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ABSTRACT
Based on a close reading of five legal documents from Kucha, this paper explores judicial practice in Xinjiang in the Republican era. The documents all relate to members of the same family and open a window on to property transactions, family structure and local political administration at the lowest levels of government, across a long enough period to show change over time. Touching upon diverse social practices such as inheritance, the sale of land and making a pledge, the documents demonstrate the mutual integration of Islamic and state law, simultaneously revealing strategies to narrate and constitute social relationships.
Acknowledgments
This research is part of the project “Between homogenization and fragmentation: textual practices as strategies of integration and identity maintenance among the Uyghurs of Xinjiang, China (20th-21st centuries)” funded by the Velux Fonden (Denmark), no. 111687, 2017-2020. I would like to thank Ildikó Bellér-Hann for her valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Forbes, Warlords and Muslims; Millward, Eurasian Crossroads; Brophy, Uyghur Nation; and Jacobs, Xinjiang and the Modern Chinese State.
2. Bellér-Hann, Community Matters in Xinjiang; Schluessel, The Muslim Emperor; and Sugawara, “Models and Realities”.
3. This collection consists of more than 150 legal documents from Kashgar, Khotan and Kucha, which pertain to civil disputes such as divorce, lease, rent, child custody, real estate and inheritance.
4. Kuche Xianzhi, 73.
5. Schluessel, The Muslim Emperor, 193.
6. Village headmen and other respected village elders (aqsaqal) acted as arbitrators to try to resolve disputes in a neutral way before the conflict was brought to an Islamic court, see Bellér-Hann, Community Matters in Xinjiang, 179–216; and Bayiz, “Kuchadiki mähkimä shär’i toghrisida”, 242–3.
7. Sugawara, “Models and Realities,” 148.
8. My transliteration of Arabic, Persian and Uyghur terms in Arabic script follows the system employed in Komatsu et. al., Encyclopedia of Central Eurasia, 592–3.
9. The titles of Shariʿa court officials in Kucha are: 1) Qaḍi quzzat; 2) Qaḍi kalan; 3) Aʿlam; 4) Mufti; 5) Qaḍi; 6) Qaḍi rä’is; and 7) Munshi; see Bayiz, “Kuchadiki mähkimä shär’i toghrisida”, 243–245.
10. Ibid., 245.
11. Legal documents from Khotan, Kucha, Qumul, Turfan and Yarkant were also dated with the twelve animal signs.
12. Osmanov et al., Uyghurchä Khänzuchä lughät, 621a.
13. See above 4., 34.
14. Abdurakhman et al., Uygur tiligha chättin kirgän sözlär, 356b.
15. He, “Shilun Yangzengxin shiqi”, 68–69.
16. Ibid., 70.
17. Osmanov et al., Uyghurchä Khänzuchä lughät, 485a.
18. Hoshur, “Kuchaning azatliqtin burunqi hakimyät ähwali“, 79–89.
19. Fludernik, Towards a “Natural” Narratology, 87–109; and Stern, “Narrative in the Legal Text”, 121–139.
20. Sartori, Visions of Justice.
21. Welsford, “The Rabbit, the Duck”, 258–78.
22. The Majmūʻat al-masāʾil is based on Zubdat al-masāʾil wa ’l-ʿaqāʾid by Muḥammed Ṣādiq Kāshgharī, the author of Tadhkīra-i ʻazīzān. The manuscript matches the Majmūʻat al-masāʾil in Kashgar Museum and is probably the complete version of it. It belongs to the De Jong Collection, was copied in 1871 in Xinjiang and is now held at Leiden University Library. It is in black nasta`liq with rubrics in red.
23. The original text reads: Zäytun bibining malining toghrasidin ʿOthman kökbeshi üstümdä dubä begi begimgä ʿärḍ bolghanida.
24. It could also be ot häqqi, the payment for animal fodder, which he had supplied until then, see Zhang, Weiwuer qiyue wenshu yizhu, 333.
25. Tizä is from the Chinese term tiezi, a unit of money, see Makhsut et al., Shinjang tarikhidiki ölchäm, 377.
26. Saguchi, Shiba dao shijiu shiji, 145.
27. The original text reads: höküm birlä kishi chiqip bizlärni haḍir qilip sorghanida, andin shärʿighä burup shärʿän Faḍil akhund Zäytun bibining malini ṣatip etipdur, kishining malini bashqa ṣatqali bolmaydur dep ämir bolup.
28. The original text reads: nimärsäni kimärsägä saqlaghili bärsä saq lamaghliq üchün lazimdur. … Ägär ol saqlighuchi kochidin ya balasidin böläk kishigä berip halak bolsä töläp berür.
29. The original text reads: hidayä kishining mülkini yinä kishigä ṣatmaq durust emäs. Kishinin bir nimärsäsini ṣatmaq baṭildur.
30. The original text reads: qaḍikhanda aytipturlarki: ägär hoyli bagh wä mundin böläk här nimäni ikki kishi arasida sherik birsi biridin bi ʿijazät ṣatmaq durust emäs.
31. In 1939, the unit sär had already been disestablished, see Shinjangning qisqichä tarikhi, 431. However, here we can assume that it was still used by local people in Kucha.
32. The original text reads: kelishlik moʿsi-ni yär alghuchi berädur.
33. The original text reads: atamizdin mirath qalghan Āq östäng yüräyshidä özümizghä täʿälluq bir farchä yerimiz.
34. The original text reads: Faṭimä bibigä anasi Khanqiz khan, Turdi bibigä egächäsi Niyaz bibi wäkil bolup mühür basghan.
35. The original text reads: Rozi shangyäning oghli Faḍil shangyä durmän.
36. Shangyä yinkhang is from the Chinese shangye yinhang “commercial bank” (in Uyghur tijarät bankisi), see Wang, Xinjiang lishi huobi, 341. Today it is known as Shinjang soda bankisi, see Jappar et al., Khänzuchä Uyghurchä chong lughät, 1845. In 1936 the Xinjiang Provincial Bank (Shinjang ölkilik bankisi) opened its first branch in Kucha, see Kucha nahiyisi täzkirisi, 623. At the beginning of 1939 it was renamed Commercial Bank by Mao Zemin and lent 475,000 yuan to peasants in Xinjiang, see Shinjangning qisqichä tarikhi, 430, 437. The money given to the peasants in Āq Östäng village might have been part of this sum.
37. The original text reads: mingoning yigirmä säkizinchi yili bäshinchi ayning toquzi künidä.
38. The original text reads: möhürlük khät bärgän mänki jungnanshiang Āq östängdin Rozi shangyäning oghli Faḍil shangyä’durmän ….
39. Hoshur, “Kuchaning azatliqtin burunqi hakimyät ähwali”, 78–9. In 1944 the villages of Kucha were reorganized into six districts and twenty-three villages, see ibid.
40. Ibid., 79.
41. The unit of money cited in the documents changed several times. In the first and second documents it was tiyzä ful (1934–1935), in the third document sär ful (1939) and here koy ful (1949). In 1948 there was a currency devaluation in Kucha. Therefore, at that time the amount could not be considered to be very much. The word koy ful is probably a calque from the Chinese kuai qian, the “basic unit of money in China”, see Wu, The Pinyin Chinese–English Dictionary, 397b.
42. The original text reads: wäfat bolghan Faṭimä khanning wäräthäläri Niyaz qari ….
43. Shinjangning qisqichä tarikhi, 445.
44. Bellér-Hann, “Temperamental Neighbors”, 172.
45. Ghulach means to “fathom” the distance between the fingertips of two outstretched arms, see Clauson, An Etymological Dictionary, 618a, b; see also Raquette, Eastern Turki Grammar, 36.
46. The word uy came from old Uyghur ud “ox”, see Mirsultan, Die alttürkische Xuanzang-Biographie X, 507; and Clauson, An Etymological Dictionary, 34a, b.
47. According to the signature of the Molla Sawut Shangjang (Mädhkurghä täṣdiq qildim, Molla Sawut shangjang) in blue, we can assume that he certified the document at the end of the process.
48. The original text reads: ägär falani kishining wäräthlärighä dep wäsiyät qilsä oghli qizi bolsä iki ḥäṣṣä oghli bir ḥäṣṣä qizi alur.
49. Abdel Haleem, The Qur’an, 79.
50. The word bujang is from the Chinese buzhang, an official with the same power as yüzbeshi – an official who was the head of one hundred persons – in traditional/presocialist Uyghur society, see Abdurakhman et al., Uygur tiligha chättin kirgän sözlär, 69.
51. The word shünggän is from the Chinese xunguan, a police patrol officer, see ibid. 372.
52. The word dogän could be the Uyghur pronunciation of the Chinese douguan and is the name of an official who is responsible for preparing documents, see Saguchi, Shiba dao shijiu shiji, 134.
53. The word shangjang is likely from the Chinese xianzhang and means district administrator, see Osmanov et al., Uyghurchä Khänzuchä lughät, 621a.
54. Bellér-Hann, Community Matters in Xinjiang, 195.
55. Flurdenik Towards a “Natural” Narratology; and Stern “Narrative in the Legal Text”.
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Aysima Mirsultan
Aysima Mirsultan is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen and the author of Die alttürkische Xuanzang Biographie X (Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010) and a co-author of Auf kaiserlichen Befehl erstelltes Wörterbuch des Manjurischen in fünf Sprachen ‘Fünfsprachenspiegel’ (Harrassowitz Verlag, 2013). She holds a PhD in Turkology and Central Asian studies from Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany.