Talk:Merv

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Is it accurate to describe Charles Marvin as a Russophobe? I realize he described himself as "both a Russophile and Russophobe" (intro by Louis Dupree to his book "The Russian Advance Towards India", but in the book itself it appears he is an almost credulous believer in Russian good intentions. Kd5mdk 06:04, 12 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Contents 1 Tekke 2 "Some say..." 3 Zend-Avesta vs Avesta 4 Largest city in the world? 5 Population

[edit] Tekke

The present inhabitants of the oasis are Turkomans of the Tekke tribe.

Tekke links to a type of Sufi practice or meeting place. Surely this isn't connected to the tribe. Wrong wikilink? Thanks --Dpr 02:56, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

Could you re-edit the sentence to make it accurate? --Wetman 15:55, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "Some say..."

"Some say...: "Some say that Merv is the origin of Hindu belief in Mount Meru, which Hinduism declares to be the center of the world. Others suggest, however, that Mount Meru is another name for Mount Kailas in Tibet." This is babble unless we can be told who said... and when they said it... and even why this is relevant to Merv at all. Is there actually anything more than a very general confluence of phonemes in this? --Wetman 15:55, 8 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Zend-Avesta vs Avesta

I just ran across the sentence "Merv is mentioned with 'Bakhdi' (Balkh) in the geography of the Zend-Avesta, which probably dates from the 7th century BCE though traditionally given extravagantly earlier dates."

I'm not sure what exactly that means: Is the reference in the Avesta or in the Zend? (the commentaries on the Avesta).

The texts of the Avesta is significantly older than its commentaries, but the commentaries linguistically date to our side of the BCE/CE line.

For now, I've rephrased the above sentence to read "Merv is mentioned with Bakhdi (Balkh) in the geography of the Zend-Avesta (commentaries on the Avesta)."

I hope thats an acceptable solution (unless of course, the mention isn't in the commentaries but in the Avesta proper). -- Fullstop 09:48, 24 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Largest city in the world?

I've removed the following reference from the main article space:

In the twelfth century Merv was briefly the largest city in the world [1].

These lists are both interesting and amusing, but it looks like generalizations and rough estimates. Such remarks need very good references. Valentinian ^(talk) 16:27, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Yes but....Ive put it back in in a weakened form. They are of course guesstimates (based on figures for food imports, etc, I believe) but historical population estimates almost by definition lack any solid numbers, so a lesser standard of proof can be accepted than for current figures. They are at any rate the best we have and if the source is respectable academically as this seems to be I see no reason to omit it. At the very least it conveys Merv's importance at that time. Jameswilson 22:48, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

There are just too many uncertainties for the old one, but the new version seems ok. Valentinian ^(talk) 07:15, 24 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Population

Article Brahui people mentions that Dravidian people Brahui's live in this area but doesnt however mentions numbers. Does anybody know about Brahui presence in this area today? Luka Jačov 23:07, 15 November 2006 (UTC)