During Tang and Song dynasties, as foreign trade developed, more Arab and Persian traders settled down in China. In the 4th year of Zhenghe of Song, there appeared the 5thgeneration of local-bornFan Ke. The Song government specially issued “Heritage Law for the 5th Generation of Local-born Fan Ke” to deal with their heritage matters. To adapt themselves to local society, the native- born Muslims in the Song Dynasty began to receive Chinese cultural education positively. In Guangzhou and Quanzhou where Muslims were concentrated, there appeared special schools run by Muslims themselves--Fan Xue (school for foreigners), which only or mainly recruited native-born Muslims‘ children. To set up Fan Xue, the local government had to apply to the courts forratification. The purpose of building Fan Xue was to educate Muslim children with traditional Chinese culture and help them to adapt themselves to the society as soon as possible. The final target of Fan Xue was the imperial examination held by the court, which was the most important way to participate in politics. The Song Dynasty followed the Tang"s system of allowing foreigners and their offspring living China to take the imperial examination with the same subjects as native Chinese examinees. Though the imperial examination system for them was not mature yet, the year"s quota enabled the outstanding ones to directly engage in politics.
The intermarriage between foreign Muslims living in China and native Chinese became a common phenomenon. Among the first generation of foreign Muslims in China, most came alone. They were wealthy and enjoyed high social status, so intermarriage was not a difficult thing for them at all. They married girls from ordinary, official even royal families as well. Of course, there were some Muslim girls marrying Non-Muslims, but it would never happen unless they converted to Islam, because Islam requires that Non-Muslims, whether men or women, must all embrace Islam when they marry Muslims. As a result, the Muslim population in China increased.
Keeping slaves was another important way to increase the Muslim population. In the Song Dynasty, land annexation prevailed; some of the tenant-peasants who had lost their land sought refuge in official or rich families in order to change their identity or social status, or to escape certain social obligations, and became slaves. It was also a common phenomenon that some of the tenant-peasants sought refuge in Muslim families and embraced Islam at the same time. Keeping slaves was a natural thing for Muslims, because according to Islamic traditions, slaves of this sort were qualified to inherit part, even total estates of the master.
In a word, Muslims in the Song Dynasty became involved in all walks of social life by various means such as running schools, taking imperial examinations, inter-marrying and keeping slaves; resulting in the increase of the Muslim population and leading to the birth of a new ethnic group: the Huis.
The spread of Islam from China"s western frontier was connected with the history of the Karakitai Dynasty. After the Tang Dynasty came to an end in 840 A.D., the Hui Hus (an ancient tribe believing in Islam) migrated to the west. One group of Hui Hus led by Pangteqin went westwards to the Chu River where the Garluq tribe was in occupation. Pangteqin and his clansmensubmitted to Garluq and other Hui Hu tribes later, and built up a new Hui Hu regime which was historically called Karakitai. From the middle of the 9th century to the early 13th century, Karakitai lasted over 370 years. During the same period of time, the central region of China experienced an alternation of several dynasties from the Tang, to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, to the Northern Song and the Southern Song (7th century to 13th century) dynasties. And at the same time in the north and northwest of China there appeared several other minority groups‘ regimes: the Western Liao, Jin and Western Xia.
In the early days, the Karakitai Dynasty practiced the double- Khan ruling system. The empire was divided into east and west branches for the elder and the younger sons of Khan. The east branch was under the rule of the elder brother who was chief khan and was known as Arslan Khan (king of lions)? The capital of the east branch was located in Barashagon (now Tokmak, Kirghizstan)? The west branch was ruled by the younger brother who was vice khan and was known as Boghra Khan (king of male camels)? The capital of the west branch was located in Talas (now Dzhambul, Kazakstan)? Satuk Boghra Khan, who was the primogenitor of the west branch, was the first khan of the Karakitai Dynasty to embrace Islam, whose Muslim name wasAbdal Karim. It is said that Satuk was influenced by the Muslims of the Samanid Dynasty since his childhood, and eventually became a Muslim himself. Having seized power from his uncle by force, Satuk soon established Islamic rule as Arabian countries had done. He was on the throne for 45 years and died in 344
A.H. (955-956 A.D.)? The Khanate became Islamic when his son Musa succeeded to the throne. In about 960 A.D, Musa declared Islam as the state religion, and 200 thousand Turkfamilies were converted into Islam. Karakitai was the first minority"s regime to take Islam as its state religion in Chinese history.
The Karakitai Dynasty became stronger since it had become Islamic. It conquered Yutian (now Hetian, Xinjiang), and its influence extended to Qiemo and Ruoqiang.
The rulers of Karakitai were extremely pious to Islam and did their best to implement Islamic ruling. Everywhere in the dynasty, Islamic courts were set up, and mosques and Islamic academies were established to foster capable personnel forIslamic causes. Furthermore, a good number of famous Mazars (Arabic transliteration, originally meaning shrine or tombs of saints; here refers to the mausoleums of Muslim high officials) were constructed. In this period of time, large numbers of Turk nomads started to settle down, this helped to accelerate the transformation of the aborigines in the Central Asia into Turks and the Islamization of the nomads. The social economy and sciences further developed and Uighur Islamic culture took shape as a result. Outstanding works such as “Wisdom of Happiness”, “Turk Dictionary” and “Basic Knowledge of Truth” are of a good reflection of this.
