sign in sign up
<<
Home , Transoxiana

CHAPTER THREE

WESTERN CENTRAL

TRANSOXIANA AND BAMIYAN

I. INTRODUCTION: BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The_area of Transoxiana in western , 3 comprises parts of present-day , Tadjikistan, and southern between the Oxus River () and the Jaxartes River (), both of which flow north into the (Map 3.2) . In ancient times this area encompassed the three of north• ern (Ta Hsia ::kJlil) in the south, Sogdiana (K'ang-chii 8ft!@) in the center, and Khorezm4 in the delta of the north. Two branches of the passed through the Transoxiana region between in the west and in the east: the southern branch through Bactria and the city of (Pu-ho ~P~) in north• ern Mghanistan, and the northern branch through (Maracanda; Pei-t'ien _!!pf'il) in the Sogdian region. These two east-west routes were connected by north-south roads, a main one of which connected Samarkand with the Termez (ancient Dem• etrios and Tirmidh) area near the confluence of the Oxus and the Surkhan Darya rivers at the Mghan border, and continued south to Bamiyan, Begram, Taxila and into central India (Map 3.1). The strategic location of Transoxiana insured its con• tact with the peoples of eastern Central Asia, Mghanistan, Gandhara, and oth• er areas to the west, and the nomadic tribes of the north. Though the history and art of western Central Asia was strongly affected by the major political and cultural movements taking place to the south and west in particular, the area nevertheless developed significant and distinct cultural and artistic characteristics. In the later centuries B.C. the strongest cultural impact came from civilizations to the west: the of Persia with its capital at Persepolis (ca. 700-330

3 Western Central Asia (also known previously as Soviet Central Asia) comprises the area of Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, Kirgizia, Turkmenistan and the large area of Kazakhstan. The term Western does not include Kazakhstan. See G. Frumkin, Archaeology in Soviet Central Asia, Leiden, 1970, p. 1. 4 There is no standard name or spelling for this region. It is variously called Khorezmia, Chorezm, Chorasmia, Khwarezm, Khwarizm and Khwaresm. I have followed Frumkin's choice here: Khorezm. Ibid., p. 82. Western Central Asia _-cT,.;u_rf_a_n _ _ -oHami (Transoxiana)

An-hsi

Miran

Khotan Eastern Central Asia (Serindia)

0 0 Bamiyan Kabul

Mathura