a history of inner asia - cambridge university...

A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

Geographically and historically Inner Asia is a confusing areawhich is much in need of interpretation. Svat Soucek’s book offersa short and accessible introduction to the history of the region. Thenarrative, which begins with the arrival of Islam, proceeds chrono-logically, charting the rise and fall of the changing dynasties, theRussian conquest of Central Asia and the fall of the Soviet Union.Dynastic tables and maps augment and elucidate the text. The con-temporary focus rests on the seven countries which make up thecore of present-day Eurasia, that is Uzbekistan, Kazakstan,Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Sinkiang, and Mongolia.Since 1991, there has been renewed interest in these countrieswhich has prompted considerable political, cultural, economic, andreligious debate. While a vast and divergent literature has evolvedin consequence, no short survey of the region has been attempted.Soucek’s history of Inner Asia promises to fill this gap and tobecome an indispensable source of information for anyone study-ing or visiting the area.

is a bibliographer at Princeton University Library.He has worked as Central Asia bibliographer at ColumbiaUniversity, New York Public Library, and at the University ofMichigan, and has published numerous related articles in TheJournal of Turkish Studies, The Encyclopedia of Islam, and The Dictionaryof the Middle Ages.

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A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

Princeton University






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© Cambridge University Press 2000

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exceptionand to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,

no reproduction of any part may take place withoutthe written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2000Reprinted 2001, 2002 (twice), 2003

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ISBN 0 521 65169 7 hardbackISBN 0 521 65704 0 paperback






Contents

List of maps page viiPreface ix

Introduction 1

1 The beginnings 46

2 The Kök Turks, the Chinese expansion, and the Arabconquest 51

3 The Samanids 70

4 The Uighur kingdom of Qocho 77

5 The Qarakhanids 83

6 Seljukids and Ghaznavids 93

7 The conquering Mongols 103

8 The Chaghatayids 117

9 Timur and the Timurids 123

10 The last Timurids and the first Uzbeks 144

11 The Shaybanids 149

12 The rise of Russia, the fall of the Golden Horde, and theresilient Chaghatayids 162

13 The Buddhist Mongols 167

14 Bukhara, Khiva, and Khoqand in the seventeenth tonineteenth centuries 177

15 The Russian conquest and rule of Central Asia 195

v






16 From Governorates-General to Union Republics 209

17 Soviet Central Asia 225

18 Central Asia becomes independent 254

19 Sinkiang as part of China 263

20 Independent Central Asian Republics 275

21 The Republic of Mongolia 297

Summary and conclusion 303

Appendix 1: Dynastic tables 316Appendix 2: Country data 330Select bibliography 341Index 360

vi Contents






Maps

1 Inner Asia: principal political units page viii2 Kök Turkic Empire, ca. 622 523 Mongol Empire, ca. 1294 1024 Timurid Empire 1245 Central Asia, ca. 1825 1766 Central Asia under Tsarist Russia 1947 Sinkiang (Chinese Turkestan) 2648 Kazakhstan 2769 Kyrgyzstan 277

10 Tajikistan 27811 Turkmenistan 27912 Uzbekistan 28013 Mongolia 296

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Preface

This book is an attempt to offer the reader a historical and topical intro-duction to several countries in the core of Eurasia which until recentlywere little noticed except by a small community of scholars or peoplewho had special reasons to do so. One result of this neglect has been alack of adequate literature of the kind presented here: a general surveyof the past and present of this part of the world.

Almost overnight, a few years ago, these countries – Uzbekistan,Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Sinkiang, andMongolia – began to attract considerable attention from politicians,journalists, businessmen, and academicians. The reason was the collapseof the Soviet Union in 1991. Since the formation of that Union in theearly 1920s, the first five of the group had been almost sequestered bythe rulers of the Soviet empire. The outside world was barred fromunhindered access and communication with them, and their own citi-zens found contact with that world both difficult and risky. Mongolia wasofficially independent, but its membership in the family of Soviet satel-lites had imposed on it similar strictures. For the same reason, the SovietUnion’s demise affected it almost as profoundly as it did the five Unionrepublics. We are also including Sinkiang, although the course of itsrecent history has followed a somewhat different path. The inclusion isjustified, we think, because the province is geographically as well as his-torically an integral part of the group, and because the evolution occur-ring among its members is likely to affect Sinkiang as well.

The historic change rather unwittingly set in motion by MikhailGorbachev but then gaining its own momentum has thus generated asudden surge of interest in these countries, an interest that spans thebroad spectrum of political, cultural, economic, and even religiousspheres, and that emanates from countries as divergent as the UnitedStates, China, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Israel. This in turn hasbegun to produce a rapidly growing volume of literature, ranging from

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newspaper reports to financial analyses, statistical yearbooks, specializedperiodicals, and learned articles and monographs. Paradoxically butperhaps understandably, however, a comprehensive survey of the kindattempted here has so far not been published. Our book is meant to fillthis gap.

The principal focus of this study, we have said, is on seven countries:the republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, andUzbekistan; the Sinkiang Uighur Autonomous Region of the People’sRepublic of China; and the Republic of Mongolia. The first five unitshave also been known collectively as Western or Russian Turkestan, or,more recently, as Soviet Central Asia; the sixth unit, as Eastern orChinese Turkestan, or High Tartary; and the seventh, as OuterMongolia.

It is not customary to discuss the three groups together when they areapproached as specific political units, or when the historical narrativeincludes the modern period after the formation of these units. Thereasons for this reside more in the different academic, journalistic, orpolitical backgrounds of the observers than in any intrinsic justificationfor such a separation. Our treatment of the subject will demonstrate, wehope, that the bonds unifying Western and Eastern Turkestan arestronger than the differences between them, and that without Mongoliathe historical picture would be incomplete.

:

The “centrality” of Inner Asia as the landlocked core of the Eurasiancontinent is graphically brought out by the brackets which Moscow andBeijing form to encompass the seven countries under discussion.

The seven countries are Kazakhstan (capital: Astana), Kyrgyzstan(capital, Bishkek), Tajikistan (capital: Dushanbe), Turkmenistan (capital:Ashkhabad), Uzbekistan (capital: Tashkent), Sinkiang (capital:Urumchi), and Mongolia (capital: Ulan Bator).

Area: Kazakhstan, 2,717,300 sq. km. (1,048,000 sq. miles); Kyrgyzstan,198,500 sq. km. (76,641 sq. miles); Tajikistan, 143,100 sq. km. (55,251sq. miles); Turkmenistan, 488,100 sq. km. (188,455 sq. miles);Uzbekistan, 447,400 sq. km. (173,591 sq. miles); Sinkiang, 1,646,000 sq.km. (635,829 sq. miles); and Mongolia, 1,565,000 sq. km. (604,247 sq.miles). Their order in terms of size is thus Kazkhstan, Sinkiang,Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan.

x Preface






Population: (approximate figures, due to the evolving situation; based ondata from 1981–94): Kazakhstan, 17,200,000; Kyrgyzstan, 4,600,000;Tajikistan, 5,700,000; Turkmenistan, 4,000,000; Uzbekistan,21,900,000; Sinkiang, 15,200,000; Mongolia, 2,400,000. Their orderaccording to the size of the population is thus Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan,Sinkiang, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Mongolia. In ethnolin-guistic terms, the principal nationalities of these countries are Turkic(Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Sinkiang, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan),Iranian (Tajikistan), and Mongol (Mongolia).

In addition to the seven principal countries, Map 1 also shows eightother units based on ethnolinguistic and historical principles that relatethem to our theme. Seven of these are in the Russian Federation, theeighth is in China. Those in the Russian Federation are the autonomousrepublics of Tatarstan (capital: Kazan), Bashkiria or Bashqurtistan(capital: Ufa), Kalmykia (capital: Elista), the autonomous region ofGorno-Altai (capital: Gorno-Altaisk), and the autonomous republics ofTuva (capital: Kyzyl), Buriatia (capital: Ulan-Ude), and Yakutia (capital:Yakutsk). The one in China is the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region(capital: Hohhot). The determinant nationalities of five of these unitsspeak Turkic languages (Tatarstan, Bashqurtistan, Gorno-Altai, Tuva,and Yakutia), and of three, Mongol languages (Kalmykia, Buriatia,Inner Mongolia).

Moreover, a strict focus on the seven distinct units makes sense onlyfor the present and recent situation. For times farther back, we shall treatthe subject as a history of Inner Asia, whose core will still be the afore-mentioned countries but whose area will retain a certain flexibility, withthe centers of gravity shifting or dividing or multiplying according to theflow of events; and we shall thus frequently pay attention to places wellbeyond the seven units’ modern political boundaries.

Finally, yet another qualification is necessary. The past as we have con-ceived of it for the purposes of this book starts in the seventh centurywith the arrival of Islam in Central Asia. There are two reasons for thisdecision. One is the academic background of the author, the other thefact that for Central Asia, earlier periods are the domain of the archae-ologist rather than of the historian.

In addition to “Central Asia,” we also use the term “Inner Asia.” Inner

Asia, somewhat of a neologism and limited to scholarly parlance, desig-nates the whole area in its historical and geographical sense; Central Asia,as used in English, means the western portion of Inner Asia, roughly

Preface xi






Western Turkestan and the western part of Eastern Turkestan, togetherwith such adjacent areas as northeastern Iran and northernAfghanistan. For the present political configuration we shall use thenames of the six republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Mongolia), while Sinkiang will stand forits unwieldly and long official name, Sinkiang Uighur AutonomousRegion of the People’s Republic of China.

This book deals with an area and history where several language fami-lies and alphabets have existed, often coexisting or replacing one anotheror going through natural or imposed transformations. Transliteration ofthe multitude of names and terms is a daunting and expensive (if a pro-fusion of diacritical marks is used) challenge, and perfection is impossi-ble. Even when writing for the reduced audience of scholars, an authormust explain the compromise he has chosen and apologize for theshortcomings.

We have followed, with some modifications, the transliterationsystem used by the Encyclopaedia of Islam. The main exception is dis-pensation with diacritical signs and special letters. In a book of thiskind an array of such features would be pointless or even disruptive.The general reader, we think, would find no use for scrupulouslymarked Arabic or Turkic words, while the specialist, if he chooses toread the book, will not need such additional help. We have thus limitedthe use of diacritics to their occurrences in the languages using theroman alphabet – in our book chiefly French, German, and Turkish.For Chinese, we follow the Wade-Giles system, except for names thathave become familiar in their pinyin form (the official transliterationnow used in China).

A different type of compromise has also been imposed by practicalconsiderations. While we have endeavored to avoid anachronisms whenreferring to specific regions, complete consistency has not beenattempted. Sinkiang received this name only in 1758, yet we freely availourselves of this name even when discusssing earlier periods, simplybecause using (or creating) other names would cause needless confusion.Similarly, Mongolia was from the sixth to the ninth centuries the core ofInner Asian Turkic empires. Should we call it, when discussing thatperiod, Turkestan (or Turkey, for that matter)? Or again southern Russiaand Ukraine were in antiquity the home of the Iranian Scythians, and

xii Preface






in the early Middle Ages of Kipchak Turks. Referring to them as Scythiaor Kipchakia would sound rather pedantic in our book.

The author wishes to express warmest thanks to Michael Cook andMark Farrell, both of Princeton University, for reading the manuscriptand suggesting many corrections and improvements.

Preface xiii






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