Muslim Migrations and Imperial Strategies

Muslim migrations to China shaped a distinctive Islamic material culture, from architecture to inscriptions and decorative arts. Since the Tang dynasty, West Asian merchants settled in southeastern ports such as Guangzhou, forming some of the earliest Muslim communities. The Huaisheng Mosque, one of the oldest in China, has a minaret (9th–11th c.) that may have been modelled on West Asian prototypes. With the Mongol expansion (13th–14th c.), Muslim administrators, craftsmen, and traders moved forward inland, introducing Central Asian dome techniques.



At the time of the Ming dynasty, these migrants and their descendants formed Chinese-speaking Muslim communities. The state adopted assimilation through the chici system (敕赐, imperial patronage), which gave legitimacy to mosques and probably encouraged the use of the Chinese architectural forms in mosque design, such us the Niujie (Ox-street) Mosque in Beijing (rebuilt 15th c.).