Thehistory of Islam in China goes back to theearliest years of Islam. According to the ChineseOld book of Tang,^[1] Muslim missionaries reached China through an embassy sent byʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān (644–656), the thirdrāshidūncaliph, in 651 CE, less than twenty years after thedeath of Muhammad (632 CE) in the second year of thethird Tang Dynasty Emperor.^[2]Saʿd ibn Abī Waḳḳāṣ, the maternal uncle and second cousin of Muhammad, was sent with a delegation to meet theEmperor Gaozong of Tang. The construction ofHuaisheng Mosque inGuangzhou, the first mosque in the country, is attributed to him.^[3]

According to the traditional accounts of Chinese Muslims,Islam was first brought toChina by an embassy sent byUthman, the thirdCaliph, in 651, less than twenty years after the death ofIslamic prophetMuhammad. The embassy was led bySa`d ibn Abī Waqqās, a companion of the Muhammad himself. According to tradition,Emperor Gaozong then ordered the construction of theMemorial mosque inCanton, the first mosque in the country, in memory of Muhammad.^[3] The traditional accounts state that the envoys visited more than 37 times between 651 and 798. In one of the delegations the envoy was asked to perform thekneeling greeting before the emperor in 712, but did not perform it, saying: "We only worship Allah, but there is no law of worship for the king.''^[4]

While modern historians say that there is no evidence for Waqqās himself ever coming to China,^[3] they do believe that Muslim diplomats and merchants arrived to Tang China within a few decades from the beginning of theMuslim Era.^[3] The Tang dynasty's cosmopolitan culture, with its intensive contacts with Central Asia and its significant communities of (originally non-Muslim) Central and Western Asian merchants resident in Chinese cities, which helped the introduction of Islam.^[3]

Arab people are first noted in Chinese written records, under the nameDashi in the annals of theTang dynasty (618–907), (Tashi or Dashi is the Chinese rendering of Tazi—the name the Persian people used for the Arabs).^[5] Records dating from 713 speak of the arrival of aDashi ambassador. The first major Muslim settlements in China consisted ofArab andPersian merchants.^[6]

Arab sources stateQutayba ibn Muslim briefly took Kashgar from China and withdrew after an agreement^[7] but modern historians entirely dismiss this claim.^[8][9][10]

The ArabUmayyad Caliphate in 715 AD deposedIkhshid, the king of theFergana Valley, and installed a new king Alutar on the throne. The deposed king fled toKucha (seat ofAnxi Protectorate), and sought Chinese intervention. The Chinese sent 10,000 troops underZhang Xiaosong toFerghana. He defeated Alutar and the Arab occupation force atNamangan and reinstalled Ikhshid on the throne.^[11]

Chinese General Tang Jiahui led the Chinese to defeat the following Arab-Tibetan attack in theBattle of Aksu (717).^[12] The attack on Aksu was joined byTürgesh KhanSuluk.^[13][14] BothUch Turfan andAksu were attacked by the Türgesh, Arab, and Tibetan force on 15 August 717. Qarluqs serving under Chinese command, under Arsila Xian, a Western Turkic Qaghan serving under the Chinese Assistant Grand Protector General Tang Jiahui defeated the attack. Al-Yashkuri, the Arab commander and his army fled to Tashkent after they were defeated.^[15][16]

In 751 theAbbasid Caliphate defeated theTang dynasty in theBattle of Talas River. TheTang dynasty saw the creation of the firstMuslim embassy, with the exchange of an emissary fromEmperor Gaozong of Tang, with a general from theCaliph Osman. There were also requests for help from the Muslim soldiers. In 756, a contingent probably consisting of Persians and Iraqis was sent toGansu to helpEmperor Xuanzong in his struggle against theAn Lushan Rebellion. Less than 50 years later, an alliance was concluded between theTang and theAbbasids againstTibetan attacks inCentral Asia. A mission from the CaliphHarun al-Rashid (766–809) arrived atChang'an. These diplomatic relations were contemporaneous with the maritime expansion of the Islamic world into the Indian Ocean and as far as East Asia after the founding ofBaghdad in 762. After the capital was changed fromDamascus toBaghdad, ships begin to sail fromSiraf, the port ofBasra, toIndia, the Malaccan Straits and South China.Canton, or Khanfu inArabic, a port in South China, counted among its population of 200,000, merchants from Muslims regions.^[17]

In 851 Persian Muslim merchantSulaiman al-Tajir mentions in his stay at the city of Guangzhou that the Muslim populace of the city was sizable enough that it had its own governing body to deal with intercommunal disputes.

The earliestChinese Islamic architecture was theGreat Mosque in Xian was built in 742 (according to an engraving on a stone tablet inside), and theDaxuexi Alley Mosque inXi'an (According to the inscription of theemperor Tian Qi (1620–1627) of the Ming Dynasty; the mosque was built in 705).^[18]

During the Tang dynasty a steady stream ofArab andPersian traders arrived in China through the silk road and the overseas route through the port ofQuanzhou. TheMuslim had theirmosques in the foreign quarter on the south bank of theCanton River.^[17] Not all of the immigrants were Muslims, but many or some of them stayed. It is recorded that in 758, a large Muslim settlement inGuangzhou erupted in unrest and fled. The same year,Arab andPersianpirates who probably had their base in a port on the island ofHainan.^[17] This caused some of the trade to divert to NorthernVietnam and theChaozhou area, near theFujian border.^[17] TheMuslim community inCanton had constructed a large mosque (Huaisheng Mosque), destroyed by fire in 1314, and reconstructed in 1349–51; only ruins of a tower remain from the first building.

Islam was brought to China during theTang dynasty by Arab traders, who were primarily concerned with trading and commerce, and not concerned at all with spreading Islam. They did not try to convert Chinese at all, and only did commerce. It was because of this low profile that the 845 anti Buddhist edict during theGreat Anti-Buddhist Persecution said absolutely nothing about Islam.^[19] Early Muslim settlers, while observing the tenets and practicing the rites of their faith in China, did not undertake any strenuous campaign against either Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, or the State creed, and they constituted a floating rather than a fixed element of the population, coming and going between China and the West by the oversea or the overland routes.^[20][21]

Two massacres with Muslim victims took place in Tang dynasty China, theYangzhou massacre (760), and theGuangzhou massacre.

In 878 recorded the massacre of Muslims in Guangzhou (Canton) by a rebel leader namedHuang Chao. Abu-Zaid of Siraf reported that 120,000 foreign merchants were killed by Huang Chao, while the later Mas'udi claimed 200,000.^[22][23][24] The victims were Muslims, Jews, Christians, andZoroastrians (Parsees). It was estimated that the number killed were between 120,000 and 200,000.

Arab geographer and traveler Abu Zaid Hassan recorded "no less than 120,000 Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Parsees perished". (Hourani 1995:76)^{[citation needed]}

• Islam by country
• Religion in China
• Demographics of the People's Republic of China
• Islam during the Song dynasty
• Islam during the Ming dynasty
• Islam during the Qing dynasty

• Lipman, Jonathan Newman (1997),Familiar Strangers, a history of Muslims in Northwest China, Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press,ISBN 978-0-295-97644-0

• History of Islam in China
• Religion in the Tang dynasty
• Foreign relations of China

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