The Changing Geography of Islam in China: A Survey of Historic Urban Neighborhoods and Rural Enclaves in Relation to New Settlement Patterns

自20世纪80年代中国开展穆斯林民族研究以来，穆斯林族群认同和历史研究已经完成了大量的工作。民族民族主义和国家支持的区域分类都被认为是解释当代中国穆斯林聚落的地理分布和形式的关键机制。然而，还没有研究详细地绘制和评估中国最近的政治和经济改革对历史上的穆斯林聚落模式的影响，以及由于流动性、生活水平和农村土地向城市土地转化的前所未有的提高，这些模式发生了怎样的变化。了解这些过程对历史和当代穆斯林城市社区和农村飞地的影响，对于推进当今中国伊斯兰教地理的学术研究，以及在不断变化的政治、经济和环境条件下更好地预测未来的动态，至关重要。这项研究将包括对中国清真寺选址的全范围调查，以及对北京北部中国平原和西北中国的陕西和甘肃三个地点的个案研究的综合田野调查。本研究将解决五个主要研究问题：(1)伊斯兰遗址与城乡穆斯林聚落历史区域之间的关系？(2)这些遗址与伊斯兰教义形式的历史发展有何关联，和世袭领导的苏菲派？(3)通过绘制中国2000年城镇人口普查数据确定的当代穆斯林聚落模式与历史地区相比如何？(4)在中国当前的改革制度下，穆斯林受到人口、经济因素和政治经济制度的哪些方面的影响？(5)历史上的穆斯林社区和农村飞地是被城市扩张改造成新的独特的穆斯林地区，还是穆斯林同化到新的社区，或者迁出形成新的民族地区？为了回答这些问题，调查者将基于所有已知的伊斯兰遗址的位置和历史宗教属性数据，建立一个覆盖中国的穆斯林历史聚落地理信息系统。此外，还将结合2000年的人口普查和2004年的经济普查数据，建立一个乡镇级地理信息系统，并结合2008-2009年的实地调查结果进行评估。深入采访当地政府官员、宗教领袖、工人、农民和公共知识分子，将有助于在社区和村庄范围内建立关于移民、人口政策、获得信贷、商店所有权和财产权的概况。已经组建了一支在伊斯兰教、人口学、城市规划、农业、地理信息系统和中国的历史地理方面具有不同专业知识的团队。这项研究的合作者来自北京大学城市与区域规划系、刘易斯堡学院历史系和陕西省西安市伊斯兰研究会。教育活动也与研究项目相结合。本科生将与调查员一起在中国完成实地考察工作。因此，该项目的一个重要成果将是对本科生进行跨学科培训，使他们能够结合选定地区的实地调查绘制和分析中国普查数据。

Since the opening of the Peoples' Republic of China to research on its Muslim nationalities in the 1980s, a large body of research on Muslim ethnic identities and histories has been completed. Both ethnic nationalism and state-sponsored regional classifications have been implicated as key mechanisms to explain the geographical distribution and forms of contemporary Muslim settlement across China. No studies, however, have mapped in detail and evaluated the impacts of China's recent political and economic reforms on historical Muslim settlement patterns and how they have changed due to the unprecedented rise in mobility, standards of living, and rural to urban land conversions. Understanding the effects of these processes on historic and contemporary Muslim urban neighborhoods and rural enclaves is vital to advancing scholarship on the geography of Islam in China today, as well as to better predict future dynamics in the face of changing political, economic, and environmental conditions. This study will involve a China-wide survey of mosque locations, and integrated field research at case study sites around Beijing on the North China Plain and in three sites in Shaanxi and Gansu in Northwest China. The research will address five main research questions: (1) What is the relationship between Islamic sites and historic areas of urban and rural Muslim settlement? (2) How do these sites interrelate with the historical development of forms of Islamic teachings, and Sufi groups with hereditary leadership? (3) How do contemporary Muslim settlement patterns identified from mapping China 2000 census data at the township-scale compare with historic areas? (4) In what ways are Muslims affected by demographic and economic factors and political-economic institutions under China's current reform system? (5) Have historic Muslim neighborhoods and rural enclaves been transformed by city expansion into new distinct Muslim areas, or have Muslims assimilated into the new neighborhoods, or moved out to form new ethnic areas? To answer these questions the investigator will build a China-wide geographic information system (GIS) of historic Muslim settlement based on the locations and historic religious attribute data of all known Islamic sites. Also, a township-level GIS will be constructed of the case study areas incorporating 2000 demographic and 2004 economic census data and evaluated in relation to 2008-2009 fieldwork findings. In depth interviews with local government officials, religious leaders, workers, farmers, and public intellectuals will help develop neighborhood and village-scale profiles of migration, population policy, access to credit, store ownership, and property rights. A team with diverse expertise in Islam, demography, urban planning, agriculture, GIS, and the historical geography of China has been assembled. Collaborators in this research are from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Peking University, the History Department at Fort Lewis College, and the Islamic Studies Association of Xi'an in Shaanxi province. Education activities are also integrated with the research project. Undergraduates will complete field work in China along with the investigator. Thus, an important outcome of the project will be the interdisciplinary training of undergraduate students in mapping and analyzing China census data in tandem with field surveys of selected areas.