History
by Peter Frankopan
Where is the middle of history?
As a boy, Peter Frankopan pored over a big map of the world and wondered why his history lessons kept to Europe. The Silk Roads retells world history from the lands between Europe and China, where for thousands of years empires met and traded.
Hear a sample · read by Laura
The name Silk Road dates only from 1877, when the German geographer Ferdinand von Richthofen coined it. Frankopan writes about roads, plural, a web of land and sea routes linking China, India, Persia, Arabia, Africa and Europe. Silk was one of many things that travelled along them.
Buddhism reached China along these routes. Christians spread east through Persia and as far as China, and Islam spread fast out of Arabia from the 7th century. Frankopan shows faiths moving the way goods did, carried by merchants and missionaries and competing for followers.
In the 1340s the Black Death spread west along the trade routes and killed a huge share of Europe's people. Frankopan argues it also shook Europe up. With so many workers dead, survivors could demand higher wages, and old ways of working began to change.
In 1908 British prospectors struck oil in Persia. The company that pumped it later became BP, and Britain's navy came to run on oil. Frankopan shows how oil, and later grain, drew Britain, Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States into long rivalry over the region.
The centre
For most of history the world's centre sat between Europe and China, around Persia and Central Asia.
Faiths
Religions travelled the same roads as goods, spreading from one trading town to the next.
Plague
The Black Death spread along the trade routes too, carried by the traffic that made cities rich.
Europe's turn
Europe got rich late, after its sailors found sea routes to Asia and silver in the Americas.
Oil
In the twentieth century, oil drew the great powers back to the same old region.
A story from the book
Vikings known as the Rus sailed down Russia's rivers with furs and slaves to sell to the Islamic world. In the 920s Ibn Fadlan, an envoy from Baghdad, met them on the Volga and wrote about them. Hoards of Islamic silver coins have been dug up across Scandinavia.
Hot take · true or myth?
Buddhism, Christianity and Islam all spread along the trade routes.
True. Merchants, pilgrims and missionaries used the same roads. Buddhism reached China this way, and Christianity and Islam both travelled far to the east.
One thing to try
This week, open an online map and centre it on Samarkand, in Uzbekistan. Zoom out until you can see both Venice and Xi'an. Trace a route between them and note three cities along the way that you'd never heard of. Look one of them up.
Knotd has the key ideas from 250+ non-fiction books, each in a few minutes, in plain words. The Silk Roads comes with a Hot Take round to make it stick.
Get the whole book on KnotdOpen in the appWhere is the middle of history? As a boy, Peter Frankopan pored over a big map of the world and wondered why his history lessons kept to Europe. The Silk Roads retells world history from the lands between Europe and China, where for thousands of years empires met and traded.
Many routes, one name; Faiths travelled with trade; Plague took the same roads; Oil changes the map.
This week, open an online map and centre it on Samarkand, in Uzbekistan. Zoom out until you can see both Venice and Xi'an. Trace a route between them and note three cities along the way that you'd never heard of. Look one of them up.
Yes. Knotd has the key ideas from The Silk Roads in a few minutes, in plain words, plus a Hot Take round to test them. It's one of 250+ non-fiction books in the app.
