"Continent" is traditionally defined as landmass surrounded by water, but all three Old World continents aren't defined this way, but with overland boundaries. The definition originates from Ancient Greece as far as I know, which first defined Europe, Asia, and Africa.
This brings me to my question.
Before the concept of "Asia" from Greece, did China consider itself as being on the same continent as Persia and India, and not the same continent as Europe? Or would they have considered it either a Eurasia continent or India to be a separate subcontinent?
Additionally, what was the pre-modern Islamic conception of continents? As I understand it, they basically had the same view of Europe, Africa, and Asia but they considered Anatolia to be joined with Europe as "Rum" because of the Byzantine Empire, Seljuks and Ottomans after that.
Follow-up question: Why did "the west" keep the ancient greek idea of continents at all? I get why it was useful for the ancient greeks (to define the coastlines of the Mediterranean), but how was it useful for Charlemagne, or the medieval English, etc.? Or did we just return to this model after a while in the Renaissance due to that society's collective love of all things ancient Roman?