The Silk Road: Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iran

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.

List of IllustrationsForewordPrefaceNote on the Translation of Poetry and Prose Introduction: Merchants, Monks and Migrants : The Traffic of the Silk Road1. The Old Road Through Afghanistan to India2. Silk Road Sites in Southern Central Asia3. The Coming of Isam to Central Asia4. The Mongols5. Tamerlune (Timur) and the Timurids6. The Silk Road Sites Between Balkh and Nisa7. The Route North from Merv to Khorzem 8. The Routes North from the Iron Gate Pass9. The Routes to the North-West from Bukhura to Khorezm 10. Silk Road Sites Around Samarkand11. The Sik Road Between Samarkand and China12.Parthians and Sassanians13. The Main East-West Silk Road Across Iran14. The Ray-Tabriz Road15. The Ray-Hamadan Road16. The End of the Road: The Silk Road in Decline ChronologiesGlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex