{"product_id":"accounts-of-china-and-india-9781479830596","title":"Accounts of China and India","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe 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. \u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn exceptional exemplar of Arabic travel writing, \u003ci\u003eAccounts of China and India\u003c\/i\u003e 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTraveling 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAn English-only edition.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbū Zayd al-Sīrāfī (Author) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eAbū Zayd al-Sīrāfī \u003c\/b\u003ewas a seafarer who moved from the Persian port-city of Siraf to Basra in 303\/915-916. He wrote the second half of \u003ci\u003eAccounts of China and India\u003c\/i\u003e, supplementing an earlier section written by an unknown mariner and merchant fifty years earlier. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eTim Mackintosh-Smith (Translator) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003eTim Mackintosh-Smith\u003c\/b\u003e is a noted British travel author, best known for his trilogy on the renowned Moroccan world-traveler Ibn Baṭṭūṭah, which earned him a spot among \u003ci\u003eNewsweek\u003c\/i\u003e's top twelve travel writers of the past hundred years. Since 1982, he has lived in Sanaa, Yemen. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"New York University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50466479079698,"sku":"9781479830596","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_ca6194bd-1b80-4ac5-b58a-152003ffeaaf.jpg?v=1730122256","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/accounts-of-china-and-india-9781479830596","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}