Abstract
The conventional Eurocentric view holds that Asian religions or socio-religious systems, notably Islam, Hinduism or Confucianism, suppress or impede economic development and progress. This idea requires a substantial reassessment. In reality, religions were often very conducive to a further interconnectivity of countries and regions across the Indian Ocean World (IOW). But it was especially technological improvements and the transfer of knowledge that greatly contributed to economic developments in the macro-region. This volume investigates how specific religions, technologies and knowledge systems contributed to the further interconnectivity in the IOW.
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Notes
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Gwyn Campbell (2009) An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750–1895: The Rise and Fall of an Island Empire [African Studies Series] (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
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Cf. Angela Schottenhammer (2003/2004) “Die finanzpolitische Bezugnahme des songzeitlichen Staates (960–c. 1100) auf den Reichtum seiner Gesellschaft, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Reformperiode unter Wang Anshi”, Oriens Extremus 44, 179–210.
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See, for example, Ian W. Mabbett (1977) “The ‘Indianization’ of Southeast Asia: Reflections on the Prehistoric Sources”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 8.1, 1–14; Ian W. Mabbett (1977) “The ‘Indianization’ of Southeast Asia: Reflections on Historical Sources”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 8.2, 143–161; Hermann Kulke (1990) “Indian Colonies, Indianization or Cultural Convergence? Reflections on the Changing Image of India’s Role in South-East Asia”, in Henk Schulte Nordholt (ed.), Onderzoek in Zuidoost-Azië. Agenda’s voor de jaren negentig (Leiden: Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden), 8–32; Monica Smith (1999) “‘Indianization’ from the Indian Point of View: Trade and Cultural Contacts with Southeast Asia in the Early First Millennium C.E.”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 42.1, 1–26; and Kenneth R. Hall (1982) “The ‘Indianization’ of Funan: An Economic History of Southeast Asia’s First State”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 13.1, 81–106.
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See his contribution in this volume.
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Patricia Risso (1995) Merchants and Faith: Muslim Commerce and Culture in the Indian Ocean. New Perspectives on Asian History (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1995), 6.
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Denys Lombard and Claudine Salmon (1985) “Islam et Sinité”, Archipel 30, 74–94.
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Pierre-Yves Manguin (1996) “Southeast Asian Shipping in the Indian Ocean During the 1st Millennium AD”, in Himanshu Prabha Ray and Jean-François Salles (eds.), Tradition and Archaeology. Early Maritime Contacts in the Indian Ocean (Lyon and New Delhi: Manohar/Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée/NISTADS), 181–198; Pierre-Yves Manguin (1980) “The Southeast Asian Ship: An Historical Approach”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 11.2, 266–276; Pierre-Yves Manguin (1993) “Trading Ships of the South China Sea: Shipbuilding Techniques and Their Role in the Development of Asian Trade Networks”, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 36, 253–280. Ian Glover early on had already turned scholars’ attention to the role of Southeast Asia as a link between India, Southeast Asia and beyond; Ian Glover (1989) Early Trade Between India and Southeast Asia: A Link in the Development of a World Trading System [Occasional Paper No. 16] (Hull: Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Hull).
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See James K. Chin (2004) “Ports, Merchants, Chieftains, and Eunuchs. Reading Maritime Commerce of Early Guangdong”, in Shing Müller, Thomas O. Höllmann, Putao Gui (eds.), Guangdong: Archaeology and Early Texts [Archäologie und frühe Texte] (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz), 217–239, here 222–223.
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Joseph Needham, with research assistance of Wang Ling (1954) Science and Civilization in China, vol. 1, Introductory Orientations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 129, 217.
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Père François Xavier d’Entrecolles (1712) “The First Letter from Père d’Entrecolles Missionary of the Order of Jesuite to Father Orry Procurer of the Chinese and Indian Missions. Raozhou, 1st of September, 1712”, in http://gotheborg.com/letters/letters_first.shtml (accessed on April 27, 2018).
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Joseph Needham (1954) Introductory Orientations, 129.
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Lin Tianwei 林天蔚 (1986) Songdai xiangyao maoyi shi 宋代香藥貿易史 (Taibei: Zhongguo wenhua daxue chubanshe), 384–386.
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Angela Schottenhammer (2010) “The Transfer of Xiangyao 香藥 from Iran and Arabia to China—A Reinvestigation of Entries in the Youyang zazu 酉陽雜俎 (863)”, in Ralph Kauz (ed.), Interaction on the Maritime Silk Road: From the Persian Gulf to the East China Sea [East Asian Maritime History, 10] (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz), 117–149.
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Li Xun 李珣 [tenth century] (1997) Haiyao bencao 海藥本草, compiled and annotated by Shang Zhiju 尚志鈞 (Beijing: Renmin weisheng chubanshe), 5.
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Cf. Joseph Needham (1980) Science and Civilization in China, vol. 5, part 4, Chemistry and Chemical Technology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 421; see also Bernard E. Read (1929) “Contributions to Natural History from the Cultural Contacts of East and West”, Peking Natural History Journal 1.4, 57. Li Xun’s younger brother, Li Xian 李玹, investigated arsenical and other mineral drugs as well as oils and their distillation.
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Aristotle [384–322 BCE] (2015) Metaphysics 982 bk12, in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, entry “Aristotle”, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/ (accessed on April 28, 2018).
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I would like to draw attention to a volume we are currently preparing for my new series on the history of interactions across the silk routes, with a main focus on exchanges in the field of science and technology, Giovanna Lelli, ed. (forthcoming) The Arab-Islamic Sciences in the Classical Era. Comparative Perspectives in the History and the Philosophy of Science [Crossroads—History of Interactions Across the Silk Routes] (Leiden and Boston: E. J. Brill).
- 21.
al-Bīrūni [973–1048] (1879) “The Chronology of Ancient Nations; an English Version of the Arabic text of the Athâr-ul-Bâkiya of Albîrûnî, or ‘Vestiges of the Past’”, collected and reduced to writing by the author in AH 390–1, A.D. 1000; translated and edited, with notes and index by De C. Edward Sachau (London: Published for the Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain & Ireland: W. H. Allen & Co., Publishers to the India Office), https://archive.org/stream/chronologyofanci00biru/chronologyofanci00biru_djvu.txt (accessed on April 29, 2018).
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Schottenhammer, A. (2019). Introduction. In: Schottenhammer, A. (eds) Early Global Interconnectivity across the Indian Ocean World, Volume II. Palgrave Series in Indian Ocean World Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97801-7_1
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