THE CARAVAN ROUTES OF KHOREZM AND ITS TRADE RELATIONS IN THE WRITTEN SOURCES AND IN HISTORIOGRAPHICAL SCHOLARSHIP

Objective: This article reassesses that proposition by integrating the medieval Arab–Persian geographical corpus (Ibn Khurdādhbih, Ibn Rusta, al-Iṣṭakhrī, al-Maqdisī, Ibn Ḥawqal, Ibn Faḍlān) with twentieth- and twenty-first-century archaeological and numismatic evidence from the Khorezm Archaeological–Ethnographic Expedition and successor projects, including the dissertation work of Brite (2011) on environmental and settlement change in the Aral Sea region. Method: Three principal corridors—southern (Khurasan–Iran–Levant), south-eastern (Sogdia–Tarim–China), and northern / north-western (Volga–Caucasus–Byzantium / Baltic)are reconstructed cartographically and quantified through a structured tally of commodity sub-items attested in the written sources. Results: The distribution of Khwārazmshāh silver dirhams across Eastern Europe, the Baltic, and Scandinavia (8th–10th centuries) is shown to undermine the persistent characterisation of Khorezm as a mere transit hub. Novelty: The article proposes a periodisation of contraction (4th–6th c.) and revival (8th–10th c.) anchored to hydrological change in the Amu Darya delta and to shifts in Eurasian political geography, and demonstrates how the convergence of Arab geographical sources, Byzantine diplomatic records, and material-culture evidence yields a more granular picture of Khorezmian commercial agency than any single corpus permits in isolation.