153-451: Islam has been practiced in China since the 7th century CE. There are an estimated 17–25 million Muslims in China, less than 2 percent of the total population. Though Hui Muslims are the most numerous group, the greatest concentration of Muslims reside in northwestern China's Xinjiang autonomous region, which contains a significant Uyghur population. Lesser yet significant populations reside in
306-650: A Chamic -speaking ethnic group which lives southernmost tip of the island near the city of Sanya . They are thought to be descendants of Cham refugees who fled their homeland of Champa in what is now modern Central Vietnam to escape the Vietnamese invasion . Although they are culturally, ethnically and linguistically distinct from the Hui, the Chinese government nevertheless classifies them as Hui due to their Islamic faith. Many Hui are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers. On
459-507: A West-Eurasian origin and 93.3% are East-Eurasian , reflecting historical records of the population's frequent intermarriage, especially with Mongol women. Studies of the Ningxia and Guizhou Hui also found only minor genetic contributions from West-Eurasian populations. Analysis of the Guizhou Hui's Y chromosomes showed a high degree of paternal North or Central Asian heritage, indicating
612-657: A Hui population of more than one million. In Ningxia, 33.95% of the population are of Hui ethnicity. Hui are the major minority in Qinghai (15.62%), Gansu and Shaanxi and is the overall major minority in Henan and Anhui . Dungan ( simplified Chinese : 东干族 ; traditional Chinese : 東干族 ; pinyin : Dōnggānzú ; Russian : Дунгане ) is a term used in Central Asia and in Xinjiang to refer to Chinese-speaking Muslim people. In
765-447: A Muslim and wanting to be a Zhongyuan ren (Chinese). Some Uyghurs barely see any difference between Hui and Han. A Uyghur social scientist, Dilshat, regarded Hui as the same people as Han, deliberately calling Hui people Han and dismissing the Hui as having only a few hundred years of history. Pusuman : Pusuman was a name used by Chinese during the Yuan dynasty . It could have been
918-551: A Muslim foreign trader, stands out in his work to help the Yuan conquer Southern China, the last outpost of Song power. In 1276, Song loyalists launched a resistance against Mongol efforts to take over Fuzhou. The Yuanshih (Yuan dynasty official history) records that Pu Shougeng "abandoned the Song cause and rejected the emperor...by the end of the year, Quanzhou submitted to the Mongols". In abandoning
1071-600: A Turkic people with their own language. Uyghur separatists are intent on establishing their own state, which existed for a few years in the 1930s and as a Soviet Communist puppet state, the Second East Turkestan Republic in 1944–1950. The Soviet Union supported Uyghur separatists against China during the Sino-Soviet split . Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, China feared potential separatist goals of
1224-568: A century of sovereignty. This effectively ended the Tang presence in central Asia. In 756 Al-Mansur sent 3,000 mercenaries to assist Emperor Xuanzong of Tang in the An Lushan rebellion. A massacre of foreign Arab and Persian Muslim merchants by Tian Shengong happened during the An Lushan rebellion in the Yangzhou massacre (760) . The Tang dynasty recovered its power decades after the An Lushan rebellion and
1377-501: A corruption of Musalman or another name for Persians. It means either Muslim or Persian. Pusuman Kuo (Pusuman Guo) referred to the country where they came from. The name "Pusuman zi" (pusuman script), was used to refer to the script that the HuiHui (Muslims) were using. Muslim Chinese : The term Chinese Muslim is sometimes used to refer to Hui people, given that they speak Chinese, in contrast to, e.g., Turkic-speaking Salars. During
1530-454: A crime." He issued a regulation to that effect ... [In 1279/1280 under Qubilai] all the Muslims say: "if someone else slaughters [the animal] we do not eat". Because the poor people are upset by this, from now on, Musuluman [Muslim] Huihui and Zhuhu [Jewish] Huihui, no matter who kills [the animal] will eat [it] and must cease slaughtering sheep themselves, and cease the rite of circumcision. During
1683-554: A few decades from the beginning of the Muslim era . The early Tang dynasty had a cosmopolitan culture, with intensive contacts with Central Asia and significant communities of (originally non-Muslim) Central and Western Asian merchants resident in Chinese cities, which helped the introduction of Islam. The first major Muslim settlements in China consisted of Arab and Persian merchants, with comparatively well-established, even if somewhat segregated, mercantile Muslim communities existing in
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#17328445370891836-661: A major role in the import/export industry. The office of Director General of Shipping was consistently held by a Muslim during this period. In 1070, the Song emperor Shenzong invited 5,300 Muslims from Bukhara , to settle in Song China in order to create a buffer zone between the Song and the Liao dynasties in the northeast. Later on, these Muslims settled between the Sung capital of Kaifeng and Yenching (modern day Beijing ). They were led by Prince Amir Sayyid " Su-fei-er " (his Chinese name ), who
1989-643: A minority in China, gave foreign immigrants, such as Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Jews from West Asia an elevated status over locals including Khitan and Jurchens as part of their governing strategy, thus giving Muslims a heavy influence. Mongols recruited and forcibly relocated hundreds of thousands of Muslim immigrants from Western and Central Asia to help them administer their rapidly expanding empire. The Mongols used Arab, Persian and Buddhist Uyghur administrators, generically known as semu [色目] ("various eye color"), to act as officers of taxation and finance . Muslims headed many corporations in China in
2142-622: A period where the Tibetan army also conquered territory in the Hindu Kush and Pamir Mountains from Indian kingdoms and assisted the establishment of the eastern Indian Pala Empire in the latter half of the 8th century. It was only under the fifth Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid that a formal military alliance was established between the Tang, the Uighur Turks and the Abbasid engaged the Tibetan army on
2295-540: A popular term for Muslim culture since the Yuan or Ming dynasty. Gladney suggested that a good translation for it would be the Arabic tahára . i.e. "ritual or moral purity" The usual term for a mosque is qīngzhēn sì ( 清真寺 ), i.e. "true and pure temple", and qīngzhēn is commonly used to refer to halal eating establishments and bathhouses. In contrast, the Uyghurs were called "Chan Tou Hui" ("Turban Headed Muslim"), and
2448-548: A prized product for centuries. According to Al-Nadim, a writer in Baghdad during the 10th century, Chinese craftsmen made paper in Khorasan . It was only after the first paper mill was built in Baghdad in 794–795 that paper was manufactured throughout the Islamic world and paper started to replace papyrus . Among the earliest historians who proclaimed the importance of this battle was
2601-481: A report on what he saw among Hui in 1910. He reported that due to religion, Hui were classed as a different nationality from Han as if they were one of the other minority groups. Huizu is now the standard term for the "Hui nationality" (ethnic group), and Huimin , for "Hui people" or "a Hui person". The traditional expression Huihui , its use now largely restricted to rural areas, would sound quaint, if not outright demeaning, to modern urban Chinese Muslims. Islam
2754-564: A revolt in 1646 against the Qing during the Milayin rebellion in order to drive the Qing out and restore the Ming Prince Zhu Shichuan to the throne as emperor. The Muslim Ming loyalists were supported by Hami's Sultan Sa'id Baba and his son Prince Turumtay. The Muslim Ming loyalists were joined by Tibetan and Han peoples in the revolt. After fierce fighting, and negotiations, a peace agreement
2907-451: A total strength of more than 500,000 on the eve of the An Lushan rebellion. According to Bartold, during the first three centuries of Islam, al-Tabari was the chief source—which has survived to the present in a compilation by Ibn al Athir —which was brought down to 915. Neither Tabari nor the early historical works of the Arabs make any mention of this; however, Athir's statement is confirmed by
3060-419: A traditional dress code, with some men wearing white caps ( taqiyah ) and some women wearing headscarves , as is the case in many Islamic cultures . Hui Muslims descend from Europeans, Arabs , Indo-Iranian Persians, Mongols, Turkic Uyghurs and other Central Asian immigrants. Their ancestors were of Middle Eastern , Central Asian and East Asian origin, who spread Islam in
3213-609: Is also a maqam of the Shia Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq . Bukhara and Samarqand were visited by Qiu Chuji . At the same time the Mongols imported Central Asian Muslims to serve as administrators in China, the Mongols also sent ethnic Han and Khitans from China to serve as administrators over the Muslim population in Bukhara and Samarqand in Central Asia, using foreigners to curtail the power of
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#17328445370893366-568: Is believed to refer to China's population of 20 million Muslims (to whom pigs are considered " unclean "). Hui Muslims enjoy freedoms such as practising their religion, building mosques at which their children attend, while Uyghurs in Xinjiang experience more strict controls. There are about 24,400 mosques in Xinjiang , an average of one mosque for every 530 Muslims, which is higher than the number of churches per Christian person in England. In March 2014,
3519-462: Is no longer accurate, strictly speaking, just as with Bosniaks in former Yugoslavia. The Hui nationality is the most widely distributed ethnic minority in China, and it is also the main ethnic minority in many provinces. There are 10,586,087 Hui people in China (2010 census), accounting for 0.79% of the total population, making them the third largest ethnic group after Han Chinese and Zhuang . Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and Gansu Province have
3672-697: The Abbasid Caliphate and the Tibetan Empire against the Tang dynasty in 751. In July of that year, the Tang and Abbasid armies clashed at the Talas River over control of the regions surrounding the Syr Darya . According to Chinese sources, the engagement began with several days of military stalemate, before a mercenary column of 20,000 Karluk Turks —representing two-thirds of the initial Tang army strength—defected to
3825-555: The Dungan revolt , which occurred mostly in Xinjiang , Shaanxi and Gansu , from 1862 to 1877. The Manchu government ordered the execution of several million rebels in the Dungan revolt . The Hui Muslim population of Beijing was unaffected from the Muslim rebels during the Dungan revolt. Elisabeth Allès wrote that the relationship between Hui Muslim and Han peoples continued normally in the Henan area, with no ramifications or consequences from
3978-594: The Guangzhou massacre against foreign Arab and Persian Muslim, Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian merchants in 878–879 at the seaport and trading entrepôt of Guangzhou , and captured both Tang dynasty capitals, Luoyang and Chang'an. A medieval Chinese source claimed that Huang Chao killed 8 million people. Even though Huang Chao was eventually defeated, the Tang Emperors lost all their power to regional jiedushi and Huang Chao's former lieutenant Zhu Wen who had defected to
4131-711: The Karkota dynasty of Kashmir that acknowledged the Tang as suzerain or their vassal lord, supported the Chinese against the Tibetans. According to art historians Denise Patry Leidy and Donna K. Strahan, Kashmir "helped defeat the Arabas at the Battle of Talas in 751". The numeric quantities of the combatants involved in the battle of Talas are not known with certainty. The Abbasid army consisted of 200,000 soldiers according to Chinese estimates, which included contingents from their Tibetan ally. On
4284-672: The Kuomintang Islamic insurgency , Muslim Kuomintang National Revolutionary Army forces in Northwest China, in Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang, as well as Yunnan, continued an unsuccessful insurgency against the communists from 1950 to 1958, after the general civil war was over. Muslims affiliated with the Kuomintang also moved to Taiwan within this time. When the People's Republic of China
4437-635: The Linxia region remained a center of religious activities, many Muslim cultural activities had shifted to Beijing. National organizations like the Chinese Muslim Association were established for Muslims. Muslims served extensively in the National Revolutionary Army and reached positions of importance, like General Bai Chongxi , who became Defence Minister of the Republic of China. In
4590-604: The Ma clique ) were appointed as military governors of the provinces of Qinghai , Gansu and Ningxia . Bai Chongxi was a Muslim General and Defence Minister of China during this time. During the Second Sino-Japanese war , the Japanese destroyed 220 mosques and killed countless Hui by April 1941. The Hui of Dachang was subjected to slaughter by the Japanese. During the Rape of Nanking ,
4743-625: The Ming and Qing dynasties . It is thought to have had its origin in the earlier Huihe ( 回紇 ) or Huihu ( 回鶻 ), which was the name for the Uyghur State of the 8th and 9th centuries. Although the ancient Uyghurs were not Muslims the name Huihui came to refer to foreigners, regardless of language or origin, by the time of the Yuan (1271–1368) and Ming dynasties (1368–1644). The use of Hui to denote all foreigners—Muslims, Nestorian Christians, or Jews—reflects bureaucratic terminology developed over
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4896-552: The Pamir Mountains could be crossed on roads going through Kulob and Balkh in the Bactria region. From there present day India could be reached on a road through Bamyan that lead over the Hindu Kush . Muslim influence along these central Asian trade routes had started in the 8th century, one key event being the battle of Talas. Prior to Talas, Buddhists controlled much of the roads. Central Asian Buddhism went into decline after
5049-558: The Pamir Mountains was able to spread without opposition from Tang China, which redeployed all available military forces back into China's interior in order to suppress the rebellion. By 821, though the Arab Muslims had lost direct control over their Central Asian territories, and the Turkic Ghaznavids rose to power in the region in 977. The gains brought about by the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana were entirely lost in 1124, when
5202-475: The Tang period on. Before the " Yihewani " movement, a Chinese Muslim sect inspired by the Middle Eastern reform movement, northern Hui Sufis blended Taoist teachings and martial arts practices with Sufi philosophy. Battle of Talas The Battle of Talas ( Chinese : 怛羅斯戰役 ; pinyin : Dáluósī Zhànyì ; Arabic : معركة نهر طلاس Maʿrakat nahr Ṭalās ) was an armed confrontation between
5355-640: The Tarim Basin from the Tibetan Empire in 692 as part of the Tang expansion in Inner Asia and the oasis towns became a major source of income for the Tang. In 705, Qutayba ibn Muslim started to lead the Umayyad army on campaigns to conquer towns across along the Silk Road, exploiting Türgesh infighting. The caliphate conquered the oasis towns Bukhara and Samarkand , expanding the border of their empire eastwards. At
5508-557: The Uyghurs . The Hui predominantly speak Chinese , while using some Arabic and Persian phrases. The Hui ethnic group is unique among Chinese ethnic minorities in that it is not associated with a non- Sinitic language . The Hui have a distinct connection with Islamic culture . For example, they follow Islamic dietary laws and reject the consumption of pork , the most commonly consumed meat in China, and have therefore developed their own variation of Chinese cuisine . They also have
5661-763: The Yongle Emperor hired Zheng He , perhaps the most famous Chinese of Muslim birth although at least in later life not a Muslim himself, to lead seven expeditions to the Indian Ocean from 1405 and 1433. However, during the Ming dynasty, new immigration to China from Muslim countries was restricted in an increasingly isolationist nation. The Muslims in China who were descended from earlier immigration began to assimilate by speaking Chinese and by adopting Chinese names and culture . Mosque architecture began to follow traditional Chinese architecture . This era, sometimes considered
5814-533: The ethnonym Dungan . Joseph Fletcher cited Turkic and Persian manuscripts related to the preaching of the 17th century Kashgarian Sufi master Muhammad Yūsuf (or, possibly, his son Afaq Khoja ) inside the Ming Empire (in today's Gansu and/or Qinghai ), where the preacher allegedly converted ulamā-yi Tunganiyyāh (i.e., "Dungan ulema ") into Sufism . As early as the 1830s, Dungan , in various spellings appeared in both English and German, referring to
5967-732: The northwestern provinces and in the Zhongyuan region. According to the 2010 census, China is home to approximately 10.5 million Hui people. Outside China, the 170,000 Dungan people of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan , the Panthays in Myanmar , and many of the Chin Haws in Thailand are also considered part of the Hui ethnicity. The Hui were referred to as Hanhui during the Qing dynasty to be distinguished from
6120-472: The (presumably Chinese-speaking) Muslims more assimilated into the Chinese mainstream society. In the 1930s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) defined the term Hui as indicating only Sinophone Muslims. In 1941, this was clarified by a CCP committee comprising ethnic policy researchers in a treatise entitled "On the question of Huihui Ethnicity" (回回民族问题, Huíhui mínzú wèntí). This treatise defined
6273-581: The 10th century Aksu and Fergana had markets for arms traders. Talas is in modern-day Kyrgyzstan and had been part of the Silk Road. From Dunhuang in China, along the edge of the Takla Makan desert, passing through oasis towns such as Kucha , roads went through a region Arabs called Transoxiana . The Silk Roads in Transoxiana went through Talas, Tashkent , Samarkand , and Khwarazm . Turning south, roads went through Kunduz in present-day Afghanistan ,
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6426-902: The 12th-century founder of the Kara-Khitan Khanate , defeating the Huihui Dashibu ( 回回大食部 ) people near Samarkand —apparently, referring to his defeat of the Khwarazm ruler Ahmed Sanjar in 1141. Khwarazm is referred to as Huihuiguo in the Secret History of the Mongols as well. While Huihui or Hui remained a generic name for all Muslims in Imperial China, specific terms were sometimes used to refer to particular groups, e.g. Chantou Hui (" turbaned Hui") for Uyghurs, Dongxiang Hui and Sala Hui for Dongxiang and Salar people , and sometimes even Han Hui ( 漢回 ) ("Chinese Hui") for
6579-613: The 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting , Chinese state-run media attacked Charlie Hebdo for publishing the cartoons insulting Muhammad, with the state-run Xinhua advocating limiting freedom of speech, while the Chinese Communist Party -owned tabloid Global Times said the attack was "payback" for what it characterised as Western colonialism and accusing Charlie Hebdo of trying to incite a clash of civilizations. Hui people The Hui people are an East Asian ethnoreligious group predominantly composed of Chinese-speaking adherents of Islam . They are distributed throughout China, mainly in
6732-507: The 6,781,500 Sunni Hui in China followed 58.2% Gedimu , 21% Yihewani , 10.9% Jahriyya , 7.2% Khuffiya, 1.4% Qadariyya and 0.7% Kubrawiyya Sufi schools. Among the northern Hui, Central Asian Sufi schools such as Kubrawiyya , Qadiriyya , and Naqshbandiyya ( Khufiyya and Jahriyya ) were strong influences, mostly of the Hanafi Madhhab . Hui Muslims have a long tradition of synthesizing Confucian teachings with Qur'anic teachings and reportedly have contributed to Confucianism from
6885-404: The Abbasids, and played a vital role in routing the Chinese. After the battle, the caliph quickly dispatched an envoy to Chang'an , who arrived on 7 December 752 to ask for the restoration of diplomatic relations. In response, the Tang emperor forgave the Abbasids' provocation, but continued to expand into Central Asia . With the An Lushan rebellion in 755, Arab influence and control west of
7038-435: The Battle of Talas, the Arabs coerced the Chinese army to evacuate the Gilgit region. The An Lushan rebellion ended the Tang presence in central Asia and forced them to withdraw from the northwestern frontier; because the Arabs did not advance any further after the battle, Talas was of no strategic importance. After the battle, a small number of Karluks converted to Islam. However, the majority would not convert until
7191-407: The Chinese History of the Tang Dynasty . Denis Sinor said that it was interference in the internal affairs of the Western Turkic Khaganate which ended Chinese supremacy in central Asia, since the destruction of the Western Khaganate rid the Muslims of their greatest opponent, and it was not the Battle of Talas which ended the Chinese presence. The Chinese historian Bai Shouyi wrote that, at
7344-399: The Chinese general had to move his reserves into a fray. A similar sequence of events happened on the second and third days, but on the fourth day, the Karluk mercenaries betrayed the Chinese and attacked their flanks from the left and right while the Arab infantry made a frontal assault. The Tang army was subjected to a devastating defeat, owing to the defection of the Karluk mercenaries and
7497-429: The Chinese government in Muslim areas, only specifically excluding Xinjiang from allowing these schools because of separatist sentiment there. After secondary education is completed, Hui students are permitted to embark on religious studies under an Imam. In 2007, anticipating the coming "Year of the Pig" in the Chinese calendar , depictions of pigs were banned from CCTV "to avoid conflicts with Muslim minorities". This
7650-542: The Chinese government to one of China's ten historically Islamic minorities. Today, the Chinese government defines the Hui people as an ethnicity without regard to religion, and includes those with Hui ancestry who do not practice Islam. Chinese census statistics count among the Hui (and not as officially recognized separate ethnic groups) the Muslim members of a few small non-Chinese-speaking communities. These include several thousand Utsuls in southern Hainan Province , who speak an Austronesian language ( Tsat ) related to
7803-429: The Chinese media estimated that there were around 300 Chinese Muslims active in ISIS territories. The Chinese government stated in May 2015 that it would not tolerate any form of terrorism and would work to "combat terrorist forces, including ETIM, [to] safeguard global peace, security and stability." Muslims were reported in 2015 to have been featured as hosts and directors on the Chinese New Year Gala . In response to
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#17328445370897956-457: The Chinese system of Imperial government, since China was still held in respect and esteem in the region among even the Muslim population, and the Kara-Khitans used Chinese as an official language. The Kara-Khitan rulers were called "the Chinese" by the Muslims. According to the 11th-century Persian historian Al-Thaʽālibī , Chinese prisoners captured at the Battle of Talas in 751 introduced paper manufacturing to Samarkand . They engaged in
8109-399: The Companion Suhayla Abu Arja and Hassan ibn Thabit , and the Tabi'un Owais al-Qarani , returned to China from the Arabian Peninsula in 637 by the Yunnan - Manipur - Chittagong route, then reached Arabia by sea. Some sources date the introduction of Islam in China to 650 CE, the third sojourn of Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, when he was sent as an official envoy to Tang emperor Gaozong during
8262-510: The Dutch settlers no longer observe Islam and their descendants embrace the Chinese folk religion . The Taiwanese branch of the Guo (Kuo in Taiwan) clan with Hui ancestry does not practice Islam, yet does not offer pork at their ancestral shrines. The Chinese Muslim Association counts these people as Muslims. Also on Taiwan , one branch of the Ding (Ting) clan that descended from Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar resides in Taisi Township in Yunlin County . They trace their descent through him via
8415-438: The Golden Age of Islam in China, also saw Nanjing become an important center of Islamic study. Taoism and Confucianism influenced Islam around and before this time, and because of their influence and the lack of proficiency many imams had with writing in Chinese , many Muslims had vastly different conceptions of God from Muslims in western countries. They also came up with Taoist-influenced names for Allah different from
8568-549: The Hui disliked the term Dungan, calling themselves either Huihui or Huizi. In the Soviet Union and its successor countries, the term "Dungans" (дунгане) became the standard name for the descendants of Chinese-speaking Muslims who emigrated in the 1870s and 1880s to the Russian Empire , mostly to today's Kyrgyzstan and south-eastern Kazakhstan . The Panthay are a group of Chinese Muslims in Myanmar (Burma) and Yunnan Province . In Thailand , Chinese Muslims are referred to as Chin Ho ( จีนฮ่อ ). The Utsuls of Hainan are
8721-454: The Hui people of Xinjiang. For example, James Prinsep in 1835 mentioned Muslim "Túngánis" in Chinese Tartary . The word (mostly in the form "Dungani" or "Tungani", sometimes "Dungens" or "Dungans") acquired currency in English and other western languages when books in the 1860–70s discussed the Dungan Revolt . Later authors continued to use variants of the term for Xinjiang Hui people. For example, Owen Lattimore , writing ca. 1940, maintained
8874-445: The Hui, during which the police provided protection to the Hui protestors and the government organized public burnings of the book. Hui Muslim protestors who violently rioted by vandalizing property during the protests against the book were let off by the Chinese government and went unpunished while Uyghur protestors were imprisoned. Since the 1980s, Islamic private schools (Sino-Arabic schools (中阿學校)) have been supported and permitted by
9027-455: The Hui-hui say "we do not eat Mongol food". [Cinggis Qa’an replied:] "By the aid of heaven we have pacified you; you are our slaves. Yet you do not eat our food or drink. How can this be right?" He thereupon made them eat. "If you slaughter sheep, you will be considered guilty of a crime." He issued a regulation to that effect ... [In 1279/1280 under Qubilai] all the Muslims say: "if someone else slaughters [the animal] we do not eat". Because
9180-404: The Islamic states of the Middle East. In 1912, the Chinese Muslim Federation was formed in the capital Nanjing . Similar organization formed in Beijing (1912), Shanghai (1925) and Jinan (1934). In the 1910s , many Chinese Muslims syncretized their beliefs with Confucianism , and worshipped Chinese gods alongside Allah. During the rule of the Kuomintang party, Muslim warlords (such as
9333-427: The Mongol method of eating rather than the halal method. Circumcision was also forbidden. Jews were affected by these laws and forbidden by the Mongols to eat Kosher . Towards the end of the Yuan dynasty, corruption and persecution became so severe that Muslim generals joined the Han Chinese in rebelling against the Mongols. The founder of the Ming dynasty , Hongwu Emperor , led Muslim generals like Lan Yu against
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#17328445370899486-418: The Mongols, and descended from a mixture of Chinese, Iranian and Turkic peoples. They also reported that the T'ung-kan were Shafi'ites , as were the Khorezmians . The Hui people of Yunnan and Northwestern China resulted from the convergence of Mongol, Turkic, and Iranian peoples or other Central Asian settlers recruited by the Yuan dynasty, either as artisans or as officials (the semu ). The Hui formed
9639-585: The Mongols, whom they defeated in combat. Some Muslim communities had a name in Chinese which meant "barracks" or "thanks", which many Hui Muslims claim comes from the gratitude which Chinese people have towards them for their role in defeating the Mongols. Among all the [subject] alien peoples only the Hui-hui say "we do not eat Mongol food". [Cinggis Qa'an replied:] "By the aid of heaven we have pacified you; you are our slaves. Yet you do not eat our food or drink. How can this be right?" He thereupon made them eat. "If you slaughter sheep, you will be considered guilty of
9792-420: The Muslim General Ma Biao to be sent east to battle the Japanese. Ethnic Turkic Salar Muslims made up the majority of the first cavalry division which was sent by Ma Bufang. By 1939, at least 33 Hui Muslims had studied at Cairo's Al-Azhar University . Before the Sino-Japanese War of 1937, there existed more than a hundred known Muslim periodicals. Thirty journals were published between 1911 and 1937. Although
9945-536: The Muslim majority in Xinjiang. In the past, celebrating at religious functions and going on Hajj to Mecca was encouraged by the Chinese government for Uyghur members of the Communist party. From 1979 to 1989, 350 mosques were built in Turpan. Whereas 30 years later, the government was building "re-education" camps for interning Muslims without charge in Turpan. In 1989, China banned a book titled "Xing Fengsu" ("Sexual Customs") which insulted Islam and placed its authors under arrest after protests in Lanzhou and Beijing by
10098-411: The Muslim rebellions of other areas. Allès wrote "the major Muslim revolts in the mid-19th century which involved the Hui in Shaanxi, Gansu and Yunnan, as well as the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, do not seem to have had any direct effect on this region of the central plain." However, many Muslims like Ma Zhan'ao , Ma Anliang , Dong Fuxiang , Ma Qianling and Ma Julung defected to the Qing dynasty and helped
10251-400: The Muslims of China are not significantly related, East Asians, Han Chinese, and most of the Hui and Dongxiang of Linxia share more genes with each other. This indicates that native East Asian populations were culturally assimilated, and that the Hui population was formed through a process of cultural diffusion . An overview study in 2021 estimated that West Eurasian -related admixture among
10404-453: The Qing General Zuo Zongtang exterminate the Muslim rebels. These Muslim generals belonged to the Khafiya sect, and they abetted in the Qing massacre of Jahariyya rebels. Zuo relocated the Han from Hezhou as a reward for the Muslims for helping the Qing to kill other Muslim rebels. In 1895, another Dungan Revolt broke out, and loyalist Muslims such as Dong Fuxiang, Ma Anliang, Ma Guoliang , Ma Fulu and Ma Fuxiang suppressed and massacred
10557-418: The Qing during the Ming–Qing transition period in Guangzhou. The Ming Muslim loyalists were called Jiaomen sanzhong "Three defenders of the faith". The Muslim revolt in the northwest occurred due to violent and bloody infighting between Muslim groups ( Gedimu , Khafiya and Jahriyya ). The rebellion in Yunnan occurred because of repression by Qing officials, resulting in bloody Hui rebellions, most notably
10710-646: The Qing dynasty, Chinese Muslim (Han Hui) was sometimes used to refer to Hui people, which differentiated them from non-Chinese-speaking Muslims. However, not all Hui are Muslims, nor are all Chinese Muslims, Hui. For example, Li Yong is a famous Han Chinese who practices Islam and Hui Liangyu is a notable atheist Hui. In addition, most Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kirghiz and Dongxiang in China are Muslims, but are not Hui. John Stuart Thomson , who traveled in China, called them "Mohammedan Chinese". They have also been called "Chinese Mussulmans", when Europeans wanted to distinguish them from Han Chinese . Throughout history,
10863-407: The Quanzhou Ding family of Fujian. While pretending to be Han Chinese in Fujian, they initially practiced Islam when they came to Taiwan 200 years ago, but their descendants have embraced Buddhism or Taoism. An attempt was made by the Chinese Islamic Society to convert the Fujian Hui of Fujian back to Islam in 1983, by sending four Ningxia imams to Fujian. This futile endeavour ended in 1986, when
11016-563: The Republic of China at the time and the founder of the Chinese Muslim Association . Some scholars refer to this group as Han Chinese Muslims or Han Muslims , while others call them Chinese Muslims , Chinese-speaking Muslims or Sino-Muslims . The Hui were officially recognised as an ethnic group by the People's Republic of China government in 1954. The government defines the Hui people to include all historically Muslim communities not included in China's other ethnic groups; they are therefore distinct from other Muslim groups such as
11169-671: The Republic of China. A traditional Chinese term for Islam is " 回教 " ( pinyin : Huíjiào , literally "the religion of the Hui"). However, since the early days of the PRC, thanks to the arguments of such Marxist Hui scholars as Bai Shouyi , the standard term for "Islam" within the PRC has become the transliteration " 伊斯蘭教 " (pinyin: Yīsīlán jiào , literally "Islam religion"). The more traditional term Huijiao remains in use in Singapore, Taiwan and other overseas Chinese communities. Qīngzhēn : ( 清真 , literally "pure and true") has also been
11322-508: The Russian historian Vasily Bartold , according to whom: "The earlier Arab historians, occupied with the narrative of events then taking place in western Asia, do not mention this battle; but it is undoubtedly of great importance in the history of Western Turkestan as it determined the question which of the two civilizations, the Chinese or the Muslim, should predominate in the land [of Turkestan]." The Tang loss of 8,000 troops can be compared to
11475-451: The Song cause, Pu Shougeng mobilized troops from the community of foreign residents, who massacred the Song emperor's relatives and Song loyalists. Pu Shougeng and his troops acted without the help of the Mongol army. Pu Shougeng himself was lavishly rewarded by the Mongols. He was appointed military commissioner for Fujian and Guangdong. On the foothills of Mount Lingshan are the tombs of two of
11628-656: The Southern Ming loyalists against the Qing. Zhu Yu'ai (the Ming Prince Gui) was accompanied by Hui refugees when he fled from Huguang to the Burmese border in Yunnan and as a mark of their defiance against the Qing and loyalty to the Ming, they changed their surname to Ming. In Guangzhou , the national monuments known as "The Muslim's Loyal Trio" are the tombs of Ming loyalist Muslims who were martyred while fighting in battle against
11781-406: The Tang bestowed a title to its ruler. Bai also maintains that the Chinese influence to the west of the Pamir Mountains certainly did not cease as the result of the battle. Central Asian states under Muslim control, such as Samarkand , continued to request aid from the Tang against the Arabs and in 754, all nine kingdoms of Western Turkestan again sent petitions to the Tang to attack the Arabs and
11934-525: The Tang continued to turn down such requests as it did for decades. Ferghana , which participated in the battle earlier, in fact joined among the central Asian auxiliaries with the Chinese army under a summons and entered Gansu during the An Lushan Rebellion in 756. Bai also noted that neither did the relations between the Chinese and Arabs worsen, as the Abbasids continued to send embassies to China after
12087-551: The Tang court turned the Tang emperors into his puppets and completed the destruction of Chang'an by dismantling Chang'an and transporting the materials east to Luoyang when he forced the court to move the capital. Zhu Wen deposed the last Tang Emperor in 907 and founded Later Liang (Five Dynasties) , plunging China into the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period as regional jiedushi warlords declared their own dynasties and kingdoms. The Tibetan Empire began attacking China, during
12240-459: The Tang professional heavy infantry were better armoured and could sustain more injuries than their Arab counterparts, and managed to push the Arab infantry backwards despite being outnumbered. The Muslim general attempted to alleviate the pressure on his infantry by sending his heavy cavalry to attack the lighter column cavalry on the Chinese flanks. However, this attack failed to outflank Gao's units, but
12393-604: The Tarim Basin. Many Muslims chose to live among Confucians , worshipped Chinese gods and Allah , and perform religious functions, including prayer , in Confucian temples as well as mosques during the late Qing dynasty, and likely before then as well. Some even prostrated before idols and made offerings to them. In the 1900s decade, its estimated that there were 20 million Muslims in China proper (that is, China excluding
12546-636: The Tibetan Empire and the Tang dynasty. In 747, the Tang general Gao Xianzhi , who had successfully fought the Tibetan empire in the Pamir Mountains , established control over the Gilgit region. In early 748, the Persian Abbasid general Abu Muslim occupied Merv , the capital of Greater Khorasan , and went on to lead what has become known as the Abbasid Revolution . In 750, Abu al-'Abbas al-Saffah
12699-590: The Tibetan Empire, besieged Aksu City in the Tarim Basin, but were defeated by the Tang military in the Battle of Aksu . In 715, the Tang emperor declined the demand of the Türgesh tribe leader Suluk to be recognized as Khagan, instead offering him the rank of duke within the Tang military. In response, Suluk invaded the Tarim Basin along with the Tibetans, but they were driven out by the cavalry of Ashina Xian . Suluk and his soldiers regularly challenged Umayyad–Tang control of
12852-525: The Turkic Salars called "Sala Hui" (Salar Muslim), while Turkic speakers often referred to Hui as "Dungan". Zhongyuan ren : During the Qing dynasty , the term Zhongyuan ren ( 中原人 ; 'people from the Central Plain ') was the term for all Chinese, encompassing Han Chinese and Hui in Xinjiang or Central Asia. While Hui are not Han, they consider themselves to be Chinese and include themselves in
13005-663: The Turkic-speaking Muslims, which were referred to as Chanhui . The Republic of China government also recognised the Hui as a branch of the Han Chinese rather than a separate ethnic group. In the National Assembly of the Republic of China , the Hui were referred to as Nationals in China proper with special convention . The Hui were referred to as Han people Muslims by Bai Chongxi, the Minister of National Defense of
13158-482: The Yuan and Ming dynasties. Arab were white cap , Persians black cap and Jews blue cap Huihui. Islamic mosques and Jewish synagogues at the time were denoted by the same word, Qīngzhēnsì ( 清真寺 : Temple of Purity and Truth). Kublai Khan called both foreign Jews and Muslims in China Huihui when he forced them to stop halal and kosher methods of preparing food: "Among all the [subject] alien peoples only
13311-460: The advent of Deng Xiaoping in 1979, Muslims enjoyed a period of liberalisation. New legislation gave all minorities the freedom to use their own spoken and written languages, to develop their own culture and education and to practice their religion. More Chinese Muslims than ever before were allowed to go on pilgrimage to Mecca . There is an ethnic separatist movement among the Uyghur minority, who are
13464-488: The area. Several medieval Chinese dynasties, particularly the Tang , Song and Mongol , witnessed foreign immigration from predominantly Muslim Persia and Central Asia , with both dynasties welcoming foreign Muslim traders from these regions and appointing Central Asian officials. In subsequent centuries, the immigrants gradually spoke Chinese and settled down, eventually forming the Hui. A study in 2004 calculated that 6.7 percent of Hui peoples' matrilineal genetics have
13617-525: The average Northwestern Chinese minority groups was at ~9.1%, with the remainder being dominant East-Eurasian ancestry at ~90.9%. The study also showed that there is a close genetic affinity among these ethnic minorities in Northwest China (including Uyghurs , Huis, Dongxiangs , Bonans , Yugurs and Salars ) and that these cluster closely with other East Asian people , especially in Xinjiang , followed by Mongolic , and Tungusic speakers , indicating
13770-405: The battle of Talas, the domestic An Lushan rebellion and subsequent warlordism gave the Arabs the opportunity to further expand into central Asia as Tibetans took over the region between the Arabs and China and Tang influence in the region retreated. The An Lushan rebellion broke out in 755 and lasted until 763, forcing the Tang army to retreat from the northwestern frontier after enjoying around
13923-467: The battle of Talas. Following the An Lushan rebellion, the diplomatic exchange between Buddhist Indian kingdoms and the Tang dynasty all but ceased. Prior to the An Lushan rebellion, between 640 and 750 diplomatic envoys from Indian kingdoms, often accompanied by Buddhist monks , had regularly visited the Tang court. Chinese Buddhism developed into an independent religion with distinct spiritual elements, such as Pure Land Buddhism and Zen . China became
14076-420: The battle that has survived, Abbasid general Abu Muslim took 5,000 Chinese prisoners and confiscated possessions from the Tang military camp. According to Al-Maqdisi, Abu Muslim prepared his forces and equipment to invade more Tang controlled territory. However, he was first presented with a letter from the caliph As-Saffah , in which he was informed that his services were needed as governor of Khurasan . After
14229-403: The battle were similar to each other, with the Chinese attacking first from the front, with their archers and crossbowmen dealing substantial damage to the Arab archers with greater accuracy and ranged superiority in crossbows. The Arab archers had to retreat behind their spearmen and the Arab spearmen charged ahead, with the infantry lines colliding between the Tang and Abbasid spearmen. However,
14382-415: The battle without interruption. Such visits had overall resulted in 13 diplomatic gifts between 752 and 798. Xue Zongzheng came to the conclusion that other than the transfer of paper, there is no evidence to support a geopolitical or demographic change resulting from this battle. In fact, it seems that Tang influence over central Asia even strengthened after 751 and that by 755, Tang power in central Asia
14535-642: The border between present-day Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan . The Chinese name 怛羅斯 ; Dáluósī was first seen in the account of Xuanzang . Du Huan located the city near the western drain of the Chui River . The oasis towns on the Silk Road in central Asia had once been controlled by the Türgesh , but the Turkic tribal confederation plunged into chaos in the latter half of the 7th century. Empress Wu had retaken control of
14688-519: The censuses of Russia and Central Asian nations, the Hui are distinguished from Chinese, termed Dungans. However, in both China and Central Asia members of this ethnic group call themselves Lao Huihui or Zhongyuanren, rather than Dungan. Zhongyuan 中原, literally means "The Central Plain," and is the historical name of Shaanxi and Henan provinces. Most Dungans living in Central Asia are descendants of Hui people from Gansu and Shaanxi. Hui people are referred to by Central Asian Turkic speakers and Tajiks by
14841-551: The center of East Asian Buddhism , creating a canon and spreading on to Japan and Korea. The Battle of Talas did not mark the end of Buddhism or Chinese influence in the region. The Buddhist Kara-Khitan Khanate defeated the Seljuk and Kara-Khanid Turks at the Battle of Qatwan in 1141, conquering a large part of central Asia from the Karluk Kara-Khanid Khanate during the 12th century. The Kara-Khitans also reintroduced
14994-580: The characteristics of the Hui nationality as an ethnic group associated with, but not defined by, Islam and descended primarily from Muslims who migrated to China during the Mongol-founded Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), as distinct from the Uyghur and other Turkic-speaking ethnic groups in Xinjiang. The Nationalist government by contrast recognised all Muslims as one of "the five peoples"—alongside the Manchus , Mongols , Tibetans and Han Chinese —that constituted
15147-558: The craft of papermaking while living on land occupied by the Abbasids following Talas. However, this account is unlikely to be factual. Paper was already in use throughout Central Asia by the 8th century; paper fragments dating to the 4th and 5th centuries have been found in the areas of Turpan and Gaochang , and letters written in the Sogdian language between the 4th and 6th centuries have been found in Dunhuang and Loulan . One such letter
15300-546: The early Yuan period. Muslim scholars were brought to work on calendar making and astronomy . The architect Yeheidie'erding (Amir al-Din) learned from Han architecture to help design the construction of the capital of the Yuan dynasty, Dadu (also known as Khanbaliq or present-day Beijing ). Genghis Khan and his successors forbade Islamic practices like halal butchering, as well as other restrictions. Muslims had to slaughter sheep in secret. Genghis Khan outright called Muslims and Jews "slaves", and demanded that they follow
15453-455: The final Ningxia imam left. A similar endeavour in Taiwan also failed. Until 1982, a Han could "become" Hui by converting to Islam. Thereafter, a converted Han counts instead as a "Muslim Han". Symmetrically, Hui people consider other Hui who do not observe Islamic practices as still Hui, and that their Hui nationality cannot be lost. For both of these reasons, simply calling them "Chinese Muslims"
15606-504: The following Ming dynasty , Muslims continued to be influential around government circles. Six of Ming dynasty founder Hongwu Emperor 's most trusted generals are said to have been Muslim, including Lan Yu who, in 1388, led a strong imperial Ming army out of the Great Wall and won a decisive victory over the Mongols in Mongolia, effectively ending the Mongol dream to re-conquer China. During
15759-527: The four companions that Muhammad sent eastwards to preach Islam. Known as the 'Holy Tombs', they house the companions Sa-Ke-Zu and Wu-Ko-Shun. The other two companions went to Guangzhou and Yangzhou. The Imam Asim, is said to have been one of the first Islamic missionaries in China. He was a man who lived in c. 1000 CE in Hotan . The shrine site includes the reputed tomb of the Imam, a mosque, and several related tombs. There
15912-571: The government ignoring Muslims in the 845 Huichang persecution of Buddhism , even though it virtually extinguished Zoroastrianism and the Church of the East in China. In 751, the Abbasid Caliphate defeated Tang China at the Battle of Talas , marking the end of Tang westward expansion and resulting in Muslim control of Transoxiana for the next 400 years. By the time of the Song dynasty , Muslims had come to play
16065-576: The identity of Hui people has been fluid, often changing as was convenient. Some identified as Hui out of interest in their ancestry or because of government benefits. These Hui are concentrated on the southeast coast of China, especially Fujian province. Some Hui clans around Quanzhou in Fujian, such as the Ding and Guo families, identify themselves by ethnicity and no longer practice Islam. In recent years, more of these clans have identified as Hui, increasing
16218-540: The language of the Vietnamese Champa Muslim minority . According to anthropologist Dru Gladney , they descend from Champa people who migrated to Hainan . A small Muslim minority among Yunnan 's Bai people are classified as Hui as well, although they speak Bai . Some groups of Tibetan Muslims are classified as Hui as well. Huihui ( 回回 ) was the usual generic term for China's Muslims (White Hui), Persian Christians (Black Hui) and Jews (Blue Hui) during
16371-565: The larger group of Zhongyuan ren . The Dungan people , descendants of Hui who fled to Central Asia, called themselves Zhongyuan ren in addition to the standard labels lao huihui and huizi . Zhongyuan ren was used by Turkic Muslims to refer to ethnic Chinese. When Central Asian invaders from Kokand invaded Kashgar , in a letter the Kokandi commander criticised the Kashgari Turkic Muslim Ishaq for allegedly not behaving like
16524-530: The local peoples of both lands. The surname of Li was held by one of Yelu Ahai's staff of Han descent. There were various Han craftsmen. Tangut, Khitan and Han peoples took control over gardens and fields from the Muslims. Han people were moved to Central Asian areas like Besh Baliq, Almaliq, and Samarqand by the Mongols where they worked as artisans and farmers. During the Mongol -founded Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), large numbers of Muslims settled in China. The Mongols ,
16677-458: The majority of whom were Muslims who came from western regions, were labelled as Semu people, but were also mistaken by Chinese for Uyghur, due to them coming from the west (Uyghur lands). The name "Hui Hui" was applied to them, and eventually became the name applied to Muslims. Another, probably unrelated, early use of the word Huihui comes from the History of Liao , which mentions Yelü Dashi ,
16830-478: The mid-10th century, when Sultan Satuq Bughra Khan established the Kara-Khanid Khanate . This occurred well after Tang dynasty was gone from central Asia. Caliph Al-Saffah died in 754. Chinese sources record that his successor, the Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur , sent his diplomatic delegations regularly to China. Al-Mansur's delegations were known in China as Khayi Tashi ( Black Clothes ). Shortly after
16983-490: The mosques contained dead bodies after the Japanese slaughters. According to Wan Lei, "statistics showed that the Japanese destroyed 220 mosques and killed countless Hui people by April 1941." The Japanese followed a policy of economic oppression which involved the destruction of mosques and Hui communities and made many Hui jobless and homeless. Another policy was one of deliberate humiliation. This included soldiers smearing mosques with pork fat, forcing Hui to butcher pigs to feed
17136-437: The non-Muslim Qara Khitai conquered the region. The Abbasids placed great value on controlling this area as it was a strategic point on the Silk Road . Chinese prisoners captured at Talas in 751 are said to have introduced papermaking to the peoples of West Asia , although this account is disputed by several findings. The exact location of the battle has not been confirmed but is believed to be near Taraz and Talas , on
17289-543: The oasis towns. Before Suluk's death, his soldiers were defeated by the Tang in 736 and by the Caliphate in 737. At the same time, Türgesh tribes established metal industries in Tang-controlled Fergana Valley , an area that was also home to important centres of iron production. The Karluks , a federation of three Türgesh tribes with settlements around Tian Shan , were producers and exporters of iron weapons to
17442-471: The official population. They provided evidence of their ancestry and were recognized as Hui. Many clans across Fujian had genealogies that demonstrated Hui ancestry. These clans inhabited Fujian, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines. None of these clans were Muslims but they do not offer pork during their ancestral worship . In Taiwan, the Hui clans who followed Koxinga to Formosa to defeat
17595-569: The opposite side, Arab records put the combined Chinese forces at 100,000. But Chinese sources record a combined army of 10,000 Tang infantry and 20,000 Karluk mercenaries. The Tongdian (801), the earliest narrative for battle itself by either side, suggests 30,000 deaths, and the Old Book of Tang (945) counted 20,000 deaths in this battle. The earliest Arabic account for the battle, itself from Al-Kamil fi al-Tarikh (1231) suggests 50,000 deaths and 20,000 prisoners. Gao Xianzhi's official position
17748-619: The poor people are upset by this, from now on, Musuluman [Muslim] Huihui and Zhuhu [Jewish] Huihui, no matter who kills [the animal] will eat [it] and must cease slaughtering sheep themselves, and cease the rite of circumcision." The widespread and rather generic application of the name Huihui in Ming China was attested to by foreign visitors as well. Matteo Ricci , the first Jesuit to reach Beijing (1598), noted that "Saracens are everywhere in evidence . . . their thousands of families are scattered about in nearly every province" Ricci noted that
17901-941: The population formed through male-dominated migration, potentially via a northern route, followed by massive assimilation of Guizhou aborigines into Han Chinese and Hui Muslims. The East Asian Y-chromosome haplogroup O-M122 is found in large quantities, about 24–30%, in other Muslims groups close to the Hui like the Dongxiangs , Bo'an , and Salar people . While the Y chromosome haplogroup R1a (found among Central Asians , South Asians and Europeans) are found among 17–28% of them. Western mtDNA makes up 6.6% to 8%. Other haplogroups include D-M174 , N1a1-Tat , and Q , commonly found among East Asians and Siberians. The majority of Tibeto-Burmans, Han Chinese, and Ningxia and Liaoning Hui share paternal Y chromosomes of East Asian origin which are unrelated to Middle Easterners and Europeans. In contrast to distant Middle Easterners and Europeans with whom
18054-460: The port cities of Guangzhou , Quanzhou and Hangzhou on China's southeastern seaboard, as well as in the interior centers such as Chang'an , Kaifeng and Yangzhou during the Tang and especially Song eras. Around 879, Chinese rebels killed about 120,000–200,000 mostly Arab and Persian foreigners in Guanzhou in the Guangzhou massacre . It is believed that the profile of Muslims as traders led to
18207-455: The probability of a shared recent common ancestor of "Altaic speakers". A genome study, using the ancestry-informative SNP (AISNP) analysis, found only 3.66% West-Eurasian-like admixture among Hui people, while the Uyghurs harbored the relative highest amount of West-Eurasian-like admixture at 36.30%. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the term "Hui" was applied by
18360-456: The rebel Muslims led by Ma Dahan , Ma Yonglin and Ma Wanfu . The Muslim army, Kansu Braves , led by General Dong Fuxiang fought for the Qing dynasty against the foreigners during the Boxer Rebellion . They included well known generals like Ma Anliang, Ma Fulu and Ma Fuxiang. In Yunnan , the Qing armies exterminated only the Muslims who had rebelled and spared Muslims who took no part in
18513-464: The regions of Ningxia , Gansu and Qinghai . Of China's 55 officially recognized minority peoples , ten of these groups are predominantly Sunni Muslim . The Silk Road , which comprised a series of extensive inland trade routes that spread all over the Mediterranean to East Asia, was used since 1000 BCE and continued to be used for millennia. For more than half of this long period of time, most of
18666-807: The regions of Mongolia and Xinjiang). Of these, almost half resided in Gansu , over a third in Shaanxi (as defined at that time) and the rest in Yunnan . The Qing dynasty fell in 1912, and the Republic of China was established by Sun Yat-sen , who immediately proclaimed the equality of the Han, Hui, Manchu, Mongol, and Tibetan peoples. This led to some improvement in relations between these different peoples. The end of dynasty also marked an increase in Sino-foreign interactions. This led to increased contact between Muslim minorities in China and
18819-620: The reign of the Rashid Caliph Uthman 's reign. Emperor Gaozong, the Tang emperor who is said to have received the envoy then ordered the construction of the Huaisheng Mosque in Guangzhou in memory of Muhammad, which was the first mosque in the country. While modern secular historians tend to say that there is no evidence that Waqqas himself ever came to China, they do believe that Muslim diplomats and merchants came to Tang China within
18972-406: The retreat of Ferghana allies who originally supported the Chinese. The Karluk mercenaries, two-thirds of the Tang army, defected to the Abbasids during the battle; Karluk troops attacked the Tang army from close quarters while the main Abbasid forces attacked from the front. The Tang troops were unable to hold their positions, and the commander of the Tang forces, Gao Xianzhi , recognized that defeat
19125-610: The same time that Talas took place, the Tang also sent an army from Shibao city in Qinghai to Suyab and consolidated Chinese control over the Turgesh . According to Bai, Chinese expansion in central Asia did not halt after the battle of Talas. The Chinese commander Feng Changqing , who took over the position from Gao Xianzhi through Wang Zhengjian, virtually swept across the Kashmir region and captured Gilgit shortly two years later. Even Tashkent re-established its vassal status in 753, when
19278-463: The same time, the Türgesh khagan Suluk began uniting the infighting Türgesh tribes. The Muslim, Tibetan and Tang armies would have two encounters. In 715, Alutar was established as king of Fergana with the help of Umayyad and Tibetan soldiers. The deposed Ikhshid fled to the Tang controlled Kuqa and requested the aid of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang ; 10,000 Tang soldiers reinstated Ikhshid as Fergana's king. In 717, Arab Umayyad soldiers, assisted by
19431-579: The second-highest stratum in the Yuan ethnic hierarchy (after the Mongols but above Chinese). A proportion of the ancestral nomad or military ethnic groups were originally Nestorian Christians , many of whom later converted to Islam under the Ming and Qing dynasties. However, Hui peoples from Gansu , along with their Dongxian neighbors, did not receive substantial gene flow from Western and Central Asia or European populations during their Islamization. Most Hui people are Sunni Muslims , and their Islamic sects can be divided into: Ma Tong recorded that
19584-489: The soldiers, and forcing girls to serve as sex slaves. Hui cemeteries were destroyed for military reasons. Many Hui fought in the war against Japan . In 1937, during the Battle of Beiping–Tianjin , the Chinese government received a telegram from Muslim General Ma Bufang that he was prepared to fight the Japanese. Immediately after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident , Ma Bufang arranged for a cavalry division under
19737-540: The southeast coast (e.g., Guangdong , Fujian ) and in major trade centers elsewhere in China, some are of mixed local and foreign descent. The foreign element, although greatly diluted, came primarily from Iranian ( Bosi ) traders, who brought Islam to China. These foreigners settled and gradually intermarried, while assimilating into Chinese culture. Early European explorers speculated that T'ung-kan (Dungans, i.e. Hui, called "Chinese Mohammedans") in Xinjiang , originated from Khorezmians who were transported to China by
19890-454: The spearmen behind them and heavy cavalry with his guard. Gao Xianzhi had assembled his army in a similar manner, with his professionally-trained heavy infantry of crossbowmen and spearmen in the front and in the second line respectively, and the lighter columns of Ferghana mercenaries behind, with the Karluk Turks on the extreme far right and left flanks. The sequence of the first three days of
20043-504: The support of their imperial overlords in a battle of dominance. Gao Xianzhi conquered the Abbasid-controlled Tashkent after a siege. The Abbasid general Ziyad ibn Salih [ ar ] escaped from Tashkent to Samarkand, where he gathered troops and marched eastwards to confront the Tang army. In Fergana, the Tang general Gao Xianzhi raised an army by recruiting Karluk Turks. During the reign of Lalitaditya Muktapida ,
20196-699: The term Huihui or Hui was applied by Chinese not only to "Saracens" (Muslims) but also to Chinese Jews and supposedly even to Christians. In fact, when the reclusive Wanli Emperor first saw a picture of Ricci and Diego de Pantoja , he supposedly exclaimed, "Hoei, hoei. It is quite evident that they are Saracens", and had to be told by a eunuch that they actually weren't, "because they ate pork". The 1916 Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics , Volume 8 said that Chinese Muslims always called themselves Huihui or Huizi, and that neither themselves nor other people called themselves Han, and they disliked people calling them Dungan. French army Commandant Viscount D'Ollone wrote
20349-549: The terminological distinction between these two related groups: the Donggan or "Tungkan" (the older Wade-Giles spelling for "Dungan"), described by him as the descendants of the Gansu Hui people resettled in Xinjiang in the 17–18th centuries, vs. e.g. the "Gansu Moslems" or generic "Chinese Moslems". The name "Dungan" sometimes referred to all Muslims coming from China proper , such as Dongxiang and Salar in addition to Hui. Reportedly,
20502-423: The throne as the emperor. The Muslim Ming loyalists were crushed by the Qing with 100,000 of them, including Milayin and Ding Guodong killed. The Manchu -led Qing dynasty (1644–1912) witnessed multiple revolts, with several major revolts headed by Muslim leaders. During the Qing dynasty's conquest of the Ming dynasty from 1644; Muslim Ming loyalists in Gansu led by Muslim leaders Milayin and Ding Guodong led
20655-507: The traders were Muslim and moved towards the East. Not only did these traders bring their goods, they also carried with them their culture and beliefs to East Asia. Islam was one of the many religions that gradually began to spread across the Silk Road during the "7th to the 10th centuries through war, trade and diplomatic exchanges". During the Tang and Song dynasties, Muslims in China worshipped various kinds of "spirits" alongside Allah. According to Chinese Muslims' traditional accounts, Islam
20808-444: The transfer of paper exist. Du Huan , who was captured by the Abbasid army at the battle of Talas and upon his return to China published his travel writings, documented that Chinese crafts such as silk weaving were practiced by Chinese prisoners of war while living on territory controlled by the Abbasids. It may have been a convention to reference Chinese craftsmen, who had long been esteemed in Islamic lands, and Chinese paper remained
20961-531: The typical 99 names . Muslims in Ming dynasty Beijing were given relative freedom by the Chinese, with no restrictions placed on their religious practices or freedom of worship and being normal citizens in Beijing. In contrast to the freedom granted to Muslims, followers of Tibetan Buddhism and Catholicism suffered from restrictions and censure in Beijing. The Hongwu Emperor decreed the building of multiple mosques throughout China in many locations. A Nanjing mosque
21114-741: The uprising. Uyghurs in Turfan and Hami and their leaders like Emin Khoja allied with the Qing against Uyghurs in Altishahr . The Qing dynasty enfeoffed (granted freehold property in exchange for pledged service) the rulers of Turpan , in eastern present-day Xinjiang and Hami (Kumul) as autonomous princes, while the rest of the Uyghurs in Altishahr (the Tarim Basin) were ruled by Begs. Uyghurs from Turpan and Hami were appointed by China as officials to rule over Uyghurs in
21267-668: The war fighting the Mongols, among the Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's armies was the Hui Muslim Feng Sheng. Zhu Yuanzhang also wrote a praise of Islam, The Hundred-word Eulogy . It was recorded that "His Majesty ordered to have mosques built in Xijing and Nanjing [the capital cities], and in southern Yunnan, Fujian and Guangdong. His Majesty also personally wrote baizizan [a eulogy] in praise of the Prophet's virtues." Additionally,
21420-625: The western Tibetan frontier with the Arabs. At the same time, the Uighurs fought the Tibetans along the Silk Road. The Karluks expanded their settlements around Tian Shan , and also settled westwards in Abbasid-controlled Fergana and Tukharistan . Iron weapons continued to be exported to Tibet and China on the Silk Roads between Kuqa and Aksu near the Tarim basin . Arab sources record that in
21573-479: Was a communication with Samarkand. According to Jonathan Bloom, paper was used in Samarkand, and probably produced there, several decades before the battle. Several paper documents have also been discovered near Panjakent at Mount Mugh, a mountain stronghold, that likely predate the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana . They were either local or came from Buddhist monks active in the region. By the 8th century, Chinese paper
21726-555: Was agreed in 1649, where Milayan and Ding nominally pledged allegiance to the Qing and were given ranks as members of the military. When the other Ming loyalists in southern China resumed hostilities, the Qing were forced to withdraw their forces from Gansu to fight them, Milayan and Ding once again took up arms and rebelled against the Qing. The Muslim Ming loyalists were then crushed by the Qing with 100,000 of them, including Milayin, Ding Guodong, and Turumtay killed in battle. The Confucian Hui Muslim scholar Ma Zhu (1640–1710) served with
21879-710: Was an uprising among Hui Muslims and became the only large scale ethnic rebellion during the Cultural Revolution. In crushing the rebellion, the PLA massacred 1,600 Hui with MIG fighter jets used to fire rockets onto the village. Following the fall of the Gang of Four , apologies and reparations were made. During that time, the government also constantly accused Muslims and other religious groups of holding "superstitious beliefs" and promoting " anti-socialist trends". The government began to relax its policies towards Muslims in 1978. After
22032-548: Was built by the Xuande Emperor . Weizhou Grand Mosque , considered as one of the most beautiful, was constructed during the Ming dynasty. When the Qing dynasty invaded the Ming dynasty in 1644, Muslim Ming loyalists led by Muslim leaders Milayin, Ding Guodong and Ma Shouying led a revolt in 1646 against the Qing during the Milayin rebellion in order to drive the Qing out and restore the Ming Prince of Yanchang Zhu Shichuan to
22185-420: Was called the "father" of the Muslim community in China. Prior to him, Islam was named by the Tang and Song Chinese as Dashi fa ("law of the Arabs"). He renamed it to Huihui Jiao ("the Religion of the Huihui"). It is reported that "in 1080, another group of more than 10,000 Arab men and women are said to have arrived in China on horsebacks to join Sofeier. These people settled in all provinces". Pu Shougeng ,
22338-425: Was established in 1949, Muslims, along with all other religions in China, suffered repression especially during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). Islam, like all religions including traditional Chinese religion, was persecuted by the Red Guards who were encouraged to smash the Four Olds . Numerous places of worship, including mosques, were attacked. In 1975, in what would be known as the Shadian incident , there
22491-422: Was first introduced to China in 616–18 by the Companions of Muhammad : Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas , Wahab ibn Abu Kabcha and another. It is noted in other accounts that Wahab Abu Kabcha reached Canton by sea in 629 CE. The introduction of Islam mainly happened through two routes: from the southeast following an established path to Guangdong and from the northwest through the Silk Road . Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, along with
22644-404: Was imminent and managed to escape with some of his Tang regulars with the help of Li Siye . Out of an estimated 10,000 Tang troops, only 2,000 managed to return from Talas to their territory in central Asia. Despite losing the battle, Li did inflict heavy losses on the pursuing Arab army after being reproached by Duan Xiushi . According to a text by Al-Maqdisi , one of the few Arabic sources on
22797-400: Was mostly made of bast fibers while Islamic papers were mostly made of rag fibers. Bloom suggests that papermakers were already active in Central Asia for quite some time and had learned to use rag fibers rather than bast fibers as their primary papermaking material. No historic Chinese source records this transfer of technology through prisoners of war and no contemporary Arabic accounts of
22950-473: Was originally called Dashi Jiao during the Tang dynasty , when Muslims first appeared in China. "Dashi Fa" literally means "Arab law" in Old Chinese . Since almost all Muslims in China were exclusively foreign Arabs or Persians at the time, it was rarely mentioned by the Chinese, unlike other religions like Zoroastrism or Mazdaism , and Nestorian Christianity , which gained followings in China. As an influx of foreigners, such as Persians, Jews and Christians,
23103-415: Was proclaimed the first Abbasid caliph in the great mosque of Kufa . The Umayyad Caliphate fell in 750 at the Battle of the Zab . Abu Muslim had raised an army that included Muslims and non-Muslims, which he dispatched westwards to take control over Umayyad territory. The Tang general and the Abbasid general would eventually meet in 750 when the kings of the Silk Road towns Tashkent and Ferghana sought
23256-409: Was still able to launch offensive conquests and campaigns like its destruction of the Uyghur Khaganate in Mongolia during 840–847. It was the Huang Chao rebellion (874–884) that permanently destroyed the power of the Tang dynasty since Huang not only devastated the north but marched into southern China which An Lushan failed to do due to the Battle of Suiyang. Huang's army in southern China committed
23409-401: Was that of the Anxi Jiedu envoy, The total number of Tang troops in the jurisdiction was 24,000 and was stationed in the four countries of Qiuzi, Yanqi, Khotan, and Shule. In July 751, the Muslim forces, including the Karluk mercenaries faced with the Tang forces on the banks of the Talas River. The Muslim General had assembled his troops in a standard formation, with his archers in the front,
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