The Silk Road opens, c. 130 BCE

Chapter 5 · Empires and Isa15 / 54

WorldDunhuang, Chinaabout 2,200 years ago

Approximate date

The Silk Road opens

The Han envoy Zhang Qian reaches Central Asia. Soon caravans link China with Persia and Rome.

How it touches Islam Muslim merchants later carried Islam along these roads to Bukhara, Samarkand and China.

Zhang Qian

Source: History ·

Every moment in the timeline

Borders come from Cliopatria, the open map of the Seshat Global History Databank (CC BY 4.0), and are approximate. Dates before 1000 BCE are estimates, and for the earliest prophets the Quran gives the order of events but not their years. Sources: the Quran, Sahih al-Bukhari and Muslim, the Seerah of Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Kathir's al-Bidaya wan-Nihaya, and standard histories. See also the villains of Islamic history, from Iblis to the Dajjal, and the library of people, nations, empires and places.

1. The beginningAdam to Nuh · dates unknown

2. Early nationsc. 3500 to 1600 BCE

3. Ibrahim and his familyc. 2000 to 1700 BCE

4. Musa and the Children of Israelc. 1350 to 540 BCE

5. Empires and Isa539 BCE to 600 CE

6. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ570 to 632 CE

7. The first caliphates632 to 750 CE

8. Baghdad and the golden age751 to 1258 CE

9. Ottomans, Safavids and Mughals1260 to 1798 CE

10. Colonial age to today1804 CE to now

11. Signs of the HourStill to come