Global Identities and Transformations during the Mongol Period: A Muslim from Bukhara Serving the Mongols in China

From the earliest days of Islam there were Muslims in China, as Middle Eastern traders had been traveling back and forth to China for centuries preceding the advent of Islam.  However, it was not until the rise of the Mongolian Empire (1206-1368), when tens of thousands of Muslims from across Western and Central Asia were forcibly relocated to Mongolia and China to serve the Mongols, that the Muslim population of China became firmly established.  Artisans, architects, physicians, engineers, astronomers, and others from the Muslim world were brought back by the Mongols to help establish a foundation for their rapidly expanding empire. 

This research project focuses on the life of one man, Sayyid ‘Ajall Shams al-Din, to shed light on the impact of the dynamic exchange of ideas, cultures, technologies, and religious traditions that flowed back and forth across Asia during this period.  In 1219, as Chinggis Qan swept across the heart of Central Asia, Sayyid ‘Ajall, the young son of a prominent Bukharan official, was one of the hundreds of elite hostages brought back to Mongolia.  Raised within the Mongol inner court, this boy was to become one of the most important military and administrative leaders in the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), the first civilian governor of the province of Yunnan, and one of the most influential individuals in the history of Islam in China. 

The relative ease at which he was able to experience a series of radical transformations, from Central Asian elite, to foreign hostage, Mongol servant, and later Chinese imperial official, reflect the highly fluid nature of identities during this period of global history.  This research is based primarily on Chinese texts, both official dynastic histories, as well the personal writings of his contemporaries.