The Silk Road Encyclopedia

About the Author

Encyclopedia

- From the preface

Written & compiled by

Encyclopedia

T

he Silk Road is not a dead and ancient path that has since been covered by desert, meadows, and oceans; it is an active and vibrant pathway that connects yesterday with today in the course of human history. It is impossible to portray the movements along this pathway without on-site investigation. I have personally visited various sites along the oasis, grassland, and maritime routes of the Silk Road, making new discoveries while correcting misunderstandings. The 383 photographs included in this book were taken, mostly by me, onsite. I concentrated on confirming the routes referenced in various travelogues and expedition records, particularly those I investigated while translating and revising three of the world’s four greatest travelogues.

This direct reflection of empirical research is another distinguishing feature of the book. The Silk Road is a path of both asceticism and romanticism, one that is both distant and close to our daily lives.

Jeong Su-il

Written & compiled by

Jeong Su-il

Jeong Su-il was born in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, China, and graduated from Yanbian High Middle School and the Department of Eastern Studies at Peking University. He received a scholarship from the Chinese government to study at the College of Humanities at Cairo University, and has worked for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at the Chinese embassy in Morocco.

He was a professor of Eastern Studies at Pyongyang University of International Relations and Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies; worked as a researcher for the Higher School of Economic and Commercial Sciences of the University of Tunis; and served as a professor at the Academy of Islamic Studies of the University of Malaya. He studied under the Ph.D program in the Department of History at Dankook University, where he also served as a professor of history.

He currently serves as director of the privately operated Korea Institute of Civilizational Exchanges and devotes himself to a number of investigative field trips, lectures, and research projects as a scholar of intercivilizational exchange. He has also embarked on a number of global academic expeditions circumnavigating the world through a series of latitudinal and longitudinal voyages.

He is the author of A History of Exchanges Between Silla and the Western Regions, The East and West in the World, Arabic for Beginners, Silkroadology, A History of Exchange among Ancient Civilizations, The Silk Road: The Path of Civilization, A Study of Intercivilizational Exchange History, Islamic Civilizations, A Thousand Miles at a Snail’s Pace, The World in Korea (Vols. 1 & 2), Traveling the Civilizations of the Silk Road: The Oasis Road, Discussing Civilizations and Intercivilizational Exchange, Off to the Steppe Silk Road, Life and Religion along the Silk Road (co-authored), and Twenty-First-Century Nationalism (co-authored). His translations include Rihalatu of Ibn Battuta, Hyecho’s Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India, Cathay and the Way Thither, and The Travels of Friar Odoric: A Fourteenth-Century Journal.

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Encyclopedia

Written & compiled by

Jeong Su-il

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Preface for the English Edition

Knowledge exists to be shared. It never belongs to one person, and increases in breadth and depth as it’s shared. It is this communal nature of knowledge that ensures the distribution of progress within a civilization. This is especially relevant in today’s global community, where nearly everything is connected. At the same time, however, there is a major wall that blocks the fulfillment of such sharing, and that is the language barrier. Language barriers block the spread of knowledge and prevent communication across cultures.

Translation is the mechanism that circumvents this barrier. I humbly present this English translation in the hope of overcoming the language barrier to share my knowledge of the Silk Road with global readers, and thus further solidify the foundations for a worldwide academic discipline dedicated to the Silk Road. As many are aware, the perspectives of Western and Eastern academia concerning the Silk Road differ greatly, and conflicting theories abound. Yet only a few texts or encyclopedias have offered to pinpoint and bridge such differences, and efforts to translate such works are virtually nonexistent. I thus firmly believe that this English rendition will facilitate the spread of knowledge and help boost research related to the Silk Road.

The original texts behind this English rendition are my two Korean books, The Silk Road Encyclopedia (Changbi, October 2013) and The Sea Silk Road Encyclopedia (Changbi, November 2014), resulting in a total of 2,061 entries. (The latter was joint project that involved Dr. Kim Eung-seo, Dr. Choi Yeong-ho, and Dr. Kim Yun-bei of the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology as well as Kang Yunbong of the Korea Institute of Civilizational Exchanges.) It is the collective result of my extensive yet still inadequate research on the Silk Road and intercivilizational studies, two topics that continue to gain clout in the twenty-first century. Thus, like the original work, this translation is also an initial step into unexplored territory and contains the problems and deficiencies that accompany the creation of something new. I’d like to state that I value the academic advice and critiques of the English-speaking community, and sincerely invite any knowledgeable critics to offer their corrections without hesitation.

The publication of this book was made possible by support from the Gyeongsangbuk-do’s Korea Silk Road Project and by the efforts and expertise of the translation and editorial team at Seoul Selection, an English-language publisher based in Seoul. I’d like to sincerely thank Kim Gwan-yong, governor of Gyeongsangbuk-do; Kim Hyunggeun, CEO of Seoul Selection; and everyone else who spared no efforts to make this book a success. In addition, I’d like to thank the proofreaders, Sohn Heon-joo and Kim Hong-suk, as well as Chief Director Kim Jeong-nam and the staff at the Korea Institute of Civilizational Exchanges.

Jeong Su-il At my office in Changseong-dong, Seoul, as the spring of 2016 approaches...

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The Translation of the Preface for the Korean Edition

This book is more than just a series of dictionary-style definitions for words related to the Silk Road; it is an encyclopedia that spans a wide range of information related to the Silk Road and intercivilizational exchange. Throughout the composition of this book, I followed a simple rule: Don’t just collect and rehash facts from the past; create something new. Thus, for me, the process of authorship can be divided into “collecting” and “creating.” At first, I questioned whether individual interpretations and “creations” (incomplete ones, at that) would be embraced by the genre of encyclopedias, which normally only accepts standardized facts and well-established theories. I recovered my confidence, however, when I realized that such individual boldness is absolutely necessary to cultivate a new field such as intercivilizational exchange.

Since the concept of the Silk Road as an avenue of intercivilizational exchange emerged more than 130 years ago, scholars from both Eastern and Western societies have conducted persistent research to advance the field. Recent developments have helped to lay the groundwork for an academic discipline dedicated to studying the history of intercivilizational exchange. And yet this is only the initial phase, as even with the field’s most basic ideas, such as the notion of the Silk Road, scholars present conflicting theories and rely on obsolete conventions—and not nearly enough research has been conducted.

With this is mind, I set a few goals as I authored and edited this book.

The first was redefining the Silk Road from an academic perspective. I sought to rectify the common misconception of the Silk Road being a simple trade route comprising continental and oasis roads throughout Eurasia, instead attempting to depict an interconnected global circuit of intercivilizational exchange.

Secondly, I wanted to spotlight the exchanges that occurred between civilizations as a direct result of the Silk Road, using artifacts and written records to track the paths of such exchange along the Silk Road and its neighboring regions.

Third, I aimed to confirm Korea’s historical influence on global events. I worked to end the exclusion of Korea from the traditional sphere of Silk Road activity and restore the country’s status as a player on the global stage.

To fulfill these goals and complete more than 1,900 entries for this encyclopedia, I consulted a wide range of material, including overseas texts concerning Silk Road civilizations, texts on the Silk Road and intercivilizational exchange that I have either written or translated personally, world-renowned travelogues, and data extracted from on-site studies. Regarding the basic concepts and key facts concerning the Silk Road and intercivilizational exchange for each entry, I realized that I had to navigate unexplored territory by operating outside the restrictions of convention, adopting the detail and stance of an academic discourse or treatise. This approach represents a creative endeavor that I would argue is unique to this book, unprecedented in encyclopedic composition—one thing that sets

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this work apart from its peers.

The Silk Road is not a dead and ancient path that has since been covered by desert, meadows, and oceans; it is an active and vibrant pathway that connects yesterday with today in the course of human history. It is impossible to portray the movements along this pathway without on-site investigation. I have personally visited various sites along the Oasis, Steppe, and Sea Roads of the Silk Road, making new discoveries while correcting misunderstandings. The 350 photographs included in this book were taken, mostly by me, on-site. I concentrated on confirming the routes referenced in various travelogues and expedition records, particularly those I investigated while translating and revising three of the world’s four greatest travelogues. This direct reflection of empirical research is another distinguishing feature of the book.

The Silk Road is a path of both asceticism and romanticism, one that is both distant and close to our daily lives. The marks of ancient Korean sages upon its paths demonstrate the past achievements of the Korean people on a global scale. Although insufficient data leave me with only a few examples, I devoted myself to resurrecting the people of the Silk Road as they were depicted in great classical works from Korea, such as Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Regions of India, Topical Discourses of Jibong, and Jigujeonyo. Through the words of this encyclopedia, I ventured to shatter the outdated concept of China being the final eastern frontier of the Silk Road’s three main routes, confidently making the historic claim that they extended to the Korean Peninsula. My hope is to help my fellow Koreans foster pride and insight concerning Korean legacies that aren’t restricted to Korea and thereby gain a better understanding of the far-reaching ripples of Korea’s history and culture. The objective of developing such historical self-awareness is something else that distinguishes this book from its predecessors.

Yet even as I vehemently express such convictions, I can’t help but cowering and harboring weak thoughts in the face of an immense task such as an encyclopedia. That’s because I’m aware that my finished product is rife with shortcomings. I’m unsure of how much of my original goal I’ve actually accomplished, and whether I’ll be able to live up to readers’ expectations. I can only console myself with expressions such as “unexplored territory,” “initial attempt,” and “a step forward.” I hope to correct what’s wrong and remedy any deficiencies in my next endeavor, a more complete version of this book that I hope to publish as Encyclopedia of Intercivilizational Exchange (a tentative title), and thus wash away my academic sin.

Compiling an encyclopedia is an immense project that requires an abundance of human and financial resources. This book demanded cooperation and teamwork across several fronts. First off, what brought this book out of the darkness was Gyeongsangbuk-do’s Korean Silk Road Project, as the organizers’ ambition to publish a Silk Road encyclopedia granted us the general support we needed.

I’d like to sincerely thank Kim Gwan-yong, governor of Gyeongsangbuk-do, for being the initial

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spark behind the project; and Kim Nam-il, who headed promotion work, as well as all other affiliates who offered their invaluable aid. In addition, we could never have undertaken such a massive project under such a pressing schedule without the earnest support of Chief Director Kim Jeong-nam; Park Seong-ha, our in-house attorney; Director Kang Yunbong; and everyone else at the Korea Institute of Civilizational Exchanges. Additionally, this book was successfully printed under the editorial guidance and critical supervision of Eom Gwang-yong and the scholars of the research institute that directed the publication process. I offer my utmost gratitude to everyone who helped, and invite you all to join me in celebrating this book’s release. On a final note, from the depths of my heart, I’d like to thank Director Yeom Jong-seon and CEO Kang Il-woo at Changbi Publishers for helping us print such a massive book on a tight schedule, as well as Bu Su-yeong and the editorial staff who stayed with us on the complicated and lengthy road to publication.

Jeong Su-il At the office in Ogin-dong, Autumn 2013, just as the leaves turn...

To the Reader 1. All proper nouns (personal names, places, literary titles, works of art, etc.) in this book adhere to spellings that are most widely accepted and used among English-speaking readers.

2. In the case of literary and artistic works with no official English-language title, Romanized transliterations have been provided instead, with original titles in parentheses.

3. For non-English proper nouns with no standard Romanization, the most common spellings were used.

4. All Korean terms follow the Korean government’s revised Romanization system.

5. Standard Pinyin spellings were applied to Chinese terms.

6. Most dates conform with the Gregorian calendar, although a few conform with the Islamic calendar.

For the reader’s convenience, dates that used to be recorded in accordance with the lunar calendar in Korea, China, and Japan before the mid-nineteenth century have been simplified into approximated Gregorian dates.

Abidjan

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A

Abbas, Shah A sage king (r. 1587–1629) who led the golden age of the Safavid Dynasty. Abbas reformed the military, maintained amicable relations with European countries, imported new weaponry, and effectively dealt with Uzbekistan and the Ottoman Empire (see Safavid Dynasty).

Abbasid Dynasty (750–1258) Islam’s hereditary kingdom. The Abbasid Dynasty originated from Abbas, an uncle of the prophet Muhammad. Abbas’s great-grandson Saffah revolted against the central government and declared himself the caliph, or the successor of Muhammad, and seized power from the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750), the second caliphate to be established after Muhammad’s death, making the Abbasid Dynasty the third. The survivors of the Umayyad escaped to Europe and established an offshoot of the Umayyad Dynasty in Spain (Western Caliphate 756–1031). Saffah then moved the caliphate’s capital from Damascus to Baghdad in 762 and began building Abbasid Caliphate (Eastern Caliphate) in the earnest. The Abbasid Dynasty eagerly embraced cultural change and civilizational advancements from its neighbors, such as Greece, Rome, Persia, and Egypt, and applied these ideas to the creation of Arab-Islam civilization. These efforts helped the dynasty grow rapidly in all areas including politics, economy, and the cultural sphere. The Arab-Muslims were reborn as the “Son of the Sea” from the original “Son of the Desert,” and they used their

geological and astronomical knowledge to expand overseas. The reigns of the fifth caliph Harun al Rashid (r. 786–809) and his son al-Ma’mun (r. 813– 833) saw unprecedented progress for the dynasty, but the kingdom was later taken over by Turkic mercenary soldiers, and the dynasty went downhill when dissatisfaction increased among citizens in the rural area, spreading unrest. The dynasty finally fell in 1258 at the hands of one of Genghis Khan’s grandsons, Hulagu, who led the third western campaign of the Mongolian army.

Abidjan The largest city of Cote d’Ivoire, and the country’s capital city until 1983. Situated in the Gulf of Guinea, Abidjan was a small fishing town inhabited by the native people until the French developed it into a port city in the 1920s. Several European countries came here since the latter half of the fifteenth century, giving the city such names as the

The entrance to the Port of Abidjan

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academic exchange

“Ivory Coast,” “Gold Coast,” and “Slave Coast.”

When French influence strengthened, the French translation of Ivory Coast—Cote d’Ivoire—was popularized. West Africa had been colonized by France since the seventeenth century, with France having built a railway connecting Abidjan to the interior in 1903. Abidjan was declared as the capital city of Cote d’Ivoire in 1934, and the construction of the port was completed in the 1950s. When Cote d’Ivoire gained independence from France in 1960, Abidjan remained the capital and rapidly grew into a modernized city. The capital was moved to Yamoussoukro in 1983, but Abidjan continues to be the country’s administrative and economic core, and also a hub of West African literature and culture. It is also home to the headquarters of the African Development Bank.

academic exchange Academic studies constitute a system of knowledge that is a prerequisite for the development of civilization. Civilization without science is unimaginable and the level of science is a yardstick to measure the development of a civilization. Therefore it is necessary to adopt advanced learning and science if a civilization is to develop, regardless of the differences between cultural spheres. This is why academic exchanges are justified. Academic studies or learning which is to be exchanged should also be practical, which can contribute to the cultural growth of the recipients. Learning with no practical use can stunt cultural growth as opposed to helping it.

Throughout the history of academic exchanges carried out until the early modern times, there arealmost all basic academic areas required mainly for the survival and development of civilizations.

Astronomical geography is needed for the conquest of nature,while medicine (including pharmacology and biology) is required to maintain life and these two sciences are the oldest ones to be exchanged.

Also, mathematics and physics, the theoretical basis of relatively practical natural science, emerged on the exchange list early on, followed by other engineering sciences. In addition, the humanities and social sciences, in addition to historical, philo-

sophical, artistic and aesthetic studies, were actively exchanged with the advance of spiritual civilization.

These disciplines have diversified and become generalized as human civilization progresses.

However, academic exchanges are unique in several respects. First of all, they are limited. Those involved in academic exchanges are limited to an elite class of intellectuals, who are highly learned and cultured. Academic studies, as a logical system of knowledge, are not easy for laymen to learn and understand. Therefore, academic exchanges tend to be restricted to a small group of people.

Not only that, it is limited in terms of acceptance.

Whether certain knowledge is adopted or not, and how much is adopted is determined by the attitude and capabilities of the adopters. A case in point is the different attitudes of China, Japan, and Korea towards Western technologies and science, the socalled “Western Learning” of the early modern period. China adopted Western culture based on the theory of Chinese learning as fundamental, Western learning for practical use. In other words, they received Western culture from a Confucian viewpoint. On the other hand, Japan took the approach of the spirit of Japan and the Western scholarship” to learn Western sciences successfully and achieve modernization. By contrast, Korea emphasized the cause of Neo-Confucianism while despising Western learning. Although some scholars from the Northern School of Silhak supported adopting Western technologies while adhering to the traditional thought and ideas of Korea, but their argument was not accepted by the leading politicians, which slowed the modernization process even further.

Another characteristic of academic exchanges is effectiveness (or practicality). Learning or science is propagated and accepted only if it is practical as well as advanced. Effectiveness is the lifeblood of academic exchanges. Whether it is the humanities, social science, or natural science, sciences necessary for the survival of humankind and development of civilization are introduced, accepted, and kept alive. In brief, the influence or value of academic exchange is determined by its effectiveness.

Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea, and the Great Loo-Choo Island

Importantly, the effectiveness of learning should be observed in the long term, as it can be immediate or gradual depending on the conditions.

Finally, there is relatively small progressive assimilation in academic exchanges. Unlike other material or spiritual exchanges, academic exchanges show less assimilation and more convergence, preserving the original forms. Assimilation varies in the humanities or social science, but scientific principles remain in the natural sciences despite changes in linguistic expression. For instance, the utility of science never changes wherever it goes.

This invariability enables coexistence and co-prosperity of human civilization.

Academic exchanges lay the intellectual groundwork for the development and co-prosperity of human civilization. This is the ultimate goal of exchanges and it can never be achieved without academic exchanges, the matrix of civilization.

Moreover, understanding what to exchange is necessary for inter-cultural exchange to truly occur.

This, again, cannot happen without academic exchanges. To sum up, academic exchanges establish the foundation of exchanges in general. For all the problems with academic exchanges—the limitations and difficulties stemming from intellectual differences—academic exchanges should accompany any successful exchange between civilizations.

academic literature Through exchange that occurred along the Silk Road, the literary records of academic exchange indicate the use of scholarly texts to facilitate and enhance inter-cultural exchange. Such texts usually detailed studies on new regions or included research conducted for the spread of science and technology. The former includes monographs on political, economic, social, and cultural aspects of the target region. The latter, on the other hand, includes scientific research in a variety of fields, in both basic and applied sciences. In particular, research on plants or medicinal herbs, related with human survival, and papers (original or translated) to propagate and accept modern technologies from the West, are the two main groups. Although such

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academic literature is often difficult to discern from introductory treatises that serve as common records of inter-cultural exchange, a closer look at their content reveals that they are not a simple compilation of data edited for an elementary understanding, but the in-depth results of academic research that reflect the critical stance of the author.

Scientific literature can include characteristics such as an introduction, but they are also based on the writer’s profound knowledge and study about the subject. For these reasons, academic literature and introductory texts cannot be considered identical, and the former can be seen as a deepened and extended form of the latter.

Acapulco The international trade port on Mexico’s Pacific coast. The boat commerce that set out from Acapulco across the Pacific Ocean with stopovers in Manila led to the establishment of the Pacific Silk Road (called “La Ruta de la Plata” in Spanish, or “The Silver Road”) in the mid-sixteenth century.

The Manila-Acapulco route was operated for 250 years, observing a course that followed the Kuroshio Current air stream from Manila to the Bering Strait in the north Pacific before tracing the shores of the North America south to Acapulco. This port served as the starting point for ceramics, lacquerware, ivory and other Chinese products to travel to Latin America.

Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea, and the Great Loo-Choo Island (1818) An account of voyage to the west coast of Joseon that serves as the material evidence for the existence of Sea Silk Road. In September 1816, Basil Hall, captain of a vessel name Lyra, became the first Westerner to explore the west coast of Joseon, undertaking individual surveys of Baengnyeong Island, Janghang Bay, Gogunsan Islands, Sinan Straits, and Jejudo Island for ten days, exploring the Ryukyu Islands (琉球) of Japan afterward. Two years later he wrote the book Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea, and the Great

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Account of Buddhism Sent from the South Seas

Loo-Choo Island. Out of the entire 439 pages of this book, the first fifty-seven pages pertain to Joseon and include some descriptions that are worthy of notice. He complimented the hospitality and generosity of Korean people who were uninhibited around foreigners such as himself and he even had drinks and danced with them as well. He also praised the governor of Biin (비인, now Seocheon [ 서천] in Chungcheongnam-do), Yi Seung-nyeol (이 승렬) who came to investigate the objectives of the foreign ship. He recollected that “[Yi Seung-nyeol] was neither unreasonably alarmed by, nor paid undue compliments to us; and carried himself with an air of refinement and keen insight that would not fall short by any standard in the world,” and “With a long beard, incredible attire and charming manners, the elderly high-official left quite an impression on us.” It is said that on his return journey, Basil Hall stopped by Saint Helena to pay a visit to Napoleon, who was an alumnus of his father from the Paris Military School and had been exiled there at the time, and introduced Korea to him: “Joseon is a country of pacifists, that despite its long history, people of this land have never invaded other countries.” Upon hearing this description about Korea, Napoleon is said to have expressed a desire to visit the mysterious country before his death, for he had never heard of a country that had never invaded another one. He allegedly vowed to visit Korea after he had finishing unifying the world.

Account of Buddhism Sent from the South Seas 4 vols., written by Yijing (683–689) A Buddhist monk’s travelogue, which serves today as a bibliographic source of exchange. It recounts the travels of the Tang Dynasty (唐) monk Yijing (義 淨, 635–713) as he sought the dharma. In according with a Tang trend, Yijing traveled to India by the Sea Road to seek the truth of Buddha (November 671 to summer 695; see Yijing). While returning by sea, he wrote this book in Sri Vijaya (today the Palembang area on the Indonesian island of Sumatra).

Considered one of his most representative works, Account of Buddhism Sent from the South Seas con-

tains vivid descriptions of the Buddhist practices, history, geography, customs, and medicine of India and Southeast Asia. In particular, it offers detailed accounts of the spirit of Buddhist studies that were popular in India at the time, as well as the daily rituals of the Vinaya school and Yijing’s own basic understanding of Buddhist studies.

Accounts on China and India written by Sulaiman al-Tajir (851) A travelogue that serves as a written record of intercivilizational exchange. The original Arabic copy is lost and the writer is unknown, but it was usually attributed to Sulaiman al-Tajir, as the book is based on his spoken accounts. A manuscript was discovered in the twelfth century (and is currently in the possession of the National Library of France), and research on the book was performed mostly in France. In 1718, Abbe Eusebe Renaudot translated it into French for the first time and published it with added commentary under the title The Journeys of Two Muslim Travelers to India and China in the Ninth Century. The two Muslim travelers are Sulaiman and Ibn Wahab, who was also a merchant in the twentieth century. G. Ferrand, a French diplomat, published a complete translated version titled, Voyage Du Marchand Arabe Sulayman En Inde Et En Chine, Redige En 851, Suivi de Remarques Par Abu Zayd Hasan (Vers 916). After the original was published in 851, Abu Zaid Hasan, from Siraf in the Persian Gulf, complemented and added notes, publishing it in 916 under the title Rihalatu Sulaiman al-Tajir. Normally the original version of 851 is referred to as Volume 1, and the 916 version as Volume 2.

As the book described what they had actually seen and heard, the narratives are not only rich and vivid, but also realistic. In addition to the journey from the Persian Gulf to China, diverse topics ranging from history, geography, and customs, to political the situations of the countries along the route, such as India and China, were covered in detail. In particular, local produce, commodity prices, currencies, trade laws and regulations, terms of trade, and commercial organizations were given special

Accra

attention from the perspective of merchants. Furthermore, shipbuilding in the Arabic world, Chinese ships, tea, and ceramics, the attitude of the Chinese toward foreign merchants and religions, and even the late Tang peasant uprising (875) led

by Huang Chao (Volume 2) were mentioned. The value of the book as historical material is extremely important as the first travelogue of a foreigner to China, and one of the leading works of travel literature of the Arabic-Islamic world.

Sulaiman gave a detailed description of the navigation route from Persia to China. According to him, cargo was first carried from Basrah, Iraq or Oman, to Siraf, located on the north shore of the Persian Gulf. The loaded ship departed from Siraf to go through Sohar and Muscat to reach Kalah (modern Kedah, on the western coast of the Malay peninsula.) It took about a month to sail from Siraf to Kalah. Then it went north for twenty days to reach Champa, in Vietnam, then went another month to pass Tchang-Khai to reach Khanfu (modern Guangzhou.) He portrayed China as a country of lush vegetation, abundant fruit, and gold and silver and other treasures. Sulaiman mentioned a total of thirteen transit countries or places. The book includes information about Silla, though most were fragments. As for the location of Silla, Sulaiman pointed out that there are Silla islands beyond the Sea of China. This means Silla is located at the eastern tip of the globe. He also added, “no one among our colleagues has been there or talked about them (the people of Silla) but they have white falcons.”

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“black ant”—a nickname given to the people residing in the area. Another story on the origin of its name is the nkran, who were the indigenous people from the East in the sixteenth century. The word was later misrepresented as Accra by Europeans. In 1850, Britain purchased the fortress built by Denmark and set this as its base for colonization. In 1877, the city was designated as the capital of the Gold Coast, a British colony. The construction of the railway in 1923 connected the port to the inland where cocoa and iron mineral were produced, making Accra the main base to export gold and slaves. The emergence of an outstanding leader, President Nkrumah, around the Second World War helped Accra become the strategic base of African independence based on Pan-Africanism. Because the Accra port is too shallow to dock large vessels, a modern outer port was built in the eastern suburb of Tema in 1961, following a plan initiated by President Nkrumah after World War II. Logistics distribution was carried out in the new port while dams and hydroelectric power generation were

Accra The capital of Ghana. Accra is a major port of West Africa facing the Gulf of Guinea. The first Europeans to arrive in the region were the Portuguese, who came at the end of the fifteenth century. When the shores eventually became known as the Gold Coast, Europeans from Britain, the Netherlands and Denmark swarmed in the seventeenth century.

They built fortresses and began trading with the native people, giving birth to a coastal settlement, with Accra being one of the cities that emerged.

The name Accra derives from the Akan word for

A statue of Kwame Nkrumah, who led Ghana to independence from Britain

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acculturation

built to form an industrial complex. Accra became the capital city of the independent nation of Ghana in 1957, serving as the hub of African politics, studies, and culture, where Pan-African international conferences are held.

acculturation Acculturation refers to the variations that occur to one or both cultures as a result of contact (usually direct) between different cultural groups. All acculturation is caused and accompanied by cultural diffusion, which stimulates cultural exchange. Acculturation may be voluntary or compulsory. When compulsory acculturation is imposed, through armed conquest or colonial invasion, for example, the result may be severe conflict between the source of cultural diffusion and the receiving (autogenous) culture. Acculturation is a form of selective process, not only in voluntary cases but also in compulsory ones. The side that is receiving a foreign culture does not accept all transmitted cultural elements indiscriminately, nor do all accepted elements remain intact within a different society. Instead, it is only those suited to the recipient’s society and living conditions that survive and function as factors in acculturation.

As the word suggests, acculturation is a change that occurs as a result of contact between different cultures. Its impact on those cultures, especially the recipient culture, is immense. The consequences of acculturation are either active or passive. Active (positive, creative, and constructive) consequences are those of acculturation that not only establish new forms of culture, but also develop and enrich the traditional (indigenous) culture. In contrast, passive (negative and destructive) consequences are those of cultural fusion or assimilation that sacrifices the autonomy or independence of the recipient culture. Cultural fusion is a phenomenon in which a process of nearly complete collision between two cultures results in the creation of a new third cultural system that is distinct from either of the other two. An example of this is the creation of a new “Mexican culture” from the fusion that occurred between the Spanish culture introduced in

Central America and the indigenous Indian culture there. Cultural assimilation, in contrast, is a phenomenon in which one culture approaches that of the other, in what is generally a process of unilateral absorption. Typical examples occur as the result of one country’s policies of cultural aggression against a colony. Even in cases of unilateral absorption, cases of complete assimilation are rare because of cultural individuality (independence).

Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BCE) The empire that first established the western portion of the Silk Road. The Achaemenid Persian Empire was founded in 550 BCE when Cyrus, grandson of Aryan tribal leader Achaemenes, of Pars (a southwestern province of Iran), successively attacked Lydia, Media, and Chaldean Babylon, and in the process seized control of the Iranian highlands and the entire Western Asia. The empire’s second king Cambyses II made substantial gains in Egypt, while the third king Darius I (Darius the Great), as detailed in the Behistun Inscription, extended the empire in all directions: eastward to reach Gandhara in India’s northwest, west toward Egypt, and north to include Central Asia’s Sogdiana. The vast empire was divided into twenty-three satrapies (provinces) which were connected not just with an orderly and systematic transportation system, but also with a 2,475-kilometer highway, the famous Persian Royal Road, which ran all the way from the capital of Susa to Sardis in Anatolia. This stretch was one of the earliest ways to explore the Silk Road oasis cities. Darius the Great appointed a satrap to govern each satrapy and also an additional official who acted as the “eyes and ears” of the king to supervise each local governor. His reign thrived both internally, aided by reliable infrastructure and efficient postal stations, and externally, with his use of the seafaring Phoenicians to facilitate maritime transport and trade.

His son Xerxes I, the fourth king, waged but lost repeated wars against the Greeks. The Battle of Gaugamela between the empire’s fifth king Darius III and Alexander the Great marked the defeat of the Persians and the demise of the great empire.

adobe

acropolis An area of elevated ground built as the nuclei of ancient Greek cities, used for defense purposes. The word acropolis derives from acro, meaning “high,” and polis, meaning “city.” Greeks are known to have built city-states on elevated sites near the city center as a means of protecting their settlements from outside attacks, and constructed temples here dedicated to protective gods. As such, each city’s acropolis served as its religious center and temples of various kinds were built here. Despite the number of acropolises that have existed throughout history, in modern times, the one built at the center of Athens is often referred to as “the Acropolis.” With the exception of the entrance, the three remaining sides of the Athenian Acropolis consist of steep cliffs measuring 150 meters tall, with the entire elevated area reaching some 270 meters wide. There was another rampart built for defense. The Athenian Acropolis played an important role during the Mycenaen period, and was later restructured for defense purposes as a result of the Roman and Turkic invasions. During the restoration process in the nineteenth century, large portions of the restructured parts were removed, while the excavation of the hills have begun in earnest. The site was recognized by UNESCO as a representative of world heritage in 1987.

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Aden at the junction of the Arabian Sea and the coast of the Red Sea. Historically, Aden had always been of interest to Western powers. Aden was occupied by the Portuguese between 1513–1538 and 1547–1548, and was later controlled by the Ottoman Sultan Lahej. The British had set their sights on this port and Sultan Lahej ceded parts of Aden to the British in 1839; these areas came under the jurisdiction of British India’s Governor-General until 1937, when Aden was made a crown colony.

After the Aden Mutiny in June 1967, Aden became the capital of the new People’s Republic of South Yemen before losing this status when the South and North merged to form the Republic of Yemen.

Aden provided a vital connection between Europe and Asia, and became an important trading center for spices like frankincense, myrrh, and cinnamon.

Its strategic importance was further increased with the opening of the Suez Canal, and Chinese ceramics uncovered in surrounding coastal areas attest to its importance in trade.

Ado

A naval battle between the forces of the Roman Republic’s east and west. When the Second Triumvirate collapsed in the first century BCE, a series of fleets led by Mark Antony (in alliance with Cleopatra) from the east and Octavian’s forces from the west collided to seize power. The battle took place in the Gulf of Actium (off the coast of present-day Preveza, Greece), which ended in the latter’s victory. Antony and Cleopatra fled to Egypt, where they committed suicide the following year.

A Buddhist monk from the Western Regions who laid the groundwork for Buddhism in Silla. According to historical records such as Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (삼국유사), Master Ado (阿道和尙) traveled from the Western Regions through South China and Baekje with three attendants and snuck into Ilseon-gun (일선군, modern-day Seosan in Gyeongsangbuk-do), which was the northwestern frontier of Silla. He devoted himself to the propagation of Buddhism until his death using Morye (모례)’s house as a base. As his retinue of monks continued their missionary activities, Buddhism continued to grow and became prevalent with the endorsement from the Silla monarchy when it happened that the monks were able to cure the queen of an illness. This is how Ado established the foundation for Buddhism in Silla.

Aden

adobe

An international port city at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula in southwest Yemen. Sitting in a volcanic crater, the city is found in the Gulf of

A type of building material used in the Andean civilizations of ancient Latin America. Adobe was developed in the dry Andean region of Latin

Actium, Battle of

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Aegean civilization

America. Adobe bricks are made by mixing mud and water with vegetative fibers and drying them in the sun. This building material first appeared in the central Andean region during the Formative Stage, and its form evolved from conical to cubical. Beginning with the Moche culture (around the start of the Common Era–ca. 700 CE) from the northern coastal region of Peru, geometric patterns were carved into the adobe blocks, and the later Chimu culture of the same region began using flat or thick rectangular adobe blocks.

Aegean civilization The world’s oldest marine civilization, as well as the first European civilization. The name Aegea, which translates as “archipelago,” is used to denote the Bronze Age civilization that flourished from 3000 to 1200 BCE in a maritime region comprising various islands around Crete, Rhodes, Cyprus, the islands surrounding the southeastern Greek mainland, as well as those circling southwestern Anatolia. Its inhabitants left behind extensive material culture by developing sea-based trade that incorporated both Eastern and Egyptian influences. In 2000 BCE the Crete civilization had led the Aegean civilization and then it was replaced by the Mycenaean civilization. A series of excavations overseen by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890) and British archaeologist Arthur John Evans (1851–1941), which were carried out between the end of the nineteenth century and the twentieth century, began to unveil previously unknown characteristics of Aegean civilization.

Aesop’s Fables written by Aesop (6th c. BCE) The first literary work (book of fables) that signifies literary exchanges between the East and the West.

Some say the author Aesop (ca. 619–564 BCE) was Indian; others say he was Greek. Based on a comparative linguistic viewpoint, Welcher said Aesop means “black,” therefore he was a black man from India. Most scholars, however, see him as a Greek.

According to them, Aesop was born in Phrygia of Anatolia and lived in Samos Island. Born into a

humble stock breeding family, he was sold off as a slave at a young age. Although Aesop was “strikingly ugly,” he had a gift for storytelling, which led his master to free him. His name was known across Greece, and his collection of fables was introduced to the world along with the propagation of Greek culture. According to Max Muller’s comparative linguistic research, Aesop’s Fables were written in India and told to Greeks through the Greek colonies in Anatolia. Most of the stories are similar to the legends, fables, and customs of India and other countries in the East; none are Greek.

The earliest mentioned collection of the fables was by Demetrius around 317 BCE. This very Eastern book of fables, which was written in Latin, was translated into many European languages during the Middle Ages and in Europe became a book more widely read than the Bible. Aesop’s Fables was introduced to Europe through the first Latin version Romulus Primitivus published around 900.

This version has been lost, but subsequent Latin translations of the Romulus Vulgaris and the Romulus Nilantii were published around 950 and 1050.

About a half century later in England, the Latin edition was translated into Anglo-Latin and published in 1100. It was titled “Aesop.” The fables were also translated into King Alfred’s English around 1150, long after the king’s death. Both English translations are lost and no longer available. Based on the Alfred edition, the Romulus Treverensis was published in 1175, and Ysopet, a collection of fables by Marie de France, a renowned poetess, was published in the early thirteenth century. Motivated by Ysopet, Odo of Cheriton and D’eveux had their editions of the fables published around 1250 and 1275, respectively.

In 1320, the Romulus Harleianus, a translation by Nicole Boson, was published. Of the editions mentioned above, the ones by Marie de France and Nicole Boson were the most outstanding, having a major influence on research of folk literature. In 1484, William Caxton published a comprehensive edition of “Aesop’s Fables” which he wrote by compiling all available translations, thus producing the most definitive English translation of the series for ages to come.

Afrasiyab Palace, ruins of

Afanas’evo (3000–early 2000 BCE) An Eneolithic archaeological culture in South Siberia. Remains of the Eneolithic culture from 3000 to early 2000 BCE, which were initially found in Afanas’evo near Minusinsk, are scattered around midstream Yenisei River and the Altai Mountains.

The people of the Afanas’evo culture used both stone and bronze, and did stock-farming for a living. It is believed to have been in a transitional period between the matriarchal and the patriarchal stages. Excavated relics include mostly tools made of stone and bone, and some small and elaborate bronze tools. The dead were placed in wooden coffins and buried. Bodies of women buried alive are often found in the tombs of men.

Afghanistan A key crossroads along the Silk Road’s Oasis Road, making it a hub of inter-cultural exchange, both east-to-west and north-to-south. Geographically, Afghanistan is a land-locked region surrounded

by South and Central Asia and West Asia, sharing borders with several other countries, including China, Pakistan, Turkistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran. Afghanistan literally means “land of the Afghans,” with “Afghans” referring to the region’s native peoples, also known as the Pashtuns.

Portions of the Himalayas, standing six thousand meters above sea level, start from Afghanistan’s northeast and cross to intersect with the mountains of Central Asia, forming a natural barrier that divides the country’s 650,000 square kilometers into north and south. The north is mountainous, and the south is a mixture of plains and desert. Ethnically, Pashtuns mainly occupy the country’s east and south, Tajiks the west and northeast, Uzbeks and Turkmens the northwest and central north, and the Hazara peoples the central mountainous regions. Around 95 percent of its current inhabitants are Muslim, with around 80 percent of them being Sunni, and the remainder comprising mainly Hazara Shiites. Other religious groups include Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, and Buddhists.

Aryans arrived and settled in the area sometime between 2000 and 1000 BCE. The Achaemenid Persian

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Empire took over the area in the sixth century BCE, and after Alexander the Great’s eastern campaigns in the fourth century BCE, Afghanistan was absorbed by the Seleucid Empire. Although Buddhism spread to the area from India’s Maurya Empire in the third century BCE, the kingdom of Bactria (referred to as Daxia [大夏] by the Han Chinese) swept the area around 250 BCE, establishing the northern Hellenistic city of Balkh as its capital. The Kushan Empire, founded around the dawn of the Common Era, implemented Buddhist-tolerant policies, allowing Buddhist culture to flourish from the first to the fifth centuries in Bagram and Kabisa, near the current Afghan capital of Kabul, thus contributing to Gandhara art and disseminating Buddhism as far north as Termez (modern-day Uzbekistan). The Sasanian (or Neo-Persian) Empire ruled Afghanistan afterwards, subjecting the region to the eastward progressions of Islamic culture from the seventh century onward.

Under the Ghaznavid Dynasty, a Muslim kingdom of Turkic origin, and the Ghurid sultanate, Afghan forces invaded nearby Indian territories to lay the foundations for Islamic rule. After enduring Mongols invasions of the thirteenth century, Afghanistan was ruled by the Timurid Empire in the fourteenth century, and was divided and ruled by the Mughal Empire of India and Safavid Dynasty of Persia in the sixteenth century. Finally, with the establishment of the Durrani Empire in 1747, the first Afghan nation state was born. Due to its geopolitical composition and its historical role as a convergence point of conflicting cultural spheres, Afghanistan is rich with traces of numerous civilizations, be they from the West or East, North or South. Its lands contain artifacts that evidence exchange and contact between numerous societies, be they nomadic or agricultural, and encompass Greek, Roman, Buddhist, Hellenistic, Persian, Islamic, and even Han Chinese (漢) civilizations, making Afghanistan an archaeological repository.

Afrasiyab Palace, ruins of Palace ruins that provide material evidence of EastWest exchange on the Silk Road. The site is situated in the Afrasiyab hills, north of modern Samarkand,

Credits

Writer

Jeong Su-il

Translators

Colin Mouat, David Carruth, Eunji Mah and others

Editors

Shin Yesol, Lee Jin-hyuk

Copyeditor

Todd Thacker

Proofreaders

Son Heon-ju, Kim Hong-suk, Eileen Cahill

Designer

Jung Hyun-young