Materials for Teachers

Materials for Teachers, Students, and Others among the Curious

My purpose here is to provide several different kinds of materials that may be of interest to those with a general interest in Central Asia and more particularly for teachers and their students. It is important to remember that material presented on the web site under different headings is also largely intended for general users--for example, the pages on various cities such as Samarkand. Here you will find:

1. Reference material and annotated guidance to resources regarding Central Asia. On several occasions I have been asked to do presentations for workshops or provide in a lecture an overview of the region. Here are some of the hand-outs prepared for such occasions. It is important to remember that they may already somewhat dated. New publications and other kinds of resources on Central Asia are appearing all the time. Where I have time to review the new material, those reviews will be posted or linked here.

2. Readings relating to the Silk Road in its broadest sense. Much of this is material prepared specifically for my course on the Silk Road (see below). In the first instance I am interested in making available primary source texts (e.g., old chronicles or travel accounts). What is here so far is only a start; additional texts will be added in spring of 2000 when I teach the course for the second time. Generally I have not attempted to standardize spellings of names in the texts or provide annotation.

3. Syllabus for my course on the Silk Road. This is the "third edition" of the course, currently being offered in Winter Quarter 2001. Please note that the "Course Materials" must remain password protected because of copyright issues.

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Reference Material.

Chronology of the Silk Road. An even more extensive chronology for the Silk Road, with links from it to various pages about specific topics is available on the Silkroad Foundation website. Additional, more specific chronologies may be found under "Lecture Outlines/Chronologies" on the syllabus for my Silk Road course. The lecture outlines there often include suggestions of material in English for further reading.
Annotated reading/viewing list for tour group on the Silk Road.
Travelers on the Silk Road. (Co-authored with Adela Lee of the Silk Road Foundation). An annotated guide to historic travels and descriptions of them. This is an ongoing project which so far includes some 45 entries.
A Sven Hedin Bibliography. Annotated guide to the multitudinous publications by the last famous 19th-20th century explorer of Central Asia.
Materials for a teacher workshop.
My review of a CD-ROM on the "Silk Road," produced for schools.
"The Challenges of Learning about the Silk Road," my review of three new books that might interest the general reader. To read this requires Adobe Acrobat 4.0 or higher, which you can download via a link to the REECAS web site.
One of the major encyclopedias for detailed, scholarly information relevant to Central Asia is the Encyclopaedia Iranica, eight volumes of which have appeared. Beginning with Vol. 7, it is available on-line; one can hope that the earlier volumes also will eventually be available on the Web. To use it fully, one has to download a special font, but the process is relatively easy. So far, the coverage is up to the letter E; so a lot more is to come. Vol. 5 (Costa Mesa: Mazda, 1992) contains a long section on "Central Asia" (pp. 159ff.), a very valuable set of articles on "Chinese-Iranian Relations" (pp. 424-460), and another on "Chinese Turkestan (pp. 460ff.).

Readings.

A. Primary Sources.

Excerpts from the Han histories about relations with the Hsiung-nu nomads.
Travels of the monk Faxian to India.
Excerpts from the merchant handbook written by Pegolotti ca. 1340, an excellent source for the Eastern trade in the period when the Golden Horde was at its peak.
Excerpts from the Baburnama, the autobiography of Mughal Emperor Babur.
Excerpts from the Tarikh-i Rashidi of Mirza Muhammad Haidar Dughlat, a contemporary of Babur's.
The Journey of Benedict Goës Overland from India to China, 1603-1607, which provides a unique view of the inner Asian trade routes.
Journey of Richard Steel and John Crowther from India to Persia in 1615-1616.
Two texts on Safavid Persia edited by University of Washington History majors for an independent study project:
1. Excerpts from Adam Olearius' Travels, edited by Lance Jenott.
2. Excerpts from Jean Chardin's Travels, edited by Janeen Richards.

B. Other.

My article with impressions of Central Asia after eight years of independence. Can be read with Adobe Acrobat 4.0 or higher.
My article on the "Pax Mongolica," providing an overview of the impact of the Mongol Empire.
A collection of essays by well-known specialists such as Peter Golden, Richard Frye, Edward Lazzerini, on various major works by Central Asian writers over a period of many centuries, in H. B. Paksoy, ed., Central Asian Monuments (Isis Press, 1992), the whole text of which is on-line through a new project at the University of Kansas.
The University of Calgary History Department's fairly detailed introduction to "The Islamic World to 1600," nicely organized and illustrated. There are, for example, pages on the Umayyid and Abbasid periods of the Caliphate, on the Timurids, Safavids and Mughals. Within these pages, one can bring up information on individual rulers.