The architecture of the Muslim faith stands in every province and autonomous region of China. In 2020, Chinese Muslims accounted for approximately 1.6 percent of the Chinese population. They are served by nearly 40,000 mosques (two-thirds of them in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in far western China). The largest Muslim population in China are Hui, a name translated as “Muslim.” Hui live throughout China and speak Chinese. The first Muslims came to China in the 7th century as ambassadors and merchants. Many came to the city Chang’an, today Xi’an, China’s capital at the time, and a city whose international population included Zoroastrians, Manichaeans, and Christians.
Pavilion of Ten Thousand Happinesses, Yonghe Buddhist Temple, Beijing, China (photo: Roweromaniak, CC-BY-SA-4.0)
The religious architecture Muslims emulated in China from the 7th century onward had the structural features of existing Chinese Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian halls. The features followed prescriptive texts: a religious hall was supported by a frame of wooden pillars standing on a platform supporting wooden bracket sets, which in turn supported the wooden roof frame. The structure was covered by a ceramic tile roof. Walls on either side of and between the pillars were usually plaster, but it was the wooden frame that supported the building.
Stipulations in treatises issued at the Chinese court specify how many columns could be constructed, their heights, distances from one another, the kinds of bracketing to be used, and roof style. The details of each feature indicated the status of a building. An imperial temple was of the highest status and a temple built by the local population in the countryside was usually a low-status building. Constructed by craftsmen-workshops, anyone in China knew the status of the structure based on its building components. Further, the placement of buildings in relation to one another was standardized. No structure stood in isolation. Buildings were part of complexes whose individual structures were positioned along north-south or east-west lines and around courtyards.
Mosques could readily be accommodated in the Chinese architectural tradition, since they had few architectural requirements. These six features are widely associated with mosque architecture:
- The qibla—the only feature that is absolutely necessary in a mosque. It is often a wall, but always a feature indicating the direction of Mecca (for prayer).
- A mihrab, a niche added to the qibla (wall).
- A minbar from which the sermon is delivered.
- Sometimes an important person such as the caliph prays in an enclosed or semi-enclosed area known as maqsura.
- The space of a mosque is often organized in relation to courtyards, a standard feature of Chinese mosque planning.
- A minaret, which identifies the mosque from afar.
The interior of the mosque prayer hall usually has wide, open floor space that makes it possible for congregants to prostrate when they pray.
Phoenix Pavilion in the fourth courtyard, Huajuexiangsi (The Great Mosque in Xi’an), Xi’an, China (photo: chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0)
China’s most famous mosque
China’s most famous mosque is Huajuexiangsi (the mosque on Huajue alley) in Xi’an. Popularly known as the Great Mosque in Xi’an, it has a long history of construction. In 742, a Chinese Buddhist monastery existed on this site. Sometime between 1260 and 1263, it was rebuilt for Muslim worship. This would have been straightforward since the Chinese timber frame tradition was so adaptable. The Xi’an Mosque was constructed with the sanction of Emperor Hongwu, the first Han Chinese emperor following Mongol rule and with the support of the famous Chinese Muslim seafarer Zheng He.
Diagram of Huajuexiangsi (The Great Mosque in Xi’an) in Xi’an, China
Huajuexiangsi consists of five courtyards along an extremely long axial line, oriented to the east so that the mihrab is in the westernmost building’s westernmost wall. More than twenty buildings occupy the enormous enclosed space.
The first courtyard (on the far left in the diagram above) is the smallest, defined by a brick screen wall, two side gates, and a ceremonial gate supported by six pillars across the front with a prominent, central opening.
The second courtyard is the area between the six-pillar gate and the third gate on the axial line. A three-bay stone gate and two pavilions with stele are the only notable structures.
Three avenues lead to the third courtyard whose focus is an octagonal building named Examining the Heart Tower whose height and shape have led many to assume it is a minaret, but this has never been proved. Various service and administrative buildings line the north and south sides of the third courtyard and the front part of the fourth courtyard. One of the three lecture halls for teaching students aspiring to be clergy as well as lay population is on the north side of the third courtyard and a hall for ablutions is on the south. Also, there are kitchens, offices, and the dwelling of the imam, the highest-ranking religious leader in residence. The only other structures inside the third courtyard are two pavilions that cover steles.
Prayer Hall, Huajuexiangsi (The Great Mosque in Xi’an), Xi’an, China (photo: Ronnie Macdonald, CC BY 2.0)
Behind the octagonal building are the last two courtyards. The prayer hall and its approach dominate these courtyards. Its position at the back of such a long axis makes it clear that it is the structure for which all the others were erected. It is supported by a frame of eight pillars across the front and four in depth and has a Chinese-style roof of azure, glazed tiles. Azure glaze is second in rank compared to the golden roof tiles used in the Forbidden City. The central section of the back of the prayer hall extends westward to become the mihrab. The huge worship hall, 32.9 x 27.5 meters, has no side windows. 600-plus designs on the ceiling and the highly decorated mihrab brighten the interior. The area, including the mihrab, can accommodate more than 1,000 worshipers.
Interior of the Prayer Hall, Huajuexiangsi (The Great Mosque in Xi’an), Xi’an, China (photo: © Bobby Zucco)
Although several structures at the Xi’an Mosque illustrate its close connection to Chinese architecture, it is not an imitation of a specific Chinese building complex. Rather, it follows or recalls hundreds of complexes with similar structures that stood in China in the 15th and 16th centuries. Features such as the mosque’s screen walls, archways, and tower can be seen at many other temple complexes throughout China. An extremely large hall such as the worship hall at Huajuexiangsi was the equivalent in imperial settings of an audience hall, and in religious architecture, as the main worship space in an imperial monastery. The location in Xi’an has further increased Huajuexiangsi’s fame, but first and foremost it is an outstanding example of a Chinese-style building complex where Islam is practiced.
