Location Guangzhou Attack type Pogrom | Date 878–879 | |
Target Muslim Arabs, Muslim Persians, Zoroastrian Persians, Christians, and Jews Deaths 120,000–200,000 (various estimates) Perpetrators Huang Chao's Chinese rebel Army | ||
The Guangzhou Massacre was a widespread attack on the foreign merchants in Guangzhou, China, by forces under Huang Chao, who was rebelling against the Tang Empire at the time.
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Background
An earlier Yangzhou massacre (760) took place in which Chinese rebels massacred the wealthy Arab and Persian merchant community.
Arab and Persian pirates raided and looted warehouses in Guangzhou (known to them as Khanfu or Sin-Kalan) in AD 758, according to a local Guangzhou government report on October 30, 758, which corresponded to the day of Guisi (癸巳) of the ninth lunar month in the first year of the Qianyuan era of Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty. (大食, 波斯寇廣州)
Huang Chao revolted against the declining Tang dynasty after failing the Imperial Examination many times. He rebelled in 875 and led his army across China to Guangzhou in Lingnan. Guangzhou was called "Khanfu" by the Arabs, and another name for Guangzhou is Canton.
Massacre
The Chinese rebels led by Huang Chao slaughtered Jews, Muslim Arabs, Muslim Persians, Zoroastrians (a.k.a. Parsees or Mazdaists) and Christians when they seized and conquered, according to Arab writer Abu Zayd Hasan As-Sirafi. Huang Chao's army was in Guangzhou during 878–879. Mulberry groves were also ruined by Huang's army. Only the Arabic source of Abu Zaid mentions the massacre; Chinese sources of the Tang dynasty history say nothing of the massacre and only mention Huang Chao occupying Guangzhou and retreating after disease struck his army. Some say it was to protect the image and the trust of Tang dynasty's protection for foreign traders.
Most of the victims were foreign and wealthy.
The death toll could have ranged from 120,000 to 200,000 foreigners.
Foreigners have at different periods settled in China; but after remaining for a time, they have been massacred. For instance, Mohammedans and others settled at Canton in the ninth century; and in 889, it is said that 120,000 foreign settlers were massacred.