Making Adhan or Knocking Bangzi : sonic expressions of Jahriyyah group in contemporary china

Abstract EN

Bangzi is a kind of wooden clappers.

It was once used by watchmen for time announcement and for indicating danger during emergencies.

Jahriyyah, a distinguished Islamic Sufi group in China, was officially labelled as a heterodox Islamic faction because of its rebellion against the government.

The rebellion was ignited by a religious dispute between the Huasi faction (a Sufi group of the Hufiyyah order) during the Qianlong period of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty.

Due to its stigmatization as a “New Faction” during this rebellion, Jahriyyah’s religious activities were conducted secretly.

Knocking bangzi instead of the traditional human voice for the call to prayer has become a tradition for Jahriyyah, and the current adherents consider such tradition as “orthodox”, and are therefore reluctant to change it.

This paper explores Jahriyyah’s conception of their sonic heritage and suggests that two contextualized dimensions should be taken into account when interpreting the transformation and expression of Islamic factions in China today: first, the political impact of post-Mao policies; and second, the impact of the post-shaykh, or post-factional, era.