Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

4 .1
A number of cities of the Roman Empire, especially the coastal cities of the Eastern
Mediterranean, had numerous weaving workshops which produced silk fabrics, but
from raw silk, known as metaxa. In the 5th century, silk weaving workshops appeared
in Alexandria (Egypt). According to the historian al-Masudi, silk weaving began
in Iran under the Sassanian Shah Shapur II (AD 309–379), who employed skilful
craftsmen from Nestorians-Posh.
However, all these workshops worked with raw silk, which, according to N. V.
Pigulevskaya, was supplied here from India and Ceylon along the maritime routes of
the Silk Road or by overland routes from Central Asia to Iran.
The art of sericulture spread to Merv, probably in the 5th century AD, and from
there it spread to the southeast coast of the Caspian Sea via Eastern Iran. In the 6th
century AD, as mentioned above, Sogdia emerged as one of the biggest centres of silk
production in the East.
It is worth recalling an interesting story about the introduction of sericulture in
Byzantium. According to a number of historical accounts, it was a group of monks, or
according to other sources, Persians, who, around AD 550, on the orders of Emperor
Justinian (527–565), brought silkworm eggs to Byzantium, by hiding them in
hollowed-out staffs. Thereafter, the Byzantine Empire began to produce its own silk,
and from here it spread to the southern Mediterranean.
Although sericulture reached other countries along the routes of the Silk Road,
this took place later in the history of silk production. Revealing the secret of making
silk was initially considered a crime in China, punishable by the death penalty.
Once sericulture began to spread, China no longer had a monopoly on silk
production.
As the cultivation of silk spread to Central Asia and the Mediterranean countries,
silk was no longer the main commodity on those routes, as many other goods were
also traded.
Historical records are unable to give us the name of the first person to travel
along the entire length of the Silk Road from China to Rome – it may have been a
Roman soldier driven by the vicissitudes of fate, an enterprising Sogdian merchant, a
Chinese diplomat, or a Nestorian heretic bringing the religion of Christ from distant
Byzantium to Inner Asia.
However, a number of Chinese texts provide information about men (without
naming them specifically) who travelled along the length and breadth of this road.
Thus, in Du You’s (AD 735–812) commentary in the Tongdian (AD 801), a historical
encyclopaedia, he writes about a time when the Han Emperor Wu-di sent envoys
to Anxi (Parthia), and two magicians were sent to him from Anxi in return as a
gift. The magicians were dwarfs, originally from Li-kan, the Chinese name for the
195