Talk:Su fei-erh

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This article was nominated for deletion on 25 December 2022. The result of the discussion was keep.

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Factual accuracy and sources[edit]

Axel Shen (talk · contribs) recently nominated this article for deletion, doubting the existence of the subject (Su fei-erh) and the accuracy of the article. (Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Su fei-erh)

In searching for information which may address these concerns I found the following which may be helpful to anyone interested in improving the article:

Regarding Chinese-language sources, I was able to find a few that mention him on Google Books. ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8])

I'm not fluent in Chinese and don't have the full texts, so I can't verify that these are especially good sources, but they do appear to provide details which appear consistent with the article based on autotranslating the previews provided when searching. Some of them appear to be principally about other topics, such as Zheng He, and so probably only provide passing mentions rather than a detailed biography. Some snippets in the books I found refer to old texts, such as the Qingzhen Zhinan (《清真指南》) and the Family Tree of Sayyid Ajall (《赛典赤家谱》); they might be worth looking at for further details if anyone has access to them.

They also provide a few details not in the article, such as that he was apparently granted the titles Marquis (侯) and, later, Duke (国公) of Ningyi (宁彝). Searching this title brought up some Chinese-langauge results that render his name in Chinese differently to what is given in the article and its references (particularly, 所菲尔 and 所非尔); variation in the name may explain why the Axel Shen had difficulty finding Chinese-language information. Searching these names alone is unhelpful because they are apparently sometimes used to transliterate other names (eg. Sophie, Sophia) into Chinese; I found searching the name along with the Chinese for Islam (回教) helpful. – Scyrme (talk) 21:40, 26 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding the descendants named in the article, it seems that in Chinese-langauge sources Shams Shah is Suzu Sha (苏祖沙), Kamal al-Din is Kanma Ding (坎马丁), and Mahmud is Mahamu (马哈目 or 马哈木). These names can be found on online Chinese-langauge webpages (such as Baidu Baike; not a reliable source, I know) as well some publications hosted by the domain wenqujingdian.com (eg. [9], [10]); these publications also name Su Fei'er. The article does not name Su Fei'er's sons but these sources name them as Sai Yan (赛严 or 撒严) and Saifu Ding (赛伏丁; Saif al-Din?).

These names may be helpful in finding information which addresses Axel Shen's second dispute (see AfD). – Scyrme (talk) 23:50, 26 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]