Azerbaijan – crossroads of the Great Silk Road
Vol.9,No.1(2018)
Since antiquity, Azerbaijan has been a natural crossroads of routes linking remote areas along the north-south and east-west axes. It is no exaggeration to say that historical Azerbaijan formed the border between the West (North) and the Orient. The historical events of epochs prior to the advent of the Achaemenid Empire made this country the place where trade and civilization intersected. Azerbaijan progressively became a strategic enclave of interests among the great powers, including Persia, the Roman Empire and later Byzantium, Sassanid Iran, and the emerging Russian Empire. This historical-geographical predestination of Azerbaijan was only underscored further during the High Middle Ages. Essentially two parallel routes lead from Trebizond (later Trabzon) on the Black Sea coast in this period to the Arax valley. One of them followed the part of the route described by Xenophon in his Anabasis and passed through the valley of the river Çoruh (maybe Xenophon’s Harpasos?). The second of the routes led to the valley of the upper stream of the Western Euphrates (the second option for Xenophon’s Harpasos?) and through today’s Erzurum directly to the upper Arax. The other east-west road, heading north along the southern foothills of the Greater Caucasus, is probably a little younger with regard to its frequency of regular business contacts. Due to the intensity of traffic, probably the youngest of the three main routes that crossed the territory of historical Azerbaijan is the north-south branch of the Silk Road, running along the western coast of the Caspian Sea. Today this road remains a tangible symbol of contacts between the two different worlds of Europe and the Orient.
Azerbaijan; Great Silk Road; trade routes; Caucasus; Persia
Alijev, I. G. – Gadirov, F. V. (1985): Gabala. Baku, 37–45.
Alijev, Igrar (1995): Istoriâ Azerbajdžana s drevnejših vremen do načala XX veka. Baku, 211.
Alijev, Igrar, ed. (2012): Přehled dějin Ázerbájdžánu. Ostrava: Ostravské muzeum, 47–48.
Dženkinson, Entoni: Putešestvie Antona Dženkinsona v Persiû. (online). (http://www.vostlit.info/Texts/rus11/Jenkinson/text3.phtml?id=415).
Fuchs, Andreas (1994): Die Inschriften Sargons II. aus Khorsabad. Göttingen.
Giyasi, Jafar (2010): Bridges of Khudaferin. Irs Heritage, 2, 30–34.
Gumiljov, Lev Nikolajevič (1971): Objevení země Chazarů. Praha.
Guseynov, Rauf (2009): The Great Silk Road and Azerbaijan. Baku.
Klavicho, Rui Gonsales de (1990): Dnevnik putešestviâ v Samarkand ko dvoru Timura (1403–1406). Moskva.
Kvaçidze, Viktor (2009): Xezer Atlantidasi. Baki.
Luckenbill, Daniel David (1926): Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia. Chicago, 213.
Mayer, Walter (1983): Sargons Feldzug gegen Urartu – 714 v. Chr. Mitteilungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft, 115, 65–132.
Naxçıvan memarliq mektebi (2005). Naxçıvan.
Nováček, Karel et al. (2008): Research of the Arbil Citadel, Iraqi Kurdistan, First Season. Památky archeologické, XCIX, 259–302.
Pourshariati, Parvaneh (2008): Decline and Fall of the Sasanian Empire. The Sasanian–Parthian Confederacy and the Arab Conquest of Iran. New York, 278–281.
Salimova, A. T. (2003): Velikij Šelkovyj Puť i Azerbajdžan. Böyük Ipek Yolu. Baku, s. 248–265.
Schlemmer, Ulrich, red. (1983): Johannes Schiltberger. Als Sklave im Osmanischen Reich und bei den Tataren: 1394–1427. Stuttgart.
Scrinzi, Luigi (2011): Signature of the Centurion. Irs Heritage, 4, 10–13.
Širvani, Hagani, (1959): Izbrannye proizvedeniâ. Baku.
Tagijeva, Roja, (2012): Tradition of the Azerbaijani Carpet. Země věčného ohně II. Ostrava: Ostravské muzeum, 12–14 a 64–67.
Talibov, Vasif et al. (2008): Naxçıvan abideleri ensiklopediyası. Naxçıvan.
Xenofón (1974): Anabaze. Praha.
Copyright © 2018 David Majer