Les jeux de l’ombre et de la lumière : ce que nous disent des tombeaux de saints musulmans sur une forme contemporaine de sainteté (Chine, Gansu, 1968-2018)

• Main Author: Hille Marie-Paule
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Université de Provence 2019-12-01
• Series: Revue des Mondes Musulmans et de la Méditerranée
• Subjects: Keywords: Islam; China; Gansu; tombs; saints cult; sanctuarization
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/remmm/13551

Abstract: Since 2010, in a context of economic and urban transformation, the Xidaotang, a Sino-Muslim community, has been engaging in a process of patrimonialization of its religious spaces. Under these circumstances, what is the place of the Muslim saints’ tombs? These are indeed a core-element of religious life: each year, thousands of pilgrims flock to visit them prior to the whole community’s gathering meant to celebrate the anniversary of one of the dead saints. The analysis of the sanctuarization process, launched in the early 1980s, intensified by a process of patrimonialization in the early 2010s, highlights that at play are political loyalties involving opportunities, constraints, and consensus. How does this community, taken as a model by the political actors and not formally recognized as Sufi, manage to maintain the tombs, and the cult of the Saints, at the core of its ritual system?