My Experience
With the help of a video, I was able to take a walk around the huge area that is known as the Qingjing Mosque. This mosque is considered the one of the oldest mosque in China. It was built in 1009 and later rebuilt in the 1200s. This mosque and the area looks enormous. The area is surrounded by a white rectangular wall. You can enter the mosque through a very Islamic-dome entranceway. Inside of its walls are open-spaced grassy areas with white pillars. Six lines of clear Arabic written inscriptions can be seen on its interior walls. In one of the open spaces are six traditional tombs, where are placed in a group of three on each side. A gray-green tombstone in Arabic has been placed in this room. As you keep walking, you can find a small prayer room with praying carpets. The construction of this prayer room is a mix of Chinese and Islamic designs.
As you walk around the area, you will find modern additions to this mosque. The new parts of the mosque are surrounded by walls of modern red and green bricks. There is a gallery room, where the mosque holds its collection of Qurans, flyers, and old tombstones. There is also a modern mosque temple inside. Inside this temple are chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and rows of prayer rugs.
Interesting Tidbit
On my walking tour of the mosque, I found this Arabic inscription on one of its walls to be interesting. I think it is designed to look like a Chinese maritime ship. This would make sense because Muslims used their fortune from maritime trade to build this mosque for their community. It is cool to see that this mosque still embraces its maritime history.
Connection to Guiding Questions
This walking tour was an eye-opener. When I read about the Qingjing Mosque, I thought it was a small building since I did not think that foreign merchants had enough money to buy huge plots of land from the Chinese government. Well, I was totally wrong! This mosque was enormous. One researcher I read told me that one could figure out how much wealth, power, and influence a religious group had in a city by the size of the buildings the group built. Well, from what I saw of the mosque, the Muslim community had a lot of wealth, influence, and power in Quanzhou around 1000s. Since there are modern buildings added to this mosque, there must still be a large Muslim community in Quanzhou today.
1Finder. (2019, July 24). Islamic Documentary: The oldest Mosque in China [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/zHS1ugcU__w
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