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preliminary remarks 23
while it also commanded the Southern corridor via Kabul and Kandahar
in afghanistan and along the valley of the Indus into India; tabriz had two
northern channels, either through Derbent in the caucasus or through
erzurum, trebizond and the Black Sea, and also a Southern route through
to the persian Gulf and the Indian ocean; Baghdad had the river route
down to Basra and thence, again, to the Gulf, while it could also reach the
eastern Mediterranean via Mosul, Damascus and aleppo. constantinople
was similarly well-placed.
the value of a market-place depends, of course, on the quantity of goods
exchanged but also on their variety and how well the goods on offer com-
plement other wares. thus every one of the major metropolitan centres
mentioned—Samarkand, tabriz, Baghdad and constantinople—collected
and redistributed wares from four major eurasian areas, each offering a
specific range of goods: the Far east, europe in the Western reaches, the
steppe and taiga in the north, and in the South the Indian ocean.
another “unwritten law” dictated the position of these major markets,
which were always optimally placed to serve as meeting-points for mer-
chants from all four of the major zones. From this perspective, Samarkand,
tabriz and Baghdad satisfied the requirement, and their geographical
position made them true commercial centres. thus the east-West trade
route which has gained wider fame as the Silk road also served, through
its lateral branches and supply chains, as the backbone of a whole net-
work of eurasian commerce.
as a result, although it was entirely land-locked, this principal axis of
long-distance trade was able to compete with the parallel sea route via the
Indian ocean both in classical times and in the Middle ages, even though
sea transport was at least ten times cheaper: the Silk road owed this com-
petitive advantage to its central position par excellence. all the determin-
ing factors, geographical and economic, worked to assure its continuing
good health: whenever the political circumstances were also favourable,
the Silk road was reborn from its own ashes, with only the minimum of
diversions and new routes.
1.1.4 The Nomads and the Silk Road
the Mongol expansion was essentially nothing more than another nomad
incursion into settled lands. the most characteristic feature of chinggis
Khan’s deeds, and those of his followers, was the sheer scale. here the
Mongol achievements can be compared to those of the arab nomads who
set out, in the early years of Islam, to conquer the world. the similarities
