Post-Mongol Central Asia and China: Accounts by a Chinese Diplomat and Central Asian Merchant

The legacy of the Mongol Empire has left a profound impact on the Muslim world and China, shaping their trajectories of interconnectedness while also prompting them to forge their own distinct paths. Cross-regional travelers traversing the post-Mongol Eurasia often approach their encounters with curiosity and caution, observing and comparing diverse cultures, social structures, and political dynamics. Their unique perspectives offer valuable insights into the evolving landscapes of the regions they visit within a global context. This paper engages in a comparative analysis of two travel accounts—Sayyid `Ali Akbar's Khataynameh, which provides a Muslim perspective on sixteenth-century Ming China, and Chen Cheng's Xiyu fanguo zhi, a report on Western and Central Asia from the viewpoint of a Ming diplomat in the fifteenth century. It specifically examines how these authors depict the social fabric of the urban centers they explore and how these portrayals reflect their respective understanding of the post-Mongol world order. The paper suggests that by the sixteenth century, the Mongol legacy no longer acted as a unifying force between these two worlds, yet remnants of Mongol ideas of sovereignty lingered as both regions grappled with the challenge of forging their own ideologies while navigating the new international order.