Islam in China

Comparison Essay # 109840

History > Asian
History > Religion
Political Science > Non-U.S.

Islam in China

An overview on the history, social and political impact of Islam in China.

2,102 words () | 10 sources | MLA | 2008 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at China's relationship with Islam, considers the manner in which Islam became a part of Chinese culture and its influence and impact on the Chinese polity. The author provides a history on the "Hui" population in China, or the Chinese Muslim population in China, and compares the "Han" Chinese, who are the main ethnic group of Chinese, and the "Hui" Chinese communities. The author also summarizes the rise of Islam throughout Chinese history.

Outline:
Introduction
China's Muslim population
Han and Hui: Populations in conflict, populations at peace
The Hui minority in China
The Hui contribution to China
China briefly takes to the seas
Muslims in revolt against the Chinese imperial government
The cultural impact of Islam on China
Final thoughts

From the Paper:

"In the centuries that followed, China's relationship with Islam--both internal and at its borders--would reflect the manner of those two civilizations' first meetings. On its western borderlands the Chinese relationship with Islam would be tense, even at times one of open warfare. In the Chinese interior matters were otherwise. A sinicized Islam would develop, with Chinese Muslims becoming one of a number of religious minorities partaking in the overarching Han culture and civilization."

Sample of Sources Used:

[Anon.], Muslims in China: a brief history, Central Asia [Journal of the Area Study Center], University of Peshawar (Pakistan), no date
Cheng Jing Qi, Islamic architecture in China [in Brian Brace Taylor (ed.), The changing rural habitat, Vol. 2 (Background papers), Concept Media/The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Singapore, 1982], 4 pp
Forbes, A., The Hui: China's most loyal Muslims, Asian Wall Street Journal, 2001
Green, S. A., Tracing Muslim roots: a brief history of the Hui, Education about Asia, Vol. 10, No. 1, Spring 2005, pp 34-35
Lin Hsiao-ting, Nationalists, Muslim warlords, and the 'Great Northwestern Development' in pre-communist China, China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2007, pp 119 et seq.