Central Asia Midterm wtf
Tughril (Toghril) (Seljuk sultan, r. 1040-1063)
Tughril united many Turkoman warriors of the Central Asian steppes into a confederacy of tribes and led them in conquest of Khorasan and eastern Persia. He would later establish the Seljuk Sultanate after conquering Persia and taking the Abbasid capital of Baghdad from the Buyids in 1055. Tughril relegated the Abbasid Caliphs to state figureheads and took command of the caliphate's armies in military offensives against the Byzantine Empire and the Fatimids in an effort to expand his empire's borders and unite the Islamic world.
Oxus/Amu Darya River
Two major rivers flowing out of the Aral Sea.
First Türk Khaganate
With the help of the Western Wei, Bumin defeated the Rouran in 552 and founded the Türk Khaganate, the first indisputably Turkic state, which would, soon after its foundation, stretch from the Black Sea to Manchuria. The Avars, in turn, fled westwards, raided the Balkans and created quite a few problems for Byzantium. The foundation of the Türk Khaganate in 552 marked the beginning of the pre-Islamic period of the Turkic state-formation which lasted until the 10th century.In contrast to earlier steppe empires, such as the Xiongnu, which have been characterized as "tribute empires" relying mostly on the tributes they extracted from neighboring polities and communities (sedentary or nomadic, smaller or greater polities), the Türk Khaganate has been described as a "trade-tribute empire" as it relied not only on the collection of tribute, but also engaged directly in trade or patronized merchants among their own subjects.
Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom
the Greek territories north of the Hindu Kush mountain range constituted a separate kingdom usually referred as to the Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom. This kingdom existed until 130-120 BCE. Importantly, the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom maintained good relations with the Greek regions on the other side of the Hindu Kush range. With the decline of the Mauryan Empire (whose end eventually came in 184 BCE), the Graeco-Bactrian Kingdom incorporated back those Greek regions to the south of the Hindu Kush at around 200 BCE. By 150 BCE the Greek areas in Bactria (north of the Hindu Kush) had started declining, while the ones south of the Hindu Kush became a separate kingdom - the Kingdom of Yavana (or the Graeco-Indian kingdom) that lasted till 10 AD.
Khwarazm
the land immediately south of the Aral Sea, encompassing the region of the Amu Darya delta.
Sogdia/Sogdiana
to the northwest of Bactria - between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers - mostly in modern Uzbekistan, contains some of the most important Central Asian cities such as Samarkand, Bukhara, and Kjujand.
Orkhon Inscriptions
two memorial installations erected by the Göktürks written in the Old Turkic alphabet in the early 8th century in the Orkhon Valley in what is modern-day Mongolia. They were erected in honor of two Turkic princes, Kul Tigin and his brother Bilge Khagan.[1] The inscriptions, in both Chinese and Old Turkic, relate the legendary origins of the Turks, the golden age of their history, their subjugation by the Tang dynasty, and their liberation by Ilterish Qaghan.[2] According to one source, the inscriptions contain "rhythmic and parallelistic passages" which resemble that of epics
Kamal al-Din (Kemal ud-Din) Behzad
was a Persian painter and head of the royal ateliers in Herat and Tabriz during the late Timurid and early Safavid Persian periods.[1] He is regarded as marking the highpoint of the great tradition of Islamic miniature painting.[2] He was very prominent in his role as kitābdār (a director of a workshop) in the Herat Academy as well as his position in the Royal Library in the city of Herat. His art is unique in that it includes the common geometric attributes of Persian painting, while also inserting his own style, such as vast empty spaces to which the subject of the painting dances around.
Zoroaster/Zoroastrianism
Believed to be the first monothestic religion dualistic cosmology struggle between the Lord Wisdom: Ahura Mazda (Ohrmazd) + the Spirit of falsehood and disorder - Ahriman (sometime referred to as the God of Dark or Evil). Scripture = Avesta, the authoritative version of which was commissioned by Ardashir (first Sasanian ruler) in the 3rd century CE and the process was completed under Shapur II in the 4th century CE - 21 books total, of which only one has been fully preserved. 12,000-year period(four 3,000 year cycles) Zoroaster(Zarathustra) (camel-driver) = prophet of Zoroastrianism -- came 9,000 years after Creation (around 1000 BC), at the beginning of the last cycle. Zoroaster is believed to have hailed from Central Asia, from the Oxus/Amu Darya valley (although there are hypotheses about his Iranian origin) to teach mankind the religion of good. at the end of this 12,000-year long period, the final combat between Good and Evil would take place -> dead would resurrect, and good= heaven, sinners = hell. Fire = major element of worship and the Magi administered Zoroastrian rituals in fire-temples attached to their landed estates.
Mahmud of Ghazna
Mahmud continued the bureaucratic, political, and cultural customs of his predecessors, the Samanids. He established the ground for a future Persianate state in Punjab, particularly centered on Lahore, a city he conquered.[4] His capital of Ghazni evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual centre in the Islamic world, almost rivalling the important city of Baghdad. BROTHER OF ISMAIL
Battle of Dandanaqan
fought in 1040 between the Seljuq Turkmens and the Ghaznavid Empire near the city of Merv (now in Turkmenistan).[6][7] The battle ended with a decisive Seljuq victory, which subsequently brought down the Ghaznavid domination in Greater Khorasan.[1]
Bactria (Bactriana)
in modern northern Afghanistan, southwestern Tajikistan, and southeastern Uzbekistan. Surrounded from the north and east by the Pamir Mountains, and to the south by the Hindukush mountain range.
Achaemenid Empire
1,000 BCE : Medes and the Persians migrated from Central Asia to Fars (the SW portion of today's Iran). Lived as vassals to the Babylonian and Assyrian empires. Medes and Persians were Indo-Europeans, and their movements were part of the larger Indo-European migrations we have already discussed. They shared many cultural traits with their distant cousins - the Aryans, who migrated into India. Initially= stateless pastoralists, clans, a little agriculture. not well organized politically, but Medes and Persians were skilled horse warriors+ frequently raided Assyria + Babylonian Empires in Mesopotamia When the Mesopotamian Empires started weakening, they embarked upon a vastly successful imperial venture of their own. Cyrus the Achaemenid who reigned 558-530 BCE was the founder of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Prob a shepherd from the Achaemenid clan, great military leader and strategist. 558 BCE Cyrus = king of the Persian tribes. ruled from his mountain fortress of Pasargadae. 553 BCE = defeated his Median tribal overlord, and by 548 BCE = all of Iran under his control / was looking to expand 546 = conquered the kingdom of Lydia in W Anatolia. 545-539 = campaigned in Bactria (parts of Central Asia and modern Afghanistan). 539 BCE = conquered Babylonia empire= India to the borders of Egypt. Before being able to subdue Egypt, Cyrus was mortally wounded in battle in 530 BCE. THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING OF THE ACHMENID EMPIRE- THE REST IS IN LECTURE 1 NOTES
Qutayba b. Muslim
Qutayba b. Muslim, the Arab governor of Khurasan from 705 to 715 who, with the encouragement of al-Hajjaj, governnor of Iraq and Viceroy of the East (in office, 694-714) who first established a firm Arab Muslim hold over (some of) the lands beyond the Amu Darya (Oxus) River. During the decade of his governorship in Khurasan, which coincided with the reign of Caliph al-Walid (r. 705-715), Qutayba b. Muslim laid the foundation of an Islamic Transoxiana and Khwarazm through a series of dramatic and often heroic campaigns. These encounters between Arabs and Türks in the first couple of decades of the 8th century are most likely the reason for the mention of the Khagan of the Türk Khaganate campaigning as far west as the Iron Gate gorge in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan in the Orkhon inscriptions. Indeed, later Arab sources also mention Qutayba campaigning through the Iron Gate. In the conquest of all these petty states in Central Asia, Qutayba followed the same model. He left the local rulers in their places as vassals of the caliphal state who had to pay tribute and swear allegiance to the Caliphate. He would also appoint Arab governors in the conquered Central Asian principalities to supervise the local vassal rulers. The Arab conquerors alos built mosques and introduced the practices of Islam in the newly conquered territories. The death of Qutayba in 715
Second Türk Khaganate
Revolts in both the eastern and western Türk regions as well as the expansion of the Tibetan state weakened the Tang regime and by 682 the eastern Khaganate was restored, 17 years later, in 699 the western half of the Türk state was restored too. The earliest preserved Turkic inscriptions, the Orkhon inscriptions of the 730s, chiseled on large stone blocks along the Orkhon river in modern Mongolia tell the epic story of the restoration of the Türk Khaganate under Ilterish Khagan and his adviser Tonyuquq. With internal discord persisting and external threats not lacking either, the Second Türk Khaganate did not last too long. In 734 Bilge Khagan, the heir of Ilterish in the East was poisoned and in 744 the Uighurs of Mongolia and Xingjiang took over the East Türk Khaganate. The Uighur state lasted until 840. In the West, the Khaganate collapsed in 766.
Kara-khanid (Qara-khanid) state
The Qara-Khanids (Kara-Khanids), also known as Ilek-Khanids, were a Turkic khanate of obscure provenance which existed from the 9th century till the 1213 when the last vestiges of the Kara-Khanid state disappeared. They emerged most probably in the mid-9th century in the lands of today Kyrgyzstan (esp. in Semirech'ie -- the Land of Seven Rivers) and western Xinjiang (the mod. Uighur Autonomous Region in China). The Qara-Khanids conquered most of the Samanid state (specifically Transoxiana) in 999 ruled Transoxiana independently between 999 and 1089, and then as vassals of the Seljuks until 1141 and later as vassals of the Mongolic Kara Khitai until 1213. They were divided for the greater part of their history into two parts (eastern and western (cf. the Türk Khaganates), the eastern Khagan was senior and bore the title Arslan (lion) and the western bore the title Bogra (male camel). The eastern Khagans riled from the capitals in Balasagun and Kashgar), while the western Khagan ruled from Samarkand after 999. Historical importance of the Qara-Khanids: The Kara-Khanid state is important in Central Asian history for several reasons: As it originated in what is today Kyrgyzstan and western Xinjiang (the mod. Uighur Autonomous Region in China) it bordered the Muslim Samanid state (which lay to the southwest), and much under the influence of the Samanids, including Islamic scholars and Sufis coming from the Samanid realm, the Qara-khanid state was the first Turkic state in which the ruler and the people (his subjects) converted en masse around 950.
Battle of Talas (751)
conflict between the Caliphate and Tang China became inevitable and in 751 a Muslim army routed a Chinese force in the Battle of Talas River (nearby mod. city of Taraz in SW Kazakhstan). This Muslim victory spelled China's withdrawal from Central Asia and prepared the ground for Islam to become the dominant religion in Transoxiana.
Xiongnu Confederation/Empire
Xiongnu founder, Modun (Maodun, Modu) (r. 209-174 BCE) emerged. The Xiongnu were a nomadic tribal confederation that existed from around 209 BCE to the late 1st century CE which inherited and further developed most of the defining traits of the equestrian nomadic culture of the Scythians. The Xiongnu state controlled much of the lands of Mongolia, Central Asia (esp. what later came to be known as Eastern Turkestan), and China (esp. Inner Mongolia) and southern Siberia. They are important for our discussion for two main reasons. First, the Xiongnu created the first "empire of the steppes" (something that the Scythians could not achieve). Their precedent-setting example defined the model on which all later pre-modern Turco-Mongol polities built. Second, while their member tribes were most likely polyethnic in origin, and while they cannot be clearly defined as "Turks" (or "Turkic Peoples"), the Xiongnu are usually seen as the precursors of both Turks and Mongols.It has been argued that at least the ruling clan of the Xiongnu acquired a Turkic identity.Whether this was the case or not, by the time the Xiongnu fizzled out, it was Altaic (Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic) peoples who would be there to directly inherit the political, administrative, military, and cultural traditions of the Xiongnu.Moreover, the first clearly identifiable Turkic peoples appeared on the periphery of the late Xiongnu Empire.Peoples associated with the Xiongnu spread far to the west, most notably the Huns are thought to be a splinter of the Xiongnu Empire.If not necessarily the ethnic progenitors of the Turks, the Xiongnu had numerous ties to the later Turks.
Transoxiana
a portion of Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, southern Kyrgyzstan and southwest Kazakhstan. Characterized as the land between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. Home to Bukhara and Samarkand. Timur and Chagatai both ruled from this region. Term used mostly for the pre-modern Islamic period.
Xinjiang
an autonomous province in far northwestern China on the border with Mongolia and Kazakhstan. Chagatai, Mongolistan, Home to Uyghurs and the eastern portion of the Eurasian Steppe.
