16 Boundaries and Beyond
In Chinese historical texts, “Persian” cargoes had become known to
the Chinese in the fourth century, but “no records of any direct contact
by sea between Persia and China” have survived, as Wang Gungwu
points out.^51 O.W. Wolters also believes that “the shippers of ‘Persian’
cargoes” were for the most part Indonesians. Moreover, “Persian cargoes”
indicated a variety of commodities shipped or re-exported from different
parts of West and South Asia as well as the Nanhai.^52 Even in the seventh
century and later, “Persian” cargoes meant goods shipped to China by
the Persians, rather than the Persian products. Nevertheless, it should
be borne in mind that Persia under the rule of the Parthian Empire (247
ćĈ–Ćĉ 224) and the succeeding Sassanid Empire (Ćĉ 224‒651), that is
before the rise of Islam, exercised βirm control of the silk trade route
between the Roman Empire and China. Moreover, the sea ports of the
Persian Gulf that were under Persian rule should also have played an
important role in maritime trade from the Mediterranean to the west
coast of India prior to their arrival in southern China no later than the
seventh century.
The founding of the Abbasid Caliphate in 750 and the removal of the
capital from Damascus to Baghdad ushered in the Islamic Golden Age.
By then the Arabs had become one of the most conspicuous foreign
merchant groups in Guangzhou.
The Emporium of Malacca
Exploiting the opportunities arising from Zheng Hê’s seven sea
expeditions between 1403 and 1433, the newly founded kingdom of
Malacca successfully withstood the Siamese threat from the north. Its
acceptance of Islam allowed Malacca even more freedom to connect itself
to the wealthy and inβluential Muslim traders from the Indian Ocean.
Equally important was its strategic location in the Straits of Malacca on
the long sea route from the Red Sea to the East Asian Seas. Therefore
it played an intermediary role between Insulindia (maritime Southeast
Asia), India and China. This unique position facilitated its rise as another
maritime and commercial power founded by the Malay people after the
collapse of Srivijaya.
Malacca soon developed into a prosperous emporium that was the
meeting-point for the Muslim traders from India and West Asia, those
from the Malay Archipelago as well as the sea merchants from China.
- Ibid., p. 60.
- O.W. Wolters, Early Indonesian Commerce, p. 153.
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