Silk Road
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"It appears that the communication with China by the route traced by Ptolemy was still open in the middle ages ; and when the dominion of Genghiz Khan and his successors extended from the Sea of Amoor to Poland and the Black Sea, a regular intercourse by established posts existed through the whole extent. But from the time that the Tartar empire was broken up, no travellers or merchants from Europe dared to attempt the dangers and exactions which must have attended them at every step ; particularly as the progress of Mohammedanism in these northern courts brought on an additional suspicion and hostility against every Christian who might have entered their country. There was also a road by which the merchants of Samarcand and Bokhara proceeded through the northern provinces of Chinese Tartary to China. This was a long, difficult, and dangerous route. As soon as the caravans crossed the Guxasters they entered the desert, in which they were necessarily exposed to great privations, as well as to dangers from the wandering inhabitants. From Samarcand to the first town of the Chinese was from 60 to 100 days. The merchants of Samarcand and Bokhara, on return of their caravan, transported the silk into Persia, and the Persian merchants sold it to the Romans at the fairs of Armenia and Nisibis."--Commercial Intercourse with China (1842) |
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The Silk Road (or Silk Routes) is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe. In recent years, the Silk Route is again being used for the maritime and overland routes.
The Silk road was central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting East and West Asia by linking traders, merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads and urban dwellers from China to the Mediterranean Sea during various periods of time.
See also
