Chinese Islamic architecture
Chinese Islamic architecture
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Chinese Islamic architecture

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Chinese Islamic architecture

Chinese Islamic architecture, Sino-Islamic architecture, or Islamic architecture of China are terms used to indicate the architectural tradition and cultural heritage of the Muslim populations in China, both of mainland and outer China, which has existed since the 8th century CE to the present. With the acculturation of the Islamic religion within the predominant Han-Chinese culture, a unique architectural style emerged among Chinese Muslims. It became standard for them to incorporate traditional Chinese and Islamic architectural elements together for mosques, prayer halls, mausoleums, and other buildings.

Islam has been practiced in Chinese society for 1,300 years. Currently, Chinese Muslims are a minority group in China, representing between 0.45% to 1.8% of the total population according to the latest estimates. Although Hui Muslims are the most numerous group, the greatest concentration of Chinese Muslims are located in Northwestern China, mostly in the autonomous region of Xinjiang, which holds a significant Uyghur population. Lesser but significant Chinese Muslim populations reside in the regions of Ningxia, Gansu, and Qinghai. Of China's 55 officially recognized minority peoples, ten groups are predominantly Sunnī Muslim.

The history of Islam in China goes back to the earliest years of Islam. According to Chinese Muslims' traditional legendary accounts, Muslim missionaries reached China through an embassy sent by ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (644–656), the third rāshidūn caliph, in 651 CE, less than twenty years after the death of Muhammad (632 CE). Saʿd ibn Abī Waḳḳāṣ, the maternal uncle and second cousin of Muhammad, was sent with a delegation to meet the Chinese Gaozong Emperor. The construction of Huaisheng Mosque in Guangzhou, the first mosque in the country, is attributed to him.

According to traditional Chinese Muslim legendary accounts, Islam was first introduced to China in 616–618 CE by some of Muhammad's closest companions (ṣaḥāba): Saʿd ibn Abī Waḳḳāṣ, Sayid, Wahb Abu Kabcha, and another one. Wahb Abu Kabcha may have been be a son of al-Ḥārth ibn ʿAbdul al-ʿUzzā (also known as Abu Kabsha). It is reported in other accounts that Wahb Abu Kabcha reached Guangzhou by sea in 629 CE.

While modern historians state that there is no evidence for Waḳḳāṣ himself ever coming to China, they do believe that Muslim diplomats and merchants arrived to Tang China within a few decades from the beginning of the Muslim era. The Tang dynasty's cosmopolitan culture, with its intensive contacts spread across Central Asia and its significant communities of (originally Non-Muslim) Central and West 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.

During and after the Arab Muslim invasion of Transoxiana, the Umayyad Caliphate deposed Ikhshid, king of the Fergana Valley, in 715 CE, and installed a new king on the throne, Alutar. The deposed king fled to Kucha (seat of Anxi Protectorate), and sought Chinese intervention. The Chinese sent 10,000 troops under Zhang Xiaosong to Ferghana. He defeated Alutar and the Arab Muslim occupation forces at Namangan, reinstalling Ikhshid on the throne. Arab sources also report that Qutayba ibn Muslim briefly took Kashgar from China towards 714 CE and withdrew after an agreement, but modern historians entirely dismiss this claim.

The earliest extant religious structures that display features of Chinese Islamic architecture are the Great Mosque of Xi'an, built in 742 (according to an engraving on a stone tablet preserved inside the building), and the Daxuexi Alley Mosque in Xi'an. The latter was built in 705, according to one inscription attributed to the Emperor Jiajing of the Ming dynasty.

Multiple other mosques were established during the Tang, including the Shengyou Mosque in Quanzhou, the Phoenix Mosque in Hangzhou, the Taiyuan Old Mosque in Shanxi, and more. Around 13 mosques were recorded to exist by the late Tang period.

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