History of Civilizations of Central Asia

"It’s a wonderful source and hats off to UNESCO for compiling and issuing this treasure 20 years ago. The editors pulled together the world’s best scholars and focused their attention on major topics in the history, science, and culture of Central Asia, and then compressed it all into these six volumes. So if you’re past the initial acquaintance with the region and want to move beyond travel guides, then it’s worth your splurging a little and buying this UNESCO series. It is as good a single source as exists in any language. It does, but it’s a serious book. These are take-no-hostage scholars who wrote it and from many countries, including the Russians, who did a lot of excellent research on Central Asia half a century ago. This occurred because in Stalin’s time scholars studying what was considered a rather exotic topic—many of them Jewish—could do so without interference from Communist bureaucrats. Such scholars are well represented in the UNESCO volumes. It is a wonderful collection. To take just one example, if we think of Central Asia at all it is usually in connection with trade. But as the UNESCO collection proves, there was also manufacturing. The Chinese discovered how to weave silk but the Central Asians noticed, ‘We, too, have mulberry trees, and silkworms thrive here! We, too, can produce silk, and undercut the Chinese producers.’ As a result, it was Central Asians who produced most of the silk found in Europe. The UNESCO books also speak about the region’s many technological innovations. We all know about Damascus steel being used for swords and knives. Well, the process for refining iron into the hardest possible steel was developed not in Syria but in Central Asia, probably in Afghanistan, and spread from there to the Middle East and beyond. Though it was initially a Central Asian discovery, the technology spread, with the result that the resulting swords and blades were sold mainly in Damascus…hence the misleading name. These are the kind of insights that add richness and depth to the region and which are described in detail in the wonderful UNESCO volumes. Exactly! There you are. They do indeed come from Kazakhstan. As do tulips. They’re from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan—the mountain areas. If you go up in the mountains in Kyrgyzstan, you can still see the original tulips as they were before the Dutch refined them into such beauties as they are today. Similarly, the Kazakhs lovingly protect the types of ancient apple that first appeared on their territory. Yes, but where did the Turks get them?"