Long before Marco Polo went east, Asia had its own intrepid travelers...
- a 7th century Chinese Buddhist monk who learned Sanskrit in India;
- a Tunisian Jew who set up shop on the Malabar Coast of India and traded spices and other goods with merchants in the Middle East and Africa;
- an Islamic scholar who logged over 75,000 miles traveling from Baghdad to Spain, Africa, and China.
While European civilization stagnated in the Dark Ages, Asia flourished as the wellspring of science, philosophy, and religion. Linked together by a web of spiritual, commercial, and intellectual connections, the distant regions of Asias vast civilization, from Arabia to China, hummed with trade, international diplomacy, and the exchange of ideas. Stewart Gordon has fashioned a compelling and unique look at Asia from AD 700 to 1500-a time when Asia was the world-by relating the personal journeys of Asias many travelers.
Stewart Gordon is Senior Research Scholar at the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Michigan, and author of three books on Asia.
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Da Capo Press Inc; Reprint edition (5 Feb 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 030681739X
ISBN-13: 978-0306817397
Publisher: Da Capo Press Inc; Reprint edition (5 Feb 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 030681739X
ISBN-13: 978-0306817397
