Arabic woodblock printing in Xingjian. Rare example of arabic woodblock printing in china by a prominent hui islamic scholar in xingjiang. Ma Liangjun (1871-1957) was a renowned Hui Muslim Akhund in the Northwest and a famous Islamic scholar ('Hui' referring to an ethno-religious group of Chinese speaking Muslims mostly based in North-west China). He was a prominent local figure that advocated peace and national unity in Xinjiang and was responsible for much of the modernisation and development in the local Islamic education systems. He authored many books and articles in Arabic, Persian and Chinese, many of these were Islamic in nature. As well as making a significant literary contribution to Islamic studies in Xinjiang, he was also a progressive figure in China Hui cultural developments. In this publication the name 'Ma Liangjun' is provided in Chinese characters and 'Muhammad Yusuf Hijrani' in Arabic, both of these referring to the same author ('Ma' being synonymous with the Arabic 'Muhammad' among the Hui population).

Woodblock printing was the most efficient method of printing in China and was used to print text in Arabic and Uyghur from the 1800s. Islamic woodblock printing was most frequently localised to Islamic centres such as mosques and madrasas, where the local Islamic scholars could print and reprint their teachings for the local muslim community. The present text is one such example by a prominent figure in Xingjiang, Ma Liangjun, who compiled this treatise with parallel text in Mandarin and Arabic containing information about the Islamic monthly calendar, Arabic grammar and general Islamic philosophy likely taken from other sources. For more information on Muslim printing and Han Kitab in China see Shaodan Zhang, Muslim Printing in Late Imperial China: Woodblocks, Networks, and Creation of Chinese Islamic Knowledge (Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 2021).

The variations in transliteration make it difficult to find such texts on Western databases, but no other copies of this author's works have been traced on OCLC.

Single volume, woodblock printed in Arabic and Mandarin, 8vo (290 x 200 mm), 4 full-page tables and 4 full-page solar and lunar astronomical charts, some early erratas bound-in or pasted to the margins these woodblock printed) a few small ink annotations, leaves evenly age-toned, text-block sewn, loosely inserted into contemporary cloth-backed wooden boards, lower cover worn with a little loss to fabric, extremities rubbed.