The world is born strangely, and the roots come from outside the Tianshan Mountains.

- Hui proverb

In that year, after Abbas was reunited with his wife, Salta's aunt Ayisha, and their two children in Hezhou, the family settled there and became the Semu people of the Great Yuan Dynasty.

The Semu people are an ethnic group living in the territory of the Great Yuan except for the Mongols and Han Chinese, mainly from Western countries. The color of their eyes was not black like that of the Mongols and Han Chinese, but gray or pale yellow, so the Dayuan court called them Semu, that is, people with colored eyes.

Most of the Semu people were a large number of craftsmen and soldiers who had been relocated after the Great Mongol Empire had destroyed the Khwarazm Empire, but there were also some other ethnic minorities who had joined the Great Yuan, and a small number of Khwarazm, Iranian, and Arab merchants who had settled in the eastern region.

The Semu people include dozens of ethnic groups.

In the process of attacking Central Asia, West Asia, the Korean Peninsula, Tibet, Azerbaijan and other places, Genghis Khan adopted the formation of the Tanma Red Army and recruited a large number of local soldiers. The task of these men was to be both a vanguard army and a town defender, and after moving east, they were stationed all over the country. At that time, there were about 60,000 households in the Tanma Red Army on Jingzhao (today's Xi'an), Yan'an, and Fengxiang in Shaanxi.

Ali and Abbas came to the East as the Red Army of Tanma.

The Oghuz were an early Turkic group that migrated westward from the Mongolian steppes. Their descendants split into the Uighurs, Kipchaks, Khamli and Grolu. During the period of the rise of the Great Mongolian State, these ethnic groups lived in the area of present-day Central Asia and Xinjiang, and successively attached to the Great Mongolian State.

According to the custom, the annexed peoples had to send troops to help the Mongols when they went on a campaign. Because of their participation in the military activities of the Great Mongolian State, these ethnic groups then moved eastward in large numbers to the Han region of the Central Plains and became an integral part of the Semu people.

After the Great Yuan unified the country, the Grolu soldiers who had been fighting in the south and the north for a long time gradually settled down. Because of their meritorious service in following Genghis Khan to attack Juyong Pass in Yanjing, they guarded the north entrance of Juyong Pass in the name of Gloro's army, and later changed it to the central guard army and promoted it to Glolu Wanhu Mansion. In addition, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and Zhejiang have large numbers of Grolu people who have migrated inward.

Grolu's army also included the Turkic Khamli and the Turkic Kipchaks. They and the Grohs are from Central Asia, and their language and customs are relatively close. Therefore, Kublai incorporated them into one ten thousand households.

There have been many celebrities of the Grolu people in Dayuan, such as the physicist and poet Qi Xian, the physicist Boyan, and the famous general Tie Maichi.

In addition to the soldiers and artisans, there were also nobles, officials, scholars, merchants, and their families and clansmen from the conquered countries who attached to the Great Mongolian State.

Among the wide variety of color people, the number of Hui people is the largest, so they are sometimes called Hui people.

Originally, the Semu Hui people were Han Chinese, referring to Muslim ethnic groups from Western countries who believed in Islam.

Sogdian (i.e., Khorezm), Iranian, and Arab merchants have historically been the most active people in connecting the land and maritime Silk Roads between the East and the West. Long before the rise of the Great Mongol state, merchants from these countries traveled frequently between Central and West Asia, the Mongolian Plateau, and the Central Plains, manipulating trade between the unskilled nomads and the sedentary agricultural regions. Most of the Central Asian, Iranian, and Arab people who came to the East during the Tang and Song dynasties were also shrewd merchants. They settled in coastal treaty ports, such as Guangzhou, Quanzhou, Lin'an, and other places, and established Muslim worship temples in the cities where they lived, and became part of the Hui people of Dayuan Semu.

In the wars of the Great Mongol army to conquer the Karakhitan, Khorezm, and Arabia, each place conquered had to select skilled craftsmen to move to the Mongol base camp and the occupied Central Plains, so that they could become the envoys of the Great Mongol state, or assign them to the princes and nobles as subjects. Women and children were also assigned to the rich and generals as slaves. The 30,000 Samarkands, the more than 100,000 Urgenchi, and a large number of the Mare and Neshabur, were all the same.

When the smoke of the war dissipated, the Dayuan court required these Tanma Red Army and craftsmen to reclaim the border and live in a staggered manner with the Tang Wu (Western Xia) people, Tubo people, Han people, etc., and lived a life of integration of soldiers and peasants.

They can fight and fight when they get on their horses, and they can gather and shepherd and open ditches when they get off their horses. Later, under the establishment of the cooperative, they gradually changed from soldiers and peasants with dual responsibilities to farmers and herdsmen who devoted themselves to cultivating the fields, and at the same time formed villages and strongholds inhabited by their own people.

The well-known Semu Hui reclamation area is mainly concentrated in the Hexi Corridor and Hezhou in Gansu, various parts of Ningxia, Kaifeng in Henan, various parts of Shandong, all parts of Hebei and Kunming and Dali in Yunnan, among which Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai are the majority. Today, there are also Hui people in Tuntian in Changji, Fukang, Jimusar, Ili River Valley, Kashgar, Hotan and other places in Xinjiang.

When Wokotai was in power, more than 3,000 households were relocated to Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, and another 300 households were relocated to Yangyuan, Hebei Province. Most of these Huihui people were engaged in various industries such as textiles, construction, weapons, papermaking, gold and jade ware, and winemaking.

The villages of the Semu Hui people were inserted like wedges into the middle of the Han Chinese, Tang Wu people, and Tubo people. They and these peoples understand each other, help each other, and learn from each other. In this way, hundreds of thousands of Hui people scattered all over the country, forming a unique scenery of returning to the world in the Yuan Dynasty.

The ancestors of the Khwarazm Bukhara, Saidianchi Justin, followed the Mongol army to the eastern frontier. He later served as the political affairs of Pingzhang in Shaanxi Wulu, Xishu, Sichuan, Xingzhongshu Province, and led a group of soldiers and civilians from Khorezm to Ningxia Tunken. His eldest son, Nasu Latin, later served as the governor of Pingzhang in Shaanxi.

There are many descendants of Nasu Latin, scattered all over the country, forming the four surnames of Na, Su, La, and Ding. Therefore, Ningxia has Najia, Chang'an has Ra (La) Village, and Yunnan also has Dingjiazhai.

The tolerant policies of the rulers of the Great Yuan towards various religions were also a reason for attracting the surrounding ethnic groups. The imperial court protected the worship temples of Islam, Buddhist monasteries, Taoist Taoist temples, shamanism, Christianity, etc., and basically did not restrict religious activities and people's living customs.

The court allowed the Semu Hui to form effectively autonomous societies led by the Hui guru, and Haji, a religious figure who had made the pilgrimage to Mecca, explained the Islamic law.

The influx of the Khwarazmian people enriched and strengthened the group of the Semu Hui people, and laid a solid foundation for the Hui, Dongxiang, Salar and Baoan tribes formed later.

The biggest difference between the Semu Hui and other Semu people is that they believe in Islam.

A large number of artisans and merchants lived in the city and on the main transportation routes. Wherever they went, they built a mosque and lived around it, had their own bazaars and hospitals, were free to use the language of their own clan, and believed in their own religion.

The Great Mongol State completed its conquest of the Eastern and Western countries, bringing all of Eastern, Central and Western Asia under Mongol rule. The vast land of the empire was connected by post roads, and business and travel were unimpeded.

There are more and more merchants who come from the east. Many Semu Hui merchants settled down for a long time because they liked the terroir and products of the Han region in the Central Plains and enjoyed the various preferential policies of the Great Yuan.

The Mongols were not good at administrative management and financial management, and they did not trust the Han people very much, so they used a large number of Semu Hui people, so that many Semu Hui upper-class figures became high-ranking officials and eunuchs of the Great Mongolian State and the Great Yuan. According to the household registration in 1263, there were 2,953 households in the capital of the Great Yuan, most of which were families of wealthy merchants. Ali and several of his sons were among them.

Later, Ananda, the grandson of Kublai Khan, succeeded his father as king of Anxi. He chose to believe in Islam. Under his influence, most of his 150,000 soldiers converted to Islam and became an important source of the new nation.

Abbas, who settled in Hezhou, Gansu Province, was allowed to quit the Tanma Red Army because he was older than the military requirements and started a business in the city of Hezhou.

His eldest son, Adan, enlisted in the army and succeeded his father in continuing to serve in Dayuan's army. The youngest son, Hani, stayed with Abbas, helping his father with his business and serving his elderly parents.

Many Khwarazmians like Abbas came to the East alone, carrying their heads on their shoulders to work and fight for the Great Mongol Empire. Those who are better off can also marry women of different races. There are also many people who have been singles all their lives, especially when they are old and lonely, and it is really difficult to endure the desolate second half of their lives in a foreign country.

In the middle of summer 1255, Abbas finished the last leg of his life, smiling and closing his sunken eyes, his snow-white beard still trembling gently.

Abbas was lucky. He was still reunited with his wife and son in the far east. In the era of war and chaos, a family of four lived a peaceful life in Hezhou.

Adan and Hani led their children in reciting the scriptures aloud as they placed Abbas's body on the yellow earth with a white cotton cloth.

The funeral rites of the Semu Hui people are very different from those of the Han people in the Central Plains: the families of the deceased do not have to cry and do not wear filial piety clothes. There is no spiritual table, no posthumous statue, and no wreath placed in the home. Coffins and funeral items are also not used for the deceased. No matter how rich or poor they were in life, they were all wrapped in white cotton cloth.

The color eyes return to the people pay attention to the quick burial. If you die in the morning, you will be buried before the evening. If you die in the evening, you must be buried the next day.

In the mosque opposite Abbas's house, priests and assistants Manlamen (religious students) carefully cleanse Abbas with a soup bottle filled with pure Bactria water, sprinkle ice chips, saffron and other spices, and wrap him in a white cotton cloth (shroud) and gently place it on a blanket.

The priest first asked the Muslims who came to the funeral: "Does Abbas owe money to anyone whose children need to pay it back?" ”

They answered, "There is no debt." ”

The priest asked: "Do you give him forgiveness for his mistakes during his lifetime?" ”

They answered, "We will call him."

The priest then stood in front of everyone, facing the direction of Mecca in the western heavens, and said a final prayer for Abbas.

After the prayer, the priest announced in a loud voice: "Funeral." ”

Young men among friends and family scrambled to the front, picked up Abbas's body, and walked out of the solemn mosque and onto the street.

The crowd followed Abbas's body and came together to the burial of the Semu Hui people (meaning cemetery) outside the city of Hezhou.

Amid the long and mournful chanting of the priests, Abbas's body was placed in the side cave of the tomb, his head was pointed in the direction of the holy city of Mecca, and the mouth of the cave was sealed with adobe, and the deep grave was quickly filled with loess.

There is no stone monument in the cemetery of the Semu Hui people, but a stone is placed on the mound of the grave as a sign of identification in the future.

On this night, Ali, who was far away in Dadu, had a strange dream: he was eating soft cakes with relish, when he suddenly heard a click, and a big tooth fell out......

Ali woke up from his dream to find himself sweating profusely.

Sauron, who was sleeping next to him, quickly got up and brought him a dry hand towel to wipe his sweat.

Ali said uncertainly: "I have heard my grandmother say since I was a child that losing my teeth in a dream is a harbinger of the impermanence of relatives. ”

Sauron comforted him, "The elders of our tribe have said that dreaming of losing a tooth is an auspicious omen. ”

Ali impatiently interrupted Sauron's words, "What do your tribe know? They will ride horses and herd sheep. ”

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

Ali said, "No sheep are taught. I ask you, how old is Abbas? ”

Sauron replied, "Are you old fools?" You told me that Abbas was 10 years older than you. You're 52 now, he's 62. In the middle of the night, why did you suddenly think of Abbas? ”

Ali sighed and said, "I have been in the East with Abbas for more than 30 years now, 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 a little longer. ”

Ali saw the moon hanging high in the sky through the thin curtain, and remembered the night when Samarkand fell, and the night he and Abbas spent the night at the house of the owner of the Xianyang Horse Farm.

Ali thought to himself: I am just an ordinary small businessman, why has my life changed so drastically? Why did you leave your homeland and go to a distant foreign land? Why did he marry a woman from an enemy country who killed his own relatives?

He really couldn't answer those questions.

Having buried Abbas, Adan continued his military service in the army of the Great Yuan. Hani was engaged in the business of 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 a large and spacious courtyard, a row of tall houses sitting north and facing south. The exterior walls of the compound and the walls of the houses are all made of gray masonry. The masonry is carved with figures of grapes, peonies, pines and bamboo.

There are several fruit trees planted in front of the house. The fruit trees are full of fruit.

The steps and windowsills are filled with large and small flower pots. Geraniums, oleanders and peonies planted in pots are in full bloom and are particularly pretty.

It can be seen that this family has a comfortable life and a prosperous life.

Whenever the sun went down, Sarta's aunt Ayisha would go to the courtyard, stand on the high steps, put her bruised right hand on top of her eyes, and silently look at the red sky in the west with her cloudy eyes, and look at her hometown - Mare City, which is far away in the sky.