Source Collection: Networks of Exchange
Document 1
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Author |
Ibn Battuta (1304–1369) |
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Date and location |
1325–1354, East African Coast |
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Source type |
Primary source – travelogue |
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Description |
Ibn Battuta was an Arab traveler. The Rihla, whose formal title is A Masterpiece to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of Travelling, is Ibn Battuta’s narrative recounting his multi-decade travel experiences. |
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Citation |
Ibn Battúta. Travels in Asia and Africa: 1325–1354. Edited by Sir E. Denison Ross and Eileen Power (The Broadway Travellers). Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1963. |
We... came to Mogadishu... Its inhabitants are merchants... When a vessel reaches the port, it is met by [small boats], in... which are... young men, each carrying a covered dish containing food. [Each young man] presents this to one of the merchants... saying, “This is my guest,” ... Each merchant... goes only to the house of... his host.... The host then sells his goods for him and buys for him, and if anyone buys... at too low a price or sells... in the absence of his host, the sale is regarded... as invalid...
I embarked... for the coast of East Africa [to visit the town of Kilwa]. We came to [Mombasa], a large island two days’ journey by sea... [that has] fruit trees on the island, but no cereals, which have to be brought to them... Their food consists... of bananas and fish. The inhabitants are pious, honorable, and upright, and they have well-built wooden mosques.
From Kilwa we sailed to the border of Yemen. Thoroughbred horses are exported from here to India, the passage taking a month... The inhabitants cultivate millet and irrigate it from very deep wells, the water from which is raised in a large bucket drawn up by a number of ropes attached to the waists of slaves. Their principal food is rice, imported from India. Its population consists of merchants who live entirely on trade...
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Glossary Vessel: boat or ship |
Document 2
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Author |
al-Shakandi (d. 1232) |
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Date and location |
c. 1200, Andalusia |
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Source type |
Primary source – personal narrative |
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Description |
Shaikh al-Shakandi was a Moorish citizen of Cordoba and a scholar. Moors were Muslims who resided on the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Spain and Portugal). Al-Shakandi traveled between southern Spain and North Africa. He considered his home of Andalusia to be more significant culturally than other Islamic centers like Baghdad and Damascus. |
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Citation |
Maqqari, Ahmad b. Muhammad al-, and Pascual de Gayangos. The history of the Mohammedan dynasties in Spain: extracted from the Nafhu-t-tíb min ghosni-l-andalusi-r-rattíb wa táríkh Lisánu-d-Dín Ibni-l-Khattíb. Oriental Translation Fund, 1840. |
Almeria was the greatest [trade center] in Andalus; Christians of all nations came to its port to buy and sell, and they [have] factories... Christian merchants who came to its port traveled to other parts and markets…, where they loaded their vessels with such goods as they wanted...
Jaen is not destitute of [scholars] and poets. It is the birth-place of many illustrious individuals in all professions, and the sciences are cultivated... It is generally known by the name of Jaen of the silk, owing to the extensive cultivation of mulberry trees for the rearing of silk worms...
Seville is to be praised: mildness of temperature, purity of air, fine buildings, good streets … and abundance of provisions and commodities... This... gave rise to the saying, “If you seek birds’ milk, by Allah you will find it in Seville” ...
This district... surpasses in beauty and fertility every other spot on…earth; that the oil of its olives is exported as far as Alexandria... fig trees... grow in great abundance...
I have also heard of the magnificence and good design of its buildings... and spacious courts planted with fruit trees, such as the orange, the lemon, the lime, and the citron tree. The sciences and the arts are cultivated... the number of their authors is indeed too considerable..., and their writings too well known...
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Glossary Destitute: lacking in something, often money but can also be applied to other objects or people |
Document 3
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Author |
Marco Polo (1254–1324) and Rustichello da Pisa (thirteenth century) |
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Date and location |
c. 1300, Venice |
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Source type |
Primary source – travelogue |
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Description |
In this excerpt of Marco Polo’s travels, Marco Polo expresses his astonishment about paper as a “credit” currency versus Europe’s valuable metal currency. This was amazing to Polo, who observed how money was minted (making a coin from metal), distributed, and distinguished from counterfeits (fakes) using a system of seals, which are official marks that are stamped on a document to show that it is real and carries the authority of the government. |
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Citation |
Polo, Marco. The Travels. Translated by Nigel Cliff. Penguin Classics, 2019. |
The emperor’s mint is in this city of Khanbaliq [Beijing]; ...
The Great Khan has such a huge quantity of this money made that with it he could buy all the treasure in the world... [L]et me tell you that all the races and regions of men under his rule are perfectly willing to accept these sheets in payment, since wherever they go they use them to make all their payments, whether for merchandise or pearls or precious stones or gold or silver; with these sheets that I have told you about they can buy anything and pay for anything. And you can take my word for it that the sheet worth ten gold coins does not weigh even one.
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Glossary Counterfeit: fake; forgery |
Document 4
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Author |
Leonardo Fibonacci (c. 1170–c.–1240–50) |
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Date and location |
1202, Italy |
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Source type |
Primary source – mathematical treatise |
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Description |
Leonardo Fibonacci was the son of a customs (part of the government that checks and collects taxes on goods bought and sold across borders) official and was interested in mathematical ideas and technologies that would improve trade and finance. Fibonacci’s Book of Calculation introduced Indian and Middle Eastern mathematical concepts to his Italian readers, helping them use Arabic-Indian numerals, arithmetic procedures, and algebra in their commercial work. He translated ideas from many Arab mathematicians that he met during his travels and tried to explain the mathematical reasoning in a simple manner. |
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Citation |
Sigler, L.E. Fibonacci’s Liber Abaci: A Translation into Modern English of Leonardo Pisano’s Book of Calculation. Springer-Verlag, 2012. |
In [this book] I presented a full instruction on numbers close to the method of the Indians, whose outstanding method I chose for this science
There from a marvelous instruction in the art of the nine Indian figures, the introduction and knowledge of the art pleased me so much above all else, and I learnt from them, whoever was learned in it, from nearby Egypt, Syria, Greece, Sicily and Provence, and their various methods, to which locations of business I travelled considerably afterwards for much study, and I learnt from the assembled disputations. But this, on the whole, the algorithm and even the Pythagorean arcs, I still reckoned almost an error compared to the Indian method. Therefore strictly embracing the Indian method, and attentive to the study of it, from mine own sense adding some, and some more still from the subtle Euclidean geometric art, applying the sum that I was able to perceive to this book, I worked to put it together in XV distinct chapters, showing certain proof for almost everything that I put in, so that further, this method perfected above the rest, this science is instructed to the eager, and to the Italian people above all others... The nine Indian figures are: 987654321.
With these nine figures, and with the sign 0—which the Arabs call zephyr—any number whatsoever is written...
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Glossary Disputations: discussion or debate |
Document 5
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Author |
Mpu Prapanca (c. fourteenth century) |
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Date and location |
1365, Java, Indonesia |
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Source type |
Primary source – speech/eulogy |
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Description |
This is an excerpt of an Old Javanese eulogy (a speech or piece of writing expressing praise) dedicated to a Javanese king of the Majapahit Empire (1295–1527). It was written by a Buddhist monk and includes descriptions of the empire and its cosmopolitan courts and markets during the empire’s height. It shows the mixing of Hindu and Buddhist belief systems and the multi-ethnic nature of many communities. |
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Citation |
Benda, Harry Jindrich, and John A. Larkin. The world of Southeast Asia: selected historical readings. Harper & Row, 1967. |
Such is the excellence of His Majesty the Prince who reigns at Majapahit as absolute monarch. He is praised like the moon in autumn, since he fills all the world with joy... His retinue, treasures, chariots, elephants, horses, etc., are immeasurable like the sea... The land of Java is becoming more and more famous for its blessed state... “Only [India] and Java,” so people say, “are mentioned for their superiority... the multitude of men experienced in the doctrine... whatever [work] turns up, they are very able to handle it.” ... [Among them are men who are] expert[s] of the religious traditions [with] complete knowledge of the speculative as well as all the other philosophies, … the system of [logic], etc... For this reason all kinds of people have continually come from other countries, in multitudes. There are Jambudwipa [India], Kamboja [Cambodia], China, Yawana [central Vietnam], Champa [south Vietnam], Karnataka [south India], Goda [Bengal], and Siam [Thailand]... They come by ship with numerous merchants; monks and brahmins are the principal ones...
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Glossary Immeasurable: literally meaning something cannot be measured, but usually indicating a large amount |
Document 6
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Author |
Ma Huan (1380–1460) and Zheng He (1371–1433 or 1435) |
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Date and location |
1433, China, describing voyages in the Indian Ocean |
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Source type |
Primary source – voyage chronicle |
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Description |
During the early fifteenth century, the Ming dynasty emperor tried to expand Chinese reach across the Indian Ocean, commissioning nearly two thousand ships to sail around the globe, mapping the oceans, and bringing news to China. Zheng He, a Chinese Muslim sailor, was knowledgeable in Arabic and Arab customs, so he was made the imperial envoy (a person who represents a government who is sent to talk to other governments) and began an expedition in 1405. Over nearly three decades, he led seven expeditions from Southeast Asia to East Africa. |
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Citation |
In Ali, Omar H. Islam in the Indian Ocean World: A Brief History with Documents. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016. |
Calicut [Kozhikode, in southwest India] ... The king was a Nan-k’un man, and a devout Buddhist. The population included the same five kinds of persons as in Cochin.
The king and the people refrained from eating beef, while the great chiefs, being Muslims, refrained from eating pork...
Two Muslim chiefs administered the country. The majority of the people [were] Muslim.... On the visits of the Chinese treasure-ships, Indian and Chinese officials fixed the exchange-values of the Chinese silks and other goods, and the values were reduced to writing and strictly adhered to when the local traders exchanged their gems and other valuables. The Indians, using no apparatus but the digits of hands and feet, made unerring calculations...
Aden [in southern Yemen]. From Calicut the junks steered due west and reached Aden after one month. In this rich and populous sea-side country, king and people were Muslims, and spoke Arabic.... Aden had markets, public baths, and shops selling goods of every kind The king sent valuable gifts as tribute to China...
Mecca... Here was founded the Muslim religion, which all the inhabitants professed and devoutly followed... Foreign Muslims came annually to worship... The king minted a very pure gold [coin]. In Medina lay the tomb of the holy Muhammad... The king of Mecca sent tribute to the Chinese court.
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Glossary Devout: committed or devoted to religion or to religious duties |
Document 7
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Author |
Dustin Shum/South China Morning Post via Getty Images |
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Date and location |
c. 1300, modern day China |
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Source type |
Primary source – object |
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Description |
Image of the Yuan Stone with Nestorian Inscription, c. 1300. In A porcelain Nestorian Christian plaque from the Yuan Dynasty in the exhibition “The Silk Road in Inner Mongolia” presented by The University Museum and Art Gallery of Hong Kong University in 2007. |
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Citation |
Dustin Shum/South China Morning Post via Getty Images |
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Glossary Nestorian: a branch of Christianity and based on the teachings of Nestorius and active in the Near East and Central Asia |