BOOK REVIEW DISCUSSION: ISLAM IN CHINA

Contributed By: events coordinator
Organizing Institution: Islamic Courses - Islamic Circles
Contact email: [email protected]
Start Date: June 16, 2023 (6:00pm)
End Date: June 16, 2023 (9:00pm GMT+1)
Cost: Free
Website: https://allevents.in/london/book-review-discussion-islam-in-china/10000648165840477
WeWork - Office Space & Coworking – London – United Kingdom

Description:

Building on the Han Kitab series of translations, in particular Rectifying God’s Name: Liu Zhi’s Confucian Translation of Monotheism and Islamic Law, Islamic Courses welcomes back Professor James Frankel to talk about his recent book, Islam in China is a short introductory book to the general public.

 

Representing over 1200 years of Chinese-Islamic relations. However, little is known about the historical and contemporary geopolitical relations between China and the Muslim world, or the situation for the diverse groups of Muslims living in China today.

In this book, James Frankel studies the rich and dynamic history of Muslims in China from the Tang dynasty (618-907) to the present day. He shows that Muslims in China remain an internally diverse population separated geographically, ethnically, linguistically, economically, educationally, and along sectarian and kinship lines. But despite having its own local flavours and accents, Islam in China is recognisable as the same religious tradition practiced by approximately 1.8 billion Muslims worldwide and Muslims in China are inextricably part of society, living alongside other minorities and amongst the great Han Chinese majority.

Tracing 1200 years of history, this book shows that Muslim communities in China have undergone tremendous change, touched by the forces of Chinese history, the development of Islamic traditions outside China, and geopolitics. In highlighting the paradoxical situation in which Chinese Muslims have found themselves – living as both insiders and outsiders to Chinese society and state – the book examines why after so many centuries of habitation and naturalisation, Muslims in China are still stigmatized by their perceived alien origins. The book follows the ‘yin and yang’ of compatibility and difference and the connections and ruptures between two great civilisations.

About the author: James D. Frankel, Ph.D., a native New Yorker, holds his bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies and doctorate in religion from Columbia University in New York City. His expertise is in the history of Islam in China, a field that draws upon and informs his scholarly interests in the comparative history of ideas, and religious and cultural syncretism. As a member of the faculty of religion at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Dr. Frankel teaches courses in comparative religion, Islam, and mysticism. He has lived in China and traveled extensively in Asia and Europe for research and to meet with fellow scholars and religious leaders of Muslim minority communities. Rectifying God’s Name is his first book.

Location:
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