As an active missionary to China from a family of missionaries, Broomhall wrote with an authoritative familiarity of his subject. The concern he addressed in this treatise was the presence of Islam in China. Beginning with the history of Islam in China, Broomhall explores the interactions between aspects of Chinese culture and Islamic religion. He then moves his attention to conditions as they were in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, noting the situation in a Chinese mosque, the personal, social, and religious conditions of Chinese Muslims, and the perspective from the Islamic side. Broomhall wrote with a sense of urgency, a necessary corollary to his goal of evangelization in a largely non-Christian population. As a period piece reflecting the particular outlook of the Victorian Era, this work serves as a fascinating window into a past world.

Marshall Broomhall (1866-1937) was a missionary to China and an avid writer about the China Inland Mission. He was the son of Benjamin Broomhall and nephew of James Hudson Taylor, respectively the general secretary and founder of the China Inland Mission.