Burzurg Sets His Sights on the Seven Seas
Burzurg ibn Shahriyar was a tenth-century ship-master from Siraf, a prosperous and bustling port city on the Persian Gulf coast. He probably sailed frequently to Arabia and India, and he may have ventured also to Malaya, the islands of Southeast Asia, China, and east Africa. Like all sailors, he heard stories about the distant lands that mariners had visited, the different customs they observed, and the adventures that befell them during their travels. About 952 C.E. he compiled 136 such stories in his book of the Wonders of India.
Buzurg’s collection included a generous proportion of tall tales. He told of a giant lobster that seized a ship’s anchor and dragged the vessel through the water, of mermaids and sea dragons, of creatures born from human fathers and fish mothers who lived in human society but had flippers that enabled them to swim through the water like fish, or serpents that ate cattle and elephants, of birds so large that they crushed houses, of a monkey that seduced a sailor, and of talking lizard, Yet alongside the tall tales, many of Buzurg’s stories accurately reflected the condition of his time. One recounted the story of a king from northern India who converted d to Islam and requested translations of Islamic law. Others reported on Hindu customs, shipwrecks, encounters with pirates and slave trading.
Several of Buzurg’s stories tempted readers with visions of vast wealth attainable through maritime trade. Buzurg mentioned fine diamonds from Kashmir, pearls from Ceylon, and a Jewish merchant who left Persia penniless and retuned from India and China with a shipload of priceless merchandise. Despite their embellishments and exaggerations, his stories faithfully reflected the trade networks that linked the lands surrounding the Indian Ocean in the tenth century. Although Buzurg clearly thought of India as a distinct land with its own customs, he also recognized a larger world of trade and communication that extended from east Africa to Southeast Asia and beyond to China.
Just as China served as the principal inspiration of a larger East Asian society in the post-classical era, India influenced the development of a larger cultural one in south and Southeast Asia. Yet China and India played different roles in their respective spheres of influence. In East Asia, China was the dominant power, even if it did not always exercise authority directly over its neighbors. In south and Southeast Asia, however there emerged no centralized imperial authority like the Tang dynasty in China. Indeed, although several states organized large regional kingdoms, no single state was able to extend its authority to all parts of the Indian subcontinent, much less to the mainland and islands of Southeast Asia.
Though politically disunited, India remained a coherent and distinct society as a result of powerful social and cultural traditions: the caste system and the Hindu religion shaped human experience and values throughout the subcontinent during the post-classical era. Beginning in the seventh century Islam also began to attract a popular following in India, and after the eleventh century Islam deeply influenced Indian society alongside the caste system and Hinduism.
Beyond the subcontinent, Indian traditions helped to shape a larger cultural zone extending to the mainland and islands of Southeast Asia. Throughout most of the region, ruling classes adopted Indian forms of political organization and Indian techniques of statecraft. Indian merchants took their Hindu and Buddhist faiths to Southeast Asia, where they attracted the interest first of political elites and then of the popular masses. Somewhat later, Indian merchants also helped to introduce Islam to Southeast Asia.
Burzurg ibn Shahriyar was a tenth-century ship-master from Siraf, a prosperous and bustling port city on the Persian Gulf coast. He probably sailed frequently to Arabia and India, and he may have ventured also to Malaya, the islands of Southeast Asia, China, and east Africa. Like all sailors, he heard stories about the distant lands that mariners had visited, the different customs they observed, and the adventures that befell them during their travels. About 952 C.E. he compiled 136 such stories in his book of the Wonders of India.
Buzurg’s collection included a generous proportion of tall tales. He told of a giant lobster that seized a ship’s anchor and dragged the vessel through the water, of mermaids and sea dragons, of creatures born from human fathers and fish mothers who lived in human society but had flippers that enabled them to swim through the water like fish, or serpents that ate cattle and elephants, of birds so large that they crushed houses, of a monkey that seduced a sailor, and of talking lizard, Yet alongside the tall tales, many of Buzurg’s stories accurately reflected the condition of his time. One recounted the story of a king from northern India who converted d to Islam and requested translations of Islamic law. Others reported on Hindu customs, shipwrecks, encounters with pirates and slave trading.
Several of Buzurg’s stories tempted readers with visions of vast wealth attainable through maritime trade. Buzurg mentioned fine diamonds from Kashmir, pearls from Ceylon, and a Jewish merchant who left Persia penniless and retuned from India and China with a shipload of priceless merchandise. Despite their embellishments and exaggerations, his stories faithfully reflected the trade networks that linked the lands surrounding the Indian Ocean in the tenth century. Although Buzurg clearly thought of India as a distinct land with its own customs, he also recognized a larger world of trade and communication that extended from east Africa to Southeast Asia and beyond to China.
Just as China served as the principal inspiration of a larger East Asian society in the post-classical era, India influenced the development of a larger cultural one in south and Southeast Asia. Yet China and India played different roles in their respective spheres of influence. In East Asia, China was the dominant power, even if it did not always exercise authority directly over its neighbors. In south and Southeast Asia, however there emerged no centralized imperial authority like the Tang dynasty in China. Indeed, although several states organized large regional kingdoms, no single state was able to extend its authority to all parts of the Indian subcontinent, much less to the mainland and islands of Southeast Asia.
Though politically disunited, India remained a coherent and distinct society as a result of powerful social and cultural traditions: the caste system and the Hindu religion shaped human experience and values throughout the subcontinent during the post-classical era. Beginning in the seventh century Islam also began to attract a popular following in India, and after the eleventh century Islam deeply influenced Indian society alongside the caste system and Hinduism.
Beyond the subcontinent, Indian traditions helped to shape a larger cultural zone extending to the mainland and islands of Southeast Asia. Throughout most of the region, ruling classes adopted Indian forms of political organization and Indian techniques of statecraft. Indian merchants took their Hindu and Buddhist faiths to Southeast Asia, where they attracted the interest first of political elites and then of the popular masses. Somewhat later, Indian merchants also helped to introduce Islam to Southeast Asia.
Kingdoms after the Collapse of the Gupta’s
King Harsha (606 – 648 C.E.) – Temporarily restored unified rule in most of northern India and sought to revive imperial authority. Harsha enjoyed a reputation for piety, liberality, and even scholarship. He was himself a Buddhist, but he looked kindly on other faiths as well. He built hospitals and provided free medical care for his subjects. Despite his energy and his favorable reputation, Harsha was unable to restore permanent centralized rule.
Conquest of Sind (711 - 1258 C.E.) – Islam reached India by several routes. One was military: Arab forces entered India as early as the mid-seventh century, even before the establishment of the Umayyad caliphate. In 711 a well-organized expedition conquered Sind, the Indus River Valley in northwestern India, and incorporated it as a province of the expanding Umayyad Empire.
Mahmud of Ghazni (1001 – 1027 C.E.) – Lead raiding parties into India from his capital in Afghanistan. Mahmud was a determined and ruthless warrior who spent much of his time in the field with his armies. Mahmud had less interest in conquering and ruling India than in plundering the wealth stored in its many well endowed temples. Muhmud and his forces demolished hundreds of sites associated with Hindu or Buddhist faiths and their campaigns hastened the decline of Buddhism in the land of its birth.
Sultanate of Delhi (1206 – 1526 C.E.) – During the late twelfth century, Mahmud’s successors mounted a more systematic campaign to conquer northern India and place it under Islamic rule. The sultans established their capital at Delhi, a strategic site controlling access from the Punjab to the Ganges valley, and they ruled northern India, at least in name, for more than three centuries from 1206 – 1526. Indeed, the sultans did not enjoy comfortable control of their own courts: of the thirty-five sultans of Delhi, nineteen perished at the hands of assassins. Nevertheless, the sultans prominently sponsored Islam and played a large role especially in the establishment of Islam in the Bengal region
King Harsha (606 – 648 C.E.) – Temporarily restored unified rule in most of northern India and sought to revive imperial authority. Harsha enjoyed a reputation for piety, liberality, and even scholarship. He was himself a Buddhist, but he looked kindly on other faiths as well. He built hospitals and provided free medical care for his subjects. Despite his energy and his favorable reputation, Harsha was unable to restore permanent centralized rule.
Conquest of Sind (711 - 1258 C.E.) – Islam reached India by several routes. One was military: Arab forces entered India as early as the mid-seventh century, even before the establishment of the Umayyad caliphate. In 711 a well-organized expedition conquered Sind, the Indus River Valley in northwestern India, and incorporated it as a province of the expanding Umayyad Empire.
Mahmud of Ghazni (1001 – 1027 C.E.) – Lead raiding parties into India from his capital in Afghanistan. Mahmud was a determined and ruthless warrior who spent much of his time in the field with his armies. Mahmud had less interest in conquering and ruling India than in plundering the wealth stored in its many well endowed temples. Muhmud and his forces demolished hundreds of sites associated with Hindu or Buddhist faiths and their campaigns hastened the decline of Buddhism in the land of its birth.
Sultanate of Delhi (1206 – 1526 C.E.) – During the late twelfth century, Mahmud’s successors mounted a more systematic campaign to conquer northern India and place it under Islamic rule. The sultans established their capital at Delhi, a strategic site controlling access from the Punjab to the Ganges valley, and they ruled northern India, at least in name, for more than three centuries from 1206 – 1526. Indeed, the sultans did not enjoy comfortable control of their own courts: of the thirty-five sultans of Delhi, nineteen perished at the hands of assassins. Nevertheless, the sultans prominently sponsored Islam and played a large role especially in the establishment of Islam in the Bengal region