The Great Silk Road is rightfully considered one of the remarkable achievements of ancient civilizations. For the first time in the history of mankind, across the gigantic expanses from the Mediterranean to the Pacific Ocean, it connected different countries and peoples, connecting their material, artistic and spiritual cultures. For many centuries, ideas, technologies, crafts, and beliefs were exchanged along this path. The chronicles record the feat of brave pioneers who overcame deserts and mountains in search of unknown countries, treasures and adventures. The travelers were not afraid of anything — neither the arduous journey that took many years, nor the formidable, warlike nomads who attacked the caravans, nor the waterless Asian deserts, in which sandstorms often blocked the roads so much that their direction could only be found «by the bones of people and animals.»
Silk and products made from it have accompanied humans for many thousands of years. For various reasons, the silk industry experienced ups and downs, a decrease in interest in silk was replaced by «silk fevers», prices for silk goods rose and fell, but even today silk is the main raw material for a wide variety of sectors of the national economy, and we have yet to discover new possibilities for it applications.
The history of sericulture goes back centuries. The secret of making silk was discovered by the Chinese more than four thousand years ago. However, many researchers push this period back another thousand years, and Fava and Witt, famous Western European silkworm breeders of the last century, claim that silk obtained from silkworm cocoons has been known in China for 7,000 years.
There is no consensus on who was the first after the Chinese to master the art of making silk fabrics. It is likely that they were Indians, but there are other opinions. According to ancient historical chronicles, the silk industry (though not in the form in which we know it) first penetrated from the Chinese Empire to Japan around the 4th century BC and only then to India.
During the heyday of Greco-Roman Egypt (IV — 1st centuries AD), trade relations between states located on the Mediterranean coast were increasingly expanding, although the first maritime trade campaigns of the Egyptians, apparently, began much earlier — in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC ad. But only from the middle of the 2nd century BC, Indian trading ships began to regularly arrive in Egypt and, among a variety of goods, bring silk fabrics there. If you believe ancient sources, these were not Indian silks, but Chinese ones. India acted only as a trade intermediary.
In Rome, silk began to be worn in 46 BC. e., but excessive consumption of very expensive fabric was considered immoral. In 16 BC. e. The Senate, by special decree, prohibited people from «dishonoring themselves by dressing in silk.» However, the source of silk — the silkworm — became known in Greece only in the 4th century, although it is mentioned in the works of Aristotle (384–322 BC), in particular in the treatise «History of Animals» and somewhat later in works of Pliny the Elder (23/24–79). Aristotle probably used information about the silkworm obtained from the stories of people who visited other countries.
In the IV-VI centuries. silk production ceases to be a monopoly of China; Central Asia, Korea, Japan, and India become familiar with it. Almost nothing is known about whether sericulture originated in these countries independently, or penetrated from China, and if it was borrowed, then in what way. There are only numerous legends and assumptions on this matter.
Sericulture, in all likelihood, came to Europe (initially to Spain) through Byzantium and the Arab countries. Until the 8th century. silk was known in many countries, but only as a product brought from distant countries. Sericulture, in the proper sense of the word, became widespread in Europe only in the 13th century.
In Russia, the first attempts to breed silkworms were made under Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich (1596–1645). Later, by royal decree, mulberry plantations (the food plant of the silkworm) were established near Moscow, in the village of Izmailovo. Peter I banned the destruction of existing plantations and ordered the creation of new ones in Astrakhan and Akhtuba. Attempts were made to engage in sericulture at the courts of Catherine II and Paul I.
The entire prehistory and true history of sericulture, based on documents, is accompanied by legends, speculation and romantic descriptions of difficulties and adventures on the complex Great Silk Road — this was the name of the trade caravan road connecting China with Western Asia through Central Asia and further with Europe.
The beginning of the Great Silk Road dates back to the second half of the 2nd century BC. e., when the diplomat Zhang Jiang first opened the Western Region — the countries of Central Asia — to the Chinese. Thus, two great roads were united into one — one that went from the West from the Mediterranean countries to Central Asia, explored and traversed by the Hellenes and Macedonians during the campaigns of Alexander the Great and the Seleucid commander Demodamus, right up to Yaxartes (Syr Darya), and the other leading from the East, from the Han Empire to Central Asia.
The concept of the «Great Silk Road» is associated with a precious commodity at that time — silk, which introduced two different worlds: the West and the East. This term was first used in 1877 by the German scientist Ferdinand Richthofen in his classic scientific work «China». This is what he called the system of roads connecting various parts of the vast Eurasian continent.
The Silk Road had a huge influence on the formation of the political, economic, and cultural structure of the countries through which it passed. Large and small trading cities and settlements arose along all its routes, and Central Asia was especially dotted with caravan routes. Dozens of trade routes crossed this region. The most important ethnic processes took place here, active interaction of cultures took place, large-scale trade operations were carried out, diplomatic treaties and military alliances were concluded. The peoples of this region played an outstanding role in the spread of alphabetic writing and world religions, many cultural and technological achievements to the countries of Inner Asia and the Far East.
The Great Silk Road began in Rome and through the Mediterranean Sea went to the Syrian city of Hyropolis, and from there through Mesopotamia, Northern Iran, Central Asia led to the oases of Eastern Turkestan and further to China. The Central Asian section began in Areya (Herat). From here the road deviated to the north and went to Antioch of Margiana (Merv), from here to the southwest to Bactria, and then went in two directions — to the north and east.
The northern road crossed the Oxus (Amu Darya) in the area of Termez (ancient Tarmita) and then diverged in two directions: from Termez and the Shurab, Chushka-Guzar and Kara-Kamar crossings along the river valley. Sherabad led to the Iron Gate, located in Western Hissar, 8 kilometers northwest of the settlement of Derbent (Darbant). Along the mountain passes through the passes and along the valleys of the Kushtanga and Baysuntau rivers passed the main and, in essence, the only route of trade caravans and military formations traveling from the central regions of Asia to Bactria, Tokharistan and India and, conversely, from India to Bactria, Sogd, Bukhara and Chach.
This path from Derbent ran past the Kafirkala settlement, which arose already in early Kushan times on the northern outskirts of the modern city of Sherabad, then through the already mentioned Iron Gate it went to Akrabat, where in the Middle Ages the Sogdian settlement of Kendek was located. Then the path turned north and crossed the Uryadarya valley, the village of Karakhaval, emerging along the Kamdarvaza gorge into the Kesh region (modern Shakhrisabz and Kitab) and then to Marakanda. This was the shortest route from Tokharistan to Samarkand, much shorter than the route through Guzar. From Marakanda, through the Hungry Steppe, the road went to the Chach region (the modern Tashkent oasis), Fergana and through the Terek-Davan pass to East Turkestan.
References:
- https://www.advantour.com/
- https://ru.unesco.org/
- https://dolorestravel.com/
