ABSTRACT

This book brings together scholars from many disciplines to shed light on the long history of the silk roads, to redefine it, and to demonstrate its vitality and importance.

Reimagining the Silk Roads illuminates economic, spiritual, and political networks, bridging different chronologies and geographies. Richly illustrated, it explores fascinating topics, including archaeological discoveries, oceanic explorations, the movement, and impact of ideas, and the ways in which the silk roads, broadly defined, contributed to processes of globalization. Reconciling the study of land and sea routes, and paying attention to themes such as material culture, environment, trade, and the role of religious faiths, the authors offer complex yet accessible studies of the history of interactions and perceptions across Eurasia over the last 3,000 years. The editors critically respond to the recent politicisation of the silk roads and reflect on their polycentric character.

The book challenges and revives silk roads studies, and it will be relevant not only to researchers in archaeology, history, heritage and related fields, but also to the general reader.

The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

chapter 1|22 pages

Reimagining the Silk Roads

Title
An introduction
Size: 2.74 MB

part 1|40 pages

Environment

Title
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chapter 4|12 pages

Diseases and the medieval Silk Roads

Title
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part 2|66 pages

Material culture

Title

chapter 5|14 pages

Roman Palmyra as a hub of trade and commerce

Title
Material, epigraphic, and numismatic evidence
Size: 3.73 MB

chapter 6|16 pages

Abbasid Caliphate and Tang Dynasty in the ninth and tenth centuries CE

Title
Trade, acculturation, and transformation
Size: 2.33 MB
Size: 2.94 MB
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part 3|96 pages

Faiths and social groups

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chapter 9|14 pages

Buddhist missionaries at medieval Chinese courts

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State ideologists and soul savers
Size: 1.96 MB

chapter 10|16 pages

The Sogdians, the ‘Cultural Bees’ of Eurasia

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chapter 11|13 pages

Huns and Romans in the fourth century

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chapter 12|12 pages

Christianity on the Silk Roads

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chapter 14|12 pages

Replacing the Silk Road?

Title
Central Asian merchants between China and Scandinavia, 840–1000 CE
Size: 0.79 MB
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part 4|54 pages

Patterns of Eurasian trade

Title
Size: 1.71 MB

chapter 17|12 pages

The Silk Road in Northeast Asia

Title
Courtly gift-giving, 668–1449
Size: 0.56 MB

chapter 18|14 pages

Iberian Silk Roads

Title
Spices, silver, and souls
Size: 1.11 MB
Size: 0.62 MB

part 5|68 pages

Historical myths and reconceptualisation

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chapter 20|17 pages

The birth of Silk Road studies in China

Title
Hedin, Andersson, and Sino-Swedish collaboration in Republican China
Size: 4.13 MB

chapter 21|11 pages

The Belt and Road Initiative at ten (2013–2023)

Title
A crucial juncture for China's infrastructure geopolitics
Size: 0.41 MB

chapter 22|13 pages

The road which binds

Title
The BRI, nationalism, and the securitization of Xinjiang
Size: 0.51 MB
Size: 12.88 MB

chapter 24|9 pages

Conclusion

Title
Questioning and recovering the Silk Roads
Size: 1.78 MB