Bactria (/ˈbæktriə/;Bactrian:βαχλο,Bakhlo), orBactriana, was an ancientIranian[1] civilization inCentral Asia based in the area south of the Oxus River (modernAmu Darya) and north of the mountains of theHindu Kush, an area within the north of modernAfghanistan. Bactria was strategically located south ofSogdia and the western part of thePamir Mountains. The extensive mountain ranges acted as protective "walls" on three sides, with the Pamir on the north and the Hindu Kush on south forming a junction with theKarakoram range towards the east.
TheSeleucids lost the region after the declaration of independence by the satrap of Bactria,Diodotus I; thus began the history of theGreco-Bactrian, and later theIndo-Greek, Kingdoms. By the second century BC, Bactria was conquered by theParthian Empire, and, in the early first century, theKushan Empire was formed by theYuezhi within Bactrian territories.Shapur I, the secondSasanianKing of Kings ofIran, conquered western parts of the Kushan Empire in the 3rd century, and theKushano-Sasanian Kingdom was formed. The Sasanians lost Bactria in the 4th century, but reconquered it in the 6th century.Bactrian (natively known asariao, 'Iranian'),[3] anEastern Iranian language, was the common language of Bactria and surroundings areas in ancient and early medieval times.
TheIslamization of Bactria began with theMuslim conquest of Iran in the 7th century. The capital city ofBactra was centre of an Iranian Renaissance in the 8th and 9th centuries,[4] andNew Persian as an independent literary language first emerged in this region. TheSamanid Empire was formed in Eastern Iran by the descendants ofSaman Khuda, a Persian from Bactria, beginning the spread of the Persian language in the region and the decline of the Bactrian language.
Etymology
Bactria closing on the mountain range of the Hindu Kush (south) and bordering the Pamirs (north), as well as places that are close to neighboring Bactria on the map as observed on the North and East, the south branch of Tianshan further north, the Ferghana Valley to the north, the western Tarim Basin to the east.
Bactria is the geographic locationBactrian camels are named after.
Geography
The Bactrian plain lay between theAmu Darya (ancient Oxus River) to the north and theHindu Kush mountain range to the south and east.[7] On its western side, the region was bordered by the greatCarmanian desert and the plain ofMargiana.The Amu Darya and smaller rivers such as (from west to east) theShirin Tagab River,Sari Pul River,Balkh River andKunduz River have been used for irrigation for millennia. The land was noted for its fertility and its ability to produce most ancient Greek agricultural products, with the notable exception of olives.[8]
According to Pierre Leriche:
Bactria, the territory of which Bactra was the capital, originally consisted of the area south of the Āmū Daryā with its string of agricultural oases dependent on water taken from the rivers of Balḵ (Bactra), Tashkurgan, Kondūz, Sar-e Pol, and Šīrīn Tagāō. This region played a major role in Central Asian history. At certain times the political limits of Bactria stretched far beyond the geographic frame of the Bactrian plain.[9]
Under Persian rule, many Greeks were deported to Bactria, so that their communities and language became common in the area. During the reign ofDarius I, the inhabitants of the Greek city ofBarca, inCyrenaica, were deported to Bactria for refusing to surrender assassins.[18] In addition, Xerxes also settled the "Branchidae" in Bactria; they were the descendants of Greek priests who had once lived nearDidyma (western Asia Minor) and betrayed the temple to him.[19] Herodotus also records a Persian commander threatening to enslave daughters of therevolting Ionians and send them to Bactria.[20] Persia subsequently conscripted Greek men from these settlements in Bactria into their military, as did Alexander later.[21]
Alexander The Great
Pre-Seleucid Athenian owl imitation from Bactria, possibly from the time ofSophytes.
Alexander conqueredSogdiana. In the south, beyond the Oxus, he met strong resistance, but ultimately conquered the region through both military force and diplomacy, marryingRoxana, daughter of the defeated Satrap of Bactria,Oxyartes. He founded two Greek cities in Bactria, including his easternmost,Alexandria Eschate (Alexandria the Furthest).
After Alexander's death,Diodorus Siculus tells us that Philip received dominion over Bactria, butJustin namesAmyntas to that role. At the Treaty ofTriparadisus, both Diodorus Siculus andArrian agree that the satrapStasanor gained control over Bactria. Eventually, Alexander's empire was divided up among the generals in Alexander's army. Bactria became a part of theSeleucid Empire, named after its founder,Seleucus I.
The paradox that Greek presence was more prominent in Bactria than in areas far closer to Greece can possibly be explained by past deportations of Greeks to Bactria.[22] When Alexander's troops entered Bactria they discovered communities of Greeks who appeared to have been deported to the region by the Persians in previous centuries.
Considerable difficulties faced by the Seleucid kings and the attacks of PharaohPtolemy II Philadelphus gave the satrap of Bactria,Diodotus I, the opportunity to declare independence about 245 BC and conquerSogdia. He was the founder of theGreco-Bactrian Kingdom. Diodotus and his successors were able to maintain themselves against the attacks of the Seleucids—particularly fromAntiochus III the Great, who was ultimately defeated by theRomans (190 BC).
The Greco-Bactrians were so powerful that they were able to expand their territory as far asSouth Asia:
As for Bactria, a part of it lies alongside Aria towards the north, though most of it lies above Aria and to the east of it. And much of it produces everything except oil. The Greeks who caused Bactria to revolt grew so powerful on account of the fertility of the country that they became masters, not only of Bactria and beyond, but also of India, asApollodorus of Artemita says: and more tribes were subdued by them than by Alexander...."[23]
The last Greco-Bactrian kingHeliocles I lost control of Bactria to nomadic invaders near the end of the 2nd century BC, at which point Greek political power ceased in Bactria, but Greek cultural influence continued for many more centuries.[24] The Greco-Bactrians used theGreek language for administrative purposes, and the localBactrian language was also Hellenized, as suggested by its adoption of the Greek alphabet and Greek loanwords.[25]
The founder of theIndo-Greek KingdomDemetrius I (205–171 BC), wearing the scalp of an elephant, symbol of his conquest of the Indus valley.
The Bactrian kingEuthydemus I and his sonDemetrius I crossed theHindu Kush mountains and began the conquest of theIndus valley. For a short time, they wielded great power: a great Greek empire seemed to have arisen far in the East. But this empire was torn by internal dissension and continual usurpations. When Demetrius advanced far east of theIndus River, one of his generals,Eucratides, made himself king of Bactria, and soon in every province there arose new usurpers, who proclaimed themselves kings and fought against each other. For example Eucratides is known to have battled another king named Demetrius of India, probablyDemetrius II, the latter ultimately being defeated according to the historianJustin.[26]
Most of them we know only by their coins, a great many of which are found inAfghanistan. By these wars, the dominant position of the Greeks was undermined even more quickly than would otherwise have been the case. After Demetrius and Eucratides, the kings abandoned theAttic standard of coinage and introduced a native standard, no doubt to gain support from outside the Greek minority.
In theIndus valley, this went even further. The Indo-Greek kingMenander I (known as Milinda inSouth Asia), recognized as a great conqueror,converted to Buddhism. His successors managed to cling to power until the last known Indo-Greek ruler, a king namedStrato II, who ruled in thePunjab region until around 55 BC.[27] Other sources, however, place the end of Strato II's reign as late as 10 AD.
Daxia, Tukhara and Tokharistan
Daxia,Ta-Hsia, orTa-Hia (Chinese:大夏;pinyin:Dàxià) was the name given in antiquity by theHan Chinese toTukhara orTokhara:[citation needed] the central part of Bactria. The name "Daxia" appears in Chinese from the 3rd century BC to designate a little-known kingdom located somewhere west of China. This was possibly a consequence of the first contacts between China and theGreco-Bactrian Kingdom.
During the 2nd century BC, the Greco-Bactrians were conquered by nomadicIndo-European tribes from the north, beginning with theSakas (160 BC). The Sakas were overthrown in turn by theDa Yuezhi ("Greater Yuezhi") during subsequent decades. The Yuezhi had conquered Bactria by the time of the visit of the Chinese envoyZhang Qian (circa 127 BC), who had been sent by theHan emperor to investigate lands to the west of China.[28][29] The first mention of these events in European literature appeared in the 1st century BC, whenStrabo described how "the Asii, Pasiani, Tokhari, and Sakarauli" had taken part in the "destruction of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom".[30]Ptolemy subsequently mentioned the central role of the Tokhari among other tribes in Bactria. AsTukhara orTokhara it included areas that were later part ofSurxondaryo Region in Uzbekistan, southernTajikistan and northern Afghanistan. The Tokhari spoke a language known later asBactrian – anIranian language. (The Tokhari and their language should not be confused with theTocharian people who lived in theTarim Basin between the 3rd and 9th centuries AD, or theTocharian languages that form another branch ofIndo-European languages.)
The treasure of the royal burialTillia tepe is attributed to 1st century BC Sakas in Bactria.Zhang Qian taking leave from emperorHan Wudi, for his expedition toCentral Asia from 138 to 126 BC,Mogao Caves mural, 618–712 AD.
The name Daxia was used in theShiji ("Records of the Grand Historian") bySima Qian. Based on the reports of Zhang Qian, theShiji describe Daxia as an important urban civilization of about one million people, living in walled cities under small city kings or magistrates. Daxia was an affluent country with rich markets, trading in an incredible variety of objects, coming from as far as Southern China. By the time Zhang Qian visited, there was no longer a major king, and the Bactrians were under the suzerainty of the Yuezhi. Zhang Qian depicted a rather sophisticated but demoralised people who were afraid of war. Following these reports, the Chinese emperorWu Di was informed of the level of sophistication of the urban civilizations ofFerghana, Bactria andParthia, and became interested in developing commercial relationship with them:
The Son of Heaven on hearing all this reasoned thus:Dayuan and the possessions of Daxia and AnxiParthia are large countries, full of rare things, with a population living in fixed abodes and given to occupations somewhat identical with those of the people ofHan, but with weak armies, and placing great value on the rich produce of China.[31]
These contacts immediately led to the dispatch of multiple embassies from the Chinese, which helped to develop trade along theSilk Roads.
Kujula Kadphises, thexihou (prince) of the Yuezhi, united the region in the early 1st century and laid the foundations for the powerful, but short-lived,Kushan Empire. In the 3rd century AD, Tukhara was under the rule of theKushanshas (Indo-Sasanians).
The formTokharistan – the suffix-stan means "place of" in Persian – appeared for the first time in the 4th century, inBuddhist texts, such as theVibhasa-sastra.Tokhara was known in Chinese sources asTuhuluo (吐呼羅) which is first mentioned during theNorthern Wei era. In the Tang dynasty, the name is transcribed as Tuhuoluo (土豁羅). Other Chinese names are Doushaluo 兜沙羅, Douquluo 兜佉羅 or Duhuoluo 覩貨羅.[citation needed] During the 5th century AD, Bactria was controlled by theXionites and theHephthalites, but was subsequently reconquered by the Sassanid Empire.
By the mid-7th century AD,Islam under theRashidun Caliphate had come to rule much of the Middle East and western areas of Central Asia.[33]
In 663 AD, theUmayyad Caliphate attacked the BuddhistShahi dynasty ruling in Tokharistan. The Umayyad forces captured the area aroundBalkh, including the Buddhist monastery atNava Vihara, causing the Shahis to retreat to the Kabul Valley.[33]
In the 8th century AD, a Persian from Balkh known as Saman Khuda left Zoroastrianism for Islam while living under the Umayyads. His children founded the Samanid Empire (875–999 AD). Persian became the official language and had a higher status than Bactrian, because it was the language of Muslim rulers. It eventually replaced the latter as the common language due to the preferential treatment as well as colonization.[34]
Several important trade routes fromIndia andChina (including theSilk Road) passed through Bactria and, as early as theBronze Age, this had allowed the accumulation of vast amounts of wealth by the mostly nomadic population. The first proto-urban civilization in the area arose during the2nd millennium BC.
Control of these lucrative trade routes, however, attracted foreign interest, and in the 6th century BC the Bactrians were conquered by thePersians, and in the 4th century BC byAlexander the Great. These conquests marked the end of Bactrian independence. From around 304 BC the area formed part of theSeleucid Empire, and from around 250 BC it was the centre of aGreco-Bactrian kingdom, ruled by the descendants ofGreeks who had settled there following the conquest ofAlexander the Great.
The Greco-Bactrians, also known inSanskrit asYavanas, worked in cooperation with the native Bactrian aristocracy. By the early 2nd century BC the Greco-Bactrians had created an impressive empire that stretched southwards to include north-west India. By about 135 BC, however, this kingdom had been overrun by invadingYuezhi tribes, an invasion that later brought about the rise of the powerfulKushan Empire.
Bactrians were recorded in Strabo'sGeography:"Now in early times the Sogdians and Bactrians did not differ much from the nomads in their modes of life and customs, although the Bactrians were a little more civilised; however, of these, as of the others, Onesicritus does not report their best traits, saying, for instance, that those who have become helpless because of old age or sickness are thrown out alive as prey to dogs kept expressly for this purpose, which in their native tongue are called "undertakers," and that while the land outside the walls of the metropolis of the Bactrians looks clean, yet most of the land inside the walls is full of human bones; but that Alexander broke up the custom."[36]
Bactrian thus occupies an intermediary position betweenPashto andYidgha-Munji on the one hand,Sogdian,Choresmian, andParthian on the other: it is thus in its natural and rightful place in Bactria.[38]
The principal religions of the area before the Islamic invasion wereZoroastrianism andBuddhism.[39]ContemporaryTajiks are the descendants of ancient Eastern Iranian inhabitants of Central Asia, in particular, theSogdians and the Bactrians, and possibly other groups, with an admixture of Western Iranian Persians and non-Iranian peoples.[40][41][42] TheEncyclopædia Britannica states:
The Tajiks are the direct descendants of the Iranian peoples whose continuous presence in Central Asia and northern Afghanistan is attested from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. The ancestors of the Tajiks constituted the core of the ancient population of Khwārezm (Khorezm) and Bactria, which formed part of Transoxania (Sogdiana). They were included in the empires of Persia and Alexander the Great, and they intermingled with such later invaders as the Kushāns and Hepthalites in the 1st–6th centuries AD. Over the course of time, the eastern Iranian dialect that was used by the ancient Tajiks eventually gave way to Persian, a western dialect spoken in Iran and Afghanistan.[43]
In popular culture
The six-part documentaryAlexander's Lost World[44] explores the possible sites of Bactrian cities that historians believe were founded byAlexander the Great, includingAlexandria on the Oxus. The series also explores the pre-existingOxus civilization.
The site was portrayed in the 2004 filmAlexander whereDarius III was found dying.
^J. K. (1913). "Bactria: The History of a Forgotten Empire. By H. G. Rawlinson, M.A., I.E.S. Probsthain's Oriental Series".Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.45 (3):733–735.doi:10.1017/s0035869x00045470.ISSN1356-1863.
^Herzfeld, Ernst (1968).The Persian Empire: Studies in geography and ethnography of the ancient Near East. F. Steiner. p. 344.
^"BACTRIA – Encyclopaedia Iranica".www.iranicaonline.org. Retrieved7 August 2019.After annexation to the Persian empire by Cyrus in the sixth century, Bactria together with Margiana formed the Twelfth Satrapy.
^Justin on Demetrius: "Multa tamen Eucratides bella magna uirtute gessit, quibus adtritus cum obsidionem Demetrii, regis Indorum, pateretur, cum CCC militibus LX milia hostium adsiduis eruptionibus uicit. Quinto itaque mense liberatus Indiam in potestatem redegit."Justin XLI,6[usurped]
^Richard Foltz,A History of the Tajiks: Iranians of the East, London:Bloomsbury, 2019, pp. 33-61.
^Richard Nelson Frye,"Persien: bis zum Einbruch des Islam" (original English title:"The Heritage Of Persia"), German version, tr. by Paul Baudisch, Kindler Verlag AG,Zürich 1964, pp. 485–498
Bernard, Paul (1994). "The Greek Kingdoms of Central Asia." In: History of civilizations of Central Asia, Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D. 250, pp. 99–129. Harmatta, János, ed., 1994. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
Beal, Samuel (trans.).Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, by Hiuen Tsiang. Two volumes. London. 1884. Reprint: Delhi: Oriental Books Reprint Corporation, 1969.Several editions online at Archive.Org
Beal, Samuel (trans.).The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang by the Shaman Hwui Li, with an Introduction containing an account of the Works of I-Tsing. London, 1911. Reprint:New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1973.
Cotterell, Arthur.From Aristotle to Zoroaster, 1998; pages 57–59.ISBN0-684-85596-8.
Holt, Frank Lee. (1999).Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic Bactria. Berkeley: University of California Press.(hardcover,ISBN0-520-21140-5).
Holt, Frank Lee. (2005).Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan. University of California Press.ISBN0-520-24553-9.
Omar, Coloru (2009).Da Alessandro a Menandro. Il regno greco di Battriana. Pisa/Roma: Fabrizio Serra.
Posch, Walter (1995).Baktrien zwischen Griechen und Kuschan. Untersuchungen zu kulturellen und historischen Problemen einer Übergangsphase. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz,ISBN3-447-03701-6
Tremblay, Xavier (2007) "The Spread of Buddhism in Serindia ― Buddhism among Iranians, Tocharians and Turks before the 13th century." Xavier Tremblay. In:The Spread of Buddhism. (2007). Edited by Ann Heirman and Stephan Peter Bumbacher. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section Eight, Central Asia. Edited by Denis Sinor and Nicola Di Cosmo. Brill, Lieden; Boston. pp. 75–129.
Watson, Burton (trans.). "Chapter 123: The Account of Dayuan." Translated from theShiji by Sima Qian.Records of the Grand Historian of China II (Revised Edition).Columbia University Press, 1993, pages 231–252.ISBN0-231-08164-2 (hardback),ISBN0-231-08167-7 (paperback).
Watters, Thomas.On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India (A.D. 629–645). Reprint: New Delhi: Mushiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1973.Online at Archive.Org
%2c_Temple_of_the_Oxus%2c_Takht-i-Sangin%2c_3rd-2nd_century_BCE_(left_side).jpg)
