Muslim endowments and lodges · The Jin empire of Zhangzong · as at first light, 1 January 1200

Muslim community of Jingzhao

A Muslim community of Arab and Persian descent is likely to have lived in Chang'an and its successor Jingzhao since the Tang.

Wikipedia (Great Mosque of Xi'an) says tradition dates the Great Mosque in Huajue lane to 742, that there is evidence the early mosque was used under the Song (an imperial plaque and Song-dated plaque carvings on the gates), and that by the 1260s it was falling into decay and the Yuan government rebuilt it; most of the present complex is Ming (1392 under Hongwu). The Jin is not mentioned. So a mosque of some kind probably stood and was used in 1200; its state, its imam and its endowment are not known.

Who holds it

Title
Imam or leader of the Muslim community of Jingzhao; not known
Since
not pinned
Confidence
low

No source consulted dates the office-holder for the winter of 1199-1200.

Overlord

The Jin court, through the prefect and the Bureau of Rites; the house is registered and taxed like other Chinese religious houses

What it holds

  • The mosque and any quarter held by the community

How it was acquired

Over many centuries; the dates of the present endowments are not known.

Allies and rivals

Patron: the Jin court and the local officials; no quarrel is known.

How things stand that morning

Probably living in the western quarter; nothing dated for 1200.

Wealth

Temple estates, tenants and alms in the usual pattern; no figures given by any source we could read.

Military

None; a religious house with no armed monks known.

Threats

  • The Jin's occasional restrictions on religious houses (sales of certificates, limits on new foundations).

Places of note

  • Great Mosque of Xi'an: Founded 742 by tradition; used under the Song (Wikipedia). The rebuilding of the 1260s is a later event and does not stand on 1 January 1200.

Where the sources disagree

  • The assignment asks for "the Muslim mosque at Xi'an". The building's Tang origin is tradition and its 1200 state is not documented.

Evidence: The house and its general history are well known from the secondary literature; no source we could read gives its holder, its estates or its dealings with the Jin court in the winter of 1199-1200. The Chinese-language sources were not reachable in this session. Wikipedia (Great Mosque of Xi'an) read for the Tang tradition, the Song plaque and the Yuan rebuilding; it says nothing of the Jin period.

On the map: The drawing is approximate; no estate boundaries are known.

Primary sources for Jin empire

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

  • Annals of the Western Xia, Wu Guangcheng (吳廣成) (1825 to 1827, compiled from Song, Liao, Jin and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's year-by-year reconstruction of Tangut history from the Chinese histories, since the Xia left no surviving annals of their own in Chinese. Read online
  • Continuation of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government, Bi Yuan (畢沅), completed by Feng Jiwu after his death (late eighteenth century, finished after 1801, from Song and Yuan sources). A Qing scholar's continuous month-by-month chronicle of the Song and Yuan centuries, compiled from the Song shi, the Liao, Jin and Yuan histories, Li Tao, Li Xinchuan and other Song sources. Read online
  • Essentials of the History of Goryeo, Kim Jong-seo (金宗瑞) and the Joseon history office (1452). The chronological companion to the Goryeosa, finished a year after it and drawing on the same lost records, sometimes with entries the Goryeosa omits. Read online
  • Outline and Details of Two Reigns (thirteenth century, after 1224). A Song outline-and-detail chronicle of exactly the two reigns around 1200, drawn from the court's daily records. Read online
  • Record of the Personal Campaigns of the Holy Warrior (Chinggis Khan) (presented to Khubilai in 1288, finished in Mongolian in 1290; the surviving Chinese version dates from 1369). A year-by-year Chinese account of Temujin's wars, drawn from the lost Altan Debter (the same source behind the Yuan shi's first chapter and Rashid al-Din). Read online
  • The Secret History of the Mongols (1228 or 1240 (the colophon's Year of the Rat is disputed), with later additions; the surviving Chinese transcription and gloss were made under the Ming in the 1380s). The only Mongol account of Temujin's rise, written within living memory. Read online
  • History of the Jin, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office, with Ouyang Xuan among the chief compilers (1343 to 1344, from the Jin veritable records and the Jin national history). The official history of the Jurchen empire that ruled north China and Manchuria in 1200. Read online
  • Record of the Great Jin State, Attributed to Yuwen Maozhao (宇文懋昭); the attribution is doubtful (preface dated 1234; probably assembled in the Southern Song from Song and Jin material, with later accretions). A Song-side history of the Jin, with annals for each emperor and chapters on institutions, customs, the capitals and the Jurchen way of life. Read online

14 more in the sources library for North China and Manchuria.

Sources and studies

  1. Wikipedia, Great Mosque of Xi'an
  2. Jinshi (History of the Jin), juan 24 to 26, Dili zhi (geography); cited from the standard reference, the text itself could not be opened in this session

Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.