The tribes who inhabited the northern plains of Central Asia from the first to the fifth century AD were mainly nomadic or semi-nomadic, living as cattle-herders and stock breeders. Amongst these tribes, the most important were the K’ang-chü, the Huns, the Hsien-pi and the Turks, to name but a selection. Shifting balances of power in Central Asia meant that these tribes often fought with each other, but they also traded goods and learnt new agricultural techniques from each other.
Historical and archeological data reveal the complex history of the Transoxanian nomadic tribes in the fourth century BC to the second century AD. Powerful military tribes such as the K’ang-chu and the Wu-sun emerged, as well as the empires of the Parthians and the Kushans. These nomads also influenced the sedentary civilizations to east and west, by disseminating new ideas, cultures and technologies.
There is a rich literary heritage in Persian from the sixteenth century. Of the prose works, history and biography is the most notable from this period, whilst poetry was also extremely important. There was a literary culture in Pashto too, as well as in the Indic languages of Pakistan and north-western India; namely, Kashmiri, Panjabi, Sindhi and Hindustani.
The Mughal Empire united the individual states of India between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries under one sovereign power. It was, necessarily given the diverse nature of Indian society, an empire in which cultures and religions blended rather than asserted dominance. As such, the Mughal court became a flourishing center of art and culture, based on a combination of Indian and Perso-Islamic traditions, until its dissolution into civil war in the nineteenth century.
Nomadic societies in sixteenth century Central Asia were highly structured and had strict hierarchies, as did the sedentary communities that inhabited the cultivated parts of the macro-region. The role of women within these societies varied largely depending on terrain, the type of economy practiced, and traditions of individual communities. Women in nomadic tribes, who were often required to assist in herding animals and building tents, had fewer restrictions over their dress and conduct than those who lived in urban communities.
The production of legal, political and historical works in medieval Central Asia was closely associated with political context. The Mongol invasions of the thirteenth century severely shook the Islamic Caliphate, resulting in an increase in the number of historical works and chronicles being produced. Legal and political studies also evolved in this period.
Surrounded by high mountain ranges, the western Himalayan states of Gilgit, Nager, Hunza, Chitral, and Baltistan have historically been determined by the geographical layout of the region, which makes any unity or coordination between these areas very difficult to achieve. Originally inhabited by Turkic tribes, these states developed independently in the Middle Ages, each with their own ruling dynasty, language and culture.
When Timur (also known as Tamerlane) died in 1405, the great Timurid Empire he had constructed began to disintegrate. Without his force of personality and uncontested leadership, the unity of the empire was impossible to maintain, and internecine strife broke out within a year. The dynasties that Timur had defeated were quick to take advantage of this situation, with revolts breaking out in western Persia, as well as Khwarazm, Khurasan, Tashkent, and in the steppe territories.
The balance of power between the tribes of northern Central Asia was continually shifting, and throughout the Middle Ages, the movement of various peoples can be seen to have far-reaching political effects. The Oghuz was a Turkic tribe, migrating west in the eighth century, and occupying the steppes of the Aral Sea in alliance with other tribes. They became a powerful force in this region in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The Kimek tribe became prominent in the tenth and eleventh centuries, based in what is now Kazakhstan.
The Seljuqs were in origin a Turkic tribe, expanding in the tenth century under the tribal leader Seljuq and moving into Transoxania, where they were converted to Islam. After military conquests over the Ghaznavids, Seljuq’s successors began to establish a more solid basis of power, with one ruler, Toghrïl, declaring himself emir of Khurasan in 1040. In this way, the Seljuqs came to rule as sovereigns over large areas of land, ultimately creating a sultanate in Iran, Iraq and Mesopotamia over the course of the eleventh century.
