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    When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the “Riches of the East”
    When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the “Riches of the East”
    When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the “Riches of the East”
    Audiobook5 hours

    When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the “Riches of the East”

    Written by Stewart Gordon

    Narrated by Derek Perkins

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    While European intellectual, cultural, and commercial life stagnated during the early medieval period, Asia flourished as the wellspring of science, philosophy, and religion.

    Linked together by a web of religious, commercial, and intellectual connections, the different regions of Asia's vast civilization, from Arabia to China, hummed with commerce, international diplomacy, and the brisk exchange of ideas.

    Stewart Gordon has fashioned a fascinating and unique look at Asia from A.D. 700 to 1500, a time when Asia was the world, by describing the personal journeys of Asia's many travelers-the merchants who traded spices along the Silk Road, the apothecaries who exchanged medicine and knowledge from China to the Middle East, and the philosophers and holy men who crossed continents to explore and exchange ideas, books, science, and culture.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateMay 22, 2018
    ISBN9781541485679
    When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the “Riches of the East”

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    Reviews for When Asia Was the World

    4/5

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    • 5/5
      An interesting general survey of non-European-centered trade. It inspires further historical economic study.
    • 5/5
      Not only was the book fascinating, but Mr. Gordon was a terrific lecturer as well. During the "dark" and Middle Ages in Europe, the Middle East and Asia had a thriving trade economy--people from various kingdoms and regions sailed the coastal seas and took caravans along the Silk Road to trade. But travel was not just limited to trade. Buddhist monks, warriors and Muslim legal experts traversed great distances on camel, on horse, by ship, on foot in order access information, participate in court rituals, conquer lands and obtain loot, and to interact with a world that, although not as "small" as our modern, high-speed globe, was just as lively in its own right.Each of the nine chapters covers the life and travels of a particular individual starting circa 500 CE with Xuanzang and finishing up with on of the first Europeans to "infiltrate" Asia. What becomes very apparent is that the Middle East, Northern Africa, India, Central and Far Eastern Asia were not "compartments" isolated within themselves. Rather these areas flourished with learning, culture, trade, and innovation of the like that Europe would not experience until the Renaissance. When the first Europeans managed to "discover" routes to these lands, the treated the citizens with superstition, disdain and arrogance--in general, Asian kingdoms tolerated Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Zoroastrians and other local religious affiliations, as well as a variety of ideas and practices. Loyalties were to one's family and trade partners, and trade was conducted outside of the political realm. Rulers tended to abstain from meddling in the affairs of the local populations as long as taxes were paid. Yet, Europeans brought with them a different kind of "loyalty"; one must be Christian, "white" and subservient to one of the national monarchs--trade was conducted in the name of the king, and all transactions were for his benefit. The legacy of the Crusades biased Europeans against Muslims and Arabic peoples in general, and many of the first fleets sent for trade did so under threat of warfare or conquest. The motif reminds me of the three-year old that comes into a room of adults having a civilized conversation. Suddenly all the attention must focus on the child lest the child have a tantrum.What happened to Europeans (and later Americans) to make them so uncivilized?Really enjoying this travel journal series at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, as well as reading these books. Much more inspirational than the weighty philosophical and political tomes I've been plodding through lately, but by far more meaty than YAL. Nice change of pace.
    • 4/5
      Well Thought out and easy to read Historical account of the Merchants, Monks and Scholars that traveled the Old "Silk Road" during the period from 500 to 1500. Maps and Illustrations and the outline form of this book makes for easy and interesting reading for the novice and scholar alike. Not too technical but a plethora of information from that time period regarding the subject matter.