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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Tajikistan
Index
Much, if not all, of what is today Tajikistan was part of ancient
Persia's Achaemenid Empire (sixth to fourth centuries B.C.), which was
subdued by Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C. and then became
part of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, one of the successor states to
Alexander's empire. The northern part of what is now Tajikistan was part
of Soghdiana, a distinct region that intermittently existed as a
combination of separate oasis states and sometimes was subject to other
states. Two important cities in what is now northern Tajikistan, Khujand
(formerly Leninobod; Russian spelling Leninabad) and Panjakent, as well as
Bukhoro (Bukhara) and Samarqand (Samarkand) in contemporary Uzbekistan,
were Soghdian in antiquity. As intermediaries on the Silk Route between
China and markets to the west and south, the Soghdians imparted religions
such as Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism (see Glossary),
and Manichaeism (see Glossary), as well as their own alphabet and other
knowledge, to peoples along the trade routes.
Between the first and fourth centuries, the area that is now Tajikistan
and adjoining territories were part of the Kushan realm, which had close
cultural ties to India. The Kushans, whose exact identity is uncertain,
played an important role in the expansion of Buddhism by spreading the
faith to the Soghdians,who in turn brought it to China and the Turks.
By the first century A.D., the Han dynasty of China had developed
commercial and diplomatic relations with the Soghdians and their
neighbors, the Bactrians. Military operations also extended Chinese
influence westward into the region. During the first centuries A.D.,
Chinese involvement in this region waxed and waned, decreasing sharply
after the Islamic conquest but not disappearing completely. As late as the
nineteenth century, China attempted to press its claim to the Pamir region
of what is now southeastern Tajikistan. Since the breakup of the Soviet
Union, China occasionally has revived its claim to part of this region.
The Islamic Conquest
Islamic Arabs began the conquest of the region in earnest in the early
eighth century. Conversion to Islam occurred by means of incentives,
gradual acceptance, and force of arms. Islam spread most rapidly in cities
and along the main river valleys. By the ninth century, it was the
prevalent religion in the entire region. In the early centuries of Islamic
domination, Central Asia continued in its role as a commercial crossroads,
linking China, the steppes to the north, and the Islamic heartland.
Persian Culture in Central Asia
The Persian influence on Central Asia, already prominent before the
Islamic conquest, grew even stronger afterward. Under Iran's last
pre-Islamic empire, the Sassanian, the Persian language and culture as
well as the Zoroastrian religion spread among the peoples of Central Asia,
including the ancestors of the modern Tajiks. In the wake of the Islamic
conquest, Persian-speakers settled in Central Asia, where they played an
active role in public affairs and furthered the spread of the Persian
language and culture, their language displacing Eastern Iranian ones. By
the twelfth century, Persian had also supplanted Arabic as the written
language for most subjects.
The Samanids
In the development of a modern Tajik national identity, the most
important state in Central Asia after the Islamic conquest was the
Persian-speaking Samanid principality (875-999), which came to rule most
of what is now Tajikistan, as well as territory to the south and west.
During their reign, the Samanids supported the revival of the written
Persian language.
Early in the Samanid period, Bukhoro became well-known as a center of
learning and culture throughout the eastern part of the Persian-speaking
world. Samanid literary patronage played an important role in preserving
the culture of pre-Islamic Iran. Late in the tenth century, the Samanid
state came under increasing pressure from Turkic powers to the north and
south. After the Qarakhanid Turks overthrew the Samanids in 999, no major
Persian state ever again existed in Central Asia.
Beginning in the ninth century, Turkish penetration of the Persian
cultural sphere increased in Central Asia. The influx of even greater
numbers of Turkic peoples began in the eleventh century. The Turkic
peoples who moved into southern Central Asia, including what later became
Tajikistan, were influenced to varying degrees by Persian culture. Over
the generations, some converted Turks changed from pastoral nomadism to a
sedentary way of life, which brought them into closer contact with the
sedentary Persian-speakers. Cultural influences flowed in both directions
as Turks and Persians intermarried.
During subsequent centuries, the lands that eventually became
Tajikistan were part of Turkic or Mongol states. The Persian language
remained in use in government, scholarship, and literature. Among the
dynasties that ruled all or part of the future Tajikistan between the
eleventh and fifteenth centuries were the Seljuk Turks, the Mongols, and
the Timurids (Timur, or Tamerlane, and his heirs and their subjects).
Repeated power struggles among claimants to these realms took their toll
on Central Asia. The Mongol conquest in particular dealt a serious blow to
sedentary life and destroyed several important cities in the region.
Although they had come in conquest, the Timurids also patronized
scholarship, the arts, and letters.
In the early sixteenth century, Uzbeks from the northwest conquered
large sections of Central Asia, but the unified Uzbek state began to break
apart soon after the conquest. By the early nineteenth century, the lands
of the future Tajikistan were divided among three states: the Uzbek-ruled
Bukhoro Khanate, the Quqon (Kokand) Khanate, centered on the Fergana
Valley, and the kingdom of Afghanistan. These three principalities
subsequently fought each other for control of key areas of the new
territory. Although some regions were under the nominal control of
Bukhoro, or Quqon, local rulers were virtually independent.
Data as of March 1996
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