- History of Tajikistan
The current
Tajik Republic harkens to theSamanid Empire (AD875 –999 ). TheTajik people came underRussia n rule in the 1860. Tajikistan became an autonomous Soviet socialist republic withinUzbekistan in 1924; "Basmachi " resistance in the wake of theRussian Revolution of 1917 was quelled in 1925, and Tajikistan became one of the component Soviet socialist republics in 1929 calledTadzhik SSR from1936 to1991 .Tajikistan gained independence in 1991, and has experienced three changes in government and a civil war since then. A peace agreement among rival factions was signed in
1997 but its implementation has progressed slowly.Fact|date=June 2007Pre-Islamic Period (600 BC–AD 651)
Tajikistan was part of the
Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex in the Bronze Age, candidate forProto-Indo-Iranian orProto-Iranian culture. Tajikistan was part ofScythia in Classical Antiquity.Most of modern Tajikstan had formed parts of ancient Kamboja and
Parama Kamboja kingdoms, which find references in the ancient Indian epics like theMahabharata . Linguistic evidence, combined with ancient literary and inscriptional evidence has led many eminentIndologist s to conclude that ancientKambojas ("an Avestan speaking Iranain tribe") originally belonged to the "Ghalcha-speaking area" ofCentral Asia . AchariyaYasaka 'sNirukta [ Nirukta II.2.] ("7th c BCE") attests that verb "Śavati" in the sense "to go" was used by only the Kambojas. It has been shown that the modernGhalcha dialect s, "Valkhi, Shigali, Sriqoli, Jebaka (also called Sanglichi or Ishkashim), Munjani, Yidga andYagnobi ", mainly spoken in Pamirs and countries on the headwaters of theOxus , still use terms derived from ancient Kamboja "Śavati" in the sense "to go" [Linguistic Survey of India, Vol X, pp 456ff, 468, 473, 474, 476, 500, 511, 524 etc; Journal of Royal Asiatic Society of Asia, 1911, pp 801-802, Sir Griersen; India as Known to Panini, 1968, p 49, Dr V. S. Aggarwala; Geographical Data in the Early Puranas, A Critical Study, 1972, p 164, Dr M. R. Singh; Bharata Bhumi aur uske Nivasi, Samvat 1987, pp 297-305, Dr J. C. Vidyalankar; Geographical and Economical Studies in the Mahabharata, Upayana Parva, p 37, Dr Motichandra; Ancient Kamboja, People and the Country, 1981, pp 127-28, 167, 218, Dr J. L. Kamboj; Sindhant Kaumudi Arthaprakashaka, 1966, pp 20-22, Acharya R. R. Pande.] . The Yagnobi dialect spoken in Yagnobi province around the headwaters ofZeravshan valley inSogdiana , also still contains a relic "Śu" from ancient Kamboja "Śavati" in the sense "to go" [ Proceedings and Transactions of the ... All-India Oriental Conference, 1930, p 118; Indian Culture, 1934, p 193, Indian Research Institute; Linguistic Survey of India, Vol X, pp 455-56, Dr G. A. Grierson; cf: History and Archeology of India's Contacts with Other Countries from the... , 1976, p 152, Dr Shashi P. Asthana - Social Science; Geographical and Economic Studies in the Mahābhārata: Upāyana Parva, 1945, p 39, Dr Moti Chandra - India; Prācīna Kamboja, jana aura janapada =: Ancient Kamboja, people and country, 1981, p 128, Dr Jiyālāla Kāmboja, Dr Satyavrat Śāstrī - Kamboja (Pakistan).] . Further, Sir G Grierson says that the speech ofBadakshan was a Ghalcha till about three centuries ago when it was supplanted by a form of Persian [Linguistic Survey of India, X, p. 456, Sir G Grierson; Proceedings and Transactions of the All-India Oriental Conference, 1930, pp 107-108.] . Thus, the ancient Kamboja, probably included theBadakshan ,Pamirs and northern territories including Yagnobi province in thedoab of theOxus andJaxartes [Dr J. C. Vidyalankara, Proceedings and Transactions of 6th A.I.O. Conference, 1930, p 118; cf: Linguistic Survey of India, Vol X, pp 455-56, Dr G. A. Grierson.] . On the east it was bounded roughly by Yarkand and/orKashgar , on the west byBahlika (Uttaramadra ), on the northwest bySogdiana , on the north byUttarakuru , on the southeast byDarada , and on the south byGandhara . Numerous Indologists locate original Kamboja inPamirs andBadakshan and "theParama Kamboja further north, in the Trans-Pamirian territories comprisingZeravshan valley, north up parts of Sogdhiana/Fargana--in the Sakadvipa orScythia of the classical writers" [See: The Deeds of Harsha: Being a Cultural Study of Bāṇa's Harshacharita, 1969, p 199, Dr Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala; Proceedings and Transactions of the All-India Oriental Conference, 1930, p 118, Dr J. C. Vidyalankara; Prācīna Kamboja, jana aura janapada =: Ancient Kamboja, people and country, 1981, Dr Jiyālāla Kāmboja, Dr Satyavrat Śāstrī - Kamboja (Pakistan).] . Thus, in the pre-Buddhist times ("7th/6th c BCE"), the parts of modern Tajikstan including territories as far as Zeravshan valley in Sogdiana formed parts of ancient Kamboja and theParama Kamboja kingdoms when it was ruled by IranianKambojas till it became part ofAchaemenid Empire .Sogdiana ,Bactria ,Merv andKhorezm were the four principal divisions of Ancient Central Asia inhabited by the ancestors of the present-day Tajiks. Tajiks are now found only in historic Bactria and Sogdiana. Merv is inhabited by the Turkoman and Khorezm byKarakalpaks ,Uzbeks andKazakhs . The Sogdians were famous for being tall, massive, and of a fair colour, possibly resembling the Scythians. Among them Bactria and Khorezm were kingdoms during different period of history unlike Sogdiana and Merv which were geographical locations and vassals of different kingdoms. Sogdiana was made up of theZeravshan andKashka-Darya river valleys. Currently, One of the surviving peoples of Sogdiana who speak a dialect of the Sogdian language are theYaghnob is and Shugnanis who live in the Northern region of Tajikistan around theZeravshan valley. Bactria was located in northernAfghanistan (present-dayAfghan Turkestan ) between the mountain range of theHindu Kush and theAmu Darya (Oxus ) River and some areas of current south Tajikistan. During different periods, Bactria was a center of various Kingdoms or Empires, and is probably whereZoroastrianism originated. The "Avesta "--the holy book of Zoroastrianism--was written in the old-Bactrian dialect; it is also thought that Zoroaster was most likely born in Bactria. Khorezm was a powerful Kingdom during some periods of its history, and is located south-east of the Aral Sea in what archeological discoveries indicated used to be a very fertile area. Merv is located in the Amu-Darya basin south of Khorezm.Achaemenid Period (550 BC–329 BC)
During the Achaemenid period, Sogdiana was one of the provinces of the
Persian empire . Among the cities of Tajikistan,Panjakent andIstarawshan are founded in that period.Hellenistic Period (329 BC–90 BC)
After the Persian Empire was defeated by
Alexander the Great , Bactria, Sogdiana and Merv, being part of Persian Empire, had to defend themselves from new invaders. In fact, the Macedonians faced very stiff resistance under the leadership of Sogdian rulerSpitamenes .Alexander the Great managed to marryRoxana , the daughter of a local ruler, and inherited his land. Following Alexander's brief occupation, theHellenistic successor states of the Seleucids andGreco-Bactrians controlled the area for another 200 years in what is known as theGreco-Bactrian Kingdom . During the time period from90 BC to30 BC , the Eastern Scythians destroyed the last Hellenisticsuccessor states and, together with theTocharians , (to whom they were closely related) created aKushan Empire around 30 AD.Kushan Empire (30 BC–AD 410)
For another 400 years, until AD 410, the Kushan Empire was a major power in the region along with the
Roman Empire , theParthia n Empire and the Han Empire (China ). Notable contact was made with local peoples when the envoys of theHan Dynasty journeyed to this area in the second centuryBC . At the end of the Kushan period, the Empire became much smaller and would have to defend itself from the powerful Sassanid Empire that replaced the Parthian Empire. The famous KushanShah Kanishka promoted Buddhism and during this time Buddhism was exported from Central Asia to China.The Hephthalites (AD 410–565)
The
Hephthalites are considered to be another Scythian-related tribe although there is controversy about their name (which means 'White Hun ') which normally refers to Mongolian-Turkish invaders. As later archeologists discovered, there are many factors that proved that Hephthalites were a bunch of many tribes with different origins. That means they were Turks, Mongols and some lesser scythian tribes that were turkizised (mostly by language). Their language was a Turkish dialect. In Bactria, their administrative language was the bactrian language. The Hephthalites were destroyed in 565 AD by a combination ofSassanid and Kök-Turk forces.Göktürk Rule (565–658)
The origin of the
Göktürks is uncertain, but it seems likely that they had lived to the South of the Altai Mountains until the year 542 AD. Chinese sources suggest that they were descended from the Huns and located to the North of them. (The Huns being another proto-Turkish tribe).Islamic Empires (710–1218)
Arab Caliphate (710–867)
The Transoxiana principalities never formed a viable confederacy. Beginning in 651 AD, the Arabs organized periodic marauding raids deep into the territory of Transoxania, but it was not until the appointment of Ibn Qutaiba as Governor of Khorasan in 705 AD, during the reign of Walid I, that the Caliphate adopted the policy of annexing the lands beyond the Oxus. In 715 AD, the task of annexation was accomplished. The entire region thus came under the control of the
Caliph and of Islam, but the Arabs continued to rule through local Soghdian Kings and "dihqans". The ascension of theAbbasids to rule the Caliphate (750 - 1258) opened a new era in the history of Central Asia. While their predecessors theUmayyads (661 - 750) were little more than leaders of a loose confederation of Arab tribes, the Abbasids set out to build a huge multi-ethnic centralized state that would emulate and perfect the Sassanian government machine. They gave the Near East and Transoxiana a unity, which they had been lacking since the time of Alexander the Great.amanid Empire (900–999)
For many years before the Arab invasion, Central Asia was divided into many different regions such as the Kingdom of Merv, Sogdiana, Bactria, Khorezm,
Badakhshan : the only exception was Kushan Empire that was now reduced to parts of easternIran .Islam spread rapidly in Transoxiana. The new religion was received mostly by popular acclaim, for it promised greater social mobility and created favourable conditions for trade. With Islam there came Arabic that became the language of Abbasid court. It must also have stimulated the emergence of the Modern Persian language (Dari ), in which the share of loan-words from Arabic fluctuated from 10 percent in the vocabulary ofRudaki (9th to 10th centuries) to 40 percent in the writings of Baihaqi (11th century). All in all, "the volume of Arabic lexicon, its share in the vocabulary of the Dari language remained exceptionally high until the first quarter of the nineteenth century."The Samanid dynasty that ruled (819–1005) in
Khorasan (Eastern Iran) andTransoxiana was founded bySaman Khuda . The Samanids were one of the first purely indigenous dynasties to rule in Persia following the Muslim Arab conquest. Not until the reign (892–907) of Saman Khuda's great-grandson, Ismail I (khown asIsmail Samani ), did Samanid power become extensive. In 900, Ismail defeated the Saffarids in Khorasan (area of current Northwest Afghanistan and northeastern Iran), while his brother was the governor of Transoxiana. Thus, Samanid rule was acclaimed over the combined regions. The cities ofBukhara (the Samanid capital) and Samarkand became centres of art, science, and literature; industries included pottery making and bronze casting. After 950, Samanid power weakened, but was briefly revitalized under Nuh II, who ruled from 976 to 997. However, with the oncoming encroachment of Muslim Turks into the Abbasid Empire, the Samanids were effectively defeated; in 999, Bukhara fell under a combined force ofGhaznavids andQarakhanids . Ismail II (d. 1005), the last ruler of the dynasty, briefly fought (1000–1005) to retain Samanid territory, until he was assassinated.Although short during this period art and science of the Tajiks flourished, and many scholars of this period are still very highly regarded, notably
Ibn Sina (Avicenna). The modern state of Tajikistan considers that the Tajik name and identity, although in existence for thousands of years in this area, began its formation during the Samanid period.The attack of the Qarakhanid Turks ended the Samanids' reign and Samanid era civilization in 999 and dominance in Transoxiana passed on to Turkic rulers for nine centuries to come.
Qarakhanids (999–1211) and Khwarezmshahs (1211–1218)
After the collapse of Samanid Dynasty, Central Asia became the battleground of many Asian invaders who came from the north-east.
The Mongols and their successors (1218–1740)
Mongol Empire (1218–1370)
The
Mongol Empire swept through Central Asia invaded Khorezm and sacked the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand, looting and massacring people everywhere.Timurid Empire (1370–1506)
Timur, founder of the
Timurid Empire , was born on8 April 1336 in Kesh near Samarkand. He was a member of the Turkicized Barlas tribe, a Mongol subgroup that had settled inTransoxiana after taking part inGenghis Khan 's sonChagatai 's campaigns in that region. Timur began his life as a bandit leader. During this period, he received an arrow-wound in the leg, as a result of which he was nicknamed Timur-e Lang (in Dari) or Timur the Lame, corrupted in the West to Tamerlane. Although the last Timurid ruler of Herat, Badi az Zaman finally fell to the armies of the Uzbek Muhammad Shaibani Khan in 1506, the Timurid ruler of Ferghana, Zahir-ud-DinBabur , survived the collapse of the dynasty and re-established theTimurid dynasty in India in 1526, where they became known as the Mughals.haybanid rule (1506–1598)
The
Shaybanid state was divided intoappanage s between all male members (sultans) of the dynasty, who would designate the supreme ruler (Khan), the oldest member of clan. The seat of Khan was first Samarkand, the capital of the Timurids, but some of the Khans preferred to remain in their former appanages. Thus Bukhara became the seat of the khan for the first time under Ubaid Allah Khan (r.1533-1539).The Astrakhanid (Janid) dynasty (1598–1740)
The period of political expansion and economical prosperity was short-lived. Soon after the death of Abd Allah Khan the Shaibanid dynasty died out, to be replaced by the Janid or
Astrakhanid (Ashtarkhanid) dynasty, another branch of the descendants of Jöchi whose founder was related through marriage to Abd Allah Khan.Persian and Bukharan rule (1740–1920)
Afsharid dynasty (1740–1756)
In 1740, the Janid khanate was conquered by
Nadir Shah , the Afsharid ruler of Persia. The Janid khan Abu al Faiz retained his throne, becoming Nadir's vassal.Manghit dynasty (1756–1920)
After the death of Nadir Shah in 1747, the chief of the
Manghit tribe, Muhammad Rahim Biy Azaliq, overcame his rivals from other tribes with the support of the urban population, consolidated his rule in theKhanate of Bukhara , and was proclaimed khan in 1756. His successor, however, ruled in the name of puppet khans of Janid origin. The third Manghit ruler, Shah Murad (r.1785–1800), finally deposed the Janids and acceded to the throne himself. He did not assume the title of khan, preferring the titleemir , as did subsequent Manghit rulers, because they were not ofGenghisid descent. TheEmirate of Bukhara was smaller under the Manghits than the khanate under their predecessors; it lost important provinces to the south of Amu Darya and the Syr Darya basin, and Merv, conquered by Shah Murad in 1785–1789, was lost in 1823. Under the Manghits, the administration of the country was more centralized.Modern History: 1800s–Present
Russian Vassalage (1868–1920)
Conflict with Russia started in 1865, shortly after Russian conquest of Tashkent. Being more technologically advanced the Russians had little difficulty in conquering the regions inhabited by Tajiks, meeting fierce resistance only at
Jizzakh ,Ura-Tyube , and when their garrison atSamarkand was besieged in1868 by forces fromShahr-e Sabz and the inhabitants of the city. The army of theEmirate of Bukhara was utterly defeated in three battles, and on 18 June 1868 Amir Muzaffar al Din (r.1860-1885) signed a peace treaty with theGovernor-general ofRussian Turkestan ,Konstantin Petrovich Von Kaufman . Samarkand and the UpperZeravshan were annexed by Russia and the country was opened to Russian merchants. Theemir retained his throne as a vassal of Russia and made up his territorial losses by establishing, with Russian help, control overShahr-e Sabz , and the mountainous regions in the upper Zeravshan Valley in 1870 and by annexing the principalities of the western Pamir in 1895. At the end of August 1920 the last emir, Sayyid Alim Khan, was overthrown as a result of the invasion of the emirate by Soviet troops, and on 6 October the emirate was abolished and theBukharan People's Soviet Republic proclaimed.oviet Rule (1920–1991)
The national-administrative divisions placed the ancient Tajik cities, Bukhara and Samarkand, outside the Tajikistan SSR when the borders were drawn in 1928. As citizens of the
Uzbek SSR , many Tajiks came under pressure to conform to their newly-ascribed 'Uzbek' identity, and under threat of exile or worse for nonconformity, many were forced to change their identity. Tajik schools were closed and Tajiks were not appointed to leadership positions simply because of their ethnicity.Tajikistan (1991-Present day)
In the last years of the Soviet Union (
1986 -1990 ), the Tajikistan SSR went through numerous positive changes due to mass protests and the initiative of a few notable members of the Majlisi Oli (Verkhovniy Soviet) or Parliament, which led the movement towards independence. During this time, use of theTajik language , an official language of the Tajikistan SSR next to Russian, was increasingly promoted. Ethnic Russians, who had held many governing postsFact|date=February 2008, lost much of their influence and more Tajiks became politically active.Prominent independence movement leaders, also known as the Opposition, emerged. The Opposition led the mass protests in the capital city of
Dushanbe and in August1991 forced the ethnic Tajik Communist president K. Makhkamov to resign. The victory ofRahmon Nabiyev , another ethnic Tajik representative of the "old guard" fromSoviet times, at the following presidential elections was disputed by a mixed opposition composed of nationalist liberals and Islamists. The political disagreements were an expression of the power struggle between different ethnic and regional groups, with people from the regions ofGarm andGorno-Badakhshan trying to wrestle power from hitherto dominant representatives ofLeninabad and, to a lesser extent,Kulyab . [ [http://www.hrw.org/backgrounder/eca/tajikbkg1005.htm Human Rights Watch Press Backgrounder on TajikistanOctober 5, 2001] ] External influences, especially from Afghanistan, UzbekistanFact|date=June 2007 and RussiaFact|date=June 2007 also played a role. The increasingly violent clashes between the opposition and the government culminated in theCivil war in Tajikistan (1992 -1997 ), in which the country was plunged into chaos and ethnic hostilities and at least one hundred thousand people were killed. ["Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia, page 8". Ahmed Rashid] [" [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0813337526&id=vT8tCdDpoxkC&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&ots=KVg3j-HtTo&dq=Tajik+Civil+War&sig=4QYE2oPpM25nfD5MBraDREc0ECA Political Construction Sites: Nation-building in Russia and the Post-Soviet States] ", page 76] As a consequence of the war, after having been run by Leninabadis (people from theKhujand region) throughout the Soviet period, [ [http://www.analitika.org/article.php?story=20060307230526550&mode=print Дубовицкий, Виктор. Особенности этнической и конфессиональной ситуации в Республике Таджикистан. Февраль 2003] ] Tajikistan is now almost entirely controlled byKulyab is, from the home region of President Rakhmonov.Numerous notable individuals were murdered during the war and throughout the 1990s. This list includes journalist and politician
Otakhon Latifi , journalist and Jewish leaderClayton Kirk , and politicianSafarali Kenjayev .Since
1991 , much of the country's non-Muslim population, including Russians and Jews, has emigrated due to severe poverty and instability. In1992 , most of the country’s Jewish population was evacuated to Israel.Nevertheless, a number of opposition political parties have been legalized and are participating in elections, suggesting that the country may be stabilizing politically.
Russia n-led peacekeeping troops are based throughout the countryFact|date=June 2007 (apart from their officers, most of these troops are, in fact, Tajiks), and Russian-commanded border guards were stationed along the border withAfghanistan until2006 . [ [http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=407&issue_id=3306&article_id=2369631 RUSSIAN BORDER GUARDS BEGIN WITHDRAWAL FROM TAJIKISTAN, EURASIA DAILY MONITOR] , Volume 2, Issue 78 (April 21, 2005)]In the winter of
2007 /2008 , Tajikistan faced, and is currently still facing, an energy crisis. A combination of one of the harshestwinter s in 50 years, frozen hydroelectricreservoir s, and a cut innatural gas imports fromUzbekistan onJanuary 24 has led to this crisis.Notes
ources & Further Reading
*Asimov, M.S. "Tadzhikskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialisticheskaya Respublika"(The Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic). (
Dushanbe :Akademiya Nauk Tadzhikskoy SSR )1974 .*Barthold, V.V. "Работы по Исторической Географии" (
Moscow )2002. *Barthold, V.V. "Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion" (
London :Luzacs & Co )1968 .*Becker, Seymour. "Russia’s Protectorates in Central Asia: Bukhara and Khiva, 1865-1924" (
Cambridge , Mass.:Harvard University Press )1968 .*Burton, Audrey. "The Bukharans: A Dynastic, Diplomatic and Commercial History, 1550-1702" (
London :Curzon Press )1997 .*Carrère D’Encausse, Hélène. "Islam and the Russian Empire: Reform and Revolution in Central Asia" (
London :I.B. Tauris )1988 .*Christian, David. "A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia" (
Oxford :Blackwell )1998 .*Hiro, Dilip. "Between Marx and Muhammad" (
London :HarperCollins )1995 .*Kapur, Harish. "Soviet Russia and Asia, 1917-1927, a study of Soviet policy towards Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan" (
London :Joseph for the Geneva Graduate Institute of International Studies )1966 .*Luknitsky, Pavel. "Soviet Tajikistan" (
Moscow :Foreign Languages Publishing House )1954 .*Masov, Rahim. "The History of a National Catastrophe" (
Minneapolis )1996 . Available on-line at: [http://www.iles.umn.edu/faculty/bashiri/Masov's%20History/frame.html]*Pipes, Richard. "The Formation of the Soviet Union, Communism and Nationalism 1917-1923" (
Cambridge , Mass.:Harvard University Press )1964 .*Rashid, Ahmed. "Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia" (Hyderabad:
Orient Longman )2002 .*Rawlinson, H.G. "Bactria : The History of a Forgotten Empire" (
New Delhi :Asian Educational Services )2002 .*Wheeler, Geoffrey. "The Modern History of Soviet Central Asia" (
London :Weidenfeld and Nicolson )1964 .*Soucek, Svat. "A History of Inner Asia" (
Cambridge University Press )2000 .*Zenkovsky, Serge A. "Pan-Turkism & Islam in Russia" (
Harvard University Press )1960 .
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