China is building a New Silk Road that runs through the heartland of the Muslim world, promising it will create integrated economies and stronger ties across Eurasia and Africa. Robert R. Bianchi argues that while China has the financial and technical resources to accomplish its infrastructure goals, it is woefully unprepared to deal with the social and political demands of its partner countries' citizens. China and the Islamic World explores how China's leaders and citizens are learning-through their relationships with Pakistan, Turkey, Indonesia, Iran, Nigeria and Egypt-that they have to respect and adjust to the aspirations of ordinary people throughout the Islamic world, not just cater to the narrow band of government and business elites. Bianchi demonstrates that turbulent countries along the New Silk Road are likely to transform Chinese society at least as much as China changes them. This realization will be deeply unsettling for China's authoritarian rulers, who desperately want to monopolize power domestically. The party and state bosses have responded to challenges with a contradictory blend of flexibility abroad and rigidity at home, compromising with popular demands in one country after another while refusing to negotiate many of the same issues with their own citizens. This book shows how China faces a growing struggle to maintain their double-sided statecraft as it becomes apparent that the New Silk Road is not a one way street.

The global spread of Islamic movements and the ascendance of a Chinese state that limits religious freedom have aroused anxieties about integrating Islam and protecting religious freedom around the world. Focusing on violent movements like the so-called Islamic State and Uygur separatists in China’s Xinjiang Province threatens to drown out the alternatives presented by apolitical and inwardly focused manifestations of transnational Islamic revival popular among groups like the Hui, China’s largest Muslim minority. This book explores how Muslim revivalists in China’s Qinghai Province employ individual agency to reconcile transnational notions of religious orthodoxy with the materialist rationalism of atheist China. Based on a year immersed in one of China’s most concentrated and conservative urban Muslim communities in Xining, the book puts individuals’ struggles to navigate theological controversies in the contexts of global Islamic revival and Chinese modernization. By doing so, it reveals how attempts to revive the original essence of Islam can empower individuals to form peaceful and productive articulations with secular societies, and further suggests means of combatting radicalization and encouraging interfaith dialogue. As the first major research monograph on Islamic revival in modern China, this book will be of interest to students and scholars of Anthropology, Islamic Studies, and Chinese Studies.

This book documents the relationship and wisdom of Asian cartographers in the Islamic and Chinese worlds before the Europeans arrived.

This book provides a critical insight into China's evolving socio-cultural relations with Islamic countries in the face of growing geopolitical uncertainty. It considers both the historical and socioeconomic aspects of China-Islamic countries relations to present a balanced analysis of the effectiveness of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) plan and the current and future evolution of cooperation. The book also sheds new light of the impact on individual economic sectors, considering both the micro- and macro-effects on various stakeholders as the global community navigates an increasingly precarious power struggle between dominant world powers. The book presents contributions from a variety of fields to provide a multi-faceted breakdown of the challenges that remain for the myriad of relationships in the years to come.

This book employs cutting-edge digital and spatial methodologies to tackle the critical issue of religious site scarcity across China for five major religions: Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Daoism, and Islam, spanning the period from 1911 to 2004. Drawing from Chinese government datasets and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), this comprehensive work presents official information concerning religious sites and pinpoints specific cities facing shortages in such sites. The book also offers an in-depth analysis of religious sites, delving into their statistical, historical, comparative, and religious contexts and evolving significance within China, shedding light on the unique challenges and opportunities each religion faces. This groundbreaking book uncovers spatial patterns and relationships, providing new insights into the distribution of religious sites and the evolution of Chinese religious practices since 1911. It will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars of modern China, religious studies, and digital and spatial humanities.

This is a reconstruction of the history of the Muslim community in China known today as the Hui or often as the Chinese Muslims as distinct from the Turkic Muslims such as the Uyghurs. It traces their history from the earliest period of Islam in China up to the present day, but with particular emphasis on the effects of the Mongol conquest on the transfer of central Asians to China, the establishment of stable immigrant communities in the Ming dynasty and the devastating insurrections against the Qing state during the nineteenth century. Sufi and other Islamic orders such as the Ikhwani have played a key role in establishing the identity of the Hui, especially in north-western China, and these are examined in detail as is the growth of religious education and organisation and the use of the Arabic and Persian languages. The relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and the Hui as an officially designated nationality and the social and religious life of Hui people in contemporary China are also discussed.

This book explores the fascinating and complex histories of Islam and China. Meticulously researched and captivating, it provides a comprehensive history of the encounters and relationship between these two great civilizations, as well as the unique development and indigenization of Islam within China. The work looks at the early interactions between Arab Muslim traders and the Tang dynasty in the 7th century, shedding light on the establishment of the first Muslim communities in China. The narrative then progresses through subsequent dynasties, examining the ebbs and flows of Muslim influence, integration, and indigenization. It looks at the emergence of the Hui and other Muslim ethnic groups, who play a central role in the story of Chinese Islam. By delving into their customs, beliefs, and distinctive practices, the authors unveil the intricate process of indigenization, where Islam becomes deeply rooted in Chinese culture and society. One of the unique features of this collection is the nuanced analysis of the impact of major political events as well as gradual social changes on the process of adoption and transmission of Islam in China. The authors also highlight the role of economic activities, Chinese Islamic scholars, and key architectural landmarks in this multifaceted history. Part of the Global Islamic Culture series that looks at integrated and indigenized Islam, this book will be of interest to students and researchers of religion, Islamic studies, religious history, political Islam, cultural studies, Islamic law and Asian studies. It will also be useful to readers who are interested in world religions, theology and cultures.

Hong Kong is a global city-state under the sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China, and is home to around 250,000 Muslims practicing Islam. However existing studies of the Muslim-majority communities in Asia and the Northwest China largely ignore the Muslim community in Hong Kong. Islam and China’s Hong Kong skillfully fills this gap, and investigates how ethnic and Chinese-speaking Muslims negotiate their identities and the increasing public attention to Islam in Hong Kong. Examining a range of issues and challenges facing Muslims in Hong Kong, this book focuses on the three different diasporic Muslim communities and reveals the city-state’s triple Islamic heritage and distinctive Islamic culture. It begins with the transition from the colonial to the post-colonial era, and explores how this has impacted on the experiences of the Muslim diaspora, and the ways this shift has compelled the community to adapt to Chinese nationalism whilst forging greater links with the Gulf. Then with reference to the rise of new media and technology, the book examines the heightened presence of Islam in the Chinese public sphere, alongside the emergence of Chinese Islamic websites which have sought to balance transnational Muslim solidarity and sensitivity towards Chinese government’s concern of external extremism. Finally, it concludes by investigating Hong Kong’s growing awareness of the Muslim minorities’ demands for Islamic religious education, and how this links with the city-state’s aspiration to become the new gateway for Islamic finance. Indeed, Wai Yip Ho posits that Hong Kong is now shifting from its role as the broker that bridged East and West during the Cold War, to that of a new meditator between China and the Middle East. Drawing on extensive ethnographic research, this book thoughtfully charts a new area of inquiry, and as such will be welcomed by students and scholars of Chinese studies, Islamic studies, Asian studies and ethnicity studies.

This edited collection focuses on the comparative analysis of the application of Shari’a in countries with Muslim minorities (e.g. USA, Australia, Germany and Italy) and majorities (e.g. Malaysia, Bangladesh, Turkey, and Morocco). Most chapters in this new edition have been revised and the book as a whole has been updated to give even more international coverage. This text provides a sociological and global analysis of a phenomenon that goes beyond the ‘West versus the rest’ dichotomy. One example of this is how included are case studies in Muslim minority countries not exclusively located in the West. Although the contributors of this book come from various disciplines such as law, anthropology, and sociology, this volume has a strong sociological focus on the analysis of Shari’a. The final part of the book indeed draws out from all the case studies explored some ground-breaking theories on the sociology of Shari’a such as the application of Black, Chambliss and Eisenstein’s sociological theories. This text appeals to students and researchers working in the sociology of religion.

This book explores a range of key issues connected to China’s relations with countries in the Middle East and South Asia. It discusses economic and political connections, and projects which have arisen as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. It covers both important countries in the Middle East, and also Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. It examines current contentious issues including Iranian sanctions and the war in Syria, and assesses the roles of other powers such as Russia, Turkey and Israel insofar as they affect China’s relationships. Overall, the book presents many new perspectives on the subject, with many of the perspectives representing the view from the countries of the Middle East and South Asia.