Reflections | A brief history of Islam in China – including a moment of prominence
- The religion is believed to have arrived in the 600s, brought in by traders from the Middle East and Central Asia
- Although Muslims settled in many coastal cities, including Guangzhou, Islam did not widely percolate
The history of Islam in China is almost as old as the religion itself, arriving during the Tang dynasty, either in the 620s, when the prophet Muhammad was still alive, or in the 650s, some 20 years after his death in 632, with the diplomatic mission of Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas, a relative of the prophet and one of the first people to embrace Islam.
While no secular historical evidence can be found to ascertain that Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas actually visited China, there is consensus that Islam first arrived in the 600s along trade routes between the Middle East and China.
In the subsequent centuries, Muslim traders continued to come to China and settle in major cities, in particular coastal trading hubs such as Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Hangzhou, and so on, where their numbers were sufficiently large to build and maintain mosques, and even Muslim cemeteries.