815: Ibn Wahab met Emperor Xian-zong (唐憲宗)
Tang capital divided into two distinct sections
Ibn Wahab [Zane Archives]
Ibn Wahab was an Arab traveller, a native of Basra, and from the Tribe of Quraysh — the same tribe as the Prophet Muhammad. He left Busra when the city was sacked around 814 and came to Siraf in the Persian Gulf, whence he sailed for China.
He landed in Guangzhou, which at that time was the centre of the Arabic trade in China.
Ibn Wahab was tremendously curious about the Imperial Court, and thus travelled for two more months to the cosmopolitan capital of the Tang Dynasty, Khumdan (胡姆丹), today’s Xi’an (西安).
In Accounts of China and India (印度中国纪行) of 916, Abu Zayd Hasan al-Sirafi (賽義德哈桑) said that he directly asked Ibn Wahab many questions about the capital and quoted Ibn Wahab's brief description of the city, "He mentioned the size of the city and its great number of inhabitants, and that it is divided into two districts, separated by a long and broad street. The emperor, his minister, guards, the supreme judge, the eunuchs of the emperor, and all their retinue are on the right hand (of the city), which is towards the East. They do not mix with any of the common people. There are no markets (in this part.) … It has rivers flowing along their streets lined with trees and spacious houses. In the left-hand part (of the city), which is towards the west, there are subjects and merchants, stores and markets, and when the day rises you see the stewards of the emperor and his retinue, pages of his house and pages of the generals, and their agents enter, either riding or walking, into that part of the city that contains the market and merchants (in order) to obtain their services and needs. Thereafter they depart and no one of them returns to this part (of the city) until the next day."
Even though Ibn Wahab touched upon the western side of the town, he did not provide details about the bustling foreign quarter crowded with many non-Chinese residents, including Persian- and Arabic-speaking merchants, nor the Muslim mosques there.
Emperor was knowledgeable about Abrahamic religions
Ibn Wahab declared himself from the family of the Prophet Muhammad and succeeded in getting a meeting with Emperor Xian-zong (reign 805–820).
In a long and exciting conversation, through a translator that Ibn Wahab might have brought with him from the Gulf., a range of topics such as the history of the Arab nations were discussed. Abu Zayd recorded that the emperor told Ibn Wahab that he regarded the king of Iraq as the world's most supreme ruler and ranked himself second, which is very unlikely to be the case.
Rihla (游记), Ibn Buttuta’s travelogue, also wrote about Ibn Wahab’s encounter with the Chinese emperor. It recorded that the Son of Heaven (天子) recognised the existence of five emperors on earth — the Arab emperor who was the mightiest of them all, the Chinese, the Turkish, the Indian and the Byzantine. This is very doubtful as it is improbable that the ruler of the Middle Kingdom would recognise other kingdoms under the sun, much less recognizing another emperor as more significant than himself.
The emperor produced pictures of the prophets; Ibn Wahab recognised Noah, Moses and Jesus, and Mohammed. The emperor's profound understanding of the Abrahamic religions most likely indicates the previous contact with people of those faiths. The emperor, interested in learning more, asked Ibn Wahab many questions about his identity.
Elites able to distinguish Abrahamic religions
Figurine of a civil servant during the Tang Dynasty, dated 600-700, the Louvre Abu Dhabi [Zane Archives]
This suggests that by the end of the 9th century, the Chinese, or at least the very elite of the ruling regime, already had enough contact with members of all three western religions to be able to distinguish between the three faiths; however, the emperor was relatively much more educated than his populace.
Freedom of religion granted to all
Ibn Wahab further emphasised that anyone, native or foreigner, could travel into China and practise their religion; the only proviso was that the traveller must carry two passports.
One passport must contain all of the traveller's details, including his religion and travels companions. If the traveller were a merchant, the other passport must detail the nature of his business and the quantity of the goods and money in his possession.
Travellers protected by the government
The purpose of these passports was to protect the traveller. Thus, if a traveller suffers a loss of goods or money or suddenly passes away, everything about them is instantly known — and their belongings can be retrieved and given to their heirs.