国立情報学研究所 - ディジタル・シルクロード・プロジェクト
『東洋文庫所蔵』貴重書デジタルアーカイブ

Arabs, but they too built on the system of Ptolemy. They knew of Tibet, but had
very vague ideas in the matter. In the year 851, the name of the mysterious
country is mentioned by the merchant Suleiman, but it is the musk-trade that
awakens his greatest interest. Through the trade that the Caliphs of Bagdad carried
on with India and China, the Arabs came into closer contact with the more distant
countries. Ibn Khordadhbeh speaks cursorily of Tibet, so also does Al Ya 'kubi
in the year 880. Masudi visited India in 912 and lets us suspect that he had some
notion of the lake Manasarovar. He endeavours to fix the situation of the sources
of the Panjab rivers, and touches as lightly as his predecessors on the name of Tibet.
Ibn Haukal and Alberuni are not able to designate more distinctly the place of this
realm, but the latter quotes the statements of the Indian Puranas about the land to
the North.

Edrisi wrote in the year 1154. For any one seeking for information about
the hydrography of South-western Tibet, he is the most valuable and most surprising
among the Arabian geographers. His writings are, however, of no easy interpretation.
Also in his statements we are allowed to get a glimpse of Manasarovar, the holy
lake of the Hindoos. By Tibet he meant in reality Ladak, as did many of his pre-
decessors. In 1340, Ibn Batuta travelled in these parts. According to him, the
mountains of Assam are connected with the Tibetan ranges where the »musk-gazelles»
are to be found.

Later Mohammedan authors have not much to add above what has already
been told by their predecessors. Mirza Haidar, who travelled in 1533, is the first
one able to give us anything positive out of his own experience. But the result is
slight, and the geographical names difficult to identify. The Emperor Akbar gave
his attention for both practical and religious reasons to geographic investigation, in-
side as well as outside the borders of his empire. He caused a work to be published,
called Ain-i-Akbari, which is flowing over with information about India. Of special
interest to us are the descriptions of the hydrographical system of the great Indian
rivers. But even to the author of Ain-i-Akbari, the conception of Tibet only covered
Ladak and Baltistan.

The Chinese form a splendid exception from the nebulous obscurity in which
other Oriental nations have floated with regard to their knowledge of Tibet. Their
politics, their trade and, not least, their sense of geographical realities, brought them
to this point long before the name of Tibet was known in Europe. Also the desire
for religious research has induced Chinese buddhists, such as Fa-Hian and Hiuen-
Tsang to admirable journeys in the interior of Asia. I am coming back to their