Prelude
In the mid-13th century, in the wake of the Mongol conquests, East and West were to be free to mingle as never before. Freed from Turkish domination, Central Asia was to be opened up to exploration, its forbidding terrain mapped and charted by a succession of travelers - missionaries and merchants - who were to spend their lives forging the first-ever real contact with the East.

The prelude to this time of enlightenment and freedom was a bloodbath. In 1206, the Mongols, known in the West by the medieval name of Tartars, came together under a 44-year-old chieftain, Temuchin, who created a powerful and loyal army to exact tribute from neighboring civilizations. Summoning a 'kuriltai', a great assembly of tribal chieftains, Temuchin assumed the name and title that were to fill both Europe and Asia with terror: Genghis Khan.

What followed - a campaign of conquest lasting more than 50 years - had never been seen in history before. Even the adventures of Alexander, who had fought his way to India and back, paled into insignificance. By the time Genghis died in 1227, his cavalry, the toughest the world had ever seen and deadly with bow and arrow, had carved out an empire which stretched from the Dnieper to the China Sea.

After Genghis Khan's death this empire was divided up into four Khanates. The Great Khan himself - Genghis' third son, Ogadei or Mangu succeeded him - held court in Cambulac (Beijing), which had fallen in 1214; his territory included the whole of China, Korea, Mongolia, Manchuria and Tibet. The Chagatai Khanate, based at Almalik (Kulja), governed Central Asia, Turkestan and Afghanistan. The Kipchak Khanate (The Golden Horde), with its capital at Sarai on the Volga, held the country north of the Caucasus, Russia and part of Siberia. And the whole of Persia, Georgia, Armenia and part of Asia Minor formed the Persian Ilkhanate, which had its headquarters at Tauris (Tabriz). The Mongols, however, continued to regard themselves as one nation, remaining loyal to the Great Khan at Beijing. By 1258, the Mongol empire was approaching the zenith of its power, its unity, and its extent. No previous empire had ever encompassed so large a proportion of the earth's surface. To this day none has equaled its size.

With an empire stretched all over China and into Afghanistan, through much of the Middle East and into Europe as far as Poland, fast and save lanes of communication were established to support its vast size. (Fig left: Map of Mongol empire) This communication system paved the way for a brilliant era of exploration and trade and cultural exchanges with the Orient such as had never been possible before. It was to last for a century - roughly from 1245 to 1345 - a unique period in the history of medieval travel and known as Pax Mongolica or Mongol Peace.

Yam, the Most Efficient Communication System
To rule an empire the size of the Mongols, an adequate and efficient communication system was essential. Such a system, called the yam, was created by the Mongols. Marco Polo was particularly impressed with it. The purposes served by the Yam network were various. It was designed to facilitate the travels of envoys going to and from the Mongols courts; it was used for the transportation of goods; it ensured the speedy transmission of royal orders from one part of the empire to another; and it provided a framework whereby the Mongols could receive intelligence as quickly as possible. It was also used by merchants and common travelers. Most scholars agree that the yam system was probably the most effective of Mongol imperial institutions after the army.

Our sources for the beginnings of the Yam system are the Secret History of the Mongols and Rashid al-Din. According to both of these the system was instituted by Ghenghis' successor, the Great Khan Ogedei in 1234. The Secret History tells us that the passage of couriers before 1234 had imposed an unacceptable burden on the areas through which they traveled because of their commandeering of horses and provisions. A properly organized network was supposed to deal with this. Ogedei seemed initially to have set up the new machinery in the territories subject to his own direct rule. It was then extended to include the lands of his brothers Chaghatai and Tolui and his nephew Batu. This is in itself interesting in that it shows the old steppe notion of family sovereignty at work: Ogedei may have been Great Khan but he was not a dictator. If a new institution were to be set up throughout the empire, this would be done after consultation between the different branches of the Chgenhis family.

The structure of the yam system was based on the erection of post stations at stages equivalent to a day's journey. According to Marco Polo this meant about every 25 or 30 miles. Other sources quote similar figures. This stations held stocks of horses and fodder for the use of authorized travelers. Proper authorization would be a tablet of authority, a paiza (Chinese p'ai-tse, Mongolian gerege). This might be of wood, silver or gold, and in some cases have a tiger or a gerfalcon at its head, depending on the rank and importance of the holder. Normally the traffic might move at about 25 miles a day; but urgent messages could go very much faster. Marco Polo speaks of 200-300 miles per day, and Rashid al-Din mentions 60 farsakhs, probably about 200 miles. Such express couriers either wore a belt of bells or carried a horn which they would sound as they approached a Yam station. Thus a horse would be made ready for them in advance, and they could change horses and go straight on without stopping. Marco Polo says that in China these were placed at intervals of three miles between post stations, and Rashid al-Din says that in Persia each Yam station was supposed to possess two resident runners. (Fig right: Riders on the Yam were sometimes expected to ride without stopping for hundreds of miles, changing horses while at full gallop)

The guards at the stations were so few as to be little more than an escort for the station-master. Their duties were light. At each of these stations there is a large and handsome building for them to put up at. All the rooms are furnished with fine beds and rich silks. If even a king were to arrive at one of these houses, he would find himself well lodged.

Marco Polo gives us a vivid description of Kublai Khan's postal service. According to him, courier stations were built along the roads, and there were both mounted and unmounted couriers.

This courier was originated from China. According to Clauson's dictionary of early Turkish, the word yam itself derives from the Chinese chan, to stop; a stage on a journey. In China the mounted postal courier network had a history stretching back many centuries before the arrival of the Mongols. More directly to the point, the system operated in north China by the Khitan Liao dynasty had similarities to the Yam.

Network Construction and Administration
While Chenghis was expanding his empire, he also made sure that the network was well established. A massive construction program of state caravansaries (taverns), posthouses, and bridges was implemented by the Mongols and cities they had previously destroyed, such as Samarkand, were to rise again.

The post roads were the backbone of the Khan's administration. These Mongols were masters of the roads. Roads were built through the length and breath of the empire, and all of them, directly or indirectly, were linked with the nerve center, Beijing. Engineering and administration perfected the international movement. Desert paths became roads; bridges spanned the steppe rivers; cutting through steeply graded country eased the toil of men and beasts. In peace time traders and travelers used them, and in time of war, troops could be sent with dispatch to trouble spots. Mongol detachments patrolled the routes, logged the progress of the caravans. In the large towns, there would be a daroga or road governor, with absolute authority in his district and the task of keeping up the string of horses, and levying supplies from the vicinity. With him would be a clerk, to write down the personages who called at the station, and the merchandise that went by.

The security of the roads, and the personal protection available, permitted the transport of the costliest goods with minimum risk. Ghenghis Khan employed draconian punishments. Plano Carpini confirms: "If anyone in the lands under their control is caught robbing or stealing he is killed without mercy." Supervisors were appointed on the trade routes; if animals or goods were found the finer was required to bring these to the supervisor or be accused of theft. If the owner turned up he was able to obtain his lost property from the supervisor without any difficulty.

Along the main roads was constructed a series of yams stations and other supplies. Envoys and messengers arriving at a yam showed their passes and were given a meal, rest and fresh mounted to proceed on their journey. Chenghis was fully aware of the value of international trade, both from the revenue it brought to the Mongol treasury and its role in binding together in a close economic network the many different won by the Mongol sword. The Mongols in their homeland in pre-conquest days traded but little; mostly buying arms, clothes and metal goods from the Chinese in exchange for furs and skins. But as Chenghis empire spread and he learnt how big a revenue customs duties could bring to the State, everything was done to encourage a brisk commercial traffic: the roads were policed, post-houses established, caravans given armed protection, thieves and robbers put down; the peasants tilling their fields in the fertile oases of Central Asia where guarded against the old curse of peaceful cultivation's, raids by nomadic tribesmen. Mongol military power made the highways of Asia safer than they had ever been. Furthermore the Silk Road and overland trade was again to prosper under Mongol protection.

Reopening of the Trade Routes
During the brief golden age of the "Mongol Peace" many merchants, missionaries, and pilgrims may have traveled the Silk Road, although we know of only a few. Past the Yam station plodded the endless lines of camels of the caravans. They carried the woven stuffs and ivory and all the goods of Muslim merchants into the desert. It enabled newcomers from unknown regions to seek the Mongols in the Gobi. Thin-faced Jews led along the post road their laden donkeys and carts; sallow, square-chinned Armenians rode by with a curious glance at the silent Mongol soldiers. The weary bands of Mohammedan craftsmen, carpenters, musicians, smiths, sword welders, or rug weavers, all traveled along the Silk Road.

In April 1246 Carpini set out with only one companion, on his momentous journey into the Asian world through the Silk Road. Though his party changed horses three or four times a day and traversed the grazing-grounds of tribe after nomad tribe, not once does his account hint at a hitch in the relay system or a threat a danger. From the Volga to Karakorum, Mongol rule had welded the steppes into an ordered whole. (Fig left: A trading caravan of merchants and camels. This detail is taken from a 14th-century Catalan map called the Golden Road to Samarkand, which was based on information brought back to Europe by Marco Polo.)

The Silk Road under Mongol's power was a very busy road. The foreign delegations were sent to pay respect to the Great Khan all year round. More than 4,000 envoys , laden with tribute, traveled from the West to Karakorum before Kuyuk's throne. Since the days of Ghenghis Khan, the contact between the nomadic and settled cultures had been increasing. Countless embassies, coming and going, renewed their submission and brought their annual tribute. Increasing missionary activities also had added traffic to the road.

The trade flourished due to the unification of the Mongol tribes and the stability of the trade routes. The merchants profited by the Pax Mongolica. China and Persia enjoyed a mutually advantageous trade, and silks and porcelain. For the first time in history, China was linked to Europe by international trade routes and almost the entire length of the Silk Road was ruled by one power. The long-distance travel between Europe and Asia would not have been possible in earlier times, when many powers ruled Asia, and the steppes were filled with marauders. In their conquests, the Mongols massacred populations and destroyed cities, but as rulers they imposed peace over a vast area that any traveler could pass through in safety.

The long-distance trade burgeoned under the Mongol Peace. To the unprecedented fact of a strong unified administration on which they could rely, the merchants of the steppes responded by establishing a network of caravan-routes to serve the different sectors of the Mongol empire. In the cities along the Silk Road, sprang up the trans-shipment cargoes and the handling of import-export business. A Eurasian world market was emerging. This web of international traffic was welcomed by the Mongol authorities, its passage policed by the Mongol army.

Expansion on Pan-Eurasian Economy Under Kublai Khan
In May 1260 Kublai became the Great Khan after Mangu's death, made Beijing his capital instead of Karakorum. Between Hulagu's armies in the Syrian west and Kublai's in the Chinese east, across the overland road of Asia, there was order, stability, and cohesion. One of his greatest achievement was the enlargement of the pan-Eurasian economy of which the infrastructure had been laid in Mangu's time. The trade routes had infinitely increased their traffic. Silks and precious artifacts exotic fruits, spices and musk, traveled west to the branchings of the tracks in Central Asia: the returning caravans came back laden with the furs of Russia and the wares of Arab world.

Decline of the Trade Routes
The breakup of the Mongol Empire was followed by a series of upheavals in the late 14th century that made the Silk Road increasingly unsafe to travel. When the political unity of the Empire crumbled and the wars between Berke and Hulegu in the 1260s foreshadowed the ruin of the Pax Mongolica, travel overland across Asia became once more slow, dangerous and obstructed, and led to more enterprising Europeans looked for an alternative route to the East.