Pilgrims on the Silk Road: A Muslim-Christian Encounter in Khiva

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Walter Ratliff, 2010 - Religion - 293 pages
They were seeking religious freedom and the Second Coming of Christ in Central Asia. They found themselves in the care of a Muslim king. During the 1880s, Mennonites from Russia made a treacherous journey to the Silk Road kingdom of Khiva. Both Uzbek and Mennonite history seemed to set the stage for ongoing religious and ethnic discord. Yet their story became an example of friendship and cooperation between Muslims and Christians. Pilgrims on the Silk Road challenges conventional wisdom about the trek to Central Asia and the settlement of Ak Metchet. It shows how the story, long associated with failed End Times prophecies, is being a recast in light of new evidence. Pilgrims highlights the role of Ak Metchet as a refuge for those fleeing Soviet oppression, and the continuing influence of the episode more than twelve decades later.
 

Contents

The Farmer the Baron and the Bey
23
The Fall of khiva
41
Seeds of migration
67
The Pilgrims Call
84
twelve Stones from the Jordan
106
ebenezer
124
The Ride to khiva
148
The Redemption of Johann drake
163
The Rise and Fall of Claas epp Jr
177
Revolution
190
The Last oasis
207
Copyright

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About the author (2010)

Walter Ratliff is a journalist and religion scholar from Washington, DC. He holds degrees from Georgetown University, Wheaton College, and the University of New Mexico. He is the producer/director of the documentary "Through the Desert Goes Our Journey" (2008).

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