Hui people

Hui people are of varied ancestry, many directly descending from Silk Road travellers and expatriates. Their ancestors include Central Asians, and Middle Eastern ethnic groups such as the Arabs who intermarried with the local Han Chinese. West Eurasian DNA is prevalent—6.7% of Hui people's maternal genetics have a Central Asian and Middle Eastern origin.[7] Several medieval Chinese dynasties, particularly the Tang, Song and Mongol Yuan Dynasties, encouraged immigration from predominantly Muslim Central Asia, with both dynasties welcoming traders from these regions and appointing Central Asian officials. In subsequent centuries, the immigrants gradually mixed with the Han Chinese, eventually forming the Hui.[8]

Nonetheless, included among Huis in Chinese census statistics (and not officially recognized as separate ethnic groups) are members of a few small non-Chinese-speaking communities. These include several thousand Utsuls in southern Hainan Province, who speak an Austronesian language (Tsat) related to that of the Vietnamese Cham Muslim minority, said to descend from Chams who migrated to Hainan.[9] A small Muslim minority among Yunnan's Bai people are classified as Hui as well (even if they are Bai speakers),[10] as are some groups of Tibetan Muslims.[9]

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the term "Hui" was applied by the Chinese government to one of China's ten historically Islamic minorities.[11]

Earlier, the term referred to Chinese-speaking groups with (foreign) Muslim ancestry. Practising Islam was not a criterion. Use of the Hui category to describe foreign Muslims moving into China dates back to the Song dynasty (960–1279).

Pan-Turkic Uyghur activist, Masud Sabri (1886–1952), viewed the Hui people as Muslim Han Chinese and separate from his own people, noting that with the exception of religion, their customs and language were identical to those of the Han.[12]

The East Asian O3-M122 Y chromosome haplogroup is found in large quantities, about 24–30%, in other Muslims close to the Hui like Dongxiang, Bo'an, and Salar, while the Y chromosome haplogroup R-M17 (found among Central Asians, South Asians and Europeans) are found among 17–28% of them. The majority of Tibeto-Burmans, Han Chinese, and Ningxia and Liaoning Hui share paternal Y chromosomes of East Asian origin which are unrelated to Middle Easterners and Europeans. In contrast to distant Middle Easterners and Europeans with whom the Muslims of China are not significantly related, East Asians, Han Chinese, and most of the Hui and Dongxiang of Linxia share more genes with each other. This indicates that native East Asian populations converted to Islam and were culturally assimilated and that the Chinese Muslim populations are mostly not descendants of foreigners as claimed by some accounts while only a small minority of them are.[13]

Huihui (回回) was the usual generic term for China's Muslims during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is thought to have its origin in the earlier Huihe (回纥) or Huihu (回鶻), which was the name for the Uyghur State of the 8th and 9th centuries.[14] Although the ancient Uyghurs were not Muslims[14] the name Huihui came to refer to foreigners, regardless of language or origin, by the time of the Yuan (1271–1368).[15] and Ming Dynasties (1368–1644).[14] The use of Hui to denote all foreigners - be they Muslims, Nestorian Christians, or Jews,- reflects bureaucratic terminology developed over the Yuan and Ming dynasties. Arab were white cap, Persians black cap and Jews blue cap Huihui. Islamic mosques and Jewish synagogues at the time were denoted by the same word, Qīngzhēnsì (清真寺: Temple of Purity and Truth).[16]

Kublai Khan called both foreign Jews and Muslims in China Huihui when he forced them to stop halal and kosher methods of preparing food:[17]

"Among all the [subject] alien peoples only the Hui-hui say "we do not eat Mongol food". [Cinggis Qa’an replied:] "By the aid of heaven we have pacified you; you are our slaves. Yet you do not eat our food or drink. How can this be right?" He thereupon made them eat. "If you slaughter sheep, you will be considered guilty of a crime." He issued a regulation to that effect ... [In 1279/1280 under Qubilai] all the Muslims say: "if someone else slaughters [the animal] we do not eat". Because the poor people are upset by this, from now on, Musuluman [Muslim] Huihui and Zhuhu [Jewish] Huihui, no matter who kills [the animal] will eat [it] and must cease slaughtering sheep themselves, and cease the rite of circumcision."

The widespread and rather generic application of the name Huihui in Ming China was attested to by foreign visitors as well. Matteo Ricci, the first Jesuit to reach Beijing (1598), noted that "Saracens are everywhere in evidence . . . their thousands of families are scattered about in nearly every province"[18] Ricci noted that the term Huihui or Hui was applied by Chinese not only to "Saracens" (Muslims) but also to Chinese Jews and supposedly even to Christians.[19] In fact, when the reclusive Wanli Emperor first saw a picture of Ricci and Diego de Pantoja, he supposedly exclaimed, "Hoei, hoei. It is quite evident that they are Saracens", and had to be told by a eunuch that they actually weren't, "because they ate pork".[20] The 1916 Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, Volume 8 said that Chinese Muslims always called themselves Huihui or Huizi, and that neither themselves nor other people called themselves Han, and they disliked people calling them Dungan.[21] A French army Commandant Viscount D'Ollone wrote a report on what he saw among Hui in 1910. He reported that due to religion, Hui were classed as a different nationality from Han as if they were one of the other minority groups.[22]

Huizu is now the standard term for the "Hui nationality" (ethnic group), and Huimin, for "Hui people" or "a Hui person". The traditional expression Huihui, its use now largely restricted to rural areas, would sound quaint, if not outright demeaning, to modern urban Chinese Muslims.[23]

Halal (清真) restaurants offering Northwestern beef lamian can be found throughout the country

Islam was originally called Dashi Jiao during the Tang Dynasty, when Muslims first appeared in China. "Dashi Fa" literally means "Arab law" in Old Chinese.[24] Since almost all Muslims in China were exclusively foreign Arabs or Persians at the time, it was barely mentioned by the Chinese, unlike other religions like Zoroastrism or Mazdaism, and Nestorian Christianity which gained followings in China.[25] As an influx of foreigners, such as Persians, Jews and Christians, most but not all of them were Muslims who came from western regions, they were labelled as Semu people, but were also mistaken by Chinese as Uyghur, due to them coming from the west (Uyghur lands).[26] The name "Hui Hui" was applied to them, and eventually became the name applied to Muslims.

Another, probably unrelated, early use of the word Huihui comes from the History of Liao Dynasty, which mentions Yelü Dashi, the 12th-century founder of the Kara-Khitan Khanate, defeating the Huihui Dashibu (回回大食部) people near Samarkand – apparently, referring to his defeat of the Khwarazm ruler Ahmed Sanjar in 1141.[27] Khwarazm is referred to as Huihuiguo in the Secret History of the Mongols as well.[28]

While Huihui or Hui remained a generic name for all Muslims in Imperial China, specific terms were sometimes used to refer to particular groups, e.g. Chantou Hui ("turbaned Hui") for Uyghurs, Dongxiang Hui and Sala Hui for Dongxiang and Salar people, and sometimes even Han Hui (漢回) ("Chinese Hui") for the (presumably Chinese-speaking) Muslims more assimilated into the Chinese mainstream society.[29][30]

Some scholars also say that some Hui used to call themselves 回漢子 (Hui Hanzi) "Muslim Han" but the Communist regime separated them from other Chinese and placed them into a separate ethnicity, "Huizu".[31]

A halal (清真) shower house in Linxia City

In the 1930s the Communist Party defined the term Hui to indicate only Sinophone Muslims. In 1941, this was clarified by a Party committee comprising ethnic policy researchers in a treatise entitled "On the question of Huihui Ethnicity" (Huihui minzu wenti). This treatise defined the characteristics of the Hui nationality as an ethnic group associated with, but not defined by, Islam and descended primarily from Muslims who migrated to China during the Mongol-founded Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), as distinct from the Uyghur and other Turkic-speaking ethnic groups in Xinjiang. The Nationalist government by contrast recognised all Muslims as one of "the five peoples"—alongside the Manchus, Mongols, Tibetans and Han Chinese—that constituted the Republic of China.[32]

A traditional Chinese term for Islam is "回教" (pinyin: Huíjiào, literally "the religion of the Hui"). However, since the early days of the PRC, thanks to the arguments of such Marxist Hui scholars as Bai Shouyi, the standard term for "Islam" within the PRC has become the transliteration "伊斯蘭教" (pinyin: Yīsīlán jiào, literally "Islam religion").[33][34] The more traditional term Huijiao remains in use in Singapore, Taiwan and other overseas Chinese communities.[35]

Qīngzhēn (清真, literally "pure and true") has also been a popular term for Muslim culture since the Yuan or Ming Dynasty. Gladney suggested that a good translation for it would be Arabic tahára. i.e. "ritual or moral purity"[36] The usual term for a mosque is qīngzhēn sì (清真寺), i.e. "true and pure temple", and qīngzhēn is commonly used to refer to halal eating establishments and bathhouses.

In contrast, the Uyghurs were called "Chan Tou Hui" ("Turban Headed Muslim"), and the Turkic Salars called "Sala Hui" (Salar Muslim), while Turkic speakers often referred to Hui as "Dungan".[30][37]

During the Qing Dynasty, the term Zhongyuan ren (中原人; 'people from the Central Plain') was the term for all Chinese, encompassing Han Chinese and Hui in Xinjiang or Central Asia. While Hui are not Han, they consider themselves to be Chinese and include themselves in the larger group of Zhongyuan ren.[38] The Dungan people, descendants of Hui who fled to Central Asia, called themselves Zhongyuan ren in addition to the standard labels lao huihui and huizi.[39]

For some Uyghurs, there is barely any difference between Hui and Han. A Uyghur social scientist, Dilshat, regarded Hui as the same people as Han, deliberately calling Hui people Han and dismissing the Hui as having only a few hundred years of history.[40]

Some prominent Hui, such as Imam Ma Chao-yen, refer to themselves and other Hui people as simply Chinese in English, and practice Confucian culture.[41]

Pusuman was a name used by Chinese during the Yuan Dynasty. It could have been a corruption of Musalman or another name for Persians. It either means Muslim or Persian.[42][43] Pusuman Kuo (Pusuman Guo) referred to the country where they came from.[44][45] The name "Pusuman zi" (pusuman script), was used to refer to the script that the HuiHui (Muslims) were using.[46]

A fence in Niujie with art depicting the minority ethnicities in China, including the Hui (回族)

The term Chinese Muslim is sometimes used to refer to Hui people, given that they speak Chinese, in contrast to, e.g., Turkic-speaking Salars. During the Qing Dynasty, Chinese Muslim (Han Hui) was sometimes used to refer to Hui people, which differentiated them from non-Chinese-speaking Muslims. However, not all Hui are Muslims, nor are all Chinese Muslims Hui. For example, Li Yong is a famous Han Chinese who practices Islam and Hui Liangyu is a notable atheist Hui. In addition, most Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kirghiz and Dongxiang in China are Muslims, but are not Hui.

John Stuart Thomson, who traveled in China called them "Mohammedan Chinese".[47] They have also been called "Chinese Mussulmans", when Europeans wanted to distinguish them from Han Chinese.[48]

The minaret of the Dungan Mosque in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan

Dungan (simplified Chinese: 东干族; traditional Chinese: 東干族; pinyin: Dōnggānzú; Russian: Дунгане) is a term used in Central Asia and in Xinjiang to refer to Chinese-speaking Muslim people. In the censuses of Russia and Central Asian nations, the Hui are distinguished from Chinese, termed Dungans. However, in both China and Central Asia members of this ethnic group call themselves Lao Huihui or Zhongyuanren, rather than Dungan. Zhongyuan 中原, literally means "The Central Plain," and is the historical name of Shaanxi and Henan provinces. Most Dungans living in Central Asia are descendants of Hui people from Gansu and Shaanxi.

Hui people are referred to by Central Asian Turkic speakers and Tajiks by the ethnonym Dungan. Joseph Fletcher cited Turkic and Persian manuscripts related to the preaching of the 17th century Kashgarian Sufi master Muhammad Yūsuf (or, possibly, his son Afaq Khoja) inside the Ming Empire (in today's Gansu and/or Qinghai), where the preacher allegedly converted ulamā-yi Tunganiyyāh (i.e., "Dungan ulema") into Sufism.[49]

In English and German was noted as early as the 1830s, Dungan, in various spellings, as referring to the Hui people of Xinjiang. For example, Prinsep in 1835 mentioned Muslim "Túngánis" in "Chinese Tartary".[50] The word (mostly in the form "Dungani" or "Tungani", sometimes "Dungens" or "Dungans") acquired currency in English and other western languages when books in the 1860–70s discussed the Dungan Revolt.

Later authors continued to use variants of the term for Xinjiang Hui people. For example, Owen Lattimore, writing ca. 1940, maintained the terminological distinction between these two related groups: the "Tungkan" (the older Wade-Giles spelling for "Dungan"), described by him as the descendants of the Gansu Hui people resettled in Xinjiang in 17–18th centuries, vs. e.g. the "Gansu Moslems" or generic "Chinese Moslems".[51]

The name "Dungan" sometimes referred to all Muslims coming from China proper, such as Dongxiang and Salar in addition to Hui. Reportedly, the Hui disliked the term Dungan, calling themselves either HuiHui or Huizi.[21]

In the Soviet Union and its successor countries, the term "Dungans" (дунгане) became the standard name for the descendants of Chinese-speaking Muslims who emigrated to the Russian Empire (mostly to today's Kyrgyzstan and south-eastern Kazakhstan) in the 1870s and 1880s.[52]

Muslim restaurant in Kunming, Yunnan

Panthays are a group of Chinese Muslims in Burma. In Thailand, Chinese Muslims are referred to as Chin Ho (จีนฮ่อ) and in Burma and Yunnan Province, as Panthay. Zhongyuan ren was used by Turkic Muslims to refer to ethnic Chinese. When Central Asian invaders from Kokand invaded Kashgar, in a letter the Kokandi commander criticised the Kashgari Turkic Muslim Ishaq for allegedly not behaving like a Muslim and wanting to be a Zhongyuan ren (Chinese).[53][54]

A halal meat store sign in Hankou, ca. 1934–1935.

The official definition by the Chinese government is as a nationality without regard to religion.[55] It identifies Hui by their ancestry only, and includes those who do not practice Islam.[56] In 1913, a westerner noted that many people in Fujian province had Arab ancestry, but were no longer Muslim.[57]

Throughout history the identity of Hui people has been fluid, changing as was convenient.[58] Some identified as Hui out of interest in their ancestry or because of government benefits. These Hui are concentrated on the southeast coast of China, especially Fujian province.[59]

Some Hui clans around Quanzhou in Fujian, such as the Ding and Guo families, identify themselves by ethnicity and no longer practice Islam. In recent years more of these clans identified as Hui, increasing the official population.[60][61][62] They provided evidence of their ancestry and were recognized as Hui.[62] Many clans across Fujian had genealogies that demonstrated Hui ancestry.[63] These clans inhabited Fujian, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines.[64] None of these clans were Muslims but they do not offer pork during their ancestral worship.

In Taiwan, those Hui clans who followed Koxinga to Formosa to defeat the Dutch and settled down, they no longer observe Islam and their descendants embraced Chinese folk religion. The Taiwanese branch of the Guo (Kuo in Taiwan) clan with Hui ancestry does not practice Islam, yet does not offer pork at their ancestral shrines. The Chinese Muslim Association counts these people as Muslims.[65] Also on Taiwan, one branch of this Ding (Ting) clan who descended from Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar and resides in Taisi Township in Yunlin County. They trace their descent through him via the Quanzhou Ding family of Fujian. While pretending to be Han Chinese in Fujian, they initially practiced Islam when they came to Taiwan 200 years ago, but all the descendants have embraced mainly Buddhism or Taoism.[66]

An attempt was made by the Chinese Islamic Society to convert the Fujian Hui of Fujian back to Islam in 1983, sending 4 Ningxia Imams to Fujian.[67] This futile endeavour ended in 1986, when the final Ningxia Imam left. A similar endeavour in Taiwan also failed.[68]

Before 1982, it was possible for a Han to "become" Hui by converting. Thereafter, a converted Han counted instead as a "Muslim Han". Hui people consider other Hui who do not observe Islamic practices to still be Hui. They consider it impossible to lose their Hui nationality.[69] For both of these reasons, simply calling them "Chinese Muslims" is no longer accurate strictly speaking, just as with Bosniaks in former Yugoslavia.

Hui people praying in the Dongguan Mosque, Xining

Hui have diverse origins. Many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers. In the southeast coast (e.g., Guangdong, Fujian) and in major trade centers elsewhere in China some are of mixed local and foreign descent. The foreign element, although greatly diluted, came primarily from Arab (Bosi) traders, who brought Islam to China. These foreigners settled and gradually intermarried, converting them to Islam, while assimilating Chinese culture.[70]

Early European explorers speculated that T'ung-kan (Dungans, i.e. Hui, called "Chinese Mohammedan") in Xinjiang, originated from Khorezmians who were transported to China by the Mongols, and that they descended from a mixture of Chinese, Arab and Turkic peoples. They also reported that the T'ung-kan were Shafi'ites, as were the Khorezmians.[71]

Another description applies to the Hui people of Yunnan and Northwestern China, whose origin might result from the convergence of Mongol, Turkic, Iranian or other Central Asian settlers who were recruited by the Yuan Dynasty either as officials (the semu), who formed the second-highest stratum in the Yuan ethnic hierarchy (after the Mongols but above Chinese) or artisans.[72][73] A proportion of the ancestral nomad or military ethnic groups were originally Nestorian Christians, many of whom later converted to Islam under the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

An elderly Hui man.

Southeastern Muslims have a much longer tradition of synthesizing Confucian teachings with Qur'anic teachings and were reported to have contributed to Confucianism from the Tang period. Among the Northern Hui Central Asian Sufi schools such as Kubrawiyya, Qadiriyya, Naqshbandiyya (Khufiyya and Jahriyya) were strong influences, mostly of the Hanafi Madhhab (whereas among the Southeastern communities the Shafi'i Madhhab is more common). Before the "Yihewani" movement, a Chinese Muslim sect inspired by the Middle Eastern reform movement, Northern Hui Sufis blended Taoist teachings and martial arts practices with Sufi philosophy.

Faced with the devastating An Lushan Rebellion, Tang Emperor Suzong wrote to Al-Mansur requesting armed assistance. Al-Mansur sent 7,000 cavalry. Those Muslim warriors were the originators of the Hui people.[74]

According to legend, a Muhuyindeni person converted an entire village of Han with the surname Zhang to Islam.[75] Another source for the Hui comes from Hui adopting Han children and raising them as Hui.[76]

Hui in Gansu with the surname Tang (唐) and Wang (汪) descended from Han Chinese who converted to Islam and married Muslim Hui or Dongxiang people, switching their ethnicity and joining the Hui and Dongxiang ethnic groups, both of which were Muslim. Tangwangchuan and Hanjiaji were notable as towns with a multi-ethnic community, with both non-Muslims and Muslims.[77]

Kuomintang official Ma Hetian visited Tangwangchuan and met an "elderly local literatus from the Tang clan" while he was on his inspection tour of Gansu and Qinghai.[78][79]

In Gansu province in the 1800s, a Muslim Hui woman married into the Han Chinese Kong lineage of Dachuan, which was descended from Confucius. The Han Chinese groom and his family converted to Islam after the marriage by their Muslim relatives.[80] In 1715 in Yunnan province, a few Han Chinese descendants of Confucius surnamed Kong married Hui women and converted to Islam.[81] The non-Muslim branches of the Kong family disowned them for marrying Muslim women and converting and struck the Muslim branches off their genealogies.

Many of the Muslim descendants of Confucius are descended from the marriage of Ma Jiaga (馬甲尕), a Muslim woman, and Kong Yanrong (孔彦嵘), 59th generation descendant of Confucius in the year 1480 and their descendants are found among the Hui and Dongxiang peoples.[82][83][84]

Around 1376 the 30-year-old Chinese merchant Lin Nu visited Ormuz in Persia, converted to Islam, and married a Semu girl ("娶色目女") (either a Persian or an Arab girl) and brought her back to Quanzhou in Fujian.[85][86][87][88] The Confucian philosopher Li Zhi was their descendant.[89] This was recorded in the Lin and Li genealogy 《林李宗谱》. The main family disowned him and his descendants for converting to Islam and marrying a foreign woman and struck them off their genealogy.

Islam came to China during the Tang dynasty via Iranian traders, who were primarily concerned with trading and commerce and less concerned with spreading Islam. This low profile is indicated by the 845 anti-Buddhist edict during the Great Anti-Buddhist Persecution that said nothing about Islam.[90] It seems that trade rather than evangelism occupied the attention of the early Muslim settlers; while they practiced their faith in China, they did not campaign against Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, or the State creed, and that they constituted a floating rather than a fixed element of the population, coming and going between China and the West.[91][92]

During the Song Dynasty, Muslims played a major role in foreign trade.[93][94] The office of the Director General of Shipping was consistently held by a Muslim.[95] The Song Dynasty hired Muslim mercenaries from Bukhara to fight against Khitan nomads. 5,300 Muslims from Bukhara were invited to move to China in 1070 by Song emperor Shenzong to help battle the Liao empire in the northeast and repopulate ravaged areas. These men settled between the Sung capital of Kaifeng and Yenching (modern day Beijing). The provinces of the north and north-east were settled in 1080 when 10,000 more Muslims were invited into China.[96][97] They were led by the Amir of Bukhara, Sayyid "So-fei-er" in Chinese.[97] He is called the "Father" of Chinese Islam. Islam was named by the Tang and Song Chinese as Dashi fa ("law of the Arabs").[98] He gave Islam the new name of Huihui Jiao ("the Religion of the Huihui").[99]

Guangzhou (Canton) had a community which included Persians women in the 10th-12th centuries, found in Liu Chang's harem in the 10th century and in Song dynasty era Guangzhou in the 12th century the Persian women (波斯婦) there were observed wearing many earrings.[100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][110] The Muslim women in Guangzhou were called either Persian women (波斯婦) or Pusaman (菩薩蠻) which may be from "Mussulman" or "Bussulman" which means Muslim in Persian.[111][112][113][114][115]

The Yuan Dynasty, which was ruled by Mongols, deported hundreds of thousands of Muslims, Jews and Christians from West Asia and central Asia into China where they formed the Semu class. Semu people like Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, who served the Yuan dynasty[116] in administrative positions became progenitors of many Hui. Despite the high position given to Muslims, some Yuan policies discriminated against them, forbidding halal slaughter, circumcision and kosher practices, forcing them to eat the Mongol way.[117] Later, corruption and persecution became so severe that Muslim Generals rebelled with Han against the Mongols. Ming founder Zhu Yuanzhang enlisted Muslim Generals such as Lan Yu who defeated the Mongols in combat. Some Muslim communities had the name in Chinese which meant "barak" ('blessing' in Arabic) or "thanks" showing that their role in overthrowing the Mongols was valued by the Han, and consequently gave them their name.[118] Semu Muslims revolted against the Yuan dynasty in the Ispah Rebellion, but the rebellion was crushed and the Muslims were massacred by Yuan loyalist commander Chen Youding.

The Yuan dynasty started passing anti-Muslim and anti-Semu laws and getting rid of Semu Muslim privileges towards the end of the Yuan dynasty, in 1340 forcing them to follow Confucian principles in marriage regulations, in 1329 all foreign holy men including Muslims had tax exemptions revoked, in 1328 the position of Muslim Qadi was abolished after its powers were limited in 1311. In the middle of the 14th century this caused Muslims to start rebelling against Mongol Yuan rule and joining rebel groups. In 1357-1367 the Yisibaxi Muslim Persian garrison started the Ispah rebellion against the Yuan dynasty in Quanzhou and southern Fujian. Persian merchants Amin ud-Din (Amiliding) and Saif ud-Din) Saifuding led the revolt. Persian official Yawuna assassinated both Amin ud-Din and Saif ud-Din in 1362 and took control of the Muslim rebel forces. The Muslim rebels tried to strike north and took over some parts of Xinghua but were defeated at Fuzhou two times and failed to take it. Yuan provincial loyalist forces from Fuzhou defeated the Muslim rebels in 1367 after A Muslim rebel officer named Jin Ji defected from Yawuna.[119]

The Muslim merchants in Quanzhou who engaged in maritime trade enriched their families which encompassed their political and trade activities as families. Historians see the violent Chinese backlash that happened at the end of the Yuan dynasty against the wealth of the Muslim and Semu as something inevitable, however anti-Muslim and anti-Semu laws had already been passed by the Yuan dynasty. In 1340 all marriages had to follow Confucian rules, in 1329 all foreign holy men and clerics including Muslims no longer were exempt from tax, in 1328 the Qadi (Muslim headmen) were abolished after being limited in 1311. This resulted in anti-Mongol sentiment among Muslims so some anti-Mongol rebels in the mid 14th century were joined by Muslims. Quanzhou came under control of Amid ud-Din (Amiliding) and Saif ud-Din (Saifuding), two Persian military officials in 1357 as they revolted against the Mongols from 1357-1367 in southern Fujian and Quanzhou, leading the Persian garrison (Ispah) They fought for Fuzhou and Xinghua for 5 years. Both Saifuding and Amiliding were murdered by another Muslim called Nawuna in 1362 so he then took control of Quanzhou and the Ispah garrison for 5 more years until his defeat by the Yuan.[120]

The historian Chen Dasheng theorized that Sunni-Shia sectarian war contributed to the Ispah rebellion, claiming that the Pu family and their in-law Yawuna were Sunnis and there before the Yuan while Amiliding and Saifuding's Persian soldiers were Shia originally in central China and moved to Quanzhou and that Jin Ji was a Shia who defected to Chen Youding after Sunni Yawuna killed Amiliding and Saifuding. Three fates befell the Muslims and foreigners in Quanzhou, the ones in the Persian garrison were slaughtered, many Persians and Arab merchants fled abroad by ships, another small group that adopted Chinese culture were expelled into coastal Baiqi, Chendi, Lufu and Zhangpu and mountainous Yongchun and Dehua and one other part took refuge in Quanzhou's mosques. The genealogies of Muslim families which survived the transition are the main source of information for the rebellion times. The Rongshan Li family, one of the Muslim survivors of the violence in the Yuan-Ming transition period wrote about their ancestors Li Lu during the rebellion who was a businessman and shipped things, using his private stores to feed hungry people during the rebellion and using his connections to keep safe. The Ming takeover after the end of the Persian garrison meant that the diaspora of incoming Muslims ended. After the Persian garrison full and the rebellion was crushed, the common people started a slaughter of the Pu family and all Muslims: All of the Western peoples were annihilated, with a number of foreigners with large noses mistakenly killed while for three days the gates were closed and the executions were carried out. The corpses of the Pus were all stripped naked, their faces to the west. ... They were all judged according to the "five mutilating punishments" and then executed with their carcasses throwing into pig troughs. This was in revenge for their murder and rebellion in the Song.’’[121] (“是役也，凡西域人盡殲之，胡髮高鼻有誤殺者，閉門行誅三日。”“凡蒲屍皆裸體，面西方……悉令具五刑而誅之，棄其哉于豬槽中。”)[122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129]

80 merchant ships were commanded by Fo Lian, from Bahrain who was Pu Shougeng's son-in-law. The Qais born Supterintendent of Taxes for Persian and the Island, Jamal al-din Ibrahim Tibi had a son who was sent in 1297-1305 as an envoy to China. Wassaf, and Arab historian said that Jamal became wealthy due to trade with India and China. Patronage networks and monopolies controlled Yuan maritime trade unlike in the Song dynasty where foreigners and Chinese of the Song merchant elite reaped profits. Quanzhou's end as an international trading port was rapid as in 1357 rebellions borke out in central China so the Persian merchants Amin ud-din (Amiliding) and Saif ud-din (Saifuding) led soldiers to take over Quanzhou. A Pu family relative by marriage, Yawuna, another Muslim assassinated those two. The Muslim rebels of the Persian garrison in Quanzhou lasted a decade by exploiting maritime trade and plunder. Yawuna and his army were captured and defeated by provincial forces in 1366 and then the Ming took over Quanzhou 2 years later in 1368. Maritime trade was regulated and implemented extremely differently in the Ming dynasty. Guangzhou, Ningbo and Quanzhou all had maritime trade offices but they were limited to specific areas. The South Sea trade was no longer permitted in Quanzhou and only trade with Ryukyu was allowed in Quanzhou. The Muslim community in Quanzhou became a target of the people's anger. In the streets there was widescale slaughter of "big nosed" westerners and Muslims as recorded in a genealogical account of a Muslim family. The era of Quanzhou as an international trading port of Asia ended as did the role of Muslims as merchant diaspora in Quanzhou. Some Muslims fled by sea or land as they were persecuted by the locals and others tried to hide and lay low as depicted in the genealogies of Quanzhou Muslims despite the Ming emperors attempted to issue laws tolerating Islam in 1407 and 1368 and putting the notices in mosques.[130] Qais was the island of Kish and its king Jamal al-Din Ibrahim bin Muhammad al-Tibi briefly seized control of Hormuz while he traded with China and India and earned great wealth from it.[131]

One of Sayyid Ajall Shams al-Din Omar's descendants, the Jinjiang Ding fled to Chendai (Jinjiang]] on the coast of Quanzhou to avoid the violence of the Ispah rebellion. The Li family survived through philanthropy activities however they said that in the rebellion "great families scattered from their homes, which were burned by the soldiers, and few genealogies survived." and used the words "a bubbling cauldron" to describe Quanzhou. In 1368 Quanzhou came under Ming control and the atmosphere calmed down for the Muslims. The Ming Yongle emperor issued decrees of protection from individuals and officials in mosques such as Quanzhou mosques and his father before him Ming Taizu had support from Muslim generals in his wars to reunify the country so he showed tolerance to them. The Ming passed some laws saying that Muslims not use Chinese surnames. Some genealogies of Muslims like the Li family show debate over teaching Confucian culture and classics like Odes and History or to practice Islam. Ming Taizu passed laws concerning maritime trade which were the major impact upon the life of Quanzhou Muslims. He restricted official maritime trade in Quanzhou to Ryukyu and Guangzhou was to monopolize south sea trade in the 1370s and 1403-1474 after initial getting rid of the Office of Maritime Trade altogether in 1370. Up to the late 16th century, private trade was banned.[132]

Persian Sunni Muslims Sayf al-din (Sai-fu-ding) and Awhad al-Din (A-mi-li-ding) started the Ispah rebellion in 1357 against the Yuan dynasty in Quanzhou and attempted to reach Fuzhou, capital of Fujian. Yuan general Chen Youding defeated the Muslim rebels and slaughtered Muslims of foreign descent in Quanzhou and areas next to Quanzhou. This led to many Muslim foreign fleeing to Java and other places in Southeast Asia to escape the massacres, spreading the Islamic religion. Gresik was ruled by a person from China's Guangdong province and it had a thousand Chinese families who moved there in the 14th century with the name Xin Cun (New Village) in Chinese. THis information was reported by Ma Huan who accompanied Zheng He to visit Java in the 15th century. Ma Huan also mentions Guangdong was the source of many Muslims from China who moved to Java. Cu Cu/Jinbun was said to be Chinese. And like most Muslims form China, Wali Sanga Sunan Giri was Hanafi according to Stamford Raffles.[133][134] Ibn Battuta had visited Quanzhou's large multi-ethnic Muslim community before the Ispah rebellion in 1357 when Muslim soldiers attempted to rebel against the Yuan dynasty. In 1366 the Mongols slaughtered the Sunni Muslims of Quanzhou and ended the rebellion. The Yuan dynasty's violent end saw repeated slaughters of Muslims until the Ming dynasty in 1368. The role of trade in Quanzhou ended as Sunni Muslims fled to Southeast Asia from Quanzhou. The surviving Muslims who fled Quanzhou moved to Manila bay, Brunei, Sumatra, Java and Champa to trade. Zheng He's historian Ma Huan noticed the presence of these Muslim traders in Southeast Asia who had fled form China in his voyages in Barus in Sumatra, Trengganu on the Malayan peninsula, Brunei and Java. The Nine Wali Sanga who converted Java to Islam had Chinese names and originated from Chinese-speaking Quanzhou Muslims who fled there in the 14th century around 1368. The Suharto regime banned talk about this after Mangaradja Parlindungan, a Sumatran Muslim engineer wrote about it in 1964.[135]

The Ming were tolerant of Islam, while their racial policy towards ethnic minorities was of integration through forced marriage. Muslims were allowed to practice Islam, but if they were not Han, they were required by law to intermarry. Hui often married Han, with the Han often converting to Islam.[136][137][138]

Both Mongol and Central Asian Semu Muslim women and men of both sexes were required by Ming Code to marry Han Chinese after the first Ming Emperor Hongwu passed the law in Article 122.[139][140][141]

During the war fighting the Mongols, among the Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang's armies was the Hui Muslim Feng Sheng.[142]

The Ming Dynasty employed many Muslims. Some Hui people claimed that the first Ming Emperor Ming Taizu might have been a Muslim,[116] but this is rejected by most scholars.[143] The Ming used Hui troops to crush the Miao and other aboriginal rebels during the Miao Rebellions, and settled in Changde, where their descendants remain.[144] Muslims were citizens and lived freely in Beijing, with no restrictions placed on their religious practices or freedom of worship. By contrast Tibetan Buddhists and Catholics suffered restrictions and censure in Beijing.[145]

Marriage between upper class Han Chinese and Hui Muslims was uncommon, since upper class Han men both refused to marry Muslims and forbade their daughters from marrying Muslims, since they did not want to convert and lose their upper class status. Only low status Han would convert to marry a Hui woman. Ming law allowed Han men and women to marry each other.[136][137][138]

The Hongwu Emperor decreed the building of mosques throughout China.[116] A Nanjing mosque was built by the Xuande Emperor.[146]

An anti pig slaughter edict by the Zhengde Emperor has led to speculation he adopted Islam due to his use of Muslim eunuchs whose influence in turn may have led to the imperial production of porcelain with Persian and Arabic inscriptions in white and blue color,[147][148][149][150] but it is unknown who really was behind the anti-pig slaughter edict.[151] Muslim eunuchs contributed money in 1496 to repairing Niujie Mosque.[116] The speculation of the Zhengde Emperor becoming a Muslim is based in part on his excessive and debauched behavior along with his concubines of foreign origin.[152][153] Central Asian Uighur women[154] were provided to the Zhengde Emperor by a Muslim guard, Yun Yung[155] and Hami women by a Muslim leader from the Kumul Hami, Sayyid Hussain.[156] Muslim Central Asian girls were favored by Zhengde like how Korean girls were favored by Xuande,[157] and foreign Central Asian Uighur, Mongol (Tatar),[158] and Muslim Semu[159][160] concubines were kept by him.[161] Ni'ergan (你兒干, 你兒幹) was the name of one of his Muslim concubines.[160][162]

When the Qing dynasty invaded the Ming dynasty in 1644, Muslim Ming loyalists in Gansu led by Muslim leaders Milayin[163] and Ding Guodong led a revolt in 1646 against the Qing during the Milayin rebellion in order to drive the Qing out and restore the Ming Prince of Yanchang Zhu Shichuan to the throne as the emperor.[164] The Muslim Ming loyalists were supported by Hami's Sultan Sa'id Baba and his son Prince Turumtay.[165][166][167] The Muslim Ming loyalists were joined by Tibetans and Han Chinese in the revolt.[168] After fierce fighting, and negotiations, a peace agreement was agreed on in 1649, and Milayan and Ding nominally pledged allegiance to the Qing and were given ranks as members of the Qing military.[169] When other Ming loyalists in southern China made a resurgence and the Qing were forced to withdraw their forces from Gansu to fight them, Milayan and Ding once again took up arms and rebelled against the Qing.[170] The Muslim Ming loyalists were then crushed by the Qing with 100,000 of them, including Milayin, Ding Guodong, and Turumtay killed in battle.

The Confucian Hui Muslim scholar Ma Zhu (1640–1710) served with the southern Ming loyalists against the Qing.[171] Zhu Yu'ai, the Ming Prince Gui was accompanied by Hui refugees when he fled from Huguang to the Burmese border in Yunnan and as a mark of their defiance against the Qing and loyalty to the Ming, they changed their surname to Ming.[172]

In Guangzhou, three Ming loyalist Muslims who were killed while fighting in battle against the Qing in the Manchu conquest of China, and these Ming Muslim loyalists were called "jiaomen sanzhong" ("Three defenders of the faith" or "The Muslim's Loyal Trio").[172][173]

The Qing Dynasty grouped minorities by language and forced Hui to wear the queue, while most Turkic-speaking Chinese did not, except for their leaders.[174] During the Qing Salar Muslim men shaved their hair bald while when they went to journey in public they put on artificial queues.[175] Uyghur men shaved their hair bald during the Qing.[176]

The Qing authorities considered both Han and Hui to be Chinese, and in Xinjiang both Hui and Han were classified as merchants, regardless of profession.[177] Laws were passed segregating the different races, in theory keeping Turkic Muslims apart from Hui and Han, however, the law was not followed.[178] Hui and Han households were built closer together in the same area while Turkic Muslims would live farther away from town.[179]

The Manchu Kangxi emperor incited anti-Muslim sentiment among the Mongols of Qinghai (Kokonor) in order to gain support against the Dzungar Oirat Mongol leader Galdan. Kangxi claimed that Chinese Muslims inside China such as Turkic Muslims in Qinghai (Kokonor) were plotting with Galdan, who he falsely claimed converted to Islam. Kangxi falsely claimed that Galdan had spurned and turned his back on Buddhism and the Dalai Lama and that he was plotting to install a Muslim as ruler of China after invading it in a conspiracy with Chinese Muslims. Kangxi also distrusted Muslims of Turfan and Hami.[180]

In the Jahriyya revolt sectarian violence between two suborders of the Naqshbandi Sufis, the Jahriyya Sufi Muslims and their rivals, the Khafiyya Sufi Muslims, led to a Jahriyya Sufi Muslim rebellion which the Qing dynasty in China crushed with the help of the Khafiyya Sufi Muslims.[181]

During the Afaqi Khoja revolts Turkic Muslim raiders from Kokand abducted Hui Muslims and sold them as slaves in Central Asia.

During the mid-nineteenth century, civil wars erupted throughout China, led by various groups against the Qing dynasty. These include the Taiping Rebellion in Southern China (whose leaders were Evangelical Christians of ethnic Han Chinese Hakka and Zhuang background), the Muslim Rebellion in Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia in Northwestern China and Yunnan, and the Miao people Revolt in Hunan and Guizhou. These revolts were eventually put down by the Manchu government. The Dungan people were descendants of the Muslim rebels and fled to the Russian Empire after the rebellion was suppressed by the joint forces of Hunan Army led by Zuo Zongtang (左宗棠) with support from local Hui elites.

The Manchu official Shuxing'a started an anti-Muslim massacre which led to the Panthay Rebellion. Shuxing'a developed a deep hatred of Muslims after an incident where he was stripped naked and nearly lynched by a mob of Muslims. He ordered several Muslim rebels to be slowly sliced to death.[182][183]

The Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, Volume 8 stated that the Dungan and Panthay revolts by the Muslims was set off by racial antagonism and class warfare, rather than religion.[184] The Russian government spent thousands of rubles on an unsuccessful expedition trying to determine the cause of the revolt.[185]

Capture of Dali, the capital of the Pingnan Sultanate in Yunnan, from the set Victory over the Muslims.

The Panthay Rebellion started when a Muslim from a Han family that had converted to Islam, Du Wenxiu, led some Hui to attempt to drive the Manchu out of China and establish a unified Han and Hui state. Du established himself as a Sultan in Yunnan during this revolt. A British military observer testified that the Muslims did not rebel for religious reasons and that the Chinese were tolerant of different religions and were unlikely to have caused the revolt by interfering with Islam.[186] Loyalist Muslim forces helped Qing crush the rebel Muslims.[187] During the Panthay Rebellion, the Qing dynasty did not massacre Muslims who surrendered. Muslim General Ma Rulong, who surrendered and join the Qing campaign to crush the rebel Muslims, was promoted and became the most powerful military official in the province.[30][188]

The Dungan Revolt (1862–77) erupted over a pricing dispute over bamboo poles that a Han merchant was selling to a Hui. After the revolt broke out, Turkic Andijanis from the Kokand Khanate under Yaqub Beg invaded Xinjiang and fought both Hui rebels and Qing forces. Yaqub Beg's Turkic Kokandi Andijani Uzbek forces declared jihad against Dungans under T'o Ming (Tuo Ming a.k.a. Daud Khalifa) during the revolt. Yaqub Beg enlisted non-Muslim Han Chinese militia under Hsu Hsuehkung in the Battle of Ürümqi (1870). T'o Ming's forces were defeated by Yaqub, who planned to conquer Dzungharia. Yaqub intended to seize all Dungan territory.[189][190][191] Poems were written about Yaqub Beg's victories.[192] Hui rebels battled Turkic Muslims in addition to fighting the Qing. Yaqub Beg seized Aksu from Hui forces and forced them north of the Tien Shan mountains, massacring the Dungans (Hui). Reportedly in 1862 the number of Hui in China proper numbered 30,000,000.[193] During the revolt, loyalist Hui helped the Qing crush the rebels and reconquer Xinjiang from Yaqub Beg. Despite a substantial population loss, the military power of Hui increased, because some Hui who had defected to the Qing side were granted high positions in the Imperial Army. One of them, Ma Anliang, became a military warlord in northwest China, and other Generals associated with him grew into the Ma Clique of the Republican era.[194]

Beijing's Hui population was unaffected by the Dungan revolt.[195] Samuel Wells Williams wrote that "they must obey the laws of the land and honor the Emperor as good subjects. They have done so, and, generally speaking, have never been molested on account of their beliefs. Their chief strength lies in the northern part. The recent struggle in the north-western provinces, which cost so many lives, began almost wholly at the instigation of Turk or Tartar sectaries, and was a simple trial of strength as to who should rule. While cities and towns in Kansuh occupied by them were destroyed (in 1860–73), the two hundred thousand Moslems in Peking remained perfectly quiet and were unmolested by the authorities. Some hold office, and pass through the examinations to obtain it, most of them being military men. In their mosques they exhibit a tablet with the customary ascription of reverence to the Emperor, but place the Prophet's name behind."[196]

Allès wrote that the relationship between Hui and Han peoples continued normally in the Henan area, with no ramifications from the rebellions. Allès wrote, "The major Muslim revolts in the middle of the nineteenth century which involved the Hui in Shaanxi, Gansu and Yunnan, as well as the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, do not seem to have had any direct effect on this region of the central plain."[197]

Another revolt erupted in 1895 and was suppressed by loyalist Muslim troops.

Chinese generals pay tribute to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum at the Temple of the Azure Clouds on July 6, 1928 in Beijing after the success of the Northern Expedition. From right to left, are Gen. Cheng Jin, Gen. Zhang Zuobao, Gen. Chen Diaoyuan, Gen. Chiang Kai-shek, Gen. Woo Tsin-hang, Gen. Wen Xishan, Muslim Gen. Ma Fuxiang, Gen. Ma Sida and Muslim Gen. Bai Chongxi.

During the Qing Dynasty, at the entrances of Hui Mosques, a tablet was placed upon which "Huángdì wànsuì, wànsuì, wànwànsuì" (皇帝萬歲，萬歲，萬萬歲) was inscribed, which means, "The Emperor, may he live forever".[198] Westerners traveling in China noted the presence of these tablets at mosques in Yunnan and Ningbo.[199]

The Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics: Life and Death stated that "The religious attitude of the Chinese Muslims is—outwardly, at least— characterized by moderation. They make concessions to the ruling power, hoping thus to gain security for person and property, and the most capable and resolute of those who enter the government service take part in the ceremonial of the national cult. The hatred of foreigners sometimes shown by Muslim officers of high rank, like that displayed by the Chinese themselves, is to be referred, not to religious motives, but to the exasperation provoked by the highhanded way in which foreigners interfere with the internal affairs of the country."[200]

1939, Northwest China, Chinese Muslim fighters gather to fight against the Japanese[201][202]

Dead bodies of the Chinese Hui Muslim Ha family who were slaughtered and raped by the Japanese in Nanjing. The photo comes from Case 5 of John Magee's film: on December 13, 1937, about 30 Japanese soldiers murdered all but two of 11 Chinese Hui Muslims from the Ha family in the house at No. 5 Xinlukou. A woman and her two teenaged daughters were raped, and Japanese soldiers rammed a bottle and a cane into her vagina. An eight-year-old girl was stabbed, but she and her younger sister survived. They were found alive two weeks after the killings by the elderly woman shown in the photo. Bodies of the victims can also be seen in the photo.[203][204]

The Hui Muslim community was divided in its support for the 1911 Xinhai Revolution. The Hui Muslims of Shaanxi supported the revolutionaries and the Hui Muslims of Gansu supported the Qing. The native Hui Muslims of Xi'an (Shaanxi province) joined the Han Chinese revolutionaries in slaughtering the entire 20,000 Manchu population of Xi'an.[205][206][207] The native Hui Muslims of Gansu province led by general Ma Anliang sided with the Qing and prepared to attack the anti-Qing revolutionaries of Xi'an city. Only some wealthy Manchus who were ransomed and Manchu females survived. Wealthy Han Chinese seized Manchu girls to become their slaves[208] and poor Han Chinese troops seized young Manchu women to be their wives.[209] Young pretty Manchu girls were also seized by Hui Muslims of Xi'an during the massacre and brought up as Muslims.[210]

Before the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, when the revolutionaries faced the ideological dilemma on how to unify the country while at the same time acknowledging ethnic minorities, Hui people were noted as Chinese Muslims, separate from Uyghurs.[211] Jahriyya Sufi leader Ma Yuanzhang said in response to accusations that Muslims were disloyal to China:

"Our lives, livelihoods, and graves are in China. . . . We have been good citizens among the Five Nationalities!".[212]

Ma Fuxiang encouraged Confucian-style assimilation for Muslims into Chinese culture and set up an assimilationist group for this purpose.[213] Imams such as Hu Songshan encouraged Chinese nationalism in their mosques and the Yihewani was led by many nationalist Imams.[214][215]

The Kuomintang party and Chiang Kai-shek both considered all Chinese minority peoples, including the Hui, to be descendants of the Yellow Emperor, the mythical founder of the Chinese nation, and thus members of the Chinese Nation Zhonghua Minzu. He introduced this into the Kuomintang's ideology, which was propagated by the educational system of the Republic of China.[216][217][218]

During the Second Sino-Japanese war the Japanese destroyed many mosques. According to Wan Lei, "Statistics showed that the Japanese destroyed 220 mosques and killed countless Hui people by April 1941." After the Rape of Nanking, Nanjing mosques were filled with corpses.The Japanese devastation left many Hui jobless and homeless. Another policy was one of deliberate humiliation. Soldiers smeared mosques with pork fat, forced Hui to butcher pigs to feed soldiers and forced young women to serve as sex slaves under the pretense of training them as geishas and singers. Hui cemeteries were destroyed.[219] Many Hui fought against Japan. Many Hui Muslim in the county of Dachang was killed by the Japanese.[142]

On 10 February 1938, Legation Secretary of the German Embassy, Rosen, wrote to his Foreign Ministry about a film made in December by Reverend John Magee about the Nanking Massacre to recommend its purchase. Here is an excerpt from his letter and a description of some of its shots, kept in the Political Archives of the Foreign Ministry in Berlin. One of the victims killed by the Japanese was a Muslim (Mohammedan) whose name was Ha and his family.

During the Japanese reign of terror in Nanking – which, by the way, continues to this day to a considerable degree – the Reverend John Magee, a member of the American Episcopal Church Mission who has been here for almost a quarter of a century, took motion pictures that eloquently bear witness to the atrocities committed by the Japanese ... One will have to wait and see whether the highest officers in the Japanese army succeed, as they have indicated, in stopping the activities of their troops, which continue even today.[220]

On December 13, about 30 soldiers came to a Chinese house at #5 Hsing Lu Koo in the southeastern part of Nanking, and demanded entrance. The door was open by the landlord, a Muslim named Ha. They killed him immediately with a revolver and also Mrs. Ha, who knelt before them after Ha's death, begging them not to kill anyone else. Mrs. Ha asked them why they killed her husband and they shot her. Mrs. Hsia was dragged out from under a table in the guest hall where she had tried to hide with her 1 year old baby. After being stripped and raped by one or more men, she was bayoneted in the chest, and then had a bottle thrust into her vagina. The baby was killed with a bayonet. Some soldiers then went to the next room, where Mrs. Hsia's parents, aged 76 and 74, and her two daughters aged 16 and 14. They were about to rape the girls when the grandmother tried to protect them. The soldiers killed her with a revolver. The grandfather grasped the body of his wife and was killed. The two girls were then stripped, the elder being raped by 2–3 men, and the younger by 3. The older girl was stabbed afterwards and a cane was rammed in her vagina. The younger girl was bayoneted also but was spared the horrible treatment that had been meted out to her sister and mother. The soldiers then bayoneted another sister of between 7–8, who was also in the room. The last murders in the house were of Ha's two children, aged 4 and 2 respectively. The older was bayoneted and the younger split down through the head with a sword.[221][222][223][224][225][226][227]

In 1939, in order to gain backing for China in Muslim countries, Hui Muslim Ma Fuliang (馬賦良),[228] Uyghur Muslim Isa Yusuf Alptekin, Wang Zengshan, Xue Wenbo, and Lin Zhongming visited various Muslim countries, such as Egypt, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkey.[229][230][231][232] The Hindu leaders Tagore and Gandhi and Muslim Jinnah both discussed the war with the Chinese Muslim delegation under Ma Fuliang while in Turkey İsmet İnönü.[233] Newspapers in China reported the visit.[234] Ma Fuliang and Isa were working for Zhu Jiahua.[235] The Hui Muslim Imam Da Pusheng (达浦生) also toured the Middle East for 8 months to confront Japanese propagandists in Arab countries and denounce their invasion to the Islamic world. He directly confronted Japanese agents in Arab countries and challenged them in public over their propaganda. He went to British India, Hejaz in Saudi Arabia and Cairo in Egypt.[236][237] From 1938 to 1948 Da served on China's National Military Council. Da was educated at Al Azhar in 1923.[238] Da is consider one of China's Four Great Imams who modernized Chinese Islam.[239][240]

The bombardment of Chinese Muslims by the warplanes of the Japanese was reported in the newspapers of Syria. The Foreign Minister, Prime Minister, and President of Turkey met with the Chinese Muslim delegation after they came via Egypt in May 1939. Gandhi and Jinnah met with the Hui Ma Fuliang and Uyghur Isa Alptekin as they denounced Japan.[241] The Hui Muslim delegation under Wang Zengshan in Turkey denounced the Japanese invaders through the Turkish media. During a meeting of ambassadors in Turkey the Japanese ambassador was forced to be quiet after being told to shut up by the Soviet Russian ambassador when the Japanese tried to insinuate that the Hui representatives did not represent ordinary Muslims.[242]

Taichung Mosque in Taiwan. About 20,000 Muslims fled mainland China with the Nationalist Government to Taiwan in 1949.

In 1937, during the Battle of Beiping–Tianjin the Chinese government was notified by Muslim General Ma Bufang of the Ma clique that he was prepared to bring the fight to the Japanese in a telegram message.[243] Immediately after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Ma Bufang arranged for a cavalry division under the Muslim General Ma Biao to be sent east to battle the Japanese.[244] Ethnic Turkic Salar Muslims made up the majority of the first cavalry division which was sent by Ma Bufang.[245]

Ma Bufang's army battled extensively in bloody battles against the Japanese in Henan province. The Qinghai Chinese, Salar, Chinese Muslim, Dongxiang, and Tibetan troops were under the commander of Ma Biao, being sent to fight to the death against the Imperial Japanese Army. When they defeated the Japanese, the Muslim troops slaughtered all of them except for a few prisoners to send back to Qinghai prove that they were victorious. In September 1940, when the Japanese made an offensive against the Muslim Qinghai troops, the Muslims ambushed them and killed so many of them they were forced to retreat.[246][247]

Panglong, a Chinese Muslim town in British Burma, was entirely destroyed by the Japanese invaders in the Japanese invasion of Burma.[248]> The Hui Muslim Ma Guanggui became the leader of the Hui Panglong self defense guard created by Su who was sent by the Kuomintang government of the Republic of China to fight against the Japanese invasion of Panglong in 1942. The Japanese destroyed Panglong, burning it and driving out the over 200 Hui households out as refugees. Yunnan and Kokang received Hui refugees from Panglong driven out by the Japanese. One of Ma Guanggui's nephews was Ma Yeye, a son of Ma Guanghua and he narrated the history of Panglang included the Japanese attack.[249] An account of the Japanese attack on the Hui in Panglong was written and published in 1998 by a Hui from Panglong called "Panglong Booklet".[250] The Japanese attack in Burma caused the Hui Mu family to seek refuge in Panglong but they were driven out again to Yunnan from Panglong when the Japanese attacked Panglong.[251]

Hui people during Eid al-Adha at Jiangwan Mosque, Shanghai.

Muslim restaurant in Xi'an

The Cultural Revolution wreaked much havoc on all cultures and ethnicities in China. The quelling of Hui militant rebels at the hands of the People's Liberation Army in Yunnan, known as the Shadian incident, reportedly claimed over 1,600 lives in 1975.[252]

Different Muslim ethnic groups in different regions are treated differently by the Chinese government in regards to religious freedom. A greater freedom is permitted for Hui Muslims, who can practice their religion, build Mosques, and have their children attend Mosques, while more controls are placed specifically on Uyghurs in Xinjiang.[253] Since the 1980s Islamic private schools have been supported and permitted by the Chinese government among Muslim areas, only specifically excluding Xinjiang due of separatist sentiment there.[254] Although religious education for children is officially forbidden by law in China, the Communist party allows Hui Muslims to have their children educated in the religion and attend Mosques while the law is enforced on Uyghurs. After secondary education is completed, China then allows Hui students who are willing to embark on religious studies under an Imam.[255] China does not enforce the law against children attending Mosques on non-Uyghurs in areas outside of Xinjiang.[256][257]

Hui religious schools are also allowed to establish a large autonomous network of mosques and schools run by a Hui Sufi leader, which was formed with the approval of the Chinese government even though he admitted to attending an event where Bin Laden spoke.[258][259]

Hui Muslims who are employed by the state are allowed to fast during Ramadan unlike Uyghurs in the same positions. The number of Hui going on Hajj is expanding, while Uyghurs find it difficult to get passports to go on Hajj; Hui women are also allowed to wear veils, while Uyghur women are discouraged from wearing them.[260] Many Hui women wear veils and headscarves.[261] There is a major halal industry and Islamic clothing industry to manufacture Muslim attire such as skull caps, veils, and headscarves in the Hui region of Ningxia.[262]

China banned a book titled Xing Fengsu ("Sexual Customs") which insulted Islam and placed its authors under arrest in 1989 after protests in Lanzhou and Beijing by Chinese Hui Muslims, during which the Chinese police provided protection to the Hui Muslim protestors, and the Chinese government organized public burnings of the book.[263][264][265][266] The Chinese government assisted them and gave into their demands because Hui do not have a separatist movement, unlike the Uyghurs.[267] Hui Muslim protesters who violently rioted by vandalizing property during the protests against the book were let off by the Chinese government and went unpunished while Uyghur protestors were imprisoned.[268]

In 2007, anticipating the coming "Year of the Pig" in the Chinese calendar, depictions of pigs were banned from CCTV "to avoid conflicts with ethnic minorities".[269] This is believed to refer to China's population of 20 million Muslims (to whom pigs are considered "unclean").

In response to the 2015 Charlie Hebdo shooting Chinese state-run media attacked Charlie Hebdo for publishing the cartoons insulting Muhammad, with the state-run Xinhua advocated limiting freedom of speech, while another state-run newspaper Global Times said the attack was "payback" for what it characterised as Western colonialism and accusing Charlie Hebdo of trying to incite a clash of civilizations.[270][271]

Hui Muslims have been alleged to have experienced greater repression of religious activities in recent years.[272] In 2018, paramount leader Xi Jinping issued a directive aimed at the sinicization of Chinese Muslims.[273] Since then, the government has been accused of repressing aspects of Hui culture deemed "Arab". Most of these repressions have been limited to the removal of aesthetically Islamic building and symbols, with the government renovating architecture to appear more Chinese and banning Arabic signs in Hui regions.[274] More drastic repressions have been taken, such as closing mosques or removing licenses from Imams who have traveled outside of China.[275]

At least two Hui Muslims have allegedly been included in the reeducation camps, termed "Vocational Education and Training Centers" which the Chinese government claims are aimed at reforming the political thought of detainees, including extremist religious beliefs and separatist or terrorist sympathies.[276][277] One or more of the Hui within these camps may have faced torture, and are allegedly grouped in different cells from Kazakhs and Uighurs, and on rare occasion die from stress.[275][278]

Tensions between Hui Muslims and Uyghurs have arisen because Hui troops and officials often dominated the Uyghurs and crushed Uyghur revolts.[279] Xinjiang's Hui population increased by more than 520 per cent between 1940 and 1982, an average annual growth of 4.4 percent, while the Uyghur population only grew at 1.7 percent. This dramatic increase in Hui population led inevitably to significant tensions between the Hui and Uyghur populations. Many Hui Muslim civilians were killed by Uyghur rebellion troops known as Kizil massacre (1933).[280] Some Uyghurs in Kashgar remember that the Hui army at the Battle of Kashgar (1934) massacred 2,000 to 8,000 Uyghurs, which causes tension as more Hui moved into Kashgar from other parts of China.[281] Some Hui criticize Uyghur separatism and generally do not want to get involved in conflict in other countries.[282] Hui and Uyghur live separately, attending different mosques.[283] During the 2009 rioting in Xinjiang that killed around 200 people, "Kill the Han, kill the Hui." is a common cry spread across social media among Uyghur extremists.[284]

The Uyghur militant organization East Turkestan Islamic Movement's magazine Islamic Turkistan has accused the Chinese "Muslim Brotherhood" (the Yihewani) of being responsible for the moderation of Hui Muslims and the lack of Hui joining militant jihadist groups in addition to blaming other things for the lack of Hui Jihadists, such as the fact that for more than 300 years Hui and Uyghurs have been enemies of each other, no separatist Islamist organizations among the Hui, the fact that the Hui view China as their home, and the fact that the "infidel Chinese" language is the language of the Hui.[285][286]

Even among Hui Salafis (Sailaifengye) and Uyghur Salafis, there is little coordination or cooperation and the two have totally different political agendas, with the Hui Salafists content to carry out their own teachings and remain politically neutral.[287][288] However, in recent years, the Hui Salafi movement has begun to receive massive investments from the Gulf states like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which functioned Salafism as the major Islamic sect, resulted with expansion of Hui Salafism and a number of Hui Salafis started to share sympathy with Uyghur separatism, which was a major change from the past.

Hui Muslim drug dealers are accused by Uyghur Muslims of pushing heroin onto Uyghurs.[289][290] There is a typecast image in the public eye of heroin being the province of Hui dealers.[291]

Despite the general animosity between Hui and Uyghurs, the Taoyuan Uyghurs and Hui have a high rate of intermarriage.

The Lhasa Great Mosque in Tibet

In Tibet, the majority of Muslims are Hui people. Antagonism between Tibetans and Muslims stems from events during the Muslim warlord Ma Bufang's rule such as the Ngolok rebellions (1917–49) and the Sino-Tibetan War, but such hostility was suppressed after the Communist invasion and takeover in 1949.[292] However, renewed Tibetan-Muslim violence broke out in the wake of the gradual liberalization of China, that resulted in increased movement of people, such as Han and Hui Chinese, into Tibetan areas.[292] Riots broke out between Muslims and Tibetans over incidents such as bones in soups and prices of balloons, and Tibetans accused Muslims of being cannibals who cooked humans in their soup and of contaminating food with urine. Muslim restaurants were attacked, and apartments and shops of Muslims were set on fire in the riots in mid-March 2008, resulting in death and injury. Tibetans also boycotted Muslim owned businesses.[293]^:17 In August 2008, the main Mosque in Lhasa was burned down by Tibetans during the 2008 Tibetan unrest.[294] Some Muslims avoided overt display of religious identity in the wake of the violence. Many Hui Muslims also supported the repression of Tibetan separatism by the Chinese government, complicating their relationship.[292] Problems also exist between Chinese-speaking Hui and Tibetan Hui (the Tibetan-speaking Kache minority of Muslims).[295]

There have been many occurrences of violent sectarian fighting between different Hui sects, mostly began from the Qing dynasty. Sectarian fighting between Hui sects led to the Jahriyya rebellion in the 1780s and the 1895 revolt. After a hiatus after the People's Republic of China came to power, sectarian infighting resumed in the 1990s in Ningxia between different sects. Several sects refuse to intermarry with each other. One Sufi sect circulated an anti-Salafi pamphlet in Arabic.

In recent years, the Salafi movement in China has increased rapidly among Hui population due to investment from the Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait; as an exchange for Chinese increasing investments in the Gulf nations as part of One Belt, One Road initiative. This resulted with more mosques occupied under Salafis in China, and a small but growing number of Huis had supported or even joined the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Chinese officials were believed to have ignored growing Hui Sufis' resentment against growing Salafi movement until recently.[296]

ISIL had released a music video called "I am mujahid" in Mandarin to reportedly attract Hui Muslims joining the organization.[297][298]

The Sufi mausoleum (gongbei) of Ma Laichi in Linxia City, China.

Hui are all Sunni Muslim following different Sufi schools. Ma Tong recorded that the 6,781,500 Sunni Hui in China followed 58.2% Gedimu, 21% Yihewani, 10.9% Jahriyya, 7.2% Khuffiya, 1.4% Qadariyya and 0.7% Kubrawiyya Sufi schools.[299]

The Xianxian Mosque in Guangzhou

The style of architecture of Hui Mosques varies according to their sect. The traditionalist Gedimu Hanafi Sunnis, influenced by Chinese culture, build mosques which look like Chinese temples. The reformist modernist (but originally Wahhabi inspired) Yihewani build their mosques in the Middle Eastern Arab style.

Hui women once employed foot binding, at the time a common practice across China. It was particularly prevalent in Gansu.[184] The Dungan people, descendants of Hui from northwestern China who fled to Central Asia, also practised foot binding until 1948.[309] However, in southern China, in Canton, James Legge encountered a mosque that had a placard denouncing footbinding, saying Islam did not allow it since it violated God's creation.[310]

An ethnic Hui family celebrating Eid ul-Fitr in Ningxia.

French army Commandant Viscount D'Ollone reported in 1910 that Sichuanese Hui did not strictly enforce the Islamic practices of teetotaling, ritual washing and Friday prayers. Chinese practices like incense burning at ancestral tablets and honoring Confucius were adopted. One practice that was stringently observed was the ban on pork consumption.[22]

Hui men praying in a mosque

The Sunni Gedimu and the Yihewani burned incense during worship. This was viewed as Daoist or Buddhist influence.[311] The Hui were also known as the "White capped". Hui used incense during worship, while the Salar, also known as "black capped" Hui considered this to be a heathen ritual and denounced it.[312]

In Yunnan province, during the Qing Dynasty, tablets that wished the Emperor a long life were placed at mosque entrances. No minarets were available and no chanting accompanied the call to prayer. The mosques were similar to Buddhist Temples, and incense was burned inside.[313]

Hui enlisted in the military and were praised for their martial skills.[193]

Circumcision in Islam is known as khitan. Islamic scholars agree that it is required (mandatory), or recommended the practice is seen as symbol of Muslim belief. Since circumcision in China does not have the weight of pre-existing traditions as it does elsewhere in the Muslim world, circumcision rates among Hui are much lower than among other Muslim communities (where the procedure is nearly universal).[314]

The long history of Hui residence and mixing in China has led the Hui to adopt names typical of their Han neighbors; however, some common Hui names are actually Chinese renderings of common Muslim (i.e. Arabic), Persian, and Central Asian names. For instance, surname "Ma" for "Muhammad".

Hui people usually have a Chinese name and a Muslim name in Arabic, although the Chinese name is used primarily. Some Hui do not remember their Muslim names.[315]

Hui people who adopt foreign names may not use their Muslim names.[316] An example of this is Pai Hsien-yung, a Hui author in America, who adopted the name Kenneth. His father was Muslim General Bai Chongxi, who had his children adopt western names.

Hui people commonly believe that their surnames originated as "Sinified" forms of their foreign Muslim ancestors some time during the Yuan or Ming eras.[317] Common Hui surnames:[318][319][320][321]

A legend in Ningxia states that four common Hui surnames—Na, Su, La, and Ding—originate with the descendants of Nasruddin, a son of Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar, who "divided" the ancestor's name (Nasulading, in Chinese) among themselves.[323]

The Han Kitab is a collection of Islamic and Confucian texts written by various Hui Authors in the 18th century, including Liu Zhi.

New works were written by Hui intellectuals following education reform by Ma Clique Warlords and Bai Chongxi. Some texts were translated from Arabic.[324]

A new edition of a book by Ma Te-hsin, called Ho-yin Ma Fu-ch'u hsien-sheng i-shu Ta hua tsung kuei Ssu tien yaohui, first printed in 1865, was reprinted in 1927 by Ma Fuxiang.[325]

General Ma Fuxiang invested in new editions of Confucian and Islamic texts.[326] He edited Shuofang Daozhi,[327][328] a gazette and books such as Meng Cang ZhuangKuang: Hui Bu Xinjiang fu.[329][330]

The Hui of Yunnan (Burmese called them Panthays) were reported to be fluent in Arabic.[186] During the Panthay Rebellion, Arabic replaced Chinese as the official language of the rebel kingdom.[331]

In 1844 "The Chinese repository, Volume 13" was published, including an account of an Englishman who stayed in the Chinese city of Ningbo, where he visited the local mosque. The Hui running the mosque was from Shandong and descended from residents of the Arabian city of Medina. He was able to read and speak Arabic with ease, but was illiterate in Chinese, although he was born in China and spoke Chinese.[332]

Hui marriages resemble typical Chinese marriages except that traditional Chinese rituals are not used.[333]

Endogamy is practiced by Hui, who mainly marry among themselves rather than with Muslims from other sects.[334]

However, the Hui Na family in Ningxia is known to practice both parallel and cross cousin marriage.[318] The Najiahu village in Ningxia is named after this family, descended from Sayyid Ajjal Shams al-Din Omar.[323]

Intermarriage generally involves a Han Chinese converting to Islam when marrying a Hui, and marriage without conversion only takes place rarely. In Hui discourse, marriage between a Hui woman and a Han man is not allowed unless the Han converts to Islam, although it occurred repeatedly in Eastern China.[197] Generally Han of both sexes have to convert to Islam before marrying. This practice helped increase the population of Hui.[335] A case of switching nationality occurred in 1972 when a Han man married a Hui and was considered a Hui after converting.[318]

Zhao nuxu is a practice where the son-in-law moves in with the wife's family. Some marriages between Han and Hui are conducted this way. The husband does not need to convert, but the wife's family follows Islamic customs. No census data documents this type of marriage, reporting only cases in which the wife moves in with the groom's family.[336] In Henan province, a marriage was recorded between a Han boy and Hui girl without the Han converting, during the Ming Dynasty. Steles in Han and Hui villages record this story and Hui and Han members of the Lineage celebrate at the ancestral temple together.[337]

In Beijing Oxen street Gladney found 37 Han–Hui couples, two of which were had Hui wives and the other 35 had Hui husbands.[338] Data was collected in different Beijing districts. In Ma Dian 20% of intermarriages were Hui women marrying into Han families, in Tang Fang 11% of intermarriage were Hui women marrying into Han families. 67.3% of intermarriage in Tang Fang were Han women marrying into a Hui family and in Ma Dian 80% of intermarriage were Han women marrying into Hui families.[339]

Li Nu, the son of Li Lu, from a Han Chinese Li family in Quanzhou visited Hormuz in Persia in 1376. He married a Persian or an Arab girl, and brought her back to Quanzhou. He then converted to Islam. Li Nu was the ancestor of Ming Dynasty reformer Li Chih.[85][340][341]

In Gansu province in the 1800s, a Muslim Hui woman married into the Han Chinese Kong lineage of Dachuan, which was descended from Confucius. The Han Chinese groom and his family were only converted to Islam after the marriage by their Muslim relatives.[80] In 1715 in Yunnan province, few Han Chinese married Hui women and converted to Islam.[81]

Jiang Xingzhou 姜興舟, a Han bannerman lieutenant from the Bordered Yellow Banner married a Muslim woman in Mukden during Qianlong's late reign. He fled his position due to fear of being punished for being a bannerman marrying a commoner woman. He was sentenced to death for leaving his official post but the sentence was commuted and he was not executed.[342][343]

In the Dungan Revolt (1895–96) 400 Muslims in Topa 多巴 did not join the revolt and proclaimed their loyalty to China. An argument between a Han Chinese and his Muslim wife led to these Muslims getting massacred, when she threatened that the Muslims from Topa would attack Tankar and give a signal to their co-religionists to rise up and open the gates by burning the temples atop the hills. The husband reported this to an official and the next day the Muslims were massacred with the exception of a few Muslim girls who were married off to Han Chinese.[344][345][346]

Hui men marrying Han women and Han men who marry Hui women achieve above average education.[347]

Hui have supported modern education and reform. Hui such as Hu Songshan and the Ma Clique warlords promoted western, modern secular education.

Elite Hui received both Muslim and Confucian education. They studied the Quran and Confucian texts like the Spring and Autumn Annals.[348]

Hui people refused to follow the May Fourth Movement. Instead, they taught both western subjects such as science along with traditional Confucian literature and Classical Chinese, along with Islamic education and Arabic.[349]

Hui warlord Ma Bufang built a girls' school in Linxia that taught modern secular subjects.[350]

Hui have had female Imams, called Nu Ahong for centuries. They are the world's only female Imams. They guide females in prayer but are not allowed to lead prayers.[351]

Ma Jiyuan, a Muslim General, at his wedding with Kuomintang flag.

Chiang Kai-shek, head of the Kuomintang with Muslim General Ma Fushou.

Muslims have served extensively in the Chinese military for a long time in Chinese history, as both officials and soldiers, often filling the more distinguished military positions.[184] During the Tang dynasty, 3,000 Chinese soldiers and 3,000 Muslim soldiers were traded to each other in an agreement.[352] In 756, over 4,000 Arab mercenaries joined the Chinese against An Lushan. They remained in China, and some of them become ancestors of the Hui people.[352][76][353][354]

During the Ming dynasty, Hui Generals and troops loyal to Ming fought against Mongols and Hui loyal to the Yuan Dynasty in the Ming conquest of Yunnan.[355][356] Hui also fought for the emperor against aboriginal tribes in southern China during the Miao Rebellions. Many Hui soldiers of the Ming dynasty then settled in Yunnan and Hunan provinces.[144]

During the Qing Dynasty, Hui troops in the Imperial army helped crush Hui rebels during the Dungan revolt and Panthay Rebellion. The Qing administration also preferred to use Hui in Xinjiang as police.[357] Yang Zengxin, the Han Chinese governor of Xinjiang, extensively relied on Hui Generals like Ma Shaowu and Ma Fuxing. Qing Muslim General Zuo Baogui (1837–1894), from Shandong province, was killed in Pingyang in Korea by Japanese cannon fire in 1894 while defending the city, where a memorial to him stands.[358] Hui troops also fought western armies for the first time in the Boxer Rebellion, winning battles including the Battle of Langfang and Battle of Beicang. These troops were the Kansu Braves led by General Dong Fuxiang.

Military service continued into the Republic of China. After the Kuomintang party took power, Hui participation in the military reached new levels. Qinghai and Ningxia were created out of Gansu province, and the Kuomintang appointed Hui Generals as military Governors of all three provinces. They became known as the Ma Clique. Many Muslim Salar joined the army in the Republic era; they and Dongxiang who have joined the army are described as being given "eating rations" meaning military service.[359][360]

The Chinese government appointed Ma Fuxiang as military governor of Suiyuan. Ma Fuxiang commented on the willingness for Hui people to become martyrs in Battle (see Martyrdom in Islam), saying:

They have not enjoyed the educational and political privileges of the Han Chinese, and they are in many respects primitive. But they know the meaning of fidelity, and if I say "do this, although it means death," they cheerfully obey.[361]

Hui generals and soldiers fought for the Republic against Tibet in the Sino-Tibetan War, against Uyghur rebels in the Kumul Rebellion, the Soviet Union in the Soviet Invasion of Xinjiang and against Japan in the Second Sino Japanese War. The Japanese planned to invade Ningxia from Suiyuan in 1939 and create a Hui puppet state. The next year in 1940, the Japanese were defeated militarily by Kuomintang Muslim General Ma Hongbin. Ma Hongbin's Hui Muslim troops launched further attacks against Japan in the Battle of West Suiyuan.[362] The Chinese Islamic Association issued "A message to all Muslims in China from the Chinese Islamic Association for National Salvation" in Ramadan of 1940 during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

We have to implement the teaching "the love of the fatherland is an article of faith" by the Prophet Muhammad and to inherit the Hui's glorious history in China. In addition, let us reinforce our unity and participate in the twice more difficult task of supporting a defensive war and promoting religion.... We hope that ahongs and the elite will initiate a movement of prayer during Ramadan and implement group prayer to support our intimate feeling toward Islam. A sincere unity of Muslims should be developed to contribute power towards the expulsion of Japan.

"Ahong" is the Mandarin Chinese word for "imam". During the war against Japan, the imams supported Muslim resistance, calling for Muslims to participate in the fight against Japan, claiming that casualties would become a shaheed (martyr).[363] Ma Zhanshan was a Hui guerilla fighter against the Japanese.

Ma Bufang and Hui children in Egypt.

Hui forces were known for their anti-communist sentiment, and had fought for the Kuomintang against the Communists in the Chinese Civil War, and against rebels during the Ili Rebellion. Bai Chongxi, a Hui general, was appointed to the post of Minister of National Defence, the highest military position in the Republic of China. After the Communist victory, and evacuation of the Kuomintang to Taiwan, Hui people continued to serve in the military of the Republic as opposed to the Communist-led People's Republic. Ma Bufang became the ambassador of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to Saudi Arabia. His brother, Ma Buqing, remained a military general on Taiwan. Bai Chongxi and Ma Ching-chiang were other Hui who served in Taiwan as military generals.

The PLA used Hui soldiers, who formally had served under Ma Bufang, as well as Salafi soldiers, to crush the Tibetan revolt in Amdo during the 1959 Tibetan uprising.[364]

Ma Fuxiang

Chinese Generals pay tribute to the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Beijing in 1928 after the success of the Northern Expedition. From right to left, are Generals Cheng Jin, Zhang Zuobao, Chen Diaoyuan, Chiang Kai-shek, Woo Tsin-hang, Wen Xishan, Ma Fuxiang, Ma Sida and Muslim General Bai Chongxi.

The Majority of the Hui Muslim Ma Clique Generals were Kuomintang party members and encouraged Chinese nationalism in their provinces. Kuomintang members Ma Qi, Ma Lin (warlord), and Ma Bufang served as Military Governors of Qinghai, Ma Hongbin served as military Governor of Gansu, and Ma Hongkui served as military governor of Ningxia. General Ma Fuxiang was promoted to Governor of Anhui and became chairman of Mongolian and Tibetan Affairs. Ma Bufang, Ma Fuxiang, and Bai Chongxi were all members of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang, which ruled China in a one-party state. Member Bai Chongxi helped build the Taipei Grand Mosque on Taiwan. Many members of the Hui Ma Clique were Kuomintang.

Hui put Kuomintang Blue Sky with a White Sun party symbols on their Halal restaurants and shops. A Christian missionary in 1935 took a picture of a Muslim meat restaurant in Hankow that had Arabic and Chinese lettering indicating that it was Halal (fit for Muslim consumption). It had two Kuomintang party symbols on it.[365][366]