Muslim (Arab and Persian) merchants live in the Song's great trading cities, Hangzhou, Yangzhou and Mingzhou among them, with their mosques and cemeteries; the surviving mosques (the Phoenix mosque at Hangzhou, the Xianhe at Yangzhou) are the products of the Yuan and later, with Tang-origin legends.
In 1200 the communities are small, self-governing under their own head (a 'fanzhang' in the Song terms) and under the shibosi's customs. Evidence for the winter is thin.
Who holds it
- Name
- Not known for 1 January 1200
- Title
- Head of the foreign merchants (fanzhang; name not known)
- Since
- not pinned
- Confidence
- low
Not named in the sources we read.
Overlord
The Buddhist registry of the prefecture and the court.
What it holds
- A merchant quarter (not located)
- A mosque and cemetery (not located)
Allies and rivals
Not itemised.
How things stand that morning
Quiet; the ban on false learning does not touch it.
Wealth
Estates, merit-cloister endowments and pilgrim offerings; no figures.
Military
No armed monks recorded.
Places of note
- Hangzhou Muslim community: Merchants and mosque tradition (later firm)
- Yangzhou Muslim community: Merchants (later firm)
- Mingzhou Muslim community: Merchants (later firm)
Where the sources disagree
- Nestorian Christians at Zhenjiang and Yangzhou are attested only in the Yuan (13th century later); not drawn for 1200.
Evidence: Later evidence; only the principle that foreign merchants live in the ports is safe for 1200.
On the map: A small area round the compound: the house's real estates are not located.
Primary sources for Southern Song
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.
- 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
- 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
- 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
- History of the Song, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345, from the Song veritable records, state histories and the Huiyao). The official history of the Southern Song, which ruled from Lin'an (Hangzhou) in 1200. Read online
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. 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
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. 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
12 more in the sources library for South China.
Sources and studies
- General knowledge of Song administrative and economic history (Hartwell, Von Glahn, Smith and Twitchett eds., Cambridge History of China vol. 5 part 2), not re-checked line by line in this pass
- OMNIA board, area sce notes (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.