DOCSLIB.ORG

CENTRAL ASIA in the HISTORY of the MUSLIM EAST Yuri Bregel

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
CENTRAL ASIA in the HISTORY of the MUSLIM EAST Yuri Bregel CENTRALASIA IN THE HISTORY OF THE MUSLIMEAST by Yuri Bregel Institute of Asian and African Affairs The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Occasional Paper #20 THE ROLE OF CENTRALASIA IN THE HISTORY OF THE MUSLIMEAST by Yuri Bregel Institute of Asian and African Affairs The Hebrew University of Jerusalem Occasional Paper #20 February 1980 Afghanistan Council The Asia Society 112 East 64th Street New York City .. Introduction The present paper was read at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University, on 5 April, 1978, and for the second time, in Hebrew with some alterations, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on 6 June, 1978. The subject of it is very general. Though it was proposed to me by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and, therefore, it is the Center that is to be blamed first, I am by no means trying to decline the responsibility for this choice. Perhaps it may be useful to discuss some ~e!leral fc.cts and opir:ir:,:ns concerning the place of Central Asia in the history of the Islamic world and the role of some historical movements which originated in this region during the Isla.mic period. It may be worthwhile for a historian of the Middle East, who is sometimes too fascinated by the great imperial past~ or present - of Turkey, Iran or Abu Dhabi 1 to pay attention to such. a marginal area as Central Asia. It also may be of use for a historian of Central l'.sia, who is usually so busy tackling numerous unstudied and unresolved problems of the region's history that he does not try to place them in some broader perspective and to realize that he can claim an equal place in the .sun with bis colleague studying the Shurubiya or the Abbasid revolution. Thus, this paper is an attempt not only at an evaluation but also, in a sense, at a self- . -justification. The text of the paper is being published as it was read at Harvard, with al­ terations included in the Hebrew version and ·with the addition of notes. The general character of the subject precludes references to primary sources. The references given in the notes, which are at the end of the text, are roainly to some modern works where the same problems have been discussed (though there is no attempt at a complete bibliography). It is my pleasant duty to express my thanks to the Afghanistan Council of the Asia Society for its willingness to publish this lecture in its "Occasional Paper" series. Yuri Bregel March, 1979 I I must begin with the definition of the area which I shall refer to as "Central Asia" because this term does not yet have a meaning that is generally accepted. I shall define this region as the western part of the Inner Asian heartland; the part which now culturally belongs to the Islamic world. It is thus distinguished from Mongolia and Tibet which form the eastern part of Inner Asia. In other words, Central Asia is the same as Turkestan - in the meaning that this latter term acquired in the l9th century - designating, to my mind, a definite historical and cultural entity. It comprises Western, Eastern and Afghan Turkestan and the areas with.in the Soviet Union termed the "Central Asian Republics," :1.ccording to current S~viet usage, and Kazakhstan. I shall add two more introductory remarks: Firstly, in using the terms "Turks" and "Turkish" I shall mean the Turks of Central Asia, their languages and their culture. Secondly, by the term "Islamic" or "Muslim" world, I shall mean, for short, chiefly the eastern part of the Islamic world, from the Fertile Crescent to India. II For a long time Central Asia was largely neglected in general historical studies of the Islamic world. Even now, several decades after the appearance of Barthold's works and despite the growth of a vast literature on Central Asia in the Soviet Un.ion, this subject does not receive proper treatment in such a standard reference work as The Encyclopaedia of Islam; In The Cambridge History of Islam Central Asia isincluded among the "central Islamic lands" in the first volume but Professor Spuler, who wrote the chapter on Central Asia, declares that from the beginning of tre 16th century Central Asian history becomes a "provincial history" and, therefore, de;erves only a sketchy survey at best. 2 The reason seems to me quite obvious. It is the geographical position of Central Asia within the Islamic world. From.its Islamization, Central Asia was, and always remained, on the periphery of the Islamic world with barbarian nomads on its north and Chinese civilization at its east. It is und~rstandable that its history could not attract the same attention as that of the Fertile Crescent. Central Asia belongs not only to the Islamic world; it is of double cultural loyalty. A con­ siderable part of it belongs to the vast cultural world of Inner Asian nomadic civilization which is by no means composed only of Muslim peoples. For this civilization the steppe regions of Central Asia were also a periphery, its southwestern outposts facing the sedentary Iranian and Islamic civilization. Therefore, historians of Inner Asian nomads tend to neglect the history of Muslim Central Asia just as historians of the Middle East do. I once heard a.prominent Altaist say that "-!:::--.egenuine;" Inner Asia was Mongolia and Tibet - and he was probably right. Anyway, because of this "double cultural citizenship" Central Asia became a "double periphery" and was c::ten inadequately treated from both sides. III To be sure, the role of Central Asia in Islamic history and in world history in general has received a certain treatment in Soviet historiography, particularly in Central Asian Soviet historiography, where much has been written on two topics related to this problem: (1) commercial.and cultural ties and exchange between 1 \ Central Asia and the surrounding countries; (2) the contribution of Central Asia to world cultural development and, in particular, to Islamic culture in various fields such as literature, art and science. Unfortunately both subjects have some political and ideological con~otations in Soviet historiography. The treatment of the history of relations between Central Asia and its neighbors depends on the current state of political relations between the Soviet Union and the respective country. Discussion can prove century-old friendship or, if needed, a no less old aggressive policy of the other side.3 The contribution of Central Asia to Islamic culture is a recurrent theme in Central Asian Soviet historical writing. There have been two main ideological reasons for this interest. Firstly, the Second World War brought about a need to stress national and patriotic feelings instead of old-fashioned and unproductive internationalism - not only for the Russians but also for other nationalities in the USSR. Secondly, there was always an ideological demand to contrast everything Soviet with everything non-Soviet. I remember a Soviet street poster of the 1930s divided into two parts: one part was painted in black, the other in red. On the black side one could see beggars, slums covered by cobwebs, lines of unemployed and, in the foreground, the grinning face of a fat capitalist in a top-hat; on the red side one could see brave young workers and peasants on a background of new factories and fields full of crops. The heading was: "With them" .,.. on the black side, and "With us " -· on the red side. This simple device was applied also to the presentation of the past. Soviet citizens should know that they not only lived better than people in other parts of the world, they also had a better history. The glorious present must have a counter- part in the glorious past and, indeed, since the Second vlorld 0 War, there has been a permanent search for this "glorious" or, as it is more often called, "great past.,'' which has replaced the outdated term "the accursed past." It is natural that im­ pressive figures of "our great ancestors" rise from this "great past." 4 Soviet historians of Central Asia are required to de~onstrate the great cultural heritage of the peoples of Central Asia to counteract the bourgeois falsifiers of histors 1 who allegedly try to depreciate this heritage. As a result,, many Soviet works try to show that Central Asia produced a large number of great men and in their lists everybody is included who was born in Central Asia (even if he left it in his childhoodJ, who died there, who came for a visit (very much like the medieval hagio­ graphic local histories), and often, also, those who lived in neighboring countries, especially Iran. The tendency to encroach upon Iran in seeking "great ancestors" was ~specially strong after WW II, when almost all Persian poets and writers (some of whom lived in southern Iran and never even approached the borders of Central Asia) were described as Tadjiks. Later these claims were somewhat moderated and Central Asian historians began to speak about the "corrunon cultural heritage" of Central Asia and Iran. On the other hand, this is supplemented by inner quarrels between various re­ publics, each of them claiming its own part of the Central Asian cultural heritage. Suffice it to mention here the appropriation of Navoi (together with the Chaghatay lar.guageJ by the Uzbeks, not to the delight of other Central Asian Turks. 5 In the same way the Kazakhs recently tried to claim al-Farabi. Especially unscrupulous . scholars in the field of heritage hunting are probably found arnong the art historians .0 I shall not delve further into this fascinating subject which deserves a study for its own sake.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Central Eurasian Studies Society Fourth Annual Conference October
    Central Eurasian Studies Society Fourth Annual Conference October 2- 5, 2003 Hosted by: Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies Harvard University Cambridge, Mass., USA Table of Contents Conference Schedule ................................................................................... 1 Film Program ......................................................................................... 2 Panel Grids ................................................................................................ 3 List of Panels .............................................................................................. 5 Schedule of Panels ...................................................................................... 7 Friday • Session I • 9:00 am-10:45 am ..................................................... 7 Friday • Session II • 11:00 am-12:45 pm .................................................. 9 Friday • Session III • 2:00 pm-3:45 pm .................................................. 11 Friday • Session IV • 4:00 pm-5:45 pm .................................................. 12 Saturday • Session I • 9:00 am-10:45 am ............................................... 14 Saturday • Session II • 11:00 am-12:45 pm ............................................ 16 Saturday • Session III • 2:00 pm-3:45 pm .............................................. 18 Saturday • Session IV • 4:00 pm-6:30 pm .............................................. 20 Sunday • Session I • 9:00 am-10:45 am ................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 2. Historical Overview: Social Order in Mā Warāʾ Al-Nahr
    2. Historical Overview: Social Order in Mā Warāʾ al-Nahr With the beginning of Uzbek dominance in southern Central Asia around the year 1500, a fresh wave of Turkic nomads was brought in and added a new element to the populace of the region.1 Initially the establishment of Uzbek rule took the form of a nomadic conquest aiming to gain access to the irrigated and urban areas of Transoxania. The following sedentarization of the Uzbek newcomers was a long-term process that took three and perhaps even more centuries. In the course of time, the conquerors mixed with those Turkic groups that had already been settled in the Oxus region for hundreds of years, and, of course, with parts of the sedentary Persian-speaking population.2 Based on the secondary literature, this chapter is devoted to the most important historical developments in Mā Warāʾ al-Nahr since the beginning of the sixteenth century. By recapitulating the milestones of Uzbek rule, I want to give a brief overview of the historical background for those who are not familiar with Central Asian history. I will explore the most significant elements of the local social order at the highest level of social integration: the rulers and ruling clans. In doing so, I will spotlight the political dynamics resulting from the dialectics of cognitive patterns and institutions that make up local worldviews and their impact on the process of institutionalizing Abū’l-Khairid authority. The major focus will be on patronage. As the current state of knowledge shows, this institution was one of the cornerstones of the social order in the wider region until the Mongol invasion.
    [Show full text]
  • JAH 1–25 (1967-1991), Index
    JOURNAL OF ASIAN HISTORY EDITED BY DENIS SINOR Assistant to the Editor: Karin L. Ford Book Review Editor: Ruth I. Meserve INDEX TO THE VOLUMES 1-25 (1967-1991) 1993 Harrassowitz Verlag • Wiesbaden © 1993 Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden No part of this periodical may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without permission from the publisher Production: Allgäuer Zeitungsverlag GmbH, Kempten Printed in Germany ISSN 0021-910X Table of Contents Introduction I. List of authors with titles of their articles II. List of reviewers with titles of books reviewed .... 9 III. List of books reviewed with names of reviewers ... 63 Introduction This comprehensive table of contents of the first twenty-five volu- mes of the Journal of Asian History is divided into three sections: I. List of authors with titles of their articles; II. List of reviewers with titles of books reviewed; III. List of books reviewed with na- mes of reviewers. The number of the volume is given in Roman numeral, followed by the year of publication and the pagination. My thanks are due to Miss April Younger who reorganized the botched work of her predecessors and to Mrs. Mary von Pilsen who brought the work to completion. Denis Sinor I. List of Articles Adas, Michael, Twentieth Century Approaches to the Indian Mutiny of 1857-58. - V 1971: 1-19. Akhmedov, B. A., The Bahr al-asrār of Mahmūd b. Valī and its Study in the USSR and Elsewhere - XXV 1991: 163-180. Alder, G. J. , Britain and the Defence of India - The Origins of the Problem 1798-1815.
    [Show full text]
  • In Yohanan Friedmann (Ed.), Islam in Asia, Vol. 1 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1984), P
    Notes INTRODUCTION: AFGHANISTAN’S ISLAM 1. Cited in C. Edmund Bosworth, “The Coming of Islam to Afghanistan,” in Yohanan Friedmann (ed.), Islam in Asia, vol. 1 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1984), p. 13. 2. Erica C. D. Hunter, “The Church of the East in Central Asia,” Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 78 (1996), pp. 129–42. On Herat, see pp. 131–34. 3. On Afghanistan’s Jews, see the discussion and sources later in this chapter and notes 163 to 169. 4. Bosworth (1984; above, note 1), pp. 1–22; idem, “The Appearance and Establishment of Islam in Afghanistan,” in Étienne de la Vaissière (ed.), Islamisation de l’Asie Centrale: Processus locaux d’acculturation du VIIe au XIe siècle, Cahiers de Studia Iranica 39 (Paris: Association pour l’Avancement des Études Iraniennes, 2008); and Gianroberto Scarcia, “Sull’ultima ‘islamizzazione’ di Bāmiyān,” Annali dell’Istituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, new series, 16 (1966), pp. 279–81. On the early Arabic sources on Balkh, see Paul Schwarz, “Bemerkungen zu den arabischen Nachrichten über Balkh,” in Jal Dastur Cursetji Pavry (ed.), Oriental Studies in Honour of Cursetji Erachji Pavry (London: Oxford Univer- sity Press, 1933). 5. Hugh Kennedy and Arezou Azad, “The Coming of Islam to Balkh,” in Marie Legen- dre, Alain Delattre, and Petra Sijpesteijn (eds.), Authority and Control in the Countryside: Late Antiquity and Early Islam (London: Darwin Press, forthcoming). 6. For example, Geoffrey Khan (ed.), Arabic Documents from Early Islamic Khurasan (London: Nour Foundation/Azimuth Editions, 2007). 7. Richard W. Bulliet, Conversion to Islam in the Medieval Period: An Essay in Quan- titative History (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979); Derryl Maclean, Re- ligion and Society in Arab Sind (Leiden: Brill, 1989); idem, “Ismailism, Conversion, and Syncretism in Arab Sind,” Bulletin of the Henry Martyn Institute of Islamic Studies 11 (1992), pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Ohio Slavic & East European Universm Newsletter
    · · T H E Ohio Slavic & � East European uNivERSm Newsletter 22, No. Volume 7 April 1994 Columbus, Ohio Yuri Bregel on Central Asian History The claim that Central are just now discovering of national history, to Bregel, w Asians The idea according as or rediscovering their past is unttue, argues distinguished rought to Central Asia only in So et times, with the creation of b vi orientalist Yuri Bregel. Bregel, a graduate of Moscow State new "national" republics as a result of the so-called "national Universtiy, is a ofe sor of Centtal history at delimitation" of Central in 1924. republics were pr s Asian Indiana Asia These University . He spoke at the conference "Central Asia and Azer­ entities, theoretically based on ethnic principles, but in artificial baijan from Cz.arist Rule to I dependent States" on March 18, n reality ethnically heterogeneous. Since the nations were created 1994. The confere ce was sponsored by The Ohio State Univer­ fic y, the could be c ged as easily as they n arti iall y han werecreated, sity Middle St dies Center, Center for Slavic and East and their historical legitimacy could c le ged by the East u be hal n European Studies, Mershon Center, the Center for Education i and confl cting claims of other such entities. Under these conditions, and Training for Employment the national historiography that emerged y 1950s was b the In address to the conference Bregel pointed out with providin j ti on the existing his that preoccupied g us ficati for political indigenous historical tion had exis in Central in entities.
    [Show full text]
  • Central Eurasian Studies All Official Advising After the Second Semester of Enrollment Is Done by the Student’S Graduate Advisory Committee
    University Graduate School Kirkwood Hall 111 Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405 University Graduate School (812) 855-8853 2009-2010 Contact: [email protected] Academic Bulletin Director of Graduate Studies Associate Professor Paul E. Losensky*, Goodbody Hall 207, (812) 855-9665. Central Eurasian Studies All official advising after the second semester of enrollment is done by the student’s Graduate Advisory Committee. College of Arts and Sciences Bloomington Program Information The department offers a comprehensive program on the study Chairperson of Central Eurasia, the vast heartland of Europe and Asia. Associate Professor Christopher P. Atwood* Students are introduced to the area as a whole and specialize in one of the major regions within Central Eurasia. The degree Departmental E-mail program consists of two interconnected elements: a language [email protected] of specialization, which gives a student access to the culture of a given region through the voices of its people; and a region of Departmental URL specialization, which includes courses on various aspects of the www.indiana.edu/~ceus region’s culture. The language of specialization may be any lan- guage offered regularly in the department, including Estonian, Graduate Faculty Finnish, Hungarian, Kazakh, Mongolian, Pashto, Persian, Ti- (An asterisk [*] denotes membership in the University Graduate betan, Turkish, Uyghur, Uzbek, and other two-year department School faculty with the endorsement to direct doctoral disser- languages permitted by the student’s Graduate Advisory Com- tations.) mittee. Some regions and languages such as the Siberian region (including the Buryat, Evenki, Yakut, and other languages) and Distinguished Professor the Volga-Kama region (including the Mari, Mordvin, and other Denis Sinor* (Emeritus) languages) are also available only as individualized specializa- tions at the Ph.D.
    [Show full text]
  • On Khorezmian Connectivity
    On Khorezmian Connectivity: Space, Mobility, Imagination An International Workshop under the auspices of the START project Seeing Like an Archive: Documents and Forms of Governance in Islamic Central Asia (18th – 19th Centuries) Organizers Institute of Iranian Studies Christine Nölle-Karimi October, 9-10 2014 Paolo Sartori Apostelgasse 23, 1030 Vienna October 9, 2014 9.00 Registration 9.30 Welcome Address Florian Schwarz 9.40 Introduction Paolo Sartori, On Khorezmian Connectivity: Two or Three Things I Know about It 10.15 Coffee Break 10.45 Panel One Program Jeffrey Eden, The Slave-Trade Beyond the Bazaars: Decentered Trade Networks and the Myth of Urban Commercial Omnipotence in Central Asia Akifumi Shioya, On Water Management System in Pre-Soviet Khorezm Elena Smolarz, On the Move against their Will: Mobility of Russian Slaves in 19th century Khiva 12.15 Discussion 13.00 Lunch Break 14.00 Panel Two James Pickett, Conflicted Allegiances: The Politics of Khanate and Sufi Order between Bukhara and Khorezm Al’frid Bustanov, Najm al-Din Kubra's Uwaysi Sufis among the Tatars of the 19th Century Devin DeWeese, Mapping Khorezmian Connections in the History of Sufi Traditions: Local Developments, Regional Networks, and Global Ties of the Sufi Communities of Khorezm 15.30 Discussion 19.00 Dinner for participants October 10, 2014 9.30 Panel Three Ulfat Abdurasulov, Connectivity in Practice: The Steppe and the Sown under the Early Qungrats Christine Nölle-Karimi: Locating Khiva: The Khanate in the Perception of Qajar Envoys 10.30 Discussion 11.00
    [Show full text]
  • Central Eurasian Studies Contact: [email protected]
    University Graduate School University Graduate School 2005-2006 Kirkwood Hall 111 Academic Bulletin Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405 (812) 855-8853 Central Eurasian Studies Contact: [email protected] College of Arts and Sciences Bloomington Chairperson Professor Elliot Sperling* Departmental E-mail [email protected] Departmental URL www.indiana.edu/~ceus Graduate Faculty (An asterisk [*] denotes membership in the University Graduate School faculty with the endorsement to direct doctoral dissertations.) Distinguished Professor Denis Sinor* (Emeritus) Professors Ilhan Basgöz* (Emeritus), Gustav Bayerle* (Emeritus), Christopher I. Beckwith*, Yuri Bregel* (Emeritus), Jamsheed K. Choksy*, Devin A. DeWeese*, William Fierman*, Henry Glassie* (Folklore), György Kara*, Paul Marer* (Emeritus, Business), Toivo Raun*, M. Nazif Shahrani*, Kemal Silay*, Mihály Szegedy-Maszák* Associate Professors Christopher P. Atwood, Paul Edward Losensky*, Larry Moses* (Emeritus), Thubten Norbu* (Emeritus), Elliot H. Sperling* Assistant Professors Gardner Bovingdon, Lynn Marie Hooker, Ron Sela Academic Advisor Associate Professor Paul Edward Losensky*, Goodbody Hall 207, (812) 855-9665. All official advising after the second semester of enrollment is done by the student's Graduate Advisory Committee Program Information The department offers a comprehensive program on the study of Central Eurasia, the vast heartland of Europe and Asia. Students are introduced to the area as a whole and specialize in one of the major regions within Central Eurasia. The degree program consists of two interconnected elements: a language of specialization (LOS), which gives a student access to the culture of a given region through the voices of its people; and a region of specialization (ROS), which includes courses on various aspects of the region's culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Central Eurasian Studies Students Are Introduced to the Area As a Whole and Specialize in One of the Major Regions Within Central Eurasia
    University Graduate School Kirkwood Hall 111 Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405 University Graduate School (812) 855-8853 2008-2009 Contact: [email protected] Academic Bulletin Program Information The department offers a comprehensive program on the study of Central Eurasia, the vast heartland of Europe and Asia. Central Eurasian Studies Students are introduced to the area as a whole and specialize in one of the major regions within Central Eurasia. The degree program consists of two interconnected elements: a language College of Arts and Sciences of specialization, which gives a student access to the culture Bloomington of a given region through the voices of its people; and a region of specialization, which includes courses on various aspects Chairperson of the region’s culture. The language of specialization may be Associate Professor Chistopher P. Atwood any language offered regularly in the department, including Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian, Kazakh, Mongolian, Persian, Ti- Departmental E-mail betan, Turkish, Uyghur, Uzbek, and other two-year department [email protected] languages permitted by the student’s Graduate Advisory Com- mittee. Some regions and languages such as the Siberian region Departmental URL (including the Buryat, Evenki, Yakut, and other languages) and www.indiana.edu/~ceus the Volga-Kama region (including the Mari, Mordvin, and other languages) are also available only as individualized specializa- Graduate Faculty tions at the Ph.D. level. (An asterisk [*] denotes membership in the University Graduate School faculty with the endorsement to direct doctoral disser- Degrees Offered tations.) Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy. CEUS also offers a dual M.A./M.P.A.
    [Show full text]
  • Literary Culture and Social Change Among the Northern Kyrgyz, 1856-1924
    Visions of Community: Literary Culture and Social Change among the Northern Kyrgyz, 1856-1924 Jipar Duishembieva A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2015 Reading Committee: Elena Campbell, Chair Glennys Young Ali Igmen Program Authorized to offer Degree: Near and Middle Eastern Studies Program ©Copyright 2015 Jipar Duishembieva University of Washington Abstract Visions of Community: Literary Culture and Social Change among the Northern Kyrgyz, 1856-1924 Jipar Duishembieva Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Elena Campbell, Associate Professor Department of History This dissertation examines the transformations in the northern Kyrgyz society and culture between the mid-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. I explore how a deeply-held and territorially-oriented sense of collective belonging among the Kyrgyz developed within the Russian imperial context through the efforts of the Kyrgyz poets and intellectuals during the late tsarist period. I search for this sense of collective belonging in the literary culture of the northern Kyrgyz. In the absence of written culture, oral tradition served as the primary depository of the northern Kyrgyz collective memory. Oral poets were the ones who shaped group identities and created various versions of Kyrgyzness based on culture, lifestyle, religious belief, social practices, and moral values. By the late imperial period, these existing conceptions of Kyrgyzness served as a fertile ground for the first generation of Kyrgyz intellectuals to develop their own visions of Kyrgyz community. They started collecting and writing what they believed to be the history of their people, thus contributing to the creation of the nationalistic narrative and participating in a broader discourse on the nation in the intellectual circles of the Central Asian elites.
    [Show full text]
  • © Copyright 2013 David E. Merrell
    © Copyright 2013 David E. Merrell Normative Pluralism in Kyrgyzstan National, Community, and Individual Perspectives David E. Merrell A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2013 Reading Committee Veronica Taylor, Chair Clark L. Lombardi Arzoo Osanloo Scott Radnitz Program Authorized to Offer Degree: University of Washington School of Law University of Washington Abstract Normative Pluralism in Kyrgyzstan National, Community, and Individual Perspectives David E. Merrell Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Veronica Taylor School of Law Current Knowledge: Normative pluralism (plural sources of social ordering) has existed in in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan ) since pre-Tsarist times. Respected male elders (aksakals), for example, led nomadic groups where customary laws prevailed and sedentary groups where Islamic laws prevailed. During Tsarist times, Kyrgyz aksakal elders’ courts processed disputes alongside Islamic and Russian courts. The Soviets abolished such courts. In post-Soviet times, Kyrgyzstan incorporated a reinvented version of Kyrgyz aksakal courts into the state judicial system. Today, however, some people reject their authority. This state manipulation and popular rejection of a Kyrgyz normative order reflects how majority populations shape normative pluralism in Kyrgyzstan. Research Gap: Most English-language works explore normative pluralism in Kyrgyzstan from a state / majority
    [Show full text]
  • Newsletter of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference
    P I A C Newsletter of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference No. 27 October 2002 hanks to the initiative and competence of Jill Zai, after an interruption of three years a new issue, in a new garb of this Newsletter is presented to the the PIAC membership. Of course the Ttitle Newsletter is a misnomer because in fact, the raison d'etre of this erratic publication is to keep record of our activities. I think and hope that this issue satisfies this requirement. Contents... General Background In the last twelve months or so, as a partial result of the Information to the political fall-out of the terrorist attacks on New York City and PIAC 2 Washington, public interest in Central Asia has increased Indiana University Prize for dramatically. Websites, ephemeral periodicals, discussion-groups, Altaic Studies (PIAC Medal) 4 conferences dealing with the region multiply, and the terms of Past PIAC Proceedings 5 “Eurasia,” “Central Eurasia,” “Central Asia” have become almost Remembering Dick Howell 8 household words. For scholars, of which the membership of the PIAC is composed, this is a welcome change, first and foremost In Memory- Nikolaj Alexandrovich Baskakov by because contacts with local scholars and institutions of countries Edward Tryjarski 8 belonging to the former Soviet Union have become easy. Mainly in Some Notes on Central Eurasian the field of archeology important collaborative projects are under Studies by H. Walravens 10 way and - thanks to the exchange of language teachers - at least in Bibliography of Mongol the U.S., the acquisition of language competence in almost any Studies written by Turkic language has been greatly facilitated.
    [Show full text]