A most fascinating book. . . .The twenty-one tombstones featured in this book were erected to the memory of real people, all of whom had come from the far quarters of the Mongol Empire to make their fortunes in China. They come alive today in this book, providing readers with a scholarly yet accessible account of how Hangzhou (or Khinsai as the Persians knew it) became a major Islamic center in China, not just of religion or trade but of culture as well. . . .This book is, in the end, not a narrow specialist production, but an opening door into a fascinating culture.

Asian Review of Books

"The Phoenix Mosque in Hangzhou, south China, is one of the most remarkable survivals from the period of Mongol rule in Asia. Built in 1281, it served the mainly Persian Muslims who had come to China from the other end of the Mongol Empire. Some 21 tombstones from that time, with texts inscribed in Arabic and Persian, remain in the mosque, and are a primary historical source of great interest. They are transcribed, translated and commented on in this study, the last work of a great Persian scholar, the late Alexander Morton. George Lane and his colleagues have provided a fine series of chapters which put Morton’s work into its appropriate historical context. The result is a major contribution to our knowledge of the history of the Mongol Empire."
 

David O. Morgan, University of Wisconsin–Madison

"This long-awaited book by George Lane opens new venues for the study of the mobility, economy, and cultural presence of Persianised individuals (mainly from Central Asia) in medieval China. The focus on Hangzhou and particularly on the still standing Phoenix Mosque of the city serves as a living testimony of the presence of a Muslim-Persian community that helped to integrate large cities of Central China into the networks of the Mongol empire that controlled Eurasia during the 13th and 14th centuries, an interesting and not as well-known subject. The transcriptions and translations by Morton and Hodous included in the appendices add a further layer of interest to the book, bringing to life the epitaphs of these Muslim migrants into China in the Mongol period." 

Bruno de Nicola, Goldsmiths, University of London