【正文】 e here in Xi’an possesses much Chinese traditional touch in both its design and artistic outlook。besides the style peculiar to Islamic mosques, this Mosque also holds characteristics of Chinese pavilions with painted beams and engraved , any further discussion about the Mosque will be futile unless anything of the introduction of Islam into China is brought as a religious order was founded in the early period of the 7th century was introduced to China in the that time, Arabian merchants and travelers came to the northwest of China by way of Persia and Afghanistan and thus established diplomatic, trade, and military contacts with the meantime, another route saw a batch of sea voyagers through Bangladesh Bay and the Malacca Strait to China’s Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Huangzhou, Yangzhou and other cities where many of them settled down and married the local women who later gave birth to babies who then became , massive immigration of the Moslems to China did not take place until as late as the early period of the 13th century, when Genghis Khan, as a result of his expedition against the west, had conquered vast expanses of land stretching from Central Asia to Eastern Europe, including the north of of the Moslems in the conquered areas were thus forced to enlist and later settled in the enlisted many were soldiers, and some were smiths and officials who were called the Hui people in the history books on the Yuan Hui people later followed Kublai Khan down to the south, helping him unifying China and then establish the Yuan the wake of the conquest, Islam spread all over China and mosques began to appear the Yuan dynasty, many Moslems held positions both in the military and civilian organs of the a lot of the Moslems took part in Zhu Yuanzhang’s uprising in the early 14th century and made great contributions to the founding of the Ming , all the emperors of the Dynasty issued mandates to protect Islam, and to set up mosques in praise of the Moslems for their the early 16th century, Islam predominated Qinghai on the minority nationalities including the Huis, the Uygurs, the Kazaks, the Kirgizes, the Tajiks, the Tartars, the Ozbeks, the Dong Xiangs, the Salars and the Moslems in Xi’an are mainly the Huis, being a small portion out of the ten million in Mosque at Hua Jue Lane is the largest in Xi’an, and at the same time, it is also one of the earliest built on a paratively large scale, and well preserved mosques in to “the Stele on the Building of the Mosque”, the mosque is said to be built in the Tang , the architectural style of the mosque suggests a possible building dating back to the Ming four courtyards of the mosque cover an area of more than 12,000 square meters, out of which about 4,000 are occupied by various still intact wooden front memorial gateway of the front yard, built at the turn of the 17th century, with glazed tiles on the top, spectacular corners and upturned eaves, is about 9 metres high, and has a history of about 360 stone memorial gateway in the center of the second courtyard is flanked with a tail stele on either side with dragons carved on each, recording the repair work ever since the building of the the back of one of the steles are engraved characters by the master calligrapher Mi Fu, “May Buddhism Fill the Universe”, on the other, “RoyalBestowed”by Dong Qichang, another master of the same art of the Ming are treasures in Chinese the entrance of the third courtyard is an imperial built hall, where a “month tablet”, showing the calculation of the Hui Calendars in Arabic, is was piled by a man in charge of the mosque called Xiao Mining in the early period of the Qing three –storeyed octagonal wooden structure called “Retrospection Tower”also stands in the center of the courtyard, which has the same function as the minaret in Islamic temples in Arabic countries, and which is a place from where orders were sent to call the Moslems to e to , on the south and north wings of the tower, are a reception chamber and a Scripture Chamber, both elegantly laid five wooden houses, which are called “Water Houses”in the southwest section of the Mosque are the place where the believers bathe themselves before they attend their in side the fourth courtyard there is a structure called “the Pavilion of Phoenix”, a place where the worshipers used to wait for the Pavilion, in fact, is a pound structure of three small sixgabled structure of the central part, adjoining the two threegabled buildings on each side looks very much like a flying phoenix, and hence its at the back of the Pavilion, there is a fishpond, beyond which is a platform occupying an area as large as 700 both ends of the platform stands the 1,300 square metered service hall, holding over a thousand worshipers at are over six hundred sunk panels well as the sunk panels, are decorated with patterns of painted trailing plants and Arabic imam leads his group of worshipers, while facing in the direction of Mecca, to chant in Koran and to pay their religious Moslems in China share very much the same customs with their brothers and sisters elsewhere in the worship five times a day: at dawn, at noon, in the afternoon, at dusk, and at worshipers attend their services in a separated place from their brothers, usually at pay special attention to their health and see that they always wear clean are teetotalers not only of wine, but also of pork and animal blood for in Koran pigs have been mentioned four times as being “unclean”.According to Kor