Alexander Jost | University of Salzburg (original) (raw)

News and Advertisements by Alexander Jost

Money makes the world go round – and has done so for more than 2500 years. States and regions aro... more Money makes the world go round – and has done so for more than 2500 years. States and regions around the world shaped their money differently and used different materials. Metals were always among the most important, and the focus for specific technology, social tensions and cultural expressions.

The heritage and impact of coinage and other means of exchange is vast and deeply culturally embedded in today’s global societies: in economy, social life, the arts, cultural heritage, and more. We will explore aspects of coinage and the metals it was made from with CIVIS students.

Teaching expertise includes the fields of anthropology, archaeology, art, economics, and historical sciences. We will look at money, coinage and their heritage from a cross-cultural perspective and with a special focus set on the material culture of money and the role of metals in money production.

The heritage and impact of pre-modern coinage and means of exchange is vast and is culturally dee... more The heritage and impact of pre-modern coinage and means of exchange is vast and is culturally deeply embedded in today’s global societies: in economy, social life, the arts, cultural heritage, and more. We wish to explore such aspects of pre-modern coinage with CIVIS students by explicitly embracing non-Western perspectives (with particular focus on Asia and Africa) and including expertise from the field of economics and historical science to the study of pre-modern money and coinage and its heritage from a cross-cultural angle.

Apply now at:
https://civis.eu/de/civis-courses/the-heritage-of-money-and-coinage-a-cross-cultural-perspective

Articles and Chapters by Alexander Jost

On the Way to the "(Un)Known"?: The Ottoman Empire in Travelogues (c. 1450-1900), 2022

The area between the Black and the Red Seas, between the Tigris and the Nile - during the early m... more The area between the Black and the Red Seas, between the Tigris and the Nile - during the early modern period largely the realm of the Ottoman Empire and to Europeans the "Orient" - has been a hub for trade, travel, and exchange since antiquity. The importance of Jerusalem and Mecca as places of religious and cosmological "orientation" for Jews, Christians, and Muslims at the junction of the three old continents added further to this phenomenon and rendered individual long-distance travel from all directions a historical constant to be traced through centuries with countless surviving travelogues bearing witness. As a matter of fact, with the technical practicability of travel and the number and status of members related by religion to the "Orient," the number of individual travels varied greatly, leaving us with many more hajj travelogues from the Balkans or from the Levant in the early modern period than, for instance, from Western Africa or China. This difference in number, however, cannot be directly translated into the importance attached to returning travelers in their respective home countries. Joseph Fletcher Jr. even states that "the more secluded and remote a Muslim community was from the main centers of Islamic cultural life in the Middle East, the more susceptible it was to those centers' most recent trends." In the case of early modern China's Muslim communities, the seclusion Fletcher refers to was only interrupted by a very small number of pilgrims reestablishing connections and providing information often after decades or even centuries of silence. This paper introduces the Chaojin tuji 朝覲途記 (hajj travelogue) by the Chinese Muslim Ma Dexin 馬德新 (1794-1874) as the earliest published Chinese eyewitness account of a travel through the Ottoman Empire and as pioneering incentive and guide for encouraging Chinese Muslims to perform the hajj and thus participate in a world of increasingly connected ideas, practices,a nd identities.

Chinese Annals of History of Science and Technology, 2021

In 2015, a previously unknown manuscript was discovered in the Nanjing Library. It contained a Ch... more In 2015, a previously unknown manuscript was discovered in the Nanjing
Library. It contained a Chinese mining and metallurgy handbook, and was identified as a copy of the Kunyu gezhi 坤輿格致, known as the lost Chinese translation of Georgius Agricola’s (1494-1555) De re metallica (1556) by Jesuit Adam Schall von Bell (1592-1666). A closer look at the text, however, reveals that, besides parts of Agricola’s book, content by at least four other European authors was included: Vannoccio Biringuccio (1480-1539), Modestinus Fachs (?-before 1595), Lazarus Ercker (1528/30-1594), and José de Acosta (1539/40-1599/1600). This study demonstrates how their books became available in China, why they were selected as sources for the Kunyu gezhi, and how they were eventually used and incorporated. From this, it becomes apparent that Schall and his collaborators spared no effort to conduct this ambitious knowledge transfer project, and to present European technology at its best to the emperor.

Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 48, 2019

During the course of the 11th century, the Song state developed an enormous demand for copper as ... more During the course of the 11th century, the Song state developed an enormous demand for copper as a base metal for its currency, which was satisfied by a worldwide unprecedented boom in the mining industry. When deposits began to be exhausted and production declined, alternative copper sources needed to be found. A secret method known in alchemist circles promised relief because it allowed the use of vitriol water and earth as a resource. But the genuineness of the resulting metal as copper was disputed and especially conservative officials generally disapproved of methods unknown to them and to classical literature. In the last consequence, however, considerations of usefulness and profit prevailed and the method was admitted. This turn of events was closely related to the effort of a certain Zhang Family in Dexing, nowadays Jiangxi, and parts of the argumentations which may have led to this turn of events survive in family book chapters and grave stele inscriptions. During the Southern Song period, under close operative supervision of the state, the scale of production increased quantitatively and spatially until – combined with a decrease of conventional copper production – it provided for the lion’s share of China’s mint metal. Towards the end of the Song period and during the Yuan invasion, the industry largely vanished and even knowledge about the technology fell into oblivion. This paper analyses the processes of admission, establishment and operation of
hydrometallurgical copper production in Song China with a special focus on the insights it gives into the relations between the state represented by the government with its conservative and reformist fractions of officials on the one hand and society represented by carriers of unofficialsecret knowledge and a crafty local family on the other.

Angela Schottenhammer (ed.): Early Global Interconnectivity across the Indian Ocean World, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019

Barely any period in Chinese history stands as an example of the turning of the country towards t... more Barely any period in Chinese history stands as an example of the turning of the country towards the maritime world as does the beginning of the fifteenth century, when the famous treasure fleets under the command of the Eunuch Admiral Zheng He (1371–c. 1433) sailed “down the western seas”. This was not for the discovery of new sailing routes or the establishment of colonies that would become so crucial for the European nations only decades later, but rather the strengthening of China’s political and economic relations along the shores of the Indian Ocean according to the patterns of her time-tested tributary system. While the first three voyages were still mainly confined to the South China Sea and the eastern parts of the Indian Ocean, the latter four reached further west to the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Swahili Coast. An analysis of the circumstances, political encounters, commodity exchanges and dating of the general course of events during those voyages in Arabian waters are the main objective of this paper. New insights and evidence are offered through the integration of so far largely overlooked Arabic sources.

Der Anschnitt - Zeitschrift für Kunst und Kultur im Bergbau 66,1, 2014

Throughout two millennia of imperial Chinese History, never more copper was produced and cast int... more Throughout two millennia of imperial Chinese History, never more copper was produced and cast into coins than during the Song period (960-1279). The prose poem Daye Fu 大冶賦 offers vivid insights into mining and minting at this time. It is centred around the description of copper cementation or wet copper production, a technique which was worldwide first applied in China. Additionally, other methods of ore exploitation and metal production are displayed illuminating interesting aspects of the contemporary understanding of mining and minting as well as their role for state and society. It is the purpose of this article to provide an annotated German translation of this poem, which respects its literary form and by doing so to contribute to a better understanding of the History of Science and Technology in China.

Theses by Alexander Jost

“Wet copper” refers to refined copper, which is obtained from cupriferous substances by means of ... more “Wet copper” refers to refined copper, which is obtained from cupriferous substances by means of solution in water and precipitation on iron (hydrometallurgical methods) rather than by a conventional ore melting process (pyrometallurgical methods).
Knowledge about certain parts of this method already existed for many centuries mainly in the secret alchemist literature of China, when towards the end of the 11th century the Song state decided to use wet copper for its coinage. In numerous places in south-east China, large facilities employing tens of thousands of workers and producing more than 1 000 tons of copper annually were established. While during the beginning of the 12th century, still most of China’s copper was obtained with conventional methods, ore deposits soon became exhausted and production numbers declined rapidly. Already by the second half of the 12th century, wet copper accounted for the lion’s share of the urgently needed mint metal and developed into one of the state’s most essential industries.
After the Mongol conquests, many parts of the complex system of state-owned industries in China fell into disarray and in particular mint metal production enjoyed no priority anymore because the monetary system of the following Yuan dynasty chiefly relied on paper money. When in the 16th century in Europe the first sources mentioned the appearance of wet copper, in China hardly anything was known about it anymore. Only by the end of the 19th century, facilities operated by the Japanese can be found in Taiwan and only during the second half of the 20th century in Mainland China.
In the central focus of this thesis are issues like the circumstances leading to innovation and large-scale application of knowledge about wet copper, the technological details of different hydrometallurgical methods, the administrative integration of the state institutions in charge of wet copper production and the way they managed the operation of wet copper facilities, the correlations between the quantitative developments of wet copper production and the monetary policy of the Song state as well as the attempts to understand and explain metallurgical processes by contemporaries. Beyond this, the decline of wet copper production at the end of the Song period and its development in other world regions as well as in modern China are analysed.
As an outstandingly important source for the understanding and integration of questions related to copper production and minting in Song China, a complete annotated translation of the “Rhapsody of the Great Smelting” (Daye fu 大冶賦) is attached to this thesis.

tobias.lib (online), 2008

Reviews by Alexander Jost

Talks by Alexander Jost

With the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the culturally relatively diverse image of China and ... more With the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the culturally relatively diverse image of China and its elites in particular began to change. By re-invoking traditional Chinese ideas and ways, the new rulers and the entire society antagonized the demons of the finally overcome period of foreign rule. For China’s Muslims, who had been a mainstay of Mongol governance before, this meant in many cases that they could not present themselves in public as confidently as before any more. They changed their Arabic names into Chinese and, following the proceeding disintegration of direct maritime contacts with the Middle East, often gave up their involvement with long-distance trade, moved inland and ceased to use their ancestral languages. Despite of this, they maintained their Muslim identity and customs and do so until the present day. Especially because of their Chinese names determining Muslim actors within Chinese history becomes much more difficult from this time onward. It is almost only in the case of Muslim rebellions that they become prominent and visible under China’s last two dynasties. A closer look at the lives of Chinese Muslims, however, provides a much more differentiated picture. The aim of this paper is to fathom the methods useful for a clearer understanding of the role of Muslims in late imperial Chinese society. In order to do so, questions like the success of Muslims within the imperial examinations, the distribution of Muslims in urban and rural areas or the role of Muslims in military and civil administration are tackled by means of case studies as well as quantitative research.

Muslims have lived in the Chinese Heartland since the earliest years of Islam. During the Tang- a... more Muslims have lived in the Chinese Heartland since the earliest years of Islam. During the Tang- and Song periods, Muslim communities existed mainly in the harbor cities at the southeastern coast and along the caravan routes which connected China to central and western Asia. During the Yuan dynasty, more Muslims came into China with the Mongol armies and assisted the nomad in rulers in governing their sedentary population. When the Yuan were overthrown by the ethnic Chinese Ming and later China closed its harbors for long distance trade, Muslims lost connection to their countries of origin and became more closely integrated into China’s majority culture. With its forced opening in the 19th century and with improvements in transport and communication, these connections began to be reestablished and China’s Muslims began to rebuild and re-interpret their relations to the Near East, a process which is ongoing until the present day. This presentation traces the path of China’s Muslims over the longue durée of history and relates it to their closeness or distance to the heartlands of Islam.

It is a remarkable fact that the first larger group of Chinese which arrived in Mecca went there ... more It is a remarkable fact that the first larger group of Chinese which arrived in Mecca went there not as pilgrims but as envoys. That was in 1432 and they had disembarked from a ship of the famous Zheng He fleet. Since this time, many Chinese Muslims have reached the holy sites of Islam mostly either travelling as individuals or in organized pilgrimage groups. While mostly a purely religious motivation for those travels prevailed, at several occasions political reasons played a role, too. In the 1930s and 40s, Chinese Muslims supporting the Japanese and the Chinese Government travelled in separate groups each of them determined to convince their worldwide brethren in faith of their cause. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Communist government dispatched small “Hajj Missions”, which on their way to Saudi-Arabia would visit a number of other Muslim countries in order to build up and strengthen their political relations with the young People’s Republic. It is the aim of this paper to analyse the influence exacted by such political ambitions on the Hajj by Chinese Muslims as a whole and to provide an overview of its development in Modern China.

Before the 1980s, the pilgrimage to Mecca by Chinese Muslims has never developed into a mass phe... more Before the 1980s, the pilgrimage to Mecca by Chinese Muslims has never developed into a mass
phenomenon. Although China has as many Muslims as Syria or Iraq, aspects like the extremely long
distance but also recurring political obstacles and the high priority of filial piety in China have often
kept them from travelling. Those few, however, who went and returned alive could be sure of the
highest admiration by their compatriot brethren in faith. One of them was Na Yaoting ÄÉÒ«Í¥, a
restaurant owner from Najiahu ¼{¼Ò‘ô village in the Province of Ningxia, Western China. In 1936 he
sold all his fortune and took off for a journey from which he should retursn no earlier than two years
later. An account of his pilgrimage has now been published by his son, the late Na Zhixiang ¼{Ö¾Ïé,
who recorded his father¡¯s memoirs into an historical novel with obvious fictional elements. At the
same time, however, numerous details of the work can be identified as fact, making this book the
richest historical source on the execution of the Hajj by Chinese Muslims before the age of Flight. The
presentation places this book in the context of Chinese Muslim travel writing and illustrates the
conditions of Pilgrimage by Chinese Muslims at this time through its example. It is a part of a larger
research project looking at the development of the Hajj from China through the perspectives of
individual Chinese Pilgrims between the 15th and 20th centuries.

Wet copper production refers to the method of producing copper by precipitation of copper in an a... more Wet copper production refers to the method of producing copper by precipitation of copper in an aqueous solution on iron. This production method not only allows the exploitation of otherwise exhausted ore deposits by the use of cupreous mine waters, natural vitriol springs or vitriol earth, but also for instance offers the chance to save fuel and to reduce the investment necessary for the establishment of production facilities. While first mentions of this process in Europe and other parts of the world can only be found from the 15th century onward, in China it was already known more than 2000 years ago and extensively used especially during the Song period (960-1279). If the technology was preserved and practised in China to the present day or if it was forgotten and re-imported from the west is still subject to discussion. In this study, so far unused historical sources as well as results of recent field research are employed in order to answer especially questions of quantitative character, such as the efficiency of the methods used during historical times, the size of the respective facilities, labour force and division and so forth. On the one hand it is attempted by doing so to shed light on an interesting chapter within the history of Chinese science and technology including the invention, application, optimization and possible oblivion of the process. On the other hand, this technology was crucial for the execution of monetary policies especially in Song China, to which it was most closely related due to the importance of a stable copper production for the casting of cash coins.

After the collapse of the Mongol empire not many large Muslim communities in the world were more ... more After the collapse of the Mongol empire not many large Muslim communities in the world were more isolated from the heartlands of Islam as the Chinese. The trade network of the Silk Road disintegrated and the formerly great role Chinese Muslims played in the Indian Ocean trade declined. In the following centuries the millions of Muslims remaining in China underwent numerous processes of cultural adaptation to their Chinese host society without ever actually losing their group identity. One of the few connections to the rest of the Islamic world was held up by the few pilgrims who undertook the long journey of the Ḥajj. When during the 19th century the world’s travelling infrastructure was strengthened and the ability of the Qing government to control its boarders weakened, the number of Ḥajjīs rose with remarkable effects on the character of Islam in China, such as an increasing politicization and a much stronger orientation on religious developments in the Arabic World. One of the two early Pilgrims introduced in this study is Ma Mingxin 馬明心 (1719-1781). After he came back from Mecca, he founded the powerful Jahriyya Sufi Order and became a crucial character for the Rebellion of the Salar in Gansu in 1781. Another one is Ma Dexin 馬德新 (1794-1874). When returned to China from his Pilgrimage, he first became one of the spiritual and military leaders of the devastating Panthay Rebellion in Yunnan. After signing a peace treaty with the Qing government, he turned to become one of the most influential thinkers and writers propagating a harmonic integration of Islam into the Confucian order.

Apply now at:
https://civis.eu/de/civis-courses/the-heritage-of-money-and-coinage-a-cross-cultural-perspective

On the Way to the "(Un)Known"?: The Ottoman Empire in Travelogues (c. 1450-1900), 2022

Chinese Annals of History of Science and Technology, 2021

Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 48, 2019

Angela Schottenhammer (ed.): Early Global Interconnectivity across the Indian Ocean World, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019

Der Anschnitt - Zeitschrift für Kunst und Kultur im Bergbau 66,1, 2014

tobias.lib (online), 2008

The European Network in Universal and Global History (ENIUGH) will host a congress at the UN City... more The European Network in Universal and Global History (ENIUGH) will host a congress at the UN City of Peace and Justice in the Hague organized by Leiden University. It will take place from June 29 to July 1, 2023. The Call for Papers (Deadline May 31st) is attached.

I was thinking that setting up a panel about exchange relations and diplomacy would fit the central theme of the conference and give anyone interested the chance to meet up and discuss related issues. As a time frame I suggest everything between the 12th century (Mongol conquests) and the 19th century (height of European Imperialism).

In line with the central theme of the congress "Conflict and Inequity, Peace and Justice: Local, Regional, and International Perspectives" I suggest to work on topics related to symmetric and assymetric relations reflected in diplomatic exchange and encounter, i.e. tribute relations, gifting, ritual etc.

There are no funds available to support participation.

If you are interested in joining or want to discuss the contents of the panel, please comment in this discussion!

Many thanks and looking forward to everyone's responses!

Alexander Jost, Salzburg University

On the Way to the "(Un)Known"?

The area between the Black and the Red Seas, between the Tigris and the Nileduringt he earlym ode... more The area between the Black and the Red Seas, between the Tigris and the Nileduringt he earlym odern period largely the realm of the Ottoman Empire and to Europeans the "Orient"-has been ah ub for trade, travel, and exchanges ince antiquity.The importance of Jerusalemand Mecca as places of religious and cosmological "orientation" for Jews, Christians, and Muslims at the junction of the three old continents added further to this phenomenon and rendered individual long-distance travel from all directions ahistorical constant to be traced through centuries with countless surviving travelogues bearing witness. As amatter of fact,with the technicalpracticability of travel and the number and status of members related by religion to the "Orient," the number of individual travels varied greatly, leaving us with manym ore hajj travelogues from the Balkans or from the Levant in the earlym odernp eriod than, for instance, from western Africa or China. This differenceinnumber,however,cannot be directlyt ranslated into the importance attached to returning travelersi nt heir respective homecountries.J oseph Fletcher Jr.evenstates that "the more secluded and remoteaMuslim community was from the main centers of Islamic cultural life in the Middle East,the more susceptible it was to those centers' most recent trends."¹ In the caseofearlymodernChina'sMuslim communities,the seclusion Fletcher refers to waso nlyi nterrupted by av ery small number of pilgrims reestablishingc onnections and providingi nformation oftena fter decades or even centuries of silence. This paper introduces the Chaojin tuji 朝覲途記 (hajj travelogue) by the Chinese Muslim Ma Dexin 馬德新 (1794-1874)a st he earliest publishedC hinese eyewitness account of at ravelt hrough the Ottoman Empire and as pioneering incentive and guide for encouragingC hinese Muslims to perform the hajj and thus participate in aworld of increasingly connected ideas, practices,a nd iden-Note: This article contains an abridged outline of preliminaryresearch results in preparation of ac ompletea nnotatedt ranslation of Ma Dexin's "Hajj travelogue",t ob ep ublished later.

Though it may be inevitable to invest many lonely and varyingly museful hours of work to bring a ... more Though it may be inevitable to invest many lonely and varyingly museful hours of work to bring a doctoral dissertation close to its completion, it is the interaction with others, which inspires us, the learning from others, which helps us to understand and the support of others, which makes successful results only possible. Hence there are many people and institutions deserving my special gratitude, because of their larger or smaller contributions to the thesis at hand. The first one is my supervisor and Doktorvater Prof. Hans Ulrich Vogel. With the time, thought and energy he invested into mentoring me and my dissertation, he could easily have written a medium-sized book himself. He was never too busy to discuss the translation of the most difficult texts in their minutest details with me and had an open ear to my questions and demands at any time. I am as well very much indebted to Prof. Achim Mittag, who-as an expert of the Song period himself-was no less available to support me and will now act as a second referee for this thesis. Little would all this have helped if I would not have been given the chance to fully concentrate on my research for two years thanks to a generous GraFöG scholarship from the state of Baden-Württemberg. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) financed my field research