Email this article 
Hide
Show all
THE FUNCTIONS AND SYMBOLISM OF CHINESE MINARETS: A CASE STUDY OF THE HUAISHENG GUANGTA
Abstract
The Huisheng mosque in Guangzhou is one of China's oldest mosques; its initial construction dates back to 627. The minaret of the mosque is one of the surviving earliest examples of Islamic architecture in China. The Chinese minarets were built with a form of a wooden low-rise Chinese pavilion. In the case of Guangta, it was built by brick directly on the street with such a great height. The unique architectural form of Guangta raises many questions about its location, architecture, and function. The study traces the historical texts of the minaret to clarify its historical functions. It attempts to understand the minaret's meanings, the hidden symbolism, and its historical roles to serve the Muslim community as a religious minority in the city, on the one hand, as well as its cultural contributions on the other hand. There are several methods to achieve its objectives: the historical, the descriptive, and the comparative analytical approach. These approaches proved that the minaret played many roles associated with its form and architecture. In addition to its religious functions, it is entrusted to inform Muslims at prayer times. The minaret was also used as a control tower if the Muslim community in the city was exposed to external or internal threats and served as a lighthouse to facilitate Muslim maritime trade. Further, it carried a religious symbolism as it was a symbol of Islam itself within the local Chinese society that was not ruled by Muslims.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
X. Guang, Jughrafiat Alsiyn. Beijing: Beijing Foreign Languages Press, 1987.
C. P. Fitzgerald, Flood Tide in China. London: The Cresset Press, 1958.
N. Steinhardt, "China's Earliest Mosques", Journal of The Society of Architectural Historians, vol. 67, no .3, pp. 330-361, 2008.
E. Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics. California: University of California Press, 1963.
G. Xiangzheng, Gqīngshānjí. Vol 20, Shanghai: Shanghai gǔjí Press, 1987.
Y. Lu, A History of Chinese Science and Technology, Volume 3. Springer, 2014.
D. Harper, R. Storey, Hong Kong (Hongkong), Steinhardt (Macao) and Guangzhou (Kanton). Lonely Planet, 1999.
L. Zhiping, Zhōngguó yīsīlán jiào jiànzhú. Beijing: Xinlian Press, 2008.
J. Lipman, Familiar strangers: a history of Muslims in Northwest China. Washington: University of Washington Press, 1997.
Q. Yulan, yīsīlán jiào jiànzhú: Mùsīlín lǐbài qīngzhēnsì. China Building Industry Press, 1993.
A. Petersen, Dictionary of Islamic Architecture. London and NY: Routledge, 1996.
B. She, Yīsīlán jiào jiànzhú zhī, yīsīlán jiào jiànzhú, mùsīlín lǐbài qīngzhēnsì. Beijing: Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Press, 2009.
D. Yi, zhōngguó tōngshi. Hanyu International Culture, 2006.
L. Lang, Táiwān gǔ jiànzhú tújiě shìdiǎn. Yanliu Press, 2003.
R. Gottheil, "The Origin and History of the Minaret", Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 132-154, 1910.
K. Cragg, The Call of the Minaret. Oxford University Press, 1964.
J. Bloom, "Creswell and the Origins of the Minaret", Muqarnas, vol. 8 , pp. 55-58, 1991.
J. Bloom, Minaret: Symbol of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
R. Hillenbrand, Islamic Architecture: Form, Function and Meaning, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1996.
H. Hagras, "The Ming court as patron of the Chinese Islamic architecture: The case study of the daxuexi mosque in Xi'an", Shedet, vol. 6, no. 6, pp. 134-158, 2019.
A. Wahby, Islamic Architecture in China, Mosques of Eastern China, Master's Degree, Cairo. The American University in Cairo, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, 2000.
C. Lo, Z. Luo, Ancient pagodas in China. Foreign Languages Press, 1994.
A. Fikri, L’art islamique de Tunisie : la Grande Mosquée de Kairouan. vol. II, éd. Henri Laurens, Paris, 1934.
A. Moussa, almadhin fi aleamarat almisriat wa alam al'iislami, vol. 2. Alexandria: Dar Al Wafa, 2014.
I. Battuta, Tuhfat an-Nuzār fī Gharāʾib al-Amsār wa ʿAjāʾib al-Asfār. Beirut, 1992.
I. Jubayr, rihlat Ibn Jubayr. Beirut: Dar Sadir, 1964.
K. Al-Balawi, tāj al-mafriq fī tahliyat 'ulamā' al-Mashriq, volume 1, ed. Al-Hasan al-Sa'ih.
E. Schedimore, China: The long lived Empire. The Century Company, 1900.
A. Metz, Islamic civilization in the fourth century AH, translated by Abd el-Hadi abu-Reida. Cairo, 1947.
A. Al- Sīrāfī, 'akhbar alsiyn walhind. Abu Dhabi, 1999.
I. Manzūr, Lisān al-ʿArab, vol. 5. Beirut, 1994.
J. Needham; W. Ling, Science and Civilisation in China: Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth, vol. 3. Cambridge University Press, 1959.
J. Rugg, Exploring Site-specific Art: Issues of Space and Internationalism. London: I.B. Tauris, 2010.
V. Garrett, Heaven is High, the Emperor Far Away: Merchants and Mandarins in Old Canton. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Y. Ke, Tīng shi, vol. 11. Zhonghua Press, 1981.
F. Xinru, Nanhai baiyong, Chongshu jicheng chubian, vol. 3123. Shanghai: Shangwu yinshuguan, 1936.
J. H. Gray, Walks in the City of Canton. De Souza & Company, 1875.
S. W. Williams, The Middle Kingdom: a survey of the geography, government, literature, social life, arts and history of the Chinese empire and its inhabitants, vol. 1. Routledge, 2005.
Y. Al-Sharouni, min turathina albahri: 'akhbar alsiyn walhind li sulayman altaajir wa 'abi zayd alsayrafi (fi alqarn althalith alhijri/ alttasie almiladi). Al-Dar al-Misriya al-Lebnaniah, 2000.
C. Ju-Kua, Chu fan chi, PETEUSBIRG: Printing Office of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1911.
J. McKenzie, The Architecture of Alexandria and Egypt: 300 BC – 700. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.
A. Khalil, "alealaqat alsiyasiat wal'iiqtisadiat walthaqafiat bayn aleiraq wabilad alsiyn mundh sadar al'islam hataa nihayat alqarn alrrabie alhijri", Historical Studies, no. 17, pp. 153-208, 2014.
A. Al-Baladhuri, Futūh al-Buldān, vol. 1, ed. R. Mohamed. Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiah, 1991.
M. Šārôn, "Studies in Islamic History and Civilization", In Honour of Professor David Ayalon. Leiden: BRILL, 1986.
G. Zengjian, Ma Fang, zhōngguó gǔdài kēxué jìshù shi gāng: Lihuà juan. Liaoning Education Press, 1996.
J. Noble, D. Price, "The Water Clock in the Tower of the Winds", American Journal of Archaeology, vol 72, issue 4, pp.345-355, 1968.
A. al-Baghdadi, Tārīkh Madīnat al-Salām wa-akhbār muḥaddithīhā wa-dhikr quṭṭānihā al-ʻulamāʼ min ghayr ahlihā wa-wāridīhā, ed. B. Awad. Beirut: Dar al-Gharb al-Islami, 2001.
I. al-Salah, al-Mann bi' l-imāma, ed. Abd el-Hadi al-Tazi, Beirut: Dar al-maghrib al-Islami, 1987.
J. Nieuhof, Legatio batavica magnum Tartariæ chamum Sungteium, modernum Sinæ imperatorem; Historiarum narratione, quæ legatis in provinciis Quantung, Kiangsi, Nanking, Xantung, Peking, & Aula Imperatoria ab Anno 1655 annum 1657 obtigerunt, ut & ardua Sinenfium in bello Tartarico fortuna , Provinciaurn accurata Geographia , urbium delineation, Amstelodami: Jacobum Meursium, 1668.
Z. M. Isa, "Islamic Astronomy in China, Spread and Development", Academic Journal, no. 4, pp. 217-264, 2008.
H. Hua, minzu wenhua yanjiu wenji, Beijing: Zhongyang Minzu University Press, 2006.
H. Hagras, Almasajid al'thrīat al baqīat fī madīnat beijīn mundh alqarn alrrabʿ alhijrī (alʿshīr almīladī) wahatay nihayat alqarn althalīthʿshr alhijrī (alttasʿʿshr almīladī) "drasat 'athriat muemarīat", (Ph.D. diss), Egypt: University of Fayoum.
H. Nuweiser, aleamarat al'iislamiat fi misr asr al'uyubiayn wa almamalik, Cairo: Zahraa Al Sharq Library, 1996.
G. Zidan, tarikh altamadun al'iislami, vol. 1, Cairo, 2012.
A. Ameen, "Interpretation of the concept of the Universality as a characteristic feature of Islamic civilization: The case of the minarets", Leptis Magna, no. 1, pp. 17-62, 2014.
B. Pillsbury, "Muslim History in China, a 1300 Chronology", Journal of The Institute of Muslim Minority affairs, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 10-29, 1981.
A. Benite, "Follow The White Camel, Islam in China to 1800", The Eastern Islamic World Eleventh to Eighteenth Centuries, vol. 3, pp. 409-426, 2010.
T. Marchand, "Reconsidering the role of the mosque minaret in Sanaa", Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies, the thirty-Second meeting of the Seminar for Arabian Studies held in London, vol. 29, pp. 95-102, 1999.
J. Moline, “the minart of Jam (Afghanistan)”, Kunst des Orients, vol. 9, pp. 131-148, 1973/74.
P. W. Ralph, “Ghaznavid and Ghūrid Minarets”, Iran, vol. 39, pp. 155-186, 2001.
A. Petersen, Dictionary of Islamic Architecture, translated by Chuijun Qian, Hui He. Routledge, 2002.
R. Nath, History of Sultanate architecture. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1978.
He Qiaoyuan, Min Shu. Jinan: Qilu Press, 1997.
R. Kauz, Aspects of the Maritime Silk Road: From the Persian Gulf to the East China Sea. Harrassowitz Verlag, Weisbaden, 2010.
A. Anisi, Early Islamic Architecture in Iran (637-1059). Ph.D. Thesis, The University of Edinburgh, 2007.
R. Hillenbrand, “Architecture and Politics: The North and South Dome Chambers of the Isfahan Jami'”, in E. Herzig and S.Stewart (eds), The Age of the Seljuqs, I.B. Tauris, pp. 148-173, 2014.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18860/jia.v6i2.10209
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2020 Journal of Islamic Architecture
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
EDITORIAL OFFICE
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Science and Technology
Universitas Islam Negeri Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang
Jalan Gajayana 50 Malang, Jawa Timur, Indonesia 65144
Phone (+62) 341 558933,Facsimile (+62) 341 558933
e-mail: journal.islamicarchitecture@gmail.com / jia@uin-malang.ac.id
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.