Bactria

Bactria (Bactriana) was the ancient Greek name of the country between the range of the Hindu Kush (Caucasus Indicus) and the Amu Darya (Oxus); its capital, Bactra (now Balkh), was located in what is now northern Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan.

Bactria was bounded on the east by the ancient region of Gandhara in the Indian subcontinent. The Bactrian language is an Iranian language of the Indo-Iranian sub-familly of the Indo-European family.

The Bactrians are one of the ancestral lines of the modern-day Tajiks of Central Asia as well as possibly the Pashtuns. Some historians believe that the modern name Tajik originated from Ta-Hia, the ancient Chinese name for the region . However, it is more likely that the Chinese name is a transliteration of the original.

Geography

It is a mountainous country with a moderate climate. Water is abundant and the land is very fertile. Bactria was the home of one of the Iranian tribes. Modern authors have often used the name in a wider sense, as the designation of the whole North of Afghanistan.

History

Bactria was originally a province of the Persian Empire in Central Asia.(Cotterell, 59) It was in these regions, where the fertile soil of the mountainous country is surrounded by the Turanian desert, that the prophet Zoroaster preached and gained his first adherents. The sacred language in which the Avesta, the holy book of Zoroastrianism, is written, was once called "old Bactrian".

Cyrus and Alexander

It is not known whether Bactria formed part of the Median Empire, but it was subjugated by Cyrus the Great, and from then formed one of the satrapies of the Persian empire. After Darius III of Persia had been defeated by Alexander the Great and killed in the ensuing chaos, his murderer Bessus, the satrap of Bactria, tried to organize a national resistance based on his satrapy.

Alexander conquered Bactria without much difficulty; it was only in Sogdiana to the north, beyond the Oxus, that he met strong resistance. Bactria became a province of the Macedonian empire, and soon came under the rule of Seleucus, king of Asia.

Seleucid Empire

File:SeleucosI.jpg

Silver coin of Seleucus I Nicator, founder of the Seleucid Dynasty in 323 BC

The Macedonians (and especially Seleucus I and his son Antiochus I) established the Seleucid Empire, and founded a great many Greek towns in eastern Iran, and the Greek language became for some time dominant there. The paradox that Greek presence was more prominent in Bactria than in areas far more adjacent to Greece could possibly be explained by the supposed policy of Persian kings to deport unreliable Greek colonists to this the most remote province of their huge empire.

Greco-Bactrian Kingdom

Main article: Greco-Bactrian Kingdom

The many difficulties against which the Seleucid kings had to fight and the attacks of Ptolemy II of Egypt, gave to Diodotus, satrap of Bactria, the opportunity of making himself independent (about 255 BC) and of conquering Sogdiana. He was the founder of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Diodotus and his successors were able to maintain themselves against the attacks of the Seleucids particularly Antiochus III the Great, who was ultimately defeated by the Romans (190 BC).

The Greco-Bactrians were so powerful that they were able to expand their territory as far as India:

"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 Ariana, but also of India, as Apollodorus of Artemita says: and more tribes were subdued by them than by Alexander...." (Strabo, 11.11.1)

Indo-Greek Kingdom

Main article: Indo-Greek Kingdom

The founder of the Indo-Greek Kingdom Demetrius I (205-171 BC), wearing the scalp of an elephant, symbol of his conquest of India.

The Bactrian king Euthydemus and his son Demetrius crossed the Hindu Kush and began the conquest of Northern Afghanistan and the Indus 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 dissensions and continual usurpations. When Demetrius advanced far into India 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 one against the other.

Most of them we know only by their coins, a great many of which are found in Afghanistan and India. 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 the Attic standard of coinage and introduced a native standard, no doubt to gain support from outside the Greek minority. In India, the syncretism went even further. King Milinda (Menander of India), known as a great conqueror, even converted to Buddhism. His successors managed to cling to power somewhat longer, but around AD 10 all of the Greek kings were gone.

The weakness of the Greco-Bactrian empire was shown by its sudden and complete overthrow, first by the Sakas, and then by the Yuezhi (who later became known as Kushans), who had conquered Daxia (= Bactria) by the time of the visit of the Chinese envoy Zhang Qian, c. 126 BC.

But then its emergence, isolated thousands of miles from Greece, could only be described as a paradox. However, its cultural influences were not completely undone; an artistic style mixing western and eastern elements known as the Gandhara culture survived the empire for hundreds of years.

Contacts with China

Characters for Ta-Hia, the ancient Chinese name for Bactria.

Bactria (known as Ta-Hia to the Chinese) was visited by the Chinese explorer Zhang Qian in 126 BC.

The reports of Zhang Qian were put into writing in the Shiji ("Records of the Great Historian") by Sima Qian in the 1st century BC. They describe an important urban civilization of about one million people, living in walled cities under small city kings or magistrates. Ta-Hia was an afluent country with rich markets, trading in an incredible variety of objects, coming as far as Southern China.

By the time Zhang Xian visited Ta-Hia, there were no longer a major king, and the Bactrian were suzerains to the nomadic Yuezhi, who were settled to the north of their territory beyond the Oxus. Overall Zhang Qian depicted a rather sophisticated but demoralized people who were afraid of war.

These contacts immediately led to the dispatch of multiple embassies from the Chinese, initiating the development of the Silk Road.

Tokharistan

Following the settlement of the Yuezhi (described in the West as "Tocharians"), the general area of Bactria came to be called Tokharistan. From the 1st century CE to the 3rd century CE, Tokharistan was under the rule of the Kushans. They were followed by Sassanides (Indo-Sassanians). Later, in the 5th century, it was controlled by the Khionits and the Hephthalites. In the 7th century, after a brief rule under the Turkish Khaganats, it was conquered by the Arabs.

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

References

• 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.
• 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.
• Hill, John E. 2003. "Annotated Translation of the Chapter on the Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu." 2nd Draft Edition. [1]
• Hill, John E. 2004. The Peoples of the West from the Weilue 魏略 by Yu Huan 魚豢: A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE. Draft annotated English translation. [2]
• Watson, Burton (trans.). "Chapter 123: The Account of Ta-yüan." Records of the Grand Historian of China: Translated from the Shih chi of Ssu-ma Ch'ien. Columbia University Press, 1961: 265
• Watters, Thomas. On Yuan Chwang's Travels in India (A.D. 629-645).
• Reprint: New Delhi: Mushiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1973.
• Arthur Cotterell, From Aristotle to Zoroaster. 1998. p57-59. ISBN 0-684-85596-8

See also

• Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex
• Bactrian Gold
• Bactrian Camel

Archaeological sites

• Termez region [3]

External links

• Bactrian Gold