UCB Chinese History The Silk Road Paper

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Paper Prompt:
● How do the stories of individual lives reveal a new aspect of politics, economy,
and culture on the Silk Road? Use three individuals’ lives to articulate a common
pattern/theme of the Silk Road history that we have not examined in this class.
● The paper should be no less than five and no more than six pages double
spaced
Essay Format:
a. Title
The title should summarize the topic and argument succinctly.
b. Introduction
– You should raise your question, and explain why your question is important.
– State your argument/thesis in a succinct manner.
c. Body
You should support your argument with the evidence you gathered from the text.
d. Conclusion
– Summarize your argument.
Criteria for grading:
a. Creativity of your argument (35%)
b. Validity and adequateness of your evidence (35%)
c. Quality of composition: whether you followed the essay structure I have laid
out, and whether your sentence is free of grammatical errors. (30%)
NO OUTSIDE READING
Paper Prompt:
● How do the stories of individual lives reveal a new aspect of politics, economy,
and culture on the Silk Road? Use three individuals’ lives to articulate a common
pattern/theme of the Silk Road history that we have not examined in this class.
● The paper should be no less than five and no more than six pages double
spaced
Essay Format:
a. Title
The title should summarize the topic and argument succinctly.
b. Introduction
– You should raise your question, and explain why your question is important.
– State your argument/thesis in a succinct manner.
c. Body
You should support your argument with the evidence you gathered from the text.
d. Conclusion
– Summarize your argument.
Criteria for grading:
a. Creativity of your argument (35%)
b. Validity and adequateness of your evidence (35%)
c. Quality of composition: whether you followed the essay structure I have laid
out, and whether your sentence is free of grammatical errors. (30%)
NO OUTSIDE READING
Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
Created from ucb on 2022-03-15 01:12:35.
Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
Life along the Silk Road
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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Life along the Silk Road
SECOND EDITION
Susan Whitfield
Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
UN IV E R S ITY O F C A L IFO R N IA P R E S S
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university
presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing
scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its
activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic
contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit
www.ucpress.edu.
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2015 by Susan Whitfield
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Whitfield, Susan, 1960– author.
Life along the Silk Road / Susan Whitfield.—Second edition.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-520-28059-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-0-520-96029-9 (ebook)
1. Silk Road—History. 2. Silk Road—Biography. 3. Asia—
History. I. Title.
DS33.1.W45 2015
950—dc23
2014026794
Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
Manufactured in the United States of America
24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and
sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book on Natures
Natural, a fiber that contains 30% post-consumer waste and meets the
minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of
Paper).
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
To the memory of Sir Aurel Stein, for his excavations along the Silk Road,
and to Professor Edward Schafer, for his equally rigorous literary
excavations. This book owes a great debt to the treasures discovered by
each man.
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Preface to the Second Edition
Note on Transliteration and Names
Map
Introduction
Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
Prologue: The Shipmaster’s Tale
1
The Merchant’s Tale
2
The Soldier’s Tale
3
The Horseman’s Tale
4
The Princess’s Tale
5
The Courtesan’s Tale
6
The Pilgrim’s Tale
7
The Writer’s Tale
8
The Official’s Tale
9
The Nun’s Tale
10
The Widow’s Tale
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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11
The Artist’s Tale
Epilogue
Notes
References
Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
Index
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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ILLUSTRATIONS
1.
Coin of King Joel, Axum
2.
Kushan coin
3.
Sasanian design woven on silk
4.
Sogdian silver wine ewer
5.
Four-armed Nana on a lion
6.
Letter from a Sogdian merchant
7.
Plan of eighth-century Chang’an
8.
Plan of Tibetan fort at Miran
9.
Plan of battle sites in Wakhan and Little Balur
10.
Southwest corner of the Kansir fort
11.
The tarpan with its erect mane but no forelock
12.
Man in hufu (foreigners’ robe), with falcon and saluki dog
13.
Chinese Tang hairstyle and phoenix hair ornaments
14.
Chinese girl dressed in hufu (foreigners’ robe)
15.
Uygur princess holding a lotus bud
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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16.
Sogdian dancer
17.
Musicians on a bullock cart
18.
Charm for ensuring order in the house
19.
The sacred area and main stupa of Amluk-dara
20.
Buddhist temple at Beshbalik
21.
Vaiśravaṇa, Heavenly King of the North
22.
Sands of the Taklamakan desert with ruins
23.
Map of the world by Al-Idrisi
24.
Elephant chess piece in black stone
25.
Dragon-head pin
26.
Detail from frontispiece of The Diamond Sutra 147
27.
Detail from Zhai Fengda’s calendar
28.
Tārā, a Tantric Buddhist deity
29.
Demon supporting a heavenly king
30.
Demon guarding the gate to Hell
31.
The Star God, Rahu
32.
Ploughing scene from a Dunhuang cave temple
33.
Printed prayer sheet prepared by a woodblock carver
34.
The story of Śāriputra, illustrated manuscript
35.
Buddha on a lotus throne, pounce and ink on paper
36.
Silk and painted banner of the Buddha’s image
37.
Three-rabbit design inside a lotus
C O L O R P L AT E S
1.
Remnants of a gaiter showing a battle scene
2.
Illustrated Manichaean manuscript
3.
Sogdian silver dish with battle scene
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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4.
Mural showing battle scene
5.
Uygur prince on a ramie banner
6.
Detail from a Buddhist paradise scene
7.
Female novices being tonsured
8.
Alexander the Great building the wall against Gog and Magog
9.
Conversion of the Mongol Ilkanid khagan, Mahmud Ghazan
The Hariri Ship
Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
10.
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
My original intention in writing this book was to exploit the manuscripts
and other sources—textual and material—discovered at Dunhuang and
other sites in Chinese Central Asia to attempt to provide an accessible and
reliable introduction to the complex history of this region in a wider—Silk
Road—context. The original book was published under a U.K. trade
imprint, John Murray, and therefore was not in a format that allowed notes.
I am pleased now to have the opportunity to include them. Where possible,
I have included references to primary sources—textual, visual, and
material—and also to translations of the textual sources. This accords with
my attempts to make the study of the Silk Road accessible to more people.
For this reason I have also added links to online versions of translations
and articles where available and to illustrations of the manuscripts and
artifacts excavated from the Silk Road sites. Many of them are also freely
available online through the International Dunhuang Project (IDP; online at
http://idp.bl.uk).
Following the publication of the first edition, I started work on an
exhibition at the British Library using much of the research and showing
many of the objects used for the book (Whitfield and Sims-Williams 2004).
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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I followed this with another exhibition in Brussels showing new finds from
Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
the Silk Road in China (Whitfield 2010), and both projects expanded my
understanding of the material culture of the first millennium AD. In
additions to new excavations and finds, new textual sources have emerged,
and I have therefore been able to supplement the text and revise some of
my interpretations. I am also delighted that many more secondary
historical sources now exist to help students, and I have cited these where
relevant and hence reduced some of the historical background that I felt
was necessary in the first edition. However, this field is still comparatively
sparse. For example, there is as yet no historical monograph in English on
any of the Tarim kingdoms, though there are now sufficient sources to
write one.
Thanks to the new finds and publications and the research of other
scholars, my own knowledge has increased, though I am always aware of
how many yawning chasms remain. I have also traveled more widely in this
area, visiting many more of the major and remote archaeological sites in
the Taklamakan desert and other sites in Central Asia. I have retraced the
steps of the Chinese and Tibetan solders fighting from the Amu Darya, now
in Afghanistan, to the ancient kingdom in the Yasin valley, now in Pakistan,
told in “The Soldier’s Tale,” and some of the route over the Lowari pass
into the Chitral region, told in “The Pilgrim’s Tale.” This has given me a
more acute awareness of the challenges of travel in this region and a great
respect for these early travelers of the Silk Road.
In the first edition, I limited the geographical region to eastern Central
Asia into China, including the Mongolian steppes and Tibetan plateau. I
also concentrated on the Tarim basin and Dunhuang because of my
knowledge of and access to the wealth of primary and material sources for
that region. I decided not to set a story in the ancient kingdom of of Turfan,
despite the rich sources, as everyday life there had been covered well in
English by others, notably Valerie Hansen (1995, 2013). I also limited the
timescale to the last quarter of the first millennium AD. This was partially
dictated by the primary sources and by my own knowledge, but it also
allowed the chapters to overlap and offer the same events from different
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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perspectives in order to deepen understanding of this complex period and
the many peoples and cultures that populated it. The book was intended to
be a slice of Silk Road history, to give the reader a taste for the whole and
thus a hunger to discover more. The original story took place as the Silk
Road was changing: the decline of cultures such as the Sogdians, who had
Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
played a key role in early trade, the rise of new powers on the steppes, and
the introduction of Islam and the subsequent decline of Buddhism and the
other religions of the area.
For this revised edition, I added a chapter (within the original timescale
but extended geographically) and a prologue (set some two centuries
previously). These new chapters are intended to incorporate the steppe
and sea routes and to bring Africa and Europe into the story while
retaining the core focus on Central Asia and the Tarim. I decided not to
extend the timescale beyond the tenth century despite the temptation of a
number of rich primary sources. There are now excellent studies on the
Chinese maritime routes and Indian Ocean trade of this period and later,
during the Mongol period, with the unification of much of Eurasia under a
single power. A brief survey with references is given in the epilogue for
those who wish to explore further.
My new prologue, “The Shipmaster’s Tale,” takes us to the early sixth
century and introduces two aspects of the Silk Road that have often been
neglected (though this is changing): the involvement of African merchants,
and the interdependence of the land and maritime routes. It also
introduces Christianity and Judaism. Although I have had an interest in the
Axumite kingdom for many years and have visited several of the sites, it is
not my area of specialism, and I have thus relied more heavily here on
secondary sources and the comments of kind colleagues—but, of course,
any errors and omissions are my own. In addition, only limited information
is available on maritime travel, and I have therefore not been able to add
many details to that section. Fortunately, the field of maritime archaeology
is developing and bringing up many more finds from the seabed, so it is
expected we might learn much more over the coming years.
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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The additional chapter, “The Writer’s Tale,” is set in the early tenth
century and takes us to the city of Isfahan in Persia, then nominally part of
the Arab caliphate. It is intended to give the reader a broader picture of
the Iranian-Arab-China intersection and decline in Central Asia. From
there, we travel with the writer and his sources to the steppe kingdoms of
Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
the Khazars and Bulgars on routes following the Volga river and thence to
the shores of the eastern Baltic and the fringes of Europe. Several modern
authors have already mined these rich sources for both historical and
fictional works, and I am indebted to them. However, few sources link
these routes with the existing trade networks discussed elsewhere in this
book, hence my decision to include this chapter.
I have also slightly revised the order so that the first half of the book
presents the wider context and the four chapters based primarily on
Dunhuang sources come at the end.
Since I wrote the first edition of this book, when the term “the Silk
Road” was becoming more popular in Europe, there has been a growing
debate on the meaning and usefulness of the term—even as it is exploited
ubiquitously as a marketing tool. I discuss this briefly in the rewritten
introduction.
Working again on this book made me realize that, though I have learned
much since I first researched and wrote it in 1997-98, what I have learned
above all else is the state of my ignorance. All I can hope to offer here is a
snapshot that shows something of the interconnectedness of Afro-Eurasia
in the first millennium AD. But any snapshot, whatever the care taken in its
craft, is a product of a moment in time and space and the choices of its
creator. This book inevitably captures the state and viewpoint of my own
scholarship, molded by that of my background, culture, and time. I hope
that the picture presented here will be intriguing enough to lead the
reader to want to learn more about this fascinating historical period.
Mistakes crept into the first edition owing to haste and my own
ignorance. I have corrected these where I noticed them. My thanks to the
many colleagues who have read the revised chapters and suggested
further corrections. Any mistakes that remain or that have been
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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introduced are entirely my own. Lack of time and lack of knowledge
remain constants in my life, and this book is necessarily a work in
progress.
There are too many people who have helped in my research and work on
IDP over the past twenty years to thank individually here, but I appreciate
all your support and generosity in sharing your knowledge so freely. I must
give special thanks to the IDP team and other colleagues at the British
Library, notably John Falconer, Vic Swift, and Sam van Schaik, who with
their patience, support, and friendship have made it possible for me to fit
Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
research and writing into an extremely busy schedule, and who have
provided sanity and refuge during difficult times.
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION AND NAMES
Many of the names in the text are in languages written in non-Roman
scripts, and these have been romanized throughout. For Chinese, Sanskrit,
and Tibetan, I have used widely accepted systems in all cases except
where a different transliteration is in common usage: for Chinese, the
pinyin system; Sanskrit, IAST/ISO 15919 convention; and Tibetan, the
Wylie system. There is no standard transliteration for Turkic, and I have
followed the advice of colleagues as to accepted current practice—for
example, using “k” and not “q” (“Kocho” rather than “Qocho”) and “k”
instead of “kh” in most cases, but continuing to use other romanizations
when there is a common usage. For Ge’ez, I have followed most
contemporary scholars. For Arabic and Persian, I have followed the
Library of Congress conventions. I am not a linguist of these languages and
so have relied on secondary sources and colleagues to check. I apologize
for any inadvertent mistakes.
Consistency is not possible with the names of towns and regions. I use
contemporary names where possible or meaningful, but in some cases
strict historical accuracy has been sacrificed to clarity, and the names used
are necessarily anachronistic. In many cases, towns have different names
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depending on the source. For example, Beshbalik, the Turkic name of a
Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
town as found in Uygur sources, is called Beiting in Chinese sources (and it
has yet another name in Tibetan sources). In such cases, I have generally
used the name given by the people dominant in the town at that period (at
the time of “The Horseman’s Tale,” for example, the town was ruled by the
Turkic Uygurs and so is given as Beshbalik). Since this book spans a long
period of time, with many changes of regimes, there are inevitably
inconsistencies.
The names of all the characters are found in contemporary sources, and
I have referenced these in the endnotes. We have sufficient information
about some of these people and the events of their lives to form the basis
of the tale—such as that of the widow Ah-long or the offical Zhai Fengda. In
these cases, I have amplified the recorded events of their lives with details
culled from contemporary sources. So, for example, we know that Ah-long
was in a land dispute, and all the details of this can be found in extant legal
documents. But we have no record of her everyday life—of the clothes she
wore, her friends, interests, or beliefs. However, such details can be
extrapolated from the many contemporary sources—textual, visual, and
material—for the clothes and pastimes of women of her class at the time.
We have records showing women gambling, of women seeking help for
illness, and of meeting with other women at the clubs associated with local
temples. I have used these to create a composite character. The distinction
between first-hand and added material is made clear in the notes. In other
cases, such as the horseman or the soldier, no relevant historical accounts
have survived, if they existed at all, and so I have had to create the
character. But all the factual details are taken from contemporary sources.
The fiction lies in putting these together to form composites and in giving
them motives and feelings.
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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Some of the major Silk Road trade routes by land and sea in the first
millennium AD. (Martin Lubikowski, ML Design, London.)
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Introduction
1877 by Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen (1833–1905), a
German geographer with commercial interests in a proposed railway to
connect Europe and China across Eurasia, the term “Silk Road” is now
commonly encountered both inside and outside academia. 1 Indeed, it can
COINED IN
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be said to have become a brand, used to label anything exotic and
randomly eastern to the whole of pre-modern exchanges across Eurasia.
Its use for a website trading clandestinely in banned products is perhaps
one of the more intelligent appropriations of the term in recent years. 2
Yet the Silk Road is a term that was little used twenty years ago when I
started work on the first edition of this book. 3 Like many abbreviations, it
is not strictly descriptive—as James Millward points out, “neither silk nor a
road.”4 (I would be inclined to rephrase this as “not only silk and not only a
road.”)5 Nor should it be interpreted as restricting the discussion to the
relations between two points, China and Rome, East and West, though it is
often popularly presented in this dichotomous or binary way. 6 Lands in
between are just as much part of the story (Central Asia; south, southeast,
and west Asia; the Near East; Arabia) as are other places on the edges of
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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Afro-Eurasia (northern Europe; southern Arabia; eastern and northern
Africa). 7 As Tamara Chin shows, von Richthofen was always interested in
the history and mapping of these trans-Eurasian interconnections. 8
Some scholars have argued recently for a complete rejection of the term
because of these simplifications and its widespread popular adoption. 9
However, we should consider its usefulness before rejecting it—and
recognize that, as academics, we have little hope of influencing its wider
use. 10
In the Buddhist notion of upāya—expedient means—it is important to
draw people into a subject, even if this sometimes means giving a simplified
and inevitably misleading account, rather than to risk alienating them with
too much detail too soon. 11 In this sense, the popularization of the term
“Silk Road” can be seen as an opportunity rather than an impediment.
Of course, scholars already use many terms in offering convenient and
broadly descriptive categories while recognizing and debating their
limitations. Periodizations such as “Medieval” or “the Middle Ages” remain
widely accepted in scholarship and teaching as well as being used in
popular culture. 12 The process of debating the scope and relevance of
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those terms can only help in our understanding and the furthering of
scholarship. 13 The use of “Silk Road” as a historical category is still
relatively new, and we should expect some discussion and disagreement
about its scope and applicability; this is inevitable but also positive, as it
potentially leads to a more nuanced definition and broader consensus. 14
The work by Tim Williams on mapping the Silk Road to support the bid by
China and Central Asian countries to include it as a cultural route on the
UNESCO World Heritage list is an excellent example of this. It has led to
greater clarity about long-accepted routes and revealed other, potentially
important routes not previously mapped or fully investigated. 15
Is there a consensus among scholars on what makes “the Silk Road” a
meaningful term, without it merely becoming World History without the
Americas? Silk was, of course, not the only commodity traded across
Eurasia, and we do not yet know whether it was even the most important
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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in terms of volume, value, or profit for all or some of pre–modern Eurasian
contact. 16 Silk had been produced in large quantities in China for over
three thousand years, but it was only at the end of the first millennium BC
that knowledge of and desire for cultivated silk throughout Afro-Eurasia
prompted the start of its sustained movement as a trading commodity. The
knowledge of silk accompanied the start of the move westward of the
Chinese empire in the second century BC and the rise of the Kushan
empire in the first century AD. Yarn, finished weaves, and technologies of
sericulture and weaving were all catalysts for long-distance trade and
remained so for over a thousand years. It was not by accident or whim that
von Richthofen chose silk as the characteristic merchandise encapsulating
cross-Eurasian trade. The movement in silk beyond China therefore also
sets our starting point for “the Silk Road” from the second/first century
BC. 17 Of course, there was long-distance Eurasian trade for millennia
Copyright © 2015. University of California Press. All rights reserved.
before this, such as in lapis and jade, from Central Asia westward and
Central Asia eastward, respectively, but the political changes and desire
for silk led to more sustained movement across Central Asia, by land and
sea, both east-west and north-south. 18
The movement and exchange of silk across Central Asia—and all the
other goods that this trade enabled and with which it coexisted—along with
the corresponding movement and exchange of all the other tangible and
intangible cultural baggage that travels with people (religions,
technologies, medicine, fashions, food) is characteristic of what we mean
by “the Silk Road.” We can accept that not all silk in all periods and places
would have to be exchanged through trade, but trade is an essential part of
the story. 19
The movement and exchange of silk and the other commodities took
place in stages: rarely did the people carrying the goods travel very long
distances by land, and certainly not from Rome to China or from northern
Europe to Sri Lanka. 20 The sea trade also went in stages, though these
were often longer—from East Africa to Sri Lanka, for example. 21 Nor was
there a single road or route. 22 Numerous existing trading routes were
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used and some new ones created. Oft en these routes were already in use
for other commodities, such as ivory, salt, jade, tea, musk, and horses. 23
But the persistence of such a simplification—a single route along which
merchants traveled long distances carrying silk—is indicative of the desire
to frame “the Silk Road” as a dichotomous or binary concept (East to West,
China to Rome) and to ignore the lands in between. This is potentially
misleading and more difficult to transcend: dichotomies are always
seductive. 24
This is not new. Although the role of Central Asia in world history has
been the subject of sustained scholarly debate over the past two centuries,
it remains secondary to the histories of the empires on its periphery. 25
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Central Asia has often been defined negatively as the place outside the
boundaries of its neighboring civilizations. 26 But if we know the region
largely through the annals of its neighbors and the accounts of those who
passed through, it is nevertheless misleading to assume that it has always
been a place of transience: a land of nomads with neither civilization nor
culture, lacking established cities or a history of its own. Evidence
uncovered over the past century has revealed a quite different story. This
evidence and the increasing use of “the Silk Road” in scholarship should be
seen as an opportunity for scholars to readdress their assumptions and to
focus more attention on this important region.
An unfortunate division has grown up in the past few decades between
studies of land and of sea routes. Early discussions of the Eurasian silk
trade made no such distinction, looking at the use of both sea and land
routes depending on economic and other factors. 27 But with the
development of studies of Indian Ocean networks and southeast maritime
trade, and with maritime archaeology uncovering new sources, this issue is
being redressed. 28 The work on the Indian Ocean networks has also
brought Africa back into the story. Merchant ships from North and East
Africa—Egypt and Axum—set sail from the Red Sea for ports in Yemen, to
the Gulf, along the Persian coast, and to India and Sri Lanka, where they
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moored alongside ships from southeast Asia and China. 29 These are also
part of the Silk Road story.
Central Asia remains at the heart of the Silk Road, and of this book. The
strategic importance of Central Asia was never doubted by those
neighboring powers who fought for its control. During the first millennium
AD, many of the world’s empires—Indian, Persian, Arabic, Chinese, Turkic,
and Tibetan—controlled this region, and it is the story of Central Asia seen
through their eyes that this book tells. But much of the evidence for this
story was not revealed until the nineteenth century, when two quite
different empires—those of Russia and Britain—played out their rivalries in
the deserts and mountains of the region. Military and political missions
were dispatched to Central Asia, and archaeologists followed in their
wake, drawn by tales of treasures uncovered from lost cities in the sand.
Whatever we may now think about the rights or wrongs of these colonial
incursions, their work has enabled this story to be told, and their finds
have inspired—and continue to inspire—scholars to attempt to understand
the history of Central Asia and the Silk Road. 30
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Even if we accept the existence of a “Silk Road,” it is a topic too elusive
and complex to enable a comprehensive history. 31 I therefore deliberately
chose in this book to concentrate on a relatively small slice, both of
geography and of time, to show the richness of the interconnections and,
most specifically, their influence on certain cultures and individual lives.
The main geographical focus of this book is the area that M. Aurel Stein,
perhaps the most famous early-twentieth-century archaeologist to explore
this region, borrowing a term already coined by the French, called
Sérinde/Serindia: its “geographical limits . . . comprise practically the
whole of that vast drainageless belt between the Pamir in the west and the
Pacific watershed in the east, which for close on a thousand years formed
the special meeting ground of Chinese civilization, introduced by trade and
political penetration, and of Indian culture, propagated by Buddhism.”32
For convenience, I use the term “Tarim” throughout this work to cover
the heart of Stein’s “Serindia,” and I include Dunhuang in this even though,
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geographically speaking, it lies just east of the Tarim basin.
Stein and other archaeologists from France, Germany, Russia, Sweden,
Japan, and the United States excavated scores of sites dating from the first
millennium AD. One of the richest sources of documents and paintings was
a small cave in a Buddhist complex outside the town of Dunhuang, now in
Gansu province, China. The cave contained over forty thousand
manuscripts, early printed documents, and paintings dating from ca. 400 to
1000 AD. It had been sealed in the early eleventh century (we do not know
why or by whom) but was discovered by accident in 1900. 33 When Stein
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arrived in 1907, having heard rumors of the find, the caretaker of the cave
complex was happy to part with several cartloads of manuscripts for a
small sum after some negotiation. He had already given away some of the
manuscripts and paintings to local officials and was trying to raise funds for
the repair of the sculptures decorating the hundreds of other caves in the
complex. Paul Pelliot, an accomplished French sinologist, arrived hard on
Stein’s heels and looked, he claimed, through all the remaining material
before persuading the caretaker to part with several more cartloads. After
this, the Chinese authorities ordered the removal of the cave’s remaining
Chinese contents to Beijing, though some mysteriously disappeared after
being deposited at the Ministry of Education. (They later appeared in the
collection of a Chinese bibliophile who worked in the ministry.)34
Nevertheless, there were still manuscripts for sale when Japanese and
Russian expeditions arrived at Dunhuang a few years later, and Stein
bought a further 600 scrolls in a neighboring town in 1913. How many of
these later acquisitions are forgeries is still being investigated. 35
The importance of the Dunhuang documents cannot be overstated, and
they form the core of this book, with the four final chapters concentrating
on residents of the town: an official, a nun, a widow, and an artist. But the
scale of the Dunhuang find has created its own issues. “Dunhuangology”
has become a distinct field of study, with university departments, journals,
conferences, and hundreds of scholars in China and Japan devoted to it.
This sometimes obscures the wider context by approaching Dunhuang
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solely through Chinese historiography and neglecting its links with a larger
world. 36 The wider “Silk Road” context is, I would argue, essential to the
understanding of Dunhuang and the lives of its residents. This book
therefore makes use of other sources—material and textual—from the
Tarim and a broader region while also relying on secondary scholarship for
the areas outside my own very limited expertise. Some of the tales
deliberately move outside this core area—into Iran, China, Africa, and
Europe—to remind the reader of the wider context of the Silk Road.
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The tales that follow the prologue start in AD 730 and continue to the
last years of the tenth century, the end of the first millennium. This is not
an arbitrary choice. As pointed out by Christopher Beckwith, “The middle
of the eighth century . . . saw fundamental changes, usually signalled by
successful political revolts, in every Eurasian empire. Most famous among
them are the Carolingian, Abbasid, Uygur Turkic and anti-Tang [Chinese]
rebellions, each of which is rightly considered to have been a major
watershed in their respective national histories. Significantly, all seem to
have been intimately connected with central Eurasia.”37 The rebellions,
which all took place between 742 and 755, were followed by growth in
both commerce and culture, providing the basis for the development of
great cosmopolitan cities. It is the lives of people in this burgeoning period
that I discuss in these tales—though, inevitably, they offer only a sample of
the diversity of the Silk Road.
The Silk Road started long before this time and covered a wider area
than these vignettes can hope to offer. My prologue introduces an Axumite
shipmaster of the sixth century and describes maritime trade and the
flourishing East African links with Eurasia to give a taste of this wider
context.
Similarly, although Buddhism’s predominance in the Tarim during this
period is reflected in the tales of Chudda (a monk from Kashmir), Miaofu
(abbess of a nunnery), and Ah-long (a lay believer), other religions were
carried by missionaries across Central Asia and found Silk Road converts:
Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Christianity are all mentioned.
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“The Writer’s Tale” introduces some of this diversity, discussing the Jewish
Khazars, the Islamic Bulgars, and the Christian and pagan Vikings.
By the sixth century, Jewish communities could be found in Iran, India,
and Samarkand. In the eighth and ninth centuries, Judaism spread further,
gaining converts among the Turkic Khazars who lived north of the Caspian
Sea, while Jewish Radhanite merchants entered the Tarim. 38
Zoroastrianism was the religion of the Sasanians, and it too had gained
converts in Samarkand by the sixth century, from whence it was carried
into China by merchants and missionaries. Sasanian rulers sought refuge in
Kucha when their empire was conquered by the Arab caliphate in the
seventh century, and a Zoroastrian temple was built in Chang’an (Xian)
around this time. We also have mention of a Zoroastrian community and
temple in Dunhuang. 39 Manichaeism found converts among the Sogdians
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and, through them, the Uygur rulers, while Christianity established bases
along the Tarim and into China—it was introduced through sea routes in a
later period. 40 The Axumites in East Africa were also Christian, though of
a different church.
Thus, by the time these tales begin in 730, communities of all these
religions had been established in the great cities of Samarkand and
Chang’an, and in the towns in between. Islam had also spread east, and
older native religions still persisted: Bon among the Tibetan nobility;
Tängrism among Turkic peoples; and Hinduism among groups resident to
the northwest of India as far as Bactria. By the end of the tenth century,
the major religions had experienced severe persecution, and the religious
nature of Central Asia was changing.
The Silk Road did not end then. My epilogue briefly discusses the
following centuries, with the expansion of the Mongol empire and the
continued flourishing of both land and sea routes.
Although some of the characters in these tales do not travel the trade
routes, all of them reveal in their everyday lives the effect of the longdistance exchanges enabled by the Silk Road, such as the Buddhism of the
monk or nun, the medicine used by the widow, the necklace chosen by the
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princess, the style of the painter, or the way the official sees the stars of
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the night sky. The tales offer a microcosm of the effects of these AfroEurasian trading networks to highlight the complexity and the reach of the
Silk Road into all aspects of life.
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PROLOGUE
The Shipmaster’s Tale
TA Z E N A , 5 2 0 – 5 3 5
When the lady of Malik rides her camel at dawn, her litter
appears like a large ship in the midst of the valley of Dad,
one of the ships of Adulis or of ibn-Yamin, which the
mariner now turns aside and now directs straight ahead,
its prow cuts through the foam of the water as a gambler
divides the dust with his hand.
TARAFAH, Mu’allaqāt 11, 3–5, sixth century1
and Tazena was looking out to sea, immune to the bustle
of the quay at Gabaza, the port at Adulis, to a ship just visible on the
horizon. 2 The sea, for once, seemed calm, but Tazena knew too well the
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IT WAS LATE SPRING,
dangers of the treacherous currents that could pull ships onto the coral
reefs lurking just below the surface. His countrymen still chose to bind the
planks of their ships with cord rather than using nails, believing that it
made them more pliable and able to withstand being dragged onto a reef. 3
He had seen many nailed ships break up in the sea. But he also understood
those who preferred the nailed ship for negotiating the monsoon winds
across the ocean beyond the Red Sea. 4
His ships were preparing to head south from Adulis for Persian and
Indian ports with cargoes of glass, ivory, frankincense, and emeralds.
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Sindh, with its port of Barbarikon on the Indus delta, had been a major
entry point for goods from the west for several centuries. 5 In the early
centuries, the Kushan empire in northern Afghanistan had sought glass and
other wares, carried by merchants up the Indus river valley to Shatial and
then northwest along its tributaries to the Kushan capitals. 6 Coins minted
in Axum also found their way to the Central Asian kingdom. 7 Musk, castor,
spikenard, gems, and other goods came in the other direction from the land
routes of Central Asia, many supplied by Kushan and Sogdian merchants.
The Sogdians became dominant with the fall of the Kushan empire. 8
Tazena had heard from Indian merchants of Shatial, a place where
hundreds of visitors had inscribed their names in the rocks along the valley,
including many in scripts unknown to the Indians. 9 The Kushan empire had
long since disappeared, but some locals told of the visit of a Kushan
diplomatic mission to Axum centuries before, bringing a gift of over a
hundred newly minted gold Kushan coins (see figures 1 and 2). 10 The coins
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were stored in an Indian-made carved wooden casket with gold hinges and
thin inlays of green stones, and they had been left at a sacred site on the
road from Adulis to Axum. The Debra Damo Monastery had recently been
built on the site, and the casket of coins remained there. 11
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F IG UR E 1 . Front (on left) and back (on right) of a coin of King Joel, Axum,
showing a Christian cross on the back. (© The Trustees of the British
Museum.)
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Tazena had several ships, and most years he traveled with one or
another of them. By the time he returned with the northwest monsoon
winds, he had little time to make the eight- to ten-day journey southwest to
Axum where his family lived. Like most of his countrymen, he was a
Christian, and he would always stop at the church at Adulis to give thanks
for his safe return and pray for his family. 12
The fourth-century King Ezana had converted to Christianity following
his encounter with Frumentius, a Syrian slave captured on the coast. 13
The king decreed that the gold, silver, and copper coins minted in Axum
should show a Christian cross on their obverse; the front continued to
depict the king’s head. 14 Previous mintings had shown a disk and a
crescent, representing the royal tutelary deity Mahrem; King Ezana had
presented himself as Mahrem’s son. 15 By Tazena’s time, numerous
monasteries and fine churches existed throughout the country, showcasing
the skills of local stonemasons, carpenters, and artists, including the
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cathedral at Axum and a large church at Adulis with its distinctive basilica
and rich decorations. 16
F IG UR E 2 . Kushan coin similar to one of those in the Axum hoard: gold
double stater of Vima Kadphises. (© The Trustees of the British Museum.)
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A decade previously, Tazena’s ships had joined the military convoy sent
by King Kaleb to the lands of Yemen across the Red Sea in southern
Arabia, as there were reports that the Christian Axumite communities at
Zafar and Najrān had been attacked by the Jewish Ḥimyarite king Yūsuf
As’ar Yath’ar. 17 Najrān was an important point on the frankincense trade
routes, and the Axumites therefore had good economic reasons for wishing
to retain their influence. 18 The mints at Axum had been busy producing
gold coins to pay the armies. 19
The Greek traveler and monk Cosmas Indicopleustes—so called because
of his voyage to India—was visiting Adulis at the time and, at the request of
King Kaleb and in preparation for this campaign, made a copy of a local
inscription. It had been carved onto a throne in Greek and the Axumite
language, Ge’ez, to commemorate the conquests of a previous Axumite
king. 20 The inscription dated to a pre-Christian time and recorded the
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sacrifices to the pagan gods, included Ares, the God of War and
counterpart of Mahrem:
When I had reestablished peace in the world which is subject to me, I came to Adulis to
sacrifice for the safety of those who navigate on the sea, to Zeus, Ares and Poseidon. After
uniting and reassembling my armies I set up here this throne and consecrated it to Ares, in
the twenty-seventh year of my reign.21
The conversion to Christianity is shown by an inscription by King Ezana,
the Greek version of which starts:
In the faith of God and the power of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit who saved for me
the kingdom, by the faith of his son Jesus Christ, who has helped me and will help me
always.22
In the early centuries of Axum power, Ge’ez was written in a script that
consisted solely of consonants. It came from southern Arabia across the
Red Sea. But by the time of the conversion of King Ezana, the Axumites
had developed a script with vowels, possibly influenced by Indian
scripts. 23 In addition to inscriptions, it was used for the legend on gold and
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silver coins and for translations of the Bible and other Christian literature
that followed the conversion. 24
Churches and monasteries were established throughout the Axumite
kingdom—some, such as that at Yeha, reusing ancient structures. Like
much of the Axumite kingdom, Yeha was in the highlands. After leaving
Adulis, the coastal plane soon gave way to barren, rocky mountains that
grew progressively higher. These marked the edge of the Great Rift Valley
and rose to almost 10,000 feet. The heat and humidity of the plains
disappeared. Monasteries could be seen perched on their cliff s and
outcrops, offering a peaceful and remote setting suitable for contemplation
and prayer. They also offered a place of rest for the many travelers and
merchants who, despite the difficult terrain, carried their goods to and
from the port.
It was no different this year, as Tazena turned his attention back to the
port and its bustle. 25 For weeks, parties of traders had been arriving with
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cargoes of ivory, rhinoceros horn, animals, hides, furs, frankincense, and
slaves from beyond the Nile, emeralds from the mines at Beja, and gold
from Sasu. 26 In centuries before, the ships from Egypt had brought
glasswares sought by the Axumite elite as well as by the Persian and Indian
merchants. 27 Tazena had a set of Roman glass goblets in his family that
they still used occasionally, but now the
tableware. 28
fashion was for
metal
Tazena knew of much of the world from his travels, and he was proud of
Axum’s place in it. Indeed, he had heard that the third-century Persian
prophet Mani had listed Axum alongside Persia, Rome, and China as one of
the four most important kingdoms in the world. 29 Tazena traded with both
Romans and Persians, though his main ports of call were on the west coast
of India.
Several years previously, he had taken onboard a group of merchants
who had been directed by the king to try to corner the market in Chinese
silk in Taprobane. 30 Ships from China brought their silk to its large port of
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Mantai. 31 The Byzantine emperor Justinian I (r. 527–65) wanted to try to
undercut the Persian markup and suggested that the Axumites buy all the
silk and sell it on to him at a more favorable price than offered by the
Persians. 32 The delegation had not been successful: on arrival it was clear
that the local traders, used to dealing with the Persians and turning a good
profit, had no reason to change: “It was impossible for the Ethiopians to
buy silk from the Indians, because the Persian merchants are present at
the ports where the first ships of the Indians put in, since they inhabit a
neighbouring country, [and] were always accustomed to buying the entire
cargoes.”33
Not all Chinese silk reached Persian merchants by sea: much traveled
through the kingdoms of the Tarim and Central Asia to the borders of
Persia. Cosmas Indicopleustes noted that it was far longer in distance to
take the silk by sea and that most silk came by land. 34 However, the
maritime and land routes linking African, Europe, and Asia were always in
a symbiotic relationship. If the winds were favorable, a ship could travel
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three times the speed of a camel caravan and carry the load of a thousand
camels. 35 Moreover, by sea, “the incidental hazards of negotiation,
protection money, wilful obstruction and downright violence were so much
rarer than in the carrying of goods across region and region . . . by
land.”36 Yet many ships plied the coast, stopping frequently at ports, and
thus were subject to duties. Also, ships with their entire cargo were
regularly lost at sea. 37 Goods such as musk and ivory were sourced deep
inland and had to travel a considerable distance by land.
Athough the sixth-century campaign to Mantai to buy silk directly and
bypass the Persians was not successful, by this time cultivated silk was
being produced in Central Asia, and within a few decades the story would
spread of the Nestorian monks arriving at Justinian’s court with silkworm
eggs hidden in their hollow bamboo staves. 38 Yarns and weaves from
China continued to be popular, however, and the Sogdians, who in previous
centuries had traveled to the Indian ports and were now trading across the
Tarim into China, extended their business to Byzantium. They avoided the
Persians by traveling the northern routes via the Caspian Sea and
Caucasus. 39
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Tazena had encountered Chinese ships in Taprobane. They were very
different from his own vessels: the planks were nailed together, and they
used a square bow and several masts. 40 But he had not seen any in
Adulis. 41 Like many of his countrymen, Tazena was literate, and he spoke
a few of the languages of the traders, including some Persian and Indian
dialects, but he knew no Chinese. However, he realized the importance of
the Chinese for his trade. The Chinese valued the glassware that the
Axumites obtained from Byzantine Rome, and they also filled their ships
with ivory. 42 There were elephants in southwest China at the time, but the
demand for ivory was higher than could be met locally. It was carved into
chopsticks, hairpins, and combs for the elite as well as used for the
ceremonial tablets taken by officials to court and for decorations of the
imperial carriage. 43
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Tazena was a curious man and, on one visit to Taprobane, intrigued by
the excitement in the port of those he recognized as monks and nuns from
both India and China, he learned of the great festival of the tooth of the
Buddha held at the capital in the hills. 44 The clergy were Buddhist. He
knew of the religion from his many visits to Taprobane where there were
tens of thousands of monks. 45 He decided to join the celebrations. He had
to wait several months before he could catch the monsoons and attempt
the journey back across the seas, and the ceremony took place during this
enforced stay. 46 He learned that the tooth relic had been regularly
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worshipped since it had been brought to the island. A richly dressed man
on a large elephant announced the ceremony—though for Tazena Indian
elephants always seemed small when compared to those used to pull King
Kaleb’s state carriage. 47
Over the ten days following the announcement, more and more people
flocked to the capital, and the roads were decorated with flowers, incense,
and statues of Buddha in his former lives. Finally, the day arrived when the
tooth was brought out and paraded along the flower-strewn roads to the
monastery. There it was placed in the main Buddha Hall. It was to remain
there for ninety days while followers flocked to the many services, but
Tazena left to return to the port and prepare his ships for their homeward
voyage.
Since that experience in Taprobane, he had crossed the ocean almost
every year and, despite losing several ships and cargoes captained by
others, had remained safe and grown rich. But now he was growing older
and wanted to spend more time at home. He hoped this would be his last
voyage. His wish was to come true, but not in the way he imagined. On his
next journey, the ship floundered in the ocean and, despite his considerable
skills, it could not be saved. He, his crew, and the valuable cargo
disappeared below the unforgiving sea.
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ON E
The Merchant’s Tale
N A N A IVA N D A K , 7 3 0 – 7 5 1
The country of Samarkand is about 500 miles in
circumference and broader from east to west than from
north to south. The capital is six miles or so in circumference,
completely enclosed by rugged land and very populous. The
precious merchandise of many foreign countries is stored
here. The soil is rich and productive and yields abundant
harvests. The forest trees afford thick vegetation and flowers
and fruit are plentiful. Shen horses are bred here. The
inhabitants’ skill in the arts and trades exceeds that of other
countries. The climate is agreeable and temperate and the
people brave and energetic.
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XUANZANG, Buddhist Records of the Western World, AD 646 1
751 by the western calendar, 134 by Islamic reckoning, the
second year of the reign of al-Saffaḥ, the first of the Arabic Abbasid caliphs
and the Byzantine Carolingian emperors, and the ninth in the Tianbao
(Heavenly Riches) reign period of the Tang-dynasty emperor Xuanzong in
China. The merchant Nanaivandak was from Samarkand, a city-state
formerly independent but now, since the advance of the Arab-led armies
east of the Amu Darya (Oxus river), under the rule of the caliphate. 2 He
IT WAS THE YEAR
had traveled for nearly a year from Samarkand, over the towering Pamir
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mountains, and along the fringes of the Taklamakan desert to Chang’an,
the capital of Tangdynasty China. 3
Nanaivandak’s family hailed from the town of Panjikant, about forty
miles east of Samarkand in the region known as Sogdia. 4 The Arab armies
coming from the west referred to Sogdia as “the land beyond the Oxus,” or
Transoxania. Panjikant was at the easternmost edge, tucked in the
Zerafshan valley between two fingers of mountains that extruded from the
great Pamir ranges to the east. Panjikant was on a small hill and, like all
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Sogdian cities, was built with thick fortified walls. The land sloped away on
the western side of the city to the Zerafshan river, and the snow-capped
peaks of the Pamir dominated the southeastern horizon.
The area enclosed within the walls was quite small, little more than
thirty acres, and only the ruler, nobles, merchants, and richer tradesmen
had their houses there. 5 By Nanaivandak’s time, the merchants and
landowners lived in large two-story houses, crowded together with vaulted
alleys in between. A large double-height audience hall on the ground floor
of each house was decorated with murals and woodcarvings and
illuminated by a skylight. A staircase led to the living quarters on the
second floor. The houses also had a room containing a Zoroastrian fire
altar. Small workshops occupied the ground floor facing the main street,
and these were rented out to shopkeepers and artisans. There was no
space for courtyards, gardens, or parks, and few trees grew within the
walls, though the valley floor was criss-crossed with irrigation canals that
fed the fields and numerous gardens. The small lanes of the city were
crowded and dirty with refuse, and the smell was sometimes unbearable in
the summer when the temperature could soar to over 100° F and the air
was still. After a few days, the heat of the unrelenting sun would even
scorch the summer grass on the plain, and everyone would long for a rare
rainstorm to wash clean the city lanes.
The city did not stop at the walls. A bazaar was held outside the main
gate leading west to Samarkand, and the area was always bustling with
people and animals. Many languages might be heard at any time, haggling
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over the silks, spices, stones, and other luxuries that dazzled the senses
with their colors and smells. Smaller houses sprawled down the hill and
over the valley floor.
Nanaivandak wore distinctive Sogdian clothes: a Phrygian hat, conical
with the top turned forward; a knee-length, belted over-jacket of deep-blue
silk brocade woven with decorative roundels enclosing two deer facing
each other, a Sasanian design (see figure 3); and narrow trousers tucked
into calf-length brocade boots with leather soles. 6 His dress and heavily
bearded face distinguished him from the Chinese, Turks, and Tibetans in
Chang’an’s Western Market, but he was not the sole representative of his
community in the Chinese capital. The Sogdians were the recognized
traders of the eastern Silk Road, and Sogdian communities had existed in
all its sizeable towns for several centuries. 7
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Nanaivandak profited handsomely from the sale of his cargo of musk,
silver-ware, and gems in Chang’an, despite having had to pay a
considerable bribe to customs officers at the Chinese frontier. Samarkand
was a center for trading in gems—rubies, emeralds, and lapis—many of
them mined in the mountains to the south, and he was an expert in these.
He had traded some of the gems en route for sal ammoniac, manufactured
from animal dung, and musk, from the glands of deer in Tibet, and both
were in demand in China. 8 He had not intended to carry the bulky
silverware but heard from a countryman that there was demand for finely
made wares by the Turkic-Sogdian general Rokshan, who was defending
China’s northeastern border, and so he added a few fine pieces, including a
gilt silver ewer with a relief of a Bactrian camel (see figure 4). 9
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F IG UR E 3 . Typical Sasanian design woven on silk found at Dunhuang,
eighth century. (Drawing by author from a Buddhist banner, the British
Museum, MAS 862.a.)
Nanaivandak sold these pieces to his agent in the capital, who had
already made contact with one of the general’s buyers to the northeast.
Through his agent, Nanaivandak also bought the fine silk beloved of his
countrymen and of the Turks who lived on the northern borders of his
homeland to whom he would sell it on his return to Samarkand. Some silk
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would go to the Byzantine court to the west. (The Chinese had been
producing silk for many millennia before their neighbors finally mastered
the technique of delicately unwinding the gossamer-fine thread from
cocoons produced by silkworms reared on the tender young leaves of the
white mulberry tree. By Nanaivandak’s time, silk was being made by
China’s neighbors and exported west, but a market still persisted for the
Chinese silks.) While Nanaivandak was in Chang’an, Chinese prisoners-ofwar captured after a recent clash between the Arabs and the Chinese
were being escorted east to Damascus, the site of Arab silk production,
where their silk-weaving skills would be exploited. 10 Prisoners from the
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same battle with paper-making skills were sent to Samarkand, providing
the impetus for the transformation of the Arab book, long written on
parchment or papyrus. 11
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F IG UR E 4 . Sogdian silver wine ewer decorated with a winged camel, late
seventh–early eighth centuries. Pieces like this were popular in China. (The
State Hermitage Museum, Inv. No. S-11. Drawing by author after Marshak
1986, fig. 56.)
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Nanaivandak had brought with him a piece of unworked lapis lazuli from
Bactria that he now took to a Tibetan silversmith to be mounted into a
necklace for his wife. 12 Then, having completed his business, he joined his
agent and others for an evening of dining and entertainment: there were
many fine Sogdian singers and dancers in the restaurants and wineshops of
Chang’an. Nanaivandak had been traveling the Silk Road for twenty years
and knew the city well.
They went to one of the many restaurants lining the 500-foot-wide
avenue leading south from the imperial city. 13 After some discussion about
what sort of food they wanted, they chose a place renowned for its spicy
noodles, mare-teat grape wine, and dancers. 14 Three girls, heavily made-
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up with elaborate coiffures and smelling of jasmine, leaned over the
second-floor balustrade and beckoned them in. Nanaivandak’s group
removed their shoes and were shown upstairs to the most expensive area
of the restaurant. It was divided into compartmentalized seating areas.
The floor was covered with reed matting, and they sat on low benches
(another Central Asian import to China) at a lacquered table. 15 Waiters
appeared with silver trays bearing wine and the delicacies of the house.
Mare-teat grapes were grown in Kocho and made into the finest wine.
Both the wine and the grapes were imported into China, the grapes packed
with ice into thick leaden containers to keep them fresh. The wine was
expensive, but Nanaivandak and his fellow merchants had no trouble
affording it with the profits from their trade. Drinking was an accepted
part of social life in both Samarkand and Chang’an, and it was not unusual
to see parties of drunken men and their attendant courtesans staggering
out of the wineshops and restaurants late at night. 16
After they had eaten their fill, they called for dancers. Two girls
appeared to the rapid beating of the musicians’ drums and, left hands on
hips and their bodies bent slightly like lotus stems, they twirled around,
keeping their left legs almost straight and their eyes firmly fixed on the
men. They wore tight-sleeved blouses of fine silk and long flowing skirts of
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gauze, embroidered in many colors and held at their waists with broad
silver belts, and peaked hats decorated with golden bells whose jingling
provided a contrast to the rhythmic, deep drum beat. The men shouted
encouragement and clapped in time with the music, and the girls’ redslippered feet moved more and more quickly. Suddenly the drummers
stopped, the girls stood still facing Nanaivandak’s table, and both pulled
down their blouses from their shoulders to reveal their small breasts. 17
After this, one of the girls sat on Nanaivandak’s lap and persuaded him to
order more wine, which he drank while fondling her breasts. She was from
Chach,18 and they spoke together in Sogdian, but he was soon too drunk to
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remember much.
Nanaivandak was a Manichaean, a follower of Mani, the third-century
prophet from Babylon, though he did not always strictly adhere to the
prohibitions on alcohol. The Manichaeans had once formed a strong
community in Sogdia and broke ties with the mother church in Babylonia,
later turning their attention to evangelism farther east. They considered
Mar Ammo, the disciple of Mani who had brought the faith to Transoxania,
as the founder of their sect, and they called themselves “the Pure Ones.”
By the eighth century, the center of this eastern diocese was Kocho in the
northern Tarim, and Manichaean monasteries could be found all the way
from Samarkand to Chang’an. The schism with the mother church was
healed in the eighth century, and the votaries of the eastern diocese
recognized the jurisdiction of Mihr, head of the Babylonian community. 19
However, by Nanaivandak’s time, few of his faith resided in Samarkand
and Panjikant. Nanaivandak was brought up as a Zoroastrian but had been
converted to Manichaeism by his uncle, who learned about the religion
from followers who had fled east to escape persecution in their
homeland. 20 Apart from the Zoroastrian and Manichaean communities,
there were also communities of Buddhists, Jews, and Nestorian Christians
in Panjikant and Samarkand. One of his uncle’s friends was a devout
Buddhist, though he had brought his faith from India when he settled in
Samarkand with the Sogdian wife. However, this friend had since died, and
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his son, Amoghavajra, had left for China where, the uncle heard, he had
become famous as a Buddhist master in the Chinese court. 21
Nanaivandak’s uncle was glad the son had left because, since the Arab
conquest of Sogdia, Islam had become dominant, and many of his
countrymen had already chosen to convert.
Before the advent of the Abbasid caliphate in 750, the Arabs had been
ruled by the Umayyad caliphate, their capital the city of Damascus. Their
armies had crossed the Amu Darya as early as the 670s, but it was not
until the first decades of the eighth century, after a long period of
internecine strife, that Arab leaders turned their attention seriously to the
east. Thereafter, their armies moved steadily eastward, exploiting rivalries
among the kings of the semi-independent city-states to turn their enemies
into allies. They reached Samarkand in 712 and besieged the city for a
month until the residents were forced to surrender and agree to a peace
treaty. Then the Arab armies continued their eastward invasion, reaching
Chach and Ferghana, the lands to the northeast of Samarkand, in 713 and
714, respectively. 22
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The land to the north and northeast of Sogdia had long been ruled by
alliances of Turkic tribes, sometimes with the support of the Chinese or the
Tibetans. In the western part, bordering Sogdia, the Türgesh had taken
control at the start of the eighth century and established twenty tribal
leaders, called totoks, to rule over the areas that owed allegiance. 23 Their
lands extended from Chach eastward along the lands north of the Tianshan
mountains into the Dzungarian basin, the southern edge of present-day
Mongolia. Each totok could muster several thousand warriors, mounted
and armed, and, at the height of their rule in the 720s, the Türgesh could
raise 200,000 troops through their totoks. 24 This army was essential for
the Türgesh, who were constantly fending off attacks from the west by the
Arabs, from the south by Tibetans, and from the east by pretenders to
their throne from other Turkic tribes, supported by Chinese troops. 25
Other groups of Turkic tribes had already migrated westward by this time,
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escaping conflict, and had formed the Khazar and Bulgar states around the
Volga river. 26
When the nomadic Arab nobles reached Transoxania, they were
encouraged to settle in these lands and promote Islam. The rewards for
conversion were not just spiritual: converts were exempted from the poll
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tax. This inducement proved so tempting that large numbers of Sogdians
converted, thereby drastically reducing the tax revenue. In consequence,
the exemption was withdrawn, and a new law stipulated that converts also
had to be circumcised and were expected to be familiar with Islamic
scriptural texts. The changes provoked anger among a population already
resentful of their Arab rulers and convinced that the Umayyads protected
only the interests of their own aristocratic elite. Between 720 and 722,
several major rebellions took place in Sogdia.
Nanaivandak’s father and uncle were among the rebels. With the help of
their northern neighbors, the Türgesh, the Sogdians succeeded in
destroying the Samarkand garrison and driving the Arabs out of the city.
The defeated Arab governor, unable to regain control, was replaced by a
man infamous for his complaints about the leniency with which his Arab
countrymen had treated their Sogdian subjects. Determined to retake the
rebel cities, the new governor advanced from the west with a large army,
and, realizing that they would probably not be able to hold out, the rebels
retreated. Nanaivandak’s uncle and his fellow rebels from Samarkand
negotiated refuge in the valleys of Ferghana to the east, unaware that the
Ferghanan king had already betrayed them. There they were forced to
surrender to the Arab army, and most of the nobles and thousands of
commoners were executed. A few nobles escaped and fled north to Chach,
where they established themselves as an elite corps in the Türgesh army.
Otherwise, only 400 merchants, among them Nanaivandak’s uncle,
survived, spared because of their great wealth, which their captors hoped
to exploit. Indeed, loans from Sogdian merchants to the Arabs had made
earlier Transoxanian campaigns possible. 27
Nanaivandak’s father had fought with a second band of rebels under
Devashtich, the ruler of Panjikant. This group took refuge in the fortress of
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Mount Mug in the mountains to the southeast of Panjikant and, in the same
year, 722, the Panjikant Sogdians advanced to meet the Arab army at a
nearby gorge, hoping that geographical advantage would give them victory.
But they were heavily defeated, and their ruler was killed. Nanaivandak’s
father did not return from the battle. 28
Nanaivandak and his mother hoped that perhaps his father had survived
and had joined his countrymen among the Türgesh forces to the north.
Already under threat from their northern and eastern neighbors when the
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Arab armies started to push at their southern boundaries, they were
determined to repel any full-scale Arab invasion and so welcomed the
escaped Sogdian rebels into their ranks. Thereafter, the Sogdian corps
took every opportunity to seek battle with the Arab army in revenge for
the earlier slaughter, and their exploits were spoken of in the marketplaces
at Samarkand—though not within earshot of the Arabs.
On his return from battle, Nanaivandak’s uncle adopted Nanaivandak.
The boy and his mother moved from Panjikant to the uncle’s house in
Samarkand. Merchants belonged to the second of four classes in Sogdian
society, directly below the nobility and above artisans and commoners, and
they could afford to build solid, flat-roofed houses of compressed clay and
mud bricks, plastered with finer clay. Nanaivandak’s old house in Panjikant
had friezes in all the rooms depicting traditional tales; when he was small,
his mother and father had often told him their stories, and his favorite was
that of the fight between Rustam and the demons. 29
The paintings depicting this story were in two registers along the side
walls of the main ceremonial hall of the house. Covering the wall at the
end, behind the altar, was a large painting of the patron goddess of their
home, the four-armed Nana, seated on a lion (see figure 5). Nanaivandak
was named after this life-giving mother goddess: Nanaivandak meaning
“slave of Nana.”30 The hall had a high, vaulted brick ceiling lined with
plaster with a skylight and carved wooden pillars. Here Nanaivandak’s
extended family performed religious rites, held meetings to discuss family
business, and hosted large banquets on holidays and festivals. The family
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had been wealthy. They owned land in the valley worked by serfs that
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produced a sizeable income, and they also received a share of the tolls on
the bridge across the river and income from water mills on their land.
F IG UR E 5 . Four-armed Nana seated on a lion in a Panjikant house,
seventh century. (Drawing by author after Marshak 2002, fig. 3.)
Nanaivandak’s uncle’s house in Samarkand was just as large but less
richly decorated than the Panjikant home. Samarkand was a large city on a
low hill farther down the Zerafshan valley than Panjikant, but it was just as
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heavily fortified with eight miles of fifty-foot-high walls punctuated with
bastions and barbicans. The streets were no less crowded, and large
garrisons of Arab soldiers had taken residence in the upper town, having
expelled the residents there. Nanaivandak had little time to explore the
city, however, because he was soon busy each day being tutored in the
ways of trade and the languages he would need as a merchant—Arabic,
Chinese, and some Turkic and Tibetan. (It was usual for Sogdian boys to be
educated from the age of five.) It was in Samarkand that he was taught to
be a follower of Mani, departing from the Zoroastrian faith of his parents
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with its fire worship and numerous deities. His uncle tried to convert
Nanaivandak’s mother, too, arguing that Mani had proclaimed a religion to
supersede all earlier religions, but she continued to attend a Zoroastrian
temple in the city with its eternally burning fire. Zoroastrianism had been
dying out, however, since the arrival of Manichaeism in Sogdia. Not long
after the Arab invasions of Sasanian Iran, many Zoroastrians there fled
persecution and established thriving communities in India, now known as
the Parsis. 31 The last Sasanian ruler had gained refuge in the Chinese
court. Manichaean texts were written in a different script from official
documents, and Nanaivandak had to learn this, as well, so that he could
copy religious texts for his uncle and read to him.
As he grew up, Nanaivandak accompanied his uncle on trading trips to
Merv to the southwest, Chach to the northeast, and Balkh to the south
whenever the political and military situation allowed. In previous times, his
people had gone to the Indus valley to trade with merchants coming up
from Barbarikon on the sea, carving their signatures into the rocks along
the valley, leaving evidence of centuries of Sogdian trade (see figure 6). 32
One of these inscriptions was by an earlier Nanaivandak, who wished for
good luck on his journey to see his brother in Tashkurgan. 33 His uncle also
traded northward with the Turks through the steppes and followed routes
westward to the Byzantine empire through the Caucasus, so avoiding the
caliphate. 34
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Unlike his uncle, who traveled simply to make money, Nanaivandak loved
the journeys themselves. He found the mountain scenery compelling, and
his uncle would often find him in the morning sitting outside as the dawn
light suffused the great hulks of the distant Pamir with a pink glow, or in
the evening, when he should have been helping to supervise the unloading
of the camels, staring into the distance as the evening shadows fell across
the great plains and the mountains turned purple before disappearing into
the shadows of the night. This love of travel never left Nanaivandak, and
sometimes he even prolonged his journey in order to linger among his
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beloved mountains.
He especially enjoyed his visits to Balkh, the main Bactrian city situated
on a tributary of the Amu Darya at the head of the route south to India.
The residents were proud of their city’s history, arguing that it was the real
birthplace of Zoroaster and boasting how Alexander the Great had chosen
a Bactrian bride and married her in the city over a thousand years before.
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F IG UR E 6 . Letter from a Sogdian merchant mentioning silk, ca. AD 313–
314. (The British Library Board, Or.8212/95.)
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In 728, another rebellion arose against the Arabs among the citizens of
Samarkand and other Sogdian cities after the rules on conversion to Islam
had been changed once more. This time, both the Türgesh to the north and
the Tibetans to the south sent forces to help the rebels and almost
succeeded in driving the Arabs out of Sogdia. Many Sogdians who had
escaped the Ferghana massacre and joined the Türgesh now returned, but
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Nanaivandak’s father was not among them.
In the late summer of 751, as Nanaivandak rode around the now familiar
streets of Chang’an, he recalled his first visit to the Chinese capital. It was
730, and his uncle had decided that Nanaivandak was old enough to
accompany him to China on a trading mission. There were reports of
Tibetan incursions into the nominally Chinese-controlled Pamir kingdoms to
the south, and his uncle therefore decided to take the northeastern route,
past Lake Issyk-kul, rather than the southern route via Kashgar, enabling
them to avoid the Tibetan armies. Most of the goods they carried would be
traded at markets on the way, but some items, such as the gold and
gemstones, were destined specifically for Chang’an. Much of the gold was
already beaten and worked into filigree ornaments in Persian style by
artisans in Samarkand. (Turkic men commonly wore golden belts, often
decorated with animal motifs, and in Tibet skilled artisans worked the
metal into mechanical toys and ornaments; many of these were presented
as gifts to the Chinese emperor.)35
Preparations for the journey were elaborate and meticulously planned.
It was over 3,000 miles to Chang’an. Nanaivandak and his uncle would
have to pass through Türgesh and Chinese territory as well as the
kingdoms of the Tarim basin. On the mountain passes, they would
encounter freezing temperatures; in the desert, searing heat. Special
footwear and warm furs were required for the former, and head and face
coverings for the latter. They traveled with servants and his uncle’s young
female slave, who served them both en route. 36 They were armed: bandits
preyed on rich travelers.
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The road from Samarkand led to the neighboring kingdom to the
northeast, Ustrushana,37 and thence to Khujand on the Syr Darya, or
Jaxartes river. The land of Chach, now under Türgesh rule, started on the
far bank. 38 The Türgesh ruler, or khagan, and his army had assisted
several rebellions by the residents of Samarkand and other cities
Sogdia, and relations between their peoples were friendly. The city
Chach was not as large as Samarkand but nevertheless considerable
size, supported by farming in the temperate valleys and stockbreeding
in
of
in
in
the mountains. Like Samarkand, it had a citadel, temples of several
religions, and numerous houses, shops, and workshops. Previous khagans
had built a large palace, but the current Türgesh khagan, Suluk (r. 716–
38), had his capital farther east at Suyab nearer his homeland in the
northern Tianshan. Nanaivandak and his uncle prayed four times a day,
facing the sun during daylight and the moon in the evening, at the main
Manichaean temple within the city walls. They also presented alms to the
clergy.
From Chach, they took the road east to the valley of the Talas river into
the mountains, leaving behind the familiar Transoxanian plains. 39 Then
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there was a long but easy trek through low mountain valleys and passes to
Suyab. 40 The city was relatively quiet because the ruler and his court
were at Issyk-kul, the warm lake. As its name suggests, owing to its
brackish waters and sheltered position between the Tianshan and Altai
mountains, the lake never froze, even in the coldest winters, and tales
were told of great monsters living in its depths. Each winter, the Türgesh
khagan moved his court, his army, and his herds there for the winter, so the
pastures on either side of the road were filled with tens of thousands of
horses, sheep, cattle, and camels.
Nanaivandak and his uncle followed the same route to Issyk-kul. They
had set out in early spring, and it was almost summer when they arrived.
The khagan and his army were preparing to return to Suyab, having just
finished shearing. There was plenty of wool for sale, but his uncle was
interested only in the wool from the fat-tailed sheep, which were not found
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farther east. He also bought skins from their stillborn lambs, known as
karakul. 41 He intended to trade both en route.
The khagan’s winter camp on the banks of the lake consisted of
hundreds of white felt tents, distinctive against the green of the valley
floor. That of the khagan himself was the largest, adorned with rich silks
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and brocades. When Nanaivandak and his uncle went to pay their respects,
they were dazzled by the gold and silver ornaments covering the tent’s
walls and roof. 42 The khagan’s officials sat in rows on either side of him,
dressed in embroidered silk robes, their hair worn in long plaits. 43
Nanaivandak noticed the military men sitting in ranks near the khagan.
The soldiers wore coarser clothes of felt and carried bows and other
weapons. All the men also wore daggers at their belts. The khagan was in
a long green robe of the finest silk, slit up the sides. His long hair lay loose
down his back, and a broad silk ribbon, tied around his head, reached down
his back to his waist.
The mood in the valley was festive. The shearing had been successful,
and everyone was glad to be returning home. The horses were sleek and
fat from the new grass, and the men spent their last few days hunting with
their falcons and dogs in the mountains, galloping back every evening
across the valley in a great swoop of noise and color with their kills. During
the day, the valley was full of the sound of laughter and noise as the
children held pony races and the women packed for the move, and the
evenings were no less tranquil, the sound of drunken singing echoing
among the flickering light of numerous campfires. Then the tents were
loaded onto wooden carts so large that it took several rows of yaks to pull
them, and the encampment started its journey back west.
Nanaivandak and his uncle were headed east, but from Issyk-kul they
had a choice of routes to Chang’an. The northern route—skirting the
northern edge of the Tianshan along the Ili valley and passing through the
Türgesh pasturelands—was the easiest but also the least populated, and
many of the goods found in the markets beyond the mountains did not
reach there. Instead, Nanaivandak’s uncle decided he wanted to visit the
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
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markets along the northwestern stretch of the Tarim route to China. It had
been several years since he last traveled that way, and he was eager to
meet old acquaintances and to see what was for sale. This meant they now
had to head south and negotiate the road through the Tianshan. The route
was barely passable in winter and was extremely dangerous in spring
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when melting snow caused great avalanches and ice falls. But Nanaivandak
and his uncle met travelers who had just come from the south and who
assured them that the worst of the spring thaw was over and that the road
south was clear. They stayed for several more days in the Issyk-kul valley
to rest their animals, then made arrangements for the next leg of their
journey, hiring yaks and more pack horses to carry the large bales of wool.
The animal keepers would be paid off when they reached the desert to the
south, and there camels would be hired as replacements. Camels were
slower but more reliable travelers over the treacherous Taklamakan.
The road south followed one of the river valleys up into the mountains.
Four passes had to be negotiated before Nanaivandak’s group reached the
watershed, and the journey, if all went well, usually took two weeks. The
glacial peak of Khan-Tengri, over 22,000 feet high, towered to the west,
but, as they drew closer, the view was obscured by the encroaching valley
walls. The mountain peak would become a familiar sight on Nanaivandak’s
later journeys.
Nanaivandak’s uncle was used to high mountain passes. Samarkand was
separated from the trading markets to the east and south by some of the
highest ranges in the world—the Pamir and the Hindu Kush—and the
routes across them demanded considerable endurance from travelers. The
Tibetans and the peoples who lived in the Pamir kingdoms were
acclimatized from birth to high altitudes, but in battle many of the recruits
from the desert towns experienced shortness of breath and headaches.
The Tianshan were not so high as the Pamir, but even so the final pass on
the road south, just west of the headwaters of the Bedal river, lay at almost
14,000 feet. On reaching its flat, snow-covered saddle, the weather
cleared and they were offered a spectacular view of the Bedal valley and,
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
Created from ucb on 2022-03-15 01:12:35.
in the distance, the start of the great sand-filled depression of the Tarim
basin.
Nanaivandak and his uncle negotiated the descent through the melting
snow cover and down into the valley. The track ran along the eastern bank
of the river, perched high above its boulder-strewn waters. After traveling
for three more days along a gradually widening valley, they reached the
caravan town at the valley’s mouth. There they stopped to pay off their yak
drivers and horsemen, who soon found other customers wanting to travel
back across the pass. Nanaivandak’s uncle then negotiated the hire of
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camels for their cargo. Camels were expensive—an animal in its prime
might cost fourteen bolts of silk—and the hirers were responsible for the
injury or death of any camel during its period of hire. 44
Nanaivandak remembered learning from his uncle the unfamiliar names
of the Tarim oases. The first stages of the journey led to Aksu, a smallish
town compared to Samarkand but important because of its position at the
intersection of the north-south road between the Bedal pass and Khotan
and the east-west road from Kashgar to Kocho. The road changed daily and
even during a day’s travel, or stage, from one stopping point to the next.
Some of the most difficult stretches occurred when the route traversed
marshy ground but then the surface would suddenly become gravel glacis
and, a few miles farther on, bare rock. The snow-covered peak of KhanTengri to the north, however, was a constant companion, while to the south
lay an expanse of grey-yellow sand.
Their next major stop was Kucha, a thriving city-state. Over the last
couple of days before they entered the triple walls of the city, they had
passed through fertile and well-farmed country, and the road was lined
with poplar trees and fringed with fruit orchards, apricot, pear,
pomegranate, and peach all growing in abundance. 45 The forest-lined
river running to the south of the city plain acted as a natural barrier
against the drifting desert sand, providing a welcome relief from the
dustiness of the previous stages. Nanaivandak had heard that the dancing
girls in Kucha were almost as good as those in Samarkand. The country
was ruled by a king who lived in a palace decorated with gold from mines
Whitfield, Susan. Life along the Silk Road : Second Edition, University of California Press, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucb/detail.action?docID=1719329.
Created from ucb on 2022-03-15 01:12:35.
in the Tianshan to the north and jade from the river beds in Khotan to the
south. He and his queen were both Buddhists, and their patronage of that
religion was much in evidence: the streets were full of monks and nuns
with their begging bowls; a large monastery abutted the main market
square; and stupas, it seemed, stood at every corner. Several of the stalls
in the market were run by monks, who, in addition to scriptures, prayers,
and charms, sold drugs and told fortunes. Nanaivandak heard many
languages, including Turkic, Chinese—a language he could recognize
though not yet really speak—and another tongue that his uncle told him
was Kuchean. 46
Kucha was one of four Chinese garrison towns along the Silk Road but
was ruled by the local Bai family, with the support variously of the Turks,
Chinese, and Tibetans. In the seventh century, Tibetans and Chinese had
fought for control of this vital corridor of land, and, in 692, the Chinese had
the advantage. 47 In Kucha, Nanaivandak and his uncle heard of the recent
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