CHAPTER 8 – ON THE ROAD TO SAMARKAND
09:52 (Central Asia Time)
Friday, September 23, 63 B.C.E.
Dirt road along the south bank of the Oxus River
Sixteen kilometers south of Urgench, 800 kilometers from Buxoro (Bukhara)
Physical map of modern Central Asia and of the Amu Darya (Oxus River) Basin.
Nauca felt at ease in this portion of her voyage as the caravan was following the shores of the Oxus River, which irrigated a wide expanse of green lands with farms, villages and pastures sprinkled around. While not as forested as her native region of Sarmatia, it was a most livable region where the horses and camels of the caravan could find plenty of water and grass and where the temperatures were not extreme. For a nomad like her, that was all that one could want. As for the dirt road the caravan was on, it seemed to be fairly frequented, with one other caravan having already crossed their path, heading towards Urgench, and with a few isolated carts and pack mules also encountered. With no thick forests to cut the range of her vision, Nauca’s job of point guard for the caravan was made quite easy, while the experienced Gorudos riding next to her showed her the significant locations and physical orientation points along the route, teaching her the way of the land.
‘’This whole region irrigated by the Oxus River forms what amounts to a huge oasis bordered on both sides by deserts, the Kara Kum Desert and the Kyzyl Kum Desert. The terrain will stay quite flat until we reach Samarkand, which is situated close to the mountains of the Pamir. Then the terrain will become truly rough. Beyond the Pamir, you have the huge Taklamakan Desert, then China.’’
‘’Have you ever been all the way to China, Gorudos?’’
The Tokharian man nodded his head once.
‘’I once was part of a caravan that went all the way to the imperial capital of Chang’an. That caravan had a large number of horses to deliver and it needed extra men who were good riders and knew horses.’’
‘’And how was China and this Chang’an?’’
‘’To be truthful, it was a mixed experience. There are certainly many things worth the look in China and Chang’an is a very impressive place, full of resplendent palaces and large temples but, as an obvious stranger and apparent nomad horseman and archer, I was looked at with a lot of suspicion and distrust and was made to feel unwelcome in many places. The Chinese are a proud people, while some people would call them arrogant and xenophobic. In truth, the majority of the Chinese believe that they are superior to foreigners and often call them, in their backs, barbarians. Don’t forget that the Chinese have been fighting off invasions from the North by Xiongnu nomads for centuries.’’
Nauca took the time to digest that information before asking another question.
‘’And women? How do the Chinese treat women?’’
‘’In that aspect, the Chinese are quite similar to the Greeks, Nauca. Women, unless of royal blood, are firmly kept under the authority of their men and must obey them in everything. Most jobs and positions are reserved for men only and you will not see any women warriors similar to you in China. In fact, you will attract a lot of attention, most of it not friendly, in China, as the Xiongnu nomads are known to have female warriors and you will thus be taken by many Chinese to be one of them. If you ever travel all the way to China, be ready to be harassed and constantly questioned and watched by Chinese soldiers and officials. The same happened to me, but to a lesser degree, because I was a man and not a woman.’’
Seeing some discouragement appear on Nauca’s face, Gorudos decided to give her some extra advice.
‘’Nauca, you are a brave and adventurous girl with a curious mind and I know that you truly wanted to see China: you spoke often enough about that during our night stops. I will thus tell you this: if you travel to China, stay with a caravan and don’t venture around by yourself, alone. That way, you will enjoy the protection from the caravan, while you will end up staying mostly at Chinese caravanserais, whose staff are accustomed to serve foreigners.’’
Feeling better now, Nauca nodded her head as a thank you.
‘’I will take your advice at heart, Gorudos. Thank you for your counsels. I really wanted to visit this mysterious China one day.’’
‘’It is indeed a mysterious place, Nauca.’’ replied philosophically the Tokharian man.
14:08 (Central Asia Time)
Thursday, November 10, 63 B.C.E.
Samarkand, Sogdiana
Ancient Samarkand.
‘’MY BELOVED SAMARKAND, MY FRIENDS!’’
The obvious enthusiasm and joy in Hiram’s voice made Nauca smile as she eyed the city visible in the distance. It was definitely much larger than either Tanais or Urgench and was bigger than Buxoro{23}, in which the caravan had briefly stopped two weeks ago. While it was still too distant to see details about it, Samarkand was defended by a high wall surrounded by a water-filled moat. The dirt road the caravan was presently on connected to one of the gates of the city and there was a fair amount of traffic through that gate, both pedestrian and mounted. Nauca’s mind then returned to a subject she had been mulling about for quite a few days already. Hiram had announced while in Buxoro that Samarkand would be the terminus for his caravan and that, once there, he would spend the coming Winter months in selling his remaining wares from Tanais, acquire more goods from the East and prepare to ride again to Tanais in a few months, when the temperature would become more clement. That thus left her with two possible future courses of action: either spend the next few months in Samarkand and return towards Tanais with Hiram’s caravan; or link up with another caravan in Samarkand and continue her eastward trip to China. Being still inexperienced with this part of the World, she decided to seek counsel from Hiram and pushed her horse Tamat to a trot to join up with the caravan master. Once level with his horse, she looked at him to ask a question.
‘’Hiram, do you know some caravan master with whom I could continue my trip to China and whom I could trust?’’
Having expecting that line of questioning from her for a while already, Hiram nodded his head at once.
‘’I do know a merchant whom you could fully trust and whom often travels to China to exchange goods and bring back silk to Samarkand. If he is back from his last trip to China, then I will present you to him. However, if you decide to return to Tanais, you will be more than welcome to be part of my next caravan: you proved to be an excellent caravan guard, Nauca.’’
‘’Thank you, Hiram! I would like to say in return that you are a most decent and fair man…for a merchant.’’
Hiram briefly laughed at her pun and smiled to her.
‘’I see that you are learning about human nature, my good Nauca. If he is in Samarkand, I will warmly recommend you to Yurkan, a friend of mine who leads caravans between Samarkand and China. In the meantime, you are welcome to stay at my family house, along with Timur and Gorudos.’’
‘’You are too kind, Hiram. I happily accept your generous offer.’’
‘’Pah! I’m just taking care of good employees.’’ said dismissively the Sogdian merchant. ‘’If you knew how hard it is these days to find good, dependable employees…’’
Satisfied, Nauca let it at that and returned to her previous position in the caravan as it approached the city at the slow pace of its camels.
Some three hours later, the caravan arrived at the city gate connected to their road. There, local guards collected the usual tax from Hiram, who then led his caravan through the large portal. A relatively wide avenue started on the other side of the gate, which Hiram followed for about sixty meters before turning left and entering the walled courtyard of what appeared to be a caravanserai. While not truly vast, that courtyard, with its animal stalls lining the inside of its wall, proved big enough to easily accommodate all the camels and horses of the caravan. As Hiram dismounted from his horse next to one of the stalls, a woman, a teenage girl and a preteen boy got out of the main building of the complex and ran to him.
‘’HIRAM, YOU ARE BACK! MAY THE GODS BE PRAISED!’’ shouted the woman before jumping into the arms of the merchant and hugging him. Hiram eagerly returned her kisses and also hugged the girl and boy as they joined with him.
‘’Seda, it is so nice to hold you again. Come closer, Dinkha and Jakand!’’
Understanding that this was Hiram’s wife and two children, Nauca left them alone and drove her two horses to one empty stall, where she dismounted and took her saddle, equipment and supplies off their back, to then fetch two buckets full of water for them. As her two horses drank, she carefully brushed them while a stable boy brought some extra hay into the stall. Once she was finished with that, she went to see Gorudos and Timur, whose horses occupied the adjacent stall.
‘’So, what’s next, guys?’’
‘’We grab our valuables and go store them inside Hiram’s secure storeroom. Then, we will go have supper in Hiram’s inn.’’ answered Gorudos, making Nauca’s eyes open wide from the surprise.
‘’You mean that this caravanserai belongs to Hiram?’’
‘’It actually belongs to his family, which is a well-established merchant family in Samarkand. His family, getting tired of spending much of their hard-earned profits on lodging and care at other caravanserais in the city, finally decided to build their own family caravanserai, where their own beasts and wares could be safely kept at no cost, while the extra space left could be rented to passing merchants. All in all, that proved to be a wise commercial investment.’’
‘’Indeed!’’ replied Nauca at this extra proof of Hiram’s wisdom. ‘’Well, my horses have been taken care of, so I’m ready to follow you to that secure storeroom.’’
‘’Just give me another minute to help that laggard.’’ said Gorudos, smiling while glancing at Timur, who was still brushing his own horse. Nauca giggled on seeing the young Mongol reply by pulling his tongue out.
Once Timur’s horse was taken care of, the trio, led by Gorudos, crossed the courtyard and went to an annex built out of stone rather than out of clay bricks. The door of that annex looked quite solid and was guarded by an armed and armored man whom Gorudos greeted politely.
‘’Good day, Luen! Could you unlock the door, so that we could store our things inside?’’
‘’No problem, Gorudos! How was your trip to and from Tanais this time?’’
‘’Fairly quiet: bandits attacked us only once, but they bitterly regretted it, mostly thanks to young Nauca here.’’
The guard glanced at Nauca while unlocking the door of the annex with a large key.
‘’A Sarmatian girl? From what I heard of them, their reputation is a well-earned one.’’
‘’Damn right it is! She killed six bandits by herself and shoots a bow even better than me.’’
The guard nodded his head, visibly impressed, before pushing open the door of the annex.
‘’Here you go, Gorudos. You will find a number of still empty chests inside, each of them with a padlock still open and with its key in it. Choose a chest, put your things in and lock it, then keep the key until your next departure.’’
‘’I know the drill, Luen. Thanks anyway.’’
Entering the semi-dark room, which was lit by a few high-placed, very narrow slits, Gorudos went to the nearest empty wooden and iron chest and put inside it his travel purse, new armor and weapons, only keeping his dagger on him. He then closed the chest and locked the padlock, putting the key in his belt purse. Timur and Nauca imitated him, each taking a separate chest as Hiram’s associates came in and also took secure chests, using what amounted in these days to bank safety boxes. As for Nauca, she hesitated about putting in the chest her personal strong box and the small purse in which she kept her highly valuable collection of precious gems and which she carried on her at all times to prevent its theft. Gorudos saw here hesitate and gave her a reassuring look.
‘’You can put your purse in that chest, Nauca: it will be as safe in it as if it would be on you.’’
‘’But someone could still carry away the whole chest after killing the guard outside.’’
Her objection brought a malicious smile on Gorudos’ lips.
‘’Just try to lift that chest, Nauca.’’
Intrigued, Nauca nonetheless grabbed one of the two side handles of the large wooden reinforced chest and tried to lift it. She nearly popped an artery doing that, while the chest barely moved. After repeated and futile efforts, she looked at Gorudos with incomprehension.
‘’But I am considered to be strong for a girl, yet I can’t lift that chest! How come? Is it anchored to the ground?’’
‘’No! It has a false double bottom and that false bottom hides a bunch of lead ingots. It would take four strong men to barely lift this chest or the other chests here and they wouldn’t be able to carry them very far, while no horse or camel would be able to support that kind of load.’’
‘’Wow! That’s quite a clever trick!’’
‘’Nobody ever said that Hiram was a stupid man.’’ Replied philosophically Gorudos. Now convinced, Nauca took the purse hanging from her neck by a chain and put it alongside her arms, armor and bags of spices before closing and locking the chest.
Feeling much reassured, Nauca then followed her two travel companions out of the secure storeroom and walked to the inn that was part of the caravanserai complex. The aroma that greeted them once inside made Nauca take a deep breath.
‘’Something smells really good here! I’m so hungry!’’
A female servant then came to them and bowed.
‘’If you came to eat, I can tell you that we have a side of roast beef on the menu, along with chicken. Please follow me.’’
The servant then led them to an empty table next to a table at which Hiram’s associates were already sitting, drinking wine. Giving their orders to the servants, Nauca and her two companions had to wait only a few minutes before getting their foods and drinks. The first bite in her portion of beef made Nauca close her eyes with obvious delight.
‘’Hmm, they put salt and black pepper on that meat. I wish that all inns would do that.’’
‘’Do you realize how expensive that would make eating in those inns, Nauca?’’ said Kassim, sitting at the adjacent table. ‘’This is a welcome menu after returning from a long trip: normal daily menus here do not include spices, except for salt.’’
‘’So, my bags of black and red pepper, along with the bags of curry I bought in Urgench, are really worth a lot?’’
‘’Worth a lot? Thieves would be ready to cut your throat to grab those bags! They are about as valuable as precious gems and they constitute much sought-after trading items.’’
‘’Oh! I will certainly remember that. Thank you, Kassim!’’
‘’You’re welcome, Nauca!’’
One hour later, as Nauca was arranging her things inside the small room she had been given on the upper floor of the inn, Hiram showed up, accompanied by another man of about the same age as him. Nauca nodded at once her head as a welcome.
‘’Thank you again for your hospitality, Hiram: you are most generous and kind.’’
‘’Thank you, Nauca. May I present you my elder brother, Yurkan?’’
That left Nauca speechless for an instant.
‘’Your brother? He is also a caravan master?’’
‘’My whole family is in the caravan business, Nauca.’’ replied Hiram, grinning. ‘’To get to the reason of our visit, it turned out that Yurkan has returned a month ago from his latest trip to China and is now nearly ready to head East again. He is ready to take you as a caravan guard for that voyage…on one condition.’’
Nauca, who was about to jump up in joy, froze and stared at Hiram.
‘’Uh, what condition, Hiram?’’
It was Yurkan who answered her, a friendly smile on his face.
‘’That you accept to be paid, like I pay my other caravan guards. You will also be lodged and fed at my expense during our trip. I may be a merchant and trader, but I don’t rob my own employees, just my customers.’’
‘’Then, I accept your offer, Yurkan. When do you intend to leave and up to where do you plan to go, if I may ask?’’
‘’I was basically waiting for Hiram’s caravan to return, so that I could buy his goods from the West and carry them for resale in China, so we will leave in a few days at the most. As for my final destination, I plan to go all the way to the imperial capital, Chang’an. Are you still interested in coming?’’
‘’You bet I am, Yurkan!’’
‘’Good! Consider that you have at least two days free to you before our departure, starting tomorrow morning. Take that chance to visit Samarkand and purchase a few things for yourself: you can find about anything from many places around the World in this city.’’
Hiram then left the room with Yurkan. Waiting until they were out of earshot from her, he spoke in a low voice to his brother.
‘’So, what do you think of her?’’
‘’She definitely gave me a good first impression, Hiram. If she is even half as good an archer and hunter as you told me, then she will make an excellent guard for my caravan.’’
‘’Oh, I did not exaggerate one bit about her, Brother.’’ replied Hiram without a hesitation.
10:09 (Central Asia Time)
Friday, November 11, 63 B.C.E.
Samarkand’s central market place
Having decided after having breakfast to go visit the city’s central market with Timur, Nauca had arrived half an hour ago at the wide public place that lodged the open-air market. The variety of wares and of different people she had seen up to date in the market had truly boggled her mind and also tempted her into spending freely her silver and gold. She had however been able to resist that urge, reminding herself that she had a long and risky voyage ahead of her, a voyage during which she may need her money for things more important than frivolous spur-of-the-moment purchases. Her frugal habits as a nomad had also helped her resist her impulses. There was however something that she deemed worthy of buying today…if she could find it here. Timur, who was walking beside her along the narrow alleys traced between the rows of temporary shops and displays, asked her a question as they turned onto another lane of shops.
‘’So, what are you precisely after, Nauca?’’
‘’I am looking for a nice costume, preferably made out of silk, that I could wear while visiting some city, when I am not riding along the Silk Road. Not being dressed like a typical nomad may also lessen the popular attraction towards me while in China.’’
‘’Hum, not a bad idea, actually. Nomad riders tend to attract a lot of suspicion, not to say hostility, when they travel through China.’’
‘’Exactly! Oh, I see a shop selling silk clothes! Let’s go check it out!’’
Making their way through the fairly dense crowd of shoppers and merchants, Nauca and Timur soon arrived at a rough wooden table set in front of a tent used as a temporary shop. There was a variety of costumes and dresses made of silk displayed on top of the table or hooked to an improvised clothes rack, while more silk wares were visible inside the tent. An old man with graying beard and an equally old woman stood behind the table and bowed at once to Nauca and Timur.
‘’What may we do for the honorable customers?’’ said the man in Sogdian. Having just spent five months traveling with Sogdian merchants, Nauca’s own Sogdian was now more than fair and she answered the old man.
‘’I am looking for a nice dress or costume made of silk that I could wear while not traveling along the Silk Road. If that dress or costume could allow horse-riding to a degree, then the better.’’
The old man caressed his beard while thinking for a moment before speaking.
‘’Uh, horse-riding is not a very common requirement when customers ask for a silk dress. Traditional Chinese dresses have very long skirts, with their hemline often dragging on the ground. Riding a horse while wearing one could be problematic. I however may have something nice that you could find more practical for you: it is a fine embroidered silk costume which came from the Punjab, a region of India. That costume consists in a long tunic worn over a pair of baggy pants.’’
‘’That sounds just right for me!’’ said at once Nauca, immediately interested. ‘’Do you have more than one example of such Punjabi costumes?’’
‘’I have five of them in stock, all made of a different silk and with a varying degree of embroidering. Let me get them for you.’’
Nauca waited patiently while the old man entered his tent and foraged for a moment in an open bundle. The old man, helped by his wife, then spread five costumes on top of his display table.
‘’Here you are, good woman: five of the finest costumes produced in India.’’
While the man’s description was undoubtedly an exaggeration, Nauca had to recognize that the five costumes were both very colorful and quite attractive. Caressing their tissue, she nodded her head in appreciation: during her trip from Tanais, she had learned much more than just to speak correctly the Sogdian language. Xiao and Hiram had shown her various grades of silk cloth and taught her what to watch for in order to judge the quality of the silk fabric. That silk was of top quality, while the embroidering work was exquisite. She particularly liked the baggy pants which came with the costumes, as they would make it easy for her to ride Tamat while wearing such a costume. Apart from the baggy pants and knee-length tunics, which were split along both sides under their waist, the costumes also included long, colorful shawls embroidered with either gold or silver treads. Slowly examining in turn the five costumes, she finally pointed one ochre-colored costume with silver and gold embroidering.
‘’I like this one and it looks the right size for me. Can I try it?’’
Sarmatian costume. Punjabi traditional costume. Chinese Han Dynasty era dress.
‘’Of course, good lady! Go inside my tent, where my wife will help you.’’
‘’Thank you!’’ said Nauca before following the old woman inside the tent. The woman then closed the front flap of the tent. Left alone with the old man, Timur started a friendly conversation with him.
‘’So, is business good these days?’’
‘’Things are fair. The trade along the Silk Road was disrupted for a while by the war between the Romans and King Mithridates, but things are starting to get back to normal. A Chinese imperial envoy is presently visiting Samarkand to discuss with our local Satrap{24}, so more people have recently visited my shop to buy Chinese silk dresses.’’
‘’A Chinese delegation is here, in Samarkand?’’ asked Timur, hiding his sudden worry: Chinese soldiers and officials tended to react badly at the sight of someone who looked in any way like a Xiongnu nomad, something he actually was…or rather had been.
‘’Yes! Such delegations are actually quite frequent, as the Chinese are anxious to keep the trade flowing along the Silk Road, so that they could sell their silk and jade.’’
‘’An understandable wish. When in town, do these Chinese tend to make trouble?’’
The old man looked quickly left and right before answering Timur in a near whisper.
‘’They in fact tend to be quite arrogant while going around, but our Satrap doesn’t want to antagonize them, so pretty much let them do as they wish.’’
‘’I see!’’ replied Timur, displeased by that. He however did not comment on that and continued waiting for Nauca. The latter emerged from the tent a few minutes later, wearing the Punjabi costume she had chosen and smiling to Timur.
‘’It fits me perfectly, Timur! What do you think?’’
Timur had to restraint himself before answering, as Nauca was truly striking in that Punjabi costume.
‘’You look great, Nauca!’’
‘’Then, I will take it.’’ said Nauca, breaking the golden rule of trading, which said that you shouldn’t declare your like of a ware before having properly haggled a price for it. The old man, no beginner in that domain, grinned and rubbed his hands together.
‘’For you, young lady, I will make a special price for this costume: it looks so good on you. I will let it go for the modest sum of 300 drachmas.’’
Timur face-palmed himself then, as Nauca did only a bit of cursory haggling before accepting to pay 280 drachmas for the costume. Nauca then paid the happy merchant before returning into the tent to take off her new costume and put back on her Sarmatian outfit. Timur was both polite and diplomatic enough not to chide her about her poor haggling skills when she reemerged from the tent, her new costume rolled inside a piece of cloth. He also didn’t want to play the killjoy then, as Nauca appeared genuinely happy about her latest acquisition.
‘’This costume is really nice. I would have liked to buy more things today, but I nearly emptied my purse to get this.’’
‘No wonder!’ thought Timur before speaking out loud to her. ‘’Well, I am going to look around to see if there would be some kind of interesting thing for me to buy.’’
‘’Then, lead on, Timur!’’
The duo then went on their visit of the market, with Timur seemingly interested mostly in knives and camp tools and instruments. As they were turning into yet another alley lined with shops, Timur abruptly stopped, forcing Nauca to suddenly brake.
‘’Hey! Why did you stop like this, Timur?’’
‘’Back up, Nauca! Quickly!’’
Intrigued and becoming on alert, Nauca obeyed and backpedaled to let Timur return into their previous lane. She then saw the cause of his alarm: a troupe of heavily armed and armored guards was approaching, escorting an ornate sedan-chair carried by eight servants and in which sat a man wearing an embroidered silk dress. Timur then spoke to her, explaining what was happening.
‘’Chinese soldiers! I was told by the old merchant that there was a Chinese delegation in town. This must be the Chinese imperial ambassador and his escort.’’
That made Nauca look critically at the approaching procession. She then noticed something that intrigued her.
‘’Hey, some of these soldiers are carrying some kind of small, weird-looking bows.’’
‘’Those are Chinese crossbows: Chinese soldiers use them in large numbers to repel attacks by mounted archers like the Xiongnu.’’
‘’How good are those ‘crossbows’?’’
‘’Well, they have less range and are less accurate than your bow, but they are very easy to use and soldiers can shoot them accurately at fair ranges with little training. If you ever have to face a Chinese army, be careful about those crossbows.’’
As Timur was speaking to her, Nauca noticed that the officer in charge of the Chinese escort was eyeing Timur with suspicion. She also saw that Timur had not been the only one to react with apprehension to those Chinese. That told her that those Chinese were probably accustomed to have their way here in Samarkand, with the local Satrap exercising little or no control on them. That did not surprise her, in view of the importance for Samarkand of keeping an open commercial link with China. She thus pushed Timur back and stepped in front of him.
‘’Stay behind me and don’t stare at those Chinese, Timur.’’
While it hurt his personal pride to hide like this behind her, Timur understood that Nauca was right and was only trying to avoid an unnecessary confrontation. He thus did not object and made a point of examining the wares on display at the nearest shop. Once the Chinese were out of sight, Nauca nudged Timur to make him move.
‘’Let’s forget those Chinese and continue your shopping, Timur.’’
The young Mongol was too happy to do just that, but went in the opposite direction to that of the Chinese procession.
Some two hours later, the du