Silk Road Saga Continued: Afghanistan

Afghanistan deserves more attention than this. Consider this a tip of the hat to the topic. 

            Hello, you may have noticed that here, and on my associated sites, my purpose is to offer that which you may find interesting and which you may expect to be of lasting value. This particular offering is part of a set of essays related to what has been called the Silk Road. The following few paragraphs is to give you a brief inside peek into the Silk Road country of Afghanistan.

            As I begin to prepare this post for publication I note that it may be too short for many of my readers. I will try to make future posts a little longer and more enjoyable.

Afghanistan:

            The Silk Road passes through Afghanistan. I further explorations we may note that the Silk Road trunk has many branches. We may note too that it was ancient even before the silk trade began to move on it. Much of Afghanistan's ancient history was nearly as turbulent as it's more recent history. This country is at the crossroads of central Asia and south Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and China. All places with interesting people and histories say I. I predict that we will hear of each of them more than once before we die.

            Did you notice the suffix -stan above? The countries which have the suffix in their name have something else in common. They are all in central Asia. In all of them the suffix translates to something like land of. All such countries have a significant relation to what we once called Persia and now call Iran. They are sort of Iranian cousins, perhaps second cousins.

            

            South East Asia includes the Indian subcontinent and the exotic and beautiful island nation of Sri Lanka. I mention Sri Lanka because I have strong memories of that land and people. I mention Indian because a large branch of the Silk Road heading east from Afghanistan goes there.

            Afghanistan has plenty of mountains and also has plains in the north and the Southwest. The Hindu kush mountain range accounts for mountains.

People and Afghanistan

            In addition to roads and land, Afghanistan has a variety of people. The most numerous people of the country are Pashtun, Hazaras, Tajik, and Uzbeck. There are many others as well, they include Turkman, Baloch, Aimaq, and Sadat. Afghanistan has long had commerce with China, India, the Near East, and more. When I say long I mean millenia. The great set of trade routes we are calling the Silk Road has connected many people as has contributed to the ethnic mix that is Afghanistan.

Turbulence in Afghanistan:

                First, check to see if anyone you know has an afghan in their home.

                The Graveyard of Empires is a name Afghanistan has been called. Americans are far from the only ones to have trampled on the people of this nation and to find that such trampling is not easy. Others include Russian, English, Mongols, Muslim Arabs, people of the Maurya Empire, and the army of Alexander the Great. Others helping to keep things turbulent include Mughals, Greco-Bactrians, and Iranians.

Religion in Afghanistan:

            It is also a land of various religions: Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and, more recently, Islam and some Christianity.

Birth of Afghanistan:

            Afghanistan may be said to have become a nation with the Hitak dynasty. This dynasty was founded by Ghilji Pashtuns, who may be seen as early cousins of the Persians. The Hotak ruled into the early 1700s BC. They took over from the older and longer lasting Persian Safaid empire. The Safaid were horsemen on the Silk Road,
        

            This is far from the end of this story, but I am about to end this essay. May I recommend that you make time to reread this piece and note with some care the questions that may arise. You may find some answers on your own. Please feel free to tell us about them. Also you could ask me a couple of questions.

            When I was younger we called Iranians, Persians and Iran, Persia. I was going to say they are the same people, but people change and the keep dying and getting born. Than again a people who share a history share a great deal.

            Among the names I may check out their relationship to the Silk Road I include: Tajikistan, Tajiks, Pashtuns, Hazaras, Sadat, Hindu Kush, Greco-Bactrians, Persian Safai, and more. There is much of interest and of value to be found. When you find something, please tell us a bit about it. I may include your finding in a post if that is OK with you. I will include your name if you want.

            Thank you for reading. Share this address with another.

                                                                    Richard Sheehan

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Underground Civilization That Survived The Cataclysm 12,000 Years Ago

View and listen to this video to its end. It could be a valued guide to your explorations into pre-history.

Silk Road Ramble

 History With RCS: Another piece of Silk Road history. Introducing the back-story of cities along the Silk Road.

 

                We may gain some interesting knowledge of our world by learning the stories of the trade routes we have come to call the Silk Road. I have just begun to find their names and a of information about them. I will mention three of them here. Their names are. Kashgar, Bukhara, and Kucha. In the process of this first look at these first three cities I have discovered some bits of information I hope to follow up on later. You may guess at what they may be as you read on.

                If you want you can record your guesses in the "comments" section of this post. You can also ask questions, make suggestions, and help me correct errors.

Kashgar: 

                The city of Kashgar is an oasis city in the Tarim Basin region of southern Xinjiang, China; a region which is now mostly desert. Kashgar is one of the western most cities in China. It is near the boarder of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Pakistan. The Tarim Basin is a large geological feature of about 390,000 square miles. Water that flows into the Basin does not flow out, still it is mostly desert. Xinjiang is the part of China in which the Uygur live. The Uygur are a Muslim people of whom you may have heard on TV. The Silk Road divides into three branches to cross the Tarim Basin east to west or visa versa. As we continue you will find that the Road has many branches. 

                The Han Chinese have been a power in the Tarim Basin from about about 76 BC so have a strong claim on it. How many years are there before 76 BC? 

                The four countries I mention above each of whose names ends in -stan may remind you of Persia or Iran or both. You can find that these countries have historical connections with Iranians. I think that we can call kashgar a city with an Iranian history. The people of Kashgar were once of the Zoroastrian religion and some may still practice it. Most people in Iran practice Zoroastrianism to this day. Wikipedia people say that the city has been ruled by Chinese, Turkic, Mongol, and Tibetan Empires. I did not know that there had been a Tibetan Empire.

                I believe that ancient Iranians were important all along the the Silk Road from the eastern Mediterranean through to India and China. I see at this moment that Iranians were documented as important on the Road by 525 BC on inscriptions found at Persepolis. I suspect that we will find that they were important there long before.

                I remember reading that some not so early Iranians were called Saka by some and that some had red hair. Can it be so? We may have a lot to learn, but we are learning. Stick with me for a while.

 

Bukhara, our second Silk Road city:

                It probably existed 3,000 years ago, it is now the capital city of the Bukhara region of Uzbekistan. Bukhara has served as a center of trade, scholarship, and religion. Most people of the city still speak Tajik, a form of the Persian language. Remember that Persia is what we once called Iran. Uzbek is the language of the countryside and a second language of the city people. The Republic of Uzbekistan is now a Muslim country. It was anciently settled by Iranians. They were called Scythian and founded a kingdom there in about 900 BC.      

                As we continue learning we find that Tajik is a Persian language and that Uzbek is a Turkic language strongly effected by Persian.

                Bukhara became part of the Abbasid Caliphate in 819 AD and  was the capital of the Samanid Empire. At its greatest, about 900 AD, the empire included all of Afghanistan, huge parts of Iran, Turkmenistan,, Kyrgyzstan, and parts of Kazakhstan and Pakistan. The Abbasid Caliphate was the 3rd from the Prophet(Muhammad). They were significantly dependent  upon the Persian Buddhist family the Barmakids!

                The Barmakids could begin a new story that we won't follow just know. We have now passed well into the historic period which I intend to review at a later stage of this examination of the Silk Road. The Samanid Empire was a Sunni Iranian empire which included what are now the countries mentioned in the paragraph above. The Samanids brought Persian culture to a receptive Islamic world. Thanks to that fact the Islamic world has brought brought much of that culture to the West. It seems to me that I have it said that the Spanish Caliphates  so like the concept of pants that the fad spread to to the rest of the western world. I am pretty sure that there is truth in that.

                I will ramble on to the third city of this essay. Please help me to correct my errors or to add information in "comments" immediately below the end of this essay.

                Ancient Iranians called themselves Arya of ethnicity airya. I don't know how one would translate "ethnicity" to ancient Iranian. Speaking of ancient Iranians, at a very early date, on their way from the northeast to a place much nearer to what we have called "the western world," a significant number of them may have stopped off at India for a time.

                In a later essay of this Silk Road trip I might turn in at India. I think that some Europeans may have received fine fabrics from Indian before ever hearing of Chinese silk. People of the Near East more certainly did. As we look more into India, we may learn more of an ancient language called Kuhj. Some students of ancient languages consider Kuhj to be a fore-barer of the Indo-European languages. In sanscrit it seems to mean something like "rob" or "steal." Were our ancestors known thieves?

                I'm not concerned. Most genealogists can find kings and saints in one's family as well as a horse thief or Two.

                Another city on the Silk Road was Kucha. Kucha was an old Buddhist kingdom on the branch of the SR which ran along the north side ob what is now the Taklamakan desert in the Tarim basin and south of the Muzat river in China.

                "Kucha" comes from the Kuchan scripts of late antiquity. Kuchan is an India script. It may have connections with a writing used in Tibet. The Chines might like it be something from Han Chinese, but they are stretching a lot to do so.

                The city of Kucha in the Silk Road was a Central Asian metropolis. Its population was said to have been Indo-European. I believe that I am not wrong to call it an early Iranian people. It is also said that they were notably red-haired and blue eyed.

                I feel I have rambled far enough for now so I will bid you good bye.

                Thank you for reading.

                                                                                                        rcs