Skip to main content

IMC 2011: Sessions

Session 612: Central Asia: Samarqand, Self-Image, and the Silk Route

Tuesday 12 July 2011, 11.15-12.45

Moderator/Chair:Geoffrey Humble, School of Modern Languages, University of Leeds
Paper 612-aThe Impact of the Silk Route Trade on Local Economies
(Language: English)
Berenike Walburg, St Andrews Institute of Mediaeval Studies, University of St Andrews
Index terms: Archaeology - Sites, Economics - Trade, Islamic and Arabic Studies
Abstract

Paper -a:
This paper will examine the economic impact the Silk Route trade had on local communities, focusing the analysis chronologically on the Umayyad and Abbasid period, and geographically on Central Asia. The evidence afforded by the literary evidence will be compared to that provided by the archaeological remains in order to ascertain the degree of interaction between long-distance traders and the local commercial networks of the cities that were way stations on the caravan route, and the extent of the economic advantages afforded to the local communities by this interaction.