Seeding the silk route feeding on a humble plant…

        Around 7000 years ago, the Chinese invented the art and science of spinning cocoons of silkworms into smooth thread and weaving it into the lustrous fabric for the fabulously rich world. They raised silkworms feeding on cultivated white mulberry plants. The secret was successfully guarded for thousands of years and resulted in one of the largest travel and transport networks, later known as the silk route, over land and sea. Traders travelled to distant lands on foot, on horseback or by caravan, following a confluence of trails leading to China, and brought the silk and sold it at bazaars and caravanserais en route. (Caravanserais were roadside inns where travelers – caravaners - could rest and recover from the day's journey.) The route connected the civilizations in the East and the West for about 1400 years.

I captured this photo of our daughter Aishah holding a bowl of sun-ripe mulberry freshly plucked  in the little garden of our property owner, Abdul Azeez Abdullah Yahya Ajeem, a man with truly green fingers. He had planted this mulberry tree a few years before I rented an apartment on the ground floor. Reading my interest in plants, he readily entrusted the care of his plants to me.

Back to our silky story. Chinese rulers sent gifts of silk to their counterparts in Persian and other West Asian countries then, spreading the fame of silk further west. The custom of handing out free samples is as old as silk itself. My mom seemed to know this as she used to send a glass of milk to each house in the neighborhood every time her cow had a calf, often landing orders for a regular supply of one or two glasses of milk every morning or evening until the cow stopped lactating. The only difference is that she did not differentiate between potential customers and the rest.

About the time of Jesus Christ, it became fashionable among the rich and powerful to wear silk, the Roman rulers setting the trend. The countries along the silk route also got their share of bounty in the form of road tax and silky gifts in return for the safe passage of their costly merchandise. The Kushanas, who then ruled north, central, and northwest India, became very prosperous, having their centers in Mathura and Peshawar. Their ports at the mouth of the Indus were used to ship silk to the Roman Empire. As Peter Frankopan put it: “Money, rather than men, began to be used as currency for trade with the East.” Naturally, the Kushana’s gold coins became the currency in circulation along the route.

Colin Thubron wrote in his Shadow of the Silk Road: “To follow the Silk Road is to follow a ghost. It flows through the heart of Asia, but it has officially vanished leaving behind the pattern of its restlessness: counterfeit boarders, unmapped peoples. The road forks and wanders wherever you are. It is not a single way, but many: a web of choices.”

Of late, China - being a world power - revived its interests in silk routes and began diplomatic negotiations to build such a mega network connecting the world much better. Thus, the Silk Road Economic Belt and the Maritime Silk Road were born, which were successful to an extent. These were obviously meant to export their product and sell them on the world market, much more aggressively than in their mulberry days.

It is rather astounding that a humble worm – the silkworm – feeding on a humble plant – the mulberry bush – could have given rise to a global industry. It is equally astounding that the Chinese, who discovered the origin and potential of silk, could guard their secret for so long. Their trade secret would not have lasted nearly as long in modern times. I wonder if Europeans had an inkling of the origin of silk, when the English nursery rhyme saw the light of day: “Here we go round the mulberry bush, The mulberry bush, The mulberry bush. Here we go round the mulberry bush, On a cold and frosty morning.” My guess? No. The mulberry bush in the nursery rhyme could have been any old bush brave enough to survive the English climate. Luckily, the Chinese recognized its worth and knew it was not just “any old bush”.