Early Islamic Central Asia

In: Türk, Attila (szerk.) „Hadak útján”.A népvándorláskor fiatal kutatóinak XXIX.konferenciája. Budapest, 2019. november 15–16.
Budapest, Magyarország : PPKE BTK Régészettudományi Intézet, Martin Opitz Kiadó, Bölcsészettudományi Kutatóközpont Magyar Őstörténeti Kutatócsoport, 2022. 421-441.

FIFTY SHADES OF POST-SĀSĀNIAN
Miklós Sárközy
The present paper aims at throwing light at the origin, development and different meanings of the term called „post-Sāsānian”. Invented by German art historians and archaeologists hundred years ago, the term
„post-Sāsānian” soon evolved and began to appear in various papers since the 1960’s. By this time this term has been widely accepted and enjoys popularity in different scientific works of Iranian studies. It appears
that we can detect three main categories where this term can be used. First, the decades following 628, the year when Ḫusraw II the last real Sāsānian king was murdered. The second subperiod was until the end of
the Umayyads (750 CE) where Sasanian society still played a pivotal role in the local administrations of the early caliphate. The post-Sāsānian term can be also applied for the history of northern Iran, the provinces
of Ṭabaristān, Daylamān and Gīlān, where significant groups of the former Sāsānian aristocracy established post-Sāsānian states continuing Sāsānian culture and traditions well into the 9th century. The case of
Central Asia and the post-750 Iranian lands (except those of Northern Iran) are more complex and cannot be called post-Sāsānian due to later developments and other influences.

This volume examines the major cultural, religious, political, and urban changes that took place in the Iranian world of Inner and Central Asia in the transition from the pre-Islamic to the Islamic periods.

One of the major civilizations of the first millennium was that of the Iranian linguistic and cultural world, which stretched from today’s Iraq to what is now the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China. No other region of the world underwent such radical transformation, which fundamentally altered the course of world history, as this area did during the centuries of transition from the pre-Islamic to the Islamic period. This transformation included the religious victory of Islam over Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, and the other religions of the area; the military and political wresting of Inner Asia from the Chinese to the Islamic sphere of primary cultural influence; and the shifting of Central Asia from a culturally and demographically Iranian civilization to a Turkic one. This book contains essays by many of the preeminent scholars working in the fields of the archeology, history, linguistics, and literature of both the pre-Islamic and the Islamic-era Iranian world, shedding light on some of the most significant aspects of the major changes that this important portion of the Asian continent underwent during this tumultuous era in its history. This collection of cutting-edge research will be read by scholars of Middle Eastern, Central Asian, Iranian, and Islamic studies and archaeology.

Contributors: D. G. Tor, Frantz Grenet, Nicholas Sims-Williams, Etsuko Kageyama, Yutaka Yoshida, Michael Shenkar, Minoru Inaba, Rocco Rante, Arezou Azad, Sören Stark, Louise Marlow, Gabrielle van den Berg, and Dilnoza Duturaeva.

This article introduces a mural painting (11th ad) discovered in the Hulbuk palace (Tajikistan). The painted scene is unique for a number of reasons. Two female musicians are represented, one plays on a chang (angular harp), the second on a rubāb (lute with a neck), using the first known representation of an asymmetrical bow. Organological and ethnological data allow us to present the context and describe in detail the painting and the two instruments (timbres, how to hold them,
playing techniques). We also publish a Persian graffiti and propose an interpretation of the scene, supported by textual evidence, regarding female slave singers or ḳiyān, frequent in Abbasid Iraq and Tang and Song China. It questions the status and the musicians’ ethnic origin, suggesting that pre-Islamic habits were preserved in the princely courts of mediaeval Central Asia. Taken together, these data give new insight into the history of musical instruments and Mediaeval Central Asian culture.

Keywords:
mural painting; ethnomusicology; organology; rubāb; bow; chang; graffiti; elite; courtesan; Tajikistan.

The mosque occupies a central position in the social as well as religious life of Muslims. It is not only a place of worship where rituals are performed, but also serves as a social space where Muslims take part in welfare activities. The design and architecture of the mosque have local as well as global influences, representing religious, economic, and esthetic dimensions of Muslim social organization. Therefore, Muslims' association with the mosque has much significance from social, political, and economic perspectives. Based on an ethnographic example, this report aims to highlight the use of mosque space in the cultural context of rural Pakistan. In addition to discussing the sociospatial relationships around the mosque, I discuss how Muslims' beliefs about the world and the afterlife shape these relationships.

It has been generally accepted that the beginnings of tin-based opacification of ceramic glazes is associated with the white glazed wares excavated in Iraq and western Iran and dated to the ninth century AD (so-called 'Samarra-type' pottery). This paper focuses on an earlier stage in the technological development of tin-opacified glazes, that is, the yellow and white glazed wares produced from the eighth century AD in Egypt and the Levant. In addition, the compositional data was extended for the subsequent spread of tin-opacified glazes into Mesopotamia in the ninth century and Northern Iran and Central Asia in the tenth century. Using SEM-EDS and SR-Micro-XRD, the chemical composition and microstructure of eighty-five samples of opaque yellow and white glazed wares from Egypt (Fustat), the Levant (Madaba, Aqaba, Al-Mina and Raqqa), Mesopotamia (Samarra, Kish, Basra and Susa), Northern Iran (Takht-i Suleiman), and Central Asia (Nishapur, Merv and Samarqand) were investigated. These data confirmed that the yellow and white glazes were opacified by lead-tin-oxide (PbSnO 3) and tin oxide (SnO 2) particles respectively. Replication experiments were then conducted to imitate typical compositions of the analysed opaque yellow and opaque white glazes. Overall, the results posited the beginning of tin-based opacification of glazes in the eighth century in Egypt and the Levant, and provided explanations as to how the production of opaque yellow and white glazes in the Levant and Mesopotamia might have been technologically linked.

Approximate areas governed by the Ming dynasty and by various Muslim administrations in the 14th century and areas in Asia with historically significant Muslim populations (ranging from Muslim majority to estimated 1/400) ©  2018 Brendan Newlon.