Islam in China

(Hardback)

Available Formats

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

In China there are up to 25 million Muslims living in the country, representing over 1200 years of Chinese-Islamic relations. However, little is known about the historical and contemporary geopolitical relations between China and the Muslim world, or the situation for the diverse groups of Muslims living in China today. In this book, James Frankel studies the rich and dynamic history of Muslims in China from the Tang dynasty (618-907) to the present day. He shows that Muslims in China remain an internally diverse population separated geographically, ethnically, linguistically, economically, educationally, and along sectarian and kinship lines. But despite having its own local flavours and accents, Islam in China is recognisable as the same religious tradition practiced by approximately 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide and Muslims in China are inextricably part of society, living alongside other minorities and amongst the great Han Chinese majority. Tracing 1200 years of history, this book shows that Muslim communities in China have undergone tremendous change, touched by the forces of Chinese history, the development of Islamic traditions outside China, and geopolitics. In highlighting the paradoxical situation in which Chinese Muslims have found themselves - living as both insiders and outsiders to Chinese society and state - the book examines why after so many centuries of habitation and naturalisation, Muslims in China are still stigmatized by their perceived alien origins. The book follows the yin and yang of compatibility and difference and the connections and ruptures between two great civilisations.

Reviews

This concise, highly readable account of Muslim communities in China begins with a succinct but sufficient historical narrative and ends with a balanced and well-informed discussion of todays Uyghur controversy. Its the one book on Chinese Islam that everyone should read. * Richard W. Bulliet, Professor Emeritus, Columbia University, USA *
This volume fills a longstanding gap, a single-volume history of China written with Muslims and Islam at its center rather than its margins. Focusing on the Chinese-speaking Muslims (Hui), with some attention to the Turkic-speakers of the far northwest, Professor Frankel presents a clear, succinct narrative carefully placed in its local contexts, from Fujian to Xinjiang, Beijing to Yunnan. The actorsintellectuals and soldiers, scholars and clerics, schoolteachers and merchantsparticipated in and were profoundly affected by the mainstream of Chinese history but also strove to remain different from their non-Muslim colleagues and neighbors. Islam in China provides a valuable introduction to China as part of the Muslim world and Muslims as an important part of China. * Jonathan N. Lipman, Professor Emeritus of History and Asian Studies, Mount Holyoke College, USA, Author of Familiar Strangers: A History of Muslims in Northwest China *
An excellent and much needed survey of the long history of Islam in China. -- Sachiko Murata, Stony Brook University, USA
James Frankel has accomplished the difficult task of synthesizing the narratives of multiple communities, conflicting political bodies, and diverse literary archives to offer a detailed history of Muslims in China. Islam in China will likely remain the most comprehensive account for the foreseeable future. * Kristian Petersen, Assistant Professor, Old Dominion University, USA *

Author Bio

James D. Frankel is an Associate Professor in the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies and Director of the Centre for the Study of Islamic Culture at The Chinese University of Hong Kong.