Islam and Hindu Kingdoms: Trade and Influence in the Indian Ocean Basin

931 Words2 Pages

Helen Santos
April 14, 2016
History 110A-Section 4
MWF 11:00 am
Chapter 16: India and the India Ocean Basin Chapter 16 in the book Tradition & Encounter: A Global Perspective on the Past written by Jerry H. Bentley and Herbert F. Ziegler is mainly about Islam and Hindu kingdoms, and the meetings of their traditions, production and trade in the Indian Ocean Basin, and the influence of Indian society in Southeast Asia. The chapter starts with the kingdoms of Islamic and Hindu, and it begins with the quest for the centralized imperial rule. Starts with talking about the tension among regional kingdom in North India, and how the Nomadic Turks was mixed with Indian society. However, the Harsha Kingdom temporarily restored and unified rule in …show more content…

The monsoons mean it rains in the spring and summer. Irrigation systems were necessary to have dry months, so there would not be big rivers in the south, and there were water saved from the pervious rain months. All of this lead to population growth and urbanization was a part of Delhi. In Indian Ocean Basin, it had development in trade and economic in the southern India. It began with internal trade with self-sufficient in staple food; like, metals, and spices crops found only in certain regions. Hindu temples were become a place where trade happens and serves as economic and social centers. Hindu temples had large tracts of land that helped make hundreds of employee, and the administrators of the temples had to maintain order and deliver taxes. The also served as banks and engage in business ventures. There was a cross-cultural in Indian Ocean basin was between Dhows and junks; they were huge ships involved n maritime trade. There were two places were clearinghouses of trade and cosmopolitan center, which were Emporia and Indian port cities. There were specialized production during this time, and some were high quality cotton textiles. There was a kingdom in the center of Emporia known as the kingdom of Axum and it was a Christian empire. They were a kingdom who resisted to the pressure of Islam and stayed prosperous through …show more content…

The first to have a big influence and reflect it was Funan during the first to sixth century C.E. They drew enormous wealth by controlling their trade, and adopting Sanskrit as their official language, but they started to decline in the sixth century. Then came the Srivijiaya and Angkor Kingdoms that had influences from India and other too, but it change when Islam came into the Southeast Asia and people started to convert into Muslims and Melaka was

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