The Silk Road – A journey told through images

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Islamic Frontiers of China: Peoples of the Silk Road

By Wong How Man and Adel Awni Dajani

Since the time of Julius Caesar, silk and the culture that produced it has fascinated and intrigued the West. The trade route along which this desirable commodity travelled to Europe, in legend smuggled out of China in the shape of silkworm eggs by a princess betrothed to a Western king, has long been known as the Silk Road. It could easily have been named after porcelain, gunpowder or even rhubarb; many things have been traded along its length in both directions, including knowledge and religion as well as fancy goods. Yet such was the power and longevity of the desire for silk that the name stuck and the other things that were carried across Asia are less noted.

One of the less obvious things to reach China along the Silk Road, at least from a European perspective, was Islam. Today forming a common bond between several different ethnic groups numbering around 15 million people in the north-western part of China, Islam was not brought there by travelling preachers or teachers in the style of Christianity or Buddhism, but arrived more fluidly and haphazardly via trade. This lack of a definitive mission to establish Islam in China has, as the authors of this book put it, left its origins there obscured by romantic legends and folklore. T'ai Tsung, second emperor of the Tang dynasty, dreamed of monsters being tamed by a turbaned man. This was interpreted as demonstrating that the Muslims were worthy of Tang attention and an emissary was despatched along the Silk Road. Chinese records give the official date of Islam's arrival as 651, not long after the expansion of Arab conquest outside Arabia.

This story begins a fascinating look at the current Chinese Muslim population. Wong How Man is a well-known Chinese explorer who, accompanied by fellow writer Adel Awni Dajani, has set out in this book to document something of their lives and history. This is not really an anthropological book but is more in the style of National Geographic magazine, for whom Man is a contributor. His photography is the main attraction. The text is both informative and personal, being split between the history of Chinese Islam, the authors’ journey along part of the Silk Road and a section on what the future holds for Muslims in 21st-century China. It is not especially long and is arranged so that each page of text is separated by several full-page images. Hence the story of Man and Dajani's journey is told mainly through these images. Everyday scenes of Chinese Muslim life are mixed with close-up details of, for example, carpets and knives showing the strong influence of Middle-Eastern design on local Chinese manufacture. The photograph chosen for the book's cover shows a seated man resplendent in quartz spectacles, which Man reveals to be sought-after status symbols in the Hui community of Lanzhou.

This picture also appears near the start of the book's narrative in Gansu province, which displays more traditionally Chinese visual characteristics. As the journey continues along the Silk Road, Man encounters peoples such as the Kirgiz and Tajiks whose art and dress have more in common with those living on the Mongolian steppe, as well as those further to the north in Tibet. He mentions some interesting cultural exchanges between Islam and the longer-established Buddhist traditions in this area. The Salar people of the north-west display white rocks on the roofs of their houses after the style of Tibetan Buddhists as a concession enabling them to marry into the Tibetan community, being unwilling to display images of the Buddha owing to Islamic proscriptions.

Man's narrative is a lively travelogue that ends with brief coverage of current relations between the Han Chinese population and Muslim minorities. He suggests that, following the Beijing government's heavy-handed response to unrest in the Uighur region around the time of the 2008 Olympics, China should learn from its dealings with majority Muslim nations on the international stage and its attitude to foreign governments' treatment of their local Chinese communities. This would mean not instantly assuming that any local problems have been stirred up by ‘fundamentalists’. As an experienced traveller Man has some authority in this area, and it would be satisfying to think that this book could go some way towards helping multi-community understanding as well as providing welcome information on a less-known part of the world.

Islamic Frontiers of China: Peoples of the Silk Road by Wong How Man and Adel Awni Dajani is published by I B Tauris 2011. 156 pp., 136 colour illus. ISBN 1-8488-57025