History Of Central Asia Research Articles

The Russian-Soviet legacies in reshaping the national territories in Central Asia: A catastrophic case of Tajikistan

In every period of history many parts and territories of the world divide and get a new shape. There are lots of such examples. One clear example is the so-called ‘Grate Game’ and division of Central Asia by the British and Russian Empires. In general, Central Asian region has been under Russian influence for more than 150 years. Today in the 21st century Central Asia once again is facing a new ‘Great Game’, but this time with new and non-traditional powers in the region like the U.S. and China, which challenge the influence of region's traditional power – Russia. This paper tries to touch upon the situation and the tragic fate of Tajiks during the Russian-Soviet empires within the different political entities, administrations and territories. It analyzes the impact of Russian and Soviet legacies and territorial policies on Tajiks and Tajikistan. According to the findings of this paper, most of the previous Western and other foreign authors occasionally and briefly opine about this topic, especially about the catastrophic impact of the Russian and Soviet territorial legacies to the Tajik nation, in their work mainly focusing on the history of Central Asia. The paper draws together the main conclusions of relevant literature and tries to fill the gap within the body of existing literature and understandings concerning the topic.

Arminius Vambéry: Traveller, Scholar, Politician

The article discusses the life, travels, writings and politics of Arminius Vambéry (1832–1913), a noted Hungarian Turcologist. Vambéry's expertise was in the field of Turcology and he invested several years in Istanbul to study it. Afterwards he travelled for close to two years in Central Asia at great personal risk. Hence he disguised himself as a dervish and collected there manuscripts in the Turkic languages. He used these for his research after his return to Budapest, being appointed as a university professor there. Vambéry published numerous books and articles in several languages describing his life and travel experiences as well as many studies in Turkic linguistics and related fields of research. In his later years he published many newspaper articles on patriotic politics which were intended to promote Hungary's interests. Some of his scholarly works, chiefly on the languages and history of Central Asia, are still referred to today by scholars and students in those areas of research.

A Contribution made by Shokan Ualikhanov to the History of Middle Ages in Central Asia

Shokan Ualikhanov is a scientist who made a huge contribution to the history of Central Asia. Shokans works were not only known worldwide while he was alive but also were of great value to science these days. He was not only noticed by virtue of his special talent, knowledge, good observance and high intelligent skills and being an orientalist hopeful about the future among the highly-qualified Russian scientists but also on top of that he was the first Kazakh scientist who left a considerable mark on European science and culture. Followed by the outstanding Marko Polo, Shokan Ualikhanovs travel to Kashgar was the first brave deed by giving a many-sided discription of blind spots in Cetral Asia and introducing them to Europe. In this research Shokan Ualikhanovs contibution to the study of the history of Middle Ages in Cetral Asia was realized, his works in this field were analized.

Hanafi Legal Documents in Transoxiana

The article is based on most recent accomplishments, conclusions and methods in World Islamic and historical sciences. The historicalcomparative method was applied to study the sources including various manuscripts of Law and many other sources written in Arabic that are available in the Fund of Manuscripts of the Institute of Oriental Studies under Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekistan. It relys on recommendations, conclusions of research works and the conceptions related to the history of civilization of the Central Asia that were stated by leading scientists of our country and foreign countries such as Schacht Joseph, Monika Gronke, Ulrich Rebstock, Chehata Chafik, Emile Tyan, Chalmeta P; Carriente F, Riberta J., Asin, Jeanette A. Wakin, Michael Thung, Wael Hallaq, Carl Brockelmann. The aim of the article is to illuminate the role of literature on juridical documents in the development of divinity science in Transoxiana in XXIII centuries. Moreover, to illum inate the importance of such works in regulating the social relations of the cultural life of our society. To highlight the historicaljuridical forms, the oretical and practical foundation of juridical documents functioning in the world of Islam and Transoxiana in XXII I centuries that was the important part of the social life. Keywords: Abbasids, waqf, fiqh, faqih, shurūt, mahdar, sijill, qādī, fatāwa, Transoxiana, Hanafi, madhhab. The scholars of Hanafi madhhab in such big cities of Central Asia as Bukhara and Samarkand were actively involved into socialpolitical life during 10 th �13 th centuries. And the introduction of Hanafi madhhab into this area and the way of its development was studied by many Western scholars (Gronke, 1982). It is known that faqih (Islam lawyers) were the main executors of social and political government of a society in Transoxiana during the 10 th �13 th centuries. The specific feature of that period was that, Sultan appointed both rais (who was occupied with religious affairs) and amīr (the representative of the government) in one city. Rais made policy to strengthen Sunnism in the territory of the occupied countries. Here faqih family members as Āli Burhān(1) family assisted them. They also paid much attention to weaken their political enemies, especially shi'a groups who were near the capital of the country Khurāsān . In order to accomplish these tasks they used Hanafi scholars of Khurāsān and Transoxiana. Those scholars made a lot of afford to strengthen Hanafi madhhab in Central Asian countries and decrease shi'as status. The ruling dynasties as Samanids, Karahanids, Gaznavids and Saljukids Sultans in order to obey the people made benefit of Islam faqihs' participation in it. The period which the article will cover is considered as the second part of development of Islamic History in Central Asia. That is mutual impact and assimilation of Islamic cultures. The article will also deal the activities of qādī and qādī courts which were as means between Sultan and his people in social life of Transoxiana during 10 th �13 th centuries. Judicial-legal problems in Islam were always connected with the level of statehood development, the complexity or simplicity of relations in society. That is why qādī 's activity was developed in specific level in every period. And beginning from the 10 th �13 th century in the territory occupied by Arabs, qādī courts become an

Spiritual-Moral Context of Studying the Amir Temur’s State Governing

One of the first-priority directions of the independent Uzbekistan’s development is building a legal democratic state and forming a civil society. Therefore, studying the rich spiritual legacy of Uzbek nation, including the area of building effective system of state governing, is under high consideration. Present article deals with the spiritual-moral context of studying the state governing of Amir Temur, a phenomenon that played significant role in the history of Central Asia in XIV century. The author has highlighted three directions of state governing of Amir Temur, also has commented on the principles of executing the governing, stated in the treatise “Tuzuk Taimuri” of great commander and statesman, and high exactingness to moral qualities of officials are highlighted; author has substantiated the urgency and significance of Amir Temur’s ruling policy for modern sovereign state.

Everyday Life in Central Asia. Past and Present ed. by Jeff Sahadeo and Russell Zanca (review)

Reviewed by: Everyday Life in Central Asia. Past and Present ed. by Jeff Sahadeo and Russell Zanca Dorena Caroli (bio) Jeff Sahadeo and Russell Zanca (Eds.), Everyday Life in Central Asia. Past and Present (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2007). 401 pp. Maps, black and white photographic illustrations. Bibliography. Index. ISBN: 978-0-253-21904-6. Everyday life in the Soviet Union and in the former Soviet republics has constituted a main field of investigation in recent decades and has disclosed the way in which the traditional and national cultures survived through socialism or were surpassed by a longing for modernity and modernization.1 This new and interesting volume edited by Jeff Sahadeo and Russell Zanca fills an important gap in the history of everyday life of Central Asia. This region was studied in past decades more from the point of view of building democracy, religious extremism and terrorism, natural resource holding, and the war in Afghanistan. The editors’ challenging task concerned not only the large variety of topics included in the collection but also the coordination of twenty-three well-known scholars dealing with the different aspects of everyday life in Central Asia, including the topics of Turkmen [End Page 464] nomads, Afghan villagers, Kazakh scientists, Kyrgyz border guards, Tajik “strongmen” and guardians of religious shrines in Uzbekistan. The volume also includes a very useful selected bibliography and index of names and topics. The introduction presents some reflections on “everydayness” in Central Asia, the geopolitical features of this huge region (located between the Caspian Sea, the Urals, the middle range of the Altai and Tien Shan mountains, and the Hindu Kush), and a historical survey covering the period from the 1930s to the beginning of the Afghan war. It is followed by five thematic sections dealing with gender, religion, power, culture, and wealth. As the editors argue in the introduction, the links between the past and the present constitute the core of the volume, revealing the “significance of the Soviet transformation of Central Asian culture and society”: In addition to political leaders and systems, the continuities of the Soviet era are anchored in multiple aspects of everyday life – the way people read, learn, work, and think. Soviet legacies go to the heart of modern identity of various Central Asian peoples. We focus specifically on what Central Asians themselves have to say about this identity issue, which varies, of course, depending on their level of interest in notions such as cultural dominance and transformation. We aim to impress upon readers the centrality of the intertwined Russian, Soviet, and Marxist transformations among ordinary people from the semi-desert environments of western Uzbekistan to the lush valleys of the Pamir Mountains shared by Tajiks and Kyrgyz, to say nothing of the cosmopolitan setting of Almaty and Tashkent … [I]mperial and Soviet experiences themselves were shaped at the level of everyday life by local customs, behaviors, and traditions (P. 9). The originality of this volume consists not only in the detailed and multidisciplinary presentation of everyday life in the region but also in the fact that “Ordinary people in Central Asia emerge … as agents in a series of complex transformations” (P. 9). The only chapter in the first section, by Scott Levi, deals with the role of the communities of Turks and Tajiks in Central Asian history. He looks for the key factors that have shaped the region over centuries, describing how modern-day Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Turkmens, and Uzbeks were formed out of various Turkic-speaking groups, how [End Page 465] Iranian-speaking groups became Tajiks, and how the lines between ethnic groups shifted due to socioeconomic, political, and demographic factors. Islam, spreading across Central Asia from the eighth century to the eighteenth, also continually evolved, adopting beliefs and practices from older religious systems and adding those from new arrivals. (P. 13) The second section deals with communes, which have been of critical importance across Central Asia because they acted as “anchors” during the transition, and highlights how “group loyalties today remain multilayered, even as many residents of Central Asia identify themselves as Afghans, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Turkmen, or Uzbeks, or, in a larger sense, as Muslims” (P. 33). The four chapters constituting...

Scientific Historical and Archeological Discoveries as an Updating Factor of Teaching the History of Central Asia in the Institutes of Higher Education of Kazakhstan

Abstract The article deals with actual issues of the history of Central Asia. In the development of scientific concepts in this article, one thing in common can be defined: was there a civilization in the steppes of Eurasia and if there is a need to accept the nomadic world as part of the civilization of the Eurasian steppes? Recently, among the scientists of the former Soviet Union a new methodological approach has been developed which is radically different from the Soviet historiography to the study of the history of a distinctive culture of the Saka tribes. The given tribes were, more or less, strong unified, as a very harmonious coexistence (prototype of the government), and a special attention is paid to the implementation of scientific materials of unique archaeological discoveries and written texts, considered as artifacts of material culture of the Saka tribes. These facts enable the emergence of new scientific development. At the present an Ethnic History of the Saks Based on such scientific concepts, is stated as the story of Turks (prototype of Turks). At present, along with this issue, the most vulnerable subject, requiring a proper attention from historians, is refutation of established ideological concepts of the Soviet era on the Mongol-Tatar invasion. Increasingly, scientists from Central Asia are wondering whether to call the campaign the Mongol-Tatar as invasion, where also the problem of irrigation system development, as the distinctive sign of prospering culture of the settlement is considered? In answering these questions, in the history of Central Asia, a new vision of the historical events that gave rise to a new understanding of history teaching, was formed. The above- mentioned concepts, as well as the accession of Kazakhstan to the Bologna process has given a new impetus to the improvement of the content of education and training standards in higher education in Kazakhstan.

The history of Central Asia: v.1: The age of the Steppe warriors

The history of Central Asia: v.1: The age of the Steppe warriors

Synchronous drying and cooling in central Asia during late Oligocene

Aridification of central Asia during late Oligocene and Early Miocene has been documented by numerous eolian records from the North Pacific and central Asia. However, direct evidence of aridity from the interior of the arid zone is still rather scarce. To better reconstruct the climate history in central Asia during the late Oligocene, we have analyzed ostracod assemblages and gypsum content in the sediments from the lacustrine Jingou River section in the northern Tianshan Mountains. Our results show that the cold water species Candona cf. Neglecta and Pseudocandona albicans replaced the warm water species Ilyocypris bradyi and Ilyocypris sp. to become the dominant species at 23.8 Ma, indicating significant cooling in central Asia at that time. At the same time, a substantial increase in gypsum content indicates the intensification of central Asian drying. The synchronous cooling and drying approximately coincided with the Oi2b.1 and/or Mi1 events, implying a causal linkage between late Oligocene global cooling and central Asian aridity.

Early Modern Central Asia in World History

AbstractScholars have long recognized that Central Asia played a key role in trans‐Eurasian trade, positioned as it was at the crossroads of the overland “Silk Road” network of caravan routes. The economic advantages associated with the region’s geography are presumed to have supported the great nomadic empires of the Eurasian interior in the classical and medieval eras, and to have come to an abrupt end in the early modern era. This generally has been attributed to the rise of European commercial interests in the Indian Ocean, which signaled the end of the overland Silk Road trade and sent Central Asia into a centuries‐long period of decline. This essay draws attention to a number of foundational assumptions that have informed this interpretation, and it advocates for moving beyond the decline paradigm to employ an integrative method of analysis that more effectively situates the region in its global context and invigorates the study of early modern Central Asian history.

Late Quaternary (30.7–9.0 cal ka BP) vegetation history in Central Asia inferred from pollen records of Lake Balikun, northwest China

Surface and fossil pollen samples were collected to reconstruct the vegetation and environment since 30.7 cal ka BP in the Lake Balikun Basin, northwest China. This record demonstrates that the region was occupied by four vegetation communities during the interval 30.7–9.0 cal ka BP, including desert steppe (30.7–25.1 cal ka BP), Amaranthaceae-Asteraceae desert (25.1–17.7 cal ka BP), Amaranthaceae-Artemisia-Asteraceae desert (17.7–12.8 cal ka BP) and Amaranthaceae desert (12.8–9.0 cal ka BP), corresponding to relatively humid, the coldest and driest, cold and dry, and colder and drier conditions, respectively. The reconstructions of vegetation and environmental changes around Lake Balikun do not support the interpretation of an extremely humid LGM in Central Asia, challenging the cold-moist (glacial), warm-dry (interglacial) pattern of late Quaternary environmental change in Central Asia. The Last Glacial Maximum was cold and dry, and similarly harsh conditions continued into the early Holocene.

New record of climate history in central Asia

The climate in Central Asia, currently a semiarid region, has varied over the past 500,000 years. An accurate record of the past climate can help scientists understand current climate and better predict how the climate may change in the future. Previous studies with paleoclimate records, such as lake sediments and ice cores, show changes in moisture in the region, but climate history in Central Asia is debated, as some of those records are not high resolution or not well dated. Cheng et al. describe a new high‐resolution, well‐dated record of oxygen isotopes in stalagmites from the Kesang cave in western China. The researchers dated the stalagmites using radioactive thorium dating and then looked at the oxygen isotope record, which provides information on past atmospheric circulation and precipitation.

Soviet population transfers and interethnic relations in Tajikistan: assessing the concept of ethnicity

This article explores a key event in the recent history of Central Asia: the 1950s Soviet policy of forced transfers of highlanders down to cotton kolkhozes in the Ferghana Valley. From both a historical and sociological perspective, the article analyses how the displaced population was received in the areas of destination. It sheds light on the concept of ethnicity, in the sense that these transfers were most often analysed in ethnic terms. This approach does not allow for the perception of a complex range of identities based on a nation, a region, a lineage, a religion or a language. The concept of ethnicity seems therefore limited to explain the social dynamics of nation-state formation in a region where identity appears to be multiple, changing and constantly renegotiated.

“With a Pure Heart and a Truthful Tongue”: The Recovery of the Text of the Manichaean Daily Prayers

Much progress has been made in the understanding of Manichaeism as a major religion in Late Antiquity, the recovery of its texts and practices, and tracking the remarkable spread of the community from its origins in early Sasanian Iran both westward into the Mediterranean world of the Late Roman Empire and east through Central Asia to its final demise in southern China. The religion had a unique record in terms of the extent of its distribution and its interaction with the governments, cultures, and faiths of the ancient and medieval worlds. Nevertheless, questions have remained about the unity of the tradition over such a large area and time period. This study proposes to recover the authentic text of the Manichaean daily prayers from a combination of previously available and recently discovered or edited sources. These sources derive from three very diverse cultural contexts: fourth-century Roman Egypt (in Greek), the tenth-century Abbasid empire (in Arabic), and early medieval Central Asia (in Middle Iranian). It will be shown that the text of the prayers remained remarkably constant as a fundamental pillar of the religious practice of this community deriving from Mani himself and an Aramaic original. This study of the Manichaean prayers provides insights both into our reading of Mani’s own religious identity and into our knowledge of the ritual life of a community where the teachings have been much better understood than the practices. It also suggests provocative questions about the impact of this tradition on the broader history and development of religions, especially as a precursor of Islam, which more famously came to dominate the heartland and trade routes of Eurasia in succession to it.

The Road That Never Was: The Silk Road and Trans-Eurasian Exchange

The Silk Road is commonly used as a convenient blanket term to describe the many trade routes and points of contact that criss-crossed Central Asia. The term is generally overused, to the point that everything in the history of the region is conceptualized within the confines of the Silk Road(s). By reading Greco-Roman and particularly Chinese sources on the contacts between the eastern and western termini of the Eurasian continent, this article demonstrates that the Silk Road is not only a nineteenth-century name but, indeed, a modern historiographical invention, serving to lump together individual histories and creating long-distance connections where they never existed. It is proposed that for a more productive study of Central Asian history, we must do away with the notion of the Silk Road and notice the realities, to consider individual socioeconomic systems and their peculiarities.

Recent monographs on the social history of Central Asia

Community matters in Xinjiang 1880–1949. Towards a historical anthropology of the Uyghur, by Ildiko Beller-Hann, Leiden, Brill, 2008, xv + 476 pp., US$171 (hardback), ISBN 978 9004166752. Two maps,...

Power, Social Life, and Public Memory in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan

AbstractThis article attempts to analyse the memory of people through recollections of the everyday life of people in Soviet times in the Central Asian republics of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. By using extensive interviews with seventy-five elderly people in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan regarding their Soviet-time experiences, this article argues that the public view of history in post-Soviet Central Asia often falls in between Soviet historiography advocating advances of Soviet past and post-Soviet historical discourses rejecting the Soviet past. Public perceptions of history in Central Asia are mostly shaped by and related to the everyday needs, experiences, identifications and mentality of people as opposed to the ideologies and political doctrines of the time. They often reflect not only the perceptions of people regarding their past but also their perceptions regarding their present.

The Changing of Central Asian Traditional Communities by the Cultural Succession and Discontinuation

In the history of central Asia the frequent changing of ruling dynasties could be interpreted as political discontinuity, in other side social and cultural tradition from the past appeared in the areas of intellectuals and knowledge systems could be considered continual factors which guarantees cultural continuity of central asian communities by the beginning of 20th century. Cultural Heritages from Persian, Arabic, Mongolian, Turkish and Russian dynasties delivered to the society of present central asian countries and these cultural heritages and historical vestiges could be the standard to decide social & historical continuity or discontinuity.

Gene Flow at the Crossroads of Humanity: mtDNA Sequence Diversity and Alu Insertion Polymorphism Frequencies in Uzbekistan

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) HVS-I region sequences were obtained from 47 unrelated individuals represent- ing 10 of 12 viloyats of Uzbekistan. In addition, frequencies for five Alu insertion polymorphisms were determined for the same 47 individuals. These data were used to assess the genetic position of Uzbekistan relative to other Central Asians and, more generally, to Eurasian groups. Results show that the Uzbek sample has an approximate balance of west Eura- sian (53.2%) and Asian (46.8%) mtDNA lineages, which is reflected by their intermediate position relative to other Eura- sian groups in MDS plots based on genetic distance matrices. The Uzbeks also exhibit high sequence diversity, a frag- mented median-joining network, and a low regionalST score, all of which suggests a high degree of gene flow from neighboring gene pools. This is consistent with Central Asia's history of repeated incursions by various nomadic peoples from the Asian steppe and the location of the well-traveled Silk Road within the present-day borders of Uzbekistan. In ad- dition, a star-like cluster within haplogroup H was identified in the Uzbek network, potentially representing a west Eura- sian genetic substratum of an earlier occupation by Caucasoid peoples.

Migration past and present: changing patterns in Kyrgyzstan

Internal and international labour migration is a main livelihood strategy for many people in rural areas of Kyrgyzstan. It is estimated that approximately one-third of the employable population of Kyrgyzstan is working abroad. However, current labour migration phenomena are not exceptional since Central Asia's history has always been characterized by the movement of people, including external and internal, forced and voluntary, legal and illegal, permanent and temporary, ethnically or economically motivated migration. This article gives an overview of the historical and present migration processes with a special focus on three village communities in rural Kyrgyzstan. It deals with the opportunities and difficulties with which labour migrants and their non-migrating family members are confronted today. The results are based on extensive field work in Kyrgyzstan.