Judaism and The Silk Road (Entry #13)

Both Cansdale and Leslie agree that Jewish merchants were part of the Silk Road but Leslie challenges the belief that there were Jewish communities along the Silk Road. Cansdale states that the Jewish communities were mainly in the Western regions of the Silk Route; i.e. Persian Empire. Such evidence along with much more have been mainly presented by 20th century archaeologists and explorers that researched the Silk Road. Stein was the first to find evidence of Jewish existence, in the form of a letter that was written in Judeo-Persian and found in Khotan. The most convincing evidence has been the tombstones and graves in Ghur that are marked with 11th to 13th century dates. Could they have been merchants that were just traveling through or did they actually come from a Jewish settled community?

Other evidence of their presence come from their incorporation into laws. For example, Judaism was listed as a religio lictia, meaning it was a religion that was permitted by law. This also means that their practices and beliefs were heavily regulated by the government; i.e. their dietary laws.

Leslie argues that Jewish presence along the Silk Road is more speculation than real evidence. However, he does, like Cansdale, believe that they were very much engaged with the mercantile business. It would be interesting to learn more about this topic. Did Jewish merchants build communities along the route? If so, were they different from "pure" Judaism since they were regulated by the law? I think it would be hard for one to live in a place where the ethnicity is different from theirs and not being affected by it. Whether or not they were really Jewish would be another interesting discussion. It goes back to the question of whether or not we can simply categorize individuals based on general or a few traits. Many people believe they are part of a religious sect even though they don't partake in certain practices or beliefs. This also reminds me of the Hui and Uyghur conflict, in which you have two sides arguing who is the "real" Muslim.