Research Of Traditional Islamic Buildings In Jiangsu

Islam has about1350years of history in China. Jiangsu is one of the placeswhere Islam was first introduced. Under the influence of Islamic traditions and culture,the traditional Islamic buildings do not only serve their various purposes, but alsostands out as a representation of religious art. Within Jiangsu, some of the mainIslamic structures include mosque, lecture/preaching halls and mausoleums. As timepassed by, all the structures, whether it’s their location, designs, engineering or theornaments of the buildings, they all have broken through the traditional Arabian style;these buildings have also adopted different Chinese cultural features and have becomea distinctive Islamic symbol in Jiangsu.“The Square” based historic Islamic districtsstill hold their distinctive uniqueness, they still hold their initial functions and do whatthey were meant to do. All this is the ingenuity of the craftsmen who engineered thebuildings and this is a topic worth discussing and exploring.This thesis will proceed from the architectural point of view, taking note ofsociology, urban planning studies, archaeology and other related basic theories. Thiswill evaluate and analyse different Islamic structures in Jiangsu and theirfunctionalities, based on existing information present about the structures, fieldinterviews and collating all the information together. The thesis will discuss thecurrent conditions of the structures, their architectural design; technologies involvedand will also comment on the meaning and values of the structures.In this thesis, the content is divided into5chapters: Chapter1Introduction. Thischapter proposes the overall considerations, including the basis, philosophy, purposeof the research, significance of the study, the use of different theories and methods andthe framework of the structures.The second chapter will discuss the development and the current status of Islamin Jiangsu, also discovering the development and the advancement of Islamicstructures, through studying the religion’s background and history.The third chapter discusses the traditional Islamic architecture and theirarchitectural features. This chapter sets off from the architecture point of view andstudies the Islamic structures in Jiangsu from their classifications, locations, layouts,spacing, decorations and structural design.The forth chapter looks into the historical Islamic district in Jiangsu, and studies the origins, formation and development. This chapter also examines the protection ofthe historic Islamic sites in Jiangsu and its current condition.The fifth chapter is a real time case study, selecting one of the large scalearchitecture in the province that represents a typical example of an actual project. Andalso provide a basis for this article’s arguments and studies.The sixth chapter is the conclusion; combined the result in the first few chapters,discusses how the results of the researches reveal about the contemporary society andthe future studies.