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The Malay Peninsula: Crossroads of the Maritime Silk Road (100 BC–1300 AD) . By Michel Jacq-Hergoualc'h. Translated by Victoria Hobson. Handbook of Oriental Studies, sec. 3, vol. 13. Leiden: Brill, 2002. xxxv, 607 pp. €171.00/$199.00 (cloth).

Ranging widely through previous historical, epigraphic, and archaeological studies of maritime trade of the Malay Peninsula, this volume adds insights from the author's own investigations. The voluminous and sometimes esoteric Handbuch der Orientalistik series, now under an English title, aims to provide "scholarly reference works of lasting value." Starting from the geography of the peninsula, Michel JacqHergoualc'h, director of research with the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris, traces the history of the maritime silk road in the peninsula in different historical periods. In each era, he begins with an overview of the situation, as known from previous works, in the trading countries of China, South Asia, and the Middle East, as well as in neighboring realms in Southeast Asia. An assessment of textual references (mostly from the Chinese, sometimes from Arabic) follows, then a look at inscriptions (where applicable), architectural remains, and religious objects (Brahmanist and Buddhist), and if possible, trade items such as Asian ceramics and Middle Eastern glass, as well as, where identifiable, objects of local origin. The result combines existing and widely accepted studies with the author's own insights. He disposes of some well-worn scholarly theories, above all the idea of the "transpeninsular route." How simple it looked on the maps. Those intrepid Malay, Indian, Chinese, and Arab sailors, clinging to the shorelines, could shorten distances by transporting their goods across the narrows of the Malay Peninsula or by having them transported, saving a weeks-long journey around the peninsula. Some researchers had even managed to "pair" sites on the eastern and western coasts where traffic could go upriver through gaps in the mountains and travel downriver on the opposite side. Yet among these supposed pairs, ports in the west, whether in present-day Thailand or in Kedah and Perak (unfortunately, the significant western peninsular site of Mergui-Tenasserim [Myeik-Taninthayi] in Burma is still largely unexplored), were definitely not equals of their eastern partners; they were entrepots but remained more or less petty chiefdoms. Admittedly, the Arab traders of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries knew only the western centers, which were certainly linked to trends in India (for example, in religion), but the major entrepots that later grew to be citystates were on the peninsula's eastern shores.