# Zheng He's Voyages and Islam

Zheng He (Ma He, 1371-1433 CE / approximately 773-836 AH) was the greatest maritime explorer of the pre-Columbian era. A Muslim of Hui Chinese origin, he commanded the largest fleet of ships ever assembled before the modern period in a series of seven grand voyages between 814 AH (1405 CE) and 837 AH (1433 CE). His voyages connected China with Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and East Africa, strengthening Islam's role in the Indian Ocean trading world and demonstrating the extraordinary reach of Chinese maritime power.

Zheng He's Islamic Background

Zheng He's original name was Ma He — the surname Ma being the Chinese rendering of Muhammad. His family were Hui Chinese Muslims from Yunnan province, and his father and grandfather had both made the Hajj to Mecca. His grandfather's title of Hajji was a source of pride that Ma He inherited.

When Yunnan was conquered by Ming forces in 1381 CE, Ma He was captured as a child and castrated to serve in the imperial court as a eunuch. He rose through merit to become a trusted military commander and the confidant of Zhu Di, who became the Yongle Emperor in 1402 CE. The Emperor gave him the surname Zheng and commissioned him to lead the great maritime expeditions.

Zheng He's Islamic background was relevant to his diplomatic mission: much of the Indian Ocean world was Muslim, and his ability to communicate within the framework of Islamic culture and commerce gave him important advantages in dealing with Muslim rulers in Southeast Asia, India, and Arabia.

The Seven Voyages

Between 814 AH (1405 CE) and 837 AH (1433 CE), Zheng He led seven major expeditions with fleets of extraordinary size. The largest fleets included hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of men. The flagship "treasure ships" were reportedly among the largest wooden vessels ever built.

The voyages visited:

Southeast Asia (Malacca, Java, Sumatra, Borneo)
Sri Lanka and India (Calicut, Cochin, Hormuz)
Arabia (Aden, Hormuz)
East Africa (Malindi, Mombasa, Mogadishu)

Islamic Connections

Zheng He's voyages had significant implications for the spread and consolidation of Islam in Southeast Asia. Malacca, which Zheng He made a key ally and staging post, was in the process of Islamizing in the early fifteenth century CE. The Sultan of Malacca's embrace of Islam was reinforced by his alliance with the Ming court, and Malacca became the most important center for the dissemination of Islam throughout maritime Southeast Asia.

Zheng He himself visited the sacred sites of Islam. On his fourth voyage (around 823 AH / 1413 CE), he traveled to Arabia and is believed to have visited Mecca to perform the Hajj. He brought back giraffes, lions, and other African animals as gifts to the Emperor, which caused considerable wonder at the Chinese court.

He left inscriptions at multiple sites, some of which included prayers in Arabic as well as Chinese text, testifying to his continued practice of Islam throughout his career in imperial service.

The Voyages' End

After Zheng He's death on the return journey of the seventh voyage around 837 AH (1433 CE), the voyages ceased. The Confucian scholar-official class at court had long viewed the voyages as wasteful extravagance, and after the Yongle Emperor's death in 1424 CE, they gained the upper hand. China turned inward, and the construction of large oceangoing vessels was eventually prohibited.

The consequences of this withdrawal were immense: within decades, Portuguese sailors rounded the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean, and the European maritime age that would reshape the world began. Had China maintained its maritime presence, the history of the Indian Ocean world — and of Islam within it — might have taken a very different course.

Legacy

Zheng He is remembered today as one of the great explorers of history. In China, he is a celebrated national hero. In the Muslim world, his voyages represent a chapter of Islamic maritime history in which Muslim sailors, merchants, and missionaries used the Indian Ocean trading networks to spread Islam across Southeast Asia and strengthen the connections between the Islamic world's eastern and western extremities.

The Hui Muslim communities of China continue to commemorate Zheng He as a symbol of Islamic identity within Chinese civilization.

Sources

Ma Huan, Yingya Shenglan (Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores, written by Zheng He's interpreter)
Edward Dreyer, Zheng He: China and the Oceans in the Early Ming Dynasty
Edward Dreyer, Zheng He: China and the Oceans
Geoff Wade, translations of relevant Ming texts