![[Media/Radhanites2.png]] *Map of Eurasia and Africa showing trade networks, c. 870* Baghdad became a center for not only imperial administration and scholarship, but Silk Road trade. As had been the case with the Silk Road contact between the Roman and Han empires, this was not a direct trading relationship between the Abbasids and the Chinese, although the Abbasids did acquire paper-making technology that led to an expansion of literacy in a battle against Tang forces at Talas (Kyrgyzstan) in 751. Instead, overland trade in items like silk, porcelain, glass, wool, and horses flowed between Baghdad and Chang'an via Merv (Turkmenistan), Samarkand (Uzbekistan), Kashgar (China), and Dunhuang (China). By sea, goods including spices, ceramics, ivory, and silk flowed through Basra (Iraq), Siraf (Iran), Daybul (Pakistan), Gujarat (India), Malacca (Malaysia), and Guangzhou (China). The goods were carried between these markets by middlemen from the surrounding regions, who spoke Persian, Chinese, and Turkic languages as well as a "caravan bazaar" pidgin language of several hundred words that allowed traders to understand each other a bit. Universal tools like math using Indian-derived "Arabic" numerals and standardized weights established in Baghdad also facilitated trade. ----- Next: [[10.3 - Silk Road]] Back: [[10.2 - Abbasids]]