I slam in China

I slam in China dates back to the days of the Caliphate of Uthman ibn Affan

( radiAllahu anhu) , the third Caliph of I slam . After t r iumphing over the Byzant ine,

Romans and the Persians, the Caliph sent a deputat ion to China in 29 AH (650 CE,

eighteen years after the death of the Prophet Muham m ad (salAllahu alayhi

wasalam ) . The Ancient Record of the Tang Dynasty describes a landm ark visit to

China by Saad ibn Abi Waqqas ( radiAllahu anhu) , one of the com panions and

m aternal uncle of the Prophet Muham m ad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam) in 650 C.E.

This event is considered to be the birth of I slam in China.

Saad I bn Waaqas ( radiAllahu anhu) invited the Chinese Emperor Yung-Wei to

embrace I slam . Although the emperor Yung-Wei, found I slam to be a bit too

rest r ict ive for his taste, he respected its teachings. To show his adm irat ion

for I slam , the emperor gave Saad ( radiAllahu anhu) complete freedom to propagate

I slam and approved the establishment of China’s first m osque at Ch’ang-an. The

m agnificent Canton city m osque known to this day as the ‘Mem orial Mosque.’ That

m osque st ill stands today after fourteen centuries.

As t im e passed, relat ions between the Chinese and the Muslim heart land cont inued

to improve. Many Muslim businessm en, visitors, and t raders began to com e to China

for commercial and religious reasons. [ Arabs had already established t rade in the

area before Prophet Muham m ad (salAllahu alayhi wasalam ) .] The Umayyads and

Abbasids sent six delegat ions to China, all of which were warm ly received by the

Chinese.

The Muslim presence was resented by the disbelievers. However, their scorn was

replaced by respect when their provocat ion m et with their resounding defeat at the

hand of a small Muslim force in 133 AH (751 C.E.) This victory eventually led to

cont rol over the ent ire Cent ral Asia, and in 138 A.H. (756 C.E.) , Caliph Mansur

posted a unit of 4,000 t roops to consolidate the Muslim influence.

These victor ies opened the doors of China for the Muslims to spread and propagate

the faith. Over the years, many Muslims set t led in China and they married Chinese

wom en. They established m osques, schools and m adrasas. Students from as far as

Russia and I ndia would at tend these madrasas. I t is reported that in the 1790’s,

there was as m any as 30,000 I slam ic students, and the city of Bukhara, - the

birthplace of I mam Bukhari, one of the foremost compilers of hadith - which was

then part of China, came to be known as the “Pillar of I slam .”

The Muslims who immigrated to China eventually began to have a great econom ic

impact and influence on the count ry. They virtually dom inated the import / export

business by the t im e of the Sung Dynasty (960 - 1279 CE) . I ndeed, the office of

Director General of Shipping was consistent ly held by a Muslim during this period.

I n spite of the econom ic successes the Muslim s enjoyed during these and later t im es,

they were recognized as being fair, law-abiding, and self-disciplined. Thus, there is

no record of appreciable ant i-Muslim sent im ent on the part of the Han (Chinese)

people.

By the beginning of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644 CE) I slam had been nourishing in

China for 700 years. Up to this t ime, the Muslims had maintained a separate, alien

status which had its own customs, language, and t radit ions and was never totally

integrated with the Han people. Under the Ming Dynasty, generally considered to be

the golden age of I slam in China, Muslims gradually became fully integrated into Han

society.

The early Muslims in China faced oppression, and the tyrannical Manchu dynasty

(1644-191l) was the harshest era. During this period, five wars were waged against

the Muslims: Lanchu (1820-28) , Che Kanio (1830) , Sinkiang ( l847) , Yunan (1857)

and Shansi (1861) . I n these dest ruct ive wars, the Muslims suffered inest imable

losses. Count less Muslims were m artyred. Half of Kansu’s populat ion, totalling 15

m illions, was Muslim . Only 5 m illion could escape alive. Chinese Muslims sustained

sim ilar setbacks in several other small and big wars. During the past three centuries,

the Muslim populat ion has decreased at 30% .

The Manchus slaughtered Muslim s and razed mosques. Led by determ ined leaders

like Yaqoob Beg ( l820-77) , Muslim s liberated the whole of Turkestan and set up an

I slam ic state that lasted from 1867 to 1877. The new Turkic-Chinese Muslim power

in Cent ral Asia, com prising of the provinces of Yunan, Szechawan, Shensi and

Kansum, was seen with anxiety by the Russians and the Brit ish who had colonial

designs of their own.

The Muslim s, inspired by examples of leaders like Ma Mua-Ming-Hsin, scored m any

victor ies. I n Yunan, the Muslims, under Tu Wenhsin, routed the em peror’s t roops. He

assumed the name of Sultan Sulayman and rallied the Muslims of Tibet to r ise up

against the Chinese.

During the Mao Tse- tung’s revolut ion in 1948 the Chinese Muslims supported him .

The Muslims also joined his Red Army. However, at no stage of their cooperat ion

with the great Chinese leader did the Muslims forsake their I slam ic ident ity even for

a while. But at beginning of communist rule in China, the Muslims, as well as other

ethnic m inorit ies found themselves once again oppressed. They act ively st ruggled

against com m unists before and after the revolut ion. I n fact , in 1953, the Muslim s

revolted twice in an effort to establish an independent I slam ic state [ in regions

where Muslims were an overwhelm ing m ajority] . These revolts were brutally

suppressed by Chinese m ilitary force followed by the liberal use of ant i-Muslim

propaganda.

At present , according to official stat ist ics there are 28 m illion Muslim in China but

in1936 it was est imated that the Muslim populat ion was 48 m illion. The government

census of 1982, however, put the num ber m uch lower, at 15 m illion. By this t im e

total populat ion has increased 3-4 fold. So we can conclude that the total Muslim

populat ion has increased m inimum by that same proport ion. I n 2000 ,the number of

Muslims in China is est imated at 200 m illion ( I I NA) . These Muslims represent ten

dist inct ethnic groups. The largest are the Chinese Hui, who comprise over half of

China’s Muslim populat ion and are scat tered throughout all of China. There is also a

high concent rat ion of Hui in the province of Ningsha in the north.Under the

Com m unist pretext of unificat ion of nat ional educat ion, I slam ic schools were closed

and their students t ransferred to other schools which taught only Marxism and

Maoism . Other out rages included the closing of over 29,000 mosques, the

widespread torture of im am s, and execut ions of over 360,000 Muslim s. There are

approxim it ly 3,500 mosques in China at present . Today the campaign for

assim ilat ion started during the Cultural Revolut ion has slowed som ewhat and the

Turkic Muslims have greater freedom to express their cultural ident ity. The

governm ent has, for instance,

Allowed the reinstatement of the Arabic alphabet for use with the Uygur language.

According to populat ion stat ist ics of 1936, the then Kuom ingtang Republic of China

had an est im ated 48,104,240 Muslim s. After the int roduct ion of Mao’s policies, this

num ber was reduced to ten m illion. No official Chinese explanat ion has ever been

given for this apparentdisappearance of around 38 m illion Muslim s. The m ass

exterm inat ion and dest ruct ion of the Muslims of China pales before the much

publicized plight of Tibetan monks or the democratsof Tiannam an Square.

Since religious freedom was declared in 1978, the Chinese Muslim s have not wasted

t ime in expressing their convict ions. There are now some 28,000 mosques in the

ent ire People’s Republic of China, with 12,000 in the province of Xinj iang.

I n addit ion, there is a large number of imams available to lead the Muslim

community ( in Xinj iang alone there are over 2,800) . I slam ic literature can be found

quite easily and there are current ly some eight different t ranslat ions of the Qur’an in

the Chinese language as well as t ranslat ions in Uygur and the other Turkic

languages. The Muslims of China have also been given almost unrest r icted allowance

to m ake the Haj j to Mecca. I n 1986 there were some 2,300 Chinese Muslim s at Haj j .