Islam during the Yuan dynasty

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During the Yuan dynasty in the 13th century, there was a significant increase in the population of Muslims in China. Under the Mongol Empire, east–west communication and cross-cultural transmission were largely promoted.[1] As a result, foreigners in China were given an elevated status in the hierarchy of the new regime. The impact on China by its Muslims at this time, including the advancement of Chinese science and the designing of Dadu, is vast and largely unknown. It is estimated that the population of the Hui minority grew from 50,000 in the 9th century to 4,000,000 in the 14th century, becoming the largest non-Han ethnic group.[2]

History

Political status of Muslims

Jinan Great Southern Mosque was completed during the reign of Temür (Emperor Chengzong of Yuan).

Unlike the western khanates, emperors of the Yuan dynasty did not convert to Islam. However, they elevated the status of foreigners from West Asia. Peoples such as the Muslim Persians and Arabs from West Asia worked in high-ranking posts instead of native Confucian scholars. These Islamic peoples from various regions were later referred to as the Semu people,[3] meaning "various sorts".

At the same time the Mongols imported Muslims from West Asia to serve as administrators in China, the Mongols also sent Han and Khitans from China to serve as administrators over the Muslim population in Bukhara in Central Asia, using foreigners to curtail the power of the local peoples of both lands.[4]

The territory of the Yuan dynasty was divided into 12 districts during the reign of Kublai (Emperor Shizu) with a governor and vice-governor each. According to the Iranian historian Rashid-al-Din Hamadani, of these 12 governors, 8 were Muslims; in the remaining districts, Muslims were vice-governors.[5]

Over 10,000 Muslim names can be identified in Yuan historical records. The standard word for Muslims in Chinese language documents of the late Yuan period is "Huihui" (回回). The Muslims were overseen by a Huihui named Yeheidie'erding (Amir al-Din) who designed Qionghua island which sits in the lake of Beihai Park in central Beijing.[6] In the fourteenth century, the total population of Muslims in China was 4,000,000.[7]

New communities

The Yuan dynasty saw the formation of Muslim communities in North China and Yunnan. The descendants of these communities who were to merge completely with the local Han population, nevertheless sought down to our own day to preserve their own personality and were to show a marked tendency to autonomy.[8]

Yuan oppression of Muslims

At a later period, Genghis Khan and the succeeding Yuan emperors forbade Islamic practices, such as slaughtering of animals in a “[halal]” manner and Circumcision.[9] Genghis Khan directly referred Muslims and Jews as "slaves", demanding that they should follow the Mongol method of eating rather than the halal method. Jews were also affected, being forbidden to eat Kosher.[10]

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 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.[11]

Rebellion

At the end, corruption and the persecution became so severe that Muslim generals joined the Han people in rebelling against the Yuan dynasty. The Ming founder Zhu Yuanzhang had Muslim generals like Lan Yu who rebelled against the Yuan and defeated them in combat. Some Muslim communities adopted the Chinese name which meant "barracks" and "thanks". Many Hui Muslims claim it is because the Han people played an important role in overthrowing the Yuan dynasty and it was thus named to honor the those who assisted them.[12]

Muslims in the semu class also revolted against the Yuan dynasty in the Ispah Rebellion but the rebellion was crushed and the Muslims were massacred by the Yuan loyalist commander Chen Youding.

During the Ming conquest of Yunnan, Muslim generals Mu Ying and Lan Yu led Muslim troops loyal to the Ming dynasty against Mongol and Muslim troops loyal to the Yuan dynasty.[13][14]

Muslim influences

Science

Muslim scientists were brought to work on calendar making and astronomy. Kublai (Emperor Shizu) brought Iranians to Beijing to construct an observatory and an institution for astronomical studies.[15] Jamal ad-Din, a Persian astronomer, presented Kublai Khan with seven Persian astronomical instruments.[16] The work of Islamic geographers also reached China during the Yuan dynasty and was later used in the Ming dynasty to draw the Western Regions in the Da Ming Hun Yi Tu, the oldest surviving world map from East Asia.

Muslim doctors and Arabic medical texts, particularly in anatomy, pharmacology, and ophthalmology, circulated in China during this time.[17] The Chinese emperor, Kublai Khan, who suffered from alcoholism and gout, accorded high status to doctors. New seeds and formulas from the Middle East stimulated medical practice. The traditional Chinese study of herbs, drugs, and portions came in for renewed interest and publication.[15] One of the medical texts introduced from the Islamic world was Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine, much of which was translated into Chinese and incorporated into the Hui Hui Yao Fang (Prescriptions of the Hui Nationality) under the Kublai-appointed Syrian Nestorian interpreter and scientist Isa Tarjaman.[18][19]

Warfare

The scheme of "Muslim trebuchet" (Huihui Pao) used to breach the walls of Fancheng and Xiangyang

After entering into China proper, the Mongols adopted new artillery and military technologies. Siege engineers, Ismail and Al al-Din were brought to invent the "Muslim trebuchet" (Huihui Pao), which was utilized by Kublai during the Battle of Xiangyang.[20]

Economy

The Yuan dynasty appointed Persian, Arab and Buddhist Uyghur administrators as taxation and finance officers. Muslims worked as grassroots-level corporation officers in China in the early Yuan period but as the Han people bought shares, most corporations acquired mixed membership, or even complete Han ownership.[15]

It was during the Yuan dynasty that the port of Quanzhou flourished, this was in stark contrast to the port of Guangzhou that was sacked. Quanzhou was made famous on account of the accounts of the famous travelers Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo who visited the port. Today a large number of stone inscriptions can be seen at Quanzhou, such as 300 stone inscriptions on tombs, graves and mosques.[citation needed]

Designing Dadu

The Muslim architect Yeheidie'erding (Amir al-Din) incorporated Han architecture into the construction of Dadu (Khanbaliq), the capital of the Yuan dynasty.[21] The construction of the walls of the city began in 1264, while the imperial palace was built from 1274 onwards. The design of Dadu followed the Confucian classic Rites of Zhou, in that the rules of “9 vertical axis, 9 horizontal axis”, “palaces in the front, markets in the rear”, “left ancestral worship, right god worship” were taken into consideration. It was broad in scale, strict in planning and execution, complete in equipment.[22] Dadu officially became the capital of the newly established the Yuan dynasty in the 1270s, though some constructions in the city were not completed until 1293. It lasted until 1368 when Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty and future Hongwu Emperor, sent an army towards the Yuan capital.[23]

The last Yuan emperor fled north to Shangdu and the Ming founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the destruction of Yuan palaces.[23] Dadu was later renamed to Beiping by the Ming in the same year.

The tales of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights), some of which were written in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, feature several stories set in and around China. The "Tale of Qamar al-Zaman and Budur" and "The Story of Prince Sayf al-Muluk" both include Chinese characters or settings.[24]

After the failure of the Ispah Rebellion, a large proportion of the Semu and Muslim population left Quanzhou, leading to the decline of the international seaport and the position of a leading Islamic site in China.

See also

References

  1. ^ Chaffee, John (23 May 2013). Eurasian Influences on Yuan China (2013 ed.). ISEAS Publishing. p. 41. ISBN 9789814459723. Retrieved 24 March 2022.
  2. ^ Chang, Yusif (1988). "The Ming Empire: Patron of Islam in China and Southeast and West Asia". Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 61 (2): 1–44. JSTOR 41493101.
  3. ^ Weatherford, Jack (2004). Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world (1st ed.). New York: Crown. ISBN 0-609-61062-7. OCLC 53045282.
  4. ^ Buell, Paul D. (1979). "Sino-Khitan administration in Mongol Bukhara". Journal of Asian History. 13 (2): 137–8. JSTOR 41930343.
  5. ^ Islam the Straight Path: Islam ... - Google Book Search at books.google.co.uk
  6. ^ Yang Huaizhong, "Yeheidie'erding" (Amir al-Din) in Bai Shouyi, Zhongguo Huihui minzu shi, op. cit., pp.813-818.
  7. ^ Israeli (2002), p. 285
  8. ^ Gernet, Jacques. A History of Chinese Civilization. 2. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-521-49712-4
  9. ^ Michael Dillon (1999). China's Muslim Hui community: migration, settlement and sects. Richmond: Curzon Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-7007-1026-3. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  10. ^ Johan Elverskog (2010). Buddhism and Islam on the Silk Road (illustrated ed.). University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 228. ISBN 978-0-8122-4237-9. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  11. ^ Donald Daniel Leslie (1998). "The Integration of Religious Minorities in China: The Case of Chinese Muslims" (PDF). The Fifty-ninth George Ernest Morrison Lecture in Ethnology. p. 12. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 December 2010. Retrieved 30 November 2010..
  12. ^ Dru C. Gladney (1991). Muslim Chinese: ethnic nationalism in the People's Republic (2, illustrated, reprint ed.). Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University. p. 234. ISBN 978-0-674-59495-1. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  13. ^ Tan Ta Sen, Dasheng Chen (2009). Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. p. 170. ISBN 978-981-230-837-5. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  14. ^ Michael Dillon (1999). China's Muslim Hui community: migration, settlement and sects. Richmond: Curzon Press. p. 34. ISBN 978-0-7007-1026-3. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
  15. ^ a b c Richard Bulliet, Pamela Crossley, Daniel Headrick, Steven Hirsch, Lyman Johnson, and David Northrup. The Earth and Its Peoples. 3. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005. ISBN 0-618-42770-8
  16. ^ Zhu (1946)
  17. ^ Lynn, Aliya Ma (2007). Muslims in China. University of Indianapolis Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-88093-861-7.
  18. ^ Xiaoli, Sun (1997). "Isa Tarjaman". In Helaine Selin (ed.). Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Westen Cultures. Springer. p. 454. ISBN 9780792340669.
  19. ^ Jan Van Alphen, Anthony Aris, Fernand Meyer, Mark De Fraeye (1995). Oriental Medicine. Serindia Publications. p. 201. ISBN 978-0-906026-36-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ C. P. Atwood Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire, p.354
  21. ^ "People's Daily Online The Hui ethnic minority". en.people.cn. Archived from the original on 2013-04-05. Retrieved 2022-09-19.
  22. ^ 《明史纪事本末》、《纲鉴易知录》卷八
  23. ^ a b Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-521-66991-X
  24. ^ Ulrich Marzolph, Richard van Leeuwen, Hassan Wassouf (2004). The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. pp. 521–2. ISBN 978-1-57607-204-2.