Misplaced Pages

Silk Road
Main routes of the Silk Road
Route information
Time period	c. 114 BCE – c. 1450 CE
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Official name	Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iii, iv, vi
Designated	2014 (38th session)
Reference no.	1442
Region	Asia-Pacific
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	絲綢之路
Simplified Chinese	丝绸之路
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Sīchóu zhī lù Wade–Giles Ssu ch»ou chih lu

The Silk Road was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 km (4,000 mi), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the Eastern and Western worlds. The name "Silk Road" was first coined in the late 19th century, but some 20th- and 21st-century historians instead prefer the term Silk Routes, on the grounds that it more accurately describes the intricate web of land and sea routes connecting Central, East, South, Southeast, and West Asia as well as East Africa and Southern Europe.

The Silk Road derives its name from the highly lucrative trade of silk textiles that were primarily produced in China. The network began with the expansion of the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) into Central Asia around 114 BCE, through the missions and explorations of the Chinese imperial envoy Zhang Qian, which brought the region under unified control. The Chinese took great interest in the security of their trade products, and extended the Great Wall of China to ensure the protection of the trade route. By the first century CE, Chinese silk was widely sought-after in Rome, Egypt, and Greece. Other lucrative commodities from the East included tea, dyes, perfumes, and porcelain; among Western exports were horses, camels, honey, wine, and gold. Aside from generating substantial wealth for emerging mercantile classes, the proliferation of goods such as paper and gunpowder greatly affected the trajectory of political history in several theatres in Eurasia and beyond.

The Silk Road was utilized over a period that saw immense political variation across the continent, exemplified by major events such as the Black Death and the Mongol conquests. The network was highly decentralized, and security was sparse: travelers faced constant threats of banditry and nomadic raiders, and long expanses of inhospitable terrain. Few individuals traveled the entire length of the Silk Road, instead relying on a succession of middlemen based at various stopping points along the way. In addition to goods, the network facilitated an unprecedented exchange of religious (especially Buddhist), philosophical, and scientific thought, much of which was syncretised by societies along the way. Likewise, a wide variety of people used the routes. Diseases such as plague also spread along the Silk Road, possibly contributing to the Black Death.

From 1453 onwards, the Ottoman Empire began competing with other gunpowder empires for greater control over the overland routes, which prompted European polities to seek alternatives while themselves gaining leverage over their trade partners. This marked the beginning of the Age of Discovery, European colonialism, and the further intensification of globalization. In the 21st century, the name "New Silk Road" is used to describe several large infrastructure projects along many of the historic trade routes; among the best known include the Eurasian Land Bridge and the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In June 2014, UNESCO designated the Chang'an-Tianshan corridor of the Silk Road as a World Heritage Site, while the Indian portion remains on the tentative site list.

Name; and contested significance

The Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative trade in silk, first developed in China, and a major reason for the connection of trade routes into an extensive transcontinental network. It derives from the German term Seidenstraße (literally "Silk Road") and was first popularized in 1877 by Ferdinand von Richthofen, who made seven expeditions to China from 1868 to 1872. However, the term itself had been in use in decades prior to that. The alternative translation "Silk Route" is also used occasionally. Although the term was coined in the 19th century, it did not gain widespread acceptance in academia or popularity among the public until the 20th century. The first book entitled The Silk Road was by Swedish geographer Sven Hedin in 1938.

The use of the term 'Silk Road' is not without its detractors. For instance, Warwick Ball contends that the maritime spice trade with India and Arabia was far more consequential for the economy of the Roman Empire than the silk trade with China, which at sea was conducted mostly through India and on land was handled by numerous intermediaries such as the Sogdians. Going as far as to call the whole thing a "myth" of modern academia, Ball argues that there was no coherent overland trade system and no free movement of goods from East Asia to the West until the period of the Mongol Empire. He notes that traditional authors discussing east–west trade such as Marco Polo and Edward Gibbon never labelled any route a "silk" one in particular. William Dalrymple points out that in pre-modern times, maritime travel cost only a fifth of overland transport, and argues for the pre-13th century primacy of an India-dominated "Golden Road" extending from Rome to Japan.

The southern stretches of the Silk Road, from Khotan (Xinjiang) to Eastern China, were first used for jade and not silk, as long as 5000 BCE, and are still in use for this purpose. The term "Jade Road" would have been more appropriate than "Silk Road" had it not been for the far larger and geographically wider nature of the silk trade; the term is in current use in China.

Routes

The Silk Road consisted of several routes. As it extended westwards from the ancient commercial centres of China, the overland, intercontinental Silk Road divided into northern and southern routes bypassing the Taklamakan Desert and Lop Nur. Merchants along these routes were involved in "relay trade" in which goods changed "hands many times before reaching their final destinations".

Northern route

The northern route started at Chang'an (now called Xi'an), an ancient capital of China that was moved further east during the Later Han to Luoyang. The route was defined around the 1st century BCE when Han Wudi put an end to harassment by nomadic tribes.

The northern route travelled northwest through the Chinese province of Gansu from Shaanxi Province and split into three further routes, two of them following the mountain ranges to the north and south of the Taklamakan Desert to rejoin at Kashgar, and the other going north of the Tian Shan mountains through Turpan, Talgar, and Almaty (in what is now southeast Kazakhstan). The routes split again west of Kashgar, with a southern branch heading down the Alai Valley towards Termez (in modern Uzbekistan) and Balkh (Afghanistan), while the other travelled through Kokand in the Fergana Valley (in present-day eastern Uzbekistan) and then west across the Karakum Desert. Both routes joined the main southern route before reaching ancient Merv, Turkmenistan. Another branch of the northern route turned northwest past the Aral Sea and north of the Caspian Sea, then and on to the Black Sea.

A route for caravans, the northern Silk Road brought to China many goods such as "dates, saffron powder and pistachio nuts from Persia; frankincense, aloes and myrrh from Somalia; sandalwood from India; glass bottles from Egypt, and other expensive and desirable goods from other parts of the world." In exchange, the caravans sent back bolts of silk brocade, lacquer-ware, and porcelain.

Southern route

The southern route or Karakoram route was mainly a single route from China through the Karakoram mountains, where it persists in modern times as the Karakoram Highway, a paved road that connects Pakistan and China. It then set off westwards, but with southward spurs so travelers could complete the journey by sea from various points. Crossing the high mountains, it passed through northern Pakistan, over the Hindu Kush mountains, and into Afghanistan, rejoining the northern route near Merv, Turkmenistan. From Merv, it followed a nearly straight line west through mountainous northern Iran, Mesopotamia, and the northern tip of the Syrian Desert to the Levant, where Mediterranean trading ships plied regular routes to Italy, while land routes went either north through Anatolia or south to North Africa. Another branch road travelled from Herat through Susa to Charax Spasinu at the head of the Persian Gulf and across to Petra and on to Alexandria and other eastern Mediterranean ports from where ships carried the cargoes to Rome.

Southwestern route

The southwestern route is believed to be the Ganges/Brahmaputra Delta, which has been the subject of international interest for over two millennia. Strabo, the 1st-century Roman writer, mentions the deltaic lands: "Regarding merchants who now sail from Egypt ... as far as the Ganges, they are only private citizens." His comments are interesting as Roman beads and other materials are being found at Wari-Bateshwar ruins, the ancient city with roots from much earlier, before the Bronze Age, presently being slowly excavated beside the Old Brahmaputra in Bangladesh. Ptolemy's map of the Ganges Delta, a remarkably accurate effort, showed that his informants knew all about the course of the Brahmaputra River, crossing through the Himalayas then bending westward to its source in Tibet. It is doubtless that this delta was a major international trading center, almost certainly from much earlier than the Common Era. Gemstones and other merchandise from Thailand and Java were traded in the delta and through it. Chinese archaeological writer Bin Yang and some earlier writers and archaeologists, such as Janice Stargardt, strongly suggest this route of international trade as Sichuan–Yunnan–Burma–Bangladesh route. According to Bin Yang, especially from the 12th century, the route was used to ship bullion from Yunnan (gold and silver are among the minerals in which Yunnan is rich), through northern Burma, into modern Bangladesh, making use of the ancient route, known as the 'Ledo' route. The emerging evidence of the ancient cities of Bangladesh, in particular Wari-Bateshwar ruins, Mahasthangarh, Bhitagarh, Bikrampur, Egarasindhur, and Sonargaon, are believed to be the international trade centers in this route.

Maritime route

The Maritime Silk Road or Maritime Silk Route is the maritime section of the historic Silk Road that connected Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian Peninsula, eastern Africa, and Europe. It began by the 2nd century BCE and flourished until the 15th century CE. The Maritime Silk Road was primarily established and operated by Austronesian sailors in Southeast Asia who sailed large long-distance ocean-going sewn-plank and lashed-lug trade ships. The route was also utilized by the dhows of the Persian and Arab traders in the Arabian Sea and beyond, and the Tamil merchants in South Asia. China also started building their own trade ships (chuán) and followed the routes in the later period, from the 10th to the 15th centuries CE.

The network followed the footsteps of older Austronesian jade maritime networks in Southeast Asia, as well as the maritime spice networks between Southeast Asia and South Asia, and the West Asian maritime networks in the Arabian Sea and beyond, coinciding with these ancient maritime trade roads by the current era.

Austronesian thalassocracies controlled the flow of trade in the eastern regions of the Maritime Silk Road, especially the polities around the straits of Malacca and Bangka, the Malay Peninsula, and the Mekong Delta; through which passed the main routes of the Austronesian trade ships to Giao Chỉ (in the Tonkin Gulf) and Guangzhou (southern China), the endpoints (later also including Quanzhou by the 10th century CE). Secondary routes also passed through the coastlines of the Gulf of Thailand; as well as through the Java Sea, Celebes Sea, Banda Sea, and the Sulu Sea, reconnecting with the main route through the northern Philippines and Taiwan. The secondary routes also continue onward to the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea for a limited extent.

The main route of the western regions of the Maritime Silk Road directly crosses the Indian Ocean from the northern tip of Sumatra (or through the Sunda Strait) to Sri Lanka, southern India and Bangladesh, and the Maldives. It branches from here into routes through the Arabian Sea entering the Gulf of Oman (into the Persian Gulf), and the Gulf of Aden (into the Red Sea). Secondary routes also pass through the coastlines of the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and southwards along the coast of East Africa to Zanzibar, the Comoros, Madagascar, and the Seychelles.

The term "Maritime Silk Road" is a modern name, acquired from its similarity to the overland Silk Road. Like the overland routes, the ancient maritime routes through Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean had no particular name for the majority of its very long history. Despite the modern name, the Maritime Silk Road involved exchanges in a wide variety of goods over a very wide region, not just silk or Asian exports. It differed significantly in several aspects from the overland Silk Road, and thus should not be viewed as a mere extension of it. Traders traveling through the Maritime Silk Road could span the entire distance of the maritime routes, instead of through regional relays as with the overland route. Ships could carry far larger amounts of goods, creating greater economic impact with each exchange. Goods carried by the ships also differed from goods carried by caravans. Traders on the maritime route faced different perils like weather and piracy, but they were not affected by political instability and could simply avoid areas in conflict.

History

Precursors

Chinese and Central Asian contacts (2nd millennium BCE)

Central Eurasia has been known from ancient times for its horse riding and horse breeding communities, and the overland Steppe Route across the northern steppes of Central Eurasia was in use long before that of the Silk Road. Archeological sites, such as the Berel burial ground in Kazakhstan, confirmed that the nomadic Arimaspians were not only breeding horses for trade but also produced great craftsmen able to propagate exquisite art pieces along the Silk Road. From the 2nd millennium BCE, nephrite jade was being traded from mines in the region of Yarkand and Khotan to China. Significantly, these mines were not very far from the lapis lazuli and spinel ("Balas Ruby") mines in Badakhshan, and, although separated by the formidable Pamir Mountains, routes across them were apparently in use from very early times.

Genetic study of the Tarim mummies, found in the Tarim Basin, in the area of Loulan located along the Silk Road 200 kilometres (124 miles) east of Yingpan, dating to as early as 1600 BCE, suggest very ancient contacts between East and West. These mummified remains may have been of people who spoke Indo-European languages, which remained in use in the Tarim Basin, in the modern day Xinjiang region, until replaced by Turkic influences from the Xiongnu culture to the north and by Chinese influences from the eastern Han dynasty, who spoke a Sino-Tibetan language.

Some remnants of what was probably Chinese silk dating from 1070 BCE have been found in Ancient Egypt. The Great Oasis cities of Central Asia played a crucial role in the effective functioning of the Silk Road trade. The originating source seems sufficiently reliable, but silk degrades very rapidly, so it cannot be verified whether it was cultivated silk (which almost certainly came from China) or a type of wild silk, which might have come from the Mediterranean or Middle East.

Following contacts between Metropolitan China and nomadic western border territories in the 8th century BCE, gold was introduced from Central Asia, and Chinese jade carvers began to make imitation designs of the steppes, adopting the Scythian-style animal art of the steppes (depictions of animals locked in combat). This style is particularly reflected in the rectangular belt plaques made of gold and bronze, with other versions in jade and steatite. An elite burial near Stuttgart, Germany, dated to the 6th century BCE, was excavated and found to have not only Greek bronzes but also Chinese silks. Similar animal-shaped pieces of art and wrestler motifs on belts have been found in Scythian grave sites stretching from the Black Sea region all the way to Warring States era archaeological sites in Inner Mongolia (at Aluchaideng) and Shaanxi (at Keshengzhuang [de]) in China.

The expansion of Scythian cultures, stretching from the Hungarian plain and the Carpathian Mountains to the Chinese Gansu Corridor, and linking the Middle East with Northern India and the Punjab, undoubtedly played an important role in the development of the Silk Road. Scythians accompanied the Assyrian Esarhaddon on his invasion of Egypt, and their distinctive triangular arrowheads have been found as far south as Aswan. These nomadic peoples were dependent upon neighbouring settled populations for a number of important technologies, and in addition to raiding vulnerable settlements for these commodities, they also encouraged long-distance merchants as a source of income through the enforced payment of tariffs. Sogdians played a major role in facilitating trade between China and Central Asia along the Silk Roads as late as the 10th century, their language serving as a lingua franca for Asian trade as far back as the 4th century.

Initiation in China (130 BCE)

The Silk Road was initiated and spread by China's Han dynasty through exploration and conquests in Central Asia. With the Mediterranean linked to the Fergana Valley, the next step was to open a route across the Tarim Basin and the Hexi Corridor to China Proper. This extension came around 130 BCE, with the embassies of the Han dynasty to Central Asia following the reports of the ambassador Zhang Qian (who was originally sent to obtain an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu). Zhang Qian visited directly the kingdom of Dayuan in Ferghana, the territories of the Yuezhi in Transoxiana, the Bactrian country of Daxia with its remnants of Greco-Bactrian rule, and Kangju. He also made reports on neighbouring countries that he did not visit, such as Anxi (Parthia), Tiaozhi (Mesopotamia), Shendu (Indian subcontinent) and the Wusun. Zhang Qian's report suggested the economic reason for Chinese expansion and wall-building westward, and trail-blazed the Silk Road, making it one of the most famous trade routes in history and in the world.

After winning the War of the Heavenly Horses and the Han–Xiongnu War, Chinese armies established themselves in Central Asia, initiating the Silk Route as a major avenue of international trade. Some say that the Chinese Emperor Wu became interested in developing commercial relationships with the sophisticated urban civilizations of Ferghana, Bactria, and the Parthian Empire: "The Son of Heaven on hearing all this reasoned thus: Ferghana (Dayuan "Great Ionians") and the possessions of Bactria (Ta-Hsia) and Parthian Empire (Anxi) are large countries, full of rare things, with a population living in fixed abodes and given to occupations somewhat identical with those of the Chinese people, but with weak armies, and placing great value on the rich produce of China" (Hou Hanshu, Later Han History). Others say that Emperor Wu was mainly interested in fighting the Xiongnu and that major trade began only after the Chinese pacified the Hexi Corridor.

The Chinese were also strongly attracted by the tall and powerful horses (named "heavenly horses") in the possession of the Dayuan (literally the "Great Ionians," the Greek kingdoms of Central Asia), which were of capital importance in fighting the nomadic Xiongnu. They defeated the Dayuan in the Han-Dayuan war. The Chinese subsequently sent numerous embassies, around ten every year, to these countries and as far as Seleucid Syria.

Thus more embassies were dispatched to Anxi , Yancai , Lijian , Tiaozhi (Mesopotamia), and Tianzhu  ... As a rule, rather more than ten such missions went forward in the course of a year, and at the least five or six. (Hou Hanshu, Later Han History).

These connections marked the beginning of the Silk Road trade network that extended to the Roman Empire.

The Chinese campaigned in Central Asia on several occasions, and direct encounters between Han troops and Roman legionaries (probably captured or recruited as mercenaries by the Xiong Nu) are recorded, particularly in the 36 BCE battle of Sogdiana (Joseph Needham, Sidney Shapiro). It has been suggested that the Chinese crossbow was transmitted to the Roman world on such occasions, although the Greek gastraphetes provides an alternative origin. R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuy suggest that in 36 BCE,

Han expedition into Central Asia, west of Jaxartes River, apparently encountered and defeated a contingent of Roman legionaries. The Romans may have been part of Antony's army invading Parthia. Sogdiana (modern Bukhara), east of the Oxus River, on the Polytimetus River, was apparently the most easterly penetration ever made by Roman forces in Asia. The margin of Chinese victory appears to have been their crossbows, whose bolts and darts seem easily to have penetrated Roman shields and armour.

The Han dynasty army regularly policed the trade route against nomadic bandit forces generally identified as Xiongnu. Han general Ban Chao led an army of 70,000 mounted infantry and light cavalry troops in the 1st century CE to secure the trade routes, reaching far west to the Tarim Basin. Ban Chao expanded his conquests across the Pamirs to the shores of the Caspian Sea and the borders of Parthia. It was from here that the Han general dispatched envoy Gan Ying to Daqin (Rome). The Silk Road essentially came into being from the 1st century BCE, following these efforts by China to consolidate a road to the Western world and India, both through direct settlements in the area of the Tarim Basin and diplomatic relations with the countries of the Dayuan, Parthians and Bactrians further west. The Silk Roads were a "complex network of trade routes" that gave people the chance to exchange goods and culture.

A maritime Silk Route opened up between Chinese-controlled Giao Chỉ (centred in modern Vietnam, near Hanoi), probably by the 1st century. It extended, via ports on the coasts of India and Sri Lanka, all the way to Roman-controlled ports in Roman Egypt and the Nabataean territories on the northeastern coast of the Red Sea. The earliest Roman glassware bowl found in China was unearthed from a Western Han tomb in Guangzhou, dated to the early 1st century BCE, indicating that Roman commercial items were being imported through the South China Sea. According to Chinese dynastic histories, it is from this region that the Roman embassies arrived in China, beginning in 166 CE during the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Emperor Huan of Han. Other Roman glasswares have been found in Eastern-Han-era tombs (25–220 CE) further inland in Luoyang, Nanyang, and Nanjing.

Roman Empire (30 BCE – 3rd century CE)

Soon after the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE, regular communications and trade between China, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe blossomed on an unprecedented scale. The Roman Empire inherited eastern trade routes that were part of the Silk Road from the earlier Hellenistic powers and the Arabs. With control of these trade routes, citizens of the Roman Empire received new luxuries and greater prosperity for the Empire as a whole. The Roman-style glassware discovered in the archeological sites of Gyeongju, the capital of the Silla kingdom (Korea) showed that Roman artifacts were traded as far as the Korean peninsula. The Greco-Roman trade with India started by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BCE continued to increase, and according to Strabo (II.5.12), by the time of Augustus, up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos in Roman Egypt to India. The Roman Empire connected with the Central Asian Silk Road through their ports in Barygaza (known today as Bharuch) and Barbaricum (known today as the city of Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan) and continued along the western coast of India. An ancient "travel guide" to this Indian Ocean trade route was the Greek Periplus of the Erythraean Sea written in 60 CE.

The travelling party of Maës Titianus penetrated farthest east along the Silk Road from the Mediterranean world, probably with the aim of regularising contacts and reducing the role of middlemen, during one of the lulls in Rome's intermittent wars with Parthia, which repeatedly obstructed movement along the Silk Road. Intercontinental trade and communication became regular, organised, and protected by the "Great Powers." Intense trade with the Roman Empire soon followed, confirmed by the Roman craze for Chinese silk (supplied through the Parthians), even though the Romans thought silk was obtained from trees. This belief was affirmed by Seneca the Younger in his Phaedra and by Virgil in his Georgics. Notably, Pliny the Elder knew better. Speaking of the bombyx or silk moth, he wrote in his Natural Histories "They weave webs, like spiders, that become a luxurious clothing material for women, called silk." The Romans traded spices, glassware, perfumes, and silk.

Roman artisans began to replace yarn with valuable plain silk cloths from China and the Silla Kingdom in Gyeongju, Korea. Chinese wealth grew as they delivered silk and other luxury goods to the Roman Empire, whose wealthy women admired their beauty. The Roman Senate issued, in vain, several edicts to prohibit the wearing of silk, on economic and moral grounds: the import of Chinese silk caused a huge outflow of gold, and silk clothes were considered decadent and immoral.

I can see clothes of silk, if materials that do not hide the body, nor even one's decency, can be called clothes. ... Wretched flocks of maids labour so that the adulteress may be visible through her thin dress, so that her husband has no more acquaintance than any outsider or foreigner with his wife's body.

The Western Roman Empire, and its demand for sophisticated Asian products, collapsed in the fifth century.

The unification of Central Asia and Northern India within the Kushan Empire between the first and third centuries reinforced the role of the powerful merchants from Bactria and Taxila. They fostered multi-cultural interaction as indicated by their 2nd century treasure hoards filled with products from the Greco-Roman world, China, and India, such as in the archeological site of Begram.

The Silk Road trade did not sell only textiles, jewels, metal and cosmetic, but also slaves, connecting the Silk Road slave trade to the Bukhara slave trade as well as the Black Sea slave trade, particularly slave girls.

Byzantine Empire (6th–14th centuries)

Byzantine Greek historian Procopius stated that two Nestorian Christian monks eventually uncovered the way silk was made. From this revelation, monks were sent by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (ruled 527–565) as spies on the Silk Road from Constantinople to China and back to steal the silkworm eggs, resulting in silk production in the Mediterranean, particularly in Thrace in northern Greece, and giving the Byzantine Empire a monopoly on silk production in medieval Europe. In 568, the Byzantine ruler Justin II was greeted by a Sogdian embassy representing Istämi, ruler of the First Turkic Khaganate, who formed an alliance with the Byzantines against Khosrow I of the Sasanian Empire that allowed the Byzantines to bypass the Sasanian merchants and trade directly with the Sogdians for purchasing Chinese silk. Although the Byzantines had already procured silkworm eggs from China by this point, the quality of Chinese silk was still far greater than anything produced in the West, a fact that is perhaps emphasized by the discovery of coins minted by Justin II found in a Chinese tomb of Shanxi province dated to the Sui dynasty (581–618).

Both the Old Book of Tang and New Book of Tang, covering the history of the Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907), record that a new state called Fu-lin (拂菻; i.e. Byzantine Empire) was virtually identical to the previous Daqin (大秦; i.e. Roman Empire). Several Fu-lin embassies were recorded for the Tang period, starting in 643 with an alleged embassy by Constans II (transliterated as Bo duo li, 波多力, from his nickname "Kōnstantinos Pogonatos") to the court of Emperor Taizong of Tang. The History of Song describes the final embassy and its arrival in 1081, apparently sent by Michael VII Doukas (transliterated as Mie li yi ling kai sa, 滅力伊靈改撒, from his name and title Michael VII Parapinakēs Caesar) to the court of Emperor Shenzong of the Song dynasty (960–1279).

However, the History of Yuan claims that a Byzantine man became a leading astronomer and physician in Khanbaliq, at the court of Kublai Khan, Mongol founder of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) and was even granted the noble title 'Prince of Fu lin' (Chinese: 拂菻王; Fú lǐn wáng). The Uyghur Nestorian Christian diplomat Rabban Bar Sauma, who set out from his Chinese home in Khanbaliq (Beijing) and acted as a representative for Arghun (a grandnephew of Kublai Khan), traveled throughout Europe and attempted to secure military alliances with Edward I of England, Philip IV of France, Pope Nicholas IV, as well as the Byzantine ruler Andronikos II Palaiologos. Andronikos II had two half-sisters who were married to great-grandsons of Genghis Khan, which made him an in-law with the Yuan-dynasty Mongol ruler in Beijing, Kublai Khan.

The History of Ming preserves an account where the Hongwu Emperor, after founding the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), had a supposed Byzantine merchant named Nieh-ku-lun (捏古倫) deliver his proclamation about the establishment of a new dynasty to the Byzantine court of John V Palaiologos in September 1371. Friedrich Hirth (1885), Emil Bretschneider (1888), and more recently Edward Luttwak (2009) presumed that this was none other than Nicolaus de Bentra, a Roman Catholic bishop of Khanbilaq chosen by Pope John XXII to replace the previous archbishop John of Montecorvino.

Tang dynasty (7th century)

Although the Silk Road was initially formulated during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (141–87 BCE), it was reopened by the Tang Empire in 639 when Hou Junji conquered the Western Regions, and remained open for almost four decades. It was closed after the Tibetans captured it in 678, but in 699, during Empress Wu's period, the Silk Road reopened when the Tang reconquered the Four Garrisons of Anxi originally installed in 640, once again connecting China directly to the West for land-based trade. The Tang captured the vital route through the Gilgit Valley from Tibet in 722, lost it to the Tibetans in 737, and regained it under the command of the Goguryeo General Gao Xianzhi.

While the Turks were settled in the Ordos region (former territory of the Xiongnu), the Tang government took on the military policy of dominating the central steppe. The Tang dynasty (along with Turkic allies) conquered and subdued Central Asia during the 640s and 650s. During Emperor Taizong's reign alone, large campaigns were launched against not only the Göktürks, but also separate campaigns against the Tuyuhun, the oasis states, and the Xueyantuo. Under Emperor Taizong, Tang general Li Jing conquered the Eastern Turkic Khaganate. Under Emperor Gaozong, Tang general Su Dingfang conquered the Western Turkic Khaganate, an important ally of the Byzantine empire. After these conquests, the Tang dynasty fully controlled the Xiyu, which was the strategic location astride the Silk Road. This led the Tang dynasty to reopen the Silk Road, with this portion named the Tang-Tubo Road ("Tang-Tibet Road") in many historical texts.

The Tang dynasty established a second Pax Sinica, and the Silk Road reached its golden age, whereby Persian and Sogdian merchants benefited from the commerce between East and West. At the same time, the Chinese empire welcomed foreign cultures, making it very cosmopolitan in its urban centres. In addition to the land route, the Tang dynasty also developed the maritime Silk Route. Chinese envoys had been sailing through the Indian Ocean to India since perhaps the 2nd century BCE, yet, it was during the Tang dynasty that a strong Chinese maritime presence could be found in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea into Persia, Mesopotamia (sailing up the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq), Arabia, Egypt, Aksum (Ethiopia), and Somalia in the Horn of Africa.

Sogdian–Türkic tribes (4th–8th centuries)

The Silk Road represents an early phenomenon of political and cultural integration due to inter-regional trade. In its heyday, it sustained an international culture that strung together groups as diverse as the Magyars, Armenians, and Chinese. The Silk Road reached its peak in the west during the time of the Byzantine Empire; in the Nile-Oxus section, from the Sassanid Empire period to the Il Khanate period; and in the sinitic zone from the Three Kingdoms period to the Yuan dynasty period. Trade between East and West also developed across the Indian Ocean, between Alexandria in Egypt and Guangzhou in China. Persian Sassanid coins emerged as a means of currency, just as valuable as silk yarn and textiles.

Under its strong integrating dynamics on the one hand and the impacts of change it transmitted on the other, tribal societies previously living in isolation along the Silk Road, and pastoralists who were of barbarian cultural development, were drawn to the riches and opportunities of the civilisations connected by the routes, taking on the trades of marauders or mercenaries. "Many barbarian tribes became skilled warriors able to conquer rich cities and fertile lands and to forge strong military empires."

The Sogdians dominated the east–west trade after the 4th century up to the 8th century. They were the main caravan merchants of Central Asia. A.V. Dybo noted that "according to historians, the main driving force of the Great Silk Road were not just Sogdians, but the carriers of a mixed Sogdian-Türkic culture that often came from mixed families."

The Silk Road gave rise to the clusters of military states of nomadic origins in North China, ushered the Nestorian, Manichaean, Buddhist, and later Islamic religions into Central Asia and China.

Islamic era (8th–13th centuries)

By the Umayyad era, Damascus had overtaken Ctesiphon as a major trade center until the Abbasid dynasty built the city of Baghdad, which became the most important city along the silk road.

At the end of its glory, the routes brought about the largest continental empire ever, the Mongol Empire, with its political centres strung along the Silk Road (Beijing) in North China, Karakorum in central Mongolia, Sarmakhand in Transoxiana, Tabriz in Northern Iran, realising the political unification of zones previously loosely and intermittently connected by material and cultural goods.

The Islamic world expanded into Central Asia during the 8th century, under the Umayyad Caliphate, while its successor the Abbasid Caliphate put a halt to Chinese westward expansion at the Battle of Talas in 751 (near the Talas River in modern-day Kyrgyzstan). However, following the disastrous An Lushan Rebellion (755–763) and the conquest of the Western Regions by the Tibetan Empire, the Tang Empire was unable to reassert its control over Central Asia. Contemporary Tang authors noted how the dynasty had gone into decline after this point. In 848 the Tang Chinese, led by the commander Zhang Yichao, were only able to reclaim the Hexi Corridor and Dunhuang in Gansu from the Tibetans. The Persian Samanid Empire (819–999) centered in Bukhara (Uzbekistan) continued the trade legacy of the Sogdians. The disruptions of trade were curtailed in that part of the world by the end of the 10th century and conquests of Central Asia by the Turkic Islamic Kara-Khanid Khanate, yet Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Buddhism in Central Asia virtually disappeared.

During the early 13th century Khwarezmia was invaded by the Mongol Empire. The Mongol ruler Genghis Khan had the once vibrant cities of Bukhara and Samarkand burned to the ground after besieging them. However, in 1370 Samarkand saw a revival as the capital of the new Timurid Empire. The Turko-Mongol ruler Timur forcefully moved artisans and intellectuals from across Asia to Samarkand, making it one of the most important trade centers and cultural entrepôts of the Islamic world.

Mongol Empire (13th–14th centuries)

The Mongol expansion throughout the Asian continent from around 1207 to 1360 helped bring political stability and re-established the Silk Road (via Karakorum and Khanbaliq). It also brought an end to the dominance of the Islamic Caliphate over world trade. Because the Mongols came to control the trade routes, trade circulated throughout the region, though they never abandoned their nomadic lifestyle.

The Mongol rulers wanted to establish their capital on the Central Asian steppe, so to accomplish this goal, after every conquest they enlisted local people (traders, scholars, artisans) to help them construct and manage their empire. The Mongols developed overland and maritime routes throughout the Eurasian continent, Black Sea and the Mediterranean in the west, and the Indian Ocean in the south. In the second half of the thirteenth century Mongol-sponsored business partnerships flourished in the Indian Ocean connecting Mongol Middle East and Mongol China

The Mongol diplomat Rabban Bar Sauma visited the courts of Europe in 1287–88 and provided a detailed written report to the Mongols. Around the same time, the Venetian explorer Marco Polo became one of the first Europeans to travel the Silk Road to China. His tales, documented in The Travels of Marco Polo, opened Western eyes to some of the customs of the Far East. He was not the first to bring back stories, but he was one of the most widely read. He had been preceded by numerous Christian missionaries to the East, such as William of Rubruck, Benedykt Polak, Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, and Andrew of Longjumeau. Later envoys included Odoric of Pordenone, Giovanni de' Marignolli, John of Montecorvino, Niccolò de' Conti, and Ibn Battuta, a Moroccan Muslim traveller who passed through the present-day Middle East and across the Silk Road from Tabriz between 1325 and 1354. Some Europeans were also living in China fr longer periods around this time. Tombstones of the siblings Caterina and Antonio Vilioni, who died in 1342 and 1344, respectively, were unearthed in the twentieth century in Yangzhou.

In the 13th century, efforts were made at forming a Franco-Mongol alliance, with an exchange of ambassadors and (failed) attempts at military collaboration in the Holy Land during the later Crusades. Eventually, the Mongols in the Ilkhanate, after they had destroyed the Abbasid and Ayyubid dynasties, converted to Islam and signed the 1323 Treaty of Aleppo with the surviving Muslim power, the Egyptian Mamluks.

Some studies indicate that the Black Death, which devastated Europe starting in the late 1340s, may have reached Europe from Central Asia (or China) along the trade routes of the Mongol Empire. One theory holds that Genoese traders coming from the entrepôt of Trebizond in northern Turkey carried the disease to Western Europe; like many other outbreaks of plague, there is strong evidence that it originated in marmots in Central Asia and was carried westwards to the Black Sea by Silk Road traders.

Decline (15th century – present)

The fragmentation of the Mongol Empire loosened the political, cultural, and economic unity of the Silk Road. Turkmeni marching lords seized land around the western part of the Silk Road from the decaying Byzantine Empire. After the fall of the Mongol Empire, the great political powers along the Silk Road became economically and culturally separated. Accompanying the crystallisation of regional states was the decline of nomad power, partly due to the devastation of the Black Death and partly due to the encroachment of sedentary civilisations equipped with gunpowder.

Significant is Armenians' role in making Europe–Asia trade possible by being located in the crossing roads between these two. Armenia had a monopoly on almost all trade roads in this area and a colossal network. From 1700 to 1765, the total export of Persian silk was entirely conducted by Armenians. They were also exporting raisins, coffee beans, figs, Turkish yarn, camel hair, various precious stones, rice, etc., from Turkey and Iran.

The silk trade continued to flourish until it was disrupted by the collapse of the Safavid Empire in the 1720s.

Expansion of religions

Richard Foltz, Xinru Liu, and others have described how trading activities along the Silk Road over many centuries facilitated the transmission not just of goods but also ideas and culture, notably in the area of religions. Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Islam all spread across Eurasia through trade networks that were tied to specific religious communities and their institutions. Notably, established Buddhist monasteries along the Silk Road offered a haven, as well as a new religion for foreigners.

The spread of religions and cultural traditions along the Silk Roads, according to Jerry H. Bentley, also led to syncretism. One example was the encounter with the Chinese and Xiongnu nomads. These unlikely events of cross-cultural contact allowed both cultures to adapt to each other as an alternative. The Xiongnu adopted Chinese agricultural techniques, dress style, and lifestyle, while the Chinese adopted Xiongnu military techniques, some dress style, music, and dance. Perhaps most surprising of the cultural exchanges between China and the Xiongnu, Chinese soldiers sometimes defected and converted to the Xiongnu way of life, and stayed in the steppes for fear of punishment.

Nomadic mobility played a key role in facilitating inter-regional contacts and cultural exchanges along the ancient Silk Roads.

Transmission of Christianity

The transmission of Christianity was primarily known as Nestorianism on the Silk Road. In 781, an inscribed stele shows Nestorian Christian missionaries arriving on the Silk Road. Christianity had spread both east and west, simultaneously bringing Syriac language and evolving the forms of worship.

Transmission of Buddhism

The transmission of Buddhism to China via the Silk Road began in the 1st century CE, according to a semi-legendary account of an ambassador sent to the West by the Chinese Emperor Ming (58–75). During this period Buddhism began to spread throughout Southeast, East, and Central Asia. Mahayana, Theravada, and Vajrayana are the three primary forms of Buddhism that spread across Asia via the Silk Road.

The Buddhist movement was the first large-scale missionary movement in the history of world religions. Chinese missionaries were able to assimilate Buddhism, to an extent, to native Chinese Daoists, which brought the two beliefs together. Buddha's community of followers, the Sangha, consisted of male and female monks and laity. These people moved through India and beyond to spread the ideas of Buddha. As the number of members within the Sangha increased, it became costly so that only the larger cities were able to afford having the Buddha and his disciples visit. It is believed that under the control of the Kushans, Buddhism was spread to China and other parts of Asia from the middle of the first century to the middle of the third century. Extensive contacts started in the 2nd century, probably as a consequence of the expansion of the Kushan empire into the Chinese territory of the Tarim Basin, due to the missionary efforts of a great number of Buddhist monks to Chinese lands. The first missionaries and translators of Buddhists scriptures into Chinese were either Parthian, Kushan, Sogdian, or Kuchean.

One result of the spread of Buddhism along the Silk Road was displacement and conflict. The Greek Seleucids were exiled to Iran and Central Asia because of a new Iranian dynasty called the Parthians at the beginning of the 2nd century BCE, and as a result, the Parthians became the new middlemen for trade in a period when the Romans were major customers for silk. Parthian scholars were involved in one of the first-ever Buddhist text translations into the Chinese language. Its main trade centre on the Silk Road, the city of Merv, in due course and with the coming of age of Buddhism in China, became a major Buddhist centre by the middle of the 2nd century. Knowledge among people on the silk roads also increased when Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty (268–239 BCE) converted to Buddhism and raised the religion to official status in his northern Indian empire.

From the 4th century CE onward, Chinese pilgrims also started to travel on the Silk Road to India to get improved access to the original Buddhist scriptures, with Fa-hsien's pilgrimage to India (395–414), and later Xuanzang (629–644) and Hyecho, who traveled from Korea to India. The travels of the priest Xuanzang were fictionalized in the 16th century in a fantasy adventure novel called Journey to the West, which told of trials with demons and the aid given by various disciples on the journey.

There were many different schools of Buddhism travelling on the Silk Road. The Dharmaguptakas and the Sarvastivadins were two of the major Nikaya schools. These were both eventually displaced by the Mahayana, also known as "Great Vehicle." This movement of Buddhism first gained influence in the Khotan region. The Mahayana, which was more of a "pan-Buddhist movement" than a school of Buddhism, appears to have begun in northwestern India or Central Asia. It formed during the 1st century BCE and was small at first, and the origins of this "Greater Vehicle" are not fully clear. Some Mahayana scripts were found in northern Pakistan, but the main texts are still believed to have been composed in Central Asia along the Silk Road. These different schools and movements of Buddhism were a result of the diverse and complex influences and beliefs on the Silk Road. With the rise of Mahayana Buddhism, the initial direction of Buddhist development changed. This form of Buddhism highlighted, as stated by Xinru Liu, "the elusiveness of physical reality, including material wealth". It also stressed getting rid of material desire to a certain point; this was often difficult for followers to understand.

During the 5th and 6th centuries CE, merchants played a large role in the spread of religion, in particular Buddhism. Merchants found the moral and ethical teachings of Buddhism an appealing alternative to previous religions. As a result, merchants supported Buddhist monasteries along the Silk Road, and in return, the Buddhists gave the merchants somewhere to stay as they traveled from city to city. As a result, merchants spread Buddhism to foreign encounters as they traveled. Merchants also helped to establish diaspora within the communities they encountered, and over time their cultures became based on Buddhism. As a result, these communities became centers of literacy and culture with well-organized marketplaces, lodging, and storage. The voluntary conversion of Chinese ruling elites helped the spread of Buddhism in East Asia and led Buddhism to become widespread in Chinese society. The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism essentially ended around the 7th century with the rise of Islam in Central Asia.

• Fragment of a wall painting depicting Buddha from a stupa in Miran along the Silk Road (200–400 CE)
• A blue-eyed Central Asian monk teaching an East-Asian monk, Bezeklik, Turfan, eastern Tarim Basin, China, 9th century; the monk on the right is possibly Tocharian, although more likely Sogdian.
• Bilingual edict (Greek and Aramaic) by Indian Buddhist King Ashoka, 3rd century BCE; see Edicts of Ashoka, from Kandahar. This edict advocates the adoption of "godliness" using the Greek term Eusebeia for Dharma. Kabul Museum.
• A statue depicting Buddha giving a sermon, from Sarnath, 3,000 km (1,864 mi) southwest of Urumqi, Xinjiang, 8th century

Judaism on the Silk Road

Adherents to the Jewish faith first began to travel eastward from Mesopotamia following the Persian conquest of Babylon in 559 by the armies of Cyrus the Great. Judean slaves freed after the Persian conquest of Babylon dispersed throughout the Persian Empire. Some Judeans could have traveled as far east as Bactria and Sogdia, though there is no clear evidence for this early settlement of Judeans. After settlement, it is likely that most Judeans took up trades in commerce. Trading along the silk trade networks by Judean merchants increased as the trade networks expanded. By the classical age, when trade goods traveled from as far east as China to as far west as Rome, Judean merchants in Central Asia would have been in an advantageous position to participate in trade along the Silk Road. A group of Judean merchants originating from Gaul known as the Radanites were one group of Judean merchants that had thriving trade networks from China to Rome. This trade was facilitated by a positive relationship the Radanites were able to foster with the Khazar Turks. The Khazar Turks served as a good spot in between China and Rome, and the Khazar Turks saw a relationship with the Radanites as a good commercial opportunity.

According to Richard Foltz "there is more evidence for Iranian influence on the formation of Jewish ideas than the reverse." Concepts of a paradise (heaven) for the good and a place of suffering (hell) for the wicked, and a form of world-ending apocalypse came from Iranian religious ideas, and this is supported by a lack of such ideas from pre-exile Judean sources. The origin of the devil is also said to come from the Iranian Angra Mainyu, an evil figure in Persian mythology.

Expansion of the arts

Many artistic influences were transmitted via the Silk Road, particularly through Central Asia, where Hellenistic, Iranian, Indian and Chinese influences could intermix. Greco-Buddhist art represents one of the most vivid examples of this interaction. Silk was also a representation of art, serving as a religious symbol. Most importantly, silk was used as currency for trade along the silk road.

These artistic influences can be seen in the development of Buddhism where, for instance, Buddha was first depicted as human in the Kushan period. Many scholars have attributed this to Greek influence. The mixture of Greek and Indian elements can be found in later Buddhist art in China and throughout countries on the Silk Road.

The production of art consisted of many different items that were traded along the Silk Roads from the East to the West. One common product, the lapis lazuli, was a blue stone with golden specks, which was used as paint after it was ground into powder.

Commemoration

On 22 June 2014, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named the Silk Road a World Heritage Site at the 2014 Conference on World Heritage. The United Nations World Tourism Organization has been working since 1993 to develop sustainable international tourism along the route with the stated goal of fostering peace and understanding.

To commemorate the Silk Road becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the China National Silk Museum announced a "Silk Road Week" to take place 19–25 June 2020. Bishkek and Almaty each have a major east–west street named after the Silk Road (Kyrgyz: Жибек жолу, Jibek Jolu in Bishkek, and Kazakh: Жібек жолы, Jibek Joly in Almaty).

Gallery

• Silk Road and artifacts
• Caravanserai of Sa'd al-Saltaneh
• Sultanhanı caravanserai
• Shaki Caravanserai, Shaki, Azerbaijan
• Two-Storeyed Caravanserai, Baku, Azerbaijan
• Bridge in Ani, capital of medieval Armenia
• Taldyk pass
• Medieval fortress of Amul, Turkmenabat, Turkmenistan
• Zeinodin Caravanserai
• Sogdian man on a Bactrian camel, sancai ceramic glaze, Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907)
• The ruins of a Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) Chinese watchtower made of rammed earth at Dunhuang, Gansu province
• A late Zhou or early Han Chinese bronze mirror inlaid with glass, perhaps incorporated Greco-Roman artistic patterns
• A Chinese Western Han dynasty (202 BCE – 9 CE) bronze rhinoceros with gold and silver inlay
• Han dynasty Granary west of Dunhuang on the Silk Road.
• Green Roman glass cup unearthed from an Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 CE) tomb, Guangxi, southern China

See also

• Dvārakā–Kamboja route
• Dzungarian Gate
• Global silver trade from the 16th to 19th centuries
• Godavaya
• Hippie trail
• History of silk
• Incense trade route
• International Association for the Study of Silk Road Textiles
• Iron Age
• List of ports and harbours of the Indian Ocean
• Mount Imeon
• Serica
• Sericulture
• Silk Road Economic Belt
• Silk Road Fund
• Silk Road numismatics
• Suez Canal
• The Silk Roads
• Three hares

References

Notes

1. Simplified Chinese: 丝绸之路; traditional Chinese: 絲綢之路; pinyin: Sīchóu zhī lùKazakh: Ұлы Жібек жолы; Uzbek: Buyuk Ipak yoʻli; Persian: جاده ابریشم; Italian: Via della seta

Citations

1. ^ "The Silk Road". National Geographic Society. 26 July 2019. Archived from the original on 1 February 2020. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
2. "Eurasian winds toward Silla". Shiga: Miho Museum. March 2009. Archived from the original on 9 April 2016.
3. Gan, Fuxi (2009). Ancient Glass Research Along the Silk Road. Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Ancient Glass Research along the Silk Road, World Scientific ed.). World Scientific. p. 41. ISBN 978-9-812-83356-3. Archived from the original on 27 February 2018.
4. Elisseeff, Vadime (2001). The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce. UNESCO. ISBN 978-9-231-03652-1.
5. Xinru, Liu (2010). The Silk Road in World History New York: Oxford University Press, p. 11.
6. Bentley 1993, p. 33.
7. "Ancient bottom wipers yield evidence of diseases carried along the Silk Road". The Guardian. 22 July 2016. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
8. Getz, Trevor. "Land-Based Empires 1450 to 1750". Khan Academy.
9. Miha Museum (Shiga, Japan), Sping Special Exhibition (14 March 2009). "Eurasian winds toward Silla". Archived from the original on 9 April 2016.
10. ^ "The Horses of the Steppe: The Mongolian Horse and the Blood-Sweating Stallions | Silk Road in Rare Books". dsr.nii.ac.jp. Archived from the original on 2 February 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
11. Waugh (2007), p. 4.
12. ^ Eliseeff (2009) . "Approaches Old and New to the Silk Roads". The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce. Berghahn Books. pp. 1–2. ISBN 978-92-3-103652-1, 1-57181-221-0, 1-57181-222-9.
13. Waugh, Daniel. (2007). "Richthofen's "Silk Roads": Toward the Archaeology of a Concept." The Silk Road. Volume 5, Number 1, Summer 2007, p. 4.
14. Ball 2016, p. 156.
15. Mertens, Matthias. "Did Richthofen Really Coin 'the Silk Road'?" (PDF). The Silk Road.
16. Ball 2016, pp. 155–156.
17. Johanson 2006, p. 1.
18. Ball 2016, pp. 154–156.
19. Dalrymple, William (6 October 2024). "The Silk Road still casts a spell, but was the ancient trading route just a western invention?". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
20. Lakshmi, Rama (8 March 2024). "Silk Route talk irritates Dalrymple. His new book says India, not China, ruled trade, ideas". ThePrint. Retrieved 29 August 2024. See also Ferdinand Mount, "One-Way Traffic," London Review of Books, September 12, 2024, pp. 9-10.
21. Dabhoiwala, Fara (7 September 2024). "The Golden Road by William Dalrymple review – when India ruled the world". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 October 2024.
22. Wood, Frances (September 2004). The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia. University of California Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-520-24340-8. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
23. Strayer, Robert W. (2009). Ways of the World: A Global History. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's. p. 219.
24. Christian, David (2000). "Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads in World History". Journal of World History. 11 (1): 1–26. ISSN 1045-6007. JSTOR 20078816.
25. Ulric Killion, A Modern Chinese Journey to the West: Economic Globalisation And Dualism, (Nova Science Publishers: 2006), p.66
26. Yang, Bin. (2008). Between Winds and Clouds: The Making of Yunnan. New York: Columbia University Press.
27. "History and Legend of Sino-Bangla Contacts". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China. 28 September 2010. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
28. "Seminar on Southwest Silk Road held in City". Holiday. Archived from the original on 15 June 2013. Retrieved 17 April 2013.
29. ^ Manguin, Pierre-Yves (2016). "Austronesian Shipping in the Indian Ocean: From Outrigger Boats to Trading Ships". In Campbell, Gwyn (ed.). Early Exchange between Africa and the Wider Indian Ocean World. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 51–76. ISBN 9783319338224.
30. "Maritime Silk Road". SEAArch. Archived from the original on 5 January 2014. Retrieved 11 September 2017.
31. ^ Guan, Kwa Chong (2016). "The Maritime Silk Road: History of an Idea" (PDF). NSC Working Paper (23): 1–30. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 March 2021. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
32. Manguin, Pierre-Yves (September 1980). "The Southeast Asian Ship: An Historical Approach". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 11 (2): 266–276. doi:10.1017/S002246340000446X. ISSN 0022-4634.
33. Flecker, Michael (August 2015). "Early Voyaging in the South China Sea: Implications on Territorial Claims". Nalanda-Sriwijaya Center Working Paper Series. 19: 1–53.
34. ^ Billé, Franck; Mehendale, Sanjyot; Lankton, James (2022). "The Maritime Silk Road: An Introduction". In Billé, Franck; Mehendale, Sanjyot; Lankton, James (eds.). The Maritime Silk Road: Global Connectivities, Regional Nodes, Localities (PDF). Asian Borderlands. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. pp. 11–26. ISBN 978-90-4855-242-9.
35. Tsang, Cheng-hwa (2000). "Recent advances in the Iron Age archaeology of Taiwan". Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association. 20: 153–158. doi:10.7152/bippa.v20i0.11751 (inactive 1 November 2024). ISSN 1835-1794.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of November 2024 (link)
36. Turton, M. (17 May 2021). "Notes from central Taiwan: Our brother to the south". Taipei Times. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
37. Everington, K. (6 September 2017). "Birthplace of Austronesians is Taiwan, capital was Taitung: Scholar". Taiwan News. Retrieved 24 December 2021.
38. Bellwood, Peter; Hung, H.; Lizuka, Yoshiyuki (2011). "Taiwan Jade in the Philippines: 3,000 Years of Trade and Long-distance Interaction". In Benitez-Johannot, P. (ed.). Paths of Origins: The Austronesian Heritage in the Collections of the National Museum of the Philippines, the Museum Nasional Indonesia, and the Netherlands Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde. ArtPostAsia. ISBN 978-971-94292-0-3.
39. Bellina, Bérénice (2014). "Southeast Asia and the Early Maritime Silk Road". In Guy, John (ed.). Lost Kingdoms of Early Southeast Asia: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture 5th to 8th century. Yale University Press. pp. 22–25. ISBN 9781588395245.
40. Mahdi, Waruno (1999). "The Dispersal of Austronesian boat forms in the Indian Ocean". In Blench, Roger; Spriggs, Matthew (eds.). Archaeology and Language III: Artefacts languages, and texts. One World Archaeology. Vol. 34. Routledge. pp. 144–179. ISBN 978-0415100540.
41. de Saxcé, Ariane (2022). "Networks and Cultural Mapping of South Asian Maritime Trade". In Billé, Franck; Mehendale, Sanjyot; Lankton, James (eds.). The Maritime Silk Road: Global Connectivities, Regional Nodes, Localities (PDF). Asian Borderlands. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. pp. 129–148. ISBN 978-90-4855-242-9.
42. Li, Tana (2011). "Jiaozhi (Giao Chỉ) in the Han period Tongking Gulf". In Cooke, Nola; Li, Tana; Anderson, James A. (eds.). The Tongking Gulf Through History. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 39–44. ISBN 9780812205022.
43. ^ Lankton, James W. (2022). "From Regional to Global: Early Glass and the Development of the Maritime Silk Road". In Billé, Franck; Mehendale, Sanjyot; Lankton, James (eds.). The Maritime Silk Road: Global Connectivities, Regional Nodes, Localities (PDF). Asian Borderlands. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. pp. 71–96. ISBN 978-90-4855-242-9.
44. Chirikure, Shadreck (2022). "Southern Africa and the Indian Ocean World". In Billé, Franck; Mehendale, Sanjyot; Lankton, James (eds.). The Maritime Silk Road: Global Connectivities, Regional Nodes, Localities (PDF). Asian Borderlands. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. pp. 149–176. ISBN 978-90-4855-242-9.
45. "Treasures of Ancient Altai Nomads Revealed". The Astana Times. 10 December 2012. Archived from the original on 23 February 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
46. "Additional Berel Burial Sites Excavated". The Astana Times. 21 August 2013. Archived from the original on 23 February 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
47. Pollard, Elizabeth; Rosenberg, Clifford; Tignor, Robert (2011). Worlds Together Worlds Apart. New York: Norton. p. 278. ISBN 978-0-393-91847-2.
48. Lubec, G.; Holauerghsrthbek, J.; Feldl, C.; Lubec, B.; Strouhal, E. (4 March 1993). "Use of silk in ancient Egypt". Nature. 362 (6415): 25. Bibcode:1993Natur.362...25L. doi:10.1038/362025b0. S2CID 1001799. Also available at "Use of Silk In Ancient Egypt". Archived from the original on 20 September 2007. Retrieved 3 May 2007.)
49. ^ Christopoulos, Lucas (August 2012), "Hellenes and Romans in Ancient China (240 BC – 1398 AD)", in Victor H. Mair (ed), Sino-Platonic Papers, No. 230, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, p. 31 footnote #56, ISSN 2157-9687.
50. Hanks, Reuel R. (2010). Global Security Watch: Central Asia, Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford: Praeger, p. 3.
51. Mark J. Dresden (2003). "Sogdian Language and Literature", in Ehsan Yarshater, The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1219, ISBN 978-0-521-24699-6.
52. Christopoulos, Lucas (2012). "Hellenes and Romans in Ancient China (240 BC – 1398 AD)". In Mair, Victor H. (ed.). Sino-Platonic Papers. Vol. 230. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations. pp. 15–16. ISSN 2157-9687.
53. Hogan, C. M. (19 November 2007). Burnham, A. (ed.). "Silk Road, North China". The Megalithic Portal. Archived from the original on 2 October 2013. Retrieved 13 July 2011.
54. Zhang, Yiping (2005). Story of the Silk Road. 五洲传播出版社. p. 22. ISBN 978-7-5085-0832-0. Archived from the original on 27 February 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
55. Lovell, Julia (2007). The Great Wall: China Against the World, 1000 BC – AD 2000. Grove Press. p. 73. ISBN 978-0-8021-4297-9. Archived from the original on 27 February 2018. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
56. Li, Bo; Zheng, Yin (2001). 中华五千年 [5000 years of Chinese history] (in Chinese). Inner Mongolia People's Publishing Corp. p. 254. ISBN 978-7-204-04420-7.
57. Di Cosmo, Ancient China and its Enemies, 2002
58. Frankenberger, W. T., ed. (1994). Selenium in the Environment. CRC Press. p. 30.
59. Becker, Jasper (2008). City of Heavenly Tranquility: Beijing in the History of China. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 18.
60. Liu, Xinru (2012). The Silk Roads: A Brief History with Documents. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's. p. 6.
61. Grousset, Rene (1970). The Empire of the Steppes. Rutgers University Press. pp. 36–37, 48. ISBN 978-0-8135-1304-1.
62. Ebrey (1999), 70.
63. R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuy, The Harper Encyclopedia of Military History from 3500 B.C. to the Present, Fourth Edition (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993), 133, apparently relying on Homer H. Dubs, "A Roman City in Ancient China", in Greece and Rome, Second Series, Vol. 4, No. 2 (Oct., 1957), pp. 139–148
64. "Ban Chao". Archived 16 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Encyclopædia Britannica.
65. Frances Wood, The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia, University of California Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-520-24340-8, p. 46
66. Jerry Bentley, Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 32.
67. An, Jiayao. (2002), "When Glass Was Treasured in China", in Annette L. Juliano and Judith A. Lerner (eds), Silk Road Studies VII: Nomads, Traders, and Holy Men Along China's Silk Road, 79–94, Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, ISBN 978-2-503-52178-7, p. 83.
68. ^ Halsall, Paul (2000) . Arkenberg, Jerome S. (ed.). "East Asian History Sourcebook: Chinese Accounts of Rome, Byzantium and the Middle East, c. 91 B.C.E. – 1643 C.E." Fordham.edu. Fordham University. Archived from the original on 10 September 2014. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
69. de Crespigny, Rafe. (2007). A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23–220 AD). Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, p. 600, ISBN 978-90-04-15605-0.
70. Yü, Ying-shih (1986). "Han Foreign Relations". In Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe (eds.). The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220. 377–462. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 460–461. ISBN 978-0-521-24327-8.
71. Xu, Siwen; Qiao, Baotong; Yang, Yimin (2022). "The rise of the Maritime Silk Road about 2000 years ago: Insights from Indo-Pacific beads in Nanyang, Central China". Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 42. Bibcode:2022JArSR..42j3383X. doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103383. ISSN 2352-409X. S2CID 247004020.
72. An, Jiayao (2002). "When Glass Was Treasured in China". In Annette L. Juliano and Judith A. Lerner (eds). Silk Road Studies VII: Nomads, Traders, and Holy Men Along China's Silk Road. 79–94. Turnhout: Brepols. ISBN 978-2-503-52178-7. pp. 83–84.
73. ^ Liu 2010, p. 21.
74. ^ "Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea | Silk Road". UNESCO. Archived from the original on 23 February 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2017.
75. Strabo, Geography, Book II Chapter 5
76. Liu 2010, p. 40.
77. Pliny the Elder, Natural Histories 11.xxvi.76
78. Liu 2010, p. 75.
79. Liu 2010, p. 20.
80. Seneca the Younger (c. 3 BCE – 65 CE), Declamations Vol. I
81. ^ "Sogdian Trade". Encyclopædia Iranica. Archived from the original on 17 November 2011. Retrieved 4 November 2011.
82. Mayers, K. (2016). The First English Explorer: The Life of Anthony Jenkinson (1529–1611) and His Adventures on the Route to the Orient. Storbritannien: Matador. p. 122-123
83. "Silk Road" Archived 6 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine, LIVIUS Articles of Ancient History. 28 October 2010. Retrieved 14 November 2010.
84. Howard, Michael C. (2012), Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies, the Role of Cross Border Trade and Travel, McFarland & Company, p. 133.
85. Mark J. Dresden (1981), "Introductory Note", in Guitty Azarpay, Sogdian Painting: the Pictorial Epic in Oriental Art, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, p. 9, ISBN 978-0-520-03765-6.
86. Liu, Xinru, "The Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Interactions in Eurasia", in Michael Adas (ed), Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History, American Historical Association, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001, p. 168.
87. Luttwak 2009, pp. 168–69.
88. Bretschneider, Emil (1888), Medieval Researches from Eastern Asiatic Sources: Fragments Towards the Knowledge of the Geography and History of Central and Western Asia from the 13th to the 17th Century, Vol. 1, Abingdon: Routledge, reprinted 2000, p. 144.
89. Moule, A. C., Christians in China before 1500, 94 & 103; also Pelliot, Paul in T'oung-pao 15(1914), pp. 630–636.
90. Peter Jackson (2005), The Mongols and the West, 1221–1410, Pearson Education, p. 169, ISBN 978-0-582-36896-5.
91. ^ Kathleen Kuiper & editors of Encyclopædia Britannica (31 August 2006). "Rabban bar Sauma: Mongol Envoy* Archived 11 October 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
92. Morris Rossabi (2014). From Yuan to Modern China and Mongolia: The Writings of Morris Rossabi. Leiden & Boston: Brill, pp. 385–86, ISBN 978-90-04-28529-3.
93. Morris Rossabi (2014). From Yuan to Modern China and Mongolia: The Writings of Morris Rossabi. Leiden & Boston: Brill, pp. 386–421, ISBN 978-90-04-28529-3.
94. Luttwak 2009, p. 169.
95. Luttwak 2009, pp. 169–70.
96. E. Bretschneider (1871). On the Knowledge Possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arabs and Arabian Colonies: And Other Western Countries, Mentioned in Chinese Books. Trübner & Company. pp. 25–.
97. Luttwak 2009, p. 170.
98. Nishijima, Sadao (1986). "The Economic and Social History of Former Han". In Twitchett, Denis; Loewe, Michael (eds.). Cambridge History of China. Vol. I: The Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 545–607. ISBN 978-0-521-24327-8.
99. Eberhard, Wolfram (2005). A History of China. New York: Cosimo. ISBN 978-1-59605-566-7.
100. Whitfield, Susan (2004). The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith. Chicago: Serindia. ISBN 978-1-932476-12-5.
101. Ebrey, Patricia Buckley (1999). The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-66991-7.
102. Skaff, Jonathan Karem (2009). Nicola Di Cosmo (ed.). Military Culture in Imperial China. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03109-8.
103. Tikhvinskiĭ, Sergeĭ Leonidovich and Leonard Sergeevich Perelomov (1981). China and her neighbours, from ancient times to the Middle Ages: a collection of essays. Progress Publishers. p. 124.
104. Sun, Guangqi (1989). History of Navigation in Ancient China. Beijing: Ocean Press. ISBN 978-7-5027-0532-9.
105. Bowman, John S. (2000). Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
106. Liu 2010, p. 68.
107. Simpson, Ray (2014). Aidan of Lindisfarne: Irish Flame Warms a New World. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-62564-762-7. Archived from the original on 27 February 2018.
108. Dybo, Anna Vladimirovna (2007). Хронология Тюркских Языков И Лингвистические Контакты Ранних Тюрков [Chronology of Türkic languages and linguistic contacts of early Türks] (PDF) (in Russian). p. 786. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 March 2005. Retrieved 12 June 2017.
109. ^ Hanks, Reuel R. (2010), Global Security Watch: Central Asia, Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford: Praeger, p. 4.
110. Ebrey, Patricia Buckley; Walthall, Anne; Palais, James B. (2006), East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 978-0-618-13384-0, p. 100.
111. Gascoigne, Bamber; Gascoigne, Christina (2003), The Dynasties of China: A History, New York: Carroll and Graf, an imprint of Avalon, ISBN 978-0-7867-1219-9, p. 97.
112. Taenzer, Gertraud (2016), "Changing Relations between Administration, Clergy and Lay People in Eastern Central Asia: a Case Study According to the Dunhuang Manuscripts Referring to the Transition from Tibetan to Local Rule in Dunhuang, 8th–11th Centuries", in Carmen Meinert, Transfer of Buddhism Across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th Centuries), 19–56, Leiden, Boston: Brill, pp. 35–37, ISBN 978-90-04-30741-4.
113. Hanks, Reuel R. (2010), Global Security Watch: Central Asia, Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford: Praeger, pp. 4–5.
114. Sophie Ibbotson and Max Lovell-Hoare (2016), Uzbekistan, 2nd ed., Bradt Travel Guides, pp. 12–13, ISBN 978-1-78477-017-4.
115. Sophie Ibbotson and Max Lovell-Hoare (2016), Uzbekistan, 2nd edition, Bradt Travel Guides, pp. 14–15, ISBN 978-1-78477-017-4.
116. Liu 2010, p. 109.
117. Enkhbold, Enerelt (2019). "The role of the ortoq in the Mongol Empire in forming business partnerships". Central Asian Survey. 38 (4): 531–547. doi:10.1080/02634937.2019.1652799. S2CID 203044817.
118. Daniel C. Waugh, The Pax Mongolica, Archived 5 May 1999 at the Wayback Machine. University of Washington, Seattle
119. Ilko, Krisztina (2024). "Yangzhou, 1342: Caterina Vilioni's Passport to the Afterlife". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 2: 3–38. doi:10.1017/S0080440124000136.
120. J. N. Hays (2005). Epidemics and pandemics: their impacts on human history Archived 27 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine. p. 61. ISBN 978-1-85109-658-9
121. John Kelly (2005). The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time. Harper. ISBN 978-0-06-000693-8
122. Kurin, Richard. "The Silk Road: Connecting People and Cultures". Festival. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
123. Ferrier, R. W. "The Armenians and the East India Company in Persia in the Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries". The Economic History Review. 26 (1).
124. Sardar, Marika (July 2011) . "The Metropolitan Museum's Excavations at Nishapur". Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
125. Faroqhi, Suraiya (1994). "Crisis and Change, 1590–1699". In İnalcık, Halil; Quataert, Donald (eds.). An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1914. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press. pp. 505–507, 524. ISBN 978-0-521-57455-6.
126. Foltz 1999.
127. Liu 2010, p. 77.
128. Bentley 1993, p. 38.
129. Jerry H. Bentley, Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 38.
130. Hermes, Taylor R.; Frachetti, Michael D.; Bullion, Elissa A.; Maksudov, Farhod; Mustafokulov, Samariddin; Makarewicz, Cheryl A. (26 March 2018). "Urban and nomadic isotopic niches reveal dietary connectivities along Central Asia's Silk Roads". Scientific Reports. 8 (1): 5177. Bibcode:2018NatSR...8.5177H. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-22995-2. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5979964. PMID 29581431.
131. Frachetti, Michael D.; Smith, C. Evan; Traub, Cynthia M.; Williams, Tim (8 March 2017). "Nomadic ecology shaped the highland geography of Asia's Silk Roads". Nature. 543 (7644): 193–98. Bibcode:2017Natur.543..193F. doi:10.1038/nature21696. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 28277506. S2CID 4408149.
132. "Belief Systems Along the Silk Road". Asia Society. Archived from the original on 17 November 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
133. Acri, Andrea (20 December 2018). "Maritime Buddhism". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.013.638. ISBN 978-0-19-934037-8. Archived from the original on 19 February 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2021.
134. Bentley 1993, pp. 69, 73.
135. Anderson, James A. (2009). "China's Southwestern Silk Road in World History". World History Connected. 6 (1). Archived from the original on 9 February 2014. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
136. Bentley 1993, p. 16.
137. Foltz 1999, p. 37.
138. Liu 2010, p. 51.
139. Liu 2010, p. 42.
140. Foltz 1999, pp. 37–58.
141. Foltz 1999, p. 47.
142. ^ Foltz 1999, p. 38.
143. Silkroad Foundation; Adela C.Y. Lee. "Ancient Silk Road Travellers". Archived from the original on 6 August 2009.
144. Foltz 1999, p. 41.
145. Bentley 1993, pp. 43–44.
146. Bentley 1993, p. 48.
147. Bentley 1993, p. 50.
148. von Le Coq, Albert. (1913). Chotscho: Facsimile-Wiedergaben der Wichtigeren Funde der Ersten Königlich Preussischen Expedition nach Turfan in Ost-Turkistan Archived 15 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), im Auftrage der Gernalverwaltung der Königlichen Museen aus Mitteln des Baessler-Institutes, Tafel 19 Archived 15 September 2016 at the Wayback Machine. (Accessed 3 September 2016).
149. Ethnic Sogdians have been identified as the Caucasian figures seen in the same cave temple (No. 9). See the following source: Gasparini, Mariachiara. "A Mathematic Expression of Art: Sino-Iranian and Uighur Textile Interactions and the Turfan Textile Collection in Berlin, Archived 2017-05-25 at the Wayback Machine" in Rudolf G. Wagner and Monica Juneja (eds), Transcultural Studies, Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg, No 1 (2014), pp. 134–63. ISSN 2191-6411. See also endnote #32 . (Accessed 3 September 2016.)
150. For information on the Sogdians, an Eastern Iranian people, and their inhabitation of Turfan as an ethnic minority community during the phases of Tang Chinese (7th–8th century) and Uyghur rule (9th–13th century), see Hansen, Valerie (2012), The Silk Road: A New History, Oxford University Press, p. 98, ISBN 978-0-19-993921-3.
151. ^ Foltz, Richard (1998). "Judaism and the Silk Route". The History Teacher. 32 (1): 9–16. doi:10.2307/494416. ISSN 0018-2745. JSTOR 494416.
152. Foltz 1999, p. 45.
153. "The Silk Road and Beyond: Travel, Trade, and Transformation". Art Institute of Chicago website. Archived from the original on 14 November 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
154. "Objectives". Archived from the original on 15 March 2013.
155. "Announcement about the Silk Road Week, 19-25 June 2020-China Silk Museum". www.chinasilkmuseum.com.

Sources

• Baines, John and Málek, Jaromir (1984). Atlas of Ancient Egypt. Oxford, Time Life Books.
• Ball, Warwick (2016). Rome in the East: The Transformation of an Empire. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-72078-6.
• Bentley, Jerry (1993). Old World Encounters: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Exchanges in Pre-Modern Times. Oxford University Press.
• Boulnois, Luce (2004). Silk Road: Monks, Warriors & Merchants on the Silk Road. Translated by Helen Loveday with additional material by Bradley Mayhew and Angela Sheng. Airphoto International. ISBN 978-962-217-720-8 hardback, ISBN 978-962-217-721-5 softback.
• Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. (1999). The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-66991-7.
• Foltz, Richard (1999). Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-230-62125-1.
• Guand-da, Zhang; Litvinsky, B.; Shabani Samghabadi, R., eds. (1996). History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Vol. III. UNESCO. ISBN 978-92-3-103211-0.
• Harmatta, János; Puri, B.N.; Etemadi, G.F., eds. (1994). History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Vol. II. UNESCO. ISBN 978-92-3-102846-5.
• Hopkirk, Peter: Foreign Devils on the Silk Road: The Search for the Lost Cities and Treasures of Chinese Central Asia. The University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 1980, 1984. ISBN 978-0-87023-435-4
• Hill, John E. (2009) Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd centuries CE. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1.
• Hulsewé, A.F.P. and Loewe, M.A.N. (1979). China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. E.J. Brill, Leiden.
• Huyghe, Edith and Huyghe, François-Bernard: "La route de la soie ou les empires du mirage", Petite bibliothèque Payot, 2006, ISBN 978-2-228-90073-7
• Johanson, Lars (2006). "Historical cultural and linguistic aspects of Turkic-Iranian continguity". In Johanson, Lars; Bulut, Christiane (eds.). Turkic-Iranian Contact Areas: Historical and Linguistic Aspects. Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 1–16.
• Juliano, Annette, L. and Lerner, Judith A., et al. 2002. Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures from Northwest China: Gansu and Ningxia, 4th–7th Century. Harry N. Abrams Inc., with The Asia Society. ISBN 978-0-8109-3478-8, 0-87848-089-7.
• Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim (1988). Die Seidenstrasse: Handelsweg and Kulturbruecke zwischen Morgen- and Abendland. Koeln: DuMont Buchverlag.
• Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim (1993). Gnosis on the Silk Road: Gnostic Texts from Central Asia. Trans. & presented by Hans-Joachim Klimkeit. HarperSanFrancisco. ISBN 978-0-06-064586-1.
• Li, Rongxi (translator). 1995. A Biography of the Tripiṭaka Master of the Great Ci'en Monastery of the Great Tang Dynasty. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. Berkeley, California. ISBN 978-1-886439-00-9.
• Li, Rongxi (translator). 1995. The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions. Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research. Berkeley, California. ISBN 978-1-886439-02-3.
• Liu, Xinru (2001). "Migration and Settlement of the Yuezhi-Kushan: Interaction and Interdependence of Nomadic and Sedentary Societies." Journal of World History, Volume 12, No. 2, Fall 2001. University of Hawaii Press, pp. 261–92. Project MUSE – Journal of World History.
• Liu, Li, 2004, The Chinese Neolithic, Trajectories to Early States, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Liu, Xinru (2010). The Silk Road in World History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-516174-8.
• Luttwak, Edward (2009). The Grand Strategy of the Byzantine Empire. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-03519-5.
• McDonald, Angus (1995). The Five Foot Road: In Search of a Vanished China., San Francisco: HarperCollins
• Malkov, Artemy (2007). The Silk Road: A mathematical model. History & Mathematics, ed. by Peter Turchin et al. Moscow: KomKniga. ISBN 978-5-484-01002-8
• Mallory, J.P. and Mair, Victor H. (2000). The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. Thames & Hudson, London.
• Osborne, Milton, 1975. River Road to China: The Mekong River Expedition, 1866–73. George Allen & Unwin Lt.
• Puri, B.N, 1987 Buddhism in Central Asia, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi. (2000 reprint).
• Ray, Himanshu Prabha, 2003. The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-80455-4, 0-521-01109-4.
• Sarianidi, Viktor, 1985. The Golden Hoard of Bactria: From the Tillya-tepe Excavations in Northern Afghanistan. Harry N. Abrams, New York.
• Schafer, Edward H. 1963. The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A study of T'ang Exotics. University of California Press. Berkeley and Los Angeles. 1st paperback edition: 1985. ISBN 978-0-520-05462-2.
• Thorsten, Marie. 2006 "Silk Road Nostalgia and Imagined Global Community". Comparative American Studies 3, no. 3: 343–59.
• Waugh, Daniel. (2007). "Richthofen "Silk Roads": Toward the Archeology of a Concept." The Silk Road. Volume 5, Number 1, Summer 2007, pp. 1–10. Archived 15 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine
• Whitfield, Susan, 1999. Life Along the Silk Road. London: John Murray.
• Wimmel, Kenneth, 1996. The Alluring Target: In Search of the Secrets of Central Asia. Trackless Sands Press, Palo Alto, CA. ISBN 978-1-879434-48-6
• Yan, Chen, 1986. "Earliest Silk Route: The Southwest Route." Chen Yan. China Reconstructs, Vol. XXXV, No. 10. October 1986, pp. 59–62.

Further reading

• Bulliet, Richard W. 1975. The Camel and the Wheel. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-09130-6.
• Christian, David (2000). "Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads in World History". Journal of World History. 2.1 (Spring): 1. doi:10.1353/jwh.2000.0004. S2CID 18008906.
• de la Vaissière, E., Sogdian Traders. A History, Leiden, Brill, 2005, Hardback ISBN 978-90-04-14252-7 Brill Publishers, French version ISBN 978-2-85757-064-6 on Home | De Boccard
• Elisseeff, Vadime. Editor. 1998. The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce. UNESCO Publishing. Paris. Reprint: 2000. ISBN 978-92-3-103652-1 softback; ISBN 978-1-57181-221-6, 1-57181-222-9.
• Forbes, Andrew; Henley, David (2011). China's Ancient Tea Horse Road. Chiang Mai: Cognoscenti Books. ASIN B005DQV7Q2
• Frankopan, Peter. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World (2016)
• Hansen, Valerie. The Silk Road: A New History (Oxford University Press; 2012) 304 pages
• Hallikainen, Saana: Connections from Europe to Asia and how the trading was affected by the cultural exchange (2002)
• Hill, John E. (2004). The Peoples of the West from the Weilüe 魏略 by Yu Huan 魚豢: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265. Draft annotated English translation. Weilue: The Peoples of the West
• Hopkirk, Peter: The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia; Kodansha International, New York, 1990, 1992.
• Kuzmina, E.E. The Prehistory of the Silk Road. (2008) Edited by Victor H. Mair. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. ISBN 978-0-8122-4041-2
• Levy, Scott C. (2012). "Early Modern Central Asia in World History". History Compass. 10 (11): 866–78. doi:10.1111/hic3.12004.
• Li et al. "Evidence that a West-East admixed population lived in the Tarim Basin as early as the early Bronze Age". BMC Biology 2010, 8:15.
• Liu, Xinru, and Shaffer, Lynda Norene. 2007. Connections Across Eurasia: Transportation, Communication, and Cultural Exchange on the Silk Roads. McGraw Hill, New York. ISBN 978-0-07-284351-4.
• Miller, Roy Andrew (1959): Accounts of Western Nations in the History of the Northern Chou Dynasty. University of California Press.
• Omrani, Bijan; Tredinnick, Jeremy (2010). Asia Overland: Tales of Travel on the Trans-Siberian and Silk Road. Hong Kong New York: Odyssey Distribution in the US by W. W. Norton & Co, Odyssey Publications. ISBN 978-962-217-811-3.
• Thubron, C., The Silk Road to China (Hamlyn, 1989)
• Tuladhar, Kamal Ratna (2011). Caravan to Lhasa: A Merchant of Kathmandu in Traditional Tibet. Kathmandu: Lijala & Tisa. ISBN 978-99946-58-91-6
• Watt, James C. Y.; Wardwell, Anne E. (1997). When silk was gold: Central Asian and Chinese textiles. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-87099-825-6.
• Weber, Olivier, Eternal Afghanistan (photographs of Reza), (Unesco-Le Chêne, 2002)
• Yap, Joseph P. (2009). Wars with the Xiongnu: A Translation from Zizhi Tongjian. AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1-4490-0604-4.
• National Institute of Informatics – Digital Silk Road Project Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
• Digital Silk Road > Toyo Bunko Archive > List of Books

External links

• Silk Road Atlas (University of Washington)
• "The Silk Road," a historical overview by Oliver Wild
• The Silk Road Journal, a freely available scholarly journal run by Daniel Waugh
• "The New Silk Road" – a lecture by Paul Lacourbe at TEDx Danubia 2013
• Escobar, Pepe (February 2015). "Year of the Sheep, Century of the Dragon? New Silk Roads and the Chinese Vision of a Brave New (Trade) World," an essay at Tom Dispatch

v t e Han dynasty topics
History	Chu–Han Contention (Feast at Swan Goose Gate) Lü Clan disturbance Rebellion of the Seven States Han dynasty in Inner Asia Han–Xiongnu Wars War of the Heavenly Horses Han conquest of Gojoseon Four Commanderies Southward expansion (Han–Minyue War Han conquest of Nanyue Han conquest of Dian First Chinese domination of Vietnam Trung sisters' rebellion Second Chinese domination of Vietnam) Xin dynasty Red Eyebrows and Lulin Chengjia Disasters of the Partisan Prohibitions Way of the Five Pecks of Rice Yellow Turban Rebellion End of the Han dynasty Battle of Red Cliffs
Society and culture	Ban Gu Sima Qian Records of the Grand Historian Book of Han Book of the Later Han Records of the Three Kingdoms Flying Horse of Gansu Huainanzi Eight Immortals of Huainan Mawangdui Silk Texts Luxuriant Dew of the Spring and Autumn Annals Yiwu Zhi Old Texts Han poetry Fu Eastern Han Chinese
Government and military	Ban Chao Ma Yuan Emperor list Family tree Three Lords and Nine Ministers Nine Ministers Three Ducal Ministers Kings Provinces and commanderies Protectorate of the Western Regions (Chief Official) Translation of government titles
Economy	Coinage Ancient Chinese coinage Silk Road Sino-Roman relations
Science and technology	Cai Lun Cai Yong Ding Huan Du Shi Hua Tuo Liu An Liu Xiang Liu Xin Luoxia Hong Sima Tan Wang Chong Zhang Heng Zhang Zhongjing
Texts	Balanced Discourse Book of Origins Book on Numbers and Computation Fangyan Essential Prescriptions from the Golden Cabinet The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art Huangdi Neijing Shuowen Jiezi Treatise on Cold Injury and Miscellaneous Disorders Zhoubi Suanjing

v t e World Heritage Sites in China
East	Archaeological Ruins of Liangzhu City Classical Gardens of Suzhou Fujian tulou Lushan Huangshan Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea–Bohai Sea of China (Phase I) Mount Sanqing Mount Tai Wuyi Mountains Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and Kong Family Mansion in Qufu Xidi, and Hongcun West Lake Kulangsu
South Central	Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains Historic Centre of Macau Shennongjia Kaiping Diaolou and Villages Longmen Grottoes Historic Monuments of Dengfeng, including the Shaolin Monastery and Gaocheng Observatory Zuojiang Huashan Rock Art Wulingyuan Yinxu
Southwestern	Chengjiang Fossil Site Dazu Rock Carvings Fanjingshan Honghe Hani Rice Terraces Huanglong Jiuzhaigou Lijiang Mount Emei and Leshan Giant Buddha Mount Qingcheng and Dujiangyan Potala Palace, including the Jokhang and Norbulingka Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries Three Parallel Rivers
North	Mount Wutai Chengde Mountain Resort, including Putuo Zongcheng Temple, Xumi Fushou Temple and Puning Temple Forbidden City Zhoukoudian Ancient City of Pingyao Summer Palace Temple of Heaven Xanadu Yungang Grottoes Beijing Central Axis
Northeast	Koguryo sites Mukden Palace
Northwestern	Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor Mogao Caves Xinjiang Tianshan Qinghai Hoh Xil
Multiple regions	Great Wall China Danxia Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties South China Karst Grand Canal Silk Roads Tusi Sites Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea–Bohai Sea of China (Phase II) Badain Jaran Desert

v t e World Heritage Sites in Kazakhstan
Cold Winter Deserts of Turan (Altyn-Emel, Barsa-Kelmes, Kaskakulan) Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi Saryarka Tamgaly Petroglyphs Silk Roads: Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor Western Tien-Shan

• Silk Road
• Ancient history of Afghanistan
• Ancient Mesopotamia
• Ancient international relations
• Ancient roads and tracks
• Economic history of Iran
• Eurasian history
• Foreign relations of ancient Rome
• Foreign trade of Pakistan
• Han dynasty
• History of foreign trade in China
• History of Imperial China
• History of international relations
• History of Khorasan
• International road networks
• Medieval Asia
• Roads in Asia
• Silk
• Trade routes
• World Heritage Sites in China
• World Heritage Sites in Kazakhstan
• World Heritage Sites in Tajikistan
• China-Roman Empire relations
• Ancient history of transport
• Medieval roads and tracks