Paper long abstract:

This paper draws upon documents from the Turpan prefectural archive to examine the critical role of Musulmans (Uyghurs) in late Qing security institutions. Musulmans in Turpan had played an essential role in security institutions ever since the Qing reconquest of Xinjiang in 1877. In 1901, however, the Qing court approved an ambitious series of reforms that included the establishment of “modern” policing institutions throughout the empire, and by 1905 local officials in Turpan began implementing these reforms in earnest. Whereas before Musulmans had participated in policing and security in an ad-hoc fashion by mobilizing local residents for bandit suppression, a large number of documents from the Turpan archive reveal that the new reformed police formally integrated many Musulmans into Qing policing institutions for the first time. A small but significant minority of local sheriffs and patrolmen were Musulmans, and they played an essential role in the enforcement of numerous late Qing reforms in Xinjiang. Perhaps more importantly, the late Qing witnessed the emergence of Musulman “investigators” in Turpan. Investigators (who were always Musulmans) accompanied police forces during routine patrols, arrests, and bandit suppression activities and provided support in the form of linguistic, geographic, and cultural knowledge. This growing Musulman participation in policing institutions during the late Qing, I argue, was the result of 1) a formal recognition of the indispensable role Musulmans had played in Turpan for decades, 2) the fiscal crises of late Qing politics, and 3) an increasingly cosmopolitan imperial center that afforded more opportunities for Musulman participation in local institutions.