Some people, which were converted to Islam, moved to China from Persia,
Persia and Central Asia.
And this immigration was mainly stimulated
by Mongols during the Yuan Dynasty in 13th century.
According to the legend, the first mosque in China
was established in Guangzhou in 651, or
in seventh century, it's just a legend.
According to the legend, one of the greatest Muslim leader,
Sa'd ibn abi Waqqas, the maternal uncle of the prophet Muhammad,
came to China at the head of the embassy.
And in spite there is not any reliable evidence of the Waqqas ever coming
to China, there are a lot of legends about his sojourn in the south part of China.
And a lot of people think that it was the first mosque outside the Arab world.
And it was established in the south part of China.
The early school of Islam in China was called Qadim or in Chinese Gedimu.
It means the ancient school.
And sometimes in Chinese it is called [FOREIGN] also ancient school.
Because all other streams and teaching,
like Sufi teaching, was called a new stream or new school.
Officially, Qadim was a Hanafi school of the Sunni tradition and
became very popular in the northern part of China.
By the way, you can see this strange mixture of
the Orthodox church and of the mosque.
This kind of temple was established, actually mosque,
was established at the the beginning of 20th century in Harbin City.
There are at least two main big groups of Muslims in China.
One is Uyghurs and another one is Weiwuer zu.
The Uyghurs, it's known Chinese national minority.
And officially there are more than 10 million
of Uyghur in China, especially in the northern part of China.
And unofficially, there are more than 15 Uyghurs, also in China.
We can find Uyghurs not only in Xinjiang region,
which is inhabited by the 80% of Muslims, but also in Shanghai, in Beijing.
And first of all,
the recourse about Uyghurs in China appeared in the 4th and 6th centuries,
as they called the Gaoche the high vehicles.
There is a contention between Uyghur nationalists and
the Chinese authority today.
During the 20th century, almost during all the 20th century,
but also even today, there is a very strong, but
not very influential movement, for independence of the Uyghur,
also called the Uyghurstan in the northern and the west northern part of China.
But anyway, China, official China, suppressed such a movement.
But at the same time support the official Islam activity in this region.
Another Muslim group in China called the Huizu.
Huizu officially,
there are approximately more than 10 million of Hui people or Huizu in China.
Huizu also inhabited in the northern part of China, but also in the big cities.
Mainly, they are mainly concentrated in the northwest China,
for example, in Ningxia, Gansu, and Qinghai, and Xinjiang.
But also, there are a very huge communities, Xian and Kaifeng for example.
This picture of the Kaifeng community of Huizu also in Mongolia,
in Hebei, in Hainan, in the south part of China, of Yunnan.
The reduced activity is based,
under the leadership also called akhunds, or akhoonds.
In Chinese, it's ahong.
These are religious leaders, not imams, but just like a local priest
that are responsible for leading religious services in a community.
So akhunds are very influential persons among these communities.