Reshhar

Rashaha

Reshihar, "China's First Book on Hui Muslims," ​​chronicles the story of the Jahriyya sect of Hui Muslims, and their Sufi teachers, who were suppressed twice by the Qing government during the Qianlong reign. It is an unofficial, banned historical document of the lower classes. The brutal persecution of those years forced the Hui people, clad in ragged clothes and filled with grief, to choose to reject it. This rejection manifested itself in literature and history by refusing to allow it to be read.

Written primarily in Arabic, Reshhar was never printed after its completion, but was only circulated among a few prominent Muslim scholars of the Jahriyya sect. To further maintain secrecy, the author switched the second half of the book to Persian, and copies are extremely rare.

It is a fragmentary marker, a trail of footprints that reveal their meaning only to those who understand. It is also a precious drop of dew in the ocean of truth, like a secret leak. It bears witness to the history of the underprivileged, carrying with it the mystical religious experience. The beauty of the writing is simple yet vivid. Citizens and country, the present and ideals, persecution and pursuit, solace and mystery, truth and indifference, works and faith—all are vaguely revealed in this book, steadfast in silence, restrained in confession.

This book is first and foremost a history of resistance by a suffering people, but it is also a social history, or perhaps an exposition of peasant epistemology. The internal structure of Islamic society, the interdependent relationships of feudal territorial society, and the various aspects of life and their complexities are all hidden in the cryptic Tadpole script.

The dewdrops were tiny and feeble, but they were not diluted water; they were the blood of those who had sacrificed themselves for the sake of spiritual purity over the past two hundred years. As the blood dried, it solidified into a thicker layer of earth, burying this remarkable book.

Overseen by renowned contemporary writer Zhang Chengzhi and re-edited by Hui scholar Ma Xuehua, the "Complete Collection Gansu Edition" (with original manuscript images, new translations, annotations, and proofreading) includes: a new translation with verbatim translations from Arabic and Persian, a table of proofreading errors compared to the old Ningxia edition, and authoritative content such as simple annotations and captions on key linguistic and historical points. At this moment, as the repercussions of the pandemic of the century linger, we have unlocked this shackle. The traces of blood and sweat that once scoured the land have finally become readable pearls of text. They are "precious dewdrops" in the dark corners of our times!

2021-06-01

網路與書出版

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