by Edward W. Said   The theme is the way in which intellectual traditions are created and trans-mitted... Orientalism is the example Mr. Said uses, and by it he means something precise. The scholar who studies the Orient (and specifically the Muslim Orient), the imaginitive writer who takes it as his subject, and the institutions which have been concerned with teaching it, settling it, ruling it, all have a certain representation or idea of the Orient defined as being other than the...

  By Manuel Komroff   When Marco Polo arrived at the court of the Great Khan Pekin had just been rebuilt. Kublai Khan was at the height of his glory. Polo rose rapidly in favour and became governor of an important district. In this way he gained first-hand knowledge of a great civilisation and described it with astounding accuracy and detail.   https://www.megaupload.com/?d=HKG93V7S

  By Cliff Goddard   This book introduces readers to the remarkable linguistic diversity of East and Southeast Asia. It combines serious but accessible treatments of diverse areas not usually found in a single volume: for example, word origins, cultural key words, tones and sounds, language families and typology, key syntactic structures, writing systems, communicative style. Written with great clarity and an eye for interesting examples, the book is a textbook for students of...

  By Milo Kearney   Throughout history, the Indian Ocean has been a critical factor in defining the supremacy and power of a nation. It is well known their domination of the Indian Ocean played a major part in the success of the Portuguese kingdom at the start of the sixteenth century. In this innovative text, Milo Kearney shows how the trading and imperial expansionist possibilities offered by the Indian Ocean were exploited by the leading powers from the third millennium B.C. to the...

  By S Pollock   A comprehensive history of the rich literary traditions of South Asia, this text contains essays which consider 15 South Asian literary traditions - including Hindi, Indian-English, Persian, Sanskrit, Tibetan and Urdu - in their full historical and cultural variety.   https://www.megaupload.com/?d=03HSU3VW  

By Miriam T. Stark   This volume is the seventh in the series Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology, a series intended to cover the central areas of undergraduate archaeological teaching. While this is certainly a sustainable market for the series, this particular volume presents an overview and depth that will also, and perhaps more so, be a welcome addition to the libraries of postgraduate and research archaeologists ... Stark has assembled a valuable resource made all the more useful...

By Vinay Lal   Offers a guide to the key philosophical, literary, mythological and cultural traditions of this extraordinarily diverse and pluralistic faith.   https://www.megaupload.com/?d=K70JCZYN  

By Colin Thubron   Colin Thubron has spent a lifetime exploring Asia, and he displays his significant regional knowledge and experience in Shadow of the Silk Road. Universally acknowledged as one of our best living travel writers, Thubron brings to this book the astute perception for which he is known and the beautiful prose style he has honed for more than 40 years; what is even more impressive, however, is the incredible sense of enthusiasm he brings both to his journey and to his...

By Ronald S. Love   Despite earlier naval expeditions undertaken for reasons of diplomacy or trade, it wasn't until the early 1400s that European maritime explorers established sea routes through most of the globe's inhabited regions, uniting a divided earth into a single system of navigation. From the early Portuguese and Spanish quests for gold and glory, to later scientific explorations of land and culture, this new understanding of the world's geography created global trade, built...

By Stephen S. Gosch & Peter N. Stearns   This book features some of the greatest travellers in human history – people who undertook long journeys to places they knew little or nothing about. From Roman tourists, to the establishment of the Silk Road; an epic trek round China and India in the seventh century, to Marco Polo and through to the first speculations on space travel, Premodern Travel in World History provides an overview of long-distance travel in Afro-Eurasia from around...