Title: Roads and Kingdoms

Author: Ibn Khordadbeh (Arabian)

Translation and Annotation: Song Xian

Publisher: Sino-Culture Press

Edition: 1st Edition, September 2017

Format: 16 - mo Binding: Soft - hardcover

Number of Printed Sheets: 17.25 Word Count: 190,000 characters

ISBN: 9787507546088

Price: 38.00 CNY

Roads and Kingdoms records the distances between various places, the types, qualities, and prices of commercial goods, the accommodation and dining conditions on trade routes, seaports, and sea voyages. It depicts a map of international trade routes in the 9th century for readers. Its scope is so extensive that it almost encompasses the entire civilized world. In the east, it records Japan, Silla, Ma-i, the Spice Islands, and China. In the west, it mentions Francia, al - Andalus, and Pretoria. It elaborates on the active roles of Jewish merchants, Rus merchants, and Muslim merchants of the Islamic Empire in international trade. In particular, The Book of Roads and Kingdoms provides relatively detailed accounts of China's ports, rivers, products, and sea voyages.

In addition, The Book of the Tax Registers and How to Compile Them is attached. Its content is largely the same as that of Roads and Kingdoms, and it seems that the two authors used the same source materials.

Ibn Khordadbeh, whose original name was Abu al-Qasim, was born in 820 AD and died in 912 AD. He once served as the postmaster and intelligence chief of the Jibal province in the Abbasid Caliphate. He was a close friend of Caliph al - Mu'tamid (reigned from 870 - 893 AD) and was highly esteemed and favored by him. He was erudite and prolific, with nine of his books listed in The Index of All Sciences. In his book The Meadows of Gold, Masudi praised The Book of Roads and Kingdoms as "a precious book, an inexhaustible treasure from which one can always gain enlightenment and knowledge."

Song Xian, a research fellow, was born in Jilin Province in 1946. He graduated from the Arabic Department of the PLA University of Foreign Languages. In 1978, he entered the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and successively worked in the Translation and Compilation Office of the Institute of World Religions, the Research Office of the History of Sino - Foreign Relations in the Institute of History, and the Research Office of Ancient and Medieval History in the Institute of World History. His major works include A Brief History of Cultural Exchanges between China and Arabia, Research and Interpretation of the Hui - Hui Prescriptions, and Ancient Persian Medicine and China.