All the above ten minority groups who take Islam as their national religious belief are members of the Chinese nation without exception. By combining Islam with their national traditions and culture, they have made the Chinese Islamic culture more diversified. This new phenomenon of religious culture has raised intense interest among social scientists both home and abroad.
To adapt themselves to Chinese culture, the Muslims in China evolved into ten ethnic groups with diff erent characteristics.
The Muslims of the Huis, Salas, Dongxiangs and Bao"ans were the descendants of the traders who came to China by the Silk Roads both over land and sea, and the soldiers and craftsmen who came inland with the Mongol army or the Muslims who migrated from the Western Region. They either lived in China engaging in business or were arranged in compact areas, intermarrying with other ethnic groups and multiplying. Islam, as a life style and faith, was spread to various places in a peacefully way along with the Muslims‘ movement from one place to another. Islam played a very important role in the births of the above nationalities and was the core factor in theirdevelopment. Among the Huis, Salas, Dongxiangs and Bao"ans, the Huis have the largest population and coverage, and highest mobility. After the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 A.D.), six major regions where the Huis lived in compact communities came into being, namely the south of the Yangtze River with Nanjing and Suzhou as center, Gan Ning Qing (Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai) area with Hezhou, Didao and Xining as center, Guanzhong (Shaanxi) area with Chang"an as center, Yunnan area, Ji Lu Yu (Hebei, Shandong and Henan) area with Beijing as center and other area.
The Uighurs, Kazaks, Khalkhas, Uzbeks, Tajiks and Tatars live mainly in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. This is a place with a large area, many ethic groups and many religions. Xinjiang is related to neighboring Islamic countries in many aspects such as ethnic origin, religion, economy, culture and customs, but has never broken away from the central authority in any way. It was by various means such as the Da"wah, religious war against Buddhism and political support here, that Islam spread. compared to the places where Huis and other nationalities live, the conditions, method and manifestation for the spread and development of Islam are completely different here.
First of all, the rise and decline of Khwaja (a large family inXinjiang then)-Ishan (a sect of Islam in Xinjiang then) power exerted direct influence on the regime of Xinjiang practicing a system of combining religion with politics. Around the 13th century, the descendents of Shuzauddin, a mullah in Bukhara exiled to Karakorum by Jenghis Khan, and the ancestor of Mullah Khwaja Osiddin came to Luobu Quetai (located between Turufan and Yutian) to spread the doctrine of Ishan. In later years, Khwaja- Ishan power continued to grow, and gradually developed from a religious power into a secular regime, which existed until Xinjiang was reunified by the Qing Dynasty. compared to that of the Chinese inland, this was a completely different precondition for Islam"s existence and development.
