Communities on the Silk Road from Turkey to China.

The Silk Road is the name given to the ancient trade route between China and Europe which crossed the length of Central Asia. It was the Romans who first appreciated the texture of the fine silk that had made its way from the Far East, often accompanied by exotic spices. In exchange precious stones and metals went the other way. The main route started at the old imperial capital of China, now Xi’an, and skirted the deadly sands of the Taklimakan desert, climbed over the snowbound passes of the Pamir Mountains, dropped down to the greenery of the Fergana valley, passed through Samarkand and Bukhara, rounded the south of the Caspian Sea and finally ended at the Mediterranean in Turkey.

Along with commodities there was also an exchange of technologies and ideas. Paper and gunpowder first made their way west down the Silk Road. Different races rubbed shoulders as westerners met Turks, Iranians, Mongols and Chinese for the first time.

Travelers also shared their religious viewpoints, like the monks who climbed over the Karakorum pass to bring Buddhism from India to China.

Nestorian Christians, ostracised as heretics by the western church, set out from their base in Iran and took the
message of Jesus Christ all the way to China by 638AD. Soon bishops were being appointed for Christian communities all over modern-day Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and China. Whole Turkic tribes were baptised and had an influence on the Mongol hordes. This remarkable flowering was destroyed by the massacres of Genghis Khan and Timurlane. Later Islam came down the same road, brought by Arab armies and zealous traders, establishing itself as the dominant faith.

One of the most remarkable travelers down the Silk Road was Marco Polo. His uncle Matteo had been all the way to Khanbalik (Beijing) and met with Kublai Khan. The Khan requested him to go back and ask the Pope to send one hundred missionaries to teach the Mongols about Christianity. Matteo presented this request in Rome but when he set out on his second journey he was accompanied by only two monks as well as his nephew. Marco later recorded how the monks turned back after a few months when they heard of a hostile army ahead. He and his uncle pressed on for four years until they arrived at Kublai’s court in 1275. They became trusted courtiers of the Khan and returned to Europe wealthy men. The Mongols, however, later became Buddhists or Muslims.