The Silk Road - Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran : A Travel Companion

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tucker, Jonathan

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Silk Road.

Trade routes--Central Asia.

Trade routes.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (389 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023.

Place of Publication:

London : I.B. Tauris, 2015.

System Details:

text file HTML

Summary:

Stretching from the ancient Chinese capital of Xian across the expanses of Central Asia to Rome, the Silk Road was, for 1,500 years, a vibrant network of arteries that carried the lifeblood of nations across the world. Along a multitude of routes everything was exchanged: exotic goods, art, knowledge, religion, philosophy, disease and war. From the East came silk, precious stones, tea, jade, paper, porcelain, spices and cotton; from the West, horses, weapons, wool and linen, aromatics, entertainers and exotic animals. From its earliest beginnings in the days of Alexander the Great and the Han dynasty, the Silk Road expanded and evolved, reaching its peak during the Tang dynasty and the Byzantine Empire and gradually withering away with the decline of the Mongol Empire. In this beautifully illustrated book, which covers the Central Asian section of the Silk Road - from Lake Issyk-kul through Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara, the Kyzyl Kum Desert, Khiva and Merv to Herat, Kabul and Iran - Jonathan Tucker uses travellers' anecdotes and a wealth of literary and historical sources to celebrate the cultural heritage of the countries that lie along the Silk Road and illuminate the lives of those who once travelled through the very heart of the world.

Contents:

Cover; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; List of Illustrations; Foreword; Preface; Note on the Translation of the Poetry and Prose; Introduction: Merchants, Monks and Migrants: The Traffic of the Silk Road; 1 The Old Road Through Afghanistan to India; 2 Silk Road Sites in Southern Central Asia; 3 The Coming of Islam to Central Asia; 4 The Mongols; 5 Tamerlane (Timur) and the Timurids; 6 The Silk Road Sites Between Balkh and Nisa; 7 The Route North from Merv to Khorezm; 8 The Routes North from the Iron Gate Pass; 9 The Routes to the North-West from Bukhara to Khorezm

10 Silk Road Sites Around Samarkand11 The Silk Road Between Samarkand and China; 12 Parthians and Sasanians; 13 The Main East-West Silk Road Across Iran; 14 The Ray-Tabriz Road; 15 The Ray-Hamadan Road; 16 The End of the Road: The Silk Road in Decline; Chronologies; Glossary; Notes; Bibliography

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

ISBN:

9780755652389

075565238X

9780857739261

0857739263

OCLC:

910446501