Muslim merchants and craftsmen, Arabs, Persians and Central Asians, have lived in Yanjing since the Liao, and the Niujie quarter in the south-west of Zhongdu is where they are remembered.
Local tradition, as we recall from English Wikipedia, dates the first Niujie mosque to 996 under the Liao, built by a scholar from the west; the standing buildings are of later centuries. The community trades in textiles, jewels, horses and the caravan goods of the north, and whether it keeps its own judge or headman is not known. We have no source for the numbers or the leaders of the community in 1200.
Who holds it
- Title
- Imam (ahong) of the mosque, not named
- Confidence
- low
No imam is named for 1200.
Overlord
Emperor Zhangzong, through the Jin registers of monks and Daoists
What it holds
- A mosque and its court in the south-west quarter
- A burial ground (not located)
How it was acquired
By Liao-period settlement (tradition, not checked).
How things stand that morning
No source we opened describes the community in 1200.
Wealth
Trade; mosque endowments. No figure.
Places of note
- Niujie mosque: The mosque of the Muslim quarter.
Where the sources disagree
- The date 996 for the first mosque is tradition, not checked.
Evidence: The Jinshi text could not be opened in this session; the dates below come from the English Wikipedia pages named in the sources and from memory, marked where unchecked.
On the map: A marker or a small disc: the house's lands and boundaries are not 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
- Zhongdu (English Wikipedia)
- History of Beijing (English Wikipedia)
- Jin dynasty (1115-1234) (English Wikipedia)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.