Transoxiana

Historical Transoxiana (to North-East)

Transoxiana (also spelledTransoxania), known in Ara-bic and Persian sources as Mawarannahr (Arabic: ماوراءmā النهر warāʔa an-nahr “what (is) beyond the (Oxus)river”), is the ancient name used for the portion ofCentral Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, southern Kyrgyzstan andsouthwest Kazakhstan. Geographically, it is the regionbetween the Amu Darya (Ancient Greek: Ώξος Ōxos)and Syr Darya rivers.[1] The area had been known to theRomans as Transoxania (Land beyond the Oxus), to theArabs asMawarannahr (Land Beyond the River), and tothe Iranians as Turan, a term used in the Persian nationalepic Shahnameh.[2]

The region was one of the satrapies of the Achaemeniddynasty of Persia under the name Sogdiana.

1 History

The name Transoxiana stuck in Western consciousnessbecause of the exploits of Alexander the Great, who ex-tended Greek culture into the region with his conquestsof the 4th century BC; Transoxiana was the most north-eastern point of the Hellenistic culture until the Arabicinvasion. During the Sassanid Empire, it was often calledSogdiana, a provincial name taken from the AchaemenidEmpire, and used to distinguish it from nearby Bactria.The Chinese explorer Zhang Qian, who visited the neigh-bouring countries of Bactria and Parthia along with Tran-soxiana in 126 BC, made the first known Chinese re-

port on this region. Zhang Qian clearly identifies Parthiaas an advanced urban civilisation that farmed grain andgrapes, made silver coins and leather goods.[3] It wasruled successively by Seleucids, Greco-Bactrian King-dom, Parthian Empire and Kushan Empire before Sas-sanid rule.In Sassanid times, the region became a major cultural andscientific centre due to effective royal authority and thewealth derived from the Northern Silk Road. Sassanidrule was interrupted by the Hephthalite invasion at theend of the 5th century and didn't return to the Sassanidsuntil 565. Many Persian nobles and landlords escaped tothis region after the Muslim invasion. Before the Mus-lim invasion it was also ruled by Gokturks. Following theArab conquest, the area became known as Ma wara'un-Nahr (Arabic, “what is beyond the river”).Transoxiana’s major cities and cultural centres areSamarkand and Bukhara. Both are in the southern por-tion of Transoxiana, (though still to the north of the AmuDarya itself, on the river Zeravshan), and the majorityof the region was dry but fertile plains. Both cities re-mained centres of Persian culture and civilisation afterthe Islamic conquest of Iran, and played a crucial role inthe revival of Persian culture with establishment of theSamanid dynasty.Part of this region was conquered by Qutayba ibn Muslimbetween 706 and 715 and loosely held by the Umayyadsfrom 715 to 738. The conquest was consolidated by Nasribn Sayyar between 738 and 740, and continued under thecontrol of the Umayyads until 750, when it was replacedby the Abbasids. The Tang Dynasty also controlled theeastern part of the region until about the same time, whena civil war occurred.Genghis Khan invaded Transoxiana in 1219 during hisconquest of Khwarezm. Before his death in 1227, he as-signed the lands of Western Central Asia to his second sonChagatai, and this region became known as the ChagataiKhanate. In 1369, Timur, of the Barlas tribe, became theeffective ruler and made Samarkand the capital of his fu-ture empire. Transoxiana was known to be flourishing inthe mid-14th century.[4]

2 References and notes[1] Encyclopædia Britannica online

[2] Mapping Mongolia: Situating Mongolia in the World fromGeologic Time to the Present, Paula L.W. Sabloff, P.62

1

2 3 SEE ALSO

[3] Silk Road, North China, C. Michael Hogan, The Me-galithic Portal, ed. A. Burnham (2007)

[4] The Timurid Empire

3 See also• Aniran

• Turan

• Samanid dynasty

• Khwarezmid Empire

• Timur

• Mount Imeon

• Khwarezm

• Greater Khorasan

3

4 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

4.1 Text• Transoxiana Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transoxiana?oldid=650213368 Contributors: XJaM, SimonP, Olivier, Stevertigo,

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