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Accepted Paper:
Writing Local History and Singing Dastans in Altisheher: Ghazàt-i dar Mulk-i Chín and the Dastan Tradition Among the Uyghurs in Late 19th Century
Ardahbek Amantur
(Indiana University)
In the field of Central Asian history, we have seen a shift of focus from a theoretical analysis of issues such as identity and political history to a textual analysis of locally produced sources. Following this trend, I will analyze Molla Bilal ibn-Molla Yüsüp’s work Ghazàt-i dar mulk-i Chín (The Holy War in the Kingdom of China) and examine the ‘dastan’ and history writing tradition among the Altisheheri Uyghurs in the late 19th and early 20th century. Molla Bilal composed his prosimetric work to record the stories of the rebellions that engulfed the Ili valley from 1864 to 1871. Contemporary Uyghur scholars have categorized Molla Bilal’s and other similar works as tarakihi dastanlar (historical dastans). In this paper, I contextualize Molla Bila’s work in both the ‘dastan’ and the history writing tradition of Uyghurs during this period to examine the literary conventions that surrounded the work. In addition, I also investigate the performance and social function of ‘dastans’, and specifically the ‘historical dastans’, to shed light on the social and political dynamic during this crucial period.