Life Along the Silk Road

By Susan Whitfield

Book Overview

In the first 1,000 years after Christ, merchants, missionaries, monks, mendicants, and military men traveled on the vast network of Central Asian tracks that became known as the Silk Road. Linking Europe, India, and the Far East, the route passed through many countries and many settlements, from the splendid city of Samarkand to tiny desert hamlets. Susan Whitfield creates a rich and varied portrait of life along the greatest trade route in history in a vivid, lively, and learned account that spans the eighth through the tenth centuries. Recounting the lives of ten individuals who lived at different times during this period, Whitfield draws on contemporary sources and uses firsthand accounts whenever possible to reconstruct the history of the route through the personal experiences of these characters.

Life along the Silk Road brings alive the now ruined and sand-covered desert towns and their inhabitants. Readers encounter an Ulghur nomad from the Gobi Desert accompanying a herd of steppe ponies for sale to the Chinese state; Ah-long, widow of a prosperous merchant, now reduced to poverty and forced to resort to law and charity to survive; and the Chinese princess sent as part of a diplomatic deal to marry a Turkish kaghan. In the process we learn about women's lives, modes of communication, weapons, types of cosmetics, methods of treating altitude sickness in the Tibetan army, and ways that merchants cheated their customers. Throughout the narrative, Whitfield conveys a strong sense of what life was like for ordinary men and women on the Silk Road--everyone from itinerant Buddhist monks, to Zoroastrians and Nestorian Christians seeking converts among the desert settlers, to storytellers, musicians, courtesans, diviners, peddlers, and miracle-workers who offered their wares in the marketplaces and at temple fairs. A work of great scholarship, Life along the Silk Road is at the same time extremely accessible and entertaining.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0520232143
• ISBN13: 9780520232143
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Length: 253 Pages
• Weight: 1.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.8" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

The Silk Road by Susan Whitfield

This book is presented with different tales told by different people living along the Silk Road between 750 and 1000. The people e.g. A courtesan, merchant, monk, princess, soldier all have a different perspective. There is much detail to be found in the writing and I found that I needed to read it more than once and tales could be read on there own without much trouble.

Very interesting

This book was very interesting. It really brought the Silk Road to life. I loved reading about various aspects of Silk Road life through different people's perspectives. I especially liked the inclusion of several women's perspectives.

BRILLIANT SNAPSHOTS OF LIFE IN ANCIENT CHINESE TURKESTAN

WHITFIELD WONDERFULLY CONJURES UP IMAGES OF TRADERS,MONKS,SOLDIERS AND OTHERS,AS THEY LEAD THEIR DAILY LIVES IN THE MOST REMOTE REGIONS OF ASIA. INDEED, HOW MANY HISTORIANS COULD RETRACE An EIGHTH CENTURY BATTLE BETWEEN THE CHINESE AND TIBETANS IN THE REMOTE WAKHAN VALLEY HIGH IN THE AFGHAN PAMIRS.

Transported in a Time Machine

The period of the Middle and Late Tang, from around 700 to 900, is one of the most facinating eras of Chinese hisotry. In particular the An Lushan rebellion, around 750, brought about a change from an outward looking world culture to a gradually shrinking Chinese view of the world. Few good or lively books have been written about this period. Susan Whitfield has portrayed the period by a reconstruction of the life and times of ten individuals, all of them historical and ranging from a humble monk and soldier to a top salesman and a princess. At some pages, the reader may feel transported by a time machine: one hears the sounds, smells the smells and hears the multilingual crowds in the capital of Chang'an or the various desert posts. One major quality of this book is that it is not written solely from a Chinese point of view, but includes many details of the customs and perceptions of the peoples of Central Asia. The author has clearly digested a wealth of historical data and translated those into a book which one would like to read in one sitting - which is an inhuman undertaking given the sheer joy and shock of all the little anecdotes, background facts and human insights. No previous knowledge of Chinese history is necessary to relish these stories.