Islam in China
Islam in China |
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</br>Islam has a rich heritage in China. The religion has had a presence in the country since the Tang Dynasty when a companion of Muhammad, Sa`ad ibn Abi Waqqas, was sent as an official envoy to Emperor Gaozang in 650 CE. The Emperor drew parallels between the religion and the teachings of Confucius and ordered the establishment of the first mosque in China.[2]
A notable feature of the Muslim communities in China is the presence of female imams [3]. A form of Islamic calligraphy, the Sini, is well established in China. Hajji Noor Deen Mi Guangjiang is a famous modern calligrapher in this tradition.
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Muslim Demographics
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China is home to a large population of adherents of Islam. According to the CIA World Factbook, about 1%-2% of the total population in China are Muslims, [1] while the US Department of State's International Religious Freedom Report shows that Muslims constitute about 1.5% (or a population of 19,594,707) of the Chinese population.[2] The various censuses asserted that there may be up to 20 million Muslims in China.[3] The Asia Times also offered its numerical range of Muslim populations in China: "Reliable data are difficult to obtain, but China's estimated 20 million to 30 million Muslims may in fact be the second-largest religious community in the country, after the 100 million or so Buddhists." [4]
However, some contend that 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.[4] That said, some other sources also give the figure of 100 million based on expolation of the population in 1948 where the figure of 48 million was given in the census, which was corroborated by a china year book that also placed the figure at 50 million.[5]
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, or 48% of the officially tabulated number of Muslims). The other nine, in descending order of size, are Uyghurs (8.4 million, 41%), Kazakhs (1.25 million , 6.1%), Dongxiang (514 thousand, 2.5%), Kirghiz (161 thousand), Salar (105 thousand), Tajiks (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.
History
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. Muslims came to dominate foreign trade during the Song Dynasty, and, as immigration slowed during the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, became increasingly integrated into Chinese society.
However, 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.
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.
A record 7,000 Chinese Muslim pilgrims from all over the country attended the Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 2006[6]
Representative bodies
Chinese Patriotic Islamic Association
The Chinese Patriotic Islamic Association claims to represent Chinese Muslims nationwide. At its inaugural meeting on May 11, 1953 in Beijing, representatives from 10 nationalities of the People's Republic of China were in attendance.
China Islamic Association
In April 2001, the government set up the China Islamic Association, which was described as aiming to "help the spread of the Qur'an in China and oppose religious extremism". The association is to be run by 16 Islamic religious leaders who are charged with making "a correct and authoritative interpretation" of Islamic creed and canon.
It will compile and spread inspirational speeches and help imams improve themselves, and vet sermons made by clerics around the country. This latter function is probably the key job as far as the central government is concerned. It is worried that some clerics are using their sermons to spread sedition.
Some examples of the religious freedom granted to Muslims are:
- In areas where Muslims are a majority, the breeding of pigs is not allowed, in deference to Muslim sensitivities
- Muslim communities are allowed separate cemeteries
- Muslim couples may have their marriage consecrated by an Imam
- Muslim workers are permitted holidays during major religious festivals
- Chinese Muslims are also allowed to make the Hajj to Mecca, and more than 45,000 Muslims have done so in recent years.[7]
Islamic education in China
Over the last twenty years a wide range of Islamic educational opportunities have been developed to meet the needs of China’s Muslim population. In addition to mosque schools, government Islamic colleges, and independent Islamic colleges, a growing number of students have gone overseas to continue their studies at international Islamic universities in Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, and Malaysia. [8]
Culture and heritage
The Mongol conquest of the greater part of Eurasia in the 13th century brought the extensive cultural traditions of China and Persia into a single empire, albeit one of separate khanates, for the first time in history. The intimate interaction that resulted is evident in the legacy of both traditions. In China, Islam influenced technology, sciences, philosophy and the arts. In terms of material culture, one finds decorative motives from central Asian Islamic architecture and calligraphy, the marked halal impact on northern Chinese cuisine and the varied influences of Islamic medical science on Chinese medicine.
Taking the Mongol Eurasian empire as a point of departure, the ethnogenesis of the Hui, or Sinophone Muslims, can also be charted through the emergence of distinctly Chinese Muslim traditions in architecture, food, epigraphy and Islamic written culture. This multifaceted cultural heritage continues to the present day.[9]
Islamic Architecture
As in all regions the Chinese Islamic architecture reflects the local architecture in its style. China is renowned for its beautiful mosques, which resemble temples. However in western China the mosques resemble those of the middle east, with tall, slender minarets, curvy arches and dome shaped roofs. In northwest China where the Chinese Hui have built their mosques, there is a combination of east and west. The mosques have flared Buddhist style roofs set in walled courtyards entered through archways with miniature domes and minarets (see Beytullah Mosque). [10]The first mosque was the Great Mosque of Xian, or the Xian Mosque, which was created in the Tang Dynasty in the 7th century.
Halal Food in China
Due to the large Muslim population in western China, many Chinese restaurants cater to Muslims or cater to the general public but are run by Muslims. In most major cities in China, there are small Islamic restaurants or food stalls typicially run by migrants from Western China (e.g., Uyghurs), which offer inexpensive noodle soup. Lamb and mutton dishes are more commonly available than in other Chinese restaurants, due to the greater prevalence of these meats in the cuisine of western Chinese regions.[11]
Calligraphy
Sini is a Chinese Islamic calligraphic form for the Arabic script. It can refer to any type of Chinese Islamic calligraphy, but is commonly used to refer to one with thick and tapered effects, much like Chinese calligraphy. It is used extensively in mosques in eastern China, and to a lesser extent in Gansu, Ningxia, and Shaanxi. A famous Sini calligrapher is Hajji Noor Deen Mi Guangjiang.
Martial arts
Muslim development and participation at the highest level of Chinese Wushu has a long history. Many of its roots lies in the Qing Dynasty persecution of Muslims. The Hui chinese muslims started and adapted many of the styles of wushu such as Ba Ji Quan, Pi Gua Zhang, Liu He Quan.. etc. There were specific areas that where know to be centeres of Muslim wushan, such as Cang County in Hebei Province. These traditional chinese martial arts where very distinct from the turkic chinese muslim styles practied in Xinjiang.[12]
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."
Famous Chinese Muslims
See also
- Islam by country
- Religion in China
- Demographics of China
- Chinese Patriotic Islamic Association
- Tibetan Muslims
- Christianity in China
Notes
- ^ https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ch.html#People
- ^ http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2006/71338.htm
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ There are in China 48,104,241 Mohammedan followers and 42,371 mosques, largely in Sinkiang, Chinghai, Manchuria, Kansu, Yunnan, Shensi, Hopei, and Honan. "Ferm, Vergilius (ed.). An Encyclopedia of Religion; Westport, CT: Greenwood Press (1976), pg. 145. [1st pub. in 1945 by Philosophical Library. 1976 reprint is unrevised.]
- ^ China Internet Information Center http://china.org.cn/english/international/155711.htm
- ^ bbc religion and ethics ISLAM China Islamic Association[1]
- ^ Harvard Asia Quarterly
- ^ CHINA HERITAGE NEWSLETTERChina Heritage Project, The Australian National University ISSN 1833-8461No. 5, March 2006
- ^ Saudi Aramco World, July/August 1985 , page 3035
- ^ http://chinamuslim.per.sg/halal/halal.htm
- ^ NTU Bajiquan Kungfu Club http://club.ntu.edu.tw/~ntubachi/Bajiquan/en_about.htm
References
- Reischauer, Edwin O. and Fairbank, John K.,
- http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/HI06Ad01.html
- www.muslimwikipedia Islam in China
- http://www.asiaquarterly.com/content/view/166/43
External links
- Chinese Muslims forge isolated path
- Islam in China
- Photos of "Islam in China" by Photojournalist Sean Gallagher
- www.muslimwikipedia Islam in China
- The New York times
- Los Angeles Chinese Learning Center
- islamawareness.net
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