Eps 5: Central Asian Empires
Few major cities developed in the region.
The creation of the Republic of China in 1911 and the general turmoil in China affected the Qing Dynasty 's holdings in Central Asia.
Russia still exerts more influence over the region than in any other former Soviet republics.
Host
Troy Kennedy
Podcast Content
Central Asia is a modern geographical name that covers an area characterized by a distinctive cultural synthesis rooted in the ancient history of the Kushan Empire, the Mongolian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. As far as the current political borders are concerned, it covers parts of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. After India's independence, its foreign policy focused largely on its relations with the Middle East and Central Asia, as well as with Russia and China.
After the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, most of Central Asia continued to be ruled by his successor, the Chagatai Khanate. After the appointment of 705 Qutayba a new phase of conquest began in central Afghanistan.
While the conquest of this area was easy for the steppe peoples of Central Asia, it was almost impossible for them to govern the conquered territories of the region. That was enough to hold the steppe empire together, but not to govern it all. Although most of these regions were conquered by 1369, these states proved to be short-lived.
Timur's empire was considered one of the most powerful in Central Asia's history, but was defeated by the Ottoman Empire and its successor, the Mongol Empire, in 1369.
The empire was short-lived, however - it lived and fell apart within a century of his death in 1405 and was overrun by the Ottoman Empire.
While earlier nomadic powers had built huge empires in the steppes of Inner Asia, the Mongols were the first to possess both Inner Asia and Outer Asia. Although they began to lose their unity as early as 1260, when the individual khanates gradually became increasingly dependent on each other for food, water, and other necessities, the unprecedented scale of the Mongolian conquests had far-reaching consequences. As a result of this exuberant rule, a large number of ethnic and religious minorities, as well as religious and cultural traditions, disappeared under the rule of Mongolism.
Trade flourished from East to West, and the Silk Road reopened for the first time since the fall of the Tang Empire. The Seljuks, weakened by a struggle for succession, ruled only a few years before Central Asia was plunged into a time of chaos, conflict and feuds between kingdoms.
In the ninth century, a sustained influx of nomads from the northern steppe brought a new group of people to Central Asia. These people were Turks who lived in the vast grasslands that stretch from Mongolia to the Caspian Sea.
Starting with the ghaznavid, the institution of Turkish military slaves should remain in place and yield to the ruling dynasties. The Turks were mainly introduced as slave soldiers to the Samanid dynasty and served in all states of the region, including the Abbasid army. The Turks of Central Asia have played an important role in Muslim history, both in terms of their military capabilities and their influence over the country's political and economic affairs.
The Turkic dynasty, based in East Turkestan near the city of Kashghar, adopted Islam in the 7th century BC after the death of the last emperor of Turkmenistan and the birth of a new dynasty.
The narrative of this conversion, elaborated and celebrated from at least the eleventh century to the twentieth century, identifies Satuq and Bughra Khan as the most powerful and powerful of the Turkish dynasties in the Middle East and Central Asia. The descendants of Genghis Khan alone were able to bear the sovereign title of Khan and were known for their military abilities, but not for their religious convictions. Muslim name for a prince of blood who did not rise to supreme power but always remained a potential candidate for this role. We do not know whether this part of a Mongolian - governed world was Islamized or not, or whether it signaled a sovereign authority.
Although the Mongolian Empire split along regional lines in the mid-13th century, different parts of Central Asia fell under different lines of rule, stemming from Genghis Khan's four sons. The steppe of Central Asia stretched from eastern Mongolia to present-day Manchuria in the north and eastern China. In 1250, the Mongols were rewarded with a new power in Central Asia and voluntarily subjected to it, an empire that rewarded only those who were subordinate to the new powers in Central Asia.
After the fragmentation of the Chinese Tang Empire, the region formed a series of powerful states based in northern China, such as the Mongolian Empire and the Qing Empire.