Page:History of India Vol 6.djvu/35

WOOD AND IVORY MOSAIC IN THE GOLDEN TEMPLE AT AMRITSAR. CHAPTER I THE CLOSING OF THE OLD TRADE PATHS To 1516 A.D. ON the establishment of the Ottoman Empire the mediaeval commerce between Europe and India was for a time blocked. That commerce started from the marts of Eastern Asia and reached the Mediter- ranean by three main routes. The northern tracks, by way of the Oxus and Caspian, converged on the Black Sea. The middle route lay through Syria to the Levant. The southern brought the products of India by sea to Egypt, whence they passed to Europe from the mouths of the Mle. The struggle for these trade-routes forms a key to the policy and wars of many nations. When the Turks threw themselves across the ancient paths in the fif- teenth century A. D., a great necessity arose in Christen- i