This book describes the interactions between various civilizations and societies along the Silk Road between 500 BCE and 1500 CE, the period from the first encounters of ancient Greek and Persian civilizations to the time when maritime exchanges between Europe and Asia exceeded those on land.
Starting with the genesis and features of different civilizations, the book focuses on the history and exchange of different cultures along the Silk Road: Zhang Qians successful pioneering feats which inaugurated the opening stretch of the Silk Road; the origins and dissemination of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Christianity, Manichaeism, Nestorian-Christianity, and Islam; the westward spread of papermaking and printing; and long-distance exchanges of scripts and spoken language, music, architecture, painting, and sculpture. It also outlines the historically significant migrations of various peoples from east to west, such as the Xiongnu, Yuezhi, Han, Qiang, Hephthalites, Turkic groups, Uyghurs, Mongols, and Xibe.
The author has interwoven facts, anecdotes, and his own experiences of study throughout the book, making it a fascinating history reader and cultural primer. This book thus will be an essential read for students and scholars of Eurasian Studies and Chinese History and those who are interested in the history of the Silk Road in general.
This book describes the interactions between various civilizations and societies along the Silk Road between 500 BCE and 1500 CE, the period from the first encounters of the ancient Greek and Persian civilizations to the time when maritime exchanges between Europe and Asia exceeded those on land.
1. "Civilization": Origins, Diversity & Continuity
2. Alexanders
Eastern Campaigns, Hellenism & Gandharan Art
3. Mysteries of the Western
Regions: Pioneering Zhang Qian & Han Dynasty Explorers 4. Buddhisms
Genesis: To the West Is a Deity, Buddha Is His Name
5. Buddhisms Spread in
China: Contemporaries Kumarajiva and Faxian The Encounter that Didnt
Happen
6. Sogdians along the Silk Road
7. Golden Peaches of Samarkand
8.
Silk & Paper
9. Printing Migrates West, Alphabets Migrate East
10. Origins
and Spread of Islamic Civilization
11. Islam in China
12. Rise of the
Turkic-speaking Peoples and their Westward Migration
13. Westward Migration
of the Turkic Peoples: From the Syr Darya to the Danube
14. Eurasia under
Mongol Rule
15. The Timurid Empire & the Ming Treasure Voyages
Professor H. K. Chang, well known as a biomedical engineering expert, is a Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK) and a Chevalier of Frances LOrdre national de la Légion dhonneur. He is one of those rare personalities who first excelled in the hard sciences but went on to devote himself as an educator and to the humanities. He was dean of engineering at the University of Pittsburgh and served City University of Hong Kong as president 19962007. In recent years, Professor Chang has lectured or taught general education courses at University of Paris, Cairo University, Bosphorus University (Istanbul), Bilkent University (Ankara), University of Delhi, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China Europe International Business School, and Shandong University. His academic interests now focus on cultural exchanges across the Eurasian landmass, particularly along the Silk Road. Author of a dozen books on civilizations and education, he has interwoven his 40 years of travel experiences along the Silk Roadfrom Chinas northwest to India, Central and West Asia, Caucasus, Asia Minor, and the Mediterraneaninto this tome.
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