APPENDIX B

A Select Glossary of Hui Chinese Islamic Terms

The Hui in China primarily speak the languages and dialectics spoken by the people among whom they live. Lacking a distinct language of their own, they have nevertheless infused these mainly Chinese (Han) languages with Islamic terminology derived from several sources, including Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and other Central Asian languages. Known as "Hui speech" (Huihui hua), the phrases and vocabulary items do not comprise a language of their own but serve as linguistic markers of ethnic and religious identity. There are no non-Chinese verbs in Hui speech, and many of the terms they use represent a unique mix of Chinese and foreign languages, permeated by translations and transliterations oflslamic lexical items. For example, "Arabia" is rendered Ah la bo ~i[ :f.iL 113, but "Arabic" is expressed as Ah wen ~i[ :X:, literally, the "literature of Arabia," with Arabia represented by only the first syllable. Other terms are direct transliterations of Persian or Arabic terms, such as ahong ~i[ i1fJ for "teacher," drawing upon the Persian akhund, rather than the Arabic imam. Many terms are purely Chinese translations of the Islamic mean­ ing, such as Qing Zhen ~]1f J!J;. for Islam, referring to the pure and true religion. Other words can be expressed in either Arabic, Persian, or Chinese, such as the Arabic An la !fi ;f.iL, the Persian Hu da i'ir.J JE, or the Chinese Zhen Zhu J!J;. .±. (True Lord), all of which refer to Allah. Folk, Buddhist, and Daoist traditions have also exerted an influence on Hui terminology, such as the use of the Buddhist term wuchang ::l[;At (impermanence) for death by Hui throughout China, or the Daoist-influenced terms Dao tang )i]it for the main prayer hall used by the leader of a Sufi order in the northwest, and'Dao zu Ji.j:Jl to refer to the Sufi master or saint who is the originator of the order. Other terms serve as transliterations of the foreign words, but at the same time employ Chinese ideographs with their own meaning, e.g., one Hui term for "Hell" is Duozuihai 394 Appendix B

1fr ~ ~~ , a transliteration of the Persian Duozakh, with the added Chinese meaning of "the sea of many transgressions." I have noticed that the use of these terms generally marks outsider/insider status, as Hui will often use the Arabic- or Persian-derived terms among themselves, saving the Chinese terms for when they speak with non-Muslim Han. It also seemed to me that, in the Hui villages or neighborhoods, daily speech was influenced more by Persian, whereas theological terminology used in the mosque by the ahong and mania was dominated more by Arabic-derived terms. There is also significant variation regionally, with the more technical Arabic and Persian terms much more prevalent in the northwest than in the southeast or urban areas (a Hui in Shanghai will be just as confused when asked directions to the maisijide ~:J:tlfaf~ [mosque] by a northwestern Hui as his Han conterpart). This glossary was complied primarily from my field notes, with considerable assistance derived from comparison with other lists, especially that of Professor Yu Zhengui and Ahong Su Dunli.1 Andrew Mason's 1919list was one of the first Western attempts to translate these terms, and Barbara Pillsubury's excel­ lent glossary based on her fieldwork in Taiwan was the most recent addition, both of which provided very helpful comparisons.2 I did not include terms from these lists that I did not hear in use or were unrecognized by my in­ formants, so this represents an "up-dated" glossary. Unfortunately, it is still terribly limited due to the wide geographic and dialectical variation found among the Hui. More rigorous linguistic and speech performance analysis is necessary before we can begin to note the distribution and influence of earlier Islamic languages on the development of Hui speech in China. Origins of the Chinese terms, where known, are indicated by the letters in parentheses following the terms (A = Arabic, P = Persian, T = Turkish, C = Chinese, AJC = combination of Arabic and Chinese). I offer this glossary as a tool for those interested in carrying out further research on Islam in China or tracking down the Chinese ideographs for many of the terms used in this book. A working knowledge of many of these terms is required for any cursory reading of the enormous body of Hui Islamic literature, sociological, or religious studies of Islam in China, the Chinese Quran, or even the local newspapers and gazetteers in Muslim areas of China. The incorporation of foreign terms into Chinese is a haphazard affair, since there exists no systematic method to romanize these terms in Chinese, as romqji, katagana, or hiragana are employed by the Japanese. Chinese generally translate the meaning of a term, or approximate the sound of the foreign lexical item,

1 Yu Zhengui and Su Dunli, Ningxia Yisila~ifiao changyong c!Ju huibian. 2 Andrew Mason, List of Chinese Moslem Terms; Barbara Pilsbury, "Cohesion and Cleavage," p. 275-283.