Abstract
The Iranian Branch of the Silkroad and the Prevention of the Sılk Trade by Iran
History of studies on the Silkroad begins with Zhang Qian, a famous Chinese ambassador in the East, in the second half of the 2nd century BC in the East, and with Maes Titianus, a Greek trader in the West in the early years of the 1st century AD. In the Antiquity and Early Middle Ages, the Silkroad began to its journey from Antiochia in the West through the territories of Northern Mesopotamia and Iran and then the Western and Eastern Turkestan in Central Asia and finished in Chang’an and Loyang, the two capitals of China in the East. The course of this route through Iranian territory generally stayed closed during the times of the states founded in Iran, such as Parthians and Sasanians because they liked to getting more profits from the silk trade and other products. At the end, the Roman trade with the East through the Red Sea was prevented by the Sasanians towards 570s, and Justinus II, the Byzantine Emperor had to pass the route through the northern regions of the Aral Lake and the Black Sea, negotiating with the rulers of the 1st Turkic Kaganate.
Keywords
Silkroad, silk, Iran, Parthians, Sasanians, Byzantine, Turkish Kaganate.