Transoxania

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Transoxania and the neighboring regions of Khorasan and Khorezmia in Central Asia
Transoxania lies between Oxus (Amu Darja) and Jaxartes (Syr Darja)

Transoxania - the "land beyond the Oxus " - is the name of an important historical region in western Central Asia , which essentially comprises the land between the two rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya with the old metropolises of Samarkand and Bukhara .

Surname

The Latin term Transoxania means "land beyond the Oxus", where Oxus is the ancient name of Amu Darya. It corresponds to the Arabic name Mawara'unnahr (ما وراء النهر, DMG mā warāʾu n-nahr = "that which lies across the river"), from which the Uzbek name Movarounnahr is derived. For the Persian Sassanids , whose northeast border with Central Asia in late antiquity ran in this region, Transoxania belonged (as the Shahnameh shows ) to the non-Iranian area of Turan , which later was mainly inhabited by Turks and therefore also known as Turkestan .

geography

Transoxanien belongs to the lowlands of Turan and is characterized by steppes and deserts like the Kyzylkum ; the climate is decidedly continental and dry . The Fergana Valley and the Serafshan Valley , which also includes Samarkand and Bukhara, have always been fertile irrigated land that is used for agriculture. To the east of this is the Pamir Mountains.

For the Muslim geographers of the Middle Ages, Mawara'unnahr comprised practically all areas under Islamic control north of the middle and upper Amudaryas, although the northern border (and also the eastern border in the mountains) was not precisely defined. South of the Amudarya was the eastern Iranian region of Khorasan , in the west of the lower reaches of the Amudarya, which flows through deserts, the great oasis of Khorezm . In the north were the steppe areas of the "pagan", non-Islamized nomads until the Mongol era, among whom Buddhists, Manichaeans and Christians lived in some of the Sogdian colonists' caravan towns, such as Taraz . These cities went under with their religious diversity at the end of the Mongolian khanates in the late Middle Ages. A significant causal contribution to the demise of these urban cultures and the non-Islamic religious communities is attributed to the plague in the middle of the 14th century , along with the ongoing wars and the disruption of trade .

The regions and provinces into which Transoxania was subdivided at the time of the Abbasid caliphate (750–1258) included Sughd (around Bukhara and Samarkand on the Serafshan), Chaghaniyan, Chuttal with the capital Hulbuk and Wachan on the upper Amudarja, Usrushana south of the middle Syr Darja with the capital Bundschikat (near Schahriston ), Schasch around Tashkent north of the middle Syr Darja and finally Ferghana on the upper Syr Darja.

Today, Transoxania is mostly part of Uzbekistan , but Kazakhstan (in the north), Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan (in the east) and Turkmenistan (in the south) also have shares in the area.

history

Early time

The area was known to ancient authors, especially Herodotus , as Sogdiana (Sogdia). It belonged to the ancient Persian Achaemenid Empire , then to the Empire of Alexander the Great , then to the Seleucid Empire and to the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom . The rule over Sogdia remained controversial, also against the steppe peoples in the north and it is questionable how effective the rule of the aforementioned empires over Sogdia actually was. Between 140 and 129 BC u. At present the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom succumbed to the attackers from the north, although there is only sparse information about this, and the exact course of events is unclear and highly speculative. The Chinese explorer Zhang Qian came in 126 BC. u. Z. through this area and reported about the Yuezhi who formed at least one of the groups of conquerors. The initially very loose and sporadic contacts with China of the Han dynasty that began with this led to the establishment of the Silk Road via the oases on the southern edge of the Central Asian deserts.

The political history is largely unclear. Local rulers formed in the oases. The Sogder's extensive trade network from Crimea to China ensured wealth and cultural prosperity. Eyewitness accounts from these epochs come from the Buddhist pilgrims from China, Faxian , who, however, did not reach Transoxania; Hyecho and Xuanzang . It is unclear to what extent the influence of the neighboring kingdoms of the Parthians or Kushana reached in the south . The Sasanids temporarily gained sovereignty over the Transoxan cities.

From 359 the Chionites allied themselves with the Sasanids and came to Transoxania, where they held the throne of Samarkand in 437. From 420 the Kidarites spread and reached 440 Transoxania. Starting in 457, the Hephthalites invaded eastern Bactria, defeated the Sasanid ruler Peroz I twice and received tributes up to at least 531. In 509 the Hephthalites conquered Transoxania.

Against the Hephthalite threat, the Sasanid ruler Chosrau Anuschirwan allied himself with the new power in Central Asia, the Kök Turks . In alliance with the western Turkish ruler Sizabulos , also known under the names Stembis-Chagan and Iştämi , the empire of the Hephthalites was destroyed in 560 and divided between Persians and Turks along the Amu Darya . But the Turks soon developed into even more dangerous opponents, who more or less permanently brought northern Afghanistan under their control. From 556 the western Kök Turks ruled Transoxania.

With the annihilation of the western Turkish empire between 657 and 679, China of the Tang Dynasty temporarily gained sovereignty over Transoxania. After the collapse of Chinese control over the Tarim Basin and the restoration of the eastern Turkish khaganate, rule in the further western areas fell back to the Turks, who were now led by the On-Ok , the Türgiş , the Karluken and finally the Karachaniden stood. The On-Ok were at times under the rule of the Eastern (Kök) Turks, sometimes they were their allies.

From the arrival of the Arabs

In the meantime, from 705 onwards, the expansion of the Muslim Arabs had reached Transoxania. Between 715 and around 732 they were stopped by the ruler of the Türgesch , Suluk , but overall they pushed the Turkish rulers and - after the Battle of Talas 751 - the Chinese back, which ended the Chinese influence in Transoxania for several centuries. The Arabs gave the country its name Mawara'unnahr (What is across the river), from which the modern European name Transoxania is copied. The Turks, however, remained an important influencing factor - be it through their family connections with the local nobility or their use as mercenaries or military slaves ( ghulām ).

A heyday for Transoxania was the rule of the Persian-born Muslim dynasty of the Samanids from 819 to 1005, who were initially still under the Tahirids . Meanwhile, in the mid-10th century, the Qarakhanids were the first people to adopt Islam outside the caliphate. This made them a serious threat to the Samanids: On the one hand, the motive of a "holy war" was dropped, and on the other hand, the supply of recruits for their slave army stalled because Muslims were not allowed to be enslaved and the slave generals in their own army were given a lust for power. Finally, the provinces south of the Amu Darya fell to the Ghaznavids , whose rule had been established by a former slave general of the Samanids Alp-Tigin and his successor Sebüktigin .

Transoxania, on the other hand, fell to the Qarakhanids: they conquered Bukhara for the first time in 992, a second time in 999 and then Samarkand. With the Ghaznavids they agreed in 1001 on the Amur Darya as the border between their empires. Ali Tegin ruled from 1020 and formed the "western empire" of the Qarakhanids.

The Seljuks , who came from the Oghuz people who had their seats on the Aral Sea , became the new supremacy . In 1040 an army led by the Seljuq Tughrul Beg defeated the Ghaznavid army at the Battle of Dandanqan . The victory of the Seljuks triggered a large influx of Turkish nomads, mainly Oghuz to Iran and later to Anatolia, while the existing Oghuz state fell apart and fell. Transoxania remained under the rule of the Qarakhanids, who had now come under the suzerainty of the Seljuks - in 1089 and 1097 they had invaded Transoxania.

The proto Mongol Kitan were after a heavy defeat led Yelü Dashi under the name Kara Kitai fled to the west and defeated in 1141 in the Battle of Qatwan entities associated with the Qarakhanid Seljuk ruler Sanjar . With that the ruling Qarakhanid Mahmud lost the throne of Samarkand. Other Karakhanids still ruled as vassals of the Kara-Kitai, who had now for a short time gained control over Transoxania. As early as 1182 the Khorezm Shah from the Anushteginid dynasty , former vassals of the Kara Kitai, Bukhara and finally conquered the whole country in 1210.

From the rule of the Mongols

In 1219 the Mongols under Genghis Khan overran and conquered the country; large parts and especially the cities were destroyed. Transoxania became part of the Chagatai Khanate , a part of the Mongol Empire, which was formed in 1229 , with local princes gaining more and more influence over time. In 1346 the Khanate of Transoxania lost and was able to regain it for a few years around 1360.

In 1365 Timur defeated the Mongols and conquered Transoxania, which subsequently experienced a new heyday. Timur made Samarkand the capital of his empire and a center of the Islamic world.

In 1428 the Uzbek Khanate was founded in the steppes of today's Kazakhstan and West Siberia and expanded under the Scheibanid Khan Abu'l-Chair to the Syr-Darya. In 1451 he supported the Timurid Khan Abu Sa'id in his attack on the Timurid ruler Abdallah ibn Ibrahim . Two armies marched on Samarkand and defeated Abdallah. Abu Sa'id took power. Attempts at centralization by Abu'l Chairs led to the secession of large parts of the tribal confederation he led, called Kazakhs (renegades). Deprived of his power base, Abu'l-Chair was defeated in an attack by the Oirats in 1456/57 ; his empire dissolved. He himself died in a battle against the Kazakhs in 1468.

Of the Scheibanids, only the grandson of Abu'l-Chairs, Mohammed Scheibani , who led a life as a privateer and from 1488 to 1500 was a vassal of the Mughal khans who had previously helped him on his campaigns in Transoxania, survived . Then he gained independence, moved against the Timurid successor states such as Samarkand and Bukhara - and founded the Uzbek Khanate . Scheibani's main opponents were the Timuride Babur and the Persian Shah Ismail . In 1506 the Uzbek Khanate became the Bukhara Khanate . After a defeat in 1510 in a battle at Merw against the Safavid Ismail, in which Mohammed Scheibani fell, Babur temporarily regained control of Bukhara and Samarkand.

With their victory in 1512 in the battle of Gajdiwan, the Uzbeks secured their rule over Transoxania (the ruling house is called the Abulkhariden). In the period that followed, there were reciprocal attempts at conquest between the Khiva / Khorezmia Khanate and the Bukhara Khanate without any major success. During the constant wars between Uzbeks and Iranians, Khorasan and its formerly flourishing cities were devastated and Transoxania fell into economic and cultural stagnation. From around 1600 the Uzbeks settled down and merged with the local population. In 1740, Nader Shah , Shah of Persia , attacked the Uzbeks in Transoxania.

In 1852, the Russian expansion in Central Asia began with the attack on to Kokand (independent khanate since 1710) belonging fortress Aq-mast schid the Syr Darya . It ended in 1884 with the subjugation of the Turkmens and the conquest of Merw .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ For the spelling see Gavin Hambly u. a .: Central Asia ( Fischer Weltgeschichte 16). Frankfurt am Main 1966, p. 76.
  2. ↑ Wassilios Klein: Nestorian Christianity on the trade routes through Kyrgyzstan up to the 14th century. Brepols, Turnhout 2000, ISBN 978-2-503-51035-4 , p. 288 f.
  3. ^ Klaus Pander: Central Asia. Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan. DuMont, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-7701-3680-2 .
  4. ^ Jürgen Paul: Central Asia. 2012, p. 73 f
  5. ^ Jürgen Paul: Central Asia. 2012, p. 78 f
  6. ^ Jürgen Paul: Central Asia. 2012, pp. 140f
  7. ^ Jürgen Paul: Central Asia. 2012, p. 287
  8. ↑ Marion Linska, Andrea Handl and Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek, p. 65, accessed on March 7, 2020
  9. ↑ Marion Linska, Andrea Handl and Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek, p. 66
  10. ^ Jürgen Paul: Central Asia. 2012, p. 280