Renaudot Eusebius Trans (1 results)

First edition in English, after the French edition of 1718, of this translation of two ninth-century Arabic travelogues about India, China, and the trade in precious goods which linked them with the 'Abbasid world. "It is a short book, but it has a sweeping perspective, from the Swahili coast to a rather mistily glimpsed Korea" (Mackintosh-Smith), and contains the first foreign ethnographic accounts of Chinese porcelain and tea. The first travelogue is of uncertain authorship, but relies heavily on an account by a certain Sulayman al-Tajir (Sulayman the Merchant). The second was compiled by Abu Zayd al-Sirafi, who came from the port city of Siraf in the Gulf. The scope of Oceanic trade and commerce in this period "comes across in the diversity of goods described in the Accounts: Indian rhino horn, Tibetan musk, Gulf pearls, Chinese porcelain, Sri Lankan sapphires, Maldivian coir, Arabian and East African ambergris, Abyssinian leopard skins" (Mackintosh-Smith). The narratives demonstrate how mobile medieval Muslim merchants were in their travels to the Far East. The travelogues themselves are followed here by the translator's many notes. Renaudot wished to refute Jesuit ideas about China and was therefore driven to demonstrate the supremacy of Islamic culture. He translated these narratives using a manuscript in the library of the Comte de Seignelay, the fragmentary nature of which led many commentators to assume that it was a forgery. These doubts remained "until 1787, when Deguignes finally succeeded in finding the text that Renaudot had translated in the Colberts' collection in Paris The academician had no trouble convincing himself of the authenticity of Renaudot's work" (Cordier). Cordier 1923; Cox I, 335; Lust 299. Cornel Zwierlein, "Orient contra China: Eusèbe Renaudot's vision of world history (ca. 1700)", Journal of the History of Ideas, 2020. Tim Mackintosh-Smith & James Montgomery, eds & trans., Two Arabic Travel Books : Accounts of China and India, 2014. Octavo (188 x 122 mm). Title printed in red and black, attractive woodcut publisher's vignette to the title page. Recent panelled calf to style, 19th-century dark red morocco spine label from previous binding. Some browning at beginning and end, a few light marks, closed marginal tear (without loss) to E3; overall very good.