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| Wednesday, 26 May 2004 |
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Books of historical interest Gleanings by K.S. Sivakumaran This week let me introduce briefly a few books in English of historical interest. They are all profusely illustrated well bound hard cover editions of many pages. Some of the earliest civilizations of the world are brought to us in academic fashion by scholars from various parts of the world. Let's begin with a book on The World of the Ancient Greeks compiled by John Camp and Elizabeth Fisher. Both are scholars of aspects of Greek Civilization. The book has 376 illustrations in colour and b/w. This 224 page book has 10 chapters covering 55 aspects of the ancient Greeks from their origin to the Bryzantines, Franks and Ottomans. The supplements include Gazetteer, Further Reading, Illustration Credits and Index. The book records the Greek Civilization from the Paleolithic Age to the Ottoman Empire. Although the book focuses on the importance of Athens, other places of importance are also included in the survey. Some of the adventurous events described in the book are the Trojan War, Mythology, Migration and Settlement in Asia Minor and Southern Italy, Persian Invasion of Greece, Alexander's Conquest of Asia, Roman Intervention, The Spread of Christianity, The Rise of Islam, The Crusades to the Holy Land, and the Conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans. The Balkan Peninsula the Mediterranean and the Black Sea form the canvas for the description of the great Greeks. Students and others of Western Classical Culture would find this book interpretative on new knowledge on the subject. Avid readers of J.R.R. Tolkien's books and his world would find the fantasy worlds captured in cartography by Karen Wynn Fonstad in her book, The Atlas of Middle - Earth. It is a revised edition and an updated, authentic guide to the geography of Tolkien's fiction, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion. I am not a great fan of this illustrious writer Tolkien, but did some reading on him and some of his works to recompensate my aversion to him on the advice of a young respondent to this column. The author of this Atlas includes the following map types : 1. physical ( including landforms, minerals, and climate ), with place names; 2. political ( or spheres of influence ); 3. battles; 4. migrations ( closely tied with linguistics); 5. the traveller's pathways; and 6. site maps ( towns, dwellings ). The Atlas of 210 pages has the following sections: The First Age, The Second Age, The Third Age, Regional Maps, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, Thematic Maps and of course, Appendix, Notes, Selected References, Index of Place Names and Index of Selected place Names for The History of Middle Earth. I know that Tolkien is essential reading for High School students in some parts of the world. This book therefore may be of interest and use to such students. Western and Eastern cultures have in some way linked with Bryzantium. To know more about it I turned to The Oxford History of Bryzantium. Edited by Cyril Mango. This 334 page compendium has elegantly written essays by world renowned scholars on a civilization of 11 centuries in the Eastern Mediterranean. In Sri Lanka, we study European History from 1494 and pass the Ancient and Medieval History. But I think that at least in High or Secondary schools, we should include an outline of the main trends and basic knowledge of different histories: 1. Lankan History: (a) The History of Sinhala speaking people, (b) The History of Thamil speaking people, (c) The History of Lanka during the Portuguese, the Dutch and the British periods from 1505 to 1947, (d) The History of Islamic people, (e) Buddhism in Sri Lanka, (f) Hinduism in Sri Lanka, (g) Islam in Sri Lanka, (h) Christianity in Sri Lanka (i) Other Religions in Sri Lanka. 2. Indian History as it affects Lankan History 3. South East Asian History as it affects Lankan History 4. European History 5. American History 6. Landmarks in World History from the earliest to the end of 20th century 7. Contemporary History. History, Social Studies, Literature, Language Arts through Reading and Creative Writing, Maths, General and Integrated Science, Health and Environment, Fine Arts, Technology, Computing, Vocational Skills - these are some subjects which could be taught in schools from the Middle School. While restructuring the Educational System, the authorities concerned may consider this. Coming back to this anthology covering a period from 4th century to the mid 15th century, we find that it is a useful and educative assemblage of material from the Roman beginnings to the fall of Constantinople ( Istanbul ) and assimilation into the Turkish Empire. The epithet ' Bryzantine ' refers to the Eastern Roman Empire ruled from Constantinople established by the Emperor Constantine in A.D. 324. The book has 12 almost exhaustive chapters and chronology, select bibliography, illustration sources, index, special features, maps and figures and colour plates. An Empire's Edge is another book of 350 pages which explores Rome's Egyptian Frontier. Students of history would know that Egypt became a province of the Roman empire in 30 B.C. The author of this well written first hand account of interesting facts and details teaches history at the American International School of Muscat in the Sultanate of Oman. He is Robert B. Jackson. For a brief period between 1997 and 2000, I was also in Oman teaching at the Sri Lankan School, Muscat and therefore a little familiar with Egyptian lifestyle as seen in Oman. We learn that the author ' has journeyed to virtually every known Roman site in the area from Siwa Oasis, 45 km from the modern Libyan border, to the Sudan '. The author explains how Rome channelled the wealth of India and East Africa through the desert via ports on the Red Sea among other details. He also writes about the earliest large-scale conversion to Christianity in Egypt. The book includes illustration, maps, bibliography and index. The Eastern Desert, The Upper Nile Valley, The Western Desert are the three sections under which the author illustrate the topics with first hand information and therefore interesting and informative. Thamil Inscriptions I found an interesting information in Jackson's book. Talking about the Eastern Desert, he says that a large variety of amphorae was present dating from the first and second centuries A.D., and they were ' inscribed with Thamil graffiti in the Brahmi script and likely came from Arikamedu in southern India ( not far from the modern town of Paandichery ( Pondichery ) '. He adds that ' these constitute the first Indian Tamil inscriptions ever found in Egypt, and their discovery, next to a small iron forage, raises the possibility that a small community of Indian merchants or metal workers lived at Quasei al -Qadimr ' On page 88, Jackson writes: " Romans were not the only ones to comment on the nature of their trade with India. A Tamil poem from the second or third century A.D., includes the following passage: ' The beautiful vessels, the masterpieces of the Yavanas ( Westerners ), stir white foam on the Periyar, river of Kerala, arriving with gold and departing with pepper '. The Periyar River is on the southwest coast of India. Even Sri Lankan beads artifacts were found in the excavations at Bernike in 1994, informs Jackson. The Silk Road Let me conclude this week's column with a brief note on the history of the ' The Silk Road ' This Road between China and the West was famous in ancient trails although the Greek geographer, Ptolemy mentions several ancient trade routes that stretched from the Mediterranean world to the far East. But with ancient China opening its windows towards the outside world, Chinese silk became popular in as far west as Rome. It is said that the first Silk Road caravan left from China to the west in 106 B.C. Silk was taken to the Mediterranean, 4000 miles away from China and then exported to all across Europe and Asia. Although the silk industry had begun in Constantinople, the Chinese silk was considered superior. The caravans from China took silk along the Silk Road. Linking China with India and the Mediterranean, this road became the highway of wealth for the Chinese, the Arabs, and the Europeans. Traders from all around the Far East would join the caravans of more than 1000 camels to trade with the west. The Venetian traveller, Marco Polo gives ample testimony to a great civilization that flourished in the East, particularly in China. After the 12th or 13th centuries, China virtually closed its doors to trade and travel and turned inward until very recently. And we learn that the Silk Road caravan trade was probably the reason behind the invention of paper money. contact : [email protected] **** Back **** |
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