The Eastern Frontier: Limits of Empire in Late Antique and Early Medieval Central Asia

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Paolo Ognibene
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval

The Islamic East a millennium ago: Biruni’s world

Biruni ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
George Malagaris
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Complex World ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Political Factors ◽  
Historical Aspects ◽  
Medieval Islam

Biruni constantly investigated his complex world in its natural and historical aspects. He perceived his homeland of Khwarazm in the manner of a modern physical geographer while simultaneously maintaining awareness of its underlying cultural currents and far-flung connections with distant lands. He appreciated that the notion of a region depended on cultural and political factors; indeed, the modern usage of the terms Central Asia, Middle East, and South Asia implies a multiplicity of histories, as he doubtlessly would have understood. Biruni himself frequently commented on its significance and persistently sought to interpret its underlying tendencies throughout his writing. Whether he touched on the topics of ancient Iran, late antique Hellenism, or early medieval Islam, Biruni added to the knowledge of his contemporaries, and the survival of his works has augmented our own.

On Early Medieval Contacts of the Urals and Western Siberia with Central Asia: The Evidence of Ceramics

2021 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-77
Author(s):  
N. P. Matveeva ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Western Siberia ◽  
The Urals ◽  
Early Medieval

Рассматривается керамика кушнаренковского типа с памятников Приуралья и бакальской культуры Западной Сибири IV-VIII вв. Она выделена исследователями в 60-х гг. ХХ в. как показатель крупных миграционных процессов, связанных с этногенезом мадьяр. Анализ форм, технологии производства и декора керамики данного типа позволил выявить импортные изделия и местные подражания посуде из Приаралья. В музейных коллекциях керамики из джетыасарских могильников Алтынасар-4, Бедаикасар-2, Косасар-2 и -3, Томпакасар обнаружены сосуды, относящиеся к бакальской культуре, а также образцы, по которым изготавливались подражания в лесостепной зоне. Учтен результат сравнительно-статистического анализа погребального обряда синхронных уральских и западно-сибирских культур, согласно которому специфические характеристики для погребений с кушнаренковскими сосудами не выявлены. Эти факты вместе с художественной утварью, монетами, престижными украшениями и поясной гарнитурой рассматриваются как свидетельства активной караванной торговли в урало-западносибирско-казахстанском регионе. Предлагается не расценивать кушнаренковский таксон в качестве археологической культуры, сохранить употребление термина «кушнаренковский» для типа керамики, считать эту керамику отражением субкультуры, обслуживавшей престижное потребление, и связывать с продукцией бродячих ремесленников или производством в торговых факториях.

scholarly journals THE CONCEPTS «CHIEFDOM» AND «STATE» IN THE EVALUATION OF THE POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS IN THE EARLY MEDIEVAL EMPIRES OF CENTRAL ASIA

2016 ◽  
pp. 22-27
Author(s):  
S. A. Vasyutin
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Complexity Level ◽  
Total Compliance

The article deals with the evaluation of the political institutions in early medievalCentral Asia. The existing approaches to defining the governing systems of the imperial nomad unions focus on the concepts "chiefdom" and "state", but in both cases researchers have to state an absence of total compliance of the nomadic empires' governing structures to the classical attributes of chiefdom and state, thus constantly making reservations, which blur these concepts. The purpose of the work is to consider the possibility of solving this problem by using a broader "net" of terms determining different political systems and stages in their development in relation to early medieval nomadic empires. The methodological base of the article is the modern conceptions of multilinearity and diversity of the political genesis. The research has resulted in determination of a range of concepts which could better reflect the specificity of political institutions of different nomadic empires or make this evaluation more neutral but providing a clearer understanding of the complexity level of the political organization. 

scholarly journals Early Medieval Central Asian Population Estimates

2017 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 788-817
Author(s):  
Étienne de la Vaissière
Keyword(s):  
Central Asia ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Asian Population ◽  
Population Estimates ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
The North ◽  
Central Asian ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Census data from 8th-century Eastern Central Asian oases, combined with the measurements of the oases and data from archives discovered there, allow us to calculate estimates both of the individual oases’ populations and of their respective feeding capacities, which is to say the number of people who could be fed from the output of one hectare of agricultural land. These numbers in turn have parallels in Western Central Asia, where oasis sizes can also be calculated by examination of preserved archaeological landscapes and oasis walls. It is therefore possible to reach a rough idea of the populations dwelling in the main oases and valleys of sedentary Central Asia. As regards nomadic regions, the data are far more hypothetical, but references in certain sources to the sizes of nomad armies and rates of nomadic military levying can allow us to calculate at least the possible scales of magnitude for populations living to the north of the Tianshan.

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