Khwarezm

Khwarezmid Empire

Khwarezm were a series of states centered on the Amu Darya river delta of the former Aral Sea, in Greater Iran (now modern Uzbekistan), extending across the Ust-Urt plateau and possibly as far west as the eastern shores of the northern Caspian Sea.

To the south it bordered Khorasan, to the north the kingdom of Alans, to the southeast Kangju and Sogdian Transoxiana, and on the northeast with the Huns of Transoxiana. Its capitals were Old Urgench (Persian: Kuhna Gurganj) and, from the 17th century on, Khiva, when Khwarezm became known as the Khanate of Khiva.

Names and etymology

The runestone Vs 1 mentions a Viking who died in karusm.

Khwarezm has been known also as Chorasmia, Khwarezmia, Khwarizm, Khwarazm, Khorezm, Khoresm, Khorasam, Harezm, Horezm, and Chorezm.^[1]

In Avestan Xvairizem, in Old Persian Huwarazmish, Persian خوارزم Khwārazm, in Arabic it is خوارزم Khwārizm, and Chinese, 花剌子模 Huālázǐmó, Uzbek it is Xorazm, in Russian it is Хорезм Khorezm.

The Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi in his Mu'jem al-baladan wrote that the name "Khwarezm" is a compound name (in Persian) of "Khwar" (خور), and "-razm" (زم), referring to the abundance of cooked fish meat as a main diet of the peoples of this area.^[2]

C.E. Bosworth however, believes the Persian name to be made up of (خور) meaning "the sun" and (زم) meaning "Earth", designating "the land from which the sun rises".^[3] More correctly, however, the Iranic compound stands for "lowland" from khwar/khar, "low" and zam/zem, "earth, land."^[1]. Khwarezm is indeed the lowest region in Central Asia (except for the Caspian Sea to the far west), located on the delta of the Amu Darya on the southern shores of the Aral Sea. Various versions of khwar/khar/khor/hor are commonly used also in the Persian Gulf to stand for tidal flats, marshland, or tidal bays (e.g., Khor Musa, Khor Abdallah, Hor al-Azim, Hor al-Himar, etc.)

The name also appears in Achaemenid inscriptions as "Huvarazmish", and declared to be part of the Persian Empire.

Some of the early scholars believed Khwarezm to be what ancient Avestic texts refer to as "Ariyaneh Waeje" or "Iran vij".^[4] These sources claim that Old Urgench, which was the capital of ancient Khwarezm for many years, was actually "Ourva": the eighth land of Ahura Mazda mentioned in the Pahlavi text of Vendidad.^[5] However, Michael Witzel, a researcher in early Indo-European history, believes that Iran vig was located in what is now Afghanistan, the northern areas of which were a part of Ancient Khwarezm and Greater Khorasan.^[6] Others however disagree. University of Hawaii historian Elton L. Daniel believes Khwarezm to be the "most likely locale" corresponding to the original home of the Avestan people , and Dehkhoda calls Khwarezm "مهد قوم آریا" ("the cradle of the Aryan tribe").^[7]

Legendary history

The native Chorasmian (an Iranian language)^[8][9][10] speaker Biruni says that the land was first colonised 980 years before Alexander the Great, sc. before the Seleucid era, i.e. in 1292 B.C., when the hero of Iranian epic Siyavash came to Khwarezm, and his son Kay Khusraw was established on the throne 92 years later, in 1200 B.C. He starts giving names only with the Afrighid line of Khwarazmshahs, having placed the ascension of Afrighids in 616 of the Seleucid era, i.e. in 305 A.D.

Early people

Some geographers such as Istakhri in his Al-masalik wa al-mamalik mention it to be part of Khorasan and part of Transoxiania.

Like Soghdiana, Khwarzem was an expansion of the BMAC culture during the Bronze Age which later fused with indo-Iranians during their migrations around 1000 BCE. Early Iron Age states arose from this cultural exchange. List of Successive cultures in Khwarzem region 3000-500 BCE:^[11]

• Keltiminar Culture c. 3000 BCE
• Suyargan Culture c 2000 BCE
• Tazabag’yab Culture c. 1500 BCE
• Amirabad Culture c 1000 BCE
• Saka c. 500 BCE

During the final Saka phase, there were about 400 settlements in Khwarzem.^[12] Ruled by the native Afighid Dynasty. It was at this point that Khwarzem entered the historical record with the Acheminide expansion(see also: Kyuzeli-gyr).

Khwarezmian language and culture

An East Iranian language, known as Khwarezmian language, was spoken in Khwarezm proper (i.e., the lower Amu Darya region) until soon after the Mongol invasion, when it was replaced by Turkic languages.^{[13][14][15][16]} It was closely related to Sogdian. Other than the astronomical terms used by the native Iranian Chorasmian speaker Biruni^[10] , our other sources of Khwarezmian include Zamakhshari's Arabic-Persian-Khwarezmian dictionary and several legal texts that use Khwarezmian terms to explain certain legal concepts.

In the very early part of its history, the inhabitants of the area were from Iranian^[17][18] stock and they spoke an Eastern Iranian language called Khwarezmian. The famous scientist Biruni, a Khwarezm native, in his Athar ul-Baqiyah (الآثار الباقية عن القرون الخالية) (p. 47), specifically verifies the Iranian origins of Khwarezmians when he wrote (in Arabic):

"أهل خوارزم [...] کانوا غصناً من دوحة الفرس"

Translation:

"The people of the Khwarezm were a branch from Persian tree."

The area of Khwarezm was under Afrighid and then Samanid control until the 10th century before it was conquered by the Ghaznavidss. The Iranian Chorasmian language and culture felt the pressure of Turkic infiltration from northern Khwarezm southwards, leading to the disappearance of the original Iranian character^[10] of the province and its complete turkicisation today, but Khwarezmian speech^[10] probably lasted in upper Khwarezm, the region round Hazārasp, till the end of the 8th/14th century^[10].

The Iranian Chorasmian language survived for several centuries after Islam until the Turkification of the region, and so must some at least of the culture and lore of ancient Khwarezm, for it is hard to see the commanding figure of Biruni, a repository of so much knowledge, appearing in a cultural vacuum^[10].

Achaemenid, Parthian and Sassanid era

During the Achaemenid period, Khwarezm was governed by Smerdis/Bardiya along with Bactriana, Carmania, and the other eastern provinces of the empire.^[19] And the Persian poet Ferdowsi mentions Persian cities like Afrasiab and Chach in abundance in his epic Shahnama.

Silver tetradrachm of the Khwarezm king Artav (Artabanos), 1st-2nd century CE.
Obv: Bust of king, with Nike behind crowning him.
Rev: King on horseback. Blundered Greek legend IUIUEWIE MELUI EILUILU. Tamgha to the left.

When the king of Khwarezm offered friendship to Alexander the Great in 328 BC, Alexander's Greek and Roman biographers imagined the nomad king of a desert waste, but 20th century Russian archeologists revealed the region as a stable and centralized kingdom, a land of agriculture to the east of the Aral Sea, surrounded by the nomads of Central Asia, protected by its army of mailed horsemen, in the most powerful kingdom northwest of the Amu Darya (the Oxus River of antiquity). The king's emissary offered to lead Alexander's armies against his own enemies, west over the Caspian towards the Black Sea (e.g. Kingdom of Iberia and Colchis). Alexander politely refused.

Although largely independent during the Arsacid and Seleucid dynasties, it is known that Khwarezm and neighboring Bactriana were part of the Sassanid empire during the time of Bahram II. Yaqut al-Hamawi verifies that Khwarezm was a regional capital of the Sassanid empire. When speaking of the pre-Islamic "Khosrau of Khwarezm" (خسرو خوارزم), or post-Islamic "Amir of Khwarezm" (امیر خوارزم), or even the Khwarezmid Empire, sources such as Biruni and Ibn Khordadbeh and others clearly refer to Khwarezm as being part of the Iranian (Persian) empire.^[20] The fact that Pahlavi script which was used by the Persian bureaucracy alongside Old Persian, passed into use in Khwarezmia where it served as the first local alphabet about the AD 2nd century, as well as evidence that Khwarezmid Shahs such as Ala ad-Din Tekish (1172–1200) issued all their orders (both administrative and public) in Persian language (see A. A. Simonov), corroborates Biruni's claims.

Afrighids

Eurasia in 1200 AD, showing Khwarezm and its neighbors.

The Afrighids (pre-Islamic times to 995 A.D.) (Persian: آفریغیان-آل آفریغ) were native Chorasmian Iranian ^[8][21][22] dynasty who ruled over the ancient kingdom of Chorasmia until 995 A.D. According to Biruni the area was ruled by the Afrigid dynasty from the 4th century to the 10th century AD. The resurgent kingdom was established around Khiva in 410 by Avar tribes possibly under Hephthalites influence. The inhabitants were called Khwalis or Kaliz by the Magyars after the eastern-most Kabars of Hungary, who dwelt in Carpathian Galicia. They were also called Khalisioi in Greek, Khvalis (Хвалис) in Russian (and often associated with Khazars), and by a number of names in Chinese including Qián (潛), Guòlì (過利), Hūsìmì (呼似密), Huǒxún (火尋), Huòlìxímíqié (貨利習彌伽), and Huālázǐmó (花剌子模).^[23] The last name is the contemporary Chinese designation for Khwarezm and the etymology of the name is unknown but it may pertain to a kingdom of the Aral Sea or the Hua people.

Since Khwarezm was part of the Silk Road, it was known internationally, and had several different names in several different languages, including Byzantine Greek who called the products of this city "khalisios", which was masculine for "of the city of khalis."

In the late 7th century, Khwarezm was conquered by the Arab Umayyads. It thus came vaguely under Muslim suzerainty, but it was not until the end of the eight century or the beginning of the 9th century that that an Afrighid was first converted to Islam appearing with the popular convert’s name of ‘Abdallah (slave of God). In the course of the 10th century, the local family of the Ma'munids who were based in Gurganj, on the left bank of the Oxus grew in economic and political importance due to trade caravans. In 995, they violently overthrew the Afrighids of Kath and themselves assumed the traditional title of the Khwarazm Shah. Briefly, the area was under Samanid suzerainty, before it passed to Mahmud of Ghazna. From then on, Turco-Mongolian invasions and long rule by Altaic dynasties supplanted the Iranian character of the region^[22] although the title of Khwarizm Shah was maintained well up to the 15th century^[22].

Khwarezmid Empire

Khwarezm (Karasm), on a 1734 French map. The Khanate on the map surrounds the Aral Sea (depicted as much smaller than it actually was in those days) and includes much of the today's Kazakhstan's and Turkmenistan's Caspian coast

In the 11th century, the Khwarezmid Empire was founded and, in the early 13th century, ruled over all of Persia under the Shah ʿAlā al-Dīn Muhammad II. Around 1141 Yelü Dashi took control of eastern Khwarezm, making it part of the Kara-Khitan Khanate. Then from 1218 to 1220 Genghis Khan and his Mongols launched the invasion of Central Asia and destroyed the Kara-Khitan Khanate and the Khwarezmid Empire, including the capital of the latter, Old Urgench (Kunya Urgench).

"The Korasmins (i.e. Khwarezmids), a fierce, uncivilized race, thus driven from their homes, spread themselves, in their turn, over the south of Asia with fire and sword, in search of a resting place. In their impetuous course they directed themselves towards Egypt, whose Sultan, unable to withstand the swarm that had cast their longing eyes on the fertile valleys of the Nile... sent emissaries to Barbaquan, their leader, inviting them to settle in Palestine... they came, burning and slaying, and were at the walls of Jerusalem... they tore down every vestige of Christian faith..."^[24]

"The Sultans of Syria preferred the Christians to this fierce horde for their neighbours. Even the Sultan of Egypt began to regret the aid he had given to such barbarous foes, and united with those of Emissa and Damascus to root them from the land. The Korasmins amounted to but twenty thousand men, and were unable to resist the determined hostility... The Sultans defeated them in several engagements, and the peasantry rose up in masses to take vengeance upon them. No mercy was shown them in defeat. Barbaquan was slain..."^[24]

Modern Age

The region of Khwarezmia was split between the White Horde and Jagatai Khanate, and its capital of Old Urgench was rebuilt and again became one of the largest and most important trading centers in Central Asia. In the mid-1300s Khwarezm gained independence from the Mongols under the Sufid dynasty. However, Timur regarded Khwarezm as a rival to Samarkand, and over the course of 5 campaigns, he destroyed Old Urgench completely in 1388. This together with a shift in the course of the Amu-Darya caused the center of Khwarezm to shift to Khiva and, in the 16th century, the area came to be known as the Khanate of Khiva, ruled over by a branch of the Astrakhans, a Genghisid dynasty.

Flag of Khanate of Khiva prior to 1917

The discovery of gold on the banks of the Amu Darya during the reign of Russia's Peter the Great, together with the desire of the Russian Empire to open a trade route to the Indus (modern day Pakistan), prompted an armed trade expedition to the region, led by Prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky, which was repelled by Khiva.

It was under Tsars Alexander II and Alexander III that serious efforts to annex the region started. One of the main pretexts to Russian military expeditions to Khiva was to free Russian slaves in the khanate and to prevent future slave capture and trade.

Early in The Great Game, Russian interests in the region collided with those of the British Empire in the First Anglo-Afghan War in 1839.

The Khanate of Khiva was gradually reduced in size from Russian expansion in Turkestan (including Khwarezm) and, in 1873, a peace treaty was signed that established Khiva as a quasi-independent Russian protectorate.

After the Bolshevik seizure of power in the October Revolution, a short lived Khorezm People’s Soviet Republic (later the Khorezm SSR) was created out of the territory of the old Khanate of Khiva, before in 1924 it was finally incorporated into the Soviet Union, with the former Khanate divided between the new Turkmen SSR and Uzbek SSR.

The larger historical area of Khwarezm is further divided. Northern Khwarezm became the Uzbek SSR, and in 1925 the western part became the Turkmen SSR.Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, these became Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan respectively. Southern Khwarezmia is today a part of Iran. Many of the ancient Khwarezmian towns are situated currently in Xorazm Province, Uzbekistan.

Today, the area that was Khwarezm has a mixed population of Uzbeks, Karakalpaks, Turkmens, Persians, Tajiks, and Kazakhs.

Khwarezm in Persian literature

Khwarezm and her cities appear in Persian literature in abundance, in both prose and poetry. Dehkhoda for example defines the name Bukhara itself as "full of knowledge", referring to the fact that in antiquity, Bukhara was a scientific and scholarship powerhouse. Rumi verifies this when he praises the city as such:

آن بخارا معدن دانش بود
"This Bukhara was a mine of knowledge,
پس بخاراییست هرک آنش بود
Of Bukhara was, then, he who possesses knowledge."

Other examples illustrate the eminent status of Khwarezmid and Transoxianian cities in Persian literature in the past 1500 years:

ای بخارا شاد باش و دیر زی
"Oh Bukhara! Joy to you and live long!
شاه زی تو میهمان آید همی
Your King comes to you in ceremony."
---Rudaki

عالم جانها بر او هست مقرر چنانک
"The world of hearts is under his power in the same manner that
دولت خوارزمشاه داد جهان را قرار
The Nation of Khwarezm has brought peace to the world."
---Khaqani Shirvani

یکی پر طمع پیش خوارزمشاه
"A greedy one went to Khwarezm-shah"
شنیدم که شد بامدادی پگاه
"early one morning, so I have heard
---Sa'di

Yaqut al-Hamawi wrote: "I have never seen a city more wealthy and beautiful than Urgench". The city, however, was destroyed during several invasions, in particular when the Mongol army broke the dams of the Amu Darya which flooded the city. He reports that for every Mongol soldier, four inhabitants of Urgench were killed. Najmeddin Kubra, the great Sufi master, was among the casualties. The Mongol army that devastated Urgench was estimated to have been near 80,000 soldiers. The verse below refers to an early previous calamity that fell upon the region:

آخر ای خاک خراسان داد یزدانت نجات
"Oh land of Khorasan! God has saved you,
از بلای غیرت خاک ره گرگانج و کات
from the disaster that befell the land of Urgench and Kath"
---Divan of Anvari

Nevertheless the beauty and fame of Bukhara and Samarqand are well known in Persian literature. The following famous cosmopolitan ode perhaps best provides a notable example of this:

اگر آن ترک شیرازی به دست آرد دل ما را
"If that Shirazi Turk can win my heart,
به خال هندویش بخشم سمرقند و بخارا را
I would sell even the jewel cities of Samarqand and Bukhara for the Indian mole on her cheek."
---Hafez

Legend has it that Tamerlane sent for Hafez regarding this verse and asked angrily: "Are you he who was so bold as to offer my two great cities Samarkand and Bukhara for the mole on thy mistress's cheek?" Hafez then replied, "Yes, sire, and it is by such acts of generosity that I have brought myself to such a state of destitution that I have now to solicit your bounty." Tamerlane is written to have been so pleased at his ready wit that he dismissed the poet with a handsome present.

Notables of Khwarezm

History of Greater Iran
until the rise of modern nation-states
Pre-modern
Pre-Islamic  BCE Prehistory Proto-Elamite civilization 3200–2800 Elamite dynasties 2800–550 Bactria-Margiana Complex 2200–1700 Kingdom of Mannai 10th–7th cent. Median Empire 728–550 Achaemenid Empire 550–330 Seleucid Empire 330–150 Greco-Bactrian Kingdom 250-125 Parthian Empire 248–CE 224 CE Kushan Empire 30–275 Sassanid Empire 224–651 Hephthalite Empire 425–557 Kabul Shahi kingdom 565–879
Islamic  Patriarchal Caliphate 637–651 Umayyad Caliphate 661–750 Abbasid Caliphate 750–1258 Tahirid dynasty 821–873 Alavid dynasty 864–928 Saffarid dynasty 861–1003 Samanid dynasty 819–999 Ziyarid dynasty 928–1043 Buyid dynasty 934–1055 Ghaznavid Empire 975–1187 Ghori dynasty 1149–1212 Seljuk Empire 1037–1194 Khwarezmid dynasty 1077–1231 Ilkhanate 1256–1353 Kartids dynasty 1231-1389 Muzaffarid dynasty 1314–1393 Chupanid dynasty 1337–1357 Jalayerid dynasty 1339–1432 Timurid Empire 1370–1506 Qara Qoyunlu Turcomans 1407–1468 Aq Qoyunlu Turcomans 1378–1508 Safavid Empire 1501–1722* Mughal Empire 1526–1857 Hotaki dynasty 1722–1729 Afsharid dynasty 1736–1750 * or 1736 Zand Dynasty 1750-1794 Durrani Empire 1794-1826 Qajar Dynasty 1794-1925

The following either hail from Khwarezm, or lived and are buried there:

• Najmeddin Kubra, Sufi mystic
• Tureh Beig Khanum, wife of Tamerlane
• Khwajeh Mashad
• Imam Fakhreddin Razi
• Ala ad-Din Tekish, King of Khwarezmid Empire
• AbulHasan Sa'eedeh ibn Sa'deh, commentary writer on the writings of Sibawayh.
• Abaaq al-Khwarazmi
• Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, mathematician (for whom the term algorithm is named.)
• Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi, 10th century encyclopedist who wrote Mafatih al-'Ulum (“Key to the Sciences”).
• Abu Bakr al-Khwarizmi
• Biruni, scientist
• Zamakhshari
• Qutb al-zaman Muhammad ibn Abu-Tahir Marvazi, philosopher
• Al-Marwazi, astronomer
• Najmeddin Razi, Sufi mystic
• Abu al-Ghazi Bahadur, khan and historian
• Ras Tarkhan, a mercenary leader of the Khazars.

See also

• Khwarezmian language
• Khorezm People's Soviet Republic
• Khwarezmian Empire
• Kerait
• Uar
• Eurasian Avars
• Karakalpakstan
• Mount Imeon
• Koi Krylgan Kala

References

• Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great, pp 308ff etc.
• Shir Muhammad Mirab Munis & Muhammad Reza Mirab Agahi Firdaws al-Iqbal. History of Khorezm (Leiden: Brill) 1999 Trans & Ed. Yuri Bregel
• Yuri Bregel "The Sarts in the Khanate of Khiva" Journal of Asian History Vol.12 1978 pp121–151

External links

• Jona Lendering, Chorasmia, on the ancient history of Khwarezmia
• E. Nerazik, on Central Asia in the Early Middle Ages