I remember reading an article six years ago about placards of redesigned swastikas on the streets of Dushanbe. I think that was the president's idea of "getting back to our roots," when he had announced the year 2006 as the year of the Aryans. Yes, Tajiks are one of the few people on this globe who can trace their ancestry to the Aryans. But what does it mean? It is interesting to note that the few remaining veterans of the WWII protested to the president Rahmonov's announcement. And why wouldn't they? After all, they fought against a nation whose twisted pride was symbolized by swastika. Hitler ruined it for everyone when he took a peaceful symbol and turned it into an image which most people fear or associate with hatred.
There are a lot of individuals today who still think of themselves belonging to the "pure people," and some of those come from the same part of the world where I was born. Somehow, by trying to prove who was first, people believe themselves to be flawless, authentic, or better than the rest. The idea is preposterous to me, especially in our modern globalized world.
Central Asia Proper with territories adjacent to it, is home of the five republics of former Soviet Union. Each of the republics, namely, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, represent five major ethnic groups in the region. But the region is not limited to these five groups, with some republics comprising autonomous regions whose people did not attain level of independence under the Soviets. If we go back far enough in time, we can see that none of the five major ethnic groups were actually "first" on the scene.
The earliest settlers of Hissar Valley included groups of people, whose
remnants include Burushaski people of
northern Pakistan. The ancestors of Burushaski people were
indigenous to the region, as the Georgians are to Caucasus. Their
language does not belong to any known family groups, such as
Indo-European or Altaic. (The linguists proposed this theory, and based
on the known living and dead languages, this seems to hold ground.
However, if the countries of the region stopped their bickering and
allowed archeologists to do their work, we'd have a more concrete proof of
this theory.)
Some three thousand years ago, a large group of horse riding nomads arrived into the Central Asian region. That the Burushaski who currently occupy the northern regions of Pakistan, a region to be precise only a mountain away from Tajikistan, indicates that the arriving horseman pushed the natives of the land further south. This does not necessarily mean an aggressive push. Linguists have shown that the Burushaski language has many loan words from the newcomers; these words (namely father, mother and grandfather, just to name a few) indicate that ancestors of Burushaski lived a substantial amount of time alongside the new settlers. It is hardly plausible that the natives would adopt the language of the newcomers if the latter were aggressors. Rather than being pushed away from their homeland, a most likely scenario shows the absorption of the Burushaski's forefathers into the society of horse riders. The much larger number of the newcomers would turn them into the overlords of the native population, which would allow for the amalgamation of the two peoples.
An acronym PIE stands for Proto-Indo-European[1], and it indicates a very large group of people who at one point spoke a single language from which many modern languages sprung. The exact "homeland" of the PIE is not known, but suffice it to say, it is somewhere in the middle of a large region between India and Europe. Since PIE did not leave any written records, most likely because writing was yet to be invented, they are known only by a language they may have used to communicate and not by a specific ethnic designation. After a millennium or so of existence, the PIE grew very large in size and naturally began to break away into smaller groups[2]. One of the groups went towards the Mediterranean, and eventually would have become Hellenes, the ancestors of modern Greeks. Another group would become ancestors of the Germanic and Slavic tribes. And yet another group moved toward Central Asia, and are known today as Proto-Indo-Kafiri-Iranians[3]. The acronym PIKI indicates that this group spoke a single language from which three more sprung. The Indians' and Iranians' current location is well known, but the Kafiri language speakers do not currently have a self-designated home, like their cousins. They mostly live in eastern Afghanistan, and are also known as Nuristanis (perhaps a separate post will be dedicated to them later).
When the PIKI broke off from the PIE, it took them approximately a millennium to reach Central Asian region. By 3500 BC, wild horse was domesticated by the PIKI, and another split of the group occurred into: Proto-Indians, Proto-Kafiri, and Proto-Iranians. By the 1st millennium BC, the Proto-Iranians would further divide into numerous ethnic groups, whose names begin to appear in written records of the earliest known civilizations. These were mainly western Iranians, such as Medes and Persians and eastern Iranians such as Scythians, Sogdians, and Bactrians. When a group of equestrian nomads arrived in Central Asia and met the local Burushaski people, they could still be generically called Proto-Eastern-Iranians (PEI).
The Hissar Valley of Tajikistan is one of the known sites of the ancestors of Burushaski, but their actual homeland may have included the entire region of Central Asia Proper as well as territories on both sides of the rivers, i.e. Amu and Syr. When the PEI arrived into Central Asia Proper, some of them began creating permanent settlements. By this time, written records begin to identify groups of PEI with a specific designation, since once they settled their immobility allows other settled people to locate and interact with them.
One such settlement was called Samarkand, and it was populated by the PEI who called themselves Sogdians. The cousins of Sogdians lived beyond Syrdarya, on the steppes, and they were known as Skuthoi to the Greeks, Saka to the Persians, and Sai to the Chinese; in Russian scholarship the term is Скифы and in English they are known as Scythians. A linguistic connection has been made between the Scythians and Sogdians, both of which mean "archer" in PEI language.
All the confusing acronyms aside, by the time Persians established their Haqamanish dynasty, which was roughly 550 BC, Sogdians had already established themselves in Central Asia Proper. It has already been mentioned that the natives, from whom Burushaski descended, borrowed many words from the early Sogdians. But the Sogdians also borrowed words from the natives.
Burushaski word for water is ts.hil, which the Sogdians pronounced Sil and the word eventually became Sir. This word exist today as name of the river, Syrdarya. That both Sogdians and Proto-Burushaski borrowed words from each other indicates that both of these societies mixed with each other since the first contact. Already here, one can see that the word "pure" cannot be applied to the earliest settlers of the Central Asia Proper. But if this does not convince the modern natives of CAP, perhaps the following may change their minds.
The Tajiks claim descend from the Sogdians, as the latter is the earliest known group of people who spoke an Iranian language. But the word Tajik has nothing to do with the word Sogdian. Just how the Iranian speaking Sogdians came to be known as Tajiks is a story better left for another post. But it ought to be mentioned here that the change of name occurred during a merge of another foreign group of people with the locals. The last trace of "true" Sogdians has survived in a group known in Tajikistan as the Yaghnobi people; their population, which numbers in less than ten thousand, is dwindling away, as the new generation goes out of the community in search of work and eventually mingles with the others.
The Sogdians, ever since they settled in Central Asia Proper and absorbed the local Proto-Burushaski people into their own society, have been in contact with numerous other new comers. To mention every minor group of nomads who passed through CAP would require more time and space. However, a general mention of major groups, whose influence on the Sogdian society is more noticeable than those of minor nomads would be sufficient to make a point.
The Persians under the Achaemenids were first; the second cousins to Sogdians, they occupied the region and turned it into one of their satraps. After them came the Greeks under their Macedonian conqueror. If there is ever doubt that both Persians and Greeks influenced the local society, one but has to look at the names of the cities. Cyrus the Persian built a town near Syrdarya and named it Kurushkatha (sometimes rendered as Kureskhata), which the Greeks called Cyropolis. When Alexander arrived to the same location, he built his own town next to the Persian one and named it, Alexandria Eskhata, which translates as "The furthest city of Alexander." Both of these cities are part of modern Khujand (Leninobod of the Soviets).
After the Persians and Greeks, came another group, whose name in Chinese sources is recorded as the Yuezhi. That the Chinese had a record of this people indicates the direction from which they came into CAP. The Yuezhi were also of Indo-European descent, and their horses would reach as far as India, from where they eventually established a ruling dynasty known as Kushans. The territory of Kushans streched from northern India to Ferghana Valley, thus encompassing Sogdian lands.
The next rulers of the region were another Iranian speaking people known as Parthians, from whose name the Tajiks have the word pahlavon meaning "hero, brave." Parthians did not actually control the Sogdian lands, as their rule paralleled, to some degree, those of the Kushans. However, Tajik scholars call their language zaboni Pahlavi, which translates as "language of Parthians." Tajik is not exactly related to Parthian, but the influence of the latter on the former is very heavy, with many Tajik words having roots in Parthian.
The Parthians were replaced by the Sassanids. They too were of Iranian descent, but unlike the Parthians, the Sassanids (sometimes rendered as Sassanians) had a direct control of the Sogdian lands. If Parthians, without controlling the Sogdian domains had influenced their language and culture, imagine what sort of influence the Sassanids had with their direct rule of the lands. There are more personal names in Tajik language which come directly from the Sassanids, such as Bahrom, Khurshed, or even Anushervon (a name I gave my own son).
Now, one may question how much of a change one Iranian folk could have over another, for after all, Persians, Kushans, Parthians, and Sassanians were all of the same stock. But one ought to realize that if the Sogdians arrived onto the Proto-Burushaski lands and mingled with them before identifying themselves as Sogdians, then every other Iranian people who came to rule over the Sogdians did so after having lived in a given location, for a certain period of time, mixing with other indigenous population, and then identifying themselves with a specific ethnonym. So, each cousin, close or distant, of the Sogdian people arrived to them already mixed with some other blood. So, if one thinks the Sogdians were pure Aryans before the coming of Arabs, then one ought to redefine the meaning of "pure people."
Additionally, the Greeks had a substantial influence on the Sogdian society and its people (not to mention the language, i.e. Tajik word qalam, which means pen/pencil comes from Greek kalamos). But if all the mingling of the Sogdians with other people between 500s BC and 700 AD is not sufficient, then consider the great changes brought about by the Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and Russians since the 8th Century to the present. Rendering ourselves as "pure" becomes useless activity. Instead, we should embrace all the new changes to our culture, and enjoy the benefits that come with it. It would be arrogant to think that one group of people could go far without interaction with another. But most importantly, it is simply foolish to designate oneself Aryan without knowing the full extent of the word (see [3] below).
I think I wrote more than enough for this post. Whoever reads this, I welcome your comments, questions, and criticism.
The Hissar Valley of Tajikistan is one of the known sites of the ancestors of Burushaski, but their actual homeland may have included the entire region of Central Asia Proper as well as territories on both sides of the rivers, i.e. Amu and Syr. When the PEI arrived into Central Asia Proper, some of them began creating permanent settlements. By this time, written records begin to identify groups of PEI with a specific designation, since once they settled their immobility allows other settled people to locate and interact with them.
One such settlement was called Samarkand, and it was populated by the PEI who called themselves Sogdians. The cousins of Sogdians lived beyond Syrdarya, on the steppes, and they were known as Skuthoi to the Greeks, Saka to the Persians, and Sai to the Chinese; in Russian scholarship the term is Скифы and in English they are known as Scythians. A linguistic connection has been made between the Scythians and Sogdians, both of which mean "archer" in PEI language.
All the confusing acronyms aside, by the time Persians established their Haqamanish dynasty, which was roughly 550 BC, Sogdians had already established themselves in Central Asia Proper. It has already been mentioned that the natives, from whom Burushaski descended, borrowed many words from the early Sogdians. But the Sogdians also borrowed words from the natives.
Burushaski word for water is ts.hil, which the Sogdians pronounced Sil and the word eventually became Sir. This word exist today as name of the river, Syrdarya. That both Sogdians and Proto-Burushaski borrowed words from each other indicates that both of these societies mixed with each other since the first contact. Already here, one can see that the word "pure" cannot be applied to the earliest settlers of the Central Asia Proper. But if this does not convince the modern natives of CAP, perhaps the following may change their minds.
The Tajiks claim descend from the Sogdians, as the latter is the earliest known group of people who spoke an Iranian language. But the word Tajik has nothing to do with the word Sogdian. Just how the Iranian speaking Sogdians came to be known as Tajiks is a story better left for another post. But it ought to be mentioned here that the change of name occurred during a merge of another foreign group of people with the locals. The last trace of "true" Sogdians has survived in a group known in Tajikistan as the Yaghnobi people; their population, which numbers in less than ten thousand, is dwindling away, as the new generation goes out of the community in search of work and eventually mingles with the others.
The Sogdians, ever since they settled in Central Asia Proper and absorbed the local Proto-Burushaski people into their own society, have been in contact with numerous other new comers. To mention every minor group of nomads who passed through CAP would require more time and space. However, a general mention of major groups, whose influence on the Sogdian society is more noticeable than those of minor nomads would be sufficient to make a point.
The Persians under the Achaemenids were first; the second cousins to Sogdians, they occupied the region and turned it into one of their satraps. After them came the Greeks under their Macedonian conqueror. If there is ever doubt that both Persians and Greeks influenced the local society, one but has to look at the names of the cities. Cyrus the Persian built a town near Syrdarya and named it Kurushkatha (sometimes rendered as Kureskhata), which the Greeks called Cyropolis. When Alexander arrived to the same location, he built his own town next to the Persian one and named it, Alexandria Eskhata, which translates as "The furthest city of Alexander." Both of these cities are part of modern Khujand (Leninobod of the Soviets).
After the Persians and Greeks, came another group, whose name in Chinese sources is recorded as the Yuezhi. That the Chinese had a record of this people indicates the direction from which they came into CAP. The Yuezhi were also of Indo-European descent, and their horses would reach as far as India, from where they eventually established a ruling dynasty known as Kushans. The territory of Kushans streched from northern India to Ferghana Valley, thus encompassing Sogdian lands.
The next rulers of the region were another Iranian speaking people known as Parthians, from whose name the Tajiks have the word pahlavon meaning "hero, brave." Parthians did not actually control the Sogdian lands, as their rule paralleled, to some degree, those of the Kushans. However, Tajik scholars call their language zaboni Pahlavi, which translates as "language of Parthians." Tajik is not exactly related to Parthian, but the influence of the latter on the former is very heavy, with many Tajik words having roots in Parthian.
The Parthians were replaced by the Sassanids. They too were of Iranian descent, but unlike the Parthians, the Sassanids (sometimes rendered as Sassanians) had a direct control of the Sogdian lands. If Parthians, without controlling the Sogdian domains had influenced their language and culture, imagine what sort of influence the Sassanids had with their direct rule of the lands. There are more personal names in Tajik language which come directly from the Sassanids, such as Bahrom, Khurshed, or even Anushervon (a name I gave my own son).
Now, one may question how much of a change one Iranian folk could have over another, for after all, Persians, Kushans, Parthians, and Sassanians were all of the same stock. But one ought to realize that if the Sogdians arrived onto the Proto-Burushaski lands and mingled with them before identifying themselves as Sogdians, then every other Iranian people who came to rule over the Sogdians did so after having lived in a given location, for a certain period of time, mixing with other indigenous population, and then identifying themselves with a specific ethnonym. So, each cousin, close or distant, of the Sogdian people arrived to them already mixed with some other blood. So, if one thinks the Sogdians were pure Aryans before the coming of Arabs, then one ought to redefine the meaning of "pure people."
Additionally, the Greeks had a substantial influence on the Sogdian society and its people (not to mention the language, i.e. Tajik word qalam, which means pen/pencil comes from Greek kalamos). But if all the mingling of the Sogdians with other people between 500s BC and 700 AD is not sufficient, then consider the great changes brought about by the Arabs, Turks, Mongols, and Russians since the 8th Century to the present. Rendering ourselves as "pure" becomes useless activity. Instead, we should embrace all the new changes to our culture, and enjoy the benefits that come with it. It would be arrogant to think that one group of people could go far without interaction with another. But most importantly, it is simply foolish to designate oneself Aryan without knowing the full extent of the word (see [3] below).
I think I wrote more than enough for this post. Whoever reads this, I welcome your comments, questions, and criticism.
[1] Prefix proto- means "first."
[2] Harmatta: The separation of the Indo-European groups of languages had to take place at a time when agriculture began to develop in eastern Europe, that is, in the beginning of the sixth millennium B.C. as shown by the fact that the western Indo-Europeans and the eastern group (represented mainly by the Indo-Iranians) have no common agricultural terminology. (357 in HOCOCA-I).
[3] Linguists often abbreviate the term Proto-Indo-Kafiri-Iranian into PII (with Proto-Indian as PIn and Proto-Iranian as PIr as separate branches of PII). They often leave out the word Kafiri, perhaps due to the fact that the Kafirs are smaller in number, and have no had as greater influence on others as their cousins Indians and Iranians. The term Aryan comes from the word "ārya-" which was a designation of the aristocracy in both tribal societies of later Indians and Iranians. Aryan never was an indication of entire ethnic group of people, but rather a title of a ruling elite in society; it is a social term, not ethnic.
[3] Linguists often abbreviate the term Proto-Indo-Kafiri-Iranian into PII (with Proto-Indian as PIn and Proto-Iranian as PIr as separate branches of PII). They often leave out the word Kafiri, perhaps due to the fact that the Kafirs are smaller in number, and have no had as greater influence on others as their cousins Indians and Iranians. The term Aryan comes from the word "ārya-" which was a designation of the aristocracy in both tribal societies of later Indians and Iranians. Aryan never was an indication of entire ethnic group of people, but rather a title of a ruling elite in society; it is a social term, not ethnic.
Mr. Jahongir. Your blog is very fascinating. I particular liked this post. I am a student of the genetic history in Central Asia, and your more (humanistic) side of research into Tajiks anthropology has piqued my interest. Have you done any research into the genetic ancestry of the Tajik people?
ReplyDeleteHello Viktor. Jahongir is my first name, so no formalities are necessary. I am student of history and an amateur linguist, my knowledge in anthropology is very minimal, to say the least, and of genetics practically non-existant. Correct me if I am wrong, but genetics is fairly knew subject, least of all genetic studies of the Tajik people. To the best of my knowledge there aren't any genetic studies that have been conducted on the Tajik people in general. I submitted my own DNA to the Genographic project, and as far as I know, there aren't many Tajiks who also did the same. I am G-M201, and I am yet to be connected to another person from Tajikistan. My own research is, as you noted, purely humanistic, what you read here is what I digested from my own readings on the subject. After writing this post, which is over (by two days) a year now, I have been trying to finish reading David Anthony's "The Horse, the Wheel, and Language" (this book is dense for a historian). That's as close as I am to reading anything about genetics, which is nothing really. I do follow Spencer Wells, from time to time, but it has been a long time when I actually read anything substantial on the subject.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I answered your questions, but if there is anything I can do for you, do not hesitate to write me. My email is genealogy@jahongir.com
Hello. I am an ethnically Tajik student interested in anthropology. I was reading your blog (found it through a google search, hahah) and I saw the above comment. Actually, there is a decent amount of anthropological research into the genetics of the Tajik population. Interestingly, Y-chromosomal samples from Dushanbe and Khojent (Khujuand) were pretty different. Dushanbe showed higher frequences of Y-chromosomal haplogroup J2 in the male population, while Khujand showed high levels of haplogroup R1a1. Interestingly R1a1 is associated with Slavic and Northern Indian ethnic groups as well, while J2 is associated with the Caucasus-- especially amoung Chechens and Kurds. Additionally, the Kyrgyz showed the highest levels of R1a1 in the world--- surpassing even the Poles and Russians. This study was done by Spencer Wells along with Nadira Yuldasheva (a Tajik geneticist).
ReplyDeleteThe study: http://www.pnas.org/content/98/18/10244.full
Autosomally, the story is a little different. The DODECAD project, which is run through this website: (http://dodecad.blogspot.com/2010/10/introducing-dodecad-ancestry-project.html) inputted the data from this 2011 paper (http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/09/13/molbev.msr221.full.pdf+html) about Central Asian/Caucasus, and broke down the data. Interestingly, Tajiks seem to have relatively low East Asian admixture (on the order of ~>16%)but perhaps this is due to the small sample size. Surprisingly, Tajiks had MORE Northern European admixture than Southern Italians (!). Again, this may be selection bias by the authors of the Yunusbayev paper. As expected given their phenotypes, Kyrgyz were on the order of >70% East Asian, and clustered with Mongols, Koreans, and Japanese. Another paper compared the Y chromosomal breakdown of Tajiks, Iranians, and Afghan Tajiks. It concluded that Tajiks in Afghanistan and Tajikistan have a "common origin" (although we ALL have a common origin): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23198991
Finally, this little gem of a paper was extremely fascinating for me. I'd encourage you to look into it. It looked into the relative admixture proportions of various Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Uzbek groups. Here it is: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3025785/. Also, there is a little commentary by a Bengali-American geneticist here: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/09/of-iran-and-turan/#.Uhw0-RuTh8F.
Sorry for the obscene amount of detail here, but this information I believe is important for looking into our past for a number of reasons: it helps us to "sift" through the mist of the past of Central Asia. We are truly a "mixed people" as your post says. As people of science, we need to think across disciplines and look into how to approach these historical questions in a way that combines all fields of knowledge. The Indian diaspora has the Harrapa project, which is looking into their genetic origins, I don't see why we can't do the same. Science can help us see how petty nationalism is ultimately petty. Keep up the good work and don't be afraid to write me at: northernidealist@yahoo.com