Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Karakhanids to Khorezmshahs
By the early 10th century, internal strife at court had weakened the
Samanid dynasty and opened the door for two Turkic usurpers to di-
vide up the empire: the Karakhanids held sway from three mighty capi-
tals - Balasagun (Burana in Kyrgyzstan) in the centre of their domain,
Talas (Taraz in Kazakhstan) in the west, and Kashgar in the east. It is
the Karakhanids who are credited with finally converting the populace
of Central Asia to Islam. Further south the Ghaznavids under Mah-
moud the Great ruled Samarkand and Bukhara from Ghazni in south-
ern Afghanistan. They in turn are credited with snuffing out Buddhism
in the region and introducing Islam to India.
The Karakhanids and Ghaznavids coveted each other's lands. In the
mid-11th century, while they were busy invading each other, they were
caught off guard by a third Turkic horde, the Seljuqs, who annihilated
both after pledging false allegiance to the Ghaznavids. In the Seljuqs'
heyday their empire was vast: on the east it bordered the lands of the
Buddhist Karakitay, who had swept into Balasagun and Kashgar from
China; to the west it extended all the way to the Mediterranean and
Red Seas.
An incurable symptom of Inner Asian dynasties through the ages
was their near inability to survive the inevitable disputes of succession.
The Seljuqs lasted a century before their weakened line succumbed to
the Karakitay and to the Seljuqs' own rearguard vassals, the Khorezm-
shahs. From their capital at Gurganj (present-day Konye-Urgench), the
Khorezmshahs burst full-force into the tottering Karakitay. At the end
of the 12th century the Khorezmshahs emerged as rulers of all Tran-
soxiana and much of the Muslim world as well.
And so Central Asia might have continued in a perennial state of
forgettable wars. As it is, the Khorezmshahs are still remembered pri-
marily as the unlucky stooge left holding the red cape when the angry
bull was released.
The Karakitay
lent their name to
both Cathay (an
archaic name for
China) and Kitai
(the Russian word
for China).
One overlooked
Silk Road com-
modity was the
trade in slaves.
Slaves dominated
the global work-
force between
the 8th and 11th
centuries and
Turkmen raiders
kept the slave
markets of Khiva
and Bukhara
stocked well into
the 19th century.
LOST BATTLE, LOST SECRETS
The Chinese lot more than jut a ight at the Battle of Talas in 751. To add insult to
injury, some of the Chinese rounded up after the battle were experts in the crafts of
papermaking and silkmaking. Soon China's bet-kept secrets were giving Arab silk-
makers in Persia a commercial advantage all over Europe. It was the irt mortal blow to
the Silk Road. The spread of papermaking to Baghdad and eventually Europe sparked a
technological revolution; the impact of this on the development of civilisation cannot be
underetimated.
973-1046
life of scientist Al-
Biruni, from Khorezm,
the world's foremost
astronomer of his time,
who knew 500 years
before Copernicus that
the earth circled the
sun and estimated the
distance to the moon to
within 20km.
980-1037
life of Abu Ali ibn-Sina
(latinised as Avicen-
na), from Bukhara, the
greatest medic in the
medieval world, whose
Canon of Medicine
was
the standard textbook
for Western doctors
until the 17th century.
986
The Russians, in search
of a religion, contact
Muslim missionaries
from Khorezm, but
decide not to adopt Is-
lam, opting instead for
Orthodox Christianity.
999-1211
The Turkic Karakha-
nids wrest control of
Transoxiana from the
Persian Samanids.
Dynastic founder Nasr
ibn Ali is buried in a
mausoleum in Özgön
in the Fergana Valley
(Kyrgyzstan).
