Treasures of the Great Silk Road

by Edgar Knobloch

  Civilisation naturally has centred on those rivers with a permanent flow of water. The most important are the Amu Darya (Oxus), in the south, and the Syr Darya (Jaxartes), in the north. Between them, the Zarafshan was once a tributary of the Amu Darya, but now ends in a marshland south-west of Bukhara without reaching its former estuary. Other rivers south of the Amu Darya are the Murghab, which watered the once important oasis of Merv, and the Tedzhend (Tedjend). They both end in the sands of the Kara Kum.

  The delta and the lower reaches of the Syr Darya were settled in prehistoric times, and several settlements, mostly Neolithic and Bronze Age, were found and excavated. The Oghuz Turks apparently had their cities here in the tenth and eleventh centuries AD, of which Yangikent, the present site of Dzhankent-Kala, was perhaps the most important. The next oasis was much further to the east, on the tributary Chirchik, close to the Tien-Shan, where the city of Tashkent was mentioned by Chinese sources in the very early times. There was an important ford at Otrar, where a caravan route crossed into Transoxania from the north, but the city itself was never resettled after the Mongols destroyed it. Still further east was Khodzhend, the place where Alexander founded his easternmost Alexandria (Eskhate). Upstream from there the settlements were almost continuous along the upper Syr Darya, its tributaries from the south from the Alai glaciers, and also along the Kara Darya, which is one of the sources of the Syr Darya, the other being the Naryn.

  The valley of the Zarafshan was always the most heavily populated area of the whole country, in both its lower and upper parts. Samarkand and Bukhara, which alternated as capitals in different periods of history, both lie on the lower Zarafshan. The upper part of the valley constituted the pre-Arab principality of Ushrusana, with the important city of Pendzhikent.

  On the Amu Darya, by far the most interesting oasis was around the delta, with the fascinating civilisation of ancient and mediaeval Khorezm. There was a ferry at Chardzhou where a branch of the Silk Road crossed the river. Several minor oases were further upstream; the next large and important oasis was situated where another branch of the Silk Road crossed into Afghanistan. Here was the heart of the ancient Bactria, with the cities of Termez, Balkh (Bactra) and Surkh Kotal. The valleys of the Pandzh (the upper Amu Darya) and its tributaries, the Surkhan Darya, Vakhsh and others, were also densely populated. Settlements existed in the rugged, inaccessible valleys at the foothills of the Pamirs. Here was the semi-legendary kingdom of Badakhshan with its mines of rubies. Settlements could even be found on the high mountain plateau of the Pamirs, where interesting rock carvings from the Paleolithic period and several locations of Neolithic cave dwellings were found.

  To the Persians, the country was known as Turan, and this still survives in geography as the plain or plateau of Turan. Turan was the country of the Barbarians, Iran was the civilised world. The Arabs, however, referred to it as Mawarannahr – the Land Beyond the River. The river that the Arabs had to cross in their seventh-century conquest was the Amu Darya – Jayhun, as they called it, the Oxus of the ancient Greeks. Mawarannahr is therefore the corresponding term to Transoxiana or Transoxania. Throughout its history this country has been open to the incursions of nomad tribes whose homelands were the steppes and forests of southern Russia, and in particular, Siberia. The earliest of them, the Scythians or Saka, were Indo-Europeans; the White Huns, or Hephthalites, of the fifth century AD, were probably of Mongol, or Turco-Mongol, origin. The Turks of the sixth century, the Oghuz or Ghuzz of the tenth century, and the Uzbeks (Ozbegs) of the fifteenth century, all belonged to the same family of South Siberian Turks. The Mongol element is represented by the Kara-Khitai in the twelfth and by Chingiz-Khan’s Mongols in the thirteenth century. The Tukic element gradually prevailed over the Iranian in the area. The Samanid Empire in the tenth century was perhaps the last state to be truly Iranian in character. From then on, Persian continued to be the language of the educated class, but the rulers and their soldiers were Turks. It was from these Persian dialects that the present Tajik language developed, the only one in the area that belongs to the Iranian group. Finally, in the second half of the fifteenth century, through the efforts of Mir’ Ali Shir Nawa’i, poet and politician, the spoken Turkic dialect, the Chagatay (Chaghatay) Turki, was made a literary language. Nawa’i himself wrote both in Chagatay and Persian, but his work in Chagatay is the landmark that clearly showed the final predominance of the Turkish people in what for 2,000 years had been the exclusive domain of the Persians. All other languages spoken in the area are Turkic and belong to the east Turkish group: the Uzbeks, Kazakhs and Karakalpaks are all Turks. The only representatives of the Mongol family are the Kalmuks.

  Ethnically, all these peoples are now mixed, but generally speaking the Tajiks, with their big almond eyes, strong noses and rich beards present an Indo-Iranian (Persian) type, while the Uzbeks and others may have rather smaller eyes, flat noses, high cheekbones and thin beards, and show therefore their kinship with the South Siberian or Turkic family. The Turkmens, now inhabiting the south-western part of Central Asia and the eastern shores of the Caspian are somewhat different. They are taller, long-headed, and are usually considered as belonging to the south-western group of the Turkic peoples. They are the descendants of the White and Black Sheep Tartars who invaded northern Iran and Transcaspia in the late fourteenth century. Thus, the whole country became known as Turkestan2 – the Land of the Turks. The Turks live all along the southern border of Siberia, from the Caspian to the eastern parts of the Gobi. The high mountain range of Tien-Shan divides the area, thus separating Western and Chinese (East) Turkestan. The dominant Turkish people on the Chinese side are the Uighurs but there are smaller groups of Kazakhs, Kirghiz, and others as well. All these peoples are Muslims.

  The Tien-Shan has always been inaccessible and inhospitable, but to the north and south are several passes that used to be the only routes by which people from the East and from the West could communicate; the nomads pushing through to the West were forced to use them. The passes are the so-called Dzungarian Gate in the north, the valley of the Ili, the Ferghana valley between the Tien-Shan and the Alai, and the valley of Karategin between the Alai and the Transalai. These last two passes were mostly used by the caravans that brought silk from China to Persia and to the Levantine markets. The valley of Karashahr was the favourite gateway for nomadic incursions from the northern steppes into the Gobi plains.

  The Silk Road, which, from antiquity, was the most famous trade route linking China with the Mediterranean world, originated in the Chinese province of Kansu. Its two main branches followed the southern and the northern perimeter of the Tarim Basin, where a belt of oases provided the necessary halts with wells and caravanserais. To name but the principal ones, they were, in the north, Turfan, Karashahr, Kucha, Aksu and Kashgar. In the south, the easternmost one was Tun-huang, with its Buddhist monastery, then Miran, Charklik, Niya, Keriya, Khotan and Yarkend. From Khotan there was a caravan track across the Karakorum Range into Ladakh and from there to Kashmir. Both main branches met in Kashgar only to split again. One road went due south towards the Kilik and Mintaka passes and from there to Kashmir. This was probably the road taken by Fa Sien in AD 399. The modern road uses another pass further east, the Khundjerab, to connect with the Karakorum Highway of Pakistan. In the Pamirs, near the town of Tashkurgan, another branch went west, into the Wakhan valley and down to the Amu Darya. This is supposed to be the road taken by Marco Polo in the thirteenth century. Westwards from Kashgar, the road passed through the Ferghana valley to Samarkand and from there south to Balkh, where it met with the Wakhan route just mentioned. Further destinations on this route were Kabul and India to the south-east and Herat and Persia to the south-west. From Samarkand, the road continued to Bukhara, Merv and into Persia, while yet another branch linked Bukhara with the Volga region via Khorezm.

  The Silk Road and the accompanying flow of trade were the main factors in the prosperity of the oases. When trade was disrupted by war or nomadic incursions, the oa
ses suffered and sometimes even perished. Equally, when drought or other catastrophes rendered wells unusable, or when brigands made the route unsafe, trade was diverted to alternative routes and the prosperity of the oases was immediately affected.

  Water was, of course, a crucial element in the life of the oases. Thus, when the irrigation network was destroyed, as often happened in wars or nomadic raids, and when the population was reduced to such an extent that it was unable to renew and maintain the network of canals, the soil in the course of time became salty and infertile and the oasis was doomed. The same happened when the trade was diverted for good, for example when, after the voyages of discovery in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, maritime trade gradually replaced the overland one and many of the Silk Road oases were abandoned.

  As for the population of Xinjiang, a certain part of it is still nomadic. The Kirghiz and the Kazakhs are largely nomads, the Kirghiz grazing mostly in the western part of the country up to the Pamir valleys, the Kazakhs being found mostly in the north, west of Urumchi, in Dzungaria. They both live in transferable yurts, of which there are several types. All have a skeleton structure of poles and latticework; they are covered with reed matting, felt or hides; they are all round, but some have a conical roof while others have a rounded, dome-shaped one. An ever increasing part of the population, helped by intensive immigration policy, is of Chinese descent. The Han and Hui, the two main groups, have grown in the last half century or so from around 5 per cent to 41 per cent of the total population of Xinjiang. However, they stay mostly in towns, whereas the countryside remains peopled predominantly by the Uighurs.

  In Afghanistan, the geographical conditions and the ethnic mix are altogether more complicated. The mountain chain of the Hindu Kush divides the country into two unequal halves, the steppe in the north and north-west, deserts in the south and south-east. Fertile areas are mainly the Amu Darya valley, the environs of Kabul and the plain of Jalalabad in the east, as well as some sheltered mountain valleys such as the Panjshir in the east and the Bamiyan valley in the centre. The Herat oasis in the west used to be much larger in earlier times, and the Sistan oases in the south, once highly populated and prosperous, were long ago engulfed by the desert.

  The Afghan nation, as it began to emerge at the end of the nineteenth century, is still a vague and at times almost a fictitious concept. Ethnic unity is nonexistent and tribal loyalties still largely outweigh national ones.

  The tribes of Afghanistan belong to several ethnic groups, which, although all Muslim, differ widely in language, customs, dress and, most important, in their way of life.

  The main ethnic group are the Pushtun, who live in the east, the south and the south-west. In the north and north-east are the Tajiks, in the north the Uzbeks, and in the centre the Hazara. There are also the Ajmak in the west and north-west and the Persians, mainly in the Herat area. Smaller groups are the Turkomans (Turkmens) in the north-west, the Kirghiz in the Pamirs, and the Baluch in the south. Small scattered communities of Mongols, Hindus, Sikhs and Jews can (or could) also be found. Two interesting groups are the Brahui, of whom some 200,000 live in south-western Afghanistan, and the Nuristanis in the north-east.

  The Pushtun, the Tajik, the Persians and the Baluch are of Caucasian stock, while most of the others are Turkic or Mongoloid. The Hazara have typically Mongolian faces and are generally considered to be the descendants of the Mongols of Chingiz-Khan. The Brahui are of Australoid (Indian-Dravidian) stock. The Nuristanis are conspicuous for their Mediterranean features and blonde hair.

  The two main tribal units of the Pushtun are the Durrani in the west and the Ghilzai in the east of the Pushtun area. An equal number of Pushtun live across the border in the North-West Province of Pakistan.

  The two principal languages of Afghanistan, Dari and Pashto, belong to the Iranian family. The second most important family is the Turkic, to which belong the Uzbek, Kirghiz and Turkoman languages. The language of the Brahui is Dravidian. Arabic script with Persian modifications is generally used.

  As for religion, the entire population of Afghanistan is Muslim, mainly of the Hanafi Sunni rite. The Parsiwan (Persians) of the Herat area and the Hazara are Shi’ites. The Kafirs in Nuristan were shamanists until fairly recently.

  A considerable part of the population, mainly the Pushtun, Baluch and Kirghiz, are nomads or semi-nomads. They live mostly in black goats-hair tents similar to those used in Iran, Syria and Jordan. The tent is usually divided into three parts: in the first, meals are taken and guests received, the second is the women’s quarter, and in the third meals are prepared and other domestic work is done. The furnishing consists almost exclusively of carpets, blankets and chests in which the family belongings are stored.

  Some scholars believe that all Afghan ethnic groups had a nomadic past. However, as agriculture has been practised in the oases since prehistoric times, it must be assumed that the sedentary ancestry of some parts of the population is of a very long standing. It must also be assumed that the bellicose nomads have been the ruling elite of the country for most of the time. This can still be felt in the nomad’s contempt for the sedentary farmer and in the higher social status enjoyed by some groups, predominantly nomadic, like the Pushtun, compared with others, like the Tajiks or the Hazara, who have been predominantly sedentary. The Hazara in particular are despised by other groups and are the pariahs of Afghan society.

  A paragraph should be added on the recent economic development of the area. The great transformation projects of the Soviet Union had some unforeseen and disastrous consequences: Khrushchev’s Virgin Lands project, planned to plough and cultivate the steppe, ended in large-scale erosion of the potentially fertile layer of soil, while the construction of huge irrigation canals on both the Amu and Syr Darya led to the catastrophic drop in the water level and the partial drying-up of the Aral Sea. The consequences for the region’s climate are still being analysed, but the fishing industry, once prosperous, is gone. An attempt by Kazakhstan to construct a dam on the northern side of the Aral Sea to lift the water level ended in disaster. Another effect of the break up of the Soviet Union was the gradual destruction of the wildlife. An absence of pertinent legislation and a general lack of administrative control led to the virtual disappearance of certain animal species – wild asses, antelopes – as well as game, fish, birds, etc.

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  NOTES ON CHAPTER I

  Full details of abbreviations and publications are in the Bibliography

  1 Frumkin, G., ‘Archaeology in Soviet Central Asia’, CAR X, p.341.

  2 The term West, or Russian, Turkestan comprises Transoxania, Semirechiye (the so-called Seven River Region, in the foothills of the Tien-Shan) and the eastern Syr Darya province, or the Ferghana valley.

  II

  OUTLINE OF HISTORY

  NORTH OF THE fertile belt of oases and the traditional caravan routes, the boundless open spaces of Russian, Siberian, and Mongolian steppes constituted another – less marked perhaps, but certainly much older – communication link between east and west. Long before the first caravan set out to exchange the products of one established and settled civilisation for those of another, the nomad herdsmen of the north had been trading in the same way: exchanging products at a leisurely pace and, more importantly, transferring traditions and skills through the region bounded by the Danube in the West and the Yellow River in the east.

  There are indications that already in the Paleolithic Age the Aurignacian culture was spreading into Siberia and from there to northern China. Towards the end of the Neolithic Age, the comb pottery, which was developed in central Russia in the middle of the third millennium BC had a strong influence on the proto-Chinese pottery of Kansu. The same influence continued throughout the second millennium, and from about 1500 BC the Bronze Age developed in western Siberia parallel with the great civilisation of the Danube (the culture of Aunietitz). The Bronze Age came some 300 years later to Minussinsk in central Siberia. China had by then already acquired
the technique of working bronze from western Siberia. It was in the Bronze Age that the famous ‘animal style’ first appeared in the art of the steppes, showing the influence of Assyrian and Babylonian art, which remained a distinct feature of the animal style until the sixth century AD.

  We know little about the bearers of this art – Barbarians, as the Greeks called them – but the few descriptions we have, from Greek, Persian and Chinese sources, are surprisingly identical. According to these descriptions, borne out by archaeological discoveries in Russia and Mongolia, it seems that the earliest of them belonged to the Thracian and Kimmerian races of the Indo-European family. Judging by the tombs of central Russia, some time between 1200 and 700 BC they were replaced by another tribe of the same family, the Scythians of the Greeks or the Saka of the Persians. Traces of their art are scattered northwards, towards the famous sites of Pazyryk and Minussinsk, all over the Tarim basin, and again eastwards to the Chinese province of Kansu.

  With the Scythians this civilisation gradually moved into the Iron Age. The earliest traces of it, found north of the Caucasus, are contemporary with the culture of Hallstadt (900–700 BC). The corresponding Siberian sites, Minussinsk and Pazyryk, are again of a later date, about 300–200 BC. The homelands of the Scythians were probably in the region of Tien-Shan, around Ferghana and Kashgar. The majority of them stayed there, but around 750–700 BC some of them moved west, pushing the Kimmerians out of Russia and into Hungary, the Balkans and Asia Minor. Their incursions south into the cultivated land of Persia were the reason for several military campaigns by the Achaemenid kings. Cyrus’s last campaign was directed against the Massagetae, Scythians of the Aral Sea region, and led to the establishment of the sixteenth, Khorezmian, satrapy of the empire. His successor, Darius I, launched a campaign against the Scythians of Europe and succeeded finally in securing the Persian limes, an impenetrable border zone, against their raids. Turan, south of the Syr Daraya, was by then firmly in the hands of the Persian kings and was divided into three satrapies: Khorezm, Soghd on the Zarafshan and Bactria on and south of the middle Oxus.