Chau Ju-Kua - University of Oregon Libraries

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LNTKODDCTIOX.
China were, according to Soleyman, ivory, frankincense, copper, tortoise-shell,
camphor, and rhinoceros horns ^
The importance of the Moslim settlement in Canton in the ninth century
may be guaged by Soleyman's statement that one of the Musulmans was
appointed by the Chinese authorities to maintain order among his coreligionists 5
and administer the law of Islam. On feast-days he said prayers, repeated the
lihotba and prayed for the welfare of the Caliph. From Chinese sources we
learn that this organization was extended at a later date to the foreign
settlements at Ts'uan-ch6u, Hang-ch6u and elsewhere, in all of which the
Moslim had their kadi and their sJieikhs, their mosques and their bazaars. A lo
Chinese work of the beginning of the twelfth century ^ notes the following
interesting facts concerning the foreign^ (^)
settlement of Canton:
1) Reinaud, Op. cit, I, 13, 33—35. Cf. also supra, p. 3 and infra, p. 19, n. 1. The Weishu,
102, the history of the period hetween 385 and 556, and written prior to 572, mentions among
the products of Po-ssi (Persia), — by which it seems probable should be understood products 15
brought or made known to China by Persians — coral, amber, cornelians, pearls, glass, both
transparent and opaque, rock-crystal, diamonds (? kin-k'ang), steel, cinnabar, quicksilver, frank-
incense, turmeric, storax, putchuk, damasks, brocaded muslins, black pepper, long peppers,
dates, aconite, gall nuts and galangal. The Sui-shu, 83, which relates the events of the period
extending from 581 to 617, and which was certainly written before 650, reproduces substantially 20
the above list of Persian products, to which it adds gold, silver, tush, lead, sandalwood, various
tissues, sugar and indigo. Most of these products came, of course, from India or from countries of
south-eastern Asia, only a few being products of Arabia or countries bordering on the Persian
Gulf. See also infra p. 19 for the lists of foreign imports into China at the end of the tenth century.
1) P'ing-ch6u-k'o-t'an {^ f^\ pf g^) by ChuYu( II, ;^ ^) l_4. This work 25
appears from internal evidence to have been written in tlie first quarter of the twelfth century.
The latest date found in it refers to the period between 1111 and 1117. The father of the author •
was an official at Canton in the latter part of the eleventh century. All the quotations from this
work are taken from Ch. II, p. 1—4. Hirth, The Ancient History of China, etc., 133.
2) By ((foreigners {fan) the author understands Moslim of all nationalities. He says they did 30
not eat pork, and only ate domestic animals (fish and turtles excepted) which they had killed them-
selves. Their women answered to the name of P'u-sa-man (^ ^ ^.), the Chinese transcription
of the name Musulman, the Bussurman of mediaeval Russian annalists, the Bisermin of Friar
John of Plan di Carpine.
In Ibn Batuta's time (beginning of the fourteenth century) the Mohammedan quarter of 35
Canton was inside the city; at Ts