The faces of the Pamiri people bear witness to mass migrations over many centuries. (Photos: R. Middleton)

It is difficult to imagine life in Gorno without music and dancing. Pamiri dancing is highly rhythmic and uses complex and elegant hand movements. (Photo: R. Middleton)

A rich historical and cultural heritage The Soviet Union

Robert Middleton After the 1917 Bolshevik coup d’état, the expansion of communist power in Central The territory of present-day was a 1167?–1227) and Tamerlane (Timur-Lang Asia was challenged by the remnants of crossroads for the many different ethnic 1336?–1405) ended Persian dominance in the White Army and a strong resistance groups that have controlled Central Asia the region. Largely due to the protection movement organised by indigenous tribes over the past 3000 years. Cimmerian and provided by the mountainous terrain, the (the so-called “Basmachi” revolt); more- Scythian tribes, several Persian dynasties, peoples of what is now Tajikistan were able over, the embryonic Soviet state was faced Macedonian/Greek armies under Alexander to preserve their Persian culture. While the with vigorous opposition (including more the Great, Parthians, Kushan Chinese, languages of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, or less covert support to the Basmachis) Huns, Hephtalites, Mongol hordes, Nestori- Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan all have Tur- from Britain, with imperial interests to an Christians, Arabs, Russians, even the kic roots, Tajikistan is the only former Soviet defend in the region. These concerns led to British – all have left their mark on the Republic with an Iranian language; music, the determined military subjugation and region.1 dance and poetry in the Persian tradition forced sovietisation of the native peoples of play a major role in Tajik society. “Turkestan” in the 1920s. Under Stalin, the region – in particular the Fergana Valley, Arab invasions the most fertile area in Central Asia – was The “Great Game” divided in 1924 between separate Soviet Until the Arab invasions, beginning in the Republics in such a way as to maintain a 7th Century CE, shortly after the death of Until the Soviet period, the territory of mix of ethnic groups, the tensions between the prophet Mohammed, most of Central what is now Tajikistan belonged to the Emi- which could be exploited to justify the Asia was under Persian influence or control. rate of Bukhara. In the latter part of the necessity of the strong centralising influ- The Arab conquests in Central Asia under 19th century, because of its geographical ence of the Soviet system. Tajikistan, initial- the Ummayad and Abbasid dynasties location at the confines of the Russian ly an autonomous republic within Uzbek- brought a flowering of Islamic thought, Empire and contiguous to and British istan, became a federated Soviet Socialist philosophy and mysticism and stemmed India, the region had considerable strategic Republic in 1929. Chinese expansion in Central Asia. Howev- importance. The “Great Game” between The sovietisation of Central Asia, while er, Persian influence remained strong, and Russian and British adventurers, soldiers imposing a degree of communist ortho- new Islamic Persian dynasties sprang up, and diplomats – staking the limits of their doxy, did not lead to the destruction of the most important of which was that of respective Empires – was largely played out local culture and religion. Soviet rule the Samanids (875 to 999). The Samanid in the Pamirs and Hindukush (Hopkirk brought substantial economic and social period, marked by the scientific work of al- 1990). Subsequently, at the time of the benefits for the Republics of Central Asia Khwarazmi, Ibn-i Sina (Avicenna), al-Biruni Soviet invasion and occupation of far superior to what was achieved in the and al-Razi (Razes), and the poetry of Fir- (1979–1989), the Pamir region former British Empire just across the dausi and Rudaki, made a major contribu- again assumed strategic importance for the . tion to the development of the cultural Soviet Union as one of the main supply identity of the peoples that were subse- routes for the logistic support of Soviet mil- quently to call themselves . itary operations in Afghanistan. Independence and civil war2 The defeat of the Samanids by the Tur- kic Ghaznavid dynasty in 999 marked the When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, beginning of the decline of Persian influ- Tajikistan became an independent state but ence in Central Asia. From the end of the was immediately faced with the economic first century CE, there had been sporadic problems associated with the breakdown westward movements of nomadic Turkic of the centrally planned Soviet economy. At peoples from the area of what is now Mon- the end of the Soviet period, power in golia: the massive military invasions under Tajikistan was tightly guarded by represen- 12 the leadership of Genghis Khan (Temujin tatives of the Leninabad district in the The Zulkhomor castle above the village of Yamchun dates from the 3rd century BCE and incorporates a Zoroastrian temple. (Photo: R. Middleton)

north. Following the ideas of Gorbachev’s Peace agreement Traces of the multicultural history of this perestroika and glasnost, Tajikistan was the major crossroads of the Silk Route can be first ex-Soviet Republic to hold free elec- After initial negotiations between the fight- seen: Zoroastrian ritual sites, Buddhist stu- tions in 1991. ing parties in 1994, the civil war continued pas and ancient shrines. The new “Democratic Party” had at relatively low intensity – mainly through formed an alliance against the ruling Com- sporadic cross-border incursions from Modern history4 munists with the “Popular Front” (Ras- Afghanistan – until June 1997, when a In 1891, when the tsars founded the city of tokhez) and the “Islamic Renaissance peace agreement was signed between the Murgab as a military outpost, no one could Party”, a moderate Islamic organisation. government of Tajikistan and the United have foreseen that the region’s boundaries The opposition presidential candidate – a Tajik Opposition. This agreement opened with China and Afghanistan would contin- popular film-maker with origins in Gorno the way for an interim “power-sharing” ue to be guarded by Russian soldiers up to Badakhshan – was beaten by the commu- government and Presidential and Parlia- the present day. At that time, borders as nist candidate, but his tally of some 30% of mentary elections; it also provided for the we know them now did not yet exist. Nev- the votes put pressure on the government integration of opposition forces into the ertheless, the “Great Game” for supremacy to open the country to a multi-party sys- regular armed forces of Tajikistan. In in the heart of Asia had serious conse- tem. November, President Emomali Rakhmonov quences for the local population. In 1895 This call for power-sharing along with was re-elected for a seven-year term, and, the joint British and Russian border com- the complex ethnic and regional tensions in March 2000, elections were held for the mission established local borders without from the legacy of the boundaries attrib- upper and lower houses of parliament, in consulting any local representatives. These uted to the new Soviet Republics in 1924 which the former opposition parties did not borders, drawn in European fashion along finally led to a civil war in 1992. With sup- make a strong showing (around 10% of the Amu Darya River, cut through the mid- port from the southern region of Kulyab votes). dle of settlement areas and economic (and, it is claimed, of the Russian military Although the speed in reaching agree- regions inhabited by local farmers; they forces stationed in Tajikistan), the leaders of ment was undoubtedly influenced by the also became insurmountable barriers for the government faction defeated the oppo- unstable situation in Afghanistan, the Kyrgyz nomads, who could no longer prac- sition coalition forces recruited essentially peace accord was nevertheless a remark- tice seasonal pasture migration. This led to from fighters of Pamiri (Gorno Badakhshan) able achievement; its subsequent relatively large flows of migration. Today’s districts or Garmi (Karategin/Rasht) origin. Large problem-free implementation is even more (rayons) in Gorno Badakhshan – Shugnan, numbers of people from these mountain- remarkable. After a civil war characterised Rushan, and Ishkashim (Wakhan) – cover ous regions had been relocated in the in its opening stages by extreme brutality,3 merely parts of the territories that once 1950s to the cotton-growing areas of the the integration of former fighters in the belonged to principalities; the other parts south-west (Kurgan Tyube); in , national armed forces and in civil life has now belong to Afghanistan. the capital, many of the intellectual elite been exceptionally smooth: the process can In 1923, Gorno Badakhshan was inte- were of Pamiri origin. Exactions against indeed be held up as a model for other grated into the Turkestan Autonomous these groups in the aftermath of the civil inter-community or ethnic conflicts in coun- Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) as the so- war forced approximately 50,000 Pamiris tries with considerably higher economic called Autonomous Pamir Vilayat. Two and Garmis to return to their traditional and social resources than Tajikistan. years after the disintegration of the Peo- homeland. Many fighters fled to Afgha- ple’s Republic of Bukhara and the founda- nistan and subsequently returned with fun- tion of the Tajik ASSR, Gorno Badakhshan damentalist ideas gained there in the History of Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast, or GBAO in short, was refugee camps, mainly to the Karategin val- established. It was given its present form ley but also to a few predominantly Sunni The first traces of civilisation in the Pamirs within Tajikistan in 1932 through the estab- areas in the North of Gorno Badakhshan. go back more than 20,000 years. Some 50 lishment of five rayons in the Western The result was a sharp polarisation of human settlements from the Stone Age, Pamirs and one in the Eastern Pamirs. national politics and the radicalisation of together with a number of cave paintings Khorog as a regional administrative centre the Islamic Renaissance Party. and petroglyphs, have been found in the was granted the status of a city. Eastern Pamir. There are many castles dat- ing from as early as the 3rd century BCE. 13 Livelihoods and agricultural systems are still very traditional on the other side of the Pandzh River in Afghanistan. Contacts between the Tajik and Afghan Badakhshani are limited, although they belong to the same ethnic groups. (Photo: D. Maselli)

The oblast’s autonomous status was in- Culture and religion in Traces of Zoroastrian traditions remain in tended, on the one hand, to assure conser- Gorno Badakhshan Gorno Badakhshan, for example in the role vation of national and ethno-linguistic dif- of fire in wedding ceremonies and in the ferences and, on the other hand, to reduce The territory of present-day Tajikistan was symbolism of certain structural details of development deficits in comparison with part of the Iranian Empire, the religion of traditional Pamiri houses. Such symbols are Russia and urban areas. which was . When the Iran- also found on the beautifully decorated Shortly after Tajik independence in Dec- ian Sassanids were defeated by Umayyad skullcaps. Other typical Pamiri handicrafts ember 1991, formal and confirmed auton- Arab armies in 636, gradually spread include decorative embroidered cloths omy as an integral part of the Tajik consti- throughout the Central Asian region. The (suzanis) and knitted socks and gloves in tution was demanded in several demon- religion of the vast majority of Tajikistan’s bright colours. Old Pamiri jewellery can still strations in Khorog. In 1995 the Majlisi Oli population today is . In the be found, comprising primarily necklaces (High Council) of the Tajik Republic formally Pamirs, however, a large number of people made of coral (which are reportedly found adopted the status of autonomy of Gorno profess the Ismaili faith (i.e. are followers of in deposits near Alichur) with silver decora- Badakhshan. The adoption of Article 110 the ). The Pamiris were converted tions and rings with spinel stones. There is a of the Tajik constitution led to intense dis- to Ismailism in the 11th century by the Per- saying in Tajikistan that the people from cussions, and fears were voiced that once sian poet, traveller and philosopher Nasir Leninabad govern, those from Kulyab fight, given limited autonomy, Gorno Badakh- Khusraw. in Garm they pray – and the Pamiris dance. shan could gradually separate from the In a manner reminiscent of Switzerland, Certainly it is difficult to imagine life in Tajik Republic and finally form an indepen- Badakhshan is marked by considerable lin- Gorno Badakhshan without the perpetual dent state with the neighbouring territories guistic and cultural heterogeneity between accompaniment of music and dancing. of Afghan Badakhshan. the peoples of the different main valleys. Every village has excellent musicians, young The religion of the Northern districts of and old, as well as expert dancers. Men and Civil war Darvaz and Vanch is Sunni Islam; their lan- women dance together, although there is Gorno Badakhshan was not at any time guage is Tajik, with the exception of the no contact. Women perform as solo singers since 1992 a home or hotbed of hard-line Yazgulom valley, where the Yazgulomi and occasionally as accordion players. Islamic opposition. Some parts of Gorno dialect is spoken. The religion of the dis- Badakhshan (Sagridasht and the Vanch and tricts of Rushan, Shugnan, Roshtkala and –––––––––– Yazgulom valleys) were indeed occupied by Ishkashim is Ismaili Shia; Shugni is under- 1 See History of Civilizations of Central Asia, armed opposition groups until the Peace stood in all these districts, but many people UNESCO, Paris 1996; The Resurgence of Cen- Agreement was signed in 1997, but did not in Ishkashim speak Rehne and Wakhi, as do tral Asia, Ahmed Rashid, Zed Books, London 1994; Samanid Renaissance and Establish- serve as a base for launching attacks either their neighbours across the Wakhan Corri- ment of Tajik Identity, Iraj Bashri, 1997. on government troops or Russian border dor in – these dialects are not 2 See Tajikistan: Disintegration or Reconcilia- guards: most such attacks came from understood by Shugni speakers; Rushan tion? Shirin Akiner, London 2001; Rand Cor- across the frontier in Afghanistan. Many and the Bartang valley also have their own poration, US and Russian Policymaking with Pamiris fought in the civil war alongside the dialects, close to Shugni. The people in Respect to the Use of Force, California 1996 – followers of the Islamic Renaissance Party these districts are ethnically Indo-European Chapter 3, Tajikistan, by Arkady Dubnov. and created their own militia. In 1995, and would probably consider themselves 3 See the Amnesty International report Tadzhik- however, the leaders of the Pamiri militia European by education and Persian by cul- istan – Hidden terror: political killings, ‘disap- gave a solemn pledge to His Highness the ture. In the high plateau district of Mur- pearances’ and torture since December 1992, Aga Khan, spiritual leader of a large num- gab, the population is mainly ethnic Kyr- May 1993. ber of Pamiris, that they would never initi- gyz, of Sunni Muslim confession, with a 4 The paragraph on the modern history of the ate hostilities against the State or the Russ- significant minority of Ismailis. The Murgab GBAO before the independence of Tajikistan is mainly based on Kreutzmann (2002). ian forces. Despite much provocation – people were essentially nomadic herders including the poisoning of their leader, until the 1950s, when villages were built Majnoon Palaev, in June 1996 – this pledge for them; in the summer a large number was respected. still migrate with their herds of yak and a few cows, to set up their yurts in the pas- 14 tures. Old Pamiri jewellery and decorative cloths called suzanis show the long tradition and high standard of handicrafts in Gorno Badakhshan. (Photos: R. Middleton)

Location of the in Central Asia

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