ABSTRACT
For instance, during the An Lushan rebellion in c.756–63, Caiph Al-Mansur sent over 4,000 Arab mercenaries to assist the Xuanzong emperor in his efforts to suppress the uprising. Afterwards, some of these soldiers are believed to have settled in Northern China and married Chinese women. Thus, Muslims gradually lost their foreign identity and became or Chinese Muslims, a minority within Chinese society. The sovereign was also known to have occasionally worn Arabic dress and may have even converted to Islam. His court was reportedly full of Muslims, and artwork such as porcelain from his reign frequently contained Islamic inscriptions in Arabic and Persian. Glass has always occupied a marginal position in China. It has been argued that since it was a man-made material, glass did not fit into the Chinese system of the elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, which were regarded as the foundation of everything in the universe and natural phenomena.
