Transoxiana

"We shall throw you into the fire of spiritual passion," he says, "and you will emerge refined." Four, Buddhism.

Before the Mohammedan conquest of India in the eleventh century, the teaching of Buddha exerted considerable influence in Eastern Persia and Transoxiana.

We hear of flourishing Buddhist monasteries in Balkh, the metropolis of ancient Bactria, a city famous for the number of Sufis who resided in it.

Professor Goldziher has called attention to the significant circumstance that the Sufi ascetic Ibrahim ibn Adham appears in Muslim legend as a prince of Balkh who abandoned his throne and became a wandering dervish, the story of Buddha over again.

This extension came around 130 BCE with the embassies of the Han dynasty to Central Asia following the reports of the ambassador Zhang Qian, who was originally sent to obtain an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xung.

Zhang Qian visited directly the kingdom of Dayuan in Ferghana, the territories of the Yuezhi in Transoxiana, the Bactrian country of Daksh with its remnants of Greco-Bactrian rule, and Kangju.

Zhang Qian's report suggested the economic reason for Chinese expansion and wall-building westward and trailblazed the Silk Road, making it one of the most famous trade routes in history and in the world.

A maritime Silk Road opened up between Chinese-controlled Jiaozhi, centered in modern Vietnam near Hanoi, probably by the first century.

He himself chose a life of asceticism in a cloister.

but even while there men rumoured speeches of heresy that he had uttered sometimes of one kind and sometimes of another but to my story one day hassan said to me and to khayyam it is a universal belief that the pupils of the imam mohaffar will attain to fortune now even if we all do not attain thereto without doubt one of us will what then shall be our mutual pledge and bond we answered be it what you please well he said let us make a vow that to whomsoever this fortune falls he shall share it equally with the rest and reserve no pre-eminence for himself be it so we both replied and on these terms we mutually pledged our words Years rolled on, and I went from Khodasan to Transoxiana, and wandered to Ghazni and Kabul, and when I returned I was invested with office, and rose to be administrator of affairs during the sultanate of Sultan Alp Ashlan.

such is the narrative of nizam ul mug the famous vizier of alp ashlan and of his son and successor malik shah who gives this story of his youth in his political will vasia nizam ul mug that is testamentum which he wrote in his old age as a manual to future statesmen he goes on to state that years passed by and both his old school friends found him out and came and claimed a share in his good fortune according to the school-day vow the vizier was generous and kept his word hassan demanded a place in the government which the sultan granted at the vizier's request but discontented with the gradual rise he plunged into the maze of intrigue of an oriental court and failing in a base attempt to supplant his benefactor he was disgraced and fell his subsequent adventures are one of the romances of oriental history after many mishaps and wanderings he became the head of the persian sect of the ismailians a party of fanatics who had long murmured in obscurity but rose to an evil eminence under the guidance of his strong and evil will in a d ten ninety he seized the castle of alamut in the province of rudbar which lies in the mountainous tract south of the caspian sea here he fixed his stronghold and it was from this mountain home that the sheik obtained that evil celebrity among the crusaders as the old man of the mountains from alamut issued those fierce fanatics who in blind devotion to their chief's commands spread terror through the mohammedan world and it is yet disputed whether the word assassin which they have left in the language of modern europe as their dark memorial is derived from the hashish or opiate of hemp leaves the indian bung with which they madden themselves to the sullen pitch of oriental desperation or from the name of the founder of the dynasty whom we have seen in his quiet collegiate days at nishapur to complete the picture we need only add that one of the countless victims of the assassin's dagger was nizam ul mulk himself the old schoolboy friend omar khayyam also came to the vizier to claim his share but not to ask for title or office the greatest boon you can confer on me he said is to let me live in a corner under the shadow of your fortune to spread wide the advantages of science and pray for your long life and prosperity the vizier tells us that when he found that he was really sincere in his refusal he pressed him no further but granted him a yearly pension of twelve hundred mithkhils of gold from the treasury of neshipur at neshipur thus lived and died omar khayyam the poet astronomer of persia busied adds the vizier in winning knowledge of every kind and especially in astronomy wherein he attained to a very high pre-eminence under the sultanate of malik shah he came to merv and obtained great praise for his proficiency in science and the sultan showered favours upon him of omar's attainments as an astronomer we have ample proof when malik shah determined to reform the calendar he was one of the eight learned men employed to do it and the result was the jalali era so called from the jalal ul din one of the king's names a computation of time says gibbon which surpasses the julian and approaches the accuracy of the gregorian style he is also the author of some astronomical tables entitled zidji malikshai and we have placed at the head of our article a treatise of his on algebra which has been lately translated and published in europe of the particular incidents of his life we know little enough for probably there was little to know a life like his spent in quiet toil and hiving knowledge with each studious year leaves little for the chronicler to record his takallus or poetical name kayam signifies a tent-maker and he is said to have at one time exercised that trade perhaps before nizam ul mukh's generosity raised him to independence Many Persian poets similarly derive their names from their occupations.

Thus we have Atar, a druggist, Asar, an oil presser, etc.

Be it so, we both replied, and on these terms we mutually pledged our words.

Years rolled on, and I went from Khurasan to Transoxiana and wandered to Ghazni and Kabul.

And when I returned I was invested with office, and rose to be administrator of affairs during the sultanate of Sultan Alp Arslan.

Hi, Uncle Laser here.

That highland region, whose mountains often rise to an elevation of twelve or thirteen thousand feet, seems to have been peculiarly fitted to foster a strain of hardy intellectual growth, which, grafted on the product of the rich soil of historic Iran, was to blossom in strange and beautiful fertility.

The Banu Barmak, the premier clan of the old Gurbra aristocracy of Persia, extirpated at one fell swoop by the relentless suspicion of the most fortunate of the caliphs, originated in Kurdistan.

The Al-Usaman, the nursing fathers of Persian letters, traced their ancestry to a like source, and it was at the brilliant court of Abu Nasr, the lord of Kurdistan and Transoxiana, that the genius of Master Rudaji, the proto-poet of modern Iran, was cultivated to an almost phenomenal activity by showers of unstinted gold.

And here it was that Persia's loftiest and most human singer, the immortal Firdowsi, was born.

life and division.

Eventually, the Chag Harayat Khanate fragmented into several entities, the largest being the powerful Moghulistan in the east and the less formidable Transoxiana in the west.

In this divided land, a boy was born in 1336 AD.

His birthplace was Kesh, modern-day Shah Abzabz in most Pakistan.

Soon, he added banditry to cattle rustling on his CV and built a following of like-minded young warriors.

At the age of 21, in 1357, Timur trained his gang into a mercenary outfit and entered the service of Tughlaq Timur, the Khan of nearby Kashgar.

Shortly afterwards, the ruler of Transoxiana, Amir Khazgan, died.

Tughlaq took the opportunity to invade, and in 3061 he conquered Samarkand.