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legends (Bal'ami, Tha'alibi, Narshahi, Zamakhshari) that Merv with some
other cities like Semerkand and Bukhara was established by Turks (Togan,
1981).
The legend that Merv was established by Afrasyab relies on a verbal
history, which maybe tells more than the written history and the evidence
put forth by many thousand years old archeological sites. Merv is called
“Moura” in Avesta, and as “Margush” in the Behistun inscription of the
Darius the 1st century (522-486 B.C.) (Esin, 1976). While it was called
“Margiana” during the Greek period and “Antiochia Margiana” during the
Seleucid period, it was named “Merv” during the Islamic period. It was
named “Merv eş-şâhicân” by the travelers in Middle Ages, to emphasize
its importance and to distinguish it from the small southern city of Merv
er-rûz (Sayan, 1997).
During the 5th-6th centuries B.C., Achaemenids came to Merv and
established the Erk Kala as the first residential site. During the first quarter
of the 4th century B.C., one of Alexander the Great's commanders con-
quered Merv and started the Hellenistic era. This continued with the Se-
leucids, and Antiochos the 1st century (281-261 B.C.) created the Gyaur
Kala residence by surrounding the region to the south of Erk Kala by thick
city walls in square form, with moats around. The seminomad Parthians
who conquered Merv in the 2nd century B.C. extended the city and had the
Erk Kala walls enlarged by captive Roman soldiers. During these times, as
Strabon and Pliny mention, Merv became one of the most important cit-
ies of Central Asia. The recovered old coins even suggest that, during the
reign of Parthian King Phraates (138-128 B.C.) a mint operated in Merv.
The Sassanids, who established a powerful nation in Persia, came to Merv
in the 3rd century A.C. and Merv became the most important commercial
center of the Persian Empire in Central Asia. The Huns and Turk tribes
from the banks of Syr Derya and around the Aral Sea came to Merv around
the 5th century A.C. It is known that the Hephthalites, who were a branch
of the Huns, fought with the Sassanids for the domination of Khorasan and
Mawarannahr (Transoxiana) and have ruled this region for a period. They
were succeeded by The Western Turk Khanate, who has ruled in the Kho-
rasan and Mawaraunnahr regions starting from the second half of the 6th
century until the Arab conquest. Islamic sources report that Yazdigerd the
3rd (632-651), who fled the Arabic army in the middle of the 7th century,
also sought refuge under a Turkish ruler.
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