Choresmier (people)

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The Choresmier ( DIN 31635 h v ārazmier) was an Iranian people that the remote bulk oasis Choresm (Choresmien) at the underflow and the mouth of Amudarja in the Aral Sea in the west Central Asia inhabited. In the Middle Ages it first became Islamic and then - losing its Iranian character - gradually became Turkish until it was finally completely absorbed as an independent ethnic group.

Culture

A typical fortress of the Afrighiden period: Ayaz-Qala

The residents of Choresm, who practiced intensive irrigated agriculture , built large fortifications to protect them from neighboring nomad tribes and were known for their extensive trade contacts, had an independent and highly developed culture early on, but research is still in the beginning. Originally, they were Zoroastrians until the 11th century (the Khorezmian kings converted to Islam in the 9th century) and until the 14th century they spoke their own Eastern Iranian language , related to Sogdian and Parthian 4th century BC until the introduction of the (slightly modified) Arabic alphabet (in the 8th century) was written with its own script borrowed from the Aramaic alphabet and was ultimately completely superseded by Turkish ( see also: Choresm language ).

history

See above all: Choresmies and Choresmies in antiquity

The Choresmians mentioned by Herodotus ( Historien , III 93 and 117, VII 87) as well as in ancient Persian sources and mostly largely independent during their long history were traditionally ruled by a supreme ruler with the title "Choresm Shah" . Originally it was at this Shah to local kings, but this changed in 1017, when Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni , the (995 to Afrighiden followed) dynasty Mamuniden and thus the last khwarazmian dynasty Khwarazmian (ie Iranian) plunged origin and subordinated the land on the south bank of the Aral Sea to a Turkish military slave . Since then, the Khorezmians have been ruled almost exclusively by Turkish (or Mongolian ) dynasties, two of which (those of the Altuntasmids and Anushteginids ) continued to carry the old title of Khorezm Shah.
This (in the 11th century) also observed in other regions such as Transoxania , associated with the disappearance of indigenous Iranian dynasties, the assumption of power by rulers of Turkish origin, favored the ethnic and linguistic Turkishization of the country, which as an “outpost and border post” of the Iranian cultural area near the steppes anyway has always been harassed by nomadic tribes from Central Asia. The Choresmians, who mixed more and more with immigrant Turks (or Turks imported as soldiers), were apparently also able to come to terms with shahs of Turkish origin. It must be emphasized that the largely peaceful process of Turkishization was by no means accompanied by material or cultural decline.

Famous Choresmians

Sources and literature

See also