How Asia's great civilization spread when its traveling merchants, scholars, and holy men brought their shining civilization to Europe's Dark Ages. While European intellectual, cultural, and commercial life stagnated during the early medieval period, Asia flourished as the wellspring of science, philosophy, and religion. Linked together by a web of religious, commercial, and intellectual connections, the different regions of Asia's vast civilization, from Arabia to China, hummed with commerce, international diplomacy, and the brisk exchange of ideas. Stewart Gordon has fashioned a fascinating and unique look at Asia from A.D. 700 to 1500, a time when Asia was the world, by describing the personal journeys of Asia's many travelers--the merchants who traded spices along the Silk Road, the apothecaries who exchanged medicine and knowledge from China to the Middle East, and the philosophers and holy men who crossed continents to explore and exchange ideas, books, science, and culture.

【美】斯圖亞特•戈登(Stewart Gordon) 密西根大學南亞研究中心研究員。

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斯圖亞特•戈登並非一本正經的學者，他老是搭著巴士在土耳其、伊朗、阿富汗、巴基斯坦與印度閑晃，爬上秘魯印加古道，或是乘船沿湄公河或密西西比河逆流而上。

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戈登曾拍攝柬埔寨的古物與印度的舊石器時代岩窟壁畫。他也是曆史頻道、探索頻道、迪斯尼公司與美洲女王汽船公司的顧問。戈登亦曾榮獲伍德羅•威爾遜奬學金、傅爾布萊特奬學金以及埃爾哈特基金會寫作補助等多個奬項。戈登目前住在美國安娜堡，你可以在stewartgordonhistorian.com追蹤其學術動態及其遊曆世界各地的照片。