The origins of silk
The invention of silk is generally dated to the reign of Emperor Huangdi (between 2700 and 2575 BC). In 1926, a cocoon discovered by Chinese archaeologists in a Neolithic burial site in Shanxi province initially confirmed this hypothesis. But thirty years later, a new discovery, this time in Zhejiang, unearthed silk fabrics from a tomb dating back to almost 5,000 B.C. These pieces are still, to this day, the oldest known pieces of silk in the world. But since legends are more tenacious than archaeological discoveries, let's return to the Chinese vision of silk invention. The emperor Huangdi's wife, Leizu, is said to be the one who brought about the silk miracle. It was while strolling under a mulberry tree, hot tea in hand, that she discovered the secret of silk. An unfortunate cocoon that had fallen into her cup of tea began to unwind, and the empress, seduced by the quality and fineness of the thread, decided to start breeding these caterpillars to weave herself garments of unrivalled quality.
Silk in Rome
The Romans discovered silk through the banners of their Parthian enemies at the battle of Carrhes. Military confrontation was followed by trade, and the Romans, so frightened by the precious fabric during battle, soon became avid consumers. Less than half a century after Crassus' defeat, silk was so widespread in Rome that the Senate had to forbid men to wear this transparent and "dishonorable" fabric. One can imagine the atmosphere when reading Seneca's description of silk garments: "Once she has put them on, a woman will swear, without anyone being able to believe her, that she is not naked; here is what, with immense expense, is brought in from obscure countries...". It's all about money. To reach Rome, silk had to cross thousands of kilometers of hostile terrain, leaving the Chinese Empire, crossing the steppes and deserts where nomadic raids were rampant, crossing Persia and then the Mediterranean. By the time he reached Rome, the product had become so valuable that the flight of capital was out of control.
The development of the Silk Road
By the end of the first century AD, silk was already making its way from Xi'an to Antioch, then across the Mediterranean. Alongside silk came a host of other luxury products: spices, tea, cinnamon, animals, precious metals... And the caravans grew ever larger, consisting of dozens or hundreds of mounts, necessitating the creation of stopping points capable not only of accommodating them, but also of protecting and supplying them. From this time onwards, thanks to its geographical position, which put it in contact with China on the one hand and Persia on the other, Central Asia dominated trade. In the second century AD, the Kushan Empire dominated not only Sogdiana, but also the Ferghana Valley and Kashmir, ensuring the safety of caravanners along a large part of the Silk Road.
A new actor: Islam
As a new religion emerged in the Arabian Peninsula that was to change the face of the world, three main players controlled the Silk Road from Xi'an to Byzantium: the Chinese of the Tang dynasty, the Sassanid Persians and the Eastern Roman Empire, which held the gates to the Mediterranean. After the death of Mohammed in 632, Islam swept across the entire region. Persia and Transoxania fell to the Umayyad dynasty, who chose Damascus as their capital. With the advent of the Abbasids, and the choice of Baghdad as their capital, expansion resumed and the Caliphate rapidly covered an empire far more extensive than that of Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar. Soon, the two giants, the Abbasid Arabs and the Tang Chinese, came into contact with each other and fought for control of the Silk Road and the wealth that continued to flow along it. In 753, after many fruitless confrontations, the Battle of Talas in present-day Kyrgyzstan established the borders between the two empires. Victory went to the Arabs, but their losses were such that they could go no further. The borders between the two giants were thus established: the Abbasids now controlled Central Asia and the precious Transoxiana, while the Chinese retained the Tarim basin and the eastern part of the Silk Road.
The Golden Age
Three centuries of prosperity for China under the Tang dynasty (618-907), from their capital Xi'an, and the stability of the gigantic Abbasid empire until the Mongol conquest, enabled the Silk Road to develop like never before. The Chinese and Arabs, aware of the riches this extraordinary trade route would bring them, did their utmost to secure the routes and multiply the number of branches to regions they did not control: Mongolia, India, Constantinople. Already well established in China, the Road followed the same routes as before, via Transoxiana, then Persia and Syria, until it reached the Royal Road in Turkey. By the end of the 9th century, however, nomadic movements on the borders of the Chinese Empire were becoming a threat. Driven out by Kyrgyz tribes, the Uyghurs swept across the Xin Jiang where, from nomads, they became sedentary, settling around the oases of Turfan and Khotan and taking control of Kashgar. The arrival in power in Mongolia of one of the greatest conquerors of all time, Genghis Khan, wiped the slate clean of all these developments and, once the pax mongolica had been established, restored the lustre of the silk trade.
The Mongolian Pax
In 1218, after his conquest of China, Genghis Khan marched on the Kara Kitai empire, which then ruled Eastern Turkestan, then defeated the Khorezm and conquered the whole of Central Asia. When he died in 1227, he left behind an empire of 26 million km², home to over 100 million people. The Mongols were masters of China, India, Central Asia, Siberia, Russia as far as Kiev and Persia as far as Syria! For the first time in its history, the Silk Road from Xi'an to Constantinople was controlled by a single empire. An empire in which the pax mongolica reigned, allowing trade to rise from the ashes, but also explorers, missionaries and ambassadors to travel safely through the Mongol empire.
In 1272, two Venetian merchants, Nicolo and Maffeo Polo, accompanied by their son and nephew Marco Polo, set off for China, the "land of the Sères". For Nicolo and Maffeo, this was their second trip to the Orient, the first having taken them to the Mongol Khan and Bukhara, where they had spent three years. This second voyage was to have been made by ship, but the Chinese wars in the South Seas forced them to change their itinerary and, to get to China, they crossed Central Asia via Balkh, the Pamir and Kashgar. The story of their 25-year voyage, published under the title Le Devisement du monde, is both a tale of fantastic characters and an adventure novel.
Forgetting
For the overland Silk Road, the discovery of America in 1492 had two consequences. On the one hand, the immense gold reserves discovered on the new continent prompted Western nations to turn their attention away from the East, and concentrate their efforts on exploiting the riches on the other side of the Atlantic. On the other hand, advances in navigation enabled the great sea routes to gradually replace land routes, as Christopher Columbus had hoped. The compass, invented in China and brought to Europe via the Silk Road, combined with advances in shipbuilding techniques, soon gave the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French and British an unrivalled supremacy over trade with the Indies and, more broadly, over world trade.
From then on, more silk cargoes passed through the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn than passed through Samarkand or Kashgar. The Silk Road exploded into a myriad of smaller branches serving European trading ports and trading posts on the Indian coast and along the Persian Gulf. The boom in European-controlled maritime routes was undoubtedly matched by the rapid decline of the overland Silk Road.
The traces of the Silk Road in Kyrgyzstan
The route from Kashgar to Samarkand, in Uzbekistan, took caravans into the heights of the Pamir mountains and the Tian Shan massif, forcing them to cross passes over 4,000 m high. Camels had to be swapped for horses, and it was necessary to pray that the passes would not be snowed in. After the hostile Taklamakan desert and incessant nomadic raids, caravanners now had to cross this small territory, 95% of which is mountainous, and half of which is over 3,000 meters high! To leave China, they had to use two passes that are still in use today. To the south, the Irkhestam pass: the most direct route to Osh and the Ferghana Valley; to the north, the Torugart pass leading to Naryn and Bishkek. From Osh, the route veers resolutely westwards, crossing into Uzbekistan. Some of the caravans arriving in Bishkek reached Tashkent via present-day Kazakhstan or along the Chouy valley, while others continued north towards the steppes and Russia. Unlike China and Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan offered no major cities or oases. And the country did not benefit as much as others from the constant flow of wealth across its territory. Among the Silk Road's former milestones, the caravanserai of Tash Rabat, where men and beasts rested after the Torugart pass, and the great bazaar of Osh, one of the largest in Central Asia, are not to be missed. Today, as part of China's development of a new Silk Road, the Kyrgyz have not been forgotten, as evidenced by the construction of modern roads by the Chinese to cross the passes more easily, open up the valleys and connect the towns. And when you see the thousands of Chinese trucks criss-crossing these new routes, you realize that Central Asia is still at the heart of a Silk Road which, in a different form and with different challenges, is gradually rising from its ashes!
