Chapter summary:
On 19 January 1431, Zheng He’s fleets left China. They invariably sailed in January because of the free power provided by the monsoons, which to this day determine sailing patterns from China across the Indian Ocean to India and Africa. Ships sailing between China, India and Africa took advantage of these monsoons to sail before the wind, returning on the next monsoon to their respective countries. Monsoons were so predictable – and important — that they were incorporated into Arab calendars, which illustrated the highly synchronised system of regular shipping between Egypt, East Africa, India and the Gulf.
In Zheng He’s era, ocean trade was dominated by the Arabs and Chinese. The Chinese made goods that the rest of the world craved – principally, porcelain and silk. Chinese junks carried these valuable cargoes to Malacca, India and Cairo. Malacca was virtually a Chinese colony. In Calicut, on the Malabar Coast of India, Chinese and Arab traders met in equal numbers. Relations between the Chinese and Arabs had been friendly for centuries. In Cairo, the Chinese were an established minority. Likewise, there was a substantial Arab quarter in the Chinese port of Quanzhou. The Chinese and Arabs also built entrepôt ports in Southeast Asia and around the Indian Ocean where goods were warehoused en route to their final destinations.
Zheng He’s treasure ships were ocean-going monsters, capable of sailing through storms across the oceans of the world for weeks on end. Carrying more than a thousand tons of cargo, they could reach Malacca in five weeks, Hormuz in the Persian Gulf in twelve. Staterooms were provided for ambassadors and their staffs returning to India, the Gulf and Africa. More than one hundred and eighty medical officers were on the Admiral’s staff; each ship had a medical officer for every one hundred and fifty men and they took on sufficient citrus and coconuts to protect them from scurvy for two months. The ships carried interpreters who could communicate with rulers in India, Africa and Europe – in Hindi, Swahili, Arabic and Latin languages. As with all Chinese expeditions, astrologists and geomancers accompanied the fleets.
Trade delegations between Egypt and China had been commonplace centuries before Zheng He’s voyages. So Egypt was not a new frontier to Zheng He: his forebears had been travelling there for centuries. They had reached Cairo through the shallow Red Sea-Nile canal, which Zheng He’s smaller junks would have used as well. From Cairo, the Mediterranean – and southern Europe – were well within reach.
Further reading:
Tai Peng Wang – Visit to Cairo: view evidence here and here
Ibn Battuta:
http://www.isidore-of-seville.com/ibn-battuta
http://www.sfusd.k12.ca.us/schwww/sch618/IBn_Battuta/Battuta’s_Trip_One.html
Instruments and Observation at the Imperial Astronomical Bureau during the Ming Dynasty by Thatcher E. Deane: http://www.jstor.org/pss/302002
