China is one of the world's more populous Islamic counties. Over half of China's Muslims are the Hui, a people found in western China (particularly Ningsia province) and descended from Islamic merchants, craftsmen, scholars and soldiers who came to China from Perisa and Central Asia between the 7th and 15th centuries. Over the centuries, the original Arabic-based Islam of the Hui has absorbed a proportion of Chinese words, often concepts borrowed from Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism.