The Shah mosque (now Imam mosque) in Isfahan, with the names of God and Muhammad written in bold geometric characters on the minaret. Built between 1612 and 1630, its spectacular blue-tiled decoration epitomizes the style and splendor of Shah Abbas.
The history of inner Asia, like that of the Fertile Crescent where Islam originated, was dominated by the relationship between nomadic pastoralists and settled peoples. In the vast semiarid steppe-lands to the north and east of the Black and Caspian Seas lived peoples whose livelihoods depended mainly on cattle, horses, goats, sheep, camels, and yaks. They were organized into patriarchal kinship groups based on families, clans, and confederations or hordes, the greatest of which was that organized under the leadership of Ghenghis Khan and his successors. Under the leadership of Ghenghis Khan’s son Batu (r. 1227-55) the Golden Horde of Mongol-Turkish people (who became known as Tatars in Russia) established its base from two sarays (palace headquarters) on the Volga River. From here they conquered the Ukraine, southern Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Russia, creating a vast empire of which the ruler in Moscow was the principal tributary Leading Tatar families became Muslims from the mid-thirteenth century after contact with the sedentary peoples of Iran, Khwarzm, and Transoxiana. Brought by the merchants and Sufi dervishes who traveled along the Silk Road, Islam in inner Asia acquired a mystical, pluralistic character resulting from its encounters with Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, and older traditions of shamanism.
The conversion to Islam by Tarmarshirin (r. 1326-34), the ruler of the lands in Transoxiana bequeathed by Ghenghis Khan to his second son Chagatai, caused a split in his clan. This was cleverly exploited by Timur Lenk, a member respected by the impoverished clan of Turkomans. Though lame from birth Timur (r. 1370-1405), known as Tamerlane in the West, was a brilliant political strategist and military commander. By uniting Transoxiana and Iran (previously ruled by the Ilkhans, descendents of Hulegu) he regenerat-
Ed Turkish-Mongolian power in Central Asia, creating an empire that would stretch, at its height, from western India (including Delhi) to the shores of the Black Sea. After defeating the Ottomans at Ankara in 1402, where he captured the sultan, Bayazid I (r. 1389-1402), he became well known in Europe. The disruption of Ottoman power in Anatolia relieved the pressure on Constantinople (which survived for another half century) and reopened the trade routes to China, while his defeat of the Golden Horde assisted the rise of Christian Russia.
CENTRAL ASIA TO 1700
Under Timur, his successor Ulugh Beg (r. 1404-49), and the Uzbek Shaybanids (1500-c. 1700) who inherited Timurid power in inner Asia, Herat, Samarkand, and Bukhara were transformed into world-class cities. They were embellished by the plunder and legions of skilled craftsmen and artisans Timur and his successors had imported from Persia, India, Iraq, and Syria. Though utterly ruthless and cruel (before taking Delhi, he had thousands of male prisoners executed so they would not be able to change sides) Timur was far from being an ignorant barbarian. He mastered Persian, and surrounded himself with some of the most
Distinguished scholars, artists, historians, and poets of his time, setting the stamp of “royal” Islamic high culture that would be imitated with rather more refinement by his successors. He was broad-minded on religious matters. Though a Sunni Muslim who launched his conquests in the name of the Sharia under the pretext that his enemies were apostates and traitors to Islam, he gave his protection to the Shiites. Shaikks (Sufi pirs) were his chief spiritual advisors. The Naqshbandi Sufi order, named after Baha al-Din Naqshband (d. 1389), who is buried near Bukhara, put down deep roots in inner Asia during this period.
World History
