EXHIBIT SIGN:
WHAT WASN’T SAID:
1. That Sogdians were mainly Zoroastrian (a religion that exists today), yet linked to suggest they are Muslim craftsmen.
2. That Jews who worked at creating merchandise in Samarkand and produced much of the “beautiful objects” described in the exhibit sign, remain unidentified; the Aramaic alphabet may be a means of identification.
FACTS:
1. Sogdians were an ancient civilization of an Iranian people whose religion was Zoroastrianism. Although many converted to Islam, they may number up to 2.6 million today. Not politically aligned, Sogdiana’s various territories centered around Samarkand. They wrote in a variety of scripts derived from the Aramaic alphabet.
2. Most merchants tended to trade goods in a central oasis, and Sogdians established a trading network across the 1500 miles from Sogdiana to China, until they became the all-encompassing name for all merchants to trade with China’s Han Dynasty, into the 10th Their language became a lingua franca of trade; they taught their children to read at age 5. Sogdians worked as farmers, carpetweavers, glassmakers, and woodcarvers.
EXHIBIT SIGN:
WHAT WASN’T SAID:
1. That the Sogdian designation for merchants of Samarkand remains The exhibits’ focus is promoting Islam.
2. That skill may have been needed to handle animals and people, named in a questionable order, unless the people are women and children who had been abducted into slavery.
FACTS:
1. The Silk Road exhibit is a tribute to the Islamic culture, with all negative characteristics whitewashed, removed, and replaced with positive traits usurped from the cultures conquered. Islam was and continues to be a culture of acquisition, subjugation, and genocide, responsible for the killing of 270 million people over 1400 years, to this day.
2. The countries involved in the Silk Route include China, Persian Empire, Greece (particularly maritime trade routes), and mainland Europeans. By religion, they were Jews, Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Romans, Grecians, Hindus, Pharoahans, Christian sects and Muslims.
3. Dating back about three millennia, the Jewish community in Iran is the oldest in Asia. Freed from slavery by Persia’s Emperor Cyrus in 539 BCE, they became an integral part of the Persian Empire. They travelled widely in Persian-dominated Afghanistan, the Caucasus and Caspian through Central Asia, and traded with displaced Turgik tribes, and Khazars (glassworks factories, c. 7th and 8th centuries). Persian Jews were merchants in Uzbekistan, Central Asian Silk Road in Bukhara and Samarkand, where major trading posts were established.
EXHIBIT SIGN:
WHAT WASN’T SAID:
1. Some inns provided sex workers to the Silk Road merchants; one Sogdian-language contract shows at least one Chinese bought a Sogdian girl in 639 AD. Earlier 7th century documents point to massive volume in the sex-slave trade, with some recorded marriages. One record shows a Sogdian merchant sold an 11-year-old girl for 40 bolts of silk.
2. That there was a flourishing slave trade. As a youth, Mohammed accompanied his uncle on the caravan expeditions, dealing in human slavery and trading the items looted from the conquered peoples.
3.The many cultures of travelers and slavers remain unidentified, although their grotesqueries are known and continue unabated.
Centinel2012 