Kim's best known work is his 2004 book,
Holy War in China: The Muslim Rebellion and State in Chinese Central Asia, 1864-1877, which had developed from his Harvard doctoral dissertation. This book offers a comprehensive treatment of the rebellion of
Xinjiang Muslims (
Hui,
Uyghurs, and other smaller groups) against the
Qing Empire in the 1864–1877, and the career of the
Kokandian adventurer
Yaqub Beg who had managed to become the ruler of a large part of the region. An extensive background on the power struggle between the Qing, the
Khojas, the Kokand Khanate, and the indigenous local interests for power in
Kashgaria in the preceding hundred years is provided as well. The book draws heavily on the contemporary and near-contemporary Xinjiang Muslim sources, in particular
Mulla Musa Sayrami's (1836-1917)
Tarikh-i amaniyya and
Tarikh-i hamidi, and
Mulla Bilal's
Ghazat dar mulk-i Chin.) It is the title of Mulla Bilal's work that became, in its English form, the title of Kim Hodong's book as well.
Holy War in China makes good use of the Chinese sources as well, as well as documents from the Russians, British, and
Osmanlis who had come into contact with the rebels. Despite its title, the book concentrates primarily on the rebellion in Xinjiang, discussing contemporaneous Muslim rebellions in the inner provinces of China only to the extent it is necessary for the Xinjiang narrative. Kim is a co-editor of
The Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire. == List of works ==