The City of Light the Hidden Journal of the Man Who Entered China Four Years Bef Hardcover - 2000

From the publisher

Two years before Marco Polo's celebrated voyage to China, another Italian, Jacob D'Ancona, set off on his own journey to the East. Jacob was well educated -- his grandfather was the rabbi of Florence -- and wrote down a candid account of his travels. But because some of his reflections could have been considered heretical by the inquisition, his heirs chose to keep the manuscript secret -- and so it remained for more than 700 years.In 1991, distinguished scholar and political philosopher David Selbourne at last gained access to Jacob's narrative and was granted permission to translate it. The result is The City of Light -- a riveting travel narrative and a momentous scholarly achievement.With an eye for detail and a sense of drama, Jacob brings to life his travels through Syria, the Persian Gulf, and India, vividly capturing the dangers that he faced and life in the far-flung Jewish communities that helped him on his way. But it is in his account of his final destination, the Chinese coastal metropolis of Zaitun, or the City of Light, that Jacob proves most incisive. Reporting on commerce, technology, street life, and social mores as well as his own involvement in the city's internal political battles, he takes us inside a surprisingly modern, multiethnic civilization in the years just before the Mongol conquest. For anyone interested in exotic travel, medieval history, or Jewish studies, The City of Light will be the year's most revelatory volume.