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The Yuan Dynasty of China, continued to maintain excellent relationship with other nomadic tribes of Mongolia. The Mongol rulers of Yuan Dynasty elevated the status of Muslims versus the Chinese, and placed many foreign and non-Han Chinese Muslims in high-ranking posts instead of native Confucian scholars, using many Muslims in the administration of China. The state encouraged Muslim immigration, as Arab, Persian and Turkic immigration into China accelerated during this period. This was part of a larger strategy of the Mongol dynasties to divide subject peoples from an administrative class. In addition, native Chinese and their descendants were sent out of China to administer other parts of the Mongol Empire, including West Asia, Russia and India (as Mughal dynasty) in successive centuries.

It was during this time that Jamal ad-Din, a Persian astronomer, presented Kublai Khan with seven Persian astronomical instruments.^[1]

In the fourteenth century, the total population of Muslims was 4,000,000.^[2]

The Yuan dynasty saw the flourishing of the muslim community. The Monghul emperors brought 100's of thousands of muslims with them from Persia to help administer the country. Many of the muslim worked in the elite circles arriving as provincial governers. They where referred to as Semu. Over ten thousand Muslim names can be indentified in Yuan historical records. The standard word used to denote Muslims in Chinese language documents of the late Yuan period is "HuiHui". The muslims were overseen by a 'HuiHui' named Amir al-Din who designed Qionghua island which sits in the lake of Beihai Park in central Beijing.^[3] Beihai Park itself was designed by another muslim Ikhtiyar.

The earliest of the Arabic tombstones with dates unearthed in Quanzhou, 1171 CE

It was during the Yuan Dynasty that the port of Quanzhou flourished. Led by the Muslim tycoon Pu Shougeng they submitted to the Mongol advance. This was in stark contrast to the port of Guangzhou that was sacked. Quanzhou was made famous on account of the accounts of the famous travelers Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo who visited the port. Today a large number of stone inscriptions can be seen at Quanzhou, such as 300 stone inscriptions on tombs, graves and mosques. The earliest date records the death of a Hussayn b Muhammad of Khalat, Armenia in the year 1171.

Marco Polo also met Nasaruddin who was the son of the conqueror and governer of Yunnan Sayid Ajjal of Bokhara, as appointed by the Monghuls.

1. ^ Zhu (1946)
2. ^ Israeli (2002), p. 285
3. ^ Yang Huaizhong, "Yeheidie'erding" (Amir al-Din) in Bai Shouyi, Zhongguo Huihui minzu shi, op. cit., pp.813-818.

• Islam by country
• Religion in China
• Demographics of China
• Chinese Patriotic Islamic Association
• Tibetan Muslims
• Islam in China
• Jamal ad-Din