - Takla Makan Desert Region - Manuscripts - History KW - Pilgrims and pilgrimages - China - Takla Makan Desert Region - History KW - Sacred space - China - Takla Makan Desert Region - History KW - Nationalism - China - Takla Makan Desert Region - History KW - Takla Makan Desert Region (China) - History, Local UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:7217106 AB - For 250 years, the Turkic Muslims of Altishahr—the vast desert region to the northwest of Tibet—have led an uneasy existence under Chinese rule. Today they call themselves Uyghurs, and they have cultivated a sense of history and identity that challenges Beijing’s official national narrative. Rian Thum argues that the roots of this history run deeper than recent conflicts, to a time when manuscripts and pilgrimage dominated understandings of the past. Beyond broadening our knowledge of tensions between the Uyghurs and the Chinese government, this meditation on the very concept of history probes the limits of human interaction with the past.Uyghur historical practice emerged from the circulation of books and people during the Qing Dynasty, when crowds of pilgrims listened to history readings at the tombs of Islamic saints. Over time, amid long journeys and moving rituals, at oasis markets and desert shrines, ordinary readers adapted community-authored manuscripts to their own needs. In the process they created a window into a forgotten Islam, shaped by the veneration of local saints.Partly insulated from the rest of the Islamic world, the Uyghurs constructed a local history that is at once unique and assimilates elements of Semitic, Iranic, Turkic, and Indic traditions—the cultural imports of Silk Road travelers. Through both ethnographic and historical analysis, The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History offers a new understanding of Uyghur historical practices, detailing the remarkable means by which this people reckons with its past and confronts its nationalist aspirations in the present day. ER -