Tokharistan Explained

Conventional Long Name:Tokharistan
Common Name:Tokharistan
Era:Early Middle Ages
Capital:Balkh
Today:Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan

Tokharistan (formed from "Tokhara" and the suffix -stan meaning "place of" in Persian) is an ancient Early Middle Ages name given to the area which was known as Bactria in Ancient Greek sources.

By the 6th century CE Tokharistan came under rule of the First Turkic Khaganate, and in the 7th and 8th centuries it was incorporated into the Tang dynasty, administered by the Protectorate General to Pacify the West.[1] Today, Tokharistan is fragmented between Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan.

Names of Tokharistan

Several languages have used variations of the word "Tokhara" to designate the region:

Ethnicities

Several portraits of ambassadors from the region of Tokharistan are known from the Portraits of Periodical Offering of Liang, originally painted in 526–539 CE. They were at that time under the overlordship of the Hephthalites, who led the embassies to the Southern Liang court in the early 6th century CE.

"Tocharians" in the Tarim Basin

The name of "Tocharians" was mistakenly applied by early 20th century authors to the Indo-European people of the Tarim Basin, from the areas of Kucha and Agni. These scholars erroneously believed that these Indo-Europeans had originated in Tokharistan (Bactria), and hence applied the term "Tocharians" to them. This appellation remains in common usage although the Indo-European people of the Tarim Basin probably referred to themselves as Agni, Kuči and Krorän.[8] [9]

Chinese sources

In the Xi'an Stele, erected in 781 CE, the Church of the East monk Adam, author of the stele, mentioned in Syriac that his grandfather was a missionary-priest from Balkh (Classical Syriac: ܒܠܚ|translit=Balḥ) in Tokharistan (Classical Syriac: ܬܚܘܪܝܣܬܢ).[10] [11] [12]

Geography

Geographically, Tokharistan corresponds to the upper Oxus valley, between the mountain ranges of the Hindu-Kush to the south and the Pamir-Alay to the north.[1] The area reaches west as far as the Badakshan mountains, south as far as Bamiyan.[1] Arab sources considered Kabul as part of the southern border of Tokharistan, and Shaganiyan as part of its northern border.[1] In a narrow sense, Tokharistan may only refer to the region south of the Oxus.[1] The region used the East Iranian Bactrian language, which was current from the 2nd to the 9th century CE.[1]

The most important city of Tokharistan was Balkh, which was at the center of the trade between Iran (the Sasanian Empire) and India.[1]

The region of Tokharistan had been outside of Sasanian control for the three centuries preceding the Muslim conquest of Persia in 633–651 CE.[1] During that time, Tokharistan was under the rule of dynasties of Hunnish or Turkic origin, such as the Kidarites, the Alchon Huns and the Hephthalites.[1] At the time of the Arab conquest, Tokharistan was under the control of the Western Turks, through the Tokhara Yabghus.[1]

Art of early medieval Tokharistan

Numerous artefacts exist from the art of early medieval Tokharistan, which shows influence from the Buddhist art of Gandhara.[13]

5th–6th century CE

Many authors have suggested that the figures in the Dilberjin Tepe or Balalyk Tepe paintings are characteristic of the Hephthalites (450–570 CE).[14] In this context, parallels have been drawn with the figures from Kizil Caves in Chinese Turkestan, which seem to wear broadly similar clothing. The paintings of Balalyk Tepe would be characteristic of the court life of the Hephthalites in the first half of the 6th century CE, before the arrival of the Turks.[15] [16]

7th century CE

In painting, there is "Tokharistan school of art" (see Northern Buddhist art) with examples from Kalai Kafirnigan, Kafyr Kala or Ajina Tepe,[17] [18] as Buddhism and Buddhist art enjoyed a renaissance, possibly owing to the sponsorships and religious tolerance of the Western Turks (Tokhara Yabghus).[19]

Samanids and Ghaznavids 10–11th century

Islamic art developed with the Samanid Empire and the Ghaznavids from the 10th to 12th century CE.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Akasoy . Anna . Burnett . Charles . Yoeli-Tlalim . Ronit . Islam and Tibet – Interactions along the Musk Routes . 14 December 2016 . Routledge . 978-1-351-92605-8 . 51 . en.
  2. "Tushara (snowy, frigid) and Tushkara are used as equivalents of Tukhara" in Book: Tchouang . Hiuan . Chinese Accounts of India . 1957 . Susil Gupta . 103 . en.
  3. Namba Walter . Mariko . Tokharian Buddhism in Kucha: Buddhism of Indo-European Centum Speakers in Chinese Turkestan before the 10th Century C.E. . Sino-Platonic Papers . October 1998 . 85 . 2–4 .
  4. "The population was called by the Greeks Tokharoi, Thaguroi; by the Romans Tochar; or Thogarii (in Sanskrit, Tukhara; in Tibetan, Thod-kar or Tho-gar; in Khotanese, Ttaugara; in Uigurian, Twghry; in Armenian, T'ukri-k'" in Book: Diringer . David . Alphabet A Key To The History Of Mankind . 1948 . 348 .
  5. Book: Religions and Trade: Religious Formation, Transformation and Cross-Cultural Exchange between East and West . 28 November 2013 . BRILL . 978-90-04-25530-2 . 81 . en.
  6. For 覩货罗 as "Tokharistan" see Book: 冯承钧学术著作集中 . June 2015 . Beijing Book Co. Inc. . 978-7-999099-49-9 . 175 . zh.
  7. "In the Record of the Northern – Wei Dynasty it is transcribed as T'u-hu-luo" in Book: Chinese Monks in India: Biography of Eminent Monks who Went to the Western World in Search of the Law During the Great Tʻang Dynasty . 1986 . Motilal Banarsidass . 978-81-208-0062-5 . 7 . en.
  8. Namba Walter . Mariko . Tokharian Buddhism in Kucha: Buddhism of Indo-European Centum Speakers in Chinese Turkestan before the 10th Century C.E. . Sino-Platonic Papers . October 1998 . 85 . 2 .
  9. Book: Diringer . David . Alphabet A Key To The History Of Mankind . 1948 . 347–348 .
  10. Book: Havret . Henri (1848–1901) Auteur du texte . La stèle chrétienne de Si-ngan-fou. 3 / par le P. Henri Havret,... ; avec la collab. du P. Louis Cheikho,... [pour la IIIe partie] ]. 1895–1902 . 61 . EN.
  11. Book: Kurian. George Thomas. The Encyclopedia of Christian Literature. III. James D. Smith. Scarecrow Press. 2010. 978-0-8108-7283-7. 251.
  12. Book: Godwin, R. Todd. Persian Christians at the Chinese Court: The Xi'an Stele and the Early Medieval Church of the East. Bloomsbury Publishing. 2018. 978-1-78673-316-0. 10.
  13. LITVINSKY . BORIS . SOLOV'EV . VIKTOR . The Architecture and Art of Kafyr Kala (Early Medieval Tokharistan) . Bulletin of the Asia Institute . 1990 . 4 . 61–75 . 24048351 . 0890-4464.
  14. Kurbanov . Aydogdy . THE HEPHTHALITES: ICONOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS . Tyragetia . 2014 . 317–334 .
  15. "Several murals at Dilberjin date from the 5th to the 7th century. A comparison between some of the Dilberjin paintings and those at Kyzyl (“the cave of the 16 swordsmen" and "the cave with picture of Maya") demonstrates a link between them (Litvinsky 1996, 151)." Kurbanov . Aydogdy . THE HEPHTHALITES: ICONOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS . Tyragetia . 2014 . 317–334 .
  16. Book: Frumkin . Grégoire . Archaeology in Soviet Central Asia . 1970 . Brill Archive . 116–118. en.
  17. Book: Dani . Ahmad Hasan . Litvinsky . B. A. . History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations, A.D. 250 to 750 . January 1996 . UNESCO . 978-92-3-103211-0 . 150 . en.
  18. Book: UNESCO Collection of History of Civilizations of Central Asia : Online chapter .
  19. Book: Baumer . Christoph . History of Central Asia, The: 4-volume set . 18 April 2018 . Bloomsbury Publishing . 978-1-83860-868-2 . 203–204 . en.

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