The Wednesday University

The Wednesday University provides Puget Sound residents with an intellectually stimulating and fun way to continue their education in the arts and humanities. The Wednesday University is a program of Seattle Arts & Lectures and the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities in association with the Henry Art Gallery. The Wednesday University was established in 1999 with support from the Washington Commission for the Humanities.

The Silk Road Observed and Imagined

A non-credit lecture course taught during Winter Quarter 2002 by Prof. Daniel C. Waugh of the University of Washington Department of History and Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. Professor Waugh teaches a for-credit course on the History of the Silk Road and is the principal coordinator for Silk Road Seattle.

  • Syllabus

  • Texts of the lectures will be posted and linked below as they are delivered.

    Location: auditorium of the Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, 7:30-9 PM. To inquire about the series, phone 206-621-2230, but be aware it has been sold out since early December.

    Course content:

    "Silk Road" is shorthand for 1500 years of economic and cultural exchange across Eurasia, a subject best introduced through the eyes of its contemporary observers. Learn from Han China's own historians (ca. 200 BCE-ca. 200 CE) why the Great Wall was built. Find Buddhist enlightenment in Central Asian oases and India with seventh-century Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang. Discover nomadic life and Christians at the emperor's court in the steppes of Mongolia with Franciscans Carpini and Rubruck. Learn how Marco Polo's description of Khubilai Khan's China brought Columbus to the New World. And visit the Islamic splendors of Tamerlane's Samarkand in the early fifteenth century with the Spanish ambassador Clavijo.

    Wed., Jan. 9, 2002 Lecture 1. The Origins of the Silk Road.
    Readings: Han Chinese histories (in English translation), on Silk Road Seattle web site.
    Wed., Jan. 23, 2002 Lecture 2. Xuanzang: a Buddhist pilgrim travels to India.
    Readings: Sally Hovey Wriggins, Xuanzang: A Buddhist Pilgrim on the Silk Road (Westview PB); some additional web material on Buddhist art.
    Wed., Feb. 6, 2002 Lecture 3. The Mongols through the Eyes of Carpini and Rubruck.
    Readings: Christopher Dawson, ed., Mission to Asia (Toronto PB); possibly web versions of same texts will be available.
    Wed., Feb. 20, 2002 Lecture 4. Marco Polo and his impact on perceptions of the East.
    Readings: Marco Polo, The Travels, ed. Latham (Penguin PB).
    Wed., Mar. 6, 2002 Lecture 5. Tamerlane's Samarkand through the eyes of Clavijo.
    Readings: Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo, Embassy to Tamerlane; excerpts on web site; also, web-based materials on Timurid Samarkand.

    The Wednesday University is jointly sponsored by the Walter Chapin Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington and Seattle Arts and Lectures and hosted by the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington.