TL idea
- Thread starter alpha
- Start date
No i mean something along the line of this credit to profxyz
It wouldn't actually be that hard to have a Muslim China in my opinion, and it requires no crazy hordes/rampaging Arabs to impose. Islam in China has existed since the 8th Century, and many important Chinese were Islamic (Zheng He of the Ming Dynasty, for example, as were a large number of early Ming generals).
But let's have the most recent scenario, I think, that is possible before 1900:
1. 1837. Hong Xiuquan returns to his native village near Canton, dejected after failing his exams for the second time. But instead of meeting a Protestant missionary OTL, he meets a Panthay (e.g. a Muslim from Yunnan). Said Panthay converts Hong to Islam.
2. Arriving back at his native village, Hong falls into an extreme sickness brought on by malaria. In his delirium, he "receives" a vision of Allah calling him to be the Final Imam, his task being to finish the conversion of the last pagan bastion on Earth, East Asia.
3. Swept up with zeal, Hong employs his immense talents in the service of Islam, creating the "Allah-Worshiping Society". With religious networks that are well-established in China, and not carrying the stain of the "foreign devils" that Christianity has, Hong's efforts are multiplied manifold, the poor of China's southwest flocking to his millennarian message.
4. Unlike in OTL, Hong does not have to flee persecution into the wildernesses of Guangxi; instead, under the patronage of rich Indian and Parsee traders, the Allah-Worshipping Society can lay down deep roots in the southern city of Canton/Guangzhou.
5. Qing fear of Hong increases and persecutions begin, only to spiral out of control as Muslims in other Chinese coastal cities (e.g. Quanzhou, Wenzhou) are caught up in the persecution as well, causing major civil unrest in the south. Hong see his chance and, reminding the Han Chinese of the fact that the Muslim Ming Generals Lan Yu and Chang Yuchun were crucial in throwing off the Mongol yoke, rises up in Canton in 1843.
6. A trickle becomes a flood - Muslims all over Southern China rise up in response to both Qing oppression following the Opium Wars and also for the unique chance to assist the Imam in converting China to the True Faith. Buoyed by Hong's insurgence, bandits, secret societies and all other disaffected peoples flock under the Taiping Salaam Heavenly Kingdom. Fortresses fall to Hong in quick succession: Kweilin, Changsha, Canton, Nanjing - before long, all land south of the Yangtze is wrested from the Qing.
7. With his rear secure, Hong and his fellow Kings can now concentrate Taiping forces on one axis of advance - the march up to Peking. Conversely, the Qing become more and more pressured as the Hui revolt in the West, the Dungans in Xinjiang/Mongolia (as they did OTL), and Western powers stay neutral as they potentially see the Taiping as a better alternative to the "decadent" Qing, even if they are reluctant to help Muslims. A pitched battle 3 miles south of Tianjin in 1851 seals the fate of the Qing, and Peking falls and the Qing retreat to Manchuria, where they will place themselves under the protection of the Russians.
8. Hong Xiuquan is now undisputed leader of China, Xinjiang, Tibet and Mongolia. Fueled with zeal, he declares that the Taiping war is not yet over and China can only be cleansed of the Manchu devil if they turn back to the classical Chinese traditions - which to him, is worship of the One True Allah (note that this actually was Hong Xiuquan's goal OTL, except it was his interpretation of the Christian God).
9. Taiping puritanicalism/propaganda is slow but steady, helped with an already large-existing population of Muslims in China. To speed up the conversion, Hong settles Huis, Dungans and Panthays into Central China, as well as inviting Malay and Middle Eastern missionaries into the Taiping Kingdom. Progress is uneven and in some cases extremely violent - such as in the forced conversion of Tibet and Mongolia - but in most cases, change comes gradually and begrudgingly. In a few generations, a slim majority in China follow the Muslim faith, with more joining every day.
