Long before Marco Polo described the eastern islands, Muslim merchants and geographers were already recording the maritime highway to China.
This episode follows accounts from the ninth through fourteenth centuries describing the Sea of China, Canfu, seasonal winds, dangerous passages, monsoon timing, and the commercial system connecting Arabia, India, Southeast Asia, and Southern China.
Sources include the Akhbār al-Ṣīn wa-l-Hind, al-Yaʿqūbī, Abū Zayd al-Sīrāfī, al-Masʿūdī, al-Iṣṭakhrī, Marvazī, al-Idrīsī, and Ibn Battuta. The point is not yet to identify Zipangu.
It is to establish the navigational environment before Marco Polo enters the investigation.
Ships could sometimes exploit unusual winds and exceptional conditions. But recurring commerce required recurring patterns.
Podden och tillhörande omslagsbild på den här sidan tillhör
The God Culture. Innehållet i podden är skapat av The God Culture och inte av,
eller tillsammans med, Poddtoppen.
