Sayyid Ajall Shams al-Din Omar al-Bukhari (Persian: سید اجل شمس‌الدین عمر بخاری; Chinese: 赛典赤·赡思丁; pinyin: Sàidiǎnchì Shànsīdīng; 1211–21 August 1279[2]) was Yunnan's first provincial governor, appointed by the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China.

Shams al-Din was of Central Asian Iranic origin,[5][6][7] being a Muslim Khwarezmian from Bukhara (in present-day Uzbekistan).

When Genghis Khan attacked the city during the war between the Khwarizmi Shah and the Mongols, Sayyid Ajall Shams al-Din Omar's family surrendered to him.

Later, the imperial court conferred the title "Prince of Xianyang" (咸陽王) and the posthumous name Zhonghui (忠惠) on him.

[13][14][15] Sayyid Ajall founded a "Chinese style" city where modern Kunming is today, called Zhongjing Cheng.

[19] Sayyid Ajall viewed Yunnan as "backward and barbarian" and utilized Confucianism, Islam, and Buddhism for "civilizing" the area.

[23][24] He was described as making "the orangutans and butcherbirds became unicorns and phonixes [sic] and their felts and furs were exchanged for gowns and caps", and praised by the Regional Superintendent of Confucian studies, He Hongzuo.

[28][20] The aim of Sayyid Ajall's policy of promoting Confucianism and education in Yunnan was to "civilize" the native "barbarians".

[29][30] The natives of Yunnan were instructed in Confucian ceremonies like weddings, matchmaking, funerals, ancestor worship, and kowtow by Sayyid Ajall.

[Na-su-la-ding [Nasr-uddin] was the eldest of the five sons of the Mohammedan Sai-dien-ch'i shan-sze-ding, Sayad Ajil, a native of Bokhara, who died in Yun-nan, where he had been, governor when Kublai, in the reign of Mangu, entered the country.

納速剌丁 Na-su-la-ding (Nasr-uddin), 哈散 Hasan (Hassan), 忽辛 Hu-sin (Hussein), 苫速丁 兀默里 Shan-su-ding wu-mo-li(Shamsddin Omar) and 馬速忽 Ma-su-hu(Mas'ud).

He was governor in Yunnan, and distinguished himself in the war with the southern tribes of 交趾 Kiao-chi (Cochin-china) and 緬 Mien (Burma).

伯顏察兒 Bo-yen ch'a-r, who had a high office, 烏馬兒 Wu-ma-r, 答法兒 Dje-fa-r (Djafar), 忽先 Hu-sien (Hussein) and 沙的 Sha-di (Saadi).

The Sai-dien-ch'i of the Chinese authors is without doubt the same personage spoken of by Rashid (D'Ohsson, torn, ii, p. 467) under the name of Sayid Edjell.

According to the Persian historian, he was a native of Bokhara, and governor of Karadjang (Yunnan) when Kubilai entered the country, under the reign of Mangu.

His son Nasruddin was appointed governor in Karadjang, and retained his position in Yunnan till his death, which Rashid, writing about AD 1300, says occurred five or six years before (according to the Yüan shi, Na-su-la ding died in 1292).

Nasr-uddin's son Abubeker, who had the surname Bayan Fenchan (evidently the Boyen ch'a-r of the Yüan shi), was governor in Zaitun at the time Rashid wrote.

He bore also his grandfather's title of Sayid Edjell, and was minister of Finance under Kubilai's successor (D'Ohsson, torn, ii, pp.

The d'Ollone expedition during the Qing dynasty recorded that Imam Na Wa-Ch'ing was the leader of the family of descendants of Sayyid Ajall.

[52][53] In the thirteenth century the influence of individual Muslims was immense, especially that of the Seyyid Edjell Shams ed-Din Omar, who served the Mongol Khans till his death in Yunnan AD 1279.

[59] The Ding family has branches in Taiwan, the Philippines, and Malaysia among the diaspora Chinese communities there, no longer practicing Islam but still maintaining a Hui identity.

[62][63] Chuan-Chao Wang of Fudan University studied the Y chromosomes of Sayyid Ajall's present descendants, and found they all have haplogroup L1a-M76, proving a southern Persian origin.