Islam, Sovereignty, and Imperial Crisis in Yunnan: The Panthay Rebellion (1856-1873) and Roberto Marín Guzmán’s Concept of Rebellion

Abstract

This article reinterprets the Panthay Rebellion in Yunnan (1856-1873) through Roberto Marín Guzmán’s concept of rebellion. Engaging with recent scholarship—particularly the work of David G. Atwill—it argues that the conflict cannot be understood merely as a Muslim uprising or an ethnic confrontation between Hui and Han communities. Drawing on historiographical analysis and Chinese primary sources, including proclamations, memorials, and Qing administrative documents, the article contends that the rebellion represented a profound crisis of legitimacy on the southwestern frontier of the Qing Empire. Anti-Hui violence, regional militarization, economic tensions, and the progressive fragmentation of imperial authority fostered the emergence of competing projects of sovereignty, most notably the Sultanate of Dali under the leadership of Du Wenxiu. Finally, the article demonstrates that Roberto Marín Guzmán’s analytical framework provides a productive comparative perspective for examining the relationship between religion, collective protest, political legitimacy, and imperial crisis, thereby opening new avenues for dialogue between Islamic history and Chinese history within the broader field of global history. In doing so, the article proposes extending Roberto Marín Guzmán's concept of rebellion to the comparative study of imperial crises in Chinese history.