Tristan Brown (MIT) - The Unlikely Audiences of a Muslim King’s Shrine in China

Tuesday 16 May, 4-5pm In 1417, a Muslim King of Sulu (today part of the Philippines) died unexpectedly during a diplomatic visit to Ming China (1368-1644). In keeping with Islamic requirements, the Chinese emperor arranged a quick burial and ordered a mausoleum constructed to mark the king’s resting place. The king’s descendants who stayed to maintain the site acculturated into the local Hui (“Chinese Muslim”) community, which survives to the present. The shrine itself was “rediscovered” in the 1970s by the Chinese and Philippine states as the pre-eminent symbol of their “600 years of diplomatic relations.” This paper investigates the shrine’s backstory, which involves a surprising history of community resilience. Pushing against contemporary nationalist narratives, the talk shows that the shrine never was representative of a continuous Sino-Philippine tributary relationship. More significant were the communities within China who found protection in the transnational shrine’s existence.