Nasr Muhammad Arif is Visiting Professor at University of St Andrews, UK, and Professor of Political Science at Cairo University in Egypt. He served as Professor of Islamic Studies and founding Executive Director of the Institute for Islamic World Studies at Zayed University, UAE. He has published many works on political and social development, Islamic thought and movement, and Muslim culture and adaptations in English and Arabic. His works have been published in Arabic and translated into English, Spanish, Hungarian, Kurdish, Persian, Indonesian, and Urdu. His research concentrates on Islamic traditions and political thought, the history of Islamic cultures, political development, and comparative political systems. He received a PhD degree in political science, in 1995, from Cairo University, Egypt, and the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA.

Shaojin Chai is a faculty member of the Department of International Relations at the University of Sharjah, UAE. Previously, he taught international relations courses at Zayed University in the UAE and was a nonresidential research fellow on Islamic studies at Hebei University in China. He has also served as a senior research fellow and adviser in the UAE Ministry of Culture & Knowledge Development and an international think tank. He has published articles and book chapters on Chinese global ethics and governance, China-Middle East relations and soft power, and Islam in China. He is a co-editor of Zhenghe Forum: Connecting China and Muslim World (2016) and a co-author of "Chinese Muslim Diaspora Communities and the Role of International Islamic Education Networks: A Case Study of Dubai" in Chinese Religions Going Global (2021). He received his PhD inpolitical science from the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana USA, in 2014.

List of Figures ix

List of Contributors x

Introduction 1

Nasr M. Arif and Shaojin Chai

PART I

Theological Paradigms, Intellectual History, and Identity Choice 17

1 Constructing Chinese Islamic Thought and Classics: Dialogue and Paradigms 19

Zhou Chuanbin and Shaojin Chai

2 Bridging Belief and Belonging: A History of Chinese Muslim Intellectual and Theological Traditions 36

James D. Frankel

3 Past and Present: Intermarriage Between Hui and Han in the Sinicization of Islam 57

He Jia

PART II

Chinese Muslims' Relations With State and Society 73

4 The Role of Chinese Muslims in Administrative and Military Affairs: Historical Assessment and Contemporary Implications 75

Zhang Zhihua

5 Halal Food in China: Defining and Bridging Communities 95

Michael C. Brose

6 From Domestic Middleman Minority to International Intermediary: The Hui's Role as a Soft Power in the Belt and Road Initiative 117

Ma Qiang

7 Shared History and Cultural Complexity: Communal Relations Between Chinese Muslims and Their Neighbors in Yunnan 139

Ma Xuefeng

PART III

Architecture, Arts, and New Cultures 157

8 Mosques in China: Contentious Structures and Competing Identities 159

Yuting Wang

9 Sinicization of Islam in China: Food, Clothing, and Daily Life 186

Ma Jianfu

10 A Brief History of Islamic Education in China 205

Jacqueline Armijo

Index 219