Islam During The Ming Dynasty - Integration

Integration

See also: Chinese Islamic cuisine, Sini (script), and Chinese mosques

As a result of increasing isolationism by the Ming Dynasty, immigration from Muslim countries slowed down drastically however, and the Muslims in China became increasingly isolated from the rest of the Islamic world, gradually becoming more sinicized, adopting the Chinese language and Chinese dress. Muslims became fully integrated into Chinese society. One interesting example of this synthesis was the process by which Muslims changed their names.

Muslims also sought to integrate themselves with the majority of the Chinese people during this time, making themselves undistinguished as possible to assimilate.

During this period, Muslims also began to adopt Chinese surnames. Many Muslim married Han Chinese women and simply took the name of the wife. Other Muslims, who could not find a Chinese surname similar to their own, adopted the Chinese character most similar to their own - Ha for Hasan, Hu for Hussain and Sa'I for Said and so on. Chinese surnames that are very common among Muslim families are Mo, Mai, and Mu - names adopted by the Muslims who had the surnames Muhammad, Mustafa and Masoud.

Muslim customs of dress and food also underwent a synthesis with Chinese culture. The Islamic modes of dress and dietary rules were maintained within a Chinese cultural framework. Chinese Islamic cuisine is heavily influenced by Beijing cuisine, with nearly all cooking methods identical, and differs only in material due to religious restrictions. As a result, northern Islamic cuisine is often included as part of Beijing cuisine.

During the Ming Dynasty, Chinese Islamic traditions of writing began to develop, including the practice of writing Chinese using the Arabic script (xiaojing) and distinctly Chinese forms of decorative calligraphy. The script is used extensively in mosques in eastern China, and to a lesser extent in Gansu, Ningxia, and Shaanxi. A famous Sini calligrapher is Hajji Noor Deen Mi Guangjiang.

Mosque Architecture began to follow traditional Chinese architecture. A good example is the Great Mosque of Xi'an, whose current buildings date from the Ming Dynasty. Western Chinese mosques were more likely to incorporate minarets and domes while eastern Chinese mosques were more likely to look like pagodas.

In time, the Muslims who were descendants of immigrants from Muslim countries began to speak local dialects and to read in Chinese Language.

In Qinghai, the Salar Muslims voluntarily came under Ming dynasty rule. The Salar clan leaders each capitulated to the Ming Dynasty around 1370. The chief of the four upper clans around this time was Han Pao-yuan and Ming granted him office of centurion, it was at this time the people of his four clans took Han as their surname. The other chief Han Shan-pa of the four lower Salar clans got the same office from Ming, and his clans were the ones who took Ma as their surname.

By the middle of the 16th century occasional Europeans who had a chance to travel in China start reporting on the existence and the way of life of the Chinese Muslims. The Portuguese smuggler Galeote Pereira, who was captured off the Fujian coast in 1549, and then spent a few years in Fujian and Guangxi, has a few pages on the Chinese Muslims ("Moors" to the Portuguese) in his report (published 1565). He felt that in both places the Muslim community was quickly assimilating into the Chinese mainstream.

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