Central Asian historical region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers
Transoxiana
or
Transoxania
(
lit.
'
Land beyond the
Oxus
'
) is the
Latin
name for the region and
civilization
located in lower
Central Asia
roughly corresponding to modern-day eastern
Uzbekistan
, western
Tajikistan
, parts of southern
Kazakhstan
, parts of
Turkmenistan
and southern
Kyrgyzstan
. The name was first coined by
Alexander the Great
in the 4th century BC when Alexander's troops were able to conquer the region. The region may have had a similar Greek name in the days of Alexander the Great, but the earlier Greek name is no longer known.
[1]
Geographically, it is the region between the rivers
Amu Darya
to its south and the
Syr Darya
to its north.
[2]
The region of Transoxiana was one of the
satrapies
(provinces) of the
Achaemenid Empire
of Persia under the name
Sogdia
. It was defined within the
classical world of Persia
to distinguish it from
Iran proper
, especially its northeastern
province of Khorasan
,
[3]
a term originating with the
Sasanians
,
[4]
although
early Arab historians and geographers
tended to subsume the region within the loosely defined term
"Khorasan" designating a much larger territory
.
[5]
[6]
The territories of
Khwarazm
, Sogdiana,
Chaghaniyan
, and
Khuttal
were located in the southern part of Transoxiana;
Chach
,
Osrushana
, and
Farghana
were located in the northern part.
Etymology
[
edit
]
Historically known in Persian as
Far?-r?d
(
Persian
:
??????
,
[fæ??ː??uːd?]
? 'beyond the [Amu] river'),
Faro-rud
(
Tajik
:
Фарор?д
), and
Varaz-rud
(
Tajik
:
Варазр?д
), the area had been known to the ancient
Iranians
as
Turan
, a term used in the Persian national epic
Shahnameh
.
[8]
The corresponding Chinese term for the region is
Hezhong
(
Chinese
:
河中地?
- land between rivers (Amu and Syr) ). The Arabic term
M? War?? an-Nahr
(
Arabic
:
?? ???? ?????
,
[?maː
wa?raː?
an?nahr]
, which means "what is beyond the [Jayh?n] river") passed into
Persian literary usage
and stayed on until
post-Mongol
times.
[9]
History
[
edit
]
Pre-Islamic period
[
edit
]
The name
Transoxiana
stuck in Western consciousness because of the exploits of
Alexander the Great
, who extended Greek culture into the region with his invasion in the 4th century BCE. Alexander's successors would go on to found the
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
, ushering in a distinct Greek cultural presence within Transoxiana that existed for over two hundred years. The city of
Ai-Khanoum
, situated on the Oxus in northern Afghanistan, remains the only Graeco Bactrian city to have been found and extensively excavated.
[10]
During the
Sasanian (Sassanid) Empire
, it was often called Sogdia, a provincial name taken from the
Achaemenid Empire
, and used to distinguish it from nearby
Bactria
.
The Chinese explorer
Zhang Qian
, who visited the neighbouring countries of
Bactria
and
Parthia
along with Transoxiana in 126 BCE, made the first known Chinese report on this region. Zhang Qian clearly identifies Parthia as an advanced urban civilisation that farmed grain and grapes, and made silver coins and leather goods.
[11]
It was ruled successively by
Seleucids
, the
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
, the
Parthian Empire
and the
Kushan Empire
before Sassanid rule.
In Sasanian times, the region became a major cultural center due to the wealth derived from the
Northern Silk Road
. Sassanid rule was interrupted by the
Hephthalite
invasion at the end of the 5th century and didn't return to the Sassanids until 565.
Islamic period
[
edit
]
Many Persian nobles and landlords escaped to this region after the
Muslim conquest of Persia
. It was also ruled by
Gokturks
until the
Arab conquest
between 705 and 715, the area became known by the Arabic phrase
M? war?? al-Nahr
"what is beyond the river", sometimes rendered as "Mavarannahr".
Transoxiana's major cities and cultural centers are
Samarkand
and
Bukhara
. Both are in the southern portion of Transoxiana (though still to the north of the Amu Darya itself, on the river
Zarafshan
) and Uzbekistan, and the majority of the region was dry but fertile plains. Both cities remained centres of
Persian culture
and civilisation after the
Islamic conquest of Iran
, and played a crucial role in the revival of Persian culture with establishment of the
Samanid Empire
.
Part of this region was conquered by
Qutayba ibn Muslim
between 706 and 715 and loosely held by the
Umayyads
from 715 to 738. The conquest was consolidated by
Nasr ibn Sayyar
between 738 and 740, and continued under the control of the Umayyads until 750, when it was replaced by the
Abbasid Caliphate
. The
Tang dynasty
of China also controlled the eastern part of the region until the
An Lushan Rebellion
broke out.
In the early Islamic period, the people of Transoxania spoke
Sogdian
(an
Iranian
language) and were divided among
several principalities
.
[12]
The Arab conquest resulted in the spread of Arabic elite culture, and, more paradoxically, of Persian "as a spoken and eventually written language" in the region.
[12]
The Arab conquest also resulted in contacts with Tang China, where fragments of the Sasanian ruling elite, including
Peroz III
, had taken shelter after Iran's conquest by the Arabs.
[12]
However, it did not result in Transoxania having major interactions with Chinese culture.
[12]
Genghis Khan
, founder of the
Mongol Empire
, invaded Transoxiana in 1219 during
his conquest of Khwarezm
. Before his death in 1227, he assigned the lands of Western Central Asia to his second son
Chagatai
, and this region became known as the
Chagatai Khanate
. In 1369,
Timur
, of the
Barlas
tribe, became the effective ruler and made
Samarkand
the capital of
his future empire
. Transoxiana was known to be flourishing in the mid-14th century.
[13]
Religion
[
edit
]
The historian Mark Dickens notes:
Transoxiana's principal pre-Islamic religion was
Zoroastrianism
, albeit in local manifestations. However,
Buddhism
,
[Nestorian] Christianity
,
Manichaeism
, and
Mazdakism
also had many adherents, especially in urban areas. This initial religious diversity was gradually eroded after
the Arab conquest
.
Muslims had conquered Transoxiana by the 7-8th century. There were multiple figures in the Muslim world who had conquered these lands. Some include the Umayyad and Abbasid Arabs that took over lands that are now Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
Transoxania was a great center of Muslim civilization; it was the centre of the
Timurid Empire
and saw influential Muslim leaders like
Oghuz Khan
.
An excerpt from a dynastic history commissioned by Eltuzer Khan of Khwarazm: "Oghuz Khan, who could speak at the age of one and whose first word was "Allah." He rebelled against his father, eventually slaying him, before embarking on a series of conquests that brought Islam to all of "Transoxiana and Turkestan."
[14]
[15]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Connection of the Genetic, Cultural and Geographic Landscapes of Transoxiana
Nature.com. By Maxat Zhabagin et. al. 08 June 2017. Accessed 23 January 2024.
- ^
"Transoxania (historical region, Asia)"
.
Encyclopedia Britannica
. Retrieved
2017-11-10
.
- ^
Svat Soucek,
A History of Inner Asia
,
Cambridge University Press
, 2000, p.4
- ^
"Khor?s?n"
.
britannica.com
. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc
. Retrieved
14 November
2018
.
- ^
C. Edmund Bosworth, (2002),
'CENTRAL ASIA iv. In the Islamic Period up to the Mongols'
Encyclopaedia Iranica
"In early Islamic times Persians tended to identify all the lands to the northeast of Khorasan and lying beyond the Oxus with the region of Turan, which in the
??h-n?ma
of Ferdows? is regarded as the land allotted to Fer?d?n's son T?r... At the outset, however, those nearby parts of Central Asia with which the Arabs were familiar were often subsumed into the vast and ill-defined province of Khorasan, embracing all lands to the east of
Ray
,
Jeb?l
, and
F?rs
". (online)
- ^
C. Edmund Bosworth, (2011),
'M? WAR?? AL-NAHR'
Encyclopaedia Iranica
"It was defined by the early Arabic historians and geographers as the lands under Muslim control lying to the north of the middle and upper Oxus or ?mu Dary?, in contrast to Iran proper and its eastern province of Khorasan, sometimes called M? dun al-nahr (lit. "what lies this side of the river"), although from the perspective of Arab historians writing in distant Iraq, the term "Khorasan" might extend to all lands beyond the Oxus, including
Khwarazm
and Transoxiana." (online)
- ^
Sabloff, Paula L.W. (2011).
Mapping Mongolia: Situating Mongolia in the World from Geologic Time to the Present
. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. p. 62.
ISBN
978-1934536186
.
OCLC
794700604
.
- ^
C. Edmund Bosworth, (2002),
'CENTRAL ASIA iv. In the Islamic Period up to the Mongols'
Encyclopaedia Iranica
(online)
- ^
Rachel Mairs, The Hellenistic Far East
- ^
Silk Road, North China
, C. Michael Hogan, The Megalithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham (2007)
- ^
a
b
c
d
Cook, Michael
(2015). "The centrality of Islamic civilization". In
Kedar, Benjamin Z.
;
Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E.
(eds.).
The Cambridge World History (Vol. V): Expanding Webs of Exchange and Conflict, 500 CE?1500 CE
. Cambridge University Press. p. 401.
ISBN
978-0-521-19074-9
.
- ^
The Timurid Empire
Archived
2009-08-16 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Khalid, Adeeb (2014-02-08).
"1. Islam in Central Asia"
.
Islam after Communism
. University of California Press. pp. 19?33.
doi
:
10.1525/9780520957862-004
.
ISBN
978-0-520-95786-2
.
S2CID
240691206
.
- ^
https://content.ucpress.edu/chapters/12768.ch01.pdf
Sources
[
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]
Further reading
[
edit
]