The development of ideas, beliefs, and religions illustrates how groups in society view themselves, and the interactions of societies and their beliefs often have political, social, and cultural implications

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Explain the intellectual and cultural effects of the various networks of exchange in Afro-Eurasia from c. 1200 to c. 1450.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

K.C.-3.1.III.D.--Increased cross-cultural interactions resulted in the diffusion of literary, artistic, and cultural traditions, as well as scientific and technological innovations.

K.C.3.3.II.--The fate of cities varied greatly, with periods of significant decline and periods of increased urbanization, buoyed by rising productivity and expanding trade networks.

K.C.3.1.III.C.--As exchange networks intensified, an increasing number of travelers within Afro-Eurasia wrote about their travels.

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

Diffusion of cultural traditions:

§ The influence of Buddhism in East Asia § The spread of Hinduism and Buddhism into Southeast Asia

§ The spread of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia Diffusion of scientific or technological innovations:

§ Gunpowder from China

§ Paper from China

Travelers:

§ Ibn Battuta

§ Margery Kempe

§ Marco Polo

Travelers:

§ Ibn Battuta

• The Moroccan explorer Ibn Battuta traveled over 75,000 miles throughout the Muslim world and beyond in the 14th century. Ibn Battuta is known for his extensive travels throughout the Middle East, Africa and Asia. His travel account, written after his return home to Tangier in 1355, offers historians insight into social, political, economic and cultural context of the 14th century.

§ Margery Kempe

• Her Autobiography, The Book of Margery Kempe has great significance because it is the earliest known autobiography in English. In her book, Kempe portrays herself as an honest and devote human being. Margery's message is taken from her direct relationship with Jesus that is based on unconditional faith and love. The Book discusses every aspect of Margery's life: from her marriage, religious conversion, and many pilgrimages. She was accused by her contemporaries of fraud and heresy, and often criticized by later scholars as hysterical and crazy.

§ Marco Polo

• Of all the travelers along the Silk Road network, the best known and most celebrated in Europe, was Marco Polo (1254-1324). Born and raised in the prosperous commercial city-state of Venice in northern Italy, he was a member of a family engaged in the long-distance trade of the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. At the age of seventeen, Marco accompanied his father and an uncle on an epic journey across Eurasia that, by 1275, brought the Polos' to China, recently conquered by the Mongols [the Yuan Dynasty]. It was, in fact, the relative peace that the Mongols created [Pax Mongolica] in their huge transcontinental empire that facilitated the Polos’ journey. For the next seventeen years, they lived in China, where they were employed in minor administrative positions by Khubilai Khan, the country’s Mongol ruler. During these years, Marco Polo apparently traveled widely within China, where he gathered material for a book about his travels, which he dictated to a friend after returning home in 1295.

• Review Diffusion of cultural traditions:

§ The influence of Buddhism in East Asia

§ The spread of Hinduism and Buddhism into Southeast Asia

§ The spread of Islam in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia Diffusion of scientific or technological innovations:

§ Gunpowder from China

§ Paper from China

Considerations when comparing the views of women in the 14th century from these sources:

1.) sourcing the documents...what was the purpose, Point of view (limitations), who was the intended audience, and what was the historical context in which the described is taking place in.

2.) similarities -- with sourcing in mind, what common categories exist?

3.) differences -- with sourcing in mind, what stands out as unique?

Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta ended his eight-month stay in Mali with mixed feelings. On the one hand he respected the parents' strict teaching of the Qur'an to their children: "They place fetters [ropes or chains] on their children if there appears ... a failure to memorize the Qur'an, and they are not undone until they memorize it." He also admired the safety of the empire. "Neither traveler there nor dweller has anything to fear from thief or usurper."

On the other hand he criticized many local practices:

My stay in Iwalatan lasted about 50 days. Its inhabitants did me honour and made me their guest. Among them was the qadi of the place Muhammad b. ‘Abd Allah b. Yanumur and his brother the faqih and teacher Yahya. The town of Iwalatan is extremely hot. There are a few little palm trees there in the shade of which they sow watermelons. Their water comes from ahsa there. Mutton is abundant there and the people’s clothes are of Eygptian cloth, of good quality. Most of the inhabitants there belong to the Masufa [tribe], whose women are of surpassing beauty and have a higher status than the men.

These people have remarkable and strange ways. As for their men, they feel no jealousy. None of them traces his descent through his father, but from his maternal uncle, and a man’s heirs are the sons of his sister only, to the exclusion of his own sons. This is something that I have seen nowhere in the world except among Indian infidels in the land of Mulaybar, whereas these are Muslims who observe the prayer and study and memorize the Koran. As for their women, they have no modesty in the presence of men and do not veil themselves in site of their assiduity in prayer. If anybody wishes to marry one of them he may do so, but they do not travel with the husband, and if one of them wished to do so her family would prevent her.

The women there have friends and companions among the foreign men, just as the men have companions among the foreign women. One of them may enter his house and find his wife with her man friend without making any objection. . . .

Female slaves and servants who went stark naked into the court for all to see; subjects who groveled before the sultan, beating the ground with their elbows and throwing dust and ashes over their heads; royal poets who romped about in feathers and bird masks.

Marco Polo

The Travels of Marco Polo, 1299

Marco Polo, a traveler from Venice, spent twenty years in East Asia. traveled widely within China and in the following selection, Marco Polo’s describes Hangzhou--one of the largest cities in the world at the time--which he refers to as Kinsay. Polo tells his reader that he constructed this description from both his visit to Hangzhou and a written account of the city sent to the Mongol khan in the hopes of sparing the city from destruction follow its conquest.

The city is beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world. . . First and foremost, then, the document stated the city of Kinsay [Hangzhou] to be so great that it hath a hundred miles of compass. And there are in it 12,000 bridges of stone. . . [Most scholars consider these figures a considerable exaggeration]. There were in this city twelve guilds of the different crafts, and that each guild had 12,000 houses in the occupation of its workmen. Each of these houses contains at least twelve men, whilst some contain twenty and some forty. . . And yet all these craftsmen had full occupation, for many other cities of the kingdom are supplied from this city with what they require.

The number and wealth of the merchants and the amount of goods that passed through their hands, were so enormous that no man could form a just estimate thereof. . . Those masters of the different crafts. . . neither they nor their wives ever touch a piece of work with their own hands, but live as nicely and delicately as if they were kings and queens. . .

Both men and women are fair and comely, and for the most part clothe themselves in silk, so vast is the supply of that material, both from the whole district of Kinsay, and from the imports by traders from other provinces. And you must know they eat every kind of flesh, even that of dogs and other unclean beasts, which nothing would induce a Christian to eat. . . You must know also that the city of Kinsay has some 3,000 baths, the water of which is supplied by springs. They are hot baths, and the people take great delight in them, frequenting them several times a month, for they are very cleanly in their persons. They are the finest and largest baths in the world . . .

...The natives of the city are men of peaceful character, both from education and from the example of their kings, whose disposition was the same. They know nothing of handling arms, and keep none in their houses. You hear of no feuds or noisy quarrels or dissensions of any kind among them. Both in their commercial dealings and in their manufactures they are thoroughly honest and truthful, and there is such a degree of goodwill and neighborly attachment among both men and women that you would take the people who live in the same street to be all one family.

...

... we come to the province of Pem, five days’ journey in extent, towards the east-north-east. Here too the inhabitants worship Muhammad and are subject to the Great Khan. It has villages and towns in plenty . The most splendid city and the capital of the province is called Pem. There are rivers here in which are found stones called jasper and chalcedony in plenty. There is no lack of the means of life. Cotton is plentiful. The inhabitants live by trade and industry.

The following custom is prevalent among them. When a woman’s husband leaves her to go on a journey of more than twenty days, then as soon as he has left, she takes another husband, and this she is fully entitled to do by local usage. And the men, wherever they go, take wives in the same way.

You should know that all the provinces I have described, from Kashgar to Pem and some way beyond are provinces of Central Asia.

Look for and identify evidence of cross-cultural interactions in the passage below:

“After leaving India, we arrived in Sumatra. It is a fertile area, in which coco-palm, clove, Indian aloe, mango, and sweet orange trees grow. Local commerce is facilitated by tin and Chinese gold. The sultan was informed of our visit and sent the judge and experts on Islamic law to meet me. The sultan is an illustrious and generous ruler and a patron of religious scholars. He is constantly waging war against the non-Muslims of Sumatra, but is a humble man who walks on foot to Friday prayers. The non-Muslims of the area must pay a poll-tax to obtain peace.

One Friday after leaving the mosque, the sultan mounted an elephant and we and his entourage rode with him on horses until we reached the palace. Male musicians came into the audience hall and sang before him, after which they led horses into the hall. The horses were embroidered in silk and wore golden anklets and danced before the sultan. I was astonished, even though I had seen the same performance at the court of the Delhi sultan in India*. My stay at the sultan’s court lasted fifteen days, after which I asked his permission to continue my journey to China because it is not possible to sail to China at all times of the year.

We then traveled to a kingdom on the Malay Peninsula aboard a Chinese ship. This kingdom is inhabited by non-Muslims and contains great quantities of aromatic spices and aloes. The merchants sell Indian aloe for a roll of cotton cloth, which is dearer to them than silk. The ruler is a non-Muslim. We then left the Malay Peninsula and sailed to another non-Muslim kingdom in Southeast Asia. After seventeen days at sea, with a favorable wind and sailing with maximum speed and ease, we reached the land of China.”

*The Delhi Sultanate was a Muslim state in northern India that was ruled by a Turkic elite.

Source: Ibn Battuta, Muslim traveler from North Africa, account of his journey to China, circa 1345

Key Takeaways

A) As a result of Pax Mongolica, increased demand for gold from sub-Saharan Africa, and the growth in Indian Ocean trade, cross cultural interaction intensified.

B.) Thinking about the future: How will the increase in knowledge about different cultures impact future developments?

• Hint: Christopher Columbus brought his annotated copy of Marco Polo's book with him in 1492.