Ma Huan
Topic: Medieval India through Travellers' Eyes · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Ma Huan was a Chinese Muslim who worked as an interpreter on the sea voyages of Admiral Zheng He in the early 15th century. His travel book, the Yingya Shenglan, describes the lands of the Indian Ocean. It includes the Malabar ports of Calicut and Cochin, with their rulers, trade and customs. His account shows that India's west coast was an important stop in the sea trade that linked China with West Asia.
Example
Ma Huan described Calicut (Kozhikode) as a great trading port. He wrote about its ruler, its busy markets and how foreign merchants did business there, especially in pepper.
Don't confuse with
- Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi: he also visited Calicut, in the 1440s, but he was a Persian-speaking diplomat from Herat, not a Chinese interpreter.
- Ibn Battuta: he sailed from India to China in the 14th century. Ma Huan made the trip the other way, from China to India, about a century later.
Related concepts
- Indo-Persian travel writing
- Abdur Razzaq Samarqandi
- Mahmud Wali Balkhi
- Afanasy Nikitin
- Antonio Monserrate