Chinese heirs to Muhammad : writing islamic history in early modern China
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- This project tells the story of history as imagined by Hui Muslims in late nineteenth and early twentieth century China. I argue that this was an especially productive period for historical thought, bookended by the establishment of a robust Sino-Islamic knowledge base by Liu Zhi on one end and Republican China on the other end. Histories from this period unify a vast temporal and spatial expanse: from genesis to antiquity to the modern era, from Arabia to Central Asia to China. Hui historians string together places and times into a coherent, continuous narrative for the community. I examine surviving woodblock prints and manuscripts including a compendium of Islamic knowledge by Lan Xu, a biographical collection of Hui who served the Chinese state by Li Huanyi, and the genealogy of a sayyid family in Yunnan by Ma Yunhua. In reading these works together, I argue that they engage with an overlapping group of key events, figures, and landmarks in the Sino-Islamic past. This past begins in Arabia and ends in China. Each of these locations, however, is limited in time. Arabia holds authority over antiquity while China becomes a greater concern as history approaches the modern era. The early chapters of this project treat the intellectual realm of Hui religious thought. I stress the extent to which ideas about the placement of Muhammad and other elevated beings in the cosmos reflect the sociohistorical conditions of the thinkers. The later chapters address how Hui history is written in response to recent events and societal concerns, attesting to the political power and religious architecture behind these creations. The case of nineteenth century Hui offers a unique perspective on the study of Islam and the study China. However, the type of political, intellectual, and social efforts exerted by these authors to claim a tradition is indicative of all history writing. The accounts written here remake China into an Islamic space, and into a safe place for Muslims. In these histories, that Islam moved to China where Muslims flourished for centuries is but a natural progression. This study calls for a careful treatment of historical narratives for their highly generative power and for the dense intellectual and religious realms upon which they are built.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2016 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Chen, Jessica Lilu |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Religious Studies. |
| Primary advisor | Bashir, Shahzad, 1968- |
| Thesis advisor | Bashir, Shahzad, 1968- |
| Thesis advisor | Kieschnick, John, 1964- |
| Thesis advisor | Gin Lum, Kathryn |
| Thesis advisor | Sommer, Matthew Harvey, 1961- |
| Advisor | Kieschnick, John, 1964- |
| Advisor | Gin Lum, Kathryn |
| Advisor | Sommer, Matthew Harvey, 1961- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Jessica Lilu Chen. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Religious Studies. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2016. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2016 by Jessica Lilu Chen
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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