Masud Sabri

Masud Sabri
مەسئۇت سابرى
Governor of Xinjiang
In office
21 May 1947 – 31 December 1948
Preceded byZhang Zhizhong
Succeeded byBurhan Shahidi
Personal details
Born1886
Ili, Xinjiang, Qing China
Died1952
Xinjiang, People's Republic of China
Political partyCC Clique of the Kuomintang
Alma materUniversity of Istanbul
Military service
AllegianceFlag of the Republic of China Republic of China

Masud Sabri, also known as Masʿūd Ṣabrī (Uyghur: مەسئۇت سابرى, مسعود صبري; simplified Chinese: 麦斯武德·沙比尔; traditional Chinese: 麥斯武德·沙比爾; pinyin: Màisīwǔdé·Shābì'ěr; 1886–1952), was an ethnic Uyghur politician of the Republic of China who served as the governor of Xinjiang during the Ili Rebellion. He received education at Kulja and Istanbul and was a Pan-Turkist. Chiang Kai-shek appointed him the first Uyghur governor of Xinjiang.

Education

After attending University of Istanbul and learning medicine, Sabri returned to Xinjiang to become a pharmacist.

Career

Governor of Xinjiang Yang Zengxin jailed Masud Sabri for pan turkist activities and then deported him from the province.[1]

Masud supported the First East Turkestan Republic while based at Aqsu with Mahmud Sijan. After it was crushed by the 36th Division (National Revolutionary Army) Masud fled to British India and then to Nanking, where he joined the Kuomintang Republic of China government. The Central Military Academy and Central University accepted some of his relatives as students in Nanking after he joined the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang.[2]

In 1942, Masud Sabri was serving on the 36 seated State Council (Chinese National Political Council), the only other Muslim member was the Chinese Muslim General Ma Lin.[2]

Bai Chongxi, the Defence Minister of China and a Muslim, was considered for being appointed Governor of Xinjiang. The position was then given to Masud Sabri, who was pro Kuomintang and anti-Soviet. He replaced Zhang Zhizhong.[3] Ehmetjan Qasim, the Communist Uyghur Ili leader, repeatedly demanded that Masud Sabri be sacked as governor.[4]

Masud Sabri was an opponent of the Soviet sponsored Second East Turkistan Republic in Ili during the Ili Rebellion, opposing all efforts to negotiate with Ehmetjan Qasim along with others like Wang Tseng-shan, a Chinese Muslim, who was the KMT commissioner of Civil Affairs in the Xinjiang Coalition Government from 1946–47, and was associated with the CC Clique. Masud Sabri was also a CC Clique member, as was the Tatar Burhan Shahidi and the KMT-general and Han-Chinese Wu Zhongxin.[5] He led the Xinjiang coalition government from 1948-1949[6] Masud Sabri formed a group of pan turkists with Muhammad Amin Bughra and Isa Yusuf Alptekin to join the Kuomintang Republic of China coalition government in Xinjiang, opposing the Uyghur Communist Ili regime in the Second East Turkestan Republic.There were 3 Effendis, (Üch Äpändi) (ئۈچ ئەپەندى) Aisa Alptekin, Memtimin Bughra (Muhammad Amin Bughra), and Masud Sabri.[7][8] The Second East Turkestan Republic attacked them as Kuomintang "puppets".[9] Ehmetjan Qasim's government in Ili attacked Isa Yusuf Alptekin, Muhammad Amin Bughra, and Masud Sabri as supporters of the Kuomintang and puppets of imperialism.[10]

Masud Sabri and fellow Pan-Turkic Jadidist and East Turkestan Independence activist Muhammad Amin Bughra rejected the Soviet imposition of the name "Uyghur people" upon the Turkic people of Xinjiang. They wanted instead the name "Turkic ethnicity" (Tujuezu in Chinese) to be applied to their people. Masud Sabri also viewed the Hui people as Muslim Han Chinese and separate from his own people.[11] The names "Türk" or "Türki" in particular were demanded by Bughra as the real name for his people. He slammed Sheng Shicai for his designation of Turkic Muslims into different ethnicities which could sow disunion among Turkic Muslims.[12]

In 1948 Sabri turned down the proposal of being appointed ambassador to Iran from China.

In January 1949, Burhan Shahidi succeeded Masud Sabri as the chairman of Xinjiang Provincial Government.[13]

The Communist Party placed him under detention and imprisoned him in 1951. He died in 1952, still incarcerated.[14] Alternatively, according to Xinjiang and Ukraine specialist Sean R. Roberts, the CCP had Sabri executed in 1951.[15]

References

  1. ^ David D. Wang (1999). Clouds over Tianshan: essays on social disturbance in Sinkiang in the 1940s. NIAS Press. p. 28. ISBN 87-87062-62-3. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  2. ^ a b Howard L. Boorman; Richard C. Howard; Joseph K. H. Cheng (1967). Biographical Dictionary of Republican China. Columbia University Press. pp. 23–. ISBN 978-0-231-08957-9. ma lin muslim.
  3. ^ Ondřej Klimeš (8 January 2015). Struggle by the Pen: The Uyghur Discourse of Nation and National Interest, c.1900-1949. Brill. pp. 197–. ISBN 978-90-04-28809-6.
  4. ^ UNSUCCESSFUL ATTEMPTS TO RESEOLVE POLITICAL PROBLEMS IN SINKIANG; EXTENT OF SOVIET AID AND ENCOURAGEMENT TO REBEL GROUPS IN SINKIANG; BORDER INCIDENT AT PEITASHAN
  5. ^ Andrew D. W. Forbes (1986). Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: a political history of Republican Sinkiang 1911-1949. Cambridge, England: CUP Archive. pp. 199, 247, 253. ISBN 0-521-25514-7. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  6. ^ Hsiao-ting Lin (2010). Modern China's Ethnic Frontiers: A Journey to the West. Taylor & Francis. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-415-58264-3. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  7. ^ Kamalov, Ablet (2010). Millward, James A.; Shinmen, Yasushi; Sugawara, Jun (eds.). Uyghur Memoir literature in Central Asia on Eastern Turkistan Republic (1944-49). Studies on Sinkiang Historical Sources in 17-20th Centuries. Tokyo: The Toyo Bunko. p. 260.
  8. ^ Ondřej Klimeš (8 January 2015). Struggle by the Pen: The Uyghur Discourse of Nation and National Interest, c.1900-1949. Brill. pp. 197–. ISBN 978-90-04-28809-6.
  9. ^ Ondřej Klimeš (8 January 2015). Struggle by the Pen: The Uyghur Discourse of Nation and National Interest, c.1900-1949. Brill. pp. 241–. ISBN 978-90-04-28809-6.
  10. ^ David D. Wang (January 1999). Clouds Over Tianshan: Essays on Social Disturbance in Xinjiang in the 1940s. NIAS Press. pp. 28–. ISBN 978-87-87062-62-6.
  11. ^ [1] C. X. George Wei & Xiaoyuan Liu 2002, p. 181
  12. ^ Millward 2007, p. 209
  13. ^ Benson 1990: 155
  14. ^ Andrew D. W. Forbes (1986). Warlords and Muslims in Chinese Central Asia: a political history of Republican Sinkiang 1911-1949. Cambridge, England: CUP Archive. p. 247. ISBN 0-521-25514-7. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  15. ^ Sean R. Roberts (2020). The War on the Uyghurs: China's Internal Campaign Against a Muslim Minority. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-0-691-20218-1.
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