This document focuses on interactions within a region and the creation of
a trade and cultural center. Note how craftsmen and specialists were being brought to
Samarkand from various regions, indicating a sort of forced assimilation as well as a degree of
tolerance of different cultures. The document does not attempt to assess the actions in terms of
the narrator’s culture, but merely
describes the activity. As in Document #9, the point of view here is from a European obviously impressed by
what he has observed in another culture.