Chinese Islam, Born of Iranian Islam
According to Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) – Reza Dastjerdi: “Hankitab” is the process of translating and compiling Islamic books into Chinese and their works, also serving as a gateway for us Iranians to better understand Eastern teachings. According to the scholars of this movement, Islam does not conflict with the Three Teachings, and today, there is a version of Chinese Islam that is a valuable treasure for the history of rationality in China. The scholars of “Hankitab” succeeded in expressing Islamic teachings with a Chinese flavor in such a way that these works were welcomed even by non-Muslim Chinese scholars. What follows is the outcome of IBNA’s interview with Maliheh Rahmani, a translator and researcher, also the translator of Sachiko Murata’s “The Tao of Islam,” one of the prominent works that analyzes the religious and cultural concepts of Islam from a new and different perspective.
Why did you turn to the subject of Chinese Islam? I ask this question because our knowledge of this topic is very limited?
For a long time, I have been interested in Chinese tradition, especially the Daoist tradition, as well as Islamic mysticism, especially Ibn Arabi. Through the translation of “The Tao of Islam,” I became acquainted with its author, Sachiko Murata. After this book, Ms. Murata began working on the “Hankitab” works of Chinese Muslims and has been translating these works into English for a long time. “Hankitab” comprises works written by Muslim thinkers in China, in which Islam, especially theoretical Islamic mysticism, is explained within the framework of Neo-Confucian tradition – which combines my two enduring interests! After “The Tao of Islam,” I also went on to translate one of the important “Hankitab” works, which is Ms. Murata’s latest published work. But as you mentioned, our knowledge of this topic in Iran is very limited, and although a part of another work by Ms. Murata related to this, titled “Chinese Illumination of the Light of Sufism,” has been published, this book has remained virtually unread and unnoticed.
When did Islam enter China, and how did it penetrate despite the country’s closed geography?
Islam entered China approximately in the first century AH. In China itself, there are legends about the entry of Muslims into this land, and figures from early Islam are introduced as those who brought Islam to China. In any case, Islam entered China in its early stages, during the Tang Dynasty, probably via the Silk Road and Muslim traders. However, the mass entry of Muslims and their gaining social status occurred through the Mongol invasion of China during the Yuan Dynasty. In fact, just as many Easterners went west with the Mongol invasions, many Westerners also came east, and many Muslims from Central Asia entered China and even the imperial court. For instance, Wang Daiyu, a prominent Muslim scholar in the 17th century, states that his ancestors, who were astronomers from Persia, entered the imperial court 300 years before him at the invitation of Emperor Gao to reform the Chinese calendar. Many Iranians who entered China, either for trade or because of their knowledge and art, settled in this land and its various important cities of that time. These Muslims, after being accepted into society and receiving Chinese surnames, completely transformed into “Chinese” Muslims after several centuries. These Muslims have no relation to the Uyghur ethnic group, who are of Turkic origin and language and lived in Turkestan, neighboring ancient China.
When we speak of the “difficulty of penetrating Chinese society” at that time, we must understand that we do not mean the impassability of China’s routes or the difficulty of entering Chinese territory! For several millennia, people from India, Iran, and Rome easily traveled to and from China via the Silk Road, by land and sea. Rather, the intent is that China’s predominantly Confucian class-based society made it very difficult to be accepted as a “non-foreigner.” The notion of “China being confined among mountains” should also not be understood geographically; rather, this form of thinking in China is a metaphorical expression of its being “preserved and impenetrable.”
What are the characteristics of the Chinese version of Islam, and how does it differ from Islam in other regions?
First, let me state that the phrase “Chinese Islam” means nothing other than Islam itself. The Chinese suffix merely indicates the flavor, or rather, the mold and attire that the essence of “Islam” has adopted. Henri Corbin also uses the term “Iranian Islam.” Some dislike these phrases because they rightly say that Islam is Islam, and it is neither Iranian, Chinese, nor Indian. When we say Chinese Islam, we do not mean that we are dealing with something completely different, but rather the unique flavor that Islam has taken on by being in China. For example, when a Chinese Muslim scholar wrote a book about the life of the Prophet of Islam, he tried to emphasize the Prophet’s “heavenly splendor” rather than historical events, because this charisma of sages and wise men is a familiar and deeply rooted concept in Chinese tradition. So, this is a “Chinese Biography of the Prophet,” in the sense mentioned. Or, in a book written about Islamic metaphysics, the Chinese Muslim author tried to emphasize dualities, such as the two attributes of God, “Power” and “Knowledge,” and then to name other dualities, for example, the duality of intellects and souls in the realm of angels, because in Chinese tradition, dualities are very important, and the entire universe originates from the eternal duality of heaven and earth, or Yang and Yin. A very important difference in this form of expressing Islamic concepts compared to other civilizations where Islam entered, stems from the Chinese script itself. This script is ideographic and pictographic, so phonetic transcription and the introduction of foreign concepts into it are very difficult. For example, consider the word “Kitab” in the phrase “Hankitab”; for its phonetic transcription, three words “Keh,” “Ta,” “Bo” are used, meaning “to overcome,” “pagoda,” and “fabric”! Now, if someone wants to write a book on Islamic concepts in Chinese, to avoid difficult phonetic transcriptions, they can translate the intended Islamic concept into an equivalent concept in Chinese tradition. This is what began in the 16th century in China, and Muslim scholars in China, for various reasons, started writing books in Chinese. The result of their work is the works known as “Hankitab.” In “Hankitab” texts, various Islamic topics are presented in Neo-Confucian terms, which was the dominant tradition in China at that time. We can call this form of expressing Islamic topics within Chinese concepts “Chinese Islam.”
Islam and Buddhism, as two Eastern and Western religions, have many differences, making dialogue between them difficult. How did the exchange of ideas take place?
Much can be said about the similarities or differences between Islam and the Buddhist tradition, and this is not the place for such a discussion. However, in brief, the Islamic spiritual tradition and the Buddhist tradition are very close in many aspects. Our discussion here focuses on China from the 16th to 19th centuries, and naturally, on the Chinese Buddhist tradition and how Chinese Muslims interacted with it. It is interesting to know that in the early days of Islam’s entry into China, during the Tang Dynasty, one of the words Muslims used to express “God” was “Buddha”! Wang Daiyu, a prominent Muslim scholar in the 17th century, frequently debated with Buddhist monks. He even recorded his conversations with a prominent Buddhist monk in one of his works and stated that this monk became his student after several days and nights of discussion. Naturally, some beliefs of the Buddhist tradition, such as the belief in reincarnation, conflicted with the beliefs of Chinese Muslims. Furthermore, Muslim scholars criticized the absence of a “positive aspect” in Buddhist metaphysics, and its purely transcendental nature. However, this criticism did not mean that they did not use Buddhist teachings to express Islamic concepts and benefit from this intellectual foundation of Chinese rationality. For example, Wang Daiyu used the Buddhist teaching “ten thousand dharmas return to one” to express the concept of “numerical unity” or the station of “Wahidiyyah” in theoretical mysticism.
Please explain the “Hankitab” project. What is the content of this project and what are its characteristics?
For centuries, Chinese Muslims were compelled to study classical Islamic works in Persian and Arabic to learn about Islam. From the 16th century, as Islamic schools with various educational systems emerged across China, the need for Chinese-language resources to study Islam grew stronger. Following this need, a group of Muslim scholars began translating important Islamic works into Chinese. One of the most important of these works was “Mirsaad al-Ibad” by Najm al-Din Razi. This Persian-language work was so important in China that legends formed around it: that “we” saw our grandfather in a dream pointing to a tree in the courtyard and telling us to dig it up, and after waking and digging, the person found a box containing a book, and… this “discovered” book was “Mirsaad al-Ibad.” Jami’s Persian works, such as “Lawa’ih” and “Ash’at al-Lama’at,” were also among the first works translated. In fact, the presence of Naqshbandi Sufism among Chinese Muslims contributed to the importance of these works among them. Books based on these translated works were also compiled in Chinese. This movement of translating and compiling Islamic books into Chinese and its resulting works became known as “Hankitab.” “Han” was a word used by the Chinese for China, and “Kitab” (book), an Arabic word phonetically transcribed with a Persian pronunciation, was used to express the Islamic nature of these works. The important point here, as mentioned, is that the writers of “Hankitab,” to express Islamic concepts, utilized various Daoist, Confucian, and Buddhist concepts (the Three Teachings). Part of this was due to the unique characteristic of the Chinese script, but another part was to introduce Islam to the elite and scholarly classes of China. The scholars of “Hankitab” succeeded in expressing Islamic teachings with a Chinese flavor in such a way that these works were welcomed even by non-Muslim Chinese scholars. For example, the book Liu Ji wrote on Islamic Sharia was very well received by the scholarly class in China because they found it to be a book that spoke of “Li,” meaning “rites” and correct social actions that bring about balance. Liu Ji’s art was that in composing this book, instead of emphasizing the details of religious rulings, he highlighted and made comprehensible the Islamic “Li” for the Chinese audience. Hankitab scholars also tried to express concepts related to the origin and ultimate destiny of the world in a Neo-Confucian framework in a way that could influence these teachings and open new horizons for the Three Teachings.
What are the differences and similarities between Iranian Islam and Chinese Islam?
If we consider Iranian Islam and Chinese Islam in the sense previously mentioned, both share the characteristic of having a local flavor. Islam was primarily introduced to China by Iranians, and Iranian Sufism was also present among Chinese Muslims. Thus, Chinese Islam was born through Iranian Islam. It was mentioned how much Persian works like “Mirsaad al-Ibad,” “Lawa’ih,” “Ash’at al-Lama’at,” “Maqsad-e Aqsa: Aziz al-Din Nasafi,” etc., played a role in the formation of “Hankitab.” The similarity between Iranian Islam and Chinese Islam lies in these very teachings; for instance, in both, the expression of Islamic teachings, whether Iranian or Chinese, the concept of “Farreh” (divine glory) and “charismatic human” has a deep history and roots. For Iranians and Chinese alike, this concept was understandable due to their cultural and intellectual background. However, the difference between these two expressions of Islam relates to the Neo-Confucian context of Chinese Muslims. The way the origin of the world is expressed, due to this intellectual background, differs from Iran and other Islamic lands. The absence of concepts such as “God” or “creation ex nihilo” in the Chinese context led the writers of “Hankitab” to seek other corresponding concepts, the details of which cannot be provided here. The same applies to the expression of the concept of “Ma’ad” (resurrection/afterlife).
Today, Muslims in China are under pressure. What is the cause of this pressure? Is it political, or does it have social and cultural origins?
What I have explained so far pertained to Muslims in China from the 16th to 19th centuries. Regarding their current situation, I am not qualified to comment or have much information. We all know that “communist ideology” tolerates no belief other than itself, and it is obvious that Muslims, like Daoists, Buddhists, and Christians in China, are under pressure. I must emphasize again that we are talking about Chinese Muslims, not Uyghurs, who are neither Chinese-speaking nor of Chinese ethnicity. The pressure on Chinese Muslims might be greater than on other religions in China due to their co-religionist ties with Uyghurs, but because of the closed media environment within China, we do not have accurate information about the extent and nature of this pressure, and the dominant media outlets worldwide, which are linked to rival powers of communism, cannot be fully trusted not to exaggerate these pressures!
How much familiarity is there with the Chinese version of Islam in Iran?
Almost none! Although this movement was greatly influenced by Iran, it is almost unknown in Iran. So far, only one book from this movement has been translated into Persian: the book “Chinese Illumination of the Light of Sufism.” This book is by Sachiko Murata, which is actually an English translation of the Chinese translation of Jami’s “Lawa’ih,” along with translations of parts of several other works to introduce them. Unfortunately, in the Persian translation, the respected translator apparently felt no need to translate Jami’s “Lawa’ih” because it was originally in Persian, and practically only the first part of the book, which serves as an introduction to its second part, has been translated, leaving this book incomplete! The Chinese translation of Jami’s “Lawa’ih” is a masterpiece of adapting Islamic mystical concepts to Chinese concepts, and if this Chinese text translation, along with the original Persian “Lawa’ih,” were included in the book, having both the Persian and Chinese versions of a single text side by side, many subtleties and foundations of Chinese thought in “Hankitab” texts could have become tangible for the audience.
