Asian-Arabs

Anyway you could a population of East Asians similar to Afro-Arabs which identifies as Arabs and speaks Arabic either in Arab countries or somewhere else.

What would be the impact of this.
 
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Simplest way is probably to have a group of pre-Muslim arab traders convert to Buddhism and settle in the East.
 
Are not Arabs from the peninsula and fertile crescent already asians?

The OP specifically said East Asians. Not West Asians.

I would suggest East Asian Muslims like the Hui, but they tend to speak local languages, with some Persian and Arabic influences. East Asia has a large population - Arabs would more likely assimilate into the local culture, rather than vice versa as a result.
 
Perhaps have more Arabic traders come through the Mallacan strait, and settle in the coastal cities? OTL many Arabic traders did settle in Malaysia, Indonesia, and even Mindanao(Philippines).
 

Kaze

Banned
Timurlane is successful in creating his empire - an empire that stretched from Arabia to India to the borders of China.
 
Some coastal area could probably be arabized, like Somalia otl. Maybe parts of India. But east Asia I'd say, the phillipines perhaps?
 
Ma Bufang inspires sections of the KMT's western armies to seek asylum in Saudi Arabia after the Chinese Civil War. However, these wouldn't be Asian-Arabs in the sense that you're asking for: people of Asian descent who identify as Arabs and speak Arabic. The Ma family, like other Hui, saw themselves as Chinese Muslims, and took both parts of that identity seriously.

Another option is having the Mongol Empire overseeing some kind of resettlement. Maybe a contingent of Chinese or Korean prisoners of war are deported to Syria, or are pressed into service in the Mongol armies and end up under Ilkhanate jurisdiction at some point. They are stationed in Iraq as auxiliaries, and over the next few centuries of political change they convert to Islam, then begin speaking Arabic, then begin marrying into Arab families to a limited extent until they no longer identify as East Asian.

Finally, if some part of East Asia ends up as an Islamic state, the new rulers may seek to recruit Arabs (most likely Hadhramis from Yemen, who are of the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence) as judges and administrative cadres, as sultanates in India and Southeast Asia did OTL. These Arabs may marry locals and have kids who also marry locals, but who nonetheless are held in high regard for their Arab ancestry (especially if they are descendants of Muhammad). As a result, you end up with a group of people that live in East Asia but identify as Arab and use Arabic as a language of letters at the very least, in the style of similar Black Arab communities in Zanzibar, Lamu, Mombasa, and elsewhere.
 
I was originally thinking of China, Korea, and Japan but why not

Then why not have Arabs conquer Madagascar before the coastal African populations arrive? Say, a small ruling class which promotes the Arab language and culture and leads to a situation where the population is 99% southeast Asian but Arab in cultural outlook, geopolitical orientation, etc. The unified Arabic government of the island fends off the migrations so the island's population never becomes significantly African.
 

Baby Kata

Banned
The OP specifically said East Asians. Not West Asians.

I would suggest East Asian Muslims like the Hui, but they tend to speak local languages, with some Persian and Arabic influences. East Asia has a large population - Arabs would more likely assimilate into the local culture, rather than vice versa as a result.

Does anyone know if the Kaifeng Jews of China are purely Chinese genetically, or if they have any East Mediterranean input?
 
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