Sayyid Ajall Shams ad-Din Umar

Sayyid Ajall Shams ad-Din Umar al-Bukhari ( Arabic سيد أجل شمس الدين عمر البخاري, DMG Saiyid Aǧall Šams ad-Dīn ʿUmar al-Buḫārī ; chinese  赛 典 赤 · 赡 思丁 ; Pinyin: Sàidiǎnchì Zhānsīdīng; * around 1210 in Bukhara ; † 1279 ) was a well-known official of the Yuan Dynasty and the first governor of China in Yunnan Province . The introduction of Islam in this province goes back to him and his followers.

Ascent

He originally came from Bukhara and is therefore also given the addition of al-Bukhari. The title Sayyid (al-) Adschall indicates a descent from the family of the Prophet . As a boy he experienced the conquest by the Mongols and later served the Khan in various offices. At the beginning of the 50s he belonged to B. to the staff of Machmud Jalatwatsch († 1254), who was governor of northern China at the time and one of the most important officials of the empire. At the beginning of the 1960s, he held several top positions in the central government at the same time or in quick succession. He was responsible for agriculture and political affairs, then paper money issuance, public works, the administration of Shaanxi and Sichuan, including the military operations there. The Persian historian Raschid ed Din describes his administrative affairs as absolutely flawless (around 1303).

Governor of Yunnan

In 1273 he became the governor of Yunnan Province, which was important for the Yüan court in view of its strategic location and gold deposits, and remained so until his death. With his appointment, the province was in fact annexed to China and is still today.

As governor of Yunnan, he strove for a good relationship with the local population groups, for stability and integration, which should convince the locals of the advantages of belonging to China. Sayyid Ajall had to functionally rebuild the administration of Yunnan, organize population censuses, postal services and tax collection. He initiated the construction of the first two mosques in this province, but also the construction of Confucian, Buddhist and Daoist temples including Confucian schools, as well as irrigation work around Kunming . And he also encouraged trade and the adoption of cultural ideas from China (e.g. at marriage, funeral). Finally, he had his own troops subordinate to him so as not to be dependent on the whims of looting princes and thus to spare the population.

heritage

Although Sayyid Adschall pursued a policy of Islamization at most indirectly, his appearance and that of his staff also marked the successful introduction of Islam in this region (see also Hui Chinese ). His sons Nasr ed Din and Husain succeeded him in the administration of Yunnan Province and continued his work. His family subsequently had less luck, but the famous navigator Zheng He was his great-great-great-grandson and came from Yunnan.

Remarks

1. ^ JJ Saunders: The History of the Mongol Conquests , p. 235. Rachewiltz et al. a .: In the service of the Khan , p. 467. His grandfather of the same name submitted to the Mongols in 1220 before Bukhara, his father served them as a hostage. More distant ancestors are not known.
2. ↑ Rachewiltz et al. a .: In the service of the Khan , p. 472 ff.
3. ↑ Parallel to its administration, the old royal house of Dali still existed , since the campaign of 1253/4 in vassal status to China. It is mentioned until 1382.
4. ↑ Nasr ed Din commanded a campaign against Burma in 1277 . From 1279 to 1291 he was governor in Yunnan. In 1292 he was executed for embezzlement.
5. ↑ Shih-Shan Henry Tsai: Perpetual Happiness: The Ming Emperor Yongle . University of Washington Press 2002, ISBN 9780295981246 , p. 38 ( restricted online version in the Google Book Search USA ); EJ van Donzel: Islamic Desk Reference: Compiled from the Encyclopaedia of Islam , Brill-Verlag 1994, p. 67

literature

• Igor de Rachewiltz, Hok-lam Chan, Hsiao Ch'i-ch'ing, Peter W. Geier a. a .: In the Service of the Khan - Personalities of the Early Mongol-Yüan Period , Wiesbaden 1993
• Jacqueline Misty Armijo-Hussein: Sayyid 'Ajall Shams Al-Din: A Muslim from Central Asia, Serving the Mongols in China, and Bringing "civilization" to Yunnan , Harvard University, 1996
• Susan Mann, Yu-Yin Cheng: Under Confucian Eyes. Writings on Gender in Chinese History. University of California Press, 2001