Great Mosque of Xi'an
مسجد شيان Great Mosque of Xi'an | |
---|---|
Xī Ān Dà Qīng Zhēn Sì | |
Religion | |
Affiliation | Sunni Islam |
Province | Shaanxi |
Leadership | Islamic Association of China |
Year consecrated | 742 (ancient), 1392 (current form) |
Location | |
Location | Xi'an Muslim Quarter |
Municipality | Xi'an |
Country | China |
Geographic coordinates | 34°15′47.9″N 108°56′11.0″E / 34.263306°N 108.936389°E |
Architecture | |
Type | mosque |
Style | Chinese |
Site area | 12,300 m2 |
The Great Mosque of Xi'an (Chinese:
An active place of worship within Xi'an Muslim Quarter, this courtyard complex is also a popular tourist site. It now houses more than twenty buildings in its five courtyards, and covers 1.23 hectares.[citation needed]
Etymology and location within Xi'an[edit]
The mosque is also known as the Huajue Xiang Mosque (
History and usage[edit]
Original mosque during the Tang and Song dynasties[edit]
Chang'an, as the cosmopolitan capital of China's Tang dynasty, had sizable non-Han merchant and artisan communities that resided there. Many of them migrated to China from today's West Asia. Emperor Xuanzong[4] decreed around the year 742 AD (as Tangmingsi[3],
Due to the collapse of the Tang dynasty and later the Song dynasty, most parts of the original mosque constructed in the Tang dynasty did not survive. The mosque was reconstructed at least four times[4] before taking its modern shape. At around the 1260s, the then deteriorating mosque was rebuilt by the Yuan government as Huihui Wanshansi (
The Mongol conquest of China witnessed a large immigration of Muslims into China. Many were relocated by the Mongol Yuan rulers to serve as bureaucrats and merchants in China. The foreign, often Muslim, population brought into China by the Mongol regime were known in Chinese as People with Coloured Eyes (
Reconstruction during the Ming dynasty[edit]
The city of Xi'an, after being destroyed during the collapse of the Tang dynasty, was reconstructed during the Ming dynasty by 1378 AD. The reconstruction of the original mosque into its contemporary form was patronized by the imperial government during Emperor Hongwu's reign. The mosque witnessed further additions during the Qing dynasty,[3] which included the mosque's front gate, Paifang, and Sebil. Evidence of official patronage of the mosque is present in the form of plaques placed in the Mosque. For instance, a plaque stating the Declaration of the Reconstruction of the Mosque (敕赐
It has been widely argued that although the Hui community largely adhered to their religious identity, they gravitated and later adopted the mainstream Han Chinese cultural traditions as encouraged by the Ming and later Qing governments.[5] However, certain restrictions on the practice of Islam occurred after the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877), which started because of ethnic and religious tensions between the Muslims and the Han Chinese. The revolt led to riots and mass killing from both sides. After the Dungan Revolt the Qing government limited Muslim freedom of worship. The ritual slaughtering of animals was forbidden. The construction of new mosques and the pilgrimage to Mecca were prohibited,[5] though these restrictions were lifted after the overthrowing of the Qing dynasty. Today, the Great Mosque of Xi'an and its surrounding area have been developed as the center of the Hui population of Xi'an.
In 1956, the government of the People's Republic of China declared the mosque to be a Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the Shaanxi Province Level. However, during the Cultural Revolution, as with practically all other religious facilities in mainland China, the mosque was temporarily shut down and converted into a steel factory.[7] Following Mao Zedong's death in 1976, religious activities resumed, and the mosque was later promoted to a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 1988. In 1997, it was selected as one of the top 10 tourist attractions in Xi'an.
Modern usage[edit]
Today, the mosque is used as a place of worship by Chinese Muslims, primarily the Hui people. The Great Mosque of Xi'an represents the Gedimu (Chinese:
The mosque standing today is not only a religious site to the Muslims in the city, but a cultural heritage site to all citizens of Xi'an. It is used to represent the ethnic and religious diversity that the city had in the past.
Architecture[edit]
The Great Mosque of Xi'an is an example of the adaptability of mosque architecture in the context of Chinese culture. The mosque has features that mosque around the world typically have, such as the qibla and mihrab, but it also contains Chinese architectural features and cultural symbols throughout.
A mosque in a Chinese style[edit]
Overall, the mosque, like the majority of Chinese mosques built between the Ming and Qing periods, combines a traditional Chinese architectural form with Islamic functionality. Though the mosque was constructed using traditional Chinese forms, unlike most buildings that follow a north–south axis in accordance with feng shui (most Chinese religious buildings has its gates open in the north direction), the mosque is oriented toward west, the direction of Mecca. Calligraphy in both Chinese and Perso-Arabic script appears throughout the complex. The Arabic texts, such as the Shahada, can be seen written in the Sini calligraphic style, which is the style of Arabic calligraphy using Chinese-influenced medium, such as the usage of the Chinese ink brush for writing.
Courtyard[edit]
The mosque is a walled complex of four courtyards, with the prayer hall located in the fourth and also the westmost courtyard. The first and second courtyards are mostly traditional Chinese gardens, while the third and fourth courtyards are where the main structures of the mosques are located.[6][3] The courtyards are divided by walls and connected by gateways. Most of the architectural features present in the courtyards were constructed during or after the Ming dynasty.[1] However, there are artefacts dating from earlier than the Ming dynasty, such as the plaques on the gates of the second courtyard, which were plaque carvings dated from the Song dynasty (see image above). Each courtyard contains a central monument, such as a gate, and is lined with greenery as well as subsidiary buildings.
Paifangs (
The Shengxinlou (
The fourth courtyard has a bigger prayer hall that can seat more than a thousand people.[10]
Prayer hall[edit]
It is believed that the prayer hall was constructed during the Ming dynasty, although significant reconstructions occurred during the Qing era. This argument has been supported by the numerous wooden columns in the prayer hall as the use of wooden columns predates that of brick columns which were typical of Qing dynasty buildings. The prayer hall is a monumental timber building with a turquoise hip roof, painted dougong (wooden brackets), a six-pillared portico, and five doors. Contrary to most mosques in many Muslim-majority states, the prayer hall does not feature a dome-shaped ceiling but has a traditional Chinese, pointy ceiling covered with ceramic decorative tiles. Meanwhile, the prayer hall is decorated with images of plants and flowers, suggesting the decorative program still followed the Islamic tradition that forbids anthropomorphic imageries. The ceiling is raised upon a large stone platform lined with wooden balustrades. The expansive prayer hall consists of three conjoined buildings, set one behind the other. In the furthest part of the prayer hall stands the rear qibla wall, which has wooden carvings of floral and calligraphic designs.
Gallery[edit]
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"Examining the Heart Tower" in the third courtyard
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Wahbi Al-Hariri's graphite drawing of the Great Mosque of Xi'an
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Phoenix Pavilion in the fourth courtyard
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Facing the prayer hall of the Great Mosque of Xi'an, in the fourth courtyard
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Entrance to the prayer hall
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Main prayer hall
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Calligraphy on a plaque in the Great Mosque of Xi'an
See also[edit]
- Islam in China
- Timeline of Islamic history
- List of the oldest mosques in the world
- List of famous mosques
- List of mosques in China
References[edit]
- ^ a b Liu, Zhiping (1985). Zhongguo Yisilanjiao jianzhu [Islamic architecture in China]. Xinjiang Renmin Chubanshe.
- ^ "Sino-Arabic script and architectural inscriptions in Xi'an Great Mosque, China". www.researchgate.net. Retrieved 2022-10-07.
- ^ a b c d Steinhardt, Nancy S. (2015). China's Early Mosques. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-7041-3.
- ^ a b c 统先,
傅 (2019).中国 回教 史 . Beijing:商 务印书馆. pp. 33–36. - ^ a b c d e 马通. "
中国 回 回 民族 与 伊 斯兰教 ." In中国 西北 伊 斯兰教 的 基本 特 征 , 60–68. Lanzhou: 兰州大学 出版 社 , 1990. - ^ a b c
路 秉杰;张广林 .中国 伊 斯兰教 建 筑. Shanghai:上海 三 联书店 , 2005. - ^ Chen, Xiaomei (15 January 2019). "China's Muslims fear crackdown in the ancient city of Xi'an". The Guardian.
- ^ Salahuddin, Iftikhar (2 October 2016). "The ancient mosque of X'ian". www.dawn.com. Dawn. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
- ^ a b Steinhardt, Nancy S. (2008). "China's Earliest Mosques". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 67 (3): 330–361. doi:10.1525/jsah.2008.67.3.330.
- ^ Tang, Cindy. "Xi'an Great Mosque - the Largest Mosque in China". China Highlights.
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