Synopses & Reviews
The caravanserai were roadside inns built to shelter men, goods, and animals along the Silk Road that connected China, Central Asia, and Europe in ancient times. These staging posts formed the worlds first globalized overland network and stand as a testament to a flourishing period of multicultural exchange in the Muslim world. Today, the ruined and restored caravanserai of Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, captured here by Belgian photographer Tom Schutyser, serve as a platform for an era of renewed cross-cultural exchange. Stunning photographs of these vanishing caravan routes and their surrounding landscapes welcome readers to engage in a dialogue on healing relations between the Muslim and Western worlds, in the same way the inns once welcomed travelers, traders, and pilgrims to share goods, ideas, and discoveries.
Synopsis
-Stunning, powerful photographs, illuminated by contributions from some of the most eminent writers, thinkers, and journalists specializing in the Middle East and foreign relations, combine to present these roadside inns found along ancient caravan routes in the Muslim world A 'caravanserai' is a roadside inn found along ancient caravan routes in the Muslim world. For centuries the caravanserais served as staging posts in the Middle East and Central Asia, providing accommodation to traders, pilgrims, and other travelers along the Silk Road that connected China, India, and Europe. The caravanserais were vital nodes in what was in effect the first globalized overland network and trading system. Thousands of these caravanserais were built and successfully operated. They survived empires, caliphates and wars until the demise of the caravan trade. Those that have not vanished, have become crumbling ruins, or survive as hotels, museums, shops, storage space, living quarters, or military outposts. In the tumultuous state of relations between the Western and Muslim worlds today, the caravanserais stand as evidence of ancient multi-cultural exchange and trade. They inspire the quest to find such new platforms of multi-cultural dialogue for the future. Belgian photographer Tom Schutyser has travelled the Silk Road numerous times in fifteen years, first photographing caravanserais in northeast Iran. For this project, Schutyser chose the levant region of Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, photographing both ruined and restored caravanserais as well as the landscape and surroundings of these buildings, seeking to capture the sense of history still present in these places. His stunning, powerful photographs, illuminated by contributions from some of the most eminent writers, thinkers, and journalists specializing in the Middle East and foreign relations, combine to present a new dimension on the debate about the region as it is today. Text in English and French.
About the Author
Tom Schutyser is a Belgian documentary photographer and researcher. Andrew W. Lawler is a contributing editor to Science and Archaeology. Reza Aslan authored the international bestseller No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam. Robert Fisk is an award-winning journalist. Rachid el-Daïfs novels have been translated from Arabic into 11 languages. Dominique Moïsi is senior adviser at the French Institute for International Relations. Paul Salem is director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, Beirut.