Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources

338 Pages·2009·1.9 MB·English

by  Scott C. Levi

Islamic Central Asia
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Islamic
An
Anthology
Central
of
Asia
Historical
Sources
Edited by
Scott C. Levi and Ron Sela
Indiana University Press bloomington & indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
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© 2010 by Indiana University Press
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Islamic Central Asia : an anthology of historical sources / edited by
Scott C. Levi and Ron Sela.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-253-35385-6 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-253-
22140-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Asia, Central—History—Sources.
2. Asia, Central—Civilization—Islamic influences—Sources. 3.
Islam—Asia, Central—History—Sources. I. Levi, Scott Cameron. II.
Sela, Ron.
DS327.3.I75 2009
958—dc22
2009024093
1 2 3 4 5 15 14 13 12 11 10
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Note on Translation and Transliteration xv
Map xvi
Introduction 1
|
Part 1 Central Asia in the Early Islamic Period,
Seventh to Tenth Centuries
Introduction 7
A. Central Asia and the Arab Conquests 11
1. Baladhuri: The Arab Conquests of Central Asia 11
2. Tabari: Another Look at the Arab Conquests 16
B. Central Asia under the Samanids 23
3. Narshakhi: The Rise of the House of Saman 23
4. Hudud al-῾Alam: The Frontiers of the Muslim World in the Tenth Century 28
C. The Age of Learning 35
5. Ibn Sina: Biographical Notes 35
6. al-Biruni: On the Importance of the Sciences 39
|
Part 2 Encounter with the Turks
Introduction 47
A. Turkic Peoples of the Steppe 51
7. The Orkhon Inscriptions: The Early Turks 51
8. al-Jahiz: The Peculiarities of the Turks 55
9. Gardizi: The Turks in Early Muslim Traditions 59
10. Ibn Fadlan: Journey to the Northern Lands 65
B. Qarakhanids: The First Turkic Muslim State in Central Asia 69
11. al-Kashghari: On the Linguistic Distribution of the Turks 69
12. Jamal Qarshi: The Conversion to Islam of Satuq Bughra Khan 73
13. Yusuf Hass Hajib: Advice to the Qarakhanid Rulers 76
vi Contents
C. Central Asia in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries 83
14. al-῾Utbi: The Alliance of the Ghaznavids and Qarakhanids 83
15. Ibn Khallikan: Biography of the Vizier Nizam al-Mulk 89
16. Nizam al-Mulk: A Mirror for Princes 92
17. Qabus-nama: A Different Mirror for Princes 95
18. Liao Shih: Nomadic Khitan State and Society 100
|
Part 3 The Mongol Empire
Introduction 111
A. Temujin and the Rise of the Mongol Empire 115
19. Secret History of the Mongols: Temujin’s Origins 115
20. Hayton: Temujin and the Rise of the Mongol Empire 120
21. Nasawi: The Khorezmshah’s Downfall 125
22. Chang Chun: A Daoist Monk in Central Asia 130
23. Juzjani: Chaghatay the Accursed! 135
B. Islamic Central Asia under Mongol Rule 139
24. Rashid al-Din: In Defense of Chaghatay Khan 139
25. Juvaini: The Il-Khan Hülegü Captures the Castles of the Heretics 142
26. Mirza Haydar Dughlat: The Conversion to Islam of Tughluq Timur Khan 149
27. Ibn Battuta: Travels in Western Central Asia in the Fourteenth Century 153
|
Part 4 Timur and the Timurids
Introduction 161
A. Timur’s Rise and Rule 165
28. Ibn ῾Arabshah: Timur and His Steppe Campaigns 165
29. Ibn Khaldun: Personal Narrative of a Meeting with Timur 171
30. Ruy González de Clavijo: A Spanish Embassy to Timur’s Capital 175
B. Central Asia in the Fifteenth Century 181
31. Khwandamir: Timur’s Heirs: Shahrukh and Ulughbeg 181
32. Nava’i: A Comparison between Persian and Turkic 184
33. Khoja Ahrar: Letters 188
34. Five Readings on Sufi Orders in Central Asia: Competition, Practice, Politics 190
|
Part 5 Central Asia in the Sixteenth
and Seventeenth Centuries
Introduction 199
A. The Shïbanids and Central Asian Society in the Sixteenth Century 203
Contents vii
35. Zubdat al-athar: The Beginnings of the Shïbanid State 203
36. Babur: Description of the Farghana Valley and Babur’s Ejection
from Samarqand 208
37. Anthony Jenkinson: An English Merchant in Central Asia 215
38. Juybari Archives: A Sixteenth-Century Bukharan Deed of Sale 221
39. Akbar, Emperor of India: A Letter to ῾Abdallah Khan Uzbek, King of Turan 222
B. Central Asia in the Seventeenth Century 227
40. Abu’l-Ghazi: Reasons for Writing the Genealogies of the Turks
and Turkmens 227
41. Ivan Khokhlov: A Russian Envoy to Central Asia 230
42. Sayyeda-ye Nasafi: A Visit to the Shrine of Baha’ al-Din Naqshband 233
43. Churas: Erke Bek, a Turkestani in the Service of the Oirats 237
|
Part 6 Central Asia in the Eighteenth
and Nineteenth Centuries
Introduction 243
A. The Age of Transition 247
44. Timur’s Legendary Biographies 247
45. Thompson and Hogg: British Trade East of the Caspian 255
46. ῾Abd al-Karim Kashmiri: Nadir Shah’s Campaign in Central Asia 260
B. The Uzbek Tribal Dynasties 265
47. Tuhfat al-khani: The Inauguration of Muhammad Rahim Khan Manghït 265
48. Majma῾ al-arqam: An Administrative Manual from Bukhara 270
49. A Collection of Royal Decrees from Khiva 272
50. Muntakhab al-tavarikh: On the Relations between Qoqand and Kashghar 274
C. The “Great Game” to Russian Rule 281
51. Alexander Burnes: The Importance of Bukhara in Great Game Politics 281
52. Mohan Lal: A Journey among the Turkmens 287
53. Levshin: Observations on the Qazaqs 292
54. Nikolai Ignatiev: Russia’s Agenda in Central Asia 295
55. Bayani: The Russian Conquest of Khiva and the Massacre of the
Yomut Turkmens 300
Glossary 307
Index 309
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Acknowledgments
This volume was produced with funds provided by the Ohio State Uni-
versity Department of History and College of Arts and Humanities, and the In-
diana University Department of Central Eurasian Studies and Islamic Studies
Program. We are especially grateful for the original contributions to this anthol-
ogy made by Devin DeWeese, Paul Losensky, and David Knighting, as well as to
the generous counsel by our colleagues Akram Khabibullaev, Mika Natif, and
Christopher Atwood, and the anonymous reviewers of this volume. Scott Tyler
at Indiana University Graphic Services prepared the detailed map accompany-
ing this volume. We are grateful for Yuri Bregel’s permission to base our map on
maps that he had prepared and published in his Historical Central Asia Maps (Pa-
pers on Inner Asia Special Supplement no. 1, Bloomington, 2000). We thank our
editors at Indiana University Press, Rebecca Tolen and Laura MacLeod, for their
support and dedication to this project. Lee Keeling provided valuable technical
assistance in preparing several parts of the manuscript. Scott Levi would also like
to thank Ali Shahhosseini for his friendship and valuable guidance in preparing
for publication the original translation of the excerpt from Muhammad Hakim
Khan’s Muntakhab al-tavarikh.
Chapter 1: F. C. Murgotten, tr., The origins of the Islamic state, being a trans-
lation from the Arabic accompanied with annotations geographic and historic
notes of the Kitâb Futûh al-Buldân of al-Imâm Abu-l ‘Abbâs, Ahmad ibn-Jâbir al-
Balâdhuri, vol. 2 (New York: Columbia Studies in the Social Sciences, 1916).
Chapter 2: (1) Reprinted by permission from The History of al-Tabari (Ta’rikh
al-rusul wa’l-muluk), vol. XXIII, The Zenith of the Marwanid House: The Last
Years of ῾Abd al-Malik and the Caliphate of al-Walid, A.D. 700–715/A.H. 81–96,
translated and annotated by Martin Hinds, the State University of New York
Press © 1990, State University of New York. All rights reserved.
(2) Reprinted by permission from The History of al-Tabari (Ta’rikh al-
rusul wa’l-muluk), vol. XXV, The End of Expansion: The Caliphate of Hisham,
A.D. 724–738/A.H. 105–120, translated and annotated by Khalid Yahya Blankin-
ship, the State University of New York Press © 1989, State University of New York.
All rights reserved.
Chapter 3: Richard N. Frye, The History of Bukhara: Translated from a Per-
sian Abridgement of the Arabic Original by Narshakhī (Cambridge, Mass.: Medi-
aeval Academy of America, 1954).
Chapter 4: Indiana University Press, which has published this book, ac-
knowledges the material derived from Hudūd al-῾Ālam, ‘The Regions of the World’:
A Persian Geography, as edited by C. E. Bosworth (London, 1970). This work is