Back Street Mosque

Back Street Mosque

Houjie mosque is one of the ancient mosques in Tianshui City, Gansu Province. It was built during the reign of yuanzhizheng (1341-1368) and covers an area of 1730.93 square meters. The overall architecture of the temple is simple, elegant and solemn.

Houjie mosque is one of the famous mosques in the northwest of China. Historically, the mosque is located in the north corner of Xiguan, Qinzhou City, Tianshui City, Gansu Province, so it is also called Xiguan mosque. The northern part of the temple was adjacent to the northern wall of the old Tianshui city wall. After the city wall was demolished, it began to face today's Renmin Road. In the 1970s, the main entrance of the mosque was changed to Chengyuan Lane in the back street, later known as the Back Street Mosque.

Historical evolution

Initial construction

The old "Tianshui county annals" records that the Houjie mosque was founded in the Yuan Dynasty (1341-1368), with five couplets, glazed tiles and carved red couplets.

Renovation and reconstruction

In 1986, the Muslim people in Tianshui donated money to build 18 rooms on the second floor of the East Building with Arabic architectural style, with a construction area of 450 square meters. The second floor is the dean's room, student dormitory and classroom, and the first floor is the water house and funeral room.

In 1993, a two-story South Building with 12 rooms and 250 square meters was built. Upstairs for women's worship hall, Temple Management Office, downstairs for the kitchen.

In 2001, the north outer ring road was widened, the original temple gate was demolished, and a new brick gate was built in the original position, simple and generous.

On July 5, 2003, Houjie mosque was upgraded from "county-level cultural relics protection unit" to "Gansu provincial cultural relics protection unit".

On May 25, 2006, Houjie mosque was announced as the Sixth Batch of "national key cultural relics protection units" by the State Council.

Scale system

Back Street Mosque used to be a three entry gate: toudaomen is located in the north entrance of Chengyuan lane, which is a three wood structure archway, with the word "mosque" written on the bucket arch, and the word "gradually entering the blessed land" and "chanting the Buddhist scriptures" written on the lintel; the second gate is in Dasi lane, which is a single eaves large bay archway, with the word "changlejie" written on it, endorsing "DUBAO Yuangong" and "Qingzhen ancient religion", which is said to be the imperial title of Kangxi; the third gate is sitting in the gate From north to south, three halls enter the temple. The ancient cypresses, the main hall and the wooden buildings are set off against each other. They are solemn and solemn, and the Moslems are bathing and worshiping. It was severely damaged in the 1960s. The memorial archway, Mountain Gate and mulalou were demolished, and several ancient locust trees and cedar trees were felled. Experts from the State Administration of cultural relics said after an investigation in Tianshui that among the more than 30000 mosques in China, only two such wooden buildings were demolished, which is a pity.

Architectural features

Style features

The back street mosque has unique architectural structure and heavy historical deposits. In 1534, the inscriptions on the reconstruction of the mosque tower in Qinzhou praised: "it's magnificent and high-pressure Yueyang Tower.".

Main buildings

The worship Hall of Houjie mosque was built in 1374, the seventh year of Hongwu in Ming Dynasty. In 1468, it was expanded. The main hall is composed of five front halls, three back halls, and front rolling shed veranda. It is 22.3 meters long, 19.3 meters deep, and 430 square meters in use. There are two thick Ming columns in the hall, which is a Ming Dynasty palace style wooden structure characteristic of reducing columns in Yuan Dynasty. The top is Xieshan single eaves, glazed tiles; the main ridge is a lotus twig pattern, with a pagoda Pavilion in the middle and a beast kissing and swallowing the ridge, which reflects the philosophy of Islam. Shop are five shop under the copy single next high, the stigma for the four shop to make flat, rigorous structure, magnificent appearance, simple and elegant hall, solemn and solemn. The style of the back hall is different from other buildings. The roof of the main hall is made of blue square bricks and pointed with white ash. According to ancient architecture experts, the square brick grating is a typical Ming Dynasty building. The main entrance of the hall is five bay and four doors, which can be folded and installed. It is exquisitely carved. The upper eyebrow is decorated with "money moxa leaf" with elegant composition and skillful knife technique. It is well preserved.

There are five existing stone steles in Houjie mosque, the most precious and of the highest historical value are "the stele of rebuilding the mosque in Qinzhou" and "the stele of never loading grain in the temple forbidden by the governor of the Qing Dynasty in the 24th year of Jiaqing". The stele of rebuilding mosque building in Qinzhou was engraved on guimao year old (1543) in Jiajing of Ming Dynasty. The stele is carved with white jade. It is 1.82 meters high (0.58 meters high, 1.24 meters high), 0.65 meters wide and 0.15 meters thick. The stone tablet is basically intact and the words are clear. On the front of the stone tablet, the Chinese inscription of rebuilding the mosque building in Qinzhou is written in European regular script, with a total of 19 lines; on the back, the Arabic inscription, with a total of 34 lines. Chinese inscription is a prose comparable with Yueyang Tower written by Fan Zhongyan, a famous writer in the Northern Song Dynasty. The first half describes the beginning and historical evolution of the Houjie mosque, and the second half describes and praises the "mula tower" which took nine years to build.

The inscriptions in Arabic have a clear and concise account of the functions of mosques, the merits of building mosques and the benefits of worshiping in mosques. As the earliest Arabic inscription in Gansu Province, Qinzhou rebuilt mosque building stele is a very important Chinese Islamic literature. In addition to its research value in Linguistics and Philology, it is of great significance to the study of the spread and development of Islam in Northwest China in yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the history of Hui origin and the history of Sino Arab cultural exchange. The Houjie mosque also treasures a cinnabar red meteorite with a weight of about 1000 kg, which is commonly known as "niuxinshi" according to its shape. Now it is placed in front of the screen wall opposite the main hall, which is very precious. The temple also has a wealth of Arabic and Chinese plaques, couplets, inscriptions and scriptures.

Geographic transportation

Houjie mosque is located in Renmin West Road, Qinzhou District, Tianshui City, Gansu Province.

Address: No.25, Renmin West Road, Qinzhou District, Tianshui City, Gansu Province

Longitude: 105.718849

Latitude: 34.58276

Chinese PinYin : Hou Jie Qing Zhen Si