Two Arabic Travel Books combines two exceptional exemplars of Arabic travel writing, penned in the same era but chronicling wildly divergent experiences. Accounts of China and India is a compilation of reports and anecdotes on the lands and peoples of the Indian Ocean, from the Somali headlands to China and Korea. The early centuries of the Abbasid era witnessed a substantial network of maritime trade--the real-life background to the Sindbad tales. In this account, we first travel east to discover a vivid human landscape, including descriptions of Chinese society and government, Hindu religious practices, and natural life from flying fish to Tibetan musk-deer and Sri Lankan gems. The juxtaposed accounts create a jigsaw picture of a world not unlike our own, a world on the road to globalization. In its ports, we find a priceless cargo of information; here are the first foreign descriptions of tea and porcelain, a panorama of unusual social practices, cannibal islands, and Indian holy men--a marvelous, mundane world, contained in the compass of a novella.

In Mission to the Volga, we move north on a diplomatic mission from Baghdad to the upper reaches of the Volga River in what is now central Russia. This colorful documentary by Ibn Fadlan relates the trials and tribulations of an embassy of diplomats and missionaries sent by caliph al-Muqtadir to deliver political and religious instruction to the recently-converted King of the Bulghars. During eleven months of grueling travel, Ibn Fadlan records the marvels he witnesses on his journey, including an aurora borealis and the white nights of the North. Crucially, he offers a description of the Viking Rus, including their customs, clothing, tattoos, and a striking account of a ship funeral. Mission to the Volga is also the earliest surviving instance of sustained first-person travel narrative in Arabic--a pioneering text of peerless historical and literary value.

Together, the stories in Two Arabic Travel Books illuminate a vibrant world of diversity during the heyday of the Abbasid empire, narrated with as much curiosity and zeal as they were perceived by their observant beholders.

两本阿拉伯游记》结合了两本特殊的阿拉伯游记典范，它们写于同一时代，但记录了截然不同的经历。中国和印度记事》汇编了关于印度洋土地和人民的报告和轶事，从索马里岬角到中国和朝鲜。阿巴斯时代的早期几个世纪见证了一个庞大的海上贸易网络--这是辛巴达故事的真实背景。在这篇报道中，我们首先向东旅行，发现了一个生动的人文景观，包括对中国社会和政府、印度教宗教习俗以及从飞鱼到西藏麝香鹿和斯里兰卡宝石的自然生活的描述。这些并列的描述创造了一幅与我们自己的世界不一样的拼图，一个正在走向全球化的世界。在它的港口，我们发现了一批无价的信息；这里有外国对茶叶和瓷器的首次描述，有不寻常的社会习俗、食人岛和印度圣人的全景--一个奇妙而平凡的世界，包含在一部长篇小说的范围内。

在《伏尔加河使命》中，我们随着一个外交使团从巴格达北上，来到了伏尔加河上游，即现在的俄罗斯中部。这部由伊本-法德兰创作的丰富多彩的纪录片讲述了由哈里发穆塔迪尔派遣的外交官和传教士组成的使团所经历的考验和磨难，他们向刚刚皈依的布尔干人国王传达政治和宗教指令。在11个月的艰苦旅行中，伊本-法德兰记录了他在旅途中看到的奇迹，包括极光和北方的白夜。最重要的是，他对维京罗斯人进行了描述，包括他们的习俗、服装、纹身，以及对一次船舶葬礼的惊人描述。伏尔加河的使命》也是现存最早的阿拉伯文持续第一人称旅行叙事的实例--具有无与伦比的历史和文学价值的先驱文本。

两本阿拉伯文旅行书中的故事共同阐明了阿巴斯帝国全盛时期的一个充满活力的多元化世界，这些故事的叙述与观察者对它们的看法一样充满了好奇和热情。