Caravanserai and the Silk Roads

Here are two great resources for studying the Silk Roads.

The first comes from Saudi Aramco World. It's an essay called Spine of the Silk Road in which the author, Andrew F. Lawler, reviews the importance of khans which were one of three types of "hotels" along the Silk Roads. Funduqs and caravanserais were the other two types of lodging for Silk Raod traders. Lawler notes;

All three were, to varying degrees across continents and centuries, vibrant centers where peoples, religions and ethnicities mingled. In particular, caravanserais were probably more like airports today, resembling small towns in themselves, with places to sleep, eat, shop, pray, meet and mingle while livestock rested, awaiting the next stage of the journey. Here you might make an unexpected profit on a load of exotic goods, trade rumors of bandits or tax collectors, or just savor tea with your own countrymen in a distant land.

The second resource comes from the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University.  (my thanks to Jeremy Greene for the link). It's called "Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa." It includes over 100 pieces of art and fragments from the Silk Roads and opened on January 26, 2019.

Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time at The Block Museum of Art from Block Museum on Vimeo.