Islam and the Turkic Tajik Symbiosis in Central Asia

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Islam and the Turkic Tajik SymbiosisIn Central Asia

b yHashir Majoka

A thesis submit ted to McGil l Universi tyin par t ia l fulf ilment of the req uire m ents

of the degree of Master of Arts.

January 2009

Insti tute of Islamic StudiesMcGil l Universi ty

M o n t r e a l

Hashir Majoka, 2009


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ContentsCont en t s 2Abstract 3Precis 4Acknowledgments 5Introduction 6Objective 8The Geographica l Region 9Chapter 1 11

Geographical Advan tages and Trade 13The Nom adic and the Sedentary W orlds 15Origins and the Dynam ics of the Sedentary Society 16The Origins of the Tajiks 20The Origins and Dyna mics of the Nom adic Society 25Charac ter is t ic Featu res of Pastora l N om ad ism 26The Origins and Em ergen ce of the Uzb eks 29Em ergence of the Uzb ek Ident i ty 34The Rus sian Co nq ues t of Cen tra l Asia 37Centra l Asia in the Per iod Between Russian Conquest and Sovie t Rule . . .42The Sovie t Revolu t ion and the Basmachi M ovem ent 45The Soviet Period and the Formation of Ethnic Hom elands 49

Ch apter II 60Islam as a Religion as well as a Civ il ization 61Islam In Ce ntra l Asia 64Init ial En try Of Islam into the Reg ion of Ce ntra l Asia 65Co nvers ions to Is lam 70Sufism: Early Or igin s 76Sufis of Ce ntra l Asia 80Emergence of the M ongol s & the Pos t -M ong ol Ord e r in Cent ra l As ia 85The Spread of Is lam in the Stepp e Lan ds in the po st - M on go l Per iod 89Centra l Asian Is lamic Socie ty under the Timurids and the Shaybanids. . . .91Cen tra l Asia on the eve of the Rus sian invas ion 94The Russ ian Con ques t and i ts Con sequenc es 95Cen tra l Asia un de r the Bolshevik Rule 98

Conclusion 101W orks Cited 108

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Abstract

This thesis explores two fac tors tha t have been inst rumenta l in the evolut ion ofsocie ty and e thnic and nat ional ident i t ies in southern Centra l Asia . I t i s a rguedthat the development of these ident i t ies (and the obstac les encountered in theprocess) are closely l inked to the place of Islam in central Asian society, and thedel ica te e thnic balance between the Turkic and the I ranian cul tura l spheres -which a lso manifested i t se l f as the symbiosis between sedentary-agrar ian andnomadic popula t ions. I t was the disrupt ion of these two fac tors under Sovie t rulewhich led to last ing problems that cont inue to bedevi l the region to this day.

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Prec i s

Ce memoire a pour but d'examiner deux facteurs qui ont joue un role dans revolution dela societe et des identites ethniques et nationales dans le sud de l'Asie Ce ntrale. Onsoutient que le developpement de ces identites, et les obstacles rencontres pendant cedeveloppem ent, sont lies a l'importance de l'lslam dans la societe de l'Asie C entrale, ainsiqu' a l'equilibre delicat des pro portions ethniques dans les spheres culturelles turquique etiranienne. Ce dernier s'est manifeste aussi comm e une symbiose des populationssedentaires-agraires et nom adiques. La perturbation de ces deux facteurs sous le regimesovietique a mene aux troubles qui tourmentent cette region jusqu ' a ce jour.

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A c k n o w l e d g m e n t sThis ven ture wo uld n ever ha ve been poss ib le , bu t for the he lp a nd

su p p o r t e x t e n d e d b y m a n y p e o p l e . T h o u g h t h e y a r e t o o n u m e r o u s t o n a m e , Iwo uld l ike to make a n a t t emp t he re . Dr . A . Une r Turgay , my hoja, for his he lp,guidance and tute lage over the years , Dr . Er ic Ormsby for his generosi ty andexceeding kindness and and Dr. Donald Li t t le for demyst i fying Islamic history.

If i t we ren ' t for W al ter E. Yo ung , this thesis wo uld ha ve rem aine dunf in i shed foreve r, I have no t wo rds en oug h to express my gra t i tude .

Ma ny thanks to Sa lwa Fe rah ian for he r k indness , sup po r t and un wa ver ingopt imism and to Wayne St . Thomas for his pa t ience which I never ceased to tax.To Daw n Richa rds , An ne Yaxley and Ki rsty Mckinnon , I owe m ore tha n I canexpress .

Dr. Shahab Ahmed and Dr. Dana Sajdi were a lways a source of s t rength,enc ou rage m ent an d unl im i ted gen erosi ty . I ow e a specia l deb t of gra t i tud e toDinaz Colabewala for he r suppo r t , he lp and en coura gem ent ov e r the yea rs . Iw ou ld a lso l ike to than k Sven-Erik Paloheim o for his he lp and con t inuin gfr iendship. Thanks a lso to Gorka Coria for his f r iendship and for providing thesuperb French t ransla t ion of the abst rac t .

I f i t weren ' t for the generosi ty , kindness, he lp, support and love providedby my pa ren t s and s ib lings , non e of th i s wo uld have been poss ib le . Eve ry th inggoo d and noble in me come s from m y mo the r and fa ther. I tha nk you from thebot tom of my hear t .

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Beyond this flood a frozen ContinentLies dark and wide; beat with perpetual stormsOf whirlwind and dire Hail, which on firm landThaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seemsOf ancient pile; all deep snow and ice: the parching airBurns frore, and cold performs th'effect of fire.

Mil ton , Paradise Lost

As a region , Cen tra l Asia has had a profo un d inf luence on the history ofthe world. I t was this great hinter land that constant ly provided the se t t led areasan d c ivi l iza t ions a t it s per ip her ie s wi th f resh blood in the form of successivewa ves of nom adic invas ions . In the p rocess it shap ed the des t iny , founda t ion andeventua l d i sso lu t ion of almost eve ry grea t empi re h i s to ry has kno wn pr io r to theindust r ia l revolut ion. Emerging from a century of re la t ive obscuri ty underRus sian occu pat ion a nd d om inat io n, the region is once again in the forefront ofinternational affairs. I ts strategic location 1 , i ts vast energ y reserv es a ndt remendous mine ra l po ten t i a l have spa rked a new and s t rong in te res t amongbus in essm en, po l it i ci ans , hu m an r igh t s act iv i s ts , academics and adv entu re rsalike.

Cent ra l As ia today com pr i ses five indep end ent republ ic s : Kazak hs tan ,Kirg hyz stan, Uzb ekistan, Tu rkm enis tan and Taj ikistan. Al l a re pop ula tedlargely by e thnic Turk s and h ave a Turkic dia lec t as the main la ng uag e except

1 Central Asia is the land-locked core of the great Eurasian landmass stretching from Black Sea in the westto Pacific Ocean in the east. The region borders Russia, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey andCaucasus and geographically extends to northwestern Ch ina, and Siberia.


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Taj ikistan, the smal lest but thi rd most populous 2 repub l ic in the region. L argelypo pula ted by an Indo-E urop ean pe ople wh o speak a d ia lec t of Pe rs i an3 , it is theleast developed of the f ive former Sovie t republ ics . Created as an autonomousregion wi th in Uzb ek Sovie t Socia l is t Republ ic to serve as a ho m elan d for th eethnic Tajiks, i t was granted the status of a consti tuent Soviet republic in 1929.Taj ikistan as wel l as Uzb ekistan we re crea ted as the successor s ta tes to theEmira te of Bukhara , which had been abol ished af ter the Sovie t re-conquest ofCentra l Asia . This s tudy focuses on the region -occupied by these two countr iesin the m od ern t imes - tha t has t radi t ional ly b een a unified histor ica l ent i ty .Throughout this thesis , the term Trans-Oxiana is used to designate thisgeographical te rr i tory.

This s tud y see ks to explore the or igin of e thnic ident i t ies in the Tra ns-Oxiana region, a long wi th the i r complex internal and external dynamics and theevo lut ion of the region into a bi -nat iona l , b i - l ingual s ta te tha t existed unt i l theadvent of the twent ie th century. This s tudy then explores the inst i tut ional iza t ionas well as appropriat ion of these identi t ies, in concert with the Soviet policies ofcarving out republ ics to serve as 'homelands ' for the t i tular na t ional i t ies .

2 5.5 million inhabitants of whom approx. 65 % are ethnic Tajiks. See Naseem Jawad, Tajikistan: AForgotten Civil War (London: Minority Rights Group, 1995), 5.3 Tajik language belongs to Western Iranian language group and is mutually com prehensible with Farsi asspoken in Iran. See Tajiks, Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, vol. X.


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Object ive:

This thesis wi l l ident ify tw o fac tors tha t hav e been inst ru m enta l in theevolut ion of e thnic and nat ional ident i ty in the greater Uzbekistan region in thepost -Sovie t per iod. I t i s m y content ion tha t the de ve lop m en t of these iden t i t ies(and the obstac les enco un tered in the process) are c lose ly l inked to the place ofIslam in Ce ntra l Asian socie ty, and the del ica te e thnic balance be twe en th e Tajiksa n d T u r k s which a lso manifested i t se l f as the symbiosis between sedentary-a g r a r i a n a n d n o m a d i c p o p u l a t i o n s .

Both of these fac tors are c lose ly connected , as i s dem on stra ted by thecon t inua t ion of the Persian lang uag e an d i t s inf luence af ter the Turkif ica tion ofTrans-Oxiana in the tenth century CE, par t ly due to the abundance of Is lamicl i tera ture in tha t language.

Furthermore , these fac tors evolved over a mi l lennium of socie ta levo lu t ion and a re deep ly emb edd ed in the reg ion ' s h i s to ry , cu l tu re and soc ia lfabric. A tte m pt s to dis reg ard th eir effect o n society (i .e . by sep ara ting Tajikistanfrom Uzbekistan in an effor t to provide 'homelands ' for the t i tular na t ional i t iesand the bruta l suppression of Is lam under the Sovie ts) have led to last ing


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problems that bedevi l the region to this day. 4 The civil war in Tajikistan andconsequent spread of Is lamic radica l ism in neighbouring Uzbekistan test i f ies tothe importance of these fac tors .

Thi s thes i s seeks to p resen t a compreh ens ive a nd in tegra ted appro ach tha tanaly ses the ev olut io n of these crucia l fac tors . Whi le som e of these fac tors ha vebeen s tud ied and exa mined sep a ra te ly , an in tegra ted theore ti ca l f ramework tha taccounts for the weaknesses and st rengths of these socie t ies in deal ing wi th thechal lenge s faced ove r the pa st dec ade is s t il l lacking. This lacuna wi l l beadd resse d by exam in ing the above-ment ioned factors and by p lac ing them in ahistor ica l pers pect iv e . I t i s ho pe d tha t this wi ll a l low for a greate r un de rst an din gof the un iqu e se t of chal lenges being faced by the region.

T h e G e o g r a p h i c a l Re g i o n :This thesis wi l l pr imari ly focus on the Uzbekistan/Taj ikistan region. The

present day countr ies of Uzbekistan and Taj ikistan were carved out of thebi l ingual and bi -nat ional Khanate of Bukhara ear ly last century. S ta l in 's pol icy ofcreat ing 'homelands ' for t i tular na t ional i t ies led to the crea t ion of an autonomousTajik region within the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic in 1924 and the grantingof full f ledged Soviet consti tuent republic status in 1927.5 In the process, mi l l ionsof Taj iks were lef t in Uzbekistan and many Uzbeks were s t randed in Taj ikistan.

45 A hmed Ras h id , The Resurgence of Central Asia (London: Zed Books, 1995), 169.


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Moreover, this art ificial division resulted in the greatest centres of Tajik culturenamely the c i t ies of Samarqand and Bukhara , be ing lef t in Uzbekistan. Thehistor ica l uni ty of the two republ ics thus a l lows us to s tudy the evolut ion of thisspecific area as a single enti ty.


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Chapter I

Sands of Oxus, harsh though they be;Are soft as silk un derfoot to me.

Bukharan Poet Ruda ki (d. 1021)

Cent ra l As ia has t rad i t iona l ly been a borde r l and be tween two grea t

w o r l d s o f p r e - m o d e r n a n d e a r l y m o d e r n h i s t o r y , n a m e l y t h e s t e p p e n o m a d i cworld and the se t t led agr icul tura l communi t ies around i t s borders . I t has a lsobeen a t the centre of his tor ic t rade rou tes such as the fabled Silk Ro ad conn ect ingthe far east to Europe and the Middle East . This s t ra tegic placement has not onlybrought about inc reased economic prospe r i ty th rough a t rade in goods andservices, bu t has a lso been ins t rum enta l in the di ffusion an d sp read of ideasbe tween va ry ing geographica l reg ions and d i s t an t cu l tu res and communi t i e s .

This chapter def ines and demarcates the geographical extent of the areaunder s tudy and looks a t how unique geographical fea tures as wel l as theexistence of diverse eco-systems fac i l i ta ted the process of t rade , not only inmater ia l goods but a lso in ideas. I t then explores the existence of two dist inc tmodes of l i fe prevalent in the region, namely the sedentary and nomadic . Theemergence of Taj ik ident i ty based on a long nat ive urban t radi t ion rooted in thecul ture of the oasis towns of Centra l Asia i s invest igated, as i s the emergence of

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t he nomadic Uzbeks and the i r g radua l adopt ion of seden ta ry l i fe and urbancul ture , against the backdrop of the t radi t ional pa t terns and interac t ions ofnomadic and sedentary l i festyles . Next , i t seeks to look a t the dynamics and theimpac t o f Russ ian conques t upon the reg ion and the d i s rup t ion caused by tha tseminal event in Centra l Asian history. I t , then, goes on to examine the per iodbefore the Co m m un ist rev olut ion , the effec ts of tha t revolut io n as wel l as localresis tance movements and rebel l ions. F inal ly , this chapter wi l l deal wi th theSovie t projec t of division of the region into homelands for t i tular na t ional i t ies .The disast rous consequences of this move wi l l be examined, as wel l the theat tempts to crea te 'na t ional i t ies ' , where none existed before , in order to just i fycreat ion of homelands for them. I t i s our content ion that this disrupt ion of amul t i -e thn ic , mul t i - l ingua l soc ie ty tha t depended upon i t s d ive rs i ty fo r i t scont inuous survival has led to last ing problems that cont inue to plague theregion to this day.

G e o g r a p h yThe reg ion is bord e red b y the Karak oram and Pam i r M oun ta ins to the

south and southeast , the Tien-Shan Mounta ins to the east , the Caspian Sea andCaucasus Mounta ins to the wes t and in the nor th the Kazakh s t eppe merges in tothe Siber ian steppe. Most of the region is s teppe land where a scarc i ty ofmoisture excludes the possibi l i ty of perennia l agr icul ture and forces a nomadicl i festyle upon the inhabi tants . However , the southern par t of Centra l Asia i s

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wate red by two grea t r ive rs : Amu Darya and Syr Darya . 6 The former or iginatesin the Hindukush and Pami r Mounta ins , runs a long the sou the rn borde r o f theregion wi th I ran and Afghanistan and empt ies into the Aral Sea af ter a journey ofover two thousand k i lomet res . The Syr Darya or ig ina tes in the T ien-ShanMounta ins, passes through the fer t i le Ferghana Val ley and a lso empt ies into theAra l Sea . The l ands be tween these two r ive rs - p resen t day U zbeki s t an ,Taj ikistan and the southern par t of Kirghyzstan - are ext remely fer t i le , and i t i she re tha t the g rea te s t dev e lopm ents in Cent ra l As ian h i s to ry and cu l tu re havetaken place . I t was the c i t ies of this zone that represented the high mark of theregion 's cul ture . Arts , phi losophy and sc iences f lour ished here , turning the c i tyof Bukhara into a centre of re l igious learning second only to Makkah in medievalt imes , and earning i t the t i t le of Bukhara Sharif - Buk hara the No ble -th roughout the I s l amic wor ld . 7

Geographical Advantages and TradeThis diverse landscape has f rom ear ly history conferred a specia l

advantage upon the reg ion : tha t o f a na tura l t endency towards t rade . In a reaswhere a s ing le geographica l env i ronment p redomina tes , t he re i s l i t t l e incen t iveto t rade beyond the local scene where a degree of specia l iza t ion has occurred a t

6 The Oxus and the Jaxar tes r ivers as they were known to the Greeks .7 Ra sh id , The Resurgence of Central Asia, 12.

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the vi l lage level . In contrast , a combinat ion of two ecological environmentswi thin a region makes the evolut ion of t rading pract ice more l ike ly.

One of the most d ramat i c and impor tan t d iv id ing l inesbe tween d ive rse env i ronments in any pa r t o f the wor ld i s thedeser t edge, the sahel, sepa ra t ing l and where agr i cu l tu re canbe pract iced from the ar id s teppe and deser t where onlypas tora l nomadism i s poss ib le . 8

Most seden ta ry soc ie ti e s, t h ro ug ho ut h i s to ry , hav e had a cons tan t need of

produc t s o f which nomads a re the spec ia l i zed producers , such as r id ing an ima l s ,an ima l sk ins and o the r an ima l p rodu c t s . N om ad s too , be ing dep end ent on the i ranimals for the i r l i festyle have been highly specia l ized producers and thusrequire products such as gra in, meta l objec ts and c loth. This mutual need forspec ia l i zed produc t s c rea te s a na tura l condui t fo r t rade a s "goods normal ly pass

through this ecological divide wi th greater intensi ty than they do in more ah o m o g e n e o u s e n v i r o n m e n t . " 9

However , t he fac t tha t nomads and se t t l ed peoples p roduced the i r goodsin di fferent ecological zones a lso crea tes cer ta in problems in t rade . For example ,of tent imes goods being t raded have to t ravel over very long distances. In

8 Phil ip D. Cur t in , Cross-Cultural Trade in W orld History (Cambridge: Cambridge Univers i ty Press ,1986), 16 .9 Ibid.

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addi t ion i t appears tha t i t i s usual ly the nomads who carry thei r goods - most lyhe rd s- to the tow ns for the purpos e of t rade and no t the o the r wa y a ro un d . 1 0

Reg ardless of the technical i ties of the t rade , the pic ture th a t em erge s of thesahel areas i s one of complexi ty and interac t ion as wel l as inter-dependencebetween di fferent methods of product ion, modes of socie ta l organizat ion andcompe t ing goods and ideas .

The Nomadic and the Sedentary WorldsThe resu l t ing re l a t ionsh ip in Cent ra l As ia be tween the two wor lds was

complex, "peaceful an d host i le , depending on the pol i t ica l and economic needs ofboth societies at a given t ime." 1 1 As ment ioned above , the s t eppe l and ,popula ted by nomads , co-ex i s t ed wi th the se t t l ed , fa rmed and urban izedsouthern par ts in what was a largely symbiot ic economic and socia l interac t ion.However there was a lso another dynamic to this re la t ionship: every once in awhi l e , a s t eppe peop le wo uld ov e r - r un the u rba n a rea . Hav ing es tab l i shed anarea of control they would then (out of necessity of establishing insti tutions toenforce thei r rule over urban areas) become steeped in the urban cul ture and takeon the ways of the i r subjugated predecessors . S ince the language of the townsand the se t t led c ivi l iza t ion was a lways Persian, these nomads, who were for themost par t Turkic , would readi ly take to i t and become complete ly Persianized10 A na to ly K ha z a nov , Nomads and the Outside World (Madison: The Univers i ty of Wisconsin Press ,1994), 205.11 Peter Golden, An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Speaking Peoples (Wiesbaden: Ot toHarrassowitz Verlag, 1992), 7.

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within a couple of genera t ions. Some of the most obvious examples are those ofthe Se ljuqs , Gh azna vids an d M ugh a l s a s we l l a s the T imur id ru le r s in S am arqan dand H era t . As Pe te r Go lden no tes :

In this world of frequent shifts in the steppes and even in closepropinqui ty to sedentary socie ty, l inguist ic and cul tura l uni tywere no t necessa ry requ i rement s . 1 2

Origins and the Dynamics of the Sedentary Society

Sedenta ry com mu ni t i e s were mo st ly conf ined to the sou the rn ed ge of the Cen t ra lAsian landmass- a long the r iver val leys and in fer t i le oases where extensiveagr i cu l tu re was poss ib le . These we re la rge ly oas i s -based u rban ized com mu ni t i e sthat a lso served as condui ts of ideas and goods from the outside world intoCentra l Asia . I t was a lso here tha t an urban l i fe and i t s associa ted socia l and

economic st ructures had f lour ished since ancient t imes.A common feature of most of the inner Eurasian deser t lands i stha t r ive rs d ra in in to them f rom the mounta ins on the i r borde rs ,crea t ing fer t i le oases. The many oases of Centra l Asia andS ink iang suppor ted dense sma l l pocke t s o f dense se t t l ement ssuppor ted by i r r iga t ion agr i cu l tu re and t rade . . . The i r cu l tu resref lec ted a complex symbiosis between the s t r ic t demands of thei rr iga t ion agr icul ture , and cul tura l , commercia l and mil i tarypressures o f pas tora l nomads to the i r nor th and agra r i an empi resto the i r south and east .

13

12 Ibid., p.5 Also see Thomas Barfield, The Perilous Frontier (Cambridge: Blackwell Publ ishers ,1992), 199.13 Central As ian t raders a ppe ar to have been act ive in the Me di ter rane an to China t rade s ince i tsvery inception around 200 BCE. See Curtin, Cross Cultural, 90-94.

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The i r economies l a rge ly depended upon the agr i cu l tu ra l surp lus genera ted byi r r iga ted t rac t s , wh ich was fur the r sup plem ented b y t rade wi th b ord e r ingnomadic socie t ies as wel l as wi th surrounding c ivi l iza t ions. Owing to thest ra tegic locat ion of these urban communi t ies a top the t rade routes between themajor c ivi l iza t ions of the old world, t rade had become an important occupat ionfrom a very ear ly t ime per iod. 1 4 Prior to the penetra t ion of Is lam in the region inthe seven th cen tury , such urban a reas had become ou tpos t s o f Pe rs i an Sassan iancul ture , i t se l f co-exist ing wi th numerous and var ied re l igious bel iefs such asBuddhi sm, Zoroas t r i an i sm, Manichean i sm, Nes tor i an Chr i s t i an i ty and evensmal l pockets of Judaism.

The main centres of urban c ivi l iza t ion a t this t ime in Centra l Asia were"the M arv o asis in the west , the Balkh oasis south of the A m u D arya , the s t r ing ofoases a long the Zera fshan , inc lud ing Samarqand and Bukhara , Khorezm to thesouth of the Aral Sea , and the oases a long the Syr Darya from Ferghana to Chach(Tashkent) to the Aral Sea." 15

With the advent of Is lam, i t was Is lamic cul ture - ini t ia l ly wi th an Arabflavour- tha t supplanted ear l ier cul tura l and re l igious inf luences. This was a idedby the establ ishm ent of Arab garr ison s in these c it ies . For exam ple , in 671, Ar abauthorit ies sett led over 50,000 Arab families in the oasis of Marv, the largestgroup of Arab se t t lers outside Arabia . This "helps expla in why Khorasan and

14 David Chr is t ian , A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers ,2000), 17 .15 Ibid., 306.

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Marv soon became important centres of Is lamic mi l i tary and cul tura l inf luence .By 730, m ost of the se t t lers ha d beco me farm ers an d pu t do w n st ron g roots in theregion." 1 6

After the consol idat ion of Is lamic rule and the establ ishment of acentra l ized order , condi t ions for economic and cul tura l expansion in thesesedenta ry urban a reas were in p lace . " Indeed [by the 10 th cen tury AD] SamanidMawara 'n -nahr became for a t ime a sor t o f economic and a cu l tu ra l dynamo forthe whole I s lamic w or ld . " 1 7

The basis of the sedentary economy was agr icul ture . I t was agr icul turealone that could produce the weal th tha t would fund not only the funct ioning ofthe urb an eco nom ies and a l low for cul tura l ac t ivi t ies to take place , bu t was a lsoessent ia l in the accumulat ion of a surplus tha t would make t rade possible noton ly wi th the sur rounding nomadic communi t i e s , bu t a l so wi th the o the rc iv i l i za t ions . However , agr i cu l tu re depended upon an ex tens ive i r r iga t ionsys tem tha t requ i red regu la r ma in tenance . The cana l s and wa te r channe l s -i n c l u d i n g t h e u n d e r g r o u n d karez can a l s - had to be dug , ma in ta ined andperiodical ly de-si l ted. S imilar maintenance on smal l dams and wel ls was a lsoessent ia l for the i r cont inuous use . In addi t ion, the ent i re system had to beprotec ted from enemy at tacks, water a l locat ion schedules (a lways a cause of

16 Ibid., 308.17 Chris t ian , A History of Russia, 318.

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conten t ion) had to be wo rked ou t , and l abou r p ro per ly o rg an ized and mo t iva tedfor agr i cu l tu ra l p rodu c t ion .

Al l of this required a s t rong centra l ized government wi th an ablebureaucracy that could organize the product ive forces of the socie ty and regula tei t s in t e rna l d i spu tes bes ides co l l ec t ing revenue and organ ize expendi tu re inmain tenance and regu la t ion of th i s complex sys tem. Fur the rmore , "urban wea l tha l so depended on good re l a t ions wi th pas tora l i s t communi t i e s th rough whoselands passed the ca ravans tha t gene ra ted so much of cen t ra l As ia ' s commerc ia lweal th ." i s

It was in this part icular milieu that the emergence of the Tajik ethnicidenti ty took place. Tajik identi ty was formed in the larger ci t ies of Central Asiawhere a s t rong t rad i t ion of u rban i sm ex i s t ed and where a degree of cu l tu ra lrenaissance had taken place in the centur ies fol lowing the Musl im conquest ofthe area . Fol lowing the dissolut ion of the Umayyad Empire and theestabl ish me nt of the Abb asid s ta te in 750 CE, a nu m be r of local Persian dyn ast iesemerged whose re l igion was Is lam but whose cul ture and ideas of socie ta lo rgan iza t ion were Pe rs i an .

[The Abbasids] took for the i r model the s ta te organizat ion ofthe Sassan ian monarchy . The Ca l iphs g radua l ly came to en t rus tthe administ ra t ion of the Eastern provinces to members of thelocal ar is tocracy, f rom whose ranks rose the dynast ies of theTahi r ids and the Samanids . 1 9

18 Ibid. , 319.19 Bar thold, Turkestan Down to The Mongol Invasion (Londo n: Lowe an d B rydon e , 1968), xix .

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The Origins of the TajiksThe e thnonym 'Taj ik ' f i rs t appears in pre-Islamic t imes and is der ived

from the nam e of an Ara b t r ibe - th e Tayye - tha t l ived in the western par ts of thePers i an Empi re . Pe rs i ans seemed to have ex ten ded th i s nam e to Arabs in gen era land the Sogdians 2 0 fol lowed thei r example in southern Centra l Asia . After thearr ival of Is lam and the Arab conquerors , i t appears to have referred not only tothe Arabs bu t a l so to the inc reas ing numbers o f Pe rs i ans and Sogdians whoconverted to the new fa i th . After the Turkif ica t ion of the area in the ninth andtenth centuries, the term Tajik as well as Sart 21 came to denote a l l non-Turk icspeaking inhabi tants of the region 2 2 .

T h e n a m e Tazik or Tajik, which was or iginal ly given to theArabs, i s an I ranian der ivat ion from the name of the t r ibeTayy , in Nor the rn Arab ia . The Turks seemed to haveunders tood the t e rm Tajik in the sense of "Musl im", "onebelonging to Musl im cul ture" , and used i t , accordingly, as ades igna t ion for the ma in mass o f Musl ims known to them,namely for the I ran ians , making no d i s t inc t ion be tween theTajiks and the Arabs.2 3

One of the first references in medieval l i terature to the dist inct existence ofTajiks (referred to as Sarts) i s found in the memoirs of the f i rs t Mughal emperor ,

20 Sogd ians were the inhab i tants of sou thern T rans-O xian a a t the t ime of the a r riva l of Is lam. SeeSvat Soucek, History of Inner Asia (Cambr idge : Cambr idge Univers i ty Press , 2000) , 74.21 Sa r t a nd T a jik , t hough sy nony m o us in t he m e die v a l pe r iod , de ve lope d oppos i t e m e a n in gs bythe beginning of 20 th century when Sar t came to s igni fy the Turkic speaking popula t ions asopposed to the Persian speaking Tajiks. Ibid. , 32.22 Ibid. , 31-33 .23 Wilhe lm Bar thold, Four Studies on The History of Central Asia ( Leiden : E. j Brill, 1956), v .l , 15.

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Za hi ru dd in Mu ha m m ad B abur . A passa ge f rom July 1502 AD desc r ibes thepeople of Zarafshan val ley thus:

I t s people , though Sar t , se t t led in vi l lages, a re l ike Turks,he rdsmen and shepherds . They keep he rds o f mares andthei r shee p are recko ned a t 40,000.24

Since Tajiks we re dis t ingu ishe d b y thei r re la t ive ly sed enta ry l i festyle , the i rurban envi ronment and the i r in t e res t in commerce , the t e rm Ta j ik appea rs torefer to any t rader f rom Centra l Asia in s ixteenth century Russian sources.2 5

Histor ica l evidence shows the existence of Taj ik communi t ies in theSamanid sta te in the e leventh century as wel l as the i r spread and existence in theGhaznavid , Karakhanid and Khwarz im su l t ana tes in va r ious pa r t s o f sou the rncentra l Asia between the twelf th and f i f teenth centur ies . During this per iod someof the leading scholars and sc ient is ts came from these urbanized Persianspeaking Taj ik communi t ies . F i rdowsi ,2 6 author of the Shahnatne - the great epicpoem glor i fying ancient Persian kings - and considered a nat ional hero bypresent-day Taj ik nat ional is ts , as wel l as Al-Biruni and Ibn Sina (Avicena) are afew of the examples.

I t appears tha t by the f i f teenth century the term Taj ik had come to denotea speci f ic group of people who shared cul tura l and l inguist ic commonal i t ies but

24 Z a h i r u d d i n M u h a m m a d B a b u r P a d s h a h , Babur Nama (Lahore: Sang -e-M eel Publ icat ions ,1987), 147-148.25 Shirin Akiner, Islamic Peoples of the Soviet Union (London:Kegan Paul International, 1986),75.26 Firdo wsi (d. 1025) wa s attached to the cou rt of Sultan M ah m ud of Gh azn a and co mp iled amythical h is tory of Pers ian em pire in a mil l ion verse poe m kno wn as Shahn am e i .e . (an) acco untof Kings.

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were of seemingly d ive rse e thn ic backgrounds . The people bea r ing the nameTa j ik , however , were no t an e thn ica l ly homogeneous communi ty , bu t werecomposed of the remnant s o f a va r i e ty o f Pe rs i an people such as the Sogdians ,Khorzmians , and bo th Greek and na t ive Bac t r i ans . They a l so inc luded thePersians of Khorasan as wel l as an assimi la ted mix of Arabs, Turks, Afghans,M ongo l s , Ind ians and ev en a sma l l nu m be r o f Chinese .2 7

However , the mere existence of a Taj ik e thnic i ty does not necessar i lyindicate the existence of a Tajik national identi ty as well . In fact i t appears thatthe p r ima ry iden t i ty in cases of u rba n po pula t ions o f Cent ra l As ia wa s based onthe local c i ty or the region where people were born and spent the i r l ives. Thisregion al ident i ty tha t cut across the e thnic lines w as a resul t of geogr aph ic fac torsthat led to a re la t ive ly s table symbiot ic re la t ionship between the nomadicpopula t ion of the s t eppes and the u rban popula t ion of the c i t i e s . Co-ex i s t ingwith this regional ident i ty was the concept of a greater be longing to the widerbody of Is lamic people .

The posi t ion of Centra l Asia as the hear t land of t radi t ional Sunni Is lambe tween the 12 th and 16 th centuries certainly served to foster this feeling.However , once again, a l l three ident i t ies seemed to co-exist in over lappingspheres . Whi le the pop ulace con s ide red themse lves a s be longing to a la rge r b odyof Musl ims, the i r pr imary ident i ty was based on the speci f ic region to which they

Law rence K rader , Peoples of Central Asia (Bloom ington: Indiana U niversity , 1963), 54-55 .

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be longed . Thi s was e spec ia l ly t rue o f u rban popula t ions . The rura l popula t ions 'pr imary ident i ty was rooted in the i r t r iba l s t ructure . 2 8

The assimi la t ion of many waves of nomads into the urban cul ture ofCentra l Asia led to the l inguist ic divide being inconsistent wi th e thnic f ront iers(muddled as they were) . This was to have major repercussions for the region ingenera l and Taj ikistan and Uzbekistan in par t icular , when Sta l in under Sovie trule decided to break up Centra l Asia into e thnic 'homelands ' . S ince l inguist iccri terion determined ethnicity, this led to a major and art ificial division betweenthe Taj iks and Uzbek communi t ies .

Assimi la t ion of the nomadic popula t ions into the socie ty was a constantand repea ted ly renewed phenomenon. S ince most c i t i e s in the p re -modern t imesneeded cons tan t rep len i shment o f popula t ion f rom the sur rounding a reas tomainta in the i r numbers, i t was inevi table some or in ext reme cases most of thenewcomers would be of a di f ferent l inguist ic and e thnic s tock. In Centra l Asiathis phenomenon worked a t two dist inc t levels; in the rura l areas the popula t iongradua l ly became Turk ic speak ing as an eve r l a rge r number o f nomads becamesedenta ry and thus supplan ted the ea r l i e r Pe rs i an speak ing popula t ions .

But a t t imes the area gradient became steep- se t t led popula t ionsbe ing bad ly th inned ou t and , s imul t aneous ly , the new groupsbeing too dense to be quickly assimi la ted. Then visible e thnicchange occur red . Thus dur ing the Middle I s l amic pe r iods thepeasantry of the Syr-Oxus basin, of Azerbi jan, and the Anatol ian

28 G olde n , An Introduction 3- 4 .

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high lands came to be Turk ic -spea k ing ra the r than Pe rs i an an dGreek, as formerly. The se t t led pastora l is ts ga ined a re la t iveprep ond eran ce , at l eas t a t key po in t s , and the remain ing Pe r s i an -and Greek speak ing e l ement s the re were g radua l ly a ss imi la t edto the Tu rk ic -speakers . 2 9

In the towns however , Persian cont inued to mainta in i t s existence as thelanguage of bureaucracy, commerce , ar t and l i te ra ture as wel l as tha t of re l igiousd i scourse a long wi th Arab ic . Thus whi l e b i l ingua l i sm became more common,Turk ic langu ages never su ppla n ted Pe rs i an f rom i ts p l ace of dom inance . Even in

the la ter centur ies when Turkic languages l ike Chagata i did develop a l i te raryt rad i t ion of the i r own, i t was wi th heavy bor rowing of Pe rs i an vocabula ry andl i terary s tyles and even then, the Persian language never lost i t s pre-eminentposi t ion in the socie ty as the language of cul ture and ref inement . Thus, thebalance between the sedentary and the nomadic world was a lso ref lec ted in the

bi l ingual ism that became a dist inguishing mark of Centra l Asian socie t ies .Co-ex i s t ing wi th , and sur rounding these oas i s -based h igh ly deve loped

urban centres and c ivi l iza t ion, was the vast s teppe where no perennia lagr icul ture was possible . Here , over centur ies and mil lennia , an a l ternate modeof economic product ion a long wi th i t s associa ted cul ture and socie ta l

o rgan iza t ion , tha t o f pas tora l nomadism had deve loped . S ince the ve ry dawn ofhistory, these two dist inct societies had learnt to co-exist and a (usually)mutual ly benef ic ia l pa t tern of inter-ac t ion had evolved. This pat tern governed

29 Marsha l l G. S . Hod gson , The Venture of Islam: conscience and history in a wo rld civilization(Chicago: U niversity of Chicago Press, 1974), ii, 90.

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the long-term re la t ions between these two dist inc t modes of l i fe . The fol lowingsect ion seeks to out l ine the or igin and the internal and external dynamics of thisw o r l d of p a s t o r a l n o m a d s .

The Origins and Dynamics of the Nomadic SocietyIn the Cent ra l As ian s t eppe l ands , pas tora l nomadism had begun to

emerge by the four th mi l l enn ium BCE.30 N o m a d s h a v e b e e n d e sc r i b e d a s"extensive and mobi le pastora l is ts who e i ther have nothing a t a l l to do wi thagricul ture , or who are occupied wi th agr icul ture to a l imi ted degree ." 3 1 InCentra l Asia , nomads existed in c lose proximity to the adjacent ecological zoneoccupied by the seden ta ry popula t ions , and th roughout h i s to ry , had f requentand c lose contacts wi th the outside sedentary world a t la rge , a t t imes host i le , a tothers , peaceful . Per iodical ly , pastora l is t c lans and peoples were uni ted by acha r i sma t i c l eade r and consequent ly , a nomadic empi re was fo rmed which thensoug ht to sub juga te the sur rou nd ing se denta ry a reas . Tho ugh such e ffort s w erenot a lways successful , a lmost every dynasty to emerge in Trans Oxiana was aresu lt of just such a n effort .32

The re la t ive ly high densi ty of the nomadic popula t ion in centra l Asia wasalso a cri t ical factor in the unification of the two separate ecological zones. "Themajor pol i t ica l character is t ic of the region was that the outside sedentary world

30 Chris t ian , A History of Russia, 82 .31 K hazanov , Nomads,15.32 Barfield Perilous Frontier, 153-182.

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f requent ly opposed the nomadic one in the form of large s ta tes , somet imes evenof empi re s . " 3 3

Characteristic Features of Pastoral NomadismThe emergence of pas tora l i sm in Cent ra l As ia dur ing pre -h i s to r i c t imes

had a major impact on the region, one that was to shape the nature of socie ty inthe ent i re region for the next severa l mi l lennia , up unt i l the nineteenth century.The nature of this impact can be bet ter understood by looking a t three importantcharacter is t ics of the concerned nomadic socie t ies , namely thei r mobi l i ty , the i rmi l i tary prowess and thei r capaci ty for rapid mobi l iza t ion. 3 4

The mobi l i ty possessed by the pastora l is ts was a product of the i r basicl i festyle , which was dependent on animals , and in the marginal s teppe landsrequired a constant movement over a very large area . Thus a pastora l economicsystem dic ta ted a nomadic l i festyle tha t necessi ta ted and provided greatermobili ty for the societies practicing i t . Since the nomadic l ifestyle requires largeareas of land to susta in basic economic product ion, this , in turn, leads thesocie t ies pract ic ing i t to occupy and inf luence large areas both economical ly aswell as poli t ically and culturally.

So, i t i s no accident tha t wi th the appearance of pastora l is tsocie t ies there appear large areas which share s imi lar cul tura l ,ecological and even l inguist ic features. By the late fourthmil lennium, there i s a l ready evidence of large cul ture zones

33 K h a z a n o v , Nomads, 233.34 Chr is t ian, A History of Russia, 86.

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reach ing f rom Eas te rn Europe to the wes te rn borde rs o fMongol i a .3 5

Enhanced mobi l i ty a lso rest r ic ts the accumulat ion of surplus mater ia l goodsexcept in form of animals which const i tuted the main source of weal th fornomads. I t a lso encourages a higher degree of se l f -suff ic iency, as wel l asinhibi t ing the level of labour specia l iza t ion, a l l of which are in sharp contrast tothe natura l processes in sedentary socie t ies . 36

The mil i tary prowess and superior i ty of nomadic socie t ies i s a resul t of thevola t i l i ty of the i r ecological environment and the resul tant instabi l i ty . Instabi l i tyin turn encourages a compet i t iveness and a degree of insecuri ty . " In this way, theinherent instabi l i ty of pastora l is t l i fe-ways leads to a constant jost l ing forpas ture lands . . . Jos t l ing for l and , and unce r t a in ty about ownersh ip l ead tofrequent ra iding and somet imes large scale warfare ." 3 7 This cons tan t sk i rmish ingand war - l ike tu rmoi l were the idea l mi l i t a ry t ra in ing grounds among the horseowning pastora l is ts of the Centra l Asian steppes, where ski l l s l ike r iding andarche ry were pe r fec ted and supplemented by hunt ing prac t i ces . A Chinesehistor ian Ssu-ma Ch' ien wri t ing a t the end of the second century BCE said of theCe n t r a l A s i a n n o m a d s :

The l i t t le boys s tar t out by learning to r ide sheep and shoot bi rdsand ra ts wi th a bow and arrow, and when they get a l i t t le olderthey shoot foxes and hares, which are used for food. Thus a l l theyoung men are able to use a bow and act as armed caval ry in t ime

35 Ibid.36 Ibid.37 Ibid., 87.

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of war. It is their custom to herd their flocks in t imes of peace andmake thei r l iving by hunt ing, but in per iods of cr is is they take upa rms and go of f on p lunder ing and marauding expedi t ions . 3 8

In addi t ion, many other aspects of pastora l nomadic l i festyle provide excel lentt ra ining for t imes of war . Managing large animals , for example , not only requiresst rength but a lso the ski l l s necessary for organizat ion and control over herdmovements dur ing migra t ion . As we l l , a regu la r requ i rement to l ea rn and applythese ski l ls is very con duc ive to acq uir ing the sc ience of logistics . The sch edu l ing

of migra t ion t imes and routes a lso hones not only navigat ional ski l l s but teachesco-ordinat ion and logist ics as wel l .

The abi l i ty to mobi l ize rapid ly in t imes of w ar o r cr is is , i s in par t , der iv edfrom the aforement ioned basic mobi l i ty tha t nomadic socie t ies possess.Furthermore , the very t r iba l s t ructure tha t i s necessary for survival in a harsh

environment , namely that division a long the t r iba l and c lan l ines by whichindividuals are l inked to c lans and c lans to t r ibes and t r ibes to larger t r iba lfedera t ions through a rea l or mythological common ancestor , a lso a ids in suchrap id mo bi l iza t ion. The highe st level this a l ignm ent can take that of a nom adi ce m p i r e :

Leaders a t this level manage to form more durable pol i t ica ls t ruc tures by lock ing reg iona l g rouping in to long- la s t ingal l iances. Somet imes they dest roy regional t r iba l s t ructures andrep lace them w i th new , m ore cen t ra li zed s t ruc tures .3 9

38 Quoted in Chr is t ian , A History of Russia, 87.39 Ibid., 89.

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I t i s a t such t imes that the usual ly s l ight inequal i t ies in weal th and sta tusinc rease sha rp ly and a semi ' f euda l ' r e l a t ionsh ip beg ins to emerge among themembers of the pastora l is t communi ty. Such ' feudal ' re la t ionships are not ausual characterist ic of nomadic societies and in fact , at usual t imes, serve to setthem apar t f rom the i r seden ta ry counte rpa r t s .

[ In the nomadic socie t ies] every man was not merely Shepard, but a lsobard, ora tor , soldier , h is tor ian, senator and minst re l . Nomadic socie t ieskn ow a cer ta in equa l i ty . . . a w ide di ffusion of c ivic , pol i t ica l and mil i tarypar t ic ipat ion, an encapsula t ion of a lmost the ent i re cul ture in eachindividual , and a cer ta in qui te conscious aversion for tha t division oflabour . . . .

4 0

I t was in this mi l ieu that nomadic confedera t ions l ike the Uzbeks were forgedand owing to the natura l mi l i tary superior i ty of the i r nomadic t r iba l s t ructure ,coupled wi th oppor tun i t i e s p resen ted by the momenta ry presence of powervacuum in the sedentary areas, were able to extend thei r rule over the c i t iedrealms of Centra l Asia . However , very ac t of conquering and rul ing thesedenta ry rea lms a l so inev i t ab ly changed the nomadic dynas t i e s , t u rn ing theminto t radi t ional king s wh o took on th e way s l ifestyles of the i r new subjects .

The Origins and Emergence of the UzbeksThe Uzbeks emerged as a dis t inc t confedera t ion of nomadic t r ibes in the

four t een th cen tury . They were Ta ta r war r io rs who be longed to the GoldenHorde and were l ed by Ghiya th ad-Din Muhammed Uzbek Khan ( r . 1312-1341)40 Ernes t Gel lner , in the in t roduct ion to Khazanov , Nomads, xi .

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a descendant o f Chengiz Khan th rough h i s e ldes t son Joch i . Uzbek Khan , "aMusl im prose ly t i ze r and one of the most powerfu l Golden Horde ru le r s"commanded a g rea t dea l o f p res t ige and loya l ty among the members o f theGolden Horde, a fac t tha t caused his fol lowers and the warr iors of his ulus -t r iba l confedera t ion to take his name during his l i fe t ime.41

Uzbek advance into Trans-Oxiana commenced in the ear ly f i f teenthcen tury under Uzbek Khan ' s descendant Abul Khayr Khan . In 1430 AD hemarched in to the c i ty o f Khwarazm, t empora r i ly occupying i t . The advanceresum ed in 1446 AD wh en no t on ly wa s Kh wa razm re -occup ied bu t Abul K hayrKhan also shifted his capital to the shore of Syr Darya. 42 H o w e v e r , t h e p r e se n c eof a s t rong T imur id dynas ty en t renched in Trans Oxiana a long wi th in t e rna lpower s t ruggles hal ted the Uzbek advance for the rest of the century and led tothe d i s in tegra t ion of the semi -nomadic empi re founded in the nor thwes t o fTurkes tan by Abul Khayr Khan .

T h e a d v a n c e w a s r e su m e d u n d e r A b u l K h a y r K h a n ' s g r a n d so nMohammed Shaybani Khan in the ea r ly s ix teen th cen tury , who cap tured theurban centres of Bukhara and Samarqand in 1500 CE and ascended the throne ofTrans Oxiana .4 3 He had made the Uzbeks the chief power in Centra l Asia andhad es t ab l i shed a new dynas ty supplan t ing the l a s t o f the T imur ids . ShaybaniKhan was ki l led in a bat t le wi th the Persian Shah Ismai l in 1510 CE but despi te41 Edw ard A l lw or th , The Modern Uzbeks: from the fourteenth century to the present: a cultural history(Stanford: Ho ove r Institu tion Pre ss , 1990), 32.42 Ibid., 36.43 Rene Grousset , The Empire of the Steppes (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1996), 481.

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some Timur id pr inces ' a t t empts to wres t l e back the th rone of Turkes tan , Uzbekpower he ld and the Shaybanid dynas ty con t inued in power . 44

In conquering Tans Oxiana , the Uzbeks were fol lowing in the footsteps ofnumerous ea r l i e r Turk ic conquerors the l a s t o f which were the T imur ids whomthey had supplan ted . Thus the popula t ion tha t they encounte red (and weregradua l ly absorbed by) , was composed of va r ious Turk ic peoples a s we l l a sTaj iks residing in the urban areas.

The Shaybani conquest of Middle Asia , in the words of a localhistor ian, took place 'wi thout robbery and violence ' and led tono essent ia l change in the socio-economic st ructure . Onlyre luctant changes in the composi t ion of the rul ing c lasses tookplace , and l a rge l anded proper t i e s were red i s t r ibu ted so tha tl and was now concent ra t ed in the hands of the ru l ing houseand the el i te of the Uzbek tribes.45

The T imur id dynas ty tha t the Uzbeks supplan ted had i t se l f emerged f rom the

fragmenta t ion of the nomadic armies tha t had been assigned to Chagata i , son ofChengiz Khan. The Turkic e lements in these armies had gel led together underthe command of Amir T imur , who then proceeded to fo rm a grea t empi re ,harnessing the energies of his nomadic armies, wi th i t s capi ta l a t Samarkand. Hisdesce ndan t s , i n du e course became thorou ghly urb an ized and prov ed to be grea t

pat rons of ar ts and learning. Thus the passing over of the rule to the Uzbeks wasmere ly ano th e r ep i sode in a seemingly con t inu ous cyc le wh ere a nom adic peop le

44 Ibid., 485.45 K hazanov Nomads, 261 .

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would conquer the se t t l ed a reas and prov ide them wi th a new ru l ing dynas tyonly to be supplanted by a newer wave of nomads in the course of t ime.

The Uzbek pol i ty was soon to spl i t in to three separa te and dist inc t ent i t iesa l l shar ing cul tura l and e thnic s imi lar i t ies . In the mid-sixteenth century, theUzbek rul ing house of Bukhara , the largest and the most important s ta te toemerge in the Uzbek domina ted Cent ra l As ia , was prov ided wi th a new l ineage .With Russian conquest of the khanate of Ast rakhan in 1556 CE, one i t s rul ingprinces (who were re la ted to the Uzbek royal house) by the name of YarMohammed had t aken re fuge in the khana te o f Bukhara . H i s son Jan iMohammed marr i ed an Uzbek pr incess and ascended to the th rone of Bukharathe re by founding the Jan id dynas ty . Under the ru le o f th i s dynas ty Bukharasoon became the most p rom inen t u rb an cen t re in Cent ra l As ia .

Under the i r rule the c i ty and the khanate crysta l l ized into analmost classical pattern of a Muslim poli ty of i ts t ime,che r i sh ing and even enhanc ing t rad i t iona l va lues whi l eignoring or re jec t ing the ver t iginous changes ini t ia ted by theEur opea ns bu t no w reach ing o the r pa r t s of the wor ld . 4 6

The prominence of Bukhara was such tha t to the ou t s ide wor ld the nameof the c i ty and the s ta te became synonymous wi th the ent i re region and any

Centra l Asian merchants in Russia were referred to as Bukharan merchants . TheJanid dynasty 's pa t roniz ing of c lassica l Is lamic ar ts and sc iences and support forre l igious inst i tut ions such as the renowned Mir-e Arab m a d r a s sa h a l so h e l p e d

46 Svat Soucek, A History of Inner Asia (New York: Ca mb r idg e Un ivers i ty Press , 2000) , 177.

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the c i ty gain renown throughout the Is lamic world as a great cent re of learningand of Is lamic or thodoxy. In addi t ion, the rul ing house 's pa t ronage of great Sufitariqats of Centra l Asia a lso enhanced the inf luence and power of these tariqats inthe adjoining regions. As a resul t , " the Janid capi ta l thus became famous asB u k h a r a - I Sharif, the Noble Bukhara , both as a centre of learning of Sunni Is lamand as a p lace where de rv i shes insp i red the populace wi th the i r k ind of worsh ipand their way of l ife."47

After the arr ival of the Shaybanid Uzbeks in Bukhara , another group ofUzbeks ca l l ing themse lves Yadiga r id Shaybanids , moved in to the Weste rn pa r to f Trans-Oxiana dec la r ing themse lves 'Khans of Khwarazm' , t hus founding thekha na te of Khiva .

This even suggests tha t the passing of the whole of Centra l Asiapro per u nd er Uzbek ru le wa s no t an acc iden t bu t re su l t ed f romthe inabi l i ty of the nat ive popula t ion to replace the decl ininglocal power wi th a new al ternat ive of i t s own. The Turco-Mongols to the north, by vi r tue of the i r nomadic l i festylepred i sposed to mi l i t a ry mobi l i ty , conques t and ru le , se ldomfai led to se ize an opportuni ty to a t tempt incursions andconques t s . . . . 4 8

This t ransfer of power proved to be long-term as the khanate re ta ined i t s dis t inc tident i ty an d rul in g l ineage r ight do w n to the Ru ssian con que st in 1881 CE.

Further to the east , lay the khanate of Khoqand. Here , the pol i t ica l powerhad passed from the remnants of the Timurid rulers to a re l igious leader f rom

47 Ibid., 178.48 Ibid., 181.

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northern Ferghana. Al though ini t ia l ly the f igures a t the centre of this shi f t to atheocra t ic form of government were members of or thodox and off ic ia l re l igion," the emphas i s g radua l ly sh i f t ed towards the Suf i shaykhs and de rv i shes whosecharismat ic power over the masses enabled them to vie wi th the t r iba l leadersand dynast ies in the i r quest for temporal power." 4 9 Al though such theoc ra t i cexper iment s in government in Cent ra l As ia a re few and fa r be tween and a lwaysshort l ived, they do provide us wi th an insight into the nature of socia lre l a tionsh ip be tw een the masses and the pop ula r p reachers . By the la t eseventeen th cen tury , the ru le o f the popula r p reachers had been rep laced by therule of an adjacent nomadic Uzbek c lan by the name of Ming led by ShahrukhBey. By the n ine teen th cen tury , Khoqand under the ru le r s o f the Ming dynas tyhad become a s t rong and v igorous s t a t e , compe t ing wi th Bukhara fo r reg iona lsu p r e m a c y .

Emergence of the Uzbek Identi tyA dist inc t Uzbek ident i ty was s low to emerge. The Uzbeks const i tuted

merely the la test in a wave of Turkic nomadic incursions into the se t t led areas ofTrans-Oxiana. In fac t , in the s ixteenth and seventeenth century, i t appears tha tthe exist ing Turkic popula t ion of Centra l Asia used the term 'Uzbek ' in apejora t ive manner . This was perhaps so because a t f i rs t , "despi te some genera lspi r i tua l and l inguist ic l inks wi th the people of the south, the new comers49 Ibid., 188.

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looked, sounded, ac ted and thought in ways di fferent f rom the [pre-exist ingTurk ic ] T imur id popula t ion . " 5 0 Nor did the ear ly Uzbek court his tor ians refer tothe i r own people a s Uzbeks bu t ra the r appea red to have used ind i s t inc t gene ra lt e rm s such as Turklar a n d Tajiklar, i .e . Turks and Tajiks.51

Edward Al lwor th a rgues , "The fac t s sugges t tha t corpora te names ra the rt h a n h u m a n g r o u p a g g r e g a t i o n o r c o m p o s i t i o n , h a d b e c o m e t h e p r e d o m i n a n tsignal of supra t r iba l iden t i ty ." The corpor a te nam e that the Turk ic pop ula t ion ofthe region was to acquire was 'Sar t ' , which speci f ica l ly referred to the urban andagr icu l tu ra l (non-nomadic ) popula t ion tha t spoke Turk i . The name hadoriginal ly been appl ied to the Persian speaking popula t ions of Centra l Asia(Taj iks) but over t ime had come to refer to those of the Turkic speakers who nolonge r pract iced a nom adic life s tyle .

The word [Sart] t hu s g radua l ly acqui red a b ro ade r m eanin gtha t by the end of the Middle Ages became a lmo st syn on ym ouswi th Ta j ik : Pe rs i an-speak ing urban and agr i cu l tu ra l popula t ionof Centra l Asia , di f ferent f rom the nomadic or semi-nomadicTurks (known as such, Turk) of the same area . By then,however , Many Turks had a lso se t t led as agr icul tura l i s ts andthose were not thought of as Sar t . . .Yet by the t ime the Russiansconquered Centra l Asia in the nineteenth century, Sar t was thename of the Turk ic -speak ing town dwel l e r s and peasan t s o f theregion, in contrast to the Persian sp eakin g Taj iks.52

In the words o f A l lwor th , "The counte rva i l ing popula r t e rm Sar t underminedUzbek Uni ty by re inforc ing the division between se t t led and migra tory

50 A llw or th , The Modern Uzbeks, 38.51 Ibid., 39-40.52 Soucek, A History of Inner Asia, 3 2 -3 3 .

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U z b e k s . "5 3 Thus a t the eve of the Russian conquest we see that the basis ofident i ty in Centra l Asia was not a 'na t ional ' a ff i l ia t ion and fur thermore , personalident i ty , as opposed to group ident i ty , was loosely def ined. Sedentarypopula t ion had a sense of be longing to the i r reg ion and town and in add i t ionconsidered themselves as belonging to e i ther the Taj ik cul ture , i . e . , the ancientIranian cul ture of the region, or the Turkic cul ture which by then had evolved al i terary language of i t s own: Turki . The Turki speaking cul ture encompassedsevera l waves and var ious s t ra ta of the Turkic popula t ion of the region, ear l iesto f whom were the Oghuz - represen ted by the Turkmens as we l l a s theChag a ta i s , t he T imur id s , Uzbek s and Kazaks to the nor th . Turk i , wh ich em ergedas the l i te rary language besides serving as the lingua franca among the Turk icpopula t ion , had been deve loped as a cour t l anguage under the T imur ids and hadvery st rong Persian inf luences. The Uzbek corpora te ident i ty was largelyconfined to the nomadic and semi-nomadic t r iba l socie ty. Here too, however , i tappears tha t the pr imary ident i ty based on aff i l ia t ion to the immedia te c lan andthe sub-sect ion of the t r ibe to which an individual be longed.

A rou nd 1900, peo ple in sou the rn centra l Asia s t il l def inedthemselves broadly and loosely, finding i t difficult to acceptt ight def ini t ions. In par t icular the eponym Ozbek (RussianUzbek) proved unce r t a in . . . In modern Cent ra l As ia , peoplenamed Sart did not migra te but se t t led down, usual ly in asouthern vi l lage or town, and spoke a language they ca l ledTurki. The des igna t ion Sart also included urbani tes of I ranians tock wh o had ado pted Turk i a s the i r ma in l anguage . 5 4

53 Allwor th , The Modern Uzbeks, 43.54 Ibid., 177.

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The Russian Conquest of Central AsiaFor a thousand yea rs Cent ra l As ian Tar t a r s , Mongol s and Turks

dominated the Slavic pr incipal i t ies of Russia mi l i tar i ly , socia l ly andeconomical ly . I t was not unt i l the s ixteenth century, two hundred years af ter thedeath of the last great Centra l Asian conqueror Amir Timur 55 t ha t the tide beg anto turn. Russian pr incipal i t ies were f ina l ly uni ted and the f i rs t major blow fe l lagain st Kazan , the Tartar capi ta l , in 1552 w he n i t w as sacked a nd cap ture d byIvan th e Terr ible .56 Ivan next captu red A stra kh an in 1556, thu s gain ing a s t ra tegicfoothold a t the point where the r iver Volga f lows into the Caspian Sea . TheRussians next turned thei r a t tent ion eastwards, and over the course of a centurymanaged to subdue and annex the Siber ian Khanate . By the 1650's the Paci f icOcean formed the eastern border of the Russian Empire .

For a whi l e the Russ ian t ide was checked in the Caucasus Mounta ins .Dag hes tan , which ha d been formal ly ad de d to the Russ ian Em pi re in 1723 , bega na long and spi r i ted f reedom st ruggle . This was to cont inue unt i l 1859 under suchcapable and cha r i sma t ic l eade rs a s Im am Shamyl .5 7 With the f ina l Russian vic tory

55 Known in the west as Tamerlane the Great (1336-1405). Tamerlane is anglicized form of PersianTimur Lang or Timur the Lame, as a consequence of a foot injury he received early in hisi l lus t r ious career .56 Entire populat i on of the c i ty was ma ssacred , an d to com me mo rate the v ic tory Ivan bui l t S t.Bas i l ' s Cathedral , i t s onion-shaped domes symboliz ing severed heads of turbaned Tar tars .Rashid , The Resurgence, 16 .57 A Daghes ta ni guer i l la leader and Suf i sa in t who uni ted the Caucas ian t r ibes i .e . Che chens ,Ava rs , Abkha zians and Circass ions agains t the Russ ians . (1797-1871 CE.)

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in the Caucasus in the second hal f of the nineteenth century, the road to theconquest of Centra l Asia lay wide open.

The s t imu lus beh ind the Russ ian conques t of Cent ra l As ia wa s "a mix tu reof imperia l pol icy, ambi t ion to rule the ent i re cont inent east of Moscow, andunre len t ing pressure f rom merch ant s , ban kers and indus t r i a l i s ts . Russ ianexpans ion was (a l so) fue l l ed by the mi l i t a ry-bureaucra t i c appara tus tha tsuddenly found i t se l f a t the end of the war in the Caucasus, wi thout an enemy tofight. " 5 8

Histor ica l evidence a lso demonstra tes the existence of a t rade imbalancebetween Russia and Centra l Asia in this per iod, favouring the la ter . 59 This was inpart because of the strategic location of the area on the historic si lk route andpart ia l ly because of bet ter ski l led Centra l Asian merchants . Centra l Asianmerchants were able to br ing in bet ter products f rom China , India , Persia andla ter , Bri ta in ( through her empire in India) tha t not only competed wi th theRussian goods in pr ice but were usual ly of a higher qual i ty as wel l . 60 T h i s w o u l dexpla in the enthusiasm of the Empire 's newly indust r ia l iz ing business c lasses forthe conquest of Centra l Asia . Not only would the t rade imbalance be reversedaf ter the occupat ion, but a lso the ent i re region was to be turned into a source of

58 Ra sh id , The Resurgence, 17 .59 For example t ra de f igures for 1840 are as follows:

Tota l Trade from Centra l Asia : 1,655,000 Rubles.Tota l Trade to central Asia (from Russia) : 1,164,000 Rubles. Difference: 491,000 Rubles .

Sour c e: E dw a r d A l lw or th , " E nc ounte r " i n Central Asia Today 130 Years of Russian Dominance, AHistorical Overview, ed. Ed wa rd A l lwo r th (Durh am: Duk e Univers i ty Press , 1994) , 28.60 Ibid. , 29.

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raw mater ia ls (especia l ly cot ton) for Russian indust r ies , as wel l as , a market form a n u f a c t u r e d v a l u e - a d d e d p r o d u c t s .

With a conjunct ion of interests be tween the economic and mil i tary lobbies,i t was not long before the necessary socia l c l imate was crea ted to carry out asystemat ic and persis tent campaign to conquer Centra l Asia . This c l imate wascreated by a two-fold s t ra tegy. F i rs t ly , there emerged a socia l campaign led byMikhai l Pogodin - a his tory professor a t the Universi ty of Moscow - and otherinte l lec tuals tha t preached the rac ia l super ior i ty of the Russian people and thei rresponsibil i ty in the form of a 'civil izing' mission in Asia. 61 Secondly, the Russiangovernment s tar ted to take a s t rong and vocal s tand on the i ssue of Russianslaves in Turkestan. This publ ic s tand was especia l ly hypocri t ica l s ince "Russiaherself, qui te apar t f rom serfdom and inst i tut ion of f ree peasants (smerdy) h a dhad an ancient and persis tent t radi t ion of domest ic s lavery and fore ign slavet rading that lasted (wel l ) into the nineteenth century." 6 2 In fact , evidencesugges t s tha t in the s ix teen th and seventeen th cen tur i e s , s l ave ry had been madea sta te inst i tut ion in Russia , second in importance only to the s ta te monopolyover expo rt of gold and si lver.63

Russ ian incurs ions in to nor the rn Cent ra l As ia , t hen as now popula ted byKazakh t r ibes, began in the ear ly nineteenth century. A chain of mi l i tary for ts ,

61 Rashid , The Resurgence, 17-18.62 Edw ard A l lw or th , "Encoun te r "30 -31 .63 For a detailed account of the s tate control of the institution of s lavery in Russia, condition ofs laves , their proc urem ent a reas and ev entual m arket , see: Jerome Blum, Lord and Peasant in Russiafrom Ninth to the Nineteenth Cenfwn/_(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961).

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separa t ing the conquered areas f rom the f ree s teppes fol lowed these incursions.This s low yet s teady Russian advance cont inued unt i l a lmost a l l of present dayKaza khs tan ha d been broug ht un de r Russ ian con t ro l by 1864 and the Russ ianfront ier l ine ran just nor th of S yrda rya .

However , by now, the rea l iza t ion that the Russian threat was to be takense r ious ly was dawning upon the Cent ra l As ian k ingdoms and khanates t ha t hadso far been content to s t ruggle wi th each other over pet ty mat ters . Khoqand'sruler , Al im Kha n (r. 1800-1809) , w ho h ad c onq uere d m ost of the land s adjacentto his rea lm, seemed to have rea l ized the source of the common threat when hedeclared that :

No enmity towards us persis ts in these regions except tha t ofurus-i bedin [ the Russian inf idel ] . Now i t behooves us toconduct campaigns in defence or fur therance of Is lam(ghazat) as wel l as j ihad again st tha t wo rthles s herd an d gi rdour loins in host i l i ty towards them.6 4

Centra l Asian defences were based on a two-t iered system. The outer r ingwas formed by the Turkmen, K i rgh iz , and Kazakh nomads who were loose lyal l ied wi th the centra l khanates tha t had standing armies forming the inner r ingof defences. The Russian for t i f ica t ion system managed to neutra l ize the inherent

advantages in mobi l i ty tha t the nomads possessed . Fur the rmore , by a cons tan tsouthward extension of the for t ress chain, they were a lso able to overcome thelogist ica l problem to a degree . This s t ra tegy managed to throw the Centra l Asian

64 Edw ard A l lw or th , "Encoun te r "6 .

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defence system off-balance by eventual ly depriving i t of the f luid outer layer ofdefences.

By 1853 , the Russ ians had w res ted the Kho qan dian b ord e r pos t ofAkmesj i t and a year la ter they founded Vernier (which was to become the capi tolof future Kazakhstan: Alma Ata) pushing on to capture Bishkek -now the capi tolof Kirghyzstan - but a t tha t t ime, a mere Khoqandian border post . In 1865 thef i rs t major blow to the khanates was deal t when Tashkent - present capi tol ofUz bek i s t an- was s to rmed a nd cap ture d by the Russ ian forces .

In 1868 Bu kha ran forces we re defeated a nd the Kha n wa s a l lowed tocontinue on as a Russian vassal . In 1873 a similar fate befell Khiva and in 1876the Russians did away wi th the Khanate of Khoqand a l together . Thus theprinciple areas of Taj ik popula t ions were some of the last to come under theRussian control . The only terri tory st i l l left free was the area of the Turkmen inthe west . However tha t too came under Russian control af ter Turkmen forceswere decisively defeated in 1881 at the Batt le of Goktepe. Thus, the occupation ofCentra l Asia was completed and the Czar 's empire s t re tched to the borders ofAfghanistan and Iran.

The a t t i tude of the vanquished popula t ion about the ini t ia l conquest aswel l as towards the Russian presence can be gleaned from a s tudy ofcontemporary Centra l Asian l i te ra ture . Here i s how a Taj ik poet of the per iod,Mirza Bustani , describes the fal l of Tashkent:

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When the 'gubernator', following his Russian M aster's orderFor the conquest of the city of Tashkent threw a lasso atthe zenith of desireGod's freedom from need supported his arm.Ultimately he succeeded in reaching his heart's desire.I asked for the year of its [conquest's] date andreason said:From the 'evil of suffering and calamity', the date of the conquest ofTashkent. 65

And Kor mullah, a Turkmen poet, laments:

If this [Russian] nation remains long among usIt will separate ou r people little by little from the faith![Those Russians] as if resembling Jinnis, like swine,Will separate ou r people little by little from the faith!They will separate us from the elders, from the saints!They will separate us from all the [other] Muslims!They speak falsehoods, drink "vodka-w ine"!Ma y God save [us] from these unbelievers, friends!66

Central Asia in the Period Between Russian Conquest and Soviet Rule.At the beginning of the twentieth century, the area that was to constitute

Tajikistan and Uzbekistan was divided between the nominally independentkhanate of Bukhara and Samarkand and Ferghana provinces of RussianTurkistan.67 For this remote mountainous region, relative political stability had

65 Quoted in Edward Allworth, "The Focus of Literature" in Central Asia Today 130 Years ofRussian Dominance, A Historical Overview, ed. Edward Allworth (Durham: Duke University Press,1994), 405.66 Turkmen poet Kor Mullah , Ibid: 403.67 Russian Turkistan was un der direct Russian rule as opposed to the khanate of Bukhara, whichhad limited internal authority und er the ruling Emir or Khan. Russian Turkistan was governedby military governors under a governor general appoin ted by Moscow. See: Teresa R akow ska-Harmstone, Russia and Nationalism in Central Asia, The Case of Tajikistan (Baltimore: John HopkinsPress, 1970), 14.

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brought increasing prosper i ty af ter the hard t imes suffered during the Russianc a m p a i g n s .

In the areas under the control of the Emir , Is lam was st i l l a s t rong fac tor ,and the tradit ional way of l ife continued. The tradit ional l ife of the vil lagesrevolved a round the loca l mosques , which se rved as p laces o f p raye r a s we l l a stown ha l l s , p r imary school s and gues thouses . A few la rge l and lords , a s t rongand influential clergy and official of the emir of Bukhara dominated the socialscene. The eastern mounta inous par ts of the khanate , inhabi ted by e thnic Taj iks ,had t rad i t iona l ly been ru led by he red i t a ry begs or lo rds who were on ly under theno mi nal autho ri ty of the em ir . Ho we ver , w i th the assis tance of the Imp eria lArmy, the khan of Bukhara managed to subdue them and appoin ted new begswho were e thn ic Uzbeks . These begs w e r e su p p o r t e d b y m o u n t a i n U z b e k t r i b e sand Taj ik rebel l ion and resis tance seemed to have been put down ra therruthlessly .6 8 This appears to have been one of the f i rs t instances of e thnic r iva l ryamongs t the ru ra l popula t ions .

Anothe r impor tan t deve lopment o f th i s e ra was the Jadid p h e n o m e n o n .Jad ids were most ly middle c l a ss ' l i be ra l ' Musl ims f rom urban a reas whoadvocated a greater degree of westerniza t ion and modern educat ional fac i l i t ies .Eventua l ly , t he Jad ids came under inc reas ing sway of pan- I s l amis t and pan-Turkic ideas . This , com bined wi th the i r d em an ds for pol it ica l reform, led th eRuss ian au thor i t i e s , who had ea r l i e r suppor ted them, to c rack down on the68 Ibid., 15-16.

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Jad ids in co-opera t ion wi th the Musl im c le rgy who d i sapproved of the i rre forming ways .6 9 This did not prove part icularly difficult since the Jadidmovement had no suppor t amongs t the peasan t s and was e ssen t i a l ly an urban ,m i d d l e c l a s s p h e n o m e n o n .

However many young men in the c i t i e s were g rea t ly insp i red by th i smovement . One of the l eade rs was a Musl im schola r named Sadr idd in Ain i , whowas to become the fa ther of modern Taj ik l i te ra ture and the very embodiment ofa Tajik nationalist .

Outbreak of the Great War had a negat ive effec t on the economy of thearea . At f irs t it d id not hav e a di rec t socia l imp act on the po pu la t io n of Tu rkesta nsince Musl ims of Turkestan were not subject to conscr ipt ion. However , by 1916,the great losses suffered by the Russian army against the Germans forced theCzar i s t government to ex tend consc r ip t ion to Cent ra l As ia . Wha t made i tpar t icular ly gal l ing to the Turkestanis was the fac t tha t they were onlyconscr ipted into labour bat ta l ions where they were forced to perform menia ltasks such as digging t renches and not in the f ight ing regiments . 7 0 This spa rked amajor unrest in the area , which, though quel led, was a pre lude of things to come.

Despi te these local upheavals , most scholars agree that the area was notready for the coming revolut ion and the socia l i s t revolut ionary ideas tha t were

69 Ibid., 16-17.70 This was in accordance with the official second-class citizen status for the Central Asians whowere officially considered natives - inorodtsy l i terally "alien born."

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gr ipp ing the Russ ian homeland were markedly absen t in Cent ra l As ia . 71 W h e t h e rthis was due to the presence of only a very smal l urban middle c lass tha t was s t i l lin i t s infancy, or because of a s t rong inf luence of Musl im c lergy, or perhaps acom binat io n of the tw o, i s s t il l a m at ter of deb ate . I t wa s only am on g the R ussianemigres tha t the revolut ionary fervour and ideas took hold; especia l ly as moreand more po l i t i ca l d i ss iden t s were depor ted to Turkes tan . Thi s had a min ima limpact on the local popula t ion because e thnic Russians were s t i l l only a smal lpercentage of the popula t ion and were , fur thermore , sec luded from the localpopulace in l ine wi th the colonia l f ramework. However , i t was to have majorconsequence in the coming yea rs :

It was a fateful evolution for Central Asia, for the drive, thepol i t ica l ski l l and eventual ly , the mi l i tary means of theserevolu t iona r i e s would in due course p rese rve the reg ion as aRuss ian possess ion , thwar t ing the va l i an t ly de fendedasp i ra t ions o f the inexper i enced and unarmed Musl ims .7 2

The Sovie t Revo lut ion and the Basmachi M ovem entWith the dissolut ion of the centra l government , and the format ion of a

provisional government in Russia , the f i rs t congress of Turkestani Musl ims washeld in Tashkent .7 3 It created the Turkestan Musulman Merkezi Shurasi or the

Cent ra l Counc i l o f Turkes tan i Musl ims , which passed a re so lu t ion presen t ing anu m ber of dem an ds . These ranged f rom a dem and for au ton om y for Turkes tanand the abol i t ion of the Russian land tenure system, to repeal ing laws contrary to71 Ibid., 18-19.72 Soucek, History of Inner Asia, 207.73 Ibid., 210.

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t he I s l amic re l ig ion . However they d id no t f ind many sympa the t i c ea rs amongthe Russians, socialists and czarists al ike.

A few months la ter , a f ter the second Russian socia l i s t revolut ion, theCounc i l o f People ' s Commissa rs i ssued a p roc lamat ion 7 4 speci f ica l ly addressedto "a l l Musl im workers of Russia and the Orient . " Among other things i texhor ted :

Musl ims of Russia , Tar tars of the Volga and Crimea, Kyrgyzand Sar ts of S iber ia and Turkistan, Turks and Tartars ofTranscaucas ia , Chechens and mounta in dwe l l e r s o f theCaucasus , a l l you whose mosques and p laces o f worsh ip havebeen des t royed , whose be l i e f s and cus toms have been t rampledon by the t sa r s and oppressors o f Russ ia ! F rom now on yourbel iefs and cu stom s, yo ur cul tura l and nat io nal inst i tut ions arebeing declared free and inviolable . Arrange your nat ional l i fefree ly an d wi th ou t hindr anc e . This i s yo ur r ight . Kn ow yo urr igh t s . . .Musl ims of Russia! Musl ims of the or ient ! We expect yoursympa thy and suppor t on th i s pa r t t oward a reb i r th o f thewor ld . 7 5

Whi le many Cent ra l As ians took warmly to th i s new revolu t iona rymessage, the i r hopes for any degree of f reedom and a say in the running of the i rown l ives were soon thwar ted when the loca l Russ ian revo lu t iona r i e s made i tc lear tha t the 'na t ives ' had no par t to play in the format ion of the new

government . The chai rman of the Tashkent Sovie t i ssued the fol lowing sta tementto clarify matters further:

74 D ated N ovember 20 th 1917. The proc lam ation wa s s igned by Lenin a s well as by Stalin acting asCha irman of the Counci l of Com missars and Com missa r of Nat ional i ty Affairs.75 Quo ted in Soucek, pp . 210-211.

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At the presen t t ime we cannot admi t Musl ims to the h ighe rorgans of the regional revolut ionary authori ty because theat t i tude of the nat ives [ towards the revolut ion] i s uncer ta in and[they] lack prole tar ian organizat ions which [we] could welcomeinto the organs of the higher government .7 6

As a noted histor ian of the region comments, events were to show that i twas the Tashkent p roc lamat ion and no t tha t o f the cen t ra l government tha t wasto de te rmine the subsequent in t e rac t ion be tween the Musl ims of Cent ra l As ia(and Russia in genera l ) and the new Sovie t government .

In the Tajik pop ula ted a reas of Russ ian Turke s tan (namely K hok and , U ra -Tyu be and K ani Bada m), local Sovie ts we re establ ished in 1918 by Rus sianoff ic ia ls and emigres. However , in eastern Bukhara , Emir 's gr ip remained st rongas ever and the rura l na ture of the country and st rong inf luence of the localc lergy, combined wi th an absence of e thnic Russians, ensured that no

revolut ionary (socia l i s t ) ideas penet ra ted those areas. Besides the socia l condi t ionof neighbouring Russian Turkistan did not inspi re the locals wi th anysympathies for the revolut ionar ies . 7 7 Alexander Pa rk sums up the a t t i tude of therevolu t iona r i e s thus :

From 1917 the Bolsheviks in Centra l Asia have t r ied to extendand consol idate the Sovie t order in the region, but the i rinterpre ta t ion of the pr inciple was colored by the socia la tmosphere in which they opera ted . Exi s t ing a s t iny Europeanislands amid an alien sea of Turkic peoples, fearful lest these

76 Ibid., 212.77 R a k o w s k a - H a r m s t o n e , Russia and Nationalism, 20-21 .

Islam and the Turkic Tajik Symbiosis in Central Asia

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