Chang'an, as the cosmopolitan capital of China's Tang dynasty, had sizable non-Han merchant and artisan communities that resided there.

Emperor Xuanzong[4] decreed around the year 742 AD (as Tangmingsi[3], 唐明寺) that a place of worship for the Muslim community was to be constructed in the city.

The foreign, often Muslim, population brought into China by the Mongol regime were known in Chinese as People with Coloured Eyes (色目人), many of whom originated from the recently Islamized regions such as Kara-Khanid Xinjiang and Persia.

Despite moving into and permanently settling in China, many of the Muslim immigrants and their descendants did not give up their Islamic faith nor "foreign" identity.

The reconstruction of the original mosque into its contemporary form was patronized by the imperial government during Emperor Hongwu's reign.

[6] It has been widely argued that although the Hui community largely adhered to their religious identity, they gravitated and later adopted the mainstream Han Chinese cultural traditions as encouraged by the Ming and later Qing governments.

[5] However, certain restrictions on the practice of Islam occurred after the Dungan Revolt (1862–1877), which started because of ethnic and religious tensions between the Muslims and the Han Chinese.

In 1956, the government of the People's Republic of China declared the mosque to be a Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the Shaanxi Province Level.

However, during the Cultural Revolution, as with practically all other religious facilities in mainland China, the mosque was temporarily shut down and converted into a steel factory.

[7] Following Mao Zedong's death in 1976, religious activities resumed, and the mosque was later promoted to a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level in 1988.

The Great Mosque of Xi'an represents the Gedimu (Chinese: 格迪目, Arabic: قديم) tradition of Sunni Islam with the Hanafi jurisdiction, which is the majority jurisprudence that the Hui population follow.

[5] The main prayer hall of the Great Mosque of Xi'an can accommodate 1,000 people though around 100 worshippers attend a typical Friday service today.

However, some scholars, such as Dr. Nancy Steinhardt from the University of Pennsylvania, speculate that the Xingxin Tower originally served as the mosque's minaret that was previously used for the call to prayer.

The prayer hall is a monumental timber building with a turquoise hip roof, painted dougong (wooden brackets), a six-pillared portico, and five doors.

In the furthest part of the prayer hall stands the rear qibla wall, which has wooden carvings of floral and calligraphic designs.