Introducing Islam to the Dragon’s Empire: A Study of Early Muslim Settlers in China

Abstract

The largest Chinese Muslim minority group Hui is the progeny of the foreign Muslims who got settled in China more than a millennium ago. This paper is meant to investigate the intercultural relationship between the foreign Muslim minority and Han Chinese state in Tang-Song China. It suggests that Muslims remained isolated predominantly in the beginning, due to the imperial policies and thus the construction of Hui ethnicity was monitored by state. It deals with the following questions. How did Tang and Song empires influence the social integration of the Muslim settlers and how did they respond? How the arrival of Muslims is portrayed in the Hui folklore placing them at the intersection of Chinese and Muslim social spheres? Chinese, Muslim and European historical references are consulted and cross checked to evaluate the information and develop the chronology. This research combines historical and iconographic methodologies.