Ancient Indian Colonies in the Far East (Vol. I: Champa; Vol. II: Suvarnadvipa) v2.c20.s2.25

v2.c20.s2.25

A very detailed account of this sea-route from Canton to the Persian Gulf has been preserved in the itineraries compiled by Kia Tan between A.D. 785 and 805,¹ and everything indicates that the volume of foreign trade in China had grown enormously. In particular, the Muslim Arabs had far surpassed other nations in their maritime enterprise by the ninth century A.D. We have a series of interesting Arab narratives of this period concerning trade with China. "The ships engaged in China trade sailed from Siraf on the coast of Fars, where the goods were brought from Basra, Oman, and other places. They then went to Mascat, whence they sailed for Kulam-Male (Quilon), which port was reached in a month. Passing the Nicobar islands they made directly for Kalah (Keddah) on the Malay Peninsula, which was reached in a month from Kulam."²