The Great Silk Road History The Great Silk Road

Taklamakan desert in the south and via Khonan and Yarkend headed to Bactry (northern Afganistan) and Merv and then through Persia and Syria reached the Mediterranean coast where by maritime routes some goods were delivered to Rome and Greece.
As seen from the name of this transcontinental thoroughfare silk was the main article of trade. Silk was highly valued both in the East and in the West. In early Middle Ages it used to be the most popular unit of payment, actually making gold be withdrawn from circulation. Thus in Sogdiana the cost of a stallion equaled the cost of ten lengths of silk. Silk was used as payment unit for the works done, as mercenary’s salary; it could be also used to pay off the punishment for the committed crime.
The name “Silk Road” was originally given to caravan tracks by Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant who was the first European to reach as far as Chinese empire. The term “the Great Silk Road” was coined for the first time by the German geographer Ferdinand Richthofen in his basic work “China” .

It is said that the Chinese were the first to discover the silk production from silkworm five thousand years ago. For a long time they held a monopoly for silk supply in the international markets. But in the 6th century a vagrant monk smuggled to Constantinople a silkworm grain hidden in his hollow walking cane. Thus the long-kept Chinese secret was revealed and silk began to be produced in Byzantium, Syria and Central Asia, particularly by Sogdians who traded domestically manufactured silk alongside with the one brought from China. In the 20th century in Notre Dame Cathedral situated in a small Belgian town of Huy there was found a piece of goldish patterned silk cloth decorating the sepulcher of Saint Dominician. The research proved the cloth to be called “zandanechi” and to be manufactured in the 6th-8th centuries in a remote settlement of Zandan in the vicinity of Bukhara. Sogdian silk was widely used for decoration of the relics of Christian saints in many cathedrals of France, Italy, Germany. “Zandanechi” silk was also found in the burials in Northern Caucasus.
Though being the main article of trade silk was not the only goods that was conveyed along the transcontinental road. Central Asia exported horses highly valued in China, arming, gold and silver, gems and articles made of glass, leather and wool, carpets and cotton, exotic fruits – watermelons and peaches, fat-tail sheep and hounds, leopards and lions. To balance the trade from China there came caravans loaded with porcelain and bronzes, lacquerware and perfumes, tea and rice.

In merchants bales one could find tusks of the elephant, the horn of the rhinoceros, tortoise-shell, spices and many other exotic things.
In the old days traveling involved risks that each merchant had to consider. The road itself was often far from being smooth and scenic. Generally it ran across deserts dotted with camel’s skeletons – sinister milestones of the paths. Freezing cold in winter and unbearable heat in summer. Agonizing thirst and frequent lack of water. Constant anticipation of blinding storms rivaled only by possible conflicts with nomads. Sporadic towns, oases where extortion was more frequent than hospitality. And on the top of all these hazards that travelers faced there was a constant threat of attack from brigands who plagued the caravan routes.

But the fabled Silk Road was not a mere channel of trade: it was the means of propagation the cultural achievements of the peoples, spiritual wealth and religious doctrines. Ancient Zoroastrian cults prevalent in Khorezm, Sogdiana and Bactria, were replaced by Buddhism which became the main religion of the mighty Kushan empire and expanded to China. At the beginning of our era, from Asia Minor, Christianity eventually reached Central Asia and China via the Silk Road. In the 8th century the rigorous warriors of Arabia brought Islam to the eastern lands. In the later period the hordes of Genghis Khan rushed from the Mongol steppes to the European plains following the tracks treaded out by tradesmen and missionaries. From