Exhibition: Silk Roads

The term ‘silk road’ likely conjures up images of a well-trodden track, somewhere in central Eurasia, walked by merchants and camels carrying exotic cargo. From the outset, the British Museum’s new major exhibition, Silk Roads, challenges this image with the addition of a single letter – this fabled route was no single road. It also involved much more than silk. Entering the exhibition gallery, the journey begins with cases of objects from Japan, the Korean peninsula, and Tang China, illustrating the movement of religion (Buddhism) and ideas, as well as goods. From China, sea routes extended to coastal kingdoms in the south, and through the Himalayan mountains to the Tubo empire of the Tibetan plateau.

IMAGE: Bactrian camel figurine carrying coiled silk, folded fabric, and perhaps rib meat, from the tomb of general Liu Tingxun, Luoyang, China, 728 CE.

IMAGE: Painting of Jesus or a Christian saint, depicted as a bodhisattva (being who has achieved enlightenment), from Cave 17, Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China, 800s CE.

IMAGE: Judaeo-Persian sheep trader letter, from Dandan Uiliq, Khotan, China, 802 CE.

Across the steppes, the trading networks reached Vikings trading along the austrvegr (‘eastern way’) into the Baltic and through river systems across Europe and Scandinavia. The austrvegr reached Byzantium and beyond, and Vikings offloaded huge numbers of enslaved people into the markets of Islamic lands.

IMAGE: Line drawing of a scene on a slate from Scotland, showing a captive led to a longship by a long-haired figure. 800s CE, from Inchmarnock, Buteshire, Scotland.

IMAGE: 1533 CE copy of a map drawn by al-Idrisi in 1154, for the Christian King of Sicily, Roger II. The map has Mecca at the centre, with southern lands depicted at the top of the map. The Iberian Peninsula appears in the lower right corner, and China can be found on the left.

IMAGE: Egyptian linen embroidered with silk, found in the Jawsaq al-Khaqani in Samarra, Iraq. 870-92 CE.

Now we come to parts of the world more familiar to Cairo Genizah enthusiasts. Cairo and Fustat sat at the heart of this vast trading network, and occupied a similar position in the Silk Roads exhibition. Thousands of Chinese ceramic fragments have been found in excavations in Fustat, as well as textiles showing Indian influence. Earlier than most Cairo Genizah fragments, there are also early Arabic papyri from Egypt, in Cambridge University Library’s Michaelides collection.

IMAGE: Fatimid map of the Indian Ocean, combining naval and Shi’i missionary sources, as well as Greek, Coptic, Persian and Indian scholarship, from a 1190-1210 CE copy of ‘The Book of Strange Arts and Visual Delights’, Egypt (originally made in 1020-1050).

IMAGE: Arabic deed of sale for a Nubian woman named Shu‘la, detailing her scars but declaring she is physically fit. Ca. 850-930 CE.

Seven Cairo Genizah fragments were loaned from Cambridge’s Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection for this exhibition. The fragments, dealing with trade, international connections, the relationship between the Jewish community and the Fatimid state, and the movement of culture and folklore, are displayed together in a large case, raised on Perspex mounts cut to the shape of the fragment. The case is overlooked by a wooden panel from the Ben Ezra Synagogue, loaned by the British Library, and the more interactively minded visitor can also pick up an earpiece to hear a two-minute recording of one of the letters in translation (a case elsewhere in the exhibition has a lift-up handle to reveal the smell of some pungent merchant goods).

IMAGE: Seven Genizah fragments on display, alongside Ben Ezra Synagogue panel.

Beyond Cairo, the next stopping points were al-Andalus, and Northwest Europe, ending in the British Isles, where burials from the 600s CE contain objects crafted in Syria (believed to have been brought back by mercenaries recruited to fight Byzantine wars against the Sasanians).

IMAGE: Byzantine and Mediterranean influence is revealed in the carving of the clothes, wings, hair and eyes of the ‘Lichfield Angel’, Lichfield Cathedral, ca. 800 CE.

The exhibition book, attractively produced and illustrated, contains a section on the Cairo Genizah fragments, with images of the documents.

'Silk Roads', written to accompany the British Museum exhibition, by Sue Brunning, Luk Yu-ping, Elisabeth O’Connell and Tim Williams.

Silk Roads is open daily at the British Museum until 23rd February 2025. It’s a beautiful exhibition, and if you have the chance to visit it, please do. When else will you have the opportunity to see Genizah manuscripts displayed alongside artefacts from Sutton Hoo?