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Historical Dictionary

First posted on June 13th 2004, last revised on May 9th 2005

Narratives : History of Central Asia http://www.zum.de/whkmla/sat/texts/narrcasia.html

The geographical definition of Central Asia already poses a problem; here the Asian parts of the former Soviet Union, Iran, Afghanistan and the Chinese regions of Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Manchuria are regarded as Central Asian, as are the steppes of Russia and Ukraine up to the time of the Russian conquest. . Central Asia historically functioned as a transit region, connecting the civilizations of Greater China, the Indian subcontinent, the Near East and the Mediterranean region. The major historical network of trade routes, the Silk Road, has been named (by 19th century scholar von Ferdinand von Richthofen) after a Chinese product much revered in the west. Our information on early Central Asian history is sketchy and depends much on non-Central Asian sources - Chinese, Graeco-Roman, Arab sources. It seems that cities emerged in Central Asia mainly at oases along the Silk Road; that the Central Asians adopted scripts modelled on those of the Near East; that Central Asians long held on to animistic religion and then adopted (Indian) Buddhism, (Near Eastern) Manichaeism, Nestorian Christianity or Islam, or in the case of the Khazars, even Judaism. Then, Central Asia, for many centuries, was the basis from which invasion after invasion was launched, targetting mostly China, India, Iran and Europe. These observations seem to support the fact that Central Asia historically both facilitated contact between the civilizations of 'advanced' sedentary societies or, as predators, thrived on raiding or destroying them. The core of Central Asia is not the Silk Road, but the Steppe Road, a stretch of grassland estending from Mongolia into eastern central Europe, with an isolated patch of such grassland further east, in the Manchurian plains. Excellent horse breeding grounds. The peoples inhabiting these regions were pastoral semi-nomads; still today horses outnumber humans in Mongolia. Life of the Mongolian and Turkic peoples developed around the horse; control of pastures was essential. Tents made of leather protected against the winter's cold and against desert sandstorms, much better than the concrete houses built in Mongolia during the years of communist rule, which, due to poor insulation, require an extraordinary effort to heat it in winter. Control over pastures was a decisive factor, which caused the various tribes to wage war against each other. The many migrations of Central Asian peoples into Eastern Europe are, in part, to be explained by pressure in Central Asia, where their pastures were contested, in part by the attraction of a sedentary society which, for highly mobile peoples, must have felt as an invitation to raid. Along the Steppe Road there were almost no cities, unless the control of pastoral semi-nomadic societies was challenged by sedentary societies. For instance, Greek cities on the coast of the Crimean peninsula, Russian cities such as Kiev, a few cities pastoral semi-nomadic societies established after converting to Islam, such as the capital of the Volga Bulgars, Bolgar, later Kazan, Astrakhan, Sarai. Along the desert girdle further south, the most important points were the oases; here cities emerged, the steppingstones of the trade along the Silk Road - Merv, Bukhara, Samarkand, Kashgar etc. Then there were the highland regions - parts of Mongolia, the Altai Mountains, Afghanistan and most notably Tibet. The inhabitants, by a combination of agriculture and pastoral nomadism, could make a meager living, but the temptation to add on that by raiding richer lands was great; Afghanistan was the basis for numerous invasions of India, Tibet, before Buddhism took a firm hold, was the basis for invasiond of Bengal and of China. The most advanced of the horse-breeding pastoral semi-nomads of the Steppe Road were the Mongols under Genghis Khan and his immediate successors. Mongolians, on their ponies, could travel large distances for many days in a row. The approach of the Kipchak Tatars toward Kiev was so sudden that the defenders were taken by surprise, even unable to close the gates before the enemy arrived; the city fell in a day. The Mongols used this mobility to their advantage, collecting intelligence on the enemy. The Mongolians learned the languages of their enemies, and were secretive; they learned much more on their enemies (that is, if the latter were sedentary societies) than the latter were able to collect information about them. The Mongolians established the largest land-based Empire the world has seen, extending from the Euphrates and from Ukraine to the Pacific. The authority of the Great Khan was respected throughout the territory, as long as Pax Mongolica held (until the end of the century), permitting a series of papal envoys and the Polo family to travel to China. It has to be stressed that the Mongols effectively ruled an Empire, in which they - the Tatars included - formed a tiny minority of the overall population (an estimated 200,000 Mongols, compared to a Chinese population of 100 million, the many other peoples disregarded; numbers after Morris Rossabi). The Mongols, Tatars and Turks pursued the Ghazi strategy of warfare - a first raid would cause destruction and terror. When the Mongols (Tatars or Turks) came a second time, the enemy would have the chance to submit without a fight, or suffer the consequences of refusing to do so. The punishment inflicted on Baghdad in 1258 - an estimated 800,000 killed, the city razed to the ground, was in line with Mongolian strategy. Such a small minority could rule such a large Empire only, if their authority was unquestioned; during the 13th century, it was. The pastoral semi-nomadic peoples were willing to learn; the Seljuk Turks learned about state administration from Samanid Chorasan, which they conquered; Turkish language contains a large number of Persian loanwords, many of them dealing with administration. On many occasions, pastoral-nomadic societies converted to religions, most notably Islam and Buddhism. It has been pointed out that the Mongols, and similar pastoral semi-nomadic societies have failed to develop permanent institutions. This is only partially correct; as long as the Mongolian Empire existed, the Khuraltai was such a permanent institution. However, the Mongolian Empire soon developed a number of regional capitals / centers - Khanbalik (Beijing), Sarai (Kipchak Tatars) etc. They were permanent political centers, the Khuraltai met episodically - and then ceased to assemble. The dominating feature in the Central Asian state is the ruler respectively the dynasty. In historical texts, often no clear distinction is made between, for instance, the Samanid Dynasty and the Samanid Kingdom. These dynastic states were amoebic in nature, could split, grow, shrink of move. When the Khitan were overthrown in their Manchurian homeland, a branch of them moved to Kyrgyzstan and established a new state (Kara-Khitan); Timurid Babur was ousted from Samarkand, by the Uzbeks; he conquered Kabul. Failing in several attempts to retake Samarkand, he turned on Delhi instead and established the Mughal Empire. The Astrakhanid Dynasty, ousted in Astrakhan by the Russians, established themselves in Bukhara. Timur Lenk, one of the most accomplished conquerors Central Asia produced, ruled from Samarkand; his son Shah Rukh moved his capital to Herat. In Iran, Isfahan was succeeded as capital by Shiraz, which again was succeeded as capital by Teheran. Dynastic rule was subject to sudden changes. Mongolia and Tibet developed permanent institutions when they introduced Lamaist theocracy in 1638 respectively 1642, the Potala palace having been the seat of Tibetan administration from its construction until the Chinese conquest in 1951. However, within less than a century, both had become vassalls of Qing Dynasty China. The Mongolian Empire disintegrated, and later generations of Central Asian dynasts, more often than not, turned on each other; Timur Lenk inflicted severe punishment on the Khanate of the Golden Horde; Muscovy-Russia in 1380 and 1480 established her independence, in 1552-1582 picked up the pieces ( Kazan, Astrakhan, Sibir). In the 17th century, Russians penetrated Siberia, in 1689 Russia and China signed the Treaty of Nerchinsk, which, similar to the Treaty of Tordesillas, divided northern Central Asia into Russian and Chinese spheres of interest, cutting Mongolia into a larger Chinese and a smaller Russian sector (Buryat Mongolia). The Manchu conquest of China 1644, their conquest of Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang in the 1720s-1730s and the movement of the Kalmyks into the Lower Volga region in the early 17th century were the last events in which Central Asian peoples were successful in the old pattern of migration and conquest. From the 17th century onward, Russia began to transform her sector in central Asia. A chain of fortified cities was founded along the Steppe Road, most importantly Irkutsk (1686). The main product the Russians were interested in were furs; region after region was cleared of these animals to such an extent, that the hunters had to move further east until an expedition to Alaska was undertaken in 1741, from an economical point of view, in order to open up new fur-hunting grounds. The establishment of labour camps in Siberia, the acquisition of the Amur Province (1858), the Far Eastern Province (1860), the construction of the Transiberian Railway 1891-1905, the establishment of a Siberian mining industry resulted in a growing ethnically Russian population element, and in afflicting damage on the sensitive ecology. Russia conquered West Turkestan between 1731 and 1895. With the exception of Khiva and Bukhara (which, as Russian protectorates preserved their autonomy until 1920) ethnic Russians established a colonial administration in the region. In the late 19th century they introduced the cultivation of American cotton (which, when expanded in the 1960es, was to have disastrous consequences on the ecology; Lake Aral shrunk to less than a third of its original size). The introduction of communism caused armed resistance (the Basmachi Revolt); under Stalin, West Turkestan became the dumping ground for ethnic groups deported there from elsewhere in the USSR. The German invasion of 1941 forced the USSR to remove strategic arms industries into secure regions - Central Asia again qualified, and these factories attracted workers from Russia or Ukraine, now residents of Central Asian cities. Soviet propaganda emphasized that the Soviet Union was not Imperialist, that the Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmen had their own SSRs, the Buryat Mongols their own ASSR (even the Jews deported to the Far East, in Birobijan). Their autonomy existed on paper; only under Mikhail Gorbachev (1985-1991) did they begin to develop autonomy, then to suddenly be released into independence. Mongolia, between 1921 and 1990, was independent only in name, a Soviet satellite. Manchu China was content with Mongolia and Tibet accepting the status of vassals; Manchuria, the dynasty's homeland, was closed to Han Chinese (until late into the 19th century). Han China and her northern respectively western rim territories thus were separated, Mongolia, Tibet etc. enjoyed a high degree of political autonomy. Pressure by Imperialist powers and the Chinese Revolution of 1911 changed the situation; Mongolia and Tibet declared independence, the former falling under Russian, the latter under British influence. Manchuria attracted Chinese settlers to such an extent, that the Manchurian language there became extinct and the region taking on the character of Han Chinese provinces. Following the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese administration established firm control of Xinjiang and Tibet. Immigration of Han Chinese began; state administration and modern industries are in the hands of Han Chinese, while the Tibetans, Uighurs and other minorities are comparatively poorer. Iran and Afghanistan have been able to maintain their independence. Here Islam has proven the most influential factor in their history. In both states, attempts of modernization have been undertaken, in Afghanistan by Amanullah Khan (which resulted in him being ousted in 1929), and again by the Soviets 1979-1989, again failing due to determined resistance supported from abroad. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan (1992-2001) refused access to school education to women. In Iran, the Revolution of 1905-1906 transformed the country into a constitutional monarchy. The Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907 turned Iran into a shared protectorate; following WW II, Prime Minister Mossadegh attempted to free Iran of foreign influence, and was ousted by a coup supported by CIA and British secret service. Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlevi, western-educated, ruled in the interest of western business, improved the country's education system (oil revenues financed the development of infrastructure), but did little to improve the lot of the poor. He was toppled in the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which established a functioning democracy, which, in contrast to the strict, conservative interpretation of Islam of the Taliban, is more flexible and modern. The narrative given above focussed on political, military and economic developments. It has to be stated, that Central Asia contributed in the field of culture as well; poets Firdausi and Omar Khayyam, medical doctor Ibn Sina, in the west better known as Avicenna, acquired fame far beyond Central Asia. They all originate from Chorasan; two of them are associated with the (Persian, Muslimic) Samanid Kingdom.

EXTERNAL FILES

REFERENCE

Erik Hildinger, Warriors of the Steppe, A Military History of Central Asia 500 B.C. to 1700 A.D., Da Capo (1997) 2001, 260 pp. [G] Jeremiah Curtin, The Mongols, a History, Da Capo (1907) 2003, 426 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. 950.2 C978a Elton L. Daniel, The History of Iran, Greenwood 2000, 320 pp., KMLA Lib.Sign. 955 D 184t David Morgan, Medieval Persia 1040-1097, Longman 1988, KMLA Lib.Sign. 955.02 M847m James Forsyth, A History of the Peoples of Siberia. Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990, Cambridge : UP (1992) 2000; KMLA Lib.Sign. 957 F735h Yuri Bregel, An Historical Atlas of Central Asia, (HACA) Leiden : Brill 2003 (defines Central Asia as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Xinjiang) [G] Part IV : Central Asia, pp.211-352 in : Zev Katz et al. (ed.), Handbook of Major Soviet Nationalities, NY : The Free Press 1975 [G]

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