24/09/2019 U3A Farnham More Silk Roads

Farnham U3A: More Silk Roads Group The ancient trade routes connecting China, India, Central Asia and Europe were responsible for a huge exchange of people, ideas, technology, art and of course trade. Building on last year’s classes we will continue using Peter Frankopan’s Silk Roads book for its big picture view but this year we add Peter’s book “The New Silk Roads” for his view of the 21st C and add Christopher Alexander’s A Carpet Ride to Khiva for insight on trader/artisan life today in Central Asia. We recap last year’s programme and focus more on the 17th & 18th centuries, Central Asia and catch up with China’s latest initiatives. Through presentations, readings and discussions we explore the history, personalities, trade, art, science, economics, and geopolitics of the Silk Road countries and their impact on the UK.

New members are very welcome. Contact: Alan Freeland - arfreeland@gmail.com – 07958 141570 Meets Thursday, 14.00 – 16.00. Monthly

Sep 26 Oct 24 Nov 21 Dec 19 Jan 23 Feb 27 Mar 26 Apr 30 May 21 Jun 25

Statue of a Camel Train in Modern Kashgar, China

Resources - Books 1 Peter Frankopan’s excellent book The Silk Roads. 2 Peter Frankopan’s book The New Silk Roads. 21st C. Silk Roads 3 Christopher Alexander: A carpet Ride to Khiva: Seven Years on the Silk Road. 4 S.Frederick Starr: Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age 5 Shashi Tharoor’s Inglorious Empire. A negative view of Britain’s rule of India 6 Susan Whitfield: Silk, Slaves, and Stupas: Material Culture of the Silk Road 7 Roger Crowley: Conquerors. How Portugal Seized the Indian Ocean …. 8 Roger Crowley: City of Fortune. How Venice Won & Lost a Naval Empire. 9 The Travels of Marco Polo - multiple editions. 10 The travels of Ibn Battuta – editor Tim Mackintosh-Smith. 11 Louise Levathes: When China Ruled the Seas. The travels of Zeng He. 12 Raoul McLaughlin: The Roman Empire and the Indian Ocean. 13 Kassia St Clair: The Secret Lives of Colour

Resources - Web: Youtube unless indicated otherwise 1 Course Material –for personal use only- https://tinyurl.com/U3AFarnhamSilkRoads 2 BBC's Science &Islam 3 Part documentary in full. By Physicist Jim Al-Khalili. 3 hrs.

3 BBC: The Birth of Empire - The East India Company Episode 2. 59mins https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1wjqny

4 Caucasus: travel documentary (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia) 22.09 mins

5 NHK TV’s 1980’s 12 part documentary on the Silk Road on youtube.

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German TV DW’s English programmes: 1. The New Silk Road, Part 1: From China to Pakistan 43 mins 2. The New Silk Road, part 2: From Kyrgyzstan to Duisburg 43 mins 3. The People Country and History of Uzbekistan 43 mins

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The Met’s Art History Essays. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/essays/ (1) Figural Representation in Islamic Art. (2) A New Visual Language Transmitted Across Asia. (3) Turkmen Jewellery. (4) The Art of the Timurid Period (ca. 1370–1507). (5) Carpets from the Islamic World, 1600–1800

Places you could visit 1 V&A Museum: Many exhibits that can tell the story of the Silk Roads. 2 British Museum: Excellent for China, Chinese ceramics, Middle East. 3 Leighton House Museum, Kensington, 19th C. artist’s collection & Arab décor. 4 Whitchurch Silk Mill Museum: 18th&19th C , Mill, Fabrics, Looms and Machinery

24/09/2019 U3A Farnham More Silk Roads

Farnham U3A Silk Roads Group – Programme 2019/2020 Year Event 1206-1368 Mongol Empire founded by Genghis Khan (1206-1227) 1241 Mongols cross the Danube and destroys half of Hungary. 1271-1295 Marco Polo’s voyages. 1258 Sacking of Baghdad by Mongols and end of Abbasid Caliphate. 1325-1354 Explorer Ibn Battuta visits all Muslim lands & writes a travel book. 1368-1644 Ming Dynasty 1406-1420 Yongle Emperor moves capital to Beijing and builds Forbidden City. 1370-1507 Timurid Empire (Timur reigned 1370 – 1405) 1405-1433 Admiral Zheng He’s treasure ships are the world’s most powerful navy. 1440 European invention of the Printing Press by Gutenberg. In widespread

use by 1500. In East Asia woodblock printing commonplace by 800. 1453 Fall of Constantinople to Ottomans. 1492 Christopher Columbus discovers South America.

Spain issues Alhambra Decree expelling Jews. Circa 70,000 expelled. 1498 Vasco da Gama reaches India. 1526-1707 Mughal Empire founded by Babur. Babur’s grandson, Akbar the Great

(reigned 1556-1605) extends empire to most of India 1543 Nicholas Copernicus publishes On the Revolutions of the Heavenly

Spheres widely cited as marking the “European Scientific Revolution”. 1545

Parliament permits interest rates of up to 10%. Kick starts funding for global trade and industrialization.

154 Ivan the Terrible becomes first Tsar of Russia. 1572 French St. Bartholomew Day Massacre of Protestants 1588 England defeats Spanish Armada. 1600 Limited Stock English East India Company (EIC) formed. 1602-1682 Dutch EIC exports 6 million items of Chinese porcelain to Europe. 1609 James I buys 100,000 Mulberry trees in attempt to start Sericulture. 1618-1648 After 30 years war, Peace of Westphalia codifies the Nation State. 1620 Voyage of the Pilgrim Fathers in the Mayflower. 1632-53 Shah Jahan, 5th Mughal ruler, builds Taj Mahal. 1642 Start of English Civil War. 1700,1721 Britain’s Calico Acts ban import of cotton textiles 1744-1767 Clive of India, in India 1775-1783 American War of Independence 1893-1896 Britain’s Opium Wars trigger China’s Century of Humiliation 1893 The end of “The Great Game” sees Afghanistan linked to China via the

Wakhan Corridor to provide a buffer between Russia and British India.

2019 Topic September 26th

Welcome Refresher / Summary of 2018/2019 – Silk Roads to 1433

October 24th

Jane: Enrico Dandolo, 41st Doge of Venice 1192-1205 Refresher / Summary of 2018/2019 – Silk Roads 1433 to 1600 Personal experience: Alan’s Silk Road vacation to the “Stans”

November 21st

Theme: Central Asia and reviving ancient crafts Discuss the book A carpet Ride to Khiva Review DW film on Uzbekistan

December 19th

Theme: Silk Roads in the 17th & 18th The British East India Company

2020

January 23rd Technology innovation along the Silk Roads - Accountancy, Transport, Navigation, Mathematics, Pigments, Medicine………..

February 27th Art and Architecture along the Silk Roads

March 26th Theme: 21st C Silk Roads China’s Belt and Road initiative

April 30th Visit to British Museum for Silk Road Art and Technology

May 21st The Caucasus from a Silk Road perspective

June 25th

Class Member’s Talks. 10-15mins. Suggested topics:

• Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, Polymath 973-1048 • Al-Ghazali, Philosopher & Religious leader 1058-1111 • Tamar Queen of Georgia, r: 1184-1213 • Barbur, 1st Mughal Emperor 1483-1530

24/09/2019 U3A Farnham More Silk Roads

Year Event 900BCE-200BCE

Nomadic Scythians roam the Steppes from the Black Sea to China. The forerunners of the Huns, Turks and Mongols.

500BCE Confucius establishes Chinese philosophy which gives a low status to trade and foreigners.

500BCE Siddhartha Gautama starts Buddhism on India/Nepal border.

500BCE In Britain, Iron Age hill forts appear. Cornwall had been exporting tin to Europe for at least 1000 years.

356BCE-323BCE

Alexander The Great, Lord of Asia, – conquers as far east as Sogdiana and Ferghana in Uzbekistan.

206 BCE Start of Han Dynasty, ends 220 CE 164BCE-51BCE

Ambassador Zhang Qian explores Central Asia for Han Emperor and establish Silk Road trade.

30 BCE Queen Cleopatra dies, Egypt becomes a Roman Provence 0 Birth of Christ 165-180 Romans meet Han Emperor in China.

324 Roman Emperor Constantine founds Constantinople and the Byzantium Empire. World focus shifts to Asia.

410 Fall of Rome to the Visigoths

550 Chinese Sericulture stolen by monks working for Byzantium Emperor Justinian.

597 St Augustine becomes first Archbishop of Canterbury, by 7th C: Nishapur (Iran), Herat (Afghanistan), Mosul (Iraq), Samarkand (Uzbekistan), Mumbai, Malabar, Sri Lanka Kashgar & X’ian (China) all have bishops.

618-907 Tang Dynasty 622 Prophet Muhammed establishes Islam.

751 Samarkand: First paper mill in Islamic World. Paper reaches Europe via Muslim Iberia in 11c. Writing Paper in widespread use in China in 3rd C.

760 Sogdian An Lushan rebellion fails. End of Sogdians in China 832 Bagdad House of Wisdom starts 300 years of Islamic scientific leadership. 1000 Norse / Viking village dating to circa 1000 found in Newfoundland. 1025 Avicenna completes his medical encyclopedia. It is the standard medical

textbook in Europe till 18c. 1070 Doomsday Book Published. 1095-1099

First Crusade restores Anatolia to Byzantium from the Seljuk Turks. Jerusalem, Antioch & Edessa retaken, but kept as Crusader states.

c 1111 Al-Ghazali publishes “the Revival of the Religious Science” which puts faith above science and is widely adopted by Sunnis and by Thomas Aquinas in the 13th putting back scientific enquiry for centuries.

2019 Pre meeting activity. Optional but highly recommended September 26th

Read Chapters 1: The Creation of the Silk Road; and 9 :“The Road of Hell” in Frankopan’s Book. The Silk Roads

October 24th

Read Chapters 10: The Road to Gold and Chapter 11: The Road to Silver, in Frankopan’s Book. The Silk Roads

November 21st

Watch: The people, history and culture of Uzbekistan - Traveling the Silk Road | DW Documentary Read Chapters 1 to 6 : Christopher Alexander: A carpet Ride to Khiva

December 19th

Watch: The Birth of Empire – The East India Company, 1 hour Read Chapters 14, The Road to Empire and 15, The Road to Crisis in Peter Frankopans’ The Silk Roads

2020

January 23rd

Watch: BBC's Science and Islam 3 Part documentary by Jim Al-Khalili, Optional: Read: Kassia St Clair: The Secret Lives of Colour

February 27th Read the Met’s Art History Essays.

March 26th

Watch: DW’s: The New Silk Road, Part 1: From China to Pakistan Watch: DW’s The New Silk Road, part 2: From Kyrgyzstan to Duisburg Optional: Read Frankopan’s New Silk Roads

April 30th

May 21st Watch: Caucasus: travel documentary (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia)

June 25th

• Elihu Yale, 1649-1721, Merchant, President EIC, Benefactor • Clive of India, 1725-1774, Commander of British India • Tipu Sultan r. 1782-1799, Sultan of Mysore • 18th Chinese visitors to Britian • History of Jingdezhen Porcelain • Or: Tea, Paper, Printing, or French Campaign in Egypt & Syria

24/09/2019 U3A Farnham More Silk Roads

Silk Roads Map