REVIEWS OF RECENT BOOKS 207 



K^f^IHSi^^Sajas something that will be of interest and of 

 value in the study of Mohammedanism in China. 



The first Chapter deals with the ancestry of the prophet and 

 with various proofs of his vast superiority to all other prophets ! 

 The reader will be interested to learn that Noah took no less than 

 70 persons into the Ark with him; he will also find some "quotations" 

 for which he will search the Old and New Testaments in vain — 

 which is a proof of the wicked unbelief and ungodly scheming of the- 

 Jews and Christians, so frequently mentioned throughout the book ! 



There follow two Chapters dealing at some length with the cir- 

 cumstances attending the birth and childhood of Mohammed. There- 

 is a distinct flavour of the "Arabian Nights" about these early 

 chapters, and indeed about several parts of the book. Nothing of 

 this is lost by the way in which the translator has succeeded in 

 transfusing the taste of the Chinese into the English version. 



The remainder of the book gives the story of the marriage with 

 Khadija, the beginnings of the prophetic mission, the persecution, the 

 flight to Medina and so on to the end in much the same way as does 

 any life of Mohammed, the chief interest being in the Chinese-iness 

 of the whole. Notice, for example, how true are these sons of the- 

 desert to Chinese etiquette. 



The notes are instructive and necessary. As is pointed out 

 on pp. 42 and 219, the character -f^} is misused by Liu Chih. But 

 one has frequently heard Moslems use the expression tffc tjfr to include 

 idolaters of all kinds. Attention is also drawn (p. 196) to the fact 

 that "Rumi" (^| 5f?) refers very often to the eastern part of the 

 Roman empire rather than (as has been stated by some writers) to- 

 Rome itself. Rumi or Rumu Kuoh ( fj @ ^) often denotes what 

 was until recently "Turkey in Europe" unto this day. One would 

 venture to point out that in Moslem usage, f$ denotes those strange- 

 beings known to the reader of "Arabian Nights" as Djinn rather than 

 "Spirits" or "Gods" generally. 



Although some of the illustrations are reproduced from the 

 "Chinese Recorder" and from "Islam in China," there are also a? 

 number of new ones, including five of pages from books or leaflets- 

 by Chinese Moslems. 



The life is followed by three Appendices. 



The first gives a Moslem tradition of the first entry of Islam into 

 China. It is obviously largely mythical. But it is of value to the 

 English reader, for here he has Chinese Moslem history as it is- 

 and not as it has been sifted by Western Students. 



Appendix II is a new translation of the stele standing in the' 

 courtyard of the old mosque at Sian. 



