Mapping the Chinese and Islamic Worlds: Cross-Cultural Exchange in Pre-Modern AsiaLong before Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope en route to India, the peoples of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia engaged in vigorous cross-cultural exchanges across the Indian Ocean. This book focuses on the years 700 to 1500, a period when powerful dynasties governed both regions, to document the relationship between the Islamic and Chinese worlds before the arrival of the Europeans. Through a close analysis of the maps, geographic accounts, and travelogues compiled by both Chinese and Islamic writers, the book traces the development of major contacts between people in China and the Islamic world and explores their interactions on matters as varied as diplomacy, commerce, mutual understanding, world geography, navigation, shipbuilding, and scientific exploration. When the Mongols ruled both China and Iran in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, their geographic understanding of each other's society increased markedly. This rich, engaging, and pioneering study offers glimpses into the worlds of Asian geographers and mapmakers, whose accumulated wisdom underpinned the celebrated voyages of European explorers like Vasco da Gama. |
Other editions - View all
Mapping the Chinese and Islamic Worlds: Cross-Cultural Exchange in Pre ... Hyunhee Park Limited preview - 2012 |
Mapping the Chinese and Islamic Worlds: Cross-Cultural Exchange in Pre ... Hyunhee Park No preview available - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
Accounts of China Africa al-Dīn al-Idrīsī Arabic Asian Baghdad Beijing Cambridge cartographers Central Asia ceramics Chinese Chinese and Islamic Chinese maps circa coast coastline contemporary cultural Dashi detailed Du Huan earlier East eastern emperor envoys European exchange flourished foreign countries geographic accounts geographic information geographic knowledge Guangzhou Hangzhou Hormuz Huan Ibn Battuta Ibn Majid Il-khanate important Indian Ocean Iran Islamic geographic Islamic world Khan Khubilai knowledge about China land Ma Huan Marco Polo maritime routes maritime trade Ming dynasty Mongol empire Mongol period Mongol rule Muslim Muslim geographers Muslim merchants navigational Non-Chinese overland Persian Gulf place-names places political port provides Quanzhou Rashid regions rulers sailing scholars ships societies Song period South Southeast Asia southern surviving Tang tion tradition translation updated voyages Wang Dayuan West Asia western world map Yuan dynasty Zayd Zheng Zhou Qufei Zhufan ʿ Abbasid