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A. D.)
The most important ancient document, available so
far, on the east of coast of Africa is in the Peripulus of
the Erythrean Sea, attributed by some scholars to
Ariano di Nicomedia (60 A. D.), a shop-keeper of
Alexandria. Ariano departed from Thebes (Benerice)
on the eastern coast of the Red Sea in Egypt and
navigated through the straits of Bab-el-Mandab. He
sailed and stopped at a number of towns along the
coast of Azania as far as Rapta. About Mogadishu,
Ariano wrote:
"Beyond Opone, the shore trending more towards the
south, first there are the small and great bluffs of
Azania; this coast is destitute of harbors, but there
are places where ships can lie at anchor, the shore
being abrupt; and this course is of six days, the
direction being south-west. Then come the small and
great beach for another six days course and after
that in order, the course of Azania, the first being
called Serapion (Mogadishu) and the second
being Nikon (Brawa); - and after that several rivers
and other anchorages, one after the other, etc."
According to Wilfred H. Schoff A. M. in his
book "The Periplus of the Erythrean Sea,
edited in 1912, Serapion maybe Mogadishu
and Nikon Brawa.
The Account of Ibn-Battouta (1331)
The account of the famous Morrocan scholar Abou-Abd-Allah Muhammad-Ibn-Battouta
(1304-1369) gives us a complete picture of the first Sultanate of Mogadishu, formed by
Sheikh Abubakr Fakr-el-Din. Ibn-Battouta was distinguished from other scholars and
travelers of his days by his profound personal knowledge and accurate methodic
observations of all that he encountered during his long voyage. He did not write about
imaginary countries and peoples, where dragons, huge birds, or cannibals so as to
impress his listeners, a characteristic feature of the distortions that continue to affect
African history. Like Marco Polo, he observed, enquired, took notes and provided
accurate accounts of what he saw. Like Marco Polo, he contributed to the exchange of
knowledge among distant peoples. And Like Marco Polo, his works were not understood
immediately, but came to be appreciated a century later.
About Zeila, he wrote,
"I traveled from the city of Aden by sea for four days and arrived at the city of Zeila, the
city of the Berbers, who are a people of the Negroes, Shaff'ites in rite. Their country is a
desert extending for two months journey, beginning at Zeila and ending at Maqadashow.
Their cattle are cattle, and they also have sheep which are famed for their fat. The
inhabitants of Zeila are black in color, and the majority of them are Rafides. It is a larger
city with a great bazar, but it is in the dirtiest, most disagreeable and most stinking town in
the world. The reason for it's stench is the quality of the fish and blood of the camels that
they slaughter in the streets."
About Mogadishu, Ibn-Battouta wrote:
"We sailed on from there (Zeila) for fifteen nights, and came to Magadashaw, which is a
town of enormous size. It's inhabitants are merchants, possessors of vast resources;
they own large numbers of camels, of which slaughter hundreds everyday (for food), and
also have quantities of sheep. In this place are manufactured the woven fabrics called
after it which are unequalled and exported from it to Egypt and elsewhere. It is the
system of the people of this town that, when a vessel reaches the anchorage, the
sambucas, which are small boats, come out to it. In each sambuca, thereare a small
number of young men of the town, each one brings a covered platter containing food and
presents it to one of the merchants on the ship saying, "This is my guest," and each one
of the others does the same. The merchant, on disembarking, goes only to the house of
the host among the yound men, except those of them who have made frequent journeys
and have gained some acquaintance with it's inhabitants; these lodge where they please.
When he takes up residence with his host, the latter sells his goods for him, and buys for
him; and if anyone buys anything from him in the absence of his host, that sale is held
invalid by them. This practice is a profitable one for them.
"When the young men came on board the vessel in which I was, one of them came up to
me. My companion said to him, "This man is not a merchant, but a doctor of the Law,"
whereupon he called upon to his friends and said to them, "This is the guest of the Qadi."
There was among them one of the Qadi's men, who informed him of this, and he came
down to the beach with a number of students and sent one of them to me. I then
disembarked with my companions and saluted him and his parts. He said to me, "In the
name of the God, let us go to salute the Sheikh." "And who is the Sheikh?" I asked, and
he answered, "The Sultan." for it is their custom to the Sultan, "The Shiekh." Then I said
to him, "When I am lodged, I shall go to him," but he said to me, "It is the custom that
whenever comes a priest, or a Sheriff, or a man of religion, he must first see the Sultan
before taking a lodging. So I went with him to the Sultan, as they asked.
Account on the Sultan of Maqdashaw
"The Sultan is as we have mentioned, called only by the title of the Sheikh. His name is
Abu-Bakr, son of the Sheikh Omar; he is by the origin of the Berbers, and he speaks in
Maqdishi, but now the Arabic language. One of his customs is that, when a vessel
arrives, the Sultan's sambuca goes to it, and inquires are made as to the ship, where it
has come from, who is it's owner, and it's "rubban" (that is it's captain), what is it's cargo,
and who has come on it of merchants and others. When all this information has been
collected, it is presented to the Sultan, and if there are any persons (of such quality) that
the Sultan should assign a lodging to him as his guest, he does. "When I arrived with the
Qadi I have mentioned who was called Ibn-el-Burhan, an Egyptian by origin, at the
Sultan's residence, one of the serving boys came out and saluted the Qadi, who said to
him, "Take word to the intendent's office and inform the Sheikh that this man has come
from the land of Al-Hijaz." So he took the message, then returned bringing a plate on
which were some leaves of betel and arica nuts. He gave me ten leaves along with a few
of the nuts, the same to the Qadi. And what was left on the plate to my companions and
the Qadi's students. He brought also a jug of rose-water of Damscus, which he poured
over me and over the Qadi i.e. over our hands and said, "Our Master commands that he
be lodged in the student's house," this being a building equipped for the entertainment of
students of religion. The Qadi took my by the hand and we went to this house which is in
the vicinity of the Shiekh's residence and furnished with carpets, and all necessary
appointments. Later on, (the serving) brought food from the Sheikh's residence. With
him came one of his viziers, who was responsible (for the care) of the guests, and who
said, "Our Master greets you and says to you that you are heartily welcome." He then set
down the food and we ate. Their food is rice cooked with ghee, which they put into a
large wooden platter, and on top of this they put platters of kushan. This is the
seasoning, made of chicken flesh meat, fish and vegetables. They cook unripe bananas
in fresh milk and put this in one dish and in another dish they put curdled milk on which
they place (pieces) of pickled lemon bunches of pickled pepper, steeped in vinegar and
salted, green ginger, and mangoes. These resemble apples but have a stone. When
ripe they are exceedingly sweet and are eaten (other) fruit, but before ripening they are
acid like lemon, and they pickle them in vinegar. When they take a mouthful of rice, they
eat some of these salted and vinegar conserves after it. A single person of the people of
Maqdashaw eats as much as a whole company of us would eat, as a matter of habit, and
they are corpulent and fat in the extreme.
"After we had eaten, the Qadi took leave of us. We stayed there three days, food being
brought to us three times a day, following their custom. On the fourth day, which was a
Friday, the Qadi and students, and one of the Sheikh's viziers came to me, bringing a set
of robes. These (official) robes of theirs consist of a silk wrapper which one ties round his
waist in place of drawers (for they have no acquaintance with these), a tunic of Egyptian
linen with an embroidered border, a furred mantle of Jerusalem stuffand, an Egyptian
turban with an Egyptian edge. They also brought robes for my companions suitable for
their position. We went to the Congregational Mosque and made prayers behind the
maqsura. Then the Sheikh came out of the door of the maqsura. I saluted him along with
the Qadi; he said a word of greetings, "You are heartily welcome and you have honored
our land and given us pleasure." He went out to the court of the Mosque, and stood by
the grave of his father, who is buried there, then recited some verses from the Qoran and
said a prayer. After this, the viziers, emirs and officers of the troops came up and saluted
him. Their manner of salutation is the same as the custom of the people of Al-Yemen;
one puts his forefinger to the ground, then raises it to his head and says, "May God
protect the Majesty." The Sheikh then went out of the gate of the Mosque, put on his
sandals, ordered the Qadi to put on his sandals and me to do likewise, and set on foot for
his residence, which is close to the Mosque. All the rest of the people walked barefoot.
Over his head were carried four canopes of colored silk, with the figure of a bird in gold
on top of each cnaopy. His garments on that day were a large green mantle of Jerusalam
stuff, with fine ropes of Egyptian stuff with their appendages underneath it, and he was
girted with a waisted wrapper of silk and turbaned with a large turban. In front of him were
the commanders of the troops, while the Qadi, the doctors of the Law and the Sheriffs
walked alongside him. He entered his sufficience hall in this disposition, and the viziers,
emirs and officers of the troops sat down in a gallery there. For the Qadi there was
spread a rug on which no one may sit but he, and beside were him were the jurists and
shariffs. They remained there until the hour of the afternoon prayer and after they had
prayed it, the whole body of troops came and stood in rows in order f their ranks.
Thereafter the drums, fifes, trumpets and flutes are sounded; while they play no one
moves or stirs from his place and anyone who is walking stands still, moving neither
backwards nor forwards. When the playing of the drum band comes to an end, they
salute with their fingers as we have described and withdraw. This is a custom of theirs on
every Friday.
"On the Saturday, the population comes to the Sheikh's gate and they sit in portions
outside his residence. The Qadi, furists, Sheriffs, men of religion, sheikhs and those who
have made the pilgrimage go into the second residence hal, where they sit on platforms
prepared for that purpose. The Qadi will be on a platform by himself and each class of
persons on the platform proper to them, which is not shared by no others. The Sheikh
then takes his seat in his hall and sends for the Qadi who sits down on his left, thereafter
the jurists enter, and the principle men amongst them sit down in fron of the Sheikh, while
the remainder salute and withdraw. Next the Sheriffs come in, their principle men sit down
in front of him, and the remainder salute and withdraw. If they are guests they sit on the
Sheriff's right. Next the Sheikh Piligrims come in, and their principle men sit, and the rest
salute and withdraw, Then come the viziers, the emirs, the officers of the troops, group
after group, and they salute and withdraw. Food is brought in, the Qadi and the Sheriffs
and all those who are sitting in the hall eat in the presence of the Sheikh, and eats with
them. If he wants to honour one of his principle emirs, he sends for him, and the latter
eats with them. The rest of the people in the dinning hall and order of eating is the same
as the order of entry into the Sheikh's presence. The Sheikh then goes into his
residence, and the Qadi with the viziers, the private secretary, and four of the principle
emirs, sits for deciding cases among the population and petitioners. Every case that is
concerned with the rulings of the Divine Law is described by the Qadi, and all cases other
than those are decided by the members of the council, that is to say, the viziers and
emirs. If any case calls for consultation of the Sultan, they write to him about it, and he
sends out the reply to them immediately on the reverse of the document as determined
by his judgment. And this is their fixed custom."
This is the first time we come to know about the existence of a Sultanate in Mogadishu. In
the beginning of the XIII Century, Yacut reported that the affairs of the city were managed
by a Council of Four Elders, called of Mukhaddimin. Most likely, the state of opulence
and maximum splendor reached by the city in the beginning of the XIV Century
necessitated a change of government. The popular belief relates of how Abubakr Sheikh
Omar Fakr-el-Din, a very modest man, established his Sultanate, first by gaining
reputation and prestige from the local religious elders and then obtaining the
collaboration of the majority of the inhabitants of the city. It is also said that many families
protested against the formation of a Sultanate and consequently immigrated to distant
city-states along the coasts of East Africa.
Ibn-Battouta specifically identifies the Sultan Abu-Bakr Sheikh Omar as being of the
Berbers and that he spoke a local language called Maqdashi. Interestingly, this proves
that Mogadishu at it's highest stage of development was ruled and inhabited by Berbers,
contrary to the thesis, held by many scholars, that the city was founded by Arab settlers.
The fact that the Qadi was Egyptian shows that Arabic was widely spoken, confirming the
presence of Arab influence. The carpets, the turban with an Egyptian edge, the fine
robes of Egyptian stuff, tunic of Egyptian linen, furred Jerusalem mantle, the ranks of the
senior officers named in Arabic, all indicate the close ties between Mogadishu and Egypt
in the beginning of the XIV Century; there is no mention of the influence of other Arab
countries in Mogadishu.
By the beginning of the XIV Century, Mogadishu grew in size. The inhabitants of the city
owned large numbers of camels which they used as a means of transportation and as a
source of meat. They were also engaged in the Indian Ocean sea trade by exporting the
famous woven fabrics known locally as the "alindi" and which were exported locally to
Afgoi and abroad to Egypt and East Africa. The picture that comes out of this account is
that Mogadishu was a city-state with commercial ties both with the nearby rich agricultural
town of Afgoi and with the sea ports of East Africa and Arabia.
The place where the students studied religion, the first university of Somalia, is the
Giamma Mosques, regarded as one of the most ancient mosques in Mogadishu. The
Giamma is located in the Sheikh Mumino sector of Hamar Weyne and was built one
century before the arrival of Ibn-Battouta in Mogadishu. A scripture at the entrance of the
minaret points out that the mosque was built on 1st Muharram 636 Hijra (corresponding to
August 14, 1238). In the mihrab, there is another scripture which attributes to Kululah,
son of Muhammad, son of Abd-el-Aziz as the builder of the mihrab.
The minaret is a cylindrical tower, rather squat and divided into nine sections by eight
circles. Every section is smooth and uniform while the diameter of the upper section is a
little less than that of the lower section. Even with the continuous rennovations that it has
undergone, the structure of the mosques is deteriorating. For this reason, the Mu'addin
does not use the minaret when he is calling the Muslims for the daily prayers; he stands
on a big stone at the entrance of the mosque.
The Sheikh Mumino is considered to be the most ancient rione of Hamar Weyne and of
Mogadishu. The Morshe Rer Hamar who are the inhabitants of Sheikh Mumino are
considered to be the first inhabitants who built Mogadishu, then followed in order by the
Iskaashato, Dhabar Weyne and Ban Dhabo. In fact, as a symbol of courtesy, the Shir
Festivals (called also the Neirus Festivals) are always headed by the Morshe. The Shir
starts and ends in front of an old house inhabited centuries back by a Morshe elder.
The second mosque mentioned by Ibn-Battouta is the Congregational Mosque of
Fakr-el-Din. Since ancient times, this mosque was known for it's marvellous marmes and
beautiful decorations. Inside the niche and on top of it, a scriputure in Arabic attributes
the construction of the Fakr-el-Din Mosque to Haggi, son of Muhammad, son of Abdallah
in the end of Shabaan 667 Hijra, corresponding to April 27 - May 6, 1269 A. D. The
mosque, which is also built in the Sheikh Mumino sector of Hamar Weyne, was named
after Sheikh Fakr-el-Din, grandfather of the first Sultan of Mogadishu, Abubakr Omar.
The beautiful marmes of this mosque were first looted by the Portuguese in the beginning
of the XVI Century and later by the soldiers of the Sultan of Zanzibar in the XIX Century.
In the beginning of the XX Century, De Vecchi, the fascist Italian Governor of Somalia, in
a deliberate plan to weaken the religious vigor of the inhabitants of Hamar Weyne built an
asphalt road right across the mosque. After this demolition, which cut the mosque into
two parts, the Fakr-el-Din mosque lost it's importance, remaining a visible testimony of the
mutilation and barbarism of Italian Fascism in Somalia.
Another important beautifully decorated mosque, which Ibn-Battouta did not mention, but
which was also built about a century before his arrival is the Arba-Rukun Mosque. This
mosque was built in the northern extremity of Hamar Weyne in 667 Hijra, corresponding to
1269 A. D. by Kassura-bin-Muhammad-el-Shirazi. Arba-Rukun means the four pillars and
refers to the Council of Four who were the Mukaddimin of Mogadishu. Even this mosque
was looted quite a number of times by the soldiers of the Sultan of Zanzibar in
Mogadishu.
The popular belief narrates that the inhabitants of Mogadishu during this period were
extremely laborious. They reached a high level of development as demonstrated by their
many products: woven fabrics, glass beads, metallic objects and ornaments in gold and
silver. Thirty kilometers inland, along the banks of the Shebelle River, the harvest were
twice yearly and the agricultural products were transported on camels and donkeys to the
city which was extended and had a number of mosques.
The cotton industry represented one of the basic factors that contributed to the wealth of
Mogadishu and remained flourishing for many centuries. Woven cotton fabrics were
exported to Egypt, Southern Arabia, and India, and sufficed at the same time to the
expanding local consumption. Cotton was cultivated along the banks of the Shebelle
Valley, south of Afgoi, and was also imported from India. With a strong simple wheel,
women weaved the cotton fabric while the men shaped it into threads which made both
plain or stripped cloth in different colors. In the beginning of the XVIII Century, the
introduction of the American khaki in the markets of East Africa gained remarkable
preference. Slowly, the Mogadishu cotton industry declined.
During his visit to the Locadive and Maldive Islands, Ibn-Battouta mentioned that he was
given five sheep as a present by the Wazir of Mahel. Because they were imported from
Coromandel, Malabar and Mogadishu, in Mahel, the sheep were very expensive.
By Abdulaziz Hagi Mohamed Hussein
April 2003
Columbus"
p.20-22
… Zengjiani’s mission [a late-eleventh century voyage
by Africans to the court of the Sung Dynasty] was a
major development. Africans, for a change, were
reading out to China. As their coastal city-states grew
more organized and more affluent, they were
beginning to seek business across the ocean to th
east. By the late thirteenth century Mogadishu was
trading actively enough to attract the attention of
Kubilai Khan, the Mongol (Yuan) ruler who conquered
south China and put an end to the Song dynasty.
Kubilai sent envoys to learn about Mogadishu and
treat fot the release of an earlier enboy who had been
held captive there. In 1342 the Arab traveler Ibn
Battuta met in an Indian port a man from Mogadishu
who had been in China. His name was Sa’id. There is
no indication he had been there on business, but we
do know he was a devout Moslem and an Islamic
doctor of law. Religion was a powerful a reason as
trade for these Islamicized African towns to extend
their contacts eastwards. …
By the beginning of the fifteenth century the slow
trickle of knowledge and contact had done its work.
The convergence was complete. The time was ripe for
a grand conjunction. In East Africa the coastal towns
were reaching the height of their prosperity. Their
harbours were busy with foreign ships: their own ships
were busy in the western Indian Ocean. In China the
great days of the merchant venturer were over. After
the Mongols completed their conquest of China in
1279, they began to impose restrictions on private
overseas trade, partly to discourage the chronic
piracy which had battened on it. The Ming dynasty
which drove out the Mongols and restored Native
Chinese rule in 1368 tightened the restrictions
further. But China was still on the seas, since the
Ming government still had a naval force and the will to
deploy it.
…
In 1414 a Chinese fleet pushed into the western
Indian Ocean. It was commanded by Zheng He, Grand
Eunich of the Three Treasures…. Zheng He was the
Chinese Columbus. He has become for China as
Columbus has for the West, the personification of
maritime endeavour. Yet he differed from his Western
counterpart in a number of major ways. Three-
quarters of a century before Columbus crossed the
Atlantic, this Ming dynasty admiral had at his disposal
resources which make the Genoese explorer look like
an amateur. Columbus had three ships. They had
one deck apiece, and together weighed a total of 415
tons. Zheng He had sixty-two galleons, and more than
a hundred auxiliary vessels. The largest galleons had
three decks on the poop alone, and each of them
weighted about 1,500 tons. They had nine masts and
twelve sails, and are said to have measured 440 feet
long by 180 feet wide. With a force of p[erhaps a
hundred men, Columbus might have been grateful for
the company of {the}
868 civil officers, 26,800 soldiers, 93 commanders,
two senior commanders, 140 millerions [captains of a
thousand men], 403 centurions, a Senior Secretary of
the Board of Revenue, a geomancer, a military
instructor, two military judges, 180 medical officers
and assistants, two orderlies, seven senior eurnuch
ambassadors, ten junior eunuchs and 53 eunuch
chamberlains
who travelled in Zheng He’s retinue….
Zheng He’s voyages differed from Columbus’s not
only in scale but in kind. Each voyage was a huge
collective operation, a state undertaking in the fullest
sense. Zheng He was not just financially sponsored,
as Columbus was, by a sympathetic government: he
and his captains, eunuchs of the palace were the
agents and chosen personal servants of their
emperor. He was not in the smallest degree an
entrepreneur.
Nor in fairness to Columbus, was he strictly an
explorer. The real Chinese explorers were the
anonymous merchants who slipped across the Indian
Ocean centuries before Zheng He’s time. The Grand
Eunuch’s crews advanced, as they later described it,
through sky-high waves to the westernmost lands of
the west and the northernmost lands of the north, … .
But they cannot have shared with Columbus’s men a
dread of the unknown. They knew in principle, what
lay ahead. Calmly, bureaucratically, the Chinese had
prepared themselves for the Moslem world. Beyond
India. Zheng He himself was a Moslem. His father and
grandfather had been to Mecca, and he was probably
chosen admiral largely on the strength of his
familiarity with the customs of Islamic countries. He in
turn recruited Moslem translator-interpreters, a mullah
called Hassan and another Chinese Moslem called
Ma Huan who later wrote a memoir of the expeditions.
…[The emperor Yong’le, a hardened soldier] was not
entirely secure on his throne and had to contend with
rumours that his predecessor was still alive. The hunt
for this predecessor, said to be at large in the
southern ocean, was the formal reason for mobilizing
the fleet. It is hardly conceivable that the hunt was still
in progress when the fleet passed beyond India ten
years later. Prestige was probably the main
consideration by now. The Ming as a newish dynasty
may have needed prestige: Yong’le as a usurper
certainly did. Prestige… was conferred through the
arrival in China of foreign visitors with goods which
the Chinese received as symbolic ‘tribute’. The farther
afield the fleet sailed, the greater the influx of ‘tribute’
bearers it could attract to Yong’le’s court. Supreme
under heaven in their own opinion, the Chinese were
none the less in quest of a sort of diplomatic
recognition.
…
P.27
…the fleet was a Star Raft. Triumphant Tour of the
Star Raft was the title of Fei Xin’s book. [Fei Xin was a
soldier drafted into service because of a crime his
father or grandfather committed, who traveled with the
Fleets.] A Star Raft was an expedition which carried to
exotic lands the star-like radiance of an imperial
ambassador, and the object of its voyage was to win
for the emperor the allegiance of distant peoples. The
exchange of goods was laden in Chinese eyes with a
symbolic significance far outweighing the value of the
goods themselves. By trading with the fleet the
African coastal states were paying the Ming emperor
the homage they owed him as sovereign of the world.
"A Giraffe in Peking".
The animal was presented to the emporer in 1414.
The inscription congratulates the emporer on the
arrival of such an auspicious beast.
"An Auspicious Zebra"
A ming painting, suggesting knowledge of other
African animals
By: Siu-Leung Lee, PhD March 16, 2002
[The following information on Zheng He was a
research I did using the official history of Ming
dynasty, written in Qing dynasty. Some of the figures
were corrected for the measurement standard used
in Ming dynasty. The dating was also corrected. The
flagship was actually bigger than reported in other
sources. In each trip, there were actually not one
flagship but at least 62! The whole fleet was more
than 300 ships and more than 28,000 people.]
The British submarine engineer and historian Gavin
Menzies gave an astounding seminar on March 15,
2002 to the Royal Geographical Society in London,
with evidence to support his theory that Zheng He,
the Chinese navigator in Ming dynasty, beat
Columbus by more than 70 years in discovering
America.
Using evidence from maps drawn dated before
Columbus' trip that clearly showed America, and
astronomical maps traced back to Zheng He's time,
Menzies is confident that the Zheng He should be
honored as the first discoverer of America.
I have translated directly from the official Ming History
some of the background information to share with the
readers. Some of the dates and dimensions of the
ships reported by other sources are slightly different.
Zheng He (1371-1435 AD), an eunuch in Ming
dynasty, built a total of 1622 ships and made at least
7 major excursions between 1405 AD and 1430 AD,
reaching Somalia and probably Europe (France,
Holland and Portugal). In each trip, he led a troop of
27,800 people on more than 300 ships. In each trip,
62 major ships of this fleet were employed, each
about 475 ft long and 193 ft wide, holding 1000
people per ship, dwarfing Columbus' Santa Maria (75
ft x 25 ft) more than 6-fold.
The countries and territories covered and recorded
in the official Ming history includes Java, Sumatra,
Vietnam, Siam, Cambodia, Philippines, Ceylon,
Bangladesh, India, Yemen, Arabia, Somalia,
Mogadishu. As a clear demonstration of his travel to
Africa, among the souvenirs he brought back to
China were the giraffes and lions, indigenous
animals of Africa.
The official history also mentioned "Franca" (which
was the territory to describe today's France and
Portugal) and Holland. The Hollanders were
described as tall people with red hair and beard, long
nose, and deep eye sockets. If he did meet with the
Europeans in their native countries, then the only
way would be to navigate around the Cape of Good
Hope before the Suez Canal was a throughway.
Menzies indicates that he has found sunken ships of
Zheng He's fleet in the Carribeans, but he refuses to
disclose the location until he publishes his book.
Unfortunately, Zheng He's magnificent
accomplishment was later targeted by other courtiers
as wasteful. Most of his records were destroyed and
building of ships with more than 3 masts were
considered crimes punishable by death. So, a large
part of his excursion (which might include the
America part) has no reports.
In Africa near Kenya today, there are tribes that are
clearly Asian-looking. They also consider themselves
as the descendants of Zheng He's crew.
References :
News about Gavin Menzies's presentation at the
Royal Geographical Society (March 15, 2002):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2F
news%2F2002%2F03%2F04%2Fnexp04.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2F
news%2F2002%2F03%2F16%2Fncirc16.xml
http://abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s506044.htm
Background on Zheng He:
http://www.time.com/time/asia/features/journey2001/in
tro.html
http://www.nytimes.com/library/magazine/millennium/m
3/kristof.html
http://www.huaren.org/diaspora/background/doc/krist
of.html
http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/china.htm
Official Ming History - 6 volumes 4128pp plus 317pp
index. (in Chinese) This is the authoritative 25
Histories of China compiled by the imperial courtiers.
By:SL Lee <sllee@asiawind.com>
- Sunday, March 17, 2002 at 08:07:19