Note 24 — Chapter X · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN CHINA.
Reading edition
It is not improbable that these letters gave rise to the later legend of one of the Chinese emperors having become a convert to Islam.24 This legend is referred to, among others, by a Muhammadan merchant, Sayyid ʻAlī Akbar, who spent some years in Peking at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century; he speaks of the large number of Musalmans who had settled in China; in the city of Kenjanfu there were as many as 30,000 Muslim families; they paid no taxes and enjoyed the favour of the emperor, who gave them grants of land; they enjoyed complete toleration for the exercise of their religion, which was favourably viewed by the Chinese, and conversions were freely permitted; in the capital itself there were four great mosques and about ninety more in other provinces of the empire,—all erected at the cost of the emperor.25