1.
Sogdia
–
Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Empire, eighteenth in the list on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great. In the Avesta, Sogdiana is listed as the second best land that the supreme deity Ahura Mazda had created and it comes second, after Airyanem Vaejah, homeland of the Aryans, in the Zoroastrian book of Vendidad, indicating the importance of this region from ancient times. Sogdiana was conquered by the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great in 328 BC and later formed part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, the Sogdian states, although never politically united, were centred on the main city of Samarkand. Sogdiana lay north of Bactria, east of Khwarezm, and southeast of Kangju between the Oxus and the Jaxartes, embracing the valley of the Zeravshan. Sogdian territory corresponds to the provinces of Samarkand and Bokhara in modern Uzbekistan as well as the Sughd province of modern Tajikistan. During the High Middle Ages, Sogdian cities included sites stretching towards Issyk Kul such as that at the site of Suyab. Sogdian, an Eastern Iranian language, is no longer a spoken language and it was widely spoken in Central Asia as a lingua franca and even served as one of the Turkic Khaganates court languages for writing documents. Sogdians also lived in Imperial China and rose to prominence in the military. Sogdian merchants and diplomats traveled as far west as the Byzantine Empire and they played an important part as middlemen in the trade route of the Silk Road. The Sogdian conversion to Islam was virtually complete by the end of the Samanid Empire in 999, coinciding with the decline of the Sogdian language, as it was largely supplanted by Persian. The restored Scythian name is *Skuda, which among the Pontic or Royal Scythians became *Skula, according to Szemerényi, Sogdiana was named from the Skuda form. This large-scale migration included Eastern Iranian speaking peoples such as the Sogdians, Achaemenid ruler Cyrus the Great conquered Sogdiana while campaigning in Central Asia in 546–539 BC, a fact mentioned by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus in his Histories. Darius I introduced the Aramaic writing system and coin currency to Central Asia, in addition to incorporating Sogdians into his army as regular soldiers. A contingent of Sogdian soldiers fought in the army of Xerxes I during his ultimately failed invasion of Greece in 480 BC. A Persian inscription from Susa claims that the palace there was adorned with lapis lazuli, given the absence of any named satraps for Sogdiana in historical records, modern scholarship has concluded that Sogdiana was governed from the satrapy of nearby Bactria. The satraps were often relatives of the ruling Persian kings, especially sons who were not designated as the heir apparent, Sogdiana likely remained under Persian control until roughly 400 BC, during the reign of Artaxerxes II. Rebellious states of the Persian Empire took advantage of the weak Artaxerxes II, persias massive loss of Central Asian territory is widely attributed to the rulers lack of control. However, unlike Egypt, which was recaptured by the Persian Empire
Sogdia
–
Sogdians, depicted on a Chinese Sogdian sarcophagus of the
Northern Qi era.
Sogdia
–
Sogdiana, c. 300 BC.
Sogdia
–
Gold coin of
Diodotus c. 250 BC.
Sogdia
–
Barbaric copy of a coin of
Euthydemus I, from the region of Sogdiana. The legend on the reverse is in
Aramaic script.
2.
Central Asia
–
Central Asia stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to China in the east and from Afghanistan in the south to Russia in the north. It is also referred to as the -stans as the five countries generally considered to be within the region all have names ending with the Persian suffix -stan. Central Asias five former Soviet republics are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Central Asia has historically been closely tied to its nomadic peoples and the Silk Road. It has acted as a crossroads for the movement of people, goods, the Silk Road connected Muslim lands with the people of Europe, India, and China. This crossroads position has intensified the conflict between tribalism and traditionalism and modernization, in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, Central Asia was predominantly Iranian, peopled by Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians and Chorasmians and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Parthians. Central Asia is sometimes referred to as Turkestan, the idea of Central Asia as a distinct region of the world was introduced in 1843 by the geographer Alexander von Humboldt. The borders of Central Asia are subject to multiple definitions, historically built political geography and geoculture are two significant parameters widely used in the scholarly literature about the definitions of the Central Asia. The most limited definition was the one of the Soviet Union. This definition was also used outside the USSR during this period. However, the Russian culture has two terms, Средняя Азия and Центральная Азия. Since then, this has become the most common definition of Central Asia, the UNESCO general history of Central Asia, written just before the collapse of the USSR, defines the region based on climate and uses far larger borders. An alternative method is to define the region based on ethnicity and these areas include Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Turkic regions of southern Siberia, the five republics, and Afghan Turkestan. Afghanistan as a whole, the northern and western areas of Pakistan, the Tibetans and Ladakhi are also included. Insofar, most of the peoples are considered the indigenous peoples of the vast region. Central Asia is a large region of varied geography, including high passes and mountains, vast deserts. The vast steppe areas of Central Asia are considered together with the steppes of Eastern Europe as a geographical zone known as the Eurasian Steppe. Much of the land of Central Asia is too dry or too rugged for farming, the Gobi desert extends from the foot of the Pamirs, 77° E, to the Great Khingan Mountains, 116°–118° E. Central Asia has the following geographic extremes, The worlds northernmost desert, at Buurug Deliin Els, Mongolia, the Northern Hemispheres southernmost permafrost, at Erdenetsogt sum, Mongolia, 46°17′ N
Central Asia
–
On the southern shore of Issyk Kul lake,
Issyk Kul Region.
Central Asia
–
Central Asia
Central Asia
–
Uzbek men from
Khiva, ca. 1861–1880
Central Asia
–
Kazakh man on a horse with golden eagle
3.
China
–
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
China
–
Yinxu, ruins of an ancient
palace dating from the
Shang Dynasty (14th century BCE)
China
–
Flag
China
–
Some of the thousands of life-size
Terracotta Warriors of the
Qin Dynasty, c. 210 BCE
China
–
The
Great Wall of China was built by several dynasties over two thousand years to protect the sedentary agricultural regions of the
Chinese interior from incursions by
nomadic pastoralists of the northern
steppes.
4.
Yaghnobi language
–
The Yaghnobi language is a living Eastern Iranian language. Yaghnobi is spoken in the valley of the Yaghnob River in the Zarafshan area of Tajikistan by the Yaghnobi people. It is considered to be a descendant of Sogdian and has often been called Neo-Sogdian in academic literature. There are some 12,500 Yaghnobi speakers and they are divided into several communities. The principal group lives in the Zafarobod area, there are also resettlers in the Yaghnob Valley. Some communities live in the villages of Zumand and Kůkteppa and in Dushanbe or in its vicinity, most Yaghnobi speakers are bilingual in the West Iranian Tajik. Yaghnobi is mostly used for daily communication, and Tajik is used by Yaghnobi-speakers for business. The account led to the belief by some, especially those reliant solely on Russian sources, there are two main dialects, a western and an eastern one. For example, historical *θ corresponds to t in the dialects and s in the eastern. Western ay corresponds to Eastern e, wayš – weš grass from Sogdian wayš or wēš ⟨wyš⟩, the early Sogdian group θr is reflected as sar in the east but tir in the west, saráy – tiráy three from Sogdian θrē/θray or ṣ̌ē/ṣ̌ay ⟨δry⟩. There are also differences in verbal endings and in the lexicon. In between the two dialects is a transitional dialect that shares some features of both other dialects. The alphabet is quite unsuitable for Yaghnobi, as it does not distinguish short and long vowels or v and w and it does not mark stress. Words beginning with ya-, yo- and yu-/yū-/yʏ- are written as я-, ё- and ю-, 2) Use of ӣ and ӯ is uncertain, but they seem to distinguish two similar-sounding words, иранка and ӣранка, рупак and рӯпак. Maybe ӣ is also used as a marker as it is also in Tajik, and ӯ can also be used in Tajik loanwords to indicate a Tajik vowel ⟨ů⟩. 3) In older texts, the alphabet did not use letters Ъ ъ and Э э, instead of Tajik ъ, Yaghnobi ’ and е covered both Tajik е and э for /e/. Later, the letters were integrated into the alphabet so the older етк was changed into этк to represent the pronunciation, older ша’мак was changed to шаъмак. 4) /ji/ and /je/ are written е and и, Yaghnobi и can be */ji/ after a vowel like in Tajik, and ӣ after a vowel is */jiː/
Yaghnobi language
–
Yaghnobi-speaking areas and enclaves of Yaghnobi-speakers among a Tajik majority
5.
Language family
–
A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestral language or parental language, called the proto-language of that family. Linguists therefore describe the languages within a language family as being genetically related. Estimates of the number of living languages vary from 5,000 to 8,000, depending on the precision of ones definition of language, the 2013 edition of Ethnologue catalogs just over 7,000 living human languages. A living language is one that is used as the primary form of communication of a group of people. There are also dead and extinct languages, as well as some that are still insufficiently studied to be classified. Membership of languages in a family is established by comparative linguistics. Sister languages are said to have a genetic or genealogical relationship, speakers of a language family belong to a common speech community. The divergence of a proto-language into daughter languages typically occurs through geographical separation, individuals belonging to other speech communities may also adopt languages from a different language family through the language shift process. Genealogically related languages present shared retentions, that is, features of the proto-language that cannot be explained by chance or borrowing, for example, Germanic languages are Germanic in that they share vocabulary and grammatical features that are not believed to have been present in the Proto-Indo-European language. These features are believed to be innovations that took place in Proto-Germanic, language families can be divided into smaller phylogenetic units, conventionally referred to as branches of the family because the history of a language family is often represented as a tree diagram. A family is a unit, all its members derive from a common ancestor. Some taxonomists restrict the term family to a level. Those who affix such labels also subdivide branches into groups, a top-level family is often called a phylum or stock. The closer the branches are to other, the closer the languages will be related. For example, the Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Romance, there is a remarkably similar pattern shown by the linguistic tree and the genetic tree of human ancestry that was verified statistically. Languages interpreted in terms of the phylogenetic tree of human languages are transmitted to a great extent vertically as opposed to horizontally. A speech variety may also be considered either a language or a dialect depending on social or political considerations, thus, different sources give sometimes wildly different accounts of the number of languages within a family. Classifications of the Japonic family, for example, range from one language to nearly twenty, most of the worlds languages are known to be related to others
Language family
–
Principal language families of the world (and in some cases geographic groups of families). For greater detail, see
Distribution of languages in the world.
6.
Indo-European languages
–
The Indo-European languages are a language family of several hundred related languages and dialects. There are about 445 living Indo-European languages, according to the estimate by Ethnologue, the most widely spoken Indo-European languages by native speakers are Spanish, English, Hindustani, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, and Punjabi, each with over 100 million speakers. Today, 46% of the population speaks an Indo-European language as a first language. The Indo-European family includes most of the languages of Europe, and parts of Western, Central. It was also predominant in ancient Anatolia, the ancient Tarim Basin and most of Central Asia until the medieval Turkic migrations, all Indo-European languages are descendants of a single prehistoric language, reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European, spoken sometime in the Neolithic era. Several disputed proposals link Indo-European to other language families. In the 16th century, European visitors to the Indian subcontinent began to notice similarities among Indo-Aryan, Iranian, in 1583, English Jesuit missionary Thomas Stephens in Goa wrote a letter to his brother in which he noted similarities between Indian languages and Greek and Latin. Another account to mention the ancient language Sanskrit came from Filippo Sassetti, a merchant born in Florence in 1540, writing in 1585, he noted some word similarities between Sanskrit and Italian. However, neither Stephens nor Sassettis observations led to further scholarly inquiry and he included in his hypothesis Dutch, Albanian, Greek, Latin, Persian, and German, later adding Slavic, Celtic, and Baltic languages. However, Van Boxhorns suggestions did not become known and did not stimulate further research. Ottoman Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi visited Vienna in 1665–1666 as part of a diplomatic mission, gaston Coeurdoux and others made observations of the same type. Coeurdoux made a comparison of Sanskrit, Latin and Greek conjugations in the late 1760s to suggest a relationship among them. Thomas Young first used the term Indo-European in 1813, deriving from the extremes of the language family. A synonym is Indo-Germanic, specifying the familys southeasternmost and northwesternmost branches, a number of other synonymous terms have also been used. Franz Bopps Comparative Grammar appeared between 1833 and 1852 and marks the beginning of Indo-European studies as an academic discipline, the classical phase of Indo-European comparative linguistics leads from this work to August Schleichers 1861 Compendium and up to Karl Brugmanns Grundriss, published in the 1880s. Brugmanns neogrammarian reevaluation of the field and Ferdinand de Saussures development of the theory may be considered the beginning of modern Indo-European studies. This led to the laryngeal theory, a major step forward in Indo-European linguistics. Isolated terms in Luwian/Hittite mentioned in Semitic Old Assyrian texts from the 20th and 19th centuries BC, Hittite texts from about 1650 BC, Armenian, writing known from the beginning of the 5th century AD
Indo-European languages
–
Franz Bopp, pioneer in the field of comparative linguistic studies.
Indo-European languages
7.
Indo-Iranian languages
–
The Indo-Iranian languages, or Indo-Iranic languages, constitute the largest and easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European language family. It has more than 1 billion speakers, stretching from the Caucasus and the Balkans eastward to Xinjiang and Assam, the common ancestor of all of the languages in this family is called Proto-Indo-Iranian—also known as Common Aryan—which was spoken in approximately the late 3rd millennium BC. The three branches of modern Indo-Iranian languages are Indo-Aryan, Iranian, and Nuristani, additionally, sometimes a fourth independent branch, Dardic, is posited, but recent scholarship in general places Dardic languages as archaic members of the Indo-Aryan branch. Among the Iranian branch, major languages are Persian, Pashto, Kurdish, the Indo-Iranian languages derive from a reconstructed common proto-language, called Proto-Indo-Iranian. The oldest attested Indo-Iranian languages are Vedic Sanskrit, Older and Younger Avestan, a few words from another Indo-Aryan language are attested in documents from the ancient Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia and Syria and the Hittite kingdom in Anatolia. A comparative study of Santali and Bengali, ISBN 81-7074-128-9 Nicholas Sims-Williams, ed. Indo-Iranian Languages and Peoples. Swadesh lists of Indo-Iranian basic vocabulary words
Indo-Iranian languages
8.
Iranian languages
–
The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, which in turn are a branch of the Indo-European language family. The speakers of Iranian languages are known as Iranian people, historical Iranian languages are grouped in three stages, Old Iranian, Middle Iranian, and New Iranian. Of the Old Iranian languages, the better understood and recorded ones are Old Persian and Avestan, Middle Iranian languages included Middle Persian, Parthian, and Bactrian. As of 2008, there were an estimated 150–200 million native speakers of Iranian languages, ethnologue estimates there are 86 Iranian languages, the largest among them being Persian, Pashto and Kurdish. The term Iranian is applied to any language which descends from the ancestral Proto-Iranian language, Iranian derives from the Persian and Sanskrit origin word Arya. The use of the term for the Iranian language family was introduced in 1836 by Christian Lassen, robert Needham Cust used the term Irano-Aryan in 1878, and Orientalists such as George Abraham Grierson and Max Müller contrasted Irano-Aryan and Indo-Aryan. Some recent scholarship, primarily in German, has revived this convention, the Eastern Iranian languages subdivided into, Southeastern, of which Pashto is the dominant member, Northeastern, by far the smallest branch, of which Ossetian is the dominant member. All Iranian languages are descended from an ancestor, Proto-Iranian. In turn, and together with Proto-Indo-Aryan and the Nuristani languages, the Indo-Iranian languages are thought to have originated in Central Asia. The Andronovo culture is the candidate for the common Indo-Iranian culture ca.2000 BC. It was situated precisely in the part of Central Asia that borders present-day Russia. Of that variety of languages/dialects, direct evidence of two have survived. These are, Avestan, the two languages/dialects of the Avesta, i. e. the liturgical texts of Zoroastrianism, Old Persian, the native language of a south-western Iranian people known as Persians. Indirectly attested Old Iranian languages are discussed below, Old Persian is the Old Iranian dialect as it was spoken in south-western Iran by the inhabitants of Parsa, who also gave their name to their region and language. The language of the Avesta is subdivided into two dialects, conventionally known as Old Avestan, and Younger Avestan. These terms, which date to the 19th century, are slightly misleading since Younger Avestan is not only much younger than Old Avestan, the Old Avestan dialect is very archaic, and at roughly the same stage of development as Rigvedic Sanskrit. Unlike Old Persian, which has Middle Persian as its known successor, such hypothetical Old Iranian languages include Carduchi and Old Parthian. Additionally, the existence of unattested languages can sometimes be inferred from the impact they had on neighbouring languages, such transfer is known to have occurred for Old Persian, which has a Median substrate in some of its vocabulary
Iranian languages
–
Geographic distribution of modern Iranian languages
Iranian languages
–
Iranian languages family tree
9.
Writing system
–
A writing system is any conventional method of visually representing verbal communication. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a form of information storage. The processes of encoding and decoding writing systems involve shared understanding between writers and readers of the meaning behind the sets of characters that make up a script, the general attributes of writing systems can be placed into broad categories such as alphabets, syllabaries, or logographies. Any particular system can have attributes of more than one category, in the alphabetic category, there is a standard set of letters of consonants and vowels that encode based on the general principle that the letters represent speech sounds. In a syllabary, each symbol correlates to a syllable or mora, in a logography, each character represents a word, morpheme, or other semantic units. Other categories include abjads, which differ from alphabets in that vowels are not indicated, alphabets typically use a set of 20-to-35 symbols to fully express a language, whereas syllabaries can have 80-to-100, and logographies can have several hundreds of symbols. Systems will also enable the stringing together of these groupings in order to enable a full expression of the language. The reading step can be accomplished purely in the mind as an internal process, writing systems were preceded by proto-writing, which used pictograms, ideograms and other mnemonic symbols. Proto-writing lacked the ability to capture and express a range of thoughts. Soon after, writing provided a form of long distance communication. With the advent of publishing, it provided the medium for a form of mass communication. Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that a system is always associated with at least one spoken language. In contrast, visual representations such as drawings, paintings, and non-verbal items on maps, such as contour lines, are not language-related. Some other symbols, such as numerals and the ampersand, are not directly linked to any specific language, every human community possesses language, which many regard as an innate and defining condition of humanity. However, the development of writing systems, and the process by which they have supplanted traditional oral systems of communication, have been sporadic, uneven, once established, writing systems generally change more slowly than their spoken counterparts. Thus they often preserve features and expressions which are no current in the spoken language. One of the benefits of writing systems is that they can preserve a permanent record of information expressed in a language. In the examination of individual scripts, the study of writing systems has developed along partially independent lines, thus, the terminology employed differs somewhat from field to field
Writing system
–
Writing systems
Writing system
–
Predominant national and selected regional or minority scripts
Writing system
–
Chinese characters (漢字) are morpho-syllabic. Each one represents a syllable with a distinct meaning, but some characters may have multiple meanings or pronunciations
Writing system
–
A Specimen of typefaces and styles, by
William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728
Cyclopaedia
10.
Sogdian alphabet
–
The Sogdian alphabet was originally used for the Sogdian language, a language in the Iranian family used by the people of Sogdia. The alphabet is derived from Syriac, the descendant script of the Aramaic alphabet, the Sogdian alphabet is one of three scripts used to write the Sogdian language, the others being the Manichaean alphabet and the Syriac alphabet. It was used throughout Central Asia, from the edge of Iran in the west, to China in the east, like the writing systems from which it is descended, the Sogdian writing system can be described as an abjad, but it also displays tendencies towards an alphabet. The script consists of 17 consonants, many of which have alternate forms for initial, middle, as in the Aramaic alphabet, long vowels were commonly written with matres lectionis, the consonants aleph, yodh and waw. However, unlike Aramaic and most abjads, these consonant signs would also serve to express the short vowels. To disambiguate long vowels from short ones, an additional aleph could be written before the sign denoting the long vowel, the alphabet also includes several diacritics, which were used inconsistently. It is written right to left, but by the time it had evolved into its child system. Voiced and voiceless fricatives are not distinguished in the script. Aramaic logograms also appear in the script, remnants of adapting the Aramaic alphabet to the Sogdian language and these logograms are used mainly for functional words such as pronouns, articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. * those letters are not used in Sogdian words, Early Sogdian dates to the early fourth century C. E. and is characterized by distinct, separated graphemes. The sutra script appears around 500 C. E. while the cursive script develops approximately a century later, the cursive script is thus named because its letters are connected with a base line. Since many letters in the script are extremely similar in form, to the point of being indistinguishable. As the Sogdian alphabet became more cursive and more stylized, some became more difficult to distinguish, or were distinguished only in final position. The Sogdian script is known from texts of Buddhism, Manichaeism, and Christianity, as well as from secular sources such as letters, coins. The oldest known Sogdian documents are the Ancient Letters, found in 1920 by Sir Aurel Stein in a watchtower near Dunhuang and these letters date to approximately 312-313 C. E. and are written in Early Sogdian. The Sogdian Buddhist texts, written in the script, are younger. They were found during the first two decades of the century in one of the caves of the Thousand Buddhas in the Chinese province of Gansu. The bulk of these reside in the British Museum, the Bibliothèque nationale de France
Sogdian alphabet
–
Sogdian text. Manichaean Letter
Sogdian alphabet
–
Sogdian script on the Bugut Inscription (585), central
Mongolia. Sogdian is the distant ancestor of the Mongolian script.
11.
Syriac alphabet
–
The Syriac alphabet is a writing system primarily used to write the Syriac language from the 1st century AD. Syriac is written right to left. It is a script where some, but not all. The alphabet consists of 22 letters, all of which are consonants, the vowel sounds are supplied either by the readers memory or by optional diacritic marks. In addition to the sounds of the language, the letters of the Syriac alphabet can be used to represent numbers in a similar to Hebrew. When Arabic began to be the dominant spoken language in the Fertile Crescent, Malayalam was also written with Syriac script and was called Suriyani Malayalam. These writings are usually called Karshuni or Garshuni, Garshuni is often used today by Neo-Aramaic speakers in written communication such as letters and fliers. There are three variants of the Syriac alphabet, ʾEsṭrangēlā, Maḏnḥāyā, and Serṭā. The oldest and classical form of the alphabet is ʾEsṭrangēlā, although ʾEsṭrangēlā is no longer used as the main script for writing Syriac, it has received some revival since the 10th century. It is often used in publications, in titles and inscriptions. In some older manuscripts and inscriptions it is possible for any letter to join to the left, vowel marks are usually not used with ʾEsṭrangēlā. The East Syriac dialect is written in the Maḏnḥāyā form of the alphabet. Other names for the script include Swāḏāyā, ʾĀṯūrāyā, Kaldāyā, the Eastern script resembles ʾEsṭrangēlā more closely than the Western script, being somewhat a midway point between the two. Some transliteration schemes find its inclusion necessary for showing spirantization or for historical reasons, whether because its distribution is mostly predictable or because its pronunciation was lost, neither the East nor West variants of the alphabet have a sign to represent the schwa. The West Syriac dialect is written in the Serṭā form of the alphabet, also known as the Pšīṭā, Maronite. Most of the letters are derived from ʾEsṭrangēlā, but are simplified. A cursive, chancery hand is evidenced in the earliest Syriac manuscripts, from the 8th century, the simpler Serṭā style came into fashion, perhaps because of its more economical use of parchment. The Nabataean alphabet was based on this form of Syriac handwriting, lowercase Omega, used only in the vocative interjection ʾō
Syriac alphabet
–
Estrangela alphabet
Syriac alphabet
–
11th century book in Syriac Serṭā.
Syriac alphabet
–
Isho or Eesho, the
Aramaic name of
Jesus
12.
Manichaean alphabet
–
Unlike Pahlavi, Manichaean script reveals influences from Sogdian script, which in turn descends from the Syriac branch of Aramaic. Manichaean script is so named because Manichaean texts attribute its design to Mani himself, Middle Persian is written with this alphabet. Older Manichaean texts appear in a script and language that is identifiable as Syriac-Aramaic. Later texts using Manichaean script are attested in the literature of three Middle Iranian language ethnolects, the dialect of Sogdiana in the east, which had a large Manichean population, the dialect of Parthia in the northeast, which is indistinguishable from Medean of the northwest. The dialect of Parsa in southwest Iran, formerly and properly known as Parsi, Manichaean script was not the only script used to render Manichaean manuscripts. When writing in Sogdian, which was frequently the case, Manichaean scribes frequently used Sogdian script, likewise, outside Manichaeism, the dialect of Parsa was also recorded in other systems, including Pahlavi script and Avestan script. As Manichaeism was persecuted around Mesopotamia and the regions of the Sasanian Empire, its origins, it became well-established in Central Asia, in the 19th century, German expeditions discovered a number of Manichaean manuscripts at Bulayiq on the Silk Road, near Turpan in north-west China. Many of these manuscripts are preserved in Berlin. Like most abjads, Manichaean is written right to left. There are obligatory conjuncts for certain combinations involving n and y, the numbers are built from units of 1,5,10,20, and 100 and can be visually identifiable. There are also some forms of certain characters. The Manichaean alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2014 with the release of version 7.0, photos of the original texts written in manichaean script discovered at Turpan Initial Iranian conference proposing Unicode for Manichaean Script
Manichaean alphabet
–
Table of letters from Manichaean script, with their Latin transliterations.
13.
Manichaeism
–
Manichaeism was a major religious movement that was founded by the Iranian prophet Mani in the Sasanian Empire. Manichaeism taught a dualistic cosmology describing the struggle between a good, spiritual world of light, and an evil, material world of darkness. Through an ongoing process which takes place in history, light is gradually removed from the world of matter and returned to the world of light. Its beliefs were based on local Mesopotamian gnostic and religious movements, Manichaeism was quickly successful and spread far through the Aramaic-Syriac speaking regions. It thrived between the third and seventh centuries, and at its height was one of the most widespread religions in the world, Manichaean churches and scriptures existed as far east as China and as far west as the Roman Empire. It was briefly the main rival to Christianity in the competition to replace classical paganism, while most of Manichaeisms original writings have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived. An adherent of Manichaeism is called, especially in older sources, Mani, an Arsacid Persian by birth, was born 216 AD in Mesopotamia, which was ruled by Persia, then within the Sassanid Empire province of Asuristan. According to the Cologne Mani-Codex, Manis parents were members of the Jewish Christian Gnostic sect known as the Elcesaites, Mani composed seven writings, six of which were written in Syriac Aramaic. The seventh, the Shabuhragan, was written by Mani in Middle Persian and presented by him to the contemporary King of Sassanid Persia, Shapur I, in the Persian capital of Ctesiphon. Although there is no proof Shapur I was a Manichaean, he tolerated the spread of Manichaeism, while Manichaeism was spreading, existing religions such as Zoroastrianism were still popular and Christianity was gaining social and political influence. Although having fewer adherents, Manichaeism won the support of many high-ranking political figures, with the assistance of the Persian Empire, Mani began missionary expeditions. The date of his death is estimated at AD 276–277, Mani believed that the teachings of Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus were incomplete, and that his revelations were for the entire world, calling his teachings the Religion of Light. Manichaean writings indicate that Mani received revelations when he was 12 and again when he was 24, with the discovery of the Mani-Codex, it also became clear that he was raised in a Jewish-Christian baptism sect, the Elcesaites, and was influenced by their writings as well. It taught him truths which he developed into a religion and his divine Twin or true Self brought Mani to self-realization. He claimed to be the Paraclete of the Truth, as promised in the New Testament, Manichaeisms views on Jesus are described by historians, Jesus in Manichaeism possessed three separate identities, Jesus the Luminous, Jesus the Messiah and Jesus patibilis. Jesus the Messiah was a historical being who was the prophet of the Jews, however, the Manichaeans believed he was wholly divine. He never experienced human birth as notions of physical conception and birth filled the Manichaeans with horror, since he was the light of the world, where was this light, they asked, when he was in the womb of the Virgin. Jesus the Messiah was truly born at his baptism as it was on occasion that the Father openly acknowledged his sonship
Manichaeism
–
Manichaean priests, writing at their desks. Manuscript from
Gaochang (Khocho),
Tarim Basin, China.
Manichaeism
–
10th century Manichaean Electae in
Gaochang (Khocho), China.
Manichaeism
–
The spread of Manichaeism (a.d. 300–500). World History Atlas, Dorling Kindersly.
14.
Gaochang
–
The site is also known in published reports as Chotscho, Khocho, Qocho, or Qočo. During the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Gaochang was referred to as Halahezhuo, the ruins are located 30 km southeast of modern Turpan. The archaeological remains are just outside the town of Gaochang. Artistic depictions of the city have been published by Albert von Le Coq, Gaochang is considered in some sources to have been a Chinese colony, that is, it was located in a region otherwise occupied at the time by West Eurasian peoples. A busy trading center, it was a point for merchant traders traveling on the Silk Road. It was destroyed in wars during the 14th century, and old palace ruins, near Gaochang is another major archeological site, the Astana tombs. The earliest people known to have lived in the area were the Gushi, the region around Turfan was described during the Han dynasty as being occupied by the Jūshī, while control over the region swayed between the Han-Chinese and the Xiongnu. Gaochang was built in the 1st century BC, it was an important site along the Silk Road and it played a key role as a transportation hub in western China. The Jushi leaders invited the Chinese Han dynasty to take over, in 327, the Gaochang Commandery was created by the Former Liang under the Han Chinese ruler Zhang Gui. The Chinese set up a military colony/garrison, organized the land into multiple divisions and Han Chinese colonists from the Hexi region, after the fall of the Western Jin Dynasty, northern China split into multiple states, including the Central Asian oases. Gaochang was ruled by the Former Liang, Former Qin, in 383 The General Lu Guang of the Former Qin seized control of the region. In 439, remnants of the Northern Liang, led by Juqu Wuhui and Juqu Anzhou, six Dynasties Turfan tombs contained dumplings. From the mid-5th century until the mid-7th century, there existed four independent statelets in the narrow Turpan basin and these were controlled by the Kan clan, Zhang clan, Ma clan, and Qu clan. A the time of its conquest by the Rouran Khaganate, there were more than ten thousand Han Chinese households in Gaochang. The Rouran Khaganate, which was based in Mongolia, appointed a Han Chinese named Kan Bozhou to rule as King of Gaochang in 460, Kan was dependent on Rouran backing. Yicheng and Shougui were the last two kings of the Chinese Kan family to rule Gaochang, at this time the Gaoche was rising to challenge power of the Rouran in the Tarim Basin. The Gaoche king Afuzhiluo killed King Kan Shougui, who was the nephew of Kan Bozhou. and appointed a Han from Dunhuang, named Zhang Mengming, Gaochang thus passed under Gaoche rule. Later, Zhang Mengming was killed in an uprising by the people of Gaochang, in 501, Ma Ru himself was overthrown and killed, and the people of Gaochang appointed Qu Jia of Jincheng as their king
Gaochang
–
The
Buddhist stupa of Gaochang ruins.
Gaochang
–
Gaochang's location (close to
Turpan) on the
Silk Road.
Gaochang
–
Manichaean priests, writing at their desks. Manuscript from Qocho. 8th/9th century
Gaochang
–
Wall painting from a Nestorian Christian church, Qocho 683–770 CE
15.
Tarim Basin
–
The Tarim Basin is an endorheic basin in northwest China occupying an area of about 1,020,000 km2. Its northern boundary is the Tian Shan mountain range and its boundary is the Kunlun Mountains on the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Taklamakan Desert dominates much of the basin, the historical Uyghur name for the Tarim Basin is Altishahr, which means six cities in Uyghur. They were governed separately until 1884, north side, The Chinese called this the Tien Shan Nan Lu or Tien Shan South Road, as opposed to the Bei Lu north of the mountains. Along it runs the modern highway and railroad while the middle Tarim River is about 100 km south, Kashgar was where the caravans met before crossing the mountains. Center, Most of the basin is occupied by the Taklamakan Desert which is too dry for permanent habitation, the Yarkand, Kashgar and Aksu Rivers join to form the Tarim River which runs along the north side of the basin. Formerly it continued to Loulan, but some time after 330AD it turned southeast near Korla toward Charkilik, the Tarim ended at the now-dry Lop Nur which occupied a changing position east of Loulan. Eastward is the fabled Jade Gate which the Chinese considered the gateway to the Western Regions, beyond that is Dunhuang with its ancient manuscripts and then Anxi at the west end of the Gansu Corridor. The modern road continues east to Tibet, there is no current road east across the Kumtag Desert to Dunhuang, but caravans somehow made the crossing thru the Yangguan pass south of the Jade Gate. Roads and passes, rivers and caravan routes, The Southern Xinjiang Railway branches from the Lanxin Railway near Turpan, follows the side of the basin to Kashgar. Roads, The main road from eastern China reaches Urumchi and continues as highway 314 along the side to Kashgar. Highway 315 follows the side from Kashgar to Charkilik and continues east to Tibet. There are currently four north-south roads across the desert,218 runs from Charkilik to Korla along the former course of the Tarim forming an oval whose other end is Kashgar. The Tarim Desert Highway, an engineering achievement, crosses the center from Niya to Luntai. The new Highway 217 follows the Khotan River from Khotan to near Aksu, a road follows the Yarkand River from Yarkand to Baqu. East of the Korla-Charkilik road travel continues to be very difficult, Rivers coming south from the Tien Shan join the Tarim, the largest being the Aksu. Rivers flowing north from the Kunlun are usually named for the town or oasis they pass through, Most dry up in the desert, only the Hotan River reaching the Tarim in good years. An exception is the Qiemo River which flowed northeast into Lop Nor, ruins in the desert imply that these rivers were once larger
Tarim Basin
–
NASA landsat photo of the Tarim Basin
Tarim Basin
–
Dzungaria
Tarim Basin
–
Fresco from a
stupa shrine,
Miran
16.
Brocade
–
Brocade is a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in colored silks and with or without gold and silver threads. Brocade is typically woven on a draw loom and it is a supplementary weft technique, that is, the ornamental brocading is produced by a supplementary, non-structural, weft in addition to the standard weft that holds the warp threads together. The purpose of this is to give the appearance that the weave was actually embroidered on, in Guatemala, brocade is the most popular technique used to decorate fabric woven by Maya weavers on backstrap looms. Ornamental features in brocade are emphasized and wrought as additions to the fabric, sometimes stiffening it. When the weft is floating on the back, this is known as a continuous brocade, the yarns are cut away in cutwork and broché. Also, a discontinuous brocade is where the yarn is only woven in the patterned areas. Dating back to the Middle Ages, brocade fabric was one of the few luxury fabrics worn by nobility throughout China, India, Greece, Japan, Korea, Woven by the Byzantines, brocades were an especially desirable fabric. From the 4th to the 6th centuries, production of silk was seemingly non-existent, as linen, during this period, there was no public knowledge of silk fabric production except for that which was kept secret by the Chinese. Over the years, knowledge of production became known among other cultures. As silk production became known to western cultures, trade from the east began to decrease and it was discovered by Byzantine historians that in the 6th century a pair of monks brought the secret of sericulture – silk production – to the Byzantine emperor. As a result, western cultures were able to learn how to breed, raise, during the Early Middle Ages, brocade fabrics were only available to the wealthiest of people as the Byzantine Emperor charged extreme prices for the fabric. The designs woven into brocade fabrics were often Persian in origin and it was also common to see Christian subjects depicted in the complex weaves of the fabric. When these luxurious fabrics were made into clothing or wall hangings, they were at times adorned with precious and semiprecious stones, small medallions of enamel, embroidery and/or appliqués. The life of a noble during the Late Middle Ages was filled with entertainment, riding and hunting, music and dancing, all of these activities became a stage for the display of fashion. Wealthy noblemen and noblewomen dressed in silk brocades from Italy, during the 14th and 15th centuries, the Court of Burgundy was made known for their continuous fashionable tastes and luxurious dress. Brocades were also an important fabric during the Renaissance, and especially the Italian Renaissance, the complexity and high quality of luxurious silk fabrics caused Italy to become the most important and superior manufacturer of the finest silk fabrics for all of Europe. The almost sculptural lines of the fashions during the Renaissance were paired perfectly with the beauty and elegance of brocade, damask. The motifs remained Chinese, Indian and Persian in origin and were a reflection of the trading between the Far East and Italy and it is said that some Renaissance painters designed and sketched textile designs for fabrics production as well as incorporation into their paintings
Brocade
–
Silk brocade fabric,
Lyon, France, 1760-1770.
Brocade
–
Lacrocade,
Russia, early 18th century
Brocade
–
Detail of hairsash being brocaded on a
Jakaltek Maya backstrap
loom.
Brocade
–
Large brocade loom,
Nanjing, China, 2010
17.
Bezeklik
–
They are high on the cliffs of the west Mutou Valley under the Flaming Mountains, and most of the surviving caves date from the West Uyghur kingdom around the 10th to 13th centuries. There are 77 rock-cut caves at the site, most have rectangular spaces with rounded arch ceilings often divided into four sections, each with a mural of the Buddha. The effect is of entire ceiling covers with hundreds of Buddha murals, some murals show a large Buddha surrounded by other figures, including Turks, Indians and Europeans. The quality of the murals vary with some being artistically naive while others are masterpieces of religious art, professor James A. Buddhist Uyghurs created the Bezeklik murals. Indeed, Sogdians wearing silk robes are seen in the scenes of Bezeklik murals. The paintings of Bezeklik, while having a small amount of Indian influence, is influenced by Chinese and Iranian styles. Albert von Le Coq was the first to study the murals, the Buddhist Uyghurs of the Kingdom of Qocho and Turfan were converted to Islam by conquest during a ghazat at the hands of the Muslim Chagatai Khanate ruler Khizr Khoja. Anti portrait Muslims had Buddhist portraits obliterated during the wars over hundreds of years in which Buddhism was replaced by Islam, cherrypicking of history of Xinjiang with the intention of projecting an image of irreligiousity or piousness of Islam in Uyghur culture has been done by people with agendas. Michael Dillon wrote that the 1000s-1100s Islam-Buddhist war are still recalled in the forms of the Khotan Imam Asim Sufi shrine celebration, bezekliks Thousand Buddha Caves are an example of the religiously motivated vandalism against portraits of religious and human figures. The murals at Bezeklik have suffered considerable damage, many of the murals were damaged by local Muslim population whose religion proscribed figurative images of sentient beings, the eyes and mouths in particular were often gouged out. Pieces of murals were broken off for use as fertilizer by the locals. During the late nineteen and early twentieth century, European and Japanese explorers found intact murals buried in sand, some of the best preserved murals were removed by German explorer Albert von Le Coq and sent to Germany. Large pieces such as those showing Praņidhi scene were permanently fixed to walls in Museum of Ethnology in Berlin, during the Second World War they could not be removed for safekeeping, and were thus destroyed when the museum was caught in the bombing of Berlin by the Allies. A digital recreation of the Bezeklik murals removed by explorers was shown in Japan, “A Short Consideration Regarding Christian Elements in a Ninth Century Buddhist Wall-fainting from Bezeklik”. Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 101–7, chotscho, Facsimile Reproduction of Important Findings of the First Royal Prussian Expedition to Turfan in East Turkistan, Berlin,1913. A catalogue of the findings of the Second German Turfan Expedition led by Le Coq, reconstruction of Bezeklik murals at Ryukoku Museum Silk Route photos Mogao Caves Silk Road site
Bezeklik
–
Bezeklik caves
Bezeklik
–
Pranidhi scene, temple 9 (Cave 20)
Bezeklik
–
View on caves
Bezeklik
–
View on to the valley
18.
Tang Dynasty
–
The Tang dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It is generally regarded as a point in Chinese civilization. Its territory, acquired through the campaigns of its early rulers, rivaled that of the Han dynasty. The dynasty was founded by the Lǐ family, who seized power during the decline, the dynasty was briefly interrupted when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne, proclaiming the Second Zhou dynasty and becoming the only Chinese empress regnant. In two censuses of the 7th and 8th centuries, the Tang records estimated the population by number of registered households at about 50 million people. Various kingdoms and states paid tribute to the Tang court, while the Tang also conquered or subdued several regions which it controlled through a protectorate system. Besides political hegemony, the Tang also exerted a powerful influence over neighboring states such as those in Korea, Japan. Like the previous Sui dynasty, the Tang dynasty maintained a service system by recruiting scholar-officials through standardized examinations and recommendations to office. This civil order was undermined by the rise of military governors known as jiedushi during the 9th century. Chinese culture flourished and further matured during the Tang era, it is considered the greatest age for Chinese poetry. Two of Chinas most famous poets, Li Bai and Du Fu, belonged to this age, as did many famous painters such as Han Gan, Zhang Xuan, there was a rich variety of historical literature compiled by scholars, as well as encyclopedias and geographical works. The adoption of the title Tängri Qaghan by the Tang Emperor Taizong in addition to his title as emperor was eastern Asias first simultaneous kingship, there were many notable innovations during the Tang, including the development of woodblock printing. Buddhism became an influence in Chinese culture, with native Chinese sects gaining prominence. However, Buddhism would later be persecuted by the state, subsequently declining in influence, although the dynasty and central government were in decline by the 9th century, art and culture continued to flourish. This family was known as the Longxi Li lineage, which includes the Tang poet Li Bai, the Tang Emperors also had Xianbei maternal ancestry, from Emperor Gaozu of Tangs Xianbei mother Duchess Dugu. He had prestige and military experience, and was a first cousin of Emperor Yang of Sui, Li Yuan rose in rebellion in 617, along with his son and his equally militant daughter Princess Pingyang, who raised and commanded her own troops. In winter 617, Li Yuan occupied Changan, relegated Emperor Yang to the position of Taishang Huang or retired emperor, and acted as regent to the puppet child-emperor, Emperor Gong of Sui. On the news of Emperor Yangs murder by General Yuwen Huaji on June 18,618, Li Yuan declared himself the emperor of a new dynasty, the Tang
Tang Dynasty
–
History of China
Tang Dynasty
–
Tang dynasty circa 700
Tang Dynasty
–
Portrait painting of
Emperor Yang of Sui, commissioned in 643 by
Taizong, painted by
Yan Liben (600–673)
Tang Dynasty
–
Emperor Taizong (r. 626–649) receives
Gar Tongtsen Yülsung, ambassador of
Tibet, at his court; painted in 641 AD by
Yan Liben (600–673)
19.
Chinese ceramic
–
Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the Palaeolithic era, Porcelain is so identified with China that it is still called china in everyday English usage. Most later Chinese ceramics, even of the finest quality, were made on an industrial scale, many of the most important kiln workshops were owned by or reserved for the Emperor, and large quantities of ceramics were exported as diplomatic gifts or for trade from an early date. The earliest Chinese pottery was earthenware, which continued in production for utilitarian uses throughout Chinese history, but was increasingly less used for fine wares. Porcelain, on a Western definition, is a term comprising all ceramic ware that is white and translucent. The Chinese tradition recognizes two categories of ceramics, high-fired and low-fired, so doing without stoneware, which in Chinese tradition is mostly grouped with porcelain. Terms such as porcellaneous or near-porcelain may be used for stonewares with porcelain-like characteristics, the Erya defined porcelain as fine, compact pottery. Chinese pottery can also classified as being either northern or southern, the kiln types were also different. Southern materials have high silica, low alumina and high potassium oxide, the northern materials are often very suitable for stoneware, while in the south there are also areas highly suitable for porcelain. Chinese porcelain is made by a combination of the following materials. Porcelain stone - decomposed micaceous or feldspar rocks, historically known as petunse. Feldspar Quartz In the context of Chinese ceramics, the term lacks a universally accepted definition. This in turn has led to confusion about when the first Chinese porcelain was made, claims have been made for the late Eastern Han dynasty, the Three Kingdoms period, the Six Dynasties period, and the Tang dynasty. Chinese kiln technology has always been a key factor in the development of Chinese pottery, the Chinese developed effective kilns capable of firing at around 1, 000°C before 2000 BC. These were updraft kilns, often built below ground, two main types of kiln were developed by about 200 AD and remained in use until modern times. Both could reliably produce the temperatures of up to 1300°C or more needed for porcelain, in the late Ming, the egg-shaped kiln or zhenyao was developed at Jingdezhen, but mainly used there. This was something of a compromise between the types, and offered locations in the firing chamber with a range of firing conditions. According to Science, pottery dating from 20,000 years ago were found at the Xianrendong Cave site
Chinese ceramic
–
Covered red jar with
dragon and sea design from the
Jiajing period in the
Ming dynasty
Chinese ceramic
–
19th century porcelain vase with cover painted with overglaze enamels from
Guangdong province. This type of ware, known for its colourful decoration that covers most of the surface of the piece, was popular as an export ware.
Chinese ceramic
–
A qingbai porcelain vase, bowl, and model of a
granary, including most everyday kitchen and tablewares until modern times, but also very fine pottery, notably the sculptures especially associated with
Han and
Tang dynasty tombs.
Chinese ceramic
–
A black pottery cooking cauldron from the
Hemudu culture (c. 5000 – c. 3000 BC)
20.
Bactrian camel
–
The Bactrian camel is a large, even-toed ungulate native to the steppes of Central Asia. The Bactrian camel has two humps on its back, in contrast to the dromedary camel. Its population of two million exists mainly in the domesticated form and their name comes from the ancient historical region of Bactria. The domesticated Bactrian camel has served as an animal in inner Asia since ancient times. With its tolerance for cold, drought, and high altitudes, a small number of feral Bactrian camels still roam the Mangystau Province of southwest Kazakhstan and the Kashmir Valley in India. The Bactrian camel shares the genus Camelus with the dromedary and the wild Bactrian camel, the Bactrian camel belongs to the family Camelidae. The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was the first to describe the species of Camelus and he named two species in his History of Animals, the one-humped Arabian camel and the two-humped Bactrian camel. The Bactrian camel was given its current binomial name Camelus bactrianus by Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 publication Systema Naturae, the study revealed that the two tribes had diverged 25 million years ago, notably earlier than what had been previously estimated from North American fossils. Speciation began first in Lamini as the alpaca came into existence 10 million years ago, nearly two million years later, the Bactrian camel and the dromedary emerged as two independent species. The Bactrian camel and the dromedary often interbreed to produce fertile offspring, the fertility of their hybrid has given rise to speculation that the Bactrian camel and the dromedary should be merged into a single species with two varieties. However, a 1994 analysis of the cytochrome b gene revealed that the species display 10. 3% divergence in their sequences. The wild Bactrian camel was first described by Nikolay Przhevalsky in the late 19th century and has now established as a distinct species from the Bactrian camel. In particular, a population of wild Bactrian camel has been discovered to live within a part of the Gashun Gobi region of the Gobi Desert and this population is distinct from domesticated herds both in genetic makeup and in behavior. As many as three regions in the genetic makeup are different from Bactrian camels, with up to a 3% difference in the base genetic code. However, with so few wild camels, what the genetic diversity within a population would have been is not clear. Another difference is the ability of wild camels to drink saltwater slush. Domesticated camels are unable to drink such salty water, the Bactrian camel is the largest mammal in its native range and is the largest living camel. Shoulder height is from 180 to 230 cm, head-and-body length is 225–350 cm, at the top of the humps, the average height is 213 cm
Bactrian camel
–
Bactrian camel
Bactrian camel
–
Bactrian camels in
Nubra Valley, India
Bactrian camel
–
Two Bactrian camels
Bactrian camel
–
Riding a Bactrian camel in
Nubra Valley,
India
21.
Uzbekistan
–
Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan, is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world. Located in Central Asia, it is a unitary, constitutional, presidential republic, comprising twelve provinces, one autonomous republic and a capital city. Uzbekistan is bordered by five landlocked countries, Kazakhstan to the north, Tajikistan to the southeast, Kyrgyzstan to the northeast, Afghanistan to the south, and Turkmenistan to the southwest. Once part of the Turkic Khaganate and later Timurid Empires, the region that includes the Republic of Uzbekistan was conquered in the early 16th century by Eastern Turkic-speaking nomads. Following the breakup of the Soviet Union, it declared independence as the Republic of Uzbekistan on 31 August 1991, Uzbekistan is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. The countrys official language is Uzbek, a Turkic language written in the Latin alphabet and spoken natively by approximately 85% of the population, however, Uzbeks constitute 81% of the population, followed by Russians, Tajiks, Kazakhs, and others. A majority of Uzbeks are non-denominational Muslims, Uzbekistan is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, UN, and the SCO. While officially a republic, non-governmental human rights organizations define Uzbekistan as an authoritarian state with limited civil rights. Uzbekistans economy relies mainly on commodity production, including cotton, gold, uranium, despite the declared objective of transition to a market economy, its government continues to maintain economic controls which imports in favour of domestic import substitution. Uzbekistan has an area of 447,400 square kilometres and it is the 56th largest country in the world by area and the 42nd by population. Among the CIS countries, it is the 4th largest by area, Uzbekistan lies between latitudes 37° and 46° N, and longitudes 56° and 74° E. It stretches 1,425 kilometres from west to east and 930 kilometres from north to south, Uzbekistan also shares a short border with Afghanistan to the south. Uzbekistan is a dry, landlocked country and it is one of two doubly landlocked countries in the world, the other being Liechtenstein. In addition, due to its location within a series of endorheic basins, less than 10% of its territory is intensively cultivated irrigated land in river valleys and oases. The rest is vast desert and mountains, the climate in the Republic of Uzbekistan is continental, with little precipitation expected annually. The average summer high temperature tends to be 40 °C, while the winter low temperature is around −23 °C. Uzbekistan has a rich and diverse natural environment, the Aral Sea used to be the fourth-largest inland sea on Earth, acting as an influencing factor in the air moisture and arid land use. Since the 1960s, the decade when the misuse of the Aral Sea water began, it has shrunk to less than 50% of its former area, reliable, or even approximate data, have not been collected, stored or provided by any organization or official agency
Uzbekistan
–
Comparison of the
Aral Sea between 1989 and 2014.
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
–
Female statuette wearing the
kaunakes. Chlorite and limestone,
Bactria, beginning of the 2nd millennium BC.
Uzbekistan
–
Alexander the Great at the
Battle of Issus.
22.
Tajikistan
–
Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a mountainous, landlocked country in Central Asia with an estimated 8 million people in 2013, and an area of 143,100 km2. It is bordered by Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the south, the Republic of Uzbekistan to the west, the Kyrgyz Republic to the north, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan lies to the south, separated by the narrow Wakhan Corridor. Traditional homelands of Tajik people included present-day Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, a civil war was fought almost immediately after independence, lasting from 1992 to 1997. Since the end of the war, newly established political stability, Tajikistan is a presidential republic consisting of four provinces. Most of Tajikistans 8 million people belong to the Tajik ethnic group, many Tajiks also speak Russian as their second language. Mountains cover more than 90% of the country and it has a transition economy that is highly dependent on remittances, aluminium and cotton production. Tajikistan means the Land of the Tajiks, the suffix -stan is Persian for place of or country and Tajik is, most likely, the name of a pre-Islamic tribe. Tajikistan appeared as Tadjikistan or Tadzhikistan in English prior to 1991 and this is due to a transliteration from the Russian, Таджикистан. In Russian, there is no single letter j to represent the phoneme /ʤ/ and дж, Tadzhikistan is the most common alternate spelling and is widely used in English literature derived from Russian sources. Tadjikistan is the spelling in French and can occasionally be found in English language texts, the way of writing Tajikistan in the Perso-Arabic script is. The earliest recorded history of the dates back to about 500 BCE when much, if not all. After the regions conquest by Alexander the Great it became part of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, northern Tajikistan was part of Sogdia, a collection of city-states which was overrun by Scythians and Yuezhi nomadic tribes around 150 BCE. The Silk Road passed through the region and following the expedition of Chinese explorer Zhang Qian during the reign of Wudi commercial relations between Han China and Sogdiana flourished. Sogdians played a role in facilitating trade and also worked in other capacities, as farmers, carpetweavers, glassmakers. Later the Hephthalite Empire, a collection of tribes, moved into the region. Central Asia continued in its role as a crossroads, linking China, the steppes to the north. It was temporarily under the control of the Tibetan empire and Chinese from 650–680, the Samanid Empire,819 to 999, restored Persian control of the region and enlarged the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara which became the cultural centres of Iran and the region was known as Khorasan. The Kara-Khanid Khanate conquered Transoxania and ruled between 999–1211, during Genghis Khans invasion of Khwarezmia in the early 13th century the Mongol Empire took control over nearly all of Central Asia
Tajikistan
–
The
Samanid ruler
Mansur I (961 – 976).
Tajikistan
Tajikistan
–
Tajik men and boys, 1905-1915
Tajikistan
–
Soviet negotiations with
basmachi, 1921
23.
Samarkand
–
Samarkand, alternatively Samarqand or Samarcand, is a city in modern-day Uzbekistan and is one of the oldest inhabited cities in Central Asia. Prospering from its location on the Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean, at times Samarkand was one of the greatest cities of Central Asia, by the time of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia, it was the capital of the Sogdian satrapy. The city was taken by Alexander the Great in 329 BC, the city was ruled by a succession of Iranian, Persian, and Turkic peoples until the Mongols under Genghis Khan conquered Samarkand in 1220. Today, Samarkand is the capital of Samarqand Region and Uzbekistans second largest city, the city is noted for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study. In the 14th century it became the capital of the empire of Timur and is the site of his mausoleum, the Bibi-Khanym Mosque remains one of the citys most notable landmarks. The Registan was the ancient center of the city, the city has carefully preserved the traditions of ancient crafts, embroidery, gold embroidery, silk weaving, engraving on copper, ceramics, carving and painting on wood. In 2001, UNESCO added the city to its World Heritage List as Samarkand – Crossroads of Cultures, the name probably originates in the Sogdian words asmara, stone, rock and kand, fort, town. Along with Bukhara, Samarkand is one of the oldest inhabited cities in Central Asia, archeological excavations held within the city limits as well as suburban areas unearthed evidence of human activity as early as 40,000 years old, in the late Paleolithic era. A group of Mesolithic era archeological sites were discovered at Sazagon-1, Zamichatosh, the Syob and Dargom canals, supplying the city and its suburbs with water, appeared around the 7th to 5th centuries BC. There is no evidence when Samarkand was founded. Researchers of the Institute of Archeology of Samarkand argue for the existence of the city between the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Samarkand has been one of the main centres of Sogdian civilization from its early days. By the time of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia it had become the capital of the Sogdian satrapy, Alexander the Great conquered Samarkand in 329 BC. The city was known as Maracanda by the Greeks, written sources offer small clues as to the subsequent system of government. They tell of an Orepius who became ruler not from ancestors, while Samarkand suffered significant damage during Alexanders initial conquest, the city recovered rapidly and under the new Hellenic influence flourished. There were also major new construction techniques, oblong bricks were replaced with square ones and superior methods of masonry, Alexanders conquests introduced into Central Asia classical Greek culture, at least for a time the Greek models were followed closely by the local artisans. After the Kushan era the city declined, it did not really revive until the 5th century, Samarkand was conquered by the Sassanians around 260 AD. Under Sassanian rule, the became an essential site for Manichaeism. After the Hephtalites conquered Samarkand, they controlled it until the Göktürks, in an alliance with the Sassanid Persians, the Turks ruled over Samarkand until they were defeated by the Sassanids during the Göktürk–Persian Wars
Samarkand
–
Triumph by
Vasily Vereshchagin, depicting the Sher-Dor Madrasah in the
Registan.
Samarkand
–
Seal
Samarkand
–
Samarkand, by Richard-Karl Karlovitch Zommer (ru)
Samarkand
–
Bibi-Khanym Mosque
24.
Panjakent
–
Panjakent, also spelled Panjikent, Panjekent, Panjikant or Penjikent, is a city in the Sughd province of Tajikistan on the Zeravshan River, with a population of 33,000. It was once an ancient town in Sogdiana, the ruins of the old town are on the outskirts of the modern city. The Sarazm Important Bird Area lies downstream of the city on the floodplain of the river. Ancient Panjekent was a small but flourishing town of the Soghdians in pre-Islamic Central Asia, the ethnic and territorial name Soghd/Soghdian or Sughd/Sughdian was mentioned in history as early as the Iranian Achaemenid Dynasty. The Achaemenids founded several city-states, as well as cities along the ancient Silk road, the town grew in the 5th century AD and many professionals such as established businessmen and landowners made their livelihoods in Panjakent. In AD722, Arabian forces besieged and took the town, the last ruler of the town Divashtich fled into upper Zarafshan but he was captured and sentenced to death. For around 50 years, ancient Panjakent was ruled by new administrators, many ancient ruins of the old city, particularly the city architecture and works of art remain today. According to Arab geographers, Panjakent in the 10th century had a formal Friday mosque that distinguished the place as a town from a village and it was the easternmost city of Soghd, and became well known for its walnuts. Russian archaeologist Boris Marshak spent more than fifty years excavating the ruins at Panjakent and he remained there even after Tajik independence as director of the excavation of the Panjakent ruins, during the years of Civil War in Tajikistan from 1992 to 1997. Through close cooperation with the government of Tajikistan, Marshak ensured the protection, an important feature of the ruins is the frescoes which show details of dress and daily life. Shaivism was popular in Sogdiana and Eastern Turkestan as found from the painting from Penjikent on the river Zervashan. In this depiction, Shiva is portrayed with a sacred halo and he is clad in a tigerskin while his attendants are wearing Sodgian dress. In Eastern Turkestan in the Taklamakan Desert, there is a depiction of him four-legged seated cross-legged on a cushioned seat supported by two bulls. The Köppen Climate Classification sub-type for Panjakent is Cfb or a Warm Summer Subtropical Climate, the average annual temperature is 10. 7°C. The warmest month is July with a temperature of 22. 8°C. The average annual precipitation is 468. 5mm and has an average of 87.9 days with precipitation, the wettest month is April with an average of 94mm of precipitation and the driest month is August with an average of 2. 6mm of precipitation. List of cities in Tajikistan Panjakent travel guide from Wikivoyage Panjakent Travel tips to visit Penjakent OpenStreetMap
Panjakent
–
Panjakent Bazaar
Panjakent
–
Ancient ruins, near Panjakent
Panjakent
–
Men banquet, pigment on plaster. Pendjikent, Tadjikistan
Panjakent
–
The Rudaki Tomb of Panjakent
25.
Fergana
–
Fergana is about 420 km east of Tashkent, and about 75 km west of Andijan. It used to be called ferghana, during the Kushan empire, the ancient kingdom referred to as Dayuan in the Chinese chronicles is now generally accepted as being in the Ferghana Valley. It is sometimes, though less commonly, written as Dawan and it has been suggested that the name Yuan was simply a transliteration of the words “Yona”, or “Yavana”, used throughout antiquity in Asia to designate Greeks. The earliest Chinese visitor was the ambassador Zhang Qian, who passed through on his way to secure an alliance with the Da Yuezhi or Great Yuezhi against the Xiongnu. 123 says, Dayuan lies southwest of the territory of the Xiongnu, the people are also settled on the land, plowing the fields and growing rice and wheat. They also make out of grapes. The region has many fine horses which sweat blood, their forebears are supposed to have been foaled from heavenly horses, the people live in houses in fortified cities, there being some seventy or more cities of various sizes in the region. The population numbers several hundred thousand, the people fight with bows and spears and can shoot from horseback. Dayuan is bordered on the north by Kangju, on the west by the kingdom of the Great Yuezhi, on the southwest by Daxia, on the northeast by the land of the Wusun, Da Yuan appears as a powerful state in both the Shiji and the Hanshu. However, after Xian, king of Yarkand, conquered it about the middle of the 1st century CE, the Hou Hanshu adds that Da Yuan sent tribute and offerings to the Chinese court in 130 CE along with Kashgar and Yarkand. After that, it is referred to as Liyi 栗弋, and is stated to be a dependency of Kangju. By the time of the Weilüe, the old capital, Alexandria Eschate, had become a kingdom called Northern Wuyi. Zoroastrian literature identifies the area as the Zoroastrian homeland and it was known as Özkent during Karakhanid rule. At Mirzas death in 1498, Babur became chief, although he was still a minor, during the expansion of Russia in the nineteenth century the Russians invaded Turkistan, gradually taking it over between 1855 and 1884. They took the capital of the Kokand Khanate in 1873 and included it within what was named the Fergana Province of the Russian empire, modern Fergana city was founded in 1876 as a garrison town and colonial appendage to Margelan by the Russians. It was initially named New Margelan, then renamed Skobelev in 1907 after the first Russian military governor of Fergana Valley. In 1924, after the Bolshevik reconquest of the region from basmachi rebels, the Fergana canal was constructed in the 1930s. Annual precipitation is less than 200mm, and is higher in winter, the population of Fergana is approximately 187,100
Fergana
–
Al-Fargʻoniy -Park in Fargʻona
Fergana
–
Soviet negotiations with
basmachi, Fergana, 1921
Fergana
–
Fergana Airport.
26.
Khujand
–
Khujand, formerly Khodjend or Khodzhent until 1936 and Leninabad until 1991, is the second-largest city of Tajikistan and the capital of the northernmost province of Tajikistan, now called Sughd. Khujand is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, dating back about 2,500 years and it is situated on the Syr Darya at the mouth of the Fergana Valley and was a major city along the ancient Silk Road. Khujand is the site of Cyropolis which was established when king Cyrus the Great founded the city during his last expedition against the Saka tribe of Massagetae shortly before his death. Alexander the Great later built his furthest Greek settlement near Cyropolis in 329 BC, the city would form a bastion for the Greek settlers against the nomadic Scythian tribes who lived north of the Syr Darya River. According to the Roman writer Curtius, Alexandria Ultima retained its Hellenistic culture as late as 30 BCE, the city became a major staging point on the northern Silk Road. It also became a hub and several famous Persian poets and scientists came from this city. Khujand was captured by the Muslim armies in the early 8th century under Qutayba ibn Muslim, in the late 9th century, however, it reverted to local rule and eventually incorporated into the Samanid Empire. It came under the rule of the Kara-Khanid Khanate in 999 but after the division of Kara Khanids in 1042, it was part of Eastern Kara Khanids. Karakhitans conquered it in 1137, but it passed to Khwarazmshahs in 1211, in the 14th century, the city was part of the Chagatai Khanate until it was incorporated into the Timurid Dynasty in the late 14th century. The Shaybanid dynasty of Bukhara next annexed Khojand, until it was taken over by the Kokand Khanate in 1802, in 1866, as most of Central Asia was occupied by Russian Empire, the city became part of the Russian Governorate of Turkestan. The threat of forced conscription during World War I led to protests in the city in July 1916, in 1929, it was incorporated into the Soviet Republic of Tajikistan after being part of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic between 1924 and 1929. The city was renamed Leninabad on 10 January 1936 and it remained part of the Soviet Union until 1991, with the independence of Tajikistan, Khujand became the second largest city in the nation. It reverted to its original name in 1992 after the breakup of the Soviet Union. In 1996 the city experienced the Ashurov protests during which citizens called for the President, the popular protests were followed by a protest from the citys prisoners, many of whom had been sentenced to long jail terms for minor crimes and who were living in poor conditions. The protest led to the Khujand prison riot in which between 24 and 150 prisoners were killed, in the early 2000s many residents of Khujand had little to no access to water, and what water they did have was unsafe to drink and had to be boiled. Residents pay for their supply, which in turn helps Khujands municipal water company to continue to renovate. The project is in its stage of development, and should be completed by 2017. Khujand Airport has regularly scheduled flights to Dushanbe as well as international destinations. There is also a connection between Khujand and Samarkand in Uzbekistan on the way to Dushanbe
Khujand
–
View on the right side of the Syr River
Khujand
–
Historical Museum of Sughd
Khujand
–
Sughd Region Museum
Khujand
–
Khujand airport terminal
27.
Bukhara
–
Bukhara, is one of the cities of Uzbekistan. Bukhara is a city-museum, with about 140 architectural monuments, the nations fifth-largest city, it had a population as of 31 August 2016 of approximately 247,644. Humans have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, the mother tongue of the majority of people of Bukhara is yet Persian Language. Located on the Silk Road, the city has served as a center of trade, scholarship, culture. UNESCO has listed the center of Bukhara as a World Heritage Site. Bukhara was known as Bokhara in 19th- and early 20th-century English publications, according to the Encyclopædia Iranica the name Bukhara is possibly derived from the Soghdian βuxārak Muhammad ibn Jafar Narshakhi in his History of Bukhara mentions, Bukhara has many names. One of its name was Numijkat and it has also been called Bumiskat. It has 2 names in Arabic, one is Madinat al Sufriya meaning - the copper city and another is Madinat Al Tujjar meaning - The city of Merchants. But, the name Bukhara is more known than all the other names, in Khorasan, there is no other city with so many names Since the Middle Ages, the city has been known as Buḫārā / بخارا in Arabic and Persian sources. The modern Uzbek spelling is Buxoro, the history of Bukhara stretches back millennia. It is now the capital of Bukhara Region of Uzbekistan, located on the Silk Road, the city has long been a center of trade, scholarship, culture, and religion. During the golden age of the Samanids, Bukhara became an intellectual center of the Islamic world. The historic center of Bukhara, which contains numerous mosques and madrassas, has been listed by UNESCO as one of the World Heritage Sites, Bukhara has been one of the main centres of world civilisation from its early days in 6th century BCE. From the 6th century CE, Turkic speakers gradually moved in and its architecture and archaeological sites form one of the pillars of Central Asian history and art. The region of Bukhara was a part of the Persian Empire for a long time, the origin of many of its current inhabitants goes back to the period of Aryan immigration into the region. The Samanid Empire seized Bukhara, the capital of Greater Khorasan, Genghis Khan besieged Bukhara for fifteen days in 1220 CE. Bukhara was the last capital of the Emirate of Bukhara and was besieged by the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. During the Bukhara operation of 1920, an army of well-disciplined, on 31 August 1920, the Emir Alim Khan fled to Dushanbe in Eastern Bukhara
Bukhara
–
Bukhara
Uzbek: Buxoro
Bukhara
–
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Bukhara
–
Bukhara under siege by Red Army troops and burning, 1 September 1920
28.
Bactrian language
–
Bactrian is an Iranian language which was spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria, and used as the official language of the Kushan and the Hephthalite empires. It was long thought that Avestan represented Old Bactrian, but this notion had rightly fallen into discredit by the end of the 19th century, Bactrian, which was written predominantly in an alphabet based on the Greek script, was known natively as αρια. It has also known by names such as Greco-Bactrian, Kushan or Kushano-Bactrian. Under Kushan rule, Bactria became known as Tukhara or Tokhara, by the 1970s, however, it became clear that there was little evidence for such a connection. Eastern Scythian tribes invaded the territory around 140 BC, and at time after 124 BC. Subsequently, one of the Yuezhi tribes advanced to found the Kushan dynasty in the 1st century AD, the Kushans at first retained the Greek language for administrative purposes, but soon began to use Bactrian. The Bactrian Rabatak inscription records that the Kushan king Kanishka discarded Greek as the language of administration, the Greek language accordingly vanishes from official use and only Bactrian is attested. The use of the Greek script however remained to write Bactrian, in the 3rd century, the Kushan territories west of the Indus river fell to the Sassanids, and Bactrian began to be influenced by Middle Persian. Next to Pahlavi script and Brahmi script, some coinage of this period is still in Greco-Bactrian script, beginning in the mid-4th century, Bactria and northwestern India yielded to the Hephthalite tribes. The Hephthalite period is marked by linguistic diversity and in addition to Bactrian, Middle Persian, North Indo-Aryan, Turkish, the Hephthalites ruled their territories until the 7th century when they were overrun by the Arabs, after which the official use of Bactrian ceased. Although Bactrian briefly survived in usage, that too eventually ceased. The territorial expansion of the Kushans helped propagate Bactrian to Northern India, among Indo-Iranian languages, the use of the Greek script is unique to Bactrian. Although ambiguities remain, some of the disadvantages were overcome by using heta for /h/, xi and psi were not used for writing Bactrian as the ks and ps sequences do not occur in Bactrian. They were however used to represent numbers. The Bactrian language is known from inscriptions, coins, seals, manuscripts, of eight known manuscript fragments in Greco-Bactrian script, one is from Lou-lan and seven from Toyoq, where they were discovered by the second and third Turpan expeditions under Albert von Le Coq. One of these may be a Buddhist text, one other manuscript, in Manichaean script, was found at Qočo by Mary Boyce in 1958. Over 150 legal documents, accounts, letters and Buddhist texts have surfaced since the 1990s and these have greatly increased the detail in which Bactrian is currently known. The phonology of Bactrian is not known with certainty, due to the limitations of the native scripts, a major difficulty in determining Bactrian phonology is that affricates and voiced stops were not consistently distinguished from the corresponding fricatives in the Greek script
Bactrian language
Bactrian language
–
Bactrian was predominantly written using the
Greek script with the addition of the letter
sho (here in majuscule and minuscule) to represent the /ʃ/ sound.
29.
Saka language
–
Saka or Sakan is a variety of Eastern Iranian languages, attested from the ancient Buddhist kingdoms of Khotan, Kashgar and Tumshuq in the Tarim Basin, in what is now southern Xinjiang, China. It is a Middle Iranian language, the two kingdoms differed in dialect, their speech known as Khotanese and Tumshuqese. Documents on wood and paper were written in modified Brahmi script with the addition of characters over time. The documents date from the fourth to the eleventh century, Tumshuqese was more archaic than Khotanese, but it is much less understood because it appears in fewer manuscripts compared to Khotanese. Both dialects share features with modern Pashto and Wakhi, the language was known as Hvatanai in contemporary documents. Many Prakrit terms were borrowed from Khotanese into the Tocharian languages, the two known dialects of Saka are associated with a movement of the Scythians. The Saka language became extinct after invading Turkic Muslims conquered the Kingdom of Khotan in the Islamicisation and Turkicisation of Xinjiang, in the 11th century, it was remarked by Mahmud al-Kashgari that the people of Khotan still have their own language and script and did not know Turkic well. According to Kashgari some non-Turkic languages like the Kanchaki and Soghdian were still used in some areas and it is believed that the Saka language group was what Kanchaki belonged to. It is believed that the Tarim Basin became linguistically Turkified by the end of the 11th century, Khotanese and Tumshuqese are closely related Eastern Iranian languages. Other than an inscription from Issyk kurgan that it is identified as Khotanese. Khotanese is attested from over 2,300 texts preserved among the Dunhuang manuscripts and these were deciphered by Harold Walter Bailey. The earliest texts, from the century, are mostly religious documents. There were several viharas in the Kingdom of Khotan and Buddhist translations are common at all periods of the documents, there are many reports to the royal court which are of historical importance, as well as private documents. An example of a document is Or. 6400/2.3, international Dunhuang Project A Turkish-Khotanese Vocabulary H. W. Bailey Bulletin of the. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 11, Bailey, H W Dictionary of Khotan Saka, Cambridge University Press Encyclopædia Iranica Iranian Languages http, //www. iranicaonline. org/articles/central-asia-xiii Emmerick, R. E. & Pulleyblank, E. G. A Chinese text in Central Asian Brahmi script, new evidence for the pronunciation of Late Middle Chinese and Khotanese, roma, Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente. History of civilizations of Central Asia
Saka language
–
Khotanese animal zodiac BLI6 OR11252 1R2 1
Saka language
–
Khotanese Verses BLE4 IOLKHOT50 4R1 1
Saka language
–
Book of Zambasta BLX3542 OR9614 5R1 1
30.
Middle Persian
–
Middle Persian is classified as a Western Iranian language. It descends from Old Persian and is the ancestor of Modern Persian. Middle Persian consisted of dialects and variants. One of these variants was called Pahlavīk which stands for Parthian, another variant of Middle Persian, known locally as Pārsik, was the official language of the Sasanian Empire. Most scholars refer to the variant when using the term Middle Persian. The native name for Middle Persian was Pārsīk translating to language of Pārs and it consists of Pārs + adjective suffix -īk. The word is consequently the origin of the name for the Modern Persian language—Parsi or Fārsī. Manichaean Middle Persian texts were written in the Manichaean alphabet, which derives from Aramaic. The ISO639 language code for Middle Persian is pal, which reflects the post-Sasanian era use of the term Pahlavi to refer to the language, many tenses began to be formed from a composite form The modern-day descendant of Middle Persian is New Persian. The changes between late Middle and Early New Persian were very gradual, and in the 10th-11th centuries, the earliest texts in Zoroastrian Middle Persian were probably written down in late Sasanian times, although they represent the codification of earlier oral tradition. The surviving manuscripts are usually 14th-century copies, below is transcription and translation of the first page of the facsimile known as Book of Arda Viraf, originally written in a Pahlavi script. ōy petyārag ī wad-baxt ī ahlomōγ ī druwand ī anāg-kardār *aleksandar hrōmāyīg mu/zrāyīg-mānišn abar āwurd ud be sōxt, in the name of God Thus they have said that once the righteous Zoroaster accepted a religion, he established it in the world. After/Within the period of 300 years religion remained in holiness and the people were in peace and that wretched, ill-fated, heretic, evil/sinful Alexander, The Roman, who was dwelling in Egypt, and he burned them up. Shapur, the king of kings, son of Hormizd, induced all countrymen to orient themselves to god by disputation, and put forth all oral traditions for consideration and examination. There are a number of affixes in Middle Persian that did not survive into Modern Persian, the long vowels of Middle Persian did not survive in many present-day dialects. Also, initial consonant clusters were very common in Middle Persian, however, New Persian does not allow initial consonant clusters, whereas final consonant clusters are common. 1 Since many long vowels of Middle Persian did not survive, for example, šir and šer, meaning milk and lion, respectively, are now both pronounced šir. In this case, the pronunciation has been preserved in Kurdish
Middle Persian
–
Geography
31.
Parthian language
–
The Parthian language, also known as Arsacid Pahlavi and Pahlawānīg, is a now-extinct ancient Northwestern Iranian language spoken in Parthia, a region of northeastern ancient Iran. This language had a impact on Armenian, a large part of whose vocabulary was formed primarily from borrowings from Parthian. Parthian was a Western Middle Iranian language, language contact made it share some features of the Eastern Iranian language group, the influence of which is attested primarily in loanwords. Some traces of Eastern influence survive in Parthian loanwords in Armenian, taxonomically, Parthian belongs to the Northwestern Iranian language group while Middle Persian belongs to the Southwestern Iranian language group. The Parthian language was rendered using the Pahlavi writing system, which had two essential characteristics, First, its derived from Aramaic, the script of the Achaemenid chancellery. Second, it had an incidence of Aramaic words, rendered as ideograms or logograms. The Parthian language was the language of the old Satrapy of Parthia and was used in the Arsacids courts, among these, the Manichaean texts, composed shortly after the demise of the Parthian power, play an important role for reconstructing the Parthian language. These Manichaean manuscripts contain no ideograms, attestations of the Parthian language include, Some 3,000 ostraca found in Nisā in southern Turkmenistan). A first century AD parchment dealing with a land-sale from Awraman in south-west Iran, the first century BC ostraca from Kumesh in Eastern Iran. Inscription of on the coins of Arsacid Kings in the first century AD, the bilingual inscription of Seleucia, on the Tigris. The inscription of Ardavan V found in Susa, Some third century documents discovered in Dura-Europos, On the Euphrates. The inscription at Kal-e Jangal, near Birjand in South Khorasan, the inscriptions of early Sassanian Kings and priests in Parthian including Kaba-ye Zartosht near Shiraz and Paikuli in Iraqi Kurdistan. The vast corpus of Manichaean Parthian which do not contain any ideograms, in North Pakistan, Indo-Parthian culture in Taxila with Gondophares 20 BC–10 BC and Abdagases, Bajaur, Bajaur, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and down in to Sistan, Balochistan. Parthian was then succeeded by Middle Persian, which when written is known as Sasanian Pahlavi, Parthian did not die out immediately, but remains attested in a few bi-lingual inscriptions from the Sasanian era
Parthian language
–
Geography
32.
Old Persian
–
The Old Persian language is one of the two directly attested Old Iranian languages. Old Persian appears primarily in the inscriptions, clay tablets, recent research into the vast Persepolis Fortification Archive at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago have unearthed Old Persian tablets. This new text shows that the Old Persian language was a language in use for practical recording. As a written language, Old Persian is attested in royal Achaemenid inscriptions and it is an Iranian language and as such a member of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. The oldest known written in Old Persian is from the Behistun Inscriptions. Old Persian is one of the oldest Indo-European languages which is attested in original texts, the oldest date of use of Old Persian as a spoken language is not precisely known. Their language, Old Persian, became the language of the Achaemenid kings. In these records of the 9th century BCE, Parsuwash are first mentioned in the area of Lake Urmia in the records of Shalmaneser III. The exact identity of the Parsuwash is not known for certain and he relates that the Armenian people spoke a language that to his ear sounded like the language of the Persians. Old Persian belongs to the Iranian language family which is a branch of the Indo-Iranian language family, the common ancestors of Indo-Iranians came from Central Asia sometime in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. The former are the languages in that group which have left written original texts while Median is known mostly from loanwords in Old Persian. Old Persian subsequently evolved into Middle Persian, which is in turn the ancestor of New Persian. Unlike the other languages and dialects, ancient and modern, of the Iranian group such as Avestan, Parthian, Soghdian, Kurdish, Pashto, Old, Middle and New Persian represent one and the same language at three states of its history. It had its origin in Fars and is differentiated by dialectical features, Middle Persian, also sometimes called Pahlavi, is a direct continuation of old Persian, and was used as the written official language of the country. Comparison of the evolution at each stage of the shows great simplification in grammar. However, New Persian is a descendent of Middle and Old Persian. Old Persian presumably has a Median language substrate, the Median element is readily identifiable because it did not share in the developments that were peculiar to Old Persian. Median forms are only in personal or geographical names and some are typically from religious vocabulary
Old Persian
–
An Old Persian inscription in
Persepolis.
Old Persian
–
Geography
33.
Achaemenid Empire
–
The Achaemenid Empire, also called the Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. The empires successes inspired similar systems in later empires and it is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city-states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in a Hellenistic style in the empire as well. By the 7th century BC, the Persians had settled in the portion of the Iranian Plateau in the region of Persis. From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, Alexander, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered the empire in its entirety by 330 BC. Upon his death, most of the former territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire. The Persian population of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century BC under the Parthian Empire, the historical mark of the Achaemenid Empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. Many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange. The impact of Cyruss edict is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, the empire also set the tone for the politics, heritage and history of modern Iran. Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Due to the duration of their reigns, Smerdis, Xerxes II. The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here, the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished, they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic Persians. The Achaemenid Empire was not the first Iranian empire, as by 6th century BC another group of ancient Iranian peoples had established the short lived Median Empire. The Iranian peoples had arrived in the region of what is today Iran c.1000 BC and had for a number of centuries fallen under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia. However, the Medes and Persians, Cimmerians, Persians and Chaldeans played a role in the overthrow of the Assyrian empire. The term Achaemenid means of the family of the Achaemenis/Achaemenes, despite the derivation of the name, Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century ruler of the Anshan in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of Assyria. At some point in 550 BC, Cyrus rose in rebellion against the Medes, eventually conquering the Medes and creating the first Persian empire
Achaemenid Empire
–
Standard of Cyrus the Great
Achaemenid Empire
–
Relief of
Cyrus the Great.
Achaemenid Empire
–
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus one of the
Seven wonders of the ancient world was built by Persian satrap of
Caria,
Mausolus (Scale model.)
34.
Tang dynasty
–
The Tang dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It is generally regarded as a point in Chinese civilization. Its territory, acquired through the campaigns of its early rulers, rivaled that of the Han dynasty. The dynasty was founded by the Lǐ family, who seized power during the decline, the dynasty was briefly interrupted when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne, proclaiming the Second Zhou dynasty and becoming the only Chinese empress regnant. In two censuses of the 7th and 8th centuries, the Tang records estimated the population by number of registered households at about 50 million people. Various kingdoms and states paid tribute to the Tang court, while the Tang also conquered or subdued several regions which it controlled through a protectorate system. Besides political hegemony, the Tang also exerted a powerful influence over neighboring states such as those in Korea, Japan. Like the previous Sui dynasty, the Tang dynasty maintained a service system by recruiting scholar-officials through standardized examinations and recommendations to office. This civil order was undermined by the rise of military governors known as jiedushi during the 9th century. Chinese culture flourished and further matured during the Tang era, it is considered the greatest age for Chinese poetry. Two of Chinas most famous poets, Li Bai and Du Fu, belonged to this age, as did many famous painters such as Han Gan, Zhang Xuan, there was a rich variety of historical literature compiled by scholars, as well as encyclopedias and geographical works. The adoption of the title Tängri Qaghan by the Tang Emperor Taizong in addition to his title as emperor was eastern Asias first simultaneous kingship, there were many notable innovations during the Tang, including the development of woodblock printing. Buddhism became an influence in Chinese culture, with native Chinese sects gaining prominence. However, Buddhism would later be persecuted by the state, subsequently declining in influence, although the dynasty and central government were in decline by the 9th century, art and culture continued to flourish. This family was known as the Longxi Li lineage, which includes the Tang poet Li Bai, the Tang Emperors also had Xianbei maternal ancestry, from Emperor Gaozu of Tangs Xianbei mother Duchess Dugu. He had prestige and military experience, and was a first cousin of Emperor Yang of Sui, Li Yuan rose in rebellion in 617, along with his son and his equally militant daughter Princess Pingyang, who raised and commanded her own troops. In winter 617, Li Yuan occupied Changan, relegated Emperor Yang to the position of Taishang Huang or retired emperor, and acted as regent to the puppet child-emperor, Emperor Gong of Sui. On the news of Emperor Yangs murder by General Yuwen Huaji on June 18,618, Li Yuan declared himself the emperor of a new dynasty, the Tang
Tang dynasty
–
History of China
Tang dynasty
–
Tang dynasty circa 700
Tang dynasty
–
Portrait painting of
Emperor Yang of Sui, commissioned in 643 by
Taizong, painted by
Yan Liben (600–673)
Tang dynasty
–
Emperor Taizong (r. 626–649) receives
Gar Tongtsen Yülsung, ambassador of
Tibet, at his court; painted in 641 AD by
Yan Liben (600–673)
35.
Silk Road
–
While the term is of modern coinage, the Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative trade in silk carried out along its length, beginning during the Han dynasty. The Han dynasty expanded Central Asian sections of the routes around 114 BCE, largely through missions and explorations of the Chinese imperial envoy. The Chinese took great interest in the safety of their trade products, though silk was certainly the major trade item exported from China, many other goods were traded, as well as religions, syncretic philosophies, and various technologies. Diseases, most notably plague, also spread along the Silk Routes, in addition to economic trade, the Silk Road was a route for cultural trade among the civilizations along its network. The main traders during antiquity included the Chinese, Arabs, Turkmens, Indians, Persians, Somalis, Greeks, Syrians, Romans, Georgians, Armenians, Bactrians, in June 2014, UNESCO designated the Changan-Tianshan corridor of the Silk Road as a World Heritage Site. The Silk Road derives its name from the lucrative Eurasian silk and horse trade, the German terms Seidenstraße and Seidenstraßen were coined by Ferdinand von Richthofen, who made seven expeditions to China from 1868 to 1872. The term Silk Route is also used, although the term was coined in the 19th century, it did not gain widespread acceptance in academia or popularity among the public until the 20th century. The first book entitled The Silk Road was by Swedish geographer Sven Hedin in 1938, the fall of the Soviet Union and Iron Curtain in 1989 led to a surge of public and academic interest in Silk Road sites and studies in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. Use of the term Silk Road is not without its detractors and he notes that traditional authors discussing East-West trade such as Marco Polo and Edward Gibbon never labelled any route as a silk one in particular. From the 2nd millennium BCE, nephrite jade was being traded from mines in the region of Yarkand, some remnants of what was probably Chinese silk dating from 1070 BCE have been found in Ancient Egypt. The Great Oasis cities of Central Asia played a role in the effective functioning of the Silk Road trade. This style is reflected in the rectangular belt plaques made of gold and bronze, with other versions in jade. The tomb of a Scythian prince near Stuttgart, Germany, dated to the 6th century BCE, was excavated and found to have not only Greek bronzes but also Chinese silks. Scythians accompanied the Assyrian Esarhaddon on his invasion of Egypt, soghdian Scythian merchants played a vital role in later periods in the development of the Silk Road. By the time of Herodotus, the Royal Road of the Persian Empire ran some 2,857 km from the city of Susa on the Karun to the port of Smyrna on the Aegean Sea. It was maintained and protected by the Achaemenid Empire and had postal stations, by having fresh horses and riders ready at each relay, royal couriers could carry messages the entire distance in nine days, while normal travellers took about three months. The next major step in the development of the Silk Road was the expansion of the Greek empire of Alexander the Great into Central Asia and this later became a major staging point on the northern Silk Route. They continued to expand eastward, especially during the reign of Euthydemus, there are indications that he may have led expeditions as far as Kashgar in Chinese Turkestan, leading to the first known contacts between [China and the West around 200 BCE
Silk Road
–
Main routes of the Silk Road
Silk Road
–
Woven
silk textile from Tomb No. 1 at
Mawangdui,
Changsha,
Hunan province, China,
dated to the Western Han Era, 2nd century BCE.
Silk Road
–
A
Scythian horseman from the
Ili river,
Pazyryk, c. 300 BCE.
Silk Road
–
Chinese
jade and
steatite plaques, in the
Scythian -style animal art of the steppes. 4th–3rd century BCE.
British Museum.
36.
Middle Chinese
–
The fanqie method used to indicate pronunciation in these dictionaries, though an improvement on earlier methods, proved awkward in practice. The mid 12th-century Yunjing and other rime tables incorporate a more sophisticated, the rime tables attest to a number of sound changes that had occurred over the centuries following the publication of the Qieyun. Linguists sometimes refer to the system of the Qieyun as Early Middle Chinese, the dictionaries and tables describe pronunciations in relative terms, but do not give their actual sounds. The Swedish linguist Bernard Karlgren believed that the recorded a speech standard of the capital Changan of the Sui and Tang dynasties. This composite system contains important information for the reconstruction of the system of Old Chinese phonology. The Middle Chinese system is used as a framework for the study. Branches of the Chinese family such as Mandarin, Yue and Wu can be treated as divergent developments from the Qieyun system. The reconstruction of Middle Chinese phonology is largely dependent upon detailed descriptions in a few original sources, the most important of these is the Qieyun rime dictionary and its revisions. The Qieyun is often used together with interpretations in Song dynasty rime tables such as the Yunjing, Qiyinlue, Chinese scholars of the Northern and Southern dynasties period were concerned with the correct recitation of the classics. Various schools produced dictionaries to codify reading pronunciations and the associated rhyme conventions of regulated verse, the Qieyun was an attempt to merge the distinctions in six earlier dictionaries, which were eclipsed by its success and are no longer extant. It was accepted as the standard reading pronunciation during the Tang dynasty, the Qieyun is thus the oldest surviving rime dictionary and the main source for the pronunciation of characters in Early Middle Chinese. The rime dictionaries organize Chinese characters by their pronunciation, according to a hierarchy of tone, rhyme, the fanqie system uses multiple equivalent characters to represent each particular initial, and likewise for finals. The categories of initials and finals actually represented were first identified by the Cantonese scholar Chen Li in an analysis published in his Qièyùn kǎo. The Qieyun classified homonyms under 193 rhyme classes, each of which is placed one of the four tones. A single rhyme class may contain multiple finals, generally differing only in the medial or in so-called chongniu doublets, the Yunjing is the oldest of the so-called rime tables, which provide a more detailed phonological analysis of the system contained in the Qieyun. However, the analysis shows some influence from LMC, which needs to be taken into account when interpreting difficult aspects of the system. The Yunjing is organized into 43 tables, each covering several Qieyun rhyme classes, and classified as, One of 16 broad rhyme classes, each described as either inner or outer. The meaning of this is debated but it has suggested that it refers to the height of the main vowel, with outer finals having an open vowel
Middle Chinese
–
The start of the first rhyme class of the
Guangyun (東 dōng "east")
Middle Chinese
–
The first table of the
Yunjing, covering the Guangyun rhyme classes 東 dōng, 董 dǒng, 送 sòng and 屋 wū (-k in Middle Chinese)
37.
Chinese language
–
Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language, the varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Yue. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. Standard Chinese is a form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is the language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations. The written form of the language, based on the logograms known as Chinese characters, is shared by literate speakers of otherwise unintelligible dialects. Of the other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is the spoken language and official in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also influential in Guangdong province and much of Guangxi, dialects of Southern Min, part of the Min group, are widely spoken in southern Fujian, with notable variants also spoken in neighboring Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. Hakka also has a diaspora in Taiwan and southeast Asia. Shanghainese and other Wu varieties are prominent in the lower Yangtze region of eastern China, Chinese can be traced back to a hypothetical Sino-Tibetan proto-language. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty, as the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have sought to promulgate a unified standard. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, in addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach, and are often also sensitive border zones. Without a secure reconstruction of proto-Sino-Tibetan, the structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, the earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BCE in the late Shang dynasty
Chinese language
–
The
Tripitaka Koreana, a Korean collection of the
Chinese Buddhist canon
Chinese language
–
Hànyǔ (Chinese) written in
traditional (left) and
simplified (right) characters
Chinese language
–
"
Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion " by
Wang Xizhi, written in
semi-cursive style
38.
Muslim conquests
–
The early Muslim conquests also referred to as the Arab conquests and early Islamic conquests began with the Islamic Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century. He established a new unified polity in the Arabian Peninsula which under the subsequent Rashidun, the resulting empire stretched from the borders of China and the Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, Sicily, and the Iberian Peninsula, to the Pyrenees. The Muslim conquests brought about the collapse of the Sassanid Empire, the reasons for the Muslim success are hard to reconstruct in hindsight, primarily because only fragmentary sources from the period have survived. Most historians agree that the Sassanid Persian and Byzantine Roman empires were militarily and economically exhausted from decades of fighting one another, in the case of Byzantine Egypt, Palestine and Syria, these lands had only a few years before being reclaimed from the Persians. The estimates for the size of the Islamic Caliphate suggest it was more than thirteen million square kilometers, the last of these wars ended with victory for the Byzantines, Emperor Heraclius regained all lost territories, and restored the True Cross to Jerusalem in 629. According to George Liska, the unnecessarily prolonged Byzantine–Persian conflict opened the way for Islam, in late 620s Muhammad had already managed to conquer and unify much of Arabia under Muslim rule, and it was under his leadership that the first Muslim-Byzantine skirmishes took place. The province of Syria was the first to be wrested from Byzantine control, on the heels of their victory, the Arab armies took Damascus in 636, with Baalbek, Homs, and Hama to follow soon afterwards. However, other fortified towns continued to resist despite the rout of the army and had to be conquered individually. Jerusalem fell in 638, Caesarea in 640, while others held out until 641, the Byzantine province of Egypt held strategic importance for its grain production, naval yards, and as a base for further conquests in Africa. The Muslim general Amr ibn al-As began the conquest of the province on his own initiative in 639, nevertheless, the province was scarcely urbanized and the defenders lost hope of receiving reinforcements from Constantinople when the emperor Heraclius died in 641. The last major center to fall into Arab hands was Alexandria, according to Hugh Kennedy, Of all the early Muslim conquests, that of Egypt was the swiftest and most complete. Seldom in history can so massive a political change have happened so swiftly, after an Arab incursion into Sasanian territories, the energetic king Yazdgerd III, who had just ascended the Persian throne, raised an army to resist the invasion. However, the Persians suffered a defeat at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636. As a result, the Arab-Muslims gained control over the whole of Iraq, including Ctesiphon, the Persian forces withdrew over the Zagros mountains and the Arab army pursued them across the Iranian plateau, where the fate of the Sasanian empire was sealed at the Battle of Nahavand. In the aftermath of their victory over the army, the invaders still had to contend with a collection of militarily weak. It took decades to bring all under control of the caliphate. The rapidity of the early conquests has received various explanations, contemporary Christian writers conceived them as Gods punishment visited on their fellow Christians for their sins. Early Muslim historians viewed them as a reflection of religious zeal of the conquerors, according to Chase F. Robinson, it is likely that Muslim forces were often outnumbered, but, unlike their opponents, they were fast, well coordinated and highly motivated
Muslim conquests
–
Expansion from 622-750, with modern borders overlaid
39.
Istaravshan
–
Istaravshan is a city in Sughd Province in Tajikistan. Located in the foothills of the Turkistan mountain range,78 kilometers southwest of Khujand, Istaravshan is one of the oldest cities in Tajikistan. Before 2000, it was known as Ура́-Тюбе in Russian, Уротеппа in Tajik, the city lies on the main road connecting Tajikistans two largest cities, Khujand and Dushanbe. The accompanying 1923 map of gives the location of the ancient city of Cyropolis as being a close approximation to that of modern-day Istaravshan. List of cities in Tajikistan Osrūshana Official web site Istaravshan RISOL Internet Learning Center Istaravshan IREX OpenStreetMap
Istaravshan
–
Overview of Istaravshan
Istaravshan
–
1923 map showing the Achaemenid empire at its greatest extent. The city of Cyropolis appears at the north-east corner of the empire, at the approximate location 40°N 69°E / 40°N 69°E / 40; 69, essentially the same location as Istaravshan.
Istaravshan
–
Stamps of Tajikistan, 2002
40.
Yaghnobi people
–
The Yaghnobi people are an ethnic minority in Tajikistan. They inhabit Tajikistans Sughd province in the valleys of the Yaghnob, Qul, the Yaghnobis are considered to be descendants of the Sogdian-speaking peoples who once inhabited most of Central Asia beyond the Amu Darya River in what was ancient Sogdia. They speak the Yaghnobi language, a living Eastern Iranian language, Yaghnobi is spoken in the upper valley of the Yaghnob River in the Zarafshan area of Tajikistan by the Yaghnobi people. It is considered to be a descendant of Sogdian and has often been called Neo-Sogdian in academic literature. The 1926 and 1939 census data gives the number of Yaghnobi language speakers as approximately 1,800, in 1955, M. Bogolyubov estimated the number of Yaghnobi native speakers as more than 2,000. In 1972, A. Khromov estimated 1,509 native speakers in the Yaghnob valley, the estimated number of Yaghnobi people is approximately 25,000. Their traditional occupations were agriculture, growing such as barley, wheat. There were traditional handicrafts including weaving which was mostly done by the men, the women worked on molding the earthenware crockery. The Yaghnobi people originated from the Sogdians, a dominant in the area until the Muslim conquests in the 8th century when Sogdiana was defeated. In that period Yaghnobis settled in the high valleys, the Yaghnobi people are Sunni Muslims, and some elements of pre-Islamic religion are still preserved. The next most important Y-DNA contribution to the Yaghnobi is that of haplogroup J2, associated with the spread of agriculture in, and Demic diffusion, from the neolithic Near East. Until the 20th century the Yaghnobis lived through their natural economy and some still do, as the area originally inhabited is still remote from roads. In the 1970s, Red Army helicopters were sent to valleys to evacuate the population, some Yaghnobis reportedly died of shock in helicopters as they were moved to the plains. Many were then forced to work at cotton plantations on the plains, as a result of overwork and the change in environment and lifestyle, several hundred Yaghnobis died of disease. While some Yaghnobis rebelled and returned to the mountains, the Soviet government demolished the empty, officials also destroyed Yaghnobi religious books, the oldest of which was 600 years old. Yaghnobi ethnicity was officially abolished by the Soviet government, Piskon, the biggest village on the Yaghnob River, was erased from the maps. Since 1983, families have begun to return to the Yaghnob Valley, the majority of those that remain on the plains tend to be assimilated with the Tajiks, as their children study in school in the Tajik language. The returnees live through the economy, and the majority remain without roads
Yaghnobi people
–
Children of the Yaghnobi ethnic group
41.
Paul Pelliot
–
Paul Eugène Pelliot was a French sinologist and Orientalist best known for his explorations of Central Asia and his discovery of many important Chinese texts among the Dunhuang manuscripts. Paul Pelliot was born on 28 May 1878 in Paris, France, accordingly, he studied English as a secondary school student at La Sorbonne, then studied Mandarin Chinese at the École des Langues Orientales Vivantes. Pelliot was a student, and completed the schools three-year Mandarin course in only two years. Chavannes also introduced Pelliot to the Collèges Sanskrit chair, Sylvain Lévi, Pelliot began studying under the two men, who encouraged him to pursue a scholarly career instead of a diplomatic one. In early 1900 Pelliot moved to Hanoi to take up a position as a scholar at the École Française dExtrême-Orient. In February of that year, Pelliot was sent to Peking to locate, between July and August, Pelliot was caught up in the siege of the foreign legations during the Boxer Rebellion. For his conduct during the siege, as well as for capturing a flag during the fighting. In 1901, when only 23 years old, Pelliot was made a professor of Chinese at the EFEO, Pelliot stayed in Hanoi until 1904, when he returned to France in preparation for representing the EFEO at the 1905 International Conference of Orientalists in Algiers. While in France, Pelliot was chosen to direct an archaeological mission to Chinese Turkestan. The group departed in June 1906 and spent several years in the field, Pelliots expedition left Paris on 17 June 1906. His three-man team included Dr. Louis Vaillant, an Army medical officer, and Charles Nouette, aboard the train in Samarkand, the Frenchmen met Baron Gustaf Mannerheim, a colonel in the Russian Imperial Army and the last Tsarist agent in the Great Game. Pelliot had agreed to allow the officer, disguised as an ethnographic collector. Mannerheim was actually carrying out a mission for Tsar Nicholas II to collect intelligence on the reform. The Tsar was assessing the possibility of a Russian invasion of Western China, Pelliot fully endorsed Mannerheims participation, and even offered himself as an informant to the Russian General Staff. In return, the Frenchman demanded free passage on the Trans-Caspian Railway, a personal and confidential payment of ten thousand francs and these were granted, and the payment even doubled. The expedition traveled to Chinese Turkestan by rail through Moscow and Tashkent to Andijan, from here, they travelled across the Alai Mountains of southern Kyrgyzstan over the Taldyk Pass and Irkeshtam Pass to China. Near the town of Gulcha, the expedition met Kurmanjan Datka, Mannerheim and Pelliot did not get along, and parted ways two days after leaving Irkeshtam Pass. The French team arrived in Kashgar at the end of August, Pelliot amazed the local Chinese officials with his fluent Chinese
Paul Pelliot
–
Paul Pelliot
Paul Pelliot
–
Mission Pelliot route
Paul Pelliot
–
Pelliot examines manuscripts in the
Mogao Caves (1908)
42.
Dunhuang
–
For the 2005 full-length documentary Dunhuang, directed by Zhou Bing. Dunhuang is a city in northwestern Gansu Province, Western China. The 2000 Chinese census reported a population of 187,578 in this city, Dunhuang was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road and is best known for the nearby Mogao Caves. It has also known at times as Shazhou and, in Uyghur. Dunhuang is situated in a rich oasis containing Crescent Lake and Mingsha Shan, named after the sound of the wind whipping off the dunes, administratively, the county-level city of Dunhuang is part of the prefecture-level city of Jiuquan. There is evidence of habitation in the Dunhuang area as early as 2,000 BC. Its name was mentioned in relation to the homeland of the Yuezhi in the Records of the Grand Historian. By the third century BC, the area dominated by the Xiongnu. Dunhuang was one of the four garrison towns established by the Emperor Wu after the defeat of Xiongnu. The name Dunhuang, meaning Blazing Beacon, refers to the beacons lit to warn of attacks by marauding nomadic tribes, Dunhuang Commandery was probably established shortly after 104 BC. Located in the end of the Hexi Corridor near the historic junction of the Northern and Southern Silk Roads. The Great Wall was extended to Dunhuang, and a line of fortified beacon towers stretched westwards into the desert, Dunhuang prospered on the heavy flow of traffic. The first Buddhist caves in the Dunhuang area were hewn in 353, during the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was the main stop of communication between ancient China and the rest of the world and a major hub of commerce of the Silk Road. Dunhuang was the city of all three main silk routes during this time. From the West also came early Buddhist monks who had arrived in China by the first century AD, the caves carved out by the monks, originally used for meditation, developed into a place of worship and pilgrimage called the Mogao Caves or Caves of a Thousand Buddhas. A number of Christian, Jewish, and Manichaean artifacts have also found in the caves. During the time of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Li Gao established the Western Liang here in 400 AD, in 405 the capital of the Western Liang was moved from Dunhuang to Jiuquan. In 421 the Western Liang was conquered by the Northern Liang, as a frontier town, Dunhuang was fought over and occupied at various times by non-Han Chinese people
Dunhuang
–
Dunhuang
Dunhuang
–
The ruins of a
Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD) Chinese
watchtower made of
rammed earth at Dunhuang.
Dunhuang
–
White Horse Pagoda, Dunhuang
Dunhuang
–
Tang Period (618-907) Buddhist sutra fragment from Dunhuang
43.
German Turfan expeditions
–
The German Turfan expeditions were conducted between 1902 and 1914. Grünwedel and Le Coq, returned to Berlin with thousands of paintings and other art objects, in 1902, the first research team financed largely by Friedrich Krupp, the arms manufacturer, left for Turfan and returned a year later with 46 crates full of treasures. Kaiser Wilhelm II was enthusiastic and helped finance the expedition along with Krupp. The third was financed by means of the Ministry of Culture, the fourth expedition under Le Coq was dogged by many difficulties and was finally cut short by the outbreak of World War I in 1914. Many important finds were made, especially on the second expedition and they discovered important documents and works of art and the remains of a Nestorian church near ancient Khocho, a ruined ancient city, built of mud,30 km east of Turfan. Turfan is in Xinjiang on the northern Silk Road and it has an area of 170 km2 between 42° and 43° north latitude and between 88° and 90° east longitude in a depression 154 m below sea level. This is the site to which expeditions were mounted by Germans to explore and collect precious art objects and texts written in many languages. He could follow up the work in years during his last expeditions between 1928 and 1935. His collections of that period are in the Stockholm Ethnographical Museum, German expeditions from 1902 and 1914 not only to Turfan but also other sites such as Kucha, Qarashahr and Tumshuq were most fruitful. The finds of the four expeditions were murals, other artefacts, the four German expeditions covered Turfan but also Kucha, Qarashahr and Tumshuq. The first Expedition from December,1902 to April 1903, led by Prof. A. Grünwedel along with Dr. G. Kl. Impressed with the accomplishments of the first expedition, Emperor Wilhelm II donated 32,000 Marks from his private purse which was supplemented by 10,000 Marks from other donors. On account of Wilhelm IIs donation as King of Prussia, this expedition was named the First Royal Prussian Turfan expedition. Since Grünwedel who was enthusiastic about leading the second expedition also could not make it due to ill health. The third Expedition merged with this expedition and the finds covered mostly paintings and it was carted to Berlin in 105 crates. The Third Expedition was also funded by the state and it was undertaken from December 1905 to April 1907. In the middle of 1906 Le Coq had to return due to illness. Grünwedel and Bartus continued the work and covered the oases to the west of Turfan, including Kïzïl, the route followed was initially from Kashgarto Tumshuk and then from Kizilto Kucha to Kumtura and further along Shorchuk—Turfan Oasis—Ürümqi—Hami—Toyuk and back
German Turfan expeditions
–
Expedition leaders
Albert Grünwedel (left) and
Albert von Le Coq (right)
German Turfan expeditions
German Turfan expeditions
German Turfan expeditions
–
Art work from the German Turfan expeditions
44.
Ethnological Museum of Berlin
–
The Ethnological Museum of Berlin is one of the Berlin State Museums, the de facto national collection of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is presently located in the complex in Dahlem, along with the Museum of Asian Art. The museum holds more than 500,000 objects and is one of the largest and most important collections of works of art, as the museum’s collections expanded in the early twentieth century, the museum quickly outgrew its facility in the center of Berlin on Königgrätzer Straße. A new building was erected in Dahlem to house the museum’s store rooms, in the Second World War, the main building of the museum was heavily damaged. It was demolished in 1961, and the buildings in Dahlem were reconfigured to serve as the exhibition spaces. Following German reunification, although many of the Berlin museum collections were relocated, starting in 2000, concrete plans were developed to relocate the collections back to the center of the city. Beginning in January 2016, the Ethnological Museum began the process of dismantling its exhibitions in preparation for its move to the Humboldt Forum. Until January 2017, the museum remain open to the public, and its permanent exhibitions of works from Africa, Mesoamerican archaeology. Highlights include the collections of painted Maya vases and drinking cups, Benin bronzes, sculpture from Cameroon, the collections themselves encompass more than 500,000 from around the world. In addition, the museum more than 280,000 historical photographs, a substantial archive, more than 125,000 sound recordings. The collection is organized according to geography as well as methodological approaches, the main divisions are Africa, Oceania, East-and North-Asia, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia, American ethnology, American archaeology, and ethnomusicology. The museum also houses a reference library of more than 140,000 volumes relating to ethnology, non-European art. These collections are all housed in the complex in Dahlem. The museums first building in the center of Berlin on Königgrätzer Straße was already too small to accommodate the collections when it opened in 1886, by 1906, the first construction began on a second facility for the museum in Dahlem. The museum intended to use space in Dahlem to store and conduct research on the large collections, but to continue to exhibit portions of the collection in the building in the city center. Plans were developed for a complex in Dahlem, consisting of four large buildings, one for each of the non-European geographical regions of the globe, Asia, Africa, Oceania. Construction began in 1914, the architect Bruno Paul was commissioned to build the structure to house the Asian collections, the work was stopped, however, because of the First World War and was only completed in 1921. However, the museum lacked the resources to erect the other three planned buildings, the museum continued to function with two separate facilities housing its collections until the Second World War
Ethnological Museum of Berlin
–
The Melanesian room, with reconstructed houses
Ethnological Museum of Berlin
–
Exhibit featuring artefacts from the indigenous communities of North America
Ethnological Museum of Berlin
–
Exhibit deaturing artefacts from Mesoamerica
45.
Divashtich
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Divashtich, was a medieval Sogdian ruler in Transoxiana during the period of the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana. He was the ruler of Panjikant and its surroundings from ca.706 until his downfall, Divashtich was the son of a certain Yodkhsetak, who belonged to a noble Sogdian dehqan family from Samarkand, which could trace its descent back to the Sasanian king Bahram V Gur. The family bore the title of sur and began ruling parts of Sogdia during the 6th century, there were five members of the family bearing the title of sur, Divashtich being the last of them. 706, Divashtich was elected as king of Panjikant, succeeding the Turkic prince Chukin Chur Bilga as the ruler of city, however, Divashtich did not held absolute power, but shared his power with other princes. Although Divashtich only ruled Panjikant, he claimed the title of Sogdian king, some of Divashtichs coins included the name of a certain Nana, which either was the goddess Nanaya, or Chukin Chur Bilgas daughter, whom Divashtich may have been married to. In 709/710, Tarkhun, the Sogdian ruler of Samarkand, was overthrown by a rebellion because of his pro-Muslim policy, after the fall of Tarkhun, his two sons fled to the court of Divashtich, where they were treated honorably. This made Divashtichs claim to Samarkand much stronger,712, Divashtich, including other local Sogdian rulers such as Gurak, acknowledged the authority of the Umayyad Caliphate after an invasion by the Arab general Qutayba ibn Muslim. In 719, he was forced to send the two sons of Tarkhun to al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah, the Umayyad governor of Khorasan, in 720, Divashtich, along with another Sogdian ruler named Karzanj, are mentioned as the leaders of an anti-Arab rebellion in Sogdia. They managed to earn the allegiance of at-Tar, the Sogdian ruler of Farghana, while the army of Karzanj was staying at Khujand, at-Tar betrayed him, and told the Umayyad general Said ibn Amr al-Harashi where Karzanj and his army was stationing. Al-Harashi quickly marched towards Khujand, where he defeated the army of Karzanj, al-Harashi then left for Zarafshan, the location of Divashtich. A battle shortly took place near the city in 722, where managed to emerge victorious once again. Divashtich then fled to a fortress near Zarafshan, but eventually agreed to surrender to Arabs, and was taken prisoner, the Arabs then began burning several houses and a temple in Panjikant. The Umayyad governor of Iraq, including high officials, wanted to set Divashtich free. Al-Harashi, however, had Divashtich crucified on a Zoroastrian burial building and this choice later played a role of al-Harashis removal as the governor of Khorasan. The Zoroastrianism worshiped by Divashtich and his subjects, also known as Sogdian Zoroastrianism, was a different Zoroastrian sect which had received influence from different religions, even ancient Mesopotamian religions had influenced the Zoroastrian sect, and gods such as Nanaya were worshiped by the Sogdians. Divashtichs son Tarkhun was taken as a prisoner of war in Iraq, where his family lived for three generations. B. A. Litvinsky, Ahmad Hasan Dani, history of Civilizations of Central Asia, The crossroads of civilizations, A. D.250 to 750
Divashtich
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Statue of Divashtich in
Panjikant
46.
Aramaic alphabet
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The ancient Aramaic alphabet is adapted from the Phoenician alphabet and became distinctive from it by the 8th century BCE. It was used to write the Aramaic language and had displaced the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet for the writing of Hebrew, the letters all represent consonants, some of which are also used as matres lectionis to indicate long vowels. Rather, it is a different type, the earliest inscriptions in the Aramaic language use the Phoenician alphabet. Over time, the alphabet developed into the form shown below, Aramaic gradually became the lingua franca throughout the Middle East, with the script at first complementing and then displacing Assyrian cuneiform, as the predominant writing system. Imperial Aramaic was highly standardised, its orthography was based more on historical roots than any spoken dialect and was influenced by Old Persian. Both were in use through the Achaemenid Persian period, but the cursive form steadily gained ground over the lapidary, the Aramaic script would survive as the essential characteristics of the Iranian Pahlavi writing system. A group of 30 Aramaic documents from Bactria has been recently discovered, an analysis was published in November 2006. The texts, which were rendered on leather, reflect the use of Aramaic in the 4th century BC in the Persian Achaemenid administration of Bactria, the widespread usage of Achaemenid Aramaic in the Middle East led to the gradual adoption of the Aramaic alphabet for writing Hebrew. Formerly, Hebrew had been using an alphabet closer in form to that of Phoenician. After the fall of the Achaemenid Empire, the unity of the Imperial Aramaic script was lost, the Hebrew and Nabataean alphabets, as they stood by the Roman era, were little changed in style from the Imperial Aramaic alphabet. A cursive Hebrew variant developed from the early centuries AD, the Old Turkic script is generally considered to have its ultimate origins in Aramaic, in particular via the Pahlavi or Sogdian alphabets, as suggested by V. Thomsen, or possibly via Karosthi. Aramaic is also considered to be the most likely source of the Brahmi script, ancestor of the Brahmic family of scripts, today, Biblical Aramaic, Jewish Neo-Aramaic dialects and the Aramaic language of the Talmud are written in the Hebrew alphabet. Syriac and Christian Neo-Aramaic dialects are written in the Syriac alphabet, Mandaic is written in the Mandaic alphabet. The near-identity of the Aramaic and the classical Hebrew alphabets caused Aramaic text to be mostly in the standard Hebrew script in scholarly literature. In Maloula, one of few surviving communities in which a Western Aramaic dialect is still spoken and they started to use the Syriac alphabet instead. In Aramaic writing, Waw and Yodh serve a double function, originally, they represented only the consonants w and y, but they were later adopted to indicate the long vowels ū and ī respectively as well. In the latter role, they are known as matres lectionis or mothers of reading. Ālap, likewise, has some of the characteristics of a mater lectionis because in initial positions, it indicates a glottal stop, among Jews, the influence of Hebrew often led to the use of Hē instead, at the end of a word
Aramaic alphabet
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Bilingual Greek and Aramaic inscription by the
Mauryan emperor
Ashoka the Great at
Kandahar,
Afghanistan, 3rd century BC
47.
Pahlavi scripts
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Pahlavi or Pahlevi denotes a particular and exclusively written form of various Middle Iranian languages. The essential characteristics of Pahlavi are the use of a specific Aramaic-derived script, the Pahlavi script, Pahlavi compositions have been found for the dialects/ethnolects of Parthia, Persis, Sogdiana, Scythia, and Khotan. Independent of the variant for which the Pahlavi system was used, Pahlavi is then an admixture of written Imperial Aramaic, from which Pahlavi derives its script, logograms, and some of its vocabulary. Spoken Middle Iranian, from which Pahlavi derives its terminations, symbol rules, Pahlavi may thus be defined as a system of writing applied to a specific language group, but with critical features alien to that language group. It has the characteristics of a language, but is not one. It is a written system, but much Pahlavi literature remains essentially an oral literature committed to writing. If this etymology is correct, Parthav presumably became pahlaw through a semivowel glide rt change to l, the term has been traced back further to Avestan pərəthu- broad, also evident in Sanskrit pŗthvi- earth and parthivi of the earth. Common to all Indo-Iranian languages is a connotation of mighty, the earliest attested use of Pahlavi dates to the reign of Arsaces I of Parthia in early Parthian coins with Pahlavi scripts. There are also several Pahlavi texts written during the reign of Mithridates I, such fragments, as also the rock inscriptions of Sassanid kings, which are datable to the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, do not, however, qualify as a significant literary corpus. It is in an archaic script than Book Pahlavi. After the Muslim conquest of Persia, the Pahlavi script was replaced by the Arabic script, except in Zoroastrian sacred literature, the replacement of the Pahlavi script with the Arabic script in order to write the Persian language was done by the Tahirids in 9th century Khurasan. In the present-day, Pahlavi is frequently identified with the dialect of south-west Iran, formerly and properly called Pārsi. This practice can be dated to the immediately following the Islamic conquest. Tables showing the letters and their names or pronunciations are available on line, the Pahlavi script is one of the two essential characteristics of the Pahlavi system. Its origin and development occurred independently of the various Middle Iranian languages for which it was used, the Pahlavi script is derived from the Aramaic script as it was used under the Achaemenids, with modifications to support the phonology of the Iranian languages. It is essentially a typical abjad, where, in general, only vowels are marked with matres lectionis. In addition to this, during much of its later history, similarly, certain words continued to be spelt with postvocalic ⟨s⟩ and ⟨t⟩ even after the consonants had been debuccalized to ⟨h⟩ in the living language. The Pahlavi script consisted of two widely used forms, Inscriptional Pahlavi and Book Pahlavi, a third form, Psalter Pahlavi, is not widely attested
Pahlavi scripts
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Parthian (above), along with Greek (below) and Middle Persian was being used in inscriptions of early
Sassanian kings. Shapur inscription in
Naqsh-e Rajab
Pahlavi scripts
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Parthian version of
Shapur I 's inscription at
Ka'ba-ye Zartosht.
Pahlavi scripts
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Coin of
Ardashir I (r. 224–42) with Inscriptional Pahlavi writings.
Pahlavi scripts
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Inscriptional Pahlavi text from
Shapur III at
Taq-e Bostan, 4th century
48.
Logogram
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In written language, a logogram or logograph is a written character that represents a word or phrase. Chinese characters and Japanese kanji are logograms, some Egyptian hieroglyphs, the use of logograms in writing is called logography. A writing system that is based on logograms is called a logographic system, in alphabets and syllabaries, individual written characters represent sounds rather than concepts. Unlike logograms, phonograms do not necessarily have meaning by themselves, Writing language in this way is called phonemic orthography. Logographic systems include the earliest writing systems, the first historical civilizations of the Near East, Africa, China, a more recent attempt is Zlango, intended for use in text messaging, currently including around 300 icons. The term logosyllabary is used to emphasize the partially phonetic nature of these scripts when the domain is the syllable. For example, Egyptian was used to write both sȝ duck and sȝ son, though it is likely that these words were not pronounced the same apart from their consonants and this can be illustrated with Chinese. Not all Chinese characters represent morphemes, some morphemes are composed of more than one character, for example, the Chinese word for spider, 蜘蛛 zhīzhū, was created by fusing the rebus 知朱 zhīzhū with the bug determinative 虫. Neither *蜘 zhī nor *蛛 zhū can be used separately, in Archaic Chinese, one can find the reverse, a single character representing more than one morpheme. An example is Archaic Chinese 王 hjwangs, a combination of a morpheme hjwang meaning king, in modern Mandarin, bimorphemic syllables are always written with two characters, for example 花儿 huār flower. These logograms, called hozwārishn, were dispensed with altogether after the Arab conquest of Persia, logograms are used in modern shorthand to represent common words. In addition, the numerals and mathematical symbols used in systems are logograms—1 one,2 two, + plus, = equals, and so on. In English, the ampersand & is used for and and et, % for percent, # for number, § for section, $ for dollar, € for euro, £ for pound, ° for degree, @ for at, etc. All historical logographic systems include a dimension, as it is impractical to have a separate basic character for every word or morpheme in a language. In some cases, such as cuneiform as it was used for Akkadian, many logographic systems also have a semantic/ideographic component, called determinatives in the case of Egyptian and radicals in the case of Chinese. In the case of Chinese, the vast majority of characters are a combination of a radical that indicates its nominal category. The Mayan system used logograms with phonetic complements like the Egyptian, Chinese scholars have traditionally classified the Chinese characters hanzi into six types by etymology. The first two types are single-body, meaning that the character was created independently of other characters, single-body pictograms and ideograms make up only a small proportion of Chinese logograms
Logogram
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Egyptian hieroglyphs, which have their origins as logograms.
49.
Ideogram
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An ideogram or ideograph is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept, independent of any particular language, and specific words or phrases. In proto-writing, used for inventories and the like, physical objects are represented by stylized or conventionalized pictures, for example, the pictorial Dongba symbols without Geba annotation cannot represent the Naxi language, but are used as a mnemonic for reciting oral literature. Some systems also use ideograms, symbols denoting abstract concepts, the term ideogram is often used to describe symbols of writing systems such as Egyptian hieroglyphs, Sumerian cuneiform and Chinese characters. However, these symbols are logograms, representing words or morphemes of a language rather than objects or concepts. In these writing systems, a variety of strategies were employed in the design of logographic symbols, pictographic symbols depict the object referred to by the word, such as an icon of a bull denoting the Semitic word ʾālep ox. Some words denoting abstract concepts may be represented iconically, but most other words are represented using the rebus principle, many signs in hieroglyphic as well as in cuneiform writing could be used either logographically or phonetically. Semantic compounds are semantic combinations of characters, such as 明 míng bright, composed of 日 rì sun and 月 yuè moon, or 休 xiū rest, composed of 人 rén person and 木 mù tree. An example of ideograms is the collection of 50 signs developed in the 1970s by the American Institute of Graphic Arts at the request of the US Department of Transportation, the system was initially used to mark airports and gradually got more widespread. An early proposal was An Essay towards a Real Character, a recent example is the system of Blissymbols, which was proposed by Charles K. Bliss in 1949 and currently includes over 2,000 symbols, emoji Heterogram Icon Lexigram List of symbols List of writing systems Logotype Therblig Traffic sign The Ideographic Myth Extract from DeFrancis book. American Heritage Dictionary definition Merriam-Webster OnLine definition
Ideogram
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Ideogram in the
Church of the Visitation, Jerusalem
Ideogram
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"No Dogs!" sign in Spain. The dog illustration is a
pictogram. The red circle and bar is an ideogram representing the idea of "no" or "not allowed".
Ideogram
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Writing systems
50.
Old Uyghur alphabet
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The Old Uyghur alphabet was used for writing the Old Uyghur language, a variety of Old Turkic spoken in Turfan and Gansu that is an ancestor of the modern Yugur language. It was an adaptation of the Aramaic alphabet used for texts with Buddhist, the last known manuscripts are dated to the 18th century. This was the prototype for the Mongolian and Manchu alphabets, the Old Uyghur alphabet was brought to Mongolia by Tata-tonga. Like the Sogdian alphabet, the Old Uyghur tended to use matres lectionis for the vowels as well as for the short ones. The practice of leaving short vowels unrepresented was almost completely abandoned, thus, while ultimately deriving from a Semitic abjad, the Old Uyghur alphabet can be said to have been largely alphabetized. Uyghur alphabets Gorelova, Liliya M. Manchu Grammar, Old Uyghur Alphabet on Omniglot Old Uyghur alphabet and Orkhon Turkic alphabet photos of the original text fragments written in Old Uyghur script discovered at Turpan
Old Uyghur alphabet
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Yuan dynasty Buddhist inscription written in Old Uyghur on the west wall of the
Cloud Platform at Juyong Pass
Old Uyghur alphabet
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Yuan dynasty Buddhist inscription written in Old Uyghur on the east wall of the Cloud Platform at Juyong Pass
