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CİLT: II

TÜRK’ÜN TANRISI’NDAN, TANRI’NIN TÜRK’ÜNE

ORTA ASYA’DA

SLÂM T E M S İ L D E N F O B İ Y E

EDİTÖR

DR. MUHAMMET SAVAŞ KAFKASYALI

Ankara-Türkistan, 2012

905

Basic Features of the Evolution of Islam in Xinjiang

Prof. Dr. Li Jinxin Xinjiang Academy of Socail Sciences, Urumqi

ABSTRACT

he article summarises four principles of the religious evolution in Xinjiang.

1. Multi-religion coexistence has been the most fundamental fea-ture of the religious evolution in Xinjiang from early times to present day. It is determined by the fact that Xinjiang lies in a crossroad of east-ern and western cultures and many ethnic groups have dwelled and mi-grated in this land. This process can be divided into four stages:

a. Natural and Shaman worship in ancient times (before Christ); these primitive religious concepts have a lot to do with the living environment, production and lifestyles of the early settlers in the west region, and the makeup of various racial and ethnic tribes. The formation of their reli-gious concepts was subject to their social presence and it is a profound traditional ideology and culture accumulated for many centuries of the ethnic minorities and had had significant impact on the distribution of other religions.;

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II. Cilt: Türk’ün Tanrısı’ndan,Tanrı’nın Türk’üne

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b. Early Times. (Around Christ – the 10th century); It is a period of mul-ti-religion coexistence with Buddhism dominating, and Xian, Taoism, Jin and others. Buddhism was first introduced to Hotan around the 1st century before Christ. Buddhism gradually expanded after the 2nd centu-ry and entered a time of prosperity from Wei and Jin dynasty to Tang and Song dynasty, forming a western-region Buddhist culture of town states with Yutian, Qici and Gaochang as typical examples. This brilliant culture left a great number of cultural and artistic artifacts and antiques, which created a western-region Buddhism with rich Chinese western fea-tures.

c. Middle Ages (the 10th-19th century) Islamic spread and decline of Buddhism in a multi-religion coexistence period. Islam gradually re-placed those old religions like Buddhism and became the national faith of the Uyghurs and Kazaks who dominated the local population. The process consists of 3 stages:

1. In the 10th-11th century, Islam’s initial entry to the Kashgar region. Karahanlı rulers destroyed the Buddhist nation of Yutian in a war pushing Islam forward to Qarqan/Qiemo and Aksu areas and con-fronting the Buddhist Huihu nation of Gaochang for many years.

2. In the 14th-15th century, with some Chagatay Mongolian rul-ers’advocacy, in particular, Tuhru Temir Khan’s support, Islam marched to the northern edge of the Tarim Basin, Turpan basin and Hami areas establishing its comprehensive status among ancient Uy-gurs.

3. In the 16th-17th century the Kazak and Kirgyz people generally ac-cepted Islam.

d. A framework of Islam, Buddhism (includeing Tibetan Buddhism), Christianity, catholic church, orthodox church in a multi-religion pres-ence in modern and contemporary times.

2. Most religions in Xinjiang are of foreign origins, mostly from Central Asia. They all went through a process of getting naturalized and lo-calized. Foreign religions can be divided into the following categories:

Of Indian cultural origin, like Buddhism.

Of Persian- Arabian cultural origin, like Xian, Moni and Islam.

Of Roman cultural origin, like Christianity,Catholic,Orthodox, Jin (a heterodoxy branch of Christianity );

Of inland Chinese cultural origin, like Taoism .

Jinxin, Basic Features of the Evolution of Islam in Xinjiang

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These religions of different cultural origins hold various doctrines and et-iquettes, historic backgrounds, social settings and cultural environments. They all carried strong their own regional features but had to mingle and exchange with the local social systems and cultural practices in new areas, thus branded with local cultural signs.

3. Religious evolution and some religions’s ups and downs in history, to a large extent, resulted from the attitudes of the feudal ruling class towards the faiths. There are many reasons for the growth or decline: objective factors, social ones, religious changes. One of the key causes is that feudal rulers always took advantage of religions, supporting one and suppressing the others.

4. The several major transformations of Xiniang religions had something to do with the connection between the religious evolution and the ethnic migration and integration. Such change resulted in boosting ethnic blending and development. Some migratory peoples brought in their own religions and cultures while others took the local ones. So we can find a regional similarity under the same linguistic setting along with a religious diversity. Such similarity helped a great deal to make ethnic groups merge and develop. Islam played a very critical role in boosting such ethnic exchange and integration as a culture and ideology.

Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region lies in the northwestern frontiers of China, widely known as “western region” in ancient times, and it is a major passage on the famous “Silk Road”. Xinjiang is the largest province in area in China, at 1.66 million square kilometers, accounting for one sixth of the coun-try’s total area. A wide range of 47 ethnic groups live in Xinjiang at present. Thirteen of them have lived here for many generations and have a population of 19.25 million. The Uyghurs dominate the composition with 8.2566 million people while the non-Chinese ethnic minorities account for 10.9696 million people. There is a big variety of landscape as well: high snow-capped moun-tains, huge rivers with running torrents, thick and deep forests, endless arid deserts and Gobi covered with sand and gravels, green praires and lively ranch-es, and prosperous oases and plains blessed with rich resources.

The great Tianshan Mountains stand in the middle of Xinjiang dividing this vast land into two different geographical sectors with their own unique features. Northern Xinjiang lies between the Tianshan Mountains and the Altay mountains with a higher contour, mostly plains and a cold climate. There is a basin area called Zhungar, in the center of which is the Gurbantugut Desert. A large number of rivers and lakes of various volumes from the northern slope of the Tianshan Moun-tains and the southeastern slope of the Altay Mountains feed the oases in oases and


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meadows around the Basin. The Yili River and the Erqisi River are the biggest ones in northern Xinjiang. The areas they flow through have been turned into grassy meadows with sufficient water supply where the nomadic tribes have taken ad-vantage of as their vital living space since early times.

The part between the Tianshan Mountains and the Kunlun Mountains is referred to as Southern Xinjiang with a well-known Tarim Basin in the center. The second largest desert in the world, the Taklimakan desert, is situated right in the heart of the basin. Along the outskirts of the Tarim Basin are many oases of varied size. Many rivers flowing down from the Tianshan Mountains, the Kunlun Mountains and the KaraKunlun Mountains toward the basin have merged into the biggest inland river in China – the Tarim River. This river travels through the very deep parts of the desert before reaching its destination – the Lopnur Lake. This mysterious lake is dried up already now. The Tarim river area was one of the birth places of the ancient civilizations in Xinjiang.

Southern Xinjiang has a very dry climate and very small rainfall volume. However, the water from melted snow in the mountains can be used to irrigate the oases, so this land had been developed as a farming area since very early days. The several large oases around the edge of the Tarim Basin such as Yutian, Qarqan, Kashgar, Zarapshan, Aksu, Kuqa, Yanqi, Turpan, Hami and so on, have held a big amount of fertile agricultural land coming in all shapes and directions. These oases are blocked by huge or small deserts from each other, posing as individual small town states in ancient times.

Xinjiang is located right in the heartland of the immense European and Asian continent. It borders with Mongolia in the northeast, with Russian feder-ation in the north, with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the west, with Afghanistan, Pakistan and India in the south forging a long borderline of about more than 5600 km. There is a valley around dozens of kilometers wide in the east leading to the Hexi Corridor in Gansu province and other inland parts of China. The ancient Silk Road went through this Hexi Corridor to reach Hami, then all the way from the southern brink of the Tarim Basin, the Lopnur Lake, to Yutian, Kashgar, then out of Tsong (Long Onion) Ridge--the Pamir mountains- before arriving in Central Asia.

The Silk Road split into 2 branches in Xinjiang : the south route went down through Hotan. The north route passed the northern edge of the Tarim Basin, then Kuqa and Turpan. In the north of the Tianshan Mountains there is an-other old-time trading route called “silk road on the grassland”, which started from Turpan, then went through the Tianshan Mountains and Jimsar coun-ty,went all the way westward to the Chuy river and Talas river (in Kyrgyzstan) and down south into Central Asia. In addition, the northern part of the Tianshan Mountains, the Mobei (Northern desert) Mongolia, and the up-stream of the Yenisa river (in Russia) had transport paths for nomadic


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tribes’migration and rotational grazing since early times. The ancient Silk Road was not only a channel of trade and business, but also a route of exchange and distribution for eastern and western cultures. The ancient religions and cultures of Xinjiang were produced, spread and evolved with this unique geographical background and the Silk Road as their historic stages.

The basic features of the religious evolution in Xinjiang can be summarised as the following four points:

The most fundamental feature of the religious evolution in Xinjiang is coex-istence of several religions, which is determined by the fact that Xinjiang lies in a crossroad of eastern and western cultures and many ethnic groups have dwelled and migrated in this land.

Xinjiang has been involved with many religions going on in coexistence since early times. The religions in this land have been quite complicated and have their own characters of evolution. In history, besides natural worship and the Shaman faith, Buddhism, Xian faith, Jin, Moni, Catholic church, Taoism and Islam have been present over here. Buddhism and Islam have existed long-er, reaching more regions, and exerting more impact than other religions. It can be argued that different religions came up in different times; different ethnic groups follow different or the same religions; people of one ethnic origin follow one religion or other religions. Various religions have different distribution lengths, coverage areas, and different influence and status in ethnic social lives. After the 14th century Islam was promoted extensively and gradually be ob-served by the absolute majority of the Uyghurs, Kazaks, Kyrgyzs and other peo-ples. Meanwhile, the Mongolians in Xinjiang turned to Tibetan Buddhism. Some religions did not vanish completely like Jin. After the reunification of Xinjiang in the Qing dynasty, in particular, since the 1860s, as other ethnic groups moved into Xinjiang, the basic feature of multi-religious coexistence in Xinjiang has never been changed.

Multi-religious coexistence in Xinjiang can be attributed to Xinjiang’s inter-nal causes and external objective environment.

First of all, Xinjiang is located in the heartland of the Asian continent and closer to Europe. Many races and tribes have dwelled and mixed here over a long history, such as the Saizhong, Tuhuoluo, Sut,etc from the Indian-European linguistic branch; Qiang, Han, Tibetan from the Chinese-Tibetan branch; Usun, Yuezhi, Hun, Kanju, Dinlin, Ujie, Roran, Tila, Turkic, Huihu, Qidan, Jigas, Monglians from the Altay branch. Some of them have lived in the western regions (a Chinese term referring to Xinjiang )and are thus considered as indigenous peoples; others moved into Xinjiang later in the process of na-tional migration or other causes. Some groups settled down in Xinjiang and inhabited with the locals; some kept moving but left their cultures here. After a long period of exchange, integration and evolution, an ethnic composition of


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13 ethnic groups came into being gradually in Xinjiang, which includes Uygur, Han, Kazak, Hui, Monglian, Kirgyz, Tajik, Manchurian, Xibo, Uzbek, Rus-sian, Dawur and Tatar. Such a continuous coexistence, migration and integra-tion evidently resulted in a multi-ethnic regional culture. It is a social basis for a multi-religion coexistence since the early times in Xinjiang.

Secondly, Xinjiang (along with Central Asia )has been at the edge of Han chinese culture, Indian culture, Iranian-Persian culture, western Asain-Arabian culture and Greek-Roman culture, or in other words, at the meeting point of all these cultures. Before the sea routes were developed, Xinjiang was a necessary route of transport and trade,as well as culture exchange, between the east and the west, known as an intersection of civilizations. Religions were definitely one of human cultural exchanges as one form of ancient philosophy and art, and spread to this melting-pot land via the east-west trade flow. The three main religions and many others had been widespread and integrated in Xinjiang. This demonstrated the historic impact of its special geographical location and offered an external environment for religious coexistence in Xinjiang.

Religious coexistence shows various features in four different periods:

i. Before Christ: The ancient Xinjiang inhabitants worshiped all sorts of natural phenomena like the sun, the moom, the stars, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, mountains and rivers ; some animals and plants were idolized as well, like the wolf worshiped by nomadic people and wheat by farming communities. The king of rats was worshiped in ancient Yutian （Keriya); the tribal clans had their own totems like the wolf, eagle, lion, camel or deer; there was also worship for reproduction and ancestors. Shaman was one of the primitive religions widely observed by ancient inhabitants in Xinjiang. “all things have spirits” and worship for Shaman wizards dominated the thinking of ancient people for a long time and we can find some trails even today. Primitive worship and Sham-an prevalence are commonly demonstrated in folklore tales, archaeological dis-coveries, and ethnic customs going on today.

ii. Ancient Time (Christ – 10th century): In the 70s or 80s before Christ Buddhism was first introduced to Yutian marking the turn from worshipfor nature to man-made religion. It is a period of multi-religion coexistence with Buddhism dominating. Buddhism gradually expanded after the 2nd century and entered a time of prosperity from Wei and Jin dynasty to Tang and Song dynas-ty, forming a western-region Buddhist culture with Yutian, Qici and Gaochang as typical examples. Buddhism was also spread in the north of the Tianshan Mountains and influenced the herdsmen’s ideology. Meanwhile a Persian reli-gion- Xian (worshiping fire) was also observed in the western region (referred to as Xinjiang). Historic documents from Wei and Jin dynasty like < western re-gion records > noted that the general public worshiped Xian or Buddhsim in Shula, Gaochang, Yutian and Yanqi, which fully indicates the status of Xian in


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the area. Another Persian religion – Moni existed in this region as well though little can be found about its entry time and distribution information. The Hui-hu believing in Moni moved over here after the 9th century and helped promote this faith.Jin came in about the 6th-7th century and grew popular in Song and Yuan dynasty,covering places like Shula, Zarapshan, Yutian, Luntai, Gaochang, Hami and Almali with bishops and churches. It also had a great number of believers among nomadic tribes in the north. Taoism followed some Chinese immigrants moving west to Xinjiang and prevailed in some areas with a consid-erable Chinese population like Gaochang, Hami and Loulan.

iii. Middle Ages (10th – 19th century): This period is marked by the entry of Islam and decline of Buddhism. Islam was first introduced to the Kashgar re-gion in the early 10th century and then moved east steadily. The process consists of 3 stages: 1. in the 10th-11th century, Islam’s initial entry to the Karahan dyn-asty. Karahan rulers destroyed the Buddhist nation of Yutian in a war pushing Islam forward to Qarqan/Qiemo and Aksu areas and confronting the Buddhist Huihu nation of Gaochang for many years. 2. in the 14th-15th century,with some Chaktay Mongolian rulers’advocacy,in particular, Tuhru Temir Khan’s support, Islam marched to the northern edge of the Tarim Basin,Turpan basin and Hami areas establishing its comprehensive status among ancient Uygurs. 3. in the 16th -17th century the Kazak and Kirgyz people generally accepted Islam. During this process Buddhism declined and died out gradually. Meanwhile the Wilat Mongolians took the Tibetan Buddhism and Jin held some minority believers until the 19th century. So multi-religion coexistence has remained unchanged since.

iv. Modern Times: Since Qing dynasty reunited Xinjiang, more ethnic di-versity emerged with several religions going on. At present the people in Xin-jiang believe in Islam, Buddhism (including the Tibetan branch), Taoism, Christianity, Catholic church and Orthodox church.

2. The prevalent religions mostly have a foreign origin from Central Asia; all these non-native religions went through a process of mixing and integrating with local ethnic traditions and customs–so-called naturalization and localiza-tion.

Foreign religions can be divided into the following categories:

of Indian cultural origin, like Buddhism.

of Persian- Arabian cultural origin, like Xian,Moni and Islam.

of Roman cultural origin, like Christianity, Catholic, Orthodox, Jin (a het-erodoxy branch of Christianity);

of inland Chinese cultural origin, like Taoism.


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These religions of different cultural origins hold various doctrines and eti-quettes, historic backgrounds, social settings and cultural environments. They all carried strong their own regional features but had to mingle and exchange with the local social systems and cultural practices in new areas, thus branded with local cultural signs. Buddhism is called Chinese Buddhism in the Chinese regions, and called Tibetan Buddhism in the Tibetan and Mongolian regions; it’s called upper part of southern Buddhism in the Thai areas of Yunan prov-ince. This is a typical example of foreign religions naturalized and localized.

In ancient Xinjiang Buddhism came over and produced a western-region Buddhism with rich local features, which resulted from Buddhism integrating with local ethnic cultures. Such features have been demonstrated not only in the Buddhist document translation and etiquettete transformation, but also in Buddhist culture like statues, murals, artistic figures, music and dancing. Re-gional Buddhism reflects their own magnificent cultural traditions in their unique styles, for instance, Yutian Buddhist culture standing for the southern route of the Great Silk Road, Qiuci standing for the northern route, Gaochang Buddhist culture and Gaochang Huihu Buddhist culture standing for Turpan Basin.

Islam displays different features in spreading among various ethnic groups in Xinjiang. It took Islam over 500 years to be generally accepted in the Uygur region and Islam has had significant impact on social, political, economic and cultural sectors in southern Xinjiang while playing a huge part in forging mod-ern Uygur ethnic identity and enhancing its growth. Meanwhile this process witnessed Islam and the Uygur society adjusting and integrating with each oth-er. Especially the spreading of Sufism mixed some old-time customs like ances-tor worship, cemetery worship and “all things have spirits”, Xian fire worship, Shaman practices with Islam doctrines to produce some Uygur Islamic features, which are displayed vividly in the“Mazar/cemetery worship” events prevailing in southern Xinjiang.

Islamic practices among the Kazaks and Kirgyzes take on another appear-ance. Some tribal rules managed to be kept along in the process of converting to Islam and remained a dominant factor over the religion. Religious clergymen have no jurisdiction. Little emphasis is placed on building mosques or observing prayers or fasting due to their migrant nomadic lifestyle. Baks – wizards - still play a certain role but their curses come with some Islamic slogans. Their casual religious practice differs from the stiff observance of Islamic rules in the Uygur and Huizu populations. The Tajiks are Shiites and rarely fast or go to Mecca for pilgrimage. Instead they travel to Bombay, India to worship Ajahan, spiritual leader of the Ismail branch. Most people only pray on holidays. Their religious leaders are called Ichan and their descendants are followed by their believers as well. It’s the way the Tajiks practice their Islam.


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So it can be concluded easily from such features that the naturalization and localization of foreign religions in Xinjiang is inevitable and only through this could the religions stand firm in this new land and manage to expand further.

On the other hand, coexistence of several religions caused all of them to af-fect each other. Gaochang Buddhism absorbed Confucianism and Taoism from inland China enriching their own ideology and thus created a unique high-level Buddhist civilization. Since the Huihu moved in Moni was brought into the western region. Gaochang Huihu rulers allowed Buddhism, Moni, Xian and Jin to develop and mingle with one another forming a natural mixture of integrated cultures. After converting to Buddhism the Huihu put some Moni thinking into Buddhism. The names of Moni gods were used to call the gods of Bud-dhism, demonstrating their “God is Buddha” belief. In the 13th century the French traveler Rubluke found that some Jin believers had been greatly affected in terms of religious etiquettes and customs by the local Muslims who they lived with. He was confused by their church procedures different from the western counterparts. This fact serves as a good example of various religions influencing each other.

Islam had been impacted by other religions in the process of spreading though it has quite strict doctrines and regulations. The wall paintings and sculptures in some mosques in southern Xinjiang still reflect ancient Buddhist arts styles. For instance, the Jaman Mosque in Yakan County carries some col-orful patterns of lotus, clouds and golden halos (all Buddhist signs )on its ceil-ing beams. Some ancient Islamic buildings keep aboriginal architecture instead of the Arabic “square base plus round dome” design. Some were even built right on the sites of abandoned buildings of Buddhism or other religions. There is a beggars’ clan of Sufism in southern Xinjiang whose members grow long messy hair and never groom themselves. They detest the current life to an extreme extent, never marry, breed, settle or work. They just ramble all about begging. Such people can be traced back to the traveling monks of Buddhism long ago. “Baksi”, “Dahon”, and “Pirhon” in the Uyghur and Kazak customs can be traced back to previous Shaman wizards; fire worship and Noruz Festival came from Xian originally. All these phenomena are trails of multi-religious coexist-ence in Xinjiang, of which Shaman is a deeply-rooted indigenous ideology in the western region. Shaman and many folk customs and cultural phenomena arising from Shaman have made up a part of the native peoples’traditions and cultures and affected significantly the religions that arrived later.

3. In the history of Xinjiang religions some faiths flourished while others vanished; there are many reasons for this: objective factors, social ones, religious changes. One of the key causes is that feudal rulers always took advantage of religions, supporting one and suppressing the others.


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Religious evolution and social history have advanced hand in hand, and been under control of social systems and economic life. Religion, as a part of ideology in feudal societies, served the interests of feudal ruling class. The fate of religions had been subject to the choice of feudal rulers. Buddhism came into Xinjiang and first gained worship and support of the feudal ruling class in vari-ous areas. The royals in Yutian, Shula, Qiuci, Shanshan and Gaochang were the first ones to convert to Buddhism and made great efforts to advocate the faith. Therefore Buddhism was able to spread fast and prosper in the region. This fact demonstrated that the city states in the south of the Tianshan Mountains had developed into feudal systems with their social economy and external exchange further expanded, Shaman and other aboriginal faiths of natural worship no longer suitable for the new social situations; the hierarchy, gods and Buddha theory in Buddhism served better the interestes of the ruling class in the region. The general public was also happy to accept such preachings as “ever-lasting souls, life cycles, effect-cause rule, paradise ”. The new social scenarios created basic conditions for promoting Buddhism. On the other hand, Buddhism pro-vided extensive doctrines and philosophy and a more diverse culture. Social advancement undoubtedly calls for more pursuit of spiritual cultural life. Bud-dhist culture replacing the local primitive religions was a positive social evolu-tion. The ruling class satisfied their own vanity and built up their images and ruling status by constructing many temples, statues and Buddhist ceremonies. So the rulers in the region first converted to Buddhism and vigorously promot-ed the new Buddhist culture. In addition, many Buddhists along the Silk Road were engaged in business and trade and could exercise certain influence on the authorities. They adopted local languages for religious events making it more accessible to the rulers and ordinary people.

The spread of Islam in Xinjiang came with a complicated background. The first introduction in the 10th century and expansion in the 14th century both witnessed an important historic stage of ethnic blending and evolving in Xin-jiang. In the mid-9th century the Huihu moved into Xinjiang and built the Karahan dynasty when there was a messy composition of ethnic groups and religions with different oral and written languages and internal conflicts in the ruling class making the state very unstable. Then Satuk Bugrahan from the Karahanlı ruling class used Islam as a unifying banner to defeat the opposition and consolidate the royal authority by expanding with military strikes to west-ern Xinjiang. Their choice of converting to and promoting Islam was totally for political purposes.

In the 14th century Xinjiang faced a similar political situation when the Mongolians in the mid-river region had become Turkic and Islamic. The Mon-golian Chagatay descendants ruling Xinjiang kept their nomadic heritages away from farming areas and towns with a tense relationship with the oppressed peo-ples like the Uygurs. Tuhru Timur Khan and other Mongolian successors ruled


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their kingdom with Islam. They pushed the Mongolians to convert to Islam first and sprawled east by force to most parts of Xinjiang pressing the residents in Kuqa, Turpan and Hami to accept Islam. During the process ethnic merging took place, e.g. some Mongolians were assimilated by the Uygurs with Islam working as a bond.

It is not accidental that both Karahanlı rulers and Chagatay Mongolian de-scendants adopted Islam to serve their political goals. This proved that in that chaotic historic situation Islam doctrines and ideology worked more effectively to erase the opposition and strengthen a central government than other reli-gions. Furthermore, one-god theory, simple mosque routines and etiquettes, and unique preachings helped Islam spread more extensively.

The spreading process of Islam went along with the gradual termination of Buddhism and other religions in Xinjiang. Buddhism died out because of evic-tion by Islam and its internal causes. In fact Buddhism in Qiuci and Gaochang had already begun to decline from the peak before Islam cut in. After the 10th century warfare remained constant causing economic downturns. Turpan was devastated and Buddhism, which relied heavily on agriculture, started to de-cline. The Buddhist sites still accommodated many temples and a large class of monks. The monks did not engage in production and depended on farmers for a well-off living. At religious events the temples staged extravagant ceremonies which put heavy pressure on local economies. Some high-class monks were big landlords possessing a huge amount of production assets like slaves, servants and broke farmers. This intensified the resentment between the classes and made the poor public lose faith in Buddhism. So when Islam came in, they gave up their traditional religion and tried to seek spiritual comfort in this new faith.

4. The key evolutions in Xiniang religions had something to do with ethnic migration in the region, which resulted in ethnic integration.

In ancient times the nomadic peoples were always on the move. Every mi-gration led to some adjustments in the ethnic structures and impacted social politics, economy and culture. As for religions, some migrant peoples brought in their religions and cultures while others accepted local ones. Diversity was created and regional or linguistic similarity also emerged to help integrate vari-ous ethnic groups.

From the late 3rd century to the mid-2nd century before Christ, there was a major ethnic migration. The Huns defeated the Yuezhi and forced them to move to the north of the Tianshan Mountains from the west of Hexi Corridor. Therefore the indigenous nomadic Sai people had to move south and cross the Pamir before reaching Kashmir. The Usun meanwhile migrated west to the Ili river area from Dunhuang. The Yuezhi suffered more attacks from the Huns and moved further to the Amu River occupying Daxia and building Guishuang dynasty. This dynasty and Kashmir were both Buddhist centers then delivering


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Buddhism as a major source to Xinjiang and making it a common faith around the Tarim Basin. There was a mixed ethnic composition around the Tarim basin, including Persian-speaking Sai and Sut, Chinese-Tibetan speaking Qiang and Chinese; over the long process of cohabiting and working together, these peoples of different complexions and languages mingled and exchanged form-ing nationals of several regional town states, like residents of Qiuci, Yutian, Shula, and Gaochang. Their common faith – Buddhism functioned as a bond to unite them all. The westward migration of the Huihu people in the mid-9th century is one of the most important events in Xinjiang history. Since the move the Huihus had turned into the main components of the present-day Uyghurs who live in Xinjiang as a majority group. This involves a long processs of adopt-ing the Turkic language and going the Uyghur way.

The Huihus who moved into the Turpan area brought Moni to the land be-fore converting to Buddhism later, which helped quicken the process of their integration with the local Gaochang and Qiuci natives. This formed new ethnic groups like Xizhou Huihus and Gaochang Huihus. A tribe of Huihu moved to the west of Tsong Range and united with other Turkic tribes in building the Karahanlı dynasty. They accepted Islam and spread it to the western and south-ern parts of the Tarim Basin. During this process the ethnic groups in the dyn-asty blended with each other and formed a new ethnic commonwealth made up of the Turkic tribes and natives in the Tarim Basin with a common faith of Islam – the Karahanlı people.

After the 13th century, along the Mongolian conquest of the western region, a large number of Mongolians moved into Xinjiang. In the later 14th -16th cen-tury the Mongolian Chagatay rulers enforced Islam so that the ancient Uyghurs in the south of the Tianshan Mountains came to foster their common language, both oral and written, and cultural customs and so on. This is how the modern Uyghurs came into being and most of the foreign Mongolians also merged with the Uyghurs. Islam played a very critical role in boosting such ethnic exchange and integration as a culture and ideology.

Looking through the whole evolution of the religions in Xinjiang, we can tell that it is a very objective historic process. Either multi-religion coexistence or coversion from one religion to another was subject to the current political and economic developments in the social and historical settings, and was linked to the connection of all the ethnic groups’ developments in Xinjiang. Therefore, when we research on the evolution history of the religions in Xinjiang, we must follow the principles of historic materialism, respect the facts and truth, discov-er the social and historic roots in the religious evolution and elaborate the reli-gions, which is a really scientific attitude for academic research.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

JINXIN, Li, Religious Evolution in Xinjiang, Xinjiang People Press, 2003. Islamic history in Xinjiang, China, Urumqi, Xinjiang People Press, 2000. JINXIN, Li, Brief History of Islamic Dynasties in Xinjiang, Religion and Culture Press, 1999. JINBAO, Zhou and Qiu LIN, Religious Culture on the Silk Road, Urumqi, Xinjiang

People Press, 1998. LJ RRSR XPP 2009. LIANGTAO, Wei, History of Buddhism in the Western Region, Urumqi, Xinjiang

People Press, 2001.

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Sincan Bölgesi’nde İslâm’ın Gelişiminin Temel Özellikleri

Prof. Dr. Li Cinşin

ÖZET

u makale Sincan’daki dinin gelişim tarihini dört aşamada özetle-mektedir. Birincisi, birçok dinin bir arada bulunması eski zaman-lardan bu yana Sincan’daki dinin gelişmesinin temel özelliği sayılır

ve dört kısma ayrılabilir: 1) Eski zamanlarda (M.Ö) doğaya tapma ve Şamanizm inancı; bu, eski zamanlardaki İslâmi kavramlar ile batı ataları-nın yaşam biçimleri, üretim ve yaşam tarzı ile farklı yerleri kapsayan fark-lı milletler ve kabilelerin oluşması birbiriyle çok ilişkilidir. Dinî kavram-ların oluşması onun toplumsal varlığına bağlıdır, eski zamanlardaki din kavramları ve özellikle de Şamanizm inancı ile buralardan gelişerek ortaya çıkan birçok halk gelenekleri ve inançlar, küçük milletlerin geleneksel ideolojisi ile kültürüne ve öbür dinlerin yayılmasına çok derin bir etki bı-raktı. 2) Antik dönem(Yaklaşık 10.yy), Budizmin daha etkili olduğu Zerdüştlük, Taoizm, Nestorianizm gibi birçok dinin bir arada bulundu-ğu dönemdir. Millattan önce yaklaşık 1. yüzyılda Budizm Wada’ya gir-miştir, 2. yüzyıldan sonra yavaş yavaş Asya’nın tarım havzasında gelişme-

B


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ye başlar, Wei Hanedanından Tang ve Song’a kadar batı budizm döne-minde, Hotan, Kuça, Dao olmak üzere Asya’nın batıdaki budizm kültüre dönüşerek, görkemli bir medeniyet yaratmışlar, çok sayıda kültürel ve sa-natsal anıt ve eserler bırakmışlardır. Ülkede batı bölgelerin özellikleriyle zengin bir “Batı Budizmi” oluşmuştur. Orta Çağ dönemi (10. ve 19. yüzyıllar arası), İslâm dininin geldiği ve özelliklerine göre gelişen başka dinlerin bir arada bulunduğu dönemdir, aynı zamanda bu dönem İslâmın Sincan’daki Kazak, Uygur gibi etnik grubların Budizm ve benzeri eski dinlerin yerini aldığı tarihî bir süreçtir. Bu süreç genellikle üç aşama-ya ayrılır. İlk olarak, 10.yüzyılın başında İslâm, önce Karahanlar bölgesi-ne girer, sonra da yavaş yavaş doğuya doğru yayılır, 11. yüzyılda ise Ka-rahan döneminin erken devir aşamasında Karahan hükümdarı savaş yo-luyla Hotan’ı fetheder, İslâmın Aksu sınırlarına kadar yayılmasına yar-dımcı olur. Gaochang Uygur Krallığı ile uzun vadeli çatışmaya dönüşür. İkincisi ise, 14-15.yy arasında Moğolistan Kralı Çağatay döneminde İslâm Tarım Havzasının kuzey tarafına ve Turfan, Hami bölgelerine ka-dar yayılır; Uygur etnik grubunun genel dini olarak kabul edilir. Üçün-cüsü, 16 ve 17.yy’da kazak ve Kırgız etnik grupları da tamamen İslâm di-nini kabul etmişlerdir. 4) Çağdaş İslâm, Budizm (Tibet Budizmi dâhil), Taoizm, Hıristiyanlık, Katolik ve Ortodoks gibi birçok dinlerin bir arada bulunduğu bir yapıdır.

İkincisi, Sincan’da yayılan din genellikle “yabancı dindir”, esas olarak Orta Asya’dan gelmiştir. Bu “yabancı dinler” Sincan’a girdikten sonra hem yerel halkın geleneksel kültürü ve adetleriyle bütünleşmiş hem de kamulaştırma ve bölgeselleşme sürecine uyarlanmıştır. “Yabancı dini” aşağıdaki gibi dört tipe ayırabiliriz: Birincisi, Hint kültürü tipleri. Örne-ğin Budizm; ikincisi, Arabistan-Fars kültürü tipleri, örneğin Mecusiyye (Zerdüştlük), Maniheizm, İslâm; üçüncüsü, Roma kültürü tipleri, örne-ğin Katolik, Ortodoks ve Hıristiyan sapkınlar ve din öğretimleri dâhil olmak üzere Nie Stowe okulu; dördüncüsü, orta ovaları kültür tipleri, örneğin Taoculuk (Taoizm). Dinin bu farklı kültürel tipleri sadece dinî öğretiler, inançlar ve ritüeller bakımından değil, aynı zamanda oluştur-dukları tarihî geçmiş, sosyal sistem, farklı kültürel ortam v.b. özellikler açısından da farklılık gösterir. Başlangıçta hepsi oldukça güçlü yerel fark-lılıklara sahipti, ama dışarıya doğru yayılırken kaçınılmaz bir şekilde fark-lı bölgelerle, farklı etnik grupların sosyal sistemleriyle, kültürel uygulama-larıyla tanıştı ve böylece bu bölge milletlerinin kültürel izlerini zapt etti.

Üçüncüsü, Sincan dinlerini tarihî açıdan incelediğimizde bazı dinler önemli hâle gelmiş, bazı dinler de yavaş yavaş ortadan kalkmıştır. Bu yükselme ve ortadan kalkmanın nedenlerinin çeşitli sebepleri vardır, hem nesnel çevrenin etkileriyle toplumun iç etkenleri hem de dinin kendisin-de ortaya çıkan değişiklikler bulunmaktadır. Bunların arasında, feodal egemen sınıfın dini kullanması, belli bir dine destek göstermesi, darbe


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vurması ve dışlaması bu yükseliş ve alçalmaları getiren önemli nedenler-den biridir.

Dördüncüsü, Sincan’ın dinî inançlarının farklılaşmasında Batı milletleri-nin göç hareketlerinin de belirli bir bağlantısı vardır. Bu değişimlerin so-nucu halkın bütünleşmesinin gelişmesini teşvik etmiştir. Batı bölgelerde-ki eski göçebelerin göç hareketleri sık sık karşılaşılan bir durumdur. Dinî inançlarda, bazı göçmen milletler kendi dinlerini ve kültürlerini de bera-ber getirdiler, bazıları ise yerel din ve kültürü kabul ettiler. Dinî çeşitlili-ğin yanı sıra, aynı dil ve bölge koşulları altında yakınlık da bulunmakta-dır. Bu yakınlık, etnik entegrasyon gelişiminde önemli bir role sahiptir. Bir ideoloji ve kültür olan İslâm, bu ulusal iletişim ve uyumun teşvik edilmesinde çok önemli bir role sahiptir.

921

Основные Xарактеристики Эволюции Ислама в Синьцзяне

Профессор Доктор Жиншин Ли

РЕЗЮМЕ

настоящей статье изложено понимание о закономерности истории развития религии в Синьцзяне по четырем аспектам. Во-первых, сосуществование многих

вероисповеданий с древних времен является основной особенностью эволюции религии в Синьцзяне, которая характеризуется географическим положением точки пересечения разных культур Востока и Запада и где с древних времен совместно проживали и переселялись многие этнические группы. Можно разделить на четыре этапа: 1) Поклонения природе и шаманизму в древние времена (до н.э.); эти первобытные представления религии и среды обитания Западных предков, их производства и образ жизни, а также расовое распределение в различных регионах и состав племени тесно связаны между собой. Формирование религиозных идей зависит от их

B


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общественного бытия. Первобытные представления религии, в особенности представления о вере шаманизма и отсюда происходящие многие народные обычаи и убеждения, являются накоплением традиционной идеологической культуры национального меньшинства, которые оказали глубокое влияние на распространение других религий. 2) Древние века (около 10век н.э.) – это период, сосуществования многих вероисповеданий, включая несторианство, даосизм, зороастризм и других, основанных на буддизме. Буддизм приблизительно в 1ом веке до н.э. вошел в Ваду, спустя два века в Таримской впадине постепенно развивался, период с династии Вэй до династий Тан и Сун и является процветающим периодом Западного буддизма. В это время сформировались буддийские культуры, в качестве Хотана, Кучи, Гао; создались великолепные цивилизации, и остались многочисленные культурные и художественные памятники. Образовался богатый местными особенностями западного региона «Западный буддизм». 3) Средневековый период (с 10 до 19 века) – это период введения ислама, период специфического развития сосуществования многих вероисповеданий, также исторического процесса перехода таких основных наций Синьцзяна как казахи и уйгуры из буддизма и других древних религий в ислам. Этот процесс в основном делится на три этапа: первый, в начале 10го века ислам сначала вошел в Караханский регион, а затем постепенно распространился в сторону востока; в 11ом веке в раннем переходе караханской династии, караханский правитель с помощью войны покорил Хатанских буддистов, и привел к тому, что ислам распространился до границы Аксу, и долго противостоял с королевством Гаучан. Второй, в 14-15вв по выводу правителя Монголии Чагатая ислам распространился к северу от бассейна реки Тарим до Турфана и Хамитского района, и ислам в уйгурской национальности установился в качестве основного вероисповедания нации. Третий, в 16-17вв, казахская, киргизская национальности всеобщее приняли ислам. Четвертый, современный ислам, буддизм (в том числе тибетский буддизм), даосизм, христианство, православие, католицизм и др. составляют структуру вероисповедования.

Во-вторых, распространенные религии в Синьцзяне в основном «иностранные религии», вошедшие через Центральную Азию; после того как эти «иностранные религии» вошли в Синьцзян, все соединились традиционной культурой и обычаями этих регионов, местных наций, адаптировались к процессу национализации и регионализации. «Иностранных религий» можно разделить на


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несколько типов: первый-это тип индийской культуры, например, Буддизм. Второй тип персидско-арабской культуры, такие как зороастризм, манихейство, ислам; третий тип римской культуры, такие как христианство, в том числе католики, православные и еретики христианской секты 聂斯托里группировки, то есть поклоняющиеся иконам; четвертый тип средней культуры, например, даосизм. Эти типы религий разных культур отличаются не только религиозными учениями, обрядами, но и созданным историческим фоном, социальной системой, культурной средой; сначала они все отличались относительно сильным местным колоритом, но распространяясь на наружные местности, все неизбежно абсорбировались с разными регионами, социальным строем разных народов, обычаями разных культур, тем самым захватили культурные отпечатки этих регионов и народов.

В-третьих, в истории религии в Синьцзяне, некоторые религии поднялись, некоторые религии исчезли; есть много причин этих подъемов и падений, как воздействие объективной среды, и внутренние факторы общества, так и изменения в самой религии. Среди них, использование религии феодалами правящего класса, принятие и поощрение той или иной религии, или их отношение к принятию удара и подверганию к остракизму и является одной из важнейших причин создающих изменений подъемов и падений.

В-четвертых, в некоторых важных изменениях в религиозной веровании, Синьцзян всегда придерживал определенную связь с миграционными движениями наций западных регионов; результаты этих изменений способствовали развитию интеграции народа. Миграционные движения древних кочевников в западных регионах были обычными явлениями. В религиозных верованиях, некоторые мигрирующие народы принесли свою религию и культуру, в то время как некоторые из них приняли местную религию и культуру. Помимо разнообразия религиозных убеждений, существует еще и конвергенция, на основе территории и условии однородного языка. Эти конвергенции играют наиважнейшую роль в развитии межэтнической интеграции. Ислам, будучи идеологией и культурой, в поощрении такого вида национального общения и интеграции, играет немаловажную роль.

orta asyada slÂm - isamveri.orgisamveri.org/pdfdrg/d226858/2012/2012_jinxinl.pdfethnic migration...

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