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CENTRAL ASIA iv. In the Islamic Period up to the Mongols In early Islamic times Persians tended to identify all the lands to the northeast of Khorasan and lying beyond the Oxus with the region of Turan, which in the Šāh-nāma of Ferdowsī is regarded as the land allotted to…

CENTRAL ASIA ix. In the 20th Century Modern life encroached slowly and unevenly upon Central Asia in the 20th century. Technology brought by the Russian military and the colonial administration from Europe included advanced arms and material, as well as railroad, telegraph/telephone, and printed com­munication. These would have their impact…

CENTRAL ASIA v. In the Mongol and Timurid Periods At the death of Čengīz (Chinggis) Khan in 624/1227 the territory he had conquered was divided between his sons. To Čaḡatai (d. 642/1244-45) was allotted the region of Transoxania, from Bukhara and Samarkand in the west north to the Chu river and Lake…

CENTRAL ASIA vi. In the 16th-18th Centuries I. The appanage state system. An overview (Table 28a; Table 28b). With the beginning of the 10th/16th century a significant political transformation occurred in Central Asia. After governing for more than a century the Timurids were expelled from Transoxania, Balḵ, and Khorasan and…

CENTRAL ASIA vii. In the 18th-19th Centuries I. From the fall of the Toqay-Timurids through the Russian conquest. By the beginning of the 12th/18th century Central Asia was in a state of a deepening political and economic crisis, which manifested itself in the decline of the ruling dynasties and central…

CENTRAL ASIA viii. Relations with Persia in the 19th Century The question of Central Asia in the 13th/19th century, from the Persian point of view, was a promi­nent one not only because of Persian territorial claims over Marv, Ḵīva, Saraḵs, and other peripheral regions, but also because of the threat…

CENTRAL ASIA x. Economy Before the Timurids From the historical perspective Central Asia does not lend itself to easy geographical definitions. It comprises, grosso modo, the lands extending from the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea in the west to Chinese Turkestan in the east, from the Kazakh steppes in…

CENTRAL ASIA xi. Economy from the Timurids until the 18th Century The economy of Central Asia after the fall of Central Asia to the descendants of Čengīz Khan and during their rule was centered on agriculture, but with important contributions from pastoralism, especially the breeding and export of horses. The…

CENTRAL ASIA xii. Economy in the 19th-20th Centuries When the Russians arrived in Central Asia in the 1860s they found a predominantly agrarian economy. As in other parts of the dry heart of Asia and the Middle East two forms of agriculture existed: sedentary farming, mainly based on irrigation, and…

CENTRAL ASIA xiii. Iranian Languages Central Asia was the ancient homeland of the Iranians and therefore also of the Iranian languages. There is no clear and indisputable evidence of the languages spoken on the plains and in the mountains of Central Asia before the 1st millennium b.c., when the entire…

CENTRAL ASIA xiv. Turkish-Iranian Language Contacts I. Turkish peoples and languages in Central Asia. Three Turkish languages came together in Central Asia, the territory covered by the modern Turkmen, Uzbek, Kazakh, Kirghiz, and Tajik SSRs, excluding Chinese Turkestan: 1. the Uighur or Eastern Turks (e.g., Chaghatay, later Uzbek), 2. the…

CENTRAL ASIA xv. Modern Literature Central Asian literatures in the twentieth century have developed under diverse influences. Beside classical and modern Persian literature and the poetic traditions and folklore of the Central Asian peoples themselves, Rus­sian thought and letters have been predominant. Since the 1920s Soviet economic and social policies…

CENTRAL ASIA xvi. Music In modern times Central Asia as a musicological unit can be defined as the area extending from Afghanistan north of the Hindu Kush, including the Badaḵšān mountain range on both sides of the Afghan-Soviet border, all of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan in the west, Kirgizia and…

CENTRAL DIALECTS, designation of a number of Iranian dialects spoken in the center of Persia, roughly between Hamadān, Isfahan, Yazd, and Teh­ran, that is, the area of ancient Media Major, which constitute the core of the western Iranian dialects. They are most closely related to 1. the band of Ṭāleši…

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (CIA) IN PERSIA. Early CIA activities in Persia. When the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was established in September 1947, its predecessors had been operating in Persia for a number of years. At the beginning of World War II the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) sent two…