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Islam in China

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The Great Mosque of Xi'an, one of China's largest mosques

Islam has a rich heritage in China. The religion has had a presence in the country since the Tang Dynasty when a companion of the Prophet Muhammad, Sa`d ibn Abī Waqqās, was sent as an official envoy to Emperor Gaozang in 650 CE (29 AH). The Emperor drew parallels between the religion and the teachings of Confucius and ordered the establishment of the first mosque in China.

China is home to a large population of adherents of Islam. The BBC claims that there may be anywhere from 20 million to 100 million Muslims in China.[1][2] Islam is now the second-largest organised faith in the country. [1] However, the BBC cites no source for the 100 million figure. The only way the Muslim population of China could be substantially higher than the officially counted 20.3 million in the 2000 census is if there were a very large hidden or uncounted number of Muslims in China; but a large undercount of Muslims has not been documented and remains speculative.[3]

According to the 2000 census, the largest of the ten Muslim ethnic groups in China are the Hui (9.8 million in year 2000 census). The other nine, in descending order of size, are Uyghur (8.4 million), Kazakh (1.25 million), Dongxiang (514 thousand), Kirghiz (161 thousand), Salar (105 thousand), Tajik (41 thousand), Bonan (17 thousand), Uzbek (12 thousand), and Tatar (5 thousand). Xinjiang has the largest number of Muslims; many are also concentrated in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

A notable feature of some modern Muslim communities in China is the presence of female imams [2]. A form of Islamic calligraphy, the Sini, has been developed in China. Hajji Noor Deen Mi Guangjiang is a famous modern calligrapher in this tradition.

History

Hui Muslim near courtyard of Daqingzhen Si

During the Tang Dynasty, China was highly tolerant of new religions and Chinese contact with foreign envoys flourished. Islam was introduced to China via the silk road by Arabs. Although some believe that Islam may have arrived in China during the Sui Dynasty, the first official record of Islam's arrival in China occurred during the Tang Dynasty.

Tang dynasty

Uthman ibn Affan, the third Caliph of Islam, sent the first official Muslim envoy to t, and their knowledge of medicine to China.

See also: Great Mosque of Xian

everything is wrong islam never existed during dynamsy. lin dan rule@!!!!!!!!!!!!

Song dynasty

During the Song Dynasty, Muslims in China dominated foreign trade to the south and west.

Yuan dynasty

The Islamic Yuan Dynasty of China, which descended from the Mongol emperor Genghiz Khan, continued to maintain excellent relationship with other nomadic tribes of Mongolia. The Yuan rulers elevated the status of Muslims versus the Chinese, and placed many foreign and non-Han Chinese Muslims in high-ranking posts instead of native Confucian scholars, using many Muslims in the administration of China. The state encouraged Muslim immigration, as Arab, Persian and Turkic immigration into China accelerated during this period. This was part of a larger strategy of the Mongol dynasties to divide subject peoples from an administrative class. In addition, native Chinese and their descendants were sent out of China to administer other parts of the Mongol Empire, including West Asia, Russia and India (as Mughal dynasty) in successive centuries.

Ming dynasty

Muslims continued to flourish in China during the Ming Dynasty. During Ming rule, the capital, Nanjing, was a center of Islamic learning.

Mosques in Nanjing are noted in two inscriptions from the sixteenth century.

Immigration slowed down drastically however, and the Muslims in China became increasingly isolated from the rest of the Islamic world, gradually becoming more sinicized, adopting the Chinese language and Chinese dress. During this period, Muslims also began to adopt Chinese surnames. One of the more popular Muslim family names is Ma (馬), a shortened form of Muhammad.

Qing dynasty

Muslims suffered a decline of their status during the Qing Dynasty. Numerous Hui rebellions, such as the Panthay Rebellion, sprung up during the Qing Dynasty in reaction to repressionist policies.

In the first decade of the 20th century, it has been estimated that there were between 3 million and 50 million Muslims in China proper (that is, China excluding the regions of Mongolia and Xinjiang). [3] Of these, almost half resided in Gansu, over a third in Shaanxi (as defined at that time) and the rest in Yunnan.

In the Qing dynasty, Muslims had many mosques in the large cities, with particularly important ones in Beijing, Xi'an, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and other places (in addition to those in the western Muslim reigions). The architecture typically employed traditional Chinese styles, with Arabic-language inscriptions being the chief distinguishing feature. Many Muslims held government positions, including positions of importance, particularly in the army.

Chinese Muslims and the Hajj

Some Chinese Muslims may have made the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca on the Arabian peninsula between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, yet there is no written record of this prior to 1861.

Briefly during the Cultural Revolution, Chinese Muslims were not allowed to attend the Hajj, but this policy was reversed in 1979. Chinese Muslims now attend the Hajj in large numbers, typically in organized groups.

Famous and historical Mosques in China

There are over 35,000 mosques in China today. [4]

Chinese terminology for Islamic institutions

Qīngzhēn (清真) is the Chinese term for certain Islamic institutions. Its literal meaning is "pure truth."

In Chinese, halal is called qīngzhēn cài (清真菜) or "pure truth food." A mosque is called qīngzhēn sì (清真寺) or "pure truth temple."

Chinese Islamic surnames

These are surnames generally used by the Hui ethnic group:

Islamic literature

See also

Notes and Citations

  1. ^ Counting up the number of people of traditionally Muslim nationalities who were enumerated in the 1990 census gives a total of 17.6 million, 96% of whom belong to just three nationalities: Hui 8.6 million, Uyghurs 7.2 million, and Kazakhs 1.1 million. Other nationalities that are traditionally Muslim include Kyrghyz, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Tatars, Salar, Bonan, and Dongxiang. See Dru C. Gladney, "Islam in China: Accommodation or Separatism?", Paper presented at Symposium on Islam in Southeast Asia and China, Hong Kong, 2002. Available at http://www.islamsymposium.cityu.edu.hk. The 2000 census reported a total of 20.3 million members of Muslim nationalities, of which again 96% belonged to just three groups: Hui 9.8 million, Uyghurs 8.4 million, and Kazakhs 1.25 million.
  2. ^ "Islam in China". Retrieved 2006-08-20.
  3. ^ Based on a post-enumeration survey and related studies, the 2000 census undercounted China's population by 1.81%. This would amount to some 23 million persons. It is unlikely that any such undercount would consist primarily of members of Muslim nationalities. Instead, the undercount is most often attributed to the floating population of rural to urban migrants (who are not officially registered) and to rural populations in central China – not to minority populations or areas. For discussion of the undercount, see Barbara A. Anderson, "Undercount in China's 2000 Census in Comparative Perspective," PSC Research Report Report No. 04-565 (September 2004), Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. Available at: http://www.psc.isr.umich.edu/pubs/abs.html?ID=1872; and Guangyu Zhang, "Very Low Fertility in China in the 1990s: Reality or An Illusion Arising from Birth Underreporting?," Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, April 2004.

General References

mw:Islam in China

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