Authors: Christopher I. Beckwith
Tags: #History, #General, #Asia, #Europe, #Eastern, #Central Asia
Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia From the Bronze Age to the Present (40 page)
In the Eastern Steppe, the political situation changed after the Jurchen overthrow of the Khitan. With their conquest of much more of China than the Khitan or Tanguts had, the Jurchen center of gravity was heavily Chinese. Although the Jurchen maintained some northern traditions, including the Khitan five-capital system, they became much more Sinified. They did not have more than a fleeting steppe presence even at the beginning and soon abandoned any serious attempt to control the Eastern Steppe, preferring to exert their influence indirectly. This created instability there, which the many peoples of the region, who belonged to different ethnolinguistic groups but were mostly Mongols or Turks, attempted to rectify. The most powerful single people, the Tatars, were supported by the Jurchen against the rising power of the Mongols. Although the Chin actually invaded the steppe in an attempt to subdue the Mongols, they failed and by 1146/1147 recognized them as a state. The Mongol leader, Khabul Khan, was proclaimed “Ancestral Originating Emperor.” The Chin gave him a title that suggested vassal status, but also “very generous presents.”
47
Although the Mongols had thus risen to power in the Eastern Steppe, the Tatars, with the support of the Jurchen, generally still dominated the political situation there.
Intellectual Growth in the High Middle Ages
The limitation in the size of states in the period between the Early Middle Ages and the Mongol Conquest limited the evil that governments and politicians could do to individuals. Especially in Western Europe, the Islamic world, Tibet, and East Asia, it became possible for philosophers, scientists, and other creative people to escape to another more amenable state when they were endangered in their homeland. The result was increased international movement, and with it continued intellectual growth.
At this time, the Islamic world attained its apogee in science and mathematics, philosophy and metaphysics. Most of the greatest minds in these subjects, including al-Farghânî (Alfraganus, fl. 833–861, from Ferghana), al-Fârâbî (Alfarabius or Avennasar, d. 950, from Fârâb [Utrâr]), Ibn Sînâ (Avicenna, 980–1037, from Afšana, near Bukhara), al-Birûnî (973-ca. 1050, from Kâth, in Khwarizmia), al-Ghazâlî (or al-Ghazzâlî, Algazel, 1058–1111, from Tûs, in Khurasan), and many others, were from Central Asia. The first historical Sufi mystic, Abû Yazîd al-Bistâmî (d. 875), was from Bistâm in western Khurasan. He introduced the Indian yogic practices and teachings he had learned from his guru, a non-Muslim, Abû ‘Alî al-Sindî.
48
Central Asia eventually became a stronghold of Sufism and home to many Sufi monastic orders.
The great cities of Central Asia were centers of culture, libraries, and education. The Samanids are famous for having supported Rûdakî and Daqîqî, the first poets to write great poetry in New Persian, while the Ghaznavids also patronized New Persian literature, most famously the
Shâhnâmeh
‘the Book of Kings’, a literary epic poem composed by Firdausî (d. 1020) that was based partly on Iranian oral epics.
49
The great poet Nizâmî (1141–1209/1213) lived at this time too. It is notable that this literary activity took place in Central Asia, under Central Asian rulers’ patronage, not in Iran (Persia).
The guiding hand behind the Seljuks at their height, under Alp Arslan and Malik Shâh, was Nizâm al-Mulk (1017/1019–1092). He was an astute politician and sometimes ruthless strategist. His most famous work is a ‘mirror for princes’, the
Siyâsat-nâmeh,
which attempts to teach the ruler how to be a more effective despot. He was also a great patron of learning and built and endowed many large standardized
madrasas,
known as
Nizâmiyya,
which spread the
madrasa
system of higher education across most of the Near East. Though his motives were in part political, these
madrasas
were influential in the cultural flourishing of the following two centuries there, and from those centers to the rest of the Islamic world. The scholastic method of dialectical disputation developed in Central Asia and spread across the Islamic world. It was brought to Spain by Abû ‘Abd Allâh al-Azdî of Cordoba (d. 969),
50
where it flourished and eventually produced the great philosopher Averroës (Ibn Rushd, d. 1198).
Although Central Asian Islamic cities together constituted the brilliant commercial and intellectual center of Eurasia in this period, an anti-intellectual reaction developed among religious conservatives. It was given strong support by the Central Asian philosopher and theologian al-Ghazâlî, who taught for awhile at the Baghdad Niḥâmiyya. He ultimately rejected philosophy per se in favor of a conservative form of Sufism and built a Sufi monastery (a
khânqâh)
for himself and his disciples in Nishapur, where he taught for some years at the end of his life. He and the other conservatives used the ideas and methods of the great Greek and Islamic thinkers against them with the express goal of suppressing freedom of thought outside of dogma. He devoted his most famous work,
Tahâfut al-falâsifa
‘The Incoherence of the Philosophers’, completed in 1095,
51
to the suppression of philosophy, arguing at one point that those who stubbornly supported some of the philosophers’ positions should be killed. Al-Ghazâlî’s arguments were subsequently refuted by Averroës (Ibn Rushd) not long after in his book
Tahâfut al-tahâfut
‘The Incoherence of the Incoherence’, but he wrote in Spain and it was already too late. Though Averroës had a powerful impact on European thought, he had none at all in the Islamic world, where his works were largely unknown until modern times,
52
and he saw the destruction of Islamic intellectual life by rabid religious conservatives in his own lifetime. The conservatives’ suppression of scholastic dialectical disputation, in which ideas, including received texts, were open to logical analysis and debate, was central to their goal, the suppression of independent thought. Al-Ghazâlî and the conservatives won. Thinkers who questioned what became increasingly rigid doctrines were persecuted or went into hiding, and the possibility of thinking freely not only about philosophy but almost anything else, including science, gradually disappeared altogether in most of the Islamic world.
53
Medieval Western European culture grew intellectually as a direct result of contact with Muslim Spain and Palestine. The translation into Latin of Arabic books introduced new, exciting, and often controversial ideas. The work of al-Khwârizmî
54
(Algorithmus) translated as the
Book of Algorithmus
introduced Arabic numerals, including the zero and “algorithmic” calculation along with them, while the
Algebra
introduced advanced algebraic mathematics. They were revolutionary to the scientifically oriented minds of Western Europe. The translation of previously unknown philosophical and logical works of Aristotle, along with the works of the great Islamic Aristotelian philosophers, also caused fundamental restructuring of Western European thought. The ideas accompanied at least one important institution. The first European
college,
55
the Collège des Dix-huit or ‘College of the Eighteen Scholars’, was established in Paris in 1180 by Jocius of London (Jocius de Londiniis) after his return from the Holy Land.
56
It was the oldest of the colleges that formed the original University of Paris. The college retained most of the essential characteristics of its direct ancestors, the
madrasa
and
vihâra,
including the pious foundation that supported the student residents and a professor,
57
and perhaps the architectural form as well.
58
The transmission of Islamic knowledge, techniques, and institutions to the West thus fueled the intellectual revolution of the High Middle Ages.
Many small kingdoms formed in Tibet after the century it took to recover from the collapse of the Tibetan Empire. The kingdoms were mostly centered not on cities but on fortresses and on the great new fortified monasteries, in which medieval Tibetan Buddhist civilization developed. The doctrinal differences among the many new orders encouraged active debate, both oral and written, on points of Buddhist canon law, doctrine, and other topics. The habit of writing having become firmly ingrained, a relatively small number of Tibetans quickly produced a vast literature, mainly on metaphysical, mystical, and ritual topics, but also on history, medicine, and other subjects. The political history of this period is still little known. The states seem to have been closely connected to the monastic powers, but their relationship to them is uncertain.
59
The Tanguts of the Hsi-hsia Dynasty developed a close relationship with Tibetan Buddhists, some of whom resided at the Tangut court. Despite the Tanguts’ presumed familiarity with Tibetan (a related language) and the simple, clear Tibetan alphabet, they developed a complicated native writing system based on the Chinese character model. They translated Chinese classics and composed new works on many topics. Because they translated the well-known Chinese Buddhist canon into Tangut, it has been possible to read many of the surviving Tangut texts.
60
The Khitan too developed a writing system on the Chinese model, though it was little used. Finally, although Chinese was by far the most important written language in the Chin Empire, the Jurchen followed the Tangut and Khitan pattern and developed their own Chinese-style script to write their language,
61
which is the direct ancestor of Manchu.
Although much of China was united under the Sung Dynasty, the northern territories that overlapped with or extended into the Eastern Steppe or Central Asia remained independent and under non-Chinese dynasties. The fact that none of these states could dominate the other forced the Chinese to develop means for dealing with international relations on a more or less equal basis. The old xenophobia and superiority complex that had long caused trouble for the Chinese people continued to dominate among politicians regardless of the kingdom they ruled, but the existence of several Chinese states lessened the degree of terror wielded by the rulers compared to that wielded by rulers of dynasties that succeeded in unifying China.
The Sung Dynasty was not in direct contact with Central Asia or the Steppe Zone, and thus not in contact with most of the rest of Eurasia. Perhaps as a result of this relative isolation, writers and other intellectuals among the elite turned increasingly inward. Painters produced the greatest masterpieces of Chinese art. The most famous examples lack heroic, imperial themes and instead emphasize nature and withdrawal from the world.
It was at this time that Chinese perfected xylographic printing, and developed movable type as well.
62
Books and paper money began to be printed in earnest. At the other end of the spectrum, the Chinese also invented bombs, rockets, and precursors of guns during the Five Dynasties and Sung period.
63
Finally, perhaps partly due to the Sung political distance from Central Eurasia, Chinese maritime commerce flourished in the opposite direction, though this was not an officially supported movement. In fact, southern regions and their peoples continued to be looked down on culturally, and most of the movement took place outside political China. It was thus not the Chinese elite but independent-minded merchants who spread Chinese culture in that direction when they established trading colonies in the littoral region from the South China Coast into Southeast Asia and the South Seas.
1
Paragraphs 10 and 11 of the online edition (
http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/texte/etcs/slav/aruss/slovigor/slovi.htm
), based on the 1964 edition by Roman Jakobson, prepared by Sigurdur H. Palsson (Vienna 1994),
TITUS
version by Jost Gippert, November 13, 2004.
2
A mixed people with Turkic and Finno-Ugric elements, they are frequently called Turks in the sources, but the Magyars, a Finno-Ugric people, came to dominate the Turkic element at the time of their migration into Pannonia, and it is the Magyar language that has survived as the language of Hungary. The name Hungarian is generally believed to be in origin the Turkic name ‘Onogur’.
3
Zuckerman (1997). Dunlop (1954: 186–187) suggests the Rus as perhaps the enemy against which the fortress was built. Rus attacks against the Khazars are not mentioned in the sources for such an early period (which is hardly to say that they did not happen), but if they were the enemy, the lower Don location would be ideal for a fortress against them, because the Rus were northwest of the Khazars, and being part Viking in origin, they were skilled sailors, usually trading and raiding by water.
4
Sinor (1959: 17).
5
Sinor (1959: 17).
6
See Sinor (1959: 21–22), who remarks that Brother Heribaldus writes in the annals of the monastery of St. Gall south of Lake Constance (in what is now Switzerland) that he never had “a better time than during the Hungarians’ stay in his monastery.”
7
Schamiloglu (1984b: 216).
8
Sinor (1959: 27–28).
9
Sinor (1959: 28–36).
10
Noonan (1981/1998: 53).
11
See Golden (1982). For citations of the title
kaghan
used for the king of the Rus, see Dunlop (1954: 237).
12
Christian (1998: 334).
13
See the prologue.
14
Dunlop (1954: 254 et seq.).
15
Christian (1998: 313–319).
16
Their predecessors were apparently the Karluks, whose kaghan converted to Islam in the late eighth or early ninth century, according to al-Ya’qûbî (Beckwith 1993: 127 n. 114). For anohr view on the origins of the Karakhanids, see Kochnev (1996).
17
Bosworth (1968: 6–8, 12), Christian (1998: 370).
18
They belonged to the Oghuz branch of Turks. Some of them had been nomadizing near the North Caucasus Steppe in 921–922 when the Arab envoy Ibn Faḍlân passed through during his journey to Volga Bulgaria (Bosworth 1968: 16). There are several translations of his fascinating account, most recently by Frye (2005).
19
Dunlop (1954: 260). Bosworth (1968: 18) argues that the king of the Turks mentioned in some sources was the Yabghu, a local Oghuz ruler in Khwarizmia, but this seems to be the result of confusion with the Khazar kaghan, because the Seljuks moved from Khazaria to the lower Jaxartes, which was under the rule of an Oghuz king who had the title Yabghu. A number of sources specifically mention Seljuk’s father serving under the Khazars—who still existed in his day—and the names of his sons are so remarkable that there does not seem to be any reason to doubt that he had indeed been raised at the court of the Khazar ruler, as the sources say (cf. Dunlop 1954: 260–261).
20
The eastern half was based first in Balâsâghûn, then in Kashgar, while the western half was based first in Uzkand (in eastern Ferghana) and later in Samarkand.
21
Also, the few modern scholars who have worked on them have been interested almost exclusively in religious matters.
22
The story of his campaigns and death are presented in completely religious garb and have generally been taken at face value, but the sources do say that he was captured during a military campaign.
23
Hoffmann (1961: 112–122).
24
They thus narrowed the more general meaning of
chos,
which perhaps meant something like ‘customary belief’ already in Old Tibetan, during which period it also began to be equated with Sanskrit
dharma.
The original meaning of
chos
in Tibetan is disputed; it may be a derivative of a verb meaning ‘to create, make’.
25
On the problematic Tibetan word
bon
and the names Bon and Bonpo, see endnote
79
.
26
The main dichotomy that eventually developed within the Chos tradition was between those who followed mainly the Old Tantras (who eventually developed into the
Rñingmapa
sect) and those who followed mainly the New Tantras (all the other sects).
27
The dynasty officially ended in 907, but it had ceased to exist in all but name outside the capital district not long after Huang Ch’ao’s rebellion.
28
For an up-to-date overview of the post-T’ang realms in the Eastern Steppe and North China, see Drompp (2005: 197 et seq.).
29
Somers (1979: 760–765).
30
Franke and Twitchett (1994: 6).
31
Its Chinese name was Hsing-chou, then Hsing-ch’ing-fu (1033), and later Chung-hsing; it was known as Eriqaya (Erighaya) in Mongol (de Rachewiltz 2004: 552, 968; cf. Dunnell 1994: 178). This account of the Tanguts is derived largely from Dunnell (1994); cf. Dunnell (1996).
32
Dillon (1998: 294).
33
The best account of Ch’ing-t’ang commerce is in Shiba (1983), a groundbreaking article with much valuable information on trade in eastern Eurasia in general in this period. Cf. Petech (1983) for information on the kingdom’s political history.
34
On the linguistic relationships of Khitan, see endnote
80
.
35
An Lu-shan had campaigned frequently, and usually unsuccessfully, against them. On the name of his comitatus of Khitan and other warriors, more than 8,000 strong, whom he treated as his own sons
(TCTC
216: 6905), see endnote 25.
36
Biran (2005: 15).
37
Twitchett and Tietze (1994: 60–62); Drompp (2005: 200–201, 202–205) shows that the Kirghiz did not form a steppe empire to replace that of the Uighurs.
38
See the classic work of Wittfogel and Fêng (1949) on this topic and much else concerning the Khitan. The Khitan made the city of Yen-ching—now Peking (Beijing ‘Northern Capital’)—one of their five capitals and the administrative center for the agricultural regions of the empire. This was the beginning of the city’s rise to prominence (Franke and Twitchett 1994: 16). Johannes Reckel (cited in Di Cosmo 1999: 10 n. 29) argues that the Khitan adopted their multiple capital system from the conquered state of Po-hai (in southeastern Manchuria and northern Korea), which was partly heir to the Koguryo heritage.
39
Even after the fall of the Liao, the Kara Khitai maintained that relationship down to the eve of the Mongol conquest.
40
This account of the Chin and their wars with the Liao and Sung is based on Franke (1994).
41
Biran (2005: 25–26).
42
Biran (2005: 36).
43
For discussion of the title, see endnote
83
; cf. Biran (2005: 39 n. 146).
44
Biran (2005: 32–38).
45
Biran (2005: 39).
46
Biran (2005).
47
Franke (1994: 238).
48
The most balanced general treatment of early
mystical
Sufism (which must be sharply distinguished from other early types of Sufism, though it usually is not) is by Fakhry (1983: 241), but the long Western scholarly tradition of identifying the Indian elements with Hinduism is questionable. It is the result primarily of early European scholars’ lack of knowledge about any form of Buddhism except South and Southeast Asian Theravâda Buddhism, which had become markedly different from other forms of Buddhism by the time of Muḥammad. It is long past time for an objective scholar expert in both Islamic and Buddhist studies to investigate this issue. The fact that the area of Central Asia near Biṣtâmî’s homeland of Khurasan had been Buddhist for centuries before Islam, and only became Muslim rather slowly, suggests that it was no accident that he was influenced by “Indian” ideas. See also endnote 77.
49
Maḥmûd shortchanged Firdausî and earned the poet’s revenge, a blistering satirical poem.
50
Makdisi (1981: 131).
51
The title is also translated as ‘The Destruction of the Philosophers’ or ‘The Collapse of the Philosophers’. See the extensive discussion in Fakhry (1983: especially 222 et seq.).
52
Bergh (1954).
53
Cf. Makdisi (1981: 136–139), who however ascribes the suppression to disputations becoming unruly and participants injured. The intellectual decline of the Islamic world was thus already underway even before the coming of the Mongols, not to speak of the Europeans. On recent antihistorical claims related to this issue, see endnote
81
.
55
The
college,
an endowed pious foundation that paid the expenses of the resident students and master or masters, must be distinguished from the
university,
a self-governing corporation. The latter was a local European development.
56
Makdisi (1981: 226, 228), who notes, “Though madrasas were not known to have existed in Jerusalem proper, by 1180 they were numerous in the neighboring areas.” The original charter
(CUP
I: 49) specifically refers to Jocius of London as having returned from Jerusalem, but of course it was necessary for him to travel through the “neighboring areas” in order to reach that landlocked city.
Madrasas
were ubiquitous in the Islamic Near East, and it would have been difficult for Jocius to have traveled in the Holy Land without encountering at least one
madrasa
and learning what it was, perhaps by actually staying in it overnight.
57
The teacher is not mentioned in the laconic charter of the Collège des Dix-huit, but colleges in Paris are known to have consisted of “a body of students governed by a master” by the beginning of the following century (Rashdall, quoted in Makdisi 1981: 236), only a few years later, suggesting the exemplary first college was structured in this way too.
58
This possibility is based on my own casual observation of the design of some of the old cloisters at Oxford. There may be many more with similar designs. The problem needs to be studied carefully and the idea either confirmed or refuted.
59
Perhaps the most insightful study is still Wylie’s (1964).
60
On the Tangut writing system and its interpretation, see endnote
82
.
61
Unlike the Tangut and Khitan scripts, the Jurchen script is much more systematic phonetically, and also unlike the other two languages Jurchen has a close relative that is attested in early modern and modern times and very well recorded, Manchu. Accordingly, it has been possible to reconstruct the language to a high degree of precision, q.v. Kiyose (1977).
62
Gernet (1996: 335). Also known as wood block printing, xylography proved to be cheaper and more efficient for printing Chinese, with its thousands of characters, so movable type did not supplant it there until modern times.
63
Gernet (1996: 311). Gunpowder itself was developed by alchemists in China during the T’ang period.