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Book Review: Medieval Ships and Shipping

"Sources and Studies in World History." It claims to cover island Southeast Asia, meaning the modern areas of Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and southeast Vietnam. The world history focus means that connections are stressed throughout. Professor Shaffer has some excellent passages relating the history of the area to wider changes, such as the rise of Islam, the effects of the Mongol conquests, and changes in the consumption of spices in the world. She is also, however, anxious to avoid depicting early Southeast Asia as merely a passive recipient of culture from elsewhere. For example, she emphasises that while the region received much from India, both Hinduism and Buddhism were localised in Southeast Asia. This is most famously seen in the great edifice of Borobudur. This is all very well, but it creates an uneasy tension between relating the area to the world while stressing its cultural autonomy. There are some lapses and problems. She uses modern Chinese spellings, e.g., Zheng He (formerly Cheng Ho), but older versions of Southeast Asian places, e.g., Malacca (now Melaka). To use "South Asia" to refer to what is today South and Southeast Asia is a bit confusing. East Africans did not travel overseas in their own ships. It is doubtful that Zheng He's dealings with Melaka enabled this new port city to survive in the early fifteenth century. Her coverage of Islam and its arrival in Southeast Asia is less authoritative than her account of the earlier history. Finally, readers need to know that the book in fact deals only with what is now Indonesia. The other areas are almost completely neglected. It is true that we know much more about Indonesia than early Malaysia or the Philippines before the Spanish, but I do feel that the title is misleading. Nevertheless, overall this is an excellent little book, useful for providing an entree to the region for specialists in other areas.