Other Routes: 1500 Years of African and Asian Travel Writing

“. . . brings new insights into the colonial relationship while challenging the unspoken temptation that this was a distinctly European period.” ?Simon Gikandi

Other Routes collects important primary work by travel writers from Asia and Africa in English translation. An introduction by Tabish Khair discusses travel literature as a genre, the perception of travel and writing about travel as a European privilege, and the emergence of new writings that show that travel has been a human occupation that crosses time and culture. This original and significant book will interest armchair travelers and others in views of people and places away from the European traveler’s gaze.

Selections include “The Travels of a Japanese Monk” (c. 838), “Al-Abdari, the Disgruntled Traveller” (c. 1290), “A Korean Official’s Account of China” (1488), “The Poetry of Basho’s Road” (1689), “Malabari: A Love-Hate Affair with the British” (1890).