Tajik ancestry is a murky area but the lineage seems to begin with the Bactrians and the Sogdians.
June 19, 2006 (Press Release) --
Tajik ancestry is a murky area but the lineage seems to begin with the Bactrians and the Sogdians. In the 1st century BC the Bactrians had a large empire covering most of what is now northern Afghanistan, while their contemporaries, the Sogdians, inhabited the Zeravshan valley in present-day western Tajikistan, until displaced by the Arab conquest of Central Asia during the 7th century. The invaders succeeded in bringing Islam to the region, but the Arab domination wasn't secure and out of the melee rose another Persian dynasty, the Samanids. The brief era of the Samanids (819-992) gave rise to a frenzy of creative activity. Bukhara, the dynastic capital, became the Islamic world's centre of learning, nurturing great talents like the philosopher-scientist Abu Ali ibn Sina and the poet Rudaki - both now claimed as sons by Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
At the end of the 10th century came a succession of Turkic invaders. Despite the different ethnicities, the two races cohabited peacefully, unified by religion - the Persian-speaking Tajiks absorbed Turk culture and the numerically superior Turks absorbed the Tajik people. Both were subject to conquests by the Mongols then later by Tamerlaine. From the 15th century the Tajiks were under the suzerainty of the emirate of Bukhara; in the mid-18th century the Afghans moved up to engulf all lands south of the Amu Darya river.
As part of the Russian Empire's thrust southwards, St Petersburg made a vassal state of the emirate of Bukhara, which also meant effective control over what now passes for northern and western Tajikistan. But the Pamirs, which account for the whole of what is now eastern Tajikistan, were quite literally a no-man's-land, falling outside the established borders of the Bukhara emirate and unclaimed by neighbouring Afghanistan and China. Russia was eager to exploit this mainly in its push to open up possible routes into British India. The Pamirs thus became the arena for the strategic duel that Kipling was to immortalise as the Great Game, a game in which Russia's players eventually prevailed, securing the region for the tsar.
Following the revolution of 1917, the Tajiks found themselves part of two Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs). Muslim guerillas resisted Bolshevik rule for four dirty years in which villages were razed and mosques destroyed. The first ever official Tajik state was formed in 1924 when the Soviet Border Commission slapped lines across Central Asia and formed an Automomous SSR under the auspices of the Uzbek SSR. In 1929 the Tajik state was upgraded to a full union republic, although Samarkand and Bukhara - where over 700,000 Tajiks still lived - remained in Uzbekistan. Moscow never really trusted Tajikistan: influential positions in the government were stacked with Russian stooges, efforts to industrialise and educate were sluggish, and living standards remained low.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
At the end of the 10th century came a succession of Turkic invaders. Despite the different ethnicities, the two races cohabited peacefully, unified by religion - the Persian-speaking Tajiks absorbed Turk culture and the numerically superior Turks absorbed the Tajik people. Both were subject to conquests by the Mongols then later by Tamerlaine. From the 15th century the Tajiks were under the suzerainty of the emirate of Bukhara; in the mid-18th century the Afghans moved up to engulf all lands south of the Amu Darya river.
As part of the Russian Empire's thrust southwards, St Petersburg made a vassal state of the emirate of Bukhara, which also meant effective control over what now passes for northern and western Tajikistan. But the Pamirs, which account for the whole of what is now eastern Tajikistan, were quite literally a no-man's-land, falling outside the established borders of the Bukhara emirate and unclaimed by neighbouring Afghanistan and China. Russia was eager to exploit this mainly in its push to open up possible routes into British India. The Pamirs thus became the arena for the strategic duel that Kipling was to immortalise as the Great Game, a game in which Russia's players eventually prevailed, securing the region for the tsar.
Following the revolution of 1917, the Tajiks found themselves part of two Soviet Socialist Republics (SSRs). Muslim guerillas resisted Bolshevik rule for four dirty years in which villages were razed and mosques destroyed. The first ever official Tajik state was formed in 1924 when the Soviet Border Commission slapped lines across Central Asia and formed an Automomous SSR under the auspices of the Uzbek SSR. In 1929 the Tajik state was upgraded to a full union republic, although Samarkand and Bukhara - where over 700,000 Tajiks still lived - remained in Uzbekistan. Moscow never really trusted Tajikistan: influential positions in the government were stacked with Russian stooges, efforts to industrialise and educate were sluggish, and living standards remained low.
Source: http://www.yahoo.com
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