Twelve centuries ago, around AD 830, an Arab dhow, probably built and crewed by Omani traders, was wrecked near Belitung Island on the Indonesian coast. It was discovered in 1998.
The dhow was on its way back from Tang Dynasty (618-907) China and, in all likelihood, was returning to the lands of the Abbasid Caliphate. It was carrying finely crafted Chinese goods: solid gold dishes, a gold cup embellished with carved figurines, a beautifully wrought golden bracelet, a splendid gilt-silver wine flask, silver boxes with intricate designs, and ceramics from several Chinese kilns.
On its outward voyage, the dhow had probably been to a Chinese port carrying Arab goods such as frankincense, pearls and dates from Oman, glassware from Samarra, copper and bronze metalwork from Iraq, jewelry from Damascus, and linen and cotton textiles from Egypt.
The opulent elites of both China and the Arab World purchased such goods. The two great civilizations traded extensively and learned from one another from the middle of the eighth century to the Mongol invasions five centuries later.
At the time of the Belitung wreck, China was experiencing rapid development. Chang’an (now Xi’an, Shaanxi province), the Tang Dynasty’s capital and its center of refined society, had become the world’s most populous city, with nearly 1 million inhabitants. Other Chinese cities — Luoyang, Yangzhou, Guangzhou, and Chengdu — were not far behind. China had already equaled the population of the Roman Empire at its peak and would soon reach 100 million.
The Abbasid Caliphate was equally dynamic. Its capital, Baghdad, with around 750,000 inhabitants, was a magnet for trade across the Middle East and beyond. There were several other large and prosperous Arab cities: Damascus in Syria; Alexandria, Cairo and Fustat in Egypt; and, in the Iberian Peninsula of Al-Andalus, Cordoba, Seville, Toledo and Granada.
For half a millennium, Chinese and Arab civilizations had no serious rivals. The Byzantine Empire had been in decline since the eighth century, and its great city, Constantinople, was under constant threat from Arab forces. The Roman Empire in the West had disappeared, while the city of Rome had shrunk to a mere 50,000 inhabitants. No other Italian city could boast a population of more than 30,000; fewer than 25,000 people lived in Paris, and only around half that number lived in London.
It was not only in terms of their urbanization and material wealth that the Chinese and Arabs led the world. Both societies were experiencing a flourishing of the arts and scholarship; both were making momentous technological innovations; and both had the confidence that marks great civilizations.
In China, the Tang-Song Transition (750-1250) saw neo-Confucianism emerge as a new syncretic philosophy, poetry attain new heights, and ceramics achieve great aesthetic and technical advances. Printing developed with the use of movable type; there were advances in engineering and astronomy; and new technologies revolutionized navigation and timekeeping.
The Arab world was equally vital and productive. Arabs made advances in mathematics, astronomy, optics, medicine and philosophy. And, at about the same time as the Belitung wreck, Baghdad’s House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikmah) was translating into Arabic many classic works from Greek, Latin, Persian and Sanskrit. Soon, great Arab scholars such as Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) synthesized and expanded such classical knowledge.
Today, there is a sense of joint endeavor between Chinese and Arabs seeking common prosperity. There is also growing mutual confidence between two peoples who have not forgotten that they have had a long historical association
Across the centuries, Chinese and Arabs were eager to know about and learn from one another. At the official level, diplomatic contacts and exchanges of gifts meant that each royal court knew what was fashionable in the other; travelers between the two societies often wrote about their experiences; and the international market in luxury goods meant that affluent Arabs and Chinese influenced each other’s tastes. Learned people in each civilization read avidly about the arts, sciences, philosophies and religions of the other.
There were other agents of cultural exchange. The Omani sailors and other Arab seafarers on the Maritime Silk Road played a key part in bridging the cultures. Some Arab traders even settled in China: the famous Chinese historical text Tongdian, written by Du You from 766 to 801, describes Arab trader communities living in China. We know of sizeable communities of Arabs in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Yangzhou, Ningbo, Fuzhou, and Quanzhou from the ninth century forward.
We also know that Omani sailors, shipbuilders and navigators learned from their Chinese counterparts the use of the compass and then, later, contributed their own newly acquired knowledge of the astrolabe to the Chinese; they shared with the Chinese the advantages of the lateen sail for tacking; they learned from the Chinese the use of stern rudders, watertight bulkheads, and the limits of a single mast; and they shared knowledge of the monsoon wind patterns, making it possible to reliably schedule deliveries of goods. In these ways, Omani and Chinese sailors and traders were jointly responsible for taking much of the risk out of the Maritime Silk Road and making trading voyages more efficient. One of the few memorials to such people-to-people contacts between Arabs and Chinese is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site in Quanzhou, titled The Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China. It includes the Qingjing Mosque, Islamic tombs, and other archaeological remains of the Arab community that lived there for centuries.
Too few people remember or understand the historic importance of the centuries of cultural contact between the Arabs and the Chinese. The modern West is happy to forget its debts to Arab and Chinese inventions and other cultural inheritances from the two great civilizations. Western ignorance of history permits disdain for non-Western cultures, as exemplified by 19th century European imperialists.
Today, a new Maritime Silk Road has opened between China and the six Arab countries of the Gulf. Historically the first peoples of Islam, now members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, these countries are all committed to diversifying their economies from oil. They have found in China, with its vast market and industrial strength, a partner experienced in rapid modernization and willing to assist in developing the appropriate infrastructure for Gulf economies. Chinese businesspeople appreciate the stability of Gulf societies, enjoy traditional Arab hospitality, defer to local customs, and do not attempt to impose their own cultural values.
The Arab states of the Gulf, confident in their own religious and cultural traditions, employ Shura councils to involve their citizens in consultative deliberations on policy. The irony has not escaped notice that, only two decades after American neocons attempted to impose majoritarian electoral democracy on Arab societies, some American states and European countries are now experimenting with citizen advisory assemblies.
On today’s Maritime Silk Road, people-to-people contacts are once again the crucial bridge between cultures. Today, it is Chinese businesspeople who have taken up residence in Gulf countries. Often, Chinese tourists see business opportunities on their first visits and then return to invest and open companies with local partners.
Today, there is a sense of joint endeavor between Chinese and Arabs seeking common prosperity. There is also growing mutual confidence between two peoples who have not forgotten that they have had a long historical association.
The author is former consul general of Egypt to the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
