Yuan Territory and the Formation of the Hui

The Yuan was the first nationwide unified dynasty in Chinese history founded mainly by minority-ethnic nobility. Its territory was vast; the History of Yuan (Geography) describes it as reaching "north beyond the Yin Mountains, west to the shifting sands, east to Liaodong, south across the seas", "beyond the Han and Tang at their height". Present-day Xinjiang, Tibet, Yunnan, the vast Northeast, Taiwan and the South China Sea islands were all within its rule. Under the Yuan, with the country unified and communications developed, frontier peoples including the Mongols moved in large numbers into the Central Plains and the Jiangnan region and lived mixed with the Han, while many Han also moved to frontier areas. In this great migration and fusion a new ethnic group, the Hui, took shape. During the Mongol western campaigns of the 13th century, large numbers of Muslims from Central and West Asia were relocated to China and were called "Huihui"; descendants of Arab and Persian merchants who had come to trade and settled in the Tang and Song were also a source of the Hui. The Huihui were scattered across the country ("in the Yuan the Huihui were everywhere"); with Islam as their bond, they long lived among and intermarried with other peoples, absorbed Han culture and gradually adopted Chinese as their common language, forming by the Ming a new ethnic group, the Hui. Under the Yuan the Huihui were active in politics, economy and culture: Sayyid Ajall Shams al-Din governed Yunnan with great success, the astronomer Jamal al-Din compiled the Wannian Calendar, and the architect Yeheidie'er took part in designing the city of Dadu. The ethnic fusion of the Yuan period enriched the Chinese nation and promoted the development of a unified multi-ethnic state.