Description
Book SynopsisThis book covers new ground on the diffusion and transmission of geographical knowledge that occurred at critical junctures in the long history of the Silk Road. Much of twentieth-century scholarship on the Silk Road examined the ancient archaeological objects and medieval historical records found within each cultural area, while the consequences of long-distance interaction across Eurasia remained poorly studied. Here ample attention is given to the journeys that notions and objects undertook to transmit spatial values to other civilizations. In retracing the steps of four major circuits right across the many civilizations that shared the Silk Road, The Journey of Maps and Images on the Silk Road traces the ways in which maps and images surmounted spatial, historical and cultural divisions.
Trade Review"Cet ouvrage est donc un moment fort dans la constitution d’un corpus de données qui permettront une réflexion sur les relations entre l’interculturalité et les objets graphiques qui la rendent visible." – Hervé Regnauld, in: espacestemps "… a rich feast for both experts and general readers and will invite far more transnational research on the Silk Road." – RANIN KAZEMI, Department of History, Yale University, in: Int. J. Middle East Stud. 42 (2010), 323–367 "Accompanied by beautifully reproduced color figures, the articles in this volume weigh intriguing questions about the transmission of visual knowledge, considering, for example, how cultural blind spots can lead to copyists’ inaccuracies or how indigenous and foreign styles can affect one another. It is a rich feast for both experts and general readers and will invite far more transnational research on the Silk Road." – LIANG CAI, in: Int. J. Middle East Stud. 42 (2010)
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Contributors Transliterations and Conventions List of Illustrations and Maps Foreword - Lorenz Hurni Preface: What Is a Map? - Valerie Hansen INTRODUCTION - Philippe Forêt and Andreas Kaplony PART I: THE BUDDHIST ROAD 1 Traces of the Silk Road in Han-Dynasty Iconography: Questions and Hypotheses - Nicolas Zufferey 2 Visualizing Pilgrimage and Mapping Experience: Mount Wutai on the Silk Road - Natasha Heller 3 The Mapping of Sacred Space: Images of Buddhist Cosmographies in Medieval China - Dorothy C. Wong PART II: THE MONGOL ROAD 4 Lost in Translation: Gridded Plans and Maps along the Silk Road - Jonathan Bloom 5 Square Horoscope Diagrams in Middle Eastern Astrology and Chinese Cosmological Diagrams: Were These Designs Transmitted through the Silk Road? - Johannes Thomann 6 The Intrusion of East Asian Imagery in Thirteenth-Century Armenia: Political and Cultural Exchanges along the Silk Road - Dickran Kouymjian PART III: WITHIN THE ISLAMIC WORLD 7 Comparing al-Kāshgharī’s Map to His Text: On the Visual Language, Purpose, and Transmission of Arabic-Islamic Maps - Andreas Kaplony 8 The Book of Curiosities: A Medieval Islamic View of the East - Yossef Rapoport PART IV: THE MEDITERRANEAN ROAD 9 Celestial Maps and Illustrations in Arabic-Islamic Astronomy - Paul Kunitzsch 10 Revisiting Catalan Portolan Charts: Do They Contain Elements of Asian Provenance? - Sonja Brentjes CONCLUSION - Philippe Forêt and Andreas Kaplony Appendix: List of Geographical Nomenclature in al-Kāshgharī’s Text and Map - Andreas Kaplony General Bibliography Index
