Discovered but Forgotten: The Maldives in Chinese History, c. 1100-1620
By Bin Yang
Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231212335
Situated in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives played a key role in medieval trade networks. This book explores Chinese engagement with the islands, focusing on a two-century period during which they became an important outpost for China’s expanding maritime influence.
Excerpt:
Taking the Maldives as a case, angle, and approach, this book aims to kill three birds with one stone. First, by exploiting broadly untapped or unknown Chinese sources, this book diversifies and thus enriches the understanding of the Maldivian history and culture. Second, by examining the Sino-Maldivian interactions with a cross-regional approach, this book illustrates how this small and remote archipelago (and thus the Indian Ocean world) shaped the state-building of the giant Chinese empire, a theme that has yet to be attempted. There are few such extraordinary asymmetrical relationships between a giant empire and a miniature island kingdom seen in world history.
Third, by showcasing the Sino-Maldivian interactions, this book examines imperial China’s maritime activities and thus its knowledge production of the Indian Ocean world before and after the Zheng He era during the period of ca.1100 to 1620. What is behind these three themes is the historical process in which the waxing and waning of maritime China expanded into and departed from the Indian Ocean, paralleling the entrance and exit of the small and remote Indian Ocean sultanate of the Maldives in the Chinese world order.
Who is this book for?
This remarkable book holds particular value for medieval historians—not only because the Maldives has received little scholarly attention, but also because it offers a rare perspective from China rather than Western Europe. Scholars interested in the Global Middle Ages, maritime history, international trade, or travellers like Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo will find it especially insightful.
“In practice Bin Yang has used this somewhat circumstantial Chinese interest in Maldives as the thread around which to weave a wide-ranging—and really quite fascinating—discussion of Chinese forays into the Indian Ocean, the visits of other medieval and late-medieval visits to the region (including Ibn Battuta who lived in the Maldives for a better part of year and took on four wives), shipbuilding without nails, trade, the ever-important and versatile coconut, shipwrecks, ambergris, sexual mores and much else.” ~ review by Peter Gordon in Asian Review of Books
The Author
Bin Yang is a professor of history at City University of Hong Kong. Among his previous books is Cowrie Shells and Cowrie Money: A Global History.
Discovered but Forgotten: The Maldives in Chinese History, c. 1100-1620
By Bin Yang
Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231212335
Situated in the Indian Ocean, the Maldives played a key role in medieval trade networks. This book explores Chinese engagement with the islands, focusing on a two-century period during which they became an important outpost for China’s expanding maritime influence.
Excerpt:
Taking the Maldives as a case, angle, and approach, this book aims to kill three birds with one stone. First, by exploiting broadly untapped or unknown Chinese sources, this book diversifies and thus enriches the understanding of the Maldivian history and culture. Second, by examining the Sino-Maldivian interactions with a cross-regional approach, this book illustrates how this small and remote archipelago (and thus the Indian Ocean world) shaped the state-building of the giant Chinese empire, a theme that has yet to be attempted. There are few such extraordinary asymmetrical relationships between a giant empire and a miniature island kingdom seen in world history.
Third, by showcasing the Sino-Maldivian interactions, this book examines imperial China’s maritime activities and thus its knowledge production of the Indian Ocean world before and after the Zheng He era during the period of ca.1100 to 1620. What is behind these three themes is the historical process in which the waxing and waning of maritime China expanded into and departed from the Indian Ocean, paralleling the entrance and exit of the small and remote Indian Ocean sultanate of the Maldives in the Chinese world order.
Who is this book for?
This remarkable book holds particular value for medieval historians—not only because the Maldives has received little scholarly attention, but also because it offers a rare perspective from China rather than Western Europe. Scholars interested in the Global Middle Ages, maritime history, international trade, or travellers like Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo will find it especially insightful.
“In practice Bin Yang has used this somewhat circumstantial Chinese interest in Maldives as the thread around which to weave a wide-ranging—and really quite fascinating—discussion of Chinese forays into the Indian Ocean, the visits of other medieval and late-medieval visits to the region (including Ibn Battuta who lived in the Maldives for a better part of year and took on four wives), shipbuilding without nails, trade, the ever-important and versatile coconut, shipwrecks, ambergris, sexual mores and much else.” ~ review by Peter Gordon in Asian Review of Books
The Author
Bin Yang is a professor of history at City University of Hong Kong. Among his previous books is Cowrie Shells and Cowrie Money: A Global History.
You can learn more about this book from the publisher’s website.
You can buy this book on Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk
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