Discover Kyrgyzstan : The Silk Road

The origins of silk

It is from the reign of Emperor Huangdi (between 2700 and 2575 B.C.) that the invention of silk is generally dated. 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, allowed the exhumation of silk fabrics from a tomb dating back to almost 5,000 years BC. These pieces are still, to this day, the oldest known silk pieces in the world. But since legends are more tenacious than archaeological discoveries, let's return to the vision of the invention of silk by the Chinese. Emperor Huangdi's wife, Leizu, is said to be the one who brought about the miracle of silk. It was while walking under a mulberry tree, with a hot tea in her hand, that she would have discovered the secret of silk. An unfortunate cocoon fell into her cup of tea and began to unwind, and the Empress, seduced by the quality and fineness of the thread, decided to start breeding these caterpillars to weave clothes of unparalleled 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 cloth during battle, quickly became fond of it as a consumer. Less than half a century after the defeat of Crassus, silk was so widespread in Rome that the Senate had to forbid men to wear such a transparent and "dishonourable" fabric. One imagines the atmosphere when one reads Seneca's description of silk garments: "Once she has put them on, a woman will swear, without being believed, that she is not naked; this is what, with immense expense, is brought in from obscure countries...". For it is money that is involved. In order to reach Rome, silk has to cross thousands of kilometres in hostile countries, leave the Chinese Empire, cross the steppes and deserts where nomadic raids are rampant, cross Persia and then the Mediterranean. By the time it reached Rome, the product had become so valuable that the flight of capital became uncontrollable.

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 and then across the Mediterranean. Many other luxury products were added to silk: spices, tea, cinnamon, animals, precious metals... And the caravans became more and more important, made up of several dozen or hundreds of mounts, leading to the need to create stages capable not only of welcoming them, but also of protecting and supplying them. From that time on, thanks to its geographical position, which put it in contact with China on one side and Persia on the other, Central Asia dominated trade. The Kushan Empire, in the second century AD, dominated not only Sogdiana, but also the Ferghana Valley and Kashmir, ensuring the safety of caravanners over a very large part of the Silk Road.

A new actor: Islam

As a new religion emerges in the Arabian Peninsula that will change the face of the world, three main actors control the Silk Road from Xi'an to Byzantium: the Chinese of the Tang Dynasty, the Sassanid Persians and the Eastern Roman Empire that holds the gates to the Mediterranean. After Mohammed's death in 632, Islam swept over all its regions. Persia and Transoxiana fall in less time than it takes to say under the dynasty of the Umayyads who choose Damascus as their capital. With the advent of the Abbasids, and the choice of Baghdad as capital, expansion resumed and the Caliphate quickly covered an empire much larger than that of Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar. Soon, the two giants, the Abbasid Arabs and the Chinese Tang, were in contact with each other and fought for control of the Silk Road and the wealth that continued to flow through it. After numerous dead-end confrontations, the battle of Talas, in present-day Kyrgyzstan, in 753, established the borders of the two empires. Victory went to the Arabs, but the losses were such that it was impossible for them to go any further. Thus the borders between the two giants are set: the Abbasids now control Central Asia and the precious Transoxiana, the Chinese retain 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 Mongolian conquest allowed the Silk Road to develop as never before. The Chinese and Arabs, aware of the riches that this extraordinary trade route brought them, did everything to make the roads safe and to multiply its branches towards the regions they did not control: Mongolia, India, Constantinople. Already well established in China, the Road follows the same routes as before, via the Transoxiana, then Persia and Syria until it joins the Royal Way in Turkey. From the end of the 9th century, however, nomadic movements on the borders of the Chinese Empire became threatening. Driven out by the Kyrgyz tribes, the Uyghurs flooded into the Xin Jiang where, from being nomads, they became sedentary, settling around the oases of Turfan and Khotan and taking control of Kashgar. The arrival to power in Mongolia of one of the greatest conquerors of all time, Genghis Khan, will make a clean sweep of all these developments and, once the Mongolian pax is in place, will restore lustre to the silk trade.

The Mongolian Pax

In 1218, after his conquest of China, Genghis Khan marched on the empire of the Kara Kitai who then ruled over East Turkestan, then defeated the Khorezm and seized the whole of Central Asia. When he died in 1227, he left behind an empire of 26 million square kilometres where more than 100 million people lived. 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 was controlled, from Xi'an to Constantinople, by a single empire. An empire over which the pax mongolica

reigns, allowing trade to rise from its ashes, but also allowing explorers, missionaries and ambassadors to travel safely through the Mongolian 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 journey to the East, the first having taken them as far as the Mongolian Khan and Bukhara, where they had spent three years. This second journey was to be made by boat, but the Chinese wars in the South Seas made them change their itinerary and, to get to China, they crossed Central Asia through Balkh, Pamir and Kashgar. The story of this 25-year journey, published under the title The Devisement of the World , is both a tale teeming with fantastic characters and an adventure novel.

Forgetting

For the Silk Road on land, the discovery of America in 1492 will have two consequences. On the one hand, the immense reserves of gold that would be discovered on the new continent would push the Western nations to lose interest in the East in order to focus their efforts on exploiting the riches across the Atlantic. On the other hand, the progress made in the field of navigation enabled the great sea routes to gradually replace land routes, as Christopher Columbus had wished. The compass, invented in China, and arrived in Europe via the Silk Road, combined with progress in maritime construction techniques, would soon give the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, French and British unequalled supremacy over trade with India and, more broadly, over world trade.

From then on, the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn saw more silk cargoes pass through than through Samarkand or Kashgar. The Silk Road exploded into a myriad of small branches serving European trading ports and trading posts on the Indian coast and along the Persian Gulf. The rapid decline of the Silk Road on land was undoubtedly linked to the development of European-controlled sea routes.

The traces of the Silk Road in Kyrgyzstan

The road from Kashgar to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, took the caravans to the heights of the Pamir Mountains and the Tian Shan Massif, forcing them to cross passes at over 4,000 m. The caravans were then driven to the top of the Pamir Mountains and the Tian Shan Massif. Camels had to be swapped for horses and prayed that the passes would not be caught under the snow. After the hostile Taklamakan desert and the incessant nomadic raids, the caravanners had to start crossing this small territory composed of 95% mountains, half of which are over 3,000 metres high! To leave China, they were presented with two passes: they are still in use today. In the south, the Irkhestam pass: the most direct towards Osh and the Ferghana valley; in the north, the Torugart pass leading towards Naryn and Bishkek. From Osh, the road forks resolutely to the west and crosses Uzbekistan. Among the caravans arriving in Bishkek, some reached Tashkent via present-day Kazakhstan or by following the Chouy valley, others continued northwards towards the steppes and Russia. Unlike China and Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan did not offer a large urban stage or oasis. And the country was not as rich as others from the incessant passage of wealth through its territory. Among the former flagship stages of the Silk Road, one should not miss the caravanserai of Tash Rabat, where men and animals rested after the Torugart pass; as well as the great bazaar of Osh, one of the largest in Central Asia, where a commercial atmosphere from another time still reigns. Today, as part of the development of a new Silk Road by China, 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 cities. And to see the thousands of Chinese trucks that criss-cross these new routes, it is easy to understand that Central Asia is still at the heart of a Silk Road which, in another form and with other challenges, is gradually rising from its ashes!