Muslim Merchant activities as seen in Ming Dynasty Records about Western Region emissaries

This study analyses the records of the Timurid emissaries to identify the Eurasian land routes and to learn about Muslim merchants who operated along them. At first, we examined the relationship of the Islamic merchant to the state. Timurid emissaries in the Ming records were authorized merchants who were partners in securing economic benefits for the state. Therefore, Timurid emissaries were committed to maintaining east-west connections via land routes as much as possible during the 15th century, a period of great turmoil in Eurasia, during which various routes came and went. Timurids, however, sought to control these routes and dominate Eurasia's transit trade through their own territory, and by the early 16th century, the Eurasian overland trade network, stretching to Mecca and Istanbul, via Samarkand. Information about China was important to Muslim merchants who use this overland trade network, and there are several works in the Islamic world that contain more or less information about China, and these works were written in such a way that they collected information from previous periods while also including new perspectives unique to their time, so that information accumulated over the years. It is particularly noteworthy that Samarkand merchants were the main source of this information. Once these Muslim merchants with information about China actually reached the border of China, they were assisted by Muslims in China, so they could travel throughout the country. The 15th century marked the period following the collapse of the Mongol empire and preceding European dominance over major trading centers in Asia, causing a major shift in the existing trade route. As a result, the trade networks that ran through Eurasia during this period have not received much attention. However, the purpose of Timurid world conquest was not simply to restore Mongolia's vast territory, but to revive the Eurasian overland routes within it, which Timur and his many descendants would accomplish over the 15th century. This can be seen in the history of the eastern end of the Eurasia, China.