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Books: When Asia Was the World
Apr. 12th, 2009 06:26 pmJust finished "When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the "Riches of the East" " by Stewart Gordon.
This is popular nonfiction by a scholar, so it's in that interesting intermediary place where ideas as well as sources are acknowledged in the notes, but the general flow is pretty narrative. I'd characterize it as a set of short, interesting biographical essays about historical travelers. It was a lot of fun to read, particularly if you're the kind of person who finds the economics of international trade and the history of intellectual movements to be gripping stuff, and like those things better when anchored by a bit of historical personality. (Umm, I don't mean that sarcastically. I'm exactly such a person.)
The time span is 600-1500, with one person profiled in every couple hundred year span. The author draws attentions to common themes in the travels of these people, and to the ways that they traveled and the networks they took advantage of to sustain their travels. I'd read about Ibn Sina and Ibn Battuta before, but the rest of the people were all new to me. The bibliography looks pretty useful.
It made a nice break from my reading in the Hourani book, because I'm to the part in my "History of the Arab Peoples" where the Ottoman empire has ended and the various European countries are taking over most of North Africa, the Arabian peninsula, etc. into not-very-protected protectorates and such. While the author is doing a very nice, subtle job of commentary, I find modern history depressing. So it was relaxing to read about international traders in the 1200s for a while instead.
[edited for sad typo in author's name]
This is popular nonfiction by a scholar, so it's in that interesting intermediary place where ideas as well as sources are acknowledged in the notes, but the general flow is pretty narrative. I'd characterize it as a set of short, interesting biographical essays about historical travelers. It was a lot of fun to read, particularly if you're the kind of person who finds the economics of international trade and the history of intellectual movements to be gripping stuff, and like those things better when anchored by a bit of historical personality. (Umm, I don't mean that sarcastically. I'm exactly such a person.)
The time span is 600-1500, with one person profiled in every couple hundred year span. The author draws attentions to common themes in the travels of these people, and to the ways that they traveled and the networks they took advantage of to sustain their travels. I'd read about Ibn Sina and Ibn Battuta before, but the rest of the people were all new to me. The bibliography looks pretty useful.
It made a nice break from my reading in the Hourani book, because I'm to the part in my "History of the Arab Peoples" where the Ottoman empire has ended and the various European countries are taking over most of North Africa, the Arabian peninsula, etc. into not-very-protected protectorates and such. While the author is doing a very nice, subtle job of commentary, I find modern history depressing. So it was relaxing to read about international traders in the 1200s for a while instead.
[edited for sad typo in author's name]
