China's Early Mosques

Description

This book explains how the worship requirements of the mosque and the Chinese architectural system converged. What happens when a monotheistic, aniconic, foreign religion needs a space in which to worship in China, a civilisation with a building tradition that has been largely unchanged for several millennia? The story of this extraordinary convergence begins in the 7th century and continues under the Chinese rule of Song and Ming, and the non Chinese rule of the Mongols and Manchus, each with a different political and religious agenda. This book explains that mosques, and ultimately Islam, have survived in China because the Chinese architectural system, though unchanging, is adaptable: it can accommodate the religious requirements of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism and Islam. It includes case studies of China's most important surviving mosques (including 30 premodern mosques, the tourist mosques in Xi'an and Beijing, and the Uygur mosques in Kashgar). It aims to build an understanding of the mosque at the most fundamental level, asking what is really necessary for Muslim worship space. It presents Chinese architecture as uniquely uniform in appearance and uniquely adaptable to something as foreign as Islam. 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