Communications in Humanities Research ISSN: 2753-7072
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Research Article

Eastern Christianity’s Role in Legitimizing Silk Road Commerce: A Study on the Syriac Christian Monastery Ruin at Shüipang, Turfan

Steven Haocheng WuNational University of Singapore*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

Liu Wensuo’s 2021 archaeological survey relocated the Syriac Christian monastery first discovered by Albert von Le Coq a century earlier; more importantly, it confirmed that Eastern Christianity endured in the Turfan Basin for five centuries (7th–13thc. CE). This is nothing short of a miracle, given that the Turfan Basin had no widespread Christian tradition. Instead, the Syriac Christian community remained small, insular, and entirely separate from the dominant groups—the Sogdians (7th–early 9thc.) and the Old Uyghurs (mid-9th–13thc.). How this foreign minority (whose existence we know of by their monastery) survived and pertained to their traditions for over five centuries in a highly volatile region along the Silk Road forms the central question of this paper. Drawing exclusively from primary sources, this study concludes that Eastern Christianity—through providing legitimacy to currencies—afforded its adherent communities commercial advantages along the Silk Road. These benefits motivated Christian communities to maintain their faith over five centuries, until the 13th-century Mongol conquests unified the Silk Road from the Far East to the West, unifying the currency of transcontinental trade.

Keywords: Turfan Basin; Syriac Christian Monastery; Eastern Christianity; Silk Road; 7th–13thc. CE.
Published: October 28, 2025
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/2025.HT28527
Volume: CHR Vol.94
pp. 53-58
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