eLibrary: Silk Along the Silk Road

Silk is a beautiful fabric but throughout this period it is only the rich and privileged that had access to it. This was a time when China had cased to have a monopoly over silk production and the silk trade.

NOTE:

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Articles

Apichart, S. and Speakman, P., “Silk: queen of fibres–The concise story.” Journal of Engineering, RMUTT 4 (2003): 84-97. [pdf download]

Galliker, J.L., Middle Byzantine Silk in Context: Integrating the Textual and Material Evidence. PhD Thesis, Birmingham, 2004 [pdf]

Hammers, R.L. PICTURES OF TILLING AND WEAVING Art, Labor, and Technology in Song and Yuan China, Hong Kong, 2011. 59pp. [pdf] 

Jacoby, D. ‘Silk Production’, Oxford Handbook, XXXX 421-428 [Academia] 

Ju, F. ‘Polytheism Tendency in the Trend of Integration of the Three Major Religions. Worship of Silk Worm Deity Art of Medieval China, Religions, 13, 2022, [pdf download] 

Korea Society, Silla Korea and the Silk Silla Korea and the Silk Road: Golden Age, Road: Golden Age, Golden Threads Golden Threads, XXXX [pdf] 

Langford, H., The Textiles of the Han Dynasty & Their Relationship with Society, MA Thesis Adelaide, 2009 [pdf] 

Lunde, K.S, 13th – 14th Century Yuan and Mongol Silk-Gold Textiles: Transcultural Consumption, meaning and reception in the Mongol Empire and in Europe, MA Thesis, SOAS, London, 2017 [pdf] 

Mohammad, S. Baghdad and Silk Route. A study on the commercial function of the city of Baghdad in the middle ages, UNESCO Knowledge Bank XXXXXXX [pdf] 

Redford, S. ‘Byzantium and the Islamic World, 1261–1557’ in Evans, H.C. (ed) Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2004. [pdf download]

Rosati, M.L. ‘The Language of Silk. Types, Patterns and Colours’ [pdf] 

Sajid, A, Traceable Threads: A case study of a 12th century silk textile from Al-Andalus, MA Thesis, McGill, 2021 [pdf download]

Schafer, D. and Kuhn, D. Weaving an Economic Pattern in Ming Times1(368-1644): TheProduction of Silk Weaves in the State-Owned Silk  Workshops, Heidelberg, 2002 [Academia] 

Schäfer, D. Riello, G,and Molà, L. (eds.) Seri­Technics Historical Silk Technologies. Max Planck Research Library, 2020 Includes [pdf] :

• Seri­Technics: Historical Silk Technologies (D. Schäfer, G. Riello, and L.Molà) . . .
• The Silk Cycle in China and its Migration (Claudio Zanier)
• The Silken Tug­of­War in Eighteenth­Century Lyons: The Gendered Nature of Knowledge in the Grande Fabrique (Daryl Hafter)
• Sericulture and its Complementary: Wild Silk Production in China’s Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (M. Chuan­hui)
• The Culture and Economics of Silk Weaving During the VijayanagarEra (1336–1646) in South India (V. Ramaswamy)
• Panni tartarici: Fortune, Use, and the Cultural Reception of Oriental Silks in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth­century European Mindset (M.L. Rosati)

Sepgupta, A, ‘Textiles of the Silk Road – Enigmas and Riddlesdles in Cross-Cultural Perspective in the Art of Central Asia’ XXXXXXXXXXXXXX [Academia] 

Shamir, O, ‘Silk Textiles from the Byzantine Period from Excavations in the Land of Israel (5th-13th Centuries CE): Origin, Transmission, and Exchange’, Acta Via Serica, 7, 1, 2022, 54-81 [pdf] 

Shea, E.’ Textile as Traveller: The Transmission of Inscribed Robes across Asia in the Twelfth through Fourteenth Centuries’, XXXXXXXXXXX [Academia] 

Shea, E, ‘The Mongol Cultural Legacy in East and Central Asia: The Early Ming and Timurid Courts, Ming Studies, 78, 2018, 32-56 [Researchgate] 

Shea, E,  “The Spread of Gold Thread Production in the Mongol Period: A Study of Golde Textiles in the China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou,” Journal of Song-Yuan Studies 50, 2021, 381-415. [Academia] 

Shea, E. ‘The Spread of Gold Thread Production in the Mongol Period: A Study of Gold Textiles in the China National Silk Museum, Hangzhou’, Journal of Song-Yuan Studies, 50, 2021, 381-415 [pdf] 

Sheng, A. ‘Textiles from the Silk Road Intercultural Exchanges among Nomads, Traders, and Agriculturalists’ Penn Museum Expedition, 52. 3, XXXX, [pdf] 

UNESCO, Textiles and clothing along the Silk Roads, 2022 Includes [pdf] :  

• Silk: origin and globalization
• Sheep wool across Eurasia
• Flax, hemp, ramie and jute: the bast fibres
• The global success of cotton
• Dyes along the Silk Road Drawlooms along the Silk Roads
• The wrong mulberries? Moriculture before the white mulberry
• The tapestry weave technique and cultural exchange along the Silk Roads
• Golden phoenixes on the snowy peaks of the Elbrus. Imported silks with animalistic images in the culture of the medieval population of the North Caucasus
• Pearl roundel patterns: regional variations in iconography
• The maritime route and the circulation of trade textilesin insular Southeast Asia (Eighth to fifteenth century)
• Hybrid creature motifs as cross-cultural transmission along the Silk Roads
• The transmission of Greek and Roman imagery on Silk Roads textiles
• West African prints: fusion of global textile design traditions
• Textiles and identity along the Silk Roads between China and the Eastern Islamic World
• Ikat of Central and West Asia
• The migration of silk production from China to Europe and its subsequent developments
• Silk robes and quality silk threads from China and Central Asia to Italy in early medieval times
• Silk, cotton and raffia roads: sub-Saharan Africa and global textile exchanges
• The fabric of banknotes: Textiles in and on paper money
• Dyes and colours of textiles in Europe and Asia from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century as studied in nine fabrics from the China National Silk Museum

Watt, J.C.Y., and Wardwell, A.E. When Silk Was Gold: Central Asian and Chinese Textiles, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1998 [pdf download] 

Wen, X., Kingly Exchange: The Silk Road and the East Eurasian World in the Age of Fragmentation (850-1000), Harvard, 2017 [pdf preview] 

Wilson, J. The Mongols and Silk, Medievalists Net Blog [blog] 

Woodfin, W. ‘Liturgical Textiles’ in Evans, H.C. (ed) Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2004. [pdf download]