EMORY UNIVERSITY

Dept. of History

History 204-000:
The Silk Road & Central Eurasia, 1750 BCE-1750 CE
Spring 2015
Professor Matthew Payne

Spring 2015 119 Bowden Hall

TuThFri 10:00 -10:50 email: mpayn01@emory.edu
Math & Science N304 Office Hrs: Tues. 2:00-3:30
 Course Purpose

This course will introduce students to the central nexus of commercial, cultural and
political exchange in Eurasia over the course of nearly three millennia. From the
Bronze Age to the fall of the Timurids Central Asia linked the civilizations of East
Asia, the Near East, South Asia and Europe into one, "global" system. The route
that later was associated with its most precious commodity, silk, sent the horse and
Buddhism to China, silk and the Black Death to Europe, Islam and waves of
conquerors into South Asia. From the great world Empires of Chinggis Khan and
Alexander to the mercantile city-states of Sogdia and Sinkiang, the lands of the Silk
Road shaped human history profoundly. The story of the region will be told by
ancient mummies and Chinese monks, Greek adventurers and Arab poets, Venetian
merchants and warrior princes. And in their story, students will understand the tale
of the world’s first globalization and see, it is hoped, a mirror of their own world.
This class will meet the General Education Requirement in History, Society and
Culture (HSC); it is not intended to be a preparation course for later Eurasian
history courses nor does it presume that students have knowledge of the topic. It is
hoped, however, that the students having completed the course will be able to
critically read historical primary sources, analyze them in context, and express this
analysis cogently using the historical method. For this reason, reading, discussion
and presentation are emphasized in this class.
 AVAILABLE AT EMORY BOOKSTORE:

Available at Emory Bookstore:

1. Elizabeth Barber, The Mummies of Urumchi (W. W. Norton) [ISBN: 0393320197] $19.95
2. Richard C. Foltz, Religions of the Silk Road; Pre-modern Patterns of Globalization.
(Palgrave Macmillan) [ISBN: 0230621252] $25.00
3. Peter B. Golden, Central Asia in World History. (Oxford, USA) [ISBN: 0195338197]
$19.95
4. Xinru Liu, The Silk Roads: A Brief History With Documents (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012)
[ISBN-10:0312475519] $19.75.
5. James A. Millward, The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction. (Oxford University Press)
[ISBN-10: 0199782864] $11.95
6. Susan Whitfield, Life Along the Silk Road. (University of California Press) [ISBN:
0520232143] $24.95
7. S. Frederick Starr, Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab
Conquest to Tamerlane. (Princeton University Press) [ISBN: 0691157733] $39.50.
 REQUIREMENTS
Particulars:
This course requires the fulfillment of all class assignments, attendance of
class, and participation in class activities. Class assignments will include
weekly Blackboard postings of discussion responses, exams on class readings
and quizzes.

Grading:
The grading is broken down as follows:
 Quizzes, attendance and participation: 10%
 Weekly discussion question responses: 25%
 Mid-term in-class exam: 30%
 Final take-home exam: 35%

Grading is not done on a curve but based on individual mastery of the

concepts and skills highlighted in the course. These are a combination of
understanding historical methodology, ability to engage in sustained critical
reading, proficiency in historical analysis and skill with written exposition.
Both content and style are graded. I will discuss in class and provide a
handout that details my grading policy.

Assignments:
 Quizzes will normally be very short identifications to test knowledge of
each; week’s general readings.
 Weekly discussion responses will be required to be posted by 9:00 p.m.
each Wednesday. Each week students will chose one of several questions
(usually focused on the principal reading) to discuss in two to three well-
crafted paragraphs. Successful answers will provide specific information
garnered from the texts we have read (not textbooks!). The discussion
questions will be given two points for a well-argued, well supported
answer; one point for an answer deficient in either of these areas and a
zero for deficiencies in both. Answers posted late will receive an
automatic zero.
 The mid-term exam will be a take-home exam involving a short essay
(three to five pages). Several essay questions will be distributed on
Tuesday, 2/24, as a Safe-Assign assignment on Blackboard. It will be
due, via Safe-assign, by 8:00 pm Monday, 3/1)
 The final exam will be a take-home essay exam due on the day of our
final exam, Wednesday, May 6th, by 10:30 am via Safe-assign. It will be
distributed on Friday, April 27th via Blackboard.
 COURSE POLICIES
Absences and Make-Up Policy: Class attendance is mandatory and unexcused absences will be
detrimental to the class participation grade (five unexcused absences will lead to
automatic failure in the classroom participation grade). Moreover, missed assignments
may not made up without permission of the instructor. Excused absences include
emergencies and illness and permitted absences (sports commitments, interviews,
religious holidays). The policy for notifying the instructor differ for each.
Emergences and Illness: Medical and other emergencies require either a communication
before class (email, phone call, etc) or an explanation after the fact. However, to receive
permission to make-up a missed exam, you need to obtain an excuse from the Dean’s
office. To not be penalized on an exam because of such an emergency, College policy is
to require such an excuse from the Dean’s office, not the instructor. If you have an
emergency or are very sick, please contact me by voice mail (727-4466) or email.
“Emergency” is a grave matter, such as an illness of a family member or your car
suddenly breaking down. An emergency is not an inconvenience such as “I can’t print out
my assignment” or “my alarm clock did not go off.”
Excused absences: Important life events such as pre-scheduled sporting events (as a
participant, not spectator), job interviews or religious holidays will be excused, provided
the student notify me well in advance (think one week) and not abuse the privilege
(scheduling one internship interview during class may be unavoidable; scheduling
multiple interviews sequentially is not). Education is like parenting, you got to show up.
So show up!
Missed Assignments: Missed assignments may only be made up with permission of the
instructor due to unforeseen emergency or pre-arranged alternate commitment (see above).
Otherwise, late assignments will be penalized one grade per day.

Extra Credit: This class encourages outside the classroom learning. Emory offers a treasury of
riches, in the form of outside speakers, internal seminars, exhibits, etc. Those talks, etc.,
deemed of interest to class will be publicized in class and on our learn-link conference.
Modest credit will be granted to your final grade for attendance of these events and short
write-ups required. It is your responsibility to fit such opportunities you’re your schedule,
not the instructor’s to work around 40 individuals’ hectic schedules.

Other Resources: The Writing Center provides individualized mentoring on exposition provided
by a gifted cadre of mentors. Their sessions are rewarding and beneficial even to
accomplished writers. For more information and to schedule an appointment see:
http://www.emory.edu/ENGLISH/WC/

Emory University Honor Code.

As in all Emory classes, the strictures of the honor code apply. Infractions of the honor code,
especially cheating and plagiarism, will be handled with the greatest possible
severity. All work in the class should be your own and plagiarism from the web
(including cutting and pasting of other’s text, but also use of others material or
arguments without citation), use of others’ papers, etc, will lead to an honor council
referral. The code is located at: http://www.emory.edu/COLLEGE/students/honor.html.
 READING AND LECTURE SCHEDULE

CLASS INTRODUCTION

Tuesday, 1/13: Introduction

 Week 1: The Centrality of Central Eurasia
Thursday, 1/15:
Lecture: What is the Silk Road?
Readings:
Secondary:
Andre Gunder Frank, “The Centrality of Central Asia,” Studies in History
8/1 (1992): 43-97.
David Christian, “Silk Roads or Steppe Roads? The Silk Roads in World
History,” Journal of World History 11/1 (2000): 1-26.
Friday, 1/16:
Readings:
Secondary:
Golden, Central Asia in World History, "Introduction; A Layering of
People," pp. 1-8.
Liu, The Silk Roads, “Introduction,” pp. 1-34
Millward, The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction, ch. 1, “Environment
and Empire,” pp. 1-19.
Primary:
Aurel Stein, Ruins of Desert Cathay, ch. lii, “To the ‘Caves of the
Thousand Buddhas’,” pp. 20-31.
Discussion Questions:
1. Why, according to Gunder Frank, is Central Asia, well, central? Why is it so hard to
define exactly where and what this thing is or even what to name it (Central Asia, Inner
Asia, Inner Eurasia, Central Eurasia)? Why does Christian dispute the very idea of "silk
roads" as the central historical concept of the region? Why, on the other hands, does Liu
embrace the idea of “silk roads”?
2. How are migrations and cycles so important to understand Inner Asia? Why, according to
Gunder Frank, is territoriality much less important than for “nation-states” or even the
settled empires of Eurasia? How are the region's people "layered"? In regards to
Millward and Christian, how do trans-ecological exchanges and the environment of
Central Asia shape its history?
3. Aurel Stein reaction to finding the “Caves of the Thousand Buddhas” is a mixture of
wonder for the artistic and spiritual achievements of ancient Central Asians and contempt
for their latter day descendants? Do you think Stein, who was one of the models for
Indiana Jones, approached the “ruins of desert Cathay” in the spirit of an archeologist or
the cunning of a looter?
 Week 2: HORSE-TAMERS OF THE STEPPE
Tuesday, 1/20:
Lecture: The Rise of the Steppe and the Creation of a
Eurasian Diffusion Zone
Readings:
Secondary:
Christopher I. Beckwith, Empires of the Silk
Road: A History of Central Eurasia
from the Bronze Age to the Present,
“Prologue: The Hero and His Friends,
1-28. (on reserve)
Primary:
Lines 6580-6980 of The Kyrgyz Epic Manas
(Manas’ First Heroic Deeds).
Selections translated, introduced and
annotated Elmira Köçümkulkïzï1 (University of Washington).
Thursday, 1/22:
Readings:
Secondary:
David W. Anthony and Dorcas R. Brown, “”Horseback Riding and Bronze
Age Pastoralism in the Eurasian Steppe,” in Victor H. Mair and
Jane Hickman, Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on
East-West Exchange in Antiquity (University of Pennsylavania
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 2014) [ISBN-10:
1934536687], pp. 55-73.
Primary:
“The Horse Sacrifice,” in The Rig Veda: An Anthology of One Hundred
Eight Hymns, Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, ed., pp. 85-95.
Recommended (for those with a further interest):
David W. Anthony and Dorcas R. Brown, “Harnessing Horsepower,”
http://users.hartwick.edu/anthonyd/harnessing%20horsepower.html
Friday, 1/23:
Readings:
Secondary:
Golden, Central Asia in World History, Ch. 1, "The Rise of Nomads and
Oasis City States," pp. 9-20.
Millward, The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction, ch. 2, “Eras of Silk
Road Flourescence,” pp. 20-38.

Discussion Questions:
1. What is the “First Story” of the Central Eurasians according to Beckwith? Why is the comitatus, the band of
warriors who followed their leader even in death, such a crucial part of what Beckwith calls the "Central
Eurasian cultural complex"? The need of trading or raiding to support such a band should be addressed.
How does Manas epitomize the Central Eurasian hero?
2. What was the impact of the domestication of the horse in the Eurasian steppe? How did it lead to a rise of a
pastoral nomadic culture from Europe to China? What role did the horse play as a sacred animal, a symbol
of speed and power and even a beloved companion in Vedic culture? How were the nomads crucial to the
creation of a flourishing Silk Road rather than an hindrance to it (Millward discusses this)?
 Week 3: LOST WORLDS—THE OASIS CULTURES
Tuesday, 1/27:
Lecture: The Peopling of the Oases
Readings:
Secondary:
Philip Kohl, The Making of Bronze Age
Eurasia, ch. 5, “Entering a Sown World
of Irrigation Agriculture—From the
Steppes to Central Asia and Beyond,”
pp. 182-225.
Recommended:
China’s Tocharian Mummies; Silent Witnesses
of a Forgotten Past (Nova)
Readings:
Secondary:
Barber, The Mummies of Urumchi, preface,
chs.1-4, pp. 1-88.
Recommended:
China’s Tocharian Mummies; Silent Witnesses
of a Forgotten Past (Nova)
Friday, 1/31:
Readings:
Secondary:
Barber, The Mummies of Urumchi, chs. 8- pp. 149-214.

Discussion Questions:
1. How did the discovery of red-haired, tartan-wearing, bearded mummies in Tarim basin
revolutionize our understanding of Eurasia? What interdisciplinary tools does Barber use
to analyze the mummies and their presence in such an unexpected place? Why are these
“oasis hoppers” important to understand the overall rhythm of history on the Silk Road?
2. Why was the emergence of the late Bronze age “Bactrian-Margiana Archeological
Complex” so important for joining together the later “silk road”? And how, according to
Kohl, were its cycles intimately linked with trade to the Near East?
 Week 4: BUILDING WALLS; THE CIVILIZED AND THE "BARBARIAN"
Tuesday, 2/3:
Lecture: Iran/Turan, Religious Change and the
Eurasian World.
Readings:
Secondary:
Golden, Central Asia in World
History, Ch. 2, "The Early
Nomads: Warfare is their
Business," pp. 21-34.
Christopher I. Beckwith, Empires of
the Silk Road: A History of
Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present, “Epilogue:
The Barbarians,” 320-362.
Primary:
Herodotus, The Landmark Herodotus, Bk 4,Sections 4.96-4,142, pp. 322-
338.
Thursday, 2/5:
Readings:
Secondary:
Nicola Di Cosmo, Ancient China and Its Enemies, ch. 4, Walls and
Horses,” 127-158.
Primary:
Selections from the Han Narratives, Pt. VI, “A Chinese Memorial arguing
Against Campaigns Deep into Hsiung-nu Territory.” (Seattle Silk
Road).
Friday, 2/6:
Readings:
Secondary:
Foltz, Religions of the Silk Road; Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange
from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century, chs. 1-2, pp. 1-36.
Primary:
Firdawsi, “The Seven Trials of Rostam,” Shahnameh, The Persian Book of
Kings, trans. Dick Davis, 152-162.
Yasna 30 of The Gathas.
Discussion Questions:
1. Iron-age Eurasian steppe nomads such as the Scythians and Hsiung-nu
emerged as powerful foes of the great agrarian empires to the south of them such
as the Persian Empire and the Qin Dynasty in China. Why, according to
Herodotus and the anonymous Han memorandum writer, are the nomads almost
unbeatable on their own turf? Why, according to Di Cosmo, did the Qin really
build their wall? Were the nomads "barbarians."
2. Iran, the land of Ahura Mazda, was forever opposed to Turan, the land
of nomads, in the teachings of Zoroaster. How did the ancient Gathas (orally
transmitted prayers) articulate the dualist religion of Iran as a contest between
the spirit of truth and the spirit of the lie? How did Firdowsi's Rostam (in many ways the antithesis of the
steppe warrior and the first incarnation of medieval chivalry) represent the political and religious values of
the Iranian aristocracy that would dominate much of the Silk Roads for a millennium?
 Week 5: IMPERIALISMS—ROME AND CHINA
Tuesday, 2/10:
Lecture: Empires and the Silk Road
Readings:
Secondary:
Millward, The Silk Road: A Very Short
Introduction, ch. 4, “The
Technological Silk Road,” pp. 64-
86.
Thursday, 2/12:
Readings:
Secondary:
Thomas Barfield, “Steppe Empires, China,
and the Silk Route: Nomads as a
Force in International Trade and Politics,” in Anatoly M, Khazanov
and Andre Wink, eds., Nomads in the Sedentary World, ch. 10
(London: Routledge, 2001) [ISBN-10: 0700713700], pp. 234-249
(25 of 295 or 5%)
Primary:
Records of the Grand Historian of China: Translated from the Shih Chi of
Ssu-ma Ch’ien. Book 123, “Ta-yuan,” Burton Watson, trans., pp.
264-289.
Liu, “Documents,” ch. 1, “China’s Trade on the Western Frontier,” in The
Silk Roads, pp. 35-50.
Friday, 2/13:
Readings:
Secondary:
Matthew P. Fitzpatrick, "Provincializing Rome: the Indian Ocean Trade
Network and Roman Imperialism." Journal of World History 22/1
(2011): 27-54.
Primary:
Liu, “Documents,” ch. 2, “Rome’s Trade to the East,” in The Silk Roads,
pp. 50-83.
"Priscus at the Court of Atilla,” in Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
(Fordham University)
Discussion Questions:
1. According to Barfield, did the Han expand into Central Eurasia as a defensive measure and to trade their
goods, such as silk, with the West? Or were they, as Ssu-ma Ch’ien seems to indicate, expanding in an
imperialist manner to exact resources from and dominate over Central Eurasian people? Do Liu’s
documents support one or another interpretation?
2. Rome actually knew far less about the lands to the East than the Greeks (a strong Hellenistic presence was
established by Alexander the Great and endured until the rise of the Kushan empire in the first century
BCE), yet Rome’s attraction to the East and its goods is obvious from Liu’s documents. Nonetheless,
Fitzpatrick makes it clear that Rome had little knowledge of China and could only trade for Eastern goods
through the intermediary of Indian traders—it was very much a junior player in the great transcontinental
trade. Give what Priscus records of the Huns, was Rome likely to match the Han’s feat in breaking the
Hsiung-nu and establishing its own imperial control on Eurasian trade routes? (You should note that Roman
citizens seemed to prefer Attila’s alleged “barbarism” over Rome’s ‘civilization’).
 Week 6: MERCHANTS AND MONKS
Tuesday, 2/17:
Lecture: Buddhism along the Silk Roads
Readings:
Secondary:
Starr, Lost Enlightenment, ch. 2, “Worldly Urbanists,
Ancient Land,” pp. 28-61.
Whitfield, Life Along the Silk Road, “The Merchant’s
Tale,” 27-54.
Primary:
Nicholas Sims-Williams, The Sogdian Ancient
Letters, 1, 2, 3 and 5. (Silk Road Seattle).
Thursday, 2/19:
Readings:
Secondary:
Foltz, Religions of the Silk Road; Overland Trade and
Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the
Fifteenth Century, chs. 3-4, pp. 37-87.
Primary:
Xuanzang, Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, "K'iu-Chi,"
pp. 19-24.
Liu, “Documents,” ch. 3, “The Kushan Empire and the Influence of
Buddhism,” pp. 84-100.
Friday, 2/20:
Readings:
Secondary:
Whitfield, Life Along the Silk Road, “The Monk’s Tale,” 113-137.
Francis Wood, The Silk Road; Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia,
ch. 7, “The Cave of the Thousand Buddhas; Buddhism on the Silk
Road,” (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004) [ISBN-10:
0520243404], pp. 88-110. (23 of 270 or 8.5%)
Primary:
The Caves of Dunhuang Slideshow (NY Times).
Liu, “Documents,” ch. 4, “The Oasis Towns of Central Asia and the Spread
of Buddhism,” pp. 100-120.
Discussion Questions:
1. How did Sogdian merchants dominate the Silk Road? How was their life perilous and
difficult? How, even in the political chaos following the collapse of the Han Dynasty, did their
commercial and trans-continental ties support them? How important were family ties (here you
might want to decipher the line from letter 3 "I would rather be a dog’s or a pig’s wife than
yours!").
2. Describe how Buddhism, prior to the rise of Islam, was the religion par excellence of
the Silk Road. How did its patronage by the powerful Kushan Empire aid its spread? How did
its pilgrims seeking knowledge, such as Xuanzang, also create a lasting myth of the Silk Road
cultures being a land of wonders and myth? How do the Caves of Dunhuang show the vitality
of Inner Asian Buddhism?
 Week 7: LIFE ALONG THE SILK ROADS
Tuesday, 2/24:
Lecture: The Cosmopolitan Empire of Tang China and the Silk Roads
Readings:
Secondary:
Starr, Lost Enlightenment, ch. 3, “A Cauldron of Skills, Ideas and Faiths,”
pp. 62-100.
Whitfield, Life Along the Silk Road, “The Princess’ Tale,” “The
Courtesan’s Tale,” 95-112, 138-154,
Primary:
Liu, “Documents,” ch. 6, “The Tang Empire and Foreign Traders and
Priests,” pp. 133-144.
Mid-term Take-Home Essay Questions Distributed (due on Monday 3/1 via Safe-
Assign by 8:00 pm)
Thursday, 2/26:
Readings:
Secondary:
Whitfield, Life Along the Silk Road, “The Nun’s Tale,” “The Widow’s
Tale,” pp. 155-188.
Friday, 2/28:
Readings:
Secondary:
Whitfield, Life Along the Silk Road, “The Official’s Tale,” “The Artist’s
Tale,” 189-223.
Discussion Questions:
1. Chose one of the biographie Whitfield sketches out from the materials at Dunhuang.
Discuss the subject's life in relation to your expectations of medieval Eurasians. Were
they “simple people” or do you find their personalities and struggles as complex as
modern peoples. Remember, chose one and give a detailed response.
 Week 8: THE COMING OF ISLAM

Mid-term Take-Home Essay Questions due on Monday 3/1 via Safe-Assign by 8:00 pm

Tuesday, 3/3:
Lecture: 751 and All that.
Readings:
Secondary:
Golden, Central Asia in World History,
Ch. 3, "Heavenly Qaghans: The
Turks and Their Successors,"
pp. 35-49.
Whitfield, Life Along the Silk Road,
“The Soldier’s Tale,” “The
Horseman’s Tale,” 55-94.
Primary:
Orkhon Inscriptions, The Kultegin Inscription.
Thursday, 3/5:
Readings:
Secondary:
Golden, Central Asia in World History, Ch. 4, "The Cities of the Silk Road
and the Coming of Islam," pp. 50-62.
Primary:
“Tabari: Another Look at the Arab Conquests,” in Levi and Sela, eds.,
Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources, pp. 16-
21.
Robert Hoyland, Seeing Islam as Others Saw It, “the Chinese Sources,” pp.
243-257.
Friday, 3/6:
Readings:
Secondary:
Starr, Lost Enlightenment, ch. 4, “How Arabs Conquered Central Asia and
Central Asia Then Set the Stage to Conquer Bagdad,” pp. 101-125.
Discussion Questions:
1. The great Kok-Turk Khaganate claimed rule over all under Tengri (Blue Heaven). How did the Kultegin
inscription justify this rule and warn the nomads of succumbing to the luxuries of Chinese civilization. Do
you think steppe rulers feared their people would "go soft?" Comparing the reconstruction of the lives of a
Tibetan infantryman and a Uighur cavalryman, do you think these men would have thought of their lives as
soft? Or worth the sacrifices of empire?
2. How did Islam conquer Central Asia and set itself up to be conquered by Central Asians?
3. How did the Arabs see their conquest of Central Eurasia in the name of Islam (Tabari’s account)? How did
others perceive their intervention in the area (Hoyland's account)? At
the Battle of the Talas in 751 Chinese expansionism suffered a defeat
and the later Tang civil wars made it impossible for the Chinese to
return for nearly a millennium. With the collapse of Turk, Tang and
Tibetan power, all within a generation of Talas, was it inevitable that
Islam would come to predominate the Silk Road?
SPRING BREAK, 3/9-3/13
 Week 9: THE ISLAMIC ENLIGHTENMENT
Tuesday, 3/17:
Lecture: Islamic Cultural Flowering on the Silk Road
Readings:
Secondary:
Foltz, Religions of the Silk Road, ch. 5, 89-110.
Primary:
James E. Montgomery, “Ibn Fadlan and the
Rusiyyah,” 5-22.
Thursday, 3/19:
Readings:
Secondary:
Starr, Lost Enlightenment, chs.1, 5 and 8, “The Center
of the World,” and “East Wind over Bagdad,”
“A Flowering of Central Asia: the Samanid
Dynasty,” pp. 1-28, 126-156, 225-267.
Primary:
“al-Biruni: On the Importance of the Sciences,” in
Levi and Sela, eds., Islamic Central Asia: An
Anthology of Historical Sources, pp. 39-46.
Jelaluddin Rumi, Love's Ripening; Rumi on the
Heart's Journey, "Get Ready, the Drunkards are Coming," "The
Face of That Beauty," Ancient Wine, pp. 105-107.
Friday, 3/20:
Readings:
Secondary:
Golden, Central Asia in World History, Ch. 4, "The Crescent over the
Steppe: Islam and the Turkic People," pp. 35-49.
Starr, Lost Enlightenment, ch. 11, “Culture Under a Turkic Marauder:
Mahmud’s Ghazni,” pp., 332-81.
Discussion Questions:
1. The Arab ambassado, Ibn Fadlan, provides the most detailed description of a Viking funeral known in the
sources. Were these “Varangians”—who ultimately went on to form the Rus’ state—an alien presence in
Central Eurasia or were their customs and power dynamics amenable to the assimilation of Central Eurasian
political and economic practices? What does Ibn Fadlan’s description tell you about not only Viking culture
but Islam’s engagement with Inner Eurasian peoples?
2. The common view of Islam is of a very rule-driven, puritanic religion that hewed closely to orthodoxy.
However, especially in Central Asia, a mystical, emotive brand of esoteric Islam, Sufi’ism was greatly
responsible for mass conversions of, especially, Turkic nomads. How do Rumi’s poems reflect a complex,
joyous embrace of life? (remember, Rumi was not a heretic or libertine—his poetry and theology was
instrumental in creating the Mawlawiyah Sufi Order, better known in the West as the order of the Twirling
Dervishes). How does al-Biruni defend the study of non-revealed sciences? Starr considers the Samanid
state to have patronized a startlingly fresh “enlightenment” that influenced world history. Do you agree with
him?
3. How did Islam’s conversion of Turkic nomads lead to the Islamization of Central Eurasia? How did trade,
especially in human flesh, help create a synthesis of Turko-Persian Islam? The case of Mahmud of Ghazni
might be helpful to frame why Turks rather than, say Ibn Fadlan’s Vikings, were more amenable to Islam’s
influence.
 Week 10: THE MONGOL WORLD EMPIRE
Tuesday, 3/24:
Lecture: The Mongol Conquest of Eurasia
Readings:
Secondary:
Golden, Central Asia in World
History, Ch. 5, "The Mongol
Whirlwind," pp. 76-91.
Primary:
The Secret History of the Mongols,
Kahn, ed., Cleaves, transl.,
“The Heritage and Youth of
Genghis Khan,” pp. 14-43.
Recommended:
Mongol [DVD 11452]
Thursday, 3/26:
Readings:
Secondary:
Starr, Lost Enlightenment, ch. 13, “The Mongol Century,” pp. 436-477.
Primary:
“The Travels of Ibn Batuta,” Medieval Sourcebook, "Ibn Batuta Arrives at
Kaffa" to "The Khatun is Met at the Border of Her Father's
Territory," i.e., the Golden Horde (Fordham University).
Friday, 3/27:
Readings:
Secondary:
Foltz, Religions of the Silk Road; Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange
from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century, ch. 6, 111-134.
Primary:
William of Rubruck, Account of Travels, parts XV.
Chang Chun, A Daoist Monk in Central Asia,” in Levi and Sela, eds.,
Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources, pp. 130-
134.
Discussion Questions:
1. How did Genghis Khan’s brutal treatment as a child harden him into one of the world’s great conquerors? What
does the fact that many of his early exploits and rise as a warlord involved redeeming his pledge of marriage to
his betrothed Borte tell you? How did he and his sons go on to conquer the better part of Eurasia?
2. How did the Mongol’s ecumenicism encourage toleration along the Silk Road? Given Foltz’s account of the
religious competition between faiths in the Mongol courts but also William of Rubrick’s tawdry tale of scheming
priests, who was the great enemy to various faiths—the dread savage Mongol Khan or other clergy? What was
Chang Chun’s view of Mongol religious practices?
3. What was Ibn-Batuta's view of the nomadic empire of Khan Uzbek of the Golden Horde? Golden considers the
Mongol Empire to have been brilliantly integrated Eurasia after a period of initial devestation. Starr, on the other
hand, has a much more provisional view, though he seems to have more of a complaint with Islamic
fundamentalism than Mongol barbarism. What is your view—did the Silk Roads prosper or decline under
Mongol imperialism?
 Week 11: TRAVELERS—MARCO POLO AND THE BLACK DEATH

Tuesday, 3/31:
Lecture: Marco Polo and the Discovery of the East
Readings:
Secondary:
Thomas T. Allsen, “The Cultural Worlds of Marco Polo,” The Journal of
Interdisciplinary History 31/3 (Winter 2001): 375-383.
Primary:
Medieval Sourcebook, “Marco Polo: The Glories of Kinsay [Hangchow]
(c. 1300).”
Rabban Suama, The Monk of Kublai Khan, Emperor of China; or The
History of the Life and Travels of Rabban Sawma, Envoy and
Plenipotentiary of the Mongol Khans to the Kings of Europe and
Markos who as Yahbh-Allaha III Became Patriarch of the
Nestorian Church in Asia, E. A. Wallis Budge, trans., ed., ch. 7, pp.
170-198.
Thursday, 4/2:
Readings:
Secondary:
Millward, The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction, ch. 5, “The Arts on
the Silk Road,” pp. 87-109.
Primary:
Liu, “Documents,” ch. 8, “Trade Networks from the Mediterranean to the
South China Sea,” in The Silk Roads, pp. 152-170.
Friday, 4/3:
Readings:
Secondary:
William McNeill, Plagues and People, ch. 4, “The Impact of the Mongol
Empire on Shifting Disease Balances,” pp. 161-207.
Millward, The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction, ch. 3, “The Biological
Silk Road,” pp. 39-63.
Discussion Questions:
1. Given Polo’s description of Kinsay, do you believe he actually travelled to the East? Remember, Marco
Polo was not a courtier, a priest or a scholar but a merchant (telling his tale to a writer of romances). Does
his account square with the sort of attention a Venetian
merchant would likely direct to describing his experiences?
What interests Rabban Sauma in the West? What were
Suama’s and Polo’s shared “cultural worlds”?
2. Millward considers the Mongol Empire to have accelerated
the exchange of art, techniques and culture across the Silk
Roads. Do you agree? Do Liu’s documents support this
argument?
3. According to McNeill, it was the very success of the Mongol
world empire that doomed it. He argues that by linking the
Western and Eastern parts of Eurasia in a new way, the
Mongol conquests undermined the disease balances of the
Old World and unleashed the devestating Black Death on the
continent. Would Millward concur wit this assessment?
What ramifications did this catastrophe have not only for the
decline of Central Eurasia but the rise of the West?
 Week 12: THE SHARK AND THE TIGER—TWO SUPERPOWERS (MING AND
TIMURIDS
Tuesday, 4/7:
Lecture: Samarkand, Center of the Earth
Readings:
Secondary:
Louis Levethes, When China Ruled the Seas; The Treasure Fleet of the
Dragon Throne, ch. 11, “The Sultan’s Bride,” pp. 183-194.
Primary:
Extracts from the Ming shi-lu (Records of the Ming) on Zheng He: 11 Jul
1405, 2 Oct 1407, 8 Oct 1407, 17 Oct 1408, 6 Jul 1411, 18 Dec
1412, 28 Dec 1416, 29 Jun 1430, 20 Mar 1431.
Thursday, 4/9:
Readings:
Secondary:
Starr, Lost Enlightenment, ch 14, “Tamerlane and his Successors, 478-514.
Golden, Central Asia in World History, Ch. 7, "The Later Chinggisids,
Temur and the Timurid Renaissance," pp. 91-104.
Primary:
Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, Clavijo. Embassy to Tamerlane 1403-1406,
trans., ed. Guy Le Strange, chs. 16-22.
Morris Rossabi, “A Translation of Ch’en Ch’eng’s Hsi-you fan kue chih,”
Ming Studies 17 (Fall 1983): 49-59.
Friday, 4/10:
Readings:
Secondary:
Golden, Central Asia in World History, Ch. 7, "The Later Chinggisids,
Temur and the Timurid Renaissance," pp. 91-104.
Discussion Questions:
1. The Ming clearly built a maritime superpower worthy of the later European overseas Empires. Was Admiral
Zheng He engaged in imperialism for the Chinese emperor? Why did the Ming pull back from maritime
hegemony, thus leaving the field open for the Europeans?

2. Describe Clavijo’s description of Timur’s kingdom and court. Does he show a sense of cultural
condescension towards the East or, rather, does he have an appreciation for Timur’s power? As a noble
ambassador visiting another warrior prince, how does his account of the East differ from Polo’s or
Rubrick’s? How does Ch’en Ch’eng’s account differ in tone from Clavijo’s and why? Do these
descriptions match Golden's discussion of an Islamic superpower that was also prosperous, cultured and
well-ordered? How does Starr interpret the Timurid renaissance?
 Week 13: THE COLLAPSE OF THE SILK ROAD WORLD SYSTEM
Tuesday, 4/14:
Lecture: The Shift Away from Central Eurasian
Trade and the Last of the Timurids
Readings:
Secondary:
Stephen Frederic Dale, The Garden
of Eight Paradises: Babur
and the Culture of Empire in
Central Asia, Afghanistan and
India (1483-1530), ch. 2,
“The Timurid Denouement in
Mawarannahr,” pp. 67-134.
Primary:
Babur, The Baburnama, “Events of the Year 912 [1506-07],” pp. 229-239.
Thursday, 4/16:
Readings:
Secondary:
Foltz, Religions of the Silk Road; Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange
from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century, ch. 7, 135-144.
Primary:
Khoja Ahrar, “Letters,” in Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of
Historical Sources, Scott Levi and Ron Sela eds., pp. 198-200.
Friday, 4/17:
Readings:
Secondary:
Starr, Lost Enlightenment, ch 14, “Tamerlane and His Successors,” pp.
478-514.
Primary:
Ivan Khokhlov, “A Russian Envoy to Central Asia,” in Islamic Central
Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources, Scott Levi and Ron Sela
eds., pp. 230-233.
Discussion Questions:
1. How does Babur describe the sophisticated and cosmopolitan court of his cousins in
Herat? Why does he, a hardened general in the wars against the Uzbeks, take time to play
tourist in Herat? How does the decadence of this court worry Babur (after all, one of the
great generals in world history)?
2. How did the tradition of religious diversity and innovation on the Silk Road stagnate into
rigid and intolerant orthodoxies after the decline of region as a trade nexus? Look at
Khoja Ahrar’s letters, which include exhortations to the leaders of the region to mobilize
against “the flesh eaters” (probably Uzbek tribesmen). Are these letters of an all-
important spiritual leader more political in your mind or focused on faith? Also take a
look at Khokhlov’s account of his journey—is the vibrant cosmopolitan region that so
took in Clavijo as civilized and prosperous in his day?
 Week 14: THE ROAD IS CLOSED

Tuesday: 4/21
Lecture: The Partition of Central Eurasia
Readings:
Secondary:
Golden, Central Asia in World History, Ch. 8, "The Age of Gunpowder and
the Crush of Empires," pp. 105-121.
Thursday, 4/23:
Readings:
Secondary:
Peter C. Perdue, "Military Mobilization in Seventeenth and Eighteenth-
Century China, Russia and Mongolia," Modern Asian Studies 30/4
(1996): 757-793.
Primary:
“A Kalmyk-Muscovite Diplomatic Confrontation, 1650; A Translation,” in
Michael Khodarkovsky, Where Two Worlds Met: The Russian State
and the Kalmyk Nomads, 1600-1771, pp. 245-250.
Discussion Question:
1. As Russian and China divided the steppe between them, native peoples such as the Kalmyks
found themselves attempting to negotiate, as they always had, interstate relations with these
expanding empires. How did the Russian envoys treat the independent Kalmyks and why did
their attempts to be considered equals rather than vassals of the Russians fail? How does
Perdue question our usual definitions (such as in Golden’s or Starr’s) of Central Eurasian
"decline"? Would the history of Central Eurasia have been different of the Zhungars had
prevailed against the Qing?
 CONCLUSION [18+26+12=56]

Friday, 4/27: Conclusion—The Once and Future Silk Road?

Readings:
Secondary:
Golden, Central Asia in World History, Ch. 9, "The Problem of
Modernity," pp. 122-139.
Starr, Lost Enlightenment, ch 15, “Retrospective: The Sand and the
Oyster,” pp. 515-540.
Millward, The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction, ch. 6, “Whither the
Silk Road?” pp. 110-121.
Final Take-Home Essay Questions Distributed (due on Wednesday, 5/6 via Safe-
Assign by 10:30 am)
Discussion Question:
1. Why, according to Golden, Starr and Milward did the vibrant societies of the Silk
Roads decline? Is that, as Starr raises, even a valid question to ask of Central Eurasia?
And what, if any, is the likelihood of a modern return to the Silk Roads?

WEDS., MAY 6TH,: FINAL TAKE-HOME EXAM VIA SAFE-ASSIGN BY

10:30 AM!