Sounding Islam in China

Most of the religious stories are attributed to Khoja Ahmad Yassawi who plays a critical role in disseminating religious stories into the Uyghur religious community in the form of poems and epic narratives. Ahmad Yassawi (1093 – 1166) is the earliest poet whose putative verses appear in the Uyghur Muqam repertoire. He was born in Sayram, and lived in and was named after the town of Yasi (both in contemporary Kazakhstan). His fame as a Sufi shaykh and proselytizer of Islam became so great among Turkic Muslims that the name Shaykh-I Turkistan was often applied to him. This caused his hometown itself to be renamed as Turkistan (Light, 1998:192). Other popular poets for Uyghur Sufi orders are Nawa’i, Huwayda and Sufi Allayar. When I visited some famous contemporary Sufi masters in Khotan, such as Hebibe Xenim and Nezerbaqi, they recited poems by Nava’i , Huwayda and Sufi Allayar very fluently. They claimed that they could recite any of their poems according to the mood of the audience at Sufi gatherings.

Continuity of Musical Tradition: Performance of Islamic Stories among the Uyghur
By Mutellip Iqbal (PhD Student, Sociology Department, Istanbul University)

http://www.soundislamchina.org/?p=778

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVQWX1oBnx4

Muqam: Uyghur Musical Tradition from Khotan Muqam: Uyghur Musical Tradition from KhotanMuqam: recording provided by Hebibe Henim. A group of Chistiyya Sufis from Khotan Sufi perform the first meshrep s...

Ethnographies of Islam in China

Edited by Rachel Harris, Guangtian Ha, and Maria JaschokUniversity of Hawaii Press Nov 2020

https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/ethnographies-of-islam-in-china

In the late 1970s Islam regained its force by generating novel forms of piety and forging new paths in politics throughout the world, including China. The Islamic revival in China, which came to fruition in the 2000s and the 2010s, prompted increases in government suppression but also intriguing resonances with the broader Muslim world—from influential theoretical and political contestations over Muslim women’s status, the popularization of mass media and the appearance of new patterns of consumption, to increases in transnational Muslim migration. Although China does not belong to the “Islamic world” as it is conventionally understood, China’s Muslims have strengthened and expanded their global connections and impact. Such significant shifts in Chinese Muslim life have received scant scholarly attention until now. With contributions from a wide variety of scholars—all sharing a commitment to the value of the ethnographic approach—this volume provides the first comprehensive account of China’s Islamic revival since the 1980s as the country struggled to recover from the wreckage of the Cultural Revolution.

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http://www.soundislamchina.org/?p=1685

Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam

by Rachel Harris

Published by: Indiana University Press
https://iupress.org/9780253050205/soundscapes-of-uyghur-islam

China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is experiencing a crisis of securitization and mass incarceration. In Soundscapes of Uyghur Islam, author Rachel Harris examines the religious practice of a group of Uyghur women in a small village now engulfed in this chaos. Despite their remote location, these village women are mobile and connected, and their religious soundscapes flow out across transnational networks. Harris explores the spiritual and political geographies they inhabit, moving outward from the village to trace connections with Mecca, Istanbul, Bishkek, and Beijing. Sound, embodiment, and territoriality illuminate both the patterns of religious change among Uyghurs and the policies of cultural erasure used by the Chinese state to reassert its control over the land the Uyghurs occupy. By drawing on contemporary approaches to the circulation of popular music, Harris considers how various forms of Islam that arrive via travel and the Internet come into dialogue with local embodied practices. Synthesized together, these practices create new forms that facilitate powerful, affective experiences of faith.

Read more:
http://www.soundislamchina.org/?p=1681

The Silk Roads @ UNSW initiative brings together experts from across UNSW in a program of interdisciplinary projects exploring the ancient and contemporary human connections and material exchanges across Eurasia and the seas. We use ‘Silk Roads’ as a concept of interrelatedness, rather than defined geographical routes. The initiative combines research projects with cultural events and teaching activities to establish a full engagement with 2025 pillars.

Silk Road | Arts & Social Sciences - UNSW Sydney The Silk Roads @ UNSW initiative brings together experts from across UNSW in a program of interdisciplinary projects exploring the ancient and contemporary human connections and material exchanges across Eurasia and the seas. We use ‘Silk Roads’ as a concept of interrelatedness, rather than defi...

Islamophobia in China Roughly 20 million Muslims live in China today; many of them live in the northwest region of Xinjiang, where the government is incarcerating an estimated one million Uighur Muslims. In recent weeks, news reports have emerged of the razing of mosques and other religious buildings across the region. I...

Uyghur Sufi (ashiq) rituals

Islamic extremism, song and dance, and sonic territoriality
Rachel Harris (SOAS, University of London)

http://www.soundislamchina.org/?p=1646

Islamic extremism, song and dance, and sonic territoriality Islamic extremism, song and dance, and sonic territoriality Rachel Harris (SOAS, University of London) In her 2013 book, ‘Taming Tibet’, Emily Yeh uses the term ‘territorialisation’ to describe the…

New rule announced in Hotan (He tian) prefecture of China, regarding the unification of the context of Islamic prayers in mosques (2017).

1. Permitted Qur'an Surahs ( chapters ) to be used in prayers are as follows,

Surah Al - Fatiha ( chapter 1) and Surahs of Juz Amma ( - 30th Part of the Qur'an ).

For example : Surah Al - Fatiha and Surahs of 94, 95, 97, 99, 103, 106, 107, 110 and 113 .

2. The permitted and unified context of. Tabligh ( Sermon ) is already been distributed all over Hotan prefecture and therefore all mosques and imams must follows the rules hereafter.

3. As to Jumu'ah prayer on Friday, the context of Khutbah is also unified (5 parts) and distributed to all the areas of Hotan prefecture. So, imams and relevent clerks must deliver the Khutbah strictly according to the rules, and deliver it in Arabic language only.

4. As to Athan ( Adhan, Azan - the islamic call to prayers), the following words should be used:

" We all are the children of our great country (2 times), China is the greatest (2 times), Come to prayer, which then follwed by call for people to wish for a good life for everybody and the prosperity of our great country, China ".

5. As to Takbeer (the word to use the greatness of Allah ):

We are the children of our country, China is great, prayers are completed, and we pray for the peace, harmony of our country, China.

6. Tasbeeh / Dhikr (rememberance of God) should be said as such:

We all are very grateful to our great country China and our exceptional leader Xi Jinping ( Chinese president ).

7. Dua (supplication in prayers) must. be read as follows:

We pray for the safety and stability of Hotan prefecture ; we pray for the peace of every household; we pray for a long and healthy life for our elders and younger generations and also pray for a happy and prosperous life for everyone.

Sources:
http://turkistantimes.com/en/news-1542.html

http://www.hoylam.net/xitay_tajawuzchiliri_xoten_wilayiti_teweside_namazda_oqulidighan_quransurilerni_we_xutbelerni_birlik/

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Imagining Re-Engineered Muslims in Northwest China: On Uyghur Propaganda in Xinjiang

By regulating the bodies and homes of Uyghur Muslims the Chinese state is attempting to assert its will in every aspect of Uyghur life. From raising children, to marriage and death the state is there to regulate Uyghur morality. It is there to dictate who you meet with, whose food you eat, what you drink, how you dress and whether or not you dance. The state is there to make sure you sleep only in approved locations. It is there to invade your home and make sure you have only approved literature, that your smart phone is “clean,” that there is not a surplus number of slippers by the door to your home. The state is there to tell you what is reactionary and what is secular; what is extreme and what is a permitted tradition.

www.milestonesjournal.net Yet despite these variations in the engineering project, capitalist
secularism instead of Maoist socialism, much remains the same. As was the
case during the Cultural Revolution, in our current moment thousands of
mosques are being destroyed, Islamic teachers or mollas and their followers
or