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"SILK ROAD TAJIKISTAN" |
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Run from Samarkand to Kokand through Penjikent, Varz (Ainy),
Bundjikat (Shakhristan),
Istaravshan(former Ura-Tube, Khujand, Kanibadam and Isfara
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ISFARA
The first inhabitants were Iranian-speaking nomads – the Saks,
who lived here in the first millennium BCE. There are still
a lot of burial and ground mounds, and hill forts, built in
the seventh to fourth centuries BCE.
• The mosque – madrasah of Abdullakhan (1583 – 1598) built on
the orders of Sheibanid Abdullakhan II. South of Isfara, in
the village of Chorcku.
• A shrine to Hazrati Shoh (tenth to eleventh centuries)
• A shrine at Langar Mohyan, to a very famous thirteenth-century
theologian, Imam Umar Abdulaziz.
KANIBADAM
• Mirajab – Dodkho Madrasah (sixteenth to seventeenth centuries)
• The Kayrokum storage reservoir
KHUJAND
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The architectural ensemble of Sheikh
Muslihiddin |
During the Akhamenid period, 2500 years ago Alexander the Great
pitched a military camp in the eastern fore post of the Persian
Empire and called this place Alexandria Eskhata (Far Alexandria).
On his orders, the city was fortified with strengthened walls
in 329 BCE. (Arian)
The Arab-speaking geographers of tenth to twelfth centuries
called Khujand ‘tirozi Jahan’ (‘the bride of the world’). Khujand
was behind only Bukhoro and Samarqand in terms of the number
of its medresse and was home to about 300 outstanding scholars,
poets and musicians.
• The Sheikh Muslehidin architectural complex (eleventh to twelfth
centuries).
The part of the building that remains intact was built in 1394
on the orders of Timur - the disciple of sheikh Muslehidin and
it was rebuilt in the sixteenth century.
There is also an ecumenical mosque next to it. A twenty-one
meter minaret was built in a corner of it in 1895.
ISTARVSHAN (former URA TYUBE)
• A temple of fire at Ak-Tepa (fourth to seventh century BCE)
• The town of Nur-Tepa;
Ura Tube is one of the most ancient cities in Central Asia.
It was founded more than 2500 years ago. It has been identified
with Kiropol. The Persian King Kir was killed by its walls.
• The mosque – Kuk-Gumbaz - medresse
• The Bobo-Tago Mausoleum;
The city was renowned for its master craftsmen, artists, Suzani
embroiderers, master cutlers and Karnai musical instruments.
Shakhristan – capital of ancient Ustravshan. The Shakhristan
pass (3372m) with wooded slopes.
THE TOWN OF AINY
• Varz Minor (tenth century), 3.5m. high
• The village of Dar-Dar – terraces painted on the columns of
the mosque (nineteenth century)
• A castle on Mount Much, 3 km. from the village of Khairabad.
The first Sogdian documents were found here in 1933.
PENJIKENT
• The mausoleum of Muhammad Bashoro (eleventh century), 20 km
from the city
• Upper Zeravshan – a source of high-quality examples of carved
wood of the ninth to eleventh century
• Ancient Penjikent, the homeland of the ruler Devashtich (executed
in the eighth century)
• In 1995 a relief showing the Indian gods of Shiva and Parvati
on a bull was found.
SARAZM
Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement (fourth to second century
BCE)
Sarazm located between Samarkand and Penjikent near Tajik/Uzbek
border “Jartepo/Sarazm”.
FANDARYA – YAGNOB
Yagnob. Settlement Garmein. An apartment house (reconstruction)
• The Sarvodafortress
• Coal fires (which have been burning for a thousand years)
• Lake Iskanderkul
• Yagnobians speaking the Sogdian dialect
The Sogdian’s brought ideas and traditions from one culture
to another. Researchers have described them as ‘cultural bees’.
They adopted Buddhism and spread its teaching throughout the
Silk Road, including China. The Central Asian merchants and
missionaries spread not only Buddhism, but also ideas about
the construction and decoration of temples and the depiction
of Buddha’s and bodhisattvas to China. Later, the Sogdian’s
converted to Manicheans and Nestorian Christianity and became
representatives of these faiths through their line of merchant
communities across the Asian area. They knew many languages;
many of them were translators. It was the Sogdian’s who brought
the technology of paper production from China to Europe. During
the Islamic period, Samarkand was famous for the quality of
its paper. The Sogdian’s were outstanding traders. The trade
advanced pluralism in this region.
The rise of Islam is attributed to the success of Muslims in
dominating the trade networks around the Indian Ocean basin.
Islamic law became dominant and favorable concessions and taxation
were extended to Muslim traders in areas under Muslim control.
In this way Islam started to spread into the East.
The penetration of Islam promoted the Abbasid revolution in
640 in Baghdad and the genesis of a new identity: the Iranian
element became predominant in Islam. Persian and then the Turkic
languages became the means of extension of the new culture.
The role of shrines, temples, mausoleums and sacred places in
the development of Islamic culture has been great. Usually pilgrimages
to these places were organized by women and children received
religious education from their mothers.
Chinese sources mention that there were dancers, singers and
musicians in the retinue of the embassies of the ‘Western countries’
(Sogd and Bactria). During these journeys a great transformation
of Chinese music as Central Asian musical instruments were introduced
into China.
In 718, the Sogdian’s sent some chain mail to China as a gift,
and it was eventually adopted by the Chinese army. |
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-SILK ROAD- |
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