An Historical Disquisition Concerning the Knowledge Which the Ancients Had of India
And the Progress of Trade with that Country Prior to the Discovery of the Passage to it by the Cape of Good Hope

A 1791 synthesis of western accounts of India from classical times to the sixteenth century.

William Robertson (Author)

9781108046565, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 April 2012

396 pages, 2 maps
29.7 x 21 x 2.1 cm, 0.95 kg

William Robertson (1721–93), Principal of the University of Edinburgh and historiographer to His Majesty for Scotland, published this work in 1791. Already famous for a History of Scotland, which went into many editions, and a History of America, Robertson aimed to synthesise all earlier western accounts of the subcontinent from classical times to the sixteenth century. Beginning with a consideration of the practical difficulties facing explorers from Europe and Africa who headed east, Robertson discusses the (legendary) Pharaoh Sesostris of Egypt, Alexander the Great, and Roman military incursions into, and trade with, India, before turning to the Portuguese, Spanish, French and English explorers of the early modern period, furnishing his account with copious source notes. A long appendix then describes 'the genius, the manners, and institutions of the people of India, as far as they can be traced from the earliest ages to which our knowledge of them extends'.

Preface
1. Intercourse with India, from the earliest times, until the conquest of Egypt by the Romans
2. Intercourse with India, from the establishment of the Roman dominion in Egypt, to the conquest of that kingdom by the Mahomedans
3. Intercourse with India, from the conquest of Egypt by the Mahomedans, to the discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, and in establishment of the Portuguese dominion in the East
4. General observations
Notes and illustrations
Appendix
Notes to the appendix
Index.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]