RELIGION, TRADITION AND CHANGE: KASHGAR WOMEN IN 19th CENTURY

Kashgar attracted the attention of many global states, especially Britain, USA, Russia and China, from the East and the West through industrial revolution and rise of concepts such as imperialism and socialism in the nineteenth century. For that reason, the region was flooded by travellers, cartographers, archaeologists, orientalists and missionaries. Travel books, diaries, geography books or memoirs, which was written by them, involve geographical, political, religious and social information about Kashgar. There is also information on the life of the Kashgar community and the social life of Kashgar women. The Turks have given importance to the institution of family since the ancient times. In Turkish society, the woman is the headstone of the family, and the family is entrusted with the authority of the woman. In ancient Turks, women had an important place not only in the family but also in the state administration, Turkish women signed international agreements and took over the responsibilities of state management, they had the right to inheritance and divorce and played important roles in both formal and social life. The subject of this study is to examine the social life and status of the Kashqar women in the nineteenth century. In addition, give information on women's family life, relations with the opposite sex, marriages, births, hospitality, leisure life, clothes and personal cares, beliefs, health-related behaviours. To sum up, the aim of this study is to illuminate the social life of Kashgar woman in the nineteenth century based on the travel books of foreign travellers and the diaries of foreign writers who visited Kashgar.

Keywords

Kashgar, East Turkestan, woman, social life, travel book.