The Annals of Kwangtung thus record the coming of the first Muslims into China:—“At the beginning of the Tʼang dynasty there came to Canton a large number of strangers, from the kingdoms of Annam, Cambodia, Medina and several other countries. These strangers worshipped heaven (i.e. God) and had neither statue, idol nor image in their temples. The kingdom of Medina is close to that of India, and it is in this kingdom that the religion of these strangers, which is different to that of Buddha, originated. They do not eat pork or drink wine, and they regard as unclean the flesh of any animal not killed by themselves. They are nowadays [[295]]called Hui Hui.[3]… Having asked and obtained from the emperor permission to reside in Canton, they built magnificent houses of a style different to that of our country. They were very rich and obeyed a chief chosen by themselves.”[4] Though direct historical evidence is lacking,[5] it is most probable that Islam was first introduced into China by merchants who followed the old-established sea route. But the earliest record we can trust refers to diplomatic relations carried on by land, through Persia. When Yazdagird, the last Sāsānid king of Persia, had perished, his son, Fīrūz, appealed to China for help against the Arab invaders;[6] but the emperor replied that Persia was too far distant for him to send the required troops. But he is said to have despatched an ambassador to the Arab court to plead the cause of the fugitive prince—probably also with instructions to ascertain the extent and power of the new kingdom that had arisen in the West, and the caliph ʻUt͟hmān is said to have sent one of the Arab generals to accompany the Chinese ambassador on his return in 651, and this first Muslim envoy was honourably received by the emperor. In the reign of Walīd (705–715), the famous Arab general, Qutaybah b. Muslim, having been appointed governor of K͟hurāsān, crossed the Oxus and began a series of successful campaigns, in which he successively subjugated Buk͟hārā, Samarqand and other cities, and carried his conquests up to the western frontier of the Chinese empire. In 713 he sent envoys to the emperor, who (according to Arab accounts) dismissed them with valuable presents. A few years later, the Chinese Annals make mention of an ambassador, named Sulaymān, who came from the caliph Hishām in 726 to the Emperor Hsuan Tsung. These diplomatic relations between the Arab and the Chinese empires assumed a new importance at the close of this emperor’s reign, when, driven from his throne by a [[296]]usurper, he abdicated in favour of his son, Su Tsung (A.D. 756). The latter sought the help of the ʻAbbāsid caliph, al-Manṣūr, who responded to this appeal by sending a body of Arab troops, and with their assistance the emperor succeeded in recovering his two capitals, Si-ngan-fu and Ho-nan-fu, from the rebels. At the end of the war, these Arab troops did not return to their own country, but married and settled in China. Various reasons are assigned for this action on their part; one account represents them as having returned to their native land but, being refused permission to remain on the ground that they had been so long in a land where pork was eaten, they went back again to China; according to another account they were prepared to embark for Arabia, at Canton, when they were taunted with having eaten pork during their campaign, and in consequence they refused to return home and run the risk of similar taunts from their own people; when the governor of Canton tried to compel them, they joined with the Arab and Persian merchants, their co-religionists, and pillaged the principal commercial houses in the city; the governor saved himself by taking refuge on the city wall, and was only able to return after he had obtained from the emperor permission for these Arab troops to remain in the country; houses and lands were assigned to them in different cities, where they settled down and intermarried with the women of the country.[7]
The Chinese Muhammadans have a legend that their faith was first preached in China by a maternal uncle of the Prophet, and his reputed tomb at Canton is highly venerated by them. But there is not the slightest historical base for this legend, and it appears to be of late growth.[8] It doubtless arose from a desire to connect the history of the faith in their own land as closely as possible with apostolic times—a fruitful source of legends in countries far removed from the centres of Muslim history.[9] But of the existence of Muslims in China, especially of merchants in the port [[297]]towns, during the Tʼang dynasty there is clear evidence. The Chinese annalist of this period (A.D. 713–742) says that “the barbarians of the West came into the Middle Kingdom in crowds, like a deluge, from a distance of at least 1000 leagues and from more than 100 kingdoms, bringing as tribute their sacred books, which were received and deposited in the hall set apart for translations of sacred and canonical books, in the imperial palace: from this period the religious doctrines of these different countries were thus diffused and openly practised in the empire of Tʼang.”[10] An Arab geographer, writing about the year 851, describes these settlements and the mosques which these merchants were allowed to build for their religious exercises;[11] he states that he knew of no Chinaman having embraced Islam, but as he makes the same remark of the people of India, it may be that he was as ill-informed in the one case as the other.[12]
But there is certainly no distinct evidence of any proselytising activity on the part of the Muslims in China, and indeed very little information about them at all until the period of Mongol conquests, in the thirteenth century. These conquests resulted in a vast immigration of Musalmans of various nationalities, Arabs, Persians, Turks and others into the Chinese empire.[13] Some came as merchants, artisans, soldiers or colonists, others were brought in as prisoners of war. A large number of them settled permanently in the country and developed into a populous and flourishing community, which gradually lost its original racial peculiarities through intermarriage with Chinese women. Several Muhammadans occupied high posts under the Mongol rulers, e.g. ʻAbd al-Raḥmān, who in 1244 was appointed head of the Imperial finances and allowed to farm the taxes imposed upon China,[14] and ʻUmar Shams al-Dīn, commonly known as Sayyid Ajall, a native of Buk͟hārā, to [[298]]whom Qūbīlāy K͟hān, on his accession in 1259, entrusted the management of the Imperial finances; he was subsequently governor of Yunnan, after this province had been conquered and added to the Chinese empire.[15] Sayyid Ajall died in 1270, leaving behind him a reputation as an enlightened and upright administrator; he built Confucian temples as well as mosques in Yunnan city.[16]
The descendants of Sayyid Ajall played a great part in the establishing of Islam in China; it was his grandson who in 1335 obtained from the emperor the recognition of Islam as the “True and Pure Religion”—a name which it has kept to the present day,—and another descendant of Sayyid Ajall was authorised by the emperor in 1420 to build mosques in the capitals, Si-ngan-fu and Nan-kin.[17]
The Chinese historians of the reign of Qūbīlāy K͟hān make it a ground of complaint against this monarch that he did not employ Chinese officials in place of the immigrant Turks and Persians.[18] The exalted position occupied by Sayyid Ajall and the facilities of communication between China and the West established by Mongol conquest, attracted a number of such persons into the north of China, and it was probably as a result of these immigrations that those scattered Muhammadan communities began to be formed, which have grown to large proportions in most of the provinces of China. Marco Polo, who enjoyed the favour of Qūbīlāy K͟hān and lived in China from 1275 to 1292, notes the presence of Muhammadans in various parts of Yunnan.[19] At the beginning of the fourteenth century, all the inhabitants of Talifu, the capital of Yunnan, are said by a contemporary historian to have been Musalmans;[20] and Ibn Baṭūṭah, who visited several coast towns in China towards the middle of the fourteenth century, speaks of the hearty welcome he received from his co-religionists,[21] and reports that “In every town there is a special quarter for the Muslims, inhabited solely by them, where they have their mosques; they are honoured and respected by the Chinese.”[22] [[299]]
Up to this period the Muhammadans appear to have been looked upon as a foreign community in China, but after the expulsion of the Mongol dynasty in the latter part of the fourteenth century they received no fresh addition to their numbers from abroad, in consequence of the policy of isolation which the Chinese government now adopted; and being thus cut off from communication with their co-religionists in other countries, they tended, in most parts of the empire, gradually to become merged into the mass of the native population, through their marriages with Chinese women and their adoption of Chinese habits and manners. The founder of the new Ming dynasty, the emperor Hungwu, extended to them many privileges, and their flourishing condition during the period that this dynasty lasted (1368–1644) is shown by the large number of mosques erected.
The emperors of this dynasty cultivated friendly relations with the Muhammadan princes on their western frontier, and there was a frequent interchange of embassies between them and the Tīmūrid princes. One of these is of interest in the missionary history of Islam, inasmuch as Shāh Ruk͟h Bahādur in 1412 took advantage of the arrival of a Chinese embassy at his court in Samarqand, to include in his answer an invitation to the emperor to embrace Islam. He sent with his envoy, who accompanied the Chinese ambassadors on their return, two letters, the first of which, written in Arabic, was to the following effect:—“In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. There is no god save God: Muḥammad is the Apostle of God. The Apostle of God, Muḥammad (peace be on him!) said: ‘There shall not cease to be in my church a people abiding in the commandments of God; whosoever fails to help them or opposes them, shall never prosper, until the commandment of the Lord cometh.’ When the Most High God purposed to create Adam and his race, he said ‘I was a hidden treasure, but it was my pleasure to become known; I therefore created man that I might be known’; It is manifest from hence that the divine purpose (great is His power and exalted is His word!) in the creation of man was to make Himself known and uplift the banners of right guidance and faith. Wherefore He sent His Apostle with guidance and the religion of truth that it might prevail [[300]]over all other faiths, though the polytheists turn away from it, that he might make known the laws and the ordinances and the observances of what is lawful and unlawful, and He gave him the holy Qurʼān miraculously that thereby he might put to silence the unbelievers and stop their mouths when they discussed and disputed with him, and by His perfect grace and His all-pervading guidance He has caused it to remain even unto the day of judgment. By His power He hath established in all ages and times and in all parts of the world, in east and west, and in China, a mighty monarch, lord of great armies and authority, to administer justice and mercy and spread the wings of peace and security over the heads of men; to enjoin upon them righteousness and warn them against evil and disobedience and lift up among them the banners of the noble religion; and he drives away idolatry and infidelity from among them through belief in the unity of God. The Most High God thus disposeth our hearts by His past mercies and His ensuing grace to strive for the establishing of the laws of pure religion and the continuance of the ordinances of the shining path. He also bids us administer justice to our subjects in all suits and cases in accordance with the religion of the Prophet and the ordinances of the Chosen One, and build mosques and colleges and monasteries and hermitages and places of worship, that the teaching of the sciences and the schools of learning may not cease nor the memorials and injunctions of religion be swept away. Seeing that the continuance of worldly prosperity and dominion, and the permanence of authority and rule depend upon the assistance given to truth and righteousness and the extirpation of the evils caused by idolatry and unbelief from the earth, in the expectation of blessing and reward, we, therefore, hope that your Majesty and the nobles of your realm will agree with us in these matters and join us in strengthening the foundations of the established law.” The other letter, written in Persian, makes a more direct appeal, without the rhetorical embellishments of the Arabic:—“The Most High God, having in the depth of His wisdom and the perfection of His power created Adam (peace be upon him!), made some of his sons prophets and apostles and sent them among men to summon them to the [[301]]truth. To certain of these prophets, such as Abraham, Moses, David and Muḥammad (peace be upon them!) He gave a book and taught a law, and He bade the people of their time follow the law and the religion of each of them. All these apostles invited men to faith in the unity and to the worship of God and forbade the adoration of the sun, moon and stars, of kings and idols; and though each one of these apostles had a separate law, yet they were all agreed in the doctrine of the unity of the Most High God. At length, when the apostolic and prophetic office devolved on the Apostle Muḥammad Muṣṭafạ̄ (the peace and blessing of God be upon him!) all other systems of law were abrogated. He was the apostle and the prophet of the latter age, and it behoves the whole world—lords and kings and ministers, rich and poor, small and great,—to observe his law and forsake all past creeds and laws. This is the true and perfect faith and is called Islam. Some years ago, Chingīz K͟hān took up arms and sent his sons into various countries and kingdoms—Jūjī K͟hān to the confines of Sarāy, Qrim and Dasht Qafchāq, where some monarchs, such as Ūzbek K͟hān, Chānī K͟hān and Urus K͟hān, became Musalmans and observed the law of Muḥammad (peace be upon him!). Hūlāgū K͟hān was set over K͟hurāsān, ʻIrāq and the neighbouring countries, and some of his sons who succeeded him received into their hearts the light of the law of Muḥammad (peace be upon him!), and in like manner became Musalmans, and honoured with the blessedness of Islam passed into the other world, such as the truthful king, G͟hāzān, and Uljāytū Sulṭān and the fortunate king, Abū Saʻīd Bahādur, until my honoured father, Amīr Tīmūr Gūrgān, succeeded to the throne. He too observed the law of Muḥammad (peace be upon him!) in all the countries under his rule, and throughout his reign the followers of the faith of Islam enjoyed complete prosperity. Now that by the goodness and favour of God this Kingdom of K͟hurāsān, ʻIrāq, Mā-warāʼ-al-nahr, etc., has passed into my hands, the administration is carried on throughout the whole kingdom in accordance with the pure law of the Prophet; righteousness is enjoined and wrong forbidden, and the Yarg͟hū and the institutes of Chingīz K͟hān have been abolished. [[302]]Since, then, it is sure and certain that salvation and deliverance in the day of judgment, and sovereignty and felicity in the present world, depend upon true faith and Islam, and the favour of the Most High God, it is incumbent upon us to treat our subjects with justice and equity. I hope that by the bounty and benevolence of God you too will observe the law of Muḥammad, the Apostle of God (peace be upon him!) and strengthen the religion of Islam, so that you may exchange the transitory sovereignty of this world for the sovereignty of the world to come.”[23]
It is not improbable that these letters gave rise to the later legend of one of the Chinese emperors having become a convert to Islam.[24] This legend is referred to, among others, by a Muhammadan merchant, Sayyid ʻAlī Akbar, who spent some years in Peking at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century; he speaks of the large number of Musalmans who had settled in China; in the city of Kenjanfu there were as many as 30,000 Muslim families; they paid no taxes and enjoyed the favour of the emperor, who gave them grants of land; they enjoyed complete toleration for the exercise of their religion, which was favourably viewed by the Chinese, and conversions were freely permitted; in the capital itself there were four great mosques and about ninety more in other provinces of the empire,—all erected at the cost of the emperor.[25]
Up to the establishment of the Manchu dynasty in 1644 there is no record of any Muhammadan uprising, and the followers of Islam appear to have been entirely content with the religious liberty they enjoyed; but difficulties arose soon after the advent of the new ruling power, and an insurrection in the province of Kansu in 1648 was the first occasion on which any Muhammadans rose in arms against the Chinese government, though it was not until the nineteenth century that any such revolt entailed very disastrous consequences, or seriously interrupted the amicable relations that had subsisted from the beginning between the Chinese Muslims [[303]]and their rulers. The official view of the Chinese Government of these relations is set forth in an edict published by the emperor Yung Chen in 1731:—“In every province of the empire, for many centuries past, have been found a large number of Muhammadans who form part of the people whom I regard as my own children just as I do my other subjects. I make no distinction between them and those who do not belong to their religion. I have received from certain officials secret complaints against the Muhammadans on the ground that their religion differs from that of the other Chinese, that they do not speak the same language, and wear a different dress to the rest of the people. They are accused of disobedience, haughtiness, and rebellious feelings, and I have been asked to employ severe measures against them. After examining these complaints and accusations, I have discovered that there is no foundation for them. In fact, the religion followed by the Musalmans is that of their ancestors; it is true their language is not the same as that of the rest of the Chinese, but what a multitude of different dialects there are in China. As to their temples, dress and manner of writing, which differ from those of the other Chinese—these are matters of absolutely no importance. These are mere matters of custom. They bear as good a character as my other subjects, and there is nothing to show that they intend to rebel. It is my wish, therefore, that they should be left in the free exercise of their religion, whose object is to teach men the observance of a moral life, and the fulfilment of social and civil duties. This religion respects the fundamental basis of Government, and what more can be asked for? If then the Muhammadans continue to conduct themselves as good and loyal subjects, my favour will be extended towards them just as much as towards my other children. From among them have come many civil and military officers, who have risen to the very highest ranks. This is the best proof that they have adopted our habits and customs, and have learned to conform themselves to the precepts of our sacred books. They pass their examinations in literature just like every one else, and perform the sacrifices enjoined by law. In a word, they are true members of the great Chinese family and [[304]]endeavour always to fulfil their religious, civil and political duties. When the magistrates have a civil case brought before them, they should not concern themselves with the religion of the litigants. There is but one single law for all my subjects. Those who do good shall be rewarded, and those who do evil shall be punished.”[26]
About thirty years later, his successor, the Emperor Kʼien Lung, showed distinguished marks of his favour towards the Muhammadans by ennobling two Turkī Begs who had materially helped in suppressing a revolt in the north-west and Kāshgar, and building palaces for them in Peking; he also erected a mosque for the use of the Turkī Begs who visited the Imperial court and for the prisoners of war who had been brought to the capital from Kāshgar. Among these prisoners was a beautiful girl who became a favourite concubine of the emperor, and it is stated that for love of her he built this mosque immediately opposite his own palace and erected a pavilion within the palace grounds, from which the concubine could watch her fellow-countrymen at prayer and could join in their devotions. This mosque was built in the years 1763–1764 and contains an inscription in four languages, the Chinese text of which was written by the emperor himself.[27]