The Silk Roads in History by Daniel C. Waugh

Question 1

What was described by Richthofen that was a quite specific route of east-west trade some 2,000 years ago

Answer 1

Silk Road

Question 2

The phrase “Silk Road” in our own time has been used as a metaphor for ___________________________________, and it is common
advertising copy for the romantic exoticism of expensive adventure travel.

a. Travel tourism
b. Worldwide Web trade
c. Central Asian oil pipelines

Answer 2

Central Asian oil pipelines

Question 3

German geographer who coined the term “Silk Road” to describe what for him was a quite specific route of east-west trade some 2,000 years ago?

Answer 3

Ferdinand von Richthofen

Question 4

There might be some consensus as to what and when the Silk Roads were. Yet, as the __________ Museum exhibition of Silk Road artefacts demonstrates, we are still learning about that
history, and many aspects of it are subject to vigorous scholarly debate.

Answer 4

Penn

Question 5

For Daniel C. Waugh, most today would agree that Richthofen’s original concept was too ___________ in that he was concerned first about the movement of silk overland from east to west between the “great civilizations” of Han China and Rome.

Answer 5

limited

Question 6

The history of the Silk Roads is a narrative about ________________, ___________________, and __________________ across ill-defined borders but not
necessarily over long distances.

a. movement, resettlement, and interactions
b. movement, warfare, and interactions
c. movement, purchase, and interactions

Answer 6

a. movement, resettlement, and interactions

Question 7

Did Daniel C. Waugh extended his concept to encompass striking evidence from the Eurasian Bronze and Early Iron Ages, and trace it beyond the European Age of Discovery (15th to 17th centuries) to the eve of the modern world? Agree or Disagree?

Answer 7

Agree

Question 8

Silk Road is also the story of _______(1)______ exchange and the
spread and mixing of religions, all set against the background of the rise and fall of _____(2)_______ which encompassed a wide range of cultures and peoples, about whose identities we still know too little.

Answer 8

(1) artistic
(2) polities

Question 9

Many of the exchanges about Silk Road documented by archaeological research were surely the result of contact between various ethnic or ______________ groups over time.

Answer 9

linguistic

Question 10

The most exciting archaeological discoveries of the 20th century were the _______(1)_______ of Nomadic pastoralists who occupied the ______(2)______ mountain region around Pazyryk in southern Siberia in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE.

Answer 10

(1) frozen tombs
(2) Altai

Question 11

Nomadic pastoralist horsemen have been identified with the ________________ who dominated the steppes from Eastern Europe to Mongolia.

a. Scathinians
b. Scytusian
c. Scythians

Answer 11

c. Scythians

Question 12

Pazyryk Tomb

Answer 12

clearly document connections with China: the deceased were buried with Chinese silk and bronze
mirrors.

Question 13

What were found inside the Pazyryk Tomb?

Answer 13

• graves contain felts and woven wool textiles, but curiously little evidence that would point to local textile production
• earliest known pile carpet has Achaemenid (ancient Persian) motifs; the dyes and technology of dyeing wool fabrics seem to be of Middle Eastern origin.

Question 14

Achaemenid

Answer 14

558- 333B.C.E, first Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus who capitalized on weakening Syrian and Babylonian empires. Peak was under Darius

Question 15

Other aspects of the burial goods in Pazyryk suggest a connection with a yet somewhat vague northeast Asian cultural complex, extending along the forest-steppe boundaries all the way to ______(1)______ and _______(2)________. Discoveries from 1st millennium BCE sites in Xinjiang reinforce the evidence about active long-distance contacts well before Chinese political power extended that far west.

Answer 15

(1) Manchuria
(2) north Korea

Question 16

It was difficult to locate the Pazyryk pastoralists within any larger polity that might have controlled the centre of Eurasia.

What is the name of the tribal group who emerged around the beginning of the 2nd century BCE, established what most consider to be the first of the great Inner Asian empires and in the process stimulated what, in the conventional telling, was the beginnings of the Silk Roads?

a. Xiongnu—the Huns
b. Shiaozen—the Huns
c. Kulim—the Huns

Answer 16

a. Xiongnu—the Huns

Question 17

Evidence about the Xiongnu supports a growing consensus that Inner Asian peoples formerly thought of as purely nomadic in fact were _________________; incorporating sedentary elements such as permanent settlement sites and agriculture into their way of life.

Answer 17

mixed societies

Question 18

When substantial quantities of Chinese goods now made their
way into Inner Asia and beyond to the Mediterranean world.

In the flow of goods, the Han Dynasty paid _____(1)_____to the nomad rulers, and trade, in return for which the Chinese received ___(2)____ and _____(3)____.

Answer 18

(1) tribute
(2) horses
(3) camels

Question 19

TRUE/FALSE

Chinese missions to the “Western Regions” also resulted in the opening of direct trade with Central Asia and parts of the Middle East, although we have no evidence that Han merchants ever reached the Mediterranean or that Roman merchants reached China.

Answer 19

TRUE

Question 20

From which empire did cities controlled routes leading to the
Mediterranean, and the emergence of prosperous caravan emporia such as Palmyra

Answer 20

Parthian Empire

Question 21

Palmyra

Answer 21

A Roman trading depot in modern-day Syria; part of a network of trading cities that connected various regions of Afro-Eurasia.

“prosperous caravan emporia”

-eastern Syrian Desert
-attest to the importance of interconnected overland and maritime trade

Question 22

Palmyra Caravan emporia products include not only silk but also:

a. spices
b. iron
c. olive oil
d. all of the above and much more

Answer 22

d. all of the above and much more

Question 23

The Han Dynasty expanded Chinese dominion for the first time well into Central Asia. In the process, extended the ________________
and establishing the garrisons to man it.

While one result of this was a shift in the balance of power between the Xiongnu and the Chinese in favor of the latter.

Answer 23

Great Wall

Question 24

Xiongnu tombs

Answer 24

-late 1st century BCE through the 1st century CE
in north-central Mongolia

-contained abundant Chinese:
a. lacquer ware
b. lacqueredChinese chariots
c. high-quality bronze mirrors
d. stunning silk brocades.

There is good reason to assume that much of the silk passing through Xiongnu hands was traded farther to the west.

Question 25

Although Richthofen felt that the Silk Road trade ceased to be important with the decline of the ____(1)____ Dynasty.

In the 2nd century CE, there is ample evidence of very important interactions across Eurasia in the subsequent period when—both in China and the West—the great sedentary empires fragmented.

Answer 25

(1) Han

Question 26

During the 2nd century CE, what religiom began to spread vigorously into Central Asia and China with the active support of local rulers?

Answer 26

Buddhism

Question 27

The earliest clearly documented Chinese translations of Buddhist scriptures date from this period, although the process of expanding the Buddhist canon in China and adapting it to Chinese religious traditions extended over subsequent centuries?

a. 2nd century CE
b. 3rd century CE
c. 1st century CE

Answer 27

a. 2nd century CE

Question 28

Understandably, many of the key figures in the transmission of the faith were those from Central Asia who commanded a range of linguistic skills acquired in the multi-ethnic oasis towns such as __________.

Answer 28

Kucha

Question 29

TRUE/FALSE:

Buddhism made its way east via the coastal routes.

Answer 29

TRUE

Question 30

During the Northern _______ Dynasty (5th and early 6th centuries) there were major Buddhist cave temple sites in the Chinese north and extending across to the fringes of the Central Asian deserts.

Answer 30

Wei

Question 31

Perhaps the best known and best preserved of Buddhist caves is the _________ Caves at the commercial and garrison town of Dunhuang.

a. Mogao
b. Mugal
c. Mamul

Answer 31

a. Mogao

Question 32

The town where there is a continuous record of Buddhist art from the early 5th century down to the time of the Mongol Yuan
Dynasty in the 14th century?

Answer 32

Dunhuang

Question 33

Who was the Chinese monk which was one of the most famous travelers on the Silk Roads whose route to the sources of Buddhist
wisdom in India took him along the northern fringes of the Tarim Basin, through the mountains, and then south through today’s Uzbekistan and Afghanistan?

Answer 33

Xuanzang

Question 34

About how many years did it took Xuanzang in China wherein he stopped at Dunhuang along the way and had brought back a trove of scriptures and important images?

Answer 34

15 years

Question 35

Many of the sites that we connect with this spread of Buddhism are also those where there is evidence of the Sogdians. Who are these Sodigans?

Answer 35

Iranian speakers

who were the first great merchant diaspora of the Silk Roads.

Question 36

The homeland of Sogdigans is in Samarkand and the
Zerafshan River Valley. Which are respectively called today’s?

a. Kazakhstan and Tajikistan
b. Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan
c. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan

Answer 36

c. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan

Question 37

How did Sogdigans extended their reach?

I. homeland-> Black Sea (west)-> mountains of Kashmir (south)-> ports of Southeast Asia

II. homeland-> Black Sea (north)-> mountains of Kashmir (south)-> ports of Southeast Asia

III. homeland-> mountains of Kashmir (south)-> ports of Southeast Asia-> Black Sea (west)

Answer 37

I. homeland-> Black Sea (west)-> mountains of Kashmir (south)-> ports of Southeast Asia

Question 38

Early 4th century Sogdian _____(1)_____, found just west of Dunhuang, document a Sogdian network extending from Samarkand through Dunhuang, and along the Gansu Corridor into central China.

Sogdians entered Chinese service and adopted some aspects of Chinese culture while retaining, it seems, their indigenous religious traditions; a form of _____(2)____.

Answer 38

(1) letters
(2) Zoroastrianism

Question 39

Sogdian’s importance went well beyond commerce, as they served
not only the Chinese but also some of the newly emerging regimes from the northern steppes which are?

a. Turks and Unaus
b. Turks and Uyghurs
c. Uyghurs and Kalum

Answer 39

b. Turks and Uyghurs

Question 40

The ___(1)_____ for a time extended their control across much of Inner Asia and were influential in promoting trade into Eastern Europe and the Byzantine Empire.

The ___(2)___ received huge quantities of Chinese silk in exchange for horses.

Answer 40

(1) Turks
(2) Uyghurs

Question 41

Manichaeism

Answer 41

Religion founded by the prophet Mani in the third century C.E., a syncretic version of Zoroastrian, Christian, and Buddhist elements.

-Sogdians played a role in the transmission of this another of the major Middle Eastern religion

–> to the Uyghurs in the 8th century, by which time both Islam and Eastern Christianity had also made their way to China.

Question 42

With the final conquest of the Sogdian homeland by ________ armies in the early 8th century, Sogdian influence declined.

Answer 42

Arab

Question 43

Due to decline, Sogdians were replaced by _________ merchants of various ethnicities would replace the Sogdians in key roles
controlling Silk Road trade.

Answer 43

Muslim

Question 44

By the time of the Tang Dynasty (618-906), which managed once again to extend Chinese control into Central Asia, foreign culture was all the rage among the Chinese elite: everything from makeup and hair styles to dance and music.

Even women played polo, a game imported from what country?

Answer 44

Persia

Question 45

Abbasid Caliphate

Answer 45

third of the Islamic Caliphates of the Islamic Empire. The rulers who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs. In started in 750 CE. It flourished for two centuries, but slowly went into decline with the rise to power of the Turkish army it had created, the Mamluks. In the 13th century the Mongols displaced them.

Question 46

By the second half of the 8th century—with the consolidation of Arab control in Central Asia and the establishment of the Abbassid Caliphate. The capital is in western Asia called _____________, wherein the west a new period of prosperity.

a. Baghdad
b. Bangladesh
c. Babuyan

Answer 46

a. Baghdad

Question 47

Many threads made up the complex fabric of what we tend to designate simply as “Islamic civilization”. True/ False?

Answer 47

True

Question 48

Baghdad

Answer 48

-Earlier Persian traditions continued, and the expertise of Eastern Christians contributed to the emergence of Baghdad as a major intellectual
centre.

Question 49

Even though Chinese silk continued to be imported, centres of silk
production were established in Central Asia and northern Iran.

Considerable evidence has been found regarding importation of Chinese ______________ into the Persian Gulf in the 8th through the 10th century.

Answer 49

ceramics

Question 49

Even though Chinese silk continued to be imported, centres of silk
production were established in Central Asia and northern Iran.

Considerable evidence has been found regarding importation of Chinese ______________ into the Persian Gulf in the 8th through the 10th century.

Answer 49

ceramics

Question 50

TRUE/FALSE:

The importance of maritime trade for the transmission of Chinese goods would continue to grow as Muslim merchants established themselves in the ports of northeast China.

Answer 50

FALSE;
southeast

Question 51

The Chinese connection had a substantial impact on artistic production in the Middle East, where ceramicists devised new techniques in order to imitate Chinese wares.

Conversely, the transmission of __________and _______ pottery decoration moved from the Middle East to China.

a. red and white
b. blue and white
c. red and brown

Answer 51

b. blue and white

Question 52

Under the Mongols, we can document for the first time the travel of Europeans all the way across Asia, the most famous examples being the Franciscan monks:

John of Plano Carpini and William of Rubruck (first half of the 13th century) and Marco Polo a few decades later.

Agree? Disagree?

Answer 52

Agree

Question 53

Genoese merchant families

Answer 53

took up residence in Chinese port cities, and for a good many decade there was an active Roman Catholic missionary church in China.

Question 54

The reign of _____(1)______ in China and the establishment of the Mongol Ilkhanid regime in Iran in the second half of the 13th century was a period of particularly extensive exchange of
artisans (granted, most of them probably conscripted) and various kinds of technical specialists.

While their long-term impact may have been limited, the exchanges included the transmission of medical and ________(2)_________ knowledge.

Answer 54

(1) Kublai Khan
(2) astronomical

Question 55

Ilkhanids

Answer 55

dynasty put in place after mongol conuest BY mongols; after split into various kingdoms Islamized, Baghdad/Iraq/Iran, first governors of conquered territory

Question 56

TRUE/ FALSE:

Despite the rapid collapse of the Mongol Empire in the 14th century, under their Ming Dynasty successors in China and the Timurids in the Middle East, active commercial and artistic exchange between East and West continued into the 16th century.

Answer 56

TRUE

Question 57

Timurid Samarkand and Herat

Answer 57

centres of craft production and the caravan trade

-16th Century

Question 58

The early Ming sponsored the sending of huge fleets through the _____(1)_____ Ocean, which must have flooded the markets in the West with Chinese goods. Among them the increasingly popular ____(2)_____ (pale green) and blue-and-white porcelain.

Answer 58

(1) Indian
(2) celadon

Question 59

The centres of Chinese ceramic production clearly began to adapt to the tastes of foreign markets, whether in Southeast Asia or the Middle East.

The legacy of this can be seen in the ceramics produced in ______________________, which decorated palaces and shrines, and in the later collections of imported porcelain assembled by the
Ottoman and Safavid rulers in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Answer 59

northern Iran

Question 60

Persian painting, reached its apogee in the 15th and 16th centuries, was substantially influenced by ____________ models.

a. East Asian
b. Southeast Asian
c. Chinese

Answer 60

c. Chinese

Question 61

Conventional histories of the Silk Roads stop with
the European ____________________ and the opening of maritime routes to the East in the late 15th century.

a. Age of Discovery
b. Age of Astronomy
c. Age of Fishing

Answer 61

a. Age of Discovery

Question 62

In 15th Century, relative value of overland and sea trade now changed, as did the identity of those who controlled commerce. Despite growing political disorders disrupting the overland routes, many of them continued to flourish down through the 17th century.

New trading diasporas emerged, with _________________ and ________________ merchants now playing important roles.

a. Indian and Armerican
b. Armenian and Mongols
c. Indian and Armenian

Answer 62

c. Indian and Armenian

Question 63

Trade in traditional products such as horses and spices continued, as did the transmission of substantial amounts of ___________ to pay for the Eastern goods (17th Century)

Answer 63

silver

Question 64

Trade in traditional products such as horses and spices continued, as did the transmission of substantial amounts of ___________ to pay for the Eastern goods (17th Century)

Answer 64

silver

Question 65

Among the Chinese goods much in demand was?

Answer 65

tea

Question 66

Tea whose export to the Inner Asian pastoralists had grown substantially during the period of the ___________ and early Ming dynasties.

Answer 66

Yuan