Post by anansi on Mar 22, 2016 1:30:51 GMT -5
This article focuses on the first Chinese whose presence in Africa is clearly documented. Due to the geographical curiosity of the T'ang dynasty, extracts of an 8th century travel report of a Chinese military officer, Du Huan, were documented and preserved. He visited Arabian and African countries. The location of Molin-guo, an African country, seems to be clarified today: it appears to be located in the dry desert lowlands in Sudan and Eritrea. Likewise, this source clarifies the location of another region: Laobosa appears to have been south of Molin-guo, which is the first mention of Abyssinia in an ancient Chinese source. This text is thus one of the very few ancient sources contemporary to the late Aksumite kingdom. Briefly, but with significant details, the relevant peoples' customs are described, most of them still identifiable today.
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Ancient contacts between China and the Aksumite kingdom, in today's Ethiopia and Eritrea, are mentioned from time to time by scholars1 and seem to be well established. But only very few publications go into more detail. Even if there were no historical or archaeological evidence, it would, however, at least be likely that Chinese and Aksumites did know of each other. The presence of Indian merchants, who were also in commercial contact with Chinese coastal towns, at the Adulis coast is attested in ancient texts and can also indirectly be drawn from archaeological findings of coins from ancient India in Eritrea and Ethiopia2. Red-Sea-merchants are also known to have been present in India, coming into direct contact with Chinese there3. Early Chinese sources of the Han dynasty (206 B.C. - 220 A.D.) mention products from the "South" like pearls, tortoise shells, incense and spices, part of which might have been imported from the Red Sea area - in exchange with silk4. Silk is one of the goods from China, which has probably reached the Red Sea already in early times5. The 1st century Periplus Maris Erythraei, which is one of the few ancient Greek sources on the Red Sea, also describes the Chinese coast and mentions silk as a trade product along the coasts of the Indian Ocean
This is just to refer to some examples, which make it exciting to go further in the search for other cultural influences or exchanges which might reach not only as far as to the Agaeïs in the Mediterranean Sea in the North, but also as far as to the Indian and Chinese Ocean in the Far East. Traditionally scholars concentrated on influences on ancient Ethiopian history coming from Southern Arabia, ancient Egypt and Greece - leaving apart the most important influences from inner Africa which are still very much ignored7 -, but in the future we might still find more about aspects of Asian influences
Contacts with China in ancient sources
Aksum in late antiquity played a considerable international role. As a power controlling the African shores of the Southern Red Sea, it served as an intermediary between the Byzantine - Arabic trade routes and the Indian Ocean - and thus became an interesting potential ally to Byzantium. To give one example : several sources mention the wish of the East-Roman emperor Justinian to control the route to India via the Red Sea in the 6th century. With the help of its ally Aksum, the Persian incursions into Southern Arabia were then, in fact, halted ; South Arabia was occupied by the Aksumites and trade routes were secured. As Procopius Caesarensis reports in his De bello persico, the East-Romans had always purchased silk from the Persians, their enemies ; now there was hope that silk trade would become possible by sea, which connected Aksum with India a project which wasn't realised, however, as the ports on the way to India were controlled by the Persians. The influence of Indian scripts on the development of the Ge'ez script shows the cultural impact of the presence of Asians at the Aksumite court10.
The Greek traveller Cosmas Indikopleustes, allegedly a merchant turned into a Byzantine monk, in his detailed Universal Christian Topography (545 A.D.) describes the trade routes of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, joining as remote areas as Adulis, the Ethiopian port, and China :
Ceylon "being as it is in a central position is much frequented by ships from all parts of India and from Persia and Ethiopia (...) And from the remotest countries, I mean Tzinista [China] and other trading places, it receives silk, aloe, cloves, sandalwood and other products, and these in turn are passed on to markets this side, such as Malê, Kalliana (...) Persia and the Homerite [Himyarite] country (...) and Adulis11. "The sinologist Philip Snow notes that Ceylon was a place, where Chinese and Adulite merchants should have met occasionally. There are Chinese travel accounts on Ceylon especially of the 5th century, mentioning the presence of a number of foreign merchants there. Cosmas himself notes that traders from Adulis were in fact in Ceylon. Contrary to Arab and Indian traders, the Chinese were not very active in sea commerce during most of the periods in their history. However, there were periods, during which they entered into active contact with Western and South-Western kingdoms. In fact, there are Chinese sources of the Han dynasty which seem to contain information on the African coast of the Red Sea.
Aksum in late antiquity played a considerable international role. As a power controlling the African shores of the Southern Red Sea, it served as an intermediary between the Byzantine - Arabic trade routes and the Indian Ocean - and thus became an interesting potential ally to Byzantium. To give one example : several sources mention the wish of the East-Roman emperor Justinian to control the route to India via the Red Sea in the 6th century. With the help of its ally Aksum, the Persian incursions into Southern Arabia were then, in fact, halted ; South Arabia was occupied by the Aksumites and trade routes were secured. As Procopius Caesarensis reports in his De bello persico, the East-Romans had always purchased silk from the Persians, their enemies ; now there was hope that silk trade would become possible by sea, which connected Aksum with India a project which wasn't realised, however, as the ports on the way to India were controlled by the Persians. The influence of Indian scripts on the development of the Ge'ez script shows the cultural impact of the presence of Asians at the Aksumite court10.
The Greek traveller Cosmas Indikopleustes, allegedly a merchant turned into a Byzantine monk, in his detailed Universal Christian Topography (545 A.D.) describes the trade routes of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, joining as remote areas as Adulis, the Ethiopian port, and China :
Ceylon "being as it is in a central position is much frequented by ships from all parts of India and from Persia and Ethiopia (...) And from the remotest countries, I mean Tzinista [China] and other trading places, it receives silk, aloe, cloves, sandalwood and other products, and these in turn are passed on to markets this side, such as Malê, Kalliana (...) Persia and the Homerite [Himyarite] country (...) and Adulis11. "The sinologist Philip Snow notes that Ceylon was a place, where Chinese and Adulite merchants should have met occasionally. There are Chinese travel accounts on Ceylon especially of the 5th century, mentioning the presence of a number of foreign merchants there. Cosmas himself notes that traders from Adulis were in fact in Ceylon. Contrary to Arab and Indian traders, the Chinese were not very active in sea commerce during most of the periods in their history. However, there were periods, during which they entered into active contact with Western and South-Western kingdoms. In fact, there are Chinese sources of the Han dynasty which seem to contain information on the African coast of the Red Sea.
Several sources mention the kingdom "Huang-tchi" in the Western Sea (recorded between the 1st century B.C. and 1st century A.D.), which has been located in Africa. From the ancient descriptions of the travel by boat (analysed by Herrmann 1913), we know that it took over one year. Therefore it seems clear, that it was far from India, in a Western direction. It had been suggested that it corresponded to today's Eritrean coast, "Huang-tchi" being a deformation of "Ag'azi" . Recent archaeological findings reconfirm that the Eritrean highland areas close to the coast had already reached the stage of state formation very long time ago, but certainly in the period concerned. The product, which was sent by the Huang-tchi-ruler to the Chinese emperor, is African - a living rhinoceros. Rhinoceros horn is known from other sources of the same period as an African export product traded in the Indian Ocean; also tortoise-shell and ivory are exported by Huang-tchi.
One more source of the 1st century A.D., the Houhan Shu, might also refer to the Eritrean coast : Gan Ying, a Chinese envoy to the East Roman regions via the sea in the year 97 A.D., never reached Egypt - but a country called "Dou-le". This has recently been identified as Adulis1, the ancient port of today's Eritrea. The envoy Gan Ying returned with an embassy from "Dou-le" to Luoyang, the Han capital. We don't, however, know much today on this period of Northeast-African history, called "Pre-Aksumite".
T'ang dynasty contacts to Africa
Much better documented, mainly through inscriptions, is the later period of the Aksumite kingdom, which was at the peak of its power in the 4th - 6th centuries A.D. In China the centre was weak in that time ; only under the T'ang dynasty (618 - 906 A.D.) did China win back its strength and some interest for foreign peoples reappeared. Therefore, the first dynasty which might again provide information on African ports after the Han is the T'ang dynasty. Snow provides us with a map showing localities at the East African coast where Chinese porcelain had been found. Unsurprisingly there are many findings at the Kenyan coast, but also some at the African Red Sea coast near major ports in the Northern Somalia-Djibouti-area, especially near Zayla', and Northern Sudan / Eritrea, near the Sudanese'Aydhâb, from the 14th century, and near the port Badi north of Adulis, from the T'ang Dynasty. There is written evidence that 9th century T'ang dynasty merchants were present not only in India, but further West in Islamic areas18 - following their ancestors, who seem to have travelled to the Red Sea already in the 5th century19 -, which suggests, that some of them may have continued to ports at the African coast.
One more source of the 1st century A.D., the Houhan Shu, might also refer to the Eritrean coast : Gan Ying, a Chinese envoy to the East Roman regions via the sea in the year 97 A.D., never reached Egypt - but a country called "Dou-le". This has recently been identified as Adulis1, the ancient port of today's Eritrea. The envoy Gan Ying returned with an embassy from "Dou-le" to Luoyang, the Han capital. We don't, however, know much today on this period of Northeast-African history, called "Pre-Aksumite".
T'ang dynasty contacts to Africa
Much better documented, mainly through inscriptions, is the later period of the Aksumite kingdom, which was at the peak of its power in the 4th - 6th centuries A.D. In China the centre was weak in that time ; only under the T'ang dynasty (618 - 906 A.D.) did China win back its strength and some interest for foreign peoples reappeared. Therefore, the first dynasty which might again provide information on African ports after the Han is the T'ang dynasty. Snow provides us with a map showing localities at the East African coast where Chinese porcelain had been found. Unsurprisingly there are many findings at the Kenyan coast, but also some at the African Red Sea coast near major ports in the Northern Somalia-Djibouti-area, especially near Zayla', and Northern Sudan / Eritrea, near the Sudanese'Aydhâb, from the 14th century, and near the port Badi north of Adulis, from the T'ang Dynasty. There is written evidence that 9th century T'ang dynasty merchants were present not only in India, but further West in Islamic areas18 - following their ancestors, who seem to have travelled to the Red Sea already in the 5th century19 -, which suggests, that some of them may have continued to ports at the African coast.
A research for additional ancient Chinese texts, reflecting those contacts, could therefore be promising and might serve as a minor source for the understanding of the history of the Horn of Africa. For example, we already know about one 9th century T'ang dynasty text mentioning "Bo-ba-li", the Berber coast (Somaliland) - about which later. Extracts in an ancient Chinese encyclopaedia of an 8th century text refer to the travel of a Chinese to Northeast Africa. The source itself had been lost. But the fragments are giving us an important impression of the geographical knowledge in this period of competition with their ambitious Arab neighbors.
Du Huan : From Uzbekistan to Molin-guo and Laobosa
In the case of the traveller Du Huan, it were the Arabic contacts to the African coast of the Red Sea which led to this early encounter between a black people and a Chinese. And the water-ways, which were used by Indians, secured his way back. A military disaster in today's Uzbekistan was the initial catastrophe which led to the encounter between representatives of China and - as I will show - the Aksumite kingdom, two ancient "world powers".
Du Huan from Wannian23, an officer of the T'ang dynasty army, was involved in a catastrophic defeat for the Chinese near Tashkent in the year 751 and was captured together with over 20,000 other Chinese soldiers by the "Dashi" (the Arabs) and then brought to "Yajuluo" (near Baghdad in Iraq), the centre of the Abbasid caliphate24. Most Chinese prisoners became gold- and silversmiths, painters, weavers, and paper fabricants. After long journeys through Arab countries, Du Huan returned by ship to Kanton (Guangzhou). There he wrote his Jingxingji ("Record of My Travels"), which was almost completely lost except a few extracts, which give information on central Asian and Arab countries among others.
His relative Du You (735-812) in his encyclopaedia Tongdian mentions Du Huan's travels with the following words, in a chapter discussing the defense of the borders to the West :
"The relative Huan was fighting in the West under General Gao Xianzhi ; in the 10th year of the government device Tianbao [751] he arrived at the Western Ocean ; in the first year of the government device Baoying [762] he returned to Kanton on board of a trade ship and wrote the Jingxingji.
Du Huan : From Uzbekistan to Molin-guo and Laobosa
In the case of the traveller Du Huan, it were the Arabic contacts to the African coast of the Red Sea which led to this early encounter between a black people and a Chinese. And the water-ways, which were used by Indians, secured his way back. A military disaster in today's Uzbekistan was the initial catastrophe which led to the encounter between representatives of China and - as I will show - the Aksumite kingdom, two ancient "world powers".
Du Huan from Wannian23, an officer of the T'ang dynasty army, was involved in a catastrophic defeat for the Chinese near Tashkent in the year 751 and was captured together with over 20,000 other Chinese soldiers by the "Dashi" (the Arabs) and then brought to "Yajuluo" (near Baghdad in Iraq), the centre of the Abbasid caliphate24. Most Chinese prisoners became gold- and silversmiths, painters, weavers, and paper fabricants. After long journeys through Arab countries, Du Huan returned by ship to Kanton (Guangzhou). There he wrote his Jingxingji ("Record of My Travels"), which was almost completely lost except a few extracts, which give information on central Asian and Arab countries among others.
His relative Du You (735-812) in his encyclopaedia Tongdian mentions Du Huan's travels with the following words, in a chapter discussing the defense of the borders to the West :
"The relative Huan was fighting in the West under General Gao Xianzhi ; in the 10th year of the government device Tianbao [751] he arrived at the Western Ocean ; in the first year of the government device Baoying [762] he returned to Kanton on board of a trade ship and wrote the Jingxingji.
here are seven more notes on Du Huan's travels in Du You's encyclopaedia. On Molin, Du Huan himself is quoted as following :
"We also went to Molin, Southwest of Yangsaluo. One reaches this country after having crossed the great desert and having travelled 2,000 Li. The people there are black, their customs rough. There is little rice and cereals and there is no grass and trees. The horses are fed with dried fish, the people eat XX [word not identified] and also Persian dates. Subtropical diseases [Malaria] are widespread. After crossing the inland there is a mountainous country, there are a lot of confessions.
The followers of the confession of the "Dashi" (the Arabs) have a means to denote the degrees of family relations, but it is degenerated and they don't bother about it. They don't eat the meat of pigs, dogs, donkeys and horses, they don't respect neither the king of the country, neither their parents, they don't believe in supernatural powers, they perform sacrifice to heaven and to no one else. According their customs every seventh day is a holiday, on which no trade and no cash transactions are done, whereas when they drink alcohol, they are behaving in a ridiculous and undisciplined way during the whole day.
Within the East Roman confession28 the medical doctors know diarrhoea - or they recognise it already before the outbreak of the disease, or they open the brain and insects come out."
Another passage in which Du Huan gives a brief geographical overview has been preserved in another work, the XinT'angshu of Ouyang Xiu. In chapter 221 (Dashi-zhuan) he notes :
"Coming from Fulin (Baizhanting) one reaches, after having crossed the desert in a Southwestern direction and having travelled for 2,000 Li, a country called Molin, respectively Laobosa."
Snow and Shen both think that Du Huan's mention of a third religion, the "Zimzim teaching" (in pinyin : Xunxun) in another fragment is also referring to Molin. This is certainly due to the fact that the Molin-fragment mentions "many religions", but stops while describing the second. A third religion or confession, therefore, should be the "Zimzim" (or Zemzem). This is an Arabic term, in its strict sense meaning the Zoroastrians of Persia, but in a wider sense pagans in general. The Zimzim "practise incest, and in this respect are worst of all the barbarians". In fact some peoples of the African coast (such as the Beja, known as rebellious subjects of the Aksumite kingdom already from 4th century inscriptions), were neither Christians nor Muslims - the Beja were only christianised in the course of the 8th and 9th centuries. Other peoples in the area are, still today, following traditional religions.
"We also went to Molin, Southwest of Yangsaluo. One reaches this country after having crossed the great desert and having travelled 2,000 Li. The people there are black, their customs rough. There is little rice and cereals and there is no grass and trees. The horses are fed with dried fish, the people eat XX [word not identified] and also Persian dates. Subtropical diseases [Malaria] are widespread. After crossing the inland there is a mountainous country, there are a lot of confessions.
The followers of the confession of the "Dashi" (the Arabs) have a means to denote the degrees of family relations, but it is degenerated and they don't bother about it. They don't eat the meat of pigs, dogs, donkeys and horses, they don't respect neither the king of the country, neither their parents, they don't believe in supernatural powers, they perform sacrifice to heaven and to no one else. According their customs every seventh day is a holiday, on which no trade and no cash transactions are done, whereas when they drink alcohol, they are behaving in a ridiculous and undisciplined way during the whole day.
Within the East Roman confession28 the medical doctors know diarrhoea - or they recognise it already before the outbreak of the disease, or they open the brain and insects come out."
Another passage in which Du Huan gives a brief geographical overview has been preserved in another work, the XinT'angshu of Ouyang Xiu. In chapter 221 (Dashi-zhuan) he notes :
"Coming from Fulin (Baizhanting) one reaches, after having crossed the desert in a Southwestern direction and having travelled for 2,000 Li, a country called Molin, respectively Laobosa."
Snow and Shen both think that Du Huan's mention of a third religion, the "Zimzim teaching" (in pinyin : Xunxun) in another fragment is also referring to Molin. This is certainly due to the fact that the Molin-fragment mentions "many religions", but stops while describing the second. A third religion or confession, therefore, should be the "Zimzim" (or Zemzem). This is an Arabic term, in its strict sense meaning the Zoroastrians of Persia, but in a wider sense pagans in general. The Zimzim "practise incest, and in this respect are worst of all the barbarians". In fact some peoples of the African coast (such as the Beja, known as rebellious subjects of the Aksumite kingdom already from 4th century inscriptions), were neither Christians nor Muslims - the Beja were only christianised in the course of the 8th and 9th centuries. Other peoples in the area are, still today, following traditional religions.
urther notes on Du Huan's travel report Jingxingji are found in the Taiping yulan, the Taiping huanyu ji, the Tongzhi and the Wenxuan tongkao, but without giving more information on Molin35.
25Identification of the countries visited Theories
26The discussion on which area exactly should be identified with Molin has brought a number of ancient African locations at the Red Sea coast and the Indian Ocean to our attention. A Chinese encyclopaedia of 1995 still notes that the location of Molin is not know36. After the publication of an important article in Chinese37, however, we have some convincing results, even if the exact etymology at least of Molin will stay subject to discussion. Over about 130 years a number of theories were developed, but all of them agreed that Molin should be located in Africa. We don't have many hints. It should be noted that the distance, which is given only roughly, was 2,000 Li (which corresponds to 1300 km approximately), and that the country Molin was lying in a Southwestern direction, seen from Jerusalem. If we follow this information, we probably have to locate the country visited somewhere in the Sudan or south of it and as we know that Du Huan left Molin by sea, it should be a coastal country.
First theories
The first one who tried to locate Molin was Bretschneider in 1871, who identified it with the countries of the "moors", Mauritania or Libya. However, this doesn't fit into what we know about its approximate location. In 1885 the sinologist Friedrich Hirth, who referred to the above mentioned passage of the XinT'angshu, located Molin and Laobosa at the African Red Sea coast, in the area of the "Troglodytes" (the ancient Greek denomination of the inhabitants of the African Red Sea coast)38. Later in 1909, he underlined that Molin should be an East African state, but couldn't locate it more precisely39.
Molin = Malindi
In the early 15th century Cheng Ho (in pinyin : Zheng He), the famous Muslim eunuque admiral of the great Ming dynasty fleet, discovered the Eastern coast of Africa. Sailing via the Persian Gulf his ships first reached Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea, and then travelled further South to Somalia and the Kenyan coast. The fleet made several expeditions from 1417 to 1433, before the exploration was stopped probably for economic reasons. The identification of 8th century Molin with Malindi in Kenya40, which played such a prominent role in the Chinese discovery of Africa, is rather a result of Zheng He's fame, but doesn't correspond to Du Huan's texts. Malindi barely existed in the 8th century ; the multitude of confessions described by Du Huan and the allusion to disrespected kings doesn't seem to correspond to its past. But even more important is the argument, that Malindi could not in any way be reached after a journey from Jerusalem through a desert, followed by a mountainous country. A much more complicated journey through the land would have been necessary - and it was much longer distance than 2,000 Li.
Molin = the god "Mahrem"
Others locate it much more in the North, in the distance reported by Du Huan. It had been suggested that Molin should be another form of "Mahrem", the name of the Aksumite "sea god"41 But Mahrem, the most important god of Aksumite kings, was actually a god of war, not of the sea, and possibly linked with the moon42. No area was called after any god in that region. And, even more important, in the 8th century the ancient South Semitic gods had not been worshipped any more since centuries. Only one inscription could possibly suggest that the name of Mahrem might have survived for some time the rise of Christianism : in the mid-4th century trilingual inscription of king Ezana, which refers to three South-Semitic gods, new Christian monotheistic conceptions seem to have been linked with Mahrem, which appears as the ancestor of the king43. Only shortly afterwards Ezana adopted Christianism as a state religion. But after this isolated and only partial identification of Mahrem with characteristics of the Christian god, Mahrem doesn't appear any more. So, this theory still stays highly improbable.
Molin = Malaô
Surprisingly Molin has, so far, not been identified with the city of Malaô in the country of the "Barbaroi" on the Horn of Africa, corresponding to today's Berbera in Somaliland. The anonymous Periplus Maris Erythraei of the 1st century A.D. provides us with very detailed information for seafarers on the ports of the Red Sea, on the natural conditions, on trade and products, and, quite roughly, also on the political status of the regions bordering the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The names of places and peoples are given in Greek, but often are corrupt forms of local names. Locations of ports are described so exactly, that they are still identifiable today.
Malaô was a port of the Berbera people, an ancient Somali group. Since the 13th century the name Berbera is recorded for the port, but the people's denomination is considerably more ancient. The original form of the Greek denomination Malaô is not known. Etymologically it might be connected in some way to the Somali (mentioned first in 15th century Ethiopian chronicles) - and the similarity to Molin is striking. It should, however, be noted that the multitude of confessions cannot be applied to the Berbera land. In the 8th century, they were already, at least partially, islamized and not subject of any kingdom. Quite important is another fact, still. There is another Chinese source of the 9th century which can be related to Berbera (Arabic Barbara). The area is called "Bo-ba-li", a denomination which was still used several centuries later in Chinese geographical texts45. It produced ivory and ambergris. The description of the people is worth to be quoted here, as the Somali nomads are clearly recognisable ; still today a mixture of raw blood and milk is consumed by several peoples of the Horn of Africa :
They "do not eat the Five Grains, but only meat. They are given to sticking a needle into the veins of their cattle and drawing out the blood, which they mix with milk and consume raw. They wear no clothes, but merely use goatskins to cover the parts below their waists46."
Molin, however, never appears in this context, which makes it improbable that it was located in the Malaô area. It should, however, be noted that this is the second ancient T'ang dynasty text providing information on an African area.
Molin = Meroe
Recently it had been suggested that Molin should correspond to "Meroe"47 If we can accept the hypothesis that the place-name Meroe still existed in that time it is a possible solution, even if the state of Meroe had collapsed long before (it had been raided in ca. 350 A.D. by the emergent Aksumite kingdom). But the name had not completely disappeared. The centre of the Christian Nubian State of Napata, a successor state of Meroe to the North in today's Egypt, is the city today called Merowi. It is possible that Du Huan went to a settlement with this name, and derived the country's name from the city. In fact, names of countries were often derived from settlements in ancient Northeast-Africa ; and such names often survived locally for long. Geographically it would perfectly correspond to the few data we have. It is not farer away than 2,000 Li approximately, it can be reached after a long journey through the desert, trade routes link it with a mountainous country (Abyssinia) and with coastal ports, from where merchants sailed to South Arabia and even further to India.
Molin = Muqurra
I myself would suggest an etymological connection with Muqurra, another ancient Christian Nubian kingdom south of Napata, which was centered in the city of Dongola (Dunqula). In the sources it also appears as al-Muqurra or as Mekuria. The unpronouncable "q" would have been left out (the "o" of Molin is long and has a falling and rising tone, which might point to a consonant between two vowels which had been dropped), the "r" replaced by "l", which would lead to a word similar to Molin. I believe, that this solution would be preferable to an etymological connection to Meroe. However, this would not change our idea about the area visited by Du Huan ; in contrary, it reconfirms it. The kingdoms of Napata and of Muqurra had merged before ca. 700 due to pressure by Arab armies (Egypt had been conquered in 640), the capital now becoming Dongola - and the name of Muqurra being used for the kingdom (which only in later sources was called the kingdom of Dongola
after its capital). Trade routes linked it with ports like'Aydhâb and Badi north of the Aksumite port of Adulis and to the Christian Aksumite kingdom in the highlands, with which close connections are documented especially in the mid-8th century48. In competition with Islam the bishop Barnabas in 700 A.D. tried to christianise the Beja at the coast, while he was ministering the Christian merchants of the port of'Aydhâb. This also makes it possible, that Du Huan also understood the whole coastal areas as part of Molin (today corresponding to the Sudanese and north Eritrean coast). The expansion of Christianism was followed by a rise of a puritanical Islamic movement in the nearby Barka valley (today an Eritrean region bordering the Sudan) in 759 A.D. and finally reaching the highlands in 765. Some connection with Dongola had already been suggested by Shen, which I think can be reinforced by this etymological argument49.
Laobosa = al-Habasha
Finally, the geographical description and the second geographical term indicate which region is referred to by Du Huan. He mentions a great desert to be crossed ; and in fact we know that from ancient times the way through the Sudanese desert led to the edges of the Ethiopian highland, a trade route used since times immemorial. The only mountainous country which lies in this direction is highland Ethiopia, which was dominated by the Aksumite kingdom. The term "Laobosa" is easily identifiable : it can only be "al-Habasha", the ancient High Arabic term used for the Ethiopian highlands and its kingdom50. This appearance is already an interesting fact, as it is one more example for the use of this term51.
The term al-Habasha is very ancient52. In the Ethiopian region it regularly appears in the mid-4th century inscriptions of the Aksumite king Ezana53, who controlled the Ethiopian highlands and the coast of Adulis, and had subdued a number of people even as far as Meroe. In classical Arabic this term is territorial (etymologically it is at the origin of the European term "Abyssinia"54). It corresponds perfectly to the Chinese "Laobosa", which equally was a territorial denomination55. Also in al-?abarî's Annals (9th/10th century) "al-Habasha" is a geographical term in contrast to the ethnonym "al-Habash". The Arab historiographer ibn Wadîh al-Ya'qûbî in his 9th century History describes "al-Habasha", lying north of the countries of the Berber (Somali) and of the Zanj (the "Blacks"). All these three terms appear later in Chinese sources ; it can generally be noted, that all early Chinese geographical terms related to Africa were Arabic loanwords.
Du Huan's text mentions an erosion of state power, which corresponds to what we know from the late Aksumite kingdom, in which the central power was weakened, and especially on the coastal areas at least partially lost control after the Islam had started to dominate the coastal plains in the 7th century56. The way how Du Huan uses both terms, Molin and Laobosa, doesn't make it clear, if two neighbouring regions were meant or if it was only one region. It had been suggested that they were the same57. But Du Huan's text doesn't exclude that it is two countries58. The verb connecting the words Molin and Laobosa means "say" in ancient Chinese. It is possible to translate this passage as "countries called Molin and Laobosa" instead of "a country called Molin, respectively Laobosa" as we did above. For this case Shen suggests that Laobosa should lie further south.
If we can believe that Molin was a derivation of Muqurra, and also taking into account the fact that it was only 2,000 Li far from Jerusalem (which is enough to reach the Sudan, but not highland Ethiopia), we should understand the terms as denoting two neighbouring countries, but closely interrelated (which was in fact the case between the Aksumite and Nubian kingdoms). It seems that the term Molin has been used to roughly denote the lowlands, including the coastal regions. Du Huan left Molin by boat ; for this he should have used a port, which was frequented by Arabic or possibly
Indian ships. This suggests that it had been Adulis, the outlet to the sea of the Aksumite kingdom, or, as this port was in decline in that period, Badi.
The year in which Du Huan visited and left Molin
We know that Du Huan came back to China in 762 A.D., probably in June due to the monsoon. He should have left the African port of Molin at least in the year before, in 761 A.D., if we consider that he had first to make the journey via the Persian Gulf to India and then further. This date is most interesting, as it might even provide a reason explaining why Du Huan has visited Molin at all. As Molin should be identified with areas in today's Sudan and Eritrea, historical events of that time might be connected with his travel. In fact, the year 758 was of crucial importance for the Christian kingdom at Dongola. Dongola had broken off with Egypt in the 740s, which led to subsequent wars. As a result the king of Dongola had to send his son to the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad in 758, as a hostage. This was followed by an exchange of embassies. This might well have been the occasion which brought Du Huan, who was based in Iraq, to these Southern kingdoms and provided him with a chance to travel back to China by sea. Shen speculates that Du Huan accompanied the Dongola prince back to his country59 ; we know that foreigners often acquired a position at Arabic courts, this might also have been the case with Du Huan60. In addition to that, we know that the Nubian kingdoms especially in the 8th century were in contact, both economically and politically, with the Aksumite kingdom. This would easily explain the mention of “Laobosa” (al-Habasha). The attractiveness of this hypothesis is certainly undeniable. But Du Huan's fragments don't give us any reason for his wide travels.
25Identification of the countries visited Theories
26The discussion on which area exactly should be identified with Molin has brought a number of ancient African locations at the Red Sea coast and the Indian Ocean to our attention. A Chinese encyclopaedia of 1995 still notes that the location of Molin is not know36. After the publication of an important article in Chinese37, however, we have some convincing results, even if the exact etymology at least of Molin will stay subject to discussion. Over about 130 years a number of theories were developed, but all of them agreed that Molin should be located in Africa. We don't have many hints. It should be noted that the distance, which is given only roughly, was 2,000 Li (which corresponds to 1300 km approximately), and that the country Molin was lying in a Southwestern direction, seen from Jerusalem. If we follow this information, we probably have to locate the country visited somewhere in the Sudan or south of it and as we know that Du Huan left Molin by sea, it should be a coastal country.
First theories
The first one who tried to locate Molin was Bretschneider in 1871, who identified it with the countries of the "moors", Mauritania or Libya. However, this doesn't fit into what we know about its approximate location. In 1885 the sinologist Friedrich Hirth, who referred to the above mentioned passage of the XinT'angshu, located Molin and Laobosa at the African Red Sea coast, in the area of the "Troglodytes" (the ancient Greek denomination of the inhabitants of the African Red Sea coast)38. Later in 1909, he underlined that Molin should be an East African state, but couldn't locate it more precisely39.
Molin = Malindi
In the early 15th century Cheng Ho (in pinyin : Zheng He), the famous Muslim eunuque admiral of the great Ming dynasty fleet, discovered the Eastern coast of Africa. Sailing via the Persian Gulf his ships first reached Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea, and then travelled further South to Somalia and the Kenyan coast. The fleet made several expeditions from 1417 to 1433, before the exploration was stopped probably for economic reasons. The identification of 8th century Molin with Malindi in Kenya40, which played such a prominent role in the Chinese discovery of Africa, is rather a result of Zheng He's fame, but doesn't correspond to Du Huan's texts. Malindi barely existed in the 8th century ; the multitude of confessions described by Du Huan and the allusion to disrespected kings doesn't seem to correspond to its past. But even more important is the argument, that Malindi could not in any way be reached after a journey from Jerusalem through a desert, followed by a mountainous country. A much more complicated journey through the land would have been necessary - and it was much longer distance than 2,000 Li.
Molin = the god "Mahrem"
Others locate it much more in the North, in the distance reported by Du Huan. It had been suggested that Molin should be another form of "Mahrem", the name of the Aksumite "sea god"41 But Mahrem, the most important god of Aksumite kings, was actually a god of war, not of the sea, and possibly linked with the moon42. No area was called after any god in that region. And, even more important, in the 8th century the ancient South Semitic gods had not been worshipped any more since centuries. Only one inscription could possibly suggest that the name of Mahrem might have survived for some time the rise of Christianism : in the mid-4th century trilingual inscription of king Ezana, which refers to three South-Semitic gods, new Christian monotheistic conceptions seem to have been linked with Mahrem, which appears as the ancestor of the king43. Only shortly afterwards Ezana adopted Christianism as a state religion. But after this isolated and only partial identification of Mahrem with characteristics of the Christian god, Mahrem doesn't appear any more. So, this theory still stays highly improbable.
Molin = Malaô
Surprisingly Molin has, so far, not been identified with the city of Malaô in the country of the "Barbaroi" on the Horn of Africa, corresponding to today's Berbera in Somaliland. The anonymous Periplus Maris Erythraei of the 1st century A.D. provides us with very detailed information for seafarers on the ports of the Red Sea, on the natural conditions, on trade and products, and, quite roughly, also on the political status of the regions bordering the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. The names of places and peoples are given in Greek, but often are corrupt forms of local names. Locations of ports are described so exactly, that they are still identifiable today.
Malaô was a port of the Berbera people, an ancient Somali group. Since the 13th century the name Berbera is recorded for the port, but the people's denomination is considerably more ancient. The original form of the Greek denomination Malaô is not known. Etymologically it might be connected in some way to the Somali (mentioned first in 15th century Ethiopian chronicles) - and the similarity to Molin is striking. It should, however, be noted that the multitude of confessions cannot be applied to the Berbera land. In the 8th century, they were already, at least partially, islamized and not subject of any kingdom. Quite important is another fact, still. There is another Chinese source of the 9th century which can be related to Berbera (Arabic Barbara). The area is called "Bo-ba-li", a denomination which was still used several centuries later in Chinese geographical texts45. It produced ivory and ambergris. The description of the people is worth to be quoted here, as the Somali nomads are clearly recognisable ; still today a mixture of raw blood and milk is consumed by several peoples of the Horn of Africa :
They "do not eat the Five Grains, but only meat. They are given to sticking a needle into the veins of their cattle and drawing out the blood, which they mix with milk and consume raw. They wear no clothes, but merely use goatskins to cover the parts below their waists46."
Molin, however, never appears in this context, which makes it improbable that it was located in the Malaô area. It should, however, be noted that this is the second ancient T'ang dynasty text providing information on an African area.
Molin = Meroe
Recently it had been suggested that Molin should correspond to "Meroe"47 If we can accept the hypothesis that the place-name Meroe still existed in that time it is a possible solution, even if the state of Meroe had collapsed long before (it had been raided in ca. 350 A.D. by the emergent Aksumite kingdom). But the name had not completely disappeared. The centre of the Christian Nubian State of Napata, a successor state of Meroe to the North in today's Egypt, is the city today called Merowi. It is possible that Du Huan went to a settlement with this name, and derived the country's name from the city. In fact, names of countries were often derived from settlements in ancient Northeast-Africa ; and such names often survived locally for long. Geographically it would perfectly correspond to the few data we have. It is not farer away than 2,000 Li approximately, it can be reached after a long journey through the desert, trade routes link it with a mountainous country (Abyssinia) and with coastal ports, from where merchants sailed to South Arabia and even further to India.
Molin = Muqurra
I myself would suggest an etymological connection with Muqurra, another ancient Christian Nubian kingdom south of Napata, which was centered in the city of Dongola (Dunqula). In the sources it also appears as al-Muqurra or as Mekuria. The unpronouncable "q" would have been left out (the "o" of Molin is long and has a falling and rising tone, which might point to a consonant between two vowels which had been dropped), the "r" replaced by "l", which would lead to a word similar to Molin. I believe, that this solution would be preferable to an etymological connection to Meroe. However, this would not change our idea about the area visited by Du Huan ; in contrary, it reconfirms it. The kingdoms of Napata and of Muqurra had merged before ca. 700 due to pressure by Arab armies (Egypt had been conquered in 640), the capital now becoming Dongola - and the name of Muqurra being used for the kingdom (which only in later sources was called the kingdom of Dongola
after its capital). Trade routes linked it with ports like'Aydhâb and Badi north of the Aksumite port of Adulis and to the Christian Aksumite kingdom in the highlands, with which close connections are documented especially in the mid-8th century48. In competition with Islam the bishop Barnabas in 700 A.D. tried to christianise the Beja at the coast, while he was ministering the Christian merchants of the port of'Aydhâb. This also makes it possible, that Du Huan also understood the whole coastal areas as part of Molin (today corresponding to the Sudanese and north Eritrean coast). The expansion of Christianism was followed by a rise of a puritanical Islamic movement in the nearby Barka valley (today an Eritrean region bordering the Sudan) in 759 A.D. and finally reaching the highlands in 765. Some connection with Dongola had already been suggested by Shen, which I think can be reinforced by this etymological argument49.
Laobosa = al-Habasha
Finally, the geographical description and the second geographical term indicate which region is referred to by Du Huan. He mentions a great desert to be crossed ; and in fact we know that from ancient times the way through the Sudanese desert led to the edges of the Ethiopian highland, a trade route used since times immemorial. The only mountainous country which lies in this direction is highland Ethiopia, which was dominated by the Aksumite kingdom. The term "Laobosa" is easily identifiable : it can only be "al-Habasha", the ancient High Arabic term used for the Ethiopian highlands and its kingdom50. This appearance is already an interesting fact, as it is one more example for the use of this term51.
The term al-Habasha is very ancient52. In the Ethiopian region it regularly appears in the mid-4th century inscriptions of the Aksumite king Ezana53, who controlled the Ethiopian highlands and the coast of Adulis, and had subdued a number of people even as far as Meroe. In classical Arabic this term is territorial (etymologically it is at the origin of the European term "Abyssinia"54). It corresponds perfectly to the Chinese "Laobosa", which equally was a territorial denomination55. Also in al-?abarî's Annals (9th/10th century) "al-Habasha" is a geographical term in contrast to the ethnonym "al-Habash". The Arab historiographer ibn Wadîh al-Ya'qûbî in his 9th century History describes "al-Habasha", lying north of the countries of the Berber (Somali) and of the Zanj (the "Blacks"). All these three terms appear later in Chinese sources ; it can generally be noted, that all early Chinese geographical terms related to Africa were Arabic loanwords.
Du Huan's text mentions an erosion of state power, which corresponds to what we know from the late Aksumite kingdom, in which the central power was weakened, and especially on the coastal areas at least partially lost control after the Islam had started to dominate the coastal plains in the 7th century56. The way how Du Huan uses both terms, Molin and Laobosa, doesn't make it clear, if two neighbouring regions were meant or if it was only one region. It had been suggested that they were the same57. But Du Huan's text doesn't exclude that it is two countries58. The verb connecting the words Molin and Laobosa means "say" in ancient Chinese. It is possible to translate this passage as "countries called Molin and Laobosa" instead of "a country called Molin, respectively Laobosa" as we did above. For this case Shen suggests that Laobosa should lie further south.
If we can believe that Molin was a derivation of Muqurra, and also taking into account the fact that it was only 2,000 Li far from Jerusalem (which is enough to reach the Sudan, but not highland Ethiopia), we should understand the terms as denoting two neighbouring countries, but closely interrelated (which was in fact the case between the Aksumite and Nubian kingdoms). It seems that the term Molin has been used to roughly denote the lowlands, including the coastal regions. Du Huan left Molin by boat ; for this he should have used a port, which was frequented by Arabic or possibly
Indian ships. This suggests that it had been Adulis, the outlet to the sea of the Aksumite kingdom, or, as this port was in decline in that period, Badi.
The year in which Du Huan visited and left Molin
We know that Du Huan came back to China in 762 A.D., probably in June due to the monsoon. He should have left the African port of Molin at least in the year before, in 761 A.D., if we consider that he had first to make the journey via the Persian Gulf to India and then further. This date is most interesting, as it might even provide a reason explaining why Du Huan has visited Molin at all. As Molin should be identified with areas in today's Sudan and Eritrea, historical events of that time might be connected with his travel. In fact, the year 758 was of crucial importance for the Christian kingdom at Dongola. Dongola had broken off with Egypt in the 740s, which led to subsequent wars. As a result the king of Dongola had to send his son to the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad in 758, as a hostage. This was followed by an exchange of embassies. This might well have been the occasion which brought Du Huan, who was based in Iraq, to these Southern kingdoms and provided him with a chance to travel back to China by sea. Shen speculates that Du Huan accompanied the Dongola prince back to his country59 ; we know that foreigners often acquired a position at Arabic courts, this might also have been the case with Du Huan60. In addition to that, we know that the Nubian kingdoms especially in the 8th century were in contact, both economically and politically, with the Aksumite kingdom. This would easily explain the mention of “Laobosa” (al-Habasha). The attractiveness of this hypothesis is certainly undeniable. But Du Huan's fragments don't give us any reason for his wide travels.
Ethnographical information
Du Huan's ethnographical sketches concern both the highlands (al-Habasha / Laobosa) and the desert lowlands near the sea. The highlands, which lie further "inland", are characterised by a great number of religions. His description of the region and its peoples is vivid, even if brief. The T'ang dynasty's understanding of Islam and Christianism is perfectly reproduced in Du Huan's text : they adore the heaven and no one else. The T'ang dynasty China knew both religions, Nestorian Christianism was well established61. The diversity of religions described by Du Huan corresponds to the late Aksumite kingdom and its coastal areas, Islam and Christianism mixing with ancient traditional religions in that time of continuous loss of power of the Aksumites and the rise of Islam at the coast. Still today traditional religions are practised in the Eritrean inland in some remote Kunama areas. These people, who lived most of the time outside direct control of any states, preserved an original local religion for very long.
From Du Huan's descriptions we get a clear picture of a hot desert landscape at the coast : dry fish are fed to horses, there is a lack of cereals, there are no trees at all. This was in fact true for all coastal areas from the Sudan to the Eritrean coast. Further details can easily be related to the Aksumite kingdom : people take rest every seven days (practised in Islam and Christianism), they don't eat the meat of pigs (which is typical not only for Muslims, but also for Abyssinian Christians until today), alcohol is a traditional beverage, also for Muslims. Muslims are indirectly described as traders - as they stop their trade every seventh day - and they are acquainted with money. Certainly they traded also with Persia, as Persian dates are mentioned. In fact, Muslim traders also lived in the Abyssinian highlands in scattered villages amidst Christian areas and still do today. Genealogy still today is an important part of the identity of the people and do have a complex system of denoting degrees of blood relations - which corresponds to Du Huan's remark on the Muslims, who denote the different degrees of family relations. His remark, that they however don't care about it, seems to point to the decline of social stability of that period.
54Traditional medicine is described as strong among Christians ; as Christians were holders of the traditions of the Aksumite court, it is possible, that they also had deeper knowledge of it than the Muslim traders. Medicine in today's Ethiopia and Eritrea is in fact relying on very old traditions, often preserved within the low clergy of the Christian church, some practises preserving knowledge from ancient treatises which arrived in Aksum during the Byzantine Empire. It might be a bit surprising to hear that "they open the brain" ; but this
55should correspond to a very ancient medical practise still known today in rural areas of Eritrea and Ethiopia. Many diseases are healed by cutting the skin of the forehead, the eyebrow or the cheek. Then blood pours out and, together with it the bad spirit ("insects"), which caused the disease. Diarrhoea, also mentioned by Du Huan, is extremely widespread and traditional medicine is well known against it. Thus, Du Huan's notes correspond well to the coastal areas of today's Eritrea and give us a glimpse on the life in the late, politically weakened Aksumite kingdom.
Conclusion
Indirect contacts between the Northeast African coast and China, mostly based on trade, seem to be documented since at least the 1st century A.D. (Han dynasty). This article focused on the first Chinese, whose presence in Africa is clearly documented. The geographical curiosity of the T'ang dynasty made it possible, that extracts of an 8th century travel report of a Chinese military officer, Du Huan, were documented and preserved. He visited Arabic countries and also Africa. The location of Molin-guo, an African country, seems to be clarified today. South of it lies Laobosa, the first mention of Abyssinia in an ancient Chinese source ; Molin should be located in a dry desert lowland in the Sudan and Eritrea62. This text is thus one of the very few ancient sources contemporary to the late Aksumite kingdom. Briefly, but with significant details, the peoples' customs are described, most of them still identifiable today.
What makes the text fragments on Molin important, is, first, that it is the most ancient source which provides evidence of the presence of a Chinese in Africa. Most other sources only reflect the fact that products from the African Red Sea coast reached China. Second, it is among the very few ancient sources contemporary to the Aksumite kingdom. Third, the Du Huan travel report fragments give an example on the ways used in that time to cross far distances. Probably rather unusual is the fact, that Du Huan reached the mountainous region south of Egypt by land ; how his way back was organised is not known in detail, but we know that he reached Kanton in Southern China by boat - using the sea routes to India, which we know from a few ancient sources. This shows that still in the period of decline, the sea trade from the African coast was not halted. Fourth, the geographical notions mentioned are reflecting information originating evidently in Arabic contacts, which is probably due to the fact that during the decline of the Aksumite kingdom the Red Sea trade was already in the hands of the Arabs. Finally, the brief descriptions of the multitude of religions give us an impression of the coexistence of religions in this period, on which only very few sources exist.
cy.revues.org/33
Du Huan's ethnographical sketches concern both the highlands (al-Habasha / Laobosa) and the desert lowlands near the sea. The highlands, which lie further "inland", are characterised by a great number of religions. His description of the region and its peoples is vivid, even if brief. The T'ang dynasty's understanding of Islam and Christianism is perfectly reproduced in Du Huan's text : they adore the heaven and no one else. The T'ang dynasty China knew both religions, Nestorian Christianism was well established61. The diversity of religions described by Du Huan corresponds to the late Aksumite kingdom and its coastal areas, Islam and Christianism mixing with ancient traditional religions in that time of continuous loss of power of the Aksumites and the rise of Islam at the coast. Still today traditional religions are practised in the Eritrean inland in some remote Kunama areas. These people, who lived most of the time outside direct control of any states, preserved an original local religion for very long.
From Du Huan's descriptions we get a clear picture of a hot desert landscape at the coast : dry fish are fed to horses, there is a lack of cereals, there are no trees at all. This was in fact true for all coastal areas from the Sudan to the Eritrean coast. Further details can easily be related to the Aksumite kingdom : people take rest every seven days (practised in Islam and Christianism), they don't eat the meat of pigs (which is typical not only for Muslims, but also for Abyssinian Christians until today), alcohol is a traditional beverage, also for Muslims. Muslims are indirectly described as traders - as they stop their trade every seventh day - and they are acquainted with money. Certainly they traded also with Persia, as Persian dates are mentioned. In fact, Muslim traders also lived in the Abyssinian highlands in scattered villages amidst Christian areas and still do today. Genealogy still today is an important part of the identity of the people and do have a complex system of denoting degrees of blood relations - which corresponds to Du Huan's remark on the Muslims, who denote the different degrees of family relations. His remark, that they however don't care about it, seems to point to the decline of social stability of that period.
54Traditional medicine is described as strong among Christians ; as Christians were holders of the traditions of the Aksumite court, it is possible, that they also had deeper knowledge of it than the Muslim traders. Medicine in today's Ethiopia and Eritrea is in fact relying on very old traditions, often preserved within the low clergy of the Christian church, some practises preserving knowledge from ancient treatises which arrived in Aksum during the Byzantine Empire. It might be a bit surprising to hear that "they open the brain" ; but this
55should correspond to a very ancient medical practise still known today in rural areas of Eritrea and Ethiopia. Many diseases are healed by cutting the skin of the forehead, the eyebrow or the cheek. Then blood pours out and, together with it the bad spirit ("insects"), which caused the disease. Diarrhoea, also mentioned by Du Huan, is extremely widespread and traditional medicine is well known against it. Thus, Du Huan's notes correspond well to the coastal areas of today's Eritrea and give us a glimpse on the life in the late, politically weakened Aksumite kingdom.
Conclusion
Indirect contacts between the Northeast African coast and China, mostly based on trade, seem to be documented since at least the 1st century A.D. (Han dynasty). This article focused on the first Chinese, whose presence in Africa is clearly documented. The geographical curiosity of the T'ang dynasty made it possible, that extracts of an 8th century travel report of a Chinese military officer, Du Huan, were documented and preserved. He visited Arabic countries and also Africa. The location of Molin-guo, an African country, seems to be clarified today. South of it lies Laobosa, the first mention of Abyssinia in an ancient Chinese source ; Molin should be located in a dry desert lowland in the Sudan and Eritrea62. This text is thus one of the very few ancient sources contemporary to the late Aksumite kingdom. Briefly, but with significant details, the peoples' customs are described, most of them still identifiable today.
What makes the text fragments on Molin important, is, first, that it is the most ancient source which provides evidence of the presence of a Chinese in Africa. Most other sources only reflect the fact that products from the African Red Sea coast reached China. Second, it is among the very few ancient sources contemporary to the Aksumite kingdom. Third, the Du Huan travel report fragments give an example on the ways used in that time to cross far distances. Probably rather unusual is the fact, that Du Huan reached the mountainous region south of Egypt by land ; how his way back was organised is not known in detail, but we know that he reached Kanton in Southern China by boat - using the sea routes to India, which we know from a few ancient sources. This shows that still in the period of decline, the sea trade from the African coast was not halted. Fourth, the geographical notions mentioned are reflecting information originating evidently in Arabic contacts, which is probably due to the fact that during the decline of the Aksumite kingdom the Red Sea trade was already in the hands of the Arabs. Finally, the brief descriptions of the multitude of religions give us an impression of the coexistence of religions in this period, on which only very few sources exist.
cy.revues.org/33
Recommend you guys read and book mark this pg or the link for further references.
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