Firmament

The roots come from outside the Tianshan Mountains.

- Hui proverb

In that year, after Abbas and his wife Sarta's aunt Ayisha and their two sons Adan and Hani were reunited, the family settled down in Hezhou and became the Caimu people of the grassland country.

The Saimu people include dozens of different tribes. A large part of them were craftsmen and soldiers relocated from Khorezm by the steppe state.

Originating from the Western Regions, the Tanma Red Army was stationed all over the country after moving eastward. They were both the vanguard of the war and the defenders of the town after the conquest. There are as many as 100,000 households in the three Qin Jingzhao, Yan'an, and Fengxiang's Tanma Red Army.

The Oghuz were an early Turkic group that migrated westward from the Mongolian steppes. Their descendants split into Uyghurs, Kipchaks, Khamlis, Grolus, Salurs, etc. They were successively annexed to the steppe country. According to the custom, the attached tribes were to send troops to assist the army of the steppe country in their expeditions. Later, the soldiers were sent to fight in the Central Plains.

The Grolu soldiers assisted the Grassland State in attacking Yanjing Juyong Pass and made great achievements, guarding the north entrance of Juyong Pass, and later changed to the central guard pro-army and was promoted to Glolu Wanhu Mansion. Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and Zhejiang all have groups of Grolu people who have migrated inward. During the period of the Northern Kingdom, there were many famous people in the Grolu group, such as the physicist and poet Qi Xian, the physicist Boyan, and the famous general Tie Maichi.

The Turkic Khamli, Turkic Kipchaks, and Grolu were all from the Western Regions. The language and customs are also relatively close. Therefore, they were incorporated into one ten thousand households.

After the unification of the country, the tribes that had been fighting in the south and north for a long time gradually settled down. The imperial court demanded that these Tanma Red soldiers and craftsmen either migrate to distant frontiers to guard the borders, or be stationed in the local areas to reclaim the wasteland. They lived in a staggered manner with the local Tang Wu people, Tubo people, Central Plains people, etc., and lived a life of integrating soldiers and farmers. When the smoke of the war dissipated, they changed from soldiers and peasants with dual responsibilities to farmers and herdsmen who concentrated on cultivating the land or grazing cattle and sheep under the establishment of the society, and gradually formed villages and strongholds inhabited by their own people.

Some of the Saimu people were Iranian and Arab merchants who settled in the Central Plains.

Merchants from Sogdia, Iran, Khorezm, and Arabia have historically been the most active people in connecting the land and maritime Silk Roads between East and West. Long before the rise of the steppe states, merchants from these countries traveled frequently between Iran, Khorezm, the steppe plateau, and the eastern countries, manipulating trade between the nomadic peoples who were not good at business and the sedentary peoples of the agricultural areas. During the Tang and Song dynasties, most of the Westerners, Iranians, and Arabs who came to the East were shrewd merchants. They live in the Central Plains and the coastal ports of the south of the Yangtze River, such as Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Lin'an, etc., and are engaged in import and export trade. In order to facilitate prayer and worship in addition to their busy schedules, they built houses of worship in the towns where they lived. Because he settled in the East for a long time and did not return to his homeland, he became a Saime Huihui over time.

The reclamation areas are mainly concentrated in the Hexi Corridor of Gansu, Hezhou and Ningxia, as well as Kaifeng, Shandong, Hebei and Kunming and Dali in Yunnan, among which Gansu and Qinghai are the most. Today, in Changji, Fukang, Jimusar, Ili River Valley, Kashgar, Hotan and other places in Xinjiang, there are also Caimu Hui people who settled in Tuntian.

The villages inhabited by the Hui people are like wedges inserted into the Central Plains, Tang Wu and Tubo. They understand each other, learn from each other, and help each other, forming a unique scenery of "colorful eyes all over the world".

In addition to soldiers and craftsmen, there were also some nobles, officials, scholars, merchants, and their families and clansmen from the Western Regions.

The

ancestors of the Bukharans Saidianchi Justin followed the steppe armies of the western expedition to the east. Later, he served as the political affairs of Pingzhang Province in Shaanxi Wulu Xishu Sichuan Xingzhongshu Province, and led a group of Caimu Hui soldiers and civilians to Ningxia Tunken.

His eldest son, Nasu Latin, served as the governor of Pingzhang, Shaanxi. There are many descendants of Nasu Latin, and they are gradually scattered throughout the country, forming the four surnames of Na, Su, La, and Ding of the Caimu Hui people. Therefore, there are households in the land of Ningxia, there are Lajia villages in the suburbs of Chang'an, and there are Dingjiazhai in the south of Caiyun.

Most of the craftsmen and merchants lived in towns and post houses along major transportation routes.

Wherever they went, they first built a mosque, and then gathered around the mosque, with bazaars and hospitals, and in terms of geographical distribution, they showed the characteristics of large dispersion and small settlements, and initially formed a common economic life in the social form and economic field.

After the steppe states completed their conquest of the eastern and western countries, the vast Eurasian land was almost all under the rule of the steppe people, from Goryeo and Japan in the east, to Yunnan and Burma in the south, to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, and to Siberia in the north. The empire was connected by post roads. Business travel from all over the world is unimpeded. Therefore, there are more colorful merchants from the east. Many people have settled here for a long time because they love the terroir and products of the Central Plains and enjoy the preferential policies of the northern countries.

The grassland people are good at grazing and fighting, but they are not good at management and financial administration, so they use a large number of Caimu people, so that many Caimu upper-class figures have become high-ranking officials and eunuchs of the state. According to the household registration in 1263, there were 2,953 households in most of the capital. Among them, most of them are the families of wealthy businessmen. The names of Ali and his sons are prominently displayed.

Abbas was allowed to quit the Tanma Red Army because he was older than the required for military service and had a large number of disarmaments in peacetime. He returned to his wife and children in Hezhou and started a small business. The eldest son, Adan, was drafted into the army. The youngest son, Hani, stayed with his parents and learned to run a business with his father to take care of his elderly parents. The family lived a poor and warm life in the city of Hezhou.

Abbas was lucky. He was reunited with his wife and children in the far east.

However, not all Khorezm servants and craftsmen were as lucky as Abbas.

At that time, many Khorezm people were forced to come to the East alone, risking their lives to fight, and doing their best to work for the eunuchs and nobles. Those who are better off can marry poor women and live a difficult life in small families. People who are in a worse situation have been singles all their lives, lonely, and spent the second half of their lives in a foreign land.

In the summer of 1255, Abbas completed the last leg of his life's journey.

He settled his wife, Aisha, and closed his sunken eyes with a smile. The snow-white beard fluttered gently.

Adan and Hani led their children in reciting scriptures and covering Abbas with a piece of white cotton cloth. They invited imams from the mosque to chant prayers for Abbas.

The Sartha people pay attention to quick burials. If you die in the morning, you must be buried before the evening, and if you die in the evening, you must be buried the next day. No mourning hall is set up in the house, no portraits of the deceased are posted, no tablets and wreaths are placed, and no elegiac couplets are hung; family members are not allowed to cry loudly, nor do they need to wear linen and filial piety, and bow three times and bow nine times. When buried, no matter whether they were rich or poor, they were wrapped in a one-zhang long white cotton cloth, and then buried in the tomb, no coffins and burial items were used, and stone tablets were not erected in the cemetery. Some people put a stone on the grave as a sign of identification in the future.

In the mosque opposite Abbas's house, the imam and Manla (Sarta, the student) took a soup bottle made of pig iron, cleansed Abbas with pure Bactria water, sprinkled with insect-repellent ice chips, saffron and other spices, and finally dressed him in a calico kafan (Arabic for shroud) and gently carried him on top of a blanket.

Dressed in a calf-length robe and a yellowish turban, the imam stood in front of the villagers who had come to the funeral and asked aloud: "Did Abbas owe money to anyone's family during his lifetime, and does his children have to pay it back?"

The crowd replied in unison, "No." No, you don't. "

The imam then asked, "Are you willing to give him a verbal call (i.e., forgiveness) for his mistakes during his lifetime?"

The crowd replied in unison, "Yes." "

The imam turned around and led the crowd to the Western Holy City to say a final prayer for Abbas.

After praying, the imam announced in a loud voice: "Funeral." "

Young men among friends and family scrambled to the front, carefully carrying Abbas's body, out of the solemn mosque and down the streets of River State.

The crowd followed the procession carrying Abbas's body to the burial outside the city.

Amid the imam's long-pitched, mournful chanting, Abbas's body was placed into a cave on the side of the grave, his head pointed in the direction of the holy city, and the mouth of the cave was sealed with adobe, and the deep pit was quickly filled with loess.

Having buried his father, Abbas, Adan returned to the army to continue his military service. Hani traded in furs, silks, precious stones, gold and silver, and tea in the city of Hezhou, and carefully supported the elderly Sarta Ayisha.

Their house is in the old town of Hezhou, where the Hui people live in Caimu.

In a large and spacious courtyard, stands a row of tall houses facing north and south. The exterior walls of the compound and the walls of the houses are all made of gray masonry. The bricks are carved with patterns of grapes, peonies, pines and bamboo, which look solemn and elegant as well as intimate and peaceful. The house is a blend of Central Plains, Iranian and Arabic architectural styles.

Several fruit trees were planted in the open space in front of the house. The branches are full of fruit. Fruity aromas waft through. The steps and windowsills are also filled with large and small light brown ceramic planters. Geraniums, oleanders and peonies planted in pots are particularly beautiful.

Pedestrians passing by here can see from the layout of the courtyard and the planting of flowers and plants that the family lives a prosperous and prosperous life, but it is very low-key.

Whenever the sun went down, Sarta's aunt Ayisha would walk out of the hall and into the courtyard. She stood silently on the high steps, put her right hand above her eyes, stared at the red sky in the west with cloudy eyes, and looked at her hometown Mulu City, which was far away in the sky.

On the night of Abbas's death, Ali, who was far away in the central capital, had a strange dream: he was eating soft bread with relish when he suddenly heard a click. A large tooth fell out of his mouth.

Ali suddenly woke up from his dream and sat up on the bed suddenly.

He was sweating profusely. The underwear was soaked, and the pillow was soaked.

Sauron, who was sleeping next to him, was awakened by him and quickly got up. She brought a dry hand towel and wiped the sweat off Ali's face and body.

Ali looked dazed and uncertain.

He said nervously: "I have heard my grandmother say since I was a child that if you dream of losing a tooth, it is a precursor to the impermanence of your relatives. "

Sauron comforted him, "The old men of our tribe have said that dreaming of losing teeth is a good omen ......of good luck."

Ali interrupted Sauron's words in a distraught manner: "What do the old men of your tribe know?

Sauron said, "Good. Good. You Sartars know everything! You sit alone. I'm going to sleep on horseback and herd sheep. "

Ali said, "No sheep herding! I ask you, how old is Abbas?"

Sauron replied, "Are you old and foolish? You told me that Abbas was 10 years older than you. You're 52 years old now, isn't he just 62 years old!

Ali sighed deeply and said, "I came to the East with Abbas, and now we have been separated for 30 years, and I don't know how he is doing in River State?"

Sauron said: "Abbas was a steady man and a good man. Jiren has its own natural appearance. You can sleep in peace. "

Ali said, "You go to sleep first." I'll sit down a little longer. "

Ali saw the bright moon hanging high in the sky through the thin curtain, and couldn't help but think of the night when Samarkand fell, and the night he stayed at the owner's house in Weiyang. Living under the sky and bathing in the moonlight, the mood at this time is very different from that time.

Ali was still puzzled: I am just an ordinary small merchant in Samarkand, why did I leave my homeland and go to a distant foreign land, why did I marry a woman from an enemy country, why did my life change unexpectedly?

Ali has no way to answer his question for the time being.