Central Asia in World History Read online

  Some 3,000 years later, the building of irrigation canals secured a more reliable basis for agriculture and further population growth. Contacts developed with Elam (southwestern Iran) and Sumerian Mesopotamia to the west, and with Afghanistan and India to the east. Some settlements appear to have had connections with or perhaps even derived from the Harappan civilization (about 3000–2000 BCE) of the Indus valley (northwestern India and Pakistan). Early Dravidian peoples, now concentrated in southern India, may have spread across the southern rim of Central Asia, producing a series of settlements from India to Iran, including perhaps even Elam, although this remains debated. Today, the nearly one million Brahui found in eastern Iran, southern Afghanistan, and Pakistan may be the remnants of a pre-historic Dravidian layer of peoples in the Central Asian ethnic mosaic. There were, undoubtedly, other still-unidentified peoples that settled in this vast expanse as well. For example, linguistic evidence suggests that the Burushaski language in northern Pakistan, unrelated to any of the languages surrounding it, may have affiliations with languages spoken in Daghestan in the northeastern Caucasus, although this hypothesis is not universally accepted. The ethnic pre-history of Central Asia and its early linkages with and between the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East have yet to be fully elucidated. Goods passed between the scattered settlements, producing trading contacts between India, Iran, and Mesopotamia through Central Asia. In the course of the late third millennium BCE, towns arose in Turkmenistan with populations engaged in irrigated farming, handicrafts, and metallurgy. They developed organized religious institutions attested by the ziggurat temple dedicated to the Moon God at Altïn-Depe, about a three-hour drive southeast of Ashkhabad (Ashghabat), the capital of Turkmenistan. Evidence for early writing systems influenced by Elam, Sumeria, and Harappa has also been found on seals, which were used to mark objects used by rulers and priests. This early urban culture, with its writing and indications of social divisions, declined between the late second-and early first-millennium BCE, perhaps due to over-farming or disastrous climate changes. In the first millennium BCE, Iranian peoples migrated here, most probably from the Black Sea steppes or from more northern parts of Central Asia.

  Hunter-gatherer and fishing populations inhabited much of the area north of the agricultural communities in southern Turkmenistan in the sixth to fourth millennia BCE. The steppes with their vast grassy plains became more inviting to those early agriculturalists, who placed greater emphasis on livestock breeding. The process cannot be traced with certainty because of the scarcity of data. People changed the emphasis of their economic pursuits as they moved into new lands. The domestication of the horse, perhaps as early as 4800 BCE (the dating is hotly debated), most probably in the Ponto-Caspian steppes, was certainly a turning point. Horses were first a source of food. By about 4000 BCE, herdsmen-consumers had become more adept at exploiting their animals for a wider range of purposes beyond food. They used their hides for clothing and dwellings and harnessed their strength as “beasts of burden.” They began to ride them, perhaps before 3700 BCE,1 and sacrificed them to their deities. By 2000 BCE some subsistence agriculturalists, having become largely if not wholly dependent on their herds, engaged in seasonal migrations to established pastures in the steppe. They became pastoral nomads. Many retained elements of other technologies, such as agriculture, irrigation, and metallurgy, the latter quite advanced in the Urals and elsewhere. They alternated along an adaptive scale of low to high technology as circumstances required—as do present day pastoral nomads.

  Some scholars suggest that the transition to pastoral nomadism originated in the western steppes. Others argue that it took place independently in both the western and eastern steppes or among reindeer herders in the South Siberian and Manchurian forests who adapted their skills to livestock management in the steppe. Our picture of the process is constantly changing with new archaeological discoveries and new, often contradictory, interpretations of the evidence. No one is sure exactly where or precisely why full pastoral nomadism first evolved. Climate change, a growing demand for livestock, security concerns, and new technologies may have all played a role. In the third millennium BCE, the number of livestock-breeders and their herds began to grow. They moved further into the steppe, and herding became their primary occupation. Hunting, of course, continued to be an important source of food. This remained true of the later nomads as well. Organized hunts also served as a form of military training. By the early second millennium (about 1700–1500 BCE), a horseback-riding population had clearly emerged among some of the steppedwelling stock-herders. Horses and oxen hauled the carts and wagons on which their portable dwellings were perched, much like the covered wagons of the American West, as they migrated from pasturage to pasturage with their herds. The composition of the herds also changed, greater preference being given to horses and sheep, which were better adapted to longer migrations. Horses came to make up as much as 36% of the total livestock. The harnessing of horsepower had other, more ominous, military consequences, contributing to a turbulent period of migrations in the steppes of the Indo-Europeans, who brought equestrian-based warfare with them. The process unfolded in two stages. First, wheeled carts and then war-chariots, perhaps invented in Central Asia, appeared. Early types dating to about 2000 BCE were found at Sintashta, a heavily fortified settlement in the southern Urals steppe zone, part of the Sintashta-Arkaim-Petrovka archaeological complex. Sintashta, with its well-developed metallurgy (indicating, perhaps, armament production and a more militarized age) was part of a growing network of urban settlements in this part of the steppe. Soviet scholars dubbed it “the Country of Towns.” By the second millennium BCE, war-chariots made their way into China and the Middle East.

  The second stage is connected with the invention of the compound or composite bow, composed of wood, animal horn, and sinews. It revolutionized warfare on the steppe because it was powerful, relatively small and—most importantly—could be fired with ease in all directions while on horseback. Its origins may go back to Egypt in the early third millennium BCE, but others date it to about 1000 BCE. By that time in the Eurasian steppes, sporadic mounted raiders had become disciplined cavalry, organized into armies with ideologies extolling the warrior as part of a trained group, rather than glory-seeking individual combatants (although those were not lacking). The chariot became yesterday’s technology.2 The accompanying spread of iron weapons heightened warfare as mounted horsemen more systematically raided their neighbors in the steppe and sought access to the products of the settled world. Warfare, now requiring more extensive forms of organization, led to the rise of large tribal unions.

  The nomads, masters of horse-borne mobility (and possessing a large amount of the world’s horsepower), became fearsome warriors whose lightning-like raids and clouds of arrows terrified their victims. Their modes of warfare changed little over millennia. They went to war with five or more horses, frequently switching mounts in the course of a battle. This often deceived their opponents as to their true numbers and gave them the ability to launch continuous fresh attacks. When faced with stronger or equally capable opponents, nomads saw no dishonor in quickly leaving a battle. Even then, they were still a threat as they could fire their arrows with deadly accuracy facing backwards. Moreover, feigned retreats that led into ambushes were a favorite stratagem.

  This warrior society depended on highly organized strategies of stockbreeding, some entailing lengthy seasonal migrations (full nomadism). Others were semi-nomads, primarily agriculturalists, but engaging in minimal migrations. Migrations were not aimless wanderings in search of water and grass, as outsiders reported, but followed carefully planned and defended routes and pastures. Herd size and the mix of sheep, horses, cattle, camels, goats, and yaks varied according to local ecologies. These factors also determined the number of dependent humans. Unlike agrarian societies, nomadism is not labor-intensive and does not require large populations for production purposes. One or two shepherds on foot can handle flocks of hundreds
of sheep. A single rider can manage considerably larger flocks or even a herd of 100 or more horses.

  Nomadic livestock breeding was a family business. As their herds needed extensive pasturage, nomads camped in small units, usually four to five families, often related. When additional hands were needed, a family called on kinsmen. Slavery, known in nomadic society since antiquity, was usually limited to a few domestic slaves, mainly individuals captured during raids. Today, a herd of about 100 animals can sustain the average nomad household, typically consisting of five people (father, mother, two children and one grandparent). The same was probably true of the past. Ancient and medieval accounts provide little information on the nomads’ family life. Modern ethnographers describe a highly ordered, patriarchal society with rigid social rules within the household. For example, modern Turkmen newlyweds cannot speak or eat in front of their in-laws and other older relatives. Young wives, acquired through the payment of a bride-price (or kidnapped), gained a better standing within the family after giving birth to several sons, as males are considered the bearers of the lineage. Daughters are merely “guests” who will in time go off to other families. The Turkmen take great pride in their ancestry and can recite the names of their forebears for many generations.3

  Many Kyrgyz nomads engage in vertical rather than horizontal migrations, moving from valleys where they winter to mountain ranges, where there are fresh grass and water, in the summer. Ergun Çaatay / Tetragon A. S.

  The wealthy occasionally supported poorer kinsmen in distress. If their fortunes did not change, the latter either became more dependent or gave up nomadism and settled down as farmers. This was considered a great loss of status. Desperate nomads such as these provided willing recruits for the war-bands of local chieftains. Wealth was measured in horses and sheep, the latter constituting the largest number of livestock. Sheep are hardy and easily managed, and they provide meat, hides, and wool. Horses were the most prized and prestigious components of the herd, providing meat, milk, and transport. They were critical to the nomad’s management of his economy and his dealings with the outside world. They provided mobility, the nomad’s principal advantage in combat. Camels (the two-humped Bactrian variety), especially useful for transport in the desert and semi-desert zone, were relatively common. Goats, not highly esteemed, were usually associated with poorer nomads. Cattle were kept in more limited numbers. Animal diseases, the vagaries of climate, and especially the dreaded jut (frosts that followed a thaw), could deplete herds. Although 60 to 90 percent of the fertile females might bear young in a year, mortality rates were high, ranging from 30 to 60 percent. Nomads, when they had a surplus, traded it with townspeople for foodstuffs, clothing, and weapons, some accumulating considerable wealth.

  The nomads moved their herds from one pasturage to another, in the different seasonal quarters. Winter in the steppe is the most difficult season. Areas that could provide shelter from the elements, such as valleys, mountainsides away from the winds, or areas near forests were favored for the winter camps. Because of this, some forests were considered holy lands and refuges. Nomads also clustered around riverbanks, fishing during the non-migrating period. The summer camps were preferably in the uplands, near sources of fresh water that often dry up in the baking plains. Migrations were generally southward in winter and northward in summer. The length of the distances traveled varied. Those engaged in “horizontal” migrations moved across the steppe, often traveling hundreds of miles. Others, practicing a kind of “vertical” nomadism, drove their herds up and down mountains, traversing considerably shorter distances. Migratory routes were possessions of a clan or tribe. Struggles for pasturage could produce a kind of domino effect pushing some tribes into the sedentary world. It was in such instances that the historical sources usually record them.

  Outside observers continually underscored the nomad’s greed and covetousness (while ignoring their own). In reality, nomadic interactions with the sedentary world were not based on avarice nor were they unremittingly hostile. Relations could even be symbiotic. Owen Lattimore, an American scholar, traveler, old “China hand,” and onetime caravanner in North China and Mongolia wrote, “it is the poor nomad who is the pure nomad.”4 Although it is possible for nomads to sustain themselves on their meat and dairy products and some limited agriculture (indeed, ancient nomads may have been better fed than ancient farmers5), they also wanted access to the clothing; liquor and comestibles; and artifacts of gold, silver, and precious stones produced by settled societies. Moreover, the latter were an important source of other manufactured goods, especially weapons (although nomad metalworkers were quite capable here too) and inventions that directly benefited the nomadic way of life.

  For example, breast straps for horses and the compound bow came from the sedentary world. Iron stirrups, so closely associated with the equestrian way of life, may have entered Central Asia from East Asia (earlier stirrups were made of less durable organic materials such as animal hides). The dating of their precise point of origin and transmission is contested. Taking this into account, it can be argued that the “pure” nomad, at least in historical times, lacking access to the sedentary world, was often the poorer nomad. Access was usually based on power relationships. For nomads, raiding or trading were alternate strategies to the same end. They chose whichever was most cost-efficient. Their neighbors, especially China, attempted to control nomad behavior by opening or closing frontier markets.

  Nomad relations with the settled world required someone who could speak for the group (clan, tribe, or people). This meant political organization. In a society lacking permanent borders, kinship, real and “invented,” provided the most important political bond. The nomads were organized in “clans” and “tribes” (unions of clans), terms that outsiders often understood imprecisely. Theoretically, all members of a clan descended from a common ancestor. All clans in a tribe descended from a more distant common ancestor. In reality, these ties were much more fluid, being created and forgotten as political necessity dictated. Tribes often formed confederations, usually adopting the name of the politically dominant tribe. When these unions disintegrated, they often reformed in a slightly altered configuration under the name of the new dominant tribe.

  Statehood was not the normal condition in steppe society. Nomad political organization, responding to military aggression or internal crises provoked by the attempts of neighboring states to manipulate their internal affairs, oscillated between empire and various forms of stateless confederation. The lure of China’s wealth and the occasional projection of its power into the steppes could push the nomads towards state formation. Such stimuli were largely lacking in the western steppes. Nomadic states here invariably came from the eastern steppes. Nomads did not normally seek to conquer settled societies. Similarly, neighboring empires, such as China and pre-Islamic Iran, only infrequently ventured into the steppe. Such campaigns were costly and hazardous. China and Byzantium preferred bribery, diplomacy, and the use of “barbarians to attack barbarians.”6

  When nomads did conquer sedentary lands, they produced powerful ruling houses that quickly took on the trappings of settled dynastic empires, and they sought to transform their nomadic followers into settled subjects. This was not the reward that rank-and-file nomads sought. Conquest by the nomads, in turn, often reshaped some political institutions of the settled peoples, with the nomads superimposing elements of their political culture on the already existing institutions of the conquered state.

  Nomad empires began by first conquering other nomads, incorporating them into often uneasy tribal unions. Ethnically diverse and polyglot, nomadic states were filled with competing forces. There were aristocrats and commoners. Certain clans ranked higher than others. A clan or tribal chief was expected to share some of his wealth with his followers. Stingy leaders lost followers—and sometimes their lives. Unwilling subject peoples rebelled.

  Commerce also brought people together over large distances. Inclusion into the expanding Achaemeni
d Persian Empire (559–330 BCE) drew Central Asia into the transcontinental trade of the Ancient World. In the early Middle Ages, it became the central link in the Silk Road, a network of often-shifting caravan routes connecting the cities of Eurasia. It brought the goods of China, in particular silk, westward through Central Asia to Iran. Iran sold the goods at very considerable profit throughout the Mediterranean world. China, the technological powerhouse of the pre-modern world, in turn imported an array of exotic goods and foodstuffs from Central Asia (such as the much-prized “golden peaches of Samarkand”) and from lands to the west (such as lions from Iran).7

  The nomads of the Great Steppe protected these crucial avenues of commerce. The routes were dangerous, especially through the deserts, which were littered with the bleached skeletons of men and beasts. Mongolia has the Gobi (which in Mongol means desert), Xinjiang the much-feared Taklamakan (second in size only to the Sahara), and Turkmenistan the Qara Qum (Black Sands). Even today, Turkmen parents sew little bells on the clothes of their children so that they can be located in the shifting sands.8 Occasionally, the winds shift the sand dunes to reveal the vestiges of ancient buildings.9 The Taklamakan is hard to reach and even harder to exit. According to a folk etymology, Taklamakan means “once you enter, you cannot leave.” In Turfan (pronounced Turpan by its Modern Uighur inhabitants), summer temperatures can soar as high as 78°C / 128°F. Quintus Curtius, a first-to early second-century CE Roman historian of the campaigns of Alexander the Great in the Sogdian deserts (in Uzbekistan), reported that the summer’s heat made the sands glow, and “everything is burned as if by continuous conflagration,” leaving the conqueror’s troops “parched.”10 Nonetheless, merchants and pilgrims with their religions, alphabets, technologies, and numerous other artifacts of culture, entertainment, goods and gadgets, traversed the east-west steppe highways.