Eurasian Studies Balkans, Anatolia, Iran, Caucasus and Central Asia Studies Notebooks

Series | Eurasian Studies
Edited book | Armenia, Caucasus, and Central Asia
Chapter | ʿAlidi in marcia lungo la via per la Cina

ʿAlidi in marcia lungo la via per la Cina

Le prime comunità islamiche cinesi riflesse in una leggenda del medioevo persiano

Abstract

The emergence of the first Islamic communities in China is still an elusive phenomenon. Primary sources are scanty, and mostly focus on Tang-Abbasid maritime trade. Thus, while the first days of Islam in south-eastern China are now quite well documented, much less is known about the arrival of Islam in the north-west. A twelfth-century Persian source, Sharaf al-Zamān Ṭāhir Marwazī’s Ṭabāʾiʿ al-ḥayawān, reports a legend concerning the settlement of a group of ʿAlid Muslim merchants somewhere in Tang China. An analysis of this anecdote could shed some light on the matter, providing new data on the very first Islamic communities of north-western China.


Open access | Peer reviewed

Submitted: March 13, 2019 | Accepted: April 15, 2019 | Published Oct. 17, 2019 | Language: it

Keywords ʿAlid diasporaMedieval Islamic geographyIslam in Tang ChinaSino-Persian relations


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