The History and Culture of Iran and Central Asia

Description

This volume examines the major cultural, religious, political, and urban changes that took place in the Iranian world of Inner and Central Asia in the transition from the pre-Islamic to the Islamic periods.

One of the major civilizations of the first millennium was that of the Iranian linguistic and cultural world, which stretched from today’s Iraq to what is now the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. No other region of the world underwent such radical transformation, which fundamentally altered the course of world history, as this area did during the centuries of transition from the pre-Islamic to the Islamic period. This transformation included the religious victory of Islam over Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, and the other religions of the area; the military and political wresting of Inner Asia from the Chinese to the Islamic sphere of primary cultural influence; and the shifting of Central Asia from a culturally and demographically Iranian civilization to a Turkic one. This book contains essays by many of the preeminent scholars working in the fields of archeology, history, linguistics, and literature of both the pre-Islamic and the Islamic-era Iranian world, shedding light on some of the most significant aspects of the major changes that this important portion of the Asian continent underwent during this tumultuous era in its history. This collection of cutting-edge research will be read by scholars of Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Iranian, and Islamic studies and archaeology.

Contributors: D. G. Tor, Frantz Grenet, Nicholas Sims-Williams, Etsuko Kageyama, Yutaka Yoshida, Michael Shenkar, Minoru Inaba, Rocco Rante, Arezou Azad, Sören Stark, Louise Marlow, Gabrielle van den Berg, and Dilnoza Duturaeva.

Despite the astonishing richness, historical importance, and cultural fecundity of the Iranian world in the first millennium, and the fact that it is vital to understanding world history in both Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the Iranian world of this era has been, and still is, as noted, woefully understudied, due no doubt to the very high scholarly demands required for such study of Iranian Central Asia in particular. Not only does such an attempt necessitate collaboration among historians, philologists, paleographers, archeologists, and numismatists, but it also requires the knowledge of many different languages, some archaic, ranging from Bactrian and Soghdian to classical Arabic, Persian, and Chinese. When one undertakes to examine change and transformation from the pre-Islamic period of Late Antiquity through the early Islamic period (up until the eleventh century, when Turkic political domination entered a new phase), matters become even more complex and the obstacles more formidable, since it requires full mastery of both civilizational worlds.

The rationale behind this volume, therefore, is that such an undertaking can only be accomplished collaboratively, by bringing together the various experts on these two completely different eras and the discrete linguistic areas: no one can possibly be a real master of all of the various demanding areas of study. This kind of collaborative effort to cast light on the transition from pre-Islamic to Islamic Iran and Inner Asia is therefore also, unfortunately, rare, since the resources required for bringing the various experts together from the far-flung corners of the earth are considerable. Such an enterprise, in fact, has been undertaken only thrice before the present volume, and the aim of the present work is to extend a bit further the trailblazing path laid out by those works.

The approach we have adopted is slightly different, however, from those three previous efforts, which both involved much narrower foci of inquiry respectively, the Islamization of Central Asia; the role of nomads from pre-Islamic into Islamic times; and material culture of the period. The present volume, though it obviously contains essays by some of the same scholars (inevitable in a field such as, for instance, Bactrian, in which the number of experts worldwide can be counted on the fingers of one hand), did not limit the scope of its investigation to any one subtopic or type of historical source, but rather asked participants to focus upon any particular aspect of life and human civilization, either in which important change took place during the transition from the pre-Islamic to the Islamic period, or, conversely, in which one finds the creative reuse of the pre-Islamic past. Its topic is therefore the much broader one of change and continuity over time in Iran and Central Asia, during the long transition from the pre-Islamic to the Islamic period.

Some of the essays herein thus offer a wide vision of the longue durée, for instance the archeological examinations by Frantz Grenet and Rocco Rante of, respectively, the design, structure, and characteristics of Iranian towns and of the oasis of Bukhara, and how these changed and developed over time; Sören Stark’s essay provides a similar analysis for early Islamic Bukhara, also utilizing archeological evidence.

Four of the essays, by Nicholas Sims-Williams, Etsuko Kageyama, Yutaka Yoshida, and Michael Shenkar, provide fascinating illuminations of Sogdian culture and influence– in Sogdia, China, and points in between, both at specific moments in time and over the course of the transition to the Islamic period after the Arab conquest.

Minoru Inaba and Arezou Azad’s articles are devoted to Bactria and beyond. Minoru Inaba’s study examines the eight-century narrative of the member of a Chinese diplomatic mission that traveled through Central Asia en route to India at the time of the ʿAbbāsid Revolution and the battle at the Talas river, returning from India forty years later, and what the mission’s travel account reveals about trade routes, the state of the Islamic conquests, and the eastern borders of the Caliphate over that forty-year period; while Arezou Azad’s research analyzes the view of Islamization contained in the literary sources, in this case, the important surviving local history of Balkh.

Finally, the three essays by Louise Marlow, Gabrielle van den Berg, and Dilnoza Duturaeva all involve investigations of culture, using very different and less usual kinds of sources than either historical chronicles or archeology: Marlow examines the literary reflections of an important Iranian author, writing in Arabic in the late tenth and early eleventh century, but musing on the Persian language and also the pre-Islamic Iranian past; van den Berg also utilizes the literary record, but of a different sort – Persian poetry of early Islamic times– in order to capture how the Iranian pre-Islamic past was viewed and used by Muslims of the time; and Duturaeva’s essay, treating the eastern end of the Iranian world, adduces Chinese records in order to illuminate the Qarakhanid attempt “to establish themselves as middlemen between the Turko-Islamic and the Sino-Tibetan worlds,” and to show the developments undergone by the Silk Road trade at this time.

Of course, numerous aspects of the transformations that took place in the Iranian world remain to be explored, and no volume ranging over a world so dazzlingly fecund, and encompassing such a vast quantity of material, both temporally and spatially, can even aspire to be in any way comprehensive; but it is the hope of the editors and contributors to the present work that it will have cast a little more illumination upon this particular, vibrant corner of the “dark backward and abysm of time.”

Acknowledgments

1. D.G. Tor, Introduction: The Enduring Significance of the Iranian World in the First Millennium CE: Transformation and Continuity

I. Iranian Central Asia in Late Antiquity
2. Frantz Grenet, “Types of town planning in ancient Iranian cities: new considerations”
3. Nicholas Sims-Williams, “The proto-Sogdian inscriptions of Kultobe: New fragments and new reconstructions”
4. Etsuko Kageyama, "Xian Temples of the Sogdian Colonies in China"
5. Yutaka Yoshida, “Three scenarios for the historical background of the Xi’an Sino-Pahlavi inscription — Post Sasanian Zoroastrian traders?”

II. From the Pre-Islamic to the Islamic
6. Michael Shenkar, “The Arab Conquest and the Collapse of the Sogdian Civilization”
7. Minoru Inaba, “Wukong’s itinerary towards India: Central Asia in the mid-eighth century”
8. Rocco Rante, “Evolution of the habitat in Paykend”
9. Arezou Azad, “Notes on Islamisation Narratives in the Faḍāʾil-i Balkh”

III. The Transformation of the Pre-Islamic Past
10. Sören Stark, “The New Garden of the Amir: Samanid Land-Development at the Borders of the Bukhara Oasis”
11. Louise Marlow “Al-Thaʿālibī’s Iranian Past: Assimilation and Aesthetics”
12. Gabrielle van den Berg, “Representations of the Pre-Islamic Past in Early Persian Court Poetry”
13. Dilnoza Duturaeva “From Turkistan to Tibet: The Qarakhanids and the Tsongkha Tribal Confederation”

Sujets

• Middle Est
• HISTORY
• Histoire
• Bactriana
• Irán
• Afganistán
• Church of the East
• Shenkar
• Kageyama
• Nicholas Sims-Williams
• Buddhism
• Persian literature
• Islamic studies
• General officer
• Ancient history
• Bactria
• Middle East
• Central Asia
• Yoshida
• General
• Stark
• Azad
• Ancient
• Islam
• Grenet
• Marlow
• Asia
• Iran
• Afghanistan

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 15 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268202088
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

The History and Culture of Iran and Central Asia
The History and Culture of Iran and Central Asia

From the Pre-Islamic to the Islamic Period
Edited By
D. G. Tor and Minoru Inaba
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
Copyright © 2022 by the University of Notre Dame
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
undpress.nd.edu
All Rights Reserved
Published in the United States of America
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021948795
ISBN: 978-0-268-20209-5 (Harback)
ISBN: 978-0-268-20211-8 (WebPDF)
ISBN: 978-0-268-20208-8 (Epub)
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail]
Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Contents List of Figures Acknowledgments chapter 1. The Enduring Significance of the Iranian World in the First Millennium CE: Transformation and Continuity D. G. Tor Part I. Iranian Central Asia in Late Antiquity chapter 2. Types of Town Planning in Ancient Iranian Cities: New Considerations Frantz Grenet chapter 3. The Proto-Sogdian Inscriptions of Kultobe: New Fragments and New Reconstructions Nicholas Sims-Williams chapter 4. Xian Temples of the Sogdian Colonies in China: A Study Based on Archaeological Material Etsuko Kageyama chapter 5. Three Scenarios for the Historical Background of the Xi’an Sino-Pahlavi Inscription: Post-Sasanian Zoroastrian Traders? Yutaka Yoshida Part II. From the Pre-Islamic to the Islamic chapter 6. The Arab Conquest and the Collapse of the Sogdian Civilization Michael Shenkar chapter 7. Central Asia in the Mid-Eighth Century: Wukong’s Itinerary toward India Minoru Inaba chapter 8. Evolution of the Habitat in Paykend Rocco Rante chapter 9. Notes on Islamization Narratives in the Faḍāʾil-i Balkh Arezou Azad Part III. The Transformation of the Pre-Islamic Past chapter 10. The New Garden of the Amīr: Sāmānid Land Development at the Fringes of the Bukhārā Oasis Sören Stark chapter 11. Al-Thaʿālibī’s Iranian Past: Assimilation and Aesthetics Louise Marlow chapter 12. Representations of the Pre-Islamic Past in Early Persian Court Poetry: The Art of Celebration Gabrielle van den Berg chapter 13. From Turkistan to Tibet: The Qarakhanids and the Tsongkha Kingdom Dilnoza Duturaeva Contributors Index
Figures figure 2.1. Persepolis as a multicentered settlement (© Rémy Boucharlat). figure 2.2. Pasargadae (© Sébastien Gondet). figure 2.3. Dahaneh-i Ghulaman (© Arta 2012.001). figure 2.4. Koktepe (© Claude Rapin/MAFOUZ de Sogdiane). figure 2.5. Afrasiab (ancient Samarkand), topographic plan of 1885 supplemented by the results of the excavations (© Claude Rapin/MAFOUZ de Sogdiane). figure 2.6. Ai Khanum (© Claude Rapin). figure 2.7. Old Nisa (© Archive of CRAST—Centro Ricerche Archeologiche e Scavi di Torino). figure 2.8. Old and New Nisa in their context; adapted from V. N. Pilipko, Staraia Nisa (Moscow, 2001), fig. 99. figure 2.9. Ai Khanum, survey of the suburb (adapted from Gardin 1998, fig. 3.4A ). figure 2.10. Akchakhan-kala (© Alison Betts). figure 2.11. Dzhanbas-kala (adapted from Tolstov 1948, fig. 29). figure 2.12. Kampyr-tepe, remaining part (adapted from Bolelov 2013, fig. 1). figure 2.13. Kampyr-tepe, part of lower town; adapted from Materialy Tokharistanskoi Èkspeditsii , Vol. 7 (Tashkent, 2009), fig. 37. figure 2.14. Dil’berdzhin; adapted from Drevniaia Baktriia 2. Materialy Sovetsko-Afganskoi arkheologichekoi èkspeditsii (Moskva, 1979), 121, fig. 1. figure 2.15. Tappeh Hegmataneh (ancient Ecbatana), excavated sector (© Rémy Boucharlat). figure 2.16. (A) Toprak-kala, surface survey; from S. P. Tolstov, Po sledam drevnekhorezmiiskoi tsivilizatsii (Moskva, 1948), fig. 43/1; (B) plan of excavated parts, palace not included (Nerazik and Rapoport 1981, fig. 2). figure 2.17. Toprak-kala, palace intramuros (top) and buildings in chahār-bāq , reconstruction (Rapoport 1996, fig. 25). figure 2.18. Panjikent, plan with attempted rendering of the zoning; from F. Grenet, Le Grand Atlas de l’Archéologie (Paris: Encyclopaedia Universalis, 1985), 235. figure 2.19. Panjikent, military barracks in disused city wall (Semenov 1996, fig. 11). figure 3.1. Kultobe fragment K2. Reproduced by permission of A. Podushkin. figure 3.2. Coin of Chāch with reverse legend naming “Wanōn-khwar, (leader) of the people of Chāch.” After Rtveladze 1998, 327; reproduced by permission. figure 3.3. Map showing Kultobe and the cities mentioned in the inscriptions. Drawn by François Ory. After Sims-Williams, Grenet, and Podushkin 2009, 1007. figure 3.4. Kultobe fragment K4. Reproduced by permission of A. Podushkin. figure 3.5. Kultobe fragments K1, 3, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17. Reproduced by permission of A. Podushkin. figure 4.1. Temple for the goddess Nana, a panel of the funerary couch in the Miho Museum, late sixth century. Juliano and Lerner 1997, 254. figure 4.2. God sitting below an arch; wall painting from Kala-i Kakhkakha I, mid-eighth century (partial reconstruction). figure 4.3. (A) Goddess Nana on the lion and a female harpist (caryatid), wall painting from Pendzhikent, mid-eighth century; (B) reconstruction. figure 4.4. Sarcophagus of Wirkak, from Xi’an, 580. figure 4.5. Carved relief on the beam of Wirkak’s tomb, from Xi’an, 580. figure 4.6. Carved relief on the back side of the sarcophagus base of Wirkak, from Xi’an, 580. figure 4.7. Entrance to the inner court of Temple II at Pendzhikent (proposed reconstruction). figure 4.8. Clay decoration at the entrance to the inner court of Temple II at Pendzhikent, sixth century. figure 4.9. Four-armed demon wearing the crown with a pair of hands and a skull, wall painting from Pendzhikent, first half of the eighth century. figure 4.10. Statue of Bhairava, from Sarnath, sixth century. figure 5.1. Xi’an Sino-Pahlavi Inscription (photograph). After Kyōto Bunkahakubutsukan Gakugei Dainika, ed., Daitō Chōanten (Kyoto: Kyōto Bunkahakubutsukan, 1994), 155. figure 5.2. Xi’an Sino-Pahlavi Inscription (rubbing). After Kyōto Bunkahakubutsukan Gakugei Dainika. ed., Daitō Chōanten (Kyoto: Kyōto Bunkahakubutsukan, 1994), 155. figure 5.3. Table comparing the previous readings of the Pahlavi version. figure 5.4. dtmyn figure 5.5. bgpw(ḥ)l figure 5.6. štrd(’l) figure 5.7. syr-lyn figure 5.8. m(’)[hdw]hš figure 5.9. ZNH whšpwn’ figure 6.1. Map of Māwarāʾnnahr showing major Sogdian cities. After Karev 2015, fig. 2. figure 6.2. Reconstruction of the paintings on the southern wall of the “Ambassadors Painting,” Afrasyab. Drawing by François Ory. figure 6.3. Royal procession from the Sino-Sogdian sarcophagus in the National Museum of China. After Ge Chengyong 2016, fig. 9. figure 6.4. Scene of royal reception from Panjikent XXV/28, southern part of the eastern wall. After Marshak and Raspopova 1990, fig. 29. figure 6.5. General plan of Panjikent showing excavated areas (1948–2017). Courtesy of Pavel Lurje. Drawing by Alexey Akulov. figure 6.6. Room 2, Area XXX, Panjikent, showing traces of burning caused by the fire of 722. Photo courtesy of Pavel Lurje. figure 6.7. Reconstruction of a typical “Reception Hall” from Panjikent. After Marshak 2002, fig. 10. figure 7.1. The itinerary of the Chinese mission. figure 7.2. Routes connecting China and northern India. figure 7.3. Wukong’s return itinerary. figure 8.1. Map of Iran and Central Asia, Esri Imagery 2017. figure 8.2. Map of the Bukhara oasis and its eight generation paleochannels (Fouache and Rante 2016). figure 8.3. Geomorphological Map of the Bukhara oasis (Fouache et al. 2016). figure 8.4. Human occupation dynamics following the transformation of the Bukhara oasis (Rante 2016). figure 8.5. Map of the landscape of Paykend, Esri Imagery (Rante 2017). figure 8.6. Topography of Paykend (Rante and Rilievi srl 2012). figure 8.7. Plan of the dwelling, phase 1, šahrestan 1, Paykend (Le Maguer, Rante, and Rilievi srl 2017). figure 8.8. Cross section of the east–west ditch-street, Paykend (Vincent Bernard 2010). figure 8.9. Plan of the dwelling, phase 2, šahrestan 1, Paykend (Le Maguer, Rante, and Rilievi srl 2017). figure 8.10. Dwelling of Paykend, šahrestan 1, photo from the east (Rante 2016). figure 8.11. Plan of the dwelling, phase 3, šahrestan 1, Paykend (Le Maguer, Rante, and Rilievi srl 2017). figure 8.12. Cross section of the door between rooms E4 and F4 (Le Maguer, Rante, and Rilievi srl 2017). figure 8.13. Dwelling of Paykend, šahrestan 1, photo from the southeast of the ninth century phase (Rante 2016). figure 8.14. Plan of the dwelling, phase 4, šahrestan 1, Paykend (Le Maguer, Rante, and Rilievi srl 2017). figure 8.15. Photo of a door of the Islamic period (Rante 2014). figure 8.16. Plan of the dwelling, phase 5, šahrestan 1, Paykend (Dantec, Rante, and Rilievi srl 2017). figure 8.17. Photo of the cocciopesto wall, šahrestan 1, Paykend (Dantec 2011). figure 8.18. Photo of the cocciopesto wall, šahrestan 1, Paykend (Dantec 2011). figure 8.19. Plan of the dwelling, phase 6, šahrestan 1, Paykend (Dantec, Rante, and Rilievi srl 2017). figure 8.20. Cross section of the southern area of the dwelling, šahrestan 1, Paykend (Dantec, Rante, and Rilievi srl 2017). figure 8.21. Plan of the dwelling, phase 7, šahrestan 1, Paykend (Dantec, Rante, and Rilievi srl 2017). figure 8.22. Some house comparisons: (A) Paykend; (B) Siraf; (C) Nishapur. figure 10.1. Settlements in the Bukhārā oasis appearing in the nisbas of scholars of the first two centuries AH (© Sören Stark). figure 10.2. The oasis of Bukhārā during the tenth to twelfth centuries CE (© Sören Stark). figure 10.3. The site of Khodja-Kul-tepa. View from the shahristān (in the foreground) toward the citadel (© Sören Stark). figure 10.4. The site of Khodja-Parsan-tepa. Map of the site in the 1930s (after Шишкин 1963, fig. 74) and current satellite view (© Sören Stark). figure 10.5. Glass finds from Khodja-Kul-tepa (© Sören Stark). (a–c) Fragments of glass vessels; (d) glass ingot. figure