The contact of China with [...] medieval Western Christendom during the brief period when the Mongol universal state extended continuously from the coasts of China to the coasts of the Black Sea and the Baltic was a curiosity of history which, like Alexander’s raid on India, had no lasting effect.
This refers to Alexander’s crossing of the Indus. His effect on the right bank of the Indus was lasting, and his Bactrian successor Demetrius made a more lasting impact in northwest India.
A Study of History, Vol VII, OUP, 1954 (footnote)
April 13 2012 at 9:34 am
The lasting effects of Alexander’s conquest of the Eastern Iranian area: Sogdiana, Bactriana, Gandhara were perceived by Toynbee, by Roman Ghirshman, by William McNeill, but not at all appreciated by the following generation of scholars, who were influenced by Stalin’s restrictions on writing about such movements and cultural transmissions. Western scholars, influenced by Stalinism, halted for the best part of 40 years – from the 1930s to the 1970s – the progress of cultural studies. See Neil Ascherson, “Black Sea”.
April 13 2012 at 11:24 am
I want to do much more here from Between Oxus and Jumna, which is Toynbee’s best “travel book” (if one must use that term).