The Multiplicity of Mosque Architecture in China

Abstract

This pedagogy file examines the diversity of mosque architecture in China as an entry point for considering the intersections of Islam, regional traditions, and transregional exchange. Chinese mosques demonstrate a wide range of architectural strategies through which Muslim communities have articulated religious practice and cultural identity. Focusing on three case studies—the Ashab Mosque in Quanzhou, the Great Mosque of Xi’an, and the Amin Mosque in Turfan—the file highlights how architectural forms reflected the particular circumstances of diasporic merchant communities on the coast, imperially supported Hui congregations in central China, and Uyghur patronage along the frontiers of Central Asia. These examples illustrate both the circulation of forms through maritime and overland networks and the translation of global Islamic idioms into local building traditions and epistemologies. By engaging with these sites, students are encouraged to recognize that mosque architecture in China resists reductive classification and reflects processes of adaptation, continuity, and negotiation. Framed within broader histories of global architecture, the file provides resources for classroom discussion on center–periphery models and the transregional dynamics of religious built environments.