The Silk Route is a collection of pathways that together, link China to Vienna, Istanbul, Baghdad, and India across the Inner Asian steppe and desert. During our meetings, participants will discuss the Silk Route as a cultural conduit, on the one hand, as the source of empire and technologies on the other, and participants will look at specific examples of cultural dissemination.
The Silk Route has provided some of the most engaging and best-written volumes of travel literature. There will be no required readings, but students may enjoy Owen Lattimore’s The Desert Road to Turkestan, from 1928, or the Franciscan William of Rubruck’s account of his journey to Karakorum in 1255, where he found a Parisian goldsmith preparing a soft drink dispenser for the Khan.
This Study Group led by Rudi Lindner is for those 50 and over and will meet Fridays, 1:00 -3:00 p.m., April 19 - May 10.