History of Central Asia

last pre-Islamic Iranian empire (224–651 AD)

Bactria (; Bactrian: , ), or Bactriana, was an ancient Iranian civilization in Central Asia, located in the area south of the Oxus River (modern Amu Darya) and north of the Hindu Kush mountains, within modern-day Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Bactria was strategically located south of Sogdia and west of the Pamir Mountains. These mountain ranges acted as "walls" protecting Bactria from three sides, with the Pamir mountains to the north and the Hindu Kush to the south forming a junction, and the Karakoram range towards the east.

first caliphate established after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad (632–661)

Sogdia () or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya rivers, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Empire, and listed on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great. Sogdiana was first conquered by Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, and then was annexed by the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great in 328 BC. It would continue to change hands under the Seleucid Empire, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, the Kushan Empire, the Sasanian Empire, th

thumb|right|340px|Watershed of the Amu Darya|Oxus River in the 8th century, showing Transoxiana and its principal localities to the northeast. thumb|right|340px|Transoxiana and the neighbouring regions of Greater Khorasan and [[Khwarazm in Central Asia]]

Afghanistan history

thumb|200px|Cataphract-style parade-armour of a Saka royal, also known as "The Golden Warrior", from the [[Issyk kurgan, a historical burial site near Almaty, Kazakhstan, 400–200 BC.]]

thumb|300px| Cary's Map of independent Tartary (in yellow) and Chinese Tartary (in violet), in 1808. Tartary (Latin: Tartaria; ; ; ) or Tatary () was a blanket term used in Western European literature and cartography for a vast part of Asia bounded by the Caspian Sea, the Ural Mountains, the Pacific Ocean, and the northern borders of China, India, and Persia, at a time when this region was largely unknown to European geographers.

Turan (; ; , , ) is a historical region in Central Asia. The term is of Iranian origin and may refer to a particular prehistoric human settlement, a historic geographical region, or a culture. The original Turanians were an Iranian tribe of the Avestan age.

aspect of history

Turco-Mongol dynasty (1370–1857)

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aspect of history

aspect of history

aspect of history

series of military campaigns (1209–1236)

aspect of history

non-sedentary polity

theoretical political division

confederation of Turkic peoples

thumb|right|250px|Central Asian bhikkhu|Buddhist monk teaching a Chinese monk. [[Bezeklik Caves, 9th–10th century; although Albert von Le Coq (1913) assumed the blue-eyed, red-haired monk was a Tocharian, modern scholarship has identified similar Caucasoid figures of the same cave temple (No. 9) as ethnic Sogdians, an Eastern Iranian people who inhabited Turfan as an ethnic minority community during the phases of Tang Chinese (7th–8th century) and Uyghur rule (9th–13th century).]]

expansion of the Turkic tribes and Turkic languages, mainly between the 6th and 11th centuries

Russian state-controlled religious administration

war fought between the Han Empire and the Central Asian state of Dayuan

distinctive culture in Central Asia

period in history which saw the rise of various Iranian dynasties in the Iranian plateau

journalistic term for predicted conflict over central Asian resources

a culture massively influenced by Iranian culture

alleged lost empire

energy shortage in Central Asia

overview of the demographics of Central Asia

8th-century rebel leader against the Abbasids

18th c. military conflict

1737–1740 Afsharid conquests

French orientalist (1872–1942)

history of the Turkic and Turkish peoples

Chinese royal title