Dongsi Mosque

About

The Dongsi Mosque (东四清真寺, Dōngsì Qīngzhēnsì) stands in the Dongsi subdistrict of Beijing's Dongcheng District, in the heart of the old city. Local tradition holds that an earlier mosque was raised on the site as far back as the Liao dynasty, when Beijing served as a secondary capital of the Liao state; more reliable historical records place its founding in 1346, during the Yuan dynasty.

The mosque was expanded and renovated under the Ming, first in 1447 and again in 1486, with the earlier of those works financed by the Ming dynasty officer Chen Yuyuan. It survived a fire in the late nineteenth century, though not without damage, and has been carefully repaired across the twentieth century.

In its present form the mosque carries the marks of Ming-era architecture. The mosque complex comprises two īwāns, a minaret, the main prayer hall, and a library; Qur'ānic calligraphy is carved along the arches of the prayer hall, which accommodates around 500 worshippers. Five wing halls line the southern side of the sahn (courtyard), with three more on the northern side, and the southern part of the courtyard houses a library containing various editions of the Qur'ān.

History

Wikipedia and several tourism sources date the mosque's founding to 1346 CE, in the Yuan dynasty, though Beijing's own tourism authority gives 1356 CE and the Beijing municipal government's religious affairs office instead describes it as first built under the Ming dynasty, between 1368 and 1644. What is agreed is that the mosque was expanded and renovated in 1447 and again in 1486, the earlier phase financed by the Ming official Chen Yuyuan. The mosque survived a fire in the late nineteenth century, though not without damage, and was comprehensively repaired across the twentieth century, including government-funded restoration in 1952 and 1974. It now serves as the headquarters of the Islamic Association of Beijing, welcoming both Chinese and international Muslims to daily and Friday prayer.

Significance

The surviving prayer hall is the mosque's oldest fabric and its Ming dynasty heart, its gilded pillars carved with lotus and arabesque motifs beneath painted beams, and Qur'anic calligraphy carved along its arches. The hall holds roughly five hundred worshippers at Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, and its library preserves Qur'an manuscripts and Hadith texts, some close to seven hundred years old. Three brick chambers with vaulted ceilings reflect an Arabic architectural idiom rarely found elsewhere in Beijing's mosque tradition, marking Dongsi as one of the city's most historically layered places of worship.

Architecture

Ming dynasty Chinese mosque architecture; three courtyards around a prayer hall with gilded, painted pillars and a wooden Chinese-style vestibule, with brick chambers under vaulted ceilings in an Arabic idiom