Central Asia in World History by Peter B. Golden

Author:Peter B. Golden [Golden, Peter B.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2011-01-26T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Later Chinggisids, Temür, and the Timurid Renaissance

In the fragmenting Chinggisid world, Mongols were a privileged minority, one increasingly assimilated by their subjects. As al-’Umarî, an Arab historian from Damascus, noted, the conquered Qïpchaqs mixed with the Mongols and they became “as if they were of one stock.”1 Under Mongol rule, many remaining Iranian-speakers adopted Turkic, a process that had been in progress since the sixth century. Turko-Persian bilingualism continued to be common in cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand. Persian (Tajik) retained its status as a language of high culture and government, but increasingly it had to coexist with Turkic even in the literary domain. Turkic became the politically dominant language of Muslim Central Asia.

The Mongols deliberately shuffled the Turkic nomads about, dispersing tribal fragments to form parts of the Chinggisids’ personal armies. When the Chinggisids declined, tribal identities or tribe-like units reemerged, some bearing the names of Chinggisid leaders or other prominent people. This reflected the new emphasis on loyalty to a member of the altan urugh rather than the traditional ties of kinship, real or invented.

The change of language and emergence of new identities often preceded or accompanied other forms of cultural assimilation, most notably in religion. Islam radiated out from the cities of Transoxiana to the various Turko-Mongolian peoples, some newly arrived within their orbits. It made its first serious inroads in the Ulus of Jochi, which comprised several distinct “hordes”: Great, White, Gray, and Blue. From the sixteenth century onward, Russian sources began to call the now-diminished “Great Horde,” the core of the Jochid realm, the “Golden Horde,” and this became the name under which it is generally known in later sources. Batu’s brother, Berke, was the first Jochid to convert to Islam, probably before he became Khan in 1257. His religious mentor was Sayf ad-Dîn al-Bâkharzî, a Sûfî shaykh from Bukhara. Some Chinggisids and others influenced by him appear to have converted as well. But this did not lead to the proclamation of Islam as the official religion of the Ulus of Jochi. Berke’s court still followed many older customs associated with shamanist beliefs. Mamlûk ambassadors to Saray in 1263 were warned not to wash their clothes or even eat snow in keeping with old nomadic water taboos. Water reflected the heavens and Tengri, the celestial supreme god of the pagan Turkic and Mongolic peoples. It could not be sullied.2

It is only with Özbek, who converted around 1320, that Islam gained a lasting foothold. The account of his conversion highlights the role of the Sûfîs in converting the steppe peoples. According to this tale, typical of Central Asian conversion narratives, the shamans at his court used their “magical powers” to prepare koumiss and other drinks for him. One day, the presence of Muslim holy men prevented this “miraculous” process from taking place. Özbek decided to hold a debate between the shamans and the Muslims. When neither side emerged victorious, the parties agreed that a more strenuous contest was needed. They heated up two

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