Beyond the Great Wall of China: A New History of Islamic China

Of all the world’s Muslim communities, the multiethnic Muslims of China are perhaps the least known, as though secluded by a Great Wall of linguistic, geographical and political dimensions. Yet preserved in mosques and shrines across the whole length of China—as well as India and Thailand —are manuscripts, woodblock prints and lithographs that reveal the interconnections of China’s Muslims with their coreligionists in other parts of Asia.  In this episode, we travel far and wide by following these books and their authors from Nanjing and Xinjiang to Kanpur, Sri Lanka and Mecca. We learn about such influential figures as Wang Daiyu (c.1570-1660) and Ma Lianyuan (1842-1903), who not only wrote books in Chinese and Persian but also pioneered the development of Muslim printing. We also see how their teachings and travels linked China’s Muslims to various regions of Asia beyond that illusory Great Wall. Nile Green talks to Rian Thum, author of Islamic China: An Asian History (Harvard University Press, 2025).