Islam in Korea

History

Early history

During the middle to late 7th century, Muslim traders had traversed from the Caliphate to Tang China and established contact with Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea. In 751, a Chinese general of Goguryeo descent, Gao Xianzhi, led the Battle of Talas for the Tang dynasty against the Abbasid Caliphate but was defeated. The earliest reference to Korea in a non-East Asian geographical work appears in the General Survey of Roads and Kingdoms by Istakhri in the mid-9th century.

The first verifiable presence of Islam in Korea dates back to the 9th century during the Unified Silla period with the arrival of Arab navigators and traders. According to numerous Muslim geographers, including the 9th-century Muslim Persian explorer and geographer Ibn Khordadbeh, many of them settled down permanently in Korea, establishing Muslim villages. Some records indicate that many of these settlers were from Iraq. Korean records suggest that a large number of the Muslim foreigners settled in Korea in the 9th century CE led by a man named Hasan Raza. Further suggesting a Middle Eastern Muslim community in Silla are figurines of royal guardians with distinctly Persian characteristics. In turn, later many Muslims intermarried with Koreans. Some assimilation into Buddhism and Shamanism took place owing to Korea's geographical isolation from the Muslim world.

In 1154, Korea was included in the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi's world atlas, Tabula Rogeriana. The oldest surviving Korean world map, the Gangnido, drew its knowledge of the Western Regions from the work of Islamic geographers.

Goryeo period

According to local Korean accounts, Muslims arrived to the peninsula in the year 1024 during the Goryeo kingdom. A group of some 100 Muslims, including Hasan Raza (Yeollaja), came in September of the 15th year of Hyeonjong of Goryeo and another group of 100 Muslim merchants came the following year.

Trade relations between the Islamic world and the Korean peninsula continued in the succeeding kingdom of Goryeo. As a result, a number of Muslim traders from the Near East and Central Asia settled down in Korea and established families there. Some Muslim Hui people from China also appear to have lived in the Goryeo kingdom.

With the Mongol armies came the so-called Saengmogin (Chinese: 色目人), this group consisted of Muslims from Central Asia. In the Mongol social order, Saengmogin occupied a position just below the Mongols themselves, and exerted a great deal of influence within the Yuan dynasty.

The first named Muslim of Korean provenance, Ramadan ibn Alauddin, died in 1349.

Small-scale contact with predominantly Muslim peoples continued on and off. During the late Goryeo, there were mosques in the capital Kaesong, called Yegung, whose literary meaning is a "ceremonial hall".

One of those Central Asian immigrants to Korea originally came to Korea as an aide to a Mongol princess who had been sent to marry King Chungnyeol of Goryeo. Goryeo documents say that his original name was Samga but, after he decided to make Korea his permanent home, the king bestowed on him the Korean name of Jang Sunnyong. Jang married a Korean and became the founding ancestor of the Deoksu Jang clan. His clan produced many high officials and respected Confucian scholars over the centuries. Twenty-five generations later, around 30,000 Koreans look back to Jang Sunnyong as the grandfather of their clan: the Jang clan, with its seat at Toksu village.

The same is true of the descendants of another Central Asian who settled down in Korea. A Central Asian named Seol Son fled to Korea when the Red Turban Rebellion erupted near the end of the Mongol's Yuan dynasty. He, too, married a Korean, originating a lineage called the Gyeongju Seol that claims at least 2,000 members in Korea.

Soju

Soju was first distilled around the 13th century, during the Mongol invasions of Korea. The Mongols had acquired the technique of distilling arak from the Muslim world during their invasion of Central Asia and the Middle East around 1256. It was subsequently introduced to Koreans and distilleries were set up around the city of Kaesong. Indeed, in the area surrounding Kaesong, Soju is known as arak-ju (Korean: 아락주).

There are many restrictions in the Muslim community, including on diet and clothing; drinking alcohol and eating pork is forbidden. However, Korea's soju exports to Islamic countries are increasing, especially to Indonesia, the largest Muslim community country, where exports increased 10.1% from 2017. While Islamic countries enforce their dietary rules, they allow alcohol imports for the non-Muslims, and foreigners living in Indonesia are permitted to not follow the Islamic dietary laws.

Joseon period

Study of the Huihui Lifa

In the early Joseon period, the Islamic calendar served as a basis for calendar reform owing to its superior accuracy over the existing Chinese-based calendars. A Korean translation of the Huihui Lifa "Muslim System of Calendrical Astronomy", a text combining Chinese astronomy with the zij works of Jamal al-Din, was studied during the time of Sejong the Great in the 15th century. The tradition of Chinese-Islamic astronomy survived in Korea up until the early 19th century.

Decree against the Huihui community

In 1427, Sejong ordered a decree against the Huihui (Korean Muslim) community that had special status and stipends since the Yuan dynasty. The Huihui were forced to abandon their headgear, to close down their "ceremonial hall" (mosque in the city of Kaesong) and worship like everyone else. No further mention of Muslims exists during the era of the Joseon.

Later periods

Islam was practically non-existent in Korea by roughly the 16th century, although memories of it and a minor Islamic presence survived until the 19th century and onwards. It is believed that many of the religious practices and teachings did not survive. However, in the 19th century, Korean settlers in Manchuria came into contact with Islam once again. It was re-introduced in a more concerted way than the centuries before in the 20th century.

20th-century re-introduction

During the Korean War, Turkey sent a large number of troops to aid South Korea under the United Nations command called the Turkish Brigade. In addition to their contributions on the battlefield, the Turks also aided in humanitarian work, helping to operate war-time schools for war orphans. Shortly after the war, some Turks who were stationed in South Korea as UN peacekeepers began preaching Islam to Koreans. Early converts established the Korea Muslim Society (한국이슬람협회) in 1955, at which time the first South Korean mosque was erected at Imun-dong. The Korea Muslim Society grew large enough to become the Korea Muslim Federation in 1967.