China side where Islam Spread and Islamic Trade men and Armies went even have Shaabah went are not real Chinese but they are Mix of Turks and Mongols and that Areas of China is called
The
Uyghurs (
Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر,
ULY:
Uyghur ;
[6] [ʔʊjˈʁʊː];
simplified Chinese:
维吾尔;
traditional Chinese:
維吾爾;
pinyin:
Wéiwú'ěr) are a
Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and
Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the
People's Republic of China. An estimated 80% of Xinjiang's Uyghurs live in the southwestern portion of the region, the
Tarim Basin.
[7] Outside Xinjiang, the largest community of Uyghurs in China is in
Taoyuan County, in south-central
Hunan province.
[8] Outside of China, significant
diasporic communities of Uyghurs exist in the Central Asian countries of
Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, and
Uzbekistan. Smaller communities are found in
Afghanistan,
Pakistan,
Germany,
Russia and
Turkey
According to China Muslims' traditional legendary accounts,
Islam was first brought to
China by Ehtesham Khan. Chinese Muslims have been in China for the last 1,400 years of continuous interaction with Chinese society.
[1] "Islam expanded gradually across the maritime and inland silk routes from the 7th to the 10th centuries through trade and diplomatic exchanges."
Origin of modern nationality
"“The Uighurs are the people whom old Russian travellers called Sart (a name which they used for sedentary, Turkish-speaking Central Asians in general), while Western travellers called them Turki, in recognition of their language. The Chinese used to call them Ch'an-t'ou ('Turbaned Heads') but this term has been dropped, being considered derogatory, and the Chinese, using their own pronunciation, now called them Weiwuerh. As a matter of fact there was for centuries no 'national' name for them; people identified themselves with the oasis they came from, like Kashgar or Turfan.”" — Owen Lattimore, "Return to China's Northern Frontier."
The Geographical Journal, Vol. 139, No. 2, June 1973
[27]
The term "Uyghur" was not used to refer to any existing ethnic group in the 19th century, but to an ancient people. A late 19th-century encyclopedia titled
The cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia said "the Uigur are the most ancient of Turkish tribes, and formerly inhabited a part of Chinese Tartary (Xinjiang), which is now occupied by a mixed population of Turk, Mongol, and
Kalmuck".
[28] The inhabitants of Xinjiang were not called Uyghur before 1921/1934. Westerners called the Turkic speaking Muslims of the Oases "
Turki", and the Turkic Muslims in Ili were known as "
Taranchi". The Russians and other foreigners used the names "Sart",
[29] "Turk", or "Turki"
[30][31] for them. These groups of peoples identified themselves by the oases they came from, not by an ethnic group.
[32] Names such as Kashgarliq to mean Kashgari were used.
[33] The Turkic people also used "Musulman", which means "Muslim", to describe themselves.
[33][34]
Introduction of Islam in 616-18 AD
According to Chinese Muslims' traditional legendary accounts, Islam was first introduced in China in 616-18 AD by
Sahaba (companions) of Muhammad:
Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas, Sayid, Wahab ibn Abu Kabcha and another Sahaba.
[4] Wahab ibn abu Kabcha (Wahb abi Kabcha) might be a son of al-Harth ibn Abdul Uzza (aknown as Abu Kabsha).
[5] It is noted in other accounts that Wahab Abu Kabcha reached Canton by sea in 629 CE.[
citation needed]
Sa`ad ibn Abi Waqqas, along with three Sahabas, namely Suhayla Abuarja,
Uwais al-Qarani, and
Hassan ibn Thabit, went to China from
Arabia in 637 for the second time and returned by the Yunan-Manipur-Chittagong route, then reached Arabia by sea.
[6] Some date the introduction of Islam in China to 650 AD which is the instance of the third sojourn of Saad ibn abi Waqqas to China,
[7] Sa`ad ibn Abi Waqqas, was sent as an official envoy to
Emperor Gaozong which was his third sojourn during
Caliph Uthman's era in 651 AD
The
Hui people (
Chinese:
回族;
pinyin:
Huízú,
Xiao'erjing: حُوِ ذَو / حواري,
Dungan: Хуэйзў/Huejzw) are a predominantly Muslim
ethnic group in
China. Hui people are found throughout the country, though they are concentrated mainly in the
Northwestern provinces and the
Central Plain. According to a 2011 census, China is home to approximately 10.5 million Hui people, the majority of whom are Chinese-speaking practitioners of
Islam, though some practice other religions. Although many Hui people are ethnically similar to
Han Chinese, the group has retained some Arabic, Persian and Central Asian features, their ethnicity and culture having been shaped profoundly by their position along the
Silk Road trading route.
In the
People's Republic of China, the Hui people are one of 56
officially recognized ethnic groups. Under this definition, the Hui people are defined to include all historically Muslim communities in
People's Republic of China that are not included in China's other ethnic groups.
[2] Since China's Muslims speaking various
Turkic and
Mongolic are all included into those other groups (e.g.,
Uyghurs,
Dongxiang), the officially recognized Hui ethnic group consists predominantly of Chinese language speakers.
[3] In fact, the Hui nationality is unique among China's officially recognized ethnic minorities in that it does not have any particular non-Sinitic language associated with it.
[4]
Most Hui are similar in culture to
Han Chinese[5] with the exception that they practice
Islam, and have some distinctive cultural characteristics as a result. For example, as Muslims, they follow
Islamic dietary laws and reject the consumption of pork, the most common meat consumed in
Chinese culture,
[6] and have also given rise to their variation of
Chinese cuisine,
Chinese Islamic cuisine and
Muslim Chinese martial arts. Their mode of dress also differs primarily in that men wear
white caps and women wear
headscarves or (occasionally)
veils, as is the case in most
Islamic cultures.
