Islam in China
(part one)
One night T'ai Tsung, the emperor of China, had a dream.
"I dreamed of a turbaned man and of monsters ... The man in the turban, with his hands clasped and murmuring prayers, pursued the monsters... To look on, he [had] indeed a strange countenance, totally unlike ordinary men; his face was the color of black gold... his moustache and beard were cut... short and even; he had phoenix eyebrows, and high nose and black eyes. His clothes were white and powdered, a jeweled girdle of jade encircled his loins, on his head was... a cloth turban like a coiled dragon. His presence was awe-inspiring... When he entered he knelt towards the West, reading the book he held in his hand. When the monsters saw him they were at once changed into... proper forms, and in distressful voices pleaded for forgiveness. But the turbaned man read on for a little, till the monsters turned to blood and at last to dust, and at the sound of a voice the turbaned man disappeared."
The emperor summoned the Interpreter of Dreams, who explained that the man in the dream was a Muslim from the West - from Arabia where a great sage had been granted a revelation from God in the form of a book.
As for the monsters, they were symbols of evil influences at work in the world - which only the Muslims could destroy.
At that, a prince at the court spoke up and said:"I have heard well of these Muslims. They are straightforward and true, gracious and loyal. Throw open the pass, let communications be unhindered... and by so doing encourage peace. I beseech you to issue a decree and to send an ambassador across the western frontiers to the... Muslims, asking him to send a sage to deal with the evils that threaten, that the country may be at peace!"
So runs a legend among the Hui, the largest group of Chinese Muslims. It has been known at least since the 17th century, is probably much older and, like all legends, contains a kernel of truth.
For the Hui Muslims, the legend also links their origins with China's greatest emperor: T'ai Tsung, second ruler of the T'ang Dynasty and the man who united north and south China and established governmental institutions that were to last for the next 1,000 years.
Born in the year 600, T'ai Tsung came to the throne in 626 - four years after Muhammad and his followers left Makkah (Mecca) for Medina in far-off Arabia. About the same time the Turkic tribes of nomads in Central Asia were gathering outside the Great Wall of China for a massive incursion into the "Celestial Empire." T'ai Tsung, however, drove them back beyond the Great Wall and in so doing initiated a series of westward migrations - as one Turkic tribe displaced another. These were the tribes whose descendants make up the Turkic-speaking Muslim communities of China, as opposed to the Chinese-speaking Hui of the south and center.
While T'ai Tsung was defending and unifying China, Muhammad was laying the foundations for the Islamic state that would come into being after his death in 632. T'ai Tsung in his capital of Ch'ang-an (Xian) could never have dreamed that he and the dynasty he was consolidating would be affected by events in a small commercial town half a world away. Yet it was not long before the results of the Muslim conquests made themselves felt in Ch'ang-an: about 638 Shah Yazdegerd, of the Sassanids - who then ruled much of what is today's Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan - appealed for help against the new, but rapidly spreading force: the Muslims.
to be continued Insha'allah ...
— مع Gilda Canonigo.(part one)
One night T'ai Tsung, the emperor of China, had a dream.
"I dreamed of a turbaned man and of monsters ... The man in the turban, with his hands clasped and murmuring prayers, pursued the monsters... To look on, he [had] indeed a strange countenance, totally unlike ordinary men; his face was the color of black gold... his moustache and beard were cut... short and even; he had phoenix eyebrows, and high nose and black eyes. His clothes were white and powdered, a jeweled girdle of jade encircled his loins, on his head was... a cloth turban like a coiled dragon. His presence was awe-inspiring... When he entered he knelt towards the West, reading the book he held in his hand. When the monsters saw him they were at once changed into... proper forms, and in distressful voices pleaded for forgiveness. But the turbaned man read on for a little, till the monsters turned to blood and at last to dust, and at the sound of a voice the turbaned man disappeared."
The emperor summoned the Interpreter of Dreams, who explained that the man in the dream was a Muslim from the West - from Arabia where a great sage had been granted a revelation from God in the form of a book.
As for the monsters, they were symbols of evil influences at work in the world - which only the Muslims could destroy.
At that, a prince at the court spoke up and said:"I have heard well of these Muslims. They are straightforward and true, gracious and loyal. Throw open the pass, let communications be unhindered... and by so doing encourage peace. I beseech you to issue a decree and to send an ambassador across the western frontiers to the... Muslims, asking him to send a sage to deal with the evils that threaten, that the country may be at peace!"
So runs a legend among the Hui, the largest group of Chinese Muslims. It has been known at least since the 17th century, is probably much older and, like all legends, contains a kernel of truth.
For the Hui Muslims, the legend also links their origins with China's greatest emperor: T'ai Tsung, second ruler of the T'ang Dynasty and the man who united north and south China and established governmental institutions that were to last for the next 1,000 years.
Born in the year 600, T'ai Tsung came to the throne in 626 - four years after Muhammad and his followers left Makkah (Mecca) for Medina in far-off Arabia. About the same time the Turkic tribes of nomads in Central Asia were gathering outside the Great Wall of China for a massive incursion into the "Celestial Empire." T'ai Tsung, however, drove them back beyond the Great Wall and in so doing initiated a series of westward migrations - as one Turkic tribe displaced another. These were the tribes whose descendants make up the Turkic-speaking Muslim communities of China, as opposed to the Chinese-speaking Hui of the south and center.
While T'ai Tsung was defending and unifying China, Muhammad was laying the foundations for the Islamic state that would come into being after his death in 632. T'ai Tsung in his capital of Ch'ang-an (Xian) could never have dreamed that he and the dynasty he was consolidating would be affected by events in a small commercial town half a world away. Yet it was not long before the results of the Muslim conquests made themselves felt in Ch'ang-an: about 638 Shah Yazdegerd, of the Sassanids - who then ruled much of what is today's Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan - appealed for help against the new, but rapidly spreading force: the Muslims.
to be continued Insha'allah ...
![صورة: Islam in China
(part one)
One night T'ai Tsung, the emperor of China, had a dream.
"I dreamed of a turbaned man and of monsters ... The man in the turban, with his hands clasped and murmuring prayers, pursued the monsters... To look on, he [had] indeed a strange countenance, totally unlike ordinary men; his face was the color of black gold... his moustache and beard were cut... short and even; he had phoenix eyebrows, and high nose and black eyes. His clothes were white and powdered, a jeweled girdle of jade encircled his loins, on his head was... a cloth turban like a coiled dragon. His presence was awe-inspiring... When he entered he knelt towards the West, reading the book he held in his hand. When the monsters saw him they were at once changed into... proper forms, and in distressful voices pleaded for forgiveness. But the turbaned man read on for a little, till the monsters turned to blood and at last to dust, and at the sound of a voice the turbaned man disappeared."
The emperor summoned the Interpreter of Dreams, who explained that the man in the dream was a Muslim from the West - from Arabia where a great sage had been granted a revelation from God in the form of a book.
As for the monsters, they were symbols of evil influences at work in the world - which only the Muslims could destroy.
At that, a prince at the court spoke up and said:"I have heard well of these Muslims. They are straightforward and true, gracious and loyal. Throw open the pass, let communications be unhindered... and by so doing encourage peace. I beseech you to issue a decree and to send an ambassador across the western frontiers to the... Muslims, asking him to send a sage to deal with the evils that threaten, that the country may be at peace!"
So runs a legend among the Hui, the largest group of Chinese Muslims. It has been known at least since the 17th century, is probably much older and, like all legends, contains a kernel of truth.
For the Hui Muslims, the legend also links their origins with China's greatest emperor: T'ai Tsung, second ruler of the T'ang Dynasty and the man who united north and south China and established governmental institutions that were to last for the next 1,000 years.
Born in the year 600, T'ai Tsung came to the throne in 626 - four years after Muhammad and his followers left Makkah (Mecca) for Medina in far-off Arabia. About the same time the Turkic tribes of nomads in Central Asia were gathering outside the Great Wall of China for a massive incursion into the "Celestial Empire." T'ai Tsung, however, drove them back beyond the Great Wall and in so doing initiated a series of westward migrations - as one Turkic tribe displaced another. These were the tribes whose descendants make up the Turkic-speaking Muslim communities of China, as opposed to the Chinese-speaking Hui of the south and center.
While T'ai Tsung was defending and unifying China, Muhammad was laying the foundations for the Islamic state that would come into being after his death in 632. T'ai Tsung in his capital of Ch'ang-an (Xian) could never have dreamed that he and the dynasty he was consolidating would be affected by events in a small commercial town half a world away. Yet it was not long before the results of the Muslim conquests made themselves felt in Ch'ang-an: about 638 Shah Yazdegerd, of the Sassanids - who then ruled much of what is today's Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan - appealed for help against the new, but rapidly spreading force: the Muslims.
to be continued Insha'allah ...](https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/p480x480/543880_740910495923619_1685652031_n.jpg)
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