Around the middle of the seventh century, the future seemed easy to read. Christianity was on the march across Asia.

Around the middle of the seventh century, the future seemed easy to read. Christianity was on the march across Asia, making inroads at the expense of Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Buddhism. Religions have always played off against each other in this region and learnt that they had to compete for attention. The most competitive and successful, however, turned out to be a religion born in the little town of Bethlehem. Given the progress that had been made over the centuries that followed the crucifixion of Jesus at the hands of Pontius Pilate, it should only have been a matter of time before the tentacles of Christianity reached the Pacific, linking the great ocean with the Atlantic in the west.

P. Frankopan,, The Silk Roads (2015), 62