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Ling-wai Tai-ta
''Lingwai Daida'' (), variously translated as ''Representative Answers from the Region beyond the Mountains'', ''Notes Answering [Curious Questions] from the land beyond the Pass'' or other similar titles, is a 12th-century geographical treatise written by Zhou Qufei (). It contains information on the geography, history, social custom and economy of territories of southern China, Guangxi in particular. More significantly it also provides knowledge of distant lands in China during the Song dynasty, and includes descriptions of oversea states as far away as Africa and southern Spain. Background The book was written in 1178 by Zhou Qufei. Zhou based his book largely on information he had gathered himself and other previous published works, particularly a book written by Fan Chengda. He worked for 6 years in Guangxi; and had worked as an assistant sub-prefect in Guilin, Guangxi. In Guilin, Zhou served for a time under Fan Chengda who wrote a book on the southern region of China, '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhao Rugua
Zhao Rukuo (; 1170–1231), also read as Zhao Rugua, or misread as Zhao Rushi, was a Chinese historian and politician during the Song dynasty. He wrote a two-volume book titled ''Zhu Fan Zhi''. The book deals with the world known to the Chinese in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; the first volume is a list of foreign places with descriptions of each place and the customs of its local people. The second volume is a catalog of trade goods. Biography Zhao was a member of the Song Dynasty imperial clan, an eighth-generation descendant of Emperor Taizong in the lineage through the younger brother of Emperor Zhenzong. He was born in Tiantai County in Taizhou, Zhejiang in 1170. He began his career as a bureaucrat in 1190, and rose through the rank. In 1224, he was appointed the supervisor of maritime trade (市舶司, ) in Quanzhou, Fujian province. He also held the posts of prefect for Quanzhou as well the southern administrator. He died in 1231 and was buried in Linhai County i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Daoyi Zhilüe
''Daoyi Zhilüe'' () or ''Daoyi Zhi'' () which may be translated as ''A Brief Account of Island Barbarians'' or other similar titles, is a book written c. 1339 (completed c. 1349) by Yuan Dynasty Chinese traveller Wang Dayuan recounting his travels to over a hundred places in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa. The book was written in present-day Sri Lanka. It described the weather, products, people, and customs of the places that Wang Dayuan visited. The timeline for Wang Dayuan's life and travels is: *1311 - born *1330 - sailed for the first time from Quanzhou *1334 - returned to Yuan Dynasty *1337 - sailed for the second time from Quanzhou *1339 - returned to Yuan Dynasty Content of the book (known as ''Dao Yi Zhu'') was originally an appendix in a local gazetteer ''Qing Yuan Xu Zhi'' ( 清源续志, ''A Continuation of the History and Topography of Quanzhou)'' composed by Wu Jian in 1349. According to the Yuan poet Zhang Zhu, ''Daoyi Zhilüe'' was re-published in 1350 as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William W
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of England in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is sometimes abbreviated "Wm." Shortened familiar versions in English include Will, Wills, Willy, Willie, Bill, and Billy. A common Irish form is Liam. Scottish diminutives include Wull, Willie or Wullie (as in Oor Wullie or the play ''Douglas''). Female forms are Willa, Willemina, Wilma and Wilhelmina. Etymology William is related to the given name ''Wilhelm'' (cf. Proto-Germanic ᚹᛁᛚᛃᚨᚺᛖᛚᛗᚨᛉ, ''*Wiljahelmaz'' > German ''Wilhelm'' and Old Norse ᚢᛁᛚᛋᛅᚼᛅᛚᛘᛅᛋ, ''Vilhjálmr''). By regular sound changes, the native, inherited English form of the name should b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Friedrich Hirth
Friedrich Hirth, Ph.D. (16 April 1845 in Gräfentonna, Saxe-Gotha – 10 January 1927 in Munich) was a German-American sinologist. Biography He was educated at the universities of Leipzig, Berlin, and Greifswald (Ph.D., 1869). He was in the Chinese Maritime Customs Service from 1870 to 1897. In 1902, Professor Hirth was appointed to the professorship of Chinese in Columbia University (New York City). Prior to World War II, a collection of Chinese manuscripts and printed books made by him was in the Royal Library at Berlin, and another of porcelains of considerable historical importance in the Gotha Museum; most of the Hirth collection from the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin is now in Kraków. As an investigator he conducted researches in Chinese literature by imitation of the methods of classical philology. Works * Translates and annotates a merchant log dealing with the Superintendent of Customs or "Hoppo". * ''China and the Roman Orient: Researches into their Ancient and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Simoom
Simoom ( ar, سموم ''samūm''; from the root ''s-m-m'', "to poison") is a strong, hot, dry, dust-laden wind. The word is generally used to describe a local wind that blows in the Sahara, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and the deserts of Arabian Peninsula. Its temperature may exceed and the relative humidity may fall below 10%. Name Alternative spellings include samoon, samun, simoun, and simoon. Another name used for this wind is samiel ( Turkish ''samyeli'' from Arabic ''sāmm سامّ'' meaning ''poisonous'' and Turkish ''yel'' meaning ''wind''). An alternative type occurring in the region of Central Asia is known as "Garmsil" (гармсель). The name means "poison wind" and is given because the sudden onset of simoom may also cause heat stroke. This is attributed to the fact that the hot wind brings more heat to the body than can be disposed of by the evaporation of perspiration. Description ''The Nuttall Encyclopædia'' described the simoom: The storm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Land Of Darkness
The Land of Darkness (Arabic: دياري الظلمات romanized: ''Diyārī Zulūmāt'') was a mythical land supposedly enshrouded in perpetual darkness. It was usually said to be in Abkhazia, and was officially known as Hanyson or Hamson (or some variation; the name apparently comes from the Hamshen area of Turkey), or simply the Forest of Abkhazia. The Land of Darkness enjoyed popularity in medieval travel literature such as the '' Alexander Romance'' and the ''Travels of Sir John Mandeville''. According to Mandeville, no one ventures into Hanyson out of fear, but the people in the surrounding area know it to be populated, as they can hear human voices inside. The residents of Hanyson are the descendants of Persian Emperor Saures (Shapur II) and his men, who were trapped there forever by a miracle of God. Saures had been persecuting his Christian subjects in Abkhazia, and had cornered them on a plain. They prayed to God, and God responded by surrounding the king's armies in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catty
The catty, kati or , pronounced as jin in Mandarin and gan in Cantonese, is a traditional Chinese unit of mass used across East and Southeast Asia, notably for weighing food and other groceries in some wet markets, street markets, and shops. Related units include the picul, equal to 100 catties, and the tael (also spelled ''tahil'', in Malay/Indonesian), which is of a catty. A stone is a former unit used in Hong Kong equal to 120 catties and a ''gwan'' (鈞) is 30 catties. Catty or ''kati'' is still used in Southeast Asia as a unit of measurement in some contexts especially by the significant Overseas Chinese populations across the region, particularly in Malaysia and Singapore. The catty is traditionally equivalent to around pound avoirdupois, formalised as 604.78982 grams in Hong Kong, 604.79 grams in Malaysia and 604.8 grams in Singapore. In some countries, the weight has been rounded to 600 grams (Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Thailand). In mainland China, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Damietta
Damietta ( arz, دمياط ' ; cop, ⲧⲁⲙⲓⲁϯ, Tamiati) is a port city and the capital of the Damietta Governorate in Egypt, a former bishopric and present multiple Catholic titular see. It is located at the Damietta branch, an eastern distributary of the Nile Delta, from the Mediterranean Sea, about north of Cairo. Damietta joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities. Etymology The modern name of the town comes from its Coptic name Tamiati ( cop, ⲧⲁⲙⲓⲁϯ} Late Coptic: ), which in turn most likely comes from Ancient Egyptian ("harbour, port"), although al-Maqrizi suggested a Syriac etymology. History Mentioned by the 6th-century geographer Stephanus Byzantius, it was called ''Tamiathis'' () in the Hellenistic period. Under Caliph Omar (579–644), the Arabs took the town and successfully resisted the attempts by the Byzantine Empire to recover it, especially in 739, 821, 921 and 968. The Abbasids used Alexandria, Damietta, Aden and Siraf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The Sea has played a central role in the history of Western civilization. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago. The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of about , representing 0.7% of the global ocean surface, but its connection to the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar—the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates the Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa—is only wide. The Mediterranean Sea e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to the east, and the disputed territory of Western Sahara to the south. Mauritania lies to the south of Western Sahara. Morocco also claims the Spanish exclaves of Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, and several small Spanish-controlled islands off its coast. It spans an area of or , with a population of roughly 37 million. Its official and predominant religion is Islam, and the official languages are Arabic and Berber; the Moroccan dialect of Arabic and French are also widely spoken. Moroccan identity and culture is a mix of Arab, Berber, and European cultures. Its capital is Rabat, while its largest city is Casablanca. In a region inhabited since the Paleolithic Era over 300,000 years ago, the first Moroccan s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Almoravid Dynasty
The Almoravid dynasty ( ar, المرابطون, translit=Al-Murābiṭūn, lit=those from the ribats) was an imperial Berber Muslim dynasty centered in the territory of present-day Morocco. It established an empire in the 11th century that stretched over the western Maghreb and Al-Andalus, starting in the 1050s and lasting until its fall to the Almohads in 1147. The Almoravid capital was Marrakesh, a city founded by the Almoravid leader Abu Bakr ibn Umar circa 1070. The dynasty emerged from a coalition of the Lamtuna, Gudala, and Massufa, nomadic Berber tribes living in what is now Mauritania and the Western Sahara, traversing the territory between the Draa, the Niger, and the Senegal rivers. The Almoravids were crucial in preventing the fall of Al-Andalus (Muslim rule in Iberia) to the Iberian Christian kingdoms, when they decisively defeated a coalition of the Castilian and Aragonese armies at the Battle of Sagrajas in 1086. This enabled them to control an empire that ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
