| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.5

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 111.5 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Asia

David G. Atwill. The Chinese Sultanate: Islam, Ethnicity, and the Panthay Rebellion in Southwestern China, 1856–1873. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. 2005. Pp. xii, 264. $60.00.

The violent events in Yunnan between the years 1856 and 1873, which involved array of local ethnic groups and the Qing state, have thus far been treated, for the most part, as a passing paragraph in the historiography of nineteenth-century China. This fascinating train of events, which culminated in the establishment of a rebel state, Pingnan Guo, in parts of the province, and which contemporary Western observers termed the "Panthay Rebellion," has long been overshadowed by the coterminous Taiping rebellion. For the most part, accounts of the Panthay rebellion—both those of state officials and of Western observers—simply emphasized "Muslim violence" as a central factor. Later histories of the period saw the rebellion as yet another sign of the growing incompetence of the Qing state, and counted it among the no less than five rebellions that plagued China in the second half of the nineteenth century. Still other accounts lump the Panthay rebellion with contemporary Muslim rebellions in the Northwest and Xinjiang, playing into the familiar notion of a "Muslim wave of violence" thought to have "swept" China in the period, causing vexing problems for, and antagonisms with, the state. To be sure, these two factors—Islam and the state—played key roles in this episode. Yet there is much to say and to learn about the Panthay rebellion, its contexts, and its broader implications. David G. Atwill provides the first thorough study of the rebellion undertaken to date in any language. His book is not only meticulously researched but also beautifully narrated and richly textured, with Atwill navigating confidently in a sea of events and personalities.

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