伊斯兰教

Islamic presence in China dates to the early 7th century CE — within decades of the Prophet's death. The first wave came by sea and overland trade: Arab and Persian merchants established communities in the great Tang-dynasty port cities of 广州 Guǎngzhōu (Guangzhou), 泉州 Quánzhōu (Quanzhou), 扬州 Yángzhōu, and 长安 Cháng'ān (modern Xi'an), where 胡商 húshāng (foreign merchants, broadly Persians and Central Asians) had long traded. By the late Tang these communities were substantial enough to have their own mosques, qadis (legal judges), and cemeteries. The oldest surviving mosque in China — the Huaisheng Mosque (怀圣寺 Huáishèng Sì, "Memorial to the Prophet") in Guangzhou — is traditionally said to date from 627 CE, built by Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, a companion of the Prophet, though the current structure is later.

The second wave came with the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), which actively recruited Central Asian Muslim administrators, soldiers, and technicians into its governance of China. Semu people (色目人 sèmù rén — lit. "various-eyes people" — a Yuan category for Central and West Asians) occupied a privileged administrative tier just below Mongols in the Yuan hierarchy. Entire communities of Muslim craftsmen, astronomers, and officials were relocated into China's interior, seeding Muslim communities across provinces where they had not previously existed — including Yunnan, which became and remains a major center of Hui population.

Under the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), Islam in China entered a phase of deep sinification. Chinese-speaking Muslims — now fully settled, intermarried, and culturally Chinese in language and custom — began producing Chinese-language Islamic scholarship. The Han Kitab (汉克塔布) tradition, a body of philosophical texts written in classical Chinese that synthesized Confucianism and Islam, emerged in the 17th century, most prominently in the works of Wang Daiyu (王岱舆) and Liu Zhi (刘智). These thinkers reframed Islamic theology in Neo-Confucian vocabulary, arguing that Islam's God (真主 Zhēnzhǔ) was equivalent to the Confucian Heaven (天 Tiān).

The 回族 Huí zú (Hui ethnic group) are China's largest Muslim ethnic minority — estimated at 10–12 million, though this is a minimum figure as many Muslim Chinese do not identify with the Hui category. The Hui are defined primarily by religious practice (Islamic faith) and ancestry (descent from Muslim communities of various origins) rather than by a distinct language: they speak Mandarin or regional Chinese dialects as their mother tongue, with Arabic and Persian loanwords in religious vocabulary and some regional vernacular.

The Hui are distributed across all of China but are concentrated in three provinces: 宁夏 Níngxià (Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the only autonomous region named for the Hui), 甘肃 Gānsù, and 云南 Yúnnán. Major Hui communities also exist in Beijing (centered on Niujie, 牛街), Xi'an, and virtually every Chinese city, where they typically form distinct neighborhood enclaves around a mosque.

The defining cultural marker of the Hui is the 清真 qīngzhēn (halal) food system — a set of dietary prohibitions (avoiding pork and non-halal-slaughtered meat) and the distinct cuisine that developed around these constraints. 清真 restaurants are among the most visible markers of Muslim presence in Chinese cities. The word 清真 — literally "pure and true" — is the Chinese rendering of an Arabic theological concept (tanzih — the absolute transcendence and purity of God), and has become the standard Chinese term for "halal" in all contexts.

The Uyghurs (维吾尔族 Wéiwú'ěr zú) are a Turkic-speaking Muslim people of the Tarim Basin and Turpan Depression in what is today the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (新疆维吾尔自治区 Xīnjiāng Wéiwú'ěr Zìzhìqū) in northwestern China. Their Islam is culturally and historically distinct from that of the Hui: it arrived from Central Asia, not from maritime routes; it is embedded in a Turkic-language culture with close ties to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and the broader Persianate world; and it incorporates Sufi traditions of considerable antiquity.

The Uyghur language belongs to the Karluk branch of the Turkic family, written historically in Arabic script (still in use in diaspora communities) and now officially in a modified Latin script in China. Uyghur culture encompasses a rich tradition of poetry, music, and oral literature; the 12 Muqam (十二木卡姆 Shí'èr Mùkǎmǔ) — a suite of classical musical modes — is UNESCO-listed intangible cultural heritage. The traditional gathering known as 麦西热甫 màixīrèfǔ (meshrep) — a community celebration combining music, dance, and storytelling — was also recognized by UNESCO in 2010.

The political situation in Xinjiang is a subject of significant complexity and ongoing international concern, with documented restrictions on Uyghur religious practice, culture, and movement — particularly since 2017. This guide presents these facts without editorial framing. Learners engaging with Chinese discourse on this topic will encounter the PRC official narrative (emphasizing "de-extremification" and "vocational training") and should be aware that substantial international documentation exists that characterizes the situation differently.

Muslim scholars, navigators, and technicians made substantial contributions to Chinese civilization across multiple dynasties. The most visible institutional legacy is in astronomy and calendar science: the Yuan dynasty imported Islamic astronomical instruments and established a Muslim Astronomical Bureau (回回司天台 Huíhuí Sītiāntái) alongside the Chinese one. The Islamic world's advanced trigonometry, astronomical tables, and instrument-making were absorbed into Chinese practice. Persian astronomers at the Yuan court produced the 万年历 (Ten-Thousand Year Calendar) that influenced Ming-dynasty calendrical reform.

In cartography, the 1402 Korean map Gangnido, one of the oldest surviving world maps, incorporated Islamic-tradition maps of the Middle East and Africa alongside Chinese cartographic knowledge — showing the degree to which Islamic geographic knowledge had penetrated the East Asian world. The Ming-dynasty Chinese world map 大明混一图 (Da Ming Hunyi Tu) similarly shows clear Islamic cartographic influence.

In medicine, Arab pharmacological traditions — mediated through Silk Road contact — contributed to the development of Chinese materia medica. The great Ming-dynasty pharmacopoeia 本草纲目 (Bencao Gangmu) by Li Shizhen (李时珍) includes many substances of Arabic and Persian origin with their foreign names transliterated.

Most enduringly, Muslim culinary culture has shaped Chinese cuisine in ways no longer recognized as "Islamic." Lamb skewers (羊肉串 yángròu chuàn) are sold on street corners across China. Lanzhou beef noodles (兰州牛肉拉面) are China's most ubiquitous noodle dish — a Hui invention now served in every city. Xi'an's lamb-in-bread soup (羊肉泡馍) is a national favorite. The 清真 food tradition is one of the most successful cases of a minority cuisine entering the mainstream of a majority food culture.