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年代中华人民共和国开放对穆斯林民族进行研究以来，已经完成了大量关于穆斯林民族身份和历史的研究。 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定居点地理分布和形式的关键机制。 然而，没有研究详细绘制和评估中国最近的政治和经济改革对历史上穆斯林定居模式的影响，以及由于流动性、生活水平和农村土地向城市转换的前所未有的提高，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学的研究至关重要，同时也有助于更好地预测在不断变化的政治、经济和环境条件下的未来动态。 这项研究将涉及中国范围内的清真寺位置调查，并在华北平原的北京周围以及西北地区的陕西和甘肃的三个地点进行案例研究。 本研究将探讨五个主要的研究问题：（1）伊斯兰遗址与城乡穆斯林聚落历史区域之间的关系是什么？ (2)这些遗址如何与伊斯兰教义形式的历史发展以及具有世袭领导权的苏菲派团体相互关联？ (3)如何将中国2000年人口普查数据在城镇规模上与历史地区进行比较？ (4)在中国当前的改革体制下，人口和经济因素以及政治经济制度对穆斯林有哪些影响？ (5)历史上的穆斯林社区和农村飞地是否因城市扩张而转变为新的独特的穆斯林地区，或者穆斯林是否被新的社区同化，或者是否迁出形成了新的民族地区？ 为了回答这些问题，调查员将建立一个全国范围内的历史穆斯林定居点的地理信息系统（GIS）的基础上的位置和历史宗教属性数据的所有已知的伊斯兰遗址。 此外，还将建立一个乡镇一级的地理信息系统，将案例研究地区纳入2000年人口普查和2004年经济普查数据，并根据2008-2009年实地工作结果进行评价。 通过对当地政府官员、宗教领袖、工人、农民和公共知识分子的深入访谈，将有助于了解社区和村庄规模的移民、人口政策、获得信贷、商店所有权和财产权的情况。 一个在伊斯兰教、人口学、城市规划、农业、地理信息系统和中国历史地理方面具有不同专业知识的团队已经组建起来。 本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Xi伊斯兰教研究协会。 教育活动也与研究项目相结合。 本科生将沿着研究者在中国完成实地工作。 因此，该项目的一个重要成果将是对本科生进行制图和分析中国人口普查数据的跨学科培训，同时对选定地区进行实地调查。

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.