This chapter documents and analyses the first of two major corridors of connectivity that shape and inform the forms of Afghan mobility that the book argues constitute a critical aspect of the connections that link different regions of Asian to one another. The corridor explored in the chapter (the Eurasian corridor) connects commercial nodes in post-Soviet Eurasia to China via the Muslim majority states of Central Asia. The chapter’s overarching aim is to describe and analyse the contours and structure of the networks that operate along this Eurasian corridor of connectivity, as well as the role played by nodes in the functioning and dynamics of these networks. It seeks to show the significance of the legacy of the geopolitical dynamics of the Soviet Union and Russia to the activities and identities of traders working along the Eurasian corridor.

Chapter 3 examines the changing population of Jeddah by drawing on exemplary migration histories, reconstructed on the basis of (often oral) family histories. The chapter shows the variety of origins and different ways in which individuals managed to establish themselves in the city, both economically and politically. While precise historical dates are often unavailable, the chapter attempts to trace when specific groups, such as West Africans fleeing French expansion in sub-Saharan Africa, had particular incentives to migrate to the Hijaz. Special attention is given to the slave trade and the ways in which male and female slaves, and notably their descendants, were integrated into households.