taken from the site provided, the author said he first read of
the incident from a book written by an american, Louise Levathes
but Louise nor the translator did not indicate the source of this
"history" so he did not pursue further.
Official chinese records say very little about this incident. In a
periodical "A Study of the Gansu People" dated 1999, an article
written by Mr. Wang wrote about this incident, but quoted from a
English missionary, who apparently quoted from the book "Islam in
China and Turkistan" written by a French scholor in 1878.
According to the article, during the An Lu San rebellion, 4000
arabians soldiers under a general Kotche were sent to help the Tang
emperor but they did not leave China after the rebellion. After
some trouble they created in Lou Yang, the Tang emperor arranged
for them to leave China for home by sea, through Canton (thats why
they were in Canton). But when they arrived in Canton (now known as
Guangzhou), they refused to board the ships and ganged up with the
local arabs and persian merchants and occupied some warehouses.
After some negotiations, they were finally were allowed to stay,
married local girls....and the French author concluded that these
are the forefathers of all muslims in China.
Mr. Wang, in studying into the people of Gansu, which is a province
in the far west of China, had argued that there were already many
muslims in Gansu and the soldiers who went to help the Tang emperor
were actually the Gansu soldiers but mistaken as the arabian
soldiers.
What is the truth? Scholars are arguing, but it is definitely not a
battle between china and the muslims. pls don't use this and create
something else.
