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Tajikistan
Early History
Much, if not all, of what is today Tajikistan was part of ancient
Persia's Achaemenid Empire (sixth to fourth centuries B.C.), which
was subdued by Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C.
and then became part of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, one of the
successor states to Alexander's empire. The northern part of what
is now Tajikistan was part of Soghdiana, a distinct region that
intermittently existed as a combination of separate oasis states
and sometimes was subject to other states. Two important cities
in what is now northern Tajikistan, Khujand (formerly Leninobod;
Russian spelling Leninabad) and Panjakent, as well as Bukhoro
(Bukhara) and Samarqand (Samarkand) in contemporary Uzbekistan,
were Soghdian in antiquity. As intermediaries on the Silk Route
between China and markets to the west and south, the Soghdians
imparted religions such as Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, Zoroastrianism
(see Glossary), and Manichaeism (see Glossary), as well as their
own alphabet and other knowledge, to peoples along the trade routes.
Between the first and fourth centuries, the area that is now
Tajikistan and adjoining territories were part of the Kushan realm,
which had close cultural ties to India. The Kushans, whose exact
identity is uncertain, played an important role in the expansion
of Buddhism by spreading the faith to the Soghdians,who in turn
brought it to China and the Turks.
By the first century A.D., the Han dynasty of China had developed
commercial and diplomatic relations with the Soghdians and their
neighbors, the Bactrians. Military operations also extended Chinese
influence westward into the region. During the first centuries
A.D., Chinese involvement in this region waxed and waned, decreasing
sharply after the Islamic conquest but not disappearing completely.
As late as the nineteenth century, China attempted to press its
claim to the Pamir region of what is now southeastern Tajikistan.
Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, China occasionally has
revived its claim to part of this region.
The Islamic Conquest
Islamic Arabs began the conquest of the region in earnest in
the early eighth century. Conversion to Islam occurred by means
of incentives, gradual acceptance, and force of arms. Islam spread
most rapidly in cities and along the main river valleys. By the
ninth century, it was the prevalent religion in the entire region.
In the early centuries of Islamic domination, Central Asia continued
in its role as a commercial crossroads, linking China, the steppes
to the north, and the Islamic heartland.
Persian Culture in Central Asia
The Persian influence on Central Asia, already prominent before
the Islamic conquest, grew even stronger afterward. Under Iran's
last pre-Islamic empire, the Sassanian, the Persian language and
culture as well as the Zoroastrian religion spread among the peoples
of Central Asia, including the ancestors of the modern Tajiks.
In the wake of the Islamic conquest, Persian-speakers settled
in Central Asia, where they played an active role in public affairs
and furthered the spread of the Persian language and culture,
their language displacing Eastern Iranian ones. By the twelfth
century, Persian had also supplanted Arabic as the written language
for most subjects.
The Samanids
In the development of a modern Tajik national identity, the
most important state in Central Asia after the Islamic conquest
was the Persian-speaking Samanid principality (875-999), which
came to rule most of what is now Tajikistan, as well as territory
to the south and west. During their reign, the Samanids supported
the revival of the written Persian language.
Early in the Samanid period, Bukhoro became well-known as a
center of learning and culture throughout the eastern part of
the Persian-speaking world. Samanid literary patronage played
an important role in preserving the culture of pre-Islamic Iran.
Late in the tenth century, the Samanid state came under increasing
pressure from Turkic powers to the north and south. After the
Qarakhanid Turks overthrew the Samanids in 999, no major Persian
state ever again existed in Central Asia.
Beginning in the ninth century, Turkish penetration of the Persian
cultural sphere increased in Central Asia. The influx of even
greater numbers of Turkic peoples began in the eleventh century.
The Turkic peoples who moved into southern Central Asia, including
what later became Tajikistan, were influenced to varying degrees
by Persian culture. Over the generations, some converted Turks
changed from pastoral nomadism to a sedentary way of life, which
brought them into closer contact with the sedentary Persian-speakers.
Cultural influences flowed in both directions as Turks and Persians
intermarried.
During subsequent centuries, the lands that eventually became
Tajikistan were part of Turkic or Mongol states. The Persian language
remained in use in government, scholarship, and literature. Among
the dynasties that ruled all or part of the future Tajikistan
between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries were the Seljuk Turks,
the Mongols, and the Timurids (Timur, or Tamerlane, and his heirs
and their subjects). Repeated power struggles among claimants
to these realms took their toll on Central Asia. The Mongol conquest
in particular dealt a serious blow to sedentary life and destroyed
several important cities in the region. Although they had come
in conquest, the Timurids also patronized scholarship, the arts,
and letters.
In the early sixteenth century, Uzbeks from the northwest conquered
large sections of Central Asia, but the unified Uzbek state began
to break apart soon after the conquest. By the early nineteenth
century, the lands of the future Tajikistan were divided among
three states: the Uzbek-ruled Bukhoro Khanate, the Quqon (Kokand)
Khanate, centered on the Fergana Valley, and the kingdom of Afghanistan.
These three principalities subsequently fought each other for
control of key areas of the new territory. Although some regions
were under the nominal control of Bukhoro, or Quqon, local rulers
were virtually independent.
Data as of March 1996
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