Unravelling the Silk Road

Author: Chris Aslan

Central Asia | Pollution & threats to the environment | Social impact of environmental issues | Antiques & collectables: carpets, rugs & textiles | Travel writing

Published on 6^th June 2024 by Icon Books in the United Kingdom.

Paperback / softback | 352 pages
198mm x 129mm | 0g

Three textile roads tangle their way through Central Asia. The famous Silk Road united east and west through trade. Older still was the Wool Road, of critical importance when houses made from wool enabled nomads to traverse the inhospitable winter steppes. Then there was the Cotton Road, marked by greed, colonialism and environmental disaster.

At this intersection of human history, fortunes were made and lost through shimmering silks, life-giving felts and gossamer cottons. Chris Aslan, who has spent fifteen years living and working in the region, expertly unravels the strands of this tangled history and embroiders them with his own experiences of life in the heart of Asia.