Nazar Khan July 4, 2005

Tags: history , turkey

rel="tag" href="/tag/Afghanistan">Afghanistan. There were also no states such as Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan.

But there was an almost a continuous Persian Empire that stretched from the present day Iran right upto the Central Asia. Its Eastern boundaries included the Eastern Mongolia, Eastern China and territories right upto river Indus in Pakistan. Pakistan was mostly a sparsely populated wilderness. And Punjab was covered with forests and ruled by the local Chieftains as recent as 200 years back. The rest of the Pakistani territory was the outer reaches of the main South Asian landmass. The main South Asian landmass, present day India, was a region ruled by small kingdoms of Maharajas and Nawabs. Occasionally, a strong man came along and fused them into an empire until it disintegrated only to be re-grouped again in a different shape by a different strong man.

And no Persian ruler except Mohd Ghori (1186 AD) and Nadir Shah (1739 AD) came to South Asia. When Nadir Shah returned, he took along hundreds of girls (both Hindu & Muslim) and boy slaves with him. He also took along hundreds of elephants, horses and camels laden with booty. That was not a very polite of him.

And no Afghan Ruler except Ahmed Shah Abdali (1756) ever came to South Asia. He also did not leave behind pleasant memories of the visits.

So who brought all those mythical Persian, Turkic and Muslim influences to South Asia?

We got the combo 3-in-1 cultural influences courtesy our Turkic connection. This connection is usually underrated and gets camouflaged under the pseudo covers of Persian, Afghan, Arab or Muslim. This Turkic connection was of a longer duration and deeper. The long list includes the Kushans, Huns, Dehli Sultans and the Mongol-Turkic mix of Timur and Babar followed his Mughals succesors. Not that these Turkic folks were any boy scouts but, on the whole, they were better than some Persian and Afghan specimen described above. Another paradox is that while the Persian and the Arabic languages got a foothold here, Turkish vanished leaving only some vocabulary in Urdu.

So who were these Turkic folks?

Think of a time around 400 BC. And imagine the vast treeless plains between the Caspian sea and the Tian Shan mountains. Its northern limit is Siberia and Southern limit is Amu Darya of the Hindu Kush. The area has Aral sea, Altay mountains, Syr Darya and lake Balkhash. It also includes deserts like the Kara Kum, Kyzyle Kum and Taklamakan. It is here that small families made their living by grazing sheep and cattle. Their faith was Shamanism, a belief in superstition and spirits.

Then a new technology is introduced. Horse gets domesticated leading to a new profession called nomadism. These nomads were mobile and could travel upto 40 miles a day. They could subdue their opponents with a weapon of surprise and ruthlessness. These are the Turkic people who were destined to shape the history of three continents - Europe, Asia and Africa. On the way, they get a feel of Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Confuciusism, Islam and even Christianity.

Call it steppes, Transoxania, Turan, Middle Asia, inner Asia or simply Central Asia, their habitat is open from all sides. This open access has both its advantages and disadvantages. While the Turkic people could be pressurized from all sides, they also had an advantage of spreading out in all directions. It was around 1 AD that the silk routes come into existence linking China, Europe, Middle East and South Asia through Central Asia. Commerce brought another source of livelihood. When gun powder is discovered, settled communities also become potent reducing the effectiveness of the nomads. And when, many centuries later, the shipping begins, silk routes die a natural death. But, by then, these Turkic people had already played their role in the history.

The purest of Turkic stock, they say, is from the Oghuz tribe which existed between the Caspian and Aral sea. Oghuz khan founded the first Turkic political entity. Around 600 AD, the Turkic tribes united under the Goturk Empire, headed by Goturk. It is said that once the Chinese emperor called him as the ’The Great Turk Khan’ and thus the term ’Turk’ got coined. The Seljuks were a significant Turkic tribe which was first to convert to Islam. These men of the steppes were hardy people. Both the Persians and the Arabs employed them as slaves or soldiers. Gradually these slaves rose to the ranks of Generals, even Governors. And when the parent Empire slackened under a week Ruler, they declared themselves autonomous. The slaves of the Arabs (Abbasids) became the Mamluks who ended up ruling the Middle East. And the slaves of Persians became the Rulers in South Asia – beginning with the slave dynasty.

Let us do a fast-forward from the times of the Cyrus the Great. Central Asia was a part of the Achaemenean empire (648 BC) with Farsi and Zoroastrianism. Then they saw the Greeks under Alexander (Seleucids- 323 BC). The Greeks were replaced again by the Persians (Parthians 300 BC).

The earliest of the Turks who descended from Central Asia to South Asia were the Greek-inspired Kushans (1-3 AD) of Kanishka fame. They had their capitols at Kabul and Peshawar and were the prime incubators of the Gandhara culture. The Persians once again re-captured Central Asia establishing a strong Sassanian (228 AD) empire.

The next group of Central Asians who came to South Asia were the white Huns (5 AD) who made Bamiyan and, subsequently, Sialkot, as their capitol. Their origin was from the Chinese side of the Central Asia (Uighers). Then the Abbasids Arabs conquer Central Asia (641 AD) making Arabic the official language

And then, for the last time, Central Asia becomes a part of the Persian Empire with coming of the Samanids (819 AD). Arabic is replaced by Farsi and the Persian culture is revived. This is when the Tajik ethnicity gets evolved. Some families in Peshawar still speak Farsi just as in Tajikistan or Uzbekistan.

And then for the next 1000 years, the Turks rule from Europe to the South Asia. The slaves of the Abbasid Arabs become the Mamluks ruling the Middle East. The Seljuks rule the Anatolian plateau (Turkey). Later, a small tribe of the Seljuks, the Ottomans, end up establishing a vast empire covering pars of Europe, Middle East and North Africa until the 20th century. And the Turkish speaking Persians, the Safavis rule Iran until the 20th century. The Turkic identity is both ethnic and linguistic.

Meanwhile, in South Asia, the slaves of the Persians, Alaptagin and his successers, including Sabuk Tegin, Mahmud Ghaznavi, establish the slave dynasty in Dehli. We see the likes of Aibek, Altutumesh, Razia Sultana and the Tughlaks. There is only a brief interruption in the shape of Timur (1398 AD). He may not have intended it but his troops devastated Dehli. Luckily, Chengez Khan did not turn left at the Hindu Kush and went on his way to the West.

Meanwhile, the Central Asian Turks themselves never manage to establish an empire of their own in the steppes. By the 20th century, the Stalinist Russia is capturing their areas bit by bit (1911 AD). The Chinese swallow the Uigher Shinjan territory. It is after 70 years of Russian occupation, that the ethnically divided autonomous regions of Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Turkmimans, Kryghis and Tajiks become independent states. The world likes it this way – no one is interested in one united Pan-Turkic or Pan-Islamic Central Asia. But the Russians leave behind an excellent infrastructure and a widespread education. The Russians also left behind their language and Russian emigrants. Awash with natural resources and a small population, these people can still be unstoppable.

The Turkic people had a nomadic temperament and were not very good administrators. As such, wherever they conquered, they let the local bureaucracy run the affairs. They were also liberal and open to transform themselves to the local cultures and languages. In fact, at one stage, they seriously considered to convert themselves to Christianity when going became tough in their advance into Europe.

As for us, besides the architecture and gardens fetish, this Turkic connection also gave us the first stitched cloth – shalwar. It also gave us Turkish words like bajee, Kala, tamasha, barood, nishan, chaku, bahadar, begum, chador, chamcha, deg, surma, bavarchee, khazanchee, bakhshee, coolie, kanat, kulcha, korma, kotwal, kaka and nauker. They also gave us pulao, nan, keema and kabaab.

They also affected our naming culture. For example, my name, ’Nazar’ is Turkish. ’Hayat’ is Persian. ’Khan’ is of Mongol origin. To simplify my name, in my innocence, I had dropped the two most original identities. I had dropped ’Mahr’, a Punjabi title meaning something like Chaudhry. And I had dropped the last word, my cast ’Vaes’, which probably came from the Vaishya cast.

Historically, the territories in Pakistan were a conduit or a linkage between Persia, Central Asia and South Asia. The present emphasis of building highways, pipelines and rail links, though belated, is a welcome rekindling the spirit of the silk routes. We seem have finally come to terms with geography.

We need to do some work on the history as well. And accept our ownership of the Indus Valley, Vedic and Gandhara civilizations, a geographical fact. And it is for free…..