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Message:: [QUOTE="EWC3, post: 4594183, member: 93416"]Interesting thread. Here is a missing textual element that I think might be relevant? It is from the ‘Book of Roads’ written in 836 AD by Ibn Khurdadhbah. Khurdadhbah was spy-master for the Abbasid Caliph (perhaps a proto-Koestler?) “The Radanites speak Arabic, Persian, Greek, Frankish, Spanish, and Slavonic. They travel backwards and forwards from the farthest west to the farthest east . From a starting point in Spain or France they cross the Mediterranean to Egypt, transfer their merchandise to camels across the isthmus of Suez to the Red Sea, from where by ship they can reach India and China. They return bringing musk, aloe wood, camphor, cinnamon, and other products of the oriental countries. Likewise from the west they bring eunuchs, slave girls and boys, brocade, beaver and marten skins, and swords. They sell their goods in Constantinople and at the palace of the Franks. Sometimes, instead of using the Red Sea route to the East, they disembark at Antioch and cross Syria to the Euphrates and Baghdad. From there they go down the Tigris to the Persian Gulf, and so on to India and China. They also travel by land. Thus these Jewish merchants proceed from the far West via Tangier, Kairouan, and the other North African towns, reaching Cairo, Damascus, Kufa, Basra, Ahwaz, Persia, and then on to India, before again, this time by land, reaching China. Another of their routes lies across Europe, behind Rome, and through the country of the Slavs to Hamlin (Tail), the capital of the Khazars. From there they cross the Caspian Sea, thence to Balkh and Transoxiana, and so to China.” Perhaps the text it needs further discussion? If so I am here…….. Rob T[/QUOTE]

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