Agency WPS
DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
January 14, 2005, Friday
THE ARMENIAN DEFENSE MINISTER AND THE U.S. AMBASSADOR HAVE DISCUSSED
THE PROSPECTS OF BILATERAL CO-OPERATION
Armenian Defense Minister Serj Sargsyan and US Ambassador John Evans
discussed the prospects of US-Armenian co-operation. The press
secretary of the Armenian defense minister stated that the parties
hope that friendly relations between the countries will continue in
2005. The US ambassador welcomes Sargsyan’s position regarding the
Karabakh conflict. In this regard, the parties discussed issues of
co-operation with Red Cross and other social and humanitarian
organizations, and collaboration within the framework of the mission
of observers.
Source: RIA Novosti, January 12, 2005
Translated by Alexander Dubovoi

The Evening Standard (London)
January 14, 2005
TREASURES ON THE TRAIL OF THE WANDERING TURKS
by BRIAN SEWELL CRITIC OF THE YEAR
IF ANY of us think of Turkey as more than a place of inexpensive
holiday resorts, it is less in terms of an eastern heritage than one
of the ancient west. Dutifully, sand washed from our toes, we trample
hard into the earth the few remaining beauties of Xanthus, first
pillaged by cricketing sailors of the British fleet in 1842;
dutifully, carried thither in a char-a-banc, we trudge the streets of
Ephesus and are reminded of St Paul; and dutifully, with shoulders’
brush and the increased humidity of tourists’ breath, we scrub early
Christian imagery from the volcanic walls of Cappadocia.
Where most tourists go, Turkey’s classical and Christian past is much
in evidence for those who care to see it, a palimpsest of cultures
overlaid, the diaspora of ancient Greeks, the Hellenism of great
Alexander, the eastern reach of imperial Rome, the theological
establishment of Christian belief, Byzantium and its crusading
wreckers all sandwiched between the Gallipoli campaign and the voyage
to Colchis of Jason and the Argonauts. These we acknowledge easily —
we may even know that into this fabric we should weave Noah and
Abraham, the Hittites, the mysterious inhabitants of Catal H|y|k, the
birth of Priapus and two of the Seven Wonders of the World — but,
apart from recognising that the exemplary events of Marathon and
Thermopylae would not have occurred had ancient Anatolia not been
Persia’s pathway to the west, we know little or nothing of Turkey’s
links with the east.
It was, however, mirror-image invasions from the east that formed
Turkey as a western power, transformed the Mediterranean into a
Turkish lake and carried Islam to the gates of Vienna. This east
still plays a major role in western politics, as unfathomable now as
it was when, on 29 May 1453, young Mehmet II took for his seat of
power in Asia and Africa the great European city of Constantinople,
and formed the Ottoman Empire.
Who were these Turks? The question is to some extent answered by the
Royal Academy this winter, with an exhibition of which the romantic
sub-title is A Journey of a Thousand Years, this millennium defined
as between 600 AD and 1600, a period much shorter than Anatolia’s
role as a sphere of Greek and Roman influence. The journey of this
title is that made over centuries and generations by a nomad people
who set their tents in what is now western Mongolia and Sinkiang,
north of Tibet, but, as one writer in the exhibition’s catalogue
cautions, the history of this journey is “murky” and “much …
remains unknown”, and another uses of their settled destination the
term “forged” in the punning sense of history composed to give
background and legitimacy to a regime.
DEMONSTRABLE historical foundations to these Turkish origins there
undoubtedly are, but their adjustment and revision recall the similar
scholarship of the Germans in the Age of Enlightenment, discovering
that their origins lay in ancient Greece. Let it be enough to say
that these peripatetic tribal Turks had political reason to move
westward and away from their Chinese neighbours. The complexities of
this movement are more matters for historionomers and for the
archaeologists of language than for art historians and such an
institution of the visual arts as the Royal Academy — indeed the
exhibition is much more the business of the British Museum — and the
catalogue essays on the subject, written by experts for experts, will
be of little use to the RA’s customary visitors, few of whom will
understand the transliterations, most of whom will find the unedited
repetitions irksome, and all of whom will be confused by alternative
spellings Malazgirt/Manzikert) and contradictions.
In waves, unsteadily but inexorably, the Turks moved to the west, to
the north and south of it, but always west; one “collective
sovereignty” of Turks achieved supremacy, and then another and
another, and we are able to give an identity to three short-lived
empires that pulled up their eastern borders and moved on before the
fall of Constantinople stabilised the onward drift and anchored it in
1453.
The thousand years chosen by the RA is a nice round figure, the 600
AD a trifle arbitrary, the 1600 reflecting the geographicaland
cultural zenith of the Ottoman Empire, but I am inclined to argue
that the aesthetic journey continued into the early 20th century, in
the long, slow decline of Ottoman taste and its surrender to
sometimes ghastly European influences.
In the sense of tribal migration the journey ended with the expiry of
the Byzantine Empire and 1453 is a convenient and symbolic date for
it. By then the Turk no longer looked Mongolian; in crossing central
Asia he had absorbed and been absorbed by the inhabitants of what are
now northwest India and Pakistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan,
Uzbekistan, Iran, Iraq, the riparian peoples of the Caspian and by
Armenia; he had assimilated alien languages and customs; religious
confusions he had resolved by adopting Islam, a faith new just as he
began his westward trek and a faith that had advanced east to meet
him.
He had learned to settle in cities, to build mosques and their
associated buildings, to decorate them with ornate brick and plaster,
to embellish them with glistening tiles. He had become a poet and a
teller of great tales. In short, he had become civilised and these
interactions and incorporations were the cultural baggage that he
carried to the Christian and antique city of Constantinople to make
it, as Istanbul, the greatest city of its day in Europe.
What was a Turk by the time the Turks settled for ever in Istanbul?
He had no sense of nationhood or nationality. He was so racially
mixed that his forefathers from the empire of the Uighurs on the
western edge of China would not, eight centuries on, have recognised
their kinship. They might, but only just, have understood his
language which, in 1453, after eight centuries of being a transient
population over a crow’s flight of 4,000 miles, was as different as
ours is from the English of King John; the language of the Ottoman
court, Osmanlija, a hybrid of old Turkish intermixed with classical
Arabic, the language of law and religion, and the Persian that
endowed Ottoman culture with a heritage of poetry, history and
romance, would have been beyond their comprehension.
The court was the driving force in cultural matters. The Ottoman
emperor might drop unfaithful houris of the harem into the Bosporus
in a sack of scratching cats and have all his brothers ceremonially
strangled by deaf mutes with bowstrings, but he was at least as
likely to be something of a poet, a bibliophile with his own
scriptorium, a connoisseur of carpets, ceremonial clothes,
embroidery, arms, armour, porcelain and even of paintings by Italian
artists.
SULEYMAN the Magnificent, Sultan from 1520 until 1566, far outdid the
connoisseurship of his near contemporaries Henry VIII of England,
Francis I of France and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. He spoke
demotic Greek as well as Osmanlija, wrote Persian poetry under the
pseudonym Muhibbi and was a skilled calligrapher; his library was
much enhanced when, on the capture of Buda in 1526, he took the great
Renaissance library of Matthew Corvinus — the act of a civilised and
cultured man compared with the decapitation of a thousand Hungarian
nobles and the display of their heads on poles outside his tent.
His elegant manuscripts of contemporary events, past history, romance
and poetry were bound in leather, sharkskin, tortoiseshell, precious
stones, jade plaques and gold embroidery; these bindings crossed the
bounds of craftsmanship and required the skills of the goldsmith
(Suleyman himself commanded these skills, for it was the custom of
Sultans to learn a practical craft) and the jeweller as well as the
worker with leather, tool and stamp.
All these, Suleyman had in the palace workshops — together with
armourers and damasceners, weavers of silk, brocades and carpets,
makers of lutes, of marquetry, mirrors, lamps and mounts for
exquisitely simple Chinese porcelain — all in permanent employment,
but few were Turks. They were from the territories over which the
Turkish hordes had swept, pooling the resources of Iran and Egypt,
Greece and Hungary, Ukraine, Armenia and all the Balkan states, to
develop in every artefacture an Ottoman court style that could be
repeated in every regional governor’s court within the Empire.
RATHER than the hard physical business of the trek itself, it is the
aesthetic journey from the steppes of Mongolia to Europe that this
exhibition illustrates, and the most important and telling aspect of
it, architecture, has no real presence in the Royal Academy — nor
could it have, for not even videos can play substitute for the real
thing.
Two matters should be borne in mind: the first is that the transition
from brick to stone as a building material could not have been
effected without the employment of the Armenian masons for whom stone
had been a natural and customary material at least since ancient
Roman times (I can think of a dozen Armenian churches and monasteries
built before the arrival of the Turks that would serve convincingly
as mosques and medreses and one, Barhal, that does); the second
matter is Selim Sinan, the most prolific and influential of all
architects in the 16th century, Michelangelo’s younger near
contemporary, a man whose extraordinary aesthetic and engineering
genius dominated the buildings of the Ottoman Empire in its prime.
Without his architecture the exhibition is a feast of hors d’oeuvres,
of wonderful and precious things, most of them of types familiar to
travellers who have visited the museums of Istanbul, unevenly spread
across the thousand years, weighted in favour of their Ottoman end.
Would it be churlish to argue that the other journey, eastward, of
the Greeks and Romans, would, in producing far more art than things,
have made a more exciting exhibition?
* Turks is at the Royal Academy (0870 848 8484, )
from 22 January to 12 April. Admission daily 10am-5.30pm (Friday and
Saturday until 10pm). Admission £11.
rcelain — all in permanent employment, but few were Turks. They were
from the territories over which the Turkish hordes had swept, pooling
the resources of Iran and Egypt, Greece and Hungary, Ukraine, Armenia
and all the Balkan states, to develop in every artefacture an Ottoman
court style that could be repeated in every regional governor’s court
within the Empire.

The Herald (Glasgow)
January 14, 2005
FROM THE HERALD ARCHIVES
100 YEARS AGO
SCOTTISH Armenian Association: Women’s Auxiliary – A meeting was held
when the report for 1904 was presented.
During the year, pounds-126 had been forwarded to Marash in support
of 21 Armenian orphans. Industry and selfhelp are fostered among the
boys and girls who take their share in the daily routine of work in
the orphanages. The orphans are, of course, brought up as Christians.

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
January 14, 2005 Friday 12:08 PM Eastern Time
Moscow notes signs of rapprochement in Karabakh settlement
By Sergei Bushuyev
MOSCOW
Moscow noted with satisfaction on Friday that the meetings between
Armenian and Azerbaijani officials at various levels, including
between the presidents and within the framework of “the Prague
process”, have become regular.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said so in connection with the talks in
Prague earlier this week between Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan
Oskanyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mamedyarov.
Taking part in the meeting were co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk group
for Nagorno Karabakh settlement /Russia, the United States and
France/.
At the consultations, Armenian and Azerbaijani representatives review
practically all aspects of the situation related to the Nagorno
Karabakh conflict, including troops withdrawal, the demilitarization
of the territory, international guarantees, and the status of Nagorno
Karabakh.
“Both parties confirm their readiness to continue joint work,
oriented toward the necessity to seek an easing of tensions around
the Nagorno Karabakh problem and, consequently, normalization of the
situation in the whole region of southern Caucasus,” the Russian
Foreign Ministry said.
The ministry also noted certain headway in a rapprochement of Yerevan
and Baku’s views and their conceptual approaches.
Fitting in this context are the parties’ accords to continue the
implementation of the earlier decision on sending officials from the
OSCE Minsk group to the occupied territories around Nagorno Karabakh
with a fact-finding mission, and work toward organizing a new meeting
between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in Warsaw this
summer.
Moscow reiterates its readiness to contribute, together with the
other participants of the OSCE Minsk group, to the deepening of
mutual understanding between Armenia and Azerbaijan with the aim of
resolving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict through talks and by peaceful
means, the Russian Foreign Ministry underlined.

The Hindu, India
January 13, 2005
CAMPAIGN FOR A JUMBO’S CAUSE
IF YOU have been to Bannerghatta Biological Park, you must have seen
or at least heard about Veda, the six-year-old elephant. The gentle
giant is in the eye of a storm, so to speak, about a planned transfer
to a zoo in Armenia.
Concerned Bangaloreans say it is illegal to shift her to that
country. They plan to organise a signature campaign against the
proposal. To make their protest clear, these citizens will take out a
procession on Sunday showing cartoons on Veda.
According to the protesters, Veda’s transfer from Bangalore to
Armenia is a goodwill gesture by the President and the Prime
Minister.
Such gifts are not uncommon. “It has become a trend for politicians
to gift elephants to temples, States and other countries, without
realising the consequences of their actions and overlooking the laws
on wildlife protection,” says Sharath Babu of People for Animals.
He says the Indian Wildlife Act, 1972 holds “gifting, rearing and
keeping Indian wildlife illegal.” That has not deterred such gifts
being offered to all and sundry.
Peacocks, black bucks, spotted deer and even pythons have been given
to prominent organisations in the city, he says. The protesters want
this “unfortunate practice” checked. And in Veda’s case, they say
that sending the pachyderm to Yerevan Zoo in Armenia is bad for the
mammal. “The climate is freezing there and, besides, the zoo is
unsuited for housing an elephant.” Winters in Armenia range from four
to six months in a year with temperatures varying from -4 to
-14 Celsius, they say.
“Apart from the unsuitable climate of Armenia, Yerevan Zoo lacks the
space, infrastructure and facilities to keep an elephant,” they add.
Sunday’s walk will involve children, their parents and members of
corporates.
The protest march will start at 10 a.m. from the Shankar Nag
Chitramandira (Symphony) on Mahatma Gandhi Road and proceed to the
Mahatma Gandhi statue.
Those who want to know more about the walk and the signature campaign
can call 9880108801.

PanArmenian News
Jan 14 2005
WORKING COMMISSION FOR JAVAKHETIAN ISSUES FORMED
14.01.2005 17:04
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ As reported by A-info region, the Council of the
Public Organizations of Samtskhe-Javakhetia has formed a commission,
which is to work out a complex program of social and economic
development of the region. The decision was taken due to the
resolution adopted by the first forum of the public organizations of
Samtskhe-Javakhetia held in December 2004. The first sitting of the
commission will take place one of these days.

PanArmenian News
Jan 14 2005
30 ARMENIANS BROUGHT ACTION AGAINST AZERBAIJAN
14.01.2005 16:24
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ 30 Armenian citizens, the refugees from the
Shahumian region of NKR and Khanlar region of Azerbaijan appealed to
the European Court for receiving contribution from Baku. At present
the letters are being discussed in Strasbourg. The court is likely to
examine the issue within 2 or 3 years. To remind, the residents of
the Shahumian region of NKR, occupied by the Azeri army in 1992 with
the assistance of bribed Russian generals, were deported from their
domicile while Azeris settled in their houses. To note, this
settlement policy was set by the Azerbaijani government. The
residents of the Khanlar region were mostly deported by 1991, during
the “ring” operation carried out by the soviet army and the Azeri
OMON.

PanArmenian News
Jan 14 2005
FRENCH ARMENIANS DEMAND TO ADOPT BILL CONDEMNING DENIAL OF ARMENIAN
GENOCIDE
14.01.2005 14:19
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ One of the Armenian organizations of France – VAN
(Armenian vigilance against denial) – is demanding to adopt the
additional second item to the bill on the Armenian Genocide
recognition. This item, in the opinion of the initiators, should
state active or passive denial of the genocide as a punishable
offence. January 25 members of the initiative group will give a press
conference in one of the halls of the French National Assembly.

ARKA News Agency
Jan 14 2005
Staff changes made in RA Government
The U.S. appears to be gaining influence in Armenia – Human Rights
Watch report
Armenia still has no full freedom of speech – Human Rights Watch
report
Process of Nagorno Karabakh settlement developed irregularly in 2004
– Armenian Foreign Ministry
Trade turnover between Russia and Armenia makes USD 169.3 mln for ten
months of 2004 – Armenian Foreign Ministry
EIF to represent Armenia at CeBIT 2005 international ICT expo
*********************************************************************
STAFF CHANGES MADE IN RA GOVERNMENT
YEREVAN, January 14. /ARKA/. Staff changes made in RA Government. In
accordance to RA President’s decree Gegham Garibdjanian was appointed
on the position of Deputy Foreign Minister.
Newly appointed deputy minister in the end of 2004 completed his
six-year mission of RA Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary
to Iran. L.D. –0 –
*********************************************************************
THE U.S. APPEARS TO BE GAINING INFLUENCE IN ARMENIA – HUMAN RIGHTS
WATCH REPORT
YEREVAN, January 14. /ARKA/. The U.S. appears to be gaining influence
in Armenia, which traditionally has looked to Russia for military and
economic ties. The U.S. increased military aid and cooperation and,
after initially refusing to involve itself, in 2004 Armenia agreed to
send a small contingent of non-combatant military personnel to Iraq.
The U.S. also designated Armenia as one of sixteen countries to be
eligible for a multi-million dollar aid program called the Millennium
Challenge Account. The U.S. stated that the flow of money was
dependent on improvements in Armenia’s human rights record.
The Council of Europe effectively engaged Armenia to roll back some
of the government’s more authoritarian practices in 2004. The council
continued its scrutiny of Armenia’s post-accession obligations,
noting progress in complying with some commitments, such as abolition
of the death penalty, while expressing disappointment in other areas,
such as the conduct of the 2003 elections. In April, the council’s
Parliamentary Assembly passed a resolution under an urgent procedure,
expressing concern about the government crackdown against opposition
supporters that month. Armenia responded by releasing the opposition
supporters who were in custody on criminal charges and dropping the
charges against many of them.
In September 2004, the European Union and Armenia met under the
framework of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement.
Unfortunately, the E.U. failed to use this forum publicly to
encourage human rights improvements, issuing a press release that did
not raise human rights concerns. In a step that could increase the
ability of the E.U. to influence Armenia on human rights, it included
Armenia in its European Neighborhood Policy, giving privileged ties
with the bloc. Officials warned that economic benefits would not flow
until at least 2007, when Armenia will have to have negotiated action
plans on economic and political reforms. L.D. -0 –
*********************************************************************
ARMENIA STILL HAS NO FULL FREEDOM OF SPEECH – HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
REPORT
YEREVAN, January 14. /ARKA/. Although Armenia has a significant
independent and opposition print media, the government continued to
restrict full media freedom in the country. On April 5, 2004, the
Russian television channel NTV had its broadcasting suspended
throughout the country, after broadcasting footage of opposition
protests. The official reason given for the suspension was `technical
problems.’ By the end of September, NTV had not resumed broadcasting
and the government had given its broadcasting frequency to another
Russian channel that does not do news programming. In October,
Kentron, a private Armenian television station, cancelled a Radio
Free Europe and Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) news and analysis program
three days after it began broadcasts. RFE/RL believed that a
high-level government official had forced the cancellation. Local
NGOs continue a campaign for broadcasting rights for A1+ television,
which had been a highly popular and independent channel. The national
broadcasting commission remains steadfast, however, refusing to grant
licenses to A1+ and Noyan Tapan television channels, which were shut
down in 2002 and 2001 respectively. L.D. -0–
*********************************************************************
PROCESS OF NAGORNO KARABAKH SETTLEMENT DEVELOPED IRREGULARLY IN 2004
– ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
YEREVAN, January 14. /ARKA/. The process of Nagorno Karabakh conflict
settlement developed irregularly in 2004, as Press and Information
Department of the Armenian Foreign Ministry reports this is stated in
report of Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Valery Loshchinin
summarizing Russian foreign policy in 2004. According to the report,
the meeting between Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents Robert
Kocharian and Ilham Aliyev organized by Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk
Group (Russia, USA, France) in April in Warsaw enable after a year
and half pause to re-launch negotiations between the sides. Since May
thru August four rounds of consultations under aegis of Co-Chairs
were held four rounds of consultations between two countries Foreign
Ministers. As a result of Prague consultations were outlined
perspective opportunities of solution of the most difficult issues of
the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement that were presented to Armenian and
Azerbaijani Presidents reviews.
The report mentions that the topic of the conflict settlement was
discussed by the Russian President Vladimir Putin during repeated
conversations with Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents. It was
permanently present in agenda of the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov’s with Foreign Minister of both countries. Russia was calling
constantly the sides on responsible and flexible behavior, convincing
them that only own efforts of the countries may bring to the mutually
acceptable solution. During the contacts the Russian position that
mediator efforts of Co-Chairs may only promote the sides to find a
compromise, was repeatedly stressed. During Astana three-lateral
summit with participation of Russian President on September 15 both
countries Presidents agreed to take time-out until the end of October
2004. However on October 14 Baku initiated inclusion in the agenda of
the 59th session of the UN General Assembly the issue on situation on
the occupied lands of Azerbaijan that hindered the prompt resume of
the negotiating process.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry the situation was possible
to clear in the beginning of December as a result of meeting of
Co-Chairs with Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers in Sofia
and Brussels, during which Baku promised not to put to voting its
resolution project, while Yerevan agreed with support of sending a
mission in end of January-early February of 2005 to the `occupied
lands’ around Nagorno Karabakh that would seek, if any facts related
to settlements on the territories with participation of the OSCE
Minsk Group country representatives. At the same time the sides
agreed to resume Prague talks on discussion of various elements of
the conflict settlements, the reguilar round of which was held on 11
January, 2005. T.M. -0–
*********************************************************************
TRADE TURNOVER BETWEEN RUSSIA AND ARMENIA MAKES USD 169.3 MLN FOR TEN
MONTHS OF 2004 – ARMENIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY
YEREVAN, January 14. /ARKA/. The trade turnover between Russia and
Armenia makes USD 169.3 mln for ten months of 2004. As Press and
Information Department of the Armenian Foreign Ministry reports this
is stated in report of Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Valery
Loshchinin summarizing Russian foreign policy in 2004. According to
the report Russian-Armenian relations in 2004 acquired a new dynamics
and were characterized by more active contacts on highest and high
levels. During the year Russian and Armenian Presidents had five
meetings. Activity of Russian-Armenian Intergovernmental Committee on
Economic Affairs resumed its activity: its Co-Chairs held a meeting
in October in Yerevan, while holding of the sixth meeting is
scheduled in late December in Moscow. `We revealed new directions of
mutual business cooperation: banking investments. Russia maintained
the position of the key trade partner and investor in Armenia’, the
report mentions. According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry the sides
also were developing successful relations in humanities sphere. To
improve the education sphere, Russian and Armenian Education
Ministries signed agreement on cooperation.
To mention according to Armenian National Statistical Service, trade
turnover between Armenia and Russia in January-October 2004 made USD
206.7 mln (export – USD 65566.8 thou., import – USD 141117.4 thou.),
versus USD 245.5 mln for the same period in 2003 (export – USD
75456.1 thou., import – USD 170068.3 thou.) T.M. -0–
*********************************************************************
EIF TO REPRESENT ARMENIA AT CEBIT 2005 INTERNATIONAL ICT EXPO
YEREVAN, January 14. /ARKA/. Enterprises Incubator Fund EIF will
present Armenian IT industry at CeBIT 2005 largest international ICT
expo to be held in Hanover (Germany) from March 10 to 16th, 2005. The
press release of the Fund says that Armenian booth (21 sq. meter, two
open sides) will be located in Hall 8 dedicated to outsourcing.
Enterprises Incubator Foundation was founded by the RA Government
with financial assistance of WB in 2002. The objective of the Fund is
to assist the ICT companies and stimulate economic growth in this
area. The activities of the Fund are aimed at organization of
training courses, implementation of curricula together with higher
education institutions of the republic and providing necessary spaces
for IT companies. L.V. -0–

NewsCentralAsia, Asia
Jan 14 2005
Sultan Sanjar and Samanid Legacy
Dr. M. Salim
Seljuks were Turks and their ancestry can be traced back to Oghuz
tribe of 10th century A.D. They were nomadic people populating north
of Aral Sea and to the east of Caspian Sea. Seljuk chief with his
followers in the middle of 10th century moved to the Syr Darya and
were knocking the doors of Islamic state of Samanids. Hence they
embraced Islam and cross cultural currents began to diffuse from west
to east in to Central Asia. Seljuks were the prime source of manpower
to defend Samanid Amirs. Later Samanid legacy ended giving rise to
three Turkic Muslim states, the Ghaznavids south of Amu Darya, the
Seljuks in southern Turkmenistan and Kara-khanids north of Amu Darya.
They were Turkic minorities ruling over majority of Iranian speaking
subjects.
One of the great Turk leader conqueror and patron of arts ruled
Khurasan, Turkmenistan and north Afghanistan. He was a Seljuk Turk
having control over north Persia and glorified their rule in this
part of Central Asia for over six decades. As one of the powerful
leader Sanjar in Turkish means `one who pierces’ a legacy, later
adopted by many Mughal princes in the Pak subcontinent. He was Sutan
B. Malik Shah born in 1086AD and died in 1157. He was appointed in
1097 as governor of Khurasan by his half brother Berk-Yaruk. Later
after death of Malik Shah, He was recognized as Al-Sultan Al-Muazzam.
His political career passed through ruling Karakhanids and appointed
various Karakhanid nominees around Samarkand. Than in 1117 defeated
Arslan Shah and placed his other Bahram Shah at Ghazna throne and
their alliance which lasted for thirty years.
Sanjar’s rule apart from neighbouring Persia and east, he conducted
his state affairs at Merv with his viziers with Diwani ala
overlooking administration affairs of the state. These were done by
the help of vizier such as Nizam-al-Mulk Hasan (1152) and Toghan Beg
(1124). These including Arab, Persian and Turkish viziers. Under
Sanjar, Nizam-Ul-Mulk was a grand vizier and a good administrater to
control Iranian speaking farmers and citizens.
While Sanjar was in power in Khurasan he was concerned with the
Ghaznavid rule in the east with whom peace was made resulting in the
cultural contacts such as in coinage and literature. Merv was the hub
of Seljuk empire in arts, crafts, culture and literature, poets Omar
Khayyam, Jurjani and the Nizami are a few to mention.
The Ghaznavid supremacy was broken by the Seljuks in 1040 at
Dandanaqan Merv Oasis resulting in the more territories . Armenia and
Iraq became the part of Seljuk empire and Merv became their capital.
The arts, culture, literature and architectural remains after
Samanids in the 10th century to the Mongol invasion in 1220 indicate
multicultural approach and variable tendencies of fusion from east to
west and south to north. Much more could have survived, but the
devastation caused by Mongol invasion left little remains. At Merv
there were twelve libraries and many cities were left in ruins.
Sanjar’s legacy left architecture with bricks and wood and bricks in
a monochrome design, stucco decoration with figures and wall
paintings have survived.
One of the main architectural decoration till today are the wooden
columns with very fine intricate designs of floral and geometric
nature such as at Khiva Friday mosque. These designs were based as
traditional motifs carved on wood façade of important buildings with
semicolumns of bricks in Turkmenistan and in the east mountains. The
mosque at Mashad-I-Misrian had a terracotta decoration. Other
important features were the caravanserais along the main and silk
routes.
The most important and dominating tomb is of Sultan Sanjar with a
square plan and side being 27m. It is 38m high. The elevated tomb is
a characteristic of Sanjar’s time and this style is evident in Lal
Mahra Sharif tombs in Pakistan. The square base of the tombs is
supported by secondary storey with a series of niches and a dome on
the top.
Other monuments of Sanjar’s time is the fort known as Sultan Qala
being the centre of Suljuk supremacy and charm of the Seljuk Capital.
This Qala covered about 4 square kms with a 15m high wall for
protection with a ditch. There was a palace area, a library and
barracks. In the Shahristan was a Friday mosque and Sanjar’s tomb. To
the west of this Qala were Mazar Mohammad b. Said and Mazar Yusif
Hamdani.
Sanjars legacy is reflected in Pakistan. These are Interesting tombs
in the Gomal valley of NWFP at Lal Mahra Sharif. This tradition
portrays Central Asia architecture with affilities to Sanjar’s
architectural style. These mark the beginning of tomb architecture in
Pakistan. The style evolved may be after struggle between Ghaznavids
or Hindu Shahis. Chira tomb No. 1 is rectangular in plan with 7.40 x
6.20m and with a present height of 5.70m with tapering walls. The
dome has completely collapsed. There are few pointed arched
entrances. There was a zone of transition from square chamber to the
base of drum with possible squinches.
The Plain brick style architecture reminds us the characteristics of
Sanjar tomb that must have influenced this style. As the soldiers,
traders and rulers exerted their influence in NWFP.
Multan is another important city with sufi tombs inheriting Central
Asian influence. The example can be given of tomb of Baha al-Din
Zakariya (1171-1262). The tomb has been constructed in three stages
with a total height of 77 feet. The lower storey has rectangular plan
with entrance of pointed arches. The second storey is octagonal built
on a zone of transition with squinches. The dome on top is
hemispherical. This tomb reflects a tradition of Sanjars’ time, as
the sufi traveled from Central Asian to Indo-Pakistan subcontinent.
Samanid Legacy in Pakistan.
1. End of the (Hindu) Turkshahi rule in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
2. Reunification of Pakistan under the Ghaznavids with the foundation
of Lahore as the Muslim capital.
3. Introduction of Persian as the language of the court and of the
elite. Rise of Lahori Persian poets.
4. Introduction of Islam by Sufi Saints foam Central Asia. Sufistic
Islam gains momentum.
5. Samanid architecture in Pakistan.
6. Samanid decoration of Glazed tiles. New schools of glazed tiles
started in Multan and Sindh.
7. Samanid Bukhara and Lahore as twin cities.
8. Scientist like Alberuni came to Pakistan, his stay in Nandana and
his experiment in measuring longitudes of the earth.
9. New ethnic movement of Turks, their settlement in Peshawar,
Taxila, Lahore, Multan and Sindh.
10. Introduction of new arts and crafts paper manufacture and Arabic
writing, new kind of China ware imported from Bokhara. Turks replace
Huns and introduce their own system, food, dress, and headgear.
Turkification of Pakistan.
End notes:
Sevim, A. & Bosworth, C.E.1998 The Seljuqs and the Khwarazm Shahs.
History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Vol.IV. pp. 145-175.
Unesco. Paris.
Dani, A.H.1993 New light on Central Asia. Sang-e-Meel Publications,
Lahore.
Brentjes, B. 1993 Islamic Art and Architecture in Central Asia.
Journal of Central Asia. 16(1+2): 19-25. Islamabad.
Ali, Taj. 1988. Anonymous tombs in the Gomal Valley, and the
beginning of tomb architecture in Pakistan. Memoirs No.4. Department
of Archeology, University of Peshawar.
Khan, A.N. 1983. Multan History and Architecture. Islamic University,
Islamabad. P.193.
About the author: Dr. M. Salim is an Associate Professor at the
Taxila Institute of Asian Civilizations, Quaid-i-Azam University,
Islamabad, Pakistan. He read this paper at a seminar held in Ashgabat
a couple of months ago.