Overview

During the latter part of the Middle Ages, India, China, and the European countries embracing Christianity were the prominent centers of the known world. For a brief period, exploration brought new geographic understanding and an exchange of ideas between the people and cultures of the East and the West. Arabic travelers and Christian pilgrimages provided important geographic and cultural information about China and India. Jordanus of Séverac, a French Catholic monk, traveled to India and wrote Mirabilia (Book of marvels, c. 1330), describing the geography and people. Biruni, a Persian scholar and scientist, wrote a book that discussed and described the history, geography and religion of India. Biruni's book was called Kitāb fī tahqīq ma li'l-Hind, translated and published as India (c. 1030), and later, Al-Beruni's India. Jordanus's account is still considered among the most valuable...