HAMI (QoMuL) an oasis in Chinese Turkestan (Sinkiang) in lat. 42° 48' N. and long. 93° 28' E. Hami is situated in the north east of the Tarim basin, on the southern slopes of the eastern spurs of the Thian Shan Mts., and on the western verge of the Gobi desert. It lies at an elevation of 3,15o ft. Its position as a fertile tract at the point of convergence of the two main routes north and south of the Thian Shan connecting China with the West has given it importance since the westward expansion of the Chinese Empire under the Han dynasty in the first century A.D. It is first mentioned in Chinese history under the name of I-Wu-lu. Whenever China was strong enough to assert her claims to the control of central Asia, it was Hami which served as the main rendezvous and supply base for Chinese forces sent to overcome the hostile nomadic tribes in the north. Its commercial importance was equally great since the Pei-shan desert would have been a far more formidable obstacle if Hami had not been available as a place where caravans could re-victual and where animals could be rested. One serious drawback, however, in early times was the constant liability to raids from the nomadic tribes of the good grazing lands on the northern slopes of the eastern Thian Shan. When the Chinese lost their hold on eastern Turkestan, Hami fell into the hands of the Uighurs, who made it their chief town and held it for several centuries. It continued to be an important Buddhist centre long after Islam was dominant in the west of the Tarim Basin. In the early part of the 17th century, however, Hami was ruled by the Mohammedan khan of Kashgar. It was recovered for the Chinese in 172o during the period of vigorous expansion under the early Manchus, lost for a short time during the great Mohammedan rebellion of 1865 and again recovered in 1873 as part of the successful reconquest of Sinkiang. Hami is now a small town of about 6,000 inhabitants and is still a busy trading centre. Its population consists in part of descendants of the Uighurs and in part of Mohammedan immigrants from Kash gar, Bukhara and Samarkand.