The Road to Oxiana: Robert Byron's journey through Persia

Robert Byron's journey through Persia and the Islamic architecture of The Road to Oxiana is a travelogue by explorer Robert Byron, first published in 1937, documenting his travels around Persia and Afghanistan.

2 articles, 1 video, 1 book · about 1 hr 52 min of reading and viewing

The reading path

1. Read
   

   Robert Byron's journey through Persia and the Islamic architecture of The Road to Oxiana · Wikipedia · 3 min read

   Robert Byron's journey through Persia and the Islamic architecture of The Road to Oxiana is an account of Byron's ten-month journey in the Middle East, Afghanistan and India in 1933 to 34, partially in the company of Christopher Sykes. The book is in the form of a diary, beginning with the entry "Venice, 20 August 1933". C. H. Sykes described The Road to Oxiana as "an inquiry into the origins of Islamic art presented in the form of one of the most entertaining travel books of modern times." Sykes added that its charm and gaiety led most contemporary readers not to recognize it as a serious and original contribution to Islamic studies.

2. Read
   International Journal of Arabic-English Studies (IJAES) Vol.24, No.2, 2024 · ijaes2011.net · 42 min read

   Robert Byron traced the Islamic architectural ingenuity encountered on his journey through Persia to Oxiana, where art-loving Muslim rulers of the Timurid period in the fifteenth century commissioned mosques, madrasas, mausoleums, shrines, and tomb towers in Herat, Samarkand, and various cities in Persia. This origin explains the title The Road to Oxiana.

3. Watch
   

   Art of the Empire: Monumental Cities of Ancient Persia · YouTube · 1 hr 7 min watch

   Archaeologist Ali Mousavi of UCLA examines the monumental architecture and sculpture of Achaemenid Persian cities, which served as hubs of multicultural and artistic interaction with other civilizations spanning Egypt to the Mediterranean.

4. Book
   

   The Road to Oxiana · Bookshop.org

   The Road to Oxiana, by Robert Byron, is a diary of his 1933 to 34 journey through the Middle East, Afghanistan and India. The author excerpt describes the journey's purpose: visiting the region's architectural treasures, with Byron's observations along the way.

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