Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/64

 28 THE CLOSING OF THE OLD TRADE PATHS found in Alexandria, although the supposed statue of the river deity Indus in that city was probably the gift of a Greek. A Chinese book of botany, ascribed to a prefect of Canton in the fourth century A. D., mentions plants then growing in Canton, which seem to have been brought by traders from Arabia or the Eoman prov- inces. The trading colony of Arabs at Canton, dating from the times when they still followed Sabaean rites, included at the beginning of the seventh century A.D. an uncle of Mohammed. Hearing of his nephew's fame as one sent by God, the worthy merchant returned to Arabia only to find the prophet dead. " Has he left any message for me? " he asked. " None," was the reply. " Then I shall go back to China. If the prophet had other views for me, he would have left me word." He accordingly sailed again for Canton, where his mau- soleum is shown. But the early connection of China with India and the West has hardly yet emerged from the twilight of tradition. The learned Chinese scholar Edkins has examined the influence of Arabian or Babylonian trade-inter- course on the science and geographical conceptions of ancient China. Of that influence he finds evidence under the Chow dynasty in the history of Chinese astrology, metrology, and astronomical instruments. The pre- Alexandrian astronomy of India also had prob- ably a Chaldaean origin. It was a commercial dispute that brought about the first Mussulman conquest of an Indian province. In 711 Mohammad ibn Kasim led a naval expedition against Sind to claim damages