Silk Road: The World's Nervous System

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[Lukastar]

Wow.. the past couple days I’ve been thinking “I wonder if there are any comprehensive videos about the Silk Road?”

Well here it is I guess, thanks for reading my mind!

[Bubbaist]

An excellent book about the Silk Road is, “Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane” by S. Fredrick Starr. He makes the case that the Silk Road wasn’t a crossroad of culture, but a crossroads culture. That is, a distinct culture created by the many cultures that met on the Silk Road. It’s a good read.

[Bubbaist]

Even older than the Silk Road is the Frankincense Trail in the Middle East and east Africa. That would make an interesting episode.

[ignitionfrn]

0:50 - Chapter 1 - Shortcuts
2:40 - Chapter 2 - Alexander's veterans & the emperor envoy
5:45 - Mid roll ads
7:05 - Chapter 3 - A scandalous fabric
11:25 - Chapter 4 - The cross & the lotus
14:10 - Chapter 5 - Declines & revivals
18:05 - Chapter 6 - The end of the road

[oldman]

These types of detailed and informative videos are becoming my favorites well done

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Considering Simon is omnipresent, calling the Silk Road the world's nervous system implies that it is HIS nervous system as this is Simon's world and we're all just livin' in it

[Dank-gbjn]

Please cover Çatalhöyük! One of the most stunning Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city sites in Anatolia. The site is one that Terrence McKenna (of “Food of the Gods” fame) claims helped human language flourish along with the ritualistic use of psilocybin containing mushrooms. What he uses to illustrate this theory (at least for the ritual use) is the presence of cattle gods, (as P. Cubensis mushrooms typically grow on cow manure) and even a “Mother” Goddess.

[HeyMJ.]

An excellent BioGraphics episode re the Silk Road. It’s info-rich & engaging w/many branches to expand-upon in the future. Thank you!

[resileaf]

"The same culture which staged mass violence as entertainment had an issue with revealing attires."
The more things change...

[SolaScientia]

My dad was in the navy in the 70s and his ship was stationed in Persian Gulf for a while before he transferred to a different ship that was involved with Vietnam. He had some leave, so he and a friend went into Pakistan for some exploring and sort of hired a local taxi driver to show them around. They had no business being there considering they were Americans and in the military. My dad got to me some interesting people (including one man who ended up being pretty high up in the Pakistani military later on in the 80s), and he saw a few children with blond hair and/or blue eyes. He asked about them and was told that they're children of Alexander, because of carrying genes from Alexander's soldiers intermingling with the local populations (willing or not, considering they were going about conquering everything). The children are considered very special by the locals because of how different they look. My dad spent some of his childhood in Istanbul and the people there really loved my aunt, because of her blond hair and such.

[chrisgrakul]

Great video. I've been hoping for an Ibn Battuta Biographics for ages. Happy to see he got a mention here, and hopefully we'll get a full video soon!

[ZiBiTmusic]

(not sure this will reach the editors of Geographics but here goes...)
For those who want to dig deeper, not so long ago an expert in the Silk Road passed away.
His name was Aloïs Van Tongerloo, a Belgian professor and an eccentric figure (one would almost say an "idiot savant") who could speak and write numerous old languages used on the S.R. (hell, even knew the difference between East <some old language> and West <some old language>) and at some point was invited to teach the then crown prince of Thailand.
His passing away caused a little stir in the academic world. (I know his ex-wife and she talked about academics calling her in a bit of a panic). He wrote some books and his name is mentioned in various papers of other scholars and professors, but you won't find anything on YouTube for instance. As I said, it's a bit of a deep dig.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

*"There goes Buddhism, traveling up the Silk Road! I wonder if it'll reach China before it collapses again."*
Obviously Simon knows the Silk Road all too well, he traveled on the Silk Road many times. He is eternal and thus he lived through history to tell the tale. That's why he has all these channels to educate

[kathyjaneburke]

Fascinating! Another brilliant story from Factboi.

[tommykelly]

Simon honestly I'm so grateful for you in general! You really are way more than just a YouTuber! Nearly there for your 1mill subscriber button for this channel! You keep doing you and we will all be just fine! Love from Dublin!

[davidcarroll]

Love Simon on this channel! One of the best channels on YouTube hands down!

[historymatters]

You know when you're a nerd when you get excited and do a little happy dance about your favorite history guy talking about the silt road lol😆 🤣

[paulepatterson]

Sometimes, if you close your eyes, Simon’s voice sounds like it has been sped up. No…not sometimes…all the time. Love ya, Simon. Love the vids.

[the-chillian]

"Journey to the West" was more the inspiration for the original Dragonball. In the novel, one of the characters, a protector of Xuanzang -- fictionalized as Tang Sanzang -- was the Monkey King, whose name was Sun Wukong. When the novel was imported to Japan, this name got altered to Son Goku, which you probably recognize.

With Dragonball Z, the storyline drifted so far away from the original inspiration that it essentially has nothing to do with it at all. Not to mention the subsequent Dragonball series.

[andrewliddell]

The Red Baron is like the Spanish Inquisition, no one ever expects them