ISSN: 0898-6827
A A C A R B U L L E T I N
of the Association for the Advancement of Central Asian Research, Inc.
Editor: H. B. PAKSOY Vol. II No. 3 Fall 1989
EDITORIAL ADDRESS: Box 1011 Rocky Hill, CT 06067
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SHOULD BE SENT TO THE EDITOR.
INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS: Program on Nationality and Siberian
Studies, W. Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of
the Soviet Union, COLUMBIA U.; Mir Ali Shir Navai Seminar for
Central Asian Languages and Cultures, UCLA; Program for Turkish
Studies, UCLA; The Central Asian Foundation, WISCONSIN;
Committee on Inner Asian and Altaic Studies, HARVARD U.;
Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, INDIANA U.;
Department of Russian and East European Studies, U. of
MINNESOTA; The National Council for Soviet and East European
Research, WASHINGTON D.C.
IN THIS ISSUE
-- Muhammad Ali "Let Us Learn Our Heritage"
-- Kahar Barat "Discovery of History: The Burial Site
of Kashgarli Mahmud"
-- News of the Profession
-- Richard N. Frye "Ecology and Empire: A Symposium"
-- Book Reviews
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LET US LEARN OUR INHERITANCE: Get to Know Yourself
by
Muhammad Ali
[The following is an adaptation of a treatise serialized in two
consecutive issues of Yash Leninchi (Young Leninist), during
August 1988. A recent traveller to the Uzbek SSR kindly brought
this piece to the attention of AACAR BULLETIN. Even in the year
of 1989, not every publication printed in the USSR is allowed
to leave the boundaries of the Soviet Union. Similarly, foreign
subscriptions for many a journal and newspaper are unavailable
through any outlet. Yash Leninchi falls into that category.
Therefore, and in view of the language of publication, it seems
certain that this essay was intended solely for domestic
consumption. It is worded very carefully, in a spirit of
reforming the existing system, to expand to the Uzbeks those
freedoms currently enjoyed by other nationalities of the USSR.
The editors of Yash Leninchi provide information about the
author of "Get to know Yourself":
"Uzbekistan Lenin Komsomol, and KK [Karakalpak] ASSR
Berdak State Prize Laureate, poet Muhammad Ali is well
known to the readership. He is one of our poets who has
contributed to our literature on historical topics. He has
dastans entitled Mashrab, Gumbazdagi Nur, and his books on
revolutionary historical topics Kadimgi Koshuklar, Baki
D nya are renowned. Today you will read another of his
historical essays."
This piece (completed July, 1988) may be construed as an effort
by M. Ali to write, or at least facilitate the construction of,
the true history of Central Asia for the masses in an era when
the Soviet leadership is pledging not to leave any "blank
spots" in history. The result is a product quite apart from
those works which are designed and propagated under the
auspices of the Soviet Party apparatus -- according to the
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AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
dictates of the CPSU organs, a process extensively documented
by Professors Wayne Vucinich and C. E. Black.
It must be observed that true history writing under
various disguises, despite official sanctions to quell those
efforts, is not at all a new phenomenon in Central Asia. Since
the early 1970s, long predating the Gorbachev's "openness"
campaign, quite a few works have been produced and published.
There are, in fact, too many to mention in this limited space.
One of the important aspects of the particular piece at hand is
that it does not employ disguises (e.g yarn; short story; or
fiction genres), which were liberally used in earlier works of
this type expounding the same themes: for example by Alishir
Ibadin in his "Sun is also Fire" printed in the Uzbek journal
G listan (No. 9, 1980). "Sun is also Fire" has been analyzed
elsewhere by H. B. Paksoy, with a detailed introduction and
critical apparatus.
Moreover, efforts to identify and disseminate information
concerning the true "roots" of Central Asians can be traced to
two previous "waves" of native Central Asian leadership: 1)
1920-1939 period, which was suppressed through the Stalinist
liquidations, 2) and even an earlier era, the second half of
the 19th century. Examples from both of these periods survive
in abundance, in Central Asian dialects, published in Central
Asian cities, in three alphabets.
A final point concerns the definition and the nature of
"identity," historical or contemporary. There is ample evidence
in recorded history that Central Asians had their own formulas
for defining, safeguarding and, when necessary, staunchly
defending their collective identities going back centuries --
if not millenia. As a result, it becomes necessary that those
means employed by the Central Asians be studied on their own
terms, rather than attempting to fit them into models developed
to study other manifestations of "nation" and "nationalism"
elsewhere. Along those lines, it should be noted that the so-
called "pan-Turanianism," or "pan-Turkism" was developed not in
Central Asia, but in Europe, as a side-show to the "Great Game
in Asia." The Game formed one of the integral components of
"balance of power" struggles of European politics during 19th
and early 20th centuries, and in part sought to impede Russian
advance towards British India. Professor Edward Ingram has been
studying the Great Game in Asia in his works.
Annotations are provided in square brackets "[]", to
render 'navigational aids' for the non-historian reader. The
author's style, punctuation, and the use of parentheses pair
"()" and ellipses are preserved to the extent possible. M. Ali
includes excerpts from original works, to illuminate his
arguments. Where feasible, English translations of such
quotations are substituted from existing works, indicated
pages.]
Recently two authors, G. Borovik and A. Mikhailov
participated in the Central television's "Position" program,
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AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
and discussed the proposition that old monuments of the ancient
cities of Bukhara and Samarkand have no connection (!) to the
Uzbek people... This certainly begs the question: if they are
not related to the Uzbek people, to whom are they related?
Arabs? Mongols? Russians? These types of questions cause one to
think, taxing the imagination. Seeking justice is a difficult
endeavor, however, the struggle for truth is both necessary and
an obligation.
The Ancient Setting
I
The land between the two great rivers of Central Asia, Amu
Darya and Syr Darya, was known to the ancients as Turan [W.
Bartold, Turkestan Down to the Mongol Invasion. London, 1977,
Fourth Ed. P.64. Russian original was published in 1900].
Later, it became known as Turkistan, and after the invasion of
the Arabs, Maveraunnehr. In the ancient Turk language [In no
Turk dialect exists a distinction such as "Turkic" and
"Turkish." That delineation was introduced into Western
languages and Russian during the 19th century], the Syr Darya
was known as Enchioghuz, the Amu Darya as k z [Ox]. [Kasgarli
Mahmut, Diwan Lugat at T rk (DLT) (completed c.1070), Editio
Princeps by Kilisli Rifat, 3 Vols. Istanbul, 1917-19. English
Translation by R. Dankoff with J. Kelly as Compendium of Turkic
Dialects 3 Vols. Cambridge, MA., 1982-84. P.42]. Also, there
are suggestions that "Enchioghuz" is related to "Enchi k z." It
is also thought that this is a derivative of "Ikinci k z"
[Second Ox]. Greek troops entered and occupied Central Asia
under the command of Alexander in 329 BC. At that time, Greek
historians recorded in transcription that the river was named
k z in the Turk language. Consequently, in Europe, this river
became known as Oxus. The 19th century Hungarian historian A.
Vambery wrote a book about his visit to our homeland under the
title Travels to Transoxiana [Vambery was the original
articulator of the "Pan-Turanian" notion, a political position
of the European players of the "Great Game in Asia," was a
Jewish-Hungarian professor of Oriental Languages, wrote a
series of books. E.g: Travels in Central Asia. London, 1865;
Sketches of Central Asia. London, 1868; Das T rkenvolk.
Leipzig, 1885. The first one of these is cited by Bartold.
Documents located in the Public Records Office-London indicate
that Vambery was in the British service]. This testifies to the
fact that the land in question was known as Turan.
In Firdawsi's Shahnama [Theodor N ldeke, Tr., Bombay,
1930, written in the ca. 11th century, it is based on older
oral tradition], there is plenty of information about ancient
Turan. This world renown poet wrote about the Iranians and the
Turanians with affection, in detail; including the fights
between the Iranian king Kavus and his predecessor Keyhusrev
and the Turanian king Afrasiyab; Rustam dastan; Suhrab,
Siyavush dastans; the story of Afrasiyab's daughter Manija,
putting down their relations on paper, from various aspects.
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AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
When referring to Turan, and its inhabitants, Turks, the poet
uses such terms as the "Men of Turan," "Land of Turan,"
"Turanian troops;" "Inhabitants of Turan;" "Men of the Turks;"
"Land of the Turan;" "Turk Cavalry;" "Offspring of the Turks;"
the Business of the Turks;" "Maidens of Turan;" "Heroes of
Turan." These clear gleanings of that author provides us with a
good picture. [The author provides examples from Shahnama.]
II
One of the prominent personages mentioned in Shahnama, as
Afrasiyab, the ruler of Turan, is Alp Ertunga, styled Tunga Alp
Er in other sources. The great scholar Mahmud Kashgari
[Kashgarli Mahmut], who explained the term "Turan" in his Diwan
Lugat at-T rk, writes: "Tunga - A creature of the tiger family.
It is the one that kills the elephant. This is its root
meaning; however, this word has remained with the Turks and its
meaning persists among them. It is often used as a title, thus:
King Afrasiyab, chief of the Turks, had the title 'Tunga Alp
Er' meaning 'A man, a warrior, as strong as a tiger.'" [DLT,
P.605]. Also, our great poet Yusuf Has Hajib, in his Kutadgu
Bilig [(KB) Written in 11th c. by Balasagunlu Yusuf -- Khass
Hajib= Grand Chamberlain -- translated as Wisdom of Royal Glory
by R. Dankoff. Chicago, 1983] describes Afrasiyab in the
following words: "If you observe well you will notice that the
Turkish princes are the finest in the world. And among these
Turkish princes the one of outstanding fame and glory was Tonga
Alp Er. He was the choicest of men, distinguished by great
wisdom and virtues manifold. What a choice and manly man he
was, a clever man indeed--he devoured this world entire! The
Iranians call him Afrasiyab, the same who seized and pillaged
their realm." [KB, L.276]
[M. Ali provides quotations referring to Turkistan from
Alishir Navai's Tarih-i M lk-i Ajam, written after 1485.
Reportedly of Uyghur descent, Navai (1441-1501) was the premier
literati and statesman of his time, wrote voluminously and with
apparent ease in Chaghatay, a Turk dialect, and Persian, and
concomitantly was the long-time serving 'prime minister' of the
Timurid Huseyin Baykara (r. 1469-1506) of Herat and Khorasan.
Much of his writings remain untranslated. In 1500, zbeks -- a
newly constituted confederation on the historical pattern of
previous Turk confederations -- of Shibani (a.k.a. Shaybani)
Khan entered Transoxiana and Shibani Khan declared the end of
the Timurids. Shibani himself fell in battle in 1510, fighting
against the Safavids (dynasty r. 1501-1736) of Shah Ismail (r.
1501-1524). Shah Ismail was in return defeated by the Ottoman
Sultan Selim I (r. 1512-1520) at Chaldiran, in 1514. Shibani
and zbeks also fought Babur -- see below -- which are detailed
in his Baburnama. Babur sought and received the aid of Shah
Ismail and his kizilbash Safavids.]
III
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The observations of Mahmud Kashgari require a closer look.
Explaining the word "Kent" (city), he wrote: "Among the Oghuz
and those who associate with them, it means town among the
Turks. The chief city of Ferghana is called z Kent, meaning
'city of our souls.' Samiz Kent meaning 'fat city,' is called
thus because of its great size; it is, in Persian, Samarkand."
[DLT, P.173] In explaining Afrasiyab's daughter Koz,
interesting information is provided: "Name of the daughter of
Afrasiyab. She is the one who built the city of Kazvin. The
root form of this is; 'kaz oyni,' meaning 'Kaz's playground'
since she used to live there and play. For this reason some of
the Turks reckon Kazvin within the borders of the Turk lands.
Also the city of Qum, since: Qum is in Turkic 'sand' and this
daughter of Afrasiyab used to hunt there and frequent it.
Others of them reckon (the borders) from Marv as-Shahijan since
her father: Tonga Alp Er--who is Afrasiyab--built the city of
Marv, three hundred years after Tamhurat built the citadel.
Some of them reckon all of Transoxiana as part of the Turk
lands, and in the first place: Yarkand (Baykand). This used to
be called Dizruin, meaning (in Persian) 'city or castle of
brass' because of its strength. It is near the city of
Bukhara." [DLT, P.509]
Specifically about the ruler of Turan, Afrasiyab, there is
interesting information in Samariya by the 19th century
Samarkand historian Abu Tahirhoja. This historian explains the
origin of the name Samar: "the name of a Turk Khan, he
established this kishlak (winter quarters)." The Russian
orientalist W. Bartold, in his Turkistanin Madani Hayati Tarihi
[Russian original was published in 1918. The same argument is
also in Turkestan, P.64.] wrote: "The region between the
nomadic Turk empire and the Sasanid dynasty's state is termed
Amu Darya. For the Iranians, the lands beyond Amu Darya was
known as Turkistan, meaning, the land of the Turks."
The lesson to be derived from these examples: when
referring to Turks living in Turan, or Turkistan, the Turks
thus referenced are not only Uzbeks. I also include Kirghiz,
Kazakh, Turkmens. The great tribes of the Turks have been
domiciled in this region, and called their own lands
"Turkistan." In various eras, from the northeast, numerous Turk
tribes--there are 92 (!) such tribes in the composition of the
Uzbeks--arrived, augmented, influenced and elevated the
population... [Z. V. Togan, in his T rkili T rkistan --
Istanbul, 1981, originally written during the 1920s -- provides
lists of the tribes composing various confederations, including
the Uzbeks]. This historical current continued for many
centuries. [The author writes as if he agrees with R. N. Frye
and A. M. Sayili, "The Turks in Khurasan and Transoxania at the
Time of the Arab Conquest," The Moslem World XXXV, 1945.]
At this point, it is necessary to reflect on one point. To
the land between the two rivers, the ancient Turan or
Turkistan, without regard to the historical evidence, the
contemporary historians refer with its Arab designation,
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AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
"Maveraunnehr"-- first of all, this does not designate any
country-- it is also contrary to historical evidence. In his
collected scholarly works, the great historian Bartold, regards
this land as "Turkistan" and considers all the events it, from
the ancient to contemporary, with that designation.
Two Maidens wearing satin waistcoats
I
A look at the history of the Uzbeks tells us that theirs
is closely related to the sister Tajik peoples. Their lives and
histories are intertwined with each other, having contributed
enormously to the world civilization. The friendship of the
Uzbeks and the Tajiks is an amazing event, the likeness of
which is not observed elsewhere. Uzbek is a member of the Turk
languages, whereas Tajik belongs to the Indo-European. Though
their languages have different origins, in every other quarter
they share similarities. Because, their life-styles, tradition-
ceremonies, hospitalities, culinary arts are the same. They
intermarry, wear the same clothes, their tastes complement each
other. It is not so easy to determine which maiden, both
wearing satin waistcoats, is Uzbek or Tajik, speaking in their
own tongues, nor does it ever occur to anyone to try to
ascertain. Likewise, it is noteworthy that their arts, music
are common, especially their "shashmakam." [This is a style of
melodic tonality, contour and pattern. Traditionally, each such
"key" and pattern, which number in the dozens, is given a
name.] The melodies of the Tajiks and the Uzbeks are very much
intermingled, and is difficult to separate, just like trying to
sort the maidens. While on the topic, the great Abdurrahman
Jami [d.1492, Persian, friend and eminent fellow literati of
Navai], in his treatise dedicated to music, classifies the Turk
rhythmic patterns under four: "Turki asli jedid, Turki asli
kadim, Turki hafif, Turki sarilar." If the Persian-Tajik poet
looked at the Uzbek music, the Uzbek poet Alishir Navai [see
above] wrote the Furs Salotini. [No reference to this title is
found in the available Navaiana.] These examples display how
the two people's histories, lives and cultures are so entirely
combined. Though their languages are different, their
similarities are truly amazing.
In the days old, it was said that the Persian mind was
suited to the pen, and the mind of the Turk possessed sword-
sharp [native] intelligence. The nature of the Persians exhibit
passion toward knowledge, they wrote the history of their
homeland, created discourses. Today we read those treatises,
become more familiar with world history and appreciate them.
They applied themselves to the affairs of state in the palaces,
served as the scribes, artists. They distinguished themselves
by producing books on advice (Kabusnama, Chahar Makala and the
like), [the first one is by Iskandar Kai Ka'us, tr. R. Levy, A
Mirror for Princes. London, 1951; the second by Nizami Arudi
Samarkandi, tr. E. Browne. London, 1921] which is naturally
related to the secrets of their involvements. The factor in
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keeping language in demand-- is invention, constant activity of
enlightened pen in all fields of knowledge and literature.
Hudaynamak, Shahristanhoy Iran (unfortunately, these two rare
books did not come down to us, but we know them from the
writings of Firdawsi and Tabari), Shahnama, Siyasatnama and
Gulistan and many other books were born to this world by the
endeavors of the men of pen. [Siyasatnama was written by Nizam
al-Mulk (d. 1092), 'prime minister' to Alparslan (r. 1063-
1072), and his son Malik Shah (r. 1072-1092) of the Seljuks
(dynasty r. 1040-1156), tr. H. Darke The Book of Government or
Rules for Kings. London, 1960. As for "Gulistan": too many
books are either entitled or include this word in their
appellation to be readily identifiable without additional
details.]
The sword-sharp minded Turks were not usually found in the
cities, but mainly preferred to reside in the kishlaks
[wintering quarters], summer pastures and steppes. Thus they
became the vanguards in battlefields, and fell upon them the
duty and the primacy of the sword. The renowned fame of the
Turk troops is thus. They were at the head of the state, and
Turkistan was ruled by Turk dynasties from the fifth century.
The majority of the Iranian rulers-- Seljuks [followed by the
Khwarazm-Shahs 1156-1230], Gaznavids [994-1186], Safavids,
Halokuiy [sic - Kara- or Akkoyunlu? Latter ruled 1449-78, both
are tribal confederations related to the Oghuz/Seljuk],
Nadirshah Afshar [1730s-1747; the Afshar tribe has been in
existence before and remained viable after], Kajars [1794-1925]
are members of the Turk families. For these reasons, in
contrast to the Iranians, Turks did not become acquainted well
with the pen but followed the path of the sword.
"The political primacy of the Turks in present Turkistan
was established in the 6th c." writes W. Bartold [Turkestan,
P.186]. The invading Arabs arrived in this land, and in the
first place, fought against the Turks, because they constituted
the major power. The Sogdians in the Zarafshan valley and the
Khorazmians along the Amu Darya did not pose a serious threat
to the invaders. The sizeable influence of Turk Hakans [Khans
of the Turk Empire before 8th c.], and their troops were facing
Iran and Byzantium in the West, the Chinese in the East.
Naturally, without the Turks losing their power, it was not
possible for the Arabs to subdue Turkistan. Arabs defeated the
Turks in a battle along the Syr Darya during the third decade
of the 7th c. After this loss, the Turk lands were broken into
pieces. Arab established rule, Arabic language gained
influence. In this language the affairs were conducted, volumes
were penned, representatives of civilized peoples produced
poetry and universal works in Arabic.
II
Thus, prior to our present era, Arabic should have gained
primacy, but it did not, and instead Persian began gaining
influence. The Badawis [i.e. Arabs] accepted this language and
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AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
began to contribute to its development more than the Persians.
During this period, there were large migrations from Iran into
Turkistan. That is why, as noted above, Mahmud Kashgari wrote:
"...after the arrival of Persians, these cities became more
Iranized," which indicates that this scholar was aware of the
settlement policies. As a result madrasas of the Persian style
began to be built in Turkistan, Persian language and literature
traditions became important. With the rise of the Samanids,
this development reached its zenith, and Persian was elevated
to the status of the language of state. Bartold wrote: "During
the 10th c. the refined language of the educated strata was
differentiated from Iranian, and we know that from poets of
Turkistan origin such as Rudaki who held a highly esteemed
position among the Perians." Then, it became necessary for the
population to know Persian well, as the affairs of state and
education in the madrasas were conducted with it. Naturally,
scholarship, history and literature were produced in that
language. The knowledge of this language became a necessity of
life for the Turks, thus they not only learned it, but also
began to produce works in it. At the time, it was difficult to
encounter a Turk who did not know Persian-Tajik. Many Turks
fell under the influence of this state language, aspired to
secure pecuniary interest through state sponsored positions,
and went about speaking Persian. They even were afflicted with
the malady of forgetting their mother-tongue.
That current continued at length. We learn this from the
writings of Alishir Navai, recorded five centuries prior to our
present time: "... witty and elegant Turk youths busied
themselves with making poetic pronouncements, in Persian...
This passion, born among the people, did not manifest itself
wisely or intelligently in their native language...."
"Turk ulus" [usually rendered "nation"], the poet states,
"should express their passions in their own language," and he
gave the reason: "[Otherwise] comprehension may be channelled
into this course, and in time, may be found inclined to stay,
and perhaps [become] powerless to leave that domain." Of
course, time and practice are capable of deeply influencing the
mind, and render reversal difficult. The mind comes under the
influence of time and practice, in other words, the power and
force of tradition constitute an enduring set of values.
Customs remain alive and their rules do not change.
Accordingly, these practices were not altered, and the
influence of Persian-Tajik language in the 20th c. Turkistan
still continues. Among all Turk and Uzbek peoples, the language
of state was Persian-Tajik, even within the political entities
of Timur [properly, Tem r, a Barlas Turk, founder of the
Timurid empire, r. 1369-1405], Ulugbek [Tem r's grandson, who
ruled Samarkand and environs, d. 1449, author of principal
astronomical and mathematical works which were translated into
Latin beginning with 16th c. and printed] and Bab r [1483-1530,
founder of the Moghul empire in India, another direct
descendent of Tem r, an accomplished author in Chaghatay],
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affairs of state were conducted in that langauge, historical
treatises, literature were created and became popular.
Consequently, the "witty and elegant" youths of the Turk
nation-- their poets and scholars, historians, in addition to
their own language, were capable of creating works in the
Persian-Tajik langauage.
As alluded to above, the works of those poets and scholars
who did not write in the influential language did not gain
following. That, in turn, cast doubts on ability and talent. It
is possible to provide many examples on the influence of
tradition. Historical works, names of dastans (here also
related to the Persian-Tajik literature), poetry in the genre
of hamse, were produced in Arabic: Hamse, Lujjat-ul asrar,
Mantik-ut tayr, Hazayin-ul maani, Mahbub-ul kulub, etc. The
name of the work devoted to the sum total of Turk language,
Diwan Lugat at-T rk ... is Arabic! Muhakamat ul-Lugateyn --
Arabic! [Despite its title, this influential treatise by Navai
-- on the comparison of Turk and Persian languages -- in which
Navai staunchly defends "Turki," was written in Turki, also
termed Chaghatay in that era. It is available in English
translation, by R. Devereux]. A principal of the Golden Horde
in the Syr Darya region, Muhammadhoja (XIV c.), wrote to poet
Khwarazmi: "In the depths of your heart, you possess many
pearls/ on earth, you wrote Persian dastans/ I wish you would
utilize our language/ to produce a monument in my court this
winter..."
Khwarazmi later wrote his famous Muhabbatnama dastan. The
poet was not able to break out of the mold, and despite the
invitation to "create a work in our language" [i.e. Chaghatay-
Turki], he composed portions of it in Persian-Tajik... Yusuf
Amiri (XV c.) named the chapters of his dastan Dahnama in
Persian-Tajik. About the Bang va chagir munazarasi, the poet
said: "I constructed it using Turk vocabulary and Persian
style..." In the work, poems in Turk and Persian are mixed. We
also observe this in Yakini's Ok ve yay munazarasi. Ulugbek
wrote the introduction to Zijji Kuragsni in Persian, translated
it into Arabic. Alisher Navai wrote diwans in Persian.
Baburnama [memoires of the above refrenced Babur, translated
into English at the turn of the 20th c.] contains many Persian
poems and rubai. Muhammad Yakub Chingi (XVII c.) compiled an
Uzbek-Persian/Tajik dictionary, with an introduction in
Persian. Nadira wrote a diwan in Persian-Tajik...
If we were to continue in this vein, we would have to
mention all of the representatives of the Uzbek literature.
Pahlavan Mahmud, Husrav Dehlavi (in his Urdu language diwan
Gurrat-ul kamal, the poet writes: "I am of the Turks of
India..." indicating that he is a Turk. In his book Hindustanin
keshf edilishi, J. Nehru wrote: "...the most famous work on
India in this era is by a Turk living in the XIV century, Amir
Husrev"). Jelaleddin Rumi [b. in Balkh 1207, lived in Asia
Minor, d. 1273 in Konya, then in the domains of the Seljuks and
their successor principalities, now in the central plains of
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the Turkish Republic], Mirza Abulkadir Bedil, Zebunnisa,
Gulbeden are among the "witty and elegant Turk youths" who
composed works in Persian-Tajik. In doing so, they were largely
adhering to the aforementioned traditions. Abu Nasr Farabi
[Turk philosopher, d. 950?] wrote poems in Persian, two of
which are extant. His utilization of Persian ought to be
considered an "expediency of the times."
To derive a lesson: Therefore, in considering the poets
and scholars who have produced works utilizing Arabic and
Persian-Tajik, before labelling them to belonging to this or
that people, of course we must consider the effects of the
tradition. Passing judgement on their pedigree based on their
choice of language will not be correct. Because, if we look
closer, they turn out to be the representatives of other
nations. There is fairness...
The Headwaters
I
Recently, renowned film-director Latif Fayziev spoke on
television regarding movies connected to our history.
Discussion turned to the slavery of the stagnant years [this
appears to be a new standard reference to the Brezhnev reign].
The occasion was thus. The Director was working with Indian
firms on a movie about Babur. (In this regard, it is helpful to
remember the words of Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister of the
Indian Republic. In his book Hindistanin Keshfedilishi
[Discovery of India] Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura,
1987. In it, R. Gandhi published "Sovet kitabhanlariga maktub"
[Letter to the Soviet Booklovers], in which he said: "Ulugbek,
a descendent of Timur, astronomer and ruler of Samarkand,
utilized the works of Indian mathematicians. Babur, young jigit
of Ferghana, the fearless commander and cultured author,
founded our Moghul Empire in Ganges valley, and began referring
to himself as an Indian.") [In Baburnama, Babur's own comments
might suggest otherwise.] However, we were not permitted to
produce that movie. The same director intended to make a movie
about Chingiz [d. 1227]. Again, no permission...
Recently, one of the Moscow newspapers announced that the
Kirghiz film-director T. Okeav is making the movie "Chingiz
Khan," in collaboration with an USA firm. The movie is
scheduled for production, both for the TV (8 parts) and the
screen (4 parts), for two years... We were not permitted. Our
aforementioned film-director wished to make the movie
"Samarkandnama." Scenes involving Mukanna, Temur, Spitomin were
to be included, but... Once again, no permission! The project
about Omar Khayyam died...
One must wonder. Should not even the smallest word be
allowed about the reasons! The framework of these movies
embrace the distant past of the peoples of Central Asia. Were
the permissions denied because they pertain to the historical
past of the people, or were there other reasons, the film-
director did not indicate.
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It is regrettable. There are also those who look at our
history with sophistry. One example. Professor M. Vahabov, in
his article "O pravde--tol'ko pravdu" (Pravda Vostoka, 21 June
1988), wrote that Timur is being idealized, but he did not
support his argument with a serious fact. Whatever facts he
cited, they are devoid of substance. An earnest and truthful
reconstruction of the activities of a historical person is not
idealization, but a necessity. Not fully detailing the
narration would be a falsification of history... Let alone
idealization, he is to be disgraced! It is a humanitarian duty
to write history. But the professor is correct in one aspect:
It is not essential to idealize Timur, it is unnecessary.
Timur-- world conqueror, established an empire with the force
of sword, oppressive ruler, a typical sovereign of the middle
ages... But, describing Timur only in those terms would of
course be a subjective historical treatment. Samarkand, known
as one of the magnificent cities of the world, the Ulugbek
observatory, "Zijji Kuragani," the works of Alisher Navai,
Baburnama, have elevated the classical Uzbek literature to
exalted heights... Whether we like it or not, these are
connected to the Timurid period, and we cannot deny these
historical facts. Consequently, the Timurid period is an
inseparable portion of the history of our homeland, and of the
world.
Timur and his period must be weighed on the scales of
justice by our historians and written accordingly, and the
resulting revelations taught to our youngsters openly.
Otherwise, if a blind spot is created, his name removed from
the books and papers, does not that create a defective,
counterproductive and alluring attraction? The truth must be
addressed by its own name, and idealization is not being
defended here. White is white, black is black. Time has come to
write them by their names. As W. Bartold said, if the past
experts were proved correct [their information verified --
Bartold vehemently advocated approaching the sources
critically], than it is easier to see the truth.
Karl Marx spoke of Timur's activities, stated that Timur
strengthened the role of the ruler, updated the laws then in
force, and these precautions appear in direct contrast to the
harshness of his military campaigns. [Bartold often took
exception to the writings of Marx. Reportedly, on one public
occasion, when queried as to what Marx would have said about
the topic on which he was lecturing, Bartold replied: 'I know
of no Orientalist named Marx.' Continued opposition to
Bolshevik historiography landed Bartold in Baku as a quiet
internal exile, where he died in 1930, at the age of 61.].
"While pondering those specialist accounts detailing the
historical services rendered by individuals -- said V. I. Lenin
-- the fact that they may provide more truthful views than
those demanded by the present is not always considered, despite
their closeness to the events, and even the possibility that
they may bring fresher views on the issue compared to their
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predecessors might have been overlooked." [If anyone can trace
the original, the Editor shall be pleased to hear from them].
When evaluating our history and the known personages in it,
especially commenting on the matter of Timur, it is necessary
for us to keep im mind the Marxist-Leninist precepts.
II
Naturally, elocutionary works on the most profound periods
of our history are rather scarce. The reason for that is, under
various excuses, those who produce works on the topic practice
[self] censorship, holding back information. We do recall the
"Navai," "Yuldizli tunlar" novels. Our historians, who have to
show activity, ought to write research on those periods
according to tested concepts. Moreover, since we write so
little about our own history, it is necessary to translate into
our language those works already existing. As we did not
perform our own work, we should gratefully recall the names of
a group of renown Russian Orientalists. Their services to the
history of our people are priceless. These scholars certainly
are in no need of our praises [i.e. they are already well
known], but for our own information we need to be acquainted
with them...
Vasilii Vladimirovich Bartold (1869-1930) [Wilhelm Bartold
descended from a German family settled in the Russian Empire].
Out of his 685 works of this Great Russian Orientalist, 320 are
devoted to the history of Central Asia. He participated in the
establishment of the Central Asian State University. His
writing of history grounded on voluminous [historical]
manuscripts has created an important event. Consider a sampling
of his works dedicated to the history of Uzbekistan: "Turkistan
at the time of the Mongol Invasion" [see above], "Sources on
the previous channels and beds of the Aral Sea from the early
times to the XVII century," "Irrigation History of Turkistan,"
"Ulugbek and his Era," "Cotton planting in Central Asia from
the earliest times to the arrival of the Russians," "Twelve
lectures on the history of the Turkic people in Central Asia,"
"Mir Alisher [Navai] and political life," "Burial of Timur,"
"History of the Turk-Mongol Peoples," "History of the Central
Asian Civilization," "History of Turkistan," "The people's
movement in Samarkand during 1365"... [Bartold's sochnineniia
was published as a large multi-volume set in Moscow, over much
of the 1960s and 1970s]. All these works, without exception,
detail our past and history. Reading and learning them is as
necessary as water and air. Unfortunately, at this time, the
majority of those works are not available in Uzbek! This is the
importance we have attached to our beloved history and to that
great scholar! On the other hand, the said works had been
translated into other languages. For example, "Ulugbek..."
Turkish (1930), German (1936), English (1958), Persian (1958);
"Mir Alisher..." German (1933), Turkish (1937), English (1962).
This ought to be a lesson to us.
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If the "Mir Alisher [Navai] and political life" were to be
issued in Uzbek on the 550th birth anniversary of the great
poet, it would have been an opportunity to comply with the
wishes of the great scholar, for he desired his works to be
translated into Uzbek. Similarly, "Ulugbek and his times" ought
to be translated and published by 1994, to be a present to the
600th anniversary of this great astronomer's birth. Naming of a
corner in Tashkent to honor Bartold's services to our history
and people would also speak of our regard for this Russian
scholar and the Russian people.
Vasilii Lavrentievich Viatkin (1869-1932), renowned
archeologist, professor. In 1913 he excavated the "fresco of
Afrasiyab wall." During 1908-1909, he unearthed and identified
the outstanding historical monument of our people, the Ulugbek
observatory, which had been buried. He proposed, in
Turkestanskie vedemosti newspaper, that a statue of Ulugbek be
erected in Samarkand. We should not forget that this proposal
was made in a colonized country of the Tsarist Russia. "Mirza
Ulugbek and his observatory in Samarkand," "Old Monuments of
Samarkand," "Afrasiyab -- the ancient Samarkand setting,"
"Ancient Samarkand architecture" occupy an important place in
the understanding of the history of Samarkand. He also arranged
for the publication of "Uzbek language textbook for Russian
schools" (1923) and "Persian language textbook." It is
necessary to know the works of Viatkin in Uzbek, for it is not
sufficient to have them only in Russian.
Alexandr Iur'ievich Iakubovskii (1886-1953), famous Soviet
Orientalist. This scholar has many works on the history of
Uzbekistan. The opportunity to collect and publish them both in
Uzbek and in Russian presents itself. His works such as "About
the ethnogenesis of the Uzbek people," "Mukanna kuzgoloni,"
"Timur. An experiment in characterization," "X-XV century
Central Asian feudal society and commercial relations with
Eastern Europe" provide us with contemporary and relevant
information. It is requisite that "Navai and Attar" of E. E.
Bertels [a high level functionary in the Oriental Institute in
Moscow during 1930s-1950s, charged with managing the history of
the "Soviet East"], as well as his monograph on Navai; A. A.
Semenov's articles devoted to our history be translated and
published in Uzbek. Azerbaijan scholar Ziya Buniatov's [Bunyat
oglu -- the present Director of the Oriental Institute of the
Azarbaijan Academy of Sciences] historical monograph on the
Khwarazm Shah ought to be appreciated.
Alas, the works cited are but only a sampling on our
history and literature penned by world renowned scholars.
Another point. We could ask why are the historical-scholarly
works are printed so scarcely in Uzbek, and the works of Uzbek
scholars generally not published (Y. Gulamov's Kwarazm history,
M. Yoldashev's Khiva state archives are exceptions). Indeed, we
may wonder what our students and those among us who believe
themselves to be educated know, who are familiar with the
histories of Jan Gus [perhaps, the reference is to Johannes Hus
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von Husinetz, 1374-1415, Bohemian religious reformer], and Ivan
Bolotnikov. We are astonished to discover that they are not
acquainted with Mahmud Tabari [Muhammad bin Jarir at-Tabari, d.
923. His works were translated into Western languages beginning
1879, and published from 1901 on]. V. O. Kliuchevskii stated
that general history cannot be known without the knowledge of
the local history.
III
We do not know our own history well. This is almost an
axiomatic statement. The most deplorable aspect is that we are
not being encouraged to learn and know our history. Sufficient
effort is not being expended to train specialists in various
eras of our history, nor is proper use made of those we have.
Training of talented textualists, capable of analyzing old
manuscripts is neglected. These trends must be reversed.
Recently a Society of Historians was established in our
republic. We hope that this organization will work to evaluate
the facts and disseminate the results, rather than falling into
atrophy once again. While we thirst to be acquainted with our
beloved history, to solve its many mysteries by utilizing
historiographical methods, we primarily view the dereliction of
the Uzbek SSR Academy of Sciences and scholars therein with
contrition. In the past, the name of the Uzbek SSR Academy of
Sciences vice-president E. Yusupov's name has been abundantly
visible in the press, and he also repeatedly appeared on
televison and radio. His sincere statements on the questions
concerning the life of our republic -- be it on economy,
philosophy, ecology, sometimes on history, problems of
preservation of heritage and civilization -- are an example. He
speaks especially about turning the economy in the new
direction, and also on the success of preparing national
workers and cadres. In order to produce more cotton, the main
endeavor ought to be in knowing cotton cultivation, generally
the new national laborer cadres should be channelled in that
direction. Along the same lines, groups of laborers brought
from the central raions to work in the industrial plants and
factories. The scholar believes that serious steps must be
taken to prepare national laborers and cadres.
These are the choices of the established scholar of social
sciences in our Academy. We are entitled to require solutions
to the problems of our republic from those sciences. Presently,
the results are nothing to be proud of.
Restructuring efforts are passing and lamentably we are
not benefiting from this auspicious current to strengthen our
scientific-scholarly endeavors in a timely manner. At this
point it occurs to me there is a question that ought to be
addressed by our academy and history scholars -- the question
of the Uzbek people's ethnogenesis, and the the creation of
their history.
It requires collective labor to document the ethnogenesis
(meaning the formation) of a people. To understand this
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synthesized movement, it is necessary to invoke the aid of
branches of knowledge such as archeology, ethnography,
linguistics, and history. Investigation of eras and social
pressures are made with inevitable accompanying assumptions,
instead of learning the ethnic history well and studying the
history of peoples. The knowledge of the arrival of the people
[on the scene of history], their identity, the streams from
which they flowed to form the [vast] rivers, the whereabouts of
those mountain ranges giving birth to those cascading streams
is the main objective, rather than sitting on the shore of the
river pinning your hopes on it. Ethnogenesis and people's
ethnic history is the beginning of history. Currently,
precisely this history is not studied... It is necessary to
state, for the purposes of comparison, that the history of
ethnogenesis is being researched among the sister Tajik, Tatar,
Bashkurt peoples.
Considering the importance of the topic, the Presidium of
the Uzbek Academy of Sciences, at the beginning of the 1980s,
passed a resolution for the study of the Uzbek people's
ethnogenesis. Those who heard it, wondered with amazement. An
unoffical consultative group was established, and the
corresponding member of the Uzbek SSR Academy of Sciences
Ahmadali Askarov (now he is a full Academician) was appointed
as the supervisor. [Presently, Academician A. Askarov is a
Vice-President of the UzSSR Academy of Sciences. An
archeologist by training, he oversees most of the social
science departments, including history]. To this group, more
than twenty history scholars were summoned. But, nothing went
beyond the words, the decision remained on paper. It is now
clear that the effort was not taken up with a serious hand.
However, during 1986, a book entitled Materials Pertaining to
the Ethnic History of the Peoples of Central Asia was
published, containing scholarly reports [doklady] of eleven
authors. The curious thing is, despite the Academy Presidium's
decision to create an ethnic history, it was not undertaken in
a scholarly manner. Secondly, no practical aid was rendered to
the group, the attendant needs of the summoned scholars were
not taken into consideration, in truth they were not even
gathered in one place... The leadership of the Academy, who
think the human factor is dry words, according to the
inclination of the stagnant years, ought to take the matter
seriously. However we do have capable scholars who can
undertake the task-- A. Askarov, R. Mukiminova, B. Ahmedov, K.
Shaniyazov... The lethargy may be perpetuated. It is necessary
speedily to undertake the study of the ethnogenesis of the
Uzbek people, their dawn! So far, no words have appeared about
the history of our people. If we knew our history well, we can
respond to those claims that the ancient treasures of Bukhara
and Samarkand have no relation to the Uzbek people, showing how
illogical they are.
Summary
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"Granted, each individual may be proud of being the offspring
of a particular people, praising that fact to the heavens,
experience the accompanying pride, it is no harm" -- wrote
Valentin Rasputin in his article 'Knowing one's self as a
citizen' (Pravda, 24 July 1988). "All may be proud of their
origins... Armenian - of being an Armenian, Estonian -- being
an Estonian, Jew -- being Jewish, Buriat -- being a Buriat. Now
permit the Russians to become a member of this 'free friendly
family.' They have also somewhat contributed to the world
culture and civilization..."
With pleasure, I wished to convey these sincere words of
the Russian author to the esteem of my Uzbek people.
* * *
"DISCOVERY OF HISTORY: THE BURIAL SITE OF KASHGARLI MAHMUD"
Kahar Barat
[Kashgarli Mahmud is the author of Divan Lugat it-T rk (DLT),
completed ca. 1077 AD. This unique MSS was discovered during
the First World War in Istanbul, and the Editio Princeps was
made by Kilisli Rifat (1917-1919). DLT has been translated into
English, with an extensive critical apparatus, by Robert
Dankoff, in collaboration with James Kelly, under the title
Compendium of the Turkic Dialects, 3 Vols., (Number 7 in the
series: Sources of Oriental Languages and Literatures, S. Tekin
& G. A. Tekin, Eds.: Harvard University Printing Office, 1982-
1985 [available through: Tekin, P. O. Box 1447, Duxbury MA,
02332). Since its discovery during the First World War, the DLT
continues universally and fundamentally to influence Central
Asian studies. As very little was known about Kashgarli
Mahmud's era, the events outlined below are most welcome for
the recovery of history. Broadly viewed, that period was
distinguished by struggles for the mastery of Central Asia with
the Karakhanids in the East, Seljuks in the West and the
Ghaznavids in the center, in the area from the Altai mountain
range to the Oxus river. The news of the discovery of Kashgarli
Mahmud's burial site appeared in the People's Republic of China
(PRC) media. This communication presents a summary of
information from modern Uyghur sources. Mr. Barat is a doctoral
student at Harvard University, Inner Asian and Altaistic
Studies program.]
After word emerged that work on the Uyghur edition of
Divan Lugat it-T rk had begun in Xinjiang, Kashgarli Mahmud's
name enjoyed a resurgence of popularity among the Uyghurs. When
the news of this effort became public, it was heard that
Kashgarli Mahmud's burial site was located in the village of
Opal, 45 kms. west of Kashgar. In 1981, A. Rozi reported the
discovery. (In DLT, the name of this village is spelled "'Bul,"
and is called by Kashgarli Mahmud, "one of our homelands."
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Dankoff notes that the spelling could have been "abul." In the
Masnawi Shirip MSS [see below], this name is spelled as "Uyfal"
or "Oyfal." In the Arabic script, the letters `b' 'y' and `p'
are distinguished from one another by one, two and three dots,
respectively, below the line.)
Details of Kashgarli Mahmud's life are scant. O. Pritsak
suggested that Mahmud was a student of Husayn ibn Muhammad, who
was the eldest son of Muhammad ibn Yusuf and was mayor of
Barsgan; and that Mahmud fled from a court revolt in Kashgar to
Baghdad. (O. Pritsak, "Mahmud Kasgari Kimdir?" T rkiyat
Mecmuasi X. Istanbul, 1953. Reprinted in the same author's
Studies in Medieval Eurasian History [London: Variorum, 1981]).
During December 1982, the editors of the Uyghur DLT, I.
Muti'i and M. Osmanov, went to Opal to investigate the
authenticity of the reports. Muti'i and Osmanov organized a
forum to collect the recollections of the local populace. The
people called the site "Hazrati Molla Mazari," and spoke of a
Tazkire (written history of the shrine) which was in their
possession until 1956, and contained the name Mahmud bin Husayn
-- as Kashgarli Mahmud signed his name in the DLT.
The shrine has been cared for by a Sheykh (hereditary
caretaker) family, and they had a Tazkire of it, but it
"disappeared in the hands of archaeologists," stated people at
the forum. "In 1956, Ismail Ibrahim (from Opal), now head of
the cultural office of Kashgar Kona-Shahar, obtained the book
from a man named Mahammat Congsa and gave it to Yusup Beg
Mukhlisov." I. Ibrahim and Y. Mukhlisov were both working in
the Xinjiang museum at that time. After that, Mukhlisov moved
to the USSR. In his notebook of 1957, which is kept in the
Xinjiang Museum, I. Ibrahim recorded the shrines in the Opal
area and he wrote "Hazreti Mollam, name Kashgari, died in 477
Hegira." In 1981, A. Rozi wrote, "The book named Tazkira'i
Hazrati Molla was written in 1791 by the historian Muhammat
Abdul-Ali from Kashgar."
Before it was given away, the Tazkira was a sacred
possession of the Sheykh family and local people. The people at
the forum made many statements to Muti'i and Osmanov from their
memory, all of these testimonies seem to have come from a
single source and it is hard to imagine that the villagers
could have made it up. Their interviews have been published
[and are quoted here from Uygur sources]. Among the interviews
was one which states "Fifty years ago, I saw a document about
that shrine from past Sheykhs. It was copied from the original
document of 'Hazreti Mollam' because while Badawlat (Yaqup Beg)
was mayor of Kashgar, he collected all shrine documents in the
Kashgar area. The preface of the document of 'Hazreti Mollam'
read something like this: 'I am Hazreti Mollam, Mawlana
Shamsaddin Allam Mahmudiya. I have donated my ...Patman land.
After I die, if some of my descendants become Sheykh and
Mutawalla to my shrine, with permission, they must till my land
without selling it, without making their own property, without
inheriting it, [they can] make [or use?] ... oq [unit of
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measure] with grains, the Sheykh can use ... oq of it, the
Mutawalla can use ... oq of it, use ... oq for repairs, spend
for the visitors from many places.'"
The information from these statements is, as suggested,
consistent, and may be summarized as follows: (1) Hazreti
Molla's name was Mahmud ibn Husayn al-Kashgari, his father
Husayn was mayor of Barsgan with the title Amri Sab; his
mother, Bubi Rabiya (or Bubi Rabiya Basri), was an intelligent
woman; (2) Mahmud went to Iraq and Iran to study; he travelled
through the dangerous pass "Muq Yolu;" (3) After he returned,
Mahmud or his student killed a beast and Mahmud taught for 8
years as a Mudderis. He died in 477 A.H. at the age of 97.
Muti'i and Osmanov also discovered during this trip
another hamlet nearby, with the name of S sar Agzi. It had
originally been called Azikh. Azikh is recorded in DLT as "the
name of one of our villages." According to the local
citizenry, the name change took place between 100 to 150 years
ago, after a flood. In an interview, Dawut Zumun, age 90, from
S sar Aghzi < Azikh, stated: "My father died in 1952 at age
110. My grandfather's name was Kanji Ghojikam. The former name
of the hamlet was Azikh. Later on it was inundated by flood
waters from S sar Aghzi which left behind sand, so the name was
changed to 'Qumbagh.' [Qum means sand in Turkish.] 'When we
were growing up, it was Qumbagh,' my father told me. Now it is
called S sar Aghzi."
A short time later, on January 6, 1983, an 80 year-old
man, an intellectual, Emir Husayn Qazi Akhun brought out from
his home an old written document, a book titled Masnawi Sirip.
It contains an inscription written in 1252 Hegira which states
that this book is dedicated to the shrine. The importance of
this inscription lies in the fact that the full name and titled
of the person in the shrine is indicated -- it is the same name
and title listed in DLT and matches the claims of the
villagers:
"On Rajab 14, 1252, the ox year (October 25, 1836 of the
Common Era), I, the qadi of Kashgar court which was established
on the basis of the law, Molla Sadiq Alam bin Shah Ala, have
signed my seal as a document for this: in my healthy age of
114, with my love of and interest in knowledge, and with my
polite manner, I have dedicated forever and I have donated
perpetually my book which is the source of wisdom, replete with
the knowledge, six booklets bound together in one cover,
written with embellishments by the careful pen on the pages, my
expansive property, bought with gold, to the shrine of Hazreti
Mawlam Sams al-Addin Chin Sahibi Qalam Mahmud al-Kashgari which
is buried above the pure spring, on the hillside of Opal in
Kashgar.
"I hope writers and scholars who sit at the stage of the
shrine of Shams al-Addin Husayn Sahibi Qalam Mahmud al-
Kashgari, who sit around the S z k Bulag (the pure spring),
read this book, pray to Sahibi Qalam Hazreti Mawlam Shams al-
Addin Husayn Mahmud al-Kashgari; and teach knowledge to the
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Muslim people and our descendants and nations, making them
superior in quality and excellence. I have appointed my leading
student Molla Heyit Khalpat ibn Molla Ewaz to be the manager of
it. I, Molla Sadiq Alam, have signed my seal below...
"Witnesses of the truth of my statement are Ulama-i
Muddaris al-Nazar Akhunum, Secretary-General Molla Abdurrahim
Nizari and secretary Navruz, secretary Turdus, Turdi Shaykh
Akhunum, Molla Gojilaq, Zayidin Qorulbagi from Opal."
In June 1983, a united archaeological group from the
autonomous regional bureau of cultural relics and the Kashgar
regional bureau went to Opal and made further excavations.
According to their report, the shrine is located at the
latitude 37 degrees, 30' 75" north and longitude 50 degrees 18'
39" east. Some pieces of wood were sent for carbon dating. The
expedition found many pre-Islamic relics, including pieces of
Buddhist sculptures and hundreds of Sanskrit pages from Hazreti
Molla Hill. Hazreti Molla Hill had been a flourishing Buddhist
culture site before Islam. Local people frequently find
Buddhist sculptures, figures, jars, etc. One villager, Qasim
Qazi Akhun remembered: "On the hill, there is an underground
cave named 'Toqquz Qaznaq' ('Nine caverns'), when we were
school children, we used to climb the Mazar and play there,
entering through the top hole and getting out from another
entrance." (Kashgar Adabiyati 1983, I, p. 9) Forty years ago,
Qadir Haji, from the nearest Mollam Beghi village, and his
father Zordun Akhun, dug up a room by the hillside, and when
they opened the door they found a big Buddhist copper statue
weighing 25-30 kg. On a shelf on the left wall, there was a
thick book which they believed was written in "Mongolian."
Qadir Haji kept the book until the Cultural Revolution and then
hid the book when he was accused but now he can not remember
where he hid it. (Mahammat Zumum Sidiq, 1983, p.5)
Wei Liang-tao in pursuing his research on the Qarakhanids,
had travelled to Hazreti Molla Mazar and reported that there
was a stone inscription on the shrine. In his book Sketch of
the History of the Qarakhanids (1983), he stated, "According to
comrade Li Kai, the great writer's inscription was found here
during the Great Cultural Revolution, but soon after that is
was moved to a new county cement plant and was used as a
foundation stone, and now it is difficult to find it again."
The discovery of Kashgarli Mahmud's tomb produced much
excitement. The journal Kashgar Adabiyati dedicated its first
issue of 1984 to this topic. Kashgar Uyghur publications
published a collection Mahmud Kashgari. The government declared
it a protected cultural site and set aside 50,000 Yuan to
rebuild it.
According to the available materials and despite the seven
century gap in evidence, the person mentioned by the villagers
is apparently Mahmud al-Kashgari, the author of Divan Lugat it-
Turk. Even if this is not a genuine shrine, it may still be
true that it was the source of another copy of DLT that was
subsequently lost.
22
AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
In DLT, it is recorded that the writing of the book was
begun in the beginning of the Hegira Jumada I, 464 (January 25
- February 23, 1072). We are told that Mahmud died in 477
Hegira at age 97. Calculating on that basis, Mahmud began his
book at age 82. He was born in 380 Hegira (March 31 990-
February 991) and thus the year 1990 will be the 1000th
anniversary of his birth.
NEWS OF THE PROFESSION
AACAR BULLETIN is published with funding derived from AACAR
Membership dues, and the mailing subvention provided by CCSU.
Therefore, readers of AACAR BULLETIN should be aware that
courtesy copies cannot be provided indefinitely. We urge you to
send in your Membership checks at your earliest convenience, to
ensure uninterrupted delivery. To become a Member of AACAR,
please see the front page for details. Paid-up members will
receive election ballots this fall.
The Internal Revenue Service has ruled that AACAR is a tax-
exempt, publicly supported organization, as defined under
section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Therefore, all
membership dues, grants, contributions, gifts and donations
made to AACAR are tax-deductible.
DUE TO A CATASTROPHIC COMPUTER FAILURE, almost all of the
contents of this very issue of the AACAR BULLETIN was lost
during the final stage of preparation. The backup copies were
also found to have been corrupted by a directly related
malfunction. Consequently, reconstruction of this issue was
undertaken from tertiary sources. However, majority of the
material under the section NEWS OF THE PROFESSION, i.e.
segments on News of Scholars, their research; news of related
Scholarly Associations; Journals; Publishers; Booksellers; past
conferences (including full lists of participants and their
paper topics), adding up to approximately twelve more pages,
were found to be unreconstructable. All such items will
continue to be included in the future issues. In the meantime,
necessary steps have been taken and all defective hardware
replaced to prevent similar occurrences in the future. We
regret the delay in the record.
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, Department of Russian & East European
Studies (Professor Thomas NOONAN, Chair), has established a
program in Soviet Central Asian Studies. The Program is
directed by Professor Iraj BASHIRI, and, in addition to two
years of Persian Language, includes the following courses:
Readings in Tajik; Soviet Central Asian Cultural Sphere (Fall
Term); Islam in the USSR; Introduction to the Culture of
Afghanistan; Fiction: Iran and Soviet Central Asia; Medieval
Sages: Iran and Soviet Central Asia; The Nomads of the Southern
Russia from the Scythians to the Mongols.
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AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
The W. Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the
Soviet Union of the COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY has established the
Nationality and Siberian Studies Program. Directed by Prof.
Alexander J. MOTYL, the Program Secretary is Charles FURTADO
Jr., an advanced graduate student. The Program also issues a
Newsletter. Contact: Room 1319, International Affairs Building,
Columbia University, NY NY 10027. 212/280-4668 & 212/854-4668.
The Nationality and Siberian Studies Program of the W. Averell
Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union,
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY has joined AACAR as an Institutional
Member. We extend our warm collegial welcome.
Urgash DOWLATI (whose name in Chinese transcription is Wuer
Kaixi), the Uyghur pro-democracy student leader, has managed to
leave PRC despite being on the "most wanted list" encompassing
21 activists, and arrived in Paris. Various US newspapers
indicated that during August he was in Chicago, addressing
supporters of the pro-democracy movement at a public rally.
Reportedly, he has been offered a four year scholarship at
Harvard. Urgash DOWLATI has reached world-wide prominence due
to his spirited televised dialogue with the PRC Prime Minister
Li Peng during May 1989.
"ECOLOGY AND EMPIRE: A SYMPOSIUM ON NOMADS IN THE CULTURAL
EVOLUTION OF THE OLD WORLD" was held at the Center for Visual
Anthropology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles,
3-5 February 1989. The Symposium was dedicated to the memory of
Nobel Laureate Prof. Richard Feynman (Physics--Cal. Tech), in
recognition of his life-time interest in the Central Asian
Region of Tuva, its people, and Kizil, the principal city in
the area.
Richard N. FRYE (Agha Khan Professor of Iranian Studies --
Harvard) kindly provided the following precis.
"The date of horse riding as opposed to the use of horses
to pull chariots or carts was a much discussed subject during
the symposium. From the Vedas as well as archeology it seems
that the Indo-Iranians in their expansion to the south rode
chariots and did not use horses for riding. Horse riding seems
to have been required for the control of large herds of cattle
or sheep, which is essential for nomadism. Litvinsky defended a
date for the extensive use of horse riding by nomads beginning
in the ninth century B.C. while Vainshtein proposed the middle
of the second millennium B. C. The date is important for the
time of Zoroaster among other reasons, for trying to secure a
firm date.It is a subject still in much dispute but with
indications pointing towards the later rather than the earlier
dating.
Dating was also the subject of several papers on the site
of Pazaryk, and the fourth century B. C. proposed by Rubinson
24
AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
was seconded by Jacobson, who convincingly argued that most if
not all objects from the graves were manufactured locally and
not imported from Iran. The Achaemenid motifs, e.g. on the
famous carpet, reveal the synthetic properties of later nomadic
art, borrowing from Greek, Iranian and other arts, as compared
with the earlier, indigenous animal styles. The attribution of
the origin of the 'animal style' to China or Luristan was
attacked by several participants.
Vasiliev reported continuing work on a three volume corpus
of Old Turkish (runic) inscriptions, one volume of which is
already published in Moscow, while the others will be published
in Leningrad and Budapest respectively. He also suggested that
the many inscriptions found on stone statues (balbals) were for
the most part inscribed later than the carving and erection of
the statues. His work of searching for more inscriptions is
continuing.
Much of the program was devoted to prehistoric questions
of alimentation of ancient peoples and the use of animals. For
example, it seems that sheep originally had smooth skin and
only in the middle of the fourth millennium B. C. were
domesticated sheep raised for their wool as well as for food.
Wooly sheep were a development of cross breeding according to
Barber. Also the change to an Iron Age in which shears were
invented changed the method of securing sheep's wool from
combing and plucking to cutting. Many such technical questions
were discussed.
Lawergren reconstructed the harp found in a kurgan in
Pazaryk in a model, but Basilov proposed another reconstruction
as a two stringed instrument played with a bow. Whether bow
instruments were known at that early time was hotly discussed
and the most favored position was that the instrument was
indeed a harp.
For details of publication of the papers, Prof. Gary
SEAMAN of the Anthropology Department of USC may be consulted."
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION will be hosting a symposium "RULERS
FROM THE STEPPE: STATE FORMATION ON THE EURASIAN PERIPHERY"
November 16-17 1989. Organized by Gary SEAMAN, Center for
Visual Anthropology, University of Southern California, with
the assistance of Edmund WORTHY, Smithsonian Institution, the
symposium focuses on the processes of geopolitical interaction
and cultural evolution of Central Asia and surrounding regions.
The symposium complements the exhibition "Nomads: Masters
of the Eurasian Steppe", organized by the Academy of Sciences
of the USSR, in conjunction with the Natural History Museum of
Los Angeles County. This exhibition concludes its US tour at
the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, where it
will be on view November 17, 1989 through February 18, 1990.
The participating US scholars and their paper topics are:
Thomas BARFIELD (Boston U) "Inner Asia and the Cycles of
Nomadic Power;" Michael DROMPP (Rhodes Coll.) "Supernumerary
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AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
Sovereigns: Superfluity and Mutability in the Elite Power
Structure of the Early Turks;" Peter GOLDEN (Rutgers) "The
Qipchaks of Medieval Eurasia: An Example of Stateless
Adaptation on the Steppe;" Ruth DUNNELL (Kenyon Coll.) "The
Fall of Xia: Sino-Steppe Relations in the Late Twelfth to Early
Thirteenth Centuries;" Thomas ALLSEN (Trenton State Coll.)
"Changing Forms of Legitimation in Mongol Iran;" Elizabeth
Endicott-West (Harvard) "Aspects of Khitan Liao and Mongolian
Yuan Imperial Rule: A Comparative Perspective."
Subject to final confirmation, the Soviet delegation is
likely to be composed of the following individuals: Y. LUBO-
LESNICHENKO (Hermitage Museum-Leningrad); Lorissa PAVLINSKAYA
(Institute of Ethnography, Academy of Sciences of the USSR -
Leningrad); Evgenii KYCHANOV (Oriental Institute, Academy of
Sciences of the USSR-Leningrad); German FEODOROV-DAVYDOV (U of
Moscow); Natalia ZHUKOVSKAIAI (Institute of Ethnography,
Academy of Sciences of the USSR); Lorissa LEVINA (Institute of
Ethnography, Academy of Sciences of the USSR); Galina
LEBEDINSKAYA (Institute of Ethnography, Academy of Sciences of
the USSR); K. A. AKISHEV (Institute of History, Archeology and
Ethnography, Academy of Sciences of Kazakh SSR, Alma-Ata); O.
B. NAUMOVA (Institute of Ethnography, Academy of Sciences of
the USSR); V. N. BASILOV (Institute of Ethnography, Academy of
Sciences of the USSR).
For registration information and further details about the
symposium, which is free and open to the public, please
contact:
Office of Conference Services, Room 3123, Ripley Center,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 20560.
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON "TIMURID AND T RKMEN SOCIETIES IN
TRANSITION: IRAN IN THE 15TH CENTURY" will be held during the
23rd annual conference of the Middle East Studies Association
of North America at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto, Canada,
November 15-18, 1989. It follows the exhibition of Timurid and
T rkmen art, "Timur and the Princely Vision," held at the
Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution and at the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art. It features ten academic panels
on various aspects of Timurid and T rkmen history, literature,
culture, art and architecture, and will bring together
specialists from the US, Canada, Europe, the USSR, Japan, China
and Turkey. For details, contact the co-organizers: Dr. Maria
SUBTELNY, Dept. of Middle East & ISlamic Studies, University of
Toronto, Toronto, Canada M5S 1A1; or, Dr. Lisa GOLOMBEK, Royal
Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park Cres., Toronto, Canada M5S
2C6. Registration for the Symposium should be done through the
MESA Secretariat, Department of Oriental Studies, University of
Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MUSLIM MINORITY/MAJORITY RELATIONS
will be held October 24-26, 1989 at the North Academic Center,
City College of the City University of New York. Jointly
26
AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
sponsored by Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs (London);
Division of Humanities at CCNY; The Simon H. Rifkind Center for
the Humanities; Association for the Study of Nationalities
(USSR and Eastern Europe), the conference Organization
Committee comprises: co-chairmen Dr. Syed Z. ABEDIN (Director,
IMMA, P. O. Box 8856, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia-21492) and Dr.
Michael RYWKIN (Chairman, ASN, Russian Area Studies Program,
CCNY, NY 10031). Members of the Organizing Committee are Dr.
Henry HUTTENBACH (Editor, Nationalities Papers, Department of
History, CCNY, NY 10031), Dr. Sharifa M. ZAWAWI (Dept. of
Classics, CCNY, 10031) and Dr. Hamid ISMAIL (Business Mgr.
JIMMA, 46 Goodge Str. London W1P 1FJ, UK). Thirteen sessions
are indicated, each consisting of three to five papers.
BOOK REVIEWS
A History of the Seljuks: Ibrahim Kafesoglu's Interpretation
and the Resulting Controversy, translated, edited and with an
introduction by Gary Leiser. Southern Illinois University
Press, 1988. (P. O. Box 3697 Carbondale, IL 62902). Hardcover,
$29.95.
Embarking on research in the Seljuk era long has been a
dauntingly formidable undertaking for the Western scholar who
possesses a less-than-perfect knowledge of Turkish and the many
other languages that embrace critically important primary
sources. The period has remained obscured, and scholarship on
it inadequate. Gary Leiser performs a series of valuable
services in this publication which are certain to encourage the
advance of scholarly research on the Seljuks.
Leiser begins by providing the first English translation
of Ibrahim Kafesoglu's article on the Seljuks as it appeared
between 1964 and 1965 in the Islam Ansiklopedisi (IA). For all
who have waded through the dense Turkish of the original, this
eminently clear translation comes like a gift from heaven.
Leiser suggests that Kafesoglu's packed, disconnected prose
style may be partially responsible for the confusion and
misinterpretation that have followed.
The publication of this article invited a biting attack by
Osman Turan, another of Turkey's leading authorities on the
Seljuks. Turan maintains that his book, Sel uklular Tarihi,
which was the original article manuscript he submitted to the
IA, was wilfully borrowed by Kafesoglu, the replacement author
of the article for the IA. Turan dismisses Kafesoglu as merely
a narrator, incapable of profound scientific research or of
solving important historical problems. One telling detail of
the absurdity of the attacks is that Turan blasts Kafesoglu
both for plagiarizing him and for NOT plagiarizing him!
Leiser gives helpful biographical information on the
three main characters involved in this controversy, Kafesoglu,
Turan and Professor Ahmet Ates, director of the editorial
committee of the IA. He then proceeds to translate the initial
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AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
critique by Turan as it appeared in Belleten 29 (1965):639-60,
and the rebuttals from Ates, replying in the same journal,
Belleten 30 (1966):459-66, and Kafesoglu, in the same edition,
467-79. Ates stands firmly in support of Kafesoglu, bitter that
the editorial integrity of the IA was brought into question.
All three articles are unfortunate personal vendettas,
partially inspired by professional jealousy. Prestige was at
stake for the scholar who won the privilege of authoring the
Seljuks article for the IA. And in the case of Turan, it must
be recalled that his political activities had alienated him
from scholarly circles and he was looking at the IA article as
a means to re-establish his credentials in academia. What is
important to the reader is not this oftentimes petty
backbiting, but rather the more fundamental question of the
accuracy of the article for ongoing scholarship. Apparently
Kafesoglu intended to make some corrections and revisions in
the English translation of his article, but he died before
completing that task. With the other two men also passed away,
the personalities involved in the controversy can be
downplayed, and the next generation of Seljuk scholars can get
on with the research challenge at hand.
Leiser makes no attempt to resolve the swirling
accusations of plagiarism and shoddy scholarship, nor has
anyone else yet taken on that task. He has made a Herculean
effort to accurately translate the article and its footnotes,
as well as the exceptions and counter-exceptions, thus enabling
all future researchers looking at the Seljuks to now begin from
the same body of knowledge.
Ironically, both Turan and Kafesoglu actually ascribe to
very similar interpretations of Seljuk history. That is
important; their feud much less so. Leiser's book helps to put
all of this in perspective. In addition to the translations, he
also includes an extraordinarily useful bibliography of primary
sources for the history of the Seljuks as well as revised
genealogical charts for the period. Gary Leiser has taken
Seljuk scholarship an important step forward, hopefully laying
to rest a divisive controversy, and leading the way to a new
era of serious, collaborative Seljuk scholarship.
Nancy S. Pyle
Harvard University
Philip A. Bayer, The Evolution of the Soviet General Staff,
1917-1941. New York: Garland Publishing, 1987. (136 Madison
Ave., NY NY 10016).
Philip Bayer asserts in his recent study that "the Soviet
General Staff evolved into the most important military
institution" of the USSR. This conclusion is not new but does
serve to emphasize the need for additional study of the general
staff if scholars are to better understand the formative
experience of the Red Army and the forces that shaped it. To
date, the most comprehensive work on the subject is John
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AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
Erickson's The Soviet High Command: A Military-Political
History 1918-1941 (London: Macmillan, 1962). (A reprinted
edition by Westview Press appeared in 1984.) In contrast to
Erickson's broad approach, Bayer frames his investigation
around three core questions. First, to what extent did the
Soviet General Staff reflect the influence of the tsarist and
traditional German General Staffs? Second, what importance did
the general staff assume in Soviet politics and society? Third,
what was the influence of leading Red Army theorists on the
structure and functions of the general staff?
The formative stages of the early Red Army Staff occupy
two full chapters of Bayer's analysis and justifiably so. The
creation of the Red Army amidst the maelstrom of civil war and
the disintegration of the old Russian Empire constitutes a
remarkable episode in military history. With scant practical
experience in either governmental or military affairs, Lenin,
Trotsky and their Bolshevik comrades struggled in 1918 to forge
an army and consolidate their tenuous grip on power. The crisis
brought on by war demanded the adoption of such ideologically
distasteful but pragmatically essential measures as the use of
the former tsarist officers, who were subsequently known as
"military specialists" or voenspetsy. Many of the voenspetsy,
such as A. A. Svechin or B. M. Shaposhnikov, went on to play
vital roles after the civil war in the development of military
doctrine and institutions in the Soviet Union.
Bayer briefly considers the collective influence of the
voenspetsy and in a subsequent chapter discusses Shaposhnikov's
theories at some length. Extensive research remains to be done
on the voenspetsy, entailing both a deeper analysis of their
intellectual experiences in the Imperial Army and their common
political battle for professional preeminence in the Red Army
during the 1920s and 1930s. Since the appearance of Bayer's
work, the Soviet scholar A. G. Kavtaradze has written a
pioneering study, Voennye spetsialisty na sluzhbe Respubliki
Sovetov 1917-1920 gg. (Moscow: Nauka, 1988), in which he
identifies leading voenspetsy and documents their
representation among commanders in the Workers-Peasants Red
Army (RKKA). Although he does not trace the career patterns of
such officers, Kavtaradze has nevertheless opened a path for
further investigation. Certainly, for example, a closer look at
the careers of officers who served in Central Asia before and
after the revolution would enrich our knowledge of the way in
which such experience shaped specific aspects of military
doctrine or the employment of non-Russians in units of the Red
Army. Substantial evidence exists that Red Army officers looked
to prerevolutionary experience for guidance concerning the
campaigns against the Basmachis and the Central Asian theatre
was an occasional topic of analysis in the professional
literature of the 1930s.
Closer scrutiny of the careers of the Red Army officers
need not be confined to voenspetsy. M. V. Frunze's short tenure
as commander of the Turkestan front in 1920, during which he
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AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
revamped the regional military organization, received brief
treatment in M. A. Gareev's M. V. Frunze-- Voennyi teoretik
(Moscow: Voenizdat, 1985). By 1922, using a pragmatic blend of
force, propaganda and expedient concessions (often temporary),
the Reds had weathered the worst of Basmachi resistance in
Central Asia. Before his sudden death in 1925, Frunze
propounded his central theory of unified military doctrine,
which stressed the function of social, economic and political
factors in the generation of military power, and briefly served
as Commissar of War.
Bayer does not purport to discuss the backgrounds of the
voenspetsy; nor does he attempt to assess the military
experience in specific theatres. Rather, he confines his
analysis of the roots of the Soviet General Staff to a concise
examination of the German General Staff and, to a lesser
degree, its counterpart in Imperial Russia. Using Bronsart von
Schellendorff's nineteenth-century treatise, The Duties of the
General Staff, as his point of departure, Bayer identifies
similarities in the structure and functions of the Soviet
General Staff with the German model. A more substantial
critique of the tsarist general staff, based on use of the
professional literature of the Imperial Russian Army of the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, would have given
this discussion greater depth but its absence does not
seriously detract from his general line of argument. Following
the merger of the Civil War Field Staff, which supervised
military operations, and the Main Staff, which oversaw
administration and recruitment, the new Red Army Staff came to
resemble the German Staff of World War I.
One source of this similarity was the close military
association between the Soviet Union and Germany from 1922 to
1933, during which time leading Soviet theorists made good
professional use of the opportunity to exchange ideas. In 1927,
Shaposhnikov published his seminal work Mozg armii in which he
advanced the case for a powerful general staff. Although the
importance of the Soviet General Staff, as reflected in the
prestige of the General Staff Academy, reached considerable
proportions, it did not, however, match its traditional German
counterpart in political influence. Bayer pointedly observes
that Stalin appointed four Chiefs of Staff during the period
from 1933 to 1941. Indeed, the general staff remained, if
anything, a pawn in the political struggles of the Soviet state
from the attack on Trotsky in 1923 through the purges of the
army in the late 1930s. Bayer quite properly concludes that
"The Soviet General Staff did not become a significant force in
politics or society between 1917 and 1941."
In sum, Bayer's study is based upon solid research and
reaches sober, well-supported conclusions. Although many
findings are not entirely new, Bayer has rendered a valuable
service by providing a readable, informed synthesis of
available knowledge on the Soviet General Staff. He has done
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AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
this within a logical historical framework and has laid a firm
foundation for future scholarship.
Robert F. Baumann
Combat Studies Institute
US Army Command and General Staff College
Elizabeth Endicott-West, Mongolian Rule in China: Local
Administration in the Y an Dynasty. Harvard University Press,
1989. (79 Garden Str. Cambridge, MA 02138).
The Research in Mongolian history of the Y an period done
by Elizabeth Endicott-West might be the first work with an in-
depth analysis of Mongolian rule over China through the Y an
regional local administration. Her book not only contains
excellent research in the aforementioned area, but it provides
successful "revisionist" explanations for many traditional
viewpoints. For scholars and researchers in Mongolian or Y an
history, her work contributes valuable information.
At the beginning she states, "Neither China or Mongolia
emerged from the Y an Dynasty unchanged by their century-long
interaction. Chinese notions of rule and governance were
greatly altered by over one hundred years of Mongolian
overlordship. Similarly, one hundred years of exposure to
Chinese culture and immersion in the day-to-day tasks of
governing a large sedentary empire could not but have altered
Mongolian concepts of rulership." (P.1) She continues, "By
investigating the details of Y an civilian bureaucracy in
action, we may then seek to define the nature of Mongolian
concepts of rule and how those concepts were reflected in the
practical running of a large sedentary bureaucracy. In fact,
only by studying government at the local level can we with
reasonable confidence tackle the difficult question of
centralization, systematization, and effective control
questions historians of the Y an have long been debating."
(P.2) Following this approach, Endicott-West identifies
darughachi as the key institution of Y an-Mongolian local
administration, and using it as the central focus she develops
a good analysis.
The author searched from the period of non-Chinese
dynasties of conquest to the darughachi, attempting to
determine the origin of the Y an local administration and the
situation of darughachi. She discovered that the cause for "the
duplication and redundancy function and responsibilities...and
the unprecedented and complex nature of Y an regional-local
government" (P.11) was "a strategy of a government of
occupation on foreign soil." (P.14) Using this information she
outlines a very detailed description and analysis of the
functions of the darughachi. She addresses the nationalities of
the darughachi by illustrating the legal limitations of the
Mongols and of the Central and Western Asians. She surveyed the
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AACAR BULLETIN Fall 1989
available numbers of darughachi and suggests the actual Chinese
outnumbered the Mongols and the Central and Western Asians. She
also compares the functions of the darughachi in Y an China
with those of the Golden Horde and Il-Khanids, and she explains
the differences between the appointment and assignment of the
darughachi in the regular local government bureaucracy and that
of the appanages (t'ou-hsia or fen-ti). In every discussion she
uses original materials. For example, to support her opinions
she cites the Ta-Y an sheng-cheng kuo-ch'ao tien-chang (Y an
tien-chang) and the T'ung-chin t'iao-ko, which are very
difficult to read and translate. She also uses many collections
of the Y an Chinese literati and scholarly officials. The
translation of these materials and notes exemplifies her
diligence and enthusiasm for her work.
In her discussion of the appointment of the darughachi,
she analyzes the factors causing the Y an rulers' abolition of
the examination system -- Chinese traditional entrance into
imperial bureaucracy -- and its impact and the Y an practice of
hereditary system for appointments. She suggests that
negligence or the lack of understanding of Confucianism and
fewer appointments of scholarly officials were some of the main
reasons for the failure of Mongolian rule in China. She points
out that the non-centralized nature of Y an regional-local
government derived from Mongolian socio-political tradition and
practice. The creation of the Y an collective responsibility
and decision making, such as the importance of the institution
of the office conference (y an -tso) was a result of the
traditional Mongolian kurultai institution. In the chapters
discussing the darughachi of the appanages, Endicott-West
provides a detailed analysis of the conflict between the khans'
court and the imperial princes or the feudal lords of the
appanages. And, she points out that this conflict originated
from the Mongolian tradition wherein "the family member was
entitled to share (khubi) and that was a concept to a nomadic
culture." (P.90)
In short, the author of this book tries to reach an
explanation for the phenomenal Mongolian tradition. Many
scholars have been disadvantaged by using the Chinese sources,
because when they looked into the Mongolian Chinese
interaction, their opinions were unavoidably influenced by the
negative view of the Chinese. The Chinese historical records
always attempted to avoid recognizing anything not derived from
the Chinese tradition, which is why the "Monograph of
Punishment" in the Y an-shih says, "at the beginning of the
dynasty there was no legal institution." (P.102) It clearly
shows that the Mongolian institutions established before the
Y an dynasty were thoroughly ignored.
As a critic, I must point out two printing errors: on page
83, line 8 "chia" in yu-ken-chia Se-mu--jen should be "chiao;"
on page 139, note 20, "lkueh" in ching-lkueh an-fu shih should
be "lueh."
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The depth of this book is admirable. It is a great
contribution to scholars who are eager to study the Y an
regional-local administration that had great impact on the
interaction between the Mongols and Chinese and their history.
Nevertheless, because of its academic nature, it might be
difficult for amateur scholars to enjoy.
Sechin Jagchid
Brigham Young University
Hasan Javadi, Satire in Persian Literature. Rutherford, NJ:
Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1988. (440 Forsgate Dr.,
Cranbury, NJ 08512). 333 Pp. Hardcover, $39.50.
Satire, in its broadest sense, has always been present in
Persian literature, but it reached its greatest development
during times of political or social transition such as
revolutions. Persian satire has its own particular qualities
and while it shares technical terminology with other Islamic
literatures, it develops in its own way as an aspect of the
Persian sense of humor and idea of what situations are funny.
Javadi distinguishes among hajv "invective, or lampoon," the
opposite of panegyric, usually directed against an individual;
hazl, a humorous poetic genre, often dealing with sexual
subjects, and tanz, a term which has been adopted to cover the
former types as well as more modern forms of satire. The
greater part of satirical writing in Persian is in poetry. Thus
Persian satire is fairly culture-bound and does not always
translate well. Nevertheless, it can still be an index to
certain aspects of Persian culture, and for this reason it is
important for students of Iran, or of satire, to be aware of
its nature, form, and subjects, as well as its history. In
these respects, Hasan Javadi has done a favor for students of
Persian literature and cultural history.
The author states clearly that it was not his intention to
develop a theory of Persian satire, but to survey the history
of it in its various forms and stages. The present book is thus
a large collection of examples of various kinds of Persian
satire, drawn from all periods but with the emphasis on the
past one hundred years. This emphasis coincides more or less
with the development of printing in Iran and the movements that
led to the Constitutional and Islamic revolutions. During this
period Persian satire was particularly rich and varied, and the
possibility of wide distribution through print, in addition to
the social and political ferment of the times, greatly
encouraged satirical writing. It should not be surprising that
the Turkish speakers of Azerbaijan, who were deeply involved in
the Constitutional movement, were vigorous satirists, and it is
to the author's credit that he gives many examples of satirical
writing that while culturally Persian, were written in Turkish.
This is one of the few works that makes explicit the extensive
contribution of writers of Turkish to the Persian literary
scene of the twentieth century.
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Many subjects of satire are surveyed by Javadi, as well as
the numerous situations that gave rise to it. For example,
there are chapters on satire and religion, political satire,
and satire and women. Satire in various literary genres such as
fiction, drama, and journalism is also reported. Sometimes the
author's examples wander away from satire into general social
criticism, blurring the distinction between what is satirical
and what is simply critical. Numerous examples are translated
into English. A particularly useful aspect of the book is the
many illustrations drawn from satirical publications from 1906
to 1980. These are often unsophisticated artistically, but have
a direct appeal as caricatures of individuals or social
situations. There is an extensive bibliography of satirical
journals in Persian and Azeri Turkish.
Unfortunately the book suffers from many misprints and
typographical errors that should be corrected. In spite of
this, Satire in Persian Literature is a welcome contribution
and will be used by students of the cultural history of Iran as
well as by those interested in Persian culture. It could also
be a stimulus to further research on the specific nature of
Persian satire.
William L. Hanaway, Jr.
University of Pennsylvania
James A. McHenry, Jr., The Uneasy Partnership, 1919-1939: The
Political and Diplomatic Interaction Between Great Britain,
Turkey, and the Turkish Cypriot Community. Garland Publishing,
1987. (see above).
This is a highly competent work of scholarship covering a
chapter in Cyprus's troubled past which has thus far not been
adequately studied -- namely the period during which the island
was occupied by Great Britain.
Although the author is interested primarily in the inter-
war years, he does an excellent job of analyzing British policy
toward Cyprus from the mid-1800s on. He shows us that the
British occupation of the island was an integral part of what
Rudyard Kipling dubbed the "Great Game," or rivalry between
Russia and Great Britain for control of the Middle East and
Central Asia. In the post-Napoleonic era, when the
Mediterranean sea became the lifeline of the British empire,
the British government became increasingly concerned about its
safety and dreaded more than anything else the intrusion of
Russia into the vital waterway. Yet the opening of a window
upon the Mediterranean was one of the primary goals of Russian
foreign policy. To achieve their aim, the Russians had to
destroy the Ottoman empire and capture the Straits. Therefore,
the British were determined to bolster the "sick man of Europe"
by every means possible.
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The British had hoped that the Treaty of Paris of 1856,
which had concluded the Crimean War, had put an end to Russian
aggressiveness against the Ottoman empire and established a
kind of balance of strength in the Black Sea region. But the
Russian invasion of 1877 showed this to have been mere wishful
thinking, and represented a major threat to British hegemony in
the eastern Mediterranean, for, according to the San Stefano
Treaty of March 1878, the new Russian satellite of Bulgaria
stretched all the way to the Aegean sea. Britain joined Austria
(which was also threatened by Russian penetration into the
Balkans) into asking for a pan-European conference to settle
the "Eastern Question." At this conference, the Congress of
Berlin of July 1878, a new balance of strength was established
according to which Bulgaria was shorn of its Aegean littoral
and Russia, Great Britain and Austria all got some territory at
the expense of Turkey. The Russians were awarded Kars and
Ardahan, the Austrians were allowed to administer Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and the British were allowed to administer Cyprus.
The British were able to gain the approval of the Porte for
their occupation of Cyprus by arguing that the presence of
British troops on the island would act as a deterrent against
any further Russian encroachment in Anatolia, but, in truth,
the Turks were left with little choice as to the outcome of the
negotiations, for they did not want to antagonize the British.
For the British, the occupation of Cyprus served not only
as a warning to the Russians but also as a base from which to
protect the recently completed Suez Canal. However, the
occupation of Egypt in 1882 enabled the British to give the
canal more direct supervision, thus decreasing the strategic
importance of Cyprus. The island became even more of a military
and diplomatic backwater as the focus of the Great Game moved
to Central Asia, where Russia challenged British authority more
directly by threatening India itself.
In the end, although the British transformed Cyprus into a
crown colony in November 1914, the only viable reason for their
continued presence on the island was to prevent any other
nation from seizing it, thereby threatening British interests
in the eastern Mediterranean. In the words of Dr. McHenry, "the
island took on the status of a low-value poker chip which could
neither be cashed in nor played to any significant advantage."
Because of its declining importance to them, the British
increasingly neglected the island, and the welfare of its
inhabitants suffered accordingly. This had the result of
intensifying the clamor of the Greek Cypriots for enosis, or
union with Greece. But Greek nationalism on Cyprus constituted
a major threat to the Turkish Cypriot community, for it aimed
at the local Hellenization of the island. In order to protect
their culture and, indeed, their very existence as a separate
community, the Turkish Cypriots turned to Turkish nationalism.
This presented Atat rk with a complicated problem, for he had
specifically excluded Cyprus from those territories which he
claimed as belonging to the Turkish nation, and he was eager to
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maintain cordial relations with the British government. He,
therefore, adopted what Dr. McHenry calls a "two-tier policy"
towards Cyprus: on one hand, he urged the British to stay in
Cyprus (for he was afraid that they would surrender it to
Greece), and, on the other, he challenged the British
authorities over specific bureaucratic abuses committed by them
to discourage the Turkish Cypriots from openly advocating
Kemalist reforms.
Dr. McHenry has made extensive use of Turkish and Turkish
Cypriot sources, and, in his analysis of the Cyprus problem as
it existed during the days of the British Raj, he displays
commendable objectivity. This is definitely one of the most
significant works about Cyprus to be published in recent years.
Pierre Oberling
Hunter College
Afghanistan; The Great Game Revisited, (Rosanne Klass, Ed.),
New York: Freedom House, 1987. (48 E 21st Str., NY NY 10010)
510 Pp. $19.95 ppr, $29.95 cloth.
The thirteen essays in this volume pack quite a punch.
Sometimes emotional but never sentimental, the contributors
provide stunning evidence and close argument that the Soviet
invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and subsequent occupation were
not a result of misjudgment or response to threat, nor is the
war costly to the Soviets. Rather, Soviet policies and actions
have been and are deliberate and carefully planned.
Contributors emphasize the "long-range nature of the Soviet
threat" (p.64, Leon Poullada), continuities of goals and
policies between imperial Russia and the USSR, and between
current policies in Afghanistan (and Soviet Central Asia) and
long-range global economic plans or geopolitical and/or
military strategy. Afghanistan, furthermore, is shown to bear
the financial burden for its own destruction.
Several contributions cover internal Afghan matters, including
a detailed profile of Resistance groups, as well as Soviet
policies. Most of the contributions represent a summary or
update of these writers' earlier works in their respective
fields, but even when no new ground is broken, it is useful to
have the material, with notes and cross-references in one
volume. The volume provides 140 pages of appendices including a
chronology, a glossary, "who's who," and an annotated
bibliography.
Certainly, the volume is misnamed. The Great Game, to be a
"game" at all, must have at least two players, relatively
equally matched, who manipulate "pieces" on the "game board."
In the 19th century, the Anglo-Russian competition in Central
Asia fulfilled these requirements. (One should consult Edward
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Ingram's fine monographs on the Great Game for detailed and
sophisticated discussion.) Since the British left India, as
several contributors to this volume acknowledge, there has been
no other "player" to take the place of the English in opposing
Russian expansion southward. This volume is thus, in some sense
and despite hopeful words about "the West" aiding the
Resistance, about the victory of the Russian player in the
absence of determined and consistent opposition from an "equal"
opponent.
Among the finest essays in this volume was the discussion of
Soviet exploitation of Afghan mineral resources by John F.
Shroder and Abdul Tawan Assifi which demonstrates, inter alia,
that the USSR has used its below-market payments for Afghan gas
to finance their occupation of Afghanistan. This theme is also
taken up in a strong piece by M. Siddieq Noorzoy who makes use
of trade information and other economic data to illustrate that
the Soviets sell the Afghans the very military equipment that
is used to enforce Soviet occupation. These items "include of
course the aircraft which bomb and strafe Afghan villages..."
(p. 81)
Frederick Barth's contribution on the "Cultural Wellsprings of
Resistance" might well be a "yardstick" by which to measure
many claims about Afghan society and the Resistance, including
some essays in this volume. At a time when most commentators
and analysts are content to use Islam as the sole explanation
for the nature of Afghan society, the basis of Resistance and
other phenomena in Afghanistan (or in Iran, Soviet Central Asia
and so on), Prof. Barth provides insight into Afghan values
apart from the Islamic (without discounting Islam) and provides
a picture of how the Afghans see themselves.
Unfortunately, this book is marred by several shortcomings from
simple factual errors to a casual treatment of history and
confusion in the meaning and usage of key terms including
"nation," "ethnic group," "modern(ization)," "developed." Both
the "Chronology of Afghan History" (Appendix II) and Prof. A.
Rasul Amin's useful and interesting article suggest
(respectively, pp. 372-3; 326) that Timur was a Mongol, which
he was not, or identify him and the cultural contributions of
his descendants as exclusively Persian. Timur was a Turk of the
Barlas clan. The forces he led were largely Turkish, though
there were Mongol elements interspersed. The languages of his
own court and that of his successors included Chaghatay
(Turkish) as well as Persian. Babur, founder of the Moghul
dynasty and a direct descendant of Timur, harbored enormous
disdain for Mongols, though his Indian subjects mistakenly
called him "Mogul" (presumably because he arrived from the same
direction whence the Mongols issued).
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Several contributions to the book include "historical
background" sections even by people whose training and
strengths lie elsewhere. The use of this phrase, common though
it may be, suggests that any references to the past establish
an adequate historical framework within which to understand
events. In view of the harsh words which Ms. Klass, in her
introductory chapter, uses for "those completely ignorant of
the history of Afghan-Soviet relations" (p.6), one might have
expected her to see that her own house was in order. Ambassador
Poullada uses the term "manifest destiny" to describe Russian
expansion (p.38) as if there were a valid parallel to be made
with US history -- a popular but extremely misleading notion.
Prof. Noorzoy states, "It is well known, of course, that the
USSR is a monolithic state," (p.72) a claim over which most
Soviet specialists have been arguing for decades. Most worrying
in this regard is Yosef Bodansky's article because his
imprecise and misleading "historical" references pervade the
entire article and detract from his very valuable presentation
of Soviet military doctrine and practice (which one wishes were
more precisely referenced; his allusion to "Russian language
sources available only to the specialist" is hardly
satisfactory since so many such specialists are reading this
volume). Mr. Bodansky repeats the cliche "Tatar Yoke" not less
than four times and refers interchangeably to this "Tatar
Yoke", the Mongol conquests and "a thousand years" of Russian-
Muslim contact -- which he claims was "mostly hostile" -- (pp.
230, 233, 246) as though the Turco-Mongol troops of Batu had
been Muslim. He refers to the "beginning of Russian expansion
into the Muslim territories in the early 18th century" (p.233)
apparently forgetting the conquest of the Volga in the 1550s.
He refers to "traditional Russian operational art [of war]"
(p.250) though he had already established that it had been
adopted from the Tatars (p.246). Certainly this is not the
place for a reevaluation of Tatar-Russian or Muslim-Russian
relations, but the historical picture that emerges is
remarkably similar to official Soviet portrayals and would be
best omitted.
With the much touted, always impending, "Soviet withdrawal"
from Afghanistan, does this book retain its relevance?
Emphatically so. Several contributions provide a firm basis for
evaluating a military withdrawal, should it come, and show that
Soviet control remains tight. Sadly, military withdrawal may
signal the success of the Soviet program rather than its
defeat.
Audrey L. Altstadt
Connecticut State University-New Britain
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