The Admiral: Zheng He

Tamerlane died January 1404. By then his armies had already destroyed cities from Moscow to Delhi, destroyed principle centers of Islamic heartlands, the Ottoman sultan had been defeated and Egypt given a humiliating peace. Only China was left. The destruction of many cities in the east-west trade routes and the slaughtering of their populations was a terrible blow for the economy. Tamerlane’s death caused people to search for trade routes. The Yongle emperor of the Ming dynasty assembled a great army and set them out for an expedition of the Indian Ocean. There were seven expeditions in total. Ma Ho, Chinese version for Muhammad, was the son of a Chinese Muslim who had been on pilgrimage to Makah. Ma Ho was later called Zheng He, and was appointed admiral of the Chinese fleets going on the expedition.

The first three expeditions were the Ming simply trying to display their power throughout Asia and the Arabian regions. On the fourth expedition, Zheng He was accompanied by Ma Huan, a Muslim Chinese who learned Arabic and a little bit of Persian. He acted as a translator and eventually wrote a book about the countries he visited. His book had 22 chapters, each about a different country. His books were filled with great details and explained the appearances of the people, the trade, the region, the customs, and many other details.

Ma Huan compared the women’s clothing in some of the countries to the Chinese goddess of mercy. He talked about food, such as: Persian dates, almonds, dried grapes, peaches, apricots. He talked about pastries which were absent in the Chinese cuisine, he couldn’t describe it except say that “many of the people make up a mixture of milk, cream, butter, sugar, and honey to eat.” He wrote about the king and people’s loyalty to Islam, and the way Islam was practiced and how it flourished. He said “their customs are pure and honest.” Ma Huan was also surprised at the trade cities saying “foreign ships from everyplace, foreign merchants travelling by land all come to this country to attend the market and trade; hence the people of this country are all rich.” When the Chinese ships came to depart, the ruler of Yemen gave them gifts to present to the king. The Chinese interpreted this as tribute. One Yemeni writer said, “The Chinese seem to think that everyone is their subject, showing complete ignorance of political reality.” The Ming expeditions established a long lasting trade relationship, and would have been dominant and almost have a trade monopoly t