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Thousands of Thai tourists have visited Jordan and Egypt, but few have been privileged to follow historians Charnvit Kasetsiri and Songyote Waeohongsa on a guided tour of the Muslim world.

The pair recently had a group of Thai journalists feeling as though they were on the road with a caravan of merchants straight out of the Arabian Nights. Their stories were as moving as the sight of ancient Amman, Petra, the Dead Sea and the great pyramids.

We spent several days on the Red Sea and in the isolated desert of the Sinai Peninsula, with only nomadic Bedouins as our neighbours, in their black tents woven from the hair of goat tails.

With the Bedouins we rode donkeys up stony hills in the timeworn Nabataean city of Petra.

The trip was organised by the Foundation for the Promotion of Social Sciences and Humanities Textbooks Project, Toyota Foundation Thailand and Toyota Motors Thailand, in preparation for a symposium on "The Islamic World and Muslims in Southeast Asia" coming up on November 28 and 29 in Nakhon Sri Thammarat.

Our adventure began in Amman, gazing at Jordan's capital from Citadel Hill. Amman is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, and was long an important stop for the trading caravans.

When the trade route ultimately shifted course, Amman's lifeblood dried up, and the city was for centuries little more than a provincial village.

Islam swept north from the Arabian Peninsula to embrace Amman, a fact that's still amply evident on Citadel Hill, where the Audience Hall of Al-Qasr was built in the final decades of the Umayyad period (661-750).

"Islam arrived in Amman in the seventh century, but it took another 500 years to reach Southeast Asia," Charnvit noted.

It was in the seventh century that Southeast Asia's Srivijaya Kingdom became a key trading centre. Marco Polo traced Islam's spread in the late 13th century through Gujarat in western India to Sumatra, Malacca, Pattani and Mindanao.

"Malacca, which was founded in 1400, had become a trading hub for spices and peppers," Charnvit said. "It was a very important centre for Islam's expansion onto the Malay Peninsula."

From Amman we drove 48 kilometres north to see Jerash - "the city of 1,000 pillars" - buried in the sand for thousands of years until its rediscovery in 1806.

Archaeologists have found the ruins of human settlements there that indicate it was inhabited for more than 6,500 years.

Jerash is now considered one of the world's largest and best-preserved locations of ancient Roman architecture outside Italy. The Hadrian Arch of Triumph was built in AD 129 to welcome the great emperor.

The architecture is so impressive that it's hard to reconcile archaeological findings that suggest Jerash's population was only 20,000, even in its "golden age" at the height of the Roman Empire.

Jerash's prosperity peaked at the beginning of the third century. The Persians invaded in 614, followed by the Muslims in 636, and then in 747 came a series of earthquakes. The population dwindled to a few thousand.

But what a place it had been. Its Hippodrome could seat 15,000 for the chariot races and other sports, and the South Theatre held another 3,000.

Jerash's marketplace on the broad, paved "Street of Columns" still gives visitors the feeling that they're window-shopping. Songyote invited us to imagine the arrays of spices, fine china, Indian silk and jewellery, all transported here via Syria.

The second part of the series will appear on November 5.

At a Ggance:

The symposium

"Islamisation in Southeast Asia" is among the topics at this month's symposium on "The Islamic World and Muslims in Southeast

Asia".

The guest speakers are Associate Professor Wittaya Sucharithanarak, Safi-I Baru of Yala Islamic University, Assistant Professor Abdullah Abru of the Islamic College at Prince of Songkla University, Numan Hayimasae of the University of Science Malaysia, and Songyote Waeohongsa, translator of the book "The History of the Arabs".

The symposium's programme is available at http://textbooksproject.com/moslemworld2008.htm or by calling (02) 424 5768 or (02) 433 8713.