The Conquest of Kashgar Christian Tyler on the plight of China's Turks Photographs by Ashley Gilbertson
Half the people of China's far west are not Chinese at all - they are Uighurs, their language Turkic, their religion Islam. This 36-page report on the Uighurs of Xinjiang highlights a poor,proud people subsisting in a harsh desert under alien rule.
The Taklamakan is the world's second largest sand desert. The new highway across it provides access to the Dazhong oilfield in the south. Nets and plantings are designed to keep the sands at bay
Ashley Gilbertson is a photojournalist specialising in conflict zones. These images were taken in August 2003 for Cornucopia. Gilbertson's photographs appear in City of Shadows: The Citadel of Kirkuk, by Owen Matthews Cornucopia 29 and Forgotten Corner of a Distant Land: The Turks of Western Thrace Cornucopia 30
For another article on Central Asia's Turkish legacy, see John Carswell's 'Despatch' from Inner Mongolia: The First European in Kharakhoto for Forty Years', Cornucopia 13
A young Uighur shows the aqualine profile characterisitic of many inhabitants in the south and west of Xinjiang. The term Uighur is no longer an ethnic one: it is applied to all oasis-dwellers to distinguish them from the Kazakhz and Kyrgyz, who belong to the steppe and mountain areas.
The Id Kah Mosque's coffered roof is decorated in traditional style. Even the smallest oases employ painters and carvers to work on poplar-wood columns and friezes and panels. The rooms of many Uighur houses are hung with carpets, while every spare inch of wall and celing is painted in bright colours. Imset panels often show scenes of lakes and oceans, though few Uighurs have ever seen the sea, living as they do at the dead centre of the Asian landmass.
A Uighur woman in a mill where maize is ground in the traditional way
Along the rocky road
Story and photographs by Martyn Rix
When spring arrives in the high passes of the Taurus Mountains, a dazzling display of flowers comes out to greet it.
The author, Martyn Rix, is the editor of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, founded in 1787 and published on behalf of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Related articles in Cornucopia
The Land of the Flowering Penguins: arums and aristolochias. Cornucopia 6
The doorman's son who saved the empire: Ali Pasha, Grand Vizier by David Barchard
Born into penury, he rose to be revered across Europe. Yet the Ottoman Empire's youngest ever grand vizier is all but forgotten at home. David Barchard charts the dramatic career of the master strategist Ali Pasha
Âli Pasha’s ‘testament’ is published as The Last of the Ottoman Grandees: The Life and Political Testament of Âli Pasha, ed. Fuad and Süphan Andic (Isis Press, Istanbul, 1996).
David Barchard uncovers more remarkable 19th century lives
The Caliph's Daughter by Omar Khalidi
Her life is the stuff of fairy tales.Omar Khalidi tells the story of the princess who captivated Cecil Beaton.
Omar Khalidi is a staff member of the Agha Khan program for Islamic Architecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Photograph of HIH Durrusehvar Sultan, Princess of Berar, photographed by Cecil Beaton in 1944. From the exhibition 'Beaton's Portraits' at the National Portrait Gallery, London, 2004.
All truffles conceal heady charms beneatha rough exterior. But Turkish truffles are a democratic luxury - far less costly than France's precious and more pungent tubers. Berrin Torolsan unearths simple local recipes to bring out the best in these mysterious aromatic nuggets
Also in this issue Charles Perryon the feast of the equinox in Central Asia
Wine
Vintage Cappadocia by Kevin Gould Photographs by Frits Meyst
Is the fantastic Cappadocian landscape about to become the new hotspot for wine-lovers? Kevin Gould heads for the oldest vineyards on earth to find out.
Travelling to Cappadocia? We suggest you also sample Cornucopia 11
Love him or loathe him, Fazil Say, the revolutionary young Turkish pianist and composer, is blowing up a storm on the concert platfoirms of Europe. Christian Tyler met a musician who is not afraid to live dangerously.
