Khwarezm

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Khwarezmid Empire (1190-1220)
Khwarezmid Empire (1190-1220)

Khwarezm was a series of states centered on the Amu Darya river delta of the former Aral Sea, in modern Uzbekistan, extending across the Ust-Urt plateau and possibly as far west as the eastern shores of the northern Caspian Sea.

To the south it bordered Khorasan, to the north the kingdom of Alans, to the southeast Kangju and Sogdian Transoxiana, and on the northeast with the Huns of Transiaxartesia. Its capitals were Old Urgench (Persian: Kuhna Gurganj) and, from the 17th century on, Khiva, when Khwarezm became known as the Khanate of Khiva.

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[edit] Names and Etymology

Khwarezm has been known also as Chorasmia, Khwarezmia, Khwarizm, Khwarazm, Khorezm, Khoresm, Khorasam, and Chorezm.

In Uzbek it is Xorazm, in Russian it is Хорезм Khorezm, in Persian it is خوارزم Khwārazm, in Arabic it is خوارزم Khwārizm, and Chinese, 花剌子模 Huālázǐmó. In the Orkhon Turkic inscriptions it is Apar.

The Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi in his Mu'jem al-baladan wrote that the name "Khwarezm" is a compound name (in Persian) of "Khwar" (خور), and "-razm" (زم), referring to the abundance of cooked fish meat as a main diet of the peoples of this area. (V2, p395)

C.E. Bosworth however, believes the Persian name to be made up of (خور) meaning "the sun" and (زم) meaning "Earth", designating "the land from which the sun rises".[1] More correctly, however, the Iranic compound stands for "lowland" from khwar/khar, "low" and zam/zem, "earth, land." Khwarezm is indeed the lowest region in Central Asia (except for the Caspian Sea to the far west), located on the delta of the Amu Darya on the southern shores of the Aral Sea. Various versions of khwar/khar/khor/hor are commonly used also in the Persian Gulf to stand for tidal flats, marshland, or tidal bays (e.g., Khor Musa, Khor Abdallah, Hor al-Azim, Hor al-Himar, etc.)

The name also appears in Achaemenid inscriptions as "Huvarazmish", and declared to be part of the Persian Empire. Except for the Parthian and Seleucid periods when the region was ruled by local chiefdoms, Khwarezm more or less remained politically part of Persia throughout many centuries either as a satrap, allied khanates, a constituent of Greater Khorasan, or simply as a direct province until 1878, when the powerful invading Imperial Russia annexed the entire region. Khwarezm has always been part of the Persian cultural sphere, even until the present day.

Many scholars believe Khwarezm to be what ancient Avestic texts refer to as "Ariyaneh Waeje" or "Iran vij". [2] These sources claim that Old Urgench, which was the capital of ancient Khwarezm for many years, was actually "Ourva": the eighth land of Ahura Mazda mentioned in the Pahlavi text of Vendidad.[3] However, Michael Witzel, a researcher in early Indo-European history, believes that Iran vig was located in what is now Afghanistan, the northern areas of which were a part of Ancient Khwarezm and Greater Khorasan. [4] Others however disagree. University of Hawaii historian Elton L. Daniel believes Khwarezm to be the "most likely locale" corresponding to the original home of the Avestan people , and Dehkhoda calls Khwarezm "مهد قوم آریا" ("the cradle of the Aryan tribe").[5]

[edit] Early history

According to Ancient Khwarezm (Moscow 1948), written by the head of the Soviet archaeological-ethnographic expedition of 1945 - 1948, Sergei Pavlovich Tolstov (1907-1976), the first inhabitants of the area were Hurrians from the area of Transcaucasian Iberia, and he explains the etymology of "Chorezm" as Hurri-Land. The first two names of rulers we have for the area are Sijavus c.1300 BC (a son-in-law of Afrasiab c.1100 BC) and Aurvat-Aspa, usually placed in the late 600s BC though dating is very difficult. Nonetheless, in the very early part of its history, the inhabitants of the area were from Iranian stock and they spoke an Eastern Iranian language called Khwarezmian. The famous scientist Biruni, a Khwarezm native, in his Athar ul-Baqiyah (الآثار الباقية عن القرون الخالية) (p.47), specifically verifies the Iranian origins of Khwarezmians when he wrote (in Arabic):

"اهل خوارزم ... کانوا غصنا, من دوحه الفرس"

Translation:

"The parents (forefathers) of the Khwarezm were a branch from a [region] of Persia."

Other geographers such as Istakhri in his Al-masalik wa al-mamalik mention it to be part of Khorasan and part of Transoxiania.

[edit] Classical times

During the Achaemenid period, Khwarezm was governed by Smerdis/Bardiya along with Bactriana, Carmania, and the other eastern provinces of the empire. [6] And the Persian poet Ferdowsi mentions Persian cities like Afrasiab and Chach in abundance in his epic Shahnama.

When the king of Khwarezm offered friendship to Alexander the Great in 328 BC, Alexander's Greek and Roman biographers imagined the nomad king of a desert waste, but 20th century Russian archeologists revealed the region as a stable and centralized kingdom, a land of agriculture to the east of the Aral Sea, surrounded by the nomads of Central Asia, protected by its army of mailed horsemen, in the most powerful kingdom northwest of the Amu Darya (the Oxus River of antiquity). The king's emissary offered to lead Alexander's armies against his own enemies, west over the Caspian towards the Black Sea. Alexander politely refused.

Although largely independent during the Arsacid and Seleucid dynasties, it is known that Khwarezm and neighboring Bactriana were part of the Sassanid empire during the time of Bahram II. Yaqut al-Hamawi verifies that Khwarezm was a regional capital of the Sassanid empire. When speaking of the pre-Islamic "Khosrau of Khwarezm" (خسرو خوارزم), or post-Islamic "Amir of Khwarezm" (امیر خوارزم), or even the Khwarezmid Empire, sources such as Biruni and Ibn Khordadbeh and others clearly refer to Khwarezm as being part of the Iranian (or Persian) empire. [7] The fact that Pahlavi script which was used by the Persian bureaucracy alongside Old Persian, passed into use in Khwarezmia where it served as the first local alphabet about the AD 2nd century, as well as evidence that Khwarezmid Shahs such as Ala ad-Din Tekish (1172-1200) issued all their orders (both administrative and public) in Persian language (see A. A. Simonov), corroborates Biruni's claims.

[edit] Middle ages

Main article: Khwarezmid Empire

According to Biruni the area was ruled by the Afrigid dynasty from the 4th century to the 8th century CE. The resurgent kingdom was established around Khiva in 410 by Avar tribes possibly under Hephthalites influence. The inhabitants were called Khwalis or Kaliz by the Magyars after the eastern-most Kabars of Hungary, who dwelt in Carpathian Galicia. They were also called Khalisioi in Greek, Khvalis (Хвалис) in Russian (and often associated with Khazars), and by a number of names in Chinese including Qián (潛), Guòlì (過利), Hūsìmì (呼似密), Huǒxún (火尋), Huòlìxímíqié (貨利習彌伽), and Huālázǐmó (花剌子模).[8] The last name is the contemporary Chinese designation for Khwarezm and the etymology of the name is unknown but it may pertain to a kingdom of the Aral Sea or the Hua people.

Since Khwarezm was part of the Silk Road, it was known internationally, and had several different names in several different languages, including Byzantine Greek who called the products of this city "khalisios", which was masculine for "of the city of khalis."

In the late 7th century, Khwarezm was conquered by the Arab Abbasids and was the birthplace of the great Persian mathematician of the Abbasid period, al-Khwarezmi. According to some historians, Khwarezmians were the people mentioned as Khalyzians in contemporary Byzantine sources.

In the 11th century, Khwarezmid Empire was founded and, in the early 13th century, ruled over all of Persia under the Shah Allah al-Din Muhammad II. Around 1141 Yelü Dashi took control of Khwarezm, making it part of the Kara-Khitan Khanate. Then from 1218 to 1220 Genghis Khan and his Mongols launched the invasion of Central Asia and destroyed the Kara-Khitan Khanate and the Khwarezmid Empire, including the capital of the latter, Old Urgench (Kunya Urgench).

Madresh-i Chahor Minor ("the school of four minarets" in Persian), Bukhara

Mausoleum of the founder of the great Samanid dynasty.

The magnificent Gur-e Amir ("tomb of the Amir" in Persian)

Masjed-i Bibi-khanum ("Mosque of The Lady" in Persian), Samarkand

Masjed-i Shah-i Zendeh ("Mosque of the immortal King" in Persian), Samarkand

Taq-i zargaran ("Arch of the goldsmiths" in Persian), Bukhara

Arg-i Bukhara ("Citadel of Bukhara" in Persian), is not unsimilar to Arg-é Bam or Arg-i Rayen in Carmania

Madraseh-i Mir-i Arab ("School of the son of the Arab" in Persian)

[edit] Modern Age

Main article: Khanate of Khiva

The region of Khwarezmia became part of the Jagatai Khanate, and its capital of Old Urgench was rebuilt and again became one of the largest and most important trading centers in Central Asia. However, Timur regarded Khwarezm as a rival to Samarkand, and over the course of 5 campaigns, he destroyed Old Urgench completely in 1388. This together with a shift in the course of the Amu-Darya caused the center of Khwarezm to shift to Khiva and, in the 16th century, the area came to be known as the Khanate of Khiva, ruled over by a branch of the Astrakhans, a Genghisid dynasty.

Flag of Khanate of Khiva prior to 1917
Flag of Khanate of Khiva prior to 1917

The discovery of gold on the banks of the Amu Darya during the reign of Russia's Peter the Great, together with the desire of the Russian Empire to open a trade route to India, prompted an armed trade expedition to the region, led by Prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky, which was repelled by Khiva.

It was under Tsars Alexander II and Alexander III that serious efforts to annex the region started. One of the main pretexts to Russian military expeditions to Khiva was to free Russian slaves in the khanate and to prevent future slave capture and trade.

Early in The Great Game, Russian interests in the region collided with those of the British Empire in the First Anglo-Afghan War in 1839.

The Khanate of Khiva was gradually reduced in size from Russian expansion in Turkestan (including Khwarezm) and, in 1873, a peace treaty was signed that established Khiva as a quasi-independent Russian protectorate.

After the Bolshevik seizure of power in the October Revolution, a short lived Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic (later the Khorezm SSR) was created out of the territory of the old Khanate of Khiva, before in 1924 it was finally incorporated into the Soviet Union, with the former Khanate divided between the new Turkmen SSR and Uzbek SSR.

The larger historical area of Khwarezm is further divided. Northern Khwarezm became the Uzbek SSR, in 1925 the western part became the Turkmen SSR, and in 1936 eastern Khwarezm became the Tajik SSR. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, these became Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan respectively. Southern Khwarezmia is today a part of Iran. Many of the ancient Khwarezmian towns are situated currently in Xorazm Province, Uzbekistan.

Today, the area that was Khwarezm has a mixed population of Uzbeks, Karakalpaks, Turkmens, Persians, Tajiks, and Kazakhs.

[edit] Khwarezm in Persian literature

Khwarezm and her cities appear in Persian literature in abundance, in both prose and poetry. Dehkhoda for example defines the name Bukhara itself as "full of knowledge", referring to the fact that in antiquity, Bukhara was a scientific and scholarship powerhouse. Rumi verifies this when he praises the city as such:

آن بخارا معدن دانش بود
"Bukhara was a mine of knowledge,
پس بخاراییست هرک آنش بود
Of Bukhara is he who possesses knowledge."

Other examples illustrate the eminent status of Khwarezmid and Transoxianian cities in Persian literature in the past 1500 years:

ای بخارا شاد باش و دیر زی
"Oh Bukhara! Joy to you and live long!
شاه زی تو میهمان آید همی
Your King comes to you in ceremony."
---Rudaki

عالم جانها بر او هست مقرر چنانک
"He bestows life to the universe in this manner.
دولت خوارزمشاه داد جهان را قرار
He blessed the world with the House of Khwarezm"
---Khaqani Shirvani

یکی پر طمع پیش خوارزمشاه
"I have heard that early one morning,
شنیدم که شد بامدادی پگاه
an ambitious one was summoned to Khwarezm-shah"
---Sa'di

Yaqut al-Hamawi wrote: "I have never seen a city more wealthy and beautiful than Urgench". The city however was destroyed during several invasions, in particular when the Mongol army broke the dams of the Amu Darya which flooded the city. He reports that for every Mongol soldier, four inhabitants of Urgench were killed. Najmeddin Kubra was among the casualties. The Mongol army that devastated Urgench was estimated to have been near 80,000 soldiers. The verse below refers to an early previous calamity that fell upon the region:

آخر ای خاک خراسان داد یزدانت نجات
"Oh Khorasan! God has saved your land,
از بلای غیرت خاک ره گرگانج و کات
and your dusty roads of Urgench and Kath from envy and jealousy"
---Divan of Anvari

Nevertheless the beauty and fame of Bukhara and Samarqand are well known in Persian literature. The following famous cosmopolitan ode perhaps best provides a notable example of this:

اگر آن ترک شیرازی به دست آرد دل ما را
"If that Shirazi Turk heeds my heart's call for love,
به خال هندویش بخشم سمرقند و بخارا را
I would sell even the jewel cities of Samarkand and Bukhara for the Indian mole on her cheek."
---Hafez

Legend has it that Tamerlane sent for Hafez regarding this verse and asked angrily: "Are you he who was so bold as to offer my two great cities Samarkand and Bukhara for the mole on thy mistress's cheek?". "Yes, sire" replied Hafez, "and it is by such acts of generosity that I have brought myself to such a state of destitution that I have now to solicit your bounty." Tamerlane is written to have been so pleased at his ready wit that he dismissed the poet with a handsome present.

[edit] Notables of Khwarezm

The following either hail from Khwarezm, or lived and are buried there:

[edit] References

  1. ^ C. E. Bosworth, The Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol IV, 1978. p. 1061
  2. ^ Bahram Farahvoshi. Iranovich, Tehran University Press. 1991. p. 8
  3. ^ Musa Javan. Tarikh-i Ijtima'i Iran-i Bastan (The social history of ancient Iran), 1961. p. 24
  4. ^ Michael Witzel. "The Home of the Aryans." (.pdf)
  5. ^ Elton L. Daniel, The History of Iran. 2001. ISBN 0-313-30731-8. p.28
  6. ^ Huart, Clement. Ancient Persia and Iranian Civilization. 1972. ISBN 0-7100-7242-2. p. 46
  7. ^ Nasser Takmil Homayoun. Kharazm: What do I know about Iran?. 2004. ISBN 964-379-023-1. p.35
  8. ^ "Hualazimo" at C-pedia (in Mandarin Chinese) Khwarezm was mentioned in the "Dawan Commentary" of the Records of the Grand Historian (史記‧大宛列傳) as Qián (潛), in the Book of Wei (魏書) as Hūsìmì (呼似密) and Guòlì (過利), in the New Book of the Tang (新唐書) as Huǒxún (火尋), in The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions (大唐西域記) as Huòlìxímíqié (貨利習彌伽), and the History of the Yuan (元史) as Huālázǐmó (花剌子模)
  • Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great, pp 308ff etc.
  • Shir Muhammad Mirab Munis & Muhammad Reza Mirab Agahi Firdaws al-Iqbal. History of Khorezm (Leiden: Brill) 1999 Trans & Ed. Yuri Bregel
  • Yuri Bregel "The Sarts in the Khanate of Khiva" Journal of Asian History Vol.12 1978 pp121-151

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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