China's Early Mosques
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Book Overview
Received an honorable mention at the 2016 British-Kuwait Friendship Society Book Prize
What happens when a monotheistic, foreign religion needs a space in which to worship in China, a civilisation with a building tradition that has been largely unchanged for several millennia? The story of this extraordinary convergence begins in the 7th century and continues under the Chinese rule of Song and Ming, and the non-Chinese rule of the Mongols and Manchus, each with a different political and religious agenda. The author shows that mosques, and ultimately Islam, have survived in China because the Chinese architectural system, though often unchanging, is adaptable: it can accommodate the religious requirements of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and Islam.
Key Features Includes case studies of China's most important surviving mosques, including approximately 70 premodern mosques, the tourist mosques in Xi'an and Beijing, and the Uyghur mosques in Kashgar Aims to build an understanding of the mosque at the most fundamental level, asking what is really necessary for Muslim worship space Presents Chinese architecture as uniquely uniform in appearance and uniquely adaptable to something as foreign as Islam Explores the social and political aspects of China's architectural system, and the challenges faced by religious construction in premodern and contemporary AsiaCustomer Reviews
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