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July 6, 2014

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Great Mosque stands the test of time

化觉巷清真寺 (huà jué xiàng qīng zhēn sì) The Great Mosque of Xi’an

The Great Mosque in Xi’an, Shaanxi Province, is the oldest and best known in the country.

Unlike mosques in other parts of the country and world, the Great Mosque doesn’t have the iconic domes and minarets. Except for some Arabic and Persian inscriptions and decorations, the mosque is typical of ancient Chinese architecture.

Construction of the mosque started in AD 742 when Arabic merchants arrived in China and influenced the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).

However, most of the complex was built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). It was further expanded during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The complex stretches from east to west in a rectangular shape. It is divided into four large courtyards and houses numerous rare cultural relics, such as tablets and boards with Arabic, Persian and Chinese inscriptions, vertical written couplets, incense burners, scripture caskets, paintings and pendent lamps.

It is reported that the mosque also has a copy of the Koran produced by Sayyid Shams Din‘Umar (1211-1279), a Muslim noble who is often identified as the ancestor of many families of the ethnic Hui people in China.

Entering the first courtyard, people will be attracted by a large and grandiose screen wall featuring relief carvings of lotus and chrysanthemum flowers, a glazed-tile roof and brick bracket sets. It is also flanked by wing rooms on its southern and northern sides.

The second courtyard is a leafy one, with a stone-carved freestanding gateway in the center. The inscriptions on the gateway all derive from Chinese classics such as “The Book of Odes.”

There are also towering stone tablets featuring the writings of famous Chinese calligraphers.

To get into the third courtyard, one has to pass through a hall containing many ancient steles. The hall once served as the front gate of the mosque during its reconstruction from 1522-66 period.

In the middle of the third courtyard stands a three-story, octagonal pavilion, called Xingxin Tower. This serves as the only minaret in the mosque. This is certainly a marked deviation from the traditional layout of a mosque, which usually have four minarets.

With flying eaves and a glazed roof crown, the pavilion is also flanked by 10 wing rooms. The rooms on the southern side contain an elaborately built bed and writings of famous calligraphers inscribed into bamboo skins glued to wood tablets.

The rooms on the northern side house a painting of Mecca created during the Qing Dynasty and a hand-written copy of the Koran.

Entering the fourth courtyard, people will first see the Phoenix Pavilion, a structure that combines the ancient Chinese architectural styles of arch and pavilion.

Behind the pavilion stands the main structure of the mosque, the Prayer Hall.

Covering a floor space of more than 1,300 square meters, the hall can accommodate as many as 1,000 worshippers.

It also features more than 600 caisson paintings created with unique Islamic mosque art techniques. The four walls of the hall are covered by large woodcarvings of the Koran, with Arabic on the top and Chinese underneath.

The mosque is a key cultural relic under state protection.

影壁 (yǐng bì)
Screen Wall

Yingbi, also known as zhaobi (照壁) in Chinese, is a unique feature of ancient Chinese architecture. It’s a wall standing either right inside or outside the gate of a courtyard, house or a complex of buildings. It serves as both a screen and decoration.

When it was first introduced centuries ago, it was mainly used to prevent people from seeing inside the buildings, usually owned by wealthy individuals or people of high social status.

Later, the screen walls became more decorative.

Such walls are mostly designed in a straight line or a V-shape and feature a base, wall and roof. They can be built of either mud, bricks, wood or stone.

Many are richly decorated or painted. For instance, Nine-dragon Wall in Beijing’s Beihai Park, built in 1402, features nine exquisitely carved and colorfully glazed dragon reliefs. Another well-known Nine-dragon Wall is in the Forbidden City.

After the fall of the last emperor in 1911, ordinary people have also begun to build simple screen walls in their homes.

 




 

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