{"id":24625,"date":"2021-03-09T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-09T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=24625"},"modified":"2021-03-10T05:26:06","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T05:26:06","slug":"city-of-lost-mosques-how-suzhou-tells-the-story-of-chinas-islamic-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/city-of-lost-mosques-how-suzhou-tells-the-story-of-chinas-islamic-past\/","title":{"rendered":"City of lost mosques: how Suzhou tells the story of China’s Islamic past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From written records and imperial edicts engraved on steles (standing stone slabs monuments) it is clear that these Islamic communities enjoyed the favour of the emperors \u2013 especially during the Tang (618-907 AD)<\/a>, Yuan (1271-1368)<\/a>, Ming (1368-1644)<\/a> and Qing (1644-1912)<\/a> dynasties. Islam was looked on favourably by the imperial court because of its ethics, which \u2013 as far as the emperors were concerned \u2013 promoted harmonious and peaceful relations between the diverse peoples in the imperial territories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the Panthay<\/a> and Tungan<\/a> rebellions in the second half of the 19th century in western China, when millions of Muslims were killed or relocated, Islam was considered by Christian missionaries in the country \u2013 and particularly by Russian scholars<\/a> \u2013 as a growing threat. Islam was considered by many in the west to have the potential to become the national religion in China<\/a> \u2013 which would have made China the biggest Islamic country in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Islam and China: a special connection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Today, Suzhou is a vibrant, wealthy city of 12 million people only 20 minutes by high speed train from Shanghai. What remains of \u201cIslamic Suzhou\u201d lies just outside the city wall to the north-west. There is only one active mosque: Taipingfang, in the northern commercial and entertainment district of Shilu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Front
Taipingfan: the only remaining mosque in Suzhou. Alessandra Cappelletti, Author provided<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Taipingfang was restored in 2018 and is where local and visiting Muslims go to pray. It\u2019s in a busy part of the neighbourhood, squeezed in a tiny alley, surrounded by small restaurants and hotels, canteens, food stalls and butchers catering to Uighur and Hui Muslims. The butchers of Taipingfang \u2013 like those in Beijing\u2019s Niujie area where the majority of the city\u2019s Muslim minority lives \u2013 are popularly thought to sell the best meat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before 1949, Suzhou had at least ten mosques of various sizes and social importance. Many of them were vast buildings with precious furniture and sophisticated decorations, while others were smaller intimate prayer rooms. One of them was a women\u2019s mosque<\/a> presided over by a female imam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
The surviving entrance to the only women\u2019s mosque in Suzhou. Alessandra Cappelletti, Author provided<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The women\u2019s mosque, Baolinqian, was one of a cluster of four mosques was built during the Qing Dynasty, all connected to the wealthy Yang family inside the city walls in the north-western part of the city. Built in 1923, it was established by initiative of three married women from the Yang family who donated the building and raised funding from other Muslim families to turn it into a women\u2019s mosque. During the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976), the mosque\u2019s library, containing holy scriptures, was damaged and the building was turned into private houses. Nothing remains today to show it was a mosque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Yang family mosque, Tiejunong, was built over three years during the reign of the Qing emperor Guagxu, from 1879 to 1881. It was the biggest in Suzhou with an area of more than 3,000 square metres, featuring seven courtyards. The main hall for Friday prayers had ten rooms and could hold more than 300 people. The courtyard included a minaret and a pavilion in which was housed an imperial stele.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Side
The side entrance of the former mosque building in Da Tiejunung \u2013 which was converted into a middle school during the Cultural Revolution. Alessandra Cappelletti, Author provided<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now a middle school, Tiejunong is recognisable from the external architecture and an ancient wooden engraved side door. Beyond a monumental entrance, there is still the idea of the main courtyard surrounded by trees. Now there is a huge football field, and the trees on the sides of the walkway are still visible from their chopped trunks. The ablution area covered by blue tiles clearly shows the past presence of a mosque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiankuqian Mosque was built in 1906 and is now inhabited by poor city residents \u2013 most likely as a result of the practice during the Cultural Revolution of reallocating large, aristocratic or religious buildings as living accommodation for indigent families. The mosque used to cover an area of almost 2,000 square metres, with a main hall, a guest hall and ablution room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Interior
When this building at Da Tiejunong was a mosque, this was the ablution area. Alessandra Cappelletti, Author provided<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The structure of the main hall was like a large lecture place, containing \u2013 as the local historical records report \u2013 a ginkgo wood horizontal plaque written in calligraphy by master Yu Yue<\/a>. Because many Muslim jade workers had businesses in the same district, donations made the mosque the most prosperous in the whole of China. And, in the 1920s, a school teaching Islamic and Confucian texts was opened there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the mosques had affiliated schools teaching the Arabic language and Islamic writings to the children of the Muslim communities. Suzhou is one of the first cultural centres where Islamic scriptures were published in the Chinese language. Translations from Persian into Chinese were made by the 16th-century Suzhou scholars<\/a>, Zhang Zhong and Zhou Shiqi, making the city an early hub of Islamic intellectual culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read more: The history of China’s Muslims and what’s behind their persecution<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

But it was an Islamic hub hybridised in its Chinese context, a process described in Jonathan Lipman\u2019s book, Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China<\/a>. Islamic texts were taught alongside Confucian ones, giving birth to an eclectic corpus of Islamic writings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The oldest Suzhou mosque, Xiguan, takes its name from the adjacent Xiguan bridge in the centre of the old city. It was built in the 13th century during the Yuan dynasty, probably financed by the prominent Muslim Sayyid family, and its influential Yunnan\u2019s provincial governor, Sayyid Ajall Shams al-Din Omar al-Bukhari<\/a> (1211\u20131279).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Old<\/a>
Map of Suzhou in the 13th century, when the city was known as Pingjiang. Author provided<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The mosque was later incorporated into a government building during the Ming dynasty, so only written accounts remain of its existence in local Chinese records. This suggests \u2013 and it is already a well-known historical assessment \u2013 that the Yuan dynasty favoured Muslims from Central Asia<\/a> in its administration and government service. This significant population group was much later, in the 1950s, classified within China as the Hui minority<\/a> and constitute about half of China\u2019s Muslims today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traces of the past<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Cultural Revolution effectively banned Islam in China<\/a>, as religions of any kind were considered tools to oppress and silence the peoples\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, little remains of these religious buildings today. But the traces that do still exist \u2013 a door, a stone, the structure of the fa\u00e7ade, or simply a known address, written in an archive \u2013 are symbolic representations of a past life. These are clues to the diverse social context and spiritual geography that these places inspired and were part of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the American sinologist, Frederick Mote<\/a> \u2013 a professor of history at Princeton University \u2013 argued, Suzhou\u2019s past is embodied in words, not stones, and the fragments of Suzhou Islamic communities can be pieced together with the help of historical written records. These records of a diverse past are equally important to the future in a country where religions \u2013 every religion \u2013 are strictly controlled by the state due to what the authorities consider as their potential destabilising political powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent reports of efforts of ideological re-education performed by local authorities towards the Uighur population in north-western China make the situation even more complex and worth further observation and research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alessandra Cappelletti<\/a>, Associate Professor, Department of International Studies, Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The labyrinth of alleys and lanes in the old city of Suzhou<\/a> hides a secret: historical fragments of the long history of Islam in China. Regular stories in the international press highlighting the treatment of Muslims<\/a> in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region tend to obscure the fact that Islam was once highly regarded by Chinese emperors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From written records and imperial edicts engraved on steles (standing stone slabs monuments) it is clear that these Islamic communities enjoyed the favour of the emperors \u2013 especially during the Tang (618-907 AD)<\/a>, Yuan (1271-1368)<\/a>, Ming (1368-1644)<\/a> and Qing (1644-1912)<\/a> dynasties. Islam was looked on favourably by the imperial court because of its ethics, which \u2013 as far as the emperors were concerned \u2013 promoted harmonious and peaceful relations between the diverse peoples in the imperial territories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the Panthay<\/a> and Tungan<\/a> rebellions in the second half of the 19th century in western China, when millions of Muslims were killed or relocated, Islam was considered by Christian missionaries in the country \u2013 and particularly by Russian scholars<\/a> \u2013 as a growing threat. Islam was considered by many in the west to have the potential to become the national religion in China<\/a> \u2013 which would have made China the biggest Islamic country in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Islam and China: a special connection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Today, Suzhou is a vibrant, wealthy city of 12 million people only 20 minutes by high speed train from Shanghai. What remains of \u201cIslamic Suzhou\u201d lies just outside the city wall to the north-west. There is only one active mosque: Taipingfang, in the northern commercial and entertainment district of Shilu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Front
Taipingfan: the only remaining mosque in Suzhou. Alessandra Cappelletti, Author provided<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Taipingfang was restored in 2018 and is where local and visiting Muslims go to pray. It\u2019s in a busy part of the neighbourhood, squeezed in a tiny alley, surrounded by small restaurants and hotels, canteens, food stalls and butchers catering to Uighur and Hui Muslims. The butchers of Taipingfang \u2013 like those in Beijing\u2019s Niujie area where the majority of the city\u2019s Muslim minority lives \u2013 are popularly thought to sell the best meat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before 1949, Suzhou had at least ten mosques of various sizes and social importance. Many of them were vast buildings with precious furniture and sophisticated decorations, while others were smaller intimate prayer rooms. One of them was a women\u2019s mosque<\/a> presided over by a female imam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
The surviving entrance to the only women\u2019s mosque in Suzhou. Alessandra Cappelletti, Author provided<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The women\u2019s mosque, Baolinqian, was one of a cluster of four mosques was built during the Qing Dynasty, all connected to the wealthy Yang family inside the city walls in the north-western part of the city. Built in 1923, it was established by initiative of three married women from the Yang family who donated the building and raised funding from other Muslim families to turn it into a women\u2019s mosque. During the Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976), the mosque\u2019s library, containing holy scriptures, was damaged and the building was turned into private houses. Nothing remains today to show it was a mosque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another Yang family mosque, Tiejunong, was built over three years during the reign of the Qing emperor Guagxu, from 1879 to 1881. It was the biggest in Suzhou with an area of more than 3,000 square metres, featuring seven courtyards. The main hall for Friday prayers had ten rooms and could hold more than 300 people. The courtyard included a minaret and a pavilion in which was housed an imperial stele.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Side
The side entrance of the former mosque building in Da Tiejunung \u2013 which was converted into a middle school during the Cultural Revolution. Alessandra Cappelletti, Author provided<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now a middle school, Tiejunong is recognisable from the external architecture and an ancient wooden engraved side door. Beyond a monumental entrance, there is still the idea of the main courtyard surrounded by trees. Now there is a huge football field, and the trees on the sides of the walkway are still visible from their chopped trunks. The ablution area covered by blue tiles clearly shows the past presence of a mosque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiankuqian Mosque was built in 1906 and is now inhabited by poor city residents \u2013 most likely as a result of the practice during the Cultural Revolution of reallocating large, aristocratic or religious buildings as living accommodation for indigent families. The mosque used to cover an area of almost 2,000 square metres, with a main hall, a guest hall and ablution room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Interior
When this building at Da Tiejunong was a mosque, this was the ablution area. Alessandra Cappelletti, Author provided<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The structure of the main hall was like a large lecture place, containing \u2013 as the local historical records report \u2013 a ginkgo wood horizontal plaque written in calligraphy by master Yu Yue<\/a>. Because many Muslim jade workers had businesses in the same district, donations made the mosque the most prosperous in the whole of China. And, in the 1920s, a school teaching Islamic and Confucian texts was opened there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the mosques had affiliated schools teaching the Arabic language and Islamic writings to the children of the Muslim communities. Suzhou is one of the first cultural centres where Islamic scriptures were published in the Chinese language. Translations from Persian into Chinese were made by the 16th-century Suzhou scholars<\/a>, Zhang Zhong and Zhou Shiqi, making the city an early hub of Islamic intellectual culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Read more: The history of China’s Muslims and what’s behind their persecution<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

But it was an Islamic hub hybridised in its Chinese context, a process described in Jonathan Lipman\u2019s book, Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China<\/a>. Islamic texts were taught alongside Confucian ones, giving birth to an eclectic corpus of Islamic writings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The oldest Suzhou mosque, Xiguan, takes its name from the adjacent Xiguan bridge in the centre of the old city. It was built in the 13th century during the Yuan dynasty, probably financed by the prominent Muslim Sayyid family, and its influential Yunnan\u2019s provincial governor, Sayyid Ajall Shams al-Din Omar al-Bukhari<\/a> (1211\u20131279).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Old<\/a>
Map of Suzhou in the 13th century, when the city was known as Pingjiang. Author provided<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The mosque was later incorporated into a government building during the Ming dynasty, so only written accounts remain of its existence in local Chinese records. This suggests \u2013 and it is already a well-known historical assessment \u2013 that the Yuan dynasty favoured Muslims from Central Asia<\/a> in its administration and government service. This significant population group was much later, in the 1950s, classified within China as the Hui minority<\/a> and constitute about half of China\u2019s Muslims today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traces of the past<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Cultural Revolution effectively banned Islam in China<\/a>, as religions of any kind were considered tools to oppress and silence the peoples\u2019 needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, little remains of these religious buildings today. But the traces that do still exist \u2013 a door, a stone, the structure of the fa\u00e7ade, or simply a known address, written in an archive \u2013 are symbolic representations of a past life. These are clues to the diverse social context and spiritual geography that these places inspired and were part of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the American sinologist, Frederick Mote<\/a> \u2013 a professor of history at Princeton University \u2013 argued, Suzhou\u2019s past is embodied in words, not stones, and the fragments of Suzhou Islamic communities can be pieced together with the help of historical written records. These records of a diverse past are equally important to the future in a country where religions \u2013 every religion \u2013 are strictly controlled by the state due to what the authorities consider as their potential destabilising political powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent reports of efforts of ideological re-education performed by local authorities towards the Uighur population in north-western China make the situation even more complex and worth further observation and research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alessandra Cappelletti<\/a>, Associate Professor, Department of International Studies, Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From written records and imperial edicts engraved on steles (standing stone slabs monuments) it is clear that these Islamic communities enjoyed the favour of the emperors \u2013 especially during the Tang (618-907 AD), Yuan (1271-1368), Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1912) dynasties. Islam was looked on favourably by the imperial court because of its ethics, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":24626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8025,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24625"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24625"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24628,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24625\/revisions\/24628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}