BIBLIOGRAPHY -- TRAVELERS ON THE SILK ROAD

-138-116. Zhang Qian (Chang Ch'ien)
Secondary source:
  • Sima Qian (Ssu-ma Qian), Shiji. The Historical Records written between 145-86 BC has Zang Qian's biography in ch. 123. tr. by Friederich Hirth, "The Story of Chang K'ien, China's Pioneer in Western Asia," Journal of the American Oriental Society 37 (1917), pp. 89-116
  • Ban Gu (Pan Ku), Han Shu. Ch. 61, "The Memoir on Chang Ch'ien and Li Kuang-Li". tr. by A.F.P. Hulsewe, China In Central Asia - The Early Stage: 125 B.C. - A.D. 23, E.J. Brill, 1979. An annotated tralslation of chapters 61 and 96 with an introduction by M.A.N. Loewe.

    40-70. Periplus of the Erythraen (=Red) Sea
    Primary source:

  • Lionel Casson, The Periplus Maris Erythraei. Text with Introduction, Translation, and Commentary. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1989. The latest and most authoritative scholarly translation and annotation; includes useful appendices.
  • Wilfred H. Schoff, The Periplus of the Eryhraean Sea. Travel and Trade in the I ndian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century. Translated from the Greek and Annotated. London, etc.: Longmans, Green, 1912. Translation still useful, but annotation is very dated.

    Secondary source:

  • M. P. Charlesworth, Trade-Routes and Commerce of the Roman Empire ( Chicago: Ares, 1974; rev. of 1926 ed.). A very useful study.
  • Martin P. Charlesworth, "Roman Trade with India: A Resurvey," in Studies in Roman Economic and Social History in honor of Allan Chester Johnson (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1951), pp.131-143. Discusses significance of some important archaeological finds.
  • E. H. Warmington, The Commerce between the Roman Empire and India. (London/NY: Curzon/Octagon, 1974; rev. of 1928 ed.). The much-cited standard study.

    73-102. Ban Chao (Pan Ch'ao)
    Secondary source:

  • Fan Yeh,Hou Hanshu, Ch. 77.
  • William M. McGovern, The Early Empires of Central Asia, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1939, pp. 264 ff.
  • Rene Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia, New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970, pp. 41-47.

    97. Gan Ying (Kan Ying).
    Secondary source:

  • Hou Han shu. Ch. 118.
  • F. Hirth, China and the Roman Orient (Shanghai & Hong Kong, 1885; Reprint: Ares Publishers). Collection of all Chinese texts from various sources with their translation.
  • E. Chavannes, "Les Pays d'Occident d'apres le Heou Han Chou," T'oung Pao 1907, pp. 149 ff.

    399-413. Faxian (Fa-hsien)
    Primary source:

  • A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms. tr. by H.A. Giles, The travels of Fa-hsien (399-414 A. D.), or Record of the Buddhistic kingdoms. The University Press, 1923.
  • A Record of Buddhistic Kingdoms. tr. by James Legge. The Clarendon Press, Oxford. An unabridged translation and annotated account with a Korean recension of the Chinese text and copious notes. Originally publisehd in 1886 but reprinted in 1965 by Paragon Book Reprint Corp and Dover Publications. Excerpts from the Legge translation by Prof. Dan Waugh.

    629-645. Xuan Zang (Hsuan-tsang)
    Primary source:

  • Record of the Western Regions. tr. by Samuel Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, 2 vols., London, 1906

    Secondary source:

  • Hui Li, The Life of Hiuen-tsang, London, 1911
  • Arthur Waley, The Real Tripitika, London: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., 1952
  • Salley Hovey Wriggins, A Buddhist Pilgrim on the Silk Road, Westview Press, Boulder, 1996)

    821. Tamim ibn Bahr.
    Primary source:

  • V. Minorsky, "Tamim ibn Bahr's Journey to the Uyghurs," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), XII/2 (1948), 275-305; esp. 278-285. Critical edition of Arabic text and English translation.

    Secondary source:

  • Minorsky, loc. cit.

    921-922. Ahmad Ibn Fadlan.
    Primary source:

  • Ahmed Ibn Fadlan, Voyage chez les Bulgares de la Volga, tr. Marius Canard (Paris: Sindbad, 1988; other editions).
  • Ahmed Zeki Velidi Togan, Ibn Fadlan's Reisebericht (Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1939; repr. 1966) (=Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Bd. 24)
  • James E. McKeithen, "The Risalah of Ibn Fadlan: an annotated translation and introduction," unpublished Ph.D thesis, Indiana University, 1979 (available from University Microfilms, Ann Arbor).
  • D. M. Dunlop, The History of the Jewish Khazars (Princeton, 1954), pp. 109-114. Translation of the section on the Khazars.
  • Basil Dmytryshyn, ed., Medieval Russia: A Source Book, 900-1700, 2nd ed. (NY etc.: Holt/Dryden, 1973), pp. 11-16. Translation of the section on the Rus burial.
  • A. P. Kovalevskii, Kniga Akhmeda Ibn-Fadlana o ego puteshestvii na Volgu v 921-922 gg. Stat'i, perevody i kommentarii (Khar'kov, 1956). Includes extensive commentary and translations of both the "full" text and the condensed accounts in the Persian sources.

    Secondary source:

  • M. Canard, "Ibn Fadlan," The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., Vol. III, p. 759. See also the studies that form part of the editions listed under "Primary sources."

    1219-1225. Yeh-lü Ch'u-Ts'ai
    Primary sources:

  • "Extract from the Si Yu Lu," Ch. I, in E. Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources: Fragments towards the Knowledge of the Geography and History of Central and Western Asia from the 13th to the 17th Century, Vol. I (NY: Barnes and Noble, 1967; repr. of 1888 ed.), pp. 9-24. Includes translation of a summary from his Xi Yue Lu copied in the first chapter of the Shu qai lao hio ts-ung t'an, a Yüan era compilation, which is in turn found in the Chi pu tsu chai ts'ung shu.

    Secondary sources:

  • I. de Rachewiltz, "Yeh-lü Ch'u-ts'ai (1189-1243): Buddhist idealist and confucian statesman," in A. F. Wright and D. Twitchett, eds., Confucian Personalities (Stanford, 1962), pp. 189-216.
  • N. Ts. Munkuev, Kitaiskii istochnik o pervykh mongol'skikh khanakh: nadgrobnaia nadpis' na mogile Eliui Chu-Tsaia. Perevod i issledovanie [A Chinese Source on the First Mongol Khans: The Inscription on the Grave of Yeh-lü Ch'u-Ts'ai. Translation and Analysis] (Moscow: Nauka, 1965). A valuable study in Russian which includes a survey of important Chinese sources for the history Mongolia and Yüan China in the 13th and 14th centuries and translations of both the grave monument and the biography of Yeh-lü Ch'u Ts'ai in the Yüan Shih.

    1220-1221. Wu-ku-sun Chung tuan.
    Primary sources:

  • "Pei Shi Ki," Ch. 2, in E. Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources, Vol. I (NY: Barnes and Noble, 1967; repr. of 1888 ed.), pp. 25-34.

    1221-1224. K'iu Ch'ang Ch'un and Li chi ch'ang.
    Primary sources:

  • The Travels of an Alchemist: The Journey of the Taoist Ch'ang-Ch'un from China to the Hindukush at the Summons of Chingiz Khan Recorded by His Disciple Li Chih-Ch'ang. Tr. and Introd. by Arthur Waley (London: Routledge, 1931). The translation omits the poetry scattered through the text; the introduction focuses mainly on the Taoist context for the work and its author.
  • "Si Yu Ki: Travels to the West of K'iu Ch'ang Ch'un," Ch. 3, in E. Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources, Vol. I (NY: Barnes and Noble, 1967; repr. of 1888 ed.), pp. 35-108. In Waley's assessment, "a somewhat inaccurate abridgment of the Russian translation, furnished however with an annotation that is often valuable." He also includes translations of K'iu Ch'ang Ch'un's correspondence with Chingis Khan and the 1228 introduction to the text.

    1245-1247, 1249-1251. Andrew of Longjumeau.
    Secondary source:

  • I. de Rachewiltz, Papal Envoys to the Great Khans (Stanford, 1971), 112-115, 119-124.

    1245-1248. Ascelinus and Simon of San Quentin.
    Secondary source:

  • I. de Rachewiltz, Papal Envoys to the Great Khans (Stanford, 1971), 115-119.

    1245-1247. John of Plano Carpini (Pian del Carpine) and Benedict the Pole.
    Primary sources:

  • Christopher Dawson, Mission to Asia [published earlier as The Mongol Mission] (Toronto, etc., 1980). The most accessible translation of both accounts, that of John on pp. 3-72, and the shorter one by Benedict, pp. 79-84. Also in this edition, the letters of the Pope and of the Great Khan.
  • C. Raymond Beazley, ed., The texts and versions of John de Plano Carpini and William de Rubruquis as printed for the first time by Hakluyt in 1598 together with some shorter pieces (London, 1893; repr. 1967), 107-144.
  • R. A. Skelton et al., The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation, new ed. (New Haven/London, 1995), 54-101. An intelligence report compiled by a Franciscan C. de Bridia in 1247 apparently from Benedict the Pole, but substantially longer than Benedict's account cited above. Contains some material not in Carpini and is independent of his account. This ed. has facing Latin and English texts and an extended introduction of value for sorting out the various versions of Carpini and Benedict.

    Secondary sources:

  • I. de Rachewiltz, Papal Envoys to the Great Khans (Stanford, 1971), Ch. IV.
  • Leonardo Olschki, Marco Polo's Asia: An Introduction to His "Description of the World" Called "Il Milione" (Berkeley and L.A., 1960), 58-63.

    1253-1255. William (Guillaume/Willem) of Rubruck (Ruysbroeck).
    Primary sources:

  • Christopher Dawson, Mission to Asia [published earlier as The Mongol Mission] (Toronto, etc., 1980), 89-220.
  • The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck: His Journey to the Court of the Great Khan Möngke, 1253-1255. Tr. Peter Jackson; intr., notes and appendices by Peter Jackson with David Morgan (London, 1990) (=Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, 2nd ser., no. 173; revision of the 1900 ed. by W. W. Rockhill, Hakluyt 2nd ser., no. 4).

    Secondary sources:

  • I. de Rachewiltz, Papal Envoys to the Great Khans (Stanford, 1971), Ch. VI.
  • Leonardo Olschki, Marco Polo's Asia: An Introduction to His "Description of the World" Called "Il Milione" (Berkeley and L.A., 1960), 64-73.

    1254-1255. Hayton I (also, Hethum, Haithon) and Kirakos Gandsaketsi.
    Primary sources:

  • E. Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources, Vol. I (NY: Barnes and Noble, 1967; repr. of 1888 ed.), pp. 164-172. A condensed version, in which the translator claims to have included everything of geographical interest. Largely a catalogue of place names.

    Secondary sources:

  • Henry Yule and Henri Cordier, tr. and ed., Cathay and the Way Thither, Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, Vol. I (London, 1916; repr. ed., 1998), pp. 161-164. Note that the description of China translated from the "History of Hayton the Armenian (Written in 1307)" (pp. 258-259) and followed by the French and Latin texts is from the work by Hayton's nephew and is not the travel account.

    1259-1260. Ch'ang Te.
    Primary sources:

  • "Si Shi Ki: Record of an Embassy to the Regions in the West," Ch. 4, in E. Bretschneider, Medieval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources, Vol. I (NY: Barnes and Noble, 1967; repr. of 1888 ed.), pp. 109-156. Bretschneider has compared the various Chinese eds. of the text and claims that his translation is substantially more accurate than two partial French versions of the text. He intersperses useful information on Hülegü's campaign from the biography (in the Yüan Shih) of Kuo K'an, a general who participated in the campaign.

    1260-1263. Yeh-lü Hi Liang.
    Secondary sources:

  • E. Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources. I (NY: Barnes and Noble, 1967; repr. of 1888 ed.), Pp. 157-163. What the editor presents as a translation from Ch. 180 of the Yüan-shi.

    1260-1269, 1271-1295. Niccolò and Maffeo Polo.
    Secondary sources:

  • Marco Polo, The Travels, tr.and introd. Ronald Latham (Harmondsworth, etc., 1958), esp. 34-39.
  • Leonardo Olschki, Marco Polo's Asia: An Introduction to His "Description of the World" Called "Il Milione" (Berkeley and L.A., 1960), 74-93.

    1271-1295. Marco Polo.
    Primary sources:

  • Marco Polo, The Travels, tr. and introd. Ronald Latham (Harmondsworth, etc., 1958). The most accessible edition.
  • The Book of Ser Marco Polo, the Venetian : Concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East, tr. and ed., with notes, by Colonel Sir Henry Yule, 2 v. (London, 1903; PB reprint by Dover). This is the third ed., with additions by H. Cordier.
  • A. C. Moule and Paul Pelliot, ed., Marco Polo; the Description of the World, 2 v. (London, 1938). A "composite" version of the text; valuable for sinological expertise of the editors.

    Secondary sources:

  • Leonardo Olschki, Marco Polo's Asia: An Introduction to His "Description of the World" Called "Il Milione" (Berkeley and L.A., 1960). Careful analysis of Marco's information, placed in the context of what else Europeans knew about Asia at the time.
  • Frances Wood, Did Marco Polo go to China? (Boulder, Co, 1996). Much ballyhooed but poorly argued effort to show Marco never went beyond the Near East.
  • Igor de Rachewiltz, "Marco Polo went to China," Zentralasiatische Studien, 27 (1997), 34-92; Additions and corrections, 28 (1998), 177. A persuasive and devastating critique of Wood's book.

    1275-1279. 1287-1288. Rabban Bar Sauma and Markos.
    Primary sources:

  • E. A. Wallis Budge, tr., The Monks of Kublai Khan Emperor of China, or the History of the Life and Travels of Rabban Sawma, Envoy and Plenipotentiary of the Mongol Khans to the Kings of Europe, and Markos Who as Mar Yahbhallaha III Became Patriarch of the Nestorian Church in Asia (London: Religious Tract Society, 1928). A full translation with a long introduction focussing on Nestorianism. Excerpts from this translation are in Jeanette Mirsky, ed., The Great Chinese Travelers (Chicago: UChicago Pr., 1964), pp. 175-200.
  • James A. Montgomery, tr., The History of Yaballaha III, Nestorian Patriarch, and of His Vicar Bar Sauma, Mongol Ambassador to the Frankish Courts at the End of the Thirteenth Century (New York: ColumbiaU Press, 1927). A condensed translation, with the useful supplement of a translation from a short Arabic biography of Mar Yaballaha.

    Secondary sources:

  • Morris Rossabi, Voyager from Xanadu: Rabban Sauma and the First Journey from China to the West (Tokyo etc.: Kodansha, 1992). Excellent overview of East-West relations, the specific context for the journey, and the contents of the account about it.

    1279-1328. John of Monte Corvino.
    Primary sources:

  • Christopher Dawson, Mission to Asia [published earlier as The Mongol Mission] (Toronto, etc., 1980), 224-231. In addition to the texts of his letters, see overview of John's activity, pp. xxxi-xxxiii.
  • Henry Yule and Henri Cordier, tr. and ed., Cathay and the Way Thither, Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, III (London, 1916; repr. 1998), 45-70.

    Secondary sources:

  • I. de Rachewiltz, Papal Envoys to the Great Khans (Stanford, 1971), 160-173.
  • Ian Gillman and Hans-Joachim Klimkeit, Christians in Asia before 1500 (Ann Arbor, 1999), 300-302.
  • Acts of International Study Workshop of John de Montecorvino, O.F.M. 1294-1994 (Taipei). Articles in Chinese, Italian, English and Spanish from conference held on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of his arrival in China.
  • Lauren Arnold, Princely Gifts and Papal Treasures: The Franciscan Mission to China and its Influence on the Art of the West, 1250-1350 (San Francisco, 1999). An elegantly illustrated book by an art historian, exploring the impact of contacts such as those via the mission of John of Montecorvino on late medieval/early Renaissance European art. Weaves accounts of the missions into analysis of the art and artefacts; informed by a knowledge both of Chinese and Western art.

    1316-1330. Odoric of Pordenone.
    Primary source:

  • Henry Yule and Henri Cordier, tr. and ed., Cathay and the Way Thither, Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, II (London, 1916; repr. 1998). In addition to their English translation, the editors include Latin and Old Italian versions of the text, which they established after substantial work with the manuscripts. Their introduction explains the difficulties in documenting both Odoric and in determining the "original" version of what he wrote.

    Secondary source:

  • I. de Rachewiltz, Papal Envoys to the Great Khans (Stanford, 1971), Ch. IX.

    1325-1354. Ibn Battuta.
    Primary source:

  • The Travels of Ibn Battuta A. D. 1325-1354. Translated with revisions and notes from the Arabic text edited by C. Defémery and B. R. Sanguinetti by H.A.R. Gibb, 4 vols. (London, 1958-1994) (=Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, 2nd ser., nos. 110, 117, 141, 178). Vol. IV completed by C. F. Beckingham; a vol. V containing additional editorial material and a full index is promised.
  • Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354. Tr. and ed. H.A.R. Gibb (London, 1929; various reprints). One of several different editions containing selections; others focus on Indian and African portions of the travels.
  • "Ibn Batuta's Travels in Bengal and China (circa 1347)," in Henry Yule and Henri Cordier, tr. and ed., Cathay and the Way Thither, Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, IV (London, 1916; various reprints), 80-150.

    Secondary source:

  • Douglas Bullis, "The Longest Hajj: The Journeys of Ibn Battuta," Saudi Aramco World , Vol. 51, No. 4 (July/August 2000), pp. 2-39. Nice re-telling of his travels, with extensive quotations and illustrations by a modern artist.
  • Thomas J. Abercrombie, "Ibn Battuta: Prince of Travelers," National Geographic, 180/6 (December 1991), 2-49. With photographs by James L. Stanfield.
  • Ross E. Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century (Berkeley, etc., 1986; PB ed., 1989). A well-informed "interpretation of Ibn Battuta's life and times."
  • A. Miquel, "Ibn Battuta," The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., III: 735-736.
  • Charles F. Beckingham, "Ebn Battuta," Encyclopaedia Iranica.
  • Marina A. Tolmacheva, "Ibn Battuta on Women's Travel in the Dar al-Islam," in Bonnie Frederick and Susan H. McLeod, eds., Women and the Journey: The Female Travel Experience (Pullman, Wa.: Washington State University Press, 1993), pp. 119-140.

    1339-1353. John of Marignolli.
    Primary source:

  • Henry Yule and Henri Cordier, tr. and ed., Cathay and the Way Thither, Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, III (London, 1916; repr. 1998), 209-269, preceded by a useful introduction, 177-207.

    Secondary source:

  • I. de Rachewiltz, Papal Envoys to the Great Khans (Stanford, 1971), 190-201.

    1340. Francesco Balducci Pegolotti.
    Primary source:

  • Excerpts in English translated from the Pratica della Mercatura, in Henry Yule and Henri Cordier, tr. and ed., Cathay and the Way Thither, Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, Vol. III (London, 1916), pp. 143-171. Prof. Waugh has made a selection of these available on the Web.
  • La pratica della mercaturaz, ed. Allen Evans (Cambridge, Ma., 1936). A complete scholarly edition of the Italian text.

    1403-1406. Ruy Gonzales de Clavijo and Alfonso Paez.
    Primary source:

  • Guy le Strange, tr. and introd., Clavijo. Embassy to Tamerlane 1403-1406 (New York/London, 1928). Based on Spanish text published in 1881 by I. I. Sreznevskii; supersedes translation by Clements Markham published in 1859 by the Halkluyt Society.

    1414-1415, 1416-1417, 1420-1421(?). Ch'en Ch'eng.
    Primary source:

  • Morris Rossabi, "A Translation of Ch'en Ch'eng's Hsi-yü fan-kuo chih," Ming Studies, 17 (Fall 1983), 49-59. The complete text of the description of Herat.

    Secondary sources:

  • Morris Rossabi, "Two Ming Envoys to Inner Asia," T'oung Pao, LXII/1-3 (1976), 1-34; esp. 15-29. Includes (p. 24) translation of Ch'en Cheng's description of Hami.
  • Felicia J. Hecker, "A Fifteenth-Century Chinese Diplomat in Herat," Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 3rd ser., 3/1 (1993), 85-98. Valuable for assessment of the accuracy of his observations about Herat and his rendering of Persian vocabulary in phonetic transcription.

    1413-1415, 1421-1422, 1431-1433. Ma Huan.
    Primary source:

  • Ma Huan, Ying-yai sheng-lan. "The Overall Survey of the Ocean's Shores" [1433]. Translated from the Chinese text edited by Feng Ch'eng-Chün with introduction, notes and appendices by J. V. G. Mills (Cambridge, 1970). Extensively annotated, with a good introductory overview of the voyages; appendices include a study and translation of the "Mao K'un Map," a "marine cartogram" printed probably in the late 1620s in Mao Yüan-li's Wu-pei chi, and, from the same source, several stellar navigation diagrams.

    Secondary source:

  • Louise Levathes, When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne 1405-1433 (New York/Oxford, 1996). Appealingly written and illustrated; provides a broad sense of early Ming relations with the outside world, although main focus is the seven expeditions of the treasure fleets, all but one of them led by Admiral Ch'eng Ho.

    1419-1422. Ghiyathuddin Naqqash.
    Primary source:

  • Ghiyathuddin Naqqash, "Report to Mirza Baysunghur on the Timurid Legation to the Ming Court at Peking," tr. by W. M. Thackston, in A Century of Princes: Sources on Timurid History and Art (Cambridge, Mass., 1989), pp. 279-297. A composite version of the complete text, incorporating readings from two different sources.
  • A Persian Embassy to China. Being an Extract from Zubdatu-t tawarikh of Hafiz Abru, Tr. by K. M. Maitra, with a new introduction by L. Carrington Goodrich (New York, 1970; first published Lahore, 1934). Until Thackston's translation, the fullest and most widely used version of the embassy.
  • "The Embassy Sent by Shah Rukh to the Court of China. A.D. 1419-1422," Note XVII in Henry Yule and Henri Cordier, tr. and ed., Cathay and the Way Thither: Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, Vol. I (London, 1916; Delhi, 1998), pp. 271-289. Part summary, part translation from the French translation of the original Persian by Quatremère.

    1435-1439. Pero Tafur.
    Primary source:

  • Pero Tafur, Travels and Adventures, 1435-1439. Translated and Edited with an Introduction by Malcolm Letts (New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1926). The first complete translation from the original Spanish; brief but helpful introduction.

    1436-1452, 1473-1479. Giosofat Barbaro.
    Primary source:

  • Travels to Tana and Persia. Translated from the Italian by William Thomas, clerk of the Council to Edward VI, and by S. A. Roy, esq.; ed. by Lord Stanley of Alderley (London, 1873; reprint 1964) (=Works Issued by the Halkuyt Society, 1st ser., No. 49). Sixteenth-century translation into English; the volume includes Contarini's travels to Persia.
  • Barbaro i Kontrarini o Rossii. K istorii italo-russkikh sviazei v XV v. Vstupitel'nye stat'i, podgotovka teksta, perevod i kommentarii E. Ch. Skrzhinskoi (Leningrad, 1971). Edition, translation, and extended commentaries on Barbaro and Contarini, but only the "Travels to Tana" of the former.

    1466-1472. Afanasii Nikitin.
    Primary sources:

  • "Afanasii Nikitin's Journey Across Three Seas," tr. by Serge A. Zenkovsky in his Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales, rev. ed. (New York, 1974), 333-353. A condensed translation.
  • Khozhenie za tri moria Afanasiia Nikitina. Ed. Ia. S. Lur'e and L.S. Semenov (Leningrad, 1986). The best edition of the original Russian text.

    Secondary sources:

  • Gail D. Lenhoff and Janet L. B. Martin, "The Commercial and Cultural Context of Afanasij Nikitin's Journey Beyond Three Seas," Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, 37/3 (1989), 321-344.
  • Gail Lenhoff, "Beyond Three Seas: Afanasij Nikitin's Journey from Orthodoxy to Apostasy," East European Quarterly, 13/4 (1979), 431-447.

    1474-1477. Ambrogio Contarini.
    Primary source:

  • Travels to Tana and Persia. Translated from the Italian by William Thomas, clerk of the Council to Edward VI, and by S. A. Roy, esq.; ed. by Lord Stanley of Alderley (London, 1873; reprint 1964) (=Works Issued by the Halkuyt Society, 1st ser., No. 49). Sixteenth-century translation into English; the volume includes Barbaro's travels to Tana and Persia.
  • Barbaro i Kontrarini o Rossii. K istorii italo-russkikh sviazei v XV v. Vstupitel'nye stat'i, podgotovka teksta, perevod i kommentarii E. Ch. Skrzhinskoi (Leningrad, 1971). Edition, translation, and extended commentaries on Barbaro and Contarini.

    1490s-1530. Babur.
    Primary source:

  • Annette Beveridge, The Babur-nama in English, 2 v. (London, 1921). This is a literal if awkward translation, from which excerpts, selected and edited by Prof. Waugh and dealing mainly with Central Asia, have been placed on the Web.
  • Wheeler M. Thackston, The Baburnama: Memoirs of Babur, Prince and Emperor (Washington, D. C., etc., The Smithsonian Institution and Oxford University Press, 1996). An elegantly produced and smooth modern translation.

    1557-1560, 1561-1564, 1566-1567, 1571-1572. Anthony Jenkinson.
    Primary sources:

  • Richard Hakluyt, comp., The Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques & Discoveries of the English Nation, 8 v. (London, etc., 1927; reprint based on 1912 Glasgow ed., which in turn reproduces the first edition of 1589), I, 408-418, 438-468 (Jenkinson's first trip, with some appended notes gathered by his companions); II, pp. 9-29 (Jenkinson's second trip, preceded on pp. 1-9 and followed on pp. 29-30, by some related official documents), pp. 73-77 (a very brief account of voyage 3 and a copy of the trading privileges obtained in Moscow), pp. 136-156 (Jenkinson's negotiations in Moscow on his fourth trip); 157-158 (his summary of all his travels).
  • E. D. Morgan and C. H. Coote, eds., Early voyages and travels to Russia and Persi, 2 v. (London, 1886) (Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, nos. 72, 73). All the Jenkinson material conveniently collected here.

    Secondary source:

  • T. S. Willan, The Early History of the Russia Company 1553-1603 (Manchester, 1956; repr. 1968), passim. Includes a reproduction of a map based on Jenkinson's first trip, published in London in 1562, and later reproduced in Abraham Ortelius' famous atlas, Theatrum orbis terrarum.

    1579, 1580-1582, 1583-1584. John Newbery.
    Primary source:

  • "Two Voyages of Master John Newberie...," in Samuel Purchas, ed., Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes Contayning a History of the World in Sea Voyages and Lande Travells by Englishmen and others, 20 vols. (Glasgow, 1905-1907), Vol. VIII, pp. 449-481.
  • "Two Letters of M. John Nubery, relating his third and last Voyage...," in Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus, Vol. IX, pp. 493-496, followed by letters of John Eldred with references to Newbery.
  • Richard Hakluyt, comp., The Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques & Discoveries of the English Nation, 8 vols. (London, etc., 1927; various earlier eds.), Vol. 3, pp. 271-275 (Newbery's letters), followed by Fitch materials and the second-hand account about Newbery by Lischoten, the famous Dutch traveler and publisher of travel accounts.
  • J. Courtenay Locke, ed., The First Englishmen in India: Letters and Narratives of sundry Elizabethans written by themselves... (London: Routledge, 1930). Reprints from Purchas and Hakluyt all the Newbery letters and the relevant Eldred, Fitch and Linschoten materials, but not the Newbery account of his first two trips.

    Secondary source:

  • William Foster, England's Quest of Eastern Trade (London: Black, 1966; repr. of 1933 ed.), Chs. 7-8.

    1583-1591. Ralph Fitch.
    Primary source:

  • "The long, dangerous, and memorable voyage of M. Ralph Fitch...," in Richard Hakluyt, comp., The Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques & Discoveries of the English Nation , 8 vols. (London, etc., 1927; various earlier eds.), Vol. 3, pp. 281-315; also, pp. 280-281, one of Fitch's letters; pp. 315-321, Linschoten's account about Fitch's imprisonment in Goa. The republication of Fitch's account in Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus, is somewhat abridged.
  • J. Courtenay Locke, ed., The First Englishmen in India: Letters and Narratives of sundry Elizabethans written by themselves... (London: Routledge, 1930). Includes Fitch's "Relation," pp. 69-78, 88-89, 99-149, and the other documents relating to his trip.

    Secondary source:

  • William Foster, England's Quest of Eastern Trade (London: Black, 1966; repr. of 1933 ed.), Chs. VIII-IX.

    1602-1607. Benedict Goës.
    Primary source:

  • An English translation, in Henry Yule and Henri Cordier, tr. and ed., Cathay and the Way Thither, Being a Collection of Medieval Notices of China, Vol. IV (London, 1916), pp. 198-254. Excerpts, from this text have been made available by Prof. Waugh.

    1615-1616. Richard Steele and John Crowther.
    Primary source:

  • "Journey of Richard Steel and John Crowther, from Ajmeer in India, to Ispahan in Persia, in the Years 1615 and 1616," in Robert Kerr, ed., A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels...., Vol. IX (Edinburgh and London, 1824), pp. 206-219, a reprint from Samuel Purchas' collection of travel accounts entitled Haklyutus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes (in the 1905-1907 re-edition, vol. IV). A web version of the text is here.

    Secondary source:

  • Niels Steensgaard, The Asian Trade Revolution of the Seventeenth Century: The East India Companies and the Decline of the Caravan Trade (Chicago/London, 1974), passim. Includes citation of letters by Steele to his superiors.

    1629-1675. Jean Baptiste Tavernier.
    Primary Sources:

  • Jean Baptiste Tavernier. The Six Voyages of John Baptiste Tavernier, Baron of Aubonne, Through Turkey into Persia and the East-Indies, for the Space of Forty Years... Tr. by John Philips (London, 1677). Apparently a reasonably accurate translation of his Les six voyages... (Paris, 1676).
  • Jean Baptiste Tavernier, Travels in India, tr. from the original French edition of 1676 with a biographical sketch of the author, notes, appendices, &c., by V. Ball (London, 1925; reprint 1995). Contains part 2 of the "Six Voyages."

    Secondary Source:

  • Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, The Shah's Silk for Europe's Silver: The Eurasian Trade of the Julfa Armenians in Safavid Iran and India (1530-1750) (Atlanta, Ga., 1999), passim. Makes frequent and approving use of Tavernier. The same author has a forthcoming book, Orientalism under the Sun King, which will contain a significant section on Tavernier.

    1633-35, 1635-39, 1643. Adam Olearius.
    Primary sources:

  • Samuel H. Baron, tr. and ed., The Travels of Olearius in Seventeenth-Century Russia (Stanford, 1967). Abridged but supersedes the 17th-century English edition for the Russian part of the journey. Does not include Persian section.
  • Adam Olearius, The voyages and Travels of the Ambassadors Sent by Frederick, Duke of Holstein, to the Grand Duke of Muscovy and to the King of Persia. Tr. by John Davies (London, 1662). Baron notes that while this translation "did preserve the sense of most of the passages," the translator took many liberties with the text, transposing material, adding things, and often introducing inaccuracies. The online excerpt taken from the English edition published in the 1660s is available..
  • Adam Olearius, Vermehrte Newe Beschreibung Der Muscowitischen und Persischen Reyse. Ed. by Dieter Lohmeier (Tübingen, 1971; facsimile of Schleswig, 1656, ed.)

    Secondary sources:

  • Baron, The Travels, Preface and Introduction.
  • Charles J. Halperin, "In the Eye of the Beholder: Two Views of Seventeenth-Century Muscovy," Russian History, 24/4 (1997), 409-423. Thoughtful comparison of Olearius' view of Muscovy with that by Deacon Paul of Aleppo, who accompanied the Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch to Moscow in the 1650s.

    1664-1667, 1671-1677. John Chardin.
    Primary sources:

  • John Chardin, Travels in Persia, 1673-1677. Preface by N. M. Penzer; Introduction by Percy Sykes (New York, 1988). Convenient paperback, which reprints the condensed English translation published in London in 1720. The online excerpt is from the 1927 reprint of the 1720 edition..
  • Jean Chardin, Voyages du chevalier Chardin, en Perse, et autres lieux de l'Orient. Ed. L. Langlès. 10 v. (Paris, 1810-1811). The complete edition of Chardin, which supersedes a variety of earlier French editions, the first of which appeared simultaneuosly with an English translation in 1686.

    Secondary Source:

  • J. W[estby-]G[ibson], "Sir John Chardin (1643-1712), Dictionary of National Biography, IV (NY/London, 1908), 63-64.

    1682-1693. Hovhannes Joughayetsi.
    Secondary sources:

  • Levon Khachikian, "The Ledger of the Merchant Hovhannes Joughayetsi," Journal of the Asiatic Society (Calcutta), VIII/3 (1966), 153-186. Includes some quotations from the account and extensive information on prices, a list of all the products mentioned, listings of terms for weights and measures. A French version of this article is in Annales, économies, sociétés, civilizations, T. 22.
  • Niels Steensgaard, The Asian Trade Revolution of the Seventeenth Century: the East India Companies and the Decline of the Caravan Trade (Chicago/London, 1974), esp. pp. 22-31. Uses Hovhannes as an example of the unsophisticated Asian "peddlar."
  • Ina Baghdiantz McCabe, The Shah's Silk for Europe's Silver: The Eurasian Trade of the Julfa Armenians in Safavid Iran and India (1530-1750) (Atlanta, 1999), esp. pp. 205-214. Questions the "peddlar" image of authors such as Steensgaard and argues for greater importance and sophistication of the Armenian merchant companies.

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