Islamic Frontiers of China: Peoples of the Silk Road

There are over twenty million Muslims in China today. From the mountainous borders with Afghanistan to the tropical island of Hainan, the ethnicities and cultures of China’s Muslims are as diverse as China herself. They come from at least ten different ethnic groups, including the Persianate Tajiks in the Pamir Mountains, Kirgiz eagle hunters in the west, and the Chinese speaking Hui living in Canton. In recent years the world’s attention has been drawn to the clashes between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in Xinjiang Province. But how does a Muslim minority in the People’s Republic of China live today? After decades of communist rule, and now under the onslaught of commerce and consumerism, what pressures do the different communities and their heritages face? How Man Wong, a renowned Chinese explorer and Adel Dajani, with his Muslim background, come together to explore the regions of the Asian borderlands where the traditions of Islam and China interact. Their collaboration has resulted in this lavishly illustrated book which gives us a glimpse of the rich diversity of life on the Islamic frontiers of China.