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Islam's lasting connection with China
(May 20,2003 )(China
Daily) |
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For many Muslims living in
Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,
they head to the tomb of Thabit Ibn Qays, an ancient
Islamic sage, located in the western part of urban
Hami, about 600 kilometres east of Urumqi, capital of
Xinjiang.
Known by the local Muslim population as "Geys' Mazars,"
the ancient Islamic missionary is worshipped by an
increasing number of Chinese Muslims every June and
July.
It is one of the few existing tombs of the ancient
Islamic sages, known among Muslims as the "Companions
of the Holy Prophet Muhammad."
The tomb is 22 metres long from east to west, 12
metres wide from north to south and 15 metres high.
It consists of a square base, a round arched dome -
both inlaid with green glazed bricks - and surrounding
corridors with wooden columns and up-turned eaves,
indicating a combination of both Arabic and Chinese
architectural styles.
Qays was believed to have died in AD 635 on his
homebound trip along the Silk Road westward. He was
buried by his followers in the Xingxing Valley, to the
east of today's Hami.
Years earlier, Qays, along with other Islamic
missionaries - the most prominent among them being
Sa'ad ibn abi Waqqaas, a maternal uncle of the Holy
Prophet Muhammad - paid a landmark visit to the Tang
Dynasty (AD 618-907) capital of Chang'an (today's
Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province),
inviting Emperor Taizong to embrace Islam.
The remnants of the original tomb was relocated by
Hami Muslims in 1946.
For over 1,300 years, the tomb has stood as a witness
to the dissemination and evolution of Islamic culture
in China.
Islamic culture
Islam is one of the five major religions in China. The
four others are Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism and the
Protestantism.
Muslims take great pride in citing a hadith that says
"seek knowledge even it is in China."
It points to the importance of looking for lore, even
if it meant travelling as far away as China.
Observing the Prophet's instructions, his followers
sent missionaries to China one after another.
Some historians hold that, as early as the Sui Dynasty
(AD 581-618) during the revelation of Islam (AD
610-632) to the Prophet, Islam had already appeared in
China.
Still, many believe the visit led by Waqqaas and Qays
was Islam's earliest contact with China during the
caliphate of Uthman ibn Affan, the third caliph.
After triumphing over the Byzantine, Romans and
Persians, Uthman ibn Affan dispatched a deputation to
China in AD 650, eight years after the Prophet's death.
Waqqaas was said to have died in Canton, today's
Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province,
where he established the Huaisheng, literally meaning
"in memory of the Holy Prophet" Mosque, or Memorial
Mosque, one of the first Islamic buildings in China
and proof of the early communication between the two
cultures.
And in AD 713, an ambassador from the Islamic
Caliphate was received at the Tang court.
Since then, both overland trade along the silk route
and maritime trade via the spice route to the
southeastern port of Canton flourished. So did
cultural and scientific exchanges.
Many Muslims came to China to trade and they began to
have a great economic impact and influence on the
country.
Muslims virtually dominated the import-export industry
by the time of the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
Some of them later became permanent residents in such
prosperous cities as Xi'an, Quanzhou in Fujian
Province, Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, Yangzhou in
Jiangsu Province, Hami and Guangzhou, where they built
mosques and cemeteries.
For over 500 years, Canton was known in Arabic as
Zayton.
One of the most prized Chinese musical instruments,
the pluck-stringed pipa, actually originated in the
Islamic world and was called barbat, tanbur or mizhar
in Arabic and Persian.
And the Chinese word for ball, qiu, was said to
originate from the Persian word, gui, the name for the
game of polo.
Chinese medicine, both the material and prescriptions,
were also influenced by Persia and Arabia, as recorded
by Tang Dynasty officials.
A famous Islamic physician Razi (AD 865-925) was even
said to have helped Chinese pharmaceutical expert Li
Xun study in Baghdad the works of ancient Roman
medical master Claudius Galen.
Immigration
In the early 13th century, Genghis Khan, the Mongolian
leader and founder of the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368),
launched a large-scale westward expedition.
During the period, hundreds of thousands of Central
Asian, Persian and Arabic Muslims immigrated to China,
settling mainly in today's Gansu, Henan, Hebei,
Shandong, Yunnan and Shaanxi provinces and the
Xinjiang Uygur and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions.
Islam took shape in China in the Yuan Dynasty when
mosques were erected in almost every city having new
Muslim settlers.
Among the most famous ones are the Huaisheng Mosque in
Guangzhou, the Niujie Mosque in southern downtown
Beijing, which was built in AD 996, and the Holy Crane
Mosque in Yangzhou of East China's Jiangsu Province,
which was built in 1274 by Buhaddine of Mecca, and is
still an important place of worship.
In 1274, Buhaddine died in Yangzhou and was buried by
his followers on a foothill facing Mecca.
The place became a cemetery, known as Huihuitang (Islamic
yard), for Arab Muslims who died in the Song, Yuan and
Ming dynasties.
Yuan Dynasty rulers allowed foreign immigrants to
maintain their religious beliefs and during the
dynasty, the social status of Muslims from abroad was
higher than that of local Han residents.
Islamic religion and culture was allowed further
growth in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
One example is that Hui Muslim Zheng He ( 1371-1435)
was assigned by the Ming emperors to be the head of
their powerful ocean-going fleet, the largest in the
world at that time.
Zheng launched seven maritime expeditions between 1405
and 1433, starting from Taicang, in Jiangsu Province
on the coast, to the South China Sea and as far away
as the Persian Gulf.
After the founding of New China in 1949, the Islamic
faith of the Chinese Muslim were fully respected and
protected by the government.
In 1953, the Islamic Association of China was founded
and now is run by 16 Islamic religious leaders. It is
aimed at helping the spread of the Koran in China.
Also, many nationwide Islamic associations have been
organized to co-ordinate inter-ethnic activities among
Muslims.
Religious practices
Today, Islam is the dominant religion among 10 Chinese
ethnic groups: the Uygur, Hui, Kazak, Kirgiz, Tajik,
Tartar, Uzbek, Bao'an, Dongxiang and Salar. China has
at least 20 million Muslims.
In Xinjiang, there are 9 million Muslims and 23,000
mosques in the region, two-thirds of the total number
in the country.
There are at least 250,000 Muslims in Beijing, who can
hold and attend religious services such as Ramadan and
festivals or Islamic Eidul-Adha, in 68 mosques in the
capital.
At present, there are 35,000 mosques, more than 45,000
Muslim teachers and administrators, and more than
24,000 students in Islamic theological institutes in
various regions in China.
Although a number of Chinese mosques were closed
during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), all had
been reinstated by the early 1980s.
Chinese Muslims follow the Islamic theory and practice,
embracing the five fundamentals of Islam. They
differentiate between the forbidden "Haram" and the
permissible "Halal."
Local Muslims have also gradually integrated into
Chinese society.
One interesting example of this synthesis is the
process by which Muslims change their names.
Some male Muslims married Han Chinese women and simply
took the name of their wives.
But others took the Chinese surnames of Mo, Mai and Mu
- names adopted by Muslims who had the surnames
Muhammad, Mustafa and Masoud.
Some Muslims, who could not find a Chinese surname
similar to their own, adopted Chinese characters most
similar to their name - Ha for Hasan, Hu for Hussain,
Sa for Said and so on.
In addition to names, Muslim customs of dress and food
have also undergone a synthesis with indigenous
Chinese culture.
The Islamic modes of dress and dietary rules are
maintained within a Chinese cultural framework.
Many Muslims in different parts of the country learn
to speak local dialects and read Chinese, which
enables them to better communicate with other Chinese
ethnic groups.
The author is a Hami-based, Hui ethnic scholar of
local history and cultures.
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