Silk Road Textile Trade Routes
Robin Maitland·Published
More Than Silk
The Silk Road carried far more than silk thread. Textiles of all kinds moved along these routes: Chinese brocades, Indian cottons, Persian carpets, and Central Asian felts all traveled between East and West.
Key Trade Nodes
- Chang'an (Xi'an) — eastern terminus, silk production center
- Samarkand — Central Asian hub, textile marketplace
- Baghdad — Abbasid-era luxury textile production
- Constantinople — Byzantine silk monopoly in Europe
Technology Transfer
Textile technologies spread along trade routes. Sericulture (silkworm farming) moved from China to Byzantium via smuggled eggs in the 6th century. Draw loom technology traveled westward from China through Persia.
Cotton's Journey
While silk gets the glory, cotton moved along the same routes in the opposite direction — from India through Central Asia to China. By the Song Dynasty, cotton had become China's most-worn fiber.
