Stewart Gordon, '66, MA'67, PhD'72
When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the "Riches of the East," Da Capo Press, 2008.
While European civilization stagnated in the "Dark Ages," Asia flourished as the wellspring of science, philosophy and religion. Linked by a web of spiritual, commercial and intellectual connections, the distant regions of Asia's vast civilization, from Arabia to China, hummed with trade, international diplomacy and the exchange of ideas. Stewart Gordon, senior research scholar at U-M's Center for South Asian Studies and author of three books on Asia, has fashioned a compelling look at a time when Asia was the world by relating the personal journeys of Asia's many travelers.
AAUM: What do you mean by the title of your book, "When Asia Was the World"?
In the thousand years from 500 to 1500, Asia was the center of scientific innovation, sophisticated long-distance trade and elegant urban life. Family, intellectual, commercial, philosophic and ambassadorial networks tied Asia into a common world in spite of great oceans, high mountains and vast deserts. Tracing these networks shows that Europe was on the margins of this vibrant, exciting world.
In general, describe Asia during the time period you chronicle in your book.
For men (and some women) with education and skills, Asia was a world of opportunity. Literally hundreds of thousands of people moved across Spain, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, Persia and India and on to Southeast Asia and China. They knew where to go to become a government official, a judge, a soldier, the leader of a mosque or a successful trader. So much information flowed across Asia that weavers in western India knew—year by year—what colors of cloth sold well in Indonesia or Egypt. A Tunisian spice trader, resident on the west coast of India, branched out into recasting broken copper and brassware shipped all the way from the Mediterranean and made good money at this 12th century outsourcing.
You base each chapter of the book on the memoir of someone who lived in Asia. Can you name two or three of the most interesting stories and why you chose them?
This is history, not fiction—stories of real people, Asians who lived in this world. I chose people who moved (rather than staying in one city their whole life) and left observant, thoughtful memoirs. We can see life around them through their eyes. I opted for rather ordinary folk who stayed in hostels, caravanserais [roadside inns] or monasteries, people who were like many others who traveled for the same reasons.
One of my favorite travelers is Ibn Sina. Late in the 10th century he was a precocious youth who studied both medicine and neo-Platonist philosophy. It says much about this Asian world that teachers and books were readily available in the Central Asian caravan city of Bukhara where he lived. Through the course of his life, Ibn Sina moved from court to court seeking patronage for his studies. Among dozens of other books, he produced the "Canon of Medicine," which circulated in Arabic from Afghanistan to Spain. It was then translated into Latin and became the most widely used medical book of medieval Europe. Centuries later it was one of Europe's first printed books.
Another favorite is Abraham bin Yiju, a Jewish spice trader who lived on the Malabar Coast of India. His story emerges from more than 150 letters found in a building next to a synagogue in Cairo. Sometimes the letters are so intimate that his feelings flow across 1,000 years and touch the heart. Christian Crusaders kidnapped Abraham's brother and sister and took them to Sicily. He frantically tried to reach them by letter to offer what money and assistance he could. "Would I write all that is in my heart, no letter could contain it."
How did you find these stories?
The accounts were written in many different languages. Fortunately, there has been much academic interest in historical travel accounts in the last 20 years, so scholars have produced translations. I selected the memoirs I used from about 40 that I considered. It took more than a year to find them.
Can we learn from Asia's past to understand its present and predict its future?
We should to keep in mind the long history of networks that cross national boundaries in Asia. We still find them today—in finance, religious institutions, friendship, family and scholarship. These ties are often at least as strong as ties to any country.
Did you write the book for scholars or a more general readership, and what can either audience take away from the book?
A journalist friend challenged me to bring this Asian world alive for a general readership. "When Asia was the World" is the result. The stories contain all the necessary background, in addition to lots of maps and illustrations. It has heartened me that the book, in its first year, is also being taught in high schools, community colleges and universities. The book has been translated into Korean, Indonesian and, most recently, Arabic.
Go online to read more about this author and book.
http://web.mac.com/stewart_gordon
