Two Stops Past Siberia

Empires of the Silk Road, A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present, Christopher I. Beckwith

In Empires of the Silk Road, Mr. Beckwith presents a history of effectively every major inland culture on the entire Eurasian land mass over the last 5,000 years. He begins with an introduction into the “Central Eurasian Culture Complex,” and uses this concept to frame each culture he discusses, and whether they are “Central Eurasian” (Mongolian, German) or “peripheral” (Roman, Chinese). Especially during pre-history, Mr. Beckwith’s discussions focus on a dizzying array of ethno-linguistics, but as he moves closer to the present, relies more heavily on primary source histories, as well as their corresponding critical reviews.

Taken at face value, the book is little more than an exhaustive collection of well researched historical fact and inferences. The book largely eschews narrative and intrigue, focusing instead on bald fact. Where other books invariably delve into the lives of infamous Central Eurasians, like Attila the Hun, Tamerlane or Genghis Kahn, Mr. Beckwith makes hardly passing reference to them, and then only to note of little more than their military prowess. But it is through this curious choice that the book begins to take shape.

While the primary purpose of the book is a history, it is the supplementary material that sets it apart from other similar works. The copious foot notes invariably present unveiled criticisms to the historians who have come before him, highlighting their anti-Central Eurasian biases. Likewise, the endnotes give more detailed critiques on why previous historians have been simply wrong in their summaries, and blind to their perspectives.

The truth as we know it regarding the “barbarians” of Central Eurasia, according to Mr. Beckwith, has been written by their enemies. The Central Eurasians were never any more interested in war than the Romans, the Russians or the Chinese, and were, in general, more civilized when they conducted it. In fact, Mr. Beckwith goes to great lengths to show that with Attila, Tamerlane and Genghis as exceptions, the Central Eurasian people have been largely on the losing end of historical conflict. All they every really wanted, he says, was free trade with frontier market towns. When those rights were denied, and walls built on their former territory, they saw them as overt acts of war, and responded accordingly. The myth of the “powerful barbarian” is one they cultured themselves, we learn, because otherwise they would never have had the strength to achieve the military conquests that they did.

The real downfall of the Central Eurasians, according to Mr. Beckwith, was the fact that their realm was bypassed in strength by peripheral, coastal powers. As trade on the Silk Road shrunk in comparison to the direct sea routes, their empires became the fringes of those same peripheral states, and then their new overlords simply didn’t care enough to develop them. In his surreal final chapter, Mr. Beckwith ends with a tirade against the forces of modernism, and how they dealt the final death knell to this entire region of the earth.

An excellent selection for anyone with a keen interest in Central Eurasian history, patience for lack of narrative, and particular focus on the myths of the “barbarian.”