For three weeks of NYU Shanghai's January Term, students and faculty from NYU New York and NYU Abu Dhabi will study the Arab merchant communities who settled in China from the early days of Islam to the early modern period. This course, titled Arabs, Islam, and Commerce in China and the Indian Ocean 9-16th Centuries, is taught by NYU Professor of History and Middle Eastern/Islamic Studies Zvi Ben-Dor Benite.
Among the topics covered by the NYU NY and NYUAD students are the early expeditions of Zheng He and the Ming admiral’s voyages to the Arab Indian Ocean. Professor Benite uses a newly translated version of an early Arabic travel book—which recounts the observations of Arab seafarers traveling to ancient China—in his class. Next week, his class will journey to Yangzhou to visit historic sites, including the Yangzhou Xianhe Mosque and the Puha Ding cemetery.
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Written by Kate Chandler