Convergence through Courtyards: Spatial Identity and Meanings in Xi’an’s Great Mosque

Abstract

As one of the earliest mosques in China, the Great Mosque of Xi’an (also known as the Huajuexiang Mosque) was built in 742 AD and has undergone multiple reconstructions. It is an active place of worship for local Muslims while serving as a popular tourist site for non-Muslim visitors. Unlike mosques in other countries, this mosque has maintained strong Chinese architecture traditions such as timber frame structures, curved roofs and wooden ornaments. The building layout, derived from courtyard-style residential architecture, consists of five courtyards along a long east-west axis. The presence of Islamic elements such as the orientation towards Mecca, Arabic calligraphies, and the prayer hall are well incorporated into the whole complex. In short, the Great Mosque of Xi’an is an excellent example of combing traditional Chinese architectural forms with Islamic religious activities.

As a worship place, mosques establish a meaningful relationship between people and a given environment to identify and orient people’s faith and beliefs by physical symbols and their meaning of social-cultural behaviors. This paper examines the spatial meanings of courtyards of the Great Mosque of Xi’an by analyzing how the courtyards, a form of traditional residential architecture, was transformed into a meaningful Islamic symbol. Specifically, this paper uses courtyards at the Great Mosque of Xi’an as a case to demonstrate how different cultural meanings were presented and converged together through physical spaces by the spatial articulation of religious activities and the functions. 

The findings will bring a better understanding of a unique mosque architecture that is characterized by architectural forms different from the mainstream Islamic world but still performing the same purposes and activities.