This article examines how Qing actors conceptualized the origins of Islam and the identity of Payghambar during the incorporation of the Tarim Basin into their empire. Drawing on memorials, gazetteers, inscriptions, and officially commissioned works, I show that Qianlong-period discourse relied on diverse lenses to interpret the region’s institutions and practices, drawing links to Buddhism, Manichaeism, and Zoroastrianism in turn, and filtering empirical observations through classical Chinese historiography. Key to this discourse was the figure of Payghambar, whose identity was detached from Muḥammad and localized to Kashgar, allowing scholars to imagine Tarim Basin Islam as an indigenous, politically grounded tradition. This intellectual move simultaneously magnified the historical role of the khoja lineages and delimited Xinjiang’s religious past within the boundaries of the Qing empire.
David Brophy (Thu,) studied this question.