Abstract At the end of the nineteenth century, an Islamic movement emerged in Taozhou (Gansu), initially rooted in the Jinxingtang School (1890) and formally known as the Xidaotang from 1908 onward. Challenging established Sufi institutions, the movement’s ritual practices and doctrinal positions were soon contested and provoked accusations of heterodoxy. As the movement became institutionalized, these attacks were brought before the judicial courts, casting imperial authorities as arbiters of Muslim orthodoxy. Over time, the movement gradually gained recognition as part of Islamic orthodoxy and emerged as a potential and opportunistic ally to Muslim warlords in broader struggles for religious and politico-economic hegemony. This case study offers an instructive lens with which to examine how local actors deploy the notion of “sect” to delegitimize a new Islamic movement during a period of significant religious transformation. Drawing on a range of primary sources, the study reveals how conflicts generated accusatory dynamics aimed at excluding groups perceived as religious innovators from the local Muslim community. From an epistemological standpoint, it encourages historians to treat “sect” and its derivatives not as analytical categories, but as practical acts through which the boundaries of religious belonging are asserted and negotiated.
Abstract This paper explores how and why Sino-phone Muslims developed various interpretations about the four great menhuan s ( ṭarīqa s) during the 19th and 20th centuries. It elucidates how the variation of interpretations about ṭarīqa was correlated with tensions among Chinese Sufi orders and their struggles against anti-Sufi reformists. It also clarifies how Chinese Sufis’ consideration of ṭarīqa involved a kind of union among Muslims beyond a Sufi order. By this case study, I hope to suggest how we may overcome the widespread dichotomy in Sufi studies between doctrinal and sociopolitical aspects of Sufism.
Abstract This article explains why Islamic ritual has long been a source of controversy in China, not just as a marker of Muslim difference from the cultural mainstream but also as a matter of dispute within the Islamic fold. Previous studies examining ritual rules on mosque stelae across late imperial China have interpreted these writings as evidence of scholastic disagreement over scripture. This article shifts the focus from the scriptural basis of ritual rules to the social context in which they were prescribed. Claims about ritual were commonly inscribed alongside contracts and administrative regulations, forming complex sets of agreements. These congregational compacts constituted the mosque congregation as a property-owning corporate entity dominated by local Muslim elites. Where congregations coexisted near one another, distinctive definitions of normative Islamic practice not only symbolized the authority of a congregation’s leadership but also marked boundaries between congregations, the salience of which could be heightened by the arrival of Muslim migrants and by official efforts to control these movements. Ritually marked boundaries between Muslim communities were a common feature of Hui social organization in late imperial China. They also provided a template for thinking about Islamic sectarianism and the challenges to a unified, nationwide Chinese Islam in the modern period.
Giovanni Mascellini (1612-1675), a Padua-trained physician from Pesaro, was a well-connected seventeenth-century healer at the Ottoman court, whose career transcended political, religious, and linguistic boundaries. He sought to solidify his legacy through intellectual pursuits, notably by authoring a Latin treatise entitled Artis Medicae ... Summarium (1673). He chose to publish in Vienna rather than the Ottoman Empire to ensure higher quality and broader distribution, yet nevertheless dedicated the work to Ottoman grand vizier Fazil Ahmed Pasha. Mascellini's story illustrates that the Ottoman medicine in the seventeenth century was not subjected to a one-way influence from Europeans, but rather that the nature of the transfer was bilateral, allowing the Ottomans to contribute to medical printing in Europe.
This paper reconstructs the nocturnal practice of calling for matins by the Armenian church in late Ottoman Van. During this ritual, church summoners loudly struck semantrons in churchyards and streets of the town, as well as pounded metallic door knockers of parishioners to gather the faithful. The paper explores various aspects of the night calling, including the acoustics of the rite, and examines the factors that made it possible for this practice to exist in a locale with a mixed Armenian and Turkish population. It argues that the rite transcended its religious boundaries and became a communal good for both Armenians and Muslims by contributing to the town's economy and security.
