Mahmut Muhiti

Mahmut Muhiti (1887 – 1944, both dates debated) was a Uyghur military commander from Turpan who rose as the chief commander of Khoja Niyaz's insurgent forces in the Kumul Rebellion, held the Kashgar military region under Sheng Shicai from 1934 to 1937, and then led the Islamic rebellion of 1937 against him. His byname "Shizhang" is the Chinese military styling for a division commander. ^{1 2}

An Arabic article also exists; it agrees with the English article on his birth in 1887 but gives his death in 1945, against the English and Chinese articles and Wikidata, which give 1944. ³

He was born at Turpan to a rich merchant family — the English article, citing Klimeš and Brophy, gives 1887; the Chinese article gives "1880s, 1887?" — and was a long-time follower of the Jadidist movement. When the Kumul Rebellion broke out he marched with its leaders to Turpan, where some 20,000 people rose; after Turpan fell to Sheng Shicai's forces he became chief military commander of the area's troops, and in August 1933 marched on Kashgar with Khoja Niyaz. ^{1 2}

After the storming of Kashgar in February 1934 he was left in command in the Old City while Khoja Niyaz departed, then served Sheng Shicai as Kashgar military commander and, from 1935, as commander of the 6th Uyghur Division. Kept waiting in Kashgar through 1936 while Soviet and Chinese influence grew around him, he met the British consul general, who described him as "a zealous Mohammedan" and "intensely Turk-minded" — a visitor's description of his piety, not an attestation of any school. ¹

In April 1937 he organised the Islamic rebellion against Sheng: his division rose at Kashgar and Yarkand, but the revolt collapsed under counterattack by Sheng's forces with Soviet help, and he fled over the passes to British India, at first reported killed. From India he moved to Japanese-occupied China, where the Japanese tried without success to use him against the Chinese Nationalists; he died at Beijing in 1944 — of a brain hemorrhage, the English article says, citing Tuncer — and was buried in a Muslim cemetery there. The Arabic article alone gives 1945 instead; Wikidata agrees with the articles on 1887 and on 1944, and the harvest queue's birth year of 1895 appears in no source read. The museum record follows 1887 and 1944 and carries both dates as debated — the birth because the Chinese article itself questions the year, the death because of the Arabic article's lone 1945. ^{1 3 4}

His faith is recorded as unknown, unflagged. No source names a legal school or order for him — the English article's "long-time Jadidist" names a reform movement, not a school, and a consul's description of him as a zealous Muslim describes piety, not affiliation; Wikidata's religion value is "Islam" in general. His command of Muslim troops and his leadership of a rebellion styled Islamic are military and political facts, not attestations. ^{1 4}

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