Category: Historical Tidbits

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K is for Kushan

Vima Kadphises and Shiva, photo from columbia. edu.

You want to study the Romans?
You ought to study the Kushans.

Prof. Craig Benjamin, “Foundations of Eastern Civilization”

The Kushan dynasty may be the greatest empire that you’ve never heard of. 

The Kushans practically invented the Silk Road. At least the middle part of the road, since I noted previously that the Han dynasty forged paths across the mountains to create the road from the east and Darius’ Achmaenid dynasty had a “Royal Road” that crossed from Greece through Persia from the west. Craig Benjamin, who taught a crackerjack 45-lecture Great Course on Eastern Civilizations (yes that’s where I got some of this from), started out an ancient Rome scholar. But he ended up writing his dissertation on the Kushans, that dynasty that spread from Persia across northern Afghanistan and India, a terrain that is mountainous but traversable. 

Today, it’s known as the Hindu Kush.

The Hindu Kush is a place but also a people who spread far across the territory. Wikipedia.
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I is for Ibn Battutah

If you thought Giovanni da Pian’s 5000 miles across Asia was long, how about 73,000 miles?

Muslim scholar Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Battutah — in Arabic بُو عَبْد الله مُحَمَّد اِبْن عَبْد الله اللَّوَاتِيّ الطَّنْجِيّ اِبْن بَطُّوطَة — traveled all across the deserts of Asia Minor AND across northern Africa, southern Europe, eastern Europe, India, the southern oceans, and parts of China. It was enough to circumnavigate the globe three times. Battuta went so far, that there are multiple views of his trip, all of which could fit under the heading of “map porn,” a few of which I will include because I do just love me some maps.

Ibn Battuta traversed pieces of the Silk Route, including sea routes. Wikipedia.
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H is for Heavenly Horses (hànxuèmǎ)

Ferghana horse, photo by Olga I., posted at Culture Trip.

They have a lot of names. Heavenly horses. Ferghana horses. The horses of Tianma, the Argamaks.

The vegetarian dragons (my favorite!) The horses that sweat blood.

Ferghana horses in Bactria, photo from Emory U.

They came from the Asian steppes; Ferghana is in Uzbekhistan. From Iran and Turkey, where they might be called Nisean. Of course they did, since equus originated on the plains of Asia. As you may know, those teeny weeny North American horse ancestors died out, and all horses in this hemisphere were originally imported. The wheel, after all, was invented in Mesopotamia and perfected by Asian steppe people like the Hittites who created chariots. Asia covers a lot of territory. Camels are good for plodding through sand, but horses are good for crossing a lot of hard, grassy ground, and Asia had plenty of that.

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