The Silk Road first brought Europeans to Asia for trade and changed the course of history. Readers will learn who explored the Asian peninsula and about the exploits of famous explorers such as Marco Polo and Ferdinand Magellan. Full-color photographs show the interesting landscapes and history in stunning detail. Fact boxes add depth to every expedition and journey, while glossary terms and further information give readers an in-depth examination of this exciting topic.
An accessible, transregional exploration of how Islam and Asia have shaped each other's histories, societies and cultures from the seventh century to today.
A Brief Illustrated History of Exploration charts the history of exploration all the way from the first explorers, through to contact with the East, to the African coast, to the Northwest Passage, and through to the discovery of North America. With stunning full-color images and illustrations, this beautiful book is sure to fascinate and charm the young reader.
The Ancient Explorers (1929) examines the motives of ancient exploration by the different civilizations of the time, the primary of these being the Greeks and the Romans, and looks at the means of travel at their disposal. The book uses both historical records and modern archaeological discoveries to piece together the important journeys that expanded the known worlds of the ancient peoples.
Arab history is often viewed as beginning with Islam. But the Arabs have a long history stretching back millenia-and it is one intimately bound up with European history and identity. The Arabs' forbears, the Phoenicians, were exploring the coasts of England and West Africa and colonizing much of Spain, Sicily and North Africa in the early first millennium BC. The Arabs were to continue this tradition of world penetration long before the European "Age of Expansion." Islam, therefore, was as much a culmination as a beginning. The arrival of the Arabs in Spain in 711 and the subsequent continuation of Islam's first Caliphate in Cordoba after a second one had been established in Baghdad-not to mention Emirates in the Balearics, Sicily and southern Italy, and further penetration throughout much of Italy, France and Switzerland-can only be understood as part of a process that had already been underway for several thousands of years. Phoenicians and Arabs form a part of European history that is both European and Asiatic, a part that defines and makes Europe what it is-cultures that can no more be excluded from Europe than the Viking, Roman or Greek. Europe has been engaged in a complex relationship with the Arabs and their immediate forbears throughout its history. This richly illustrated book is an account of that relationship.
