Islam During The Tang Dynasty - Early Muslims in China

Early Muslims in China

One of the earliest mosques in China the The Great Mosque in Xian was built in 742 (according to an engraving on a stone tablet inside)

During the Tang Dynasty a steady stream of Arab and Persian traders arrived in China through the silk road and the overseas route through the port of Quanzhou. The Muslim had their mosques in the foreign quarter on the south bank of the Canton River. Not all of the immigrants were Muslims, but many or some of them stayed. It is recorded that in 758, a large Muslim settlement in Guangzhou erupted in unrest and fled. The same year, Arab and Persian pirates who probably had their base in a port on the island of Hainan. This caused some of the trade to divert to Northern Vietnam and the Chaozhou area, near the Fujian border. The Muslim community in Canton had constructed a large mosque (Huaisheng Mosque), destroyed by fire in 1314, and constructed in 1349-51; only ruins of a tower remain from the first building.