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Khwarazm (; ; , Xwârazm or Xârazm) or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the east by the Kyzylkum Desert, on the south by the Karakum Desert, and on the west by the Ustyurt Plateau. It was the center of the Iranian peoples Khwarezmian civilization until the 9th century, when Turkic peoples tribes moved into and ruled the lands. A series of kingdoms such as the
a href="http://www.upcscavenger.com/wiki/Habib Borjian/" itemprop="url" title="Wiki: Habib Borjian">Habib Borjian, "KĀṮ", www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kat-city Gurganj (now Konye-Urgench) andfrom the 16th century onKhiva. Today Khwarazm belongs partly to Uzbekistan and partly to Turkmenistan.
In Avestan the name is ; in Old Persian 𐎢𐎺𐎠𐎼𐏀𐎷𐎡𐏁 or 𐎢𐎺𐎠𐎼𐏀𐎷𐎡𐎹 (/hUvārazmī-/); in Persian language ; in ; in Old Chinese * (呼似密); in Modern Chinese Huālázǐmó (花剌子模 / Xiao'erjing: خُوَلاذِمُوْ); in , Xorazm, خوارَزم; in ( Xorezm), حورەزم; in , Хоразм, خورەزم; in , Хорезм, خوْرِزم; in , Харәзм; in ; in Greek language Χορασμία () and Χορασίμα ( ) by Herodotus.
C.E. Bosworth, however, believed the Persian name to be made up of (خور 'the sun') and (زم 'earth, land'), designating 'the land from which the sun rises',C. E. Bosworth, The Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol IV, 1978. p. 1061 although a similar etymology is also given for Khurasan. Another view is that the Iranian compound stands for 'lowland' from 'low' and 'land'. Khwarazm is indeed the lowest region in Central Asia (except for the Caspian Sea to the far west), located on the delta of the Amu Darya on the southern shores of the Aral Sea. Various forms of are commonly used in the Persian Gulf to stand for tidal flats, marshland, or tidal bays (e.g., Khor Musa, Khor Abdallah, Hor al-Azim, Hor al-Himar, etc.)
The name also appears in Achaemenid inscriptions as Huvarazmish, which is declared to be part of the Persian Empire.
Some of the early scholars believed Khwarazm to be what ancient Avesta texts refer to as ( ; later Middle Persian ).Bahram Farahvoshi. Iranovich, Tehran University Press. 1991. p. 8 These sources claim that Kunya Urgench, which was the capital of ancient Khwarazm for many years, was actually Ourva, the eighth land of Ahura Mazda mentioned in the Pahlavi text of Vendidad.Musa Javan. Tarikh-i Ijtima'i Iran-i Bastan ( The social history of ancient Iran), 1961. p. 24 However, Michael Witzel, a researcher in early Indo-European history, believes that Airyanem Vaejah was in what is now Afghanistan, the northern areas of which were a part of ancient Khwarazm and Greater Khorasan. Michael Witzel. "The Home of the Aryans." (.pdf) Others, however, disagree. University of Hawaii historian Elton L. Daniel believes Khwarazm to be the "most likely locale" corresponding to the original home of the people, and Dehkhoda calls Khwarazm "the cradle of the tribe" (مهد قوم آریا).Elton L. Daniel, The History of Iran. 2001. . p.28
During the final Saka phase, there were about 400 settlements in Khwarezm.MacKenzie, 1996 Ruled by the native Afrighids, it was at this point that Khwarezm entered the historical record with the Achaemenid expansion.
أهل خوارزم ... کانوا غصناً من دوحة الفرس
("The people of Khwarezm were a branch from the Persian tree.")
The area of Khwarezm was under Afrighid and then Samanid control until the 10th century before it was conquered by the Ghaznavids. The Iranian Khwarezmian language and culture felt the pressure of Turkic migration from northern Khwarezm southwards, leading to the disappearance of the original Iranian character of the province and its complete Turkification today. Khwarezmian speech probably lasted in upper Khwarezm, the region round Hazarasp, till the end of the 8th/14th century.
The Khwarezmian language survived for several centuries after Islam until the Turkification of the region, and so must some at least of the culture and lore of ancient Khwarezm, for it is hard to see the commanding figure of Al-Biruni, a repository of so much knowledge, appearing in a cultural vacuum.
Chorasmian troops participated in the Second Persian invasion of Greece by Xerxes I in the 480 BC, under the command of Achaemenid general and later satrap Artabazos I of Phrygia."An Artabazus ( Artabazos ), son of Pharnaces, commanded the Parthian and Chorasmian units in Xerxes' expedition of 480, and led the Persian army back to Asia after Mardonius' death at Plataea." "The Parthians and Chorasmians had for their commander Artabazus son of Pharnaces, the Sogdians Azanes son of Artaeus, the Gandarians and Dadicae Artyphius son of Artabanus." in Herodotus VII 64-66 By the time of the Persian king Darius III, Khwarazm had already become an independent kingdom.
Khwarezm was largely independent during the Seleucid, Greco-Bactrian and Arsacid Empire dynasties. Numerous fortresses were built, and the Khwarazm oasis has been dubbed the "Fifty fortresses oasis". Chorasmia remained relatively sheltered from the interests of the Seleucid Empire or Greco-Bactria, but various elements of Hellenistic art appear in the ruins of Chorasmian cities, particularly at Akchakhan-Kala, and the influence of the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, reflecting the rise of Kushan Empire, appears at Toprak-Kala. The early rulers of Chorasmia first imitated the coinage of the Greco-Bactrian ruler Eucratides I. Parthian Empire artistic influences have also been described.
From the 1st century BC, Chorasmia developed original coins inspired from Greco-Bactrian, Parthian, and Indo-Scythian types. Artav (Artabanus), a Chorasmian ruler of the 1st–2nd century AD, whose coins were discovered in the capital city of Toprak-Kala, imitated the type of the Kushan Heraios and were found together with coins of the Kushan rulers Vima Kadphises and Kanishka."Apart from purely archaeological and artistic evidence , the date has been determined from coins of the Kushan kings Vima Kadphises and Kanishka, and of the Khwarazmian king Artav , that were found on the lower floors of some structures . Some economic documents found in the Palace were dated to between 188 and 252 of the Khwarazmian era, i.e., to within the third century AD It should be borne in mind that only an insignificant portion of the archive has survived." in
From the 2nd century AD, Chorasmia became part of the vast cultural sphere corresponding to the rise of the Kushan Empire in the east.
The fact that Pahlavi script which was used by the Persian Empire bureaucracy alongside Old Persian, passed into use in Khwarezmia where it served as the first local alphabet about the Anno Domini 2nd century, as well as evidence that Khwarezm-Shahs such as ʿAlā al-Dīn Tekish (1172–1200) issued all their orders (both administrative and public) in the Persian language,A. A. Simonov corroborates Al-Biruni's claims. It was also a vassal kingdom during periods of Kushans, Hephthalites and Gokturks power before the coming of the Arabs.
In 712, Khwarezm was conquered by the Arab Caliphate ( and ). It thus came vaguely under Muslim control, but it was not till the end of the 8th century and the beginning of the 9th century that an Afrighid Shah first converted to Islam appearing with the popular convert's name of ʿAbdullah ('slave of God'). In the course of the 10th century—when some geographers such as Istakhri in his Al-Masalik wa-l-mamalik mention Khwarezm as part of Greater Khorasan and Transoxiania—the local Ma'munids, based in Gurganj on the left bank of the Amu Darya, grew in economic and political importance due to trade caravans. In 995, they violently overthrew the Afrighids and themselves assumed the traditional title of Khwarazm-Shah.C.E. Bosworth, "The Ghaznavids" in History of Civilization: Central Asia in History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume IV: The Age of Achievement : A.D. 750 to the End of the Fifteenth Century : Part One : The Historical Social and Economic Setting/edited by M.S. Asimov and C.E. Bosworth. Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1999, 485 pages. (Vol. IV, Pt. I). . Excerpt from page 101: "The ancient Iranian kingdom of Khwarazm had been ruled until 995 by the old established line of Afrighids of Kath, but control subsequently passed to the new line of Khwarazm Shahs, the Ma'munids of Gurganj"
Briefly, the area was under Samanid suzerainty, before it passed to Mahmud of Ghazni in 1017. From then on, Turko-Mongolian invasions and long rule by Turko-Mongol dynasties supplanted the Iranian peoples character of the region although the title of Khwarezm-Shah was maintained well up to the 13th century.
Sultan Ahmed Sanjar died in 1156. As the Seljuk state fell into chaos, the Khwarezm-Shahs expanded their territories southward. In 1194, the last Sultan of the Great Seljuq Empire, Toghrul III, was defeated and killed by the Khwarezm ruler Ala ad-Din Tekish, who conquered parts of Greater Khorasan and western Iran. In 1200, Tekish died and was succeeded by his son, Ala ad-Din Muhammad, who initiated a conflict with the Ghurid dynasty and was defeated by them at Amu Darya (1204).Rene, Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes:A History of Central Asia, (Rutgers University Press, 1991), 168. Following the sack of Khwarizm, Muhammad appealed for aid from his suzerain, the Qara Khitai who sent him an army.Rene, Grousset, 168. With this reinforcement, Muhammad won a victory over the Ghorids at Hezarasp (1204) and forced them out of Khwarizm.
The Islamization of Khwarazm was reflected in the creation of literary, scientific and religious works and in the translation of Arabic works into the Turkic language. In the Suleymaniye Library in Istanbul, the Koran is kept with an interlinear translation into Turkic, written in Khwarazm and dated (January – February 1363).
The region of Khwarezm was split between the White Horde and Jagatai Khanate, and its rebuilt capital Gurganj (modern Kunya Urgench, "Old Gorganj" as opposed to the modern city of Urgench some distance away) again became one of the largest and most important trading centers in Central Asia. In the mid-14th century Khwarezm gained independence from the Golden Horde under the Sufid dynasty. However, Timur regarded Khwarezm as a rival to Samarkand, and over the course of five campaigns, destroyed Urganch in 1388.
This, together with a shift in the course of the Amu-Darya, caused the center of Khwarezm to shift to Khiva, which became in the 16th century the capital of the Khanate of Khiva, ruled over by the dynasty of the Arabshahids.
Khiva Khanate is the name of Khwarazm adopted in the Russian historical tradition during the period of its existence (1512–1920). The Khiva Khanate was one of the Uzbek khanates. The term "Khiva Khanate" was used for the state in Khwarazm that existed from the beginning of the 16th century until 1920. The term "Khiva Khanate" was not used by the locals, who used the name Khvarazm. In Russian sources the term Khiva Khanate began to be used from the 18th century.
The rumors of gold on the banks of the Amu Darya during the reign of Russia's Peter the Great, together with the desire of the Russian Empire to open a trade route to the Indus (modern day Pakistan), prompted an armed trade expedition to the region, led by Prince Alexander Bekovich-Cherkassky, which was repelled by Khiva.
Early in The Great Game, Russian interests in the region collided with those of the British Empire in the First Anglo-Afghan War in 1839.
The Khanate of Khiva was gradually reduced in size from Russian expansion in Turkestan (including Khwarezm) and, in 1873, a peace treaty was signed that established Khiva as a quasi-independent Russian protectorate.
In 1912, the Khiva Khanate numbered up to 440 schools and up to 65 with 22,500 students. More than half of the madrasahs were in the city of Khiva (38).
The larger historical area of Khwarezm is further divided. Northern Khwarezm became the Uzbek SSR, and in 1925 the western part became the Turkmen SSR. Also, in 1936 the northwestern part became the Kazakh SSR. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, these became Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan respectively. Many of the ancient Khwarezmian towns now lie in Xorazm Region, Uzbekistan.
Today, the area that was Khwarezm has a mixed population of Uzbeks, Karakalpaks, Turkmens, Tajiks, Tatars, and Kazakhs.
Other examples illustrate the eminent status of Khwarezmid and Transoxianian cities in Persian literature in the past 1500 years:
عالم جانها بر او هست مقرر چنانک
The world of hearts is under his power in the same manner that
دولت خوارزمشاه داد جهان را قرار
The Khwarazmshahs have brought peace to the world.
یکی پر طمع پیش خوارزمشاه
A greedy one went to Khwarezm-shah
شنیدم که شد بامدادی پگاه
early one morning, so I have heard.
- —Saadi
Yaqut al-Hamawi, who visited Khwarezm and its capital in 1219, wrote: "I have never seen a city more wealthy and beautiful than Konye-Urgench". The city, however, was destroyed during several invasions, in particular when the Mongol army broke the dams of the Amu Darya, which flooded the city. He reports that for every Mongol soldier, four inhabitants of Gurganj were killed. Najmeddin Kubra, the great Sufi master, was among the casualties. The Mongol army that devastated Gurganj was estimated to have been near 80,000 soldiers. The verse below refers to an early previous calamity that fell upon the region:
آخر ای خاک خراسان داد یزدانت نجات
Oh land of Greater Khorasan! God has saved you,
از بلای غیرت خاک ره گرگانج و کات
from the disaster that befell the land of Konye-Urgench and Kath.
- —Divan of Anvari
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