viii Acknowledgments
Islamic Studies Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences,
have been crucial to my work.
In this country, the pathbreakers in the growing field of Chi-
nese Islamic studies have been equally valuable. I particularly thank
Dru Gladney, Donald Daniel Leslie, and Jonathan Lipman. Jona-
than Lipman has been generous in the copious comments he has
given me on my work. I have never met Professor Leslie, but he
has accompanied me ever since I read his Hebrew translation of the
Analects of Confucius in my first year of college. His bibliographic
work on Islam in China and particularly on the Han Kitab texts is
indispensable, and without it I would have been unable to start, let
alone finish, this project.
Many thanks also to the staff of the numerous libraries I made
use of in writing this book: UCLA, UC Berkeley, New York Pub-
lic Library, Harvard Yenching Institute, the Tōyō Bunko, and the
British Museum.
Finally, to my wife, Katherine: thanks. Ma shesheli, shelach.
Z.B.-D.B.1st pages, p. viii