In the Middle Kingdom: A Historical Survey on the Arabs and Persians’ Ventures in China, 600s–1300s
Keywords:
Venture, voyage, travellers, merchants, trader, Arabs, Persians, Chinese, China, Muslims.Abstract
This paper presents a historical survey concerning the ventures made by Arabs and Persians to China, both overland and sea, between the 600s and 1300s. As major participants in international trade as well as among the most advanced and literate nations in the medieval period, Arab and Persian travellers, merchants, and envoys did not fail to leave important accounts in which they recorded details about the situation that allowed their perilous yet intriguing journeys to far-off China, the situation they faced in the Middle Kingdom, as well as the roles they played and the growth of their communities in China. Furthermore, as highly appreciated foreign elements, the presence and undertakings of Arabs and Persians in some important coastal cities in the Middle Kingdom are also mentioned in some Chinese sources. Their ventures in China are a testimony to the Arabs’ and Persians’ spirit of adventure and cosmopolitan nature, as well as helping to explain why they held such a vast influence and played important roles in many developments and changes in the medieval period.
References
al-Mas’udi, Abulhassan ‘Ali. (1841). El-Mas’udi’s Historical Encyclopedia entitled Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems. Oriental Translation Fund.
al-Marvazi, Sharaf Al-Zaman Tahir. (1942). Sharaf Al-Zaman Tahir al-Marwazi on China, The Turks and India. The Royal Asiatic Society.
Ibn Yazid Sirafi, Abu Zayd Hasan. (1733). Concerning the Voyage to the Indies and China. In Renaudot, E. (trans. dan ed.), Ancient Accounts of India and China: By Two Mohammedan Travellers, Who Went to Those Parts in the 9th Century. Sam. Harding.
al-Tabari, Abu Ja’far Muḥammad ibn Jarir ibn Yazid. (1992). The History of al-Tabari, vol. XII. State University New York Press.
______. (1990). The History of al-Tabari, vol. XXIII. State University New York Press.
Agius, D. A. (2008). Classic Ships of Islam: From Mesopotamia to the Indian Ocean, Handbook of Oriental Studies, Section 1, The Near and Middle East. Brill.
Xiu, O. and Qi, S. (1060). New Book of Tang. Vol. 221b Biographies: Western Regions 2. http://chinesenotes.com/xintangshu/xintangshu221b.html
Biran, M. (2015). The Mongol Empire and the Inter-civilizational Exchange. In Kedar, B. Z. and Weiner-Hanks, M. E (eds.), The Cambridge World History. Vol. 5: Expanding Web of Exchange and Conflict, 500 CE–1500 CE. Cambridge University Press.
Bisterbosch, A. (2016). Integration of Muslim Immigrants in Quanzhou During the Song Dynasty: A Research on Grave Inscriptions. Shilin, Vol. 4.1., pp. 42–50. http://shilin.nl/wp-content/uploads/Bisterbosch-2013.pdf
Bretschneider, E. (1871). On the Knowledge Possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arabs and Arabian Colonies. Trübner & Co.
Broomhall, M. (1910). Islam in China: a Neglected Problem. Morgan & Scott Ltd.
Chaffee, J.W. (2006). Diasporic Identities in the Historical Development of the Maritime Muslim Communities of Song-Yuan China. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 395-420.
______. (2018). The Muslim Merchants of Premodern China, The History of a Maritime Asian Trade Diaspora, 750–1400. Cambridge University Press.
Chang, Y. (1988). The Ming Empire: Patron of Islam in China and Southeast-West Asia. Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 61, No. 2.
Chaudhuri, K.N. (1985). Trade and Civilisation in the Indian Ocean: an economic history from the rise of Islam to 1750. Cambridge University Press.
Dardess, J. (1994). Shun-ti and the end of Yuan rule in China. In H. Franke and D. Twitchet (eds.), The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 6. Cambridge University Press.
Dillon, M. (1999). China’s Muslim Hui Community: Migration, Settlements and Sects. Curzon Press.
Gibb, H. A.R. (1923). The Arab Conquests in Central Asia. The Royal Asiatic Society.
Hourani, G. F. (1975). Arab seafaring: In the Indian Ocean in ancient and early Medieval Times. Princeton University Press.
Ibn Battuta, Abu ‘Abdullah Muḥammad ibn ‘Abdullah al-Lawatiyy at-Tanjiyy (1962). The Travels of Ibn Battuta: A.D. 1325–1354, vol. IV. The Haykluyt Society.
Ibn Khordadbeh, Ubaidillah. (1865). Le Livre des Routes en Des Provinces. Journal Asiatique ou Recueil de Memoires D’extraits et de Notices Relatifs a L'histoire, a la Philosophie, Aux Langues et a la Littérature des Peuples Orientaux, Vol. 5.
Ibn Shahriyar, Buzurg. (1928). The Book of the Marvels of India. George Routledge Sons, Ltd.
Kwa Chong Guan. (2016). The Maritime Silk Road: History of an Idea. Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre Working Paper, No 23.
Leslie, D. (1986). Islam in Traditional China: a Short History to 1800. College of Advance Education.
de Marignolli, G. (1914). Recollections of Travel in The East, by John De’ Marignolli, Papal Legate to the Court of the Great Khan, and Afterwards Bishop of Bisignano. In H. Yule and H. Cordier (eds.), Cathay and the Way Tither, vol. III. The Haykluyt Society.
Mi Shoujiang and You Jia. 2004. Islam in China. Beijing: China Intercontinental Press.
Polo, M. (1907). The Travels of Marco Polo the Venetians. George Bell & Sons.
Renaudot, E. (trans. and ed.). (1733). Ancient Accounts of India and China: By Two Mohammedan Travellers, Who Went to Those Parts in the 9th Century. Sam. Harding.
Rossabi, M. (1981). The Muslims in the Early Yuan Dynasty. In John Langlois (ed.), China Under Mongol Rule. Princenton University Press.
______. (1994). The Reign of Kubilai Khan. In H. Franke and D. Twitchet. (eds.), The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 6. Cambridge University Press.
Schottenhammer, A. (2023). China and the Silk Roads (ca. 100 BCE to 1800 CE): Role and Content of Its Historical Access to the Outside World. Brill.
Steinhardt, N. S. (2018). China’s Early Mosques. Edinburgh University Press.
Stocker-Parnian, B. (2010). Islamic Inscriptions on Stone Monuments in China. Tarih Dergisi, Vol. 5, pp. 21–45. https://isamveri.org/pdfdrg/D00057/2010_51/2010_51_PARNIANBS.pdf
Tan Ta Sen. (2009). Cheng Ho and Islam in Southeast Asia. ISEAS.
Xiao Qiqing. (1994). Mid-Yuan Politics. In H. Franke and D. Twitchet (eds.), The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 6. Cambridge University Press.
Yule, H. and Cordier, H. (peny.). (1915). Cathay and the Way Tither, vol. I. the Haykluyt Society.
______. (1915). Cathay and the Way Tither, vol. II. the Haykluyt Society.
Wan Lei. (2016). The Earliest Muslim Communities in China. Qiraat, no. 8 (Februari–Maret 2017).
______. (2020). Hardships from the Arabian Gulf to China: The Challenges that Faced Foreign Merchants Between the Seventh and Thirteenth Centuries. Dirasat, No. 57.
Wang, Xiuli. (2018). The Arabs Living in Coastal China during the 10th-13th Centuries. Revue Historique de l’océan Indien, No. 15.
Yijing. (1896). A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and The Malay Archipelago (A.D. 671–695). Oxford University Press.
Zhao Rugua. (1911). Chau Ju-kua: His Work on the Chinese and Arab Trade in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries entitled Chu-fan-chi. Printing Office of the Imperial Academy of Sciences.
Ben-Dor Benite, Z. (2005). The Dao of Muhammad: a cultural history of muslims in late imperial China. Harvard University Asia Center.
