China's Early Mosques 0748670416, 9780748670413

Table of contents :
Contents
Figures
Maps
Series Editor’s Foreword
Preface
Chronology of Chinese Dynasties and Selected Reigns
Chronology of Selected Periods of Islamic History
1. Muslims, Mosques and Chinese Architecture Muslims and Other West Asians in China before the Tenth Century
2. China’s Oldest Mosques
3. China’s Other Early Mosques
4. Mongols, Mosques and Mausoleums
5. Xi’an and Nanjing: Great Mosques and Great Ming Patrons
6. Ox Street Mosque and Muslim Worship in or near Beijing
7. China’s Most Important Yuan and Ming Mosques: Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang
8. Mosques and Qubbas in Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai
9. Xinjiang: Architecture of Qing China and Uyghur Central Asia
10. Mosque, Synagogue, Church: Architecture of Monotheism in China
11. Conclusion: the Chinese Mosque in the Twenty-first Century
Select Bibliography
Glossary
Illustration Acknowledgements
Index

Citation preview

E d i n b u r g h S t u d i es i n Is l a m i c A r t S e r i es e d i t o r : r o b e r t h i l l e n b r a n d

China’s Early Mosques Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt

CHINA’S EARLY MOSQUES

Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Art Series Editor: Professor Robert Hillenbrand Advisory Editors: Bernard O’Kane and Jonathan M. Bloom Titles include: Isfahan and its Palaces: Statecraft, Shiism and the Architecture of Conviviality in Early Modern Iran Sussan Babaie Text and Image in Medieval Persian Art Sheila S. Blair The Minaret Jonathan M. Bloom The Wonders of Creation and the Singularities of Painting:   A Study of the Ilkhanid London Qazvıˉnıˉ Stefano Carboni Islamic Chinoiserie: The Art of Mongol Iran Yuka Kadoi The Dome of the Rock and its Ummayad Mosaic Inscriptions Marcus Milwright The Shrines of the Alids in Medieval Syria: Sunnis, Shiis and the Architecture of Coexistence Stephennie Mulder China’s Early Mosques Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt www.euppublishing.com/series/esii

CHINA’S EARLY MOSQUES Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt

Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, 2015, 2018 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ First published in hardback by Edinburgh University Press 2015 Typeset in 10/12 pt Trump Mediaeval by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire, and printed and bound by Printforce A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7486 7041 3 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 3721 9 (paperback) The right of Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). Published with the support of the University of Edinburgh Scholarly Publishing Initiatives Fund.

Contents

List of Figuresvii List of Mapsxvi Series Editor’s Forewordxvii Prefacexviii Chronology of Chinese Dynasties and Selected Reignsxxi Chronology of Selected Periods of Islamic Historyxxiii CHAPTER 1  Muslims, Mosques and Chinese Architecture   Muslims and Other West Asians in China before the   Tenth Century    The Buddhist Model    The Chinese Model    Architectural Requirements of Muslim Worship    Mosque, Masjid, Monastery, Temple    Scholarly and Other Writing about Mosques in China

1 9 14 21 26 29

CHAPTER 2  China’s Oldest Mosques    Quanzhou’s International Community   Shengyousi    Guangzhou’s International Community   Huaishengsi

34 35 38 57 59

CHAPTER 3  China’s Other Early Mosques   Yangzhou   Hangzhou    Other Pre-­fifteenth-­century Mosques

75 75 82 89

1

CHAPTER 4  Mongols, Mosques and Mausoleums   Saidianchi    Muslim Tombs in Yuan China   Yuan Observatories

92 97 99 108

CHAPTER 5 Xi’an and Nanjing: Great Mosques and Great Ming Patrons    Huajuexiangsi, the Great Mosque in Xi’an

119 120

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CHINA’S EARLY MOSQUES

   Jingjuesi in Nanjing    Two Famous Ming Muslims Buried in Nanjing

130 132

CHAPTER 6 Ox Street Mosque and Muslim Worship in or near Beijing    Beijing Dongsi Mosque    Mosques in Tongzhou    Mosques in Dachang Hui Autonomous County

138 142 147 147

CHAPTER 7 China’s Most Important Yuan and Ming Mosques: Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang    Jining To Tianjin    Hebei West of the Grand Canal   Shanxi   Henan   Anhui    Jiangsu and Zhejiang beyond the Four Earliest Mosques

154 154 172 179 188 198 203

CHAPTER 8 Mosques and Qubbas in Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai   Ningxia   Gansu    Mosques near Xining

212 215 224 249

CHAPTER 9 Xinjiang: Architecture of Qing China and Uyghur Central Asia   Xinjiang Islamic Architecture in Context: the Qing   Architectural Enterprise

259 271

CHAPTER 10 Mosque, Synagogue, Church: Architecture of Monotheism in China   Kaifeng Synagogue   Church Architecture

275 275 279

CHAPTER 11 Conclusion: the Chinese Mosque in the Twenty-­first Century

287

Select Bibliography295 Glossary319 Illustration Acknowledgements322 Index325

Figures

1.1 Sasanian glass excavated in tomb of Li Xian 4 1.2 Sasanian plate excavated in tomb of Feng Hetu 5 1.3 Figurine of man with curly hair and high boots, excavated in tomb of Yuan Shao 5 1.4 Swarthy male with large nose and heavy beard 6 1.5 Men of Goguryeo 6 1.6 Examples of dated buildings showing the evolution from stupa to pagoda: 10   (a) Stupa I, Sanci, Madhya Pradesh 10   (b) Gao Yi que, Ya’an 10   (c) Mor Stupa, Kashgar 11   (d) Songyue Monastery Pagoda, Mount Song 12   (e) Pagoda, Bao’en Monastery, Suzhou 12 1.7 Interior of Mogao cave 259 13 1.8 Interior of Tomb of Prince of Liang 13 1.9 Main Hall, Baoguo Monastery, Yuyao 14 1.10 Hall of the Three Purities, Yongle Daoist Monastery, Ruicheng15 1.11 Purple Empyrean Hall, Mount Wudang 15 1.12 Hall of Great Achievement, Confucian Shrine, Qufu 16 1.13 Funerary Hall, Eastern Qing Tombs, Zunhua 16 1.14 Main Hall, Nanchan Monastery, Wutai 16 1.15 Notched timbers excavated at Hemudu 17 1.16 Interior of ‘Beamless Hall’, Linggu Monastery, Nanjing 18 1.17 Timber-­frame residence, Dali 18 1.18 Main Hall, Tangdi Temple, Bo’ai 19 1.19 Zhang Kaiji, Sanlihe Government Complex, Beijing, 1955 21 1.20 Interior of main worship hall, Yonghe Lamasery, Beijing23 1.21 Classroom, Xianhe Mosque, Yangzhou 24 1.22 Domical vault, tomb of Li Cheng Uk, Hong Kong 26 1.23 Centre of ceiling of cliff tomb showing black bird in the sun, Taliangzi tomb 1, Zhongjiang 26

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2.1 Map of Quanzhou showing locations of walls and religious establishments 39 2.2 Text of inscription with date of ah 400 for Shengyousi 39 2.3 Façade of Shengyousi, Quanzhou 40 2.4 Entryway of Shengyousi, Quanzhou 41 2.5 Plan of entryway of Shengyousi, Quanzhou 41 2.6 Façade of Arhai-­Din-­Ka Jhompra Mosque 42 2.7 Shengyousi, c.1953 44 2.8 Plan of Shengyousi 46 2.9 Plinths and bases of columns, interior of Shengyousi 46 2.10 Moon-­viewing platform, Shengyousi, in 1993 48 2.11 Crenellations (merlons) in wood, maqsura, Qayrawan 48 2.12 Seven forms of ceilings, six vaulted, early Chinese arch. 49 2.13 Three ceilings of Main Hall, Baoguo Monastery, Yuyao, 101350 2.14 Detail of north wall of front chamber, Dingjiazha tomb 5, Jiuquan 50 2.15 Entry façade to chaitya hall, Bhaja, Maharashtra 51 2.16 Interior detail, cave 10, Yungang 51 2.17 Trilingual edict for Mir-­i Hajji 53 2.18 Cenotaphs and funerary steles at Muslim cemetery, Quanzhou55 2.19 Gravestone with deities 56 2.20 Gravestone with winged, seated figure 57 2.21 Cenotaphs of Muslims with base ornamentation inspired by Buddhist lotuses 57 2.22 Inscription recording founding of Huaishengsi, Guangzhou60 2.23 Minaret of Huaishengsi, Guangzhou 61 2.24 Interior courtyard of Huaishengsi, Guangzhou 63 2.25 Minaret at Sangbast, Iran 64 2.26 Interior of minaret, Huaishengsi, Guangzhou 65 2.27 Drawing of minaret, Huaishengsi, Guangzhou 65 2.28 White Pagoda, Miaoying Monastery, Beijing 66 2.29 Liaodi Pagoda, Kaiyuan Monastery, Hebei 67 2.30 Sectional drawing of pagoda, Bao’en Monastery, Suzhou67 2.31 Plan of Huaishengsi 68 2.32 Plan of Shanhua Monastery, Datong 69 3.1 Plan of Xianhesi, Yangzhou 77 3.2 Street-­side façade and entry to Xianhesi, Yangzhou 78 3.3 Stonework at foot of exterior entry to Xianhesi, Yangzhou78 3.4 Marble door pillow at foot of interior entry to Xianhesi, Yangzhou79 3.5 Interior courtyard side of worship hall, Xianhesi, Yangzhou79

figures

3.6 Interior courtyard of Xianhesi, Yangzhou 80 3.7 Chengxin Hall, Xianhesi, Yangzhou 80 3.8 Gounds of Muslim cemetery that includes tomb of Buha(o)ding, Yangzhou 82 3.9 Tomb of Buha(o)ding, Yangzhou 82 3.10 Fenghuangsi, Hangzhou, today 84 3.11 Plan of Fenghuangsi, Hangzhou 85 3.12 Aerial view of Fenghuangsi 86 3.13 Mihrab and dome, Fenghuangsi, Hangzhou, 1451 86 3.14 Plan of Phoenix Hall, Byπdπin87 3.15 Cenotaphs of Buhatiya’er and two followers, Hangzhou88 4.1 Plan of tomb of Saidianchi, Yunnan 98 4.2 Mausoleum of Ananda (?), Guyuan 100 4.3 Mausoleum of Ananda (?), showing back and side 101 4.4 Remains behind the mausoleum of Ananda (?) 102 4.5 Three burials, beneath the floor of the mausoleum of Ananda (?) 102 4.6 Ceiling and walls of interior of mausoleum of Ananda (?) 103 4.7 Mausoleum of Tughluq Temür, Huocheng 105 4.8 Tomb of Buyan Quli Khan, Bukhara 106 4.9 Tomb of the Samanids, Bukhara 106 4.10 Pagoda, Xiuding Monastery, Anyang 107 4.11 Mausoleum, Khara-­khoto 108 4.12 Platform for Observing the Heavens, Gaocheng 109 4.13 Diagram of Platform for Observing the Heavens 111 4.14 Plan of observatory in Dadu, Yuan dynasty 114 4.15 Plan of section of Longxing Monastery, Zhengding 115 4.16 Stone dragon relief, Dash Kasan 116 5.1 Plan of Huajuexiangsi, Xi’an 121 5.2 Interior of first courtyard of Huajuexiangsi 122 5.3 Shengxinlou, third courtyard of Huajuexiangsi 123 5.4 Stone gateways, Huajuexiangsi 124 5.5 Yiyizhi (One and Only) Pavilion, Huajuexiangsi 124 5.6 Interior of worship hall, Huajuexiangsi 125 5.7 Plan of Zhihua Monastery, Beijing 126 5.8 Plan of Bao’en Monastery, Pingwu 127 5.9 Plan of Huangcheng Mosque, Chengdu 127 5.10 Painting of Huajuexiangsi 128 5.11 Gateway, Qing imperial tombs, Yi county, Hebei 128 5.12 Yuxiang Pavilion, Temple to the Northern Peak 129 5.13 Courtyard of Mosque, Xi’an 130 5.14 Entry gate, Jingjue Mosque, Nanjing 131 5.15 Plan of Jingjue Mosque, Nanjing 132 5.16 Archway, Jingjue Mosque, Nanjing 133 5.17 Spirit path, tomb of King of Borneo, Nanjing 134

ix

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CHINA’S EARLY MOSQUES

6.1 Cenotaphs, Ox Street Mosque, Beijing 139 6.2 Plan of Ox Street Mosque in the Qing dynasty 140 6.3 Entry and Wangyuelou, Ox Street Mosque 140 6.4 Interior courtyard of Ox Street Mosque 141 6.5 Interior of Ox Street Mosque 142 6.6 Detail of ceiling of porch, Ox Street Mosque 143 6.7 Animals on roof and ceramic tiles with floral decoration, Ox Street Mosque 143 6.8 Interior of worship hall, Dongsi Mosque, Beijing 144 6.9 Interior courtyard of Dongsi Mosque 145 6.10 Remains of marble sculpture, Dongsi Mosque 145 6.11 Detail of relief sculpture, Wutasi, Beijing 146 6.12 Men’s Hall of Ablutions (Washing Room), Tongxian Great Mosque, Tongzhou 148 6.13 Nansitou Mosque, Dachang 149 6.14 Marble door pillow, Nansitou Mosque 149 6.15 Side view, Nansitou Mosque 150 6.16 Xiadiao Mosque from back 151 7.1 Stone paifang (entry gateway), Great East Mosque, Jining157 7.2 Plan of Great East Mosque, Jining 157 7.3 Porch of worship hall, Great East Mosque, Jining 157 7.4  Yaodian and mihrab of cruciform prayer space, Great East Mosque, Jining 158 7.5 Screen wall and two-­storey gate, South Mosque, Jinan 159 7.6 Wangyuelou, South Mosque, Jinan 160 7.7 Pailou at entry to Great North Mosque, Linqing 161 7.8 Porch and entry to worship hall, Great North Mosque, Linqing161 7.9 Spirit path, Tomb of King of Sulu, Dezhou 162 7.10 Funerary mound and stele, Tomb of King of Sulu, Dezhou163 7.11 Back side of front gate, Zhenjiaosi, Qingzhou 164 7.12 Reception hall, Zhenjiaosi, Qingzhou 164 7.13 Stele pavilion with ‘100-­character Homage’, Zhenjiaosi, Qingzhou165 7.14 Front side of front gate, Chengli Mosque, Qingzhou 166 7.15 Entry to prayer hall, Chengli Mosque, Qingzhou 166 7.16 Botou Mosque, Botou 167 7.17 Worship hall, Great North Mosque, Cangzhou 168 7.18 Interior of worship hall, Great North Mosque, Cangzhou169 7.19 One pyramidal and one hexagonal roof over mihrab, Great North Mosque, Cangzhou 169 7.20 Interior of worship hall, Niujinzhuang Mosque, Mengcun170

figures

7.21 Niujinzhuang Mosque showing porch, worship hall, pyramidal roof over yaodian and back hall, Mengcun 171 7.22 View of side halls of first courtyard, Great South Mosque, Tianjin 171 7.23 Plan of Great South Mosque, Tianjin 173 7.24 Prayer hall, Great South Mosque, Tianjin 173 7.25 Entry to West Mosque, Baoding 174 7.26 Prayer hall, West Mosque, Baoding 174 7.27 Open-­mouthed zoomorphic and other roof ornamentation, Dingzhou Mosque, Hebei, Dingzhou 175 7.28 Corner bracket set, exterior of worship hall, Dingzhou Mosque, Dingzhou 176 7.29 Beam, bracket sets, roof purlins and moulding, exterior of worship hall, Dingzhou Mosque, Dingzhou 176 7.30 Open interior supported by four columns, Dingzhou Mosque, Dingzhou 177 7.31 Roof frame of prayer hall, Dingzhou Mosque, Dingzhou 177 7.32 Roof tiles, South Mosque, Xuanhua 178 7.33 Minaret (Shengxinlou), North Mosque, Xuanhua 178 7.34 Stone decoration, North Mosque, Xuanhua 179 7.35 Roof tiles and other roof decoration, North Mosque, Xuanhua179 7.36 Cruciform-­shaped worship hall, North Mosque, Xuanhua181 7.37 Front façade, Datong Mosque, Shanxi, Datong 182 7.38 Detail of worship space, Datong Mosque, Datong 183 7.39 Placard in worship space, Datong Mosque, Datong 183 7.40 Mihrab, Datong Mosque, Datong 184 7.41 Wangyuelou, Datong Mosque, Datong 184 7.42 Lattice ceiling of dome at back of worship space, Datong Mosque, Datong 185 7.43 Back of three-­part worship space of Datong Mosque, Datong185 7.44 Xuguang Pavilion, Pule Monastery, Chengde 186 7.45 Pailou at entry from south to Taiyuan Mosque, Taiyuan186 7.46 Interior of prayer hall, Taiyuan Mosque, Taiyuan 186 7.47 Conjoined roofs, Taiyuan Mosque, Taiyuan 187 7.48 ‘Heavenly palaces’ (tiangong), examples of small-­scale carpentry, Huayan Monastery, Datong 188 7.49 Entry gate, Great North Mosque, Qinyang 189 7.50 Detail of entry gate, Great North Mosque, Qinyang 190 7.51 Plan of Great North Mosque, Qinyang, in 1960s 190 7.52 Back wall showing embedded beams and struts, Great North Mosque, Qinyang 191 7.53 Interior of front section, Great North Mosque, Qinyang 192 7.54 Interior timber frame, Great North Mosque, Qinyang 192

xi

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7.55 Interior showing large open spaces, Great North Mosque, Qinyang 193 7.56 Sky well in back portion of prayer hall, Great North Mosque, Qinyang 194 7.57 Detail of roof above back portion of prayer hall, Great North Mosque, Qinyang 194 7.58 Worship hall, Great East Mosque, Kaifeng 195 7.59 Front façade of worship hall, Zhuxian Mosque, Kaifeng196 7.60 Porch of worship hall, Zhuxian Mosque, Kaifeng 196 7.61 Architectural decoration, worship hall, Zhuxian Mosque, Kaifeng 197 7.62 Architectural decoration, worship hall, Zhuxian Mosque, Kaifeng 197 7.63 Main courtyard, Shouxian Mosque, Shouxian 200 7.64 Interior of prayer hall showing Qing-­period marble pillar base, Shouxian Mosque, Shouxian 201 7.65 Interior of prayer hall, Guannan Mosque, Anqing 201 7.66 Piece of marble balustrade, Guannan Mosque, Anqing 202 7.67 Front of prayer hall with placard, Guannan Mosque, Anqing202 7.68 Placard, Guannan Mosque, Anqing 203 7.69 Entry to West City Mosque, showing welcoming banner, Zhenjiang 204 7.70 Reception hall, West City Mosque, Zhenjiang 204 7.71 Prayer hall (interior), West City Mosque, Zhenjiang 205 7.72 Prayer hall, West City Mosque, Zhenjiang 205 7.73 Prayer hall, Jiaxing Mosque, Jiaxing 206 7.74 Courtyard, Songjiang Mosque, Shanghai 207 7.75 Interior view, Songjiang Mosque, Shanghai 207 7.76 Minaret, Songjiang Mosque, Shanghai 208 7.77 Reception hall, Songjiang Mosque, Shanghai 208 7.78 Prayer hall, Songjiang Mosque, Shanghai 209 7.79 Cemetery, Songjiang Mosque, Shanghai 209 8.1 Entry to Na Family Mosque, Yongning 216 8.2 Side view of worship hall of Na Family Mosque, Yongning217 8.3 Gate-­tower above wall of Pass, Jiayuguan 217 8.4 Interior of worship hall, Na Family Mosque, Yongning 219 8.5 Exterior of worship hall, Tongxin Mosque, Tongxin 220 8.6 Tongxin Mosque, Tongxin 220 8.7 Interior of worship hall showing chuihua and queti (braces), Tongxin Mosque, Tongxin 221 8.8 Upper storeys of minaret showing chuihua and queti, Tongxin Mosque, Tongxin 221 8.9 Ceramic roof tiles, Tongxin Mosque, Tongxin 222

figures

8.10 Back side (courtyard side) of gateway to Ershilipu Gongbei, Ningxia, Guyuan 224 8.11 instructional hall, Ershilipu Gongbei, Guyuan 224 8.12 Mausoleum, Ershilipu Gongbei, Guyuan 225 8.13 Interior of instructional hall, Ershilipu Gongbei, Guyuan225 8.14 Wooden bracket sets and other decorative detail, Ershilipu Gongbei, Guyuan 226 8.15 Interior courtyard, Laowang Mosque, Linxia 228 8.16 Detail of minaret, Laowang Mosque, Linxia 228 8.17 Laohua Mosque, Linxia 229 8.18 Screen wall, Linxia 229 8.19 Front façade, Nanguan Great Mosque, Linxia 230 8.20 Village in Dongxiang in 2013 231 8.21 View from mountain road in Dongxiang 232 8.22 View from mountain road in Dongxiang 232 8.23 Suonan Great Mosque, Dongxiang 233 8.24 Entrance gate and minaret, Pingzhuang Mosque, Dongxiang233 8.25 Main courtyard, Beizhuang Gongbei, Dongxiang 234 8.26 Ceremonial Gateway, Beizhuang Gongbei, Dongxiang 234 8.27 Relief sculpture of Beizhuang Gongbei, Dongxiang 235 8.28 Detail of entry gateway, Beizhuang Gongbei, Dongxiang 235 8.29 Detail of relief sculpture, Yihachi Gongbei, Dongxiang 236 8.30 Detail of relief sculpture showing Qur’an incense sticks, Yihachi Gongbei, Dongxiang 237 8.31 Incense burner, Yihachi Gongbei, Dongxiang 237 8.32 Rendering of gongbei in Baoning prefecture, Sichuan, Yihachi Gongbei, Dongxiang 238 8.33 View to prayer hall, Beiguan Mosque, Tianshui 239 8.34 Entry to Nanguan Mosque, Tianshui 239 8.35 Side hall, Nanguan Mosque, Tianshui 240 8.36 Main courtyard, Da Gongbei (Great Qubba), Linxia 241 8.37 View from main courtyard showing mausoleum, Da Gongbei, Linxia 242 8.38 Detail of building, Da Gongbei, Linxia 242 8.39 Guo Gongbei, Linxia 243 8.40 Huasi Gongbei, Linxia 244 8.41 Interior of burial chamber of Huasi Gongbei, Linxia 244 8.42 Bijiachang Gongbei, Linxia 245 8.43 Courtyard of Bijianchang Gongbei, Linxia 245 8.44 Lao (Beichengjiao/Yu(shu) baba) Gongbei, Linxia 246 8.45 Ceremonial gateway entrance to courtyard of Lao Gongbei, Linxia 247 8.46 Moon gate decorated with grapes and vines, Lao Gongbei, Linxia 247

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8.47 Relief sculpture insets of interior wall, courtyard of Lao Gongbei, Linxia 248 8.48 Five-­entry gate and minarets, Dongguan Great Mosque, Xining 250 8.49 Yang Tingbao, Stadium, Nanjing 1931 250 8.50 Dongguan Great Mosque, Xining today 251 8.51 Bracket sets on Shanmen (gateway), Kumbum Lamasery (Ta’ersi), Xining 251 8.52 Bracket sets, minaret, Hongshuiquan Mosque, Huangzhong252 8.53 Zaojing in worship hall, Hongshuiquan Mosque 252 8.54 Minaret, Hongshuiquan Mosque, Huangzhong 253 8.55 Third building, Qutansi, Ledu 253 8.56 Interior of worship hall, Hongshuiquan Mosque, Huangzhong254 8.57 Detail of interior of worship hall, Hongshuiquan Mosque, Huangzhong 254 8.58 Mihrab, Hongshuiquan Mosque, Huangzhong 255 8.59 Recently replaced pieces of worship hall, Hongshuiquan Mosque, Huangzhong 255 8.60 Qingshui Mosque, Xunhua Salar Autonomous County 256 9.1 Mausoleum of King Boxi’er, Hami 262 9.2 Interior of mausoleum of King Boxi’er, Hami 262 9.3 Sugong (Emin) Minaret and Mosque, Turfan 263 9.4 Jiaman Mosque (Great Mosque), Kuche 264 9.5 Interior of Prayer Hall, Jiaman Mosque (Great Mosque), Kuche 265 9.6 Interior courtyard of Molana’eshiding Mazha, Kuche 265 9.7 Hui Mosque, Yining 266 9.8 Great Mosque, Shache 268 9.9 ‘Idgah Mosque, Kashgar 269 9.10 Aba Khoja Mausoleum, Kashgar 270 10.1 Drawing of synagogue in Kaifeng, 1722 277 10.2 Drawing of interior of worship hall of synagogue in Kaifeng, 1722 278 10.3 Hand-­washing basin, Kaifeng synagogue 279 10.4 Church of the Holy Redeemer, Xicheng district, Beijing280 10.5 Painting of Madonna and Child in dress of Ming court, Church of the Holy Redeemer, Beijing 281 10.6 Painting of Madonna and Child in dress of Qing court, Church of the Holy Redeemer, Beijing 281 10.7 Church of Dali, Dali 282 10.8 Front porch, Church of Dali, Dali 282 10.9 Church of St Paul, Malacca 284 10.10 Front façade, Cathedral of St Paul, Macao 285 10.11 Text of Stele of Father Jean-­François Gerbillon 285

figures

11.1 Great Mosque, Taipei 288 11.2 Kowloon Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre, Kowloon288 11.3 Detail of lintel, Kampung Kling Mosque, Malacca 288 11.4 Xiguan Mosque, Yinchuan 290 11.5 Wuxi Mosque, Jiangsu 290 11.6 Pudong Mosque, Shanghai 291 11.7 Great Mosque, Hohhot 291 11.8 Muslim Cultural Centre, Hohhot 292 11.9 Shakyamuni Hall, Dabei Chan Monastery, Tianjin 292 11.10  Longshan (Daoist) Temple, Taipei 293

xv

Maps

1.1 Locations of Chinese provinces, autonomous regions, capitals and major cities 2.1 Map of China’s south-­eastern coastal cities and the Grand Canal (with cut-­out of area of map superimposed area on Map 1.1) 4.1 Map of Mongolian Empire 7.1 Locations of old mosques in Shandong and Hebei 7.2 Locations of mosques in Shanxi and Henan 7.3 Locations of mosques in Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang 8.1 Locations of mosques in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Gansu and Qinghai 9.1 Locations of mosques and mausoleums in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

2 36 94 155 180 199 213 261

Series Editor’s Foreword

‘Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Art’ is a new venture that offers readers easy access to the most up-­ to-­ date research across the whole range of Islamic art. Building on the long and distinguished tradition of Edinburgh University Press in publishing books on the Islamic world, it is intended to be a forum for studies that, while closely focused, also open wide horizons. Books in the series will, for example, concentrate in an accessible way on the art of a single century, dynasty or geographical area; on the meaning of works of art; on a given medium in a restricted time frame; or on analyses of key works in their wider contexts. A balance will be maintained as far as possible between successive titles, so that various parts of the Islamic world and various media and approaches are represented. Books in the series are academic monographs of intellectual distinction that mark a significant advance in the field. While they are naturally aimed at an advanced and graduate academic audience, a complementary target readership is the worldwide community of specialists in Islamic art – professionals who work in universities, research institutes, auction houses and museums – as well as that elusive character, the interested general reader. Professor Robert Hillenbrand

Preface

The first mosque I entered was in Taipei in 1976. In Taiwan to study both Chinese language and Chinese architecture, I was totally taken by surprise one October afternoon when I turned onto section two of Xinsheng South Road and saw a tile and concrete building with two minarets. I was particularly struck by the contrast between the tile structure in front of me and the Confucian Temple where just ten days earlier I had watched the celebration of the sage’s 2527th birthday. Ceremony as well as wooden construction rendered the courtyards that comprised the Confucian complex a perfect fit anywhere in China. The street front presence of the mosque thus made as strong an impression on me as the building materials. Even a few weeks in East Asia were sufficient to know that a Chinese building should always have a gate in front of it and almost never is visible from the street. Within the next few years, China opened to students and ­researchers like myself and simultaneously new survey books of China’s greatest buildings began to appear. Both events followed more than forty years of international warfare, internal political struggle, changing allegiances and few opportunities for foreign researchers. Comparisons of surveys of Chinese architectural history of the 1930s and 1940s with those of the 1980s were striking. The core buildings of imperial China – palaces, tombs, altars, temples, and garden pavilions – were the same in all the books, but in the 1980s, ethnic construction, products of the groups referred to by the Chinese government as minority nationalities, were incorporated into the newly emerging architectural canon. Regional Buddhist and vernacular construction of Tibet, Mongolia, and parts of China that bordered Korea, Vietnam, Burma and the then Soviet Republics of Central Asia were represented in the books. Also included were at least two and sometimes as many as four mosques, in Guangzhou (Canton), Quanzhou (Zayton), Beijing, and Xi’an. What exactly China is, where her borders are, and what the criteria for a Chinese building might be are dynamic questions with changing answers. These four mosques and approximately 100 others that contain buildings two provinces datable before 1900 are located in China’s twenty-­

preface

as well as in autonomous regions, but all are in territory that was part of the Chinese empires of Qin, Han, Tang, Song and Ming, or empires such as Yuan and Qing whose rulers were not Chinese. I crossed Asia on my way home from Taiwan in 1977 and was able to study mosque architecture in India, Iran and Turkey. Since then I have seen and studied many more mosques, including the approximately seventy in China that are discussed in the pages that follow, and I have seen many times more than that number of religious and secular buildings in East Asia. The pre-­modern Chinese mosques are different in materials and decoration from the mosque in Taipei. Yet the juxtaposition of mosque and Confucian temple that October day formulated questions that I am finally addressing here. The underlying question is how architecture of a monotheistic, aniconic religion came into existence in China and maintained a presence amid Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian and imperial monuments in the cities and countryside for nearly 1400 years. I first addressed this question in 2006 when I talked about Chinese mosques in a panel on cultural convergence in mosque architecture at the annual meeting of the College Art Association. Research for that talk and a subsequent article informed me that even though extant pre-­modern mosques had found their way into general histories of Chinese architecture, literature on the subject was confined to a handful of heavily illustrated monographs, sections of chapters on architecture of Chinese minority populations and several largely descriptive articles. At that time, I had seen only the four famous mosques mentioned above. I subsequently began a more systematic attempt to see mosques in China, to pick up pamphlets, short handbooks and other materials that would not normally make their way out of China, and to talk about Chinese mosques publicly and with colleagues as the occasions arose. Numerous lectures in North America and China followed, as did helpful and insightful discussions and correspondence with (in alphabetical order): Christopher Atwood, Zvi ben-­Dor Benite, Sheila Blair, Jonathan Bloom, Michael Brose, John Chaffee, Hugh Clark, Nicola Di Cosmo, Dong Wei, Leopold Eisenlohr, F. Barry Flood, Dru Gladney, the late Oleg Grabar, Nile Green, Robert Hillenbrand, Renata Holod, Hasan-­Udin Khan, Jonathan Lipman, Joseph Lowry, Susan Naquin, Gülru Necipo©lu, Bernard O’Kane, Kristian Petersen, Nasser Rabbat, Morris Rossabi, David Roxburgh, Chana Shapiro and Charles Steinhardt. I could not have written this book or seen so many mosques discussed in it without support during the academic year ­2012–13. A Dean’s Fellowship from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts and Sciences, gave me a semester to do focused research and writing. A Senior Scholar Research Fellowship from the Chiang Ching-­kuo Foundation brought me to Harvard where the ­Sino-­Islamic Seminar, a successor to a seminar founded by the late Joseph Fletcher, whose teaching and research had inspired me to

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attempt Sino-­Islamic topics as a graduate student, introduced me to researchers in the field and raised questions that I have tried to answer here. The Max Van Berchem Foundation supported my research in China during the summer of 2013. The extraordinary research trip included more than fifty mosques and mausoleums across the Central Plain, in North China, in Inner Mongolia and in Muslim autonomous regions and counties in eastern and western China. A casual conversation with Sheila Blair at Boston College in April of 2013 brought the expertise of the Islamic architectural field to this book: Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom travelled with me for two weeks that summer. Noticing what my eyes so familiar with Chinese architecture would have missed, and speaking Persian and Arabic when Chinese alone would not have gained one access, we entered prayer halls, photographed, heard anecdotes from imams, and then discussed through thousands of kilometers of all variety of roads so much that influenced the book that follows. I am truly grateful to everyone mentioned above for discussions, explanations, and confidence in this project, but to Sheila and Jonathan in addition for their enthusiasm, camaraderie, patience and persistence en route, and for their copious reading of a manuscript that otherwise would have gone to press with many misconceptions and mistakes. My husband Paul and daughter Cindy were with me in 2011 when I studied mosques along China’s southeastern coast from Guangzhou to Shanghai. I thank them and my three sons for willingness so many times to visit the un-­trafficked and obscure in China when they would surely have preferred spending their time in Beijing, Xi’an or Shanghai; and for their spirited conversations and activities that inspire me everyday. From the first inquiries about a book on Chinese mosques until the day it went to press, Robert Hillenbrand has supported and shepherded this book. I thank him for three years of correspondence, careful reading of drafts and insightful comments. At Edinburgh University Press I thank commissioning editor Nicola Ramsey for crucial care of this manuscript, particularly at early and late stages; assistant editor Ellie Bush for her interest and willingness to make sure so many aspects and details of this book were accomplished with care; and desk editor Eddie Clark for his attention to every aspect of maps, illustrations and layout. I also thank copy-­editor Lel Gillingwater for her diligence and care for the most minute details. Finally, at Penn I owe endless gratitude to Constance Mood and Christal Springer, both in Visual Resources, and graduate student Sijie Ren for helping me prepare illustrations so that they could be sent to Edinburgh.

Chronology of Chinese Dynasties and Selected Reigns c.2070–1600 bce Xia Dynasty c.1600–1946 bce Shang Dynasty 1046–221 bce Zhou Dynasty Western Zhou 1046–770 bce Eastern Zhou 77–221 bce Spring and Autumn Period 770–476   bce Warring States Period 475–221 bce 221–207 bce Qin Dynasty 206 bce – 220 ce Han Dynasty Western Han 206 bce – 9 ce Xin Dynasty (Wang Mang Interregnum) 9–23 Eastern Han 25–220 220–80 Three Kingdoms Wei 220–65 Shu 221–63 Wu 222–80 265–420 Jin Dynasty (the Western and Eastern  Jin dynasties together with the Southern Dynasties are referred to as the Six Dynasties) Western Jin 281–316 Eastern Jin 317–420 304–439 Sixteen Kingdoms 386–581 Northern Dynasties Northern Wei 386–534 Eastern Wei 534–50 Western Wei 535–57 Northern Qi 550–77 Northern Zhou 557–81 420–589 Southern Dynasties Liu-­Song 420–79 Southern Qi 479–502 Liang 502–57 Chen 557–89

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581–618 Sui Dynasty 618–907 Tang Dynasty Taizong (r. 626–49) Xuanzong (r. 712–56) 907–79 Five Dynasties Later Liang 907–23 Later Tang 923–36 Later Jin 936–47 Later Han 947–50 Later Zhou 951–60 902–79 Ten Kingdoms Wu 902–37 Wu-­Yue 902–78 Nanping or Jingnan 907–24 Shu 907–25 Southern Han 907–71 Min 909–45 Chu 927–51 Later Shu 935–65 Southern Tang 937–78 Northern Han 951–79 907–1125 Liao Dynasty 960–1279 Song Dynasty Northern Song 960–1127 Southern Song 1127–1279 1038–1227 Xi Xia Dynasty 1115–1234 Jin Dynasty 1271–1368 Yuan Dynasty Khubilai Khan (r. 1260–94) 1368–1644 Ming Dynasty Hongwu (r. 1368–98) Yongle (r. 1402–24) Jiajing (r. 1521–67) Wanli (r. 1572–1620) 1644–1911 Qing Dynasty Kangxi (r. 1662–1722) Qianlong (r. 1736–96) Jiaqing (r. 1796–1820) Xianfeng (r. 1851–61) Tongzhi (r. 1862–75) Guangxu (r. 1875–1908)

Chronology of Selected Periods of Islamic History 661–750 Umayyad From Spain to Central Asia, including Syria, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, North Africa, Transoxiana Continues in Spain from 756–1031 750–1258 ‘Abbasid Centred in Iraq through this period Shorter duration in Egypt, Syria, Iran, Transoxiana, North Africa 868–905 Tulunid Egypt and Syria 874–1001 Samanid Transoxiana, Afghanistan, Eastern Iran 932–1055 Buyid Iraq, Western Iran 909–1171 Fatimid Egypt, North Africa, shorter duration Syria 977–1186 Ghaznavid Transoxiana, Afghanistan, India 1038–1194 Saljuq Transoxiana, Anatolia, Iran, Iraq, Syria 1150–1231 Khwarazmshah Transoxiana, India 1171–1341 Ayyubid Egypt, Syria 1258–1335 Il-­Khanid Iran, Iraq 1250–1517 Mamluk Egypt, Syria

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1206–1526 Delhi Sultanates North India 1370–1501 Timurid Iran, Transoxiana 1501–1732 Safavid Iran 1526–1857 Mughal North India 1281–1924 Ottoman Anatolia/Turkey

CHAPTER ONE

Muslims, Mosques and Chinese Architecture Architecture of the Muslim faith stands in every province and autonomous region of China. In 2010 China’s 23,308,000 Muslims, approximately 1.8 per cent of the Chinese population and 1.4 per cent of Muslims worldwide, were served by more than 30,000 mosques.1 Muslims are identified in China’s censuses and demographic analyses: among the fifty-­ six minzu (nationalities) recognised by the Chinese government, fifty-­five are non-­Han (non-­ native Chinese) populations and ten of those fifty-­ five comprise primarily Muslims.2 Historically the largest Muslim population has been the Hui, a name derived from the character hui that since the fourteenth century has been translated as ‘Muslim’. Today Hui number more than ten million. Hui live across China, particularly in the north, but in areas of south China as well. They are the major Muslim minzu in every part of China except Xinjiang and certain regions that border it (Map 1.1). Chinese Muslims who do not have roots in the other nine Muslim nationalities are de facto labelled Hui. Most of the approximately 100 Chinese mosques that bear evidence of the nearly 1400-­year presence of Islam in China, hereafter referred to as old mosques, are associated with the Hui. The more than ten million Uyghurs are the second major Muslim minzu in China. Uyghurs spread across Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region from Kashgar in the west to Turfan in the east, a territory sometimes known as Chinese Central Asia and in earlier times as Chinese Turkestan. Sharing its border with Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region, Gansu, Qinghai and Tibet, Xinjiang has approximately eleven million Muslims, more than any other province or autonomous region of China; in 2013 10,019,758 of them were Uyghur.3 Kazak, Kirghiz, Tajik, Tartar, Uzbek, Dongxiang, Sala and Bao’an are the other eight primarily Muslim minzu. Muslims and Other West Asians in China before the Tenth Century Foreigners from western lands came to China in the Han dynasty (206 bce–220 ce; interregnum 9–23 ce). Ambassadors brought gifts

2

CHINA’S EARLY MOSQUES

R

K

A

Z

A

K

H

S

T

A

U

S

S

I

A

N

M

O KY

UZBEKISTAN Samarkand/ Afrasiab

TA J

IK

IS

RG

YZST

N

Ürümqi

AN Turfan

TA

Kashgar

X

I

N

J

I

A

N

G

N

Loulan

Dunhuang

A F G H A N I S TA N Miran Niya

P A K I S T A N

Q

X (

I T

Z I

A B

N E

D

I

A

G

H

A

I

) Lhasa

E

N

N

G T

N I

I

P

A

L

B H U TA N Jiankang

I N D I A Dali

BANGLADESH

Y U N N A N

M Y A N M A R 0

500

1000 kilometres THAILAND

Map 1.1 Locations of Chinese provinces, autonomous regions, capitals and major cities.

3

MUSLIMS, MOSQUES AND CHINESE ARCHITECTURE R

U

S

S

I

A

U

H E I L O N G J I A N G

G A

)

Harbin

N E

M M

O

O G L

I

A

I

L

O

G

Changchun

G

J I L I N

N

Shenyang

R

N

(

L I A O N I N G

I E N E N Hohhot I

Chengde Zunhua

BEIJING

Beijing Yungang Datong/Pingcheng Fangshan

XIA

N S

ng

Jinan Qufu

Luoyang Ruicheng Xi’an Chang’an

Longmen

Kaifeng Zhengzhou

HENAN

SHAANXI

Wudangshan

I

NG

Yang HUB E I zi R Wuhan ive r

an

dC

an

al

JIANGSU Yangzhou Nanjing Hefei

Hangzhou

SHANGHAI Yuyao

ZH EJ IAN G

O

Dazu Chongqing C H

Zhenjiang Shanghai

ANHUI

N

G

Q

Chengdu

SOUTH KOREA

SHANDONG

SHANXI

Gr

U

Lanzhou

SICHUAN

Tianjin

Shijiazhuang

Taiyuan r Yellow Riv e

A

J A PA N

TIANJIN

HEBEI

Yinchuan

NING

G

NORTH KOREA

Changsha H U N A N

Nanchang

JI ANG X I Fuzhou

GUIZHO U

FU J IAN

Guiyang

Quanzhou

Taipei

TA I W A N Q U A N G X I

GUANGDONG Guangzhou

Shenzhen

Nanning

Hong Kong Macau

V

IE TNA

Haikou

M

LAOS

HAINAN

PHILIPPINES

4

CHINA’S EARLY MOSQUES

Figure 1.1  Sasanian glass, height 8 cm, diameter of mouth 9.5 cm, excavated in tomb of Li Xian (d. 569), Guyuan, Ningxia.

and merchants carried spices, glass and metal vessels. The land route from the Mediterranean to China took about two years, and only rarely, if at all, did someone from Rome reach China or did a Chinese reach Rome.4 Often merchants travelled part of the route, passing on and receiving goods from those more familiar with other portions of it. The Parthians, who spread east and west of the Caspian Sea and as far south as the Persian Gulf, were among the important middlemen in Eurasian trade during the Han period.5 Sea routes also were open during the Han dynasty. China’s official histories record both foreign envoys in China and information about lands and people from the West. The confirmed record begins when Han emperor Wudi (r. 141–87 bce) sent Zhang Qian (d. c. 113 bce) on a westward mission that lasted more than ten years in the 130s and 120s. The journey is recorded in Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian), Hanshu (Standard History of the Han dynasty), and other sources.6 Gan Ying of China reached Parthia on a mission whose destination was Rome and that began in 97 ce.7 Even if written records are exaggerated or not verifiable, material evidence of trans-­ Asian trade and gifting along the Silk Roads from as far west as Rome and as far east as the Han capital Luoyang in Henan province is increasingly rich and extensive. Roman glass, Persian metalwork and coins of the known world have been uncovered in tombs of the Han and subsequent eight centuries (Figures 1.1 and 1.2).8 Chinese official records generically label peoples from beyond China’s borders as Hu. Hu are afforded their own sections in the standard histories, with subsections for specific groups among the Hu. Although historically ‘barbarians’ has been the unfortunate word choice for a translation of the character hu, Hu have come in and out of China, worked there, worshipped there and sometimes settled there since the early centuries of the Common Era.9 That they were designated by such a strong term perhaps is best

muslims, mosques and chinese architecture

Figure 1.2  Sasanian plate, silver, diameter 18 cm, excavated in tomb of Feng Hetu, Datong, Shanxi, 504.

Figure 1.3  Figurine of man with curly hair and high boots, height 9.6 cm, painted pottery, excavated in tomb of Yuan Shao, Luoyang, Northern Wei, early sixth century.

understood as a statement that foreigners stood out among the Chinese population. Painters and sculptors captured the physical features and clothing of people who passed through or resided in China’s cities. The figurine of a Westerner found in the tomb of Yuan Shao (d. 559), a descendant of royalty, in Luoyang, wears high leather boots and has curly hair (Figure 1.3). A man with black hair, a heavy beard and eyebrows, a large nose and wide eyes painted on the wall of a tomb in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, in 577, may be from as far west of China as Persia (Figure 1.4). Transmigration across the

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Figure 1.4  Swarthy male with large nose and heavy beard, identified by excavators as Hu. East wall, tomb of Xu Xianxiu (d. 571), Taiyuan.

Figure 1.5  Men of Goguryeo. Detail of mural of ambassadors to the Sogdians, west wall, palace, Afrasiab, circa 650–75.

Asian continent probably brought images of peoples from the known world further than they had actually travelled. No written document confirms the presence of men of Goguryeo, the northernmost of the kingdoms of Korea’s Three Kingdom’s period (c. 57–668), in Samarkand. Yet they appear in a mid-­seventh-­century mural in a palace in Afrasiab (today Samarkand, Uzbekistan) whose subject has been interpreted as ambassadors of the world bringing gifts to the Sogdian king (Figure 1.5).10 Persia under Sasanian rule (224–651) was well known in China. Weishu (Standard History of Wei), compiled by Wei Shou (506–72) for the years 386–550, informs us:

muslims, mosques and chinese architecture

the capital of the country of Bosi (Persia) is the walled city of Suli (Ctesiphon) . . . 24, 228 li (about 12,114 km) from Taiyuan [a capital of the Northern Qi dynasty (550–77) in Shanxi province and the location of the mural in Figure 1.4] . . . [The] city has an area of ten sq li . . . and more than 100,000 households . . . The land is flat and produces gold, silver, zinc ore, coral, amber, cornelian, agate, large pearls, glass, opaque glass, rock-­crystal, emeralds, diamonds, red beads, steel, copper, tin, cinnabar, mercury, gold brocade, cotton cloth, felt, woolen rugs, red roebuck, hides, frankincense . . . black pepper, long pepper, crystallised honey, edible dates . . . The climate is hot and sultry and the people keep ice in their houses. The land abounds in sand and rocks . . . The king has . . . ten more or lesser camps like the detached palaces in China . . . Every year in the fourth [lunar] month he goes on a tour . . . Elephants are used in combat . . . The sixth month is taken to be the beginning of the year . . .11 Another record comes from the Buddhist monk Xuanzang (602–64). Born near Luoyang and a student in Chang’an (today Xi’an), both capitals of the Tang dynasty (618–907), the monk journeyed west from Chang’an to the sources of Buddhism in India in 629.12 Sixteen years later he returned to Chang’an with a detailed account of Buddhist monuments of Xinjiang, India, and places in between, including Afghanistan. Xuanzang was not in Persia, but he writes about it. He describes Ctesiphon as Persia’s chief city with a circumference of about 20 km and Persia as a country of fine horses and camels, a producer of gold, silver, copper, rock-­crystal, rare pearls and special treasures, and with craftsmen who weave brocade silk, wool and carpets and use large silver coins. The Chinese monk also notes the practice of Zoroastrianism.13 The Sasanian court sent at least seventeen embassies to China between 455 and 616/17. Some came to Jiankang, today Nanjing, capital of south-­ eastern China at the time, and some went to Luoyang. In 638/9 and again in 647/8, Yazdegerd III (590–651) requested help from China against the Arabs and other enemies. His son Peroz III made similar requests in the 650s and in 661. Neither the Chinese emperor Gaozong (r. 649–83) nor his father offered military help, but from about 671–8 Peroz was given safe passage and asylum in Chang’an. In 708, Peroz’s son Narseh arrived in the Chinese capital.14 Zoroastrian temples were built in Chang’an at this time when thousands of Persians may have accompanied their fallen rulers eastward.15 The religious transformation in Persia is noted by Hyecho (704–787), a Korean trained as a Buddhist monk in China who travelled west to India, Persia and other places. He writes that ­ the country had been ‘swallowed up by Arabs’ who worship Tian (Allah).16

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It was around this time that the first Muslims came to China. According to tradition, an envoy from the region called Dashiguo (usually translated ‘Arab lands’) in Chinese paid his respects to Emperor Gaozong of the Tang dynasty in the capital city Chang’an in 651.17 Muslims are assumed to have been among the men in thirty-­five embassies that came from Arabia to China between 651 and 798.18 By the ninth and tenth centuries, Arabic histories describe China. The chronicle ‘Akhbar al-­Sin wa’l-­Hind (Notes on China and India) of 851 offers details about Chinese food, city life, marriage, the legal system, education, the use of steles and burial, and makes the explicit statement that architecture is made of wood.19 Muslims who entered China in the seventh century were ambassadors or merchants. They would have been as noticeable on the streets of Chang’an as the men in Figures 1.3 and 1.4, but there is no reason to believe they had aspirations to proselytise. Nor is it clear that conversion was on the agenda of the Zoroastrians, Manichaeans or Church of the East (Nestorian) Christians practising their faiths in China before the arrival of Islam. Before major religious persecutions by the Chinese emperor during the years 844–5 (known as the Huichang persecutions), the capital Chang’an had six religious institutions of Zoroastrianism, an unspecified number for Manichaeism, one or two for Nestorians20 and hundreds of Buddhist and Daoist monasteries.21 The best record of a mosque in the Tang capital is a line on a placard at the mosque today known as Daxuexixiang Mosque in a Muslim neighborhood of Xi’an that implies imperial sanction for the building between 705 and 710.22 However, no structure at the mosque dates earlier than the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Reliable records about mosques anywhere in Tang China are scarce. Legend recounts a mosque in the city of Kaifeng either in 628 or in 74223 and an inscription records a date of 627 for the founding of a mosque in Guangzhou, discussed below. The early dates, so soon after the hijra, Muhammad’s flight from Makkah (hereafter Mecca) to Madina (hereafter Medina) in 622, are almost impossibly early, and even 742 is unlikely. Kaifeng did not become a significant city in China until the tenth century. The presence of an international population in a country’s large cities does not guarantee either that they will worship in the manners of their homelands or that the religious institutions of their homelands will find places in the foreign land. Solid evidence confirms that Muslims settled in China after the Tang dynasty, and that they built mosques, Muslim cemeteries and educational institutions. It may be inferred that Muslims in Tang Chang’an worshipped in residential spaces, following a practice established by Muhammad in the initial decade of Islam. It might also be inferred that the Muslim population in the Tang capital was more temporary than settled, the envoys and merchants staying only long enough to gather what they

muslims, mosques and chinese architecture

needed to report or sell back home, so that whatever worship spaces they used were not as noteworthy as those of Zoroastrians who had emigrated to China after the Muslims conquered Persia, or those of Manichaeans or Christians who also came to settle. The huge international population in Chang’an and extensive records of activities in the 108 city wards suggest both that there would not have been restrictions on mosque construction, and that if a recognisable mosque had existed, it would have been known. The most convincing reason that a mosque might not have existed in Chang’an in Tang times may be transportation: the ­ majority of Muslims came to China by boat. Travel to Chang’an from the west was almost exclusively by land along the old Silk Roads. Sea routes circled southern India, with ships arriving at port cities along China’s south-­eastern and eastern coasts from Guangzhou to Yangzhou. This route is sometimes referred to as the Silk Road of the Sea.24 Entry into China’s ports for mercantile purposes became even more frequent after the fall of the Tang dynasty, when land travel across Central Asia became more dangerous. Whenever and wherever a Muslim entered China, in the Tang or Song (960–1279) dynasty or later, the architecture around him was already a coherent, multi-­millennia-­old system of construction primarily in wood, and occasionally in brick or stone. From any location, a Muslim’s first view of China would have included brightly painted wooden pillars and beams, ceramic tile roofs and bracket sets that interlocked with the pillars below them or the beams above. The architecture was not that different from the wooden structures that Buddhists saw when they came to China in the early centuries of the Common Era. The Buddhist Model The first Buddhists came to China from lands to the west in the first or second century ce. They were primarily transmitters of their doctrine. According to a popular historical narrative, the Chinese emperor Mingdi (r. 57–75) dreamed of a golden image whose identity was interpreted at court as the Buddha. Thereupon messengers were sent west to bring back information about this image and its powers.25 Even if the story is apocryphal, solid evidence confirms that in 148 ce a Parthian named An Shigao (d. 168) arrived in the Han capital Luoyang and translated Buddhist scriptures there until his death.26 By the fifth century, portable elements of Buddhist worship such as miniature pagodas were carried along the Silk Roads into China.27 Remains of earlier Buddhist architecture survive in the deserts of Xinjiang province.28 Sites such as Loulan, Miran and Niya, identified by Aurel Stein and other explorers in the early twentieth century and excavated by Chinese research teams since the mid-­twentieth century, affirm that

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Figure 1.6  Examples of dated buildings showing the evolution from stupa to pagoda.

Figure 1.6a  Stupa I, Sanci, Madhya Pradesh, India, circa first century bce.

Figure 1.6b  Gao Yi que, Ya’an, Sichuan, early third century ce.

the three fundamental structures of Indian Buddhist worship space were built in desert environments. One is the stËpa (hereafter stupa), the relic mound that symbolises the Buddha’s death and comes to be called pagoda in East Asia (Figure 1.6a).29 The second is the rock-­ carved worship space known as c(h)aitya and the third is the vihara, a cluster of cells for monastic meditation and residence.30 The transformation from stupa to pagoda, a form that would continue to move eastward with Buddhism from China to Korea and Japan, is a model of the process whereby a foreign structure is adopted and adapted into the Chinese building system. The circular, single-­ storey building with an egg-­ shaped dome gained height in Central Asia (Figure 1.6c), and upon entry into China the circular plans became straight-­ edged polygons: rectangles, hexagons and octagons. Made of mud brick, baked brick or stone, Chinese versions

muslims, mosques and chinese architecture

Figure 1.6c  Mor Stupa, Kashgar, circa third century ce.

of this form could be multi-­ storey and decorated with facsimile pillars, beams and bracket sets that were moulded onto the surface and with imitation ceramic tile roofs at each level. Desiring height, Chinese builders turned to existing tall buildings for models. In the first and second centuries ce, those structures were ceremonial pillar-­towers known as que at entries to palaces and along the paths to important tombs. It is impossible to know how many que stood in China when Buddhists arrived there, but they were certainly visible in the capital cities. Today about thirty survive.31 Individual que had four-­sided ground plans, and sometimes que were produced with two, three or even four linked, four-­sided towers so that the base was a set of diagonally positioned quadrilaterals. Que is the most important native Chinese structure that influences pagoda construction (Figure1.6b). The site of one of China’s earliest pagodas is in Fangshan, just north of Datong, in northern Shanxi province. The remains are at a monastery known as Siyuan Fosi (Buddhist Monastery of the Contemplative Courtyard) from the period when Pingcheng (today Datong) was the Northern Wei capital (398–493).32 The earliest standing pagodas in China, outside Xinjiang, date from the sixth century. A pagoda dated 523 is the unique dodecagonal Chinese building. In all likelihood this was an attempt to form a circular building with straight-­edged brick segments (Figure 1.6d). Pagodas change in style more dramatically than any other structure in China. Their position in a monastery also varies. Pagodas may be placed along the central building axis, erected in pairs or isolated in their own precincts at various places in the monastery; or a monastery may have no pagoda. Often the façades of masonry pagodas are decorated with elements such as pillars and bracket sets that imitate wooden architecture.33 The continuous changes in style and position reflect a lack of compatibility with the Chinese building system, for no matter when a pagoda was built or where it stands in its monastery or in China,

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Figure 1.6d  Songyue Monastery Pagoda, Mount Song, Henan, 523, with twenty-­first-­century refacing.

Figure 1.6e  Pagoda, Bao’en Monastery, Suzhou, Jiangsu 1131–62.

as shown in Figure 1.6d, it sticks out, ever a reminder of the foreign origins of Buddhism, even though the religion was fully accepted and flourished in China independent of its Indian roots. A few minarets, similarly, would project above the walls of Chinese mosques as signs of the presence of a foreign religion. The second of the Buddhist spaces, the rock-­carved chaitya, was constructed in China where possible. Rock-­ hewn Buddhist caves from Gansu in the west to Liaoning in the north-­east to Jiangsu in the south-­ east and Sichuan in the south-­ west, at places still famous today for their monumental and expansive stone-­carved cave statuary and murals such as Dunhuang, Yungang, Longmen and Dazu, exemplify the incorporation of Buddhist rock-­carved worship space into Chinese architectural environments. From the façades of massive monoliths to individual passages on walls, Chinese architectural frameworks were mediums through which the sacred spaces of South Asian worshippers were transposed as Chinese. Buddhist

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Figure 1.7  Interior of Mogao cave 259, Dunhuang, Gansu, Northern Wei dynasty, circa 386–535.

Figure 1.8  Interior of tomb of Prince of Liang, Mangdangshan, Henan, Western Han dynasty (202 bce–9 ce).

texts from India were translated into Chinese, and subsequently became subjects of relief sculpture and murals of the architecture (Figure 1.7). As for the technology of chaitya architecture, Chinese had buried corpses in rock-­carved tombs since the Han dynasty and had covered the walls of those tombs with architectural elements and descriptive relief sculpture and paintings. Excavation into rock for worship space required little that had not been achieved several ­centuries earlier in funerary art (Figure 1.8). The t­ echnology required for mosque construction, too, already existed in China when Muslims arrived. Of the three fundamental architectural forms of worship in India,

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the vihara required the most dramatic reconfiguration. Whereas the construction of a Chinese pagoda was a process of gradual transformation with both Indian and Chinese buildings as guideposts, and the cave chapel modified already existing forms, the very concept of a hall for the gods was without precedent in China. The first stage in this process was an accommodation to interior worship space, for the viharas of ancient India comprised primarily outdoor spaces for monastic meditation and residence.34 In the fifth–sixth-­century capital Luoyang, Buddhist devotees often donated their residences to the faith, and those spaces became image halls. The model of residence to temple would be employed at the highest levels and on a large scale. Chinese palace architecture became the source for imperial monasteries, and there is evidence that rock-­carved statues of Buddhist deities were fashioned as god-­kings after the rulers who were their patrons.35 As Buddhism formalised into a religion with monuments and deities, Daoism responded.36 By the Tang dynasty when Muslims first saw Chinese architecture, Daoism had houses for its gods in large complexes of buildings that were hard to distinguish from Buddhist monasteries. The transformation of space in China into mosques would be another aspect of the transformation of residence into temple. In this case, it would also find a parallel in the residential origins of the mosque on the Arabian Peninsula.37 The Chinese Model Buddhist, Daoist or Confucian, in the Tang or in later periods, the religious architecture Muslims saw in China had the structural features of Chinese palaces and residences. A Buddha hall of 1013 in Yuyao, Zhejiang province, in south-­eastern China (Figure 1.9), a Daoist hall in Ruicheng, Shanxi province, in north-­central China dated circa 1262 (Figure 1.10), a building for imperial sacrifices dated 1413 on the sacred Buddhist peak Wudangshan in Hubei province

Figure 1.9  Main Hall, Baoguo Monastery, Yuyao, Zhejiang province, 1013.

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Figure 1.10  Hall of the Three Purities, Yongle Daoist Monastery, Ruicheng, Shanxi, 1247–62.

Figure 1.11  Purple Empyrean Hall, Mount Wudang, Hubei, 1413 with later repairs.

(Figure 1.11), the Hall of Great Achievement at China’s most important Confucian temple in Qufu, Shandong province, restored in circa 1730 (Figure 1.12), or the funerary temple of a Manchu ruler in Liaoning province (Figure 1.13) show that through seven centuries, in five different geographic regions, and at altitudes from near sea level to several thousand metres above the sea, Chinese architecture for Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, imperial and funerary rituals exhibited the structural components of the Chinese tradition traceable to the earliest extant buildings of the Tang period (Figure 1.14), and to even earlier sculptural and pictorial evidence of architecture (Figure 1.7). The similarities may initially appear superficial: the high platform

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Figure 1.12  Hall of Great Achievement, Confucian Shrine, Qufu, Shandong, Qing dynasty (1368–1911).

Figure 1.13  Funerary Hall, Eastern Qing Tombs, Zunhua, Hebei, nineteenth century.

Figure 1.14  Main Hall, Nanchan Monastery, Wutai, Shanxi, 782.

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Figure 1.15  Notched timbers excavated at Hemudu, Zhejiang, circa fifth millennium bce.

on which the building stands; the timber-­frame structural support with weight-­bearing walls on the sides and not necessarily in front and back; the wooden bracket sets above and between columns across the front and back façades and more complicated sets at the corners; the interface of pillars, bracketing and roof frame, all interlocking wooden components; and the ceramic tiles covering the roof and its overhanging eaves. They are not. From the earliest evidence of notched, cylindrical wooden building components dated to circa 5000 bce (Figure 1.15) to the individual timbers of the Forbidden City or any of the buildings illustrated thus far, a conscious decision was made by patrons to use a post-­and-­lintel support system rather than brick or stone or mud-­earth walls to raise a building. Of course evolution occurred through the millennia of building history in China, but it was primarily secondary features such as the formulation of bracket sets or new kinds of braces to cushion other wooden members or offer additional support that were altered. The primarily vertical and horizontal wooden framework changed little. The fact that Chinese builders had used baked and fired brick and sometimes stone to construct the pillar-­ towers and walls of subterranean tombs since the Han dynasty confirms their ability to build in those materials (Figures 1.6b and 1.8). By the fourteenth century, builders had experimented with a form known as ‘­beamless hall’ (wuliangdian (hall without wooden beams)) to make brick structures. About nine buildings of this type survive (Figure 1.16).38 Chinese builders also had made copper halls.39 The choice of wood for more than 90 per cent of architecture above ground in China from the earliest vestiges of pillars and posts through the nineteenth century, for all forms of imperial, religious and public architecture, for more fanciful construction such as garden pavilions, as well as humble temples or artists’ residences in the countryside, attest to intentionality (Figures 1.17 and 1.18). The shared features enhanced

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Figure 1.16  Interior of ‘Beamless Hall’, Linggu Monastery, Nanjing, 1376–82.

Figure 1.17  Timber-­frame residence, Dali, Yunnan, nineteenth–twentieth century.

the transformation from residential to religious space: an open interior allowed for replacement of a throne by an altar or vice versa if a building’s function changed again. The arrangement of Chinese buildings was as standardised as were individual structures. For the last two millennia, ten fundamental principles have governed Chinese buildings and the placement of buildings in relation to one another: (1) A Chinese building is not conceived in isolation. Inherent to the concept of a building is that it is part of a group of structures. Nomenclature reflects this principle. A name such as Daminggong, usually translated into English as Daming Palace, comprises dozens of buildings.

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Figure 1.18  Main Hall, Tangdi Temple, Bo’ai, Henan, Yuan period (1271–1368), with twentieth-­century restoration.

(2) Buildings are grouped around four-­sided, enclosed courtyards. Within a gong (palace [-­complex]), one finds many courtyards, and humble dwellings or temples are part of at least one courtyard. When one or more buildings stand on all four sides of a courtyard, the spatial unit is named four-­sided enclosure (siheyuan). If only three sides are occupied, a fourth is implied and the configuration is known as three-­sided enclosure (sanheyuan). (3) Space develops horizontally in a Chinese context. Buildings stand along major and minor axes that run parallel and perpendicular to one another. To express magnificence, a building complex may include many courtyards along an axial line that might extend several kilometres. Nine – a number associated with the Chinese emperor – is the number of courtyards used at eminent construction projects such as the Forbidden City and the most important Confucian shrine in China (Figure 1.12).40 Yet even in the Forbidden City, no building rises more than two storeys. Tall buildings look unnatural on the Chinese landscape in which nature, not human creations, soars to the greatest heights (Figure 1.6d). (4) Building complexes have focal structures along major axial lines, and they achieve balance by a symmetrical positioning of buildings in relation to that structure. Most often the hall of primary function, whether worship, administration or residence, lies on the main building line, with flanking buildings such as pavilions, pagodas, residences, offices or towers symmetrical to it. Chinese building complexes may have dozens of buildings, and a palace or monastery might have so many buildings of significance that the arrangements consist of auxiliary precincts, each with its own focal building. Nonetheless, there is always a most important structure on the most important axis. (5) Most often, Chinese architecture is oriented southward, an aspect of the ideology sometimes referred to as Chinese cosmology, developed in the Han dynasty. In this socio-­philosophical construct, south

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was the cardinal direction, the direction toward which an emperor faced when seated on the throne in his palace. Each direction had associations with a season, colour, symbolic animal, element of the universe and other phenomena. Topography and practicality could alter the cosmic scheme prescribed in Han writings, but the position and orientation of a building within its complex are as integral to its importance as its size, elevation and roof style. (6) Gates are fundamental. Often a gate is positioned on all four sides of an enclosure. Gateways mark entries to individual building complexes and they permit access to composite units of those complexes as large as cities. They are psychological as well as physical. Like the enclosing spaces that they may join, gates mark the boundaries between the more sanctified or imperial spaces behind them and the profane world in front of or outside them. (7) The core of a Chinese building is the flexible timber frame, easily adaptable to increase, decrease, or movement of individual components such as columns in order to change the function of interior space without altering its exterior. Every component of the frame is modular. Knowing the module, replacement due to damage or movement of parts due to change of purpose is simple. A palace hall becomes a temple by interior reconfiguration or redecoration, yet the decorative exterior roof and enclosing courtyard are unchanged. The measurements and proportions of the module indicate a building’s rank. They are prescribed in treatises. (8) The module is just one aspect of a system of signs and symbols that defines structural eminence: the height of a platform, employment of pilasters, use of marble, balustrades, additional pieces of bracket sets and roof type all inform the viewer of a structure’s rank, but never its purpose. (9) Chinese architecture is highly polychromed. Cave interiors were as heavily painted as the interior and exterior walls of freestanding buildings (Figures 1.7, 1.11, 1.17 and 1.18). (10) Behind the walls, gates, courtyards and façades, space is totally private. If the Chinese building appears profoundly simple with little evolution over long periods of time, there is purpose to this straightforward standardisation. The constant repetition of such clearly articulated features leaves no doubt that a building is Chinese. Through the ages, entry into the Chinese sphere from any direction has been announced by the appearance of ceramic tile roofs projecting above walls that enclose building compounds and cities, and by the Great Wall itself. A beauty of the system is that the Chinese building is readily exportable. In the eighth century Japanese rulers aspiring to build a Chinese-­style capital for their government in Nara turned to Chang’an for a model, and in early modern times Europeans with colonial or Orientalising tendencies built a Chinese pagoda in Kew Gardens. In the twentieth century, even as Chinese architecture finally broke from traditional standards and reinforced concrete replaced wooden posts and beams and plaster walls, the use

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Figure 1.19  Zhang Kaiji, Sanlihe Government Complex, Beijing, 1955.

of a ceramic tile roof, alone, proclaimed that a modern building was a Chinese one (Figure 1.19). Even the few Chinese buildings illustrated thus far are evidence that China’s timber-­frame architecture withstood the challenges not just of time, but of conquest from the outside as well. When the Han dynasty fell in 220, China divided into three kingdoms, and then more than twenty states and kingdoms in the north and six in the south. After unity was restored at the end of the sixth century, the native Chinese Tang dynasty, which ruled almost all the territory of the third to the sixth century polities, continued to build according to principles forged in Han times. Chinese architecture again served as the model for palaces and monasteries built by the non-­Chinese dynasties Liao (907–1125), Jin (1115–1234), Yuan (1271–1368) and Qing (1644–1911), ruled by Khitan, Jurchen, Mongols and Manchus, respectively. Figures 1.10, 1.12 and 1.13 were built during periods of non-­Chinese rule. None of them even alludes to the ethnicity of its patrons, nor is it distinguishable from architecture of the native Tang, Song and Ming dynasties represented by Figures 1.9, 1.11 and 1.14. The continuities over vast distances and time periods, in urban centres and on loess plains, has meant that in China one must enter a building or read an inscription to know its purpose or patrons. Architectural Requirements of Muslim Worship The majority of old mosques that survive in China are congregational, or Friday, mosques (Arabic: masjid al-­jami’; Persian: masjid-­i jami’), where large numbers of the local, adult male congregation come to pray communally on Friday and to listen to the Friday sermon. (Only men are required to fulfil this obligation of a Muslim, although in China today, as elsewhere, there are women’s mosques and women’s sections of mosques). A portion of the congregation comes for daily prayer as well. Today, new, smaller mosques stand across China, and perhaps small mosques also existed through the

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centuries of Islam in China. Whether large or small, the mosque was fundamentally different from most previous religious construction in China because it was not built for worship of deities. Five features are widely associated with mosque architecture, but only one is necessary. It is the qibla, the direction of prayer toward the Ka‘bah (hereafter Kaaba) in Mecca, often indicated by a wall. Second is a related feature, mihrab, a niche added to the qibla wall in the early centuries of Islam, perhaps to commemorate the place of the Prophet Muhammad. In a Friday mosque one finds a stepped pulpit, minbar, from which the sermon is delivered. Sometimes an important person such as the khalifa (hereafter caliph) prays in an enclosed or semi-­ enclosed area known as the maqsura. Besides these four features, the space of a mosque is often organised in relation to one or more courtyards (sahn). The setting, often with a pool or building for ablutions, probably goes back to the earliest setting for Muslim worship, Muhammad’s courtyard-­style residence in Medina. In the early centuries of Buddhism in China, as well, it was common for residences to be turned into worship spaces or to be donated to monasteries.41 Indeed, it is possible that the reason no mosques are mentioned in texts about Tang Chang’an is because prayer occurred in residences. A sixth feature of mosque architecture is usually the one that identifies a mosque from the outside, the minaret. The earliest ­literary evidence for the minaret and oldest extant minaret alike date to the ninth century – the Great Mosque of Qayrawan (sometimes spelled Kairouan) in Tunisia, completed in 836. The origins of the minaret are debated. It was not a feature of the earliest mosques, nor is it essential.42 With a primary function of a tower that can be ascended by the muezzin to call worshippers to prayer (adhan), its function has equally become the visual beacon that proclaims not only a mosque, but Islam. This non-­essential but universal marker thus has much in common with the pagoda. Other non-­ essential structures and spaces occur so often in mosque architecture that they might be perceived as requisite features. Inside the main worship space, for instance, one finds a large, open area. The space reflects the fact that one prostrates oneself in the course of prayer, so that seating of the type found in a ­Judeo-­Christian ­sanctuary does not exist.43 The open interior, punctuated sometimes by columns and in a Friday mosque with a minbar near the mihrab, is fully compatible with a Chinese worship ­environment. Buddhist and Daoist temples have altars that act as a focus for worship, but they do not have chairs. Chinese supplicants pray individually, moving from the image of one deity to another that are placed on central altars or along perimeter walls (Figure 1.20). The main interior worship space in a Chinese temple may be large enough to accommodate hundreds of worshippers; it can be as large as the less encumbered interior of a mosque. Both mosques and Chinese temples include seating in buildings

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Figure 1.20  Interior of main worship hall, Yonghe Lamasery, Beijing, eighteenth century.

separate from the main worship space.44 Those structures are for lecturing and teaching, education being a fundamental mission of both mosques and monasteries. In China, education occurs in three contexts: for monks, for students training to become monks and for the wider congregation. Lecture halls for expounding Buddhist doctrine were part of monasteries in East Asia by the time Muslims arrived in China. The oldest lecture halls survive from the eighth century at Buddhist monasteries in Nara, Japan. Excavated evidence suggests that lecture halls were constructed in Korea in the late fifth century, and because of the shared doctrines of Chinese, Korean and Japanese Buddhism, it is assumed that by this time Chinese monasteries had lecture halls as well.45 More specialised education in the Buddhist scriptures also took place in some monasteries: Indian and Central Asian masters educated Chinese student monks in the initial centuries of Buddhism in China. The Parthian traveller An Shigao expounded the scriptures in Luoyang in the second century; around the year 800, Indian, Chinese and Japanese monks studied together in the capital city Chang’an.46 Neither the configuration of teaching halls nor their location in the monastery is known. With time, Buddhist monasteries and Confucian temples came to house schools. As in medieval Europe, a religious institution was often the only means of education for a poor youth. Today the practice continues. Shaolin Monastery in Dengfeng, Henan province, known for its training in the martial arts, is a contemporary example of a school with a millennial history in religious, secular and martial education. Similarly, ­education on both a small and large scale occurs at a mosque. Today one finds

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Figure 1.21  Classroom, Xianhe Mosque, Yangzhou, Jiangsu, taken in 2011.

small classrooms for education in basic Arabic leading to reading the Qur’an as well as large, full-­ scale schools at active, urban mosques (Figure 1.21). Institutions of higher education known as ­madrasas became features of the Muslim landscape of Iran in the eleventh century. They have no set form, but often they are ­cloisters of buildings around a courtyard.47 Student dormitories are usually behind the surrounding arcade. The formation of space is support for V. V. Bartol’d’s theory that the madrasa derives from the Sanskrit vihara, the group of monastic cells around the courtyard of a Buddhist monastery.48 In China, religious texts are usually kept in a designated building known as the sutra library or sutra repository. Sutra libraries are often two storey and of the Chinese structural type known as ge (pavilion). High shelves, sometimes along the walls of an upper storey and usually accessible by ladder from the ground floor, made it possible to store texts efficiently. The upper level storage also meant that if a fire were extinguished at ground level some of the volumes might survive. The oldest surviving sutra repository in China is from the tenth century at Longxing Monastery in Hebei. In Japan, a tall building of the designation rπ (lou in Chinese), translated as tower, for the storage of scriptures, survives from the eighth century at Hπryπji. In the Islamic world, libraries were also part of mosque complexes, although less is known about them than their counterparts at Buddhist monasteries. The Qayrawan mosque had a large library.49 In early Chinese and Japanese monasteries the sutra repository often stood as a symmetrical pair with a second tall building, either a bell tower or a drum tower. Built around a large bell or drum, the

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function of this tower was timekeeping, including marking times of prayer. The bell or drum tower and minaret thus share a primary function. Clocks are standard features of mosques today. Sometimes there are six, five set at the time of daily prayer and the sixth at the time of Friday afternoon prayer. Clocks became especially popular after King Louis Philippe of France gave Muhammad ‘Ali al-­Kabir (r. 1805–45) a clock for his mosque in Cairo in exchange for the obelisk now in the Place de la Concorde in Paris.50 In traditional Chinese cities and villages, bell or drum towers are often placed at the intersection of the main north–south and main east–west thoroughfares, a standard location of the marketplace. In those cases, the bell would ring or the drum would be beaten so that residents could keep track of time. The market is another space that historically has been associated with both Chinese monasteries and mosques in traditional communal settings. In premodern China and the Muslim world, the market was a place where residents could break out of the confines of an enclosed ward for an opportunity to shop as well as hear news and public proclamations, and the place to which farmers and villagers could travel for the same opportunities. Today, as in the past, markets are held in front of both mosques and Chinese monasteries, daily, at fixed days of the week or set days of the month. Another space often associated with Islamic prayer is the caravanserai, originally a Persian word (khan in Arabic), for a place where travellers rest or stay overnight during a journey; a prayer space is always present. Caravanserais spread across much of the Islamic world east of the Mediterranean. Often the individual guest quarters form around a courtyard, much in the manner of monks’ cells in a vihara-­style monastery. Chinese monasteries in the past, and sometimes today, similarly have lodgings for short-­and long-­term guests. Thus education, punctuation of the day, a place for daily life activities among one’s community of worshippers and lodging for travellers are functions of native buildings in religious institutions of China and the Muslim world that could easily be accommodated in a mosque in China. There are also a few formal features one comes to expect of a mosque that have no theological justification. Most prominent is the dome. One associates domes with, for example, al-­Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem,  Safavid construction in Isfahan and Ottoman mosques. The origins of the Islamic dome are often traced to Sasanian architecture.51 On a smaller scale, vaulting was achieved in China in the Warring States period (475–221 bce), and brick segmented vaults, barrel vaults and domes occur in tombs of the Western Han period (Figures 1.22 and 2.12).52 In timber-­frame architecture, the equivalent of a dome was constructed by superimposed q ­ uadrilaterals, a ceiling type sometimes known in Chinese as zaojing and often translated as caisson ceiling or cupola ceiling. The oldest wooden zaojing survive from the

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Figure 1.22  Domical vault, tomb of Li Cheng Uk, Hong Kong, Eastern Han.

Figure 1.23  Centre of ceiling of cliff tomb showing black bird in the sun, Taliangzi tomb 1, Zhongjiang, Santai, Sichuan, Eastern Han.

tenth and eleventh centuries, including several in a hall of Baoguo Monastery that will be further discussed in Chapter Three (Figures 1.9 and 2.13). The brick version of this form used in Han tombs is shown in Figure 1.23. The bold use of colour in this ceiling has been noted as a standard feature of Chinese construction. The dome is often a location of intense decorative patterns in a mosque. The compatibility of functions of mosques and religious architecture in China is such that no standard or frequently found feature of a mosque could not readily be rendered by the Chinese building system. Mosque, Masjid, Monastery, Temple Another aspect of similarity between the mosque and Buddhist or Daoist worship space is the ambiguity of English nomenclature. Thus far we have not used the word masjid. The Arabic word most

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often translated as mosque, masjid, is by definition a place of prayer and more precisely, a place of prayer in the form of prostration. In English the word mosque may be used to refer to the hall in which prostration takes place; and at congregational mosques, which the majority of China’s extant early mosques were, ‘mosque’ refers to the complex of buildings that combine the prayer space, a hall of learning, residence for the religious leader, place for ablutions, library, kitchens, refectories or dormitories. Terminology for discussion of Chinese religious architecture poses the same issues, for in English, ‘temple’ is a word like the above-­mentioned ‘palace’. In the Chinese context, like palace, temple is understood to be a complex of buildings. Therefore, throughout this book, monastery is used most often to refer to a Chinese temple complex, Buddhist or Daoist; usually monks were in residence. Temple is used to refer to a single worship hall, so that a monastery might include a pagoda and one or more temples dedicated to specific deities. The Chinese word for place of prostration in a mosque is most often litang, a shortened version of libaitang, literally, worship hall. In China, of course, deities would be present in a libaitang. In the Islamic context, li(bai)tang is better translated as prayer hall. Prayer hall will be the most frequently used name to refer to the building in which prayer and prostration occur within the greater space of the building complex that is the mosque. The Chinese words that have come to be translated as ‘monastery’ and ‘temple’ are themselves nuanced. Si is the most frequent last syllable in the name of a Buddhist monastery; it was used as early as 68 ce when Baimasi (White Horse Monastery) was constructed for the images and teachers brought to Luoyang from the west at the above-­mentioned request of Han emperor Mingdi.53 The original meaning of si was official bureau. The character si subsequently was borrowed from its secular meaning to refer to a Buddhist building complex,54 a situation that finds a parallel in the fact that the architecture of a ruler’s palace complex was the model for the ­earliest eminent Buddhist worship space (and as noted above, worship spaces also were fashioned from residences in the initial centuries of Buddhism in China). The use of si is even wider. This character also is employed in the generic Chinese name of rock-­carved cave-­ temples, shikusi. The character si also was used as the suffix for some Persian temple complexes in Tang Chang’an. Bosisi, literally ‘Persian si’, is a designation used by Wei Shu (d. 757) in his treatise on Chang’an and Luoyang, Liangjing xinji (New record of the two capitals), in which buildings and activities in each of the Tang cities’ wards are recorded.55 Based on architecture mentioned in other records of Chang’an, it can be concluded that the Bosisi in Liquan ward was for Zoroastrian worship and that a Bosisi in Yining ward was for Nestorian Christians who had come to China from Persia or

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from what one might think of as ‘greater Persia’. In the latter case, Da Qinsi, Da Qin, a reference to Rome and perhaps translatable as Roman Orient, is a name that would be used centuries hence as a Chinese name for Roman Catholic churches.56 The assumption that the complex in Liquan ward was Zoroastrian is because yet another suffix for a religious structure, ci, best translated as shrine, is employed by Wei Shu in the same treatise in which he lists four xianci, usually translated as ‘fire temples’,57 in Tang Chang’an, one of which also was in Liquan ward. Ci is more often found in Chinese writings as a suffix for a secular or religious shrine, sometimes an open-­ air structure, and at other times a small, humble building dedicated to a single deity, spirit or principle. Most significant here is that by the seventh century, the earliest time Muslims could have come to China, si referred to Buddhist, Christian and Zoroastrian religious establishments. Qingzhensi, literally Pure True si, would come to be the most common Chinese word for mosque; and it also would be the word for synagogue; and qingzhen is the modern word for halal. Perhaps this is because Chinese were not able to distinguish among the peoples who engaged in ritual slaughter of oxen, a reference, we shall see, to both Muslims and Jews and their quarters in China. Interestingly, Wei Shu makes no reference to qingzhensi in Liangjing xinji, a fact that has led some to conclude that there were no mosques in the Tang capitals.58 Si is not the suffix for Confucian or Daoist building complexes. Confucian architecture frequently uses the word miao, which most often is translated as ‘temple’, but sometimes as ‘shrine’. Kongzimiao (Confucius or Confucian temple), for example, is sometimes translated as Confucian shrine because Confucius is venerated, but not worshipped, as would be the standard practice for a deity in a temple. Viewed as the ultimate Chinese civil official, in popular Chinese religion Confucius (551–479 bce) has a counterpart, Guan Yu (d. 219), a military general who is the focus of temple complexes known as Guandimiao. Miao also is used as a suffix that names individual Daoist temples. Daoist building complexes are known as gong (palace) and guan (abbey), the former the same character used for palace (-­complexes) and generally used for larger Daoist establishments that received more eminent patronage. None of the terminology is as precise as one might wish. Yet a Chinese understands through context the intent of one term or another, as does an Arabic reader for the designation masjid. The important points are that the Chinese word for mosque was drawn from the Chinese designation for a Buddhist monastery, that the same Chinese word is used for synagogue, and that the suffix si is shared by Buddhist, Jewish, Zoroastrian, Christian and Muslim architecture. From the viewpoint of a Chinese who saw a mosque on the street, or a literate Chinese who read si as the last character on a name placard at the front gate, the architectural complex in front of him was a setting for

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the practice of religion. As we shall see, the architectural complexes of more than one faith often shared much more than the suffixes of their names. Scholarly and Other Writing about Mosques in China The attempt to clarify terminology before going further is important because the literature on China’s mosques is scant, general, descriptive and almost exclusively in Chinese. That none of it seeks to understand the mosque in the context of Chinese religious architecture is one cause of the ambiguity. The written source material behind this book may be divided into five groups: inscriptions at mosques, in Arabic, Persian and Chinese; premodern Chinese texts that record the presence of mosques or other Islamic architecture such as tombs; Christian missionary writings; modern literature, primarily in Chinese, about mosques; and scholarly writing about Islam in China. The five sources have never been adequately used together, nor has the crucial sixth source, the buildings themselves, been studied alongside the other five. Inscriptions, the first source of information, survive on the grounds of mosques, and in recent decades have often been moved to museums. Noteworthy studies of them have been undertaken for more than a century, individually and collaboratively, the latter often by scholars with different linguistic expertise. The earlier studies of inscriptions at mosques focused on remains in China’s coastal cities, particularly Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Yangzhou, and to a lesser extent Xiamen and Fuzhou. Gregory Arnáiz and Max van Berchem’s monograph of 1911 is a model early study, focused on inscriptions in Quanzhou. In 1991, Chen Dasheng c­ollaborated with Ludvik Kalus, the editor and compiler of the multi-­volume Thesaurus d’Épigraphie Islamique, in a study of inscriptions at China’s south-­eastern mosques in which the passages studied are translated into French. Chen Dasheng’s study of 1984 translates many of the same ­ inscriptions into English. Important Chinese research on Chinese inscriptions has been done by Wu Wenliang for the city of Quanzhou. His most comprehensive study was published posthumously in collaboration with his son in 2005. The father and son also collaborated in a translation project with Macquerie and other universities in Australia that documents and translates inscriptions in Latin, Syriac and other languages in Quanzhou, some of which are found at mosques. Lieu et al. 2012 and Gardner 2005 are representative publications of that material. All titles referred to here and below by author and date are cited fully in the bibliography. Among premodern Chinese treatises (in Classical Chinese), the second source, none is exclusively about mosques. Some of the premodern texts concern theology. The most important one is Han Kitab whose title is a combination of the Chinese word for Chinese

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and the Arabic word for book (Chinese: 漢克塔布; Arabic: ‫)هان کتاب‬. Compiled in the eighteenth century, the text has been shown to be heavily influenced by Confucian thought.59‎Occasional specific information about mosques is gleaned from the twenty-­four standard histories of China’s dynasties. Included in this set are references to Muslims in biographies of emperors and a few biographies of Muslims who achieved fame. A few details about mosques also are found in a genre of Chinese writing known as difangzhi, literally ‘records of places’, often translated as ‘local records’ or as ‘gazetteers’. Compiled by local officials, every province and many prefectures, sub­prefectures and counties had such records, often with entries on significant buildings. Sometimes difangzhi include maps. Usually mosques are included in sections on ‘monasteries and temples’ (simiao). Treatises about Chinese cities, such as Chang’an in Tang times and cities along the Grand Canal or China’s eastern coast also often have information about mosques. Writings of Chinese scholars, sometimes known as belles-­lettres, also include occasional information about Muslims and their practices. Christian missionary records, the third source, provide some of the most interesting information about mosques and Muslim life in China, particularly in the fourteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries when missionary activity was widespread. Equally foreign to their Chinese hosts, Christians and Muslims came into contact with one another sometimes by necessity and at other times through social curiosity. Nineteenth-­and twentieth-­century missionary publications are especially rich in photographic documentation about Muslim communal and mosque life. Broomhall’s book of 1910 and Pickens’ writings and photographic archive of the years 1932–47 are highly important in this regard. The fourth body of literature provides basic, factual information for a study like this and has the most extensive pictorial record. Nine books written between 1985 and 2011, all listed in the Bibliography, fall into this category. In alphabetical order, they are: Ben Du 2010, Ding Sijian 2010, Liu Zhiping 1985, Lu Bingjie 2003, Lu and Zhang 2005, Qiu Yulan 1993, Sun and Yu 1991, Wu Jianwei 1995 and Xie Tianli 2009. Finally one turns to modern scholarship about Islam in China. The most prolific Western authors on this subject are, in alphabetical order: Zvi Ben-­Dor Benite, Michael Dillon, Dru Gladney, Raphael Israeli, Donald D. Leslie, and Jonathan Lipman. The transcription of Chinese names of Muslims and sites has been a challenge throughout this book. Only one reference work for the translation of Chinese, Persian and Arabic terms has been attempted, Wang Jianping 2001. The most difficult challenge has been to convert Arabic and Persian names presented in Chinese sources as Chinese syllabic equivalents (rendered in characters) back to the Arabic or Persian and occasionally Turkish, so that it can then

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be given in English. A straightforward example is ­Zha-­ma-­la-­ding (in characters) for Jamal al-­Din; a less obvious but widely known one is Zheherenye or Zhehelinye for the Sufi order Jahriyya. In addition, there is more than one system for the Romanisation of Chinese words. The pinyin system is used throughout this book, except for the name of an author who has published in a European language with an alternate spelling. Japanese follows the Hepburn system of Romanisation. All dates in this book follow the Gregorian calendar. Finally, to the extent possible, Chinese buildings selected for comparison with mosques are widely published in survey books of Chinese architecture. Books in which the reader can find pictures of Chinese buildings mentioned but not illustrated here are provided in the endnotes.

Notes 1. For the number of Muslims, see Pew Research Center 2009, retrieved 24 October 2012. Reports about the number of mosques in China vary from 30,000 to 34,000. Lu and Zhang 2005: 19 write that there are more than 34,000; Ding 2010: 14 says there are more than 30,000 Islamic structures. 2. Like other terms used often in literature on China’s Muslims, minzu has a range of translations and implications. ‘Nationalities’ and ‘­ethnicities’ are frequent translations for minzu, each term with implications in the scholarly discourse of anthropology and political implications in China. For an explanation of the term minzu with regard to China and Chinese Muslims, see Lipman 1997: xx–xxix. 3. Available at: (last accessed 30 June 2014). 4. The bibliography of Sino-­West Asian relations has been compiled over more than a century. Important studies include: Hirth 1885; Hirth and Rockhill 1911; Laufer 1919; Dubs 1957; and Hudson 1961. 5. For background on the Parthians, see Colledge 1967 and Colledge 1977. 6. For translations of relevant sections of the Han histories, see: Chavannes 1907; Leslie and Gardiner 1982: 269–72; 279–83; 292–6; Leslie and Gardiner 1996; and Hill 2009; on Zhang Qian, see Mirsky 1964: 13–25; see also Pulleyblank 1999. 7. Yü Ying-­shih 1967: 156–9. 8. State Administration of Cultural Heritage 2009; Luo Feng 2004; Rong and Zhang 2004. 9. Luo Feng 2004. 10. Mode 1993: 200; Al’baum 1975: 24–5, plate 7; Grenet 2005. 11. Leslie 1986: 11–12. 12. Wriggins 1996. 13. Leslie 1986:10. 14. Leslie 1981–3: 289. 15. Xiong 2000: 236–8. 16. Leslie 1986: 11. 17. Liu Xu 1975: 5315. This statement is found in a majority of books on Islam or Islamic architecture in China. See, for example, Lu and Zhang

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2005: 12. Dillon 1999: 12, citing Bai Shouyi 1982, explains that it is hard to distinguish between Arabs and Persians in Chinese sources relevant to the Tang and Song dynasties. 18. Leslie 1986: 31. 19. Sauvaget 1948: 24; Ahmad 1989: 55. 20. Leslie 1981–3; Charbonnier 2007: 20–38; Standaert 2001: 25–7. 21. Xiong 2000: 242–76, 297–320. 22. The line makes reference to the Tang emperor Zhongzong who, if the statement is accurate, would have sanctioned the construction of the mosque between 705 and 710; Lu and Zhang 2005: 118. 23. Lu and Zhang 2005: 100, who write that this is according to the lore at the mosque today. The oldest building there dates to the seventeenth century. 24. Schottenhammer 2005. 25. Zürcher 1972: 22–32. 26. His dates are not known. On An Shigao and other early translators, see Zürcher 1972: 32–8. 27. For examples of portable stupas, see Yin 2000. 28. Steinhardt 2014: 97–105. 29. Stupa is the Sanskrit word for a mound above Buddhist relics; pagoda is the word used by Portuguese explorers when they first saw these forms in southern India. In general, stupa is used in writing about South Asian structures and pagoda is used for buildings in East Asia. 30. For more on these three structures, see Sarkar 1966: 3–9. 31. Xu Wenpin 1992. 32. Hu Ping 2007. 33. The imitation of elements of Chinese wooden architecture is called fangmugou, imitation of the timber frame. It occurs on the surface of brick or stone buildings such as pagodas as well as on interior walls of temples and tombs. Fangmugou is a means of recreating a Chinese architectural environment on any surface or in any space. We shall see that in addition to the use of Chinese structures for mosques, ­fangmugou occurs inside Islamic architecture in China. 34. Behrendt 2004: 33–8. 35. On the possible god-­king intentions for the five monumental Buddhas carved in the 460s at the Yungang caves, see Huntington 1986. On Empress Wu as the patroness of a monumental Buddha at the Longmen caves, see McNair 2007. 36. Little 2000: 163. 37. Frishman and Khan 1994: 30, 78. 38. Bodolec 2005: 121–6. 39. Zhang and Chen 2013. 40. Eberhard 1986: 207, on the number nine. The word eminent is used frequently in reference to Chinese buildings. It recognises a building not only that is important, but that follows the highest standards of construction according to the ranked system explained in Chinese architectural treatises. 41. Jenner 1981: 38–69; Milburn 2015: 82–6. 42. Bloom 2013: 1–2. 43. The discussion here focuses on extant old mosques in China, all of which are congregational. 44. Discussion here reflects the period of China’s earliest extant mosques, the fourteenth century, and later. By that time, the spaces described

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45.

46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59.

here existed in mosques across the Muslim world. The earliest mosques may have consisted almost exclusively of prayer halls, with other functions such as teaching occurring in them. I thank Jonathan Bloom for clarifying this point for me. There are lecture halls at the circa eighth-­century monasteries Hπryπji in Ikaruga, and Yakushiji and Tπshπdaiji in Nara. It is believed there was a lecture hall at the sixth–seventh-­century Goguryeo monastery Jeongneungsa. Chou 1946. Hillenbrand 1994: 173. Beckwith 2009: 153–4; Pedersen et al. 1986: 1136. Voguet 2003. I thank S. Blair and J. Bloom for this reference. I thank Sheila Blair for this information. Grabar 1963; E. B. Smith 1950: 3–9. Liu Dunzhen 1984: 69. Xu Jinxing 1985. Taiwan Gaoxiongshi 1988–9: vol. 3, 2414–7. Xiong 2000: 237. Charbonnier 2007: 24–7. Xiong 2000: 228. Xiong 2000: 235. Ben-­Dor Benite 2005; Petersen 2011.

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CHAPTER TWO

China’s Oldest Mosques

The oldest physical evidence of Islamic architecture in China is from the Song dynasty when the Chinese capital was in Kaifeng (then known as Bianliang or Bianjing) in Henan province. China’s oldest extant mosques are further south, in port cities along the south-­eastern coast. The two with the oldest buildings, in Quanzhou and Guangzhou, also are two of the most important. Inscriptions suggest that mosques were built in Chang’an and other major cities in the Tang dynasty. The majority of the inscriptions, not just about mosques in Chang’an, but also about mosques and other architecture in China, are engraved on steles (stone slabs with inscription erected to commemorate events or the history of the site where they stand). None of the inscriptions is from the Tang period and the dates are highly problematic. A stele noting repair of 1689, for instance, records that people had come to instruct others in the teachings of Islam at Kaifeng East Mosque in the south-­eastern corner of the city in 628, but there is no justification for the date.1 Although Kaifeng had become the capital of the Song dynasty in the tenth century, the oldest buildings at Kaifeng East Mosque date to the Qing period. A repair stele of 1742 records the founding of Datong Mosque in the same year, 628.2 Because there are so few Tang remains in Datong, the Tang date for a mosque is unlikely. A stele from the Jiajing reign period (1522–66) at Daxuexixiang Mosque in Xi’an, mentioned in Chapter One, records an imperial decree for its founding in 705. The emperor said to have promulgated the decree was not yet in power in 705, so that inscription also must be inaccurate, and the mosque, in all likelihood, was founded in the Ming dynasty.3 A stele at the Old Mosque in Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi province today, records that the mosque was built anew during the Zhenyuan period (785–805) and that it was built again during the Jingyou period (1034–7) of the Song dynasty.4 It is plausible that a mosque existed in some form in this city in the Tang dynasty, but we have no specific information about it. Steles or gazetteers provide histories of other mosques beginning in the tenth century. Zhuxian Mosque, in a village of that name 22 km south of the Song capital at Kaifeng, was established between

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976 and 983 and rebuilt in the Ming dynasty.5 Ox Street Mosque in Beijing, the main subject of Chapter Six, was established in 996. Shengyou Mosque in Quanzhou, the first mosque discussed in this chapter, was founded in 1009–10. Fenghuang (Phoenix) Mosque in Hangzhou and Huajuexiang Mosque in Xi’an, discussed at length in Chapters Three and Five respectively, and Jianzixiang Mosque in Zhenjiang, near Shanghai, have founding dates before the end of the Song dynasty. So does Huaisheng Mosque in Guangzhou, the second mosque discussed in this chapter. Both Quanzhou and Guangzhou retain not only two of the earliest mosque buildings in China, the structures are unique in China and outside it, as well. Quanzhou’s International Community The construction of China’s earliest mosques was directly related to water. Quanzhou is a seaport midway up China’s south-­eastern coast between Hong Kong and Shanghai and 229 km across the strait from Taiwan (Map 2.1). Known by the names Zayton, Zaitun, and Çayton in transliterations from Latin, Persian, Arabic, Syriac, S ­ yro-­Turkic and other languages, the name is said to have been inspired by citong (pawlonia) trees that grew throughout the city in the tenth to ­fourteenth centuries when merchants and others from Europe and Asia lived there; they grow in Quanzhou until this day.6 Records suggest international trading activity in Quanzhou in the Tang dynasty, possibly as early as 741.7 From 1000 to 1400, Quanzhou was an extraordinary entrepôt. A port of continuous immigration, it was home for a population from South, Central and West Asia, and occasionally even further west. Christians, Hindus, Manichaeans, Buddhists and Muslims lived, practised their faiths and died in this city. Quanzhou was probably China’s most multicultural city and one of the most multicultural in the world during the Song and Yuan dynasties. More than 700 years ago, Marco Polo wrote that ‘for one shipload of pepper that goes to Alexandria . . . destined for Christendom, there come a hundred such, aye and more too, to this haven of Zayton.’8 Quanzhou of this period accurately has been called ‘the emporium of the world’.9 The economic potential of Quanzhou in Song and Yuan times was without parallel in China, and perhaps elsewhere. Billy K. L. So compares it to Hong Kong in the late twentieth century.10 Kuwabara Jitsuzπ suggests that Quanzhou was one of the four great seaports of the world named by Ibn Khurdadhbih’s (820–912) in Kitab ­al-­Masalik wa’l-­Mamalik (Book of Roads and Kingdoms). The identification is not universally accepted,11 but the importance of Quanzhou and the extent of its international population are not disputed. Economically, Quanzhou, and perhaps all of China, was dependent on its Muslim and Hindu denizens. Hugh Clark has argued that in the period between the Tang and Yuan dynasties,

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Map 2.1 Map of China’s south-eastern coastal cities and the Grand Canal (with cut-out of area of map superimposed area on Map 1.1).

CHINA’S OLDEST MOSQUES

trade in China’s south-eastern coastal cities was amicable, whereas on China’s northern frontier, trade with the Khitan, Jurchen and Mongols occurred under more stressful conditions. Clark also points out that government restrictions on spices, medicines and valuables (undefined) entering China’s most important south-eastern ports prohibited their sale in private markets without first going through the official storehouse.12 Nevertheless, Clark continues, merchant capitalism thrived in Quanzhou because the Chinese were the ‘passive’ partners in this flourishing trade, waiting in Quanzhou for merchant ships to bring goods in and to exchange or purchase Chinese merchandise, rather than sailing the seas to bring Chinese products across the ocean themselves.13 On some level, the Chinese government in the Song capital must have been as resistant to mercantile travel as the Chinese merchants of Quanzhou. Before the Song dynasty, Guangzhou, whose mosque is discussed below, was one of a very few ports of entry for foreign merchants, as well as a place where direct trade between the Chinese and foreigners occurred.14 The reform policies of one of China’s most influential officials and statesmen of the Song, Wang Anshi (1021–86), led to the opening of Quanzhou in 1087 by the establishment of a trade superintendency in the port.15 Yet the physical evidence of a Muslim population in Quanzhou for a full century before this suggests that the Song government practised a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy with regard to mercantilism that included contact between foreign merchants and Chinese merchants or middlemen in this city. Today Quanzhou is the city with the most extensive evidence of a Muslim presence in Song China, and perhaps in the Yuan dynasty as well. The evidence takes the form of a unique mosque, cemeteries and other funerary remains and a wealth of inscriptions. The inscriptions have been of particularly wide interest; and further, the Arabic and Persian documents about Muslims can be considered alongside equally informative inscriptions in Latin, Syriac, Syro-Turkic, Uygur, Chinese and ‘Phags-pa about other denizens of Quanzhou. Imagery as well as inscriptions on stones came to the attention of several of Europe’s most outstanding Orientalists at the beginning of the twentieth century, including Max van Berchem, Paul Pelliot, and Paul Demiéville.16 The realities of war in Europe and in Asia in the 1930s and 1940s and the post-1949 political agenda in China made access to these stones difficult. Except for a few that made their way out of China, Europeans saw these inscriptions only in photographs, and even then, only when those photographs could leave China. In China, modernisation included destruction of city walls, among which were the walls surrounding Quanzhou in the 1920s. Further destruction of cities during the Sino-Japanese War, and the suppression of scholarship and destruction of historic material remains in the early decades of the People’s Republic, particularly during the

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Cultural Revolution (1966–72), meant that countless artifacts were lost. The story of the survival of Quanzhou’s material remains is in large part due to one man, Wu Wenliang (1903–69). He was a high school biology teacher in Quanzhou. In college Wu had taken a course in archaeology at Xiamen (Amoy) University with Gustav Ecke, an art historian and Sinologist who co-­authored a book with Paul Demiéville in 1935 about Quanzhou’s most important Buddhist monastery, Kaiyuansi.17 By the 1930s, Wu began gathering engraved stones as he came across them and bringing them to his backyard. When he could afford it, he purchased stones with scripts that were not Chinese. According to Wu, he was able to save about 10 per cent of what he knew was in Quanzhou, but much that he could not save was purchased by stonemasons who pounded the stones flat and reused them or by construction companies who paved roads with the material. Yet Wu Wenliang’s work received positive attention from the Communist Party, and in 1957 he was appointed to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing to compile a catalogue of material remains from Quanzhou. Because communication between China and the West was so limited, Wu’s work had little circulation for the next several decades. A catalogue of 1957 was the basis for much more extensive research by Wu and his son Wu Youxiong, as well as the Sino-­English study by Chen Dasheng of 1984 and its successor, produced in collaboration with Ludvik Kalus. Chen and Kalus’s book of 1991 records known extant inscriptions in Arabic and Persian in Quanzhou and some from the neighbouring cities Xiamen (Amoy) and Fuzhou (Foochow), all in Fujian province. With the help of the Wus, inscriptions relevant to Manichaeaism and Christianity in Quanzhou were gathered and published by Samuel Lieu, Iain Gardner and others.18 Shengyousi We start with the Quanzhou mosque, widely known in Chinese as Shengyousi and in Arabic as Masjid al-­Ashab, based on an inscription discussed below. Both names translate as Mosque of the Companions. As at every mosque in China today, it is hard to verify that any existing building predates the fourteenth century. Still, we start here because a reliable inscription establishes the founding date of a mosque named Shengyousi as ah 400, corresponding to 1009 or 1010 (because the month is not recorded). The inscription confirms the presence of Muslims in Quanzhou nearly eighty years before the official removal of restrictions on trade with foreigners in 1087. The location and appearance of the mosque suggest that its patrons had sufficient wealth and commitment to establish roots in the city. A map of Quanzhou in the local record Quanzhoufu zhi (Record of Quanzhou subprefecture) of the year 1612 shows the most important

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Figure 2.1  Map of Quanzhou showing locations of walls and religious establishments.

Buddhist monastery Kaiyuansi, other Buddhist institutions, a Daoist monastery, a temple to the city god, several shrines and the mosque (Figure 2.1). The map indicates the city’s expansion from its Tang, to tenth century, to Song–early Yuan sizes. The mosque is just outside the Song-­Yuan wall, to its south-­east, between the wall and the river. Scholars believe Muslims were not permitted to build inside the city walls in the Song period.19 As we shall see below, today’s location probably is not the original one of a mosque named al-­Ashab. In 1352, when the city wall was extended again, the mosque was within its southern boundary.20 The Shengyousi one sees today is usually dated 1310. The use of the word ‘repair’ in a stone inscription has been the basis for the belief that the mosque is on its original site.21 The same inscription, in two sections embedded into the granite wall of the mosque, also provides other key information (Figure 2.2). Max van Berchem published a French translation in 1911, Gustav Ecke translated it into German, and then into English in 1935, and it has been translated into Chinese several times.22 Taking into account the various translations and commentaries, the inscription may be translated: This is the first mosque in this land [probably a reference to the region rather than to China]. It is both antique and ancient, named the Great Mosque, known by locals as Masjid al-­Ashab. It was built in the year 400 ah (1009–10). Some three hundred years later it was restored, at which time the tall arcade, high portico,

Figure 2.2  Text of inscription with date ah 400 for Shengyousi (al-­Ashab Mosque), Shengyousi, Quanzhou.

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Figure 2.3  Front façade of Shengyousi, Quanzhou, 1310–11.

­enerable entry and new windows were made and installed. v The year was ah 710 (1310–1). May it please God most high, by Ahmad b. Muhammad al-­Quds23 al-­hajji [who has made the hajj] al-­Shirazi [a man or family from Shiraz]. May Allah forgive him and his family. The two dates in the inscription have guided most subsequent discussions of the mosque, including several inscriptions discussed below. More than 400 additional inscriptions, many of them on-­ site, others in Quanzhou’s Muslim cemetery or in one of the city’s museums, further recount the history of the city and its religious architecture.24 Today Shengyousi is bounded by a granite wall on the north side of Tonghuai Street. The entrance is on the mosque’s southern side (Figure 2.3). It is a grand, formal entry, a pishtaq, or structure framing three sides of an arched opening, distinct from any existing construction in China of the tenth to fourteenth centuries (Figure 2.4). The entryway comprises a high, three-­part sequence of interconnected arches and vaults set in rectangular frames, each component or diameter no more than 5 m (Figure 2.5). By the early thirteenth century, numerous mosques in Iran and adjacent regions of Central Asia were entered via

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Figure 2.4  Entryway of Shengyousi, Quanzhou, showing second archway and entry to third archway and courtyard behind it, 1310–11 with restoration.

Figure 2.5  Plan of entryway of Shengyousi, Quanzhou, from below.

pishtaqs with pointed archways, and countless mosques had iwans, a Persian form consisting of a vaulted space with a quadrilateral ground plan that is enclosed on three sides. The façade of the mosque in Ajmir, India, of circa 1200, is the type of structure that could have inspired the Shengyousi entrance (Figure 2.6).

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Figure 2.6  Façade of Arhai-­Din-­Ka Jhompra Mosque. 1200–6; additions 1220–9.

The tripartite entry of light-­coloured granite in Quanzhou is more complex than comparable Persian examples. The first section is a 10 m by 3.8 m ogee arch joined by a ribbed semi-­circular dome divided into eight parts.25 The façade, including crenellations at the top, is 12.3 m high and 6.6 m wide. Higher and lower pointed arches are inset into the side walls beneath the outer ribs. Triangular cornices brace the outer ribs and perpendicularly joined walls under them. Beneath this first space, imitation pillars capped by braces that are decorated with a swirling motif support a pointed arch, today with a plaque below it with the standard invocation: b’ism allah al-­rahman al-­rahim, or, ‘In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate’.26 The second arch repeats several features of the first, but is lower, only 6.7 m in height. The half-­dome has only five parts, each divided into layers, each layer of diminishing size toward the centre, and with undecorated sides. The third vault is a circular dome. It rises 7.5 m and has a 4.8 m diameter and it, too, has a pointed-­arched niche set into each side. The framed passageway at the back of the entrance is 4.06 m high.27 The second unique feature of Shengyousi is the set of eight windows cut into the granite façade on the west side of the entrance. They are large and prominent, occupying 64 per cent of the wall surface. Today they allow a view inside from the street. The ­openings, of course, are sources of interior lighting and perhaps passage for the cool sea breezes that grace Quanzhou in the spring and autumn. Still, if the interior space on the other side of that wall were worship space, the windows would have permitted someone outside the mosque to watch prayer. In a Buddhist, Daoist or Confucian temple, as well, side walls are typically solid, their interior faces usually covered with murals that narrate stories of gods or heroes or supporting shelves for statues. Perhaps another courtyard separated the pishtaq and windowed wall from the city, an area

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that would have been accessed primarily by Muslims.28 In that case, this (open area between a building and the outer wall of a building ­precinct) would find a source in the late-­ninth-­century Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo.29 Hundreds of inscriptions, most of them on steles, and several texts record the history of Quanzhou’s mosques and Muslims. Five dates found in inscriptions or other sources such as the local record Quanzhoufu zhi, which survives in a version of the Qianlong (1736–96) reign period as well as the version of 1612 from which Figure 2.1 is drawn, are especially significant. Two, 1009–10 and 1310, have been mentioned already. A third date, 1131, is in a treatise entitled ‘Qingjingsi ji’ (Record of the mosque), written by Wu Jian in 1350. Qingjingsi is another name for a mosque, the one used in the label in Figure 2.1. Qingjingsi is less common than qingzhensi, the characters qing and jing both translating as ‘pure’, so that in English the name would be ‘pure purity si’. Wu’s record includes three important points. First, Shengyousi was one of six or seven mosques in the city in that year. Second, Wu writes that in 1131 a man from Srivijaya (Siraf) came to Quanzhou and established a mosque. Last, and perhaps most important, Wu Jian informs us that the earlier Shengyousi was not at this location. Rather, it was near the south gate of Quanzhou. This would place it even closer to water than the current mosque, and perhaps further from the circa thirteenth-­ century south city gate.30 The passage thus explains why the mosque is not within the city walls in pictures of the city in Tang to Song–early Yuan times. No inscription records the history of Shengyousi in the final decade of Yuan rule when the region was heavily contested and mosques were destroyed during warfare. The next recorded date is 1507, a year of repairs recorded in a stele of the Zhengde reign (1506–22). This inscription is extremely important because it is a transcription of an earlier stele that had fallen into disrepair. It is the key evidence in support of the possibility that the mosque under discussion, Qingjingsi of the Ming dynasty, is not the mosque al-­Ashab that was built in 1009–10 and rebuilt in 1310–11, but rather one that was first constructed in 1131, rebuilt in 1350, and repaired at the time the stele was re-­carved. The fifth important date is a century later, 1607, late in the Wanli reign (1572–1620). It is found on a ‘repair stele’, in other words, a stone erected to mark repairs. In 1567, Mingshantang (Bright Good Hall), a Chinese-­style building, was constructed in the north-­west section of the mosque compound (Figure 2.8(18)). It was restored in the first decade of the seventeenth century.31 An inscription of 1687 states that the minaret had been destroyed in a typhoon and had never been restored. There is neither physical evidence of such a building nor another written record of a minaret at Shengyousi, so this inscription is an example of one that may refer to a different mosque.

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By the nineteenth century the mosque had fallen upon truly hard times. In 1818 Ma Jianji, a Muslim and an officer in the army of Fujian province, came to Shengyousi and reported that the roof of the worship hall had collapsed and the courtyard was occupied by descendants of Quanzhou’s Muslims, who were in the process of building houses there. Ma erected a small worship space in the north-­western part of the grounds with the hope of reviving interest in Islam. Fifty-­three years later, another Muslim in the provincial army, Jiang Changgui, reported that the worship space built by Ma was in ruins and that there was no evidence that worship had occurred at the mosque in a long while. Jiang had an ahong (akhund), or cleric, brought to Shengyousi to again try to revive Islam in the city, but this religious leader died soon afterward.32 By the end of the nineteenth century only about twenty Muslim families could be accounted for.33 Some describe the space inside the enclosing wall as a residential area for squatters.34 In 1919 Tang Kesan, the chief customs official in Xiamen and himself a Muslim, convinced Chinese Muslim merchants to donate money for rebuilding the mosque, but the task was not accomplished. In 1924, and again in 1936, ahong were sent to Shengyousi from Beijing. The report of 1936 confirms the existence of about eleven Muslim families, many of them residing in the mosque courtyard. Still, in 1939, as part of the anti-­Japanese campaign, the small worship space erected by Ma Jianji was restored. When photographed in the 1950s, the walls were overgrown with foliage, pieces of the interior were piled against walls, including the wall of windows, and all variety of matter was strewn in the main courtyard (Figure 2.7). The plight of Shengyousi is not unusual. Many of the mosques investigated in this book fell into serious decline in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, before yet further decline that often occurred during the Cultural Revolution. Shengyousi fared better than many mosques, perhaps because the

Figure 2.7  Shengyousi, Quanzhou, circa 1953.

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stone wall and entryway were such clear indicators of a noteworthy, if not unique, structure. In 1952, fewer than three years after the founding of the People’s Republic, a government directive ordered renovation of the mosque. In 1961 the Chinese government designated Shengyousi an Important Cultural Property. During the first years of the Cultural Revolution, it was used as a factory. Quanzhou city government took charge of restoration in 1979. In 1983 the final group of Muslims residing within the walls of Shengyousi was moved into city housing and the small prayer hall in the north-­west (Figure. 2.8(18)) was rebuilt when plumbing and electricity were brought to the site.35 Later in the 1980s the city and province joined to undertake what was probably the only means of knowing the history of this unique building complex: excavation. It commenced in 1987. The results clarify much, but not everything. At some point, for instance, the large open space north of the wall and west of the entryway came to be known as Fengtiantan, literally Offerings to the Heavens Platform. The Fengtiantan site presents eleven layers and five distinguishable phases of construction: (1) Enough Song pottery has been found that it is likely there was a Song building period. Knowledge of adjacent areas suggests there may have been earlier settlement. (2) There was a group of pottery dated ‘Song–Yuan’, or circa thirteenth century. Excavators judged this material to be contemporary to the construction of the entryway (very early fourteenth century). (3) Pottery and evidence of wooden buildings from the Yuan period were the next level. It cannot be confirmed that these building pieces were part of the mosque. Excavators speculate that there was widespread destruction at the end of the Yuan dynasty. From this period onward the presumed location of the current mihrab is evident in excavation plans. (4) Remains from the later Yuan into the Ming dynasty, with evidence of wooden architecture, including a major building supported by a timber frame that was elevated on a high platform. (5) The building foundation named Fengtian Platform dates to the last period, Ming or later. Pottery remains beneath it suggest continuous use from the Song dynasty onward.36 Today Shengyousi includes twenty-­two structures or spaces. The prayer hall (libaitang) around Fengtian Platform is nearly square, 30 m north-­to-­south by 27 m east-­to-­west (Figure 2.8). Nine squarish stone pilasters are still positioned where columns would have stood to support a hypostyle interior of five by four bays. A few bottoms of columns remain as well, confirming they were cylindrical and probably confirming they were stone (Figure 2.9). It is possible that at some point wood replaced stone in their upper portions. The view in Figure 2.9 presents the mihrab, evenly spaced back wall openings, and ogee-­arched wall insets. Most of the insets have Qur’anic verses engraved into them. The area behind the mihrab is an enclosed

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Figure 2.8  Plan of Shengyousi, Quanzhou, today (1) entryway (2) highest level arched ceiling (3) second highest level arched ceiling (4) first pointed vaulted entry (5) domed ceiling (6) stele of year 1406, moved to this location after repairs in 1980s (7) second pointed vaulted entry (8) false entries where steles once positioned (9) steles (10) vaulted entry to prayer hall (11) stairs to Wangyuelou (12) plinths and pillars of prayer hall (13) probably location of mihrab (14) ogee-­arched wall niches (15) wall on south side of mosque (16) entryway on east side of prayer hall area (17) Inset in wall (18) Mingshantang (19) stone wall (20) offices (21) bridge on north side of mosque (22) presumed location of minaret.

Figure 2.9  Plinths and bases of columns, interior of Shengyousi, Quanzhou, probably from fourteenth century.

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courtyard, today one of the locations on the grounds of the mosque to which many of the inscribed stones have been moved. Remains of the above-­mentioned Mingshan Hall (tang) are in the north-­western corner. The other noteworthy feature is a small bridge roughly centreed on the northern side of the mosque, further north than the hall remains (Figure 2.8(21)). The bridge would have provided access into the city when the mosque, or whatever was located here, was still outside its south wall. Shengyousi as an International Monument Whether the first mosque studied in this book is al-­Ashab or whether it was constructed in the early eleventh century or if it was first built in 1150, it was repaired in the fourteenth century and is unique in China today. Its architecture has been considered an anomaly to all who have seen, recorded or photographed it. The Shengyousi pishtaq is unique among entries to mosques in China today. It is the first feature to which one turns in assessments that the Quanzhou mosque resembles an Islamic worship space of West Asia, but it is not the only feature. Further, the gateway and other architectural elements of Shengyousi may draw from traditions across the Muslim world, not just those of Iran and Muslim India (Figure 2.6) but, in some cases, from China and Buddhist and Brahmanical India as well. The open interior area for prayer to which the pishtaq leads was supported by rows of columns in hypostyle arrangement. The hypostyle formation is as natural to mosque architecture as the pishtaq. It has as long a history in Muslim and West Asian architecture, particularly in Arab lands to the west of India and Iran. The placement of columns recalls the ninth-­century mosques of Abu Dulaf in Samarra, Iraq, of Ibn Tulun in Fustat, Egypt, and the Great Mosque in Qayrawan, in north-­western Tunisia.37 Decorative details further confirm the exterior visual message of a West Asian structure. The crenellations at the top of the entryway reflect or perhaps were copied from other mosques, memories of them, decorative pieces of Islamic architecture, or perhaps even pictures. The row of pointed projections whose insides are squared out that embellishes the wooden maqsura of Qayrawan Mosque might have inspired both the top of the Shengyousi entryway and brickwork that at one time topped the outer wall of a moon(-­viewing) platform (yuetai, presumably for the purpose of watching for the appearance of the moon to break the daily fast during Ramadan; independent structures for this purpose, known as Wangyuelou, are discussed later) (Figures 2.10 and 2.11).38 Or inspiration may have come from painting, such as decoration above a mosque in thirteenth-­century illustrations of the Maqamat of al-­Hariri (1054–1122).39 In the case of a source from a painting, this feature of the pishtaq may not imitate the top decoration of a specific mosque so much as it references a Muslim prayer

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Figure 2.10  Moon-­viewing platform, Shengyousi, Quanzhou, in 1993.

Figure 2.11  Crenellations (merlons) in wood, maqsura, Qayrawan, circa 817–38; 856–63.

space where one finds decoration above a wall. The ribbed interior faces of the three pointed archways of the pishtaq similarly reflect vaulted spaces in mosque architecture of the Arab lands of Islam such as the ninth-­century dome over the mihrab of the Qayrawan mosque. The crenellations and ribbed vault further suggest that woodworking may have been behind the stone construction. The imitation of wooden detail in stone is a skill that might have been possessed by immigrants to Quanzhou, but equally was available

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Figure 2.12  Seven forms of ceilings, six vaulted, in early Chinese architecture.

through Chinese craftsmen. As noted in Chapter One, fangmugou had been fundamental to Chinese tomb architecture since the Han dynasty. The involvement of Chinese craftsmen may explain differences between the Shengyousi pishtaq and the columned space behind it, and the similar spaces in Iraq and Tunisia. In an ‘Abbasid-­period (750–1258) congregational mosque, for example, the prayer space is adjacent to a courtyard that is larger than the area for prayer. However, the inconsistencies between mosque construction before the year 1300 in Arab, Persian, Turkic and Indian communities and Shengyousi are deeper than artisans’ licence or misunderstanding or incorrect memory of spaces seen in Muslim lands to the west. A Chinese source or technique can be found for each element of Shengyousi that has an apparent source in mosque architecture west of China. The Sino-­Islamic convergence is the reason so many aspects of Shengyousi appear out of character no matter the vantage point from which one observes. One begins by returning to vaulting. The segmented arch has been a Chinese technique since the Han dynasty (Figure 2.12). Three domes constructed in the eleventh century at Baoguo Monastery near Ningbo in Zhejiang province, 757.2 km from Quanzhou, are ribbed in the manner of the half-­dome of the first archway of the pishtaq (Figure 2.13). The beak-­shaped struts above pillars at either end of the second archway of the pishtaq abbreviate bracket sets; and in addition, the cloud-­like patterning on the struts is a motif that decorates extant bracket arms in seventh-­century Japan whose source in all likelihood is Chinese.40 Squarish crenellations are

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Figure 2.13  Three ceilings of Main Hall, Baoguo Monastery, Yuyao, Zhejiang, 1013.

Figure 2.14  Detail of north wall of front chamber, Dingjiazha tomb 5, Jiuquan, Gansu, circa late fourth–early fifth century.

painted atop a wall in a tomb in Gansu province from around the year 400 ce (Figure 2.14). Brick and stone architecture stood above and below ground in China before the end of the first millennium bce (Figure 1.8). By the time Shengyousi was built, brick pagodas rose in every city with a Muslim population. In the 1340s, rows of dressed stone were used to make the Cloud Terrace (Yuntai) at the strategic pass of the Great Wall outside Beijing known as Juyongguan.41 The wall, of course, had been made of brick and stone for centuries before then. By the Ming dynasty, ‘beamless’ construction also had come into existence (Figure 1.16).42 Sources from Buddhist India also exist for the Shengyousi

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Figure 2.15  Entry façade to chaitya hall, Bhaja, Maharashtra, India, circa first century bce.

Figure 2.16  Interior detail, cave 10, Yungang, Shanxi province, 465–94.

entryway. Ogee-­arched entrances and interior ribbed vaults are used at rock-­carved worship spaces (chaitya) in Bhaja and Karli, both in Maharashtra, dated to the first century bce and second century ce respectively (Figure 2.15). Chaitya halls with this kind of entry were the sources of Buddhist rock-­ carved cave temples in China. The archway is so common in early Buddhist India and in China that it is known as a chaitya arch. It was incorporated from Indian models into decoration of Buddhist rock-­carved architecture in China by the fifth century (Figure 2.16). The possibility of Indian sources for structural details at Shengyousi is credible, for Quanzhou had a large South Asian population in the Song dynasty. More puzzling, however, is the fact that although Islamic and Buddhist architectural sources from India can be found for the Shengyousi pishtaq (Figures 2.6 and 2.15), the majority of Quanzhou’s South Asian residents practised Brahmanism (Hinduism).43 Remains of Brahmanical temples in Quanzhou are in

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the city’s museums. Pieces of sculpture with Hindu and Buddhist iconographic elements of India were inset into buildings at the Chinese Buddhist monastery Kaiyuansi.44 We shall see that Muslim cenotaphs were placed alongside Christian burials in Quanzhou’s cemeteries, and the decoration of Christianity and Islam in Quanzhou shared details as well. The architectural features observed today in the sections of Shengyousi dated to circa 1310 were clearly within the repertoire of builders in Quanzhou and across China at that time. Sources from China, Arab, Persian and Indian lands of Islam, and also Buddhist India have been shown for many of them. Yet the dominant visual message of Shengyousi is that this is an Islamic monument. Shengyousi perhaps is best understood as a composite of mosque ­elements – pishtaq, arcade, hypostyle worship space, embedded pointed-­arches and, of course, the necessary mihrab – representing various Muslim populations to the west, and embellished through the hands of Chinese craftsmen and using decorative elements present in the city of Quanzhou. Shengyousi also was surely the strongest symbol of the flourishing Muslim community in Quanzhou: the granite pishtaq emblazoned the presence of Islam in China’s most international city in Song times and perhaps even into the Yuan dynasty. In the city today and in its museums, artifacts of Hindu, Manichaean, Christian, Daoist and Chinese Buddhist residents of the Song and Yuan ­dynasties are as evident as those of Muslims.45 The funerary record is further testament to this multicultural community. Shengyousi and its Community through Writings and Inscriptions In addition to the inscription of ah 400 quoted above that provides initial dates for construction and for major renovation of Shengyousi, nineteen other inscriptions at the mosque have been judged significant. Many are on the walls; the majority are Qur’anic verses or passages of hadith, located on the exterior above the eight windows and beneath pointed archways. An important stele inscription dates to 1407. It is an imperial edict from the Chinese emperor to one Mir-­i Hajji, sanctioning repair of Shengyousi and promising imperial protection with the words ‘No official, military or civilian personnel should despise, insult or bully them.’ An almost identical inscribed stele survives at the remains of a mosque in Fuzhou, about 192 km northward along the coast from Quanzhou. In 1956, a paper scroll, mounted on a 108 cm by 77 cm surface, again for Mir-­i Hajji and again sanctioning the practice of Islam, was found in Yangzhou, even further north. The writing is in Persian and Mongolian as well as Chinese (Figure 2.17). It is possible that Mir-­i Hajji refers to the man who led Muslims from China on the pilgrimage to Mecca, for in Arabic, Amir al-­Hajj is the honorific given to such a leader; Mir-­i Hajji could be the way this name was rendered in or transcribed in

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Figure 2.17  Trilingual edict for Mir-­i Hajji, paper, 108 by 77 cm. Found in Yangzhou in 1956.

the inscription.46 Presumably the scroll would have been given to a community leader who had made the pilgrimage; one wonders if more than one person had done this at the time. It seems significant that only the Chinese text appears on the two steles. Mongolian, an official language of the Yuan court, may have been retained for court documents fifty years after the fall of the Mongols, but probably was not relevant on steles.47 The lack of Persian is harder to explain. The presence of religious inscriptions in Persian and Arabic at Shengyousi and the preservation of a Muslim cemetery in Quanzhou suggest that there would have been no reason to avoid using Persian.48 Perhaps in 1407 stone carvers were not as adept at that language as they had been in earlier centuries. According to an essay by Lin Zhiqi (1112–76), an official and trade commissioner in the Office of Maritime Affairs that had been established in Quanzhou in 1087, and who for a time was the d ­ irector of customs in Quanzhou, a cemetery for foreigners was built in that city between 1162 and 1163.49 Information about the cemetery also comes from Zhufanzhi (Record of Foreigners) by Zhao Rugua (1170–1231). The cemetery was located on a hill on the east side of Quanzhou. A Muslim in Quanzhou named Pu Xiaxin charged the community with establishing a Muslim cemetery, and a wealthy merchant named Shi Nawei from Srivijaya gave funds to build it. It was enclosed by a wall, covered with a roof and kept locked. All the city’s foreign merchants were allowed to be buried there.50 The cemetery has not been found. That it was roofed in its entirety suggests it was small, and perhaps that it was lost in one or more of the destructive acts in Quanzhou in the twentieth century.

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The above information is consistent with a record that approximately fifty years earlier a school for the education of foreign children had been founded. During the Daguan or Zhenghe period (1107–18), the Chinese government approved the request of members of the Quanzhou and Guangzhou Muslim communities to build schools where Arabic would be the language of instruction, with the further stipulation that students be sent to the Song court for consideration for government posts.51 The cemetery seems to suggest that even if these children served the government, and wherever they were posted, they returned to Quanzhou eventually, or that their families remained there. The earliest gravestone in Quanzhou probably dates to the 1170s.52 By this time, wealth was also pouring into the city from the Southern Song court in Hangzhou, known at this time as Lin’an. Fearing attack and capture by the Jurchen, who after 1126 ruled north China under the Jin dynasty, the Song sent royalty and officials further south than their capital, and with them their high court salaries. Quanzhou became home to many of these transplanted courtiers who had money to spend on foreign and exotic goods.53 Between the beginning of the Song dynasty and the establishment of the trade commission in 1087, merchants came to Quanzhou from today’s Java, Cambodia, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Brunei, Turkey and India.54 A multinational cemetery would surely have represented many religions. This may seem unusual, even prohibitive according to the customs of some of the faiths that worshipped in Quanzhou, but records about the city suggest not only the coexistence of institutions of more than five religions, but that the foreigners all lived together, so that their final resting place might have been an extension of their living situation. A record by Zhu Mu known as Fangyu shenglan (Overall survey of topography), written in 1239, states that Quanzhou had two kinds of foreigners, white and black, all residing together on Fanrenxiang (Foreigners’ Alley).55 It is assumed these labels refer to dark and light skin colour, but this interpretation cannot be confirmed. The situation described in this port city was decidedly different from life in the Tang capital Chang’an several centuries earlier, where foreigners were separated in wards according to their nationality. Indeed, knowing that neighbourhoods of worshippers grew around their religious institutions in traditional China, and that today Muslims still live and shop for specialised products – from halal food to appropriate prayer ­garments – in neighbourhoods adjacent to mosques, the lifestyle of Muslims so integrated into this city in Song and Yuan times is all the more extraordinary. It is a testament to a uniquely multi-­ethnic city whose mosque might have borne elements of architecture from across the lands of Islam and perhaps also of non-­Muslim India and China. The nearly 200 tombstones and funerary steles in Quanzhou are the most tangible evidence of the Muslim community in the

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Figure 2.18  Cenotaphs and funerary steles at Muslim cemetery, Quanzhou, restored in twentieth century.

twelfth to fourteenth centuries. Several are preserved at the original site of one of the cemeteries, one of several outside the walls of Song–Yuan Quanzhou (Figure 2.18). Other gravestones, cenotaphs and sarcophagi are in the city’s museums and research institutes, including Quanzhou Museum and Quanzhou Museum of Overseas Communication. The Quanzhou tombstones record a community that included Husayn b. Muhammad (d. 1171); Mansur (d. 1277); Hajji ibn Aubak (d. 1290); Granto Takin (d. 1299); Fatima bint Naina Ahmad (d. 1301); Ibn Daghab (d. 1301); Amir Saiyid Ajall (Saidianchi) Tughan-­shah (d. 1302), whose famous father is discussed in Chapter Four; Naina Muhammad (d. 1303 or 1305); Aklab ‘Umar (d. 1303); Husayn b. Hajji (d. 1304); Khwaja Jamal al-­Din (d. 1310); Abu Bakr b. Husayn (d. 1317); Shirin Khatun (d. 1321); Nuransa from Khwarazm (d. 1322); Shams al-­Din b. Nur al-­Din (d. 1325); Muhammad b. Su‘ud Nahsh (d. 1326); Fatima Khatun (d. 1329); Khadija Khatun (d. 1336); Khwaja Ali (d. 1357); Naluwan Banan (d. 1358); Husayn Isma‘il (d. 1363); Hajji Khwaja b. Hasa (d. 1363); Baha al-­Din ‘Umar (d. 1363); Amir Tutghasun (d. 1371); and numerous others whose names or death dates are no longer legible. One cannot draw conclusions about the population from this information, neither about the total number of Muslims nor about how wealthy one had to be to have a gravestone. One can probably assume that many of these Muslims supported Shengyousi, and perhaps prayed there. The stone inscriptions confirm that the Muslim population was strong and secure enough to add to the cemetery through to the end of the Yuan dynasty, and that they saw themselves as transplanted from their own or their

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Figure 2.19  Gravestone with deities with Christian cross and Buddhist garments flanking Buddhist incense burner from which lotus supporting cross emerges, probably Yuan period.

ancestors’ birthplaces. Most inscriptions offer the date as ah as well as according to the Chinese reign year, and a majority include the verse: ‘Whoso hath died a stranger hath died a martyr.’56 The tombstones tell an even more interesting story when viewed alongside those of Christians, Hindus and Manichaeans, all of whom flourished together with Buddhists and Daoists in Quanzhou. Not only were they buried in the same cemeteries, they were buried beneath very similar stone monuments. Christian tombstones and sarcophagi inscribed in Latin and Syriac most often had a cross above a lotus, the primary symbol of Buddhism; the grape-­and-­vine pattern, a Chinese motif derived from Western Asian, probably Sasanian, sources, is frequently found; whorl and cloud patterns, also standard in West and East Asian design, are as common; and Muslim c­ enotaphs of standard shapes have these patterns, as well (Figures 2.19–2.21). In Quanzhou, the Manichaean deity Mani is portrayed as the Buddha of Light, enthroned on the same lotus on which the crucifix rests in Christian engravings.57 Decorative motifs on lintels of Hindu architecture in Quanzhou depict pushou, Chinese animal-­ faced door knockers.58 There is no extant stonework in Quanzhou or any neighbouring port city with Buddhist, Brahmanical, Islamic, Christian and Manichaean imagery together, but the juxtaposition of motifs specifically associated with a pair of these groups, in a variety of combinations, is frequent and the juxtaposition of three occurs.59 The same artisans are likely to have crafted tombstones, headstones, cenotaphs and sarcophagi, with the inscriptions coming last and presumably carved by someone who knew the language appropriate for the deceased. All foreign faiths would experience sharp declines in Quanzhou upon the restoration of native Chinese rule under the Ming dynasty. Christianity had nearly disappeared in China in the Song dynasty,

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Figure 2.20  Gravestone with winged, seated figure in pose of Buddhist deity on a lotus throne, holding cross with cross in background, probably Yuan period.

Figure 2.21  Cenotaphs of Muslims with base ornamentation inspired by Buddhist lotuses and other Buddhist motifs, probably Yuan period.

but would revive somewhat in the Yuan period. Hinduism had a presence almost exclusively in the south-­eastern trade ports, and Manichaeaism had negligible impact on China at any time. Islam had the most consistent presence among all foreign faiths in Song and Yuan China, so that even after its decline of Quanzhou, it would persist both in Quanzhou and in China after other faiths were hardly known. Guangzhou’s International Community If any city rivalled Quanzhou as a centre of Muslim life in China in the heyday of Silk Road of the Sea commerce, it was Guangzhou, formerly known as Canton. Guangzhou was one of the first two international Chinese ports for merchants coming to China from the

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west; the second was Yangzhou whose earliest mosque is discussed in the next chapter. At the end of the tenth century, Guangzhou was the greatest seaport in China.60 Guangzhou even has evidence of a Korean Muslim presence in the form of a tombstone of a man named Ramadan (1313–49), a local official in Guangxi province.61 Still, the shift from Guangzhou to Quanzhou as the centre of international trade began in the late Tang period.62 Guangzhou was 767 km closer to the Indian Ocean than Quanzhou, and the likely first point of entry to China for ships sailing from the west. There are hints in texts that sailors and their vessels from Persia or Arabia reached Guangzhou in pre-­ Islamic times, but only one may be credible. In 671, a Chinese Buddhist named Yijing (635–713) boarded a Persian ship in Guangzhou for Sumatra.63 Chinese sources record that in 748, Persian, Indian and Malayan ships docked in Guangzhou. Ten years later, according to Jiu Tangshu (Standard History of the Tang dynasty, earlier part), Arab and Persian merchants set fire to the port.64 The Guangzhou port was closed to foreign merchants until 792 as a result. Ibn Khurdadhbih’s description of the sea route from the Persian Gulf to China in Kitab al-­Masalik wa’l-­Mamalik of 885 does not mention Guangzhou specifically. Thirty-­four years earlier, in 851, ‘Akhbar al-­Sin wa’l-­Hind had been written. Between the dates of these texts, the Huang Chao rebellion (874–84) devastated Guangzhou along with cities across China, ultimately leading to the fall of the Tang empire in 907.65 In his commentary on ‘Akhbar al-­Sin wa’l-­Hind of 916, Abu Zayd al-­Hasan ibn al-­Yazid of Siraf wrote of the carnage in Guangzhou during which 120,000 died, including Muslims, Jews and Hindus. Even if the number is exaggerated, it appears to be evidence of the even greater number of foreign merchants who would have been in Guangzhou in the ninth century before the uprising. In spite of the disasters and prohibitions, Guangzhou remained the most important international seaport in China until the fall of the Tang dynasty in the early tenth century. The Maritime Trade Office, the office of the Chinese government responsible for taxing imported goods, was established in Guangzhou in 971,66 eleven years after the Song dynasty unified most of China, and immediately after the Song re-­ established control in the area of south-­ eastern China known as Lingnan, that included Guangzhou. It appears that Guangzhou maintained its premier position as the entrepôt for foreign goods for a full century, until Quanzhou successfully transferred the Maritime Trade Office there.67 A memorial from a prefect in Quanzhou named Chen Cheng helped this transfer. Chen argued that if immediate changes in the trade law did not take place, his city would be in jeopardy of losing its trade revenue, for not only did laws require that merchant ships dock at Guangzhou upon entering and leaving China, the trade winds were such that they usually had to stay in China two winters.68 This regulation is one of the most significant

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facts to confirm that Muslims did more than dock, trade and leave China’s south-­eastern coast. A stay of some fifteen months would have ensured that any practising Muslim worshipped in these ports and some are likely to have died during these stays. By the early twelfth century, the situation had begun to change. In 1115 Quanzhou opened a hostel for foreign merchants, whereas a hostel for foreigners was not opened in Guangzhou until 1132.69 Still it appears that Guangzhou and Quanzhou received nearly the same percentage of the approximately two million strings of cash coming to China from abroad in the year 1159.70 There is also some evidence that Fuzhou, the port 192 km north of Quanzhou in Fujian, had an office that supervised the government monopoly on imported goods.71 It is believed that there were Muslims in Fuzhou in the Yuan dynasty, but their presence is well documented only in the sixteenth century.72 Whether Quanzhou or Guangzhou had the first, largest, wealthiest, greatest number of, or most populated mosques, it is certain that both cities, plus Fuzhou and Xiamen (Amoy), both also in Fujian, as well as Yangzhou and Hangzhou, not only were international seaports but were part of a network of ports frequented by Muslim merchants. Each may have vied for commerce independently, but the network flourished because of the existence of all of them. Scholarship on modern port cities shows that the extent to which the practice of religion was permitted in an international port is directly related to its success.73 Even though Guangzhou was by all accounts the seaport with the largest international merchant presence in China in the Tang period, and may well have had mosques in the Song dynasty and perhaps earlier, the oldest mosque architecture in Guangzhou is from the fourteenth century. The plan of the complex and its location are believed to date from the Song period. Huaishengsi Huaishengsi, Flourishing of the Sage Mosque, is the earliest recorded mosque in Guangzhou. A Yuan stele at the mosque traces its origins to the Tang dynasty.74 An inscription of 1634 says that Muhammad’s maternal uncle, Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas (595–664), founded the mosque in 627 (Figure 2.22). Sa‘d does have a connection with China: he is said to have been part of diplomatic missions there in 616 and 651.75 Yet as an official envoy, he almost certainly went to Chang’an, not Guangzhou. In the 630s he fought in the wars against Persia and then was governor in that country. It is possible both that Guangzhou was the first Chinese city to have a mosque, and that a mosque, perhaps Guangzhou’s earliest, existed on the site of Huaishengsi in the Tang dynasty. Yet it seems unlikely that Muhammad’s uncle founded Huaishengsi or that a mosque was established in Guangzhou so early

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Figure 2.22  Inscription recording founding of Huaishengsi, Huaishengsi, Guangzhou, probably fourteenth century.

in the history of Islam. The current plan survives from a rebuilding in 1350, also the earliest possible date of any existing building at the site. The structures of Huaishengsi were restored in 1695 and again in 1935. The prayer hall has a date of 1935.76 Huaishengsi and its Guangta The most unusual structure of the Guangzhou mosque is the minaret, named Guangta, or Tower of Light, by local residents (Figure 2.23).77 It is so prominent that the complex sometimes goes by the name Guangtasi, Mosque of the Guangta.78 The syllable ta in this designation is the Chinese character most often translated as pagoda. By the Tang dynasty, pagodas were standard features of the Chinese landscape. Like the suffix si that is used as widely to designate a mosque as to designate another Chinese religious institution, ta as the Chinese name for the minaret is evidence of the Chinese inclination to incorporate architecture of a foreign faith into the inherent system of names for Chinese religious structures. As for the word Guang, meaning light or brightness, four possible purposes of the structure are consistent with this name.79 First, the

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Figure 2.23  Minaret of Huaishengsi, Guangzhou, 1350 with later repairs.

Tower of Light may have served as a beacon for ships coming into the Guangzhou port. Lighthouses were not standard structures of Chinese ports to the extent that they were in West Asia and further west. The Pharos in Alexandria, for example, rose 45 m in the third century bce and was still standing in the thirteenth century.80 Travellers to and from China could have seen it. One of the earliest mentions of a lighthouse in Chinese literature is in a geographical work by Jia Dan (730–805).81 Jia writes of huabiao with torches placed on them in the night to guide ships.82 Huabiao are cylindrical, ceremonial pillars, none rising nearly as high as 45 m, but tall in a Chinese architectural setting. A famous one from the Qing dynasty stands in Tiananmen Square. It is visible in numerous photographs of the entrance to the Forbidden City. A fixture used in imperial Chinese architecture or similarly eminent settings, huabiao also remain at Huajuexiang Mosque in Xi’an, discussed in Chapter Five. It is unknown which lighthouse was known to Jia Dan. Joseph Needham suggests Jia saw a lighthouse near Baluchistan.83 In the thirteenth century, a Chinese author described the Pharos and called it ta.84 The name Guangta is especially intriguing even if the purpose of the structure was not a lighthouse. The English word minaret is derived from the Arabic word manara. Just as guangta translates as tower of light, so manara can be translated as place of light or fire. In fact, one theory for the origins of the ‘minaret’ is that its source is a lighthouse.85 Guangta is thus a close Chinese translation of ‘minaret’ whether or not the word manara was known in Guangzhou when the structure was erected, and even though the only known use of the two-­character term guangta in association with a mosque is in Guangzhou.

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The second possible function of Guangta in the city of Guangzhou is as a tower from which the direction of the wind was determined. This possibility is extrapolated from the earliest known description of the minaret. The Song literatus Yue Ke (1183–1234), grandson of the famous military hero and subsequently legendary figure, Yue Fei (1103–41), wrote of Guangta in his Tingshi (Bedside table history), an accumulation of anecdotes and thoughts of the kind Chinese court officials penned at this time. Writing after the year 1192 when his father became governor of Guangzhou, Yue Ke informs his reader that on top of the minaret there was a golden rooster that was missing a leg. According to a legend, Yue reports, sometime after the year 1180 a man had climbed inside the minaret with the intent of stealing the cock. Working in darkness over a three-­day period, he managed only to saw off one leg, which turned up for sale in the marketplace. The tale included the robber’s explanation that after he completed his task, he had descended from the top of the minaret by holding on to two umbrellas during high wind.86 Joseph Needham points to this passage from Yue Ke as evidence of Chinese attempts at parachuting, a practice that can be traced to a first-­century bce tale about China’s legendary emperor Shun saving himself from a burning barn by jumping from an upper storey with conjoined straw hats to lighten his fall.87 Yue Ke refers to the structure as lou, writing that it was like no lou he had ever seen. The fundamental definition of lou is a multi-­storey building, and by inference, it is a tall building.88 Again we observe an incorporation of standard Chinese vocabulary into the descriptive language of foreign architecture, for in this case there is no evidence that the Guangta was ever multi-­storey. The height and interior staircases, of course, imply the third and perhaps primary purpose of the tower: it was a minaret ascended by the muezzin to call the local Muslim community to prayer. The last widely suggested purpose is related to its name. The tremendous height is interpreted as a symbol of the light, and by extension, the power, of Islam in Guangzhou. This fourth interpretation reinforces the implications of the name Huaisheng: sheng, or sage, is a reference to Muhammad.89 Elevated on a circular platform, the Tower of Light is a brick building faced with white plaster that rises 35.75 m at the south-­ west corner of the Huaishengsi complex.90 Records of damage in the Ming period raise questions about the 1350 date associated with it, as does the record of unspecified mosque repairs that included the worship hall in 1935. It is likely, for example, that the plaster exterior of the Guangta was repaired in 1935 and more recently. At whatever point it reached this height, the minaret was visible well beyond the mosque’s boundaries. The gate through which one enters the mosque precinct today, dated to the reign of the Kangxi emperor (r. 1662–1722), is more than 20 m behind the minaret. This position suggests that there was an earlier gate in front of it, so that if the

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Figure 2.24  Interior courtyard of Huaishengsi, Guangzhou, facing street entrance, in the twentieth century.

minaret dates to the rebuilding of the mosque in 1350, it probably is the oldest building in the complex. Today a twentieth-­century street-­side gate provides access to the mosque from a largely Muslim neighbourhood (Figure 2.24). Before and after 1935, scholars have selectively used inscriptions to suggest a date for the Guangta. The interest and controversy are due to the fact that many have deemed it a unique structure. The Japanese scholar and architectural historian of China, Itπ ChËta (1867–1954), published his opinion in 1943, but if he saw the mosque it would have been during a research trip before the 1935 repair. Writing that there were no comparable buildings other than Tang pagodas, and turning to the inscription with the date 627 as evidence, Itπ accepted the Tang date for Guangta.91 The dearth of research on Islamic architecture in China is such that in 2001 Itπ was still cited in support of a Tang date.92 Among extant premodern Chinese buildings, the rarest feature is the circular ground plan. It is widely known that Indian Buddhist stupas were round at the base, and by the time the structures reached the deserts of Xingjiang, in approximately the third century ce, stupas were taller and combined four-­sided and circular components (Figures 1.6a and 1.6c). Chinese builders may have attempted circular construction in their early efforts to erect pagodas (Figure 1.6d). In the Tang dynasty, Muslims and others in Chinese cities or the

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Figure 2.25  Minaret at mosque in Sangbast, Iran, Saljuq period, circa 1100.

countryside would have seen primarily four-­ sided pagodas, but by the tenth century, octagonal pagodas, further discussed below, began to appear (Figure 1.6e). Most pagodas were multi-­storey. In the tenth to twelfth centuries, tomb builders of the Liao dynasty seem to have attempted circular tomb chambers, with results that were often closer to octagons than circles.93 The possibility that eight sides were intended to render a circle, just as the possibility that the intent of twelve sides was such an attempt on Mount Song in 523 (Figure 1.6d), has to be considered. Still, among extant pagodas through Chinese history, none is a single-­storey cylinder. The Guangta is a cylinder on the exterior and further, in contrast to an eight-­or twelve-­sided pagoda, there is no indication of a desire for facsimile timber framing on the outside. The cylindrical exterior therefore suggests a desire for a tower like the ones used as minarets during the Saljuq period (1038–1194) in Iran. The minaret at the mosque in Sangbast, datable to circa 1100, is a possible visual precedent for the Guangta (Figure 2.25).94 Occasionally eight-­sided, and when eight-­sided, all sides not necessarily of the same length, minarets were constructed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries from Syria (Miskina, near Balis) to Armenia (the minaret of the mosque of Ani datable 1072–92), to Iran and Afghanistan.95 The combination of Muslim function and Muslim and Chinese visual precedents is indisputable in discussion of sources or precedents for the Huaishengsi Guangta. Its interior construction, too, suggests knowledge of Muslim buildings and Chinese construction methods for tall architecture. Today the entrance to Guangta is sealed. Yue Ke wrote that there was one entrance and that there were ten stairs on each level of the interior. The specific number of stairs leads one to wonder if he had ascended, or if this statement is based on a verbal or written description. Did Yue have ties to the Muslim community in Guangzhou?

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Figure 2.26  Interior of minaret, showing interior wall, stairs and windows, Huaishengsi, Guangzhou, 1350.

Figure 2.27  Drawing of minaret, showing positions of interior stairs with respect to windows, Huaishengsi, Guangzhou, 1350.

Or does the passage mean that non-­ Muslims were permitted to enter the grounds of the mosque, or perhaps even the minaret? By the 1980s when descriptive studies of Huaishengsi were published, there were two entrances from ground level. Scant photographs and descriptions by those who had entered confirm that two staircases spiral through the minaret, and that the narrow exterior windows were positioned in response to stairways along the interior wall to light the way up and down (Figures 2.26 and 2.27). A fourteenth-­ century Chinese building with plastered walls is not impossible. Walls of brick tombs were faced with white lime to provide a painting surface in the early centuries ce in China. The White Pagoda of Miaoying Monastery in Beijing, dated 1279, with later repairs, is a tall building with a brick core, white plastered walls, and a circular horizontal section (Figure 2.28).96 Japanese builders of tahπtπ (a form of pagoda that included circular sections)

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Figure 2.28  White Pagoda, Miaoying Monastery, Beijing, 1279.

in the Kamakura period (1185–1333) constructed four-­sided wooden frames, and added wooden struts around which a circular exterior could be supported. The exteriors were then plastered.97 In other words, two techniques for a cylindrical form covered in plaster existed in East Asia before the year 1350. Possible precedents for the Guangta also are found among louge-­ style pagodas. As explained in Chapter One, the exterior of a louge pagoda has successive individual storeys, one on top of another. Two louge-­style Song pagodas, both brick and both octagonal, the Liaodi Pagoda of Kaiyuan Monastery in Ding county, Hebei, dated 1055, and the pagoda of Bao’en Monastery in Suzhou, constructed between 1131 and 1162, are examples of the kinds of building that might have inspired the construction of the Guangta. Liaodi Pagoda, restored in the 1980s, is 84 m high, with a ceiling above each of its eleven storeys. The interior staircases are positioned so that they spiral upward around an inner core, creating a space between two brick walls. A photograph taken during restoration in 1987 shows these features (Figure 2.29). However, there are not two complete stairways. Some Chinese pagodas have double spiral stairways that make is possible for someone ascending never to run into someone descending, but it is equally possible that the double staircase inside the Guangta of Huaisheng Monastery has a minaret as its source. The minaret of Jam in Afghanistan, dated 1171, has a double spiral s­ taircase.98 The Bao’ensi pagoda stands approximately midway between two of China’s earliest extant mosques, in Hangzhou and Yangzhou, both discussed in Chapter Three. Like the Liaodi Pagoda, the Bao’en Monastery Pagoda is constructed with an inner core, in this case one that reaches the ninth storey of the 76m building (Figure 2.30). The number of louge-­style pagodas extant in south-­ eastern China argues for the influence of this kind of structure on the Guangta.99 Records of destruction and reconstruction establish that the

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Figure 2.29  Liaodi Pagoda, Kaiyuan Monastery, Ding county, Hebei, 1055; during restoration in 1987.

Figure 2.30  Sectional drawing of pagoda, Bao’en Monastery, Suzhou, Jiangsu 1131–62.

Guangta one sees today is not the minaret described by Yue Ke in his tale of the attempted theft of the bird. Guangdong tongzhi (Provincial record of Guangdong), for example, mentions reconstruction following destruction in the Ming dynasty, although it mentions a bird at the pinnacle in 1162 and 1562. An earlier Ming record, Yao Yu’s Linghaiyu tu (Illustrated discussion of mountain ranges and seas) describes the minaret without the bird. The number of exterior windows also is believed to have changed. The first record of the two ground-­level entries is in 1959.100 A mosque plan in China could not be more instructive about the resolution of Islamic architecture in Chinese space than Huaishengsi’s (Figure 2.31). Oriented southward, the T-­ shaped approach to worship space is defined by a gate at its beginning and end. This formation has a long history in Chinese imperial planning, a configuration that resonates in the Forbidden City.101 Covered

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Figure 2.31  Plan of Huaishengsi, Guangzhou, fourteenth century, probably retaining locations of architecture from earlier centuries.

arcades extend from the east and west sides of the second gate, and then turn northward, terminating in front of two kiosks. Behind the second gate is an approach to a large platform, known as a yuetai. In China, yuetai of this size, about 15 m sq., often are used for cere­ monies. They are standard at the approach to a significant building in Buddhist and Daoist monasteries. Notable yuetai are positioned in front of Sanqing Hall of Yongle Daoist Monastery (Figure 1.10) and the Virtuous Tranquility Hall of the Temple to the Northern Peak in Quyang, Hebei, dated circa 1270. Another possibility for a platform this large is congregational space. Although prayer occurred inside, if Huaishengsi was as important as records suggest, the large, courtyard-­enclosed space may have been needed to accommodate the congregation. Directly behind, but not exactly in line with the yuetai, is the prayer hall. Here the plan is deceptive to anyone familiar with Chinese space. To enter for worship, one must walk 90 degrees to the east, where a gate stands at the entrance. As in any standard mosque, the mihrab is on the western wall, in the direction of Mecca, opposite the entrance to the prayer hall. This directional change is evident only after one has passed through two gates and ascended the yuetai or walked through a courtyard to its east. The alternate building axis created by the entrance for prayer is concealed behind the arcades and walls of the mosque, so that the single, crucial feature of Muslim worship is apparent neither from the plan nor when standing in the first courtyard or in front of the yuetai.102 A comparison between

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Figure 2.32  Plan of Shanhua Monastery, Datong, Shanxi, eleventh century with later repairs.

the plan of Huaishengsi and that of a Buddhist monastery such as Shanhuasi in Datong, datable to circa the eleventh century, shows a hall with its own yuetai where the second gate of Huaishengsi stands, and then the main hall, also with a yuetai, all along the main south–north axial line, with symmetrical pavilions on either side of the main building line, and enclosing arcades (Figure 2.32). Muslim worship could occur behind the façade of a thoroughly Chinese religious compound with a single alteration, namely the orientation of prayer space, and that accommodation to the tradition was not visible from the outside. The Guangta indicates that in fourteenth-­century Guangzhou the Muslim community was secure enough to proclaim its presence with a minaret that projected above the low, Chinese-­style outer walls of Huaisheng Mosque. In other words, the choice of ground plan would not have been due to an intention to conceal worship. In all likelihood the plan was chosen because the necessary buildings for prayer, education, residence for congregational leaders and other functions of a mosque, were readily constructed in this kind of space. We shall observe again and again how external features of mosque architecture in China are constructed as indistinguishable from Chinese equivalents such as screen walls, gates, lecture halls, halls for ablution and minarets, and that the same is true for the spatial constructs of courtyard and enclosure, and for interior features such as domes and dense decoration. The ease of implementing a Chinese architectural overlay meant that only an extraordinary

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building proclaimed its distinction. The Shengyousi entryway and the Huaishengsi minaret are the notable examples of an architectural announcement of Islam in China. The Huaishengsi minaret and the Shengyousi entryway also are the exceptional mosque buildings in China that so clearly proclaim the foreign origins of Islam. We shall see that mosques elsewhere in China, including in the other port cities of China’s south-­eastern coast, possess noteworthy architecture or design features that make reference to Islam, but by and large the building complexes are indistinguishable from Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, Jewish and, as far as we know, their Manichaean or Zoroastrian counterparts.

Notes

1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6.

7.

8. 9.

10. 11.

12.

Lu and Zhang 2005: 100. Lu and Zhang 2005: 65; Wu Jianwei 1995: 64. Wu Jianwei 1995: 305–6; Lu and Zhang 2005: 118. Chen and Tang 2008: 66; Lu and Zhang 2005: 65; Wu Jianwei 1995: 64–5. ‘Reign period’ is the translation of the Chinese word nianhao. It is the name of a period, or era, of an emperor’s reign. The reign name is taken when the ruler ascends the throne. Emperors may have more than one reign period during the course of rule. The date in traditional China was recorded according to the year of the reign period, so that the first year of a reign was Year 1. Upon the declaration of a new reign, numbering began again from the first year. Zhenyuan 2, for example, was the year 786 and Jingyou 4 was the year 1037. Chen and Tang 2008: 64. Lieu et al. 2012; I thank Hugh Clark for pointing out that citong continue to thrive in Quanzhou. Interestingly, zaytun means olive tree in Arabic. I thank Sheila Blair for this information. There is no evidence that olive trees grew in or near Quanzhou any time in Chinese history. In 741 a canal was dug so that boats could bring food up the Jin River into the harbour. It is uncertain if the suppliers were Chinese from further south or foreigners. A poem of later in the eighth century talks of people from far-­off lands in the sacred isles who have come to local markets; Clark 1991: 32–3. Yule and Cordier 1993: vol. 2, 234–5. Schottenhammer 2001. Some of the most eminent Sinologists of the first half of the twentieth century studied the city, its monuments and its inscription; Ecke and Demiéville 1935; Pelliot 1914/1973. For more recent scholarship: Gardner et al. 2005, Lieu et al. 2012, and the bibliographies in both; Clark 1991 and 1995; Schottenhammer 2001 and 2005. So 2000: 2. So 2000: 17–24 explains Kuwabara’s argument and why he does not believe that Quanzhou is one of the four cities. For translations of the Arabic text see: Sauvaget 1948; Ahmad 1989: 38 with commentary 9–30. Clark 1995: 52–4. I thank Hugh Clark for reading this chapter and for his insightful comments.

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13. Clark 1995: 54. 14. In the Tang dynasty, Jiaozhi (Hanoi), Dengzhou in Shandong, Mingzhou in Zhejiang, and Yangzhou in Jiangsu also permitted foreign ships to dock. I thank John Chaffee for this information and for many other comments that greatly improved this chapter. 15. Clark 1995: 58–9; for more on Wang Anshi see H. Franke 1976: vol. 3, 1097–1103; Twitchett and Smith 2009: 383–447. 16. I used the word Orientalists here because this is how scholars at the time referred to themselves. Arnáiz and van Berchem 1911; Pelliot 1914; Ecke and Demiéville 1935. 17. Ecke and Demiéville 1935. 18. Lieu et al. 2012; Gardner et al. 2005. 19. Chen and Kalus 1991: 59–60. 20. Chen and Kalus 1991: 41–2. 21. For the inscription, see Chen 1984: 3 (Chinese text); 4 (English text). 22. Arnaiz and van Berchem 1911: 704–5 with discussion on 705–16; Chen 1984: 4–5 (English); Chen and Kalus 1991: 63–6 including discussion; Wu and Wu 2005: 15–16 and 312. 23. Al-­Quds should mean that someone comes from Jerusalem. This was the supposition of those who translated this passage before 1984. Chen Dasheng 1984: 4 suggests that the meaning of this line deserves reconsideration since it is so unlikely that Ahmad b. Muhammad came from both Jerusalem and Shiraz, and Shiraz is the more likely place of origin. 24. Chen and Kalus 1991 translate 180 of them. Wu and Wu 2005 translate 313. Relevant inscriptions are in Arabic, Persian and Chinese. 25. Based on discussion of half-­domes and double reserve curves in Wilber 1955: 60–71, the vaulting at the entryway to Shengyousi is compatible Khanid construction, and certainly is closer to fourteenth-­ with Il-­ century Iranian forms than to those of the eleventh century. 26. I thank Jonathan Bloom for translating this inscription. 27. Published measurements of the sections of the entryway vary slightly. Here I follow Wu 2005, both because it is one of the most recent studies and because drawings of the pishtaq and the plan of the monastery are to scale in his study. 28. For an illustration of such as plan, see Du Xianzhou 1991: 107. 29. I thank Sheila Blair for pointing out that this feature has an Islamic precedent. 30. For the passage, see Lu and Zhang 2005: 41. 31. The steles and inscriptions mentioned in this paragraph are published and discussed in Wu and Wu 2005: 16–21 and Chen 1984: 11–23. 32. Wu 2005: 11–12; Chen and Kalus 1991: 80–2. 33. Phillips 1896: 234. 34. Wu and Wu 2005: 10–11. 35. Chen and Kalus 1991: 83. 36. Fujian Provincial Museum et al. 1991: 353–87. 37. For illustrations see Ettinghausen et al. 2001: 29–36. 38. The moon-­viewing platform shown in Figure 2.10 existed the first time I visited Shengyousi in 1993. It was not there in 2011. Extant moon-­viewing platforms are discussed in later chapters. On the Great Mosque of Qayrawan, see Creswell 1940: vol. 2, 208–26; 308–20. 39. For example, Episode 50, S. 23, in the version in the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg. I

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thank Eiren Shea for this suggestion that was presented in a seminar paper in April 2012. 40. The best Japanese examples of cloud-­shaped patterning on bracket arms are on a lacquer shrine known as the Tamamushi Shrine dated mid-­seventh century and now in the Treasure Hall of the monastery HπryËji in Ikaruga, Japan. Three buildings datable to the early eighth century at the HπryËji have the same cloud-­patterned brackets. For illustrations and more about these structures see Suzuki 1980: 58–69. Chinese examples are found in the Han dynasty in cliff tombs in Sichuan province. For illustrations see Steinhardt 2014: 76. 41. For illustrations see Murata et al. 1955–7. 42. Three beamless halls in south-­eastern China are at Linggu Monastery in Nanjing, Kaiyuan Monastery in Suzhou, and on Mount Baohua in Jurong, Jiangsu. 43. Guy 1993–4: 2001. 44. Guy 2010. 45. Gardner et al. 2005; Wu 2005; Lieu et al. 2012. 46. I thank Robert Hillenbrand for this idea. 47. David Robinson argued for more recognition of the role of Mongols at the early Ming courts in a lecture at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in October of 2013; Serruys 1959, 1967 and 1987 also provide evidence of the Mongol presence in the early Ming government. 48. The text of the scroll is translated in Chen 1984: 12. 49. The sources about Lin’s official post in Quanzhou are ambiguous. For discussion see So 2000: 53–4. 50. So 2000: 53–4; Hirth and Rockhill 1911: 119, 124. The essay, entitled ‘Quanzhou dongban zang fanshan ji’ (Record of the tombs of foreign merchants in Dongban), is in Lin’s Zhuozhai wenji (Collected Essays from a Clumsy Studio). Self-­ deprecatory titles are standard among Chinese literati for their collected essays. Lin has a biography in Tuotuo 1977: juan 433. 51. Cai Tao 1983, juan 2: 27; Chen and Kalus 1991: 30. 52. The possible dates are discussed below. Chen and Kalus 1991: 29–30, 101 and 177–8; Chen Dasheng 1984: XIV–XV, XX–XXI. 53. Chaffee 2001. 54. So 2000: 56. 55. Zhu Mu 1981: 260–1. 56. Translations of the inscriptions mentioned in this paragraph and others of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries are found in Chen 1984: 29–55. 57. For illustrations see Lieu et al. 2012: 72, 81–2. 58. For illustrations see Wu and Wu 2005: 450–1. Pushou also are found on the twin pagodas at Kaiyuan (Buddhist) Monastery in Quanzhou. They are found on fifth-­century sarcophagi from tombs in northern China, including that of Song Shaozu and his wife, buried in Datong in 477 and one believed to date to the late fifth century in Guyuan, Ningxia. For illustrations, see Liu Junxi 2008: colour plates 43, 58–60, 66–72 and Ningxia Guyuan Museum 1988: last colour plate. 59. Guy 1993–4; Gardner et al. 2005; Wu Wenliang 2005. 60. Clark 1991: 66. 61. Han 2013: 62–70. 62. Clark 1991: 3. 63. Hourani and Carswell 1995: 46–50. 64. Hourani and Carswell 1995: 62–3.

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65. Twitchett and Fairbank 1979: 723–62 66. Clark 1991: 49 67. I thank John Chaffee for explaining the difference between the Maritime Trade Office and Superintendency. 68. Clark 1991: 126. 69. Clark 1991: 133–4. 70. Clark 1991: 134–5. 71. Clark 1991: 48–9. 72. Chen and Kalus 1991: 260. 73. Hein 2011, especially 1–23 and 93–4 on the reception in European ports of Greek traders who were members of the Orthodox Church. In comparison to the reception of foreign traders in Europe and the Americas beginning in the fifteenth century, China in the eighth to fourteenth centuries was tolerant of practices of foreigners in the south-­eastern port cities. China’s attitude would change from the beginning of the Ming dynasty. 74. Liu Zhiping 1985: 10. 75. Ma Haiyun 2006. 76. Lu and Zhang 2005: 40. From here on, the following books and articles have been consulted for every mosque discussed (in alphabetical order): Liu Zhiping 1985; Lou Qingxi 2001; Lu Bingjie 2003; Lu and Zhang 2005; Qiu Yulan 1993; Qiu and Yu 1992; Sun Zongwen 1984; and Wu Jianwei 1995. Straightforward facts about the mosques usually are found in more than one of these modern sources. For efficiency, I provide only one reference for undisputed information such as a date, dimensions or persons associated with the mosque. 77. This building is mentioned in two Southern Song (1127–1279) sources: Yue Ke (1183–1234) 1981: juan (Chapter) 11, a miscellaneous compilation of the author’s notes and writings; and Fang Xinru (1177–1220) 2003, a text focused on customs of Guangdong province, including architecture in its cities. The entry on the mosque in Fang’s work is the last one in juan 2, whose subject is si. All the other si described by Fang are Buddhist. 78. The earliest name of the mosque was Shizisi (Lion Mosque). In traditional China, lions were not fanciful, but they were considered exotic creatures brought from the West. For more on the lion in China, see Young 2009. 79. Liu Zhiping 1985: 13. 80. Needham 1971: 661. 81. Wu Chengzhi 1968. 82. Needham 1971: 661 83. Needham 1971: 661, based on Hirth and Rockhill’s translation of the relevant passage in Jiu Tangshu, juan 43. 84. Needham 1971: 661 85. Hillenbrand 1994: 132; Bloom 2013: 1, 7–10. 86. Yue Ke 1981:125–7. 87. Needham 1965: 594–5. Sheila Blair suggests this may be a variant of a legend concerning the palace of al-­Mansur (714–55) in Baghdad and the man on horseback on its weathervane. See Creswell 1969: vol. 2, 30–1. 88. Morohashi Tetsuji 1955: vol. 6, 6234–5. 89. This is consistent with Oleg Grabar’s comment that minarets seem to proliferate in locations where Muslims live among non-­Muslim populations. Grabar 1973: 120.

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90. Zhong Yuanxiu et al. 1989: 284, records the height as 36.3 m. Other scholars publish the height as 35.7 or 35.75 m. 91. Itπ ChËta 1943; vol. 1, 550–4. 92. Zhong Yuanxiu et al. 1989: 275; 274–316, using Itπ’s dating as a starting point, debates the Tang date, including if the Tang system of measurements can be confirmed. 93. For examples of some of the ambiguous plans, see Steinhardt 1997b: 312, fig. 286, no. 10 and 314, fig. 287, nos. 9 and 10. 94. I thank Jonathan Bloom for this suggestion. 95. Bloom 2013: 250–2; Hillenbrand 1994: 148–9. 96. Like the Huaishengsi minaret, its date is controversial. Mao Xisheng 1985: 155–62. 97. On Japanese pagodas of the tahπtπ form, see Ishida 1972: 39–41. 98. I thank Robert Hillenbrand for information about the minaret of Jam. 99. For more on Song masonry pagoda construction, see Guo Daiheng 2003a: 452–73. Zhang Yuhuan 2000: 156–70. 100. For discussion of these accounts and proposed reconstruction drawings of the Guangta through its history, see Zhong Yuanxiu et al. 1989: 284–316. 101. For an illustration of the T-­shaped approach see Steinhardt 2002: 210. 102. A feature comparable to the yuetai is found at the approaches to the two mosques facing the maidan (plaza) in Isfahan. I thank Robert Hillenbrand for pointing this out to me.

CHAPTER THREE

China’s Other Early Mosques

Among the approximately thirty mosques in China today that have histories dating to the fourteenth century or earlier, only those in Quanzhou, Guangzhou, Yangzhou and Hangzhou preserve significant pre-­fourteenth-­century architecture or documentation that makes it possible to reconstruct reliable ground plans. The first two were discussed in Chapter Two. Here we turn to the others of the group often referred to as the ‘four oldest’. Yangzhou Yangzhou was already an urban centre in the first millennium bce. The city has a continuous history since then, with new or repaired walls constructed in the fifth century bce, fourth to fifth centuries ce and in the Tang dynasty when the city was an auxiliary capital.1 By the eighth century, and perhaps earlier, Yangzhou was the second major port of entry to China for Arab and Persian merchants.2 The Grand Canal played a significant role in its rise to importance. Situated on the Yangzi River and 1100 km north of Quanzhou and 1474 km north of Guangzhou as the crow flies, along an inland route and further by ship along the coast, from the East China Sea, this northernmost of the major south-­eastern port cities is accessible only by the Yangzi River from the East China Sea (Map 2.1). The canal linked Yangzhou to the city that would become Beijing, thereby connecting the Yangzi and Yellow Rivers. Efforts at artificial waterways had been initiated in China in the fifth century bce. The 2250 km canal was achieved in the first decade of the seventh century under Sui rule (581–618), more than a millennium earlier than any comparable construction project.3 The joining of China’s two greatest rivers meant that travel by sea became possible from Chang’an, located on a tributary of the Yellow River, to Yangzhou, and from there to any port on the south-­eastern coast. In the eighth century, Yangzhou was one of the two major Chinese international emporiums.4 Through the Tang dynasty, when Yangzhou was a tertiary capital of China, it was the headquarters of China’s salt monopoly as well as a hub of the trade in tea, gemstones, aromatics, drugs, damask and tapestry.

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Yangzhou was also a banking centre and gold market; a city where metalwork, felt hats, silk, linen, boats and high-­ quality cabinets were produced; where sugar was refined; and where China’s best entertainment, parks and gardens were seen.5 Arabs and Persians surely were making profits in Yangzhou through this period. This is known because in 760 several thousand Arab and Persian merchants were killed during the Tian Shengong Massacre, an uprising aimed at this wealthy, foreign population.6 The city recovered, only to be devastated again during the Huang Chao Rebellion in 879 that enraged Guangzhou. Still, from 989 until the establishment of the Chinese Trade Superintendency in Quanzhou in 1087, Yangzhou was one of two south-­eastern ports that maintained the second Trade Superintendency office.7 After that, Yangzhou appears not to have again risen to its Tang significance as an international entrepôt. Yangzhou would house Muslims and a mosque again in the Yuan period along with other coastal and inland cities that rode the wave of Mongol policies toward foreigners. Like Quanzhou, Yangzhou was visited by Marco Polo.8 Rashid al-­Din wrote about it.9 During his years as an archbishop in Dadu, the capital of Khubilai Khan (1215–94) in China, John of Montecorvino (1247–1328) sent clergy to found churches in Quanzhou and Yangzhou.10 Friar Odoric of Pordenone (1286–1331) travelled through south China by land in 1323–4, stopping in Quanzhou, Fuzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing and Yangzhou and arriving in Dadu from Yangzhou via the Grand Canal by 1325. Odoric left records of Christians in both Hangzhou and Yangzhou; he informed readers that Yangzhou had a Franciscan convent and three Churches of the East.11 Two tombstones uncovered in Yangzhou in 1951 during the demolition of old city walls further confirmed the city’s Christian community. Catherine, daughter of Lord Dominic Viglione, sometimes known as the Virgin of Yangzhou, died there in June 134212 and her brother Anthony died in November two years later.13 The imagery on Catherine’s tombstone has led to the idea that she was a benefactress of the convent.14 Christian records of the Mongolian period mention mosques in some cities, including Karakorum, the main Mongol capital under Ögödei, Güyük and Möngke Khan, but the same accounts do not mention them for China’s coastal cities.15 The Tang dynasty is often seen as a golden age for Yangzhou, with a second not to occur until the Qing dynasty.16 By the Qing period, however, Muslims had little to do with Yangzhou’s wealth or success. By that time, Yangzhou ‘evokes images of artists, men of letters, great merchant families, waterways, an urban environment of considerable charm, [and] a past imbued with color and romance’.17 The mosque that remains in Yangzhou today bears the historical memory of a vibrant Muslim community in the Tang, first part of the Song and Yuan dynasties.

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Figure 3.1  Plan of Xianhesi, Yangzhou, Yuan dynasty with later repairs and additions.

Transcendent Crane Mosque Today the oldest traces of Yangzhou’s Muslim history are 700-­year-­old plantings at Xianhesi (Transcendent Crane Mosque). The location of an ancient gingko tree is shown in Figure 3.1. Most of the buildings at Xianhesi date to the Ming or Qing dynasties and all of them were repaired as part of a general renovation that occurred in 1980.18 The thirteenth–fourteenth-­century history of Xianhesi focuses on a cleric from the Western regions named Buhading, alternatively known in Chinese as Buhaoding and sometimes Puha(o)ding, possibly Burhan al-­ Din, a sixteenth-­ generation descendant of Muhammad who arrived in Yangzhou from Arabia in 1272 and built brick and stone buildings at Xianhesi in 1275.19 The plan of Yangzhou’s mosque is different from those of Huaishengsi and Shengyousi and from other mosques discussed later. It resembles a courtyard-­ style residence of south-­ eastern China, a type that fits comfortably from the Ming dynasty to this day in a city known for its waterscapes and gardens. The street entry through a green door to Transcendent Crane Mosque is no different from that to any religious, large residential or garden space in Yangzhou, and indeed it faces an active shopping street, as it would

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Figure 3.2  Street-­side façade and entry to Xianhesi, Yangzhou.

Figure 3.3  Stonework at foot of exterior entry to Xianhesi, Yangzhou, Ming–Qing period.

have in the thirteenth century (Figure 3.2). The overhanging gables, hip-­gable roofs, decorated roof ridges, wood carving and brickwork that enhance this impression of a beauty spot of south-­ eastern China are first apparent at the entry and in more dramatic fashion once inside (Figures 3.3–3.5). The architecture develops around a large central courtyard in the Chinese manner known as siheyuan, four-­ sided enclosure (Figures 3.1 and 3.6). As seen on the plan, additional smaller courtyards join the central courtyard to the west and north-­east. The main entrance is near the centre of the west side (Figure 3.2). Opposite it at the other end of the enclosure is an educational hall (Figures 1.21 and 3.6). The oversized prayer hall occupies most of the northern half of the mosque, from just inside the east wall to the west wall (Figure 3.5). It comprises four sections: a gateway, covered antechamber, worship space and back chamber known as yaodian with the mihrab behind it, an ensemble of 612 sq. m in area, not including the gate. The interior is divided into five

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Figure 3.4  Marble door pillow at foot of interior entry to Xianhesi, Yangzhou, Ming–Qing period.

Figure 3.5  Interior courtyard side of worship hall, Xianhesi, Yangzhou, probably Qing period.

bays that run the depth of the space. Although the main gateway to the mosque is on the east, this entrance does not lead directly to the prayer hall. Instead, one turns northward from the street entrance, follows a corridor that runs along the east wall, and then turns 90 degrees anticlockwise toward the worship space entrance. The prayer hall thus is positioned on a parallel axis to the central entry line. A third axis runs parallel along the southern side. Here

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Figure 3.6  Interior courtyard of Xianhesi, in front of educational hall, Yangzhou.

Figure 3.7  Chengxin Hall, Xianhesi, Yangzhou.

one finds a small building for ablutions on the east and next to it Chengxin (Sincere Belief) Hall, whose purpose is not certain, but is believed to have been a lecture hall at some time in the mosque’s history (Figures 3.1 and 3.7). The scheme of three parallel courtyards is an arrangement occasionally found in Buddhist and Daoist monasteries. In those cases, however, the most important buildings are along the central building line. Standing inside the walls of Xianhesi, one gets an impression similar to the sensation in Shengyousi: this is a constricted space with a worship hall and a few related buildings. In Yangzhou, the ambiance behind the street-­side wall is more decidedly that of an active mosque because the prayer hall stands and is in use, and an active school is on site. Still, of these oldest of China’s mosques, only Huaishengsi in Guangzhou has a minaret and multiple courtyards along one axis to indicate the likely appearance of an active mosque of Song or Yuan China. If the mosque today is the size it was

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in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, it is small compared to urban Buddhist or Daoist compounds in Chinese cities at that time. Based on the evidence of existing residential villas that survive in Yangzhou from the Qing period, such as Geyuan or Heyuan, even an upper-­middle-­class residence would have been much larger. Xianhesi probably is best understood as a preserved historical site that has recently returned to its original purpose, if not its original size. One explanation for the corridor along the east side of the mosque that leads to the front of the prayer hall is that it spreads like the wing of a crane.20 Probably a comment like this should be interpreted as that of scholars seeking explanations both for a spatial configuration and a name when they are not obvious. In the most extensive text devoted to the city of Yangzhou, Yangzhou huafang lu (Record of a painted barge in Yangzhou), the author Li Dou (fl. 1764–95) writes that the form of the city walls is like a crane, and in the north-­west part of the city, the crenellations of the wall project like the crop of a transcendent crane.21 Li Dou does not mention the mosque in his book. Yangzhoufu zhi (Record of Yangzhou subprefecture), however, lists a si named Baihesi (White Crane Monastery).22 Presumably other religious institutions also had ‘crane’ in their names. What one sees today is the Ming or Qing version of Yangzhou’s most famous thirteenth-­century mosque. One wonders if Transcendent Crane was the mosque’s original name. If it came later, one might think of the name as equivalent to Yangzhou Mosque, or Mosque of the City of the Transcendent Crane. Renovation or construction from the Qing period, when the name transcendent crane was associated with the city, is apparent in the roof and decoration of every building illustrated here. It might be significant that China’s four early mosques with building remains and documented histories have names or nicknames that refer to creatures: lion in Guangzhou, qilin (a mythical creature) in Quanzhou, crane here and, as we shall see below, the phoenix in Hangzhou. In 1980 Xianhesi had two religious leaders, ­twenty-­three students and twenty Islamic texts were in its possession. The mosque serviced 1100 households, or about 4100 people.23 These numbers could be accommodated in the prayer hall and courtyards. Finally, Xianhesi may have retained its supreme importance because of Buhading. His tomb survives in Yangzhou with a small mosque adjacent to it. Falling ill in the north, he returned to Yangzhou where he died on 20 July 1275. Backing onto the Grand Canal, the tomb is a beauty spot in an already beautiful city (Figure 3.8). Buhading has a standard Chinese–Muslim five-­ layer stone cenotaph. It is housed is in a 3.8 sq. m brick structure with a whitewashed exterior (Figure 3.9).

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Figure 3.8  Grounds of Muslim cemetery that includes tomb of Buhading, Yangzhou.

Figure 3.9  Tomb of Buhading, far right of building group with incense burner in front, Yangzhou, 1275 with later repair.

Hangzhou The written history of Hangzhou often begins in the third century bce, but the archaeological record, including jade of the Liangzhu Culture, is several millennia longer. Hangzhou was walled at the end of the sixth century ce, and immortalised in the thirteenth century as Marco Polo’s Quinsai, from which the name Cathay for China was derived. The city’s beauty was recognised long before the time of Marco Polo by the eight-­character Chinese expression that translates, ‘Above is Heaven, below Suzhou and Hangzhou.’24 Perhaps because of spectacular scenery around West Lake, Hangzhou

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had become a city of the elite and a home of poets and painters of the Tang and Song dynasties.25 Records attest to a Muslim presence as well, in the Tang dynasty. Like Quanzhou, Guangzhou and Yangzhou, Hangzhou had a mercantile population in the Song dynasty, but the period beginning in the late 1120s was different from that in other coastal cities at the same time. At the end of the tenth century, it is likely that Hangzhou had greater volume in trade than Quanzhou.26 In 1125 the Jurchen, a semi-­nomadic people whose homeland was in the territory once known as Manchuria, defeated the Liao empire. By 1127 all of north China, including the Song capital at Kaifeng, had fallen to the Jurchen, who called their dynasty Jin. The Song emperor and other members of the royal family were taken captive and brought north while the remnant of the Song royal house moved south and set up the capital named Lin’an (temporary peace) at Hangzhou. This second period of the Song dynasty, when the empire was south of the city Kaifeng, is referred to as Southern Song (1127–1279), and the earlier part of Song came to be known as Northern Song (960–1127). For the century-­and-­a-­half of Southern Song rule, until Hangzhou fell to the Mongols in 1279, Muslims in Hangzhou lived in an imperial city, the equivalent of Chang’an in Tang times. When Marco Polo visited Hangzhou, probably about ten years after the fall of Southern Song, it still appeared to him as the ‘finest and most splendid city in the world’ with 40,000–50,000 shoppers in its ten principal marketplaces everyday.27 He and other foreign voyagers to China would have seen West Lake and Six Harmonies Pagoda that towered above it, amid the 12,000 stone bridges and streets paved in brick and stone. Ibn Battuta’s (1304–77) description corroborates Marco Polo’s. The Moroccan seafarer was particularly impressed with West Lake, the ships on Hangzhou’s waters and the skilled craftsmen, and he wrote that in this city where Jews, Christians and Manichaeans lived in the vicinity of Chong’an Gate, Muslims lived in their own neighbourhood which resembled Muslim lands. Ibn Battuta mentions no mosques, which is puzzling because he describes active Muslim communities in so many other places he visited during his travels.28 Hangzhou’s Phoenix Mosque According to records and steles, the mosque known as Fenghuangsi (Phoenix Mosque) has a continuous history since the Tang dynasty. Hangsu yifeng (Winds of Remaining Customs of Hangzhou), a one-­ chapter treatise by Fan Zushu who wrote in the nineteenth century, describes a Huihuitang (Muslim Hall), in earlier times called Libaitang (Prayer Hall), on the south side of Nanda Street in Wenjin district, enclosed by walls five–six ren (between 10.75 and 12.9 m) in height where Muslims came to worship.29 A more

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complete description is provided more than 300 years earlier by Tian Rucheng, a government official who received his jinshi degree in 1526.30 Tian’s Xihu youlan zhi (Record of travels around West Lake) informs us: The mosque is in the southern part of Wenjin district. During the Yanyou reign period (1314–20) the Muslim master Alaoding (‘Ala’ al-­Din) built it. Previously in the Song dynasty, a man from the Western Regions known as Shitubi had settled on the Central Plain [of China] and then had come south. During the Yuan period, officials from this region often had come south to the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Min [Fujian] and Guangdong. They were known as Semu [a designation for non-­Mongol, non-­Chinese denizens of the Mongol empire].31 They prospered and flourished, never allowing pork to touch their lips. They married and buried their dead, without interaction with the Chinese. They stimulated where necessary and supported the needy, always remaining pure. They maintained educational institutions known as madrasa. Their scriptures were written. They worshipped facing a wall, never erecting an image of their god. Their primary religious tenet was to praise God and no other. The mosque rose five-­to-­six ren with gardens enclosed alongside. The enclosed space that is entered for worship is called libaisi. The Hangzhou mosque today is about two-­ thirds its fourteenth-­ century size. Entered by a gate on the east so that once inside that gate a worshipper faces the prayer hall and mihrab at its back end, it is the oldest mosque with this arrangement. At one time there was a minaret with a screen wall in front of it. In 1929 a five-­storey minaret, not necessarily the original one, was destroyed and replaced by the gate. The present gate is newer (Figure 3.10). Almost every feature of Fenghuang Mosque is unusual. It is in

Figure 3.10  Fenghuangsi, Hangzhou, today.

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Figure 3.11  Plan of Fenghuangsi, Hangzhou. (1) central dome of back section of prayer hall (2) hall for ablutions (3) prayer hall (4) main entryway (5) funerary steles (6) educational hall.

essence a single courtyard. A 工-­ shaped building dominates this courtyard with structures in arcades on either side (Figure 3.11). The arrangement is known as a gong-­plan, named for the Chinese character gong 工. This configuration of two wide halls joined by a much narrower arcade is reserved for China’s most important architecture. Three Great Halls and Three Back Halls at the core of the Forbidden City in Beijing are examples. In those cases, a smaller narrower hall is between the larger halls, all three supported by marble, gong-­ shaped platforms. The configuration of the back hall of Fenghuangsi is unique among mosques in China. It comprises three domes, shown as ­circular in the plan (Figure 3.11), but in fact the central dome is covered with an octagonal roof and hexagonal roofs cover those on the sides (Figure 3.12). The zone of transition between the four-­sided rooms and circular domes is tiered and honeycomb-­decorated with plaster surfaces, perhaps intended to imitate a muqarnas (Figure 3.13). Yet complex corner bracketing also is found in Chinese temple interiors. Corner bracket sets may have been equally an inspiration for the corner decoration beneath the domes of the Fenghuangsi worship hall. One thus observes an excellent example of the resolution of the two architectural systems, Chinese and Islamic. This kind of resolution is an important reason why mosques could be built anywhere in China. The arrangement of three domes in a row, the central one being the largest and most elaborate, also has a precedent in China. At Fenghuangsi, the central dome is 8 m in diameter, the one on the

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Figure 3.12  Aerial view of Fenghuangsi showing three domes, Hangzhou, Yuan dynasty with later repair.

Figure 3.13  Mihrab and dome in front of it, showing cornices in imitation of muqarnas or bracket sets, Fenghuangsi, Hangzhou, 1451.

south, 7.2 m, and the one on the north, 6.8 m. There is no apparent reason why the flanking domes are not the same size. Three domes, of which the central is the largest, are found in the ceilings of the main hall of the Buddhist monastery Baoguosi near Ningbo, Zhejiang, dated 1013, about 200 km closer to the sea than Hangzhou (Figure 2.13) and the thirteenth-­century Hall of the Three Purities at the Daoist monastery Yonglegong in Shanxi (Figure 1.10).

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Then there is the question of the name, fenghuang, or phoenix, a mythological and auspicious creature in China. Presumably the name is inspired by the shape of the worship hall, the main chamber, or body, with a back section whose sides spread beyond the core like the wings of a bird. Liu Zhiping writes that the name was used first in a fifteenth-­century stele.32 The form and its association with a phoenix may predate that inscription. At least one Phoenix Hall was built in East Asia prior to the construction of this version of Fenghuangsi, and perhaps even earlier than the form it might have taken in the Song dynasty. The Phoenix Hall (Hππdπ) of Byπdπin in Uji, Japan, on the train line between Kyoto and Nara, has had this name since the eleventh century. Built initially as a palatial hall in the villa of the nobleman Fujiwara no Michinaga (966–1028), the structure was transformed in 1052–3 by his son Yorimichi (990–1074) into a Buddhist chapel in preparation for the impending mappπ, or termination of the Buddhist Law that was calculated to occur at that time.33 The inspiration for the Japanese building was a phoenix whose beautiful wings would be mirrored in the lake in front of it. A comparison of the plans of the Japanese Phoenix Hall and Yangzhou Phoenix Mosque shows an approach to or from the main worship space and the spreading of wing bays on either side of the worship hall in Japan and on either side of the central dome with the mihrab at its back side in Hangzhou (Figures 3.11 and 3.14). A specific model for the Phoenix Hall in Japan has never been identified. Its architectural style is known in Japanese as shinden, a construction type derived from Chinese palace architecture.34 The Phoenix Hall in Uji often is compared with palatial buildings of Tang China, known through theoretical reconstructions of excavation sites combined with textual descriptions, or from paintings of Buddhist paradise scenes in which Buddhas are enthroned as e­ mperors in the frameworks of Chinese palatial architecture.35 The existence of two buildings with the same name, of which one is recorded as modelled

Figure 3.14  Plan of Phoenix Hall, Byo-do-in, Uji, 1052–3.

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after a phoenix and whose architectural sources are without question Chinese, and the second in China, suggests that there may have been yet more phoenix-­shaped buildings in China. Chinese scholars who have assessed the date of the Fenghuang Mosque propose that the central bay survives from the Song period and that the two sides were added during the Yuan dynasty.36 The dates are consistent with a Chinese source, now lost, that would have been transmitted to Japan in the eleventh century. The mihrab of Fenghuangsi, projecting slightly beyond the back wall of the central dome, is marked by an ornate, red lacquer cabinet with inscriptions at the base and a date of 1451. In that year, widespread repairs were undertaken at the mosque. Both the work in the year 1451and other renovations that continued until 1493 are recorded in Tian Rucheng’s text and in stele inscriptions.37 Other buildings at the mosque today stand along the northern and southern sides of the complex. They include a hall for ablutions, and funerary steles through which some of the history of the mosque can be reconstructed survive as well. The oldest Muslim tomb in Hangzhou dates to the Southern Song dynasty. It belongs to Buhatiya’er (Persian Bakhtiyar?),38 a doctor who came from Mecca to teach and practise Arab medicine. Today his cenotaph lies between those of two of his followers in a shrine that was restored in the twentieth century (Figure 3.15). When it served a large Muslim community in Hangzhou, Phoenix was one of six mosques in the city. Major renovations were carried out in 1670. Major damage occurred in 1929.39 When the new mosque was constructed in 1953, the present entrance, with two minaret-­like

Figure 3.15  Cenotaphs of Buhatiya’er and two followers, Hangzhou, Southern Song with later repairs.

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towers on either side, was constructed. By 1960 Hangzhou had only two mosques.40 By the 1990s Fenghuangsi was the only one.41 Other Pre-­fifteenth-­century Mosques China’s four oldest mosques are all different. The mosques in Quanzhou and Guangzhou have unique features among extant Islamic architecture in China, the pishtaq and minaret, respectively. So far as can be determined, not just from surviving buildings but from written records as well, the two fourteenth-­century buildings were unique in their time. The mosque in Hangzhou has a unique plan among early mosques. In Yangzhou, trees are the only ­physical evidence of the pre-­ fourteenth-­ century mosque. The plans of all four mosques have been altered since the thirteenth and fourteenth ­centuries. Their designation as China’s earliest mosques is justified in comparison to all other mosques in China because not only are there more physical remains of all four, there are premodern records by people who saw them in addition to the physical remains, and they are in cities of supreme importance in the history of Islam in Song and Yuan China, if not earlier. Fuzhou is the other south-­ eastern coastal city where pre-­ fourteenth-­century mosque remains have been sought. Tracing its maritime history to the Han dynasty,42 tradition records a mosque in Fuzhou in 628, founded by Muhammad’s uncle in the same year he is purported to have established the mosque in Guangzhou.43 A more reliable claim is that in 936, when Fuzhou was part of the kingdom of Min (909–45), the ruler converted a palace into a Buddhist monastery, and that in 1341 that building complex became a mosque.44 A fire destroyed the mosque in 1541. The major rebuilding that provided the date of 1549 for the Fuzhou mosque, mentioned in the last chapter, occurred under the direction of local Muslims Zhang Hong and Ge Wenming. Subsequent repairs took place in 1720, 1757, 1812 and 1843.45 The Ming-­period mosque in Fuzhou was a three-­courtyard complex whose worship hall faced east with the mihrab in the west. We shall see that by the Ming dynasty, most mosques were oriented east–west. With time, as Islam declined in Fuzhou, as in nearby Quanzhou, the front two courtyards became residential and commercial spaces, perhaps primarily for the Muslim population. Rebuilt in 1956, the Fuzhou mosque was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and survives today as a late-­twentieth-­century building.46 In the 1950s, the prayer hall was divided into three parallel rows by two colonnades of six columns each, the last two lodged into the wall, so that passage between them was directed toward the qibla. The existence of the Mosque of ‘Ala’ al-­Din in Fuzhou is recorded in a tomb inscription dated 1365 that states that the mosque was founded in 1306 by the ancestor of the deceased who had come from

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Khwarazm. The tomb of Ibn Marjad/Mirjad(?) survives on Meifeng Street today. The inscription says that he came from Western Regions. A stone tablet outside the pavilion that encloses the tomb records that a man named Ma Ji repaired it. Twelve more mosques, some of whose buildings are discussed in Chapter Seven, were founded after the Song and before the fall of the Yuan dynasty on sites where mosques survive today. They are in Linxia, Gansu, founded in 1273; in Jinan (Great South Mosque), Shandong, founded in 1295; in Jining, Sichuan, founded in 1295; in Qingzhou, Shandong, founded in 1302; in Lin’an, Yunnan, founded in 1312; in Tongzhou (Tongzhou Mosque), within the municipality of Beijing, founded 1313–20; in Datong, Shanxi, founded in 1324; in Songjiang, Zhejiang, founded in 1341; in Tianshui, Gansu, founded in 1343; in Beijing (Great East Mosque) founded in 1346; in Dingzhou, Hebei, founded in the 1340s; and in Qinyang, Henan, founded late in the Yuan dynasty. The reasons for such active mosque construction in the Yuan period are explained in the next chapter.

Notes 1. Luo Zongzhen1985: 107–9; Long Zhenyao 1979: 33–42; and Ji Zhongqing 1979: 43–56. 2. Clark 1991: 31–2. 3. Needham 1971: 269–72, 300–50; Yao Hanyuan et al. 1987. 4. Clark 1991: 66. 5. Schafer 1963: 17–18. 6. Yarshater 1993: 553; Lipman 1997: 26–7. 7. The other was Mingzhou, also a port city that should have had a mosque in the Song dynasty but where there are no physical remains. Clark 1991: 121. 8. Yule and Cordier 1993: vol. 2, 154–7. 9. Boyle 1971: 282. 10. Yule 1967: vol. 3, 45–51. 11. Rachewiltz 1971: 180, 182. 12. Rouleau 1954: 346–65. 13. Rudolph 1975: 133–6. 14. Charbonnier 2007: 109–10. For an illustration of the stone see: Charbonnier 2007: 108; Rouleau 1954; Rudolph 1975. 15. Rockhill 1967: 221. 16. Finnane 2004: 3. 17. Finnane 2004: 3. 18. Wu Jianwei 1995: 129–30. 19. The original source of this information probably is Yangzhoufu zhi (Record of Yangzhou subprefecture), which was issued in several versions in the Qing dynasty. The version used by this author is cited in n. 22. 20. Lu and Zhang 2005: 45. 21. Li Dou 1960: 146. This text has been studied in Finnane 2004 and Meyer-­Fong 2003. The mosque is not mentioned in either book. 22. Akedeng’a and Yao 2006: juan 28, 453.

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23. Wu 1995: 130. This kind of information is not available for every Chinese mosque. Wu does not state if the local population, city government, or a higher jurisdiction of governance contributed the funds. 24. Guojia Wenwuju 2009: vol. 1, 30–3; Lu and Li 1983: 2. 25. Including Bo Juyi (772–846) and Su Shi (1037–1101). 26. Clark 1991: 66. 27. Yule-­ Cordier 1993: 185–200; For more on Hangzhou at the time of Marco Polo, see: Moule 1956; Gernet 1958. 28. Gibb 1994: vol. 1, 50; vol. 4, 773, 871, 894, 900–5, 911. 29. Fan Zushu 1983: 157–8. 30. Tian 1974: vol. 585, juan 18, 240. Civil service exams whereby men received official appointments into the Chinese bureaucracy began in the seventh century and continued, with a few breaks such as during the period of Mongolian rule, through the fall of the Qing dynasty. The highest degree was jinshi. 31. Semu are further discussed in Chapter Four. 32. Liu Zhiping 1985: 30. 33. Fukuyama 1976: 72–8 and Yiengpruksawan 1995: 647–72. 34. On shinden-­style architecture, see Coaldrake 1996: 82–93. 35. For examples of Tang-­period paradise paintings with halls that have bilateral symmetry and wing bays, see Steinhardt 2002: 113 and 114. 36. Chen and Tang 2008: 35. 37. For information about the stele, see Lu Bingjie 2003: 7. 38. I thank Robert Hillenbrand for this suggestion. 39. Lu Bingjie 2003: 5. 40. Liu Zhiping 1985: 26. 41. Wu Jianwei 1995: 138–9. 42. Chen and Kalus 1991: 259. 43. Lu and Zhang 2005: 87. 44. Wu Jianwei 1995: 150. 45. Chen and Kalus 1991: 260–5; plate 87c. 46. Wu Jianwei 1995: 150.

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CHAPTER FOUR

Mongols, Mosques and Mausoleums

The Mongol empire was unique in Chinese, Asian and world history. Almost any study of any aspect of political, institutional, economic, cultural, art or global history presents evidence that confirms such a sweeping statement. Simply, for the first time in its history, all of China was ruled by a foreign dynasty. China was only part of the empire which that dynasty ruled, and the empire of the Mongols had a direct impact not only on continental Asia but as far east as Japan and as far west as Western Europe. Kings in Europe, the Pope, rulers of principalities and states never conquered by the Mongols, sultans in Egypt and the emperor of Japan determined foreign policy based on their knowledge and expectations of war with the Mongol empire. Official policies and conquest brought emissaries, government officers, military leaders and artisans from every part of the empire and beyond to China. Large numbers of Muslims were among the many West Asians. The increased Muslim presence in China in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, as a result of Mongol rule, brought extensive renovation to mosques that had existed since Song times as well as new construction. The four mosques usually referred to as China’s oldest, the foci of Chapters Two and Three, were built or significantly rebuilt during the Yuan dynasty: Xianhesi in Yangzhou in 1275–76; Shengyousi in Quanzhou in 1310; Fenghuangsi in Hangzhou in 1314–20; and Huaishengsi in Guangzhou in 1350. These four mosques survive as showcases of Islam in China during the Mongol century (1271–1368), and there were many more. The amount of mosque construction in the Yuan dynasty is probably the most important reason for the nearly 1400-­year continuous history of Islam in China today, if not the reason for its survival there. Certainly it is the reason why Islam flourished in south-­western China, specifically Yunnan and Sichuan, and parts of Gansu and Shaanxi, locations with little Muslim activity in the Song period, and long before the arrival of Muslims in Central Asia and Western China in the Qing dynasty. Thirty-­six years after north China fell to the non-­Chinese dynasty Jin in 1127, Chinggis Khan was born somewhere near the meeting point of the Onon, Kherlen and Tuul Rivers in Mongolia.1 Allying

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himself with some tribes and conquering others, by the end of the twelfth century, Chinggis had brought the tribes and peoples of Mongolia into a confederation unprecedented in world history. In 1227, the year of Chinggis’s death, the Xi Xia (Tanguts) who populated parts of today’s Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Xinjiang and Mongolia, fell to the Mongols. The conquest of the Jin dynasty was already in motion, the central Jin capital (today’s Beijing) falling to the Mongols in 1214 and the rest of the dynasty’s lands over the next twenty years. The next to fall, before 1218, were the Qara-­khitai, a remnant of the non-­Chinese Liao dynasty that had ruled Mongolia and parts of north China and which, by the thirteenth century, had controlled Xinjiang province and the territory to the west sometimes referred to as Transoxiana (parts of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan). The conquest of the Khwarazmians, centred in today’s Samarkand and Bukhara, was accomplished two years later. In that year, 1220, the Mongols turned westward, conquering parts of modern Afghanistan and into Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, the Crimea and the Qïpchaq Steppe, territory then known as Kievan Rus. Before the army returned to Mongolia, in the mid-­1220s, the rest of Transoxiana and Persia were under Mongol control (Map 4.1). Following Chinggis’s death, an unprecedented action occurred that would alter world history even more than Chinggis’s rise and conquest: his four sons maintained unity, each in control of part of the empire and all possessing expansionist plans. The descendants of the oldest son Jochi (c. 1181–1226) became leaders of the westernmost territories, sometimes known as the Golden Horde, an appanage that included former Kievan Rus and that would extend to Hungary and Poland by the 1220s and 1230s. The empire of Chinggis’s second son Chaghadai (c. 1183 – c. 1244) was centred in Transoxiana, including northern Iran and most of Central Asia. The third son, Ögödei (1186–1241), was Chinggis’s ‘successor’, officially considered the second Khan of the Mongol empire; Karakorum was his capital. According to Mongol custom, the youngest son Tolui returned to the lands of Chinggis’s birth. Although Ögödei was succeeded by his eldest son Güyük (1206–48), this son reigned only two years. The fourth son Tolui fathered the men who were responsible for the continuation of the Mongol empire: his oldest son Möngke (1209–59) became the fourth ruler, now a Khaghan (great Khan); his second son Khubilai (1215–94) would be charged by Möngke with conquest in East Asia; and the third son Hülegü (c. 1217–65) secured Iran, the ‘Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad and Syria. From around 1256 Hülegü ruled the Il-­Khanate, an empire that included the Iranian cities of Maragha, Tabriz and Sultaniyyeh, officially a subsidiary khanate of the Mongol empire whose capital was established at Dadu (today’s Beijing) by Möngke’s successor Khubilai in the 1260s. Khubilai proclaimed his dynasty and named it Yuan in 1271. In 1295 the Il-­Khanate ruler Ghazan converted to Islam; the polity endured

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1000 kilometres

Map 4.1  Map of Mongolian empire.

0

Bukhara

I L - K H A N AT E

Almaliq/Yili/Yining/Huocheng Tabriz Margha Sultaniyyeh Viar Alamut Tim

G O L D E N

C H A G H A D A I K H A N AT E

Huocheng

H O R D E

Kunming

Dengfeng/Songshan Xi’an

C H I N A

Shangdu Guyuan Zhangbei/Zhongdu Khara-khoto/Heicheng Dadu/Beijing

Karakorum

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until 1335. After Khubilai’s death, the other parts of the Mongol empire outside China gradually became more and more autonomous. At their farthest reaches, the Mongol forces were halted by the Mamluks at ‘Ain Jalut in Syria, by the Japanese on the Sea of Japan, and by the Teutonic Knights at Liegnitz in easternmost Germany. The fact that the Mongol empire was pan-­ Asian is only part of the explanation for the prosperity of Muslims in Yuan China. Although travel between West and East Asia often was easier than it had been in previous centuries because of improved roads and routes, safe passage was permitted only when sanctioned by the government. The most significant factor that brought Muslims to China during Mongol rule was Khubilai’s establishment of a Chinese-­style bureaucracy in Dadu. This occurred simultaneously with the abolition of the Hanlin Academy, a government institution founded in the Tang dynasty that employed China’s leading scholars and officials, including court artisans and painters. Members of the Hanlin Academy in the last decades of the Song dynasty, as well as other seasoned officials with experience in government service, fled to south-­eastern China when the Mongols established their capital at Dadu. They came to be known as ‘leftover subjects’ (yimin), men in self-­imposed exile with no skill other than government service. Out of this impoverished, highly educated generation emerged some of China’s ­greatest poets and painters, for the first time in Chinese history working independent of the court.2 Not only was there no longer a government mechanism for producing new civil servants, the Mongol policy was a barrier to the rise of Chinese civil servants in Khubilai’s government. Official Mongol policy actively encouraged the involvement of non-­Chinese in the Yuan government and its sponsored projects, and decidedly discouraged participation of the Chinese population. The Mongols divided the population of China into four groups: Mongols at the top, next Semu, then Chinese from north China, and at the bottom, southern Chinese. The south came last, being a target of Mongol animosity because that region of China fell last, finally in 1279, whereas the north had been securely under Mongol domination by the 1260s; and south was the place to which the leftover subjects had fled. Semu referred to anyone who was of neither Mongolian nor Chinese ethnicity, such as Jurchen, Khitan, Uyghur or Turk.3 Most Muslims already in China were of the Semu population, and many more were recruited to China to work for the Mongol government. Muslims had been influential military leaders in battles across Asia and had proved their financial expertise in cities of West Asia before the Mongol conquest; and Muslims were among the leaders in Asia in mathematics, medicine and astronomy.4 The Mongolian population had little expertise in commerce, the arts or the sciences, and in any case was too small to fill the needs of a bureaucracy in a China that also controlled much of the rest of Asia. Deeply distrusting military

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strategists, financiers, mathematicians, doctors and astronomers who had served the Song government, the Semu offered the Mongols an educated non-­Mongol and non-­Chinese population; and many among the most educated of this population were Muslims. Raphael Israeli estimates that there were four million Muslims in Asia in the fourteenth century.5 This group rapidly rose to power in China, especially under Khubilai when the pan-­Asian empire was at its zenith.6 The Mongols, in addition, were known for a kind of religious tolerance, or at least for little interference in the religious practices of the many faiths of their empire. The Great Jasaq, not exactly a legal code, but more the transmitted law by which the Mongols were governed, institutionalised tolerance of religions.7 Mongol rulers since the generation of Chinggis had sought meetings with clerics of the religions with which they came into contact. Their motives ranged from information gathering to a quest for methods of enhancing and prolonging life. Chinggis summoned the Daoist master Qiu Quji (Changchun) (1144–1227) to his camp in the Altai Mountains for this purpose sometime around 1223.8 John of Plano Carpini (Giovanni da Pian Carpine) (1182–1252) was joined by Benedict the Pole (Benedykt Polak) (c. 1200 – c. 1280) as envoys of Pope Innocent IV to carry a letter to Güyük Khan. En route they stayed in the camp of Batu Khan (c. 1207–55), son of Chinggis’s oldest son Jochi, and from there were given passage to Güyük’s camp in Mongolia. Both visits occurred in 1246. Although a threatening letter was delivered back to the Vatican demanding that Christendom submit to the Mongols, the Christians did have face-­to-­face audiences with the Khans.9 Friar William of Rubruk (c. 1220 – c. 1293) had an audience with Möngke in Karakorum in January 1254. In May of that year a debate between Christians, Buddhists and Muslims was held there.10 Möngke’s mother Sorghaqtani Beki was a Christian. So was Hülegü’s wife Toquz Khatun, mother of his successor Abaqa. Batu Khan’s son Sartaq converted to Christianity. During Khubilai’s reign, Mar Yahballaha III was Patriarch of the Church of the East in China from 1281–1317.11 John of (Giovanni da) Montecorvino (1247–1328), known as the Archbishop of Peking, spent most of his life after 1275 in Asia and had audiences with Il-­Khanid rulers. Temür Öljeytü (1265–1307) permitted Montecorvino to build churches in Dadu in 1299 and again in 1305.12 John (Giovanni) of Marignolli (c. ­1290–1360) reached Dadu in 1342, stayed several years, and spent time in Quanzhou and Xiamen before leaving China in 1347, all during the reign of the last Mongol ruler of China, Toghan Temür (1320–70).13 Tombstones preserved from the Yuan dynasty in Quanzhou reflect the presence of Christians as well as Muslims (Figures 2.18–2.21). One concludes from the individual attention given to representatives of religions from the west by khans at their camps and by some of their wives who were practitioners and patrons of those religions, that there was a perception that the clergy had gifts distinct from

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those of other men. This understanding is supported by Mongol policy during their conquests. As empires of Eastern Europe, West Asia and Central Asia fell, religious leaders and artisans usually were asked to identify themselves, and often were spared in the mass slaughter that concluded the Mongol takeover of a city.14 Sometimes misidentifications spared a few extra lives, but the policy to spare those with God-­given talents not only brought religious leaders to the new centres of the Mongol empire; it also brought artisans. Perhaps the most famous transplanted artisan was Guillaume Boucher, originally French and captured in Hungary, who designed the silver fountain from which flowed mare’s milk at Karakorum.15 Others became labourers in the major construction and decoration projects of the khans, including those at the capital city Dadu.16 Muslims thus came to China in every decade of the thirteenth century and through the years of Mongol power in the fourteenth, earlier as clergy and artisans, and then as recruits for government service, the military and involvement in the Mongol empire’s most sophisticated endeavours. They joined Muslim merchants whose families had flourished in China since the Song dynasty. The fact that each of China’s four oldest mosques presents a unique solution to worship and related space suggests a range of talents and mosque experiences outside China as well as freedom to construct based on the needs of a local community or the capability of designers. Saidianchi Among the Muslims who came to China in the service of the Mongols, the one who had the greatest impact on mosques was al-­Sayyid al-­Ajall (‘the most exalted descendant of the Prophet’) Shams al-­Din ‘Umar al-­Bukhari (1211–79), known in Chinese as Saidianchi Shansiding. As his name indicates, he was born in Bukhara. Saidianchi’s grandfather, said to be a t­wenty-­ fourth-­ generation descendant of the Prophet, surrendered himself, his son and his grandson after the fall of their city.17 His father entered Chinggis’s elite bodyguard as a hostage; Saidianchi trained for membership in this group at a young age. In 1229, under Ögödei’s rule, he was appointed yeke darughachi (great resident commissioner) of three provinces, and was promoted several years later. He rose to darughachi (resident commissioner) in the 1230s (in more significant regions) and then to yarghachi (judge arbitrator) of the former central capital of the Jin dynasty, the city that would become Dadu.18 In 1253, he served Möngke in wars in Sichuan. About the same time, he was in charge of food and supplies for Khubilai’s troops in Dali, Yunnan province. In the 1260s, Saidianchi served Khubilai, first in the Dadu circuit and then in Sichuan. With Sichuan securely in Mongol hands, he moved into Yunnan, rising to the post of head of the Regional Secretarial Council in western China. Years later Saidianchi was in charge of military

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operations against the Song in Sichuan. In 1273, he returned to Dali as provincial governor, by then proving himself an astute politician among both Khubilai’s relatives and other Muslims already involved in the local government. There he implemented flood control and agricultural and educational reform, and he supported Confucian institutions and encouraged construction of Buddhist worship spaces even as he built two mosques in this region of south-­western China. He established a system similar to the waqf whereby taxes from arable lands were used to support schools. Saidianchi spent the last five years of his life working to improve life in Yunnan. The entire city of Kunming, in Yunnan province, mourned his death. Khubilai ordered that Saidianchi’s policies continue under the leadership of his sons, with the eldest, Nasir al-­Din, in charge. Tombstones in Hangzhou and Quanzhou record the presence of his descendants in those cities. A memorial archway to Saidianchi stands in a restored version in Kunming today. Saidianchi received the posthumous title Prince of Xianyang (a city in Shaanxi province near Xi’an). The seafarer Zheng He, discussed in Chapter Five, was his descendant. In all likelihood, Saidianchi was buried near Kunming. Three locations have been proposed for his remains, two in Kunming and one in Shaanxi province. The site known as Tomb of the Prince of Xianyang is just east of a place once known as Zhuangyuanlou in the suburbs of Kunming. It has been a Muslim pilgrimage site since his death. Repaired under the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors in 1692 and 1736 respectively, the burial site was sketched by Henri d’Ollone between 1906 and 1909 (Figure 4.1).19 Repairs were made in 1916 and more recently, leading Na Weixin to declare in 1992 that the tomb no longer looked the same as in d’Ollone’s time.20 From d’Ollone’s and Na’s sketches, several features of the burial site before the most

Figure 4.1  Plan of tomb of Saidianchi (Sayyid Ajall Shams al-­Din), Kunming, Yunnan, 1279 with later repairs. (A) cenotaph (4 x 2.5 x 7.5 m (high)) (B) stele erected in 1709 (C) stone tablet (a) circular pillars that formerly supported enclosure.

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recent repairs are certain. Saidianchi’s cenotaph was standard for a Muslim in China. It was little different from the Song or Yuan cenotaphs in Guangzhou, Quanzhou and Yangzhou or from later Muslim burials in China or other parts of the world where Muslims lived. The stone base was about 4 m by about 2.5 m. Above it were layers of stone, each successively smaller in base dimension, capped by a semicircular prism. The current monument has straight sides. Originally the stone monument was enclosed by a pillar-­supported wall or structure of 8 m by 6.5 m in perimeter that has today been replaced by a low wall. By the time d’Ollone visited, only pillar bases remained. In death, the tomb of the esteemed governor of the period of Mongolian rule was marked with no more glory than any Muslim who could afford a stone monument. That it has been preserved in a large city, however, is a testament to Saidianchi’s fame. At one time, a mosque, other Muslim tombs, a Muslim school and a residence for imams were in close proximity to the tomb. Pottery remains found by Na confirm twentieth-­century occupation in the vicinity.21 The alternative tomb site is 12.5 km north of the city of Kunming at Majia’an, a location more closely supported by Saidianchi’s biography in Yuanshi and by Li Yuanyang’s Yunnan tongzhi (Gazetteer of Yunnan province), both of which state that the tomb is outside the north gate of the city.22 Scholars of the Qing period argued for a third location. They suggested that the corpse had been moved from Kunming, where Saidianchi died, for burial near Xianyang (a location that would reflect his title).23 Saidianchi exemplifies the extraordinary impact Muslim individuals had on Chinese history during the Yuan dynasty. Because the period of Mongolian rule is a unique time when buildings other than mosques are associated with the powerful Muslim presence in China, several extraordinary mausoleums and an observatory are discussed below. Muslim Tombs in Yuan China After Saidianchi, the most famous Muslim buried in Yuan China was Tughluq Temür (1329/30–63) whose tomb is discussed below because it is dated later than the others. A less well-­known and similar mausoleum that is likely to predate Tughluq Temür’s survives in Guyuan, Hebei province, on the route along which Mongols travleled between China and their summer capital Shangdu (Xanadu) (Figure 4.2). Tomb in Guyuan The monument is almost definitely referred to in the geographic study of a part of Inner Mongolia and contiguous regions undertaken at the request of the Qianlong (r. 1736–96) court by the official Jin

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Figure 4.2  Mausoleum of Ananda (?), Guyuan, Hebei province, 1307?

Zhizhang sometime between 1732 and 1741, and published with additions by Huang Kerun in 1758.24 They wrote during the Qing dynasty when the region was known by the Mongol name Chaha’er or Chahange’er. The study mentions a structure known as Xiliangge (West Cool Pavilion), alternatively known as Shuzhuanglou (Comb and Make-­up Tower).25 The territory in question had been part of the appanage of Empress Dowager Chengtian (932–1009) of the Liao dynasty who had been the regent for her son when her husband died in 982. The dowager was awarded these hunting lands in 986 when her son ascended the throne. After that year, she spent every summer there until her death. The name Shuzhuanglou may be a reference to the fact that the lands were controlled by a woman. ‘West’ and ‘cool’ in the name of the building may refer to its location and the weather in summer. Ge, usually translated as pavilion, may be the name of the structural type because it is taller than most buildings around it and its dome may be justification for the use of ge in the name for a building whose roof was probably unique to those observing it. That it was in the territory of a Liao appanage does not mean this is a Liao building. Jin and Huang tell us that Xiliangge was squarish, brick-­faced, more than two zhang (nearly 13 m) in height and had a semi-­ circular dome rising at the centre of a flat roof (luding). The front entrance was in the south-­ east with a window at either side. A twentieth-­century local record confirms this information. According to Guyuanxian zhi (Record of Guyuan county), the building stood 7.5 km south-­east of the centre of Guyuan and faces south-­east. It was 10 m sq., 13 m high and cubic in appearance. An arched window was on either side of the arched front entry (Figure 4.3). The interior

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dome was brick, each brick 35 cm by 1.75 cm by 5 cm, and divided into eight sections with decorated areas at the four interior corners. No human or animal imagery was found inside.26 The description in Guyuanxian zhi was confirmed by Wang Beichen who saw the structure during research trips between Dadu and Shangdu in 1993 and 1995. Wang also wrote that an earthen mound and traces of architecture, including glazed ceramic tiles of gold, blue and white remained about 50 m to the north. Wall remains also were found in the vicinity. At the time of his death in 1996, Wang was working on a paper that was completed by a colleague based on conversations during his final illness, and posthumously published. Wang was convinced that in spite of associations of the monument with rulers of previous dynasties, it had to date from the Yuan period.27 That Wang felt compelled to convey and ensure the publication of his findings from his deathbed attests to his conviction of the importance of this monument, and perhaps that he anticipated a future controversy. When this author saw the structure in 2013, the site was little changed from Wang’s description (Figures 4.2 and 4.3). Pieces of tile mentioned in his report had been moved into a museum

Figure 4.3  Mausoleum of Ananda (?), Guyuan, Hebei province, 1307? Showing back and side.

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Figure 4.4  Remains behind Mausoleum of Ananda (?), showing stone building foundation, tumulus and fencing along what is believed to have been an enclosing wall, Guyuan, Hebei.

Figure 4.5  Three burials, beneath the floor of mausoleum of Ananda (?), Guyuan, Hebei.

now inside the mausoleum, and there were building foundations a short distance behind it (Figure 4.4). Several weeks later, however, in July 2013, three new structures that imitate Xiliangge had been erected.28 Excavation began beneath the mausoleum in 2000. Three ­side-­by-­side pits, each containing a wooden coffin, the central one belonging to a male with females at either side, were found beneath the structure (Figure 4.5). Brocade clothing with gold decoration was uncovered at the site and other fabrics that must have been garments of the deceased or for them in the afterlife were among the grave goods. These finds are significant: Chinese royalty are always buried

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Figure 4.6  Ceiling and walls of interior of mausoleum of Ananda (?), showing arched windows, imitation bracket sets at corners and textiles and other remains on display, Guyuan, Hebei.

with objects for use in an anticipated afterlife around them. Grave goods should not be found in a Muslim tomb. The interior vaulted ceiling of Xiliangge joins an eight-­sided upper wall that interfaces the four main walls. At the eight corners are imitation pillars of the kind that have for centuries been moulded into the walls of Chinese tombs to replicate wooden architecture, and above the pillars are imitation bracket sets (Figure 4.6). Smaller in size than the cornice decoration in Hangzhou’s Fenghuang Mosque, here, too, both Chinese bracketing and muqarnas are possible sources (Figure 3.13), although is it important to note that the shrine of Sayf al-­Din Bakharzi has just such an interior feature where its dome meets wall seams.29 Xiliangge is near the leisure palace of Ananda, Prince of Anxi, a cousin of Khubilai’s successor, the sixth Mongol ruler Temür Öljeytü (r. 1297–1307). Ananda was a successful general. Temür’s widow supported Ananda as her husband’s successor for the position of seventh Mongol ruler of China. However, he lacked support in Dadu and was executed in 1307 to make way for the accession to the throne of Qaishan (Haishan) (1281–1311).30 Ananda was a rare member of the Mongol ruling family who had converted to Islam, which is especially noteworthy because he had been given his name, that of a disciple of the Buddha Shakyamuni, by his father, the Buddhist Mangala, the previous Prince of Anxi whose palace ruins have been identified in Xi’an.31 The location of Ananda’s leisure palace and the fact that he was a Muslim are justification for the belief that Xiliangge, whose structure is similar to Muslim

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mausoleums discussed below, is Ananda’s tomb. If so, then the central, male, remains are his. The remains of patterned, glazed tiles, also discussed below, may be further evidence that this structure was built for a Muslim. Further, if Ananda is buried in Guyuan, his death date in 1307 and a decision of Qaishan (r. 1307–11) as Temür Öljeytü’s successor becomes clearer. Upon his ascent to the throne, Qaishan began construction of a new capital in Zhangbei, adjacent to Guyuan. He designated it Zhongdu, central capital. Positioned en route between Dadu and Shangdu, the name is logical. The purpose, it was said, was to serve as an additional resort capital.32 However, one cannot ignore the fact that Qaishan placed his capital so near the tomb of a man who had been executed so that he could ascend the throne. From his new capital, Qaishan could solidify his control over all buildings in the region as well as proclaim Yuan domination in territory that had been coveted ground of Liao, a previous non-­Chinese dynasty to rule there. The architecture of the Guyuan structure is a key feature that argues for its identification as a Muslim mausoleum. The grave goods raise the question as to whether a Muslim would ever have been buried beneath it. Stones inscribed in Uyghur found in the vicinity of the building in the early twenty-­first century raise the possibility that a non-­Muslim Mongol named Xiang Keliqisi (Korguz) might be buried beneath this structure.33 To date, no tomb of Mongol royalty or any Mongol of the Yuan period has been found in China or Mongolia. Mongol burials were never marked above ground. Rather, it seems, we are observing in the architecture of death in China a practice different from the Muslim way of life. In death, just as for Muslims of the Song and Yuan dynasties in Quanzhou and Yangzhou, burial should occur beneath a stone cenotaph that follows the forms of its counterparts in cemeteries of Persia or Iraq; Muslim royalty were interred beneath brick domed structures that traced their origins to places thousands of kilometres to the west. Yet here Muslim royalty were surrounded with the clothing and other accoutrements befitting a Chinese or Mongolian royal tomb. In the Ming dynasty we shall observe even more striking burial of Muslim royalty in China. Tomb of Tughluq Temür The mausoleum of Tughluq Temür is the only brick mausoleum of its kind in China built for a confirmed Muslim, and it is therefore highly important evidence to support the interment of a Muslim beneath the structure in Guyuan. It is in north-­western Xinjiang. Like Xiliangge, Tughluq Temür’s tomb is a domed building on grasslands (Figure 4.7). A seventh-­generation descendant of Chinggis, Tughluq Temür came to power in lands of the Chaghadai Khanate

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Figure 4.7  Mausoleum of Tughluq Temür, Huocheng, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, 1363.

(Transoxiana) in 1346. He converted to Islam in 1347 and the population of his Khanate, some 160,000, converted in 1352. Upon his death in 1363, the western lands of the Khanate fell to Temür Lang (Tamerlane) and the Chaghadai Khanate ceased to exist.34 The tomb is in the eastern lands of the former empire. Like the building in Guyuan, Tughluq Temür’s tomb stands among other architecture. Located in Huocheng (Yining/Almaliq/ Yili), the site includes a four-­ sided brick building believed to belong to Tughluq Temür’s daughter. Tughluq Temür’s mausoleum ­measures 15.8 m by 6.8 m at the base, is 7.7 m high, is entered on the west and has an interior balcony that is accessible on either side of the entrance. A passage along the balcony leads to three domed spaces on the east side of the second storey. A central dome, 14 m high at its highest point, dominates the interior. It is positioned directly above the coffins of Tughluq Temür and his son. The dome and the sarcophagi are the focus of a nearly symmetrical first storey with small rooms at each of the corners. The purpose of these rooms and the three on the second floor is unclear. Bernard O’Kane suggests that those on the ground floor may have been intended for subsequent family burials, and that the others might have been for visits by living family members or Sufis.35 Although there are three domed spaces at the back end of Phoenix Mosque in Hangzhou (Figure 3.12), one has no reason to associate the mosque in south-­eastern China built by the local Muslim community, perhaps based on a plan in use in that region of China or greater East Asia for Buddhist architecture, with the mausoleum of a Chaghadai khan. More likely, precedents for the tomb in Xinjiang are domed structures of the Muslim world. As O’Kane points out, an obvious architectural source of Tughluq Temür’s tomb is the mausoleum of Buyan Quli Khan (d. 1356), also a Chaghadai khan, in Fath Ahad (Bukhara) (Figure 4.8).36 Similar mausoleums for two Chaghadai khans who died within seven years of

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Figure 4.8  Tomb of Buyan Quli Khan, Fathabad, Buhkara, 1356.

Figure 4.9  Tomb of the Samanids, Bukhara, 943.

each other are to be expected. However, the mausoleum in Bukhara has two interior rooms. Domed buildings with both a single, square chamber beneath and with more than one room exist in Bukhara and elsewhere in the Iranian world. The Tomb of the Samanids in Bukhara, datable no later than 943, is the archetypical example of the dome above a square plan (Figure 4.9). It is of a type that spread across western Central Asia in the tenth century. The Arab-­ Ata Mausoleum in Tim, dated 977–8, is another example. Even though the twenty-­six different sizes of glazed and carved tiles are of the same technique as those on the Buyan Quli Khan mausoleum, and the same colours of white, turquoise and manganese are used with the only apparent distinction being that in Burkhara the turquoise sometimes runs into white areas, only the front of Tughluq Temür’s tomb is tiled; the other three walls are covered with plaster.37 No record indicates whether the original intention was to tile all four sides, nor have on-­site investigations determined the original surface. The closest Chinese counterpart to

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Figure 4.10  Pagoda, Xiuding Monastery, Anyang county, Henan, circa 600 with later restoration.

a four-­sided, domed structure is completely tiled on all four sides. It is the pagoda of Xiuding Monastery in Anyang county, Henan; an example of a one-­storey pagoda reconstructed in the early seventh century (Figure 4.10).38 One-­storey pagodas in China are rare, but not unique. A building of any number of faces intentionally decorated only on the front is unknown. One feature that is present at the tombs of Tughluq Temür, Buyan Quli, the Samanids, and in Tim and in the Xiuding Monastery pagoda, is facsimile columns at the four building corners. They are not used in the tomb in Guyuan. Moulded and painted columns whose purpose is to imitate wooden pillars are found on the exteriors of brick buildings, brick and stone subterranean tomb interiors, and in rock-­carved caves in China. The omission of imitations of corner pillars in Guyuan is noteworthy but in no way calls into question the identification of this building as a mausoleum. The locations of the Tughluq Temür and Guyuan tombs are at the far western and eastern reaches of the Xi Xia empire (1038–1227). The Xi Xia (Western Xia), or Tangut, empire included today’s Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, northern Shaanxi and parts of Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and the Republic of Mongolia. Officially founded in the year 1038 when the Tanguts became powerful enough to control territory that had belonged to Tang but that Song could not retain, Xi Xia fell to the Mongols in 1227 in one of the bloodiest victories of the thirteenth century.39 A mausoleum for an unknown occupant stands in the south-­western corner of the city Heicheng (Khara-­khoto), a Xi Xia capital (Figure 4.11). Made of mud brick, its exterior is undecorated. Imitation wooden pillars project at the four corners of the domed space. Researchers have dated the structure tenth–thirteenth century, leaving open the possibility of a Xi Xia or M ­ ongol-­period date.40 The evidence from Guyuan and Huocheng would tend to place the building in the period of Mongolian rule. Pages of a

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Figure 4.11  Mausoleum, Khara-­khoto, tenth–thirteenth century.

Qur’an, marriage contracts and other documents in Persian excavated in Khara-­khoto attest to the presence of Muslims. However, the city was almost completely obliterated in the Mongol conquest of 1227.41 If the mausoleum survived the devastation, then its existence indicates the presence of a Muslim community and construction in Inner Mongolia just possibly contemporary with or slightly later than the flourishing Muslim presence of the tenth century in today’s Uzbekistan. If not, the building in Khara-­khoto should be a third example of a Muslim mausoleum from the time of Mongolian rule in Asia. Yuan Observatories The names of Muslims who had worked at Il-­Khanid observatories, came to China and studied the heavens alongside Chinese ­observers during the period of Mongolian rule are well known.42 Chinese astronomers spent time at Il-­ Khanid observatories as well. Two Chinese observatories built during Khubilai’s reign also are well documented, one standing and the other known through records. The architecture of the Yuan observatory, and to the extent possible a comparison with the buildings of Il-­Khanid observatories, are considered here. The observatory in Gaocheng, Dengfeng county, Henan, in the shadow of the sacred, central peak Mount Song, was begun during Khubilai’s reign in 1279. The structure that survives today rises 17 m (Figure 4.12). Typical of observatories in China since the time of the Legendary Emperors (in the third millennium bce), a major purpose of an observatory was to regulate the calendar. Also as in China’s past, officials employed by the court as astronomers guided this process. How a regulated calendar was achieved in the early Yuan period is recorded in an extraordinary document of 1280 known as Shoushili (Season-­granting system).43 Given the decrease in the

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Figure 4.12  Platform for Observing the Heavens, Gaocheng, Henan, 1279 with later repair.

number of Chinese candidates for officialdom, a West Asian of the Semu class who had an association with astronomy or astrology was likely to be employed at the observatory. The names of seven astronomical instruments brought to China by Muslims also are recorded: armillary sphere, triquetrum, sundial for unequal hours, sundial for equal hours, celestial globe, terrestrial globe and astrolabe. Some, including the German scholar Willy Hartner, believe the instruments were built in China, but drawings that explained how to construct them came from the outside.44 Others believe they were made by Muslim astronomers, presumably in Iran, and brought to China ready to use.45 The observatory at the foot of Mount Song is the oldest one extant in China, and it is the first for which one can confirm the presence of West Asians alongside Chinese observers. The eight most famous Chinese involved in the project were: Guo Shoujing (1231–1316); Liu Bingzhong (1216–74); Wang Xun (1235–81); Zhang Yi (d. 1282); Xu Heng (1209–81); Zhang Wenqian (1217–83); Yang Gongyi (1225–94); and Chen Ding (fl. 1271–80).46 Each was most primarily an educated Chinese man. Some, such as Guo and Wang, are said to have had background in the sciences and mathematics, but none was exclusively an astronomer or had intended during his period of education to focus on astronomy. Thus the possible role of four West Asians who were involved in astronomy in the western regions of the Mongol empire and subsequently came to China is significant. The first was

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Nasir al-­Din al-­Tusi (1201–74) who had training both in mathematics and astronomy. He was taken by Hülegü from Alamut and, we are told, was heavily involved in the construction of an observatory near Maragha, in Azerbaijan, northern Iran, from circa 1259–60.47 Also in China, according to records, was Jamal al-­Din (Zhamalading) who began his career as an astronomer in Maragha and subsequently entered Khubilai’s service. Jamal is discussed in both Rashid al-­Din’s Jami‘ al-­Tawarikh (Compendium of Chronicles) and in Yuanshi and usually is credited with bringing astronomical instruments to China. Rashid al-­Din writes that Möngke Khan wanted Jamal al-­Din to build an observatory for him, but the task was too difficult, and after that, Jamal al-­Din came to China and Nasir al-­Din went to work for Möngke and then for Hülegü. Thomas Allsen suggests that, rather, Jamal al-­ Din was in China before the Maragha observatory was initiated.48 Later, Shams al-­Din (d. 1322), trained in mathematics and astronomy, and Mir Muhammad, both of whom worked at the observatory in Maragha later than Nasir al-­Din, also came to China. Records seem to suggest that the West Asians working on astronomical projects for the Il-­Khans had more background knowledge than the Chinese observers. Some believe that Khubilai’s astronomical enterprise began in his capital Shangdu, because a man of Syrian origin known in Chinese as Aixue (‘Isa kelemechi [Jesus the interpreter]) was appointed in 1263 to oversee a bureau of astrology, astronomy and the medicine of Western regions, and Khubilai had not yet established himself at Dadu.49 However, already in 1251, Liu Bingzhong had suggested that Khubilai ‘promulgate an astronomical system and a new epoch’.50 Calendar reform, a privilege of a Chinese emperor, was understood by someone as well versed in Chinese history as Liu Bingzhong to be a means of asserting the Khan’s legitimacy in the power struggle to control China. Liu is also the man who would suggest that the design of Khubilai’s capital Shangdu be inspired by the eight trigrams of the ancient treatise Yijing (Book of Changes), that Yuan be the name of the dynasty, and that the plan of Dadu follow the prescription for a ruler’s city of the Classical Age in the Zhouli (Rituals of Zhou). In the 1250s, astronomy for Khubilai was an official pursuit with a long history in China whose purpose was comparable to permanent architecture or walled cities: it was a privilege reserved for the Chinese emperor and it was part of a grander vision of building a Chinese-­ style empire.51 It is not surprising that Liu was instrumental in Khubilai’s interest in astronomy. It is less certain that an observatory was constructed at the capital Shangdu, for the city never was considered as a possible location for the primary location of the Yuan capital. Chinese scholars have proposed that Jamal al-­Din presented information about the seven astronomical instruments to Khubilai in Shangdu in 1267,52 which is possible, but excavation has not confirmed an observatory.53 In

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Figure 4.13  Diagram showing how sun’s rays hit crossbar, gaobiao and brick projections in front of Platform for Observing the Heavens.

1262 Khubilai had already begun construction at the site that was to become his great capital Dadu (today Beijing).54 It is certain that there was a Bureau of Astronomy in Shangdu in 1260, but by 1273 there were separate bureaus for Chinese and Muslim astronomers at Dadu. In 1276, following the death of Liu Bingzhong, the Chinese bureau of astronomers became subordinate to the Muslim bureau that was under the leadership of Jamal al-­Din.55 The Dadu observatory was completed in 1280. Yuanshi records this event by stating that Khubilai planned to build gaobiao in five cities, but only those in Dadu and Gaocheng were constructed.56 Gaobiao can be translated as ‘tall gnomon’. The gnomon is the key feature of the Gaocheng observatory, one of three that made determination of the calendar possible. A pair of staircases leads to a platform whose front, on the north, is roofed. A metal crossbar, the second feature, is positioned in the lower half of the central, front opening of the roofed portion (Figure 4.12). The straight metal pole (gaobiao), now missing, was placed perpendicular to the crossbar. It can be seen in a diagram that explains the process whereby the calendar was set (Figure 4.13). The entire structure was built for this bar, the metal pole placed in an indentation 36 cm from the wall in front of it and the yingfu (shadow aligner), the third necessary feature, in front of the structure. The sun would cast a shadow on the crossbar and further to the paved stone yingfu to determine the time and season. The most important architectural challenges were simple, but not necessarily simple to achieve: the pole had to be vertical, perpendicular to a flat ground plane, and to the crossbar that thus had to be parallel to the ground.57 There is no record of gaobiao before the period of Mongolian rule, or at Shangdu, or elsewhere during the period of Mongolian rule. This tall pole is a crucial aspect of the comparison with observatories of the Il-­Khans. The above-­ mentioned observatory in Maragha of circa 1260

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is confirmed in contemporary histories, both Juvayni’s Tarikh-­i Jahangusha (History of the World Conqueror) and Rashid al-­Din’s Jami‘ al-­Tawarikh.58 Just as Yuanshi records that observational instruments were moved from Iran to Dadu and Gaocheng, Persian histories report that instruments were moved to Maragha, in this case from Alamut, from where Nasir al-­Din had come, after the city was taken by Hülegü. A mountain fortress near the Caspian Sea about 100 km from Tehran, from 1090 until Hülegü conquered it in 1256, Alamut was an Isma‘ili stronghold. It is not certain that there was an observatory at Alamut, although some scholars believe there was.59 It is certain that Alamut had a famous library whose contents were taken to Maragha by the Mongols. A library also was part of the Dadu observatory complex.60 Although it has been argued that, as in China, the purpose of the Il-­ Khanid observatory was more astrology than astronomy,61 one purpose of the study of the heavens during the Il-­ Khanid period also was to regulate the calendar. The ‘Astronomical Tables of the Il-­Khans’ produced at Maragha and used by Rashid al-­Din, showed knowledge of the Chinese calendar and Chinese sources, including the Chinese duodenary cycle.62 The real problem in comparing the Il-­Khanid and Yuan o ­ bservatories is the lack of physical evidence, for as little survives at Maragha as at Dadu. It should be emphasised that at Maragha there is no indication of the bar, tall pole, shadow aligner or other apparatus for the process through which the sun’s rays were measured in China. Descriptions from the mid-­fourteenth century through the early twentieth century list a domed building, a library, a school for training observers and a mosque. A hole in the dome made observation possible.63 Since domes are characteristic of Il-­Khanid architecture for a variety of functions including mausoleums, the hole is noteworthy, and there is no evidence of a domed building in Gaocheng or in Dadu. J. Samsó remarks that from the written descriptions, the observatory appears to have been ‘subsidised in a manner ordinarily reserved for schools, hospitals and libraries.’64 The comment is highly significant, particularly the presence of the library. In the premodern Islamic world, the most common location of higher-­level education and libraries was the madrasa.65 According to Aydin Sayılı’s study of the observatory in Islam, there is no evidence that any observatory earlier than the one in Maragha had a library of any significant size.66 Yet the next Il-­Khanid observatory after Maragha, constructed in Shanb, a western suburb of Tabriz, commissioned by Ghazan Khan (r. 1295–1304), who had visited Maragha more than once, was built amidst a hospice, hospital, library, academy of philosophy, fountain, pavilion, two madrasas and his own mausoleum.67 The Dadu observatory was a building complex of offices for five seasonal officials, astrologers and their assistants, calendar clerks, the observatory director and observers,

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and the supervisor of water clocks and timekeepers; buildings for the acquisition of provisions, instruments and supplies; rooms for star maps, the armillary clepsydra powered by water, the spherical sky globe and model of the sky as a carriage-­cover, and models for understanding features of the sky; libraries in which were contained astrological books, mathematical and computational astronomy books; a building where almanacs were printed; and buildings for teaching and preparing offerings for the shrine. The armillary sphere was on a platform on top of one building and the tall gnomon was outside this area. There also was a kitchen for preparing ritual offerings and a school for education in mathematics.68 Like the Islamic world, China, as mentioned in Chapter One, has a history of academies and places for educational training, particularly of officials, before the Yuan period. As early as the Zhou dynasty (1046–221 bce), three ritual structures, Mingtang (Numinous Hall), Biyong (Jade-­ring Moat), and Lingtai (Spirit Altar), housed the functions of education of officials, observation of the heavens and predictions based on them, and the rituals of the twelve moons of the year. Located south of the palace area of a Chinese capital, in at least one instance in the early first century ce, the functions of Mingtang, Biyong and Lingtai, that is rituals of the moons, education and observation, are believed to have been combined in one architectural entity.69 All that we know about Lingtai, the ‘spirit altars’ of Han times, is that they were elevated platforms,70 but one can draw comparisons between the circumstances of construction of a platform for observing the heavens in the Han period and those of the Yuan period. First, a structure for observation of the heavens was a privilege, but also a standard institution, of Chinese kingship. Second, the observatory was in a building complex that included an educational hall: in Han China and in both Iran and China under Mongolian rule, someone educated was required to interpret the cosmos. Third, it thus appears that in China, Iran, and among the Mongols, educated men were believed capable of astronomical observation and interpretation, even if not specifically trained in that discipline. Fourth, the combined institutions of observatory and school of higher learning were especially potent for those who sought to compete for the Chinese throne or to follow the models of Chinese emperorship for their own aggrandisement. In addition, during Khubilai’s reign when observatories were under construction in China, the examination system for officialdom had not yet been reinstated and the bias toward hiring Semu as opposed to Chinese remained strong. The position of astronomer was an opportunity for a Muslim to ascend to a position of influence in the Chinese bureaucracy, and thus an opportunity for West Asian astronomy to enter China. It is important to keep in mind that the exchange of talent was not one-­ way. From the 1250s when Möngke was Khaghan and Khubilai and Hülegü were two younger brothers overseeing two

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ends of Mongolian conquest, until Khubilai’s death in 1294, rule of the empire was more centralised than it would be later, and movement between Persia and China was especially fluid. Nasir  al-­Din definitely met Chinese astronomers at the Maragha observatory. The best evidence for the impact of West Asian astronomy on China during the period of Mongolian rule is that astronomical instruments were brought to China from the West and that West Asian astronomers worked in China. Evidence of the impact of Chinese astronomy in Iran under Il-­Khanid rule is the adoption of the Chinese duodenary calendar. We have no evidence that the tall gnomon was developed anywhere but in China, and even less that the three structural features that were integral to setting the Chinese calendar (metal crossbar, tall pole and shadow aligner) ever existed in Iran. Further, both Willy Hartner and Aydin Sayılı argue that Jamal al-­Din was neither a great astronomer nor erudite and Hartner makes the strong statement that ‘Chinese astronomy did not undergo any essential change through this contact with Islamic science’.71 These comments are not quoted by scholars who support the idea that Chinese observation was transformed in the Yuan dynasty owing to the influence of Muslim astronomy. One can draw a parallel between the construction of mosques, even before the Yuan dynasty, and observatories in China, whatever observational techniques were practised. Numerous foreigners, including Muslims, came to China in the Song and Yuan d ­ ynasties. Yet once in China, after they came into contact with Chinese buildings and officials, they worked in Chinese-­ style buildings. The Platform for Observing the Heavens in Dadu was positioned in a building complex with a main back structure and twin pavilions, a plan employed at the imperial Song monastery Longxingsi in Zhengding, Hebei province, built in the tenth century and with construction lasting for more than another hundred years (Figures 4.14 and 4.15). The plan of Shanhua Monastery whose arrangement has

Figure 4.14  Plan of observatory in Dadu, Yuan dynasty.

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Figure 4.15  Plan of section of Longxing Monastery, Zhengding, Hebei, tenth–eleventh centuries with later additions.

been compared with that of Huaishengsi, similarly had a main structure and side pavilions (Figures 2.31, 2.32, 4.14 and 4.15). In other words, the overriding principles of Chinese construction – four-­sided enclosure in courtyards, major buildings on the main axis, symmetrical multi-­storey structures on the sides, modular construction and entry gates – were adapted with equal ease for imperial residence, worship of Buddhist or Daoist divinities, prayer to Allah and observation of the heavens. As for the brick structure of the Platform for Observing the Heavens, no aspect of its architecture was beyond the capability of Yuan builders. Tall brick pagodas had risen on the Chinese landscape for nearly a millennium, and Chinese builders had constructed subterranean brick tombs for even longer. Seven astronomical instruments from West Asia could easily have been displayed or used within the Dadu or Gaocheng observatory compounds. The tall gnomon is the crucial feature that defines a Chinese ­observatory of the late thirteenth century, and so far its use is confirmed only in China. To the extent that the structure in Gaocheng appears ­distinctive among other thirteenth-­century buildings, it is because it was a highly specialised structure with a specialised function. The observatory in Maragha might have looked equally unusual on the Persian landscape in the late thirteenth century. Or it might have borne some imprint of China. Evidence is scarce but it is certain that Chinese-­style dragons were carved in stone at Dash Kasan (Qinqor Olong), Zanjan, in north-­western Iran, almost certainly at a Buddhist monastery, during the Il-­Khanid period (Figure 4.16).72 If the impact of Muslims on Chinese astronomy during the Yuan period is hard to pinpoint, the impact of Il-­Khanid observatories on China is harder to confirm, and the impact of architecture from the Western Regions is even more of a challenge to discern. Muslims were among the many foreigners in China under Mongolian rule, and

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Figure 4.16  Stone dragon relief, Dash Kasan, Zanjan, Iran, Il-­Khanid period.

many held influential positions in the Yuan government. As a result, mosques flourished across China. Yet as far as can be determined, they were built with Chinese materials from base to roof, and decorated with Chinese materials by, perhaps, an international population of artisans. The patronage of mosques as well as their numbers were important causes for the survival of Islam and mosques after the Yuan dynasty. However, with the exception of the minaret in Guangzhou and the mosque in Quanzhou, they bore little external evidence that the religion practised behind their walls was Islam.

Notes 1. Chinggis’s life and the history of the Mongols are recounted in numerous places. The range of literature for a study like this one is represented by: J. J. Saunders 1971; Cleaves 1982; Lane 2004; Biran 2007. 2. For more on the effects of the examination system and self-­imposed eremitism, see Mote 1960: 202–40; Cahill 1976: 15–16. 3. Semu means peoples of various ethnicities. The usage of se, literally class or kind, might date as early as the first millennium bce. For a discussion of this term, see (last posting 14 November 2007). 4. Allsen 2001: 83–185. 5. Israeli 2002: 185. 6. For more background to the period see Boyle 2008 and Franke and Twitchett 1994. 7. Morgan 1986: 163–76. 8. Bretschneider 2005: 35–108; and Waley 1931. 9. Dawson 1955: 3–86; Rachewiltz 1971: 89–109. 10. Rockhill 1967. 11. Rossabi 1992. 12. Dawson 1955: 222–31; Rachewiltz 1971: 160–72. 13. Rachewiltz 1971: 191–201.

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14. For instance, eighty craftsmen were spared while 700,000 others were slaughtered in Merv in 1221; Saunders 1971: 60. 15. Olschki 1946. 16. Chen Yuan 1966; Liang and Zhu 1930–5. 17. Information in this paragraph is drawn from Buell 1993 and Armijo-­ Hussein 1996. 18. For an explanation of these offices, see Buell 1993: 468–71. 19. D’Ollone was in China from 1906–9. 20. Na Weixin 1992: 147. 21. Na Weixin 1992: 148–9. 22. Na Weixin 1992: 149–50; Bai Shouyi 1982: 292–8. 23. Na Weixin 1992: 151–2. 24. Jin Zhizhang and Huang Kerun 1758; see Wang Beichen 2000: 422–4. 25. Jin and Huang 1968: juan 3, p. 53. 26. Wang Beichen 2000: 423–4 provides the passage. Guyuanxian zhi was not available to me. 27. Wang Beichen 2000: 421–36. 28. I thank Haiwei Liu for sending me a photograph of the site as well as papers arguing against Ananda as the occupant of this tomb. For the argument, see Zhou Liangxiao 2011 and Huang Kejia 2013. The three buildings were gone in 2015. 29. For an illustration, see Golombek and Wilber 1988: vol. 2, plate 3. 30. Franke and Twitchett 1994: 505–6. 31. Li Yiyou 1960: 20–3; Xia Nai 1960: 24–6 and 23. A magic square excavated at the remains of Mangala’s city has Arabic numbers on it. 32. Hebeisheng 2012: 4 33. Xiang Keliqisi, was Prince of Jinning. He received the posthumous title Zhongxiang. 34. Soucek 2000: 121. 35. O’Kane 2004: 284–5. 36. O’Kane 2004: 278. 37. O’Kane 2004: 278–9. 38. This building has been retiled and re-­roofed through the centuries. Even though motifs on the tiles suggest West Asian influences, the four-­sided pagoda structure has a continuous history in China from the early seventh century. 39. Dunnell 1996: 12–18. 40. Chen and Tang 2008: 74. 41. Dunnell 1996: 201–14. 42. Allsen 2001: 161–75; Sayılı 1988: 187–223. 43. Sivin 2009. 44. Hartner 1968: 217. 45. Allsen 2001: 167. 46. Sivin 2009: 151–70. 47. Allsen 2001: 163. 48. Allsen 2001: 167. 49. Allsen 2001: 166. 50. Sivin 2009: 156. 51. Steinhardt 1983: 137–158. 52. Lu Sixian 2003: 74. 53. On the site at Shangdu proposed to be the observatory, see Wei Jian 2008: vol. 1, 50–4. 54. Steinhardt 1983: 155.

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55. Sivin 2009: 144–6. 56. Song Lian 1976: vol. 1, juan 10, 209. Here the word gaobiao can be understood as a reference to the entire structure of which the tall pole is a part. 57. Zhang Jiatai 1976: 95–102. 58. Allsen 2001: 162–3. 59. Sayılı 1988: 187–8. 60. Chen 2003: 532–4. 61. Sayılı 1988: 223. 62. Allsen 2001: 164; Melville 1994: 83–98. 63. Sayılı 1988: 194. 64. Samsó 2009. 65. Madrasa definitely did not exist as a separate institution in the initial century of Islam. Of the various theories about its origins, one that might deserve consideration here was put forward in the 1920s by V. V. Bartol’d. He proposed that the inspiration for the madrasa was the Buddhist monastery, such that the Sanskrit word vihara was the source of the word madrasa. The statement is found in Bartol’d, Sochineniya (Collected works), vol. 2, 2 (Moscow 1964), 30. I thank Sheila Blair for this reference. 66. Sayılı 1988: 205. 67. Sayılı 1988: 226–7. 68. Chen 2003: 532–4. 69. Wang Shiren 1963: 501–15. 70. Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan Kaogu Yanjiusuo 2010: 8–79. 71. Hartner 1968: 217, 224. 72. Scarcia 1975: 99–104; Curatola 1982: 71–88; Azad 2011: 223–8.

CHAPTER FIVE

Xi’an and Nanjing: Great Mosques and Great Ming Patrons The fall of the Mongols in 1368 to the armies of Zhu Yuanzhang (1328–98), the man who would found the Ming dynasty and rule for thirty years as the Hongwu emperor, marked a return not only to native rule of China, but in addition to control of parts of north China that had not been in Chinese hands since the tenth century. Art historians, particularly scholars of Chinese painting, have noticed a sharp change in Chinese civilisation before and after 1368. Painting at Hongwu’s court has been evaluated as decidedly conservative, lacking the creativity and political innuendos that characterised Yuan artists working without the support of the government during the period of Mongolian rule.1 In architecture, as well, the Ming has been deemed a period of rigidity,2 and indeed, the open interiors with few pillars and dramatic ceilings that characterise buildings of China’s tenth to fourteenth centuries, such as those in the main hall of Baoguo Monastery shown in Figure 2.13, are replaced by halls with hypostyle interiors and flat ceilings. Already in the 1950s, Henry Serruys noted that in the early Ming dynasty Mongols who had integrated into the Chinese economy in the Yuan dynasty continued to work in the capital (Dadu in Yuan times and Beijing after 1408).3 More recently, Timothy Brook has argued that 1368 might be a ‘brace connecting two parts’ rather than a break.4 Mosques in the immediate decades after 1368 did not change in response to Chinese rulers of a new dynasty any more than the neighbourhoods they served. The more direct patronage of Islamic architecture by the early Ming emperors in contrast to rulers of the Yuan dynasty might be viewed as looking outward, a contrast to the insular view scholars have suggested concerning painting and the other arts. As for all large-­ scale religious architecture of previous ages in China, renovation and new construction relied on government permissions and financial support. Mosques had been renovated in China’s south-­east and Beijing (the subject of the next chapter) and had flourished in new regions such as Sichuan and Yunnan on an unprecedented scale in the Yuan dynasty. This was not only because of the impact of local Muslim populations; it also was due to the fact

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that Muslims had become integral to government service in these places. In the early Ming period, not only were mosques maintained and built by local populations, several mosques of grand scale and design came to exist. They were built through the patronage of the early Ming emperors. Imperial Ming interest in mosques began with Zhu Yuanzhang whose atypical profile as a Chinese despot has been recognised by historians.5 Using standard Chinese texts such as Dagao (Grand pronouncements), written by the emperor himself for dissemination among the population as a guide to moral conduct and good government, and Chinese–Islamic works, some of which are apocryphal, Zvi Ben-­Dor Benite presents Zhu Yuanzhang as a ‘Marrano emperor’.6 Evidence for Ben-­ Dor’s well-­ argued exposition includes: the tale of Zhu Yuanzhang filling his footprint with gold at the mosque in Nanjing; the discovery of an Islamic ‘calendar-­book’ at court and the emperor’s order to have it translated into Chinese; his authorship of the ‘Hundred Character Praise’ (of Islam); the number of Muslims among his generals; an explanation of his ugliness, widely known and recorded in portraits, as due to his Semu ancestry; the fact that in spite of an anticipated purge of Semu, including Muslims, upon the restoration of native Chinese rule, in fact Muslims flourished under the first Ming reign; Zhu Yuanzhang’s ‘irritation’ that foreigners were encouraged to adopt Chinese names in the early Ming; and, of course, patronage of mosques.7 Ming China’s less controversial mosque patron is Zheng He (1371–1435), an uncontested Muslim and eunuch official of the Ming court who made seven famous voyages from China to South, South East and West Asia, and East Africa. Zheng He was born in Yunnan with the name Ma Sanbao, Ma being one of the most common surnames of Chinese Muslims, and was a great-­great-­great grandson of al-­Sayyid al-­Ajall Shams al-­Din (Saidianchi). Yunnanese legend relates that the first Ming emperor brought Zheng He to court as a boy because he ‘recognised his wisdom’.8 If Ming Taizu’s discovery of Zheng He cannot be proved, there is no question that the third Ming emperor, and the first to rule from Beijing, Yongle (1360–1424), was an unflagging patron of Zheng He.9 Himself a devout Buddhist, and particularly inclined toward Lamaist Buddhism,10 Yongle nevertheless supported Zheng He who was an ardent patron of mosques in the first three decades of the fifteenth century in China and beyond its borders. That the superior quality of two mosques associated with Zheng He was maintained after his death is due to continued imperial support in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Huajuexiangsi, the Great Mosque in Xi’an Huajuexiangsi (the mosque on Huajue alley) is in China’s most famous tourist city, Xi’an, where one goes to see the terracotta

xi’an and nanjing: great mosques and great ming patrons

Figure 5.1  Plan of Huajuexiangsi, Xi’an, 1392 with later repair. (1) screen wall (2) wooden pailou (3) side gate (4) first courtyard (5) gate (6) second courtyard (7) stone paifang (8) stele pavilion (9) third courtyard (10) Shengxinlou (11) hall for ablutions (12) lecture hall (13) conjoined stone gates (14) Yiyizhi Pavilion (15) hexagonal pond (16) stele pavilion (17) yuetai (18) prayer hall (19) yaodian (20) screen wall (21) location of screen wall.

warriors of the First Emperor. It is China’s largest mosque.11 Visited by more foreign tourists than any other mosque in China proper (China’s eighteen core provinces),12 it perhaps not coincidentally has been maintained in superior condition. In fact, every building that stood there in the Ming dynasty remains in some form today. The mosque is so famous it is popularly known as the Great Mosque in Xi’an or simply, the Xi’an Mosque, and in China sometimes as Great East Mosque.13 It is the mosque against which all others are evaluated. Huajuexiangsi is by all measures exemplary of Ming religious architecture patronised at a high level. The site of Huajuexiangsi has a long history of religious construction. In 742, a religious complex named Tanmingsi was established there.14 Sometime between 1260 and 1263, it or successive structures were rebuilt as Huihui Wanshansi (Muslim Myriad Goodness Mosque).15 The next record of construction and the take-­off point for most discussions of the mosque is 1392 when Huajuexiang Mosque, today in the north-­western part of Xi’an, was constructed with the sanction of the Hongwu emperor and with the support of Zheng He. The Great Mosque in Xi’an consists of five courtyards along an extremely long axial line, oriented due east so that the westernmost building’s terminus is the mihrab (Figure 5.1). We observed in

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Figure 5.2  Interior of first courtyard of Huajuexiangsi, Xi’an, focused on Qing-­period pailou.

the previous chapter that in the Yuan period mosques sometimes diverted from the standard Chinese orientation toward the south and were instead positioned east–west. Beginning in the Ming dynasty, an arrangement with the mihrab at the back end of a straight line that began at the front gate in the east became common. More than twenty buildings occupy the enclosed 254 m by 47 m space. In spite of the nearly 5:1 length : width ratio, the courtyards are not of the same sizes. The initial courtyard (Figure 5.1(4); all numbers in this paragraph and the following three refer to Figure 5.1) is the smallest, defined by a brick screen wall, two side gates, and a five-­bay gate with a wooden, central pailou (ceremonial gate) erected in the Qing dynasty as the only interior structure ((1) and Figure 5.2). The area behind the gate shown as (5) is the second courtyard (6). A three-­bay stone gate (paifang) elevated on a platform (7) and two pavilions with steles in them are the only notable structures (8). One stele records a repair in 1606 and the other a repair in 1772. The third courtyard signals a break in the mosque space (includes (9), (10) and (11); ends at (13)). The way into the fourth courtyard is via three avenues, all of which continue straight to the stairs that approach the prayer hall. The focus of the third courtyard is an octagonal building named Shengxinlou (Examining the Heart Tower) ((10) and Figure 5.3). Its height and shape have led many to assume it is a minaret, but this has never been proved.16 Along the north and south sides of the third courtyard and in the front part of the fourth are various service and administrative buildings of the mosque (11). One of the three lecture halls is on the north side of the third courtyard and a hall for ablutions is on the south. The other

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Figure 5.3  Shengxinlou, third courtyard of Huajuexiangsi, Xi’an.

lecture halls are due west, on the north and south sides of the fourth courtyard (12). Among them also are kitchens, offices of the mosque, and the imam’s quarters, each modernised over the centuries. The only other structures inside the third courtyard are two stele pavilions. Behind the octagonal Shengxinlou are the last two courtyards and the main part of the mosque. Like courtyard three, courtyard four is filled with architecture, in contrast to the first two courtyards. The three conjoined stone gates that interface courtyards three and four, each of which can be entered from each of its four sides, is one of the most frequently photographed passages in the mosque ((13), Figure 5.4). Two sizable lecture halls (12), screen walls beyond them along the mosque boundary on either side of the approach to the worship hall, and the enormous size of that approach all define the courtyard; and a hexagonal pavilion, two more stele pavilions (16), and hexagonal ponds on either side of the pathway toward prayer (15) further constrict the 65-­metre-­long space. The Yiyizhi (One and Only) Pavilion behind it is indeed unique because of the cruciform platform on which it stands ((14), Figure 5.5). Sometimes it is known as Phoenix Pavilion because of its shape.17 The prayer hall (18) and the approach to it dominate the fourth and fifth courtyards as the structure for which all the others were erected. The fourth courtyard ends with this approach (yuetai) (17), a feature observed at Huaishengsi in Guangzhou (Figure 2.31). The prayer hall is a seven-­by-­four-­bay hall with a single-­eave, hip-­gabled roof of azure, glazed tiles. Its three central, back bays extend to become the mihrab. The worship hall measures 32.9 m by 27.5 m, a huge space with no side windows; however, the 600-­plus designs on the ceiling and the highly decorated mihrab serve to brighten the interior (Figure 5.6). The area including the mihrab (between (19) and (21)) is about 1300 sq. m and is able to accommodate more than 1000 worshippers. The interior boundary of the fifth courtyard

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Figure 5.4  Stone gateways between third and fourth courtyards, Huajuexiangsi, Xi’an.

Figure 5.5  Yiyizhi (One and Only) Pavilion with worship hall behind it, Huajuexiangsi, Xi’an.

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Figure 5.6  Interior of worship hall, Huajuexiangsi, Xi’an.

is punctuated by three screen walls, one opposite each side stairway that provides access to the worship space (20) and one at the back (21). That the grand mosque in Xi’an follows the spatial and architectural principles and details of craftsmanship and design of China is noticeable at every turn. Moreover, the elements are those of China’s most eminent architectural tradition. The plan recalls China’s most distinguished secular and religious complexes, some of them with successive courtyards that result in a plan whose length : width ratio is 5:1 or more. As mentioned in Chapter One, the axial line of Ming-­ Qing Beijing after the addition of the outer city under the Jiajing emperor (r. 1521–67) in the mid-­sixteenth century consisted of nine successive courtyards from the central, south gate of the outer city wall to the central, north gate of the inner city, as did the Confucian Temple complex in Qufu. The Forbidden City, Confucian Temple, and Huajuexiangsi all have more gates along the line than the number of courtyards. The Confucian Temple was visited and augmented by emperors of every dynasty beginning with Han. The Northern Song monastery Longxingsi, an imperial Buddhist complex from the Song dynasty, comprises five significant buildings along its main axial line with a courtyard in front of and behind each one (Figure 4.15 is one courtyard of the whole). Few large fifteenth-­century monasteries in China survive intact: Zhihuasi in Beijing, Chongshansi in Taiyuan, Shanxi, Upper Guangshengsi in Hongdong, Shanxi, and Bao’ensi in Pingwu, Sichuan, are the most important.18 Each received high-­ level ­ patronage. Zhihuasi was built in 1443 by Wang Zhen who, like Zheng He, was a powerful court eunuch. Like the Xi’an mosque, it consists of five successive courtyards with a front screen wall, two gates and four

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Figure 5.7  Plan of Zhihua Monastery, Beijing, 1443.

important buildings along the main axial line (Figure 5.7). The focal structure is in the central courtyard rather than at the back where the prayer hall is positioned at Huajuexiangsi, but like the Muslim space, the most important worship hall is approached by a yuetai. Pairs of stele pavilions, a residence of the chief abbot (counterpart of the imam), screen walls, and auxiliary spaces for administration, residence and education are all features shared with the Xi’an mosque. Bao’en Monastery in Sichuan has only four courtyards, but the long, narrow arrangement is equally pronounced because of the excessively long back courtyard (Figure 5.8). This temple complex includes white marble balustrades, paired stele pavilions, a three-­ lane approach through the central area, and the large yuetai in front of the main hall, all signs of a high-­ranking religious complex that are shared by Huajuexiangsi. Bao’ensi also has the unusual feature for a Buddhist monastery of east–west orientation. An even more unusual feature is the shape of its exterior wall, wide in the east and narrow in the west (Figure 5.8). The oldest mosque in Sichuan, Huangcheng Mosque in Chengdu, all of whose buildings date to the Qing period, has the same unusual shape (Figure 5.9).19 Another monastery named Bao’ensi, in Nanjing, largely destroyed, probably also had a long, narrow plan. Zheng He was a patron of this monastery that was famous because of its porcelain pagoda that attracted the attention of Europeans in the early eighteenth century.20 His involvement is one of the reasons some suggest that he practised Buddhism as well as Islam.21 The small number of eminent religious complexes that survive from the Ming

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Figure 5.8  Plan of Bao’en Monastery, Pingwu, Sichuan, Ming dynasty.

Figure 5.9  Plan of Huangcheng Mosque, Chengdu, Sichuan, Qing dynasty. (1) screen wall (2) main gate (3) minaret (4) lecture hall (5) prayer hall (6) Wangyuelou (7) hall of ablutions (8) educational hall.

dynasty, and the similarities among them, not just in arrangement of buildings, but in specific structures, renders Huajuexiangsi a highly significant example of Ming architecture, even though, as a ­functioning mosque, buildings were added and repaired in the Qing period. The fact that it lends itself to consideration as a primary example of Ming architecture is emphasised by the ease with which it is presented in Chinese hand scroll format (Figure 5.10). Four buildings at the Xi’an mosque illustrate the close connections

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Figure 5.10  Painting of Huajuexiangsi, ink on paper, Ming dynasty.

Figure 5.11  Gateway, Qing imperial tombs, Yi county, Hebei.

with architecture in other religious and secular settings of the Ming and Qing dynasties and earlier. Screen walls, for example, can be traced to circa 1200 bce, the date of one that was excavated at the site of a palatial complex in Fengchu, Shaanxi province.22 From the Ming and Qing dynasties, well-­known examples of screen walls include ‘dragon walls’ (screen walls decorated with dragons) at the Forbidden City in Beijing and at Huayan Monastery in Datong. The wooden pailou (ceremonial archway) behind the screen wall at Huajuexiangsi is positioned in the same place, has three bays, and has marble, cloud-­shaped supports, as gates at the Confucian Temple in Qufu and at the Qing imperial tombs in Yi county and Zunhua, Hebei (Figure 5.2). Each was added to its building complex in the Qing dynasty. The three-­entry gateway whose sides join adjacent walls is of the form seen along the approach to imperial Ming and Qing tombs and the Confucian Temple (Figures 5.4 and 5.11). The minaret-­like Shengxinlou has a counterpart in the one tall structure, pagoda or pavilion, which stands on the main building line of many Chinese

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Figure 5.12  Yuxiang Pavilion, Temple to the Northern Peak, Quyang, Hebei, Qing period.

architectural complexes. The tower has been a defining feature of an axis since the tenth–eleventh centuries.23 An example of a pavilion of similar structure and at a similar position in its building complex is the one at the Temple to the Northern Peak in Quyang (Figures 5.3 and 5.12). Both pavilions are hexagonal, of three storeys, and have three sets of roof eaves. A pillared arcade encloses the first storey of each pavilion, and a balustrade encloses the upper storeys of both. Two bracket sets are positioned between the columns of each bay of each storey. Each building has ceramic animals decorating the ends of the roof ridges of each storey and a multi-­section ornament that includes bulbous components at the top. There is no reason to believe that the buildings of the Xi’an Mosque were made in imitation of specific structures. Each follows or recalls hundreds of similar structures that stood in China in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. One-­and-­only Pavilion, perhaps, is unique because of the platform it shares with the covered arcade and the smaller pavilions to its sides. But in its role as a place for relaxation and contemplation between two courtyards, it has countless equivalents in Chinese temple and garden complexes. Most important in these comparisons is that the mosque buildings are based on China’s most esteemed architecture. An extremely large hall such as the worship hall at Huajuexiangsi was present in imperial settings as a hall of audience and in religious architecture as the main worship space in an imperial monastery or for a large, non-­ imperial congregation. The East Hall at Foguang Monastery on Mount Wutai, the most eminent Tang building to survive, which dates from the year 857, is a seven-­ by-­ four-­ bay structure. In the Chinese modular system, there is no standard unit for a bay length, but the number of bays is significant; seven bays across the front signifies an important building; more than that number indicates a still more important

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Figure 5.13  Mosque, Xi’an, 1933 courtyard.

structure. The Great Buddha Hall of Fengguo Monastery in Yi county, Liaoning, of 1019, is nine bays by five, measures 48.2 m by 25.13 m and stands on a foundation platform of 55.8 m by 25.91 m. The Great Buddha Hall at Huayan Monastery in Datong, built in the eleventh century with later restoration, is also nine by five bays and measures 53.7 m by 27.44 m. The Main Hall of Shanhua Monastery, also in Datong and contemporary to Huayan Monastery, is seven bays by five and 41 m by 25 m (Figure 2.32). In the Northern Wei (493–534) capital Luoyang, the Great Ultimate Hall where the emperor held audience was thirteen bays across the front and four in depth. Among Ming survivals, the Hall of Great Harmony in the Forbidden City is eleven bays across the front and five bays deep, more than 60 m across the front and nearly 40 m deep. The Hall of Heavenly Favours, sacrificial hall at the tomb of the Yongle emperor in Beijing, is nine bays by five. The Rulai Hall of the above-­mentioned Zhihuasi in Beijing, however, is five bays by three and the Main Buddha Hall of Bao’ensi in Pingwu is five bays by five. The fact that the prayer hall of Huajuexiangsi is seven bays across the front, as well as enormous in dimensions, underscores the mosque’s eminence and grandeur.24 There is no doubt that the location in Xi’an has further increased Huajuexiangsi’s fame. Claude Pickens, Jr, one of the many missionaries through whom information about mosques was disseminated in the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries, photographed it several times between 1933 and 1935.25 Photographs like his brought ­attention to the Xi’an mosque long before tourists came to include it in their itineraries (Figure 5.13). Jingjuesi in Nanjing Whether the Hongwu emperor or Zheng He were patrons of the mosques in Xi’an and Nanjing, the two cities were logical locations

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Figure 5.14  Entry gate, Jingjue Mosque, Nanjing, 1392 with many, extensive, later repairs.

for grand mosques in the early Ming dynasty. Xi’an had been China’s most important capital for the majority of the previous 1500 years and Nanjing was the location of the new Ming capital, established by Hongwu in 1368 when pro-­Mongol factions remained in the north. Construction of the mosque known as Jingjuesi (Pure Awakening Mosque) in Nanjing began twenty years later under the direction of several men who came from the Western Regions. According to a stele on site, the same men worked on Huajuexiangsi.26 Both mosques were completed in the same year, 1392. The term chici, ‘bestowed by imperial order’, is emblazoned on an imitation imperial tablet at the top centre of the three-­entry gateway that only in part retains its original decoration (Figure 5.14). It was placed there following repairs commissioned by the Jiajing emperor (1507–67) in the mid-­sixteenth century. Below chici are the characters, Jingjuesi. The first major repair to the mosque occurred in 1430 under the aegis of Zheng He. Subsequent repairs, in addition to the one under Jiajing, were undertaken in 1492, 1877, 1879, 1957, 1982, 1984 and 2002. Repairs of the late nineteenth century followed heavy damage during the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64) whose headquarters were in Nanjing. Before the end of the Qing dynasty a mosque that had originally occupied forty mu (approximately 264 acres) of land was reduced to 1650 sq. m, or about one-­sixth its Ming area, in large part to decrease the institution’s tax burden.27 The plan has little in common with that of Huajuexiangsi. The entry gate is on the south side of the street (Figure 5.15). It leads to a long corridor that opens onto a courtyard, somewhat similar to the entry to Shengyousi in Quanzhou (Figure 2.8). One turns 90 degrees

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Figure 5.15  Plan of Jingjue Mosque, Nanjing.

to the west and then either enters a reception room (keting) or proceeds to service buildings on either side that include a kitchen and a hall of ablutions. The reception room is the focus of the first courtyard, and there is only one courtyard that follows it. The back courtyard consists of an antechamber and the worship space behind it, joined by a corridor, in the gong-­scheme associated with elite Chinese construction. The prayer hall is enclosed by a covered arcade. As in Xi’an, the prayer hall dominates the back courtyard. The mihrab is positioned at the western end of the mosque. The mosque today is about one-­seventh the area of Huajuexiangsi. Still, the stone and wood carving retained from former times as well as the most recent renovations bespeak a mosque of high-­level patronage and careful artisanry (Figure 5.16). The architecture of the two grand mosques associated with the Hongwu emperor and Zheng He support Donald Leslie’s statement that during the Ming dynasty Muslims in China became Chinese Muslims.28 Two Famous Ming Muslims Buried in Nanjing One might expect that the most important Muslim tomb of the Ming period belongs to Zheng He. That statement may be true, but interest in this burial is all the greater because a man of Zheng He’s international fame was memorialised the same way as countless Muslims who had little impact on world history. As mentioned above, records attest that Ming China’s most famous Muslim had allegiances to

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Figure 5.16  Archway, Jingjue Mosque, Nanjing.

Buddhist and Daoist monasteries. Further, some believe Zheng He died at sea, leading to the question of whose corpse, if anyone’s, is in the tomb identified as Zheng He’s in Nanjing.29 Today the seafarer’s grave is marked by a standard Muslim white, stone cenotaph of multiple carved layers with five cylindrical sections symmetrically positioned to form a pyramid above the base. Whatever remained at the site associated with Zheng He’s burial in Nanjing in the Ming dynasty had fallen into ruin by the twentieth century. In 1959 the tomb was renovated, and it was repaired again in the 1980s and more recently by the city of Nanjing.30 It is one of Nanjing’s tourist monuments, situated in an isolated setting with a shrine, stele and statue, south-­west of the city on a slope of Niushou Mountain. In 2010, the location was challenged. While digging near Zutang Mountain of Nanjing, workers accidentally came upon an empty tomb in a cemetery of similar-­sized subterranean burials of powerful eunuchs of the Ming court. The 8.5-­metre-­long, 4-­metre-­wide underground chamber was brick. The floor, walls and ceiling near a Zutang slope are as Chinese in style as the shrine/ cenotaph on a Niushou slope is Muslim. Excavators proposed the empty burial was Zheng He’s tomb.31 It is possible that neither tomb ever contained the remains of Zheng He. Yet the existence of the sites and the dates associated with each location emphasise fundamental underlying issues of any study of Islam and its monuments in China. The necessities of the practice of Islam and of Muslim life more generally, terminating in burial, are certain. In China, extant architectural evidence of Islam almost always has an overlay of China. This is clearly in evidence in mosques, and yet tombs discussed thus far, and all others in Muslim cemeteries in China, are often identifiable as Muslim, usually by the kind of cenotaph associated with Zheng He. Perhaps the majority of Muslims in China flourished because they integrated into Chinese society, but in their last architectural statement on earth, they were

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buried according to Islamic practice. Perhaps the subterranean tomb in Zutang was an empty façade for a Muslim from its inception, either because he died at sea or because his corpse was never placed there. Perhaps the challenge to the original site as Zheng He’s had a political motivation in 2010, a challenge to longstanding beliefs that Zheng He practised Islam to the extent that some sources suggest. The tomb and others around it in the Chinese eunuch cemetery on Zutang Mountain establish an identity for Zheng He with Buddhism and Daoism, similar to Saidianchi’s identity as a patron of Confucianism. Perhaps this use of architecture that defines China has been particularly crucial for China’s greatest heroes who were Muslim or for the largest, most lavish and expansive mosques of imperial patronage. The idea of a façade of China behind which Islam could be practised is supported by the tombs of two Muslim rulers from other regions who died and were buried in China. One of those burials, of a man known as the King of Borneo, also is in Nanjing. Unlike the tomb of Zheng He, the site and man interred there are not controversial. Five pairs of stone men and animals that line the approach to a tomb on the south side of Niaogui Mountain, just outside the Ande Gate of the Ming city wall, had been visible for 650 years before pieces of a stele that identified their owner were discovered in 1958. The path bends sharply from the stele pavilion to the funerary mound, a feature of the approach to the Yongle emperor’s own tomb. The purpose of a bent path is to steer evil spirits, who travel in straight lines, off course (Figure 5.17).32 The monumental sculptures

Figure 5.17  Spirit path, tomb of King of Borneo, looking outward from tumulus, Nanjing, 1408.

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are standard features along a spirit path, namely the approach to the tomb of Chinese royalty or an extremely high-­ranking official, ever since the Han dynasty.33 The ruler of Boni, a kingdom on Borneo often considered the predecessor of Brunei, had come to China in 1408. The trip was predicated by the good relations of Boni with China as a tribute state; these had begun early in the Hongwu reign. The king died almost immediately after his arrival, thus leaving it to the son who accompanied him to establish relations with the Yongle emperor. Between 1412 and 1425, a king or his emissaries made five more trips to China. It is believed that the ruler of Borneo in the fifteenth century was Muslim, and that the island was heavily Muslim by this time.34 The tomb goes by the nickname ‘Ma Huihui fen’, or Mound of the Muslim Ma.35 Above ground, the architecture is indistinguishable from that of a royal Chinese tomb.36 Presumably the burial ground and status that permitted the spirit path were awarded by imperial sanction. During the first three reigns of the Ming dynasty, some of the most influential Chinese citizens and visitors to China were Muslim. Their worship and burial spaces came into being by imperial decree and were, from every external vantage point, ­ Chinese architecture. Evidence of that architecture today is only to be found in Xi’an and Nanjing. Islamic construction in the Beijing region, China’s Central Plain, and along the Grand Canal in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries of the Ming dynasty shows the patronage of resident Muslims as well as the court. We begin our examination of these centuries in Beijing, which would be China’s primary capital from the Yongle reign until the fall of China’s monarchy and establishment of a capital by the Republican (Nationalists) government (Guomindang [Kuomintang]) in Nanjing in the twentieth century.

Notes 1. Cahill 1976: 3–56; Barnhart 1993: Feng 2003; Palace Museum 2007. 2. Liang 1984: 103–9; Sickman and Soper 1971: 461–6. 3. Serruys 1959 and 1967; Serruys and Aubin 1987: 137–90; 233–305. 4. Brook 2010: 1. Pan Guxi 1999 joins the Yuan and Ming dynasties together in one volume of the five-­ volume series Zhongguo gudai jianzhu shi (History of premodern Chinese architecture), but in this case the union is probably due to a goal of keeping each volume in the series approximately the same length. 5. Hok-­lam Chan 2011: Essay I; Farmer 1995: 13–15, 46–7, and 110–13. 6. Marrano is the Spanish and Portuguese name of a Jew who converted to Christianity by choice or by force at the end of the fifteenth century, but secretly practised Judaism. The use of the term here is to raise the possibility that the Hongwu emperor practised Islam in secret.

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7. Ben-­Dor Benite, 2008; Dillon 1999: 8 and 28–32 refutes this. 8. Li and Luckert, eds 1994: 251–3; also quoted in Ben-­Dor Benite 2008. 9. Of the long bibliography on Zheng He, standard references in European languages are: Levathes 1994; Ptak 2005; Su 2005; Dreyer 2007. 10. Watt and Leidy 2005; and Tsai 2001. 11. Liu Zhiping 1985: 128. 12. China proper is a term used by Western scholars to refer to the part of China that excludes former Manchuria (today’s Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang), Mongolia and Tibet. 13. Huajuexiangsi is one of the few Chinese mosques discussed in Western-­ language studies. See, for example, Cowan 1983 and 2001. 14. Ding Sijian 2010: 132 is the only source I have found that states that the mid-­eighth-­century buildings were a mosque. It is possible a Buddhist or Daoist monastery of the Tang period was later transformed into a mosque. Ding Sijian 2010: 132 further writes that a mosque was maintained and expanded in the Song and each subsequent dynasty. 15. Wu Jianwei 1995: 304. 16. The structure is referred to as both Shengxinge (pavilion) and Shengxinlou (tower). 17. Qiu and Yu 1992: 172. 18. Other monasteries such as Kaiyuansi in Quanzhou have important histories in the Ming period but are not as exclusively associated with the fifteenth century. For illustrations of all the monasteries discussed in this paragraph see Pan Guxi 2001: 313–32. 19. Lu and Zhang 2005: 110. 20. Harrer 2010. 21. Jinian Weida Hanghaijia Zheng He Xia Xiyang 580 zhounian Choubei Weiyuanhui and Zhongguo Hanghaishi Yanjiusuo 1985: 13–14 and 22–3; Dreyer 2007: 166. 22. For an illustration see Steinhardt 1990: 43. 23. Guo Daiheng 2003b: 265–452. 24. As mentioned above, Chinese architecture is a ranked system. The ratios of proportions and building components inform us about a building’s rank. The system is explained in the court-­sponsored treatises, Yingzao fashi (Building standards) of the twelfth century and Gongbu gongcheng zuofa zeli (Engineering manual for the Board of Works), issued in the eighteenth century. For illustrations of buildings mentioned in this paragraph, see Steinhardt 2002: 114, 115, 175–7, 216–9, 227–9 and 265–7. 25. The Pickens photo archive is available on the Harvard University website: (last accessed 13 February 2015) 26. Lu and Zhang 2005: 81. 27. Wu Jianwei 1995: 128. 28. Leslie 1986: 105. 29. A standard narrative is reported in Levathes 1994. It is evaluated in Dreyer 2007: 165–86 and Su 2005. 30. Jinian Weida Hanghaijia Zheng He Xia Xiyang 580 zhounian Choubei Weiyuanhui and Zhongguo Hanghaishi Yanjiusuo 1985: 20. 31. Available at: and (both accessed on 7 April 2013). 32. Paludan 1991: 167.

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33. Paludan 1991: 28–51. 34. Graham Saunders 2002: 35–48. 35. Jinian Weida Hanghaijia Zheng He Xia Xiyang 580 zhounian Choubei Weiyuanhui and Zhongguo Hanghaishi Yanjiusuo 1985: 19. 36. Yang and Yang 2002.

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Ox Street Mosque and Muslim Worship in or near Beijing Ox Street Mosque is the largest mosque in Beijing and the one with the longest history. It has one of the longest continuous histories among religious complexes in China. The name and street location are references to the Muslim prohibition against eating pork and to the ritual slaughter of oxen. This name was not used until the Qing dynasty when the mosque served a large Muslim neighbourhood in the south-­western part of Beijing’s outer city.1 The history of Ox Street Mosque begins with a Muslim seafarer known in Chinese as Gewamoding, the father of three sons, who came to China before the year 960 of the Liao dynasty in north China to teach Islam. In 996 his second son, known in Chinese as Nasuluding (Nasir al-­Din?) received imperial permission to build the mosque in the city that was then the Liao southern capital known as Yanjing. The late tenth-­century mosque was smaller than Ox Street Mosque today, on a site described as exquisite, amid cherry trees and pomegranate orchards and on noticeably high ground so that it is sometimes referred to as gangshang (elevated on a hill). According to this record, Yanjing was a city with dozens of mosques. The mosque on the hill was one of the four great religious institutions in the capital.2 Sometime during the period 1068–77, Zunjinglou (Venerating the Scriptures Tower) was erected. Perhaps the building was a library, perhaps taking its precedent from the multi-­ storey sutra libraries standard in Buddhist monasteries that were mentioned in Chapter One.3 Or perhaps it was a minaret given this Chinese name, or perhaps even a moon-­viewing pavilion, a structural type discussed below that would become part of Ox Street Mosque in later ­centuries. After rebuilding in 1496, it was known by the names Huanlilou (call to prayer tower) and Xuanlilou (announce prayer tower), both confirming its function as a minaret. The tenth/ eleventh-­century mosque still existed in the city that became the Yuan capital Dadu, and several imams are associated with it during that period. A pair of cenotaphs that survive as new stone structures were constructed for Shaykh Muhammad al-­Burtani and Shaykh ‘Ali, in 1280 and 1283, respectively (Figure 6.1).4 At that time, the only

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Figure 6.1  Cenotaphs of Shaykh Muhammad al-­Burtani (d. 1280) and Shaykh ‘Ali (d. 1283) with recent restoration, Ox Street Mosque, Beijing.

other structure may have been the main prayer hall.5 In the Yuan dynasty there were more than thirty mosques in the capital,6 so that in spite of the large number of Muslims in China and in the capital during the period of Mongolian rule, the mosque did not expand significantly during this period. The history of the mosque is recorded on steles located on-­site. In addition to the above-­mentioned rebuilding in 1496 that included the minaret, works of repair, reconstruction or expansion occurred in 1427, 1442, 1474, 1628, 1676, 1696, 1702, during the Qianlong period (1736–96), 1902, 1921, 1938 and extensively throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Ox Street Women’s Mosque was established adjacent to the mosque on its north side in 2005–6.7 Like Huajuexiang Mosque in Xi’an, Ox Street Mosque is a showcase Islamic space visited by foreign tourists every day. Through the centuries, this famous Beijing mosque changed more than the mosque in Xi’an. According to the stele inscription, ‘Beijing Niujie Gangshang Libaisi zhi’ (Record of the Mosque Elevated on a Hill on Ox Street in Beijing), by the time of repairs in 1442, a prayer hall of seven bays in depth was the focus of an east–west oriented mosque. Lecture halls stood on either side.8 Today the mosque occupies about 10,000 sq. m. Figure 6.2 presents the plan associated with the Qing dynasty and through the first half of the twentieth century.9 Like the mosque in Xi’an, Ox Street Mosque begins at a screen wall, today across the street from the formal entry to the mosque. Its dimensions are 32 m across and 4.4 m in height and, notably, it is on the west side of the building complex. Behind it is a ceremonial archway (pailou) (1) [all numbers in this paragraph and the next one

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Figure 6.2  Plan of Ox Street Mosque in the Qing dynasty (1) pailou (2) Wangyuelou (3) mihrab (4) prayer hall (5) porch (6) stele pavilion (7) minaret (8) ablutions chamber (9) lecture hall (10) courtyard (11) educational hall.

Figure 6.3  Entry and Wangyuelou, Ox Street Mosque, Beijing, Kangxi period (1662–1722) with later repairs.

refer to Figure 6.2] that leads directly to the hexagonal Wangyuelou (Moon-­viewing Tower), the first of many we shall see from here on ((2), Figure 6.3). (Moon viewing is the presumed purpose of the platform named yuetai (moon platform) that once was present at Shengyousi in Quanzhou (Figure 2.10).) Not present in mosques

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Figure 6.4  Interior courtyard of Ox Street Mosque showing Bangkelou (minaret), 1496 with later repairs.

discussed thus far, a moon-­ viewing structure is not unique in Islamic architecture, even though the name allies it with Chinese construction. A tall building for viewing the moon during Ramadan, ascended to determine the moment when the day has ended, might be found at any mosque. In East Asia, a moon-­viewing platform or tower was a standard feature in a garden setting: literati socialised in or on it while drinking wine or tea and contemplating the moon. At Ox Street Mosque, the name, shape and location are especially significant because another multi-­storey structure that goes by the more standard Chinese name for a minaret, bangkelou, translated by Chinese scholars as minaret, stands behind the worship hall ((7), Figure 6.4). At Ox Street Mosque, Bangkelou is four-­sided. It was first built in 1496, the same year as the Huanlilou/Xuanlilou and repaired many times afterward. Other buildings of the Qing period and later along the northern and southern sides of the mosque and on the east are offices and residences of affiliated personnel. The new women’s mosque is adjacent to the north-­east. Related to the ambiguity of two multi-­storey buildings on the main axial line of the mosque is the orientation. The main prayer space is positioned between the two towers, with its mihrab on the west, facing Mecca but, in contrast to almost every other mosque in China, closer to the street entry than to the mosque interior (3). Entry for prayer is at (5). The location of Wangyuelou (2) raises the question whether at one time it was a minaret.10 Were that the case, it would be behind the current mihrab. Perhaps the mosque was reconfigured from a time when its entrance was on the east. In that arrangement, the screen wall at the entry today would have been a

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Figure 6.5  Interior of Ox Street Mosque.

screen wall at the back side. Huajuexiangsi, one recalls, had screen walls at the front, back and sides. Beijing’s largest mosque comprises four courtyards and accommodates some 1000 worshippers.11 The location in Beijing, and this mosque’s more than a millennium of continuous history, imperial steles, their inscriptions and its history of continuous repairs, all seem to indicate that Ox Street Mosque was highly important in the history of Islam in China, perhaps second only to the Great Mosque in Xi’an. The aesthetics of the two mosques are decidedly different. Whereas the Huajuexiangsi has been shown to follow the plan and to retain the individual structures of Ming-­Qing Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian architecture, Ox Street Mosque exemplifies a clearer blending of Chinese and Islamic taste. Wooden bracket sets, decorative bands that frame floral and other ornaments, ornamentation on roof rafter ends, animals on roof ridges and ceiling lattices are those of Ming-­Qing China, even with the overlay of Qur’anic verses or the name of the Prophet interwoven into them (Figures 6.5–6.7). Yet every detail is brightly painted and boldly executed, with sharper outlines, more gold paint and shinier tones than their counterparts in Xi’an. The juxtaposition of reds, greens and blues is stronger even than one sees inside some of the most highly decorated Chinese temples or palatial halls. Some have labelled the boldly painted architectural members as a Sino-­Islamic aesthetic.12 Beijing Dongsi Mosque The distinctive blending of bright colours, gold paint, Chinese architectural members and intense decoration through calligraphy

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Figure 6.6  Detail of ceiling of porch in front of prayer hall (Figure 6.2(5)), Ox Street Mosque, Beijing.

Figure 6.7  Animals on roof and ceramic tiles with floral decoration, Ox Street Mosque, Beijing, Ming-­Qing period with later restoration.

and patterning observed at Ox Street Mosque is equally present at Dongsi Mosque, located in the Dongcheng district of Beijing. Founded, according to legend, at the same time as the mosque on Ox Street, by Sanading (Sa‘d al-­Din?), the younger brother of Nasuluding with whom the establishment of a mosque at the Ox Street site is associated, like Ox Street Mosque it has been called one of the four great mosques of the Liao southern capital.13 Steles, however, record its beginnings in 1346, perhaps on this site but perhaps at a different location, with architecture at the current Dongsi Mosque, which was expanded in 1447, constructed through the generosity of a man named Chen Youdu. An imperial placard was placed there in 1450 at which time the mosque had three courtyards. Oriented eastward, there were lecture halls on the north and south sides of the prayer hall as well as a library and hall for ablutions. A two-­storey minaret

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Figure 6.8  Interior of worship hall, Dongsi Mosque, Beijing, 1346 with later repairs.

with a pyramidal roof was added in 1486 and destroyed by fire late in the reign of the Guangxu emperor (r. 1875–1908).14 Like Ox Street Mosque, Dongsi Mosque underwent extensive repairs in the twentieth century. As at most mosques in China, the prayer hall has been the largest building throughout the mosque’s history. Since its most recent restoration, it occupies 50 sq. m with the capacity for 500 worshippers (Figure 6.8). Because of the fire and other destruction, some believe the oldest hall today is ‘beamless’, the Chinese name for a brick building that uses no wood. It stands in an interior courtyard (Figure 6.9). Dongsi is one of the few mosques in China that possesses a Yuan version of the Qur’an,15 and its stone carving, even if restored, allies it with Ming architecture across the city. The stone reliefs on some of the building foundations not only ally Dongsi Mosque with decorative relief sculpture of the Ming-­Qing periods, they also present strong evidence that this was an eminent building complex when that sculpture was carved or re-­moulded during periods of restoration. The Beijing location thus further suggests that craftsmen working on imperial-­ level building projects across the capital could have worked here, or at least that their styles were incorporated into the design. Figure 6.10 is a detail of stone remains, perhaps from the Ming period, or perhaps a little later, at Dongsi Mosque.

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Figure 6.9  Interior courtyard of Dongsi Mosque, Beijing; back arcade possibly Ming period; sides twentieth century

Figure 6.10  Remains of marble sculpture, Dongsi Mosque, Beijing, Ming– Qing period.

Similar craftsmanship is found at Wutasi (Five-­Pagoda Monastery) (Figure 6.11). Named for its main structure, a pagoda with one large central summit and four lower pagodas at the corners, it was known as (Da) Zhengjue Monastery beginning in the Qianlong reign when it was restored (Figure 6.11). The pagoda is of the type known as Diamond Throne (Vajrasana) style, a form that originated in an Indian design. A classic example of a Diamond Throne pagoda is Mahabodhi Stupa, dated circa fifth–sixth century, in Bodh Gaya.16 The Yongle emperor’s choice of this kind of pagoda confirmed his commitment to Lamaist Buddhism.17 When the pagoda of Wutasi was completed in 1473 in preparation for the arrival from India of the

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Figure 6.11  Detail of relief sculpture, Wutasi, Beijing, 1473.

monk Pandida, the imperial Chinese alliance with the Lamaist tradition was strengthened. The emperor Qianlong, too, was a serious patron of Lamaist Buddhism. The time periods between the Yongle reign and 1473, and of restoration in the Qianlong period, are those of construction and repair periods at Dongsi Mosque. Stone carvers and their patrons surely were aware of projects underway across the city. The use of high and low relief at Dongsi Mosque and on the wall of the pagoda are the first of the similarities in relief carving at the two sites. Both contain larger and smaller bands of decoration, with focal designs that are highlighted by ribbon patterns behind them. Both include continuous rows of scroll and vine patterns and both have cloud motifs highlighted by focal circular shapes. Both details shown here have lions, the lion in all likelihood coming to China from South or West Asia and incorporated into Chinese art by the sixth century ce.18 Animal ornamentation along roof ridges at Beijing’s Ox Street Mosque is shown in Figure 6.7. Many more animals will be observed on Chinese mosques in the pages that follow. Both Dongsi and Wutasi exhibit expensive materials characteristic of high-­level patronage in the Ming capital as well as subsequent care by the Chinese court as late as the Qianlong period. When imperial sanction can be confirmed at a mosque (by an imperial placard or stele, for example), as is the case here, architectural decoration as well as the structure of buildings exhibit both the features and the technical expertise of contemporary court-­style non-­Muslim art and architecture. The architectural features of these two Beijing mosques confirm that the Sino-­ Islamic architectural phenomenon of Ming China is far more complex than a use of wooden pillars and ceramic tile roofs. Decorative details suggest that imperial mosques were on a par with court-­sanctioned imperial architecture, more generally, in the Ming period, if not before. Furthermore, the concept of a Sino-­ Islamic architecture that can be documented by extant buildings

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beginning in the Ming dynasty points to more than one resolution of the convergence of two building systems. In Xi’an and Nanjing, great mosques of the early Ming were Muslim versions of Chinese monasteries. The bolder colours, more intense decor, and bright Arabic inscriptions of two fifteenth-­century mosques in Beijing present a more visually intense solution for the same kind of worship space. The four Ming mosques discussed thus far, in Xi’an, Nanjing and two in Beijing, point to the widespread use of Chinese craftsmen in details if not in the original conceptions of space. Mosques in Tongzhou Tongzhou, or Tong county, is an administrative district of Beijing. Its centre is 19.3 km due east of the Forbidden City. The town of Zhangjiawan in Tongzhou, formerly known as Tongxian (both zhou and xian are words for county, xian used in premodern times) became the northern terminus of the Grand Canal in the 1290s. Mosques in this district trace their origins to the Yuan period when Muslim merchants lived and traded there in great numbers. The mosque known today as Tongxian Great Mosque (retaining the character xian) was founded in the Ox Market district in the period 1313–20. A small mosque at the time, it was repaired in 1519 and again in 1593 following destruction. Repairs again occurred in the Guangxu reign period (1875–1908) and in 1931 and 1945. Today’s buildings are twentieth-­century structures intended to exhibit Ming-­ Qing features, with only one placard believed to survive from the Yuan period.19 Much of the early twentieth-­century mosque was itself destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, so that today the prayer hall and its mihrab, as well as standard auxiliary halls including lecture halls and a hall of ablutions, are the only buildings in the two-­courtyard complex. The pervasive vermilion wooden members with golden painted details are shared with the Beijing mosques discussed above (Figure 6.12). Until the 1960s a screen wall, pailou, main entry gate, well pavilion, minaret and moon-­viewing tower were there. Other mosques in the county contain similar architecture in similar settings: they stand in active Muslim neighbourhoods in which all activities of daily life occur in and around the mosque courtyards. Mosques in Dachang Hui Autonomous County Dachang Hui Autonomous County, located about 50 km east of Beijing, was established in 1955 and shares its western border with Tongzhou. The designation as an autonomous county, one of 117 in China, recognises that the majority of its population belongs to one of China’s fifty-­six ‘ethnic minorities’. In this case the ethnicity is Hui, the largest of China’s ten Muslim minzu and the one to which

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Figure 6.12  Men’s Hall of Ablutions (Washing Room), Tongxian Great Mosque, Tongzhou, Beijing, founded 1313–20; today all structures date to twentieth century.

most Chinese Muslims who live east of Gansu province belong. Two Dachang mosques have Ming histories. Both record their histories from the early Ming period. Muslims first came to this region as part of a resettlement program under the Yongle emperor. One recalls from Chapter Five that the Hongwu emperor, founder of the Ming dynasty, established his capital in Nanjing, the location of a sizeable Muslim population where the emperor himself and Zheng He patronised mosques. When the third Ming emperor Yongle established the capital in Beijing, he resettled populations, including government servants, in the north. Muslims who had held high posts in the Mongol government and continued to serve as officials in early Ming China were among those resettled. Both mosques also are associated with specific clans. The mosque in Nansitou village of the Dachang region, associated with the Yang clan, has the earlier confirmed history. It began with the resettlement of Yang Guozhong who followed Yongle northward and received an official appointment. The family settled in Nansitou village and built a mosque. In 1425 another member of the Yang clan received sanction to expand it. Since that time the mosque has been a three-­courtyard complex entered on the east. The prayer space is in the central courtyard. This area as well as the spaces to which it connects is believed to retain the nineteenth-­century form, although damage by an earthquake in 1976 led to substantial reconstruction in 1984 (Figure 6.13). A few vestiges of the earlier mosque survive (Figure 6.14). The core mosque architecture comprises four interconnected

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Figure 6.13  Nansitou Mosque, Dachang Hui Autonomous County, Hebei, 1425 with many later repairs, including late twentieth century.

Figure 6.14  Marble door pillow (sculpture at foot of door), Nansitou Mosque, Dachang Hui Autonomous County, Hebei, 1425 with later repairs.

parts: a porch-­like antechamber, leading directly to a prayer hall that can accommodate 1000 congregants which opens onto a mihrab chamber, at the back of which a double door gives direct access to a Wangyuelou. Here the Wangyuelou has the additional function of a minaret.20 The worship hall is covered by four conjoined roofs, each with its own pair of overhanging eaves (Figure 6.15). In the courtyard north and south in front of the prayer complex are lecture halls and rooms for the imam and other religious leaders, a scripture hall and a room for ablutions. A new women’s mosque is located on the north side.

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Figure 6.15  Side view showing four interconnected structures, Nansitou Mosque, Dachang Hui Autonomous County, Hebei, 1425 with later repairs.

Members of the Li clan also were among the resettled Muslim population from Nanjing who came to this region east of Beijing. They arrived in 1421. According to a stele of the year 1617 preserved at the Beiwu Mosque, sixteen or seventeen mosques were active during the resettlement period.21 The stele is the oldest record at the current mosque, believed to be a successor of a mosque from the initial migration of the Li family. The seventeenth-­century stele records that a descendant of the clan, Li Fenyong, took charge of the repair of a mosque at the current site sometime before the stele was engraved. At that time the mosque occupied seven mu, slightly more than an acre, amid lush greenery. The mosque was repaired in 1833, 1862 and 1887 when it was expanded to its current size of about 6000 sq. m. Placards were inscribed throughout the mosque in 1922, many of which survive even though the mosque suffered severe damage during the war with Japan, battles between the Communists and the Nationalists (Guomindang) and an earthquake in 1976. The mosque today closely reflects its nineteenth-­ century form with ­renovations dating from the subsequent 125 years. Beiwu Mosque is in an isolated setting just west of Beiwu village in Dachang. Its prayer hall and adjoining buildings share the distinctive exterior observed at Nansitou Mosque. Oriented east–west and comprising only two courtyards, the back courtyard is dominated by a four-­part prayer ensemble whose components are recognisable by exterior roofs and twenty-­four windows, twelve on each side. One approaches the mosque via a stone bridge, an occasional feature in Buddhist monasteries and a dramatic component of the

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Figure 6.16  Xiadiao Mosque from back, showing Wangyuelou/minaret, Dachang Hui Autonomous County, 1995 and later, presumably built on site of earlier mosque.

approach to the Forbidden City.22 A gate follows, behind which is a three-­bay ‘approach hall’ (duiting), believed to be a Ming structure that today is preserved on a brick platform with brick exterior walls. Steles stand on the platform as well. Behind is a courtyard with lecture halls and space for the imam and community elders. The worship space is announced by a gate behind which is a porch, part of an extraordinary group of buildings, which leads into a worship hall of 40 m by 17 m with a capacity of at least 1000 worshippers.23 The mihrab is at the back of the worship space, framed by stone carving also said to survive from the Ming dynasty. At the back of the niche is a double door that opens directly into a Wangyuelou. The crescent moons that project from the ceramic tile roof of the Wangyuelou here and in Nansitou are twentieth-­century additions. Mosques of the form of Nansitou and Beiwu continue to rise in Dachang Hui Autonomous County. The placard shown in Figure 6.16 records that Xiadiao Mosque in Xiadiao township of the region, was founded on 2 March 1995. The crescent moon, the universal feature of the exterior of a mosque today, and the recent women’s mosques in the Dachang region, are as noteworthy as is the four-­ part configuration. The animals that project along roof spines also are noteworthy. They are believed to copy features of earlier versions of mosques, just as Ming-­ Qing decorative carving, roof tiles and window frames, including occasional octagonal windows, have been preserved. We thus observe at Dachang mosques a conscious decision to maintain Chinese construction, a desire beyond retaining the interconnectivity that

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characterises a regional style. The decision appears to be based on different circumstances from those that drove the various restorations at Ox Street Mosque, for in contrast to Beijing, non-­Muslim tourists to the Dachang Hui region are rare. Perhaps the decision is because among the many active mosques in Dachang are some that have stronger ties to a Ming past than others, although this author did not find steles about Xiadiao Mosque’s history, nor is this mosque discussed in modern studies of China’s mosques. As we shall see in the next chapter, mosques in various regions that lack strong historic links to Song and Yuan China and are far from China’s major cities (Beijing, Xi’an and Nanjing), in almost every case have been reconstructed as recently as the last half-­century with a view toward emphasising their Chinese features. The existence of one building from the Ming period or even a stele that certifies a Ming mosque on the site is the apparent justification for this practice. The heritage of the sacred sites proclaimed by their architecture, it seems, is as intentionally Chinese as it is Muslim. These historic Chinese mosques are a subset of mosques in China built anew or restored in the last few decades.

Notes 1. Xie Tianli et al. 2009: 39. 2. Two others were known as Yongshousi and Famingsi. The latter might be Dongsi Mosque, discussed below. Liu Zhiping 1985: 99; Wu Jianwei 1995: 1; Lu Bingjie 2003: 23–5; Lu and Zhang 2005: 46. See also note 14. 3. Xie Tianli et al. 2009: 48. 4. Wu Jianwei 1995: 1. 5. Wu Jianwei 1995: 1. 6. Chen and Tang 2008: 25. 7. Xie Tianli et al. 2009: 48, 59–60. 8. Recorded in full in Lu and Zhang 2005: 47–9. 9. For the plan today, see Xie Tianli et al. 2009: 109. 10. Liu Zhiping 1985: 102. 11. Liu Zhiping 1985: 102. 12. Wu Jianwei 1995: 1. 13. Its name is recorded as Famingsi, Law Brightness si. Fa is the word for Buddhist Law, or dharma. It is unclear if the original religious institution on this site was Muslim or, therefore, if the four great si of the Liao southern capital mentioned in sources as including this institution and Ox Street Mosque were all mosques. 14. Wu Jianwei 1995: 3; Liu Zhiping 1985: 106–7; Lu and Zhang 2005: 50. Liu Zhiping 1985: 106 writes that the site may have been different in the Yuan period. 15. Ding Sijian 2010: 76. 16. On Diamond Throne pagodas, see: Mitra 1971: 55, 61–5; Combaz 1933: 280–1. 17. Watt and Leidy 2005. 18. Young 2009: 73–7; Thompson 1967.

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19. Wu Jianwei 1995: 8–9;Lu and Zhang 2005: 51–2. 20. Chen and Tang 2008: 56. 21. Numerous characters of the stele are effaced. It is published in Lu and Zhang 2005: 62 and Wu Jianwei 1995: 28. 22. Longxing Monastery in Zhengding, Hebei, is approached by a bridge; several marble bridges are found at the Confucian Temple in Qufu. 23. Cheng and Tang 2008: 57 say it can accommodate 1000 whereas Lu and Zhang 2005: 61 say 2000. My estimate is a number between those two, depending on how much space each person occupies.

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CHAPTER SEVEN

China’s Most Important Yuan and Ming Mosques: Shandong, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang As we observed in the two previous chapters, the flourishing of Islam in China during the Ming period was due to the practice and patronage of Sinophone Muslims, Muslims who not only spoke Chinese, but who lived in China as Chinese citizens and practised Islam. They were Hui, the sizeable group who populated China proper as distinct from peripheral regions. This population would be responsible for the maintenance and dynamism of Islam in Ming China when few new Muslims entered the country, in contrast to the flow of a mercantile Muslim population in the Song and a large Semu influx during the Yuan dynasty. We have also seen that two strong forces brought Muslim settlers to the Beijing region: mercantilism along the Grand Canal in the Yuan dynasty and resettlement after the Yongle emperor moved the Ming capital from Nanjing to Beijing. Mercantilism became easier still after the canal was renovated between 1411 and 1415. The same initiatives led to permanent Muslim settlements south and west of Beijing in Hebei province. At the same time, the many Muslims who had gathered in western and south-western China, particularly in Gansu province and Kunming in Yunnan province, spread into neighbouring regions. Meanwhile, new Muslim settlers migrated from Central Asia to western China, particularly Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia and other parts of Gansu. In this chapter and the next one, we examine China’s mosques outside Beijing, Xi’an and Nanjing with histories during the Ming dynasty and in a few cases slightly earlier, or where significant Ming buildings survive. The discussion is regional, for local, regional, historic and stylistic forces fostered close relations between mosques of the individual regions designated here. There is even an example of the movement of building parts from one mosque to another (Map 7.1). Jining to Tianjin Jining, on the western side of southern Shandong province, lies at a confluence of waterways that includes the Grand Canal. It is

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NEI MENGGU (INNER MONGOLIA)

Location Map

Guyuan

C H I N

LI AO N I N G Zhangbei

Chengde

Zhangjiakou Xuanhua

BEIJING

Zunhua

Beijing Fangshan TIANJIN H

E

B

E

I

Tianjin

Baoding Cangzhou

Dingzhou

Mengcun

(autonomous County)

Botou S H A N X I

Shijiazhuang

Ye llo

Dezhou Linqing

w

er Riv

Qingzhou

Jinan

Liaocheng

SHANDONG Qufu

Lingzhou

al an dC an Gr

Jining

Kaifeng Zhengzhou JIANGSU H E N A N Yangzhou

iver

Hefei 300 kilometres

ng

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Zhenjiang Nanjing

zi R

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Ya

Map 7.1 Locations of old mosques in Shandong and Hebei.

Shanghai

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the location of the southernmost of the mosques in the major and smaller cities north of Yangzhou that punctuated the canal or its nearby environs following the period of Mongolian rule. Moving northward, Jinan, today the capital of Shandong, is next, east of the canal but on the Yellow River. Next is Liaocheng and then Linqing, the second on the eastern edge of the province where it shares a border with Hebei, followed by Dezhou, further north on the canal as well as at the provincial border. Qingzhou is near the centre of the province, due east of Jinan. Continuing along the canal the next significant city is Cangzhou, whereas continuing north-­westward along Shandong’s border one comes to Botou, both in Hebei province. To the east of the canal, between Dezhou and Botou, is the Hui Autonomous Region Mengcun. The canal passes through the huge municipality of Tianjin before reaching Beijing.1 Mosques and one mausoleum in these nine cities or towns whose histories are linked to the Grand Canal comprise the first group discussed here. Great East Mosque in Jining The Great East Mosque (Dongdasi) is enormous, being third in size after the mosque in Xi’an and the original Jingjuesi in Nanjing.2 It stands in the centre of one of Shandong’s largest cities (Figure 7.1). The front gate faces the Grand Canal, giving it the nickname ‘Great East Mosque along the Canal’.3 Although the Muslim population in Jining dates to the Yuan dynasty, no mosque in the city has a history earlier than the Ming period. A stele records that the mosque Dongdasi was founded in the period 1454–64 and that Ma Hualong and his son moved it to this site during the period 1465–87. Expansion and repairs followed during the reigns of the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors. The eight structures along the east–west axial line of the mosque, today all Qing-­ dynasty buildings, are typical of mosques of the period. First is a three-­entry stone paifang (gate), embellished with a sun and moon projecting from cloud-­like decoration at the top and animals at the base, features occasionally found in newer mosques (Figure 7.1; Figure 7.2(1) – all numbers in this paragraph refer to Figure 7.2). Next is a three-­entry, two-­storey main gate with a second three-­bay gate behind it (2) and (3). The three-­part prayer complex takes the cruciform shape that becomes increasingly common in the Ming period: a front porch that functions as an antechamber ((4) and Figure 7.3), a prayer area of 1057 sq. m (5) and a narrower space behind it often known as yaodian (literally ‘kiln or hole hall’) that can serve as a place for a small group of worshippers (6) and with a mihrab at the very back of it (Figure 7.4). A unique feature of Chinese mosques, the name yaodian may reflect that it was warmer than the rest of the mosque, like a kiln, or that it was often made of brick, again, like a kiln. At Great East Mosque, a paved path leads from the back of the yaodian to the three-­bay, hexagonally roofed

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Figure 7.1  Stone paifang (entry gateway), Great East Mosque, Jining, Qing dynasty.

Figure 7.2  Plan of Great East Mosque, Jining, Qing dynasty (1) three-­entry stone paifang (just right of (1)) (2) gate (3) gate (4) front porch/ antechamber (5) prayer hall (6) yaodian (7) Wangyuelou (8) pailou (9) lecture hall (10) hall for ablutions.

Figure 7.3  Porch of worship hall, Great East Mosque, Jining, Qing dynasty.

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Figure 7.4  Yaodian and mihrab of cruciform prayer space, Great East Mosque, Jining, Qing dynasty.

Wangyuelou (7), and wooden pailou (gate) at the back end (8). Other buildings include a lecture hall (9), a hall for ablutions (10), administrative offices and residences. Size is only one reason for the grandeur of Jining Great East Mosque. The other is the quality of decoration. In Chapter Five we observed similarities between Huajuexiangsi in Xi’an and buildings at the Confucian Temple in Qufu. Jining is a mere 30 km from Qufu. The white marble pillars, door pillows, paifang and pailou of Great East Mosque may be made from the same stone or perhaps even by the same workshops as architecture in Confucius’ hometown (Figures 1.12 and 7.1). No matter which craftsmen were involved, the high quality of materials and level of workmanship at the Confucian temple and Jining mosque are evidence of three important points: in the Yuan through to the Qing periods, central Shandong was a wealthy region in which patronage of religious monuments was correspondingly high; mosques were indeed si (religious building-­complexes) with counterparts in native Chinese architecture; and most impressive, the quality of craftsmanship at this mosque seems to have been on a par with that of China’s most important temple for its most influential statesman, a man whose architecture of veneration was built by emperors and followed that of the imperial capital. Jining also had a Great West Mosque whose enormous prayer hall had a cruciform plan.4 Men’s and women’s mosques, some dating to the Ming period, flourished in the city into the twentieth century.5

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Figure 7.5  Screen wall and two-­storey gate, South Mosque, Jinan, founded in Yuan dynasty, buildings late nineteenth century or later.

South Mosque in Jinan The South Mosque in Jinan was founded in the spring of 1295 or 1355.6 In 1273, Khubilai had ordered the region populated. Thereafter, Muslims came from two directions, northward from south-­eastern China along the Grand Canal and from the west along the Yellow River. The mosque was expanded in the 1420s–30s, 1492 and 1874. It retains buildings of 1874, although repairs were made in 1914, 1921 and 1936. A screen wall announces the 3200 sq. m site, which is positioned along an east–west axis. Directly behind it is a two-­storey gate, distinctive among mosques because the white bricks with coloured inserts from a distance present a red, white and blue building (Figure 7.5). The two-­storey Wangyuelou, also red, white and blue, is right behind the gate (Figure 7.6). Next is another courtyard at the back of which is the three-­bay entry to the prayer hall, an enormous, 42-­ metre-­ high building of ten bays in depth by five bays wide. Buildings along the north and south sides are education halls, offices, residences of affiliates and kitchens. No structure dates earlier than the late nineteenth century. This very colourful mosque, interior and exterior, offers a more decorative appearance than many. Finally, it is evidence of the economic commitment to Islam that flourished in Shandong along the Grand Canal more than 600 years ago under Mongolian rule. A companion North Mosque with less distinguished architecture survives in Jinan from the Ming period.

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Figure 7.6  Wangyuelou, South Mosque, Jinan, founded in Yuan dynasty, buildings late nineteenth century or later.

The Great North Mosque in Linqing Linqing, at the confluence of the Grand Canal and Wei River that divides Shandong and Henan provinces, has maintained and restored one of its mosques even though mosques in other towns along the canal, such as Liaocheng, have not fared as well.7 Ultimately the capital Jinan became the commercial centre in the region and maintained one of the most important mosques in Shandong. The Great North Mosque in Linqing thus represents the grandeur that one assumes for mosques in north-­western Shandong along the canal in Ming times, and sometimes even earlier. The origins of the Great North Mosque (Beidasi) are uncertain. The earliest date associated with it is a repair of 1564, with additional renovations in 1779. These years appear many times in the twelve inscriptions that remain on the site today. A huge mosque in a mercantile centre in Shandong, its main buildings are a three-­bay pailou (gate), five-­ by-­four-­bay worship hall of 13.22 m by 4.9 m with a front room and three-­bay back yaodian with an octagonal roof. The building materials are exclusively Chinese with little indication on the exterior except stele inscriptions that the compound is a mosque (Figures 7.7 and 7.8).8 Tomb in Dezhou Dezhou is on the Grand Canal about 85 km north of Linqing and, like Linqing, is at Shandong’s border with Hebei. The oldest mosque in Dezhou dates to 1628 with numerous renovations since that time. A city whose ties to Islam were not initially as strong as those of other cities along the Grand Canal, Dezhou is the location of the second of the two Ming-­period tombs of Muslim rulers in China. (The other fifteenth-­century tomb of Muslim royalty, one recalls, is the King of

china’s most important yuan and ming mosques

Figure 7.7  Pailou at entry to Great North Mosque, Linqing, Shandong, probably Qing dynasty.

Figure 7.8  Porch and entry to worship hall, Great North Mosque, Linqing, Shandong, Qing dynasty with later repairs.

Borneo’s tomb in Nanjing (Figure 5.17).) Its accidental presence was the impetus for a Muslim community in the city that survives today. In 1417, during the land journey from Beijing to the ship that would carry him home, the King of Sulu died in Dezhou. This Muslim ruler had come earlier that year from an island between Kalimantan and the Philippines with an entourage of about 350, including family members, to pay tribute and personally establish

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Figure 7.9  Spirit path, Tomb of King of Sulu, Dezhou, Shandong, 1417.

friendly relations with the Yongle emperor. He was buried with the accoutrements of Chinese royalty. The king’s second and third sons and at least one wife remained in Dezhou, thereby establishing a Muslim presence in the city. The tomb approach begins with a pailou, followed by a stele pavilion, then a second pailou and another pavilion that contains a stele with an epitaph written by the Yongle emperor. Next come four pairs of animals, a pair of ceremonial columns, and then the standard pairs of civil and military officials (one of each pair is now missing).9 The composition follows that of the spirit path at a Chinese royal tomb (Figure 7.9). The pair of columns and positions of officials and horses differ from the arrangement of statues at the King of Borneo’s tomb in Nanjing. East of the path are tombs of three of the king’s relatives. Opposite on the west is a twentieth-­century mosque, positioned so that the mihrab is approached directly from the entry. To the north beyond the spirit path is a funerary temple with the king’s tomb mound behind it (Figure 7.10). The justification for constructing the King of Sulu’s tomb in the manner of one that belonged to Ming royalty probably was similar to the reasoning behind the tomb of the King of Borneo. Both rulers had come for the purpose of paying homage to the Chinese emperor, in fact to the same emperor, Yongle, and both died unexpectedly on foreign soil. Perhaps the sudden demise left little opportunity for a Muslim ruler’s family to make post-­mortem decisions. Perhaps they did not have access to craftsmen who could build the kind of memorial shrine they might have preferred. Perhaps, having given the King of Borneo a similar funerary complex, the Ming court relied on precedent, leaving even less possibility of a burial without effigies of men and beasts

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Figure 7.10  Funerary mound and stele, Tomb of King of Sulu, Dezhou, Shandong, 1417.

standing along the approach. Lacking excavation that would reveal the condition of the corpse or container for it beneath either mound, it is possible that some accommodation to Muslim tradition was followed. The exterior proclamation of the architecture in the second and third decades of the Ming period, however, without even an Arabic or Persian inscription, was that the site belonged to Chinese royalty. It was decidedly different from the burials of Muslim or Christian merchants, officials or other residents in the Song and Yuan dynasties. Mosques in Qingzhou The Qingzhou Mosque, known in Chinese as Zhenjiaosi (pure teaching si) is in Yidu township of Qingzhou (Qing county, formerly prefecture) in north central Shandong, not on the Grand Canal. The oldest mosque in Qingzhou today, it was founded in 1302 by the prime minister Bai Yan, a descendant of the eldest son of Nasuluding who had built the Ox Street Mosque in Beijing in 996. Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, renowned imams from towns across Shandong came here to teach. In the early fourteenth century, this location was the centre of Muslim life in this part of Shandong. The mosque one sees today occupies more than 1300 sq. m in three courtyards with a screen wall, main gate, second gate and prayer hall along the east–west axis and auxiliary buildings lining the courtyard on either side. The stone entry gate, 8.5 m in height, has the characters Zhenjiaosi carved on the east side. Behind it, on the west side that faces the second courtyard and prayer hall, the word masjid is on a placard between chuihua (suspended flowers), a common feature in eminent Qing architecture (Figure 7.11). A stele recording repair gives the date 1734 to this gate.10 The ‘tooth’ (ya)-­shaped archway on either side is frequently used in Ming and Qing wooden architecture.11 The second gate, repaired in 1768, is a three-­bay structure with a single,

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Figure 7.11  Back side of front gate, Zhenjiaosi, Qingzhou, Shandong, probably 1734.

Figure 7.12  Reception hall, Zhenjiaosi, Qingzhou, Shandong, Qing period with later repair.

overhanging-­eaves roof with Qur’anic verses on placards on the front and back. Four steles on the north and south sides of this gate record the mosque’s history, including repairs and the many expansions of the mosque in the Ming and Qing dynasties, in 1466, 1487, 1492, 1506, 1690, 1731, 1734, 1758, 1760 and 1845. Books and artifacts that line the walls of a reception hall on the side of the main courtyard document the once glorious history of the mosque (Figure 7.12). The hall for ablutions was built in 1935, but there was destruction by the Japanese in 1945 and during the Cultural Revolution. The mosque was extensively repaired in the late 1980s when Muslims from all over China came to worship there. The standard animals found on Chinese roofs are seen on the ridges of both gates, and there is a stele pavilion in front of the prayer hall. A stele of 1760 with the Ming-­period ‘100-­character Homage’ carved on its front side stands in front of the prayer hall (Figure 7.13). The prayer

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Figure 7.13  Stele pavilion with ‘100-­character Homage’, shown from side with prayer hall behind it, Zhenjiaosi, Qingzhou, Shandong, 1760.

hall itself is tripartite, like so many prayer halls in historic Chinese mosques, with a front porch, an interior which is five bays sq. and has thirty-­six cylindrical pillars, plus a yaodian at the west end, and of course a mihrab at its back. Here a Wangyuelou rises from the yaodian. A continuous roof that differentiates each section beneath it covers the entire space. The exterior features a five-­bay porch measuring 18.7 m by 11.5 m, whose bracketing and other wooden members are painted red and decorated with gold paint. Among the paintings are ‘Eight Views of Qingzhou’; both local views and distant views of famous distant places are standard themes in Chinese building decor. The current main prayer space is only 210 sq. m and was rebuilt after the Cultural Revolution, in all likelihood based on its form in 1760. The three-­part interior prayer hall is more than 600 sq. m in extent. It can accommodate more than 1000 worshippers. The other significant mosque in Qingzhou is Chengli Mosque, built in the mid-­sixteenth century when the Muslim population in the city expanded, and with considerable construction undertaken in 1710. Less well restored than Qingzhou’s Zhenjiaosi, it too has an entry gate with Chinese characters on the front and Arabic on the back (Figure 7.14). The prayer hall, three bays wide and in three parts, has a continuous roof. Exterior and interior detail, including repairs of 2002, primarily present features of Chinese architecture with Chinese and Arabic inscriptions (Figure 7.15). Today Chengli Mosque is in an active Muslim neighbourhood with three new mosques on the same street.

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Figure 7.14  Front side of front gate, Chengli Mosque, Qingzhou, Shandong, Qing period with later restoration.

Figure 7.15  Entry to prayer hall, Chengli Mosque, Qingzhou, Shandong, circa 1710 with recent repair.

The Mosque in Botou Dezhou, the location of the King of Sulu’s tomb, is the last city along the Grand Canal in Shandong province. Botou, formerly Bozhen, is about 75 km to the north of Dezhou in Hebei. It is the main city in a county with a population of perhaps several tens of thousands. Botou’s mosque was founded in 1404 by Muslims who moved into the region from Nanjing, anticipating trade activity further north, even though the Yongle emperor was still engaged in securing his throne in Beijing. The grounds today are larger than they were in the early fifteenth century: more than 4000 sq. m of architecture stand on a site that expanded to 14,600 sq. m during the Chengzhen reign period (1627–44). For centuries, Botou has had a large number of mosques in comparison to the size of its Muslim population.12 The mosque faces east like the majority of mosques in China from

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Figure 7.16  Botou Mosque, Botou, Hebei, showing front gate and minaret (prayer hall not visible behind), 1404 with repairs as late as 2001.

the Ming period, but its arrangement is somewhat different from that of the mosques we have observed in Shandong. In front of the prayer hall is a two-­storey minaret with three sets of roof eaves that rises 20 m (Figure 7.16). The prayer hall is enormous, measuring 1144 sq. m and 44 m in depth, a dimension that extends to 55 m when the front porch and yaodian are added.13 Another noteworthy feature is the amount of white marble that remains: balustrades that line the approaches to side halls, parts of a lecture hall and a new enclosure for a stele that now stands in front of the mosque. Other noticeably Chinese features are the circular and octagonal windows cut into the hexagonal Wangyuelou that joins the mihrab to the back. Eighteen steles record the history of the Botou mosque, a wealth of documentation comparable to that preserved in Xi’an and Beijing and evidence of the former importance of the town and its Muslim community. The complex includes offices, educational halls, a place for ablutions, kitchens, residences and a lecture hall, as well as a designated garden area. The Botou Mosque was repaired in 2001. A women’s mosque east of this one accommodates more than 1200 worshippers. The Great North Mosque in Cangzhou Cangzhou is the capital of a county with a population of more than a half million. The town has a unique and splendid mosque, which

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Figure 7.17  Worship hall, Great North Mosque, Cangzhou, Hebei, founded 1402; extensive twentieth-­century repairs.

serves a large and active Muslim population that came to the region in the early fifteenth century. The mosque’s fine state of preservation attests to a town in south-­eastern Hebei where Islam flourished in the early Ming period that not only has remained Muslim, but whose architecture has been maintained even though the location has diminished in importance. Cangzhou’s Great North Mosque is one of seven old mosques in the city. It was founded in 1402, two years earlier than the Botou mosque, and under similar circumstances. Then, as now, the Great North Mosque occupied a 14-­mu (just over 2 acres) site with an enormous worship hall of more than 1200 sq. m. One of the largest worship halls in the part of north China known as Huabei (Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and Inner Mongolia), the thirteen-­bay-­deep worship space takes the three-­part arrangement common in Shandong and Hebei of a front porch, sizable prayer area, and yaodian at the back (Figures 7.17 and 7.18). The yaodian is distinguished by three roofs: the central one is hexagonal and the lower flanking ones are pyramidal, all with noticeably sloping eave ends (Figure 7.19). The ancillary rooms are equally large, one of them a thirteen-­bay lecture hall on the south side of the mosque. The hall for ablutions is a remarkable seven bays wide, the configuration of the main worship hall in many prominent Buddhist monasteries. The Cangzhou mosque is further distinguished from its cohort by the number of renowned religious leaders from diverse points of origin who have been affiliated with it.14 Although the mosque was extensively repaired in the twentieth century, attention has been paid to maintaining a level of care in construction detail befitting a once grand mosque.

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Figure 7.18  Interior of worship hall, Great North Mosque, Cangzhou, Hebei, founded 1402; extensive twentieth-­century repairs.

Figure 7.19  One pyramidal and one hexagonal roof over mihrab, with worship hall in background, Great North Mosque, Cangzhou, Hebei, founded 1402; extensive twentieth-­century repairs.

Mosques in Mengcun Mengcun is a village (cun) with such a concentrated Muslim population that the area around it has been designated Mengcun Hui Autonomous Region. Situated south of Tianjin, east of the Grand Canal, and north of Hebei’s border with Shandong, Mengcun is evidence of the spread and continuation of Islam in communities fifty or more kilometres from the canal. Mengcun’s oldest mosque, the Niujinzhuang (Hamlet Where Oxen Enter) Mosque of 1700 sq. m, has a founding date of 1461. When renovated in 1529, wooden building

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Figure 7.20  Interior of worship hall, Niujinzhuang Mosque, Mengcun, Hebei, founded 1461, with recent renovations.

components for it were made in Jining, sent to Cangzhou, and then brought here.15 This rare piece of evidence confirms the long-­standing interrelationship between the Muslim communities of the Shandong– Hebei region. To this day, the interiors of the Great North Mosque in Cangzhou and Niujinzhuang Mosque are of whitewashed wood, an otherwise rare feature of interior design (Figures 7.18 and 7.20). Although many of the interior timbers have been replaced in recent times, some of the original, centuries-­old elements of the ceiling remain. The ceiling is of the type known in Chinese as ‘exposed rafters’, or without a ceiling that conceals the rafters. The prayer space is the central section of a standard three-­part worship area – anteroom, main hall, and yaodian – here 372 sq. m in extent, 24 m in depth and 15.5 m in width. The porch was redecorated in the twentieth century with a tile and stone roof and columns with decoration that entwined around them. Today the decoration has largely disappeared (Figure 7.21). Tianjin Great Mosque The mosque today known as Great Mosque or Great South Mosque was founded in Tianjin in the late nineteenth century (Figure. 7.22). The newness of the buildings is not surprising. Although excavations have produced material as early as the second millennium bce and several significant Qin and Han tombs and major architectural remains from the Liao dynasty are within the Tianjin administrative zone, the urban architecture here is almost exclusively of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Because the city is on the Grand

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Figure 7.21  Niujinzhuang Mosque, Mengcun, Hebei, showing porch, worship hall, pyramidal roof over yaodian, and back hall, founded 1461, with recent renovations.

Figure 7.22  View of side halls of first courtyard, Great South Mosque, Tianjin.

Canal, Muslims were already in Tianjin in 1309 as a result of trade.16 Some of China’s most important Western-­ style buildings were erected in Tianjin at the same time the Great Mosque was built, when the city was a centre of international trade and was known by the postal name Tientsin.17 Tianjin shares two portions of its border with Beijing. The centres of the two cities are approximately 100 km

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apart, but they nevertheless surround the Dachang Hui Autonomous Region. The architecture of its Great Mosque dates from the time the city was an international entrepôt in the second part of the nineteenth century. The first mosque on the Great Mosque site probably was established in the Ming dynasty. The earliest recorded date refers to expansion in 1679, with further expansion in 1801, and renovation or repairs in 1852, 1855, 1905, 1909, 1960 and 1979, the last following the earthquake that destroyed much of the mosque in 1976. The mosque is included here because it is a high-­quality Qing mosque located in an active Muslim community in the region south and west of Beijing bordered by two Hui Autonomous Regions as well as being positioned on the Grand Canal. It likely received worshippers and settlers with experience at Ming mosques in Shandong and south-­eastern Hebei. It is also selected because it includes five pyramidal roofs that exhibit two formations already observed: the multiple roofs above a yaodian, the most complicated one in the centre (also seen in Hangzhou and Cangzhou) and the succession of roofed towers along the main axial building line of the mosque, as observed in Dachang (Figures 3.12, 6.15 and 7.19). The multiple ceramic-­tile roofs are common enough to be considered an aesthetic choice of mosque builders in the Shandong–Hebei–(Tianjin) region. Tianjin Great Mosque is oriented only roughly east–west, with a simple two-­courtyard plan that seems humble in contrast to the roofs, variety of windows and animals projecting on the roof ridges (Figures 7.22 and 7.23). At the front is a newish screen wall with a courtyard and gate directly behind it, followed by the front porch and prayer space that is divided into front and back sections (Figure 7.24). Lecture halls are on either side of the courtyard in front of the prayer hall, and a hall of ablutions occupies its own precinct on the south. Buildings comprise 2200 sq. m of the 5000 sq. m site with the worship space comprising about 1000 sq. m; it can accommodate about 1000 worshippers. Hebei West of the Grand Canal As shown on Map 7.2, the Grand Canal runs through only a small section of the central eastern part of Hebei province. The rest of Hebei, outside Beijing and Tianjin, borders Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong. The flow of Shandong’s pre-­ Qing mosques coincided with that the Grand Canal. They share much with the Hebei mosques discussed already. Mosques in Hebei west of the canal are built on different terrain, similar to that of Shanxi and Henan. Eleven mosques with important pre-­Qing histories in these three provinces, the region of China known as Huabei and the part of China often known as the Central Plain, are discussed next.

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Figure 7.23  Plan of Great South Mosque, Tianjin.

Figure 7.24  Prayer hall, Great South Mosque, Tianjin, nineteenth century with many later repairs.

Mosques in Baoding and Dingzhou Three Hebei mosques with old architecture lie about 150 km and 225 km south-­west of Beijing, along what has been a major route through the province for centuries. Those closest to Beijing are in

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Baoding. The North Mosque there was established during the Yongle reign. The earliest extant architecture in this two-­courtyard mosque reflects extensive repairs in 1753 and equally extensive reconstruction in the late twentieth century. An adjacent women’s mosque was built in 1991.18 Baoding West Mosque was founded in 1616 and restored in 1906. Also featuring two courtyards, its recent renovations have maintained Chinese timber building parts and ceramic tile roofs (Figures 7.25 and 7.26). Located in the town of Chengguan in Dingzhou (Ding county), the Dingzhou Mosque bears signs of once splendid architecture; its buildings and details are decidedly Chinese in style. It is an example of a Chinese mosque with not only the chiwen, or open-­mouthed creatures that bracket the ends of the main roof ridge, but of dragon

Figure 7.25  Entry to West Mosque, Baoding, Hebei, 1906 with later repairs.

Figure 7.26  Prayer hall, West Mosque, Baoding, 1906 with later repairs.

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Figure 7.27  Open-­mouthed zoomorphic decoration at roof ridge corner (chiwen) and other roof ornamentation including animal-­faced roof tiles, Dingzhou Mosque, Hebei, 1348 with many later repairs.

ornamentation on the chiwen. Furthermore, its ceramic roof tiles are adorned with zoomorphic faces, a feature that has a millennium of history in China before the fourteenth century (Figure 7.27). The decision of whether to place faces or floral motifs on the roof tiles of mosques seems to have been left to patrons, or perhaps religious leaders, or builders; there is no obvious pattern. The choice of decoration in Dingzhou may have been very recent. In 1985, Liu Zhiping published photographs of wood joinery taken during research conducted between 1961 and 1965; in 2013, a few stone pieces had been retained in otherwise widespread reconstruction (Figures 7.28 and 7.29). The roof tiles are much newer than the building they decorate. The site’s history predates 1348, the year in which a stele records completion of two years of rebuilding. The inscription is rare in the specificity of the date and the fact that standing buildings, including the prayer hall and yaodian, can be associated with that year.19 Also noteworthy in the stele is the use of the term Huihui for Muslims and a four-­character transliteration of the name Muhammad. Perhaps most significant about the stele is the use of the terminology of Confucianism in an Islamic context.20 The two-­courtyard mosque, oriented eastward, comprises 2565 sq. m of buildings, more than were present in the Yuan period. Although the exposed timbers of the prayer hall ceiling as well as the columns have been painted much more recently than 1348, the open interior and the three-­tier bracket sets follow Yuan forms (Figure 7.30). The exposed beams that frame the underside of the roof follow a standard construction practice of the Ming and Qing periods. The floral and other decoration, with the clear evidence of recent repainting, probably follows patterns of earlier centuries (Figure 7.31). The bright colours reflect the Sino-­ Islamic aesthetic observed in prayer hall interiors in Beijing.

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Figure 7.28  Corner bracket set, exterior of worship hall, Dingzhou Mosque, Hebei, 1348.

Figure 7.29  Beam, bracket sets, roof purlins, and moulding, exterior of worship hall, Dingzhou Mosque, Hebei, late twentieth-­century or later repairs.

Xuanhua North Mosque, Zhangjiakou Xuanhua is a district in Zhangjiakou, a county that borders Beijing (to Beijing’s west). Ögödei Khan engaged in battle in this region and Muslims were among the Semu who migrated here during the Yuan dynasty. According to one source, there were 3000 Arabs in the area at this time.21 The migration included four of the most important Muslim families in the Yuan dynasty.22 Today’s Zhangjiakou was a contested region in the early decades of the fourteenth century when the power squabbles over who would become the seventh ruler of Mongol-­ controlled China raged. Qaishan’s (r. 1307–11) central capital and the tomb of the ill-­fated Ananda are in this vicinity. Mosques surely were built in Zhangjiakou in the Yuan period, and further construction occurred when Muslim generals of the Hongwu

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Figure 7.30  Open interior supported by four columns with three-­tier bracket sets above lintels, worship hall, Dingzhou Mosque, Hebei, 1348 with many later repairs.

Figure 7.31  Roof frame of worship hall, Dingzhou Mosque, Hebei, 1348 with many later repairs.

emperor entered the region, but the oldest surviving mosque architecture in this area is from the Ming period. The North and South Mosques remain in Xuanhua today. South Mosque was founded in 1403 and was repaired several times in the sixteenth century and in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It fell into severe disrepair in the 1960s and has not flourished again. Animals, the name of Allah, and other Arabic inscriptions were used as decoration for roof tiles in the early twentieth century, if not earlier (Figure 7.32).23 The oldest mosque architecture in Xuanhua is at the North Mosque

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Figure 7.32  Roof tiles, South Mosque, Xuanhua, Hebei, probably late eighteenth or early nineteenth century.

Figure 7.33  Minaret (Shengxinlou), North Mosque, Xuanhua, Hebei, 1703 with later repairs.

where buildings date to the early eighteenth century and later. The grand, east-­facing mosque is entered by a gate and with a minaret directly behind it. The North Mosque was constructed in 1703 when Muslims moved into this neighbourhood of Xuanhua; a stele erected in 2008 records completion of major repairs. Architectural detail and decoration of the Qing period have been preserved in the repairs (Figures 7.33 and 7.34). Roof tiles are adorned exclusively with floral patterns and inscriptions. Some of them are very recent replacements, perhaps indicating that the period when animal-­ faced tiles were widely used was in the early twentieth century or earlier (Figure 7.35). The massive worship hall is an example of the cruciform arrangement used in other Chinese mosques, with a front porch, large open worship space, and narrow yaodian at the back (Figure 7.36). Lecture halls face into the courtyard on either side behind the minaret and in front of the worship hall. A hall for

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Figure 7.34  Stone decoration, North Mosque, Xuanhua, Hebei, Qing period.

Figure 7.35  Roof tiles and other roof decoration, North Mosque, Xuanhua, Hebei, Qing period with later repair.

ablutions is on the north between the gate and minaret, and offices and other service buildings fill the additional space to the north. Xuanhua North Mosque and Jining’s Great East Mosque, with which this chapter began, are two of the grandest, Chinese-­style mosques in eastern China, even though the use of marble at the Shandong mosque near Confucius’ birthplace is more extensive (Figures 7.1–7.4). Both maintain much of their eighteenth-­century appearances in spite of recent repairs. They are models of the generation of Chinese mosques following the grand mosques of Ming China represented by Huajuexiangsi in Beijing. Shanxi Shanxi is the only part of Huabei where mosques are said to trace their origins to the Tang dynasty. Perhaps this is not surprising. Shanxi province contains 70 per cent of China’s pre-­ fourteenth-­ century

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Map 7.2 Locations of mosques in Shanxi and Henan.

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Figure 7.36 Cruciform-shaped worship hall, showing front porch, prayer space and roof above mihrab, North Mosque, Xuanhua, Hebei, Qing period with later repair.

architecture and all four wooden buildings that date to the Tang dynasty are in Shanxi.24 The two mosques with Tang associations are in two of Shanxi’s largest cities, Datong in the far north and the provincial capital Taiyuan, near the centre. Henan province is south of Shanxi, Hebei and Shandong (the latter two provinces’ mosques have been discussed above). All four of Henan’s mosques with old and significant buildings are within 100 km of Shanxi’s southern border (Map 7.2). Datong Mosque According to a stele of imperial sanction carved in 1742 during the reign of the Qianlong emperor, the Datong Mosque was founded in 628. Like other mosques with this kind of inscription, there is neither physical nor textual evidence to substantiate a Muslim presence in the city during the Tang dynasty. The more credible founding date is 1324 when Muslims were in the region during the period of Mongolian rule. The oldest architecture at the Datong Mosque dates to the Ming dynasty. Today a twenty-first-century façade opens on a newly renovated pedestrian plaza (Figure 7.37). The renovations were part of a broad programme of urban renewal that included the

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Figure 7.37  Front façade of Datong Mosque, Shanxi, twenty-­first-­century renovation.

Liao–Jin period Shanhua and Huayan Monasteries along a pedestrian shopping arcade around the corner. Occupying only 490 sq. m, or just over one-­tenth of the 4000-­sq.-­m site, the three-­part worship space of front porch, prayer space and yaodian is just one of the architectural foci. The interior is evidence that at every turn Datong Mosque is an exquisite example of high-­ quality renovation that retains elements of earlier construction and strives to create an environment that is compatible with them (Figures 7.38 and 7.39). The gilded mihrab is an example of twenty-­ first-­century architectural decoration that evolves from the Ming mihrab in Hangzhou (Figure 3.13). The lavish use of green along with the more standard Chinese red and gold are perhaps evidence of the Sino-­Islamic decorative elements observed at Ox Street Mosque in Beijing, but the placards set into the lintel, the imitation balustrade above it with chuihua suspended beneath the posts, and wooden beams decorated with Chinese floral designs highlighted by bands of shaded greens mark the mihrab as derived from the kind of early Ming prayer niche found in Hangzhou (Figures 7.40 and 3.13). The four-­sided Wangyuelou, whose wooden members are painted brown, located in front of the prayer hall, is in sharp contrast to the brightly painted prayer space and the exterior roof above it (Figure 7.41). The

china’s most important yuan and ming mosques

Figure 7.38  Detail of worship space, Datong Mosque, Shanxi, 1734 with later renovation.

Figure 7.39  Placard shown in Figure 7.38, probably eighteenth century.

octagonal dome with lattice ceiling that rises in the yaodian in front of the mihrab is indicated on the outside by an octagonal pavilion with a golden bulb at the top (Figures 7.42 and 7.43). The ceiling is characteristic of post-­Yuan Chinese architecture, a contrast to the open interiors observed in Yuan worship halls. The golden conical roof is found in Chinese imperial architecture from the Temple of Heaven in Beijing to Lamaist Buddhist halls at Puning Monastery and Pule Monastery near the Qing summer palaces in Chengde (Figure 7.44). A stone screen wall and stone pailou at the back of Datong Mosque are twenty-­first-­century structures.

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Figure 7.40  Mihrab, Datong Mosque, Shanxi, twenty-­first-­century renovation.

Figure 7.41  Wangyuelou, Datong Mosque, Shanxi, style of eighteenth century with recent renovation.

Taiyuan Mosque Taiyuan Mosque has a slightly more believable Tang origin than Huaishengsi in Guangzhou, Daxuexixiang Mosque in Xi’an, or Datong Mosque: the reign period 785–805 of the Dezong emperor. The stele with that date records repairs in the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties. The size of the prayer hall is about the same as the one at Datong Mosque, namely 460 sq. m, and was intended to accommodate about 600 worshippers, but the grounds are only 2.8 mu, or less than half an acre, smaller than the mosque in Datong or those observed in Shandong and Hebei. The hall occupies about half of the

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Figure 7.42  Lattice ceiling of dome at back of worship space, Datong Mosque, Shanxi, twenty-­first-­century renovation.

Figure 7.43  Back of three-­part worship space of Datong Mosque, Shanxi, showing octagonal dome above yaodian and back side of worship hall.

mosque compound that today comprises a single courtyard entered on the south and requiring a 90-­degree turn to access the prayer hall (Figure 7.45). A gate with a centrally positioned minaret behind it and a pair of hexagonal stele pavilions at either side behind the minaret lead to the standard three-­part worship space of porch, and two-­part prayer area. The interior of Taiyuan Mosque’s prayer hall is opulent (Figure 7.46). Although in need of repair, it is clear that whenever the last repair occurred, only the highest quality materials were used.

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Figure 7.44  Xuguang Pavilion, Pule Monastery, Chengde, Hebei, 1766.

Figure 7.45 (left)  Pailou at entry from south to Taiyuan Mosque, Shanxi, probably Qing period. Figure 7.46 (right)  Interior of prayer hall, Taiyuan Mosque, Shanxi, showing mihrab, Ming–Qing period.

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Figure 7.47  Conjoined roofs, Taiyuan Mosque, Shanxi, Ming-­Qing.

Several features distinguish the prayer hall. First, it belongs to the goulianda (conjoined) style in which one continuous roof covers all three parts that are distinguishable beneath it (Figure 7.47). This type of roof has been observed at mosques in Dachang Hui Autonomous County (Figures 6.15 and 6.16). The urban mosque roof is remarkably simple, the lack of decoration surprising in a city with highly decorated Buddhist and Daoist monasteries nearby. Next, the interior components of Taiyuan Mosque are all wooden, and yet there are no bracket sets. Instead of bracketing, above the mihrab, for example, one finds an interlace pattern that bends like the folds of a curtain, punctuated by pointed struts that could appear in a Chinese or Islamic decorative scheme. The same feature appears outside the front of the worship hall. Further, the decoration on pillars and beams is painted onto the surface. Inlay, another feature associated with construction in China, is absent. Other elements always associated with traditional Chinese construction are used, but incorporated so that they do not dominate the Muslim prayer space. The mihrab is elevated on a multi-­level, highly decorated stone dais that is known in East Asia as a Sumeru altar (Xumidan), named after the sacred Buddhist and Hindu peak, known as either Mount Meru or Mount Sumeru, the Indian axis mundi. The form is universally used to elevate images in Buddhist halls. The red lacquer of the mihrab and minbar to its right are evidence of the choice of an expensive, Chinese technique rather than undecorated wood. The detailed woodworking observed here and in other mosques is a technique known in Chinese as xiaomuzuo, small-­scale carpentry, the subject of four chapters in the Song architectural manual Yingzao fashi (Building standards).25 The main hall

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Figure 7.48  Interior showing ‘heavenly palaces’ (tiangong), examples of small-­scale carpentry known as xiaomuzuo, Sutra Repository, Huayan Monastery, Datong, 1038.

of the Song Daoist Monastery to the Two Immortals (Erxianguan) in Jincheng, Shanxi, the revolving sutra cabinet in the library at Longxing Monastery in Zhengding, Hebei, and the sutra cabinets in the scripture hall of Huayan Monastery in Datong are all excellent examples of this technique, which is dated around the eleventh century.26 The Chinese buildings, however, all have actual bracket sets (Figure 7.48). The interior of the mosque in Shanxi’s capital is a reflection of the superior craftsmanship of Chinese workers at Buddhist and Daoist monasteries that spread across the province for more than 1500 years. Henan Although Shanxi contains the majority of China’s oldest wooden, religious architecture, Henan is a province with a larger Muslim population, both today and during the Song and Yuan periods. Today Henan, the north-­ western province Gansu, and the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region are the three areas with the largest Hui populations in China.27 Three of the four Henan mosques discussed here were founded in the Song or Yuan dynasties. All four flourished in Ming China. The one closest to Luoyang, in Qinyang, bears signs of grandeur from the Yuan and Ming periods that indicate craftsmanship on a par with that of the mosques in Dingzhou and Taiyuan. The Great North Mosque in Qinyang The few who have written about the Great North Mosque in Qinyang use words like ‘exquisite’ and ‘awe-­inspiring’ to describe its architecture. At the same time, they recognise it is a mosque with an uncertain founding date and building history.28

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Figure 7.49  Entry gate, Great North Mosque, Qinyang, Henan, 1799 with later repair.

Today one enters the mosque via a gate with a turquoise-­glazed ceramic tile roof and a firm reconstruction date of 1799 (Figure 7.49). Inscriptions report that this reconstruction followed destruction by fire in 1628 and repair in 1631.29 A stele records that the mosque was founded in the period 1341–70, with continued construction work from 1368–1424. However, 1561 is often the earliest date associated with Great North Mosque because one inscription says it was moved to its current site in that year, completed in 1583–4, and that work was carried out on the worship hall in 1589.30 Earlier nineteenth-­ century earthquake damage to various buildings was repaired in 1887. The most recent repairs were after 1990. The most valid way to determine the age of the mosque and its constituent parts may be the buildings themselves and here, too, opinions vary. Liu Zhiping presented the first accurate study of Great North Mosque’s architecture in 1985, based on fieldwork carried out in the 1960s. He believed the buildings were largely Qing, but the whole had an ‘air’ of Ming construction.31 Lu and Zhang write about the Great North Mosque in greater detail than they provide for most mosques in their important study.32 They believe there are Ming features in the prayer hall and Qing restoration or reconstruction throughout. The author’s investigation in 2013 suggests that key features of the original, fourteenth-­century concept of the mosque may remain. The initial view from the outside, or inside the first courtyard, is that this is eminent Chinese architecture. The turquoise tile of the front gate is a colour known in Chinese as kongquelan, peacock blue, a hue that contrasts the golden glaze on the roof above the worship hall. Both colours are reserved for China’s elite buildings.

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Figure 7.50  Detail of entry gate, Great North Mosque, Qinyang, 1799 with later repair.

The gate itself, seen by any passer-­ by, is a traditional Chinese structure as evidenced by the decorative painted patterns on the crossbeam and lintels as well as by the open-­mouthed creatures on the roof ridges (whose tails have been recently replaced), the central roof ridge animal with a four-­tier decoration on its back, and dragons on circular and concave tile ends (Figure 7.50). Each of these features appears in countless Qing-­period buildings.33 The plan of the mosque in Qinyang follows that of plans used in mosques of Shandong and Hebei discussed above (Figures 7.2, 7.23 and 7.51). In the 1960s, a screen wall still stood in front of the front gate. Behind this gate is a courtyard with service buildings such as offices, lecture halls and other support buildings for the mosque on either side. Then comes a second gate, again with a courtyard and buildings that support the mosque on both sides. An enormous, three-­part prayer space follows: anteroom or porch, front part of the prayer hall, back part of the prayer hall and mihrab at the back. The worship space is extraordinary. It is three bays across the

Figure 7.51  Plan of Great North Mosque, Qinyang, in 1960s.

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front, the central bay 3.88 m wide and those that flank it 2.85 m wide, typical lengths for a structure of three bays across the front and perhaps two or three bays deep; this building’s depth is twelve bays.34 In the majority of mosques observed thus far, and in many yet to be discussed, the depth of the prayer space is significantly greater than its breadth, but this space is excessively deep. Sometimes the long interior is understood as expanded space for a growing congregation. Here, as at other mosques, a continuous roof covers all the components of the space. As noted in the introduction, the modular basis for Chinese timber framing makes possible increase or decrease of dimensions in either direction without altering the core structure. Lu and Zhang view the Qinyang prayer hall as a combination of two parts. They emphasise openings at either side of pillar bases through which beams could have been placed to join the side walls, so that the interior is a huge space with front and back parts. They also note that two different roof types appear on the exterior of the front and back portions of the hall, further suggesting separate buildings. Related to this is the fact that the back part of the large interior has beams that are embedded into the walls, a structural feature that supports an overhanging gable roof (Figure 7.52). This column and beam system is characteristic of Ming-­Qing construction. Yet several features resonate with earlier Chinese construction. First, bracket sets are made of five fundamental components with the additional piece near the center of the bottom, known as added heart (jixin) (Figure 7.53). This formation is typical of the Song–Yuan period, and is described in the Song building manual Yingzao fashi. Like many bracket set formations, its use continues after the Song dynasty, but when this formation is selected for implementation, it is an obvious contrast to the more common Ming or Qing bracket sets.35 The bracket clusters could be the original forms, even if repaired. Second, the mosque has a long, narrow brace with fluted decoration,

Figure 7.52  Back wall showing embedded beams and struts, Great North Mosque, Qinyang, 1799, with later repairs.

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Figure 7.53  Interior of front section, showing five-­component bracket sets with ‘added heart’ member, Great North Mosque, Qinyang, 1799, with later repairs.

Figure 7.54  Interior timber frame showing two examples of curved beams and cicada belly brace, Great North Mosque, Qinyang, 1799, with later repairs.

named cicada belly brace (chandu). It, too, appears in Qing buildings, but also is explained in Yingzao fashi and is found in extant Yuan structures (Figure 7.54).36 Furthermore, pillars are eliminated from a complete column grid that would normally provide continuous interior support in a Ming or Qing hall (Figure 7.55). This kind of open interior is characteristic of buildings of the Jin and Yuan dynasties, examples of which survive in Shanxi province at Foguang Monastery and Guangsheng Monastery.37 Lu and Zhang notice the central set of four pillars shown in Figure 7.55 and remark on its resemblance to the

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Figure 7.55  Interior showing large open spaces from which pillars that would complete a column grid have been eliminated, Great North Mosque, Qinyang, 1799, with later repairs.

four corners of a screen, thereby giving the formation their own name of screen pillars (pingfengzhu). Finally, pillars at Qinyang Great North Mosque have been moved off the axes anticipated by the exterior columns, a feature known in Chinese as pillar displacement (zhujian). This arrangement is characteristic of Jin and Yuan construction and is not found in the Ming dynasty or later.38 One also finds cushion braces (queti), another feature of Chinese wooden construction known since the sixth century.39 The placement of pillars, in particular, is a feature that requires us to consider whether this building retains a fourteenth-­ century design even if almost every piece of it was replaced. The back part of the hall, the space directly in front of the mihrab, is entered beneath a recently installed segmented arch. Three ­additional brick arches, one above the mihrab and one at each side, herald from below a sky well that rises to 3.9 m. The sky well is covered by a dome with bracket sets at four corners and the word ‘Allah’ in the centre (Figure 7.56). The brick construction is the same technique used in ‘beamless’ halls (Figure 1.16). Above this space on the exterior of the building one finds a pastiche of imperial Chinese features: peacock-­blue and golden glazed roof rafters whose ends are decorated with dragons alongside roof tiles with Arabic inscriptions on green glazed tiles (Figure 7.57). There is no exterior indication that a dome is hidden beneath the ceramic tile roof. Large peonies and chrysanthemums are painted across beams and along pillars. Vines encompass them (Figures 7.50, 7.53 and 7.54). Independent carved decoration projects above beams and from wall surfaces, and floral motifs are painted on bracket sets (Figures 7.50

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Figure 7.56  Sky well in back portion of prayer hall with Allah in relief at the top centre, Great North Mosque, Qinyang, from recent repair.

Figure 7.57  Detail of roof above back portion of prayer hall showing peacock-­blue and golden glaze, Great North Mosque, Qinyang.

and 7.52–7.54). Ceiling rafters are exposed (Figures 7.52–7.54). Like the mosques in Taiyuan, Jining, Xuanhua and Botou (Figures 7.1–7.4, 7.16, 7.33–7.35 and 7.45–7.47), Great North Mosque in Qinyang reflects the wealth of its patrons and the skill of its craftsmen. Yet the prevalence of wooden interior members, as well as their decoration, present as nearly pure a product of Chinese craftsmanship as any mosque discussed thus far. Whatever the date of any piece of this mosque, both individually and as a whole, one senses that at any building stage this Henan mosque was constructed for local Chinese worshippers, the Sinophone Hui practitioners of Islam. Mosques in Kaifeng Great East Mosque is Kaifeng’s largest mosque today.40 A stele records its founding in 628, a date likely to be as inaccurate as other

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Figure 7.58  Worship hall, Great East Mosque, Kaifeng, Henan, early Ming with 1990s repairs.

dates in the 620s associated with mosques in China. Others place its establishment in 742,41 also highly improbable. Among dates on steles, it is likely only that records of repairs during the Hongwu reign, under the Yongle emperor in 1407, and during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are accurate. The most recent repairs were in 1990. The ceramic tile decoration of roofs and the stone balustrades, as well as the interior walls, ceilings and pillars are all new (Figure 7.58). The decision to reconstruct this mosque in accordance with the traditional Chinese building system recalls what we have observed in recent repairs in Jining, Botou and elsewhere. Kaifeng’s Zhuxian Mosque is named for its village. It is considered one of the four most famous old mosques in China.42 In the Ming dynasty, when it stood amid Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian architecture, the village was at its peak of prosperity.43 Begun between 976 and 983, Zhuxian Mosque was rebuilt in 1531 and again in 1744, and repaired in 2006. As at Great East Mosque in Kaifeng, Zhuxian Mosque was repaired in Chinese style, even though it is in a city whose population is about one-­third Muslim (Figures 7.59 and 7.60).44 The mosque occupies more than 9000 sq. m and comprises a standard arrangement of a front gate, a pair of stele pavilions, one with a stele inscribed in Arabic and the other in Chinese behind it, a three-­part prayer space, and offices, residential space, lecture hall and a room for ablutions on either side. The terminus is a back gate. The prayer hall is 21 m high and 1030 sq. m in extent. Animals on the roof ridge and a pair of stone lions at the front are features of non-­Muslim religious architecture in China. We have observed animals as roof ornaments, but the stone lions are rare in a mosque setting. The use of Chinese auspicious

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Figure 7.59  Front façade of worship hall, Zhuxian Mosque, Kaifeng, Ming with repairs as recently as 2006.

Figure 7.60  Porch of worship hall, Zhuxian Mosque, Kaifeng, Ming with repairs as recently as 2006.

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Figure 7.61  Architectural decoration, worship hall, Zhuxian Mosque, Kaifeng, Ming with repairs as recently as 2006.

Figure 7.62  Architectural decoration, worship hall, Zhuxian Mosque, Kaifeng, Ming with repairs as recently as 2006.

animals, from curly-­haired lions to bats, blends with Arabic calligraphy and occasional ornament that could be derived from a Chinese lattice pattern or a Muslim design (Figures 7.61 and 7.62). Great North Mosque in Zhengzhou Henan’s capital, Zhengzhou, also has one important mosque from the Ming period. It is known as the Great North Mosque. Begun in the Ming dynasty and repaired many times since then, the mosque occupies 4000 sq. m and its prayer hall is 500 sq. m in extent. A lantern survives from the Xuande period (1426–35) of the Ming dynasty, but all the architecture dates to the Qing period or later. The single, main courtyard offers a traditional Chinese setting: a front gate, lecture halls and other support rooms and the prayer hall stand

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on its four sides, and a Wangyuelou is inside the courtyard. Roofs are especially indicative of Chinese construction: the main central ridge of the Wangyuelou has a pagoda-like projection at its centre and open-mouthed creatures at its end, each of the four side ridges of its upper roof have three pairs of animals and horned, winged creatures at the ends, and the lower roof ridges have five animal pairs (a few figures now missing) and the same kinds of animals at the corners. The worship hall has an overhanging roof whose profile gives it the Chinese name saddleback. Inside one finds the exposed ceiling rafters. In some ways, the most telling features of the mosques in Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi and Henan are the many roofs with five pairs of decorative animals along the ridges and exposed ceiling construction (cheshang mingzao) beneath them. Huajuexiangsi in Xi’an has seven pairs of decorative roof end animals and a lattice ceiling. The Hall of Great Harmony at the Forbidden City has the greatest number of ornamental animals on a Chinese building, eleven on each ridge; nine are found in only highly eminent structures. The architectural message of the mosque roofs and their animals in these provinces of the Chinese heartland, as well as that of their peacock-blue and golden glazed tiles, is that these building complexes belong to the Chinese normative building tradition in which the number and type of ornaments and the colour of ceramic tiles inform a viewer of the status of a hall. Through this study of mosques in Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi and Henan, and the oldest mosques in south-eastern China, the minaret in Guangzhou and the pishtaq in Quanzhou still are the only buildings from the Song to Ming dynasties that boldly proclaim mosque architecture in China to be different from innate religious construction. In fact, the decorative details of the most eminent mosques are on par with the best examples of Chinese counterparts. Yet beneath roofs and ceilings, and encased by the painted decoration on architectural elements, worship spaces have large, three- or four-part sections, sometimes as many as five interconnected spaces that might even include Wangyuelou and/or minarets, beneath conjoined roofs. Three or five pointed roofs, usually with a variety of shapes from rectangle to hexagon to octagon, sometimes cover the yaodian to create a counter-axis to the main mosque building line, but more often cap the linked spaces from front to back. When multiple roofs cover the yaodian and the space at its sides, the central roof has the most sides. Anhui The same features are present in mosques of Anhui province, south of Shandong and east of Henan, a province less known internationally for its architecture or excavation sites than those discussed previously and less frequented by tourists.45 Mosques with long histories survive in Shouxian in central Anhui and in Anqing in the south (Map 7.3).

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Location Map

HEBEI

Jinan SHANDONG C H I N A

Qufu

Gr

Kaifeng

an

dC

ana l

J I A N G S U HENAN Yangzhou

Shouxian

Zhenjiang

Nanjing

Changzhou

Wuxi Suzhou

Hefei

A Wuhan

N

H

U

Jiaxing

I

Anqing

Ya ng zi Ri ve r

Shanghai SHANGHAI Songjiang

Hangzhou Yuyao

Z H

E

J

I

A

N

G

Nanchang

H U N A N

JI A NG XI

Fuzhou FU J I AN

0

300 kilometres

Quanzhou

Map 7.3 Locations of mosques in Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Taipei

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Figure 7.63  Main courtyard, Shouxian Mosque, Shouxian, Anhui, 1621–7 with later repair.

Shouxian (Shou county) is a Hui county. Its main mosque, built in the 1620s at the end of the Ming dynasty, expanded as the Muslim population, and its wealth in the region increased during the Kangxi reign. The mosque today, as then, consists of only two gates and the prayer hall with auxiliary buildings on either side of its two courtyards. The amount of foliage, and the 600-­year-­old trees, suggest a recognition of the significance of gardens, a feature of mosques in Iran and India that is not as noticeable in north China but will be apparent in mosques in south-­eastern China discussed below where Chinese gardens proliferated through the centuries (Figure 7.63). The prayer hall of Shouxian Mosque is long and narrow, featuring five bays across the front with a total of fifty interior pillars in the 936-­sq.-­m space, about 22 per cent of the total area occupied by buildings.46 Steles and a few other stone pieces such as pillar bases document the late Ming–early Qing history of a mosque largely rebuilt in the twentieth century but with its Qing appearance in mind (Figure 7.64). Anhui’s most important mosque is in Anqing. It was in the southern quarter of the Ming city, and thus is known as Guannan (southern district) Mosque. It is one of three Anqing mosques; the others are in the western district (Guanxi); and Anqing has a women’s mosque. Located in a residential neighborhood, the Guannan Mosque suffered damage in the Cultural Revolution. A few pieces of marble survive from earlier times (Figure 7.66). The restored structure has the standard three-­part prayer area of front porch, main worship space and yaodian behind it, and is 600 sq. m in area with thirty-­six cylindrical pillars. It is able to accommodate 1000 worshippers (Figure 7.65). Other buildings include north and south lecture halls, a residence for

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Figure 7.64  Interior of prayer hall showing Qing-­period marble pillar base, Shouxian Mosque, Shouxian, Anhui, 1621–7 with later repair.

Figure 7.65  Interior of prayer hall showing recent, well-­maintained construction with marble pillar bases from former times, Guannan Mosque, Anqing, Anhui, fifteenth century with many repairs, most recent after 1972.

the imam and an ablutions hall. The prayer hall goes by the Chinese name Wuxiangbaodian (Precious Hall Without Images), a name that characterises its distinction from Buddhist and Daoist buildings with similar architecture (Figure 7.67). So far, this name has not been found at other mosques in China.

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Figure 7.66  Piece of marble balustrade, Guannan Mosque, Anqing, Anhui, fifteenth century with many repairs, pre-­1970s.

Figure 7.67  Front of prayer hall with placard that says ‘Precious Hall Without Images’, Guannan Mosque, Anqing, Anhui, fifteenth century with many repairs.

The only information about the mosque comes from stele inscriptions. It was established early in the Chenghua reign period (1465–87) of the Ming dynasty and flourished until 1897, when it was destroyed in an attack by Qing soldiers. It was again repaired, only to be devastated in the late 1960s. The current rebuilding retains evidence that this mosque was constructed as Qing imperial architecture.47 There are, however, elements of the blending not only of China and Islam but of old and new, sanctified and practical (Figure 7.68).

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Figure 7.68  Placard, Guannan Mosque, Anqing, Anhui, fifteenth century with many repairs.

Jiangsu and Zhejiang beyond the Four Earliest Mosques The mosques in Hangzhou and Yangzhou discussed in Chapter Three are in Jiangsu and Zhejiang respectively. The other mosques in these two provinces, including a unique mosque in the suburbs of Shanghai, in some cases were founded in the Yuan dynasty, but none of them has the centuries of documentation associated with China’s four earliest mosques. Like Hangzhou and Yangzhou, Zhenjiang is one of southern China’s beauty spots. It is located at the convergence of the Grand Canal and the Yangzi River, about 50 km north-­east of Nanjing and 25 km south of Yangzhou, a place populated by Muslim merchants in the Ming dynasty. Its most important mosque today is Zhenjiang Mosque, sometimes known as West City Mosque. According to the local record Dantuxian zhi (Record of Dantu prefecture), dated 1879, a mosque had been established in 627 of the Tang dynasty in Ren’an district. As with Tang associations with other mosques, this one is unlikely. The text continues that the present mosque was moved to this location in 1573. In the Kangxi period, all of Zhenjiang’s Muslims worshipped here. In 1852 the mosque was destroyed by troops. It was rebuilt and expanded in 1873.48 When Liu Zhiping was here in the early 1960s, Zhenjiang had five mosques. This one and a second were larger than the others, and all five had been rebuilt after the Taiping Rebellion; this one, according to Liu, in 1902.49 The mosque and local Muslim community suffered again during the Sino-­Japanese war. Zhenjiang Mosque was used as a factory and school during the Cultural Revolution. Now rebuilt, it is one of Jiangsu’s largest mosques. Still, it is only about 3.5 mu, or approximately 2333.45 sq. m. Zhenjiang Mosque is announced by a screen wall, behind which a front gate with bracket sets and a ceramic tile roof is attached to a

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Figure 7.69  Entry to West City Mosque, showing welcoming banner for Seventh Meeting of the Zhenjiang Islamic Society and door pillows at entry gate corners, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, 16 June 2014.

Figure 7.70  Reception hall, with Chinese and Islamic religious texts and newer books, West City Mosque, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, Kangxi period with many later restorations.

newer wall on either side. The gate retains two sets of pre-­twentieth-­ century door pillows. The entry and the marble pieces confirm a historic pedigree for the mosque, perhaps the reason a mosque where imams from Anhui and Henan came to preach in the past still is used as a gathering place for the local Islamic society (Figure 7.69). Books and paintings from former times remain in a reception hall (Figure 7.70). The many buildings that today include dining, lecture and reception halls are carefully restored using Chinese wooden parts (Figure 7.71). As in Anhui, the amount of greenery in the front

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Figure 7.71  Prayer hall (interior), West City Mosque, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, Kangxi period with many later restorations.

Figure 7.72  Prayer hall, West City Mosque, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, Kangxi period with many later restorations.

courtyard seems to reflect its location in a part of China known for gardens (Figure 7.72). As recently as the 1980s, Changzhou in Jiangsu had a mosque that had been founded in the early Ming period and repaired by a man named Ma Hualong during the Wanli reign (1572–1620).50 That history is recounted in the local record ­Wujin-­Yanghuxian zhi (Record of Wujin and Yanghu prefectures).51 In 2014 the author was told the mosque had been destroyed a few years earlier. Today three new mosques are a few blocks from the old site. Two mosques in Zhejiang along the old highway between

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Figure 7.73  Prayer hall, Jiaxing Mosque, Jiaxing, Jiangsu, showing interior and neon sign with prayer times at far right behind pillar, seventeenth century with recent repairs.

Hangzhou and Shanghai are the last discussed here. The one closer to Hangzhou is in Jiaxing. It was founded in 1602, according to a stele from the Wanli reign at the mosque. About 1500 sq. m of the site are occupied by architecture. Behind a two-­storey gate with decorative marble door pillows that remain from the Qing period is the prayer hall and only a few other structures that include a lecture hall and a hall for ablutions. The prayer space is squarish, 11.3 m across the front and 12 m in depth. The open interior has only four main pillars; the rest have been eliminated. Situated in a small, active community, the buildings have been constructed with exclusively Chinese components, but both Arabic and Chinese inscriptions are on placards, and modern touches such as a neon sign that announces prayer times are found (Figure 7.73). At first appearance Songjiang Mosque, located in what is now a suburb of Shanghai, is from almost any vantage point a Ming-­period residential cloister with the whitewashed buildings and lush gardens of south-­eastern China (Figures 7.74 and 7.75). Behind the entryway, the occasional inscription or calligraphy identifies this as a mosque (Figures 7.76 and 7.77). Islam came to the Shanghai region when it first became an important commercial centre in the early twelfth century. There were further influxes of Muslims in the early Yuan period and again later in the Yuan dynasty. Today Songjiang Mosque is Shanghai’s oldest. Its history is recorded through four steles on site, with inscriptions dated 1675, 1677, 1812, 182152 and the local record Dantuxian zhi (Record of Dantu prefecture) of 1521.53 Founding dates include 1295, the period 1341–68 and 1403. The earliest date raises the possibility that the Uyghur painter Gao Kegong (1248–1310), born in Datong and who lived in Songjiang, was a Muslim who worshipped at this mosque.54 The stele inscriptions

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Figure 7.74  Courtyard, Songjiang Mosque, Yuan period and later, Songjiang, Zhejiang.

Figure 7.75  Interior view, Songjiang Mosque, Yuan period and later, Songjiang, Zhejiang.

make reference to a host of famous and influential Muslim ­officials and descendants of the family of Saidianchi who resided and worshipped here. Repair dates include 1391, 1407, 1535, 1582, 1658, 1677, 1812, 1822 and 1985. As one would find at an important official residence in a south-­ eastern Chinese city, the entrance is on the north side. One follows a winding foliated path with trees in courtyards adjacent to the first gate of the prayer compound. Behind that multi-­storey gate is another courtyard, and then the porch/main hall/yaodian complex. The prayer space appears to be new; if it is not, it is in pristine ­condition (Figure 7.78). A cemetery records the history of the Muslims and

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Figure 7.76  Minaret, Songjiang Mosque, Yuan period and later, Songjiang, Zhejiang.

Figure 7.77  Reception hall, Songjiang Mosque, Yuan period and later, Songjiang, Zhejiang.

their families who have lived on the grounds or been affiliated with the mosque (Figure 7.79). In the neighbourhoods surrounding the mosques discussed in this chapter, one may be aware that they are among the Hui by signs in Arabic or products for sale, but only rarely are the roofs, gates, auxiliary buildings or even prayer halls of Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu or Zhejiang mosques distinguishable from those of a Buddhist or Daoist cloister. As one moves beyond this region to the north or west, the architectural landscape changes. Wooden frames and tile roofs confirm connections to China of former times, but in the twenty-­first century, the mosques with

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Figure 7.78  Prayer hall, Songjiang Mosque, Yuan period and later, Songjiang, Zhejiang.

Figure 7.79  Cemetery, Songjiang Mosque, Yuan period and later, Songjiang, Zhejiang.

historical ties to Ming and Qing China are set amid a much greater number of contemporary Muslim worship spaces and shrines. Often new buildings, including women’s mosques, bear clearer markers of twenty-­first-­century Islam than the mosques on China’s Central Plain or in the south-­east.

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Notes 1. Tianjin, part of which borders Beijing, is one of four Chinese municipalities that have independent status and are the equivalent of a province. The others are Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing. 2. Liu Zhiping 1985: 80. 3. Wu Jianwei 1995: 156. 4. For an illustration, see Qiu and Yu 1992: 72–3. 5. Liu Zhiping 1985: 82; Wu Jianwei 1995: 157. 6. Sixty two-­character combinations render a premodern Chinese date, so that the same combination repeats every sixty-­first year. Without additional information such as a reign year, 1235, 1295, 1355 and 1405, and so on are all possible years for the same combination of characters. Because the Jinan South Mosque was founded in the Yuan dynasty, 1295 and 1355 are the possible years. 7. Lu and Zhang 2005: 79–80. 8. Ibid. 72–4. 9. As shown in Figure 7.9, the official and the horse change positions on either side of the current path. It is unknown if originally there were two pairs of officials. 10. On Qingzhou’s Zhenjiaosi, see Chen and Tang 2008: 48 and Wu Jianwei 1995: 158–60. 11. This feature is used above Ming-­period entryways of Huayan Monastery in Datong. For illustrations see Liang and Liu 1934, plates 3, 73 and 89. 12. Wu Jianwei 1995: 41. 13. Ding 2010: 104 and Wu Jianwei 1995: 41. 14. Wu Jianwei 1995: 37. 15. Ding 2010: 109. 16. Chen and Tang 2008: 61. 17. Rasmussen 1925; Xie Guoxiang 1989; Guojia Wenwuju 2002: especially 99–153; Meng Fanxing et al. 2003. 18. Ding 2010: 97 and Wu Jianwei 1995: 30. 19. Liu Zhiping 1985: 117; Lu and Zhang 2005: 58; Ding 2010: 100. 20. Liu Zhiping 1985: 117; Lu and Zhang 2005: 58. For more on the interface between Islam and Chinese religions, see Ben-­Dor Benite 2005; Petersen 2013. 21. Wu Jianwei 1995: 21 says this is according to Yuanshi, but he does not cite the chapter or page. 22. Wu Jianwei 1995: 21. 23. I saw a stone stele on-­site labelled Xuanhua Central Mosque. Xuanhua Central Mosque is not listed in Wu Jianwei 1995, only North and South Mosques. Local residents told me the mosque published here as Figure 7.32 is Xuanhua North Mosque. 24. Yang Zirong 1994: 62. 25. Li Jie 2006: vol. 1, 426–516. 26. For illustrations of the other two examples, see Li Yuming et al. 1986: 209 and 281. 27. Lu and Zhang 2005: 102; see Allès 2000 on the history of Muslims in Henan. 28. Liu Zhiping 1985: 67–71 and Lu and Zhang 2005: 102–5. 29. Ibid. 30. Lu and Zhang 2005: 104. 31. Liu Zhiping 1985: 68.

china’s most important yuan and ming mosques

32. Lu and Zhang 2005: 102–5. 33. For a single source with numerous pictures of decoration on Qing architecture, see Jiang and Ma 2005. 34. The majority of Chinese timber-­frame halls have an odd number of bays across the front, the central of which is the widest. The front façade bays are also symmetrical, those that flank the centre measure decreasingly less in length, proportionately, toward the outermost bays. 35. For illustrations of similar formations in Yingzao fashi see Li Jie 2006: vol. 2, 760–1 and 802–3. 36. Guo Qinghua 2002: 22. 37. For an illustration of Mañjus´rıˉ Hall at Foguang Monastery, dated 1137, see Li Yuming et al. 1986: 105. The Back Hall and Shuishenmiao, also known as Mingyingwang Hall (dedicated to the Dragon King) at Guangsheng Monastery, dated 1309 and 1319 respectively, also have this feature; for an illustration of Shuishenmiao, see Li Yuming et al. 1986: 256. 38. Pillar displacement also occurs at the Shuishenmiao of Guangsheng Monastery, mentioned in the previous note. 39. The brace known as queti is used in the Shedi Huilou sarcophagus, dated 563, in the Shanxi Provincial Museum. 40. Wu Jianwei 1995: 169. 41. Lu and Zhang 2005: 100. 42. Lu and Zhang 2005: 101. 43. Lu and Zhang 2005: 101; Wu Jianwei 1995: 179. 44. Lu and Zhang 2005: 101. 45. Anhui is famous for Ming-­period residences in Huizhou and the sacred peak Jiuhua. 46. Wu Jianwei 1995: 145–6. 47. Lu and Zhang 2005: 81. 48. Lü Yaodou 1970: vol. 1, juan 6, 122. 49. Liu Zhiping 1985: 40. The Taiping Rebellion was a civil insurrection against the Qing government from 1850–64 that rose in Nanjing and spread primarily southward. Its leader Hong Xiuquan declared himself a brother of Jesus, and sought to crush traditional Chinese religions. Zhenjiang was one of the cities in Jiangsu on the path of the rebellion. 50. Wu Jianwei 1995: 133; Lu and Zhang 2005: 84–5. Wu mentions repair in 1981; Lu and Zhang do not illustrate this mosque, so it is not certain they saw it. 51. Dong Sigu 1968: vol. 8, juan 29, 3013. 52. Lu and Zhang 2005: 90. 53. Lü Yaodu 1970: vol. 1, juan 6, 122. 54. This was the implication of a display in the mosque exhibition hall in 2013.

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CHAPTER EIGHT

Mosques and Qubbas in Ningxia, gansu and Qinghai China’s north- west comprises the provinces of Gansu and Qinghai and three autonomous regions: Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang. The three autonomous regions, together with Qinghai, Shaanxi and Sichuan encompass Gansu (Map 8.1). The north-west has as long a history of population migration and settlement as any other part of China. Each province and autonomous region possesses extensive evidence of protohistoric sites and Neolithic cultures, and remains from the time of China’s first emperor and every subsequent period.1 The Yellow River crosses Gansu between Inner Mongolia and Ningxia to the north-east and eastern Qinghai to the west, making it possible for people and goods to connect with the Central Plain and then the southeast by way of the Grand Canal. In addition, traders came from West Asia to Xinjiang, sometimes not penetrating further east themselves, but increasing the Muslim presence and contact with Persia, India and the Gulf at the western border of this region. This chapter focuses on mosques and other Islamic architecture at the meeting points of Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai. The region is referred to as Gan-NingQing, the name used in current Chinese writing that links the first character of Gansu with those of provinces on either side (Map 8.1). Although the proximity to Central Asia and thereby West Asia had brought non-Chinese populations to Gan-Ning-Qing from the west and north since the early centuries ce, the political situation after the fall of the native Chinese Ming dynasty to the Manchu Qing dynasty was very different from earlier periods of non-Chinese rule under the Xiongnu, Türks, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Khitan, Tanguts (Xi Xia (Western Xia) (1038–1227)) or Mongols. Unlike each nonChinese group which had emerged a victor in East, North or Inner Asia before them, including the Mongols (whose primary capital was also in Beijing but who sought a world empire), the Qing government sought to rule China from inside China. Unlike their immediate predecessors, the Ming, they saw today’s Xinjiang within their reach, and populations north, north-east and west of China’s core provinces were to be loyal to the Qing court, whatever the cost.2 The area we call here the north-west and places north and west of it were so important to their agenda that the Qing built religious

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architecture in imitation of buildings in those regions at their summer resort in Chengde, about 225 km north-­east of Beijing in Hebei province, to symbolise all the peoples under, or symbolically under, their control.3 In times and places of greater and lesser success of Qing policy, Muslims were a major part of the affected population. Moreover, it was precisely in the Qing dynasty and in this region that many of Islam’s most influential leaders in China were born and where newly arrived Sufi orders flourished.4 The term gedimu (al-­qadim (the ancient)) appears in discussion of Muslims from the Ming dynasty onwards. It refers to those who adhere to mainstream Islam, or orthodox Sunni doctrine. Although it has been argued that Shi‘ite Islam had an impact in China, the dominant influence has been Sunni, and it was the prevalence of Sunni thought that brought Sufi orders to China by the early Qing dynasty.5 Four Sufi orders (menhuan) became active in China in the seventeenth century: Hufuye (Khufiyya) and Zheherenye or Zhehelinye (Jahriyya), both Naqshbandiyya orders, and Gadelinye (Qadariyya) and Kuburenye (Kubrawiyya).6 The appearance of teachers of these orders was probably the decisive influence on the strength of Islam in Gan-­Ning-­Qing in the early Qing dynasty. The majority of Muslims involved in Gedimu or the Sufi sects in the region were Hui, the China-­born, Chinese-­speaking Muslims. By the eighteenth century, old Gedimu beliefs came into conflict with the new orders, all of which had charismatic leaders. At the same time, the Qing government was wary of the growing numbers of Muslims and the increasing influence of Islam in the north-­west, the territory they considered so crucial to their political ambitions.7 Nineteenth-­century Muslim revolts in Xinjiang intensified the tension.8 The fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 led to a power play for Muslim allegiance between the Nationalist government, Japanese invaders and Russians. Many of the political and physical battles, among Muslim sects, between Muslims and the Qing government, and then in the twentieth century between Muslims and Nationalists or Communists, took place on sites of religious architecture or in Muslim neighbourhoods. In terms of architecture, Gan-­Ning-­Qing had been home to non-­ Chinese peoples long before the time of the Mongols when Islam became a force in the region. These groups had built their own monuments, all clearly inspired by contemporary Chinese architecture. In Ningxia, the Xianbei, Uyghurs and Tanguts had built Buddhist monasteries, tombs and pagodas that would have been part of the landscape when Muslims first came to the region.9 Perhaps it was the unique heritage of the area as a location of non-­Chinese peoples whose buildings were inspired by Chinese models, as well as its distance from both the Chinese capital and the Muslim centres from which devotees emigrated, that made it so easy for the new religious orders and their new types of architecture to make inroads.

mosques and qubbas in ningxia, gansu and qinghai

The first new building type was called daotang, perhaps translatable as ‘hall of the way’ or ‘hall of the doctrine’, from dao (‘the way’, the fundamental doctrine of Daoism); therefore, daotang should be understood as an instructional hall. It was a building complex where the religious leader, of ever-­increasing power and influence, not just in devotional matters, but in life and law, held forth amid the rest of the standard buildings of a mosque, including a prayer hall, his own living quarters, guest halls, kitchens, offices and schools. The second building type that became common is the gongbei, Chinese for qubba, the Arabic word for dome, and thence, by association, for tomb. Like qubba, a gongbei is the mausoleum of a holy man and is almost always domed. Mazha, a Sinicisation of the Arabic mazar, is usually used to refer to the same kind of building in Xinjiang. The majority of qubbas in China are in the Gan-­Ning-­Qing region and were constructed as memorials to highly influential leaders of the Sufi orders. Ningxia Islamic architecture is very much related to political history in Ningxia. In 1914 Ningxia became part of Gansu province. In 1920 the Haiyuan earthquake, whose epicentre was in Haiyuan county, Ningxia, killed more than 200,000 people and destroyed buildings in Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Qinghai, as well as in Ningxia. In 1928 Ningxia became a separate province of China. Eight years of war with Japan resulted in incorporation of Ningxia into a north-­west border region, grouped with Gansu and Shaanxi. The first five years of rule of the People’s Republic placed Ningxia under the North-­west Military Administration. Ningxia then returned briefly to incorporation into Gansu province, with areas of large Muslim populations being designated as autonomous regions and the Tenger Desert changing hands between Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region was established in 1958. Each of these historical turning points as well as natural devastations led to extensive destruction or collapse of mosques. A few of the mosques in Ningxia trace their origins to the time of Mongol rule, and more of them date to the Ming period, but most buildings that survive date to the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-­first centuries. In 2005 approximately one of every three people in Ningxia was Muslim.10 The large number of worshippers, as well as continued restoration and reconstruction, has given way to countless contemporary mosques. Thus decisions to rebuild old mosques in the manner of their appearance in earlier times are noteworthy. Na Family Mosque Na Family (Najia) Mosque in Yongning is one of the few mosques in Ningxia with a definite founding date and certainty about its patrons, as well as a rare Chinese mosque closely associated with one family.

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Figure 8.1  Entry to Na Family Mosque, Yongning, Ningxia, 1524; reconstructed 1982.

Muslims had moved into Ningxia from the west during the period of Mongolian rule. Descendants of Saidianchi (al-­Sayyid al-­Ajall) were among them. The Na, Shu, La and Ding were the largest clans among Saidianchi’s descendants. The majority of the Na clan of Chinese Muslims has lived in Ningxia since the Yuan period.11 Today they comprise 64 per cent of the population of the village in Yongning that contains their family mosque.12 A stele at the mosque records that when the Na moved to Ningxia they resided amongst the Xi Xia (Tanguts).13 This unusual statement may refer to the buildings around them, because the mosque was not established until 1524 and the Xi Xia had largely ceased to exist after the Mongol invasions of the 1220s. The 2000 sq. m area of the Na Family Mosque is dominated by two structures: a gate with side towers and the prayer space complex behind it (Figures 8.1 and 8.2). The green roof tiles of the five-­bay front gate, reconstructed after 1982, present an initial image of a late Ming–early Qing tower even though the grey bricks indicate much more recent construction. The frontal view is remarkably similar to Qing-­period gateways and façades in north China, such as Daci Pavilion rebuilt during the Qianlong reign in Baoding, the location of the West Mosque (Figures 7.25 and 7.26) discussed in Chapter Seven, and gate-­towers in Gansu (Figure 8.3).14 Five features stand out in these structures: the upper storeys are three bays and the lower two storeys are five bays across the front, all with a wider central bay and narrower side bays on each storey or each level; each storey has its

mosques and qubbas in ningxia, gansu and qinghai

Figure 8.2  Side view of worship hall of Na Family Mosque showing continuous roof and covered arcade to one side, Yongning, Ningxia, 1524 with later repair.

Figure 8.3  Gate-­tower above wall of Jiayuguan (Pass), Gansu, Ming–Qing period.

own ceramic tile roof, the uppermost storey always being a combination hip-­gable roof; each storey has a balustrade; each storey has queti, the ‘sparrow braces’ that are ubiquitous in Qing architecture; and each storey of each pavilion has two sets of rafters beneath the convex ceramic end tiles, the upper rafters are four-­sided in section and the lower rafters are circular. All five details are common in late Ming and Qing architecture, so that there is no reason to suggest

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that the majestic entryway to Na Family Mosque was constructed in imitation of any specific building. Further, some comparisons extend to roof decoration. Both the Najia Mosque gate and the tower above Jiayu Pass have multilayered, bulbous decoration at the middle of the main roof ridge. The countless multi-­storey gateways and pavilions across China meant that anyone in any province or region of China in the sixteenth century or later would have seen this kind of entrance to a religious complex or projecting above a wall. A few features of the gateway of Na Family Mosque, however, exhibit details that align it with Islamic architecture. An obvious one is the pair of towers. Common in Iran since the twelfth century, paired minarets lent importance to a mosque and other religious buildings. The pair at Karabaghlar in Azerbaijan is an example of minarets that straddle either side of the entrance gate.15 Paired minarets also frame mosque entrances in later periods in Iran, Turkey and India.16 Perhaps knowledge of twin minarets led to the configuration at the entry of Na Family mosque, but if the inspiration was visual, it was not functional. At this mosque, the three upper levels of the central building serve as the minaret whereas the sides decorate it. As decorative structures, the towers could be inspired by paired towers known as que that stand at either side of ceremonial entrances of Chinese city gates, palaces and tombs (Figure 1.6b). The lattice patterns in the windows of the towers are found in mosques in many parts of the world, but the imitation ceramic tile roofs on each level of the side towers and the highly stylised bracketing that appears like lotus petals on architraves that support lintels derive from Chinese buildings. So do the chuihua (wooden struts whose ends are carved like flowers) directly under the centres of the bracket sets beneath the lowest level of the minaret portion of the gate. The careful detailing emphasises the importance of the structure as a whole, and the worship space it announces. As for the use of brick, we have seen it in mosque architecture, particularly from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Figures 6.15, 6.16, and 7.47). The worship space, 1102 sq. m in extent, consists of the same three parts as define the majority of mosques in China. From the side, one observes six roofs that alternate between curved and overhanging gables above the front porch, a nine-­bay-­deep (860 sq. m) prayer hall, and a yaodian at the back. On the perimeter are the standard mosque spaces of lecture halls, educational rooms, dormitories, a guest hall for the imam and an ablutions chamber. The nineteenth-­and twentieth-­ century histories of Na Family Mosque are typical of Muslim worship space in Ningxia. The mosque was largely destroyed by Qing troops between 1862 and 1874, and then rebuilt under the direction of an imam. Although it suffered relatively little damage in the earthquake of 1920, every part but the worship hall was used as a factory during the Cultural Revolution. Extensive repair was conducted after 1982. The prayer

mosques and qubbas in ningxia, gansu and qinghai

Figure 8.4  Interior of worship hall, Na Family Mosque, Yongning, Ningxia, 1524 with later repair.

space is that of a well-­maintained, newly renovated mosque that is based on an earlier one (Figure 8.4). Tongxin Mosque The Tongxin Mosque, located on the Qingshui River near the centre of Ningxia, uses the same types of buildings, and is roughly the same age, as those of the Na Family Mosque, but – lacking the colourful roof tiles found in Yongning – the exterior, with its brickwork, is more austere (Figures 8.2 and 8.5). The two mosques are considered the most significant Islamic worship complexes in Ningxia. The Tongxin Mosque, however, began as a Lamaist Buddhist monastery in the Yuan period. It was converted to a mosque during the early Ming dynasty. This kind of transformation of space for use by another religion, or between secular and religious functions, is standard in China for the reasons explained in Chapter One. Presumably because of such a transformation, the gate today is still at the south side. The mosque was expanded in 1936, during the period when Ningxia was an autonomous region. Upon entering, one ascends a long staircase and then turns westward toward the prayer hall, a three-­part structure with an open front area, two-­room worship space, yaodian at the back, and a conjoined roof. The minaret is elevated on a seven-­metre platform in a sector parallel to the mosque to its south. It is thus as lofty a projection above the exterior walls of the mosque as the Na Family tower (Figure 8.6). Today Tongxin Mosque occupies an area of about 3500 sq. m of various buildings. About 800 people can be accommodated in

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Figure 8.5  Exterior of worship hall, Tongxin Mosque, Tongxin, Ningxia, early Ming with repairs in 1936.

Figure 8.6  Tongxin Mosque, Tongxin, Ningxia, early Ming with repairs in 1936.

the prayer hall whose polished wooden pillars exude grandeur and elegance in sharp contrast to the stark brick exterior (Figure 8.7). The elimination of interior pillars points to an original date in the Yuan or early Ming period. Repairs were made during the Wanli reign (1573–1620) and again in 1791 and 1907. Most of the brick walls and interior decor date from this early twentieth-­century restoration, although features from the Qing period have been retained or reproduced. The bracket sets beneath the upper eaves of the minaret project at 90-­and 45-­degree angles to the building plane, presenting a triangular frontal appearance. They are of the form known as ruyi (literally ‘scepter’, bracket sets that project as isosceles triangles in multiple directions), a type used only in Ming and Qing architecture (Figure 8.8). Chuihua are suspended beneath the bracket sets outside the minaret as well as inside the worship space, where the exposed ceiling rafters observed in Shandong, Hebei, Henan and Shanxi are

mosques and qubbas in ningxia, gansu and qinghai

Figure 8.7  Interior of worship hall showing chuihua and queti, Tongxin Mosque, Tongxin, Ningxia, early Ming with repairs in 1936.

Figure 8.8  Upper storeys of minaret showing chuihua and queti, Tongxin Mosque, Tongxin, Ningxia, early Ming with repairs in 1936.

found (Figures 8.7 and 8.8). Two sets of roof rafters, the lower ones circular in section and the upper ones four-­sided, also are used in the minaret. The wooden components of both the prayer hall and minaret, including the lattice door panels, offer some of the highest-­ quality carpentry in Ningxia. Roof tiles show the merging of native Chinese zoomorphic faces with floral patterns (Figure 8.9). Other Ningxia Mosques Two other mosques in Ningxia serve to represent the widespread use of Chinese elements in an otherwise contemporary Muslim worship

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Figure 8.9  Ceramic roof tiles, Tongxin Mosque, Tongxin, Ningxia, early Ming with repairs in 1936.

space. One is in Shizuishan, the northernmost of Ningxia’s five counties. At one time it was a centre of fur and leather trade and later a mining town. Muslim merchants who came to this region often were involved in one of these professions. The front hall of a three-­ part worship space was begun in 1888 and its mihrab was completed in 1924. The roofs of the three parts increase in height from front to back, and three roofs counterbalance them to cover the yaodian and mihrab. The mosque expanded in 1911 and again in 1931. Today the mosque dominates the centre of the city.17 Although the Shizuishan mosque was first constructed later than the other Ningxia mosques discussed here, the widespread devastation and subsequent renovation in this autonomous region is such that its buildings are older than much of Ningxia’s Islamic architecture. Weizhou Great Mosque is about 50 km east–north-­east of Tongxin. Some trace its origins to the early Ming period. A stele of 1704 records that Muslim religious leaders came to Weizhou from Shaanxi in the sixteenth century and a man named Hai Wenxie was involved in the construction and expansion of the mosque. Further expansion occurred three times in the Qing dynasty and in the Republican period. As at Najia Mosque, the upper portion of the gate serves as a minaret. Destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt afterwards, the prayer hall is supported by wooden columns, has an exposed wooden ceiling frame and retains a tile roof. Ershilipu Gongbei Nearly seventy gongbei remain in Ningxia. They can be divided into three groups: part of a daotang (instructional hall), part of a daotang that is on the same site as a prayer hall with perhaps a few other buildings, and a gongbei-­mosque combination.18 When a complex has all three building groups (daotang, gongbei and mosque with

mosques and qubbas in ningxia, gansu and qinghai

its various components for education, residence and prayer), the gongbei is clearly separated from the other two. Ershilipu Gongbei is of the last type. Ershilipu Gongbei, in Guyuan county, about 20 km south of the county centre, is one of the most spectacular mausoleums in Ningxia. In part this is due to its siting: the gongbei is isolated in the countryside, on flat ground on the slope of a mountain. Further, the detailed woodwork is exquisite. The gongbei and educational rooms are on the west, and the nearby mosque Nangusi (Old South Mosque) is at the foot of the mountain to the east. Nangusi is said to have been founded in the period of the Mongol conquest, perhaps at the time of Chinggis. It is unknown for whom the gongbei was constructed, although a famous imam died there in 1466. Seven placards dated to the Ming period remain on site. The mausoleum today is given the date 1677, with repairs and additions recorded through the Qing dynasty and into the Republican period. Other dated inscriptions on site are from 1773 and 1854.19 A devastating earthquake struck in 1920 and further destruction occurred during the Cultural Revolution.20 Repair was underway in 2013. Other facts about Ershilupu Gongbei are as sketchy as the seemingly conflicting dates of the death of a famous imam in 1466 to whom the mausoleum should be dedicated and the erection of a mausoleum more than 200 years later. It is assumed that, like most qubbas in the Gan-­Ning-­Qing region, this one was built for an imam of the Qadariyya order, one of the four Sufi orders that entered China in the seventeenth century. In this case, 1677 is a highly plausible date for the burial hall. If the gongbei was in fact built for a religious leader who died in 1466, some believe he would have been known in Chinese as Gedimu, an elder of the community, for he would then have been honoured with a qubba before the Sufi orders, who inspired this practice, had spread to Ningxia.21 The mausoleum with its roof of curved sides divided by clearly defined ridges is the exterior visual sign that this complex is a gongbei. The architecture itself is that of standardised twentieth to twenty-­first-­century Chinese religious construction with brick buildings, ceramic tile roofs, wooden bracket sets and other decoration, all in pristine condition (Figures 8.10 and 8.11). Behind a large flight of stairs are three courtyards with buildings on an east–west line leading to the prayer hall and the mausoleum. The domed burial hall, on the north, is flanked by structures on either side (Figure 8.12). Details of the newly renovated buildings or older objects such as incense burners inside them exhibit Sino-­Islamic blending (Figure 8.13). The widespread use of animal decoration reflects Chinese religious architecture (Figure 8.14).

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Figure 8.10  Back side (courtyard side) of gateway to Ershilipu Gongbei, Guyuan county, Ningxia, probably eighteenth century with twenty-­first-­ century repair.

Figure 8.11  Instructional hall of Ershilipu Gongbei, Guyuan county, Ningxia, probably eighteenth century with twenty-­first-­century repair.

Gansu The province that is today Gansu has had a largely non-­Chinese population since the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms (304–439).22 Internationally, Gansu is probably most famous for the Dunhuang caves in the western part of the province near Xinjiang. Monks and merchants coming from Xinjiang passed through Gansu via the Silk Road along the narrow part of the province known as the Hexi Corridor to Lanzhou and Tianshui in the south-­east and then on to Xi’an in the adjacent province of Shaanxi. Dozens of major and

mosques and qubbas in ningxia, gansu and qinghai

Figure 8.12  Mausoleum, Ershilipu Gongbei, Guyuan county, Ningxia, probably eighteenth century with twenty-­first-­century repair.

Figure 8.13  Interior of instructional hall, Ershilipu Gongbei, Guyuan county, Ningxia, probably eighteenth century with twenty-­first-­century repair.

minor Buddhist cave sites are along this route.23 Muslims came to Gansu under the same circumstances that they entered Ningxia. Sometimes Muslim merchants travelled via the old Silk Road of the Hexi Corridor, but they rarely settled in the towns along it. Rather, they continued by way of the Yellow River or other routes from western China to the south-­eastern part of Gansu, where Muslims had begun gathering during the period of Mongolian rule. In 2008 Gansu had more than 2800 mosques, the earliest with histories dating back to the Yuan dynasty.24 For reasons that will be made clear, almost no pre-­twentieth-­century mosque architecture survives

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Figure 8.14  Wooden bracket sets and other decorative detail, Ershilipu Gongbei, Guyuan county, Ningxia, probably eighteenth century with twenty-­first-­century repair.

in Gansu and few buildings are more than thirty years old.25 Thus as in Ningxia, the decision to construct with ceramic tile roofs, wooden pillars and bracket sets, or imitation-­bracket sets, is noteworthy. One of the greatest concentrations of mosques in Gansu is in the Hui autonomous region today known as Linxia, former known as Hezhou (He prefecture), about 100 km south-­west of Lanzhou. Linxia Mosques Hezhou was a highly contested prefecture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Three Muslims with the family name Ma, one the imam Ma Zhan’ao, were the forces behind a Muslim rebellion that lasted from 1862 to 1878. Until then, the county of Hezhou had been home to primarily Muslim or primarily Chinese resident communities, with many of the Chinese families named Kong, the family name of Confucius, and claiming descent from the fifth-­century bce sage. Yet some families became Muslim–Chinese through intermarriage. All were thrown into the conflict. The Chinese general Zuo Zongtang (1812–85) who had quelled Muslim anti-­Qing rebellions in Shaanxi and Ningxia was sent here. Initially, he was not as successful in Hezhou. However, Ma Zhan’ao made peace with him and joined forces with the Qing to fight yet other rebels to the west. In an attempt to prevent further tension, Muslim and Chinese communities were separated, with Muslims relocated south of the Hezhou city walls.26 The social and sociological forces of the period have been the subjects of several scholarly studies.27 Today the area south of the city of Linxia, but within Linxia county, south of the position of the old city wall, is known as the bafang (eight neighbourhoods). Twelve mosques were renowned in the eight neighbourhoods after the southward movement of Muslims.28 Like all

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mosques in Linxia and most contiguous districts, the religious architecture was heavily damaged in Sino-­Muslim fighting. A tenuous peace existed until the years 1927–30, when intense battles resumed. Thus, even though the earthquakes in north China did not devastate Gansu to the extent that they damaged Shaanxi and Ningxia, conflagration caused equal loss of buildings at the same time. Yet more destruction occurred during the Cultural Revolution. In 2008 the population of Linxia was about two million, 56 per cent of whom were national minorities. Except for Tibetans, the minorities were the Chinese Muslim ethnicities of Hui, Salar, Bao’an and Dongxiang.29 Therefore, Linxia has been referred to as China’s Mecca.30 A typical Linxia mosque was founded in the Ming period, but its oldest building dates to the 1980s. In spite of the new materials, wooden pillars that define a bay construction system, an exposed wooden roof frame, bracket sets and ceramic tile roofs are used almost universally. Bright colours, particularly red, yellow and green, proliferate inside and outside buildings. Patterns include flowers such as lotuses or lotus petals and chrysanthemums, all frequently used in Chinese architectural decoration, as well as vines and vegetal forms that are more often associated with West Asia. Yet details of Islamic architecture in Linxia also include animals, particularly auspicious Chinese animals such as lions, bats and mythological creatures, and Chinese characters frequently found on Chinese religious or ceremonial architecture such as stylised versions of shou (double happiness). Every piece and every detail, even pictures of Mecca or the Qur’an, could have been made by Chinese craftsmen. Indeed, the architectural decoration in Linxia is testament to the meaning of a Hui community: the craftsmen of a mosque or gongbei were trained as Chinese craftsmen; their spiritual devotion was Islam, but their craft would have been used in Buddhist, Daoist or other construction. Laowang Mosque is one of the largest and oldest in the eight neighbourhoods sector of Linxia. Founded in 1377, the next date associated with the mosque is 1736 when a wealthy Muslim of the local community named Ma Chaozuo paid for repairs and expansion.31 The mosque was destroyed in 1928 during the Muslim–Chinese conflict. The mosque was rebuilt in 1933 and the minaret in 1944, but most of those buildings were in turn destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in 1968. Reconstruction took place along with redevelopment of the site from 1980–3. The worship space is now a typical Chinese-­style three-­part structure with anteroom, front prayer area and yaodian, in that order. Occupying almost half of the building space – 1051 of 2391 sq. m – and constructed with an awareness of mosque styles far to the west, the prayer space can accommodate a congregation of about 2000. The minaret of Laowang mosque is hexagonal, with a six-­sided roof. It, too, is built with a wooden frame and balustrades on each level, and with dramatically up-­turned ceramic tile roofs on each of the five storeys, as well, all reflecting a decision to rebuild in Chinese mode

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Figure 8.15  Interior courtyard, Laowang Mosque, Linxia, Gansu, 1377 with most recent repairs in late twentieth century.

Figure 8.16  Detail of minaret, Laowang Mosque, Linxia, Gansu, 1377 with most recent repairs in late twentieth century.

with contemporary materials in the late twentieth century. Lotus petals and other Chinese plant motifs decorate the centre and are on either side of the upper beams of each layer (Figures 8.15 and 8.16). Laohua Mosque was founded about a century later than Laowang Mosque, during the Chenghua reign period (1465–87). At the time of the Kangxi emperor, a local man of wealth, Ma Liansheng, had a mosque constructed in his garden. It was known as Huasi (Flowery Mosque)32 and is today called Laohuasi (Old Flowery Mosque). Its modern history parallels that of Laowangsi: destroyed during warfare in 1928, reconstructed in 1941, destroyed again in 1967, rebuilt in 1979 and again beginning in 1981. Also as at Laowang Mosque, the late-­twentieth-­century worship space reflects contemporary Islamic

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Figure 8.17  Laohua Mosque, Linxia, Gansu, mid-­sixteenth century with repairs circa 1982.

Figure 8.18 Screen wall, Linxia, Gansu, mid-­sixteenth century with repairs circa 1982.

design (Figure. 8.17). The location of Laohuasi, on a street with more than ten mosques on one block, shows the dramatic changes in mosque architecture that reflect contemporary life. Only the white stone stairs and balustrade hint at a Chinese architectural heritage. A nearby screen wall from a mosque that has been torn down in anticipation of repair is rare evidence of what survived internal and international warfare in the twentieth century (Figure 8.18). Nanguan Great Mosque is another example of the contemporary transformation of mosque architecture in Linxia. Founded in 1273, it was expanded during the reign of the Hongwu emperor and again in the Qianlong reign.33 Like the other significant mosques in the eight

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Figure 8.19  Front façade, Nanguan Great Mosque, Linxia, founded 1273 with late twentieth-­century repairs.

neighbourhoods district of Linxia, the mosque was destroyed in 1928, rebuilt in 1931, again devastated in 1968 and rebuilt in its present form between 1980 and 1983. An enormous mosque that includes 3337 sq. m of buildings with a worship space for between 3000 and 4000 people, the prayer hall comprises seven pillars with queti (‘sparrow braces’ that interface columns and beams) on either side, lotus petal-­ shaped pedestals and an overhanging, but flat, roof above an enclosing arcade. These features of the front façade and the Chinese characters of its name are among the few exterior accommodations to identify it as a Chinese building (Figure 8.19). Nanguan Great Mosque is one of an increasing number of mosques in the eight neighbourhoods district that have pre-­Qing roots but, after transformation of the prayer hall, no longer retain a Chinese-­inspired minaret. Throughout Linxia, the hexagonal minarets whose sharply upturned eaves mark a structure that in a Buddhist context would be a pagoda, are a profound contrast to the onion domes with crescent moons projecting from their centres that designate the majority of Muslim worship spaces in the city. Thus it is important to keep in mind that minarets are not required for Muslim worship, and they were not constructed at many mosques across China through the centuries. The decision to proclaim a religious architectural setting by using an unambiguously Chinese roof, visible from a distance, occurred at Hezhou’s mosques before the persecutions of the 1920s or 1966–76. Decisions to retain them in the later twentieth century should be understood as conscious choices to maintain architectural styles associated with the Sino-­ Islamic identity. The hexagonal curves of the roofs are particularly common in Gan-­ Ning-­ Qing

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where fewer Chinese-­style wooden buildings have been preserved as modern prayer halls. The Gan-­Ning-­Qing mosques mark a third style of Chinese mosque, one distinctive from the almost exclusively Chinese building forms of Islamic worship spaces in Hebei, Shandong, Henan and Shanxi, or the brightly decorated interiors and exteriors of mosques in Beijing and contiguous Hui counties. Dongxiang Dongxiang (eastern township) is a mountainous autonomous Muslim county contiguous to Linxia and today under its jurisdiction. It is named for its Muslim ethnicity: Donxiangzu (Dongxiang nationality). Its Muslims speak a language whose roots are in Mongolian, and perhaps moved into the region during the Yuan dynasty but did not convert to Islam until the sixteenth century. The region and its people have remained remote, in part perhaps due to poverty, and have acquired a reputation for violence.34 Outside Gansu, Dongxiang Muslims also are found in Xinjiang. In Dongxiang in 2005, 79 per cent of the population was of Dongxiang ethnicity (213,000 out of 270,000 inhabitants), and only 35,100 people were non-­Muslim. This sparsely populated region contained 405 mosques and forty-­five gongbei (Figure 8.20).35 Mosques in both new and old styles dominate almost any view downward from a mountain road in Dongxiang (Figures 8.21 and 8.22). Most mosques, including those with enough support to bear Chinese architectural detail in their restorations, such as Suonan Great Mosque, are used by highly localised populations (Figure. 8.23). The interest in Chinese decorative detail, especially on entry gates and minarets, is noteworthy because the population

Figure 8.20  Village in Dongxiang in 2013. Sign reads: Inside are places to wash and pray.

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Figure 8.21  View from mountain road in Dongxiang.

Figure 8.22  View from mountain road in Dongxiang.

served by these mosques is isolated even from the central market in Dongxiang owing to road conditions. Pingzhuang (Ping hamlet) Mosque is an example. Restored in 2003, the decision was made to employ unambiguously Chinese roofs, ruyi bracket sets, chuihua and queti, even though the location is so remote that one envisions roads made impassable by rain or snow, or subject to repair for long periods of time (Figure 8.24). It is unlikely that anyone not related to the very local community has worshipped at Pingzhuang Mosque very often.

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Figure 8.23  Suonan Great Mosque, Dongxiang, in 2013.

Figure 8.24  Entrance gate and minaret, Pingzhuang Mosque, Dongxiang, restored in 2003.

Located on a flat part of a slope in Dongxiang, Beizhuang Gongbei is an eastward-­ oriented, single courtyard, focused on a five-­ bay timber-­frame hall of the three standard parts of front porch, prayer hall and yaodian, with the gongbei behind it (Figure 8.25). Today it is entered through a ceremonial gateway on the south-­east (Figure 8.26).

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Figure 8.25  Main courtyard, Beizhuang Gongbei, Dongxiang Autonomous County, Gansu, Qianlong period with many renovations.

Figure 8.26  Ceremonial Gateway, Beizhuang Gongbei, Dongxiang Autonomous County, Gansu, Qianlong period with many renovations.

Auxiliary halls, including a lecture hall, are on the north and south sides. A date on a recent relief sculpture on a wall that now joins the burial chamber to the north informs us that the gongbei was begun in the Qianlong period. The crescent moon on top of the

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Figure 8.27  Relief sculpture of Beizhuang Gongbei, Beizhuang Gongbei, Dongxiang Autonomous County, Gansu, Qianlong period with many renovations.

Figure 8.28  Detail of entry gateway, Beizhuang Gongbei, Dongxiang Autonomous County, Gansu, Qianlong period with many renovations.

structure carved in the relief, one assumes, reflects a recent addition (Figure 8.27). The front gate, as well as the entry façades of the prayer hall and gongbei, attest to the merging of Chinese elements such as bracket sets, lotuses, chrysanthemums and peonies with bundles of grapes and other fruits such as oranges that recall motifs from West Asia (Figure 8.28). The convergence into a Sino-­Islamic iconography is even sharper at Yihachi Gongbei in Dongxiang. Details about this qubba are scant; it memorialises Ma Enyun (1767–1845) of the Qadariyya order.36 The iconography, of course, can be confirmed only as early as the existing monument, and since no specific date is assigned to this gongbei, one assesses the reliefs to be of the late twentieth to early twenty-­first century when it was reconstructed or renovated. Raised lettering at the base of one of the panels described below informs us that the

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Figure 8.29  Detail of relief sculpture showing Qur’an and sutra with Chinese teacup and writing brushes, Yihachi Gongbei, Dongxiang Autonomous County, Gansu, Qianlong period with many renovations.

reliefs were made by the Yongle Brick Company in Linxia, Gansu. A passage on another panel lists four names from Xinjiang, and yet another panel has only one place name: Hami in Xinjiang. One thus assumes some of the patrons of the current gongbei are from Xinjiang. In a courtyard preceded by a Chinese ceremonial gate with an incense burner in front of it, one finds panels with relief sculpture set in individual frames. One shows a Qur’an and sutra, each labelled in Chinese characters on the binding, alongside a Chinese cup and vase containing Chinese writing brushes, a quill and a fan (Figure 8.29). One also finds a set of incense sticks, labelled ‘Qur’an incense’ (Figure. 8.30). Decoration at the base of an incense burner includes an open jar containing Buddhist prayer beads, an incense burner and a Chinese decorative box (Figure 8.31). One also finds pictures of other gongbei, including one in Baoning prefecture, Sichuan province, that includes a ceremonial gateway, minaret and mausoleum of the forms observed in this region of Gansu (Figure 8.32). The gateways, screen wall, courtyards, bracket sets and sloping, ceramic tile roof eaves, as well as the label, identify predominantly Chinese elements in the rendering of the gongbei in Baoning. Similarly, Chinese objects and characters outnumber Muslim elements in the other details of Yihachi Gongbei. Worship halls, local dress, posted schedules for prayer and the gongbei itself confirm that the local community identifies with Islam, yet the same devotees have made the conscious decision to patronise this reconstruction replete with Chinese elements. In the remote mountain villages of such a heavily Muslim county where mosques are found at every turn of the road, decisions concerning the decoration of old monuments make them overwhelmingly Chinese in style.

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Figure 8.30  Detail of relief sculpture showing Qur’an incense sticks, Yihachi Gongbei, Dongxiang Autonomous County, Gansu, Qianlong period with many renovations.

Figure 8.31  Incense burner decorated at base with incense burner and Buddhist prayer beads among other objects, Yihachi Gongbei, Dongxiang Autonomous County, Gansu, Qianlong period with many renovations.

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Figure 8.32  Rendering of gongbei in Baoning prefecture, Sichuan, Yihachi Gongbei, Dongxiang Autonomous County, Gansu, Qianlong period with many renovations.

Two Mosques in Tianshui Tianshui is the only other region of Gansu whose mosques are considered here. The selection is because one of those mosques was established in the Yuan dynasty, and because Tianshui offers an opportunity to investigate Islamic architecture in a city as opposed to an autonomous county or a remote region difficult of access. The Beiguan (northern neighbourhood) Mosque in Tianshui was founded in 1343 and repaired many times thereafter. Its size at the end of its expansion in 1468 was retained into the twenty-­first century. A prayer hall, moon-­viewing tower, lecture hall, ablutions chamber and residence of the ahong (imam) were included in an area of 3132 sq. m. The 22.3 metre-­deep lecture hall was aligned east–west and divided into a front porch and front and back interior spaces. Only two pillars supported the interior, offering an open space with the pillar elimination characteristic of the Yuan dynasty. The hip-­gable roof with glazed ceramic tiles, animals on the ridges and a jewel shape in the centre, as well as the three-­storey, hexagonal, moon-­viewing tower with a pointed, six-­sided roof are features typical of mosques in China’s north central provinces discussed in Chapter Seven. Only remnants of its past forms remained in 2013 when extensive reconstruction was under way (Figure 8.33). However, if a statement about the former mosque can be offered, it is that in the urban area in eastern Gansu near the Shaanxi border a Yuan mosque with the necessities of contemporary Muslim prayer space in China’s provinces to the east had been constructed. The mosques to the west in Gansu are of a different lineage, one reflecting the regional orders of Islam and their politics in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The mosque in the southern part of Tianshui, known as Nanguan (southern neighbourhood) Mosque in recognition of its location in

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Figure 8.33  View to prayer hall, Beiguan Mosque, Tianshui, Gansu, founded 1343, under restoration in 2013.

Figure 8.34  Entry to Nanguan Mosque, Tianshui, Gansu, founded 1644–61 with numerous repairs.

the city, and formerly as Taizisi and Hongtaisi, was founded between 1644 and 1661 and repaired in 1726.37 Side buildings were added in 1997, with repairs continuing in the twenty-­first century. The mosque occupies 2021 sq. m. The local community prides itself on a construction that reflects the Chinese architecture of former centuries (Figures 8.34 and 8.35).

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Figure 8.35  Side hall, Nanguan Mosque, Tianshui, Gansu, founded 1644–61 with numerous repairs.

Gongbei of Linxia The kinds of roofs observed in gongbei of Ningxia and Dongxiang, as well as domes of the types often used in the shrines to holy men in the Islamic world, cap Linxia’s gongbei. The majority take the form observed above: a hexagonal shaft rises on a hexagonal platform; six-­ sided layers defined by eaves that curve sharply at the ends crown the shaft; the roof is hexagonal, curved like a dome with clear ridges dividing its faces; a tall ornament comprised of numerous individual bulbs or other shapes rises at the top centre. Other gongbei in Linxia have burial halls that are four-­sided with two sets of roof eaves. By some accounts, about 300 gongbei remain in greater Linxia, a number that probably includes architecture in Dongxiang, with more than twenty shrines in the eight neighbourhoods area of today’s Linxia.38 The mausoleum, known as (Da) Great Gongbei, was built for Qi Jingyi (1656–1719) the year after his death. A native of Hezhou (now Linxia), he was educated by a twenty-­ninth-­generation descendant of Muhammad. Qi is credited with introducing the Qadariyya order to China and spreading it to Shaanxi, Sichuan and Gansu.39 Like the mausoleums for eminent Muslims we have observed in Ningxia, the Great Gongbei complex includes worship space, guest quarters and a reception area for visitors. Residences for the imam and students and gardens exist as well. At one time the gardens are said to have been lush. Except for the peonies for which this region is famous,

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Figure 8.36  Main courtyard, Da Gongbei (Great Qubba), Linxia, Linxia Hui Automonous County, Gansu, circa 1720 with many repairs.

most of the other plantings did not survive destruction in 1928, but a revived interest in greenery is apparent today (Figure 8.36). Repair by a local family named Ma during the Republican period gave way to destruction again in 1966 and repair in 1978. Although no part of Da Gongbei is more than thirty-­five years old, the craftsmanship is exquisite. In spite of the occasional presence of Arabic on a banner or in an inscription, and the lack of animals in decoration, the detail of every building is overwhelmingly Chinese (Figures 8.37 and 8.38). As at Yihachi Gongbei in Dongxiang, relief sculpture inset into the brick wall exhibits qubba in other parts of China. Another famous Qing Muslim is buried at Guo Gongbei (National Qubba). Chen Yiming (1646–1718) had studied in Iran and had made the hajj, a rare occurrence for a Chinese Muslim at that time. When he died, the Kangxi emperor ordered that a garden be built for him and awarded him the posthumous name Baoguo (Preserving the Nation).40 A disciple of Chen Yiming is buried in the same complex. The gardens were destroyed along with most of the rest of the mausoleum in the 1920s. The site was repaired by local Muslims from the Zhang and Ma families and then destroyed again in 1959. The site reopened in 1985 and was subsequently rebuilt. Guo Gongbei illustrates the rarer kind of qubba with a quadrilateral plan and a crowning dome. Still, bracket sets and ornamentation around the building that imitate a Chinese balustrade result in a gongbei that would be found in Gan-­Ning-­Qing, but not to the west or east. The rest of the complex has ceramic tile roofs, high-­quality brick carving and Chinese timber components. The crenellations around the bottom of the dome and along the screen wall are unique (Figure 8.39).

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Figure 8.37  View from main courtyard showing mausoleum, Da Gongbei, Linxia, Linxia Hui Automonous County, Gansu, circa 1720 with many repairs.

Figure 8.38  Detail of building showing purely decorative bracket sets, ceramic rooftiles with vegetal patterns and paintings of Chinese landscape, floral designs and vase, Da Gongbei, Linxia, Linxia Hui Automonous Region, Gansu, circa 1720 with many repairs.

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Figure 8.39  Guo Gongbei, Linxia, Linxia Hui Automonous Region, Gansu, built circa 1719; circa 1985 and later.

Huasi Gongbei, about two kilometres from the above-­mentioned Huasi Mosque, contains the remains of Ma Laichi (1681?–1766?), the man credited with bringing the Sufi order of the Khufiyya, a branch of the Naqshbandiyya, to China. Ma is specifically associated with Huasi menhuan (colourful/flowery order), a Chinese branch of the Khufiyya, and he established Huasi Mosque. Ma’s father, childless at age forty, travelled from Hezhou to Xining where he met the shaykh Khoja Afaq. Subsequently, Laichi (meaning ‘arrived late’) was born. The child arrived not only late in his father’s life, but also at a time when the father had lost his fortune. Laichi was sent to a family friend who educated him in a Muslim school under the tutelage of Khoja Afaq’s disciple Ma Taibaba (great father Ma) (1632–1709). Ma Laichi thus became a shaykh in the lineage of Khoja Afaq. In 1728 he went on the hajj, an event that ensured him tremendous prestige when he returned to his native community. Through the rest of his life he was involved in legal and political disputes among the Muslim community in the Gan-­Ning-­Qing region.41 Today Huasi Gongbei comprises a single courtyard consisting of an entry gate, screen wall and enclosing wall with the three-­storey, octagonal mausoleum as its focus (Figure 8.40). In this most sacred Khufiyya space, interment is in a cenotaph made of Chinese lacquer and more placards in Chinese than in Arabic hang on the walls (Figure 8.41). Bijiachang (complete family gathering place) Gongbei, a short walk from Huasi Gongbei, is the mausoleum of Ma Zongshen of the Khufiyya order who died during the Kangxi period. Destroyed in 1929 and rebuilt in 1981, the focus of its single courtyard is a four-­ sided burial shrine today painted bright yellow (Figure 8.42). Smaller

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Figure 8.40  Huasi Gongbei, Linxia Hui Autonomous County, Gansu, originally mid-­eighteenth century, with repairs including in 1986.

Figure 8.41  Interior of burial chamber of Huasi Gongbei, Linxia Hui Autonomous County, Gansu, originally mid-­eighteenth century, with repairs including in 1986.

gongbei of other religious leaders lie alongside the main mausoleum (Figure 8.43). Lao (old) Gongbei receives its name because it is believed to be the oldest qubba in Linxia. Occupying 5200 sq. m of which 2100 are devoted to architecture, it goes by two other names. One, north wall corner (Beichengjiao) refers to its position in the city. The second,

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Figure 8.42  Bijiachang Gongbei, Linxia Hui Autonomous County, Gansu, originally constructed during the Kangxi reign (1662–1722) with extensive repairs in 1981.

Figure 8.43  Courtyard of Bijianchang Gongbei, Linxia Hui Autonomous County, Gansu, originally constructed during Kangxi reign (1662–1722) with extensive repairs in 1981.

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Figure 8.44  Lao (Beichengjiao/Yu(shu) baba) Gongbei, Linxia Hui Autonomous County, Gansu, with many reconstructions, including in 1998.

Yushu Baba (Father elm (tree)), refers to the trees that have long grown in this part of the city. According to tradition it was founded in the Yuan dynasty for a Persian.42 Anything that stood there, presumably in the Qing dynasty, was destroyed during key periods of conflagration or conflict in the twentieth century: 1928; after it was closed in 1958; and 1966. A 21-­metre-­high, three-­storey, octagonal mausoleum, which is the focus of the site, was constructed in 1982. The site was extended by another 10 m in 1998 (Figure 8.44). As in mosques and gongbei throughout greater Linxia, Chinese architecture prevails at every turn (Figure. 8.45). Yet as at Yihachi Gongbei in Dongxiang, some areas of the gongbei exhibit an extraordinary

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Figure 8.45 (left)  Ceremonial gateway entrance to courtyard of Lao Gongbei, Linxia Hui Autonomous County, Gansu, many reconstructions including 1998. Figure 8.46 (right)  Moon gate decorated with grapes and vines, beneath Chinese architectural elements, Lao Gongbei, Linxia Hui Autonomous County, Gansu, many reconstructions including 1998.

blending of Chinese and Islamic imagery, enhanced by the high quality of relief sculpture. Details include bracket sets on high cap-­ blocks, wooden roof rafters both circular and four-­sided in section and green ceramic roof tiles covering a Chinese moon gate enclosed by carvings of grapes and West Asian vines (Figure 8.46). The walls of the back courtyard are decorated with gongbei of undesignated regions, shelves with potted plants, vessels for liquid and food, Buddhist prayer beads, writing brushes and other implements of a scholar’s studio, incense sticks, low shelves, an abacus, Chinese coins, auspicious bats, potted trees and an occasional mosque (Figure 8.47a–­f). Historically, Linxia county is where, beginning in the eighteenth century, the Sufi orders that dictated religious and political life in north-­western China for two centuries, emerged. The late twentieth to twenty-­first-­century architecture and decoration of gongbei in this region present a Sino-­Islamic legacy, one more heavily weighted towards the Chinese side, thanks, one assumes, to decisions of contemporary patrons, making those buildings perhaps more Chinese in inspiration than the Sufi brotherhoods of Qing China might have anticipated.

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(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f) Figure 8.47  Relief sculpture insets of interior wall, courtyard of Lao Gongbei, Linxia Hui Autonomous County, Gansu, many reconstructions. (a) gongbei (b) decorative shelf with Chinese objects (c) view through moon gate (d) mosque with sword below and objects of a Chinese scholar and Buddhist prayer beads above (e) objects of a Chinese scholar with Islamic banner with character ‘leader’ (f) Chinese objects and auspicious bat.

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Mosques near Xining Mosques in Xining, Huangzhong County to its west, and Xunhua Salar Autonomous County to the south-­east belong to the group of religious structures in Qinghai included in the regional label Gan-­ Ning-­ Qing. One major mosque, Dongguan (east neighbourhood) Great Mosque, dominates Xining, the capital of Qinghai. Mosques in Huangzhong and Xunhua and other adjoining autonomous counties dominate the views downward from mountainous roads in this region that topographically is indistinguishable from Dongxiang (Figures 8.21 and 8.22). Dongguan Great Mosque is enormous; it covers an area of 11,940 sq. m. The fact that it has maintained huge stature in the region through its numerous re-­buildings may stem from its pedigree.43 Dongguan Great Mosque was constructed in the late fourteenth century by sanction of the Hongwu emperor at the request of two local officials, Mu Ying and Ye Zhengguo. According to records, the early Ming mosque was a single courtyard with a worship hall and two multi-­storey minarets. Significant expansion took place in the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, only to suffer intense devastation. The worship hall, however, survives in its late nineteenth-­century form. Reconstruction continued throughout the twentieth century, and remarkably, Dongguan Great Mosque did not experience the destruction that was ongoing in Gansu and Ningxia at the same time. The mosque today has highly visible elements of its earlier form, even though it has largely been transformed into a contemporary mosque. Every scholar who has written about this mosque has remarked on the entrance with five arches, constructed in 1946 with hexagonal minarets on either side. It exhibits features of Western architecture.44 The date and style are consistent with concrete architecture designed by Western-­trained architects such as Yang Tingbao that rose in China’s cities in the 1930s and 1940s (Figures 8.48 and 8.49).45 Today the whitewashed gate is overshadowed by the huge mosque that serves as a major centre of the Muslim community (Figure 8.50). The interior features of the worship hall present three-­tiered, fan-­shaped bracket sets (brackets with arms that radiate like a fan at 30-­, 45-­, 60-­and 90-­degree angles from the wall surface), queti that are transformed into flowers with petal designs and relief carving on the walls that imitates a Chinese screen. The bracket sets of the type known as ruyi, observed in Qing-­ period mosques already, proliferate here too. They are also found locally, in Xining at the Qing-­period Lamasery Ta’ersi (Figure 8.51). The same kind of bracketing also is used at Hongshuiquan Mosque, some 30 km from the centre of Xining, in Huangzhong county, which in contrast to Dongguan Great Mosque, retains its Qing-­period architectural character (Figure 8.52). Its remote location, accessible only by roads similar to those in Dongxiang, further

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Figure 8.48  Five-­entry gate and minarets, Dongguang Great East Mosque, Xining, Qinghai, 1946.

Figure 8.49  Yang Tingbao, Stadium, Nanjing, 1931.

suggests that isolated Hui populations chose to repair historic mosques according to the Chinese timber-­ frame tradition. The ceiling above the yaodian at Hongshuiquan Mosque is one of the finest Qing-­period examples of the ceiling type known in Chinese as zaojing, as carefully constructed as any comparable ceiling in a Buddhist or Daoist worship hall (Figure 8.53). Entered on the south where a screen wall is positioned, the main structures are the worship hall and minaret. Each is an example of splendid craftsmanship in wood both inside and outside. The lack of colour makes it easier to focus on the wooden details. Little suggests that the location is Gan-­Ning-­Qing, whereas much of the work suggests comparison with the small-­scale carpentry (xioamuzuo) that

mosques and qubbas in ningxia, gansu and qinghai

Figure 8.50  Dongguan Great East Mosque, Xining, Qinghai today.

Figure 8.51  51 Ruyi-­shaped bracket sets on Shanmen (gateway), Kumbum Lamasery (Ta’ersi), Xining, Qinghai, founded 1583 with many later repairs.

decorates sutra cabinets and Buddhist and Daoist altars as well as ceilings in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (Figure 7.48). Indeed, the major Ming-­period Buddhist monastery in the region, Qutansi in Ledu, offers less architectural detail (Figures 8.54 and 8.55). The prayer hall of Hongshuiquan Mosque is five bays across the front and six bays deep, with additional bays at the back for the mihrab. The high quality of wood is evident in each undecorated piece (Figure 8.56), even newly replaced components. Any interior section that lends itself to decoration is covered with intricate, often elegant, design (Figures 8.57 and 8.58) of the kind achieved in eleventh–twelfth-­ century carpentry by Chinese craftsmen. Even the most recently replaced building pieces show care in manufacture (Figure 8.59).

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Figure 8.52  Ruyi-­shaped bracket sets, minaret, Hongshuiquan Mosque, Huangzhong, Qinghai, Qing period with later repairs.

Figure 8.53  Zaojing in worship hall, Hongshuiquan Mosque, Huangzhong, Qinghai, Qing period with later repairs.

Qingshui Mosque in the Salar Autonomous County of Xunhua shows the same kind of focus on wood carving and lack of colourfully painted decoration. An east–west oriented, single courtyard mosque, it includes a screen wall, entry gate, minaret, worship hall, educational hall, hall for ablutions, hexagonal minaret and prayer hall roofed with hip gables. Each structure is wooden and in the style of the Qing period (Figure 8.60). An occasional animal is found among the otherwise primarily floral, vegetal and purely ornamental designs. As we have observed in Huangzhong, Muslim architecture that radiates around Xining is marked by high-­level timber craftsmanship and little use of colour. The distance from Guyuan to Xining is 400 km as the crow flies, but even today, a full century after the fall of the Qing dynasty, travel time is protracted by the terrain. Perhaps the first strong impression that follows visits to mosques in Gan-­Ning-­Qing, and particularly

mosques and qubbas in ningxia, gansu and qinghai

Figure 8.54  Minaret, Hongshuiquan Mosque, Huangzhong, Qinghai, Qing period with later repairs.

Figure 8.55  Third building, Qutansi, Ledu, Qinghai, Ming period with later repairs.

those of Gansu and Qinghai in this cluster, is how active has been the attention to and how expensive the materials of mosques great and small, new and old across the region. One is perhaps least surprised about Ningxia. A narrow autonomous region with an area of only 66,000 sq. km and a population that is identified as one-­third Hui,46 the distance from north to south can be traversed comfortably on a state-­funded highway in a day. Along this route are Ningxia’s five largest cities, with many of Ningxia’s major mosques in them or short distances off the expressway. And, as mentioned above, Ningxia’s history has been written by Northern Wei, Northern Zhou, Tangut

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Figure 8.56  Interior of worship hall, Hongshuiquan Mosque, Huangzhong, Qinghai, Qing period with later repairs.

Figure 8.57  Detail of interior of worship hall, Hongshuiquan Mosque, Huangzhong, Qinghai, Qing period with later repairs.

and Mongol populations whose Chinese-­inspired monuments with a non-­Chinese flavour join Islamic architecture to make up a complex regional building history. Gansu, by contrast, is long and narrow, nearly 1200 km from east to west, the eastern part contiguous not only with Shaanxi and Sichuan, but fewer than 200 km from Xi’an. The Silk Road that traversed Gansu has brought attention to the European goods transported along it as much as to Persians who may have carried them, and artifacts have confirmed settlements of

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Figure 8.58  Mihrab, Hongshuiquan Mosque, Huangzhong, Qinghai, Qing period with later repairs.

Figure 8.59  Recently replaced pieces of worship hall, Hongshuiquan Mosque, Huangzhong, Qinghai, Qing period with later repairs.

Hepthalites, Sogdians, Zoroastrians, Uyghurs and Tibetans as major forces in its provincial history. Scholars turn to Gansu to document communication between Rome and Chang’an and to confirm the dates of Buddhist murals and sculpture before the year 400 ce. Whereas the Chinese Cultural Relics Bureau’s Cultural Relics Atlas Series volume on Ningxia includes text and illustrations of mosques among the region’s most important monuments, the two thick volumes on Gansu do not include a single illustration of a mosque and, moreover, mosques and gongbei are not labelled even on the map of Linxia.47 Nor are they listed in the monuments sections for Linxia or Dongxiang.48 In Gansu, mosques are a subject of scholarly research, but not part of the identity of the province except where it touches Ningxia and Xining. Presentations of Xining’s architecture, by contrast, always

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Figure 8.60  Qingshui Mosque, Xunhua Salar Autonomous County, Qinghai.

emphasise Islamic monuments. Qinghai is a huge province that is sparsely populated by many minorities, including Zhang, Mongols and Muslim Kazahks as well as Hui and Salar, but more than 40 per cent of Qinghai’s 5.6 million inhabitants live in greater Xining.49 Like Ningxia, until 1928, Xining was also part of Gansu. Yet in spite of the changing boundaries that in the early twentieth century placed Xining, Linxia and Ningxia in the same province, and even though the sectors of all three provinces in the Gan-­ Ning-­Qing region have majority Muslim populations, three distinct architectural styles are found. Linxia’s is easiest to define. Buildings are recent, gongbei that recognise the Naqshbandiyya movements that rose and flourished in the region are abundant, profuse colour is more frequent than in many other parts of China where Islamic architecture flourishes, and the architecture of any pre-­1980 structure, from wall insets to beams and bracketing to roofs, is based on Chinese traditions; while a Sino-­Islamic style is prominent in decoration of almost any architectural feature. In Linxia, too, Sino-­Islamic decoration sometimes preserves the names of craftsmen or building companies of Muslim communities from other provinces. Once within Qinghai, in Xining and the contiguous counties, architecture is understated in colour and thereby the craft of woodworking, elements of which are almost exclusively grounded in traditional Chinese techniques and motifs, is the distinguishing feature. Period

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and regional features such as ruyi bracket sets are incorporated into mosque architecture. Superb wooden ornamentation is found even in remote mountain villages, and minarets in those villages are close in style to Buddhist timber pagodas. Unlike the situation in Linxia, Xining’s mosques do not document the involvement of non-­ local craftsmen. Nor is gongbei construction significant in Muslim Xining. Ningxia has the broadest range of mosque styles, as well as mosques that retain more pre-­twentieth-­century architecture than is found in Linxia. The range is such that a mosque such as Najia has unique structures among the many discussed in this book. Even more remarkable, perhaps, is that in Gan-­Ning-­Qing, a region distinguished in all of China for four diverse topographical and cultural spheres – Tibetan highlands, Mongolian steppe, Central Asian desert and loess ­agricultural zone50 – a Chinese architectural solution, with only a few details of Islamic design, has been consciously and consistently sought and achieved on every terrain since the seventeenth century, and in some cases earlier. Thus Muslim prayer space here was only rarely recognisably distinct from Chinese religious architecture.

Notes 1. Majiayao and Banshan are the best-­known Neolithic cultures of Gansu, Ningxia, and Qinghai; see Allan 2005: 44–9; on early urbanism in the region, see Gao Donglu and Zhao Shengchen 1985. 2. Much has been written about this subject. See, for example, Perdue 2005; Millward 1998 and 2007. 3. The so-­ called Eight Great Temples, actually eleven building complexes, are extraordinary evidence. On architecture and its symbolism in Chengde, see Chayet 1985; Zhou Yi 1999; and Forêt 2000. On the political ambitions of the Qing government that led to Chengde, see Millward et al. 2004. 4. Lipman 1997: especially Chapters 3 and 4; Fletcher 1988. 5. Dillon 1996:19–24. 6. Dillon 1996: 19–24; Fletcher 1988. 7. Perdue 2005. 8. Chu 1966; Kim 2004. 9. For a comprehensive study of Ningxia architecture, including illustrations of the major Xianbei, Uyghur and Tangut monuments, see Guojia Wenwuju 2010: 181–207 and 220–31. 10. Lu and Zhang 2005: 127. 11. Chen and Tang 2008: 76. 12. Lu and Zhang 2005: 130. 13. Chen and Tang 2008: 76. 14. On the Baoding pavilion, see Meng Fanxing et al. 2003: 34–5; for illustrations of the towers in Shanxi, see Li Yuming et al. 1986: 263–5. 15. Hillenbrand 1994: 154. 16. Bloom 2013: 294–6, 300, 302–4. 17. Liu Zhiping1985: 136. 18. Li Weidong 2012: 140; Liu 1985: 180.

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19. 20. 21. 22.

Liu Zhiping 1985: 207. Bi and Yi 2009. Dillon 1996: 47–9; Dillon 1999: 95–129. The Sixteen Kingdoms refers to the period 304–439 when sixteen states rose and fell in north China. More than one state always ruled at the same time. The majority of the kingdoms were founded by non-­Chinese groups such as the Xiongnu and Xianbei. 23. The cave temples in the Dunhuang region are the most famous, with those at Maijishan probably the next most famous. On cave temples along the Hexi Corridor, see Gansusheng Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo 1987; and on art from the period between the Han and Tang dynasties in the region, Juliano and Lerner 2001 and Watt 2004. 24. Chen 2008: 81. 25. Lipman 1981 explains the unending turmoil in the region from 1895–1935. 26. Lipman 1997: 125–62; Dillon 1999: 54–6, mentioning that this separation was already noted in d’Ollone 1911: 235. 27. Chu 1966; Jing 1996; Kim Hodung 2004. 28. Lu and Zhang 2005: 123. 29. (last accessed 15 November 2004). 30. Gladney 1987: 507. 31. Ding 2010: 158; Lu and Zhang 2005: 123. 32. Dillon 1999: 50 and elsewhere translates Hua as multicoloured. 33. Wu Jianwei 1995: 363; Lu and Zhang 2005: 122. 34. Lipman 1997: 149–52. 35. Lu and Zhang 2005: 124. 36. Li Xinghua 2004: 122. I thank Sijie Ren for bringing this article and others with information about Yihachi Gongbei to my attention. 37. Information from stele on site. 38. Zhang Youcai 2009: 74. Zhang emphasises that his numbers are estimates. 39. Ding 2010: 148; Lu and Zhang 2005: 183–4; Chen and Tang 2008: 124. 40. Chen and Tang 2008: 124. 41. For his biography and sources on it see Lipman 1997: 65–71. 42. Lu and Zhang 2005: 182–3 for information in this paragraph. 43. Lu and Zhang 2005: 135–7 and Ding 2010: 138 44. Ding 2010: 138; Liu Zhiping1985: 152–5; Lu and Zhang 2005: 136. 45. Many from this group of architects were trained in Beaux-­Arts methodology. Yang Tingbao and others designed civic architecture across China using contemporary materials that incorporated elements of the palatial tradition of Chinese architecture. See Ruan 2002 and Ruan and others in Cody et al. 2011. 46. Guojia Wenwuju 2010: 1. 47. Guojia Wenwuju 2011: vol. 1, 292–3, for the Linxia map; Guojia Wenwuju 2010 for the Ningxia volume. 48. Guojia Wenwuju 2011: vol. 2, 742–8 and 766–71. 49. The Qinghai volume, in the same series cited in notes 46, 47 and 48, is slim. Each mosque discussed here and others are included with both descriptions and illustrations; Guojia Wenwuju 1996. 50. Lipman 1997: 7–8, based on studies by Gu Jiegang.

CHAPTER NINE

Xinjiang: Architecture of Qing China and Uyghur Central Asia In the previous eight chapters, almost every mosque of significant age or that retains elements of a noteworthy pre-­Qing building, as well as north-­west China’s most important gongbei, has been discussed. Islamic architecture in China that has been omitted, some in well-­ known provinces such as Hunan, Guangxi, Sichuan and Yunnan, either is not as old as the buildings discussed here or is not significantly different from architecture on which we have focused. This chapter, in contrast to earlier ones, presents a highly selective group of mosques. Yet it includes several of China’s most famous mosques, some that are much better known and more often published than most of the mosques discussed already, for the subject is the architecture of the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, China’s western autonomous region. The purpose of this chapter is to provide enough information so that the well-­ known mosques and mausoleums can be understood in the context of the millennial-­long history of Islamic architecture in China. Islamic architecture in Xinjiang shares much with its counterparts in every nation that encloses the region, namely the countries of Inner, South and West Asia (Map 9.1). Mountains span Xinjiang to the north, across the middle and to the south. Between them are enormous deserts, peppered by oases that grew along water sources on the Silk Roads. Muslims definitely came to Xinjiang in large numbers during the Yuan dynasty, but it is believed that the first Muslims came to this part of Asia in the eighth or ninth centuries. Today Xinjiang’s more than ten million Uyghurs comprise more than 45 per cent of Xinjiang’s approximately twenty-­two million people, a smaller population than the city of Shanghai.1 In 2005, 77 per cent of Kashgar, Xinjiang’s largest city, was Uyghur Muslim. The city had 351 mosques, and 23,000 of China’s approximately 34,000 mosques were in Xinjiang.2 The Qing court viewed Xinjiang as just as integral to its vision of empire as Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai. In the 1750s, the Qing had allied with Uyghurs to conquer the Dzungars who populated the northern part of today’s Xinjiang. From then on, the Qing ruled these lands, but not with the kind of force Xinjiang was to experience in

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the next century. In 1876, the Qing government launched a serious attack deeper into Xinjiang, by then not only a political prize, but also a crucial region for Chinese domination in a part of Asia eyed covetously by the Russians. After eight years of war, in 1884 the Qing annexed the eastern part of the lands then known as Turkestan and named the region Xinjiang, ‘new frontier’.3 Sufi orders that had entered the Gan-Ning-Qing region in the previous century often had come by way of Xinjiang, and because of their route, leaders of those orders sometimes were considered militant by the Qing and later Chinese governments. In fact, the areas of Xinjiang where Qing and then Republican and then Communist China established offices had served primarily Muslim regional populations that had theretofore lived without much allegiance to any government.4 Parts of Xinjiang have been contested by Chinese and non-Chinese governments for the last several hundred years and even today experience political turmoil as a result. Many of the mosques or mausoleums discussed here have roots in the period before the Qing dynasty; several have been the foci of political strife in recent times. The following discussion will deal with monuments in the order from east to west across Xinjiang, with each location labelled on Map 9.1. The mosque-tomb complex of King Boxi’er, also known as King Hui, is in Hami (Qumul), in eastern Xinjiang near the Gansu border. Islam came to Hami from Turfan at the end of the fourteenth century. Hami’s first mosque was built in 1490. In all, ten generations of Muslim kings of Hami were laid to rest in the complex from the 1690s until 1932. The 8-by-15-m mausoleum, decorated with glazed tiles inside and outside, belongs to Boxi’er who was executed after the Muslim rebellion of 1867 but then buried in this mausoleum the following year (Figures 9.1 and 9.2).5 Islam had come to the Turfan region following the fall of the Yuan dynasty, shortly before it was transmitted to Hami.6 For nearly a thousand years before that, Buddhists, Manichaeans, Sogdians, Uyghurs and Chinese had left their marks in architecture and painting in this oasis and contiguous sites; the cave temples at Bezeklik and Sengim, religious and residential buildings of Jiaohe, temples and shrines of Gaochang (Qocˇo/Qara-hoja), and buildings in outlying cities such as Bezeklik are examples, and each site goes by more than one name depending on the period of occupation.7 In the fifteenth century the area was under the control of the Muslim ruler Yunus Khan (Hajji ‘Ali) of Moghulistan, who engaged in war with Ming China, at one time taking Hami into his realm.8 Sugongta (tower of Sugong) in Turfan is the Chinese name for the Amin (Emin) Minaret. Sugong translates as Duke Su, but more accurately should be thought of as Prince Su, Su being the first syllable of the name Sulayman. Sugong was the son of the local leader Amin Khoja, who financed the minaret that was completed by Sugong, one year later, in 1778. By that point it also had become a memorial

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Figure 9.1  Mausoleum of King Boxi’er and nine later generations of Muslim kings, Hami, Xinjiang, 1868 with later repairs.

Figure 9.2  Interior of mausoleum of King Boxi’er and nine later generations of Muslim kings, Hami, Xinjiang, 1868 with later repairs.

pagoda to the father. In other words, the Chinese name is a reference to the son and the Uyghur name to his father; the structure that today is a minaret was once briefly a pagoda. The conical mud-­brick minaret rises 44 m, the tallest minaret in China, and is decorated with sixteen patterns on the exterior (Figure 9.3). Its closest s­ tructural parallel in China is to the minaret at Huaishengsi (Figure 2.23), but to the west, the profile as well as bands of decoration suggest sources

architecture of qing china and uyghur central asia

Figure 9.3  Sugong (Emin) Minaret and Mosque, Turfan, Xinjiang, 1778 with later repair.

in Bukhara such as the minaret at Kalan Mosque, dated 1127, or the minaret of Kutlugh Timur in Kunya Urgench, dated 1321–33.9 Similarities with the Khoja minaret in Khiva, Uzbekistan, dated 1910, suggest builders there and in Xinjiang could have been constructing based on the same models, or perhaps that builders to the west were constructing with knowledge of what stood in Xinjiang: the 44-­m minaret in Turfan might have been known in Khiva in 1910.10 The dramatic tapering from 14 m in diameter at the base to 2.8 m at the top is counter-­balanced by the bands along which decoration occurs. The minaret is ascended by an interior spiral staircase of seventy-­two steps. Fourteen windows provide light to the outside. Sugongta is part of a complex that can be labelled a minaret-­ mosque. Minaret and mosque are connected and both are enormous, and this great size is especially noticeable because the mud-­brick mosque is undecorated. The minaret is positioned at the south-­ eastern corner of the complex. The Sugong Mosque is entered via a formal, central pishtaq that provides a sharp contrast to the stark, windowless exterior wall. (Today a new entry leads to a courtyard in front of the original mosque entrance.) A domed octagonal hallway joins the worship hall behind it. The minaret is accessible by a corridor to the south, and a roof via stairs to the north. The prayer hall is enclosed by a two-­bay-­wide gallery. Its roof is supported by wooden columns in a hypostyle arrangement. A Uyghur named Ibrahim is said to have designed the minaret.11 Kuche, or Kucha/Kuqa, in central Xinjiang, was settled before the Western Han dynasty. It is the major city near the Kizil Buddhist caves where work began in the fourth–fifth centuries ce. It is also

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Figure 9.4  Jiaman Mosque (Great Mosque), Kuche, Xinjiang, founded sixteenth century, rebuilt 1931–4.

the location of the Tang garrison town Anxi that fell to the Uyghurs in 850. A mosque and a mausoleum in Kuche originated in the Ming dynasty. The founder of the Qarataghlik (Black (Mountain)) order, Khoja Ishaq Wali, established Jiaman Mosque in the sixteenth century.12 Totally destroyed in 1931, it was immediately rebuilt, and completed in 1934. It is the largest mosque in Kuche, popularly known as Kuche Mosque, and the second largest in Xinjiang.13 The major buildings are the entry gate, prayer hall, minaret, Wangyuelou, lecture halls, educational halls, dormitories and Ishaq Wali’s mausoleum (Figure 9.4). The interior of the prayer hall measures nine bays by twelve, 41.81 m by 50.9 m, and is divided into two parts. Eighty-­ eight slender columns made of mulberry wood, brightly painted and divided by decoration into three parts, support the roof (Figure 9.5). This column type is characteristic of architecture in Xinjiang, especially the western part of the autonomous region; it combines features of both traditional Chinese architecture and the Central Asian tradition of wooden construction. Molana’eshiding (Mawlana Ershiding/Monashding) Khoja Mausoleum, referred to in Chinese as mazha (mazar) as opposed to gongbei because it is located so far west, is the resting place of Eshiding Khoja, from Bukhara, who converted the Chaghadai ruler Tughluq Temür in 1347. Tughluq Temür’s mausoleum has been shown to reflect Muslim burial chambers of Bukhara and elsewhere in the Iranian world (Figures 4.7–4.9). In the fourteenth century, Eshiding’s mazar was located east of a mosque. Today only architecture from the tomb complex survives. The oldest construction dates to the nineteenth century. The prayer hall of the mazha is

architecture of qing china and uyghur central asia

Figure 9.5  Interior of Prayer Hall, Jiaman Mosque (Great Mosque), Kuche, Xinjiang, founded sixteenth century, rebuilt 1931–4.

Figure 9.6  Interior courtyard of Molana’eshiding Mazha, Kuche, Xinjiang, late nineteenth century.

a tall, brick structure with four layers of pointed windows on the front façade. Green glazed tiles are intact near the base (Figure 9.6). A placard is dated 1881. The mausoleum, by contrast, is of a different style, the one to be seen at Jiaman Mosque and elsewhere in Xinjiang: brightly painted, wooden pillars support a veranda and wooden beams cross the flat roof. Lattice patterns pervade the lower part of an otherwise open veranda, and its doors and windows. Westward from Kuche are Yining and Hetian (Hetan/Hotan), the first in the north and the second to the south in Xinjiang. Yining, near Huocheng, the location of Tughluq Temür’s tomb, has numerous mosques. The Hui Mosque, also known as Shaanxi Mosque

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because it is said to have been modelled after Huajuexiangsi, was founded in 1760 and completed in 1781. It is sometimes associated with Guyuan, Ningxia, whose Muslims are credited with financing its construction.14 The practice of naming a mosque in Xinjiang after one in China proper is not unique. Urumqi also has a Shaanxi mosque that was founded in the Qianlong period.15 The buildings of Yining’s Hui Mosque are Chinese in style. One begins at the Shanmen (prominent gateway) that resembles the tower of a Chinese city wall. The brightly painted minaret has three storeys: the lower two are larger and four-­ sided, while the small highest storey is hexagonal. Each storey has broadly sloping eaves on each face. The prayer hall is long and narrow, extending for seven bays across the front and twelve bays deep. It is divided into three interior spaces with a continuous roof of gable sides over the entire structure, the type employed in mosques of China’s Hui population in provinces of the Central Plain and north China. Animals decorate the ends of roof spines, another feature that is rare in Xinjiang but seen in Ningxia and in China’s north central provinces. Other buildings include a lecture hall, guest quarters and a hall for ablutions.16 An illustration of the mosque published in 1885 by the British missionary Henry Lansdell (1841–1919) shows the continuous roof over the worship hall and the minaret behind it (Figure 9.7). Four oases in western Xinjiang, also part of the territory referred to above as Moghulistan, were locations of almost continuous fighting between the remnants of the Chaghadai Khanate and new Muslim factions from the west in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.17 Aksu and Hetian are furthest east, the former north, and the latter

Figure 9.7  Hui Mosque, Yining, Xinjiang, 1781.

architecture of qing china and uyghur central asia

south, connected by the Aksu River, which joins first the Hetian and then the Yurungkak River. Shache (Yarkand/Yarkant) and Yecheng (Kargilik), also on tributaries of major waterways, are between them to the west. Shache is fewer than 150 km from Kashgar. Each site is known today for treasures associated with its importance as an oasis on the Silk Roads, including artifacts that confirm knowledge of the art of Han China and often Rome or a Central Asian polity. Each has a history of Uyghur occupation, as well as evidence of Tang conflict with the Uyghurs. By the end of the fifteenth century and through the sixteenth, the contending Muslim groups established mosques, and some also built mazha, in each of these cities. Warfare that would involve the Qing government and at times Russia, and most recently the People’s Republic, has meant that most buildings that survive were repaired in the nineteenth century or later. A mosque and mausoleum represent the Muslim community in sixteenth–seventeenth-­ century Shache. A town less well known than Kashgar, and with a much smaller population, it has a city gate and a mosque with a gateway and prayer hall.18 Shache’s architecture confirms the style of Kashgar. The gateway and worship hall are the most noteworthy buildings at the Great Mosque of Shache, also known today as Yarkand or Yarkant Mosque. Originally covered with ceramic tiles, the gateway of the city and its palace has a painted arched entry that joins side walls with decorative ­ crenellations. Beneath the topmost decoration are pointed wooden columns that project in the manner painted on the walls of ­ fourth-­ century caves at Kizil, in Kuche.19 The Shache prayer hall, like the prayer hall in Kuche, is a flat-­roofed structure with thin columns arranged in hypostyle fashion inside; it is enclosed by a verandah framed by equally thin, decorated wooden columns (Figure 9.8). The bright colours are seen in mosques as well as in Buddhist and Daoist and palatial architecture across China, but the capitals are those of Islamic architecture. The back area of the Shache Mosque is covered with a dome that is identified on the exterior by green glazed tiles. The mausoleum of Khoja Muhammad Xielibu in Shache is an octagonal structure with cylindrical corner columns and a dome covered with glazed blue tiles. Its pishtaq has a pointed-­arched portal framing a pointed-­arched passageway, the only access to the building. Other sides are decorated with pointed arches set in rectangular frames. The decorative band that may imitate timbers at the Great Mosque is used here beneath an imitation beam at the top of each side wall.20 The Qarakhanid Satuq Bughra Khan (d. 955) is credited with bringing Islam to western Xinjiang,21 but only in Kashgar do monuments reflect this tenth-­century history. A Muslim tomb known as the mazha of Yusufu (Yusuf) is dated to the year 1069.22 A town named Kunashar was founded here in 1513. An important centre of trans-­Asian trade, it was the home of the Khoja family until the Qing

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Figure 9.8  Great Mosque, Shache, Xinjiang, sixteenth–seventeenth century with later repairs.

conquest in 1758. Ya‘qub Beg (1820–77), the leader who allied himself between Russia and Great Britain and ultimately was defeated by the Chinese general Zuo Zongtang (1812–85), resided in Kunashar in the 1870s when he built a caravanserai for traders.23 Today more than 77 per cent of Kashgar’s population consists of Uyghur Muslims and the city has 162 mosques.24 The ‘Idgah (Aidika’er/Etigar) mosque in Kashgar, although not a Friday mosque, is the largest mosque in China. Its Persian name ‘id gah (place of festival worship) corresponds to the Arabic musalla (place of prayer) and is understood to be the large, open-­air space outside an urban settlement where both the Festival of Sacrifices and supererogatory prayers for rain are held.25 The first mosque on this site was built in 1442 under the direction of a man named Saqsiz Mirza. The current golden-­brick structure was begun in 1798 and enlarged in 1838 to its current size of 16,800 sq. m. Until today the mosque has been a centre of cultural and political activity. An active marketplace is in front of it. Through the t­ wentieth century and still today, ‘Idgah Square has been the location of political activity as well as festivals.26 The ‘Idgah mosque combines architectural forms observed in Shache, those of West Asia, Central Asia and a few from China: the prominent pishtaq and the flat-­roofed worship space with slender, delicate columns exemplify this blending. Entered via an archway 8 m high that opens onto a domed, octagonal space and is joined by walls to two 18 m minarets at the corners, the enormous gateway is set behind an active market where countless gatherings of ­hundreds of thousands of people have been conducted through the ages (Figure

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Figure 9.9  ‘Idgah Mosque, with active market in front courtyard, Kashgar, Xinjiang, 1798 with enlargements and repairs.

9.9). The minarets are of the same height, but not identical; the wider one on the north connects to a shorter wall, yet the yellow-­ brick entrance is dwarfed by the courtyard and worship space behind it. The courtyard, enclosed by the gateway and minarets at the front, is a unique trapezoidal shape measuring more than 16,000 sq. m in area, and it can accommodate several thousand w ­ orshippers. The space is divided by poplar-­lined paths, one that extends the entire depth of the cloister and leads to the prayer hall on the western edge, and a second that crosses the interior from a south gate to the pool for ablutions in the north-­east. Other buildings include lecture halls and residences for the imam and students. The prayer hall, thirty-­eight bays wide and 2600 sq. m in extent, is divided into inner and outer sanctums. This is the largest number of bays across the front of any building in China. More than 140 slender wooden pillars, painted green, square at the base and with octagonal shafts, support the wooden ceiling beams of the flat roof in a hypostyle arrangement. Some have wooden decorative features of Chinese construction such as bracket sets or incised details that use Chinese building components. Other pillars more closely resemble those of the mosques of Central Asia, Iran or the Indian subcontinent, but in every case a decorative pattern carved into wood, or material such as lacquer, or colour indicates that the mosque is not in one of those lands. The mausoleum of Aba Khoja also is considered a superlative structure, part of the largest Islamic architectural complex in Xinjiang, and to some, the holiest Muslim building in Xinjiang. It was built in about 1640 as the tomb of the Naqshbandi Sufi Muhammad Yusuf

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Figure 9.10  Aba Khoja Mausoleum, Kashgar, late seventeenth century with later repairs.

who came to the region from west of the Pamirs earlier in the seven­ teenth century, crossed Xinjiang, and eventually converted people in Gansu, including some among the Salar.27 Muhammad Yusuf’s son Aba (Afaq) Khoja preached in the Gan-­Ning-­Qing region, particularly Gansu and Xining, in the 1670s. Aba Khoja is the man who had influenced Ma Laichi’s father (discussed in Chapter Eight). Aba Khoja’s order was the Khufiyya, known as the ‘silent ones’, because its adherents perform the ‘remembrance of the heart’ in silence.28 Aba Khoja was interred in a gongbei in 1693, as were three more generations of his family, a total of seventy-­two people. The principal mausoleum, that of Muhammad Yusuf, is of standard gongbei type: a centralised domed squarish building rises in an enclosure of more than 35 m on each side; there is an entry gate and a cylindrical minaret at each corner; the green tiled dome is 16 m in diameter and reaches a height of 24 m. Originally most of the exterior was tiled (Figure 9.10). The complex also includes several mosques as well as a lecture hall, imam’s residence, hall of ablutions, dining hall and other service buildings as found at other sacred Muslim sites. Many of the buildings are distinguished by thin, wooden, fluted columns, brightly painted and with highly elaborated bands and capitals. Interior stairs make it possible to access the roof. Special features of several of the mosques in this complex are summer and winter sections, the former open for ventilation and the latter enclosed to reflect seasonal temperatures. In 1873 a mosque was built here for Ya‘qub Beg.29

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Xinjiang Islamic Architecture in Context: the Qing Architectural Enterprise Scholarly writing about the Qing dynasty is voluminous, more extensive than for any other Chinese dynasty. Among those writings, Frederic Wakeman’s 1337-­ ­ page The Great Enterprise and Peter Perdue’s 725-­page China Marches West are particularly ­relevant to Islamic architecture in Xinjiang in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. Neither writes about architecture specifically. However, the presence of buildings in Xinjiang with so many ties to Islamic architecture west of China in Khiva or Bukhara fits into Wakeman’s explication of how the Manchus, who founded the Qing dynasty, moved south and west and appropriated what was necessary for their empire; and into Perdue’s understanding that without continuing into what he calls Central Asia, the Qing could not have been an empire.30 Islamic buildings in Xinjiang in the Qing dynasty were more fundamentally visual examples of Islamic architecture than contemporary mosque or mausoleum architecture anywhere in China to their east. Qing China lends itself to transnational and global discourse,31 and Islamic architecture in Xinjiang is integral to that history. Multiculturalism is inherent to Qing architecture. The necessity to look outside China to understand Qing construction may be one reason Qing architecture has received less attention than that of any earlier dynasty, in spite of the fact that more seventeenth to early twentieth-­ century buildings stand in China than from any other 300-­ year period.32 Another reason is that the thousands of extant buildings make it more challenging to write a comprehensive history than for any earlier period. A third reason Qing architecture has received so little attention is that seminal writing in the formative decades of Chinese architectural history, the late 1920s to early 1940s, deemed Ming-­Qing a period of rigidity. The meaning of this term was that after circa 1400, Chinese buildings were less creative or ambitious than those of China’s great architectural heritage that preceded them.33 Even if one can argue that Qing architecture is not ‘rigid’ and if, further, a set of most important buildings among the myriad from this period can be agreed upon, the architectural history of Qing cannot be written without an understanding of architecture outside China, for peoples in the empire included not only the Manchu ruling family, but Tibetans, Mongols, Uyghurs and many others. This is in contrast to the fact that even if every building from the first sixteen-­and-­a-­half centuries ce in China still stood, it would be almost impossible to find a structure or complex that did not follow the principles described in the first chapter. Chapters Two to Eight have shown that mosques constructed through the ­seventeenth century, or rebuilt based on pre-­1700 precedents, also

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follow these patterns, and thereby conform to the building patterns of Buddhism and Daoism and Confucianism and China’s palatial tradition. Yet we have just observed that mosques in Xinjiang look different from mosques to the east, different even from mosques of the predominantly Muslim Gan-­Ning-­Qing region that received tutelage from religious leaders in Xinjiang. Part of the explanation for the change in Xinjiang, as mentioned already, is Uyghur Muslim patronage as opposed to Hui patronage. The rest of the explanation is that Xinjiang’s extant Islamic architecture dates to the Qing period, the unique Chinese dynasty when non-­Chinese architectural styles and foreign builders were permitted and sometimes even sought, often for political purposes. In addition to the non-­Chinese style religious architecture at the summer capital in Chengde, Hebei province, mentioned in Chapter Eight, the gardens at the Qing summer palace Yuanmingyuan were designed by Europeans.34 Muslim construction in Xinjiang can be viewed as part of a widespread multicultural architecture sanctioned by the Qing government, although different from Buddhist, Lamaist, Daoist and Confucian complexes built by Qing government sanction, because the Qing ruling house never worshipped in Xinjiang mosques. The transnational architecture of Xinjiang and other parts of China has been as important to the People’s Republic as it was in Qing China, for the agenda of the People’s Republic with regard to architecture has parallels to that of the Qing. Most important, for both governments, the borders of China, and the range of its impact beyond its borders, are elastic. The People’s Republic includes autonomous regions that had belonged to Qing at its time of greatest expansion, notably Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet. The current minzu (alternatively known as zuqun (groups of peoples)) system whereby ten of China’s fifty-­six ethnicities are Muslim is as fundamental to modern China’s programme of incorporating all people within its territories into one nation, as was the Qing enterprise of its eighteenth-­century empire. Architectural history since 1949 has been written to reflect China’s incorporation of people of all fifty-­six minzu. Mosques and qubbas of Xinjiang are part of the standard narrative of Chinese architectural history that includes monuments of the Goguryeo kingdom of Korea, Xishuangbanna at the border with Myanmar, and Lamaist architecture of Tibet and Mongolia.35 Residents and practitioners are photographed in native costume in illustrations of the vernacular and religious architectural narrative of China. So far, post-­1980s mosques that largely reflect contemporary West Asian architecture such as those in Figures 8.21 and 8.22, and discussed briefly in Chapter Eleven, are not part of China’s architectural history, but they rise and flourish. Newly renovated mosques of Xinjiang, however, are indeed included, for they confirm a longer heritage of architecture of national minorities, a heritage that predates the designation of non-­Han minzu.

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Notes 1 (accessed 3 May 2014). 2 Lu and Zhang 2005: 150. 3 Turkestan includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and parts of Mongolia and Russia. For discussion of the Qing dynasty ambitions concerning Xinjiang see Perdue 2005. 4 Dillon 2004; Millward 2007. 5 Lu and Zhang 2005: 140–3; Ding 2010: 190–4. 6 Hansen 2012: 111. 7 Hansen 2012: 83–111. 8 Soucek 2000: 141. 9 I thank Sheila Blair for the first comparison and Jonathan Bloom for the second. For illustrations, see Bloom 2013: 256 and 288–90. 10 Bloom makes the further comparison with the corner towers of the Afaq Khoja mausoleum in Kashgar, closer to Khiva, and discussed below. 11 Wu Jianwei 1995: 482. 12 Qarataghliq (black mountaineer) is named for Ishaq, the younger son of the Naqshbandiyya Sufi Khoja Ahmad Kasani (1461–1543), son of Shaykh ‘Ubayd Allah Ahrar (1404–90), who came to Kashgar from Bukhara where he became an influential religious leader. His sons vied for power, the older brother taking the name Aktaghliq (white mountaineer) and the younger son Qarataghliq. Rivalry between the two factions continued for several generations. See Rahul 1997: 72–6. 13 Lu and Zhang 2005: 163; Ding 2010: 177–81. 14 Ding 2010: 187. 15 Lu and Zhang 2005: 170–1. 16 Lu and Zhang 2005: 165. 17 For discussion of this complicated history with reference to these cities, see Soucek 2000: 162–6. 18 Zhang Zhen 1999: 568–70. 19 The intended effect in the caves is three-­dimensionality. The same kinds of patterns occur in wood at Duldur-­Akar in Xinjiang. For illustrations and brief discussion, see Steinhardt 2014: 120 and 121. 20 Lu and Zhang 2005: 154–7. 21 Soucek 2000: 83–5. 22 Liu Zhiping 1985: 213–14. 23 On Kunashar, see Schinz 1989: 442–3; for a brief summary of Ya‘qub Beg’s life, Soucek 2000: 265–7; for the rebellion during this period and Zuo Zongtang’s role, see Chu 1966. 24 Zhang Zhen 1999: 561–2. 25 I thank Jonathan Bloom for these translations. 26 Millward 2007: 198; 368–9. 27 Fletcher 1975, 1988 and 1994. 28 Lipman 1997: 64–5. 29 Qiu and Yu 1992: 192–6; Zhang Zhen 1999: 562–5. 30 Wakeman 1985; Perdue 2005. 31 In addition to Wakeman and Perdue, Pamela Crossley, Mark Elliot and James Millward, among many others, have made major contributions to the understanding of the Qing dynasty explored here. 32 Sun Dazhang 2002, covering the 1640s through 1840s, is the most comprehensive study. 33 Liang Sicheng (1901–72), widely considered China’s most influential

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architectural historian during the formative period of the modern study of Chinese architectural history (late 1920s to 1960s), uses the terms frequently in his writing about Ming and Qing architecture. For discussion in English, see Liang 1984: 103–24. Alexander Soper’s highly influential writing about Chinese architecture of the 1950s through 1980s describes the period similarly; see Sickman and Soper 1971: 461–71. 34 Ironically, the same gardens were burned by Europeans during the Second Opium War in 1860. For more information on the architecture in Chengde, see Chapter 8, note 3. On the gardens of Yuanmingyuan, see Wong 2001. 35 See, for example: Chinese Academy of Architecture 1982; Zhongguo Jianzhu Yishu Quanji Bianji Weiyinhui 1988–9; Ancient Chinese Architecture 1998–2003; Zhongguo Jianzhu Yishu Quanji Bianji Weiyinhui 1999–2003; Guojia Ziran Kexue Jijin Weiyinhui 2001–3.

CHAPTER TEN

Mosque, Synagogue, Church: Architecture of Monotheism in China It is not clear how well local Chinese populations distinguished between Muslims and Jews in premodern China. Both groups, of course, are monotheistic and, in addition, do not make icons. Both prohibit the eating of pork and slaughter oxen in similar manners. The most famous Chinese synagogue, in Kaifeng, was located on Sinew-­ Extracting Lane, a name that refers to Jewish ritual slaughter, similar to the reference in the name Ox Street, the location of Beijing’s famous mosque (Figures 6.2–6.7). It is less likely that Christians were confused with Muslims. Christians, however, except for members of the Church of the East (Nestorians), came to China primarily from Europe, whereas many of the Jews in China came from West or South Asia. From the thirteenth century onwards, Christians wrote in European languages about religious practice in China, including Islam and Judaism. Some of the best records of mosques and the main records of the Kaifeng synagogue were written by Christian missionaries. What they tell us sheds light on architecture for monotheistic worship in China. Here we look briefly at information about the synagogue and churches in China to explore aspects of mosques not discussed in earlier chapters. Kaifeng Synagogue No premodern synagogue remains in China today, and from the previous twenty centuries only one has a historical pedigree, namely the synagogue on Sinew-­Extracting Lane at the intersection of Earth-­ Market Street and Fire God Shrine Street.1 It is likely that Jews in China often worshipped in private, residential settings. Like Islam, Judaism was initially practised in domestic residences; the transformation from residential architecture to synagogue architecture is well documented.2 Just as Muslims pray facing Mecca, Jews pray in the direction of Jerusalem, although a synagogue requires no equivalent to the mihrab.3 Indeed, there are no spatial requirements for a synagogue, only purposes: congregational worship, study and a place for communal gatherings. All three also are part of a mosque setting. The only interior requirements for a synagogue are a case for

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a parchment inscribed with a prayer expressing the oneness of God, small enough to be affixed to a doorpost, a light that remains kindled twenty-­four hours a day, and an ark in which the scriptures are contained; these are even fewer structural requirements than those for a mosque.4 It is remarkable that no Chinese synagogue can be confirmed except the one in Kaifeng, for there are indications that Jews were in China as early as the Han dynasty, and they certainly travelled the Silk Roads and were in Guangzhou in the Tang dynasty.5 Finally, and perhaps most significant in the possible confusion on the part of someone Chinese in premodern times between a mosque and synagogue, the Chinese word for synagogue is qingzhensi, the most common Chinese name for mosque. According to epigraphic evidence, the Kaifeng synagogue was constructed in 1163 by imperial sanction, a practice associated with any important mosque. The date is recorded on steles of 1489 and 1512, as well as in an inscription of 1663.6 The city had been the capital of the Song dynasty from 960 to 1126 when it was known as Bianjing or Bianling, but by 1163 the capital had been moved further south to Hangzhou. There is no architectural confirmation of a synagogue in Kaifeng during the years it was the capital. Stele and other inscriptions record rebuilding in 1279, repair in 1421, additions in 1465–8 and a flood in 1642.7 It is assumed that Jewish merchants worked in the cities along China’s south-­eastern coast, perhaps along the Grand Canal, and in Beijing in the Ming dynasty, but again, there are neither steles nor synagogue remains. More solid evidence of a Jewish presence in China begins in the late Ming period. In 1605 the Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci wrote that there were ten to twelve Jewish families in Kaifeng with a ‘very fine’ synagogue, and that he believed there to be Jews in Hangzhou.8 Christian missionaries who recorded inscriptions at the synagogue describe it as in a deplorable state in 1850,9 and completely gone by 1866.10 The existence of an inscription dated 1279 suggests that the opportunities for worship of many faiths associated with Mongolian rule were real. The most reliable drawings of the Kaifeng synagogue were made by Father Paul Brucker in 1722 based on sketches by Father Jean Domenge (Figure 10.1). In them, we observe a three-­ courtyard arrangement of the kind seen in so many mosques. Gates mark central entrances to each courtyard and a major building stands in each one along the line defined by those gates. As in so many mosques, a pailou (ceremonial gateway) stands in the first ­courtyard ((2); all figure numbers in this paragraph and the next one refer to Figure 10.1). A prayer hall comprised of porch and front and back ­ sections is in the last courtyard. Lecture halls and a kitchen are among the buildings on the north and south sides of the courtyards (16), (17) and (18). Also, as at a mosque, orientation is towards the west, in the case of a synagogue towards Jerusalem.

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Figure 10.1 Paul Brucker, Drawing of synagogue in Kaifeng, Henan province, 1722.

Other buildings of the Kaifeng synagogue are not known to have equivalents in mosques. They are mentioned here because one wonders if similar structures existed, but perhaps disappeared as the result of political turmoil in the twentieth century. The archway in the third courtyard (6) and symmetrical side buildings (22) and (23) were dedicated to influential families in the community, the Ai, Li and Zhao. These would not have been worship halls, for in spite of the phrase ‘ancestor worship’, in a Confucian context, just as Confucius himself was venerated but not worshipped, a family paid homage to its ancestors, but did not worship them as gods.11 One wonders in particular if a structure that recognised an influential clan, apparently borrowed at the synagogue from a Confucian norm, was ever adapted into mosques, especially in later times, when there was less immigration from Muslim lands and the Hui would have been fully aware of practices of their non-­Muslim neighbours. The interior view of the Kaifeng synagogue may be instructive because it predates photographs of mosque interiors (Figure 10.2). More open space that afforded room for prostration would have been necessary for Islamic worship, and the front table of the synagogue would not have been found in front of a Muslim prayer hall, but in mosques we have observed incense burners such as the one on the centre of the synagogue table (Figures 7.13, 8.13, 8.31 and 8.42), while comparable candlesticks are found in museums and relic halls of Ox Street Mosque and Songjiang Mosque. The division into three arcades, the largest being in the centre, and the deep interior with

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Figure 10.2 Paul Brucker, Drawing of interior of worship hall of synagogue in Kaifeng, Henan province, 1722.

few pillars all recall a mosque. The Chair of Moses ((2); all numbers in this paragraph refer to Figure 10.2), from which a leader of the ­congregation gave a sermon, is equivalent to the minbar, usually set to the right of the mihrab along the back wall of a Muslim prayer hall in China. The tablets that confirm imperial sanction for the building’s existence (4) and (5) also could have been present in the prayer hall of a mosque. We have noted similar stele inscriptions offering this kind of sanction to mosques across China. Ollone ­mentioned such tablets at a mosque in Yunnan in 1911.12 Cabinets and shelves for scriptures (8), (9) and (10) also have been seen in mosques (Figures 7.12, 7.65, 7.70 and 8.7). The purpose of the lattice partition walls in the synagogue is not stated, but their name suggests they mark the boundary between female worship space and the male congregation in the main hall. The ‘eternal light’ in the Kaifeng synagogue was set in a sky well, and although is unlikely to have been as deep as the domes in the yaodian of some mosques (Figures 7.56 and 8.53), a dome near the back wall was present, never­ theless. One wonders if it would have been apparent to a Chinese who was neither a Muslim nor a Jew that this was a synagogue. It is, moreover, clear that a Chinese craftsman is as likely to have made every part of the Kaifeng synagogue as he is to have made every piece of a mosque. The plight of the Kaifeng synagogue in the mid-­ nineteenth century is also worth considering along with what is known about mosques. The state of Shengyousi in Quanzhou in the late

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Figure 10.3  Hand-­washing basin, Kaifeng synagogue, ROM.

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when it was occupied by squatters was noted in Chapter Two. That there are hundreds of mosques that trace their origins to the Ming or Qing dynasties in China, and fewer than one hundred that preserve physical evidence of that period, today suggests that the majority fell into ruin at the same time as the synagogue and the Quanzhou mosque suffered that fate. Support for religious architecture of foreign faiths, we have noted, was not part of the Qing political vision in the second half of the nineteenth century. Matteo Ricci, Jean Domenge and Paul Brucker are only three of the Christian missionaries who provide information about China’s synagogue and Jews. Bishop William Charles White (1873–1960), a Canadian Anglican missionary in China from 1897 to 1935, also did so. In 1910 he was appointed Bishop of Henan, a post he occupied until he returned to Canada. White became a scholar of Chinese art, was Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Toronto from 1935–48, and was a key force in the acquisition of Chinese art for the Royal Ontario Museum.13 Objects acquired by White from the Kaifeng synagogue and from mosques in Henan are part of the Toronto collection today (Figure 10.3). White’s book, Chinese Jews, includes most of the known accounts of the Kaifeng synagogue, the majority by missionaries.14 White also includes two photographs of Great East Mosque in Kaifeng (Figure 7.58).15 He does not explicitly state that both the mosque and the synagogue were constructed based on Chinese architectural precedents, but it is implied in his choice of photographs. Church Architecture Churches, too, took on features of Chinese architecture; or, when a sanctuary was constructed in the manner of a European cathedral, that building was likely to be in a Chinese architectural setting. It

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Figure 10.4  Church of the Holy Redeemer, Xicheng district, Beijing, 1886–90.

is not certain how the Church of the Holy Redeemer (today known as Xishiku Church) appeared when it was founded in a different part of Beijing in 1703 following a land grant from the Kangxi emperor in 1697 and with the financial support of Louis XIV.16 Since 1890 it has stood on its present site with a pair of marble lions and marble balustrade at the approach, and Chinese pavilions at its sides (Figure 10.4). The marble, pavilions and their steles here serve the same purposes as have been observed at mosques of the previous 600 years: the Neo-­Gothic worship hall for the non-­Chinese faith is positioned in a Chinese religious complex. Paintings of the Madonna and Child that hang on the walls show a unique sinification of age-­old Christian iconography: the two figures are Chinese, one in imperial Ming dress (Figure 10.5) and one in the robes of the Qing court (Figure 10.6). Other churches in China take on more widespread attributes of Chinese architecture. Dali Catholic Church, in Dali, Yunnan, was built in 1938 by French missionaries, destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt in 1984. It is thus a late twentieth-­century example of the retention of traditional Chinese architecture, inside as well as on the exterior (Figure 10.7). The front porch of the worship hall, not a standard feature of church architecture, further allies the church in Dali with mosque architecture in China of the Ming dynasty (Figures 7.3, 7.60 and 10.8). The conscious decision to build a church as a Chinese religious structure, with only

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Figure 10.5  Painting of Madonna and Child in dress of Ming court, late Qing or twentieth century. Church of the Holy Redeemer, Xicheng district, Beijing, 1886–90.

Figure 10.6  Painting of Madonna and Child in dress of Qing court, late Qing or twentieth century. Church of the Holy Redeemer, Xicheng district, Beijing, 1886–90.

the crucifix on the exterior to mark its purpose, associates it with the mosques and gongbei of Gan-­Ning-­Qing that were rebuilt as recently as the late twentieth and early twenty-­first centuries in traditional Chinese style, sometimes with a crescent moon at the top of buildings (Figures 8.24, 8.25 and 8.34). It should be noted that Yunnan is in south-­western China, touching the Tibetan border, a province with new mosques that have not been included in this study. Like mosques across China, the church bears no evidence of its location near Tibet. Rather, its architecture offers primary visual associations with Buddhist and Daoist buildings as found in any province of China. The early physical evidence of Christians in China is scant, like that relating to Muslims and Jews. But there are earlier fixed points.

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Figure 10.7  Church of Dali, Yunnan, first built 1938, rebuilt 1984.

Figure 10.8  Front porch, Church of Dali, Yunnan, first built 1938, rebuilt 1984.

From the Tang dynasty, there is a record of the Church of the East in the form of stone. A widely known stele dated 781, found in the vicinity of Xi’an in 1625, records that a monk named Aluoben arrived in Chang’an in 635.17 The inscription on a pillar excavated in Luoyang in 2006 confirms a similar presence in the second Tang capital.18 It has been suggested that a building complex known as Da Qinsi (Nestorian si) stood where the Xi’an stele was found. If so, the structure appears to have been destroyed more than once, and according to steles and a poem written by the famous Song poet Su Shi (1036–1101), the buildings at this site once were known as Bosi (Persian si); yet by the fifteenth century it was a Buddhist monastery.19 The information confirms what is known about mosques:

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a church might have been constructed on the site of a Persian (Manichaean or Zoroastrian) temple or might have been confused with one and thus named Bosi. More generally, one again observes that the transformation from the religious space of a West Asian faith into that of Buddhism was straightforward, as was the reverse process. Other evidence of Christianity in China in the Tang dynasty comes from documents and a painting found in the Dunhuang caves.20 There is little evidence of Christianity in China during the Song dynasty.21 This is in contrast to the fact that Muslims and Jews worshipped in China at this time. Christians returned to China under Mongolian rule. They came as monks and then as missionaries and merchants.22 During the Yuan dynasty, many of the wives of the Khans as well as a few male descendants of Chinggis converted to Christianity.23 Although missionary and merchant accounts record the presence of bishops, archbishops and churches in China, tombstones are the primary physical evidence of Christianity in Yuan China. Christian epitaphs found in Quanzhou were discussed in Chapter Two.24 Others have been uncovered in the Yuan capital Dadu. The missionary most likely to have built a church is John of Montecorvino (1247–1328) who was entrusted with a letter dated 1289 from Pope Nicholas IV to Khubilai. Nicholas died before that letter reached China, but there was an exchange of letters between the Papacy and Montecorvino in the early fourteenth century. In 1307, Pope Clement V sent a letter appointing Montecorvino to the post of Archbishop of Khanbaliq (Khan’s city (Dadu)). Several other Papal missionaries reached Dadu to aid Montecorvino in his efforts. According to John of Marignolli (1290–1360), there was a church in Dadu next to the imperial palace, together with the Archbishop’s residence, and there were ‘several others’ in the city, all with bells.25 The existence of church bells is a rare detail. On the basis of information in the Yuanshi (Standard history of Yuan) and other Chinese sources, and excavated tombstones with crucifixes engraved on them, Xu Pingfang has proposed that one of Montecorvino’s churches was located in the Jingtian ward of Dadu.26 Accounts of Marco Polo and others attest to churches in Gansu province and Quanzhou, but architectural evidence is questionable.27 Andrew of Perugia writes that in Quanzhou he ‘caused a convenient and beautiful church to be built with all offices enough for twenty brothers, with four rooms of which any one would be good enough for any prelate’.28 In Inner Mongolia, as well, the evidence is of Christian residence in a few locations, and of graves and tombstones, but nothing remains to inform us what churches might have looked like.29 Zhenjiang, on the Yangzi River in Jiangsu, the location of a mosque discussed in Chapter Seven, is where information about a Yuan-­period church is strongest. The details come from a book named Zhishun Zhenjiang zhi (Record of Zhenjiang of the Zhishun reign period

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Figure 10.9  Church of St. Paul, Malacca, 1556–90.

(1330–3)), dated 1333. Arthur C. Moule translated the relevant passages.30 The church was known as Daxingguosi, si, of course, being the suffix used for mosques and the synagogue. According to the account, Daxingguosi was constructed in 1281 by a local official named Xielijisi who, by that time, had risen to high status under Khubilai and held a position in Yunnan before being assigned to Zhenjiang. Xielijisi was inspired by a dream in which he was told to build seven si. The author names ‘monasteries’ of the Yelikewen ((Roman) Christians) and many Christians who were patrons. There is no information about the buildings. Some of them, according to the text, were turned into Buddhist monasteries. An interesting detail in the text is that Zhao Mengfu, one of Yuan China’s most famous painters, and controversial because he served the Mongol government, was asked to compose an inscription for a stele at one of the churches.31 It is hard to verify this statement, but worth noting that this renowned painter and calligrapher has a stele ascribed to him at the Temple to the Northern Peak in Quyang, Hebei, where a building with a firm thirteenth-­century date survives.32 The association with Zhao Mengfu enhances the pedigree of any religious site, even if it is spurious. Even by the time Jesuits came to China in the seventeenth century, descriptions of churches are rare, and remains of them are few. One reads, for example, that in 1722 there were thirty-­seven churches in Fujian,33 but neither physical nor Chinese textual evidence corroborates this. It is possible that churches in China were similar to those that remain in Malacca and Macao that were built in the manner of those of Western Europe (Figures 10.9 and 10.10).34 As at the synagogue, dated remains are in the form of steles or other stone carvings, including tombstones. The Catholic cemetery in Beijing near the church at Zhengfusi retained funerary steles dated between 1730 and 1949 until the early twenty-­first century when they were moved to the Stone Sculpture Museum at Wutasi in Beijing. The steles display a mixed iconography that one might

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Figure 10.10  Front façade, Cathedral of St Paul, Macao, 1582–1602.

Figure 10.11  Text of Stele of Father Jean-­Francois Gerbillon (1654–1707).

compare to the funerary stele of Muslims and Christians in Yuan-­ period Quanzhou (Figures 2.19–2.21). On eighteenth-­century Beijing steles for Christians, imperial dragons and the cross, frolicking animals of the kind found in Chinese painting, and the cloud patterns seen on funerary steles more than half a millennium earlier in Quanzhou, are all present (Figure 10.11). The purpose of this short chapter is to underscore the fact that the mosque was in no way an isolated case of the use of Chinese architecture or architectural decoration for a monotheistic religion in China. Rather, Islam was one of three monotheistic religions that entered China from the west and was practised in China in Chinese architectural spaces from the Tang through to the Qing dynasties. Across China, even in the twenty-­first century, mosque buildings and decorative programs were emblazoned with Chinese elements. Yet even as some mosques and gongbei were repaired according to traditional Chinese norms in recent decades, other mosque architecture in China was changing.

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Notes 1. One assumes from the street names that the synagogue stood amidst a shrine and temple for local deities. One wonders if in large cities such as Kaifeng religious institutions of more than one faith were clustered in the same neighbourhoods. 2. Krinsky 1985: 12–15; 15–20 notes the adaptability of synagogue space to church and mosque space. 3. In the two years before Muhammad’s revelation that changed the focus of Muslim worship toward Mecca, Muslims also faced Jerusalem; I thank Sheila Blair for pointing this out. Some Jewish prayer spaces have an indicator toward Jerusalem, but it is not a standard architectural feature of synagogue space. 4. Wischnitzer-­Bernstein 1947: 233–41. 5. Leslie 1972: 3–11; Pan Guang 2001: 5. As noted in Chapter Two, Jews were among those killed in the riots that closed the port of Guangzhou. 6. Leslie 1972:18, 22–4. 7. Leslie 1972: 25–30; Tobar 1900. 8. White 1966: part 1, 31. 9. White 1966: part 1, 105–33. 10. Leslie 1972: 61. 11. Stuart and Rawski 2001: 36–8. 12. Ollone 1911: 6–7, cited in Dillon 1999: 77. 13. Walmsley 1974; Dickson 1986. 14. White 1966: part 1, 31–148; for additional accounts, Pollak 1980: 77–195. 15. White 1966: part 1, 177–8. 16. Li Shenwen 2001: 235; Standaert 2001: 315. 17. Pelliot 1984: 43–8; Saeki 1951: 3–124; Standaert 2001: 1–4, 12–18; Moule 1930: 27–52. 18. Ge 2009. 19. Saeki 1951: 390–9; Standaert 2001: 10–11. 20. Moule 1930: 52–62. 21. Standaert 2001: 43. 22. Rachewiltz 1971 emphasises that the first wave of missionaries in the 1220s and 1230s came as information gatherers for the Papacy and greater Europe as well as, perhaps, peace-­makers to avoid Mongol devastation of Europe. By the 1240s and later, missionary activity was the purpose. 23. Gillman and Klimkeit 1999: 285–305. 24. Gardner, Lieu and Parry 2005: 215–46; Wu Youxiang 1988. 25. Moule 1930: 258. 26. Xu Pingfang 1986. There is insufficient archaeological evidence to suggest anything about the appearance of the church. 27. Moule 1930:128–43. 28. Moule 1930: 194. 29. Halbertsma 2008: 73–217. 30. Moule 1930: 145–65. 31. Moule 1930: 153–4. 32. Steinhardt 1998: 82. 33. Standaert 2001: 325. 34. On Saint Paul’s in Macao, see Nuñez 2009.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Conclusion: the Chinese Mosque in the Twenty-­first Century We end where we began, at Taipei Great Mosque. In 1976, when mosques on the Chinese mainland were not accessible to foreigners, this structure in Taiwan had domes, minarets, lattice patterns and crescent moons of the kind one saw in worship spaces across Islamic lands. Today archways of the front porch and along a side extension announce the building as a mosque more clearly than was the case in the 1970s (Figure 11.1). The first Muslims had come to Taiwan in 1661, initially to support Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) (1624–62), the military seaman and Ming loyalist who continued his anti-­Qing activity as a servant of the remnant of the Ming in southern China. In 1661, Koxinga defeated the forces of the Dutch East India Company and established himself in Taiwan.1 The second wave of Muslims came in 1949 upon the establishment of the People’s Republic. The patrons of Taipei Great Mosque from the late 1940s until its first completion in 1960 were local Muslims. With no previous mosque on the site, the decision from the beginning was to construct a worship space and community centre in contemporary Islamic style. By 2005 there were six mosques in Taiwan, two of them in Taipei.2 Hong Kong/Kowloon, where there are six mosques today, had two mosques before the end of the nineteenth century. The oldest mosque, today known as the Jamia Mosque, was completed in 1890 and enlarged in 1915.3 Kowloon Mosque is the largest in Hong Kong, able to accommodate 3500 worshippers. It was founded in 1896, but the current main buildings date to 1984. Designed by I. M. Kadri Architects of Mumbai, the structure is intended to reflect the South Asian origins of the Muslim population in the former British colony (Figure 11.2).4 Malaysia is another place in the primarily Sinophone world where mosques existed before the fall of the Qing dynasty. Three remain in Malacca. As Ou Young Sun wrote in 2010, ‘A normal mosque [in Malacca] would not have caught my attention unless it had a Chinese word of “double happiness” carved on the wall beneath the eaves’ (Figure 11.3).5 By this she means that mosques abound in Malacca, and it is not unusual to see a mosque that looks like a

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Figure 11.1  Great Mosque, Taipei, 1948 with later repairs and additions.

Figure 11.2  I. M. Kadri Architects, Kowloon Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre, 1984.

Figure 11.3  Detail of lintel showing Chinese character shou (double happiness), Kampung Kling Mosque, Malacca, founded 1748 with later renovations.

conclusion

Chinese temple; the eye-­catching element in the case of the mosque in front of her was the Chinese character so exclusively associated with native Chinese ideology. The mosque Sun describes is in Kampung Kling, a village of Muslims from India. It was first built in 1748. Similar, perhaps, to the location of the Kaifeng synagogue in a sector of religious architecture, the Kampung Kling Mosque stands on Harmony Street together with Sri Poyyatha Vinayagar Moorthi, Malaysia’s oldest Hindu temple, founded in 1781, and Cheng Hoon Teng Temple, founded in 1646.6 The roofs of Kampung Kling Mosque are of Chinese ceramic tile, with Chinese lotus petals beneath the character shou. At one time the characters for happiness, wealth and longevity also were on the exterior. Kampung Hulu Mosque, built in Malacca by Chinese Muslims in 1720, similarly has ceramic tile roofs above its entrance and main building:7 the prominent curved roof ridges are the same as those seen on minarets and gongbei in Linxia. Whether the patrons came from the Chinese mainland or South Asia, in Malaysia as across China, Chinese traditional architecture dominates premodern mosque construction. Nevertheless, one difference between mosques in the People’s Republic and outside it in the Chinese-­speaking world is apparent. Whereas changes to the exterior of mosques with pre-­twentieth-­ century histories occurred in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia before the 1980s, the dramatic shift toward structures with prominent domes, often green, tile, stone, brick and concrete construction materials, arcades punctuated by archways and supported by columns of permanent materials, crescent moons and tall minarets made of permanent materials began in China during the 1980s, several years after the end of the Maoist era and Cultural Revolution; and this shift has intensified since then. We have illustrated an example of this phenomenon in Linxia (Figure 8.17) and noted the replacement of an old mosque with a new one in Changzhou (Jiangsu) (see page 205). Year by year, this kind of replacement increases. New mosques on old sites today often only hint at a Chinese past by the presence of a ceramic tile roof with upturned eaves (Figures 8.50 and 11.4). The older the history of the mosque, the more likely it is to retain features of premodern Chinese construction. Xiguan Mosque in Yinchuan, for example, shown as Figure 11.4, was constructed in the Kangxi era. Perhaps a history of more than 300 years led to the ceramic tile roofing. However, the mosque in Wuxi, founded in 1919 and rebuilt in 1982, has only the three Chinese characters above the Arabic inscription on the front to inform someone that it stands in China (Figure 11.5). Pudong Mosque in Shanghai, established in 1935 and most recently rebuilt in 1999, does not even have characters to identify that it stands in China (Figure 11.6). Founding dates are not available for every mosque constructed or reconstructed in the last thirty-­five years in China, but the amount

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Figure 11.4  Xiguan Mosque, Yinchuan, Ningxia, Kangxi period with most recent renovation in 1995.

Figure 11.5  Wuxi Mosque, Jiangsu.

of new building, especially in the vicinity of older mosques, such as a brick encasement of an early structure, shopping districts across the street, and adjacent plazas with community centres, suggests that the old mosques with Chinese architectural elements will become fewer. Hohhot Great Mosque, founded in 1693, expanded in 1788 and repaired or renovated three times in the nineteenth century and several times in the twentieth, retains a conjoined ceramic tile roof over red-­pillar-­supported structures behind the façade shown in Figure 11.7. It stands alongside a new Muslim cultural centre (Figure 11.8). It has been many decades since Chinese architecture comprised exclusively timber-­ frame halls that supported ceramic tile roofs.

conclusion

Figure 11.6  Pudong Mosque, Shanghai.

Figure 11.7  Great Mosque, Hohhot, with roof of shopping arcade across the street in background, 2013.

Plaster and brick such as are used in the Wuxi mosque (Figure 11.5) have been construction materials across China since the early decades of the twentieth century. However, Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian architecture have been less affected by these changes than other kinds of buildings. Brand new Buddhist and Daoist temples retain the tile roofs and bracket sets as well as wooden columns and beams, even if the bracketing is decorative rather than functional. Today a mosque built after 1980 is usually apparent from the street by a dome or crescent moon whereas Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian temples are still indistinguishable from one another (Figures 11.9 and 11.10). The investigation of mosques with pre-­ twentieth-­ century

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Figure 11.8  Muslim Cultural Centre, Hohhot.

Figure 11.9  Shakyamuni Hall, Dabei Chan Monastery, Tianjin, monastery founded in the Ming dynasty, earliest extant buildings from Qing dynasty, rebuilt in twenty-­first century.

buildings confirms that it is always possible to orient the mihrab toward Mecca and thereby for worship to occur no matter the kinds, locations or orientations of buildings around it. Mosque architecture in China suggests that most often it was no more challenging for a Muslim to pray in premodern China than it was in Arabia or Persia. Even more striking, perhaps, is that every external feature of a Chinese mosque can be (and often is) constructed so as to be indistinguishable from a Chinese Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian, Jewish or sometimes Christian equivalent: screen wall, various forms of gate, lecture hall, educational hall, stele pavilion, minaret, residential space for the religious leader, room for ablutions, mausoleum and,

conclusion

Figure 11.10  Longshan (Daoist) Temple, Taipei, Taiwan.

most important, the main prayer space. This is possible because the use of courtyards, enclosing arcades and walls, interior domed ceilings, dense decoration and steles that record the history of a site are compatible in mosque and Chinese monastery construction; and auxiliary spaces that developed in response to the presence of a mosque such as schools of higher learning, caravanserais or less formal lodging for pilgrims and other visitors, and markets, also find their counterparts in Chinese religious space. Only occasionally was a mosque in China constructed to proclaim its difference from other religious architecture in the same neighbourhood or town, the now 700-­year-­old mosques in Guangzhou and Quanzhou being the most exceptional examples. This ability to combine elements of Chinese architecture with the necessities of Muslim worship made it possible for mosque architecture to flourish in imperial China, even during periods less open to the presence of foreign religions than times such as the age of Mongolian rule. Such convergence occurred equally in architectural decoration and objects used in mosques such as containers and basins. Chinese lions, dragons, lotuses, peonies, Chinese characters and purely Chinese symbols such as writing brushes and auspicious bats were incorporated into roof decoration, ceilings and wall panels. Arabic and Persian scripts were exchanged with Chinese inscriptions on walls, steles and religious vessels. Until the middle of the twentieth century, Islamic art and architecture in China could be divided into two primary groups: that of the Hui population which followed the Chinese architectural forms of Buddhist and Daoist monasteries; and that of the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang and adjacent regions which more closely followed Islamic art in West Asia. Art and architecture of both of these groups often have become protected historic monuments in China. A third type of mosque emerged alongside new political and international initiatives after the 1970s. It can be called the contemporary Chinese mosque. Contemporary mosques may receive patronage

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from outside China, may use materials from anywhere in the Islamic world, may employ craftsmen who have worked outside China and bear external evidence such as the crescent moon projecting atop a dome that declares their function. This change in the direction of modern, global Islam has not occurred in contemporary Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian architecture in China. The recent mosques are Muslim architecture, not Sino-­Islamic (Figure 11.6). They represent both a return to the open practice of religion to China and the globalism of the Muslim community.

Notes 1. Wills 1974: 28; Clements 2004: 96; and Croizier 1977: 11–12. 2. Lu and Zhang 2005: 172. 3. (last accessed 11 February 2014). 4. O’Connor 2012: 29–32. 5. Ou Yong Sun 2010: 157. 6. Ou Yong Sun 2010, 161. 7. Ou Yong Sun 2010, 163–7.

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Glossary

adhan call to prayer; at prescribed times of the day and often from the minaret ah abbreviation for anno hegirae (in the year of the hijra); designation for a date in the Islamic calendar ahong Chinese word for imam, taken from akhund or akhwand caravanserai  place of overnight lodging for caravans, often arranged around a courtyard with stables on the ground floor and sleeping quarters above, and often with a mosque c(h)aitya Sanskrit for a Buddhist shrine or prayer hall, often carved into rock; the ogee-­arched entrance is known as a c(h)aitya arch chuihua suspended lotus; a cylindrical-­shaped decoration with a lotus at the bottom that hangs from a horizontal architectural member ci shrine daotang ‘hall of the way’ or ‘hall of the doctrine’; an instructional hall in which the religious leader, usually the imam, instructs the community in all aspects of life, including the practice of Islam Dashiguo Chinese word that refers to lands where Muslims live; sometimes translated as Arab lands (di)fangzhi ‘record of a place’; often translated as gazetteer; difangzhi are generally local records that include information about a town, prefecture, or subprefecture whereas records of larger areas such as of a province are usually known as tongzhi fangmugou imitation of wooden architectural features such as pillars and bracket sets in another material such as brick fu subprefecture gaobiao gnomon; a ‘tall marker’ positioned at Chinese observatories in the Yuan dynasty as a component in determining the angle of the rays of the sun ge pavilion gedimu  Chinese transliteration of the Arabic word al-­qadim, meaning ‘the ancient’; refers to those who adhere to mainstream Islam, or orthodox Sunni doctrine gong-­plan an arrangement in the shape of the Chinese character gong 工, similar to a capital I gongbei Chinese word for qubba goulianda conjoined roofs; the Chinese word that describes linked

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roofs above various sections of a mosque; roofs and the rooms they cover are differentiated hajj the pilgrimage to Mecca; a duty of every Muslim once in his life; hajji refers to someone who has made the hajj halal usually referring to food, but more generally an item that is permissible according to Islamic law Han Kitab collection of Sino-­Islamic writings by Chinese Muslims that synthesise the ideas of Islam and Confucianism Hu the generic name for non-­Chinese peoples; often translated as Barbarian huabiao monumental column, usually of white marble, that marks a monument or place of great importance Hui  Sinophone Muslims, who consider themselves Chinese citizens as well as whose primary language is Chinese imam religious leader iwan vaulted space walled on three sides with one end entirely open khalifa (caliph) Islamic ruler who is a religious as well as political leader li(bai)tang Chinese for worship hall; sometimes used in Chinese for mosque or for prayer hall school of higher learning where theology is taught madrasa maqsura  separated area within a mosque for a ruler or his representative masjid Arabic for mosque; place of prayer in the form of prostration masjid al-­jami‘ (Arabic); masjid i-­jami‘ (Persian) congregational mosque, or Friday mosque where large numbers of the male ­congregation come to pray communally on Friday and to listen to the Friday sermon Chinese form of mazar, the Arabic word for qubba mazha menhuan a Sufi order menzhen ‘door pillow’; marble decoration at the foot of a door miao temple mihrab recessed space in the wall of the mosque that faces Mecca; an indicator of the direction of prayer minaret the most recognisable feature of a mosque, although one that is not necessary; usually a tall structure from whose uppermost story a muezzin calls the congregation to prayer minbar stepped pulpit in a mosque from which the imam or another member of the community preaches a Friday sermon minzu  nationality, referring to fifty-­ six minzu, or ethnicities, designated in China today muezzin person appointed to call the congregation to prayer, as well as someone who leads prayer muqarnas honeycomb-­like elements that project from corners or on the ceiling of an Islamic structure; sometimes compared to stalactites pagoda usually a tall structure in East Asia that in its original form contains Buddhist relics or is a symbol of Buddhist death; name for structure in China, Korea and Japan that is known as stupa in South Asia paifang monumental gateway supported by pillars at the entrance to an important structure or building complex in China pailou similar to and used interchangeably with paifang

glossary

pishtaq projecting portal that frames three sides of an iwan qibla direction of Muslim prayer Chinese word for mosque and for synagogue; literally qingzhensi  ‘pure, true building-­complex’ qubba Arabic term for dome; by extension, Muslim shrine to a holy man, often where he is buried beneath a dome queti  ‘sparrow brace’, a brace that is straight at the top and curved below that bridges the joining point between a column and a beam ruyi ‘sceptre’, when describing a bracket-­set, consisting of arms that fan out to project at angles in addition to perpendicular to and 45 degrees to the building plane sahn courtyard Semu name used during the period of Mongolian rule in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to refer to someone who was neither Mongolian nor Chinese; preferred population from which the Mongols chose government servants and military leaders; most Muslims in China during the Yuan dynasty were Semu si complex of buildings, a Chinese word derived from the name of bureaucratic institutions that comes to be the suffix for Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Zoroastrian and Manichaean temple complexes siheyuan courtyard enclosed on four sides stele a stone slab with an inscription erected to commemorate an event or the history of the site where it stands; in China usually significantly taller than its width stupa  mound beneath which Buddhist remains or relics are buried; symbol of the death of the Buddha vihara cluster of cells for monastic meditation and residence in India; forerunner of monastery in East Asia Wangyuelou ‘moon-­viewing tower’, a tall structure in a mosque complex that sometimes functions as the minaret and other times as a building from which to view the heavens and determine day has ended so that one may eat during Ramadan wuliangdian ‘beamless hall’, a Chinese hall that is not supported by a timber frame; usually made of brick xian prefecture or county xiaomuzuo ‘small-­scale carpentry’; referring to architectural detail in wood that is used in decorative detail as opposed to full-­ size construction yaodian literally a ‘kiln hall’ or ‘hole hall’; often made of brick like a kiln; back section of a prayer hall, usually narrower than the space in front of it, whose name may be derived from its smaller size in contrast to the rest of the prayer hall yuetai an approach platform in front of a Chinese building zaojing a cupola ceiling, sometimes known as a caisson ceiling or a lantern ceiling, that is usually highly decorated and can take the form of a dome zhou county ziyada  open area between a building and the outer wall of a ­building precinct

321

Illustration Acknowledgements

Grateful acknowledgement is made to publishers and individuals for permission to reproduce illustrative material. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders. If any has been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity. Unless listed here, all illustrations, including those of pieces in museums, are by the author. 1.1  From Ningxia Huizu Zizhiqu Guyuan Bowuguan 1999, pl. 78. Permission of Wenwu Press 1.2 From Wenwu, no. 8 (1983), pl. 1.1. Free access 1.3 Henan Provincial Museum, Luoyang 1.4  From Taiyuanshi Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo 2005, pl. 28. Permission of Wenwu Press 1.5 Afrasiab Museum, Samarkand. From Al’baum 1975, pl. 7. Uncopyrighted 1.6 a. Photo © and courtesy of Michael Meister d.  From Chinese Academy of Architecture 1982, p.  53. Uncopyrighted 1.7 Photo © and with permission of Wu Jian 1.8 Photo © and courtesy of William Steinhardt 1.10 Photo © and courtesy of William Steinhardt 1.12  From Kong Xiangmin and Jiang Wei 1982, unpaginated. Uncopyrighted 1.15  From Chinese Academy of Architecture 1982, p.  19. Uncopyrighted 1.19 Photo © and courtesy of Chang Yung Ho 1.23 From Wenwu, no. 9 (2004), p. 21. Permission of Wenwu Press 2.1 Yang, Xu and Wu 1987, from Quanzhoufu zhi (Record of Quanzhou subprefecture), 1612 From Chen Dasheng 1984, fig. 7. Uncopyrighted 2.2 2.5 After Wu and Wu 2005, p. 9. Courtesy of Wenwu Press 2.6 Photo © and courtesy of Michael Meister 2.7 Wu and Wu 2005, p. 11. Courtesy of Wenwu Press 2.8 After Wu and Wu 2005, p. 8. Redrawn by Sijie Ren 2.11 Photo © and courtesy of Jonathan M. Bloom

illustration acknowledgements

2.12 From Liu Dunzhen 1984, p. 69. Redrawn by Sijie Ren 2.13 From Wenwu, no. 8 (1957), p. 59. Uncopyrighted 2.14 From Gansusheng Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo 1989, no page numbers. Courtesy of Wenwu Press 2.15 Photo © and courtesy of Michael Meister 2.16 From Su Bai et al 1988, p. 115. Courtesy of Wenwu Press 2.17 From Chen 1984, fig. 20. Uncopyrighted 2.19 Quanzhou Museum of Overseas Communication 2.20 Quanzhou Museum of Overseas Communication 2.21 Quanzhou Museum of Overseas Communication 2.25 Photo © and courtesy of Jonathan M. Bloom 2.26 From Liu 1985, p. 13. Courtesy of Xinjiang People’s Press 2.27 From Liu 1985, p. 13. Courtesy of Xinjiang People’s Press 2.28  From Chinese Academy of Architecture 1982, p.  124. Uncopyrighted 2.30  From Chinese Academy of Architecture 1982, p.  105. Uncopyrighted 3.11 After Qiu and Yu 1992, p. 138. Redrawn by Sijie Ren 3.12 Photo © and courtesy of Lu Bingjie 3.14 From Kudπ 1982, p. 45. Uncopyrighted 4.1 Drawn by Henri d’Ollone between 1906 and 1909. Ollone 1911, p. 23. Uncopyrighted 4.7  From Chinese Academy of Architecture 1982, p.  130. Uncopyrighted 4.8 Photo © and courtesy of Jonathan M. Bloom 4.9 Photo © and courtesy of Jonathan M. Bloom 4.10 Photo © and courtesy of William Steinhardt 4.11 Photo 1187/1(2) © Rachel Roberts, International Dunhuang Project. Courtesy of The British Library Creative Commons Licence 4.12 Photo © and courtesy of William Steinhardt 4.13 After Zhang 1976, p. 98. Redrawn by Sijie Ren 4.14 After Chen Meidong 2003, p. 533. Redrawn by Sijie Ren 4.15 Drawn by Sijie Ren 4.16 From Scarcia 1975, fig. 11. Uncopyrighted. 5.6 Photo © and courtesy of Jordan Pickett 5.7 After Pan 2001, p. 316. Redrawn by Sijie Ren 5.8 After Pan 2001, p. 324. Redrawn by Sijie Ren 5.9 From Qiu and Yu 1992, p. 83. Courtesy of China Architecture and Building Press 5.10 Collection of Huajuexiangsi. Uncopyrighted 5.13 olvwork171808. The Rev. Claude L. Pickens, Jr. Collection on Muslims in China, Harvard Yenching Library. Published with permission of the Harvard Yenching Library 5.15 After Liu Zhiping 1985, p. 41. Courtesy of Xinjiang People’s Press 6.5 Photo © and courtesy of Lu Bingjie

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7.2 After Qiu and Yu 1992, p. 164. Redrawn by Sijie Ren 7.23 After Qiu and Yu 1992, p. 149. Redrawn by Sijie Ren 7.28  From Liu 1985, p.  119. Taken between 1961 and 1964. Courtesy of Xinjiang People’s Press 7.44 From Ancient Chinese Architecture 1982, p. 171 7.46 Photo © and courtesy of Lu Bingjie 7.51 After Liu Dunzhen 1985, p. 68. Redrawn by Sijie Ren 8.39 Photo © and courtesy of Vladimir Menkov 8.48 From Liu 1985, p. 153. Courtesy of Xinjiang People’s Press 8.50 Photo © and courtesy of Michael Magin 9.3  Photo by Christopher Little ©Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Courtesy of Aga Khan Trust for Culture 9.4 Photo © and courtesy of Guo Daiheng 9.5 Photo © and courtesy of Xiao Jinliang 9.6 Photo © and courtesy of He Yan 9.7 Lansdell 1885, vol. 1, p. 230 9.8 Photo © and courtesy of Marc Abramson 9.10 Photo © Tunney Lee. Courtesy of Tunney Lee and Aga Khan Visual Archive, MIT 10.1 After sketch by Jean Domenge, from White, Chinese Jews, pt. 1, p. 2, 1942 edition. Uncopyrighted 10.2 After sketch by Jean Domenge, from White, Chinese Jews, pt. 1, p. 6, 1942 edition. Uncopyrighted 10.3 Royal Ontario Museum 10.7 Photo © Deadkid dk. Creative Commons Licence 10.8 Photo © Pius Lee. Permission of IStock.com 10.11 Wutasi Sculpture Museum, Beijing. Courtesy of Father Jean-­ Paul Wiest 11.1 Islamic Art Database 11.2 Photo © and courtesy of Shafak Thaika 11.3 Sun 2010, p. 157. Uncopyrighted 11.5 Photo courtesy of Lu Bingjie 11.6 Photo courtesy of Lu Bingjie 11.9 Photo © and courtesy of Gill Penney 11.10 Photo © Bernard Gagnon. Creative Common Licence

Index

Page numbers in bold refer to figures Aba Khoja, mausoleum of, 270, 270 Abaqa, 96 Abu Dulaf, mosque of, 47 Abu Zayd al-Hasan ibn al-Yazid, 58 academies, China, 113 added heart bracketing, 191, 191 adhan, 22, 62 ahong, 44 Aidika’er Mosque see ‘Idgah Mosque ‘Ain Jalut, 95 Aixue, 110 ‘Akhbar al-Sin wa ‘l-Hind, 8, 58 akhund see ˙ahong al-qadim see gedimu Alamut, 110, 112 Almaliq see Huocheng Amin Khoja, 260 Amin Minaret see Sugongta An Shigao, 9, 23 Ananda, Prince of Anxi, 103–4, 176 Andrew, of Perugia, 283 Anthony, of Viglione, 76 Anxi, 264 Arab-Ata Mausoleum, 106 bafang, 226 bang(ke)(lou), 141 Baoding North Mosque, 174 West Mosque, 174, 174, 216 Bao’en(si) (monastery) Nanjing, 126 Pingwu (Sichuan), 125, 126, 127, 130 Suzhou, 12, 66, 67 Baoguo(si) (monastery), 14, 49, 50, 86, 119 Battuta, Ibn, 83 Batu (Khan), 96

beamless hall see wuliangdian Beg, Ya‘qub, 268, 270 Beiguan Mosque (in Tianshui), 238, 239 Beijing, 119, 125, 135 mosques in, 138–53 Beiwu Mosque, 150 Beizhuang Gongbei, 233–5, 234, 235 bell tower, 24 Benedict the Pole, 96 Berchem, Max van, 29, 37 Bhaja, 51, 51 Bianjing/Bianliang, 34 Bijiachang Gongbei, 243–4, 245, 246 Biyong, 113 Borneo, King of, 134–5, 134 Bo(si)si, 27, 282 Botou mosque, 166–7, 167 Boucher, Guillaume, 97 Boxi’er, King, Mausoleum of, 260, 262 Brahmanism see Hinduism Brucker, Father Paul, 276, 279, 277, 278 Buha(o)ding, 77, 81 tomb of, 81, 82 Buhatiya’er, tomb of, 88, 88 Burhan al-Din see Buha(o)ding Buyan Quli Khan, Mausoleum of, 105–6, 106 Byoˉdoˉin, 87 calendar, Chinese, 108–9 in Iran, 114 caliph, 22 caravanserai, 25 Catherine of Viglione, 76 Chaghadai (Khanate), 93 Chaha(nge)’er, 100 c(h)aitya, 9, 12, 13, 51, 51

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Chang’an, 7, 8, 9, 23 Changzhou Mosque, 205 Chen Cheng, 58 Chen Dasheng, 29, 38 Chen Yiming, 241 Chen Youdu, 143 Chengde, 214, 272 Chengli Mosque (in Qingzhou), 165, 166 chici, 131 Chinese cosmology, 19 Chinggis (Khan), 92, 93, 96, 97, 104, 223, 283 chiwen, 174–4, 175 Chongshansi (monastery) (in Taiyuan), 125 chuihua, 163, 164, 182, 218, 220, 221 Church of the East see Nestorianism Church of the Holy Redeemer, 280, 280, 281 ci, 28 cicada belly, 192, 192 citong, 35 Clement V, Pope, 283 clocks, 25 Confucian shrine/temple Qufu, 15, 16, 16, 19, 125, 128, 158 Taipei, xvii, xviii Confucius, 28 conjoined roofs, 149, 150, 187, 187, 217 Ctesiphon, 7 cushion braces, 193 Da Qin, 28 Da Qinsi, 282 Da Gongbei, 240–1, 241, 242 Dachang Hui Autonomous Region, 147–52, 172 Dadu, 76, 93, 95, 96, 97, 101, 103, 104, 110, 111, 112, 114, 115, 119, 138, 283 Dagao, 120 Daoist Monastery to the Two Immortals, 188 daotang, 215, 222 darughachi, 97 Dash Kasan 115, 116 Dashiguo, 8 Datong, 34, 69 Mosque, 181–4, 182, 183, 184, 184, 185 Daxuexixiang Mosque, 8, 34, 184 Dazu, 12

Diamond Throne Pagoda, 145 difangzhi, 30 Dingjiazha, tomb 5, 50 dome, 25, 49 Domenge, Father Jean, 276, 277, 278, 279 Dongdasi (mosque) Jining, 156–8, 157, 158, 179 Kaifeng, 34, 194–5, 195, 279, 279 Dongguan Great Mosque (in Xining), 249, 250, 251 Dongsi Mosque, 142–6, 144, 145 door pillow, 79, 149, 158, 204, 204, 206 drum tower, 24–5 Dunhuang, 12 Eastern Qing tombs, 16 Emin Minaret see Sugongta Ershilipu Gongbei, 222–3, 224, 225, 226 Etigar Mosque see ‘Idgah Mosque exposed rafters or timbers, 170, 175, 198 fangmugou, 32, 49 Fangyu shenglan, 54 Feng Hetu, 5 Fengchu, 128 Fengguo Monastery, 130 Fenghuangsi (mosque), 35, 83–9, 84, 85, 86, 103, 105, 172, 182 Fengtiantan, 45 fire temple, 28 Foguang Monastery, 129, 192 Forbidden City, 17, 19, 61, 125, 128, 130, 198 Friday Mosque, 21 Fujiwara Michinaga, 87 Fujiwara Yorimichi, 87 Fuzhou, 89–90 Gadelinye, 214 Gan Ying, 4 Gao Kegong, 206 gaobiao, 111, 111, 113, 114, 115 gate, 20 ge, 24, 69, 100, 114, 115, 122, 123, 124, 126, 128, 129, 129, 165, 186 gedimu, 214, 223 Gewamoding, 138 Geyuan, 81 Golden Horde, 93, 96 gong-plan, 28, 85

327

index

gongbei, 215, 222, 240–8, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248 goulianda see conjoined roofs Grand Canal, 75, 76 Great East Mosque see Dongdasi Great Harmony, Hall of, 130 Great Jasaq, 96 Great Mosque Hohhot, 290, 291 Taipei, xvii, 287, 288 Tianjin, 170–2, 171, 173 Great North Mosque Cangzhou, 167–8, 172, 168, 169 Linqing, 160, 161 Qinyang, 184–94, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194 Zhengzhou, 197–8 Great Ultimate Hall, 130 guan, 28 Guan Yu, 28 Guandimiao, 28 Guangshengsi (monastery), 125, 192 Guangta, 60–7, 61, 65 Guangzhou, 57–9, 76 Guannan Mosque (in Anqing), 200–2, 201, 202, 203 Guo Gongbei, 241, 243 Guyuan (Hebei), tomb in, 99–104, 100, 101, 102, 103 Güyük (Khan), 76, 93, 98 Haiyuan earthquake, 215 Hajji ‘Ali see Yunus Khan halal, 28 Han Kitab, 29–30 Han Wudi, emperor, 4 Hangzhou, 76, 82–3 Hanlin Academy, 95 Hanshu, 4 Heavenly Favours, Hall of, 130 Heicheng see Khara-khoto Hemudu, 17 Hexi corridor, 224, 225 Heyuan, 81 Hezhou see Linxia hijra, 8 Hinduism, 56–7 Hongshuiquan Mosque, 249–51, 252, 253, 254, 255 Hongwu emperor, 119, 120, 121, 131, 132, 135, 148, 176, 249 Hoˉryuˉji, 24 Hu, hu, 4 Huabei, 168, 172, 179 huabiao, 61

Huaisheng(si) (mosque), 35, 59–70, 60, 63, 68, 70, 77, 80, 115, 123, 184 minaret, 60–7, 65, 262 Huajuexiang(si) (mosque), 35, 61, 120–5, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 128, 130, 139, 142, 158, 179, 198 Huang Chao Rebellion, 58, 76 Huang Kerun, 100 Huangcheng Mosque (Chengdu), 126, 127 Huasi Gongbei, 243, 244 menhuan, 243 Mosque, 243 Huayan Monastery, 128, 130, 182, 188, 188 Hufuye, 214 Hui/hui, 1, 154 Hui Mosque, in Yining, 265–6, 266 Huichang persecution, 8 Hülegü (Khan), 93, 96, 110, 112, 113 Huocheng, 105 Hyecho, 7 Ibn Khurdadhbih, 35, 58 Ibn Tulun, Mosque of, 43, 47 ‘Idgah Mosque, 268–9, 269 Il-Khanate, 93 imperial tombs, Ming and Qing, 128, 128 iwan, 41 Jahriyya, 214 Jam, minaret of, 66 Jamal al-Din, 31, 110, 111, 114 Jews, 28, 58, 70, 83, 275 Jhompra Mosque, 42 Jia Dan, 61 Jiajing, emperor, 125, 131 Jiaman Mosque, Kuche, 264, 265, 264, 265 Jiankang, 7 Jianzixiang Mosque, 35 Jiayuguan (pass), 217, 218 Jin Zhizhang, 99–100 Jingjuesi, 130–2, 131, 132 Jochi (Khan), 93, 96 John of Plano Carpini, 96 Kaaba, 22 Kaifeng, 34 Mosque, 8 Kaiyuansi (in Quanzhou), 38, 52 Kalan, minaret, mosque, 263

328

CHINA’S EARLY MOSQUES

Karabaghlar, minarets, 218 Karakorum, 76, 93, 96, 97 Karli, 51 khalifa see caliph Khara-khoto, mausoleum in, 107–8, 108 Khoja Afaq, 243 Ishaq Wali, 264 Muhammad, Xielibu Mosque of, 267 Khubilai (Khan), 76, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 103, 108, 110, 111, 113, 114, 159, 283, 284 Khufiyya, 214, 243 Kitab al-Masalik w’al Mamalik, 35, 58 kongquelan, 189 Kongzimiao, 28 Kowloon Mosque, 287, 288 Koxinga, 287 Kubrawiyya/Kuburenye, 214 Kuche/Kucha/Kuqa, 263–4 Kunashar, 267–8 Kutlugh Timur Minaret, 263 Lamaist (Buddhism), 120 Lao Gongbei, 244, 246–8, 246, 247, 248 Laohua Mosque, 228–9, 229 Laowang Mosque, 227–8, 228 lecture halls, in East Asia, 23 Li Cheng Uk Tomb, 26 Li Dou, 81 Li Xian, 4 Liangjing xinji, 27, 28 Liao dynasty, mosque of, 138 Liaodi Pagoda, 66, 67 libaisi, 84 li(bai)tang, 27 libraries, 112, 113 lighthouses, 61 Lin Zhiqi, 53 Lingtai, 113 Linxia mosques, 226–31, 289 Liu Bingzhong, 109, 110, 111 Longmen, 12 Longxing Monastery, 24, 114, 114, 125, 188 lou, 24, 62 louge, 66 Louis XIV, 280 Louis Philippe, King, of France, 25 Loulan, 9 Luoyang, 4, 23,130

Ma Enyun, 235 Ma Laichi, 243, 270 Ma Zhan’ao, 226 Ma Zhongshan, 243 madrasa, 24, 84, 112 Mahabodhi Stupa, 145 Majia’an, 99 Mamluks, 95 manara, 91 Mangala, 103 Mangdangshan, 13 Manichaeism, 8, 9, 56, 57 mappoˉ, 87 maqsura, 22 Marco Polo, 76, 82 Marignolli, John, 96, 283 market, 25 masjid, 26–7, 28 Masjid al-Ashab see Shengyousi masjid al-jami‘ see Friday mosque masjid i-jami‘ see Friday mosque Maqamat, of al-Hariri, 47 Mawlana Ershiding Khoja Mausoleum see Molana’eshiding Khoja Mausoleum mazar, 215 mazha, 215 Mecca, 8, 22 Medina, 8, 22 menhuan, 214 miao, 28 Miaoying Monastery, White Pagoda, of, 65, 66 mihrab, 22, 125 minaret, 22, 25, 61, 64 of Huaishengsi, 60–7 of Jam, 66 of Sangbast, 64, 64 minbar, 22 Mingdi (emperor), 9, 27 Mingtang, 113 minzu, 1, 147, 272 Mir Muhammad, 110 Miran, 9 Mir-i Hajji, 52, 53 Mirza, Saqsiz, 268 Mogao caves, 13 Molana’eshiding Khoja Mausoleum, 264–5, 265 Monashding Khoja Mausoleum see Molana’eshiding Khoja Mausoleum Montecorvino, John of, 76, 96, 283 moon-viewing platform see Wangyuelou

329

index

Mor Stupa, 11 muezzin, 22 Muhammad ‘Ali, 138–9, 139 Muhammad ‘Ali al-Kabir, 25 Muhammad Bu’ertani, 138–9, 139 Muhammad Yusuf, 269–70 muqarnas, 85 Naˉ Family Mosque, 215–19, 216, 217, 219 Nanchansi (monastery), 16 Nanguan Great Mosque, 229–30, 230 Nanguan Mosque (in Tianshui), 238–9, 239, 240 Nansitou Mosque, 148–9, 148, 150 Naqshbandiyya, 214 Narseh, 7 Nasir al-Din eldest son of Saidianchi, 98 al-Tusi, 110, 112 Nasuluding, 138, 143, 163 Nestorian(ism)/(Christianity), 8, 9, 27, 56, 275 Nicholas IV, Pope, 283 Niujinzhuang Mosque, 169–70, 170, 171 Niya, 9 North Mosque (in Xuanhua), 176–9, 177, 178, 179, 181 obelisk, 25 observatory, 108–15, Dadu, 111, 112, 113, Gaochang (Dengfeng), 108–15, 109, 111, 114 Maragha, 110, 111, 111–12, 112, 115 Shanb, 112–13 Odoric of Pordenone, 76 Ögödei (Khan), 76, 93, 97, 176 One-and-only Pavilion see Yiyizhi Pavilion orientation, of mosques, 22, 122, 141 Ox Street Mosque, 35, 138–42, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 143, 144, 146 pagoda, 10–12, 11, 12 paifang, 121, 122, 156, 157, 158, 320 pailou, 121, 122, 122, 128, 139, 147, 158, 160, 161, 162 183, 186, 276, 320 Pandida, 146

parachuting, 62 Parthia/Parthians, 4 pavilion see ge Peroz, 7 Persia, 7, 9, 27–8 Pharos (in Alexandria), 61 Phoenix Hall(s), 87–8 Phoenix Mosque see Fenghuangsi pillar displacement, 193, 193 Pingcheng, 11 Pingzhuang Mosque, 232, 233 pishtaq, 40, 40, 41 Pudong Mosque, 289, 291 Puha(o)ding see Buha(o)ding Pule Monastery (in Chengde), 183 Puning Monastery (in Chengde), 183 Purple Empyrean Hall, 15 Qadariyya, 214, 223 Qaishan (Khan), 103, 104, 176 Qarataghlik, 264 Qayrawan, minaret and mosque, 22, 24, 47, 48, 48 Qi Jingyi, 240 Qianlong emperor, 146 qibla, 22 Qing architecture, 271–2 qingjingsi, 43 Qingshui Mosque, 252, 256 qingzhen, 28 qingzhensi, 28, 276 Qiu Quji (Changchun), 96 Quanzhou, 35, 37–8, 39, 283 Quanzhoufu zhi, 38, 39, 43 qubba see gongbei que, 10, 11, 218 Qufu, 53, 66 Quinsai, 82 Qutansi, 251, 253 Rashid al-Din, 76, 110 Ricci, Matteo, 279 roˉ see lou Rome, 4, 28 ruyi bracket sets, 249, 251 Saidianchi, 97–9 tomb, 98–9, 98, 120, 207, 216 sahn, 22 Samanids, tomb of, 105–6, 106 Sanading, 143 sanheyuan, 19 Sanlihe Government Complex, 21 Sartaq (Khan), 96 Satuq Bughra (Khan), 267

330

CHINA’S EARLY MOSQUES

(al) Sayyid al-Ajall Shams alDin ‘Umar al-Bukhari see Saidianchi screen wall, 69, 84, 122, 123, 125, 126, 128, 139, 141, 142, 147, 159, 159, 163, 172, 183, 190, 203, 229, 229, 236, 241, 243, 250, 252, 292 Semu, 95, 96, 113, 120, 176 Shaanxi Mosque, 265–6 Shache, Great Mosque of, 267, 268 Shams al-Din (astronomer), 110 Shangdu, 99, 101, 104, 110, 111 Shanhuasi, 69, 69, 114–15, 130, 182 Shaolin Monastery, 23 Shengxinlou, 122, 123, 128, 178 Shengyousi (mosque), 35, 38–57, 39, 40, 41, 44, 46, 48, 77, 131, 140, 278–9 Shiji, 4 shikusi, 27 shinden, 87 Shizuishan Mosque, 222 Shoushili, 108–9 Shouxian Mosque, 200, 200, 201 Shuzhuanglou, 100–4; see also Xiliangge si, 27, 28 siheyuan, 19, 78 Silk Roads, 9 of the Sea, 9 simiao, 30 Siyuan Fosi, 11 Songyue Monastery pagoda, 12 Sorghaqtani Beki, 96 South Mosque Jinan, 159–60, 159 Xuanhua, 177, 178 Su Shi, 282 Sufi orders, 214, 247 Sugongta, 260, 262–3, 263 Sulu, King of, tomb, 160–3, 162, 163 Sumeru altar, 187 Suonan Mosque, 231, 233 stupa, 10, 10, 11 sutra library, 24 synagogue, 28 Kaifeng, 275–9, 277, 278 ta, 60, 61 tahoˉtoˉ, 65 Taiyuan, 7 (Old) Mosque, 34, 184–8, 186, 187 Taliangzi, tomb 1, 26 tall gnomon see gaobiao

Tangdi Temple, 19 Temple to Northern Peak (in Quyang), 68, 129, 129, 284 Temur Öljeytü, 96, 103, 104 Tian Rucheng, 84 Tian Shengong Massacre, 76 timber frame, 20 Tingshi, 62 Toghan Temür, 96 Tongxin Mosque, 219–21, 220, 221, 222 Tongzhou Great Mosque, 147, 148 Toquz Khatun, 96 Tughluq Temur, tomb of, 99, 104–5, 105, 264 Uyghurs, 1 vihara, 9, 14, 24, 25 Virgin of Yangzhou see Catherine of Viglione Wang Anshi, 37 Wang Zhen, 125 Wangyuelou, 47, 140, 140, 141, 149, 151, 151 Wei Shu, 27, 28 Weizhou Mosque, 222 West City Mosque (Zhenjiang), 203–5, 204, 205 White, William Charles, Bishop, 279 William of Rubruck, 96 Wu Jian, 43 Wu Wenliang, 29, 38 wuliangdian, 17, 18, 50, 193 Wutasi, 145–6, 146 Wuxi Mosque, 289, 290 Xi’an (Great) Mosque see Huajuexiangsi xianci, 23 Xiang Keliqisi, 104 Xianhe Mosque, 24, 77, 77–81, 78, 79, 80 Xianyang, 98, 99 Xiaodiao Mosque, 151 xiaomuzuo, 187, 188, 250–1, 254 Xielijisi, 284 Xiguan Mosque (in Ningxia), 289, 290 Xihu youlan zhi, 84 Xiliangge, 100–4; see also Shuzhuanglou Xuanzang, 7

331

index

Yahballaha, Mar III, 96 Yang Tingbao, 249, 250 Yangzhou, 9, 52, 53, 58, 75–6 Yangzhou huafang lu, 81 Yanzhoufu zhi, 81 yaodian, 78, 156 yarghachi, 97 Yazdegerd, 7 yeke darughachi, 97 Yihachi Gongbei, 235–8, 236, 237, 238 Yijing, 58 Yili see Huocheng yimin, 95 Yining see Huocheng Yingzao fashi, 187, 191, 192 Yiyizhi Pavilion, 123, 124, 129 Yonghe Lamasery, 23 Yongle Daoist Monastery, 15, 68, 86 Yongle emperor, 120, 134, 135, 148, 154, 162 Yuan Shao, 5, 5 Yuanmingyuan, 272 Yue Fei, 62 Yue Ke, 62, 64, 67 yuetai approach, 68, 69, 123, 126 moon platform, 47

Yungang, 12, 51 Yunus (Khan), 260 zaojing, 25, 250, 252 Zayton/Zaiton see Quanzhou Zhang Qian, 4 Zhangbei, 104 Zhao Mengfu, 284 Zhao Rugua, 53 Zhehelinye/Zheherenye, 214 Zheng Chenggong see Koxinga Zheng He, 98, 120, 121, 125, 131, 132–3, 134 Tomb 132–3, 134, 148 Zhengfusi, 284–5 Zhenjiang, church and mosque, 283 Zhenjiaosi (in Qingzhou), 163–5, 164, 165 Zhihuasi (monastery), Beijing, 125–6, 126, 130 Zhongdu, in Zhangbei, 104 Zhu Mu, 54 Zhu Yuanzhang see Hongwu emperor Zhufanzhi, 53 Zhuxian Mosque, 34, 195–7, 195, 196, 197 Zoroastrianism, 7, 8, 27, 28 Zuo Zongtang, 226, 268