Note 18 — Chapter IX · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM IN INDIA.

The Chinese historians of the reign of Qūbīlāy K͟hān make it a ground of complaint against this monarch that he did not employ Chinese officials in place of the immigrant Turks and Persians.18 The exalted position occupied by Sayyid Ajall and the facilities of communication between China and the West established by Mongol conquest, attracted a number of such persons into the north of China, and it was probably as a result of these immigrations that those scattered Muhammadan communities began to be formed, which have grown to large proportions in most of the provinces of China. Marco Polo, who enjoyed the favour of Qūbīlāy K͟hān and lived in China from 1275 to 1292, notes the presence of Muhammadans in various parts of Yunnan.19 At the beginning of the fourteenth century, all the inhabitants of Talifu, the capital of Yunnan, are said by a contemporary historian to have been Musalmans;20 and Ibn Baṭūṭah, who visited several coast towns in China towards the middle of the fourteenth century, speaks of the hearty welcome he received from his co-religionists,21 and reports that “In every town there is a special quarter for the Muslims, inhabited solely by them, where they have their mosques; they are honoured and respected by the Chinese.”22