Monday, August 27, 2007
Zheng He was well-known to have traveled through the Maritime Asia much earlier than Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama, but who would have known that there was still a great navigator starting off this journey earlier than him? This is none other than Ibn Battuta, born in Tunisia on the north coast of Africa into a respected family of scholars. Due to his early great achievement way before other great navigators, he was called “the world’s first tourist.” At the age of 21, after finishing his education, Ibn Battuta set out to make the pilgrimage to Mecca, as all good Muslims were expected to do once in their lives.
Zheng He was also personally motivated for the journey by his devotion to Islam. He, like Ibn Batutta, was able to fulfill his Muslim duty to complete the pilgrimage to Mecca. At the same time, he explored the Muslim world and established relationships between the countries on the Indian rim and the Ming emperors, bringing the region, for a brief time, into regular trade and exchange. The traffic of the Silk Road moved onto the sea lanes, bringing the vitality of exchange of culture and technology to the coastal countries and leaving the interior to wither in isolation.
Chinese blue and white porcelain was often traded by Zheng He’s fleet and by other Chinese merchants all around the rim of the Indian Ocean
as told by us;
12:30 AM