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From The Edinburgh Review.
MOHAMMEDANISM IN CHINA.*

be induced to bestir themselves and set out on a career of conquest which should reflect not unworthily the violence and the terror of the first flood of Saracenic invasion. The place of Islam in the future of China must determine in a great degree the place of China in the future of Asia.

THE history of Mohammedanism is a series of surprises. Islam began by astonishing the world in its original outburst, and ever since, from time to time, it has ministered to the Western craving for amazement. Not many years ago, people had made up their minds that the There is no religion about which so religion of Mohammed was passing into much is ill-known as Islam. It is hardly its stage of dotage, and that no more ad- saying too much to assert that the barest vance was to be looked for in a faith that fundamental doctrines of Mohammedanwas at last about to verify the predictions ism are either unknown or misknown by of its Christian "unveilers," and to die the vast majority of educated Englishthe death of all falsehoods. But more men. University preachers of the highrecently, the eyes that were thought to est honors still denounce the creed which be shut forever upon the forward march teaches the worship of Mohammed along of Islam were roughly awakened to sev- with the worship of God! Such ignoreral unwelcome facts about that creed. ance of the essence of this religion is It appeared from incontrovertible testi- combined with equal darkness in the matmony that Mohammedanism was advanc-ter of its extent and present condition. ing with giant strides in western Africa In England, whose forty million Muslim at the expense of Christianity, and that subjects in India would, if the creed of Muslim teachers were working a social the majority constituted the State religreform where Christian missionaries had ion, almost make Great Britain a Mohamfailed. It was discovered that an able, medan power, the importance of the study resolute man had founded a vast Muslim of Islam and of the knowledge of its progkingdom between Russia and China, in ress and possibilities in the future cannot the very centre of Asia, the cradle of the longer thus be lightly ignored. Mohamnations of Christian Europe; and in 1872 medanism is closely linked with the future an appeal to England on behalf of an of India and of China, and through them important Mohammedan kingdom in with the future of Russia and of England. southern China conveyed to Western ears It is, therefore, a fit subject for regret the information that there were villages that it should have been left to a French and towns and districts of Muslims in the consul to inform us of that which so nearly midst of the Buddhist and Confucian in- touches our interests; but, whatever the habitants of the Celestial Empire. There source, it is the information that we want, are some who would assign to China a and we owe our thanks to M. de Thiergreat part in the future of the world; and sant for the valuable service he has renthough it is hard to feel much apprehen- dered to all whom the present and future sion whilst the empire is in its present condition of Chinese Mohammedanism divided and exhausted condition, it is may concern. He has gathered together possible that, with the help of the fiery a large quantity of really important mareligion of the Arabs, the Chinese might terials, and his work deserves the careful

1. Le Mahométisme en Chine et dans le Turkes

study not merely of Orientalists and gen

tan Oriental. Par P. DABRY DE THIERSANT, Consul-eral readers, but of statesmen. It must, Général et Chargé d'Affaires de France. 2 vols. Paris: 1878.

2. Pritères des Musulmans Chinois traduites sur l'original en arabe et en persan Da'aouât el-Moslemin, imprimé à Canton en 1876. Paris: 1878.

3. The Life of Yakoob Beg, Athalik Ghazi, and Baudalet, Ameer of Kashgar. By DEMETRIUS CHARLES BOULGER. London: 1878.

4. Religion in China. By JOSEPH EDKINS, D.D.

Second edition. London: 1878.

however, be admitted that the manner of the work is not so excellent as its intention. The Parisian much-vaunted virtue of conciseness is here conspicuously absent. M. de Thiersant has filled two Volumes with the matter of one, and he has arranged the matter in a troublesome and irrational form. He has inserted a

The kingdom of Medina [says the Chinese record] is near that of India; and it is in this kingdom that these strangers' religion arose, which is quite different from that of Fo (Buddha). They eat no pork, and drink no wine, and hold impure all flesh but what they have themselves killed. They call them nowadays Hoey-Hoey. They had a temple (at Canton), called the "Temple of Sacred Memory," which was built at the beginning of the Tang dynasty. By the side of the temple was a tower, called the "Unadorned Tower," round, and one hundred and sixty feet high. These strangers used to go every day to this temple to perform their ceremonies. Having asked and obtained the emperor's leave to reside in Canton, they built themselves magnificent houses, of a different style from the architecture of our country. They were very rich, and obeyed a chief of their own choosing. They were so numerous, and so influential in their wealth, that they could maltreat the Chinese with impunity (Mah. en Chine, vol. i., pp. 19, 20).

number of literal translations of decrees and the like, most of which are identical in purport, and of which one would have sufficed as a specimen of all. He has spread out into a series of chapters the history of Islam in the various provinces in a very unconnected manner, instead of giving a concise chapter on the history of Mohammedanism in all China. And his second volume, containing the ritual and creed, might have been easily and effectually condensed, for the Hanafy doctrine and practice of the Chinese Muslims differ in no essential manner from the orthodox creed in the rest of the Mohammedan world; and the comments and explanations of the Chinese theologians are scarcely worth printing at length. Finally, M. de Thiersant would have done well if he had given the authorities for his statistics, and had, generally speaking, placed the book on a more positive basis as an authoritative exposition of facts. In spite of these defects, "Le Mahomé tisme en Chine" is a valuable work, and bears on its surface the impression of fidelity to truth and personal experience. Those who know anything of Arabian history, or even of the "Arabian Nights," will find nothing surprising in the introduction of Islam into China. The trade of the far East passed in a great measure through Arab hands to Syria and the ports of the Levant. In the sixth century there was a brisk commerce between Arabia and the "Flowery Land" by way of Ceylon; and at the beginning of the Tang dynasty, in the first quarter of the seventh century, the trade between China and Persia and Arabia was greatly extended. Siraf, in the Persian Gulf, was Who the chief of these men, the first the entrepôt of the Chinese merchants, Mohammedan missionary in China, was, who seldom came further west; and here is another obscure question. He is certhe Arab traders from Maskat and Syria tainly a distinct person, about whom they met them and carried their goods on to preserve traditions, but he is not easy to the next stage. An official journal re-identify. M. de Thiersant produces an cords a voyage from China to Persia as taking over a year; but the travellers must be admitted to have taken their journey very leisurely. Among the traders who came to China early in the Tang dynasty, ¿e. just when Mohammed was preaching to his Arabs, were men from Medina.

Who these first importers of Islam to China were, their descendants are entirely at a loss to inform us. They were certainly Arabians, for they have left their faces to their posterity; but from what part of Arabia it is perhaps impossible to say. They may have been sent by Mohammed himself in the year when he sent ambassadors to all the great kings to call them to "the true religion;" or they may have formed part of an expedition of exiles, like those who emigrated, by their prophet's advice, to Abyssinia. The only thing certain appears to be the early date of their arrival: there were undoubtedly Muslims in China about the end of the first quarter of the seventh century, or at least within ten years after the Hijra.

inscription, dated 1351 A.D. (or rather its Chinese equivalent), which testifies that there was a special apostle sent in early times to the Chinese from Arabia; but the name throws no light on the identity of this apostle beyond the fact that he was a sahháby, or "companion" of Mohammed.

At the foot of the Mountain of White Snows | tury of the Hijra, the famous Muslim is a very high tower, built by the exertions of general Kuteyba crossed the Oxus, took a man of the West, under the dynasty of the Bukhara and Samarkand, and “carried Ly-Tang. The great saint of the West, Mo- fire and sword through Kashgar to behammed, whose disciples turn upwards the yond Kucha," he was actually on Chinese holy stone in praying, sent one of his companions (Sa-ka-pa) to China to propagate his territory. He sent ten officers of his religion, some eight hundred years ago. It staff as deputies to the emperor of China, took a year and more for this disciple to reach who should offer him the friendship of our land by sea; he landed at Canton, and the khalif, if he submitted himself and traversed China, and began to establish his paid an annual tribute to the court of religion at Canton (Mah. en Chine, vol. i., p. Islam, which was then at Damascus; or, 22). in case of refusal, should put before him the alternative of fire and sword, the This apostle, variously styled Sarta, burning of cities, the slaughter of men, Sa-ka-pa, Wang-ka-ze, M. de Thiersant and the enslaving of women and children, identifies, but we think on doubtful throughout the dominions of his Majesty. grounds, with Wahb Abu-Kebsha, a ma- This audacious message was delivered ternal uncle of Mohammed. Whoever with the customary sang-froid of the he was, it seems clear that this apostle | Arab. The ambassadors indulged the reached China about the sixth or seventh emperor with an allegory in dress. The year of the Hijra (A.D. 628–9), where he first day they appeared before him in was graciously received by the emperor sumptuous attire, perfumed à ravir, and, Tai-Tsung, who permitted him to build a having regarded the emperor in grave mosque at Canton and to practise the silence, immediately retired. The next rites of the Mohammedan religion. Re-day they came in rich garments of a somturning to Arabia in 632, he found his prophet was dead, and so chagrined was Sa-ka-pa at this disaster that he went back at once to Canton, bearing with him Abu-Bekr's authorized Koran, and there he died; and thither do many pious Muslims resort each year to pay respect to the tomb of the first Mohammedan missionary of China.

bre hue, and acted as before. The third day they presented themselves armed capà-pie, and wearing an exceeding fierce aspect. The emperor, who had been at some pains to receive them with honor, could no longer restrain his amazement at this solemn rite, and demanded the reason thereof. "The first day's dress," they said, "is that in which we visit our wives; in the second we go to court; the third is what we wear when we encounter our enemies." And then they delivered their message. The Arabian legend will have it that the emperor was so much struck by the bearing of these men and the boldness of their language, that he loaded them with honors, and cheerfully consented to pay tribute to the distant khalif. Without committing ourselves to the truth of this conclusion, this much is certain, that the khalif and the emperor were ever afterwards on very cordial terms, and were in the habit of sending each other costly presents, and, generally speaking, holding out the right hand of fellowship. The motive for this alliance is easily found in the fact that the two empires were equally subject to the marauding inroads of their common enemy

Islam, once planted in the Celestial Empire, speedily grew and waxed powerful. The scanty group of Arab traders settled at Canton multiplied, partly by new arrivals, partly by marriage with the Chinese, and by conversions. In 755 they received a considerable reinforcement in the four thousand Muslim soldiers who were sent by the 'Abbâsy khalif, El-Mansûr, to aid the emperor Suh-Tsung against the rebel Gan LuhShan, and who, when they had done their fighting, were permitted to settle in China and take left-handed wives from among the natives. This alliance between the khalif of Baghdad and the emperor of China is not so surprising as at first sight it would appear. The two empires were nearer to each other than one is accustomed to think. When, in the first cen