Wai-Yip Ho (Relevance of the Humanities, May ‘24 – Jul ‘24) will present the topic:

Translating Islam, Critiquing Christianity: Sino-Islam in Response to Christianity in the Han Kitab

on 04 July 2024 (Thursday), at 16:30 h.

Moderated by Petar Parvanov.

Abstract: During the Ming and Qing Dynasties of Imperial China, Muslim Chinese scholars translated and transmitted Islamic thought from Persian-Arabian texts to Chinese readership through the intellectual framework and vocabularies of Confucian Chinese tradition. This intellectual thought in Islamic literature was called Han Kitab (Sino-Islamic texts) and those thinkers are known as “Muslim Confucianists” (Huiru). With the new outlook of the harmonious synthesis on Islamic and Confucian thought,  this research project proposes how the leading Confucian Muslim scholars responded, interpreted, and criticized Christian doctrines in the writings of Han Kitab. By selectively translating and analysing Sino-Islamic texts in dialogue with Christianity, this research project attempts to retrieve Muslim Chinese scholars’ responses towards Christian missionaries and the Christian doctrines. The implication of this research on Islamic Confucianism-Christian relations shows how two monotheistic faiths interact or rival from each other in the Confucian culture