The Life of Yakoob Beg Athalik Ghazi, and Badaulet Ameer of Kashgar

Boulger, Demetrius Charles, 1853-1928Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.2
Word count
662K words
Chapters
67

Tags

English Originals Historical Figures Silk RoadCentral Asian HistoryHistorical ReappraisalMilitary StrategyRise and FallFate and FortunePower GameAntiheroDocumentary NarrativeExotic Culture

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Life of Yakoob Beg; Athalik Ghazi, and Badaulet; Ameer of Kashgar by BoulgerAuthor: Boulger, Demetrius Charles, 1853-1928,Language: English, Class: DS: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Asia, Release Date: Sep 12, 2010

Editor's review

This book is a biography of Yakoob Beg by Boulger, a nineteenth-century British author's evaluative account of a Central Asian political figure. As a public-domain historical document, its value lies not in providing conclusions accepted by contemporary scholarship, but in showing how a Victorian observer understood Kashgar, the regime of Yakoob Beg, and its relations with surrounding powers. Readers can see the period's English usage of titles such as "Athalik Ghazi" and "Badaulet" and the author's narrative framework for the life of a frontier figure. For readers studying modern Central Asian history, the Qing northwest frontier, the Anglo-Russian rivalry in Central Asia, and traditions of Orientalist writing, this is a primary text to be read alongside other sources. Readers should note the author's standpoint, sources of information, and historical limitations, and should not take his judgments directly as established historical fact. It is suitable for thematic reading after one has acquired relevant historical background, or as material for source comparison.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. First read basic historical facts about the Qing northwest frontier and the regime of Yakoob Beg before approaching this book, so as not to be led astray by a single narrative framework.
  2. While reading, note the author's sources, evaluative language, and period biases to facilitate comparison with other sources.
  3. Read alongside relevant Chinese sources or later scholarship, treating the book as a sample of the nineteenth-century British perspective.
  4. The English original is lengthy; proceed chapter by chapter and thematically rather than trying to finish it in one sitting.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

Is this book suitable as a main basis for research on Yakoob Beg? It should not be used alone as a main basis. It is a public-domain biography written by a nineteenth-century British author and reflects the information conditions and standpoint limitations of its time. It is better used as one source among others, read alongside Chinese records and later scholarship, to observe how a British author of a particular era narrated Kashgar and the regime of Yakoob Beg.
What language and background preparation are needed to read this book? The original is in English, so some English reading ability is required. Historically, it is best to first understand the Qing northwest frontier, the regime of Yakoob Beg, and nineteenth-century Anglo-Russian competition in Central Asia, which makes it easier to judge the emphases and biases of the narrative.
How should the titles in the book's title be understood? "Athalik Ghazi" and "Badaulet Ameer" in the title are transliterations and transcriptions of titles associated with Yakoob Beg in English writing of the period, reflecting the usage of the author's time. They should not be treated as the only standard translations; readers can compare them with corresponding titles in Chinese sources.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Boulger, Demetrius Charles, 1853-1928 Author

Demetrius Charles Boulger (1853–1928) was a British writer known for biographies of figures in Far Eastern and Central Asian history and for works on Chinese affairs. Public information about him is limited, and details of his life are largely unknown, but the four works held in this collection show where his interests lay: the two-volume Life of Gordon treats the British general Charles Gordon, while The Life of Yakoob Beg Athalik Ghazi is a biography of the ruler of Kashgar, and he also wrote a book on China. Boulger's writing draws mainly on political and military figures, with a narrative that emphasizes factual exposition and the recounting of events, in a practical style reflecting a late nineteenth-century British perspective on Asian affairs. His works are still consulted as material for understanding the Central Asian politics of the period and British narratives about China, and retain some value as historical sources.