History - Iran - page 544

THE SILK ROAD
Silk first began moving westward from China more than 2000 years ago when the Parthians became enamoured
with the soft, fine fabric. By about 100 BC the Parthians and Chinese had exchanged embassies, and silk, along with
myriad other goods, was being traded along the route. Trade grew after the Romans developed a fixation with the
fabric after their defeat at Carrhae in 53 BC. Eventually silk would become more valuable than gold to the Romans,
who fixed the supply issue when Emperor Justinian sent teams of spies to steal silk-worm eggs in the 6th century.
It took many months to traverse the 8000km Silk Road route, which was not a single road but rather a web of
caravan tracks dotted with caravanserais a day's travel apart - roughly 30km. These were fortified rest stops with
accommodation for traders, their camels and goods. The network had its main eastern terminus at the Chinese capit-
al Ch'ang-an (now Xian). Caravans entered present-day Iran anywhere between Merv (modern Turkmenistan) and
Herat (Afghanistan), and passed through Mashhad, Neishabur, Damghan, Semnan, Rey, Qazvin, Tabriz and Maku,
before finishing at Constantinople (now İstanbul). During winter, the trail often diverted west from Rey, passing
through Hamadan to Baghdad.
Unlike the Silk Road's most famous journeyman, Marco Polo, caravanners were mostly short- and medium-dis-
tance hauliers who marketed and took on freight along a given beat. Goods heading east included gold, silver, ivory,
jade and other precious stones, wool, Mediterranean coloured glass, grapes, wine, spices and - early Parthian crazes
- acrobats and ostriches. Going west were silk, porcelain, spices, gems and perfumes. In the middle lay Central Asia
and Iran, great clearing houses that provided the horses and Bactrian camels that kept the goods flowing.
The Silk Road gave rise to unprecedented trade, but its glory lay in the interchange of ideas. The religions alone
present an astounding picture of diversity and tolerance: Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Nestorian Chris-
tianity, Judaism, Confucianism, Taoism and shamanism coexisted along the 'road' until the coming of Islam.
The Silk Road was eventually abandoned when the new European powers discovered alternative sea routes in the
15th century.
The empire fragmented when Abu Said died without a successor, and soon succumbed
to invading forces from the east led by Tamerlane (Lame Timur), who swept on to defeat
the Ottoman Turks in 1402. Tamerlane came from a Turkified Mongol clan in what is now
Uzbekistan and moved the capital to Qazvin. He was yet another of the great contradic-
tions who ruled Persia over the years: an enthusiastic patron of the arts and one of his-
tory's greatest killers (after one rebellion 70,000 people are said to have been executed in
Esfahan alone).
When he died in 1405, Tamerlane's empire immediately started to struggle. The Timur-
ids in eastern Iran clung to varying degrees of power for several decades, maintaining
their support of Persian art, particularly the miniaturists of Shiraz. Gohar Shad, the wife of
one of the Timurid rulers, was responsible for the beautiful mosque at the heart of Mash-
had's Holy Shrine to Imam Reza ( Click here ) .