Islam has been practiced in China since the 7th century CE.. There are an estimated 25.9 million Muslims in China according to the 2020 National Census, 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 the regions of Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai. Of the People's Republic of China's 55 officially recognized ethnic minorities, ten of these groups are predominantly Sunni Muslim. Shia Muslims are also present in China, particularly among communities with historical and cultural ties to Central Asia and Iran.
History
Many of the traders who used the Silk Road, a series of extensive inland trade routes to East Asia, were Muslim. Apart from goods, they carried with them their culture and beliefs. Islam was one of the religions that spread this way in the 7th to the 10th centuries through war, trade and diplomatic exchanges".Dru C. Gladney wrote
Li Dun J.'s general history textbook "The Ageless Chinese" claims that during the Tang and Song dynasties, Muslims in China worshipped various kinds of "spirits" alongside Allah. One should note that this is a general history textbook that is not specialised in Islamic history in the region and is not considered a primary or secondary source. This explains why he had made this claim as Islam in Tang period was spread by the sahaba (companions) themselves (proven by the presence of their tombs). This claim probably came from Muslims not changing their culture in China and expressing Islam with the use of Confucian terminology.
Tang dynasty
According to Chinese Muslims' traditional accounts, Islam was first introduced to China in 616–18 by the Companions of Muhammad: Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, Wahab ibn Abu Kabcha and another.Dru C. Gladney, Muslim Tombs & Ethnic Folklore-Hui Identity, in The Journal of Asian Studies, California, vol.16, No.3, Aug. 1987, p. 498, p. 498 nt.8.Safi-ur Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri, 2009, Ar-Raheeq al-Makhtum: The Sealed Nectar: Biography of the Noble Prophet, Madinah: Islamic University of Al-Madinah al-Munawwarah, page 72: "The Prophet was entrusted to Halimah...Her husband was Al-Harith bin Abdul Uzza called Abi Kabshah, from the same tribe" 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 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.Maazars in China-www.aulia-e-hind.com/dargah/Intl/Chin 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 the reign of the Rashid Caliph Uthman's reign.Abul-Fazl Ezzati, 1994, The Spread of Islam, Tehran: Ahlul Bayt World Assembly Publications, pp. 300,303, 333. 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 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 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 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.Original from the University of CaliforniaOriginal from Princeton University
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.
Song dynasty
By the time of the Song dynasty, Muslims had come to play 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 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").; Tashi or Dashi is the Chinese rendering of Tazi—the name the Persians used for 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". Around 1250 CE Pu Shougeng, a Muslim foreign trader Pu was one of the wealthiest merchants in Fujian, however after the Song Court collapsed he had his assets confiscated and defected to the Mongols during their conquest of the Song.
Tombs of Imams
On the foothills of Mount Lingshan are the tombs of two of 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 is also a maqam of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq.
Yuan dynasty
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 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, 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 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 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 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.
Ming dynasty
During 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 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, 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 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 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 was built by the Xuande Emperor. Weizhou Grand Mosque, considered as one of the most beautiful, was constructed during the Ming dynasty.