As the Department of Qadi was eventually abolished during the mid to late period of the Yuan Dynasty, Jiao Fang (Muslimsettlement) took its place. Jiao Fang was actually a special typeof organization without any official nature. It was neither an executive institution on certain levels nor subordinate to any executive institutions, but a sort of religious organization for Muslims‘ common religious activities within the imperial system. It was characterized by:1) Jiao Fangs were independent to each other, not subordinate to each other; 2) they were exclusive, not related to each other; 3) each Jiao Fang took a mosque as center and organized a community that covered religious, political, economic, cultural and civil affairs and social activities; 4) the affairs of Jiao Fang were separated from that of the mosque but related to it to some extent.
This sort of organization appeared in cities first. As the policy of combining the army with peasants was put into practice in the Yuan Dynasty, Jiao Fangs also appeared in the countryside. The mosque was the core of Jiao Fang, and the basic condition for its birth and growth.
In the Yuan Dynasty, mosques were built wherever the Muslims were concentrated throughout the country. It was a symbol that Islam had successfully taken root in China. As a religious site, mosque played an important role in intensifying Muslims‘ faith and educating Muslims to perform religious services and fulfill religious assignments. It was in control ofthe Muslims‘ spiritual world in a sense. In the Yuan Dynasty the site where Muslims performed prayers (actually mosques) did not yet have a fixed name. They were called by different names such as “Li Bai Si” (prayer temple), “Hui Hui Si” (Hui Huis’ temple), “Hui Hui Tang” (Hui Huis‘ hall), “Zhen Jiao Si” (temple of revealed religion) or “Qing Jing Si” (clear and clean temple)? compared to that in Tang and Song period, the function of the mosque becamemore diversified during the Yuan Dynasty. It was not only a place wheret h e M u s l i m s performed prayers, but also a rostrum where they learned and preached Islam, also a public place where the Imam and other Islamic leadershandled the internalmatters of the
community, a place where Muslims commemorated the old sages of the past, and also a service center where Muslims could seek help on many things. Later it developed into the center of Mosque Education (Islamic education conducted in mosques)? As the system of Jiao Fang developed and matured, the economic and public welfare and free schools within Jiao Fang developed and emerged one after another, making the mosque which was the center of Jiao Fang an important place for the Muslims‘ social life. Innumerable mosques were built or rebuilt during the Yuan and early Ming dynasties (the 13th century to the middle of the14th century)? Unfortunately, due to wars and natural disasters, many of them have been destroyed. The ones still in existence today are of the following: the Zheng Jiao (or Feng Huang) Mosque in Hangzhou, the Song Jiang Mosque in Shanghai, the Nan Cheng Mosque and the Yong Nian Mosque in Kunming, the Qing Zhen Mosque in Fuzhou, the Zhen Jiao Mosque in Qingzhou, Shandong, the Hua Jue Mosque in Xi"an, the Jing Jue Mosque in Nanjing, the Great Southern Mosque in Jinan, the Niu Jie Mosque and the Dong Si Mosque in Beijing.
