a. Secondly, they all took place on
Chinese soil, and all the Mohammedans involved, except in the rising of
the Salars, were Chinese. These Chinese who became Mohammedans are
called Dungans. The Dungans are, of course, no longer pure Chinese,
because Chinese who have gone over to Islam readily form mixed
marriages with Islamic non-Chinese, that is to say with Turks and
Mongols.

The revolt, however, of Yakub Beg in Turkestan had a quite different
character. Yakub Beg (his Chinese name was An Chi-yeh) had risen to the
Chinese governorship when he made himself ruler of Kashgar. In 1866 he
began to try to make himself independent of Chinese control. He
conquered Ili, and then in a rapid campaign made himself master of all
Turkestan.

His state had a much better prospect of endurance than the other
Mohammedan states. He had full control of it from 1874. Turkestan was
connected with China only by the few routes that led between the desert
and the Tibetan mountains. The state was supported against China by
Russia, which was continually pressing eastward, and in the south by
Great Britain, which was pressing towards Tibet. Farther west was the
great Ottoman empire; the attempt to gain direct contact with it was not
hopeless in itself, and this was recognized at Istanbul. Missions went
to and fro, and Turkish officers came to Yakub Beg and organized his
army; Yakub Beg recognized the Turkish sultan as Khalif. He also
concluded treaties with Russia and Great Britain. But in spite of all
this he was unable to maintain his hold of Turkestan. In 1877 the famous
Chinese general Tso Tsung-t'ang (1812-1885), who had fought against the
T'ai P'ing and also against the Mohammedans in Kansu, marched into
Turkestan and ended Yakub Beg's rule.

Yakub was defeated, however, not so much by Chinese superiority as by a
combination of circumstances. In order to build up his kingdom he was
compelled to impose heavy taxation, and this made him unpopular with his
own followers: they had to pay taxes under the Chinese, but the Chinese
collection had been much less rigorous than that of Yakub Beg. It was
technically impossible for the Ottoman empire to give him any aid, even
had its internal situation permitted it. Britain and Russia would
probably have been glad to see a weakening of the Chinese hold over
Turkestan, but they did not want a strong new state there, once they had
found that neither of them could control the country while it was in