Jews from Persia to China

There seems to be enough evidence available to end the speculation of the presence of Jews on the Silk Road. Scholars and Archaeologists have found many documents, manuscripts and letters that are either in the Hebrew language or refers to jews on the Silk Road, as travellers and traders.

In fact, evidence found near Ghur, east of Herat in central Afghanistan, tells of the presence of an Jewish settlement. Jewish tombstones and memorial tablets, dating back to 11-13th century, found in this area, suggest that a jewish settlement was in existence and travellers passed through it during their journeys across the Silk Road.

The jews seems to have taken up trade as their occupation, due to many restriction laid upon them by both the Eastern Roman Empire and later the Islam conquest of the regions they inhabited. They were mostly regarded as second class citizens and provided with limited opportunities, alongside restriction on their lives. However, it seems that in both periods, they were allowed to become merchants without any travel restrictions. Thus, they became part of the trade along the Silk Road, and many of them settled in regions across it. Some even made it as far as China and made settlements there. Evidence shows that they either took the sea route to Khanfu or the land route to Kaifing, capital of Hanon province.

So, it seems, according to a wide range of evidence, that jews were not only present across different settlements in the Silk Road, but that they were also very active in trade, especially the silk trade. Jewish settlements can be traced to 9-13th century across the Persian Empire to eastern regions of the Silk Road in China.

An interesting fact to note, is that unlike their Muslim counterparts, the Jewish merchants did not face restrictions or hostility when they traveled to Christian regions and were more free to conduct their business.

The Great Game

Frances Wood has dedicated a large part of her book depicting the struggle to conquer Central Asia in the early 20th century. A struggle that turned into a race or as she refers to it the Great Game between archaeologists and historians to conquer the culture, art and history of this region and take it back with them to the West. She depicts tales of explorers that traveled through Central Asia looking for fame, respect and to collect exotic relics of the East.

Their struggle turned into the Great Game. A race between the British and Russian explorers for Central Asia and its wonders, relics and culture. The stage for this race stretched from modern day Tajikistan off to Western regions of modern China. Each explorer brought a new technique to the art of exploration. But, it is sad to know how ugly and devastating this art was! While each traveled the region in the name of history, survey and exploration, the affect of their travels included some troubling decimations of Asian relics, arts and sites. To some cases, it even included a loss of culture for the local inhabitants as they took away bits of their history and culture in the shape of manuscripts, paintings and relics.

It is interesting to note that the explorers themselves were sometimes as characteristic and individual as the cultures they explored. Sven Hedin's friendship with Adolf Hitler is just one example!!! More fascinating is the fact that they each built up on the knowledge and experience of their predecessors. They re-traced each others travels, used each others maps and accounts to navigate through the deadly deserts and find remote sites.

But there was another side to the many explorations of this region. While some cherished the art and culture of the place, others went looking for exotic Asian relics, artifacts and goods praised by Westerners and who were ready to pay a high price to own them. So as long as there was a demand there was a need to raid these ancient sites for the search of exotic and ancients relics and devastating local culture and history.

What is even more troublesome, is that by this reading one understands how little understanding there existed of the the local inhabitants and their cultures. Among the explorers that went into these regions, most of them cared or paid very little attention to the local inhabitants, their concerns and needs. They mostly viewed them as inferior, perceived it their right and duty to not only study their cultures but tho also take parts of it back for studying. Some may argue that they saved these artifacts and in fact their culture by taking their paintings and relics and protecting them from raids and natural decay, due to ill care by the locals. But, this is by far a excuse for the affects these explorations had on the history and culture of the region. They have lost parts of their culture and past to, they have lost ownership of their culture and may have even lost links to their past. A hefty price for being protected.

Ignorance fuels Hatred

I think Said's article could be summarized in a nut shell. He describes the ignorance that was so evident on Huntington's article "The Clash of Civilization". He spoke as if he had complete knowledge of all civilizations. in particularly the West and Islam. And spoke with confidence of the impending struggle between the West and Islam dominating global politics. It is more sad that in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks, many have adhered to his vision and accepted his views. These are the same people that have plagued themselves with the ignorance of Huntington's understanding of Islam and the conflict that is growing each day. They fear as Huntington did, and believe that the West must grow so strong to fend off the threat Islam poses in this global conflict.

The sad part of this is that in the presence of fear from terrorism and the portrayal of the muslim threat to West has fueled this ignorance. People have become oblivious to the growing interdependence of cultures and grow in interest of the so called conflict that has been brewed up between Islam and the West. And soon they will forget what describes each, become confused of what identifies as western and what as Islamic. The worse that comes out of this situation is the generalizations and labels that are attributed to each culture, that will persist overtime to become norms and realities in mind of future generations.

Unfortunately, as Said also mentions in his article, the media plays a very important role in this. Wether by their ignorance or purpose to present material that may not be contrary to realities of the muslim world, but presented in a manner that would fuel the ignorance of people by drawing upon their fear of terrorism. The same has also been used by public figures, politicians and whomever that stands to gain from the prospect of a global conflict between the Islam and the West. The media is constantly engulfed in presenting Islam not its true image, but the image people are interested to see, the image that would justify their fears and give them comfort in hating all muslims rather than realizing the fault of few radicals, that could very well exist with in their own. fanatics exist in all cultures, but if they were to define an entire civilizations, that the threat of terrorism from Islam would be just as real as the threat from the West.

We must put aside the false generalizations and assumptions that easily satisfy our needs and realize the interconnectedness that exist between all people. The sooner people realize that the global conflict exists not between civilizations but in the ignorance that exists between them. The ignorance that fails to recognize the interdependence between cultures and looks to hail one a superior to others.

In the end, theres

A day in the Capital

The Tang Dynasty represents the golden age of ancient China, in many levels equivalent and even greater than the high points reached by the Han dynasty. And nothing represents this greatness more than its capital city of Changan. When one reads about the scale of the city and the livelihood enjoyed by its inhabitants, one sees that the largest populace city of its time, matches to the metropolitans of our time. It may have been unsurprisingly much smaller in size and inhabitants, but the organization and life of the city is astonishing compared to its time.

The city was divided in many quarters, both for security reasons and to make governance easier. The quarters were used to collect taxes and recruit soldiers. It is comparable to the districts that divide modern cities. The city governance was even divided into six ministries in charge of various governmental structures of the city, which consulted with the emperor to govern the city.

Another intriguing part of the city is that because if its location, at the eastern end of the Silk road, it was a major hob for foreigners and merchants. so, the city had to markets, one for local goods and one for exotic and foreign goods. Its location and the business of trade it attracted, brought many foreigners to the city. Alomost one third of the Changan's population was foreigner. I find this very interesting, as in the time period this must have a very astonishing scene. There must have been individuals from all over the silk road, living together, working together and more. This would have probably been among the first multicultural cities of its time. The diversity of the city, I am sure had played a significant role in the achievements on the Tang dynasty and the golden age of Chinese civilization. Changang had probably turned into a center of knowledge and technology from across asia. It must have been quiet the scene!!!

But what was most interesting to me was the author's concluding remarks, with the Li Wa story in mind. The author spoke of how the class structures always remained the same, and no matter how low an individual sank, his rank and class remained as what had been bestowed to him by birth. It is very interesting, because I feel this was probably the same situation across Asia, and no matter how different the cultures were, they all had their Li Wa story, in one way or another. And they all probably had the same situation as well, that as long a visitor had money to spend, he would find comfort and pleasure!!! probably true to this day!!!