Exhibition: Islam in Asia: Diversity in Past and Present: Islam in East Asia

Written in Chinese and Arabic, this book provides guidance for the pilgrim traveling to Mecca and information about monuments and sites.

The northwest region of China is home to a large proportion of China’s Muslims. The author discusses ten Muslim ethnic groups – their history, language and customs, and daily life. He traveled around the northwest, from Hui towns in Ningxia to the Uyghur city of Kashgar, photographing mosques and other sites and capturing the everyday life of the people.

All of China's fifty-five minority nationalities, from the Achang to the Zhuang, are featured in full color photos including ethnic costumes, traditional dwellings and local customs.

Born in 1371 to a Muslim Hui family, Zheng He [Ma He] became a renowned military leader, eventually being appointed by Ming Dynasty Emperor Chengzu to help achieve the Emperor’s vision of opening China to the world towards the west (Xiyang). Zheng He’s mission was to establish diplomatic and trade relations. He went on seven voyages between 1405 and 1433 with a fleet of 200 “treasure ships” each time, full of goods to trade and manned by 28,000 crew members. He sailed to thirty countries in Asia and Africa.

This 25 volume set presents the Qu’ran in Arabic with the translation, commentary and notes in Chinese. The text of the book reads from right to left. A section of Arabic is followed by the first page of the Chinese translation with notes. Surah (often referred to as “chapters”) of the Qu’ran consist of verses and are of greatly varying lengths. The first surah is the seven verses of the al-Fatihah (“The Opening”), which begins with “In the Name of Allah, the most gracious, the most merciful..”

The chapters in this book describe the “ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious diversity of Muslim communities and illustrate complex social interractions with other Amdo communities.” A region located between Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Qinghai and Gansu provinces, Amdo for several hundred years was a major crossroads of trade, cultures, languages and religions. Tibetans, Han Chinese, Manchus, Mongols, Monguors, and the Muslim Hui, Salar, Bonan and Dongxiang were among the ethnic groups in the Amdo region. In the 18th c. Sufi Muslim missionary Ma Laichi (Abu al-Futuh, 1681-1766?) eventually converted a number of ethnic Tibetan Buddhists in Amdo to Islam. Their culture remains distinct from the Hui and other Muslim groups.

The formation of identity in this large
Turkic ethnic group is investigated through studies of their history, music, literature, language, religion and food. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest of China is home to about 10 million Uyghurs, who form c. 45% of Xinjiang’s population. Identifying as central Asian rather than with the PRC, Uyghur separatists have pursued the establishment of an independent state, either Xinjiang or within Xinjiang, known as East Turkestan or Uyghurstan.