86 Part II: Outsiders
center of the Byzantine Empire, Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora
reigned there and cloaked themselves in purple silk that is still vibrant in mosa-
ics from the time.
Due to the allure of the valuable fabric, von Richthofen’s phrase has stuck,
and “the Silk Road” has taken root as a phrase that evokes adventure, mystery,
and romance. Perhaps because the trade routes crossed through territory that
was beyond the reaches of the Asian axial powers of Persia, India, and China,
the “Silk Roads” were not only exotic, but also potentially dangerous, illicit, and
even deadly. In keeping with these connotations, the briefly flourishing online
“bitcoin” marketplace known as “Silk Road” (2011–2013) existed on the “dark
web” as an illegal marketplace for drugs, weapons, and assassins (Martin 2014).
The mysteries of silk production would eventually be discovered in other
regions like Persia, but the trade routes continued to be important for centuries.
Between the eastern reaches of Persia, the northern borders of Indian king-
doms, and the western frontiers of China lay desert, mountains, and grasslands
that comprised the routes that would connect these regions through trade,
exchange of ideas, and adventuresome travel. Eventually sea routes would
become more efficient than overland travel for the journey from one end of
Eurasia to the other, but this central region was forever shaped by the rich
exchanges and interactions with its neighbors (see map 1.4).Silk and Steeds
What we today call the Silk Road was in fact not a single trunk road, and it
was also more than a network of trade routes that crisscrossed Central Eurasia.
The region was naturally inhabited by diverse peoples, and the roads were well
traveled over a thousand years before Marco Polo published his account of
traveling the land route. Historian Christopher I. Beckwith wrote that the Silk
Road “was the entire local political-economic-cultural system of Central Eur-
asia, in which commerce, whether internal or external, was very highly valued
and energetically pursued” (Beckwith 2009:328). Trade, not warfare, shaped
the region in and between cities like Kashgar, Samarkand, and Turfan, where
trade was the central preoccupation. Further, to use the anachronistic term
“Silk Roads” is to privilege the perspective of those who produced silk (China)
and those who valued it so highly (Rome, Persia, India, and other regions). But
even more than silk, if it were not for the fine horses of Central Asia, it is likely
that trade and the region’s history might have taken a different course.
As noted above, the Han dynasty emissary Zhang Qian traveled to the west
in search of allies to fight the fearsome Xiongnu warriors, one of the ancestral
groups of the later Mongols. The perennial tension between the Han and the
Xiongnu was naturally caused by their shared frontiers, but it was also caused
by a shared need. Xiongnu chiefs sought diplomatic relations with the Han
court, since this official recognition would provide them with status among
their countrymen. Legitimacy was in part bestowed on Xiongnu chieftains by
their ability to fight the Han when necessary but also to engage them politically