Review: China's Early Mosques, by Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt

This well-illustrated book is a most welcome addition to art and architectural history studies, especially in the fields of Islamic and Chinese art. I know this because I have had the opportunity to use the volume on several occasions. In one case, as I was preparing for a trip to Xinjiang, I found the book indispensable not only for my preparation to visit this area of Central Asian China but also for the accurate information it provided. Before the publication of China's Early Mosques, I had visited important early Muslim sites in southeast and north-central China, but until I read Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt's text, I had great...