The General of Ili, also known in western sources as the Kuldya Military Governor, was a position created during the reign of the Qing Qianlong Emperor to "pacify" Dzungaria and suppress uprisings by the Khoja "Rebels". The General of Ili governed the entire Xinjiang during Qing rule until it was turned into a province.

Khoja or Khwaja, a Persian word literally meaning 'master' or ‘lord’, was used in Central Asia as a title of the descendants of the noted Central Asian Naqshbandi Sufi teacher, Ahmad Kasani (1461–1542) or others in the Naqshbandi intellectual lineage prior to Baha al-din Naqshband. The most powerful religious figure in the late Timurid era was the Naqshbandi Shaykh Khwaja Ahrar. The Khojas often were appointed as administrators by Mongol rulers in the Altishahr or present-day region of Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, China.