Muslims, Islam and the Local Mongol Elite in Northwest China during the Early Yuan Period

• In Event: Conflicting Identities: Negotiating Ethnicity and Religion in Mongol China and Beyond

Abstract

The Mongol rule in China (13th-14th centuries) led to a considerable increase in the Muslim presence, contributed to the spreading of Islam through the country, and the establishment of long lasting Muslim communities in the northwest. The Muslims either immigrated of their own volition, or were relocated as part of the population mobilization.
After establishing the Yuan dynasty in 1271, Qubilai Khan (忽必烈 r. 1260 - 1294) enfeoffed Manggala (忙哥剌 d. 1278), his third son, and later Ananda (阿難答 d. 1307), Manggala's son, to rule over Anxi which included a strategic area in the northwestern frontier. The people in this domain were of diverse religions (mainly Buddhism and Islam) and this shaped the region and the way it was ruled by the Mongols. Both Manggala and Ananda tried to gain legitimation from their subjects by addressing differently their heterogeneous population and Ananda even chose to convert to Islam. My paper examines how the Mongol local rulers governed the varied population and this will be demonstrated by the cases of Manggala's and Ananda's relations with the local population and the relations both rulers had with the different religions in their realm. The paper analyses Manggala's policies towards Muslims in his domain and Ananda's attitudes as a Muslim ruler towards his subjects, Muslims and non-Muslims. It also examines what was their impact on this heterogeneous region and the effect a Muslim prince had on a Buddhist dynasty.

Author

• Vered Shurany, Hebrew University