Accounts of China and India / / Abū Zayd al-Sīrāfī.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Complete eBook-Package 2017
• VerfasserIn: al-Sīrāfī, Abū Zayd,
• MitwirkendeR: Benite, Zvi Ben-Dor,
• TeilnehmendeR: Benite, Zvi Ben-Dor.; Mackintosh-Smith, Tim.
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2017]; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2017
• Language: English
• Series: Library of Arabic Literature ; 55
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

The ninth and tenth centuries witnessed the establishment of a substantial network of maritime trade across the Indian Ocean, providing the real-life background to the Sinbad tales. An exceptional exemplar of Arabic travel writing, Accounts of China and India is a compilation of reports and anecdotes about the lands and peoples of this diverse territory, from the Somali headlands of Africa to the far eastern shores of China and Korea. Traveling eastward, we discover a vivid human landscape-from Chinese society to Hindu religious practices-as well as a colorful range of natural wilderness-from flying fish to Tibetan musk-deer and Sri Lankan gems. The juxtaposed accounts create a kaleidoscope of a world not unlike our own, a world on the road to globalization. In its ports, we find a priceless cargo of information. Here are the first foreign descriptions of tea and porcelain, a panorama of unusual social practices, cannibal islands, and Indian holy men-a marvelous, mundane world, contained in the compass of a novella.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Letter from the General Editor -- About this Paperback -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Notes to the Introduction -- Map -- Accounts of China and India -- Accounts of China and India: The First Book -- Accounts of China and India: The Second Book -- Notes -- Glossary of Names and Terms -- Bibliography -- Index -- About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute -- About the Translator -- The Library of Arabic Literature