Asia is a region of
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
from the
Caspian SeaThe Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometres and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometres...
in the west to central
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
in the east, and from southern
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
in the north to northern
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
in the south. It is also sometimes known as
Middle Asia or
Inner AsiaInner Asia has a range of meanings among different researchers and in different countries. Denis Sinor defined Inner Asia broadly as the homelands of the Altaic peoples and the Uralic peoples .Russian "Tsentral'naia Aziia" denotes Mongolia and Tibet...
, and is within the scope of the wider
EurasiaEurasia is a large landmass covering about 52,990,000 km
2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface...
n continent.
Various definitions of its exact composition exist and no one definition is universally accepted. Despite this uncertainty in defining borders, it does have some important overall characteristics. For one, Central Asia has historically been closely tied to its
nomadNomadic people are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but traditional nomadic behavior is increasingly rare in...
ic peoples and the
Silk RoadThe Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe...
. As a result, it has acted as a crossroads for the movement of people, goods, and ideas between
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, West Asia,
South AsiaSouth Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east...
, and
East AsiaEast Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms. Geographically and geo-politically, it covers about , or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe, though some categorize Tibet, Xinjiang,...
.
In modern context, Central Asia consists of the five former Soviet republics of
KazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
,
KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east....
,
TajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
,
TurkmenistanRepublic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
and
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
. Other areas are often included such as
MongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 24 miles from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator,...
,
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
,
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
, north-eastern Iran, north-western
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, and western parts of the
People's Republic of ChinaThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
such as
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
. South-western and middle China such as
Tibet Autonomous RegionThe Tibet Autonomous Region , also called Xizang Autonomous Region , is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China .Within the People's Republic of China, Tibet is identified with the Autonomous Region, which includes about half of...
,
Qinghai' is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake. It borders Gansu on the northeast, the Xinjiang Autonomous Region on the northwest, Sichuan on the southeast, and Tibet Autonomous Region on the southwest.- History :Qinghai was only relatively recently made a province...
,
Gansu' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It lies between Quinghai, Inner Mongolia, and the Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia to the north and Xinjiang to the west. The Yellow River passes the southern part of the province. It has a population of nearly 31...
and
Inner MongoliaInner Mongolia is a Mongol autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the country's north....
, and southern parts of
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
may also be included in Central Asia.
During pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, Central Asia was a predominantely
IranianThe Iranian peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly on the Iranian plateau and beyond in central, southern, and southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe. As a group of people, they are predominantly defined along linguistic lines as speaking the Iranian...
region that included sedentary Sogdians,
ChorasmiansKhwarezmian, also known as Khwarazmian or Chorasmian, is the name of an extinct East Iranian language closely related to Sogdian. The language was spoken in the area of Khwarezm on the northern banks of the river Syr Darya in Transoxiana .Our knowledge of Khwarezmian is limited to its Middle...
and semi-nomadic Scythians,
AlansThe Alans or Alani were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan — Greek: Αλανοί, Αλαννοί; Chinese: 阿蘭聊...
. The ancient sedentary population played an important role in the history of Central Asia. Tajiks, Pashtuns, Pamiris and other Iranian groups are still present in the region. After expansion by
Turkic peoplesThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
, central Asia became also the homeland for many
Turkic peoplesThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
, including the
UzbeksThe Uzbeks are a Turkic-speaking people in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...
,
KazakhsThe Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
,
KyrgyzThe Kyrgyz are a Turkic ethnic group found primarily in Kyrgyzstan.-Etymology:There are several etymological theories on the ethnonym "Kyrgyz."...
, and Uyghurs, and Central Asia is sometimes referred to as
TurkestanTurkestan, spelled also as Turkistan and Turkharistan is a region in Central Asia, which today is largely inhabited by Turkic peoples. It has been referenced in many Turkic and Persian sagas and is an integral part of Turan...
.
Definitions
The idea of Asia as a distinct region of the world was introduced in 1843 by the geographer
Alexander von Humboldtwas a German naturalist and explorer, and the younger brother of the Prussian minister, philosopher, and linguist, Wilhelm von Humboldt...
. The borders of Asia are subject to multiple definitions. Many text books still refer to this area as
TurkestanTurkestan, spelled also as Turkistan and Turkharistan is a region in Central Asia, which today is largely inhabited by Turkic peoples. It has been referenced in many Turkic and Persian sagas and is an integral part of Turan...
, which was the name used prior to Stalin's rule.
The most limited definition was the official one of the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
that defined the "Middle Asia" as consisting solely of
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
,
TurkmenistanRepublic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
,
TajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
, and
KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east....
, but did not include
KazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
,
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
and
MongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 24 miles from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator,...
. This definition was also often used outside the USSR in this period.
However, the
Russian languageRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
has two distinct terms: Средняя Азия (
Srednyaya Aziya or "Middle Asia", the narrower definition which includes only those traditionally non-Slavic, "Central Asian" lands that were incorporated within those borders of historical Russia) and Центральная Азия (
Tsentral'naya Aziya or "Asia", the wider definition which includes "Asian" lands that have never been part of historical Russia). However, there lacks a meaningful distinction between the two in the
English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
; and so "Asia" is used for both Russian usages, thus creating some confusion.
Soon after independence, the leaders of the five former
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
Central Asian Republics met in
TashkentTashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and also of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was 2.18 million. According to unofficial data, the population is more than 3 million.- History :...
and declared that the definition of Central Asia should include Kazakhstan as well as the original four included by the Soviets. Since then, this has become the most common definition of Asia.
The
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
general history of Asia, written just before the collapse of the USSR, defines the region based on climate and uses far larger borders. According to it, Asia includes
MongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 24 miles from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator,...
,
TibetTibet is a plateau region in Asia, north of the Himalayas. It is home to the indigenous Tibetan people, and to some other ethnic groups such as Monpas and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han Chinese people. Tibet is the highest region on earth, with an average...
, northeast
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
(
GolestanGolestān is one of the 30 provinces of Iran, located in the north-east of the country, south of the Caspian Sea. Its capital is Gorgan.Golestān was split off from the province of Mazandaran in 1997. It has a population of 1.7 million and an area of 20,380 km²...
,
North KhorasanNorth Khorasan is a province located in northeastern Iran. Bojnourd is the centre of the province.Other counties are Shirvan, Esfarayen, Maneh-o-Samalqan , Jajarm , Faroj and Germeh....
, and
RazaviRazavi Khorasan is a province located in northeastern Iran. Mashhad is the centre and capital of the province....
provinces), Afghanistan,
Azad KashmirAzad Jammu and Kashmir or, for short, Azad Kashmir is the southernmost political entity within the Pakistani-controlled part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir...
,
Northern AreasGilgit-Baltistan is an autonomous region in northern Pakistan. It was formerly known as the Northern Areas . It is the northernmost political entity within the Pakistani-controlled part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir...
and the N.W.F.P. province of Pakistan, Kashmir and Ladakh divisions of Jammu & Kashmir, central-east Russia south of the
TaigaTaiga is a biome characterized by coniferous forests. Covering most of inland Alaska, Canada, Sweden, Finland, inland Norway, Highland Scotland and Russia , as well as parts of the extreme northern continental United States , northern...
, and the former Asian Soviet Republics (the five "Stans" of the former
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
).
An alternative method is to define the region based on ethnicity, and in particular, areas populated by Eastern
TurkicThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
, Eastern
IranianThe Iranian peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly on the Iranian plateau and beyond in central, southern, and southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe. As a group of people, they are predominantly defined along linguistic lines as speaking the Iranian...
, or
MongolianThe name Mongol specifies one or several ethnic groups, now mainly located in Mongolia, China, and Russia.-Definition:...
peoples. These areas include Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the Turkic regions of southern
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
, the five republics, and
Afghan TurkestanAfghan Turkestan is a region in northern Afghanistan, on the border with the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It was the name of a former province in this area, which was centred on Mazari Sharif and included territory in the modern provinces of Balkh, Jowzjan,...
. Afghanistan as a whole and Northern Areas of Pakistan may also be included. The Tibetans and
LadakhiLadakhi can refer to:*Ladakh area of northern Kashmir*Ladakhi language spoken there...
are also included. Insofar, the mentioned peoples are considered the "indigenous" peoples of the vast region.
There are several places that claim to be the geographic center of Asia, for example
KyzylKyzyl is a city, and is the capital of the Tuva Republic, Russia. The name of the city means "red" in Tuvan . Population: 105,931 ; 104,105 . Kyzyl is served by Kyzyl Airport....
, the capital of the Tuvan Republic in the Russian Federation, and a village North of
UrumqiÜrümqi or Ürümchi , formerly Dihua, is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, in the northwest of the country....
,
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
.
Geography
Asia is an extremely large region of varied geography, including high passes and mountains (
Tian ShanThe Tian Shan , also commonly spelled Tien Shan, is a mountain range located in Central Asia...
), vast
desertA desert is a landscape or region that receives almost no precipitation. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen climate classification system,...
s (Kara Kum,
Kyzyl KumThe Kyzyl Kum , also called Qyzylqum, is the 11th largest desert in the world. Its name means Red Sand in Uzbek, Kazakh and Turkish. It is located in Central Asia in the doab between the rivers Amu Darya and Syr Darya, and is divided between Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan...
,
TaklamakanFor the novelette by Bruce Sterling see Taklamakan .The Taklamakan Desert , also known as Taklimakan, is a desert in Central Asia, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. It is bounded by the Kunlun Mountains to the south, and the Pamir Mountains and Tian Shan ...
), and especially treeless, grassy
steppeIn physical geography, a steppe is a biome region characterised by grassland plain without trees . The prairie can be considered a steppe. It may be semi-desert, or covered with grass or shrubs or both, depending on the season and latitude...
s. The vast steppe areas of Asia are considered together with the steppes of
Eastern EuropeEastern Europe is a region lying in the Eastern part of Europe. The term is highly context-dependent and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
as a homogenous geographical zone known as the Euro-Asian Steppe.
Much of the land of Asia is too dry or too rugged for farming. The
Gobi desertThe Gobi is the largest desert region in Asia. It covers parts of northern and northwestern China, and of southern Mongolia...
extends from the foot of the
PamirsThe Pamir Mountains are a mountain range in Central Asia formed by the junction or knot of the Himalayas, Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, and Hindu Kush ranges. They are among the world’s highest mountains and since Victorian times they have been known as the "Roof of the World", translated from...
, 77° east, to the Great Khingan (Da Hinggan) Mountains, 116°–118° east.
Asia has the following geographic extremes:
- The world's northernmost desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives almost no precipitation. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen climate classification system,...
(sand dunesIn physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by aeolian processes. Dunes are subject to different forms and sizes based on their interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dune are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune, and a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the...
), at Buurug Deliin Els, MongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 24 miles from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator,...
, 50°18' north.
- The Northern Hemisphere's
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planet that is north of the equator—the word hemisphere literally means 'half sphere'. It is also that half of the celestial sphere north of the celestial equator...
southernmost permafrostIn geology, permafrost or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of the ground...
, at Erdenetsogt sum, MongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 24 miles from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator,...
, 46°17' north.
- The world's shortest distance between non-frozen desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives almost no precipitation. Deserts are defined as areas with an average annual precipitation of less than per year, or as areas where more water is lost by evapotranspiration than falls as precipitation. In the Köppen climate classification system,...
and permafrostIn geology, permafrost or permafrost soil is soil at or below the freezing point of water for two or more years. Ice is not always present, as may be in the case of nonporous bedrock, but it frequently occurs and it may be in amounts exceeding the potential hydraulic saturation of the ground...
: .
A majority of the people earn a living by herding livestock. Industrial activity centers in the region's cities.
Major rivers of the region include the
Amu DaryaThe Amu Darya , in antiquity known as Oxus to Greeks and Romans or Vaksu to Indo-Aryans, is a major river in Central Asia. It is formed by the junction of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers...
, the
Syr DaryaSyr Darya is a river in Central Asia, sometimes known as the Jaxartes or Yaxartes from its Ancient Greek name . The Greek name is derived from Old Persian, Yakhsha Arta , a reference to the color of the river's water...
and the Hari River. Major bodies of water include the
Aral SeaThe Aral Sea is an endorheic basin in Central Asia; it lies between Kazakhstan in the north and Karakalpakstan, an autonomous region of Uzbekistan, in the south...
and
Lake BalkhashLake Balkhash is a lake in southeastern Kazakhstan, the second largest in Central Asia after the Aral Sea. It is a closed basin that is part of the endorheic basin that includes the Caspian and Aral seas.-History:...
, both of which are part of the huge west/central Asian
endorheicAn endorheic basin is a closed drainage basin that retains water and allows no outflow to other bodies of water such as rivers or oceans. Normally the water accruing in drainage basins flows out through surface rivers or by underground diffusion through permeable rock to the oceans...
basin that also includes the
Caspian SeaThe Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometres and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometres...
.
Both of these bodies of water have shrunk significantly in recent decades due to diversion of water from rivers that feed them for irrigation and industrial purposes. Water is an extremely valuable resource in arid Central Asia, and can lead to rather significant international disputes.
Climate
Since Asia is not buffered by a large body of water, temperature fluctuations are more severe.
According to the
Köppen climate classificationThe Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by the Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself notably in 1918 and 1936...
system, Central Asia is part of the
PalearcticThe Palearctic or Palaearctic is one of the eight ecozones dividing the Earth surface.Physically, the Palearctic is the largest ecozone. It includes the terrestrial ecoregions of Europe, Asia north of the Himalaya foothills, northern Africa, and the northern and central parts of the Arabian...
ecozoneAn ecozone or biogeographic realm is the largest scale biogeographic division of the Earth's surface based on the historic and evolutionary distribution patterns of plants and animals...
. The largest
biomeBiome are climatically and geographically defined areas of ecologically similar climatic conditions such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems...
in Central Asia is the
Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublandsTemperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands is a biome whose predominant vegetation consists of grasses and/or shrubs. The climate is temperate and semi-arid to semi-humid.*Temperature: warm to hot season...
biome. Central Asia also contains the
Montane grasslands and shrublandsMontane grasslands and shrublands is a biome defined by the World Wildlife Fund. The biome includes high altitude grasslands and shrublands around the world....
,
Deserts and xeric shrublandsDeserts and xeric shrublands is a biome characterized by, relating to, or requiring only a small amount of moisture. Deserts and xeric shrublands receive an annual average rainfall of ten inches or less, and have an arid or hyperarid climate, characterized by a strong moisture deficit, where annual...
and
Temperate coniferous forestsThe temperate coniferous forest includes areas such as the Valdivian temperate rain forests of southwestern South America, the rain forests of New Zealand and Tasmania, northwest Europe , southern Japan, and the eastern Black Sea-Caspian Sea region of Turkey and Georgia to northern Iran.The moist...
biomes.
History
The history of Central Asia is defined by the area's climate and geography. The aridness of the region made agriculture difficult and its distance from the sea cut it off from much trade. Thus few major cities developed in the region, instead the area was for millennia dominated by the nomadic horse peoples of the
steppeIn physical geography, a steppe is a biome region characterised by grassland plain without trees . The prairie can be considered a steppe. It may be semi-desert, or covered with grass or shrubs or both, depending on the season and latitude...
.
Relations between the steppe nomads and the settled people in and around Central Asia were long marked by conflict. The nomadic lifestyle was well suited to
warWar is a reciprocated, armed conflict, between two or more non-congruous entities, aimed at reorganising a subjectively designed, geo-politically desired result...
fare and the steppe
horse ridersThe first use of horses in warfare occurred over 5000 years ago. The earliest evidence of horses ridden in warfare dates from Eurasia between 4000 and 3000 BC. A Sumerian illustration of warfare from 2500 BC depicts some type of equine pulling wagons...
became some of the most militarily potent peoples in the world, only limited by their lack of internal unity. Any internal unity that was achieved, was most probably due to the influence of the
Silk RoadThe Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe...
, which traveled along Central Asia. Periodically great leaders or changing conditions would organize several tribes into one force, and create an almost unstoppable power. These included the
HunThe Huns were a group of nomadic pastoral people who, appearing from beyond the Volga, migrated into Europe c.AD 370 and built up an enormous empire in Europe. They were possibly the descendants of the Xiongnu who had been northern neighbours of China three hundred years before and may be the first...
invasion of Europe, the
Wu HuWu Hu is a collective term for various non-Chinese steppe tribes during the period from the Han Dynasty to the Northern Dynasties. These nomadic tribes originally resided outside China proper, but gradually migrated into Chinese areas during the years of turmoil between the Eastern Han Dynasty...
attacks on China and most notably the Mongol conquest of much of
EurasiaEurasia is a large landmass covering about 52,990,000 km
2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface...
.
During pre-Islamic and early Islamic times, southern Central Asia was inhabited predominantly by speakers of
Iranian languagesThe Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian. They are spoken by the Iranian peoples. Avestan is the oldest recorded Iranian language....
. Among the ancient sedentary
Iranian peoplesThe Iranian peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly on the Iranian plateau and beyond in central, southern, and southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe. As a group of people, they are predominantly defined along linguistic lines as speaking the Iranian...
, the
SogdianSogdian may refer to* anything pertaining to Sogdiana, an ancient civilization of Iranian peoplesand in particular to* the Sogdian language* or the Sogdian people...
s and
ChorasmiansKhwarezmian, also known as Khwarazmian or Chorasmian, is the name of an extinct East Iranian language closely related to Sogdian. The language was spoken in the area of Khwarezm on the northern banks of the river Syr Darya in Transoxiana .Our knowledge of Khwarezmian is limited to its Middle...
played an important role, while Iranian peoples such as Scythians and the later on
AlansThe Alans or Alani were a group of Sarmatian tribes, nomadic pastoralists of the 1st millennium AD who spoke an Eastern Iranian language which derived from Scytho-Sarmatian and which in turn evolved into modern Ossetian.-Name:The various forms of Alan — Greek: Αλανοί, Αλαννοί; Chinese: 阿蘭聊...
lived a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle.
The main migration of
Turkic peoplesThe Turkic peoples are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Eurasia. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
occurred between the 5th and 10th centuries, when they spread across most of Central Asia. During the 13th and 14th centuries, the
MongolsThe name Mongol specifies one or several ethnic groups, now mainly located in Mongolia, China, and Russia.-Definition:...
conquered and ruled the largest contiguous empire in recorded history.
The dominance of the nomads ended in the 16th century, as
firearmA firearm is a device which projects either single or multiple projectiles at high velocity through a controlled explosion. The firing is achieved by the gases produced through rapid, confined burning of a propellant. This process of rapid burning is technically known as deflagration...
s allowed settled peoples to gain control of the region.
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
,
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, and other powers expanded into the region and had captured the bulk of Central Asia by the end of the nineteenth century. After the
Russian RevolutionThe Russian Revolution is the collective term for the series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. In the first revolution of February 1917 the Czar was deposed and replaced by a Provisional government...
the Central Asian regions were incorporated into the Soviet Union. Mongolia remained independent but became a Soviet
satellite stateA satellite state is a political term that refers to a country which is formally independent, but under heavy influence or control by another country...
. However Afghanistan remained independent of any influence by the Russian empire.
The Soviet areas of Central Asia saw much industrialization and construction of infrastructure, but also the suppression of local cultures, hundreds of thousands of deaths from failed collectivization programs, and a lasting legacy of ethnic tensions and environmental problems. Soviet authorities
deportedPopulation transfer in the Soviet Union may be classified into the following broad categories: deportations of "anti-Soviet" categories of population, often classified as "enemies of workers", deportations of nationalities, labor force transfer, and organized migrations in opposite directions to...
millions of people, including entire nationalities, from western areas of the USSR to Central Asia and
SiberiaSiberia , is the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the USSR from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the...
.
With the collapse of the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
five countries gained independence. In nearly all the new states former Communist Party officials retained power as local strongmen. None of the new republics could be considered functional democracies in the early days of independence, although it appears
KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east....
,
KazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
and
MongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 24 miles from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator,...
have made great strides. Other parts of Central Asia remain part of China or Russia.
Culture
Religions
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
is the religion most common in the Central Asian Republics,
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
, Xinjiang and the peripheral western regions, such as Bashkiria. Most Central Asian Muslims are Sunni, although there are sizeable Shia minorities in Afghanistan.
HinduismHinduism is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as ', a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law", by its adherents. Generic "types" of Hinduism that attempt to accommodate a variety of complex views span folk and Vedic Hinduism to bhakti tradition, as...
is the religion most prevalent in northwest
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
although there is a considerable presence of
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
.
There are also sizeable minorities of Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan and Afghanistan.Although the area that spans over Indian Punjab is a Predominantly
SikhSikh is the title and name given to an adherent of Sikhism. The term has its origin in the Sanskrit term , meaning "disciple, learner" or , meaning "instruction"....
area.
Tibetan BuddhismTibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India...
is most common in Tibet, Mongolia, and the southern Russian regions of Siberia, where
ShamanismShamanism comprises a range of traditional beliefs and practices concerned with communication with the spirit world. It is a prominent term in anthropological research. A practitioner of shamanism is known as a shaman, , noun...
is also popular. Increasing
Han ChineseHan Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and, by most modern definitions, the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92 percent of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98 percent of the population of the Republic of China , 75 percent of the...
migration westward since the establishment of the PRC has brought
ConfucianismConfucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . It is a complex system of moral, social, political, philosophical, and quasi-religious thought that has had tremendous influence on the culture and history of East Asia...
and other beliefs into the region.
NestorianismNestorianism is the doctrine that the two individual natures of Christ, the human and the divine, are joined in conjunction rather than in hypostatic union. The doctrine is identified with Nestorius , Archbishop of Constantinople...
was the form of Christianity most practiced in the region in previous centuries, but now the largest denomination is the
Russian Orthodox ChurchThe Russian Orthodox Church ; or The Moscow Patriarchate , also known...
, with many members in Kazakhstan. The Bukharian Jews were once a sizable community in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, but nearly all have emigrated since the Collapse of the Soviet Union and the revival of
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
in the region.
Arts
At the crossroads of Asia, shamanist practices live alongside
BuddhismBuddhism, as traditionally conceived, is a path of salvation attained through insight into the ultimate nature of reality. It encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha...
. Thus
YamaYama the name of the Buddhist dharmapala and judge of the dead, who presides over the Buddhist Narakas , "Hells" or "Purgatories". Although ultimately based on the god Yama of the Hindu Vedas, the Buddhist Yama has developed different myths and different functions from the Hindu deity...
, Lord of Death, was revered in Tibet as a spiritual guardian and judge. Mongolian Buddhism in particular influenced Tibetan Buddhism. The Qianlong Emperor of China in the 18th century was Tibetan Buddhist, and would sometimes travel from
BeijingBeijing is a metropolis in northern China and the capital of the People's Republic of China...
to other cities for personal religious worship.
Note the human skulls and severed heads that festoon Yama's crown and necklace, which give some concept of the size that Yama was expected to be when one faced him at one's death.
This particular
DharmapalaIn Vajrayana Buddhism, a dharmapāla is a type of wrathful deity. The name means "Dharma-defender" in Sanskrit, and the dharmapālas are also known as the Defenders of the Law , or the Protectors of the Law, in English.In Vajrayana iconography and thangka depictions, dharmapālas are fearsome...
is painted wood, four feet high in total.
Central Asia also has an indigenous form of improvisational
oral poetryOral poetry can be defined in various ways. A strict definition would include only poetry that is composed and transmitted without any aid of writing. However, the complex relationships between written and spoken literature in some societies can make this definition hard to maintain, and oral...
which is over 1000 years old. It is principally practiced in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan by
akyns, lyrical improvisationists. They will engage in lyrical battles, the
aitysh or the
alym sabak. The tradition arose out of early bardic
oral historiansOral history can be defined as the recording, preservation and interpretation of historical information, based on the personal experiences and opinions of the speaker....
. They are usually accompanied by a
stringed instrumentA string instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, they are called chordophones. The most common string instruments in the string family are guitar, violin, viola,...
—in Kyrgyzstan, a three-stringed
komuzThe komuz or qomuz , Azeri Gopuz, Turkish Kopuz, is an ancient fretless string instrument used in Central Asian music, related to certain other Turkic string instruments and the lute....
and in Kazakhstan a similar two-stringed instrument.
Some also learn to sing the
Manas, Kyrgyzstan's epic poem (those who learn the
Manas exclusively but do not improvise are called
manaschis). During Soviet rule,
akyn performance was co-opted by the authorities and subsequently declined in popularity. With the fall of the Soviet Union it has enjoyed a resurgence, although
akyns still do use their art to campaign for political candidates. A 2005 Washington Post article proposed a similarity between the improvisational art of akyns and modern
freestyle rapFreestyle rap commonly refers to rap lyrics which are improvised, i.e. performed with few or no previously composed lyrics, off the top of the head...
performed in the West.
Demographics
By the most inclusive definition, more than 80 million people live in Central Asia, about 2% of Asia's total population. Of the regions of Asia, only
North AsiaNorth Asia or Northern Asia is sometimes defined as a subregion of Asia consisting only of the Asian portion of Russia. The term is not widely used...
has fewer people. It has a population density of 9 people per km², vastly less than the 80.5 people per km² of the continent as a whole.
Languages
The languages of the majority of the inhabitants of the former Soviet Central Asian Republics come from the
Turkic language groupThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
.
TurkmenTurkmen is the name of the national language of Turkmenistan. It is spoken by approximately 3,000,000 people in Turkmenistan, and by an additional approximately 380,000 in northwestern Afghanistan and 500,000 in northeastern Iran.- Classification, related languages and dialects :Turkmen is in the...
, closely related to
TurkishTurkish is spoken as a first language by over 63 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Cyprus, with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo, Albania and other...
(they are both members of the
OghuzThe Oghuz were a group of Turkic peoples. In the ninth century the Oghuz Turks from the Aral steppes drove the Pecheneg Turks of the Emba region and the River Ural toward the west...
group of Turkic), is mainly spoken in
TurkmenistanRepublic of Turkmenistan is a country in Central Asia. Until 1991, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union, the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic...
and into
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
,
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
,
IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
and
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
.
KazakhKazakh is a Turkic language closely related to Kyrgyz and Karakalpak.Kazakh is an agglutinative language, and it employs vowel harmony.-Geographic distribution:...
,
KyrgyzKyrgyz or Kirghiz is a Turkic language and, together with Russian, an official language of Kyrgyzstan...
and
TatarThe Tatar language is a Turkic language spoken by the Tatars.-Geographic distribution:Tatar is spoken in Russia , Central Asia, Ukraine, Poland, China, Finland and Turkey....
are related languages of the
KypchakKipchaks were an ancient Turkic people who originally formed part of the group of Kimäks in Siberia along the middle reaches of Irtysh or along the Ob. Around the middle of the eleventh century they split off from the bulk of the Kimaks and departed in the direction of Europe...
group of Turkic languages, and are spoken throughout
KazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
,
KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a country in Central Asia. Landlocked and mountainous, it is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east....
and
TajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
, and into
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
,
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
and
Qinghai' is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake. It borders Gansu on the northeast, the Xinjiang Autonomous Region on the northwest, Sichuan on the southeast, and Tibet Autonomous Region on the southwest.- History :Qinghai was only relatively recently made a province...
.
UzbekUzbek is a Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 23.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia...
and
UyghurUyghur , formerly known as Eastern Turki, is a Turkic language spoken in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, a Central Asian region administered by China, mainly by the Uyghur ethnic group. It is spoken by 10 million in China, mostly in Xinjiang...
are spoken in
UzbekistanUzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan , is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union...
,
TajikistanTajikistan , officially the Republic of Tajikistan , is a mountainous landlocked country in Central Asia. Afghanistan borders it to the south, Uzbekistan to the west, Kyrgyzstan to the north, and People's Republic of China to the east...
and
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
.
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
, as well as being spoken by around six million ethnic
RussiansThe Russian people are an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
and
UkrainiansUkrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group primarily living in Ukraine, or more broadly—citizens of Ukraine...
of Central Asia, is a
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
throughout the former Soviet Central Asian Republics.
Mandarin ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
has an equally dominant presence in
Inner MongoliaInner Mongolia is a Mongol autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the country's north....
,
Qinghai' is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake. It borders Gansu on the northeast, the Xinjiang Autonomous Region on the northwest, Sichuan on the southeast, and Tibet Autonomous Region on the southwest.- History :Qinghai was only relatively recently made a province...
and
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
.
The
Turkic languagesThe Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken by some...
belong to the much larger, but controversial
AltaicAltaic is a language family that is generally held by its proponents to include the Turkic, Mongolic, Tungusic, Korean, and Japonic language families . These languages are spoken in a wide arc stretching from northeast Asia through Central Asia to Anatolia and eastern Europe...
language family, which includes
MongolianThe Mongolian language is the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. It has about 5.7 million speakers, including over 90% of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region of China...
. Mongolian is spoken throughout the region of
MongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 24 miles from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator,...
and into Inner Mongolia,
Qinghai' is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake. It borders Gansu on the northeast, the Xinjiang Autonomous Region on the northwest, Sichuan on the southeast, and Tibet Autonomous Region on the southwest.- History :Qinghai was only relatively recently made a province...
and
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
.
East Iranian languages were once spoken throughout Central Asia, but the once prominent
Sogdian- Overview :The Sogdian language is a Middle Iranian language that was spoken in Sogdiana , located in modern day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan ....
,
KhwarezmianKhwarezmian, also known as Khwarazmian or Chorasmian, is the name of an extinct East Iranian language closely related to Sogdian. The language was spoken in the area of Khwarezm on the northern banks of the river Syr Darya in Transoxiana .Our knowledge of Khwarezmian is limited to its Middle...
,
BactrianThe Bactrian language is an extinct Eastern Iranian language which was spoken in the Central Asian region of Bactria. Linguistically, it is classified as belonging to the middle period of the East Iranian branch, and is related to medieval Sogdian and Khwarezmian languages.Because Bactrian was...
and Scythian languages are now extinct. However, the East Iranian
PashtoPashto , also known as Afghani, is an Indo-European language spoken primarily in Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Pashto belongs to the Eastern Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian language family...
is still spoken in
AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
and northwestern
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
, and other minor East Iranian languages, such as
ShughniShughni is one of the Pamir languages of the Southeastern Iranian language group. Its distribution is in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in Tajikistan and Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan.- References :...
, Munji,
IshkashimiThe Ishkashimi language is one of the Pamir languages of the Southeastern Iranian language group. Its distribution is in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in Tajikistan and Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan....
, Sarikoli,
WakhiWakhi is an Indo-European language in the sub-branch of Southeastern Iranian languages and is intimately related to other Pamir languages and Pashto.-Classification and Distribution:...
,
YaghnobiThe Yaghnobi language is a living East Iranian language . Yaghnobi is spoken in the upper valley of the Yaghnob River in the Zarafshan area of Tajikistan by the Yaghnobi people...
and
OssetianOssetian , also sometimes called Ossete, is an East Iranian language spoken in Ossetia, a region on the slopes of the Caucasus Mountains....
are also spoken in various places in Central Asia. Varieties of
PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
are also spoken in the region, locally known as
DarīDari or Dari Persian , also known as Eastern Persian, is a historical name for the Persian language and, in contemporary usage refers to the dialects of the Persian language that are spoken in Afghanistan. It is the term officially recognized and promoted by the Afghan government for the language...
(in Afghanistan),
TojikīTajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a modern variety of Persian spoken in Central Asia. Most speakers of Tajik live in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan...
(by Tajiks in Tajikistan), and
BukhoriBukhori is a unique dialect of the Persian language spoken in Central Asia by the Bukharian Jews...
(by the
Bukharan JewsBukharan Jews, also Bukharian Jews or Bukhari Jews, , also called the Binai Israel, are Jews from Central Asia who speak Bukhori, a dialect of the Persian language. Their name comes from the former Central Asian Emirate of Bukhara, which once had a sizable Jewish community...
in
BukharaBukhara , also transliterated Bukhoro and Bokhara, from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 237,900...
).
The
Tibetan languageThe Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering South Asia, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh, Nepal,...
is spoken by around six million people across the
Tibetan PlateauThe Tibetan Plateau , also known as the Tibel-Qingai Plateau or Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is a vast, elevated plateau in Central Asia covering most of the Tibet Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province in China and Ladakh in Kashmir, India...
and into
Qinghai' is a province of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake. It borders Gansu on the northeast, the Xinjiang Autonomous Region on the northwest, Sichuan on the southeast, and Tibet Autonomous Region on the southwest.- History :Qinghai was only relatively recently made a province...
and
Sichuan' is a province in Southwestern China with its capital in Chengdu. The current name of the province, 四川 , is an abbreviation of 四川路 , or "Four circuits of rivers", which is itself abbreviated from 川峡四路 , or "Four circuits of rivers and gorges", named after the division of the...
.
TocharianTocharian or Tokharian is an extinct branch of the Indo-European language family. The name is taken from people known to the Greeks as the Tocharians . These are sometimes identified with the Yuezhi and the Kushans, while the term Tokharistan usually refers to 1st millennium Bactria...
, an
Indo-EuropeanIndo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages** Aryan, a 19th century term for Indo-European speakers.* Proto-Indo-European language, the reconstructed common ancestor of all Indo-European languages....
language, was once spoken in
XinjiangXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
and parts of Afghanistan, but is now extinct.
Geostrategy
Central Asia has long been a strategic location merely because of its proximity to several great powers on the Eurasian landmass. The region itself never held a dominant stationary population, nor was able to make use of natural resources. Thus it has rarely throughout history become the seat of power for an empire or influential state. Central Asia has been divided, redivided, conquered out of existence, and fragmented time and time again. Central Asia has served more as the battleground for outside powers, than as a power in its own right.
Central Asia had both the advantage and disadvantage of a central location between four historical seats of power. From its central location, it has access to trade routes to and from all the regional powers. On the other hand, it has been continuously vulnerable to attack from all sides throughout its history, resulting in political fragmentation or outright power vacuum, as it is successively dominated.
- To the North, the steppe allowed for rapid mobility, first for nomadic horseback warriors like the Huns and Mongols, and later for Russian traders, eventually supported by railroads. As the Russian empire expanded to the East, it would also push down into Central Asia towards the sea, in a search for warm water ports. The Soviet bloc would reinforce dominance from the North, and attempt to project power as far south as Afghanistan.
- To the East, the demographic and cultural weight of Chinese empires continually pushed outward into Central Asia. Manchu Qing dynasty would conquer Uyghurstan/East Turkistan and Tibet. As part of the Sino-Soviet bloc, China would keep Tibet. However, with the Sino-Soviet split, China would project power into Central Asia, most notably in the case of Afghanistan, to counter Russian dominance of the region.
- To the Southeast, the demographic and cultural influence of India was felt in Central Asia, notably in Tibet, the Hindu Kush, and slightly beyond. Several historical Indian dynasties, especially those seated along the Indus river would expand into Central Asia. India's ability to project power into Central Asia although has been limited due to the mountain ranges in Pakistan (and the country itself, which has somewhat advanced greater into the affairs of the overall region), as well as the cultural differences between Hindu India, and what would become a mostly Muslim Central Asia. From its base in India, the British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
competed with the Russian Empire for influence in the region in the 19th and 20th centuries.
- To the Southwest, Western Asian powers have expanded into the Southern areas of Central Asia (usually, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan). Several Persian empires would conquer and reconquer parts of Central Asia; Alexander the Great's Hellenic empire would extend into Central Asia; two Islamic empires would exert substantial influence throughout the region; and the modern state of Iran has projected influence throughout the region as well.
In the post-Cold War era, Central Asia is an ethnic cauldron, prone to instability and conflicts, without a sense of national identity, but rather a mess of historical cultural influences, tribal and clan loyalties, and religious fervor. Projecting influence into the area is no longer just Russia, but also Turkey, Iran, China, Pakistan, India and the United States:
- Russia continues to dominate political decision-making throughout the former SSRs, although as other countries move into the area Russia's influence has slowly waned, yet they are still the dominant power.
- China, already controlling Xinjiang and Tibet, projects significant power in the region, especially in energy/oil politics (for example, through the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is an intergovernmental mutual-security organisation which was founded in 2001 by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan...
).
- Turkey exerts considerable influence in the region on account of its ethnic and linguistic ties with the Turkic peoples of Central Asia and its involvement in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline
The Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline is a long crude oil pipeline from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field in the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. It connects Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan; Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia; and Ceyhan, a port on the south-eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey,...
. Political and economic relations are growing rapidly (e.g. Turkey recently eliminated visa requirements for citizens of the Central Asian Turkic republics).
- Iran, the seat of historical empires which controlled parts of Central Asia, has historical and cultural links to the region, and is vying to construct an oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf.
- Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
, a nuclear-armed Islamic state helped to sustain Taliban rule in Afghanistan, and is termed capable of exercising influence. For some Central Asian nations, the shortest route to the ocean lies through Pakistan. Pakistan seeks Natural GasNatural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills...
from Central Asia, and supports the development of pipelines from its countries.
- And the United States with its military involvement in the region, and oil diplomacy, is also significantly involved in the region's politics.
War on Terror
In the context of the United States' War on Terror, Central Asia has once again become the center of geostrategic calculations. Pakistan's status has been upgraded by the U.S. government to
Major non-NATO allyMajor non-NATO ally is a designation given by the United States government to exceptionally close allies who have close strategic working relationships with American forces but are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization...
because of its central role in serving as a staging point for the invasion of Afghanistan, providing intelligence on Al-Qaeda operations in the region, and leading the hunt on Osama bin Laden, believed to still be in the region.
Afghanistan, which had served as a haven and source of support for Al-Qaeda, under the protection of Mullah Omar and the Taliban, was the target of a
U.S. invasionThe War in Afghanistan is an ongoing coalition conflict which began on October 7, 2001, as the British military participated in the US military's Operation Enduring Freedom that was launched in response to the September 11 attacks...
in 2001, and ongoing reconstruction and drug-eradication efforts. U.S. military bases have also been established in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, causing both Russia and the People's Republic of China to voice their concern over a permanent U.S. military presence in the region.
Western observers and governments have claimed that Russia, China and the former Soviet republics have taken advantage of the War on Terror to increase oppression of certain ethnic groups, including minority separatist movements, as well as some religious groups. The U.S. government, which considers Russia and China strategic partners in the War on Terror, has largely turned a blind eye to these claims.
Major cultural and economic centres
| City |
Country |
Population |
Image |
Information |
TashkentTashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and also of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was 2.18 million. According to unofficial data, the population is more than 3 million.- History :...
|
Uzbekistan |
2,180,000
(2008) |
|
The capital of Uzbekistan and the biggest city in Uzbekistan. In pre-Islamic and early Islamic times the town and the province were known as "Chach". Tashkent started as an oasisIn geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source...
on the Chirchik River, near the foothills of the Golestan Mountains. In ancient times, this area contained Beitian, probably the summer "capital" of the KangjuKangju was the name of an ancient people and kingdom in central Asia. It was a nomadic federation of unknown ethnic and linguistic origin which became for a couple of centuries the second greatest power in Transoxiana after the Yuezhi....
confederacy. |
| Ashgabat |
Turkmenistan |
695,300
(2001) |
 |
The capital of Turkmenistan and the biggest city in Turkmenistan. Ashgabat is a relatively young city, growing out of a village of the same name established by RussiansThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia, and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
in 1818. It is not far from the site of Nisa, the ancient capital of the ParthiaParthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasts, after which the Arsacid Empire is then also known as the 'Parthian Empire'....
ns, and it grew on the ruins of the Silk RoadThe Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe...
city of Konjikala, which was first mentioned as a wine-producing village in 2nd century BCE and was leveled by an earthquake in 1st century BCE (a precursor of the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake). Konjikala was rebuilt because of its advantageous location on the Silk Road and it flourished until its destruction by Mongols in the 13th century CE. After that it survived as a small village until the Russians took over in the 19th century. |
KabulKabul , is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of over 2.5 million, and is located in the province of Greater Kabul...
|
Afghanistan |
3,000,000
(2008) |
 |
The capital and largest city of Afghanistan. The city of Kabul is thought to have been established between 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE. In the Rig VedaThe Rigveda is an ancient Indian sacred collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. It is counted among the four canonical sacred texts of Hinduism known as the Vedas...
(composed between 1700–1100 BCE) the word "Kubhā" is mentioned, which appears to refer to the Kabul RiverKabul River , classically called the Cophes , is a river that rises in the Sanglakh Range in Afghanistan, separated from the watershed of the Helmand by the Unai Pass. It is the main river in the eastern part of Afghanistan. It flows 700 km before joining the Indus River near Attock...
. |
| Peshawar |
 |
Peshawar is the capital of the North-West Frontier ProvinceThe North-West Frontier Province is the smallest of the four provinces of Pakistan...
of Pakistan, located on the edge of the Khyber PassThe Khyber Pass, is a mountain pass that links Pakistan and Afghanistan.Throughout history it has been an important trade route between Central Asia and South Asia and a strategic military location...
near the AfghanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
border. In ancient times, a major settlement called Purushpur (SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
for "city of men") was established by KanishkaKanishka was a king of the Kushan Empire in Central Asia, ruling an empire extending from Bactria to large parts of northern India in the 2nd century of the common era, and famous for his military, political, and spiritual achievements...
, the Kushan king, in the general area of modern Peshawar. Purushpur emerged as a major center of Buddhist learning, and the capital of the ancient GandharaSee also Gandhara Gandhāra is the name of an ancient kingdom , located in northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. Gandhara was located mainly in the vale of Peshawar, the Potohar plateau and on the Kabul River...
was moved to Peshawar in the 2nd century CE. During much of its history, Peshawar was one of the main trading centres on the ancient Silk RoadThe Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe...
and was a major crossroads for various cultures between Central Asia, South AsiaSouth Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east...
and the Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. |
MashhadMashhad is one of the largest cities in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia world. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan...
|
Iran |
2,427,316
(2006) |
 |
The second largest city in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia world. At the beginning of the 9th century (3rd century AH) Mashhad was a small village called Sanabad situated 24 km away from Tus. It was not considered a great city until Mongol raids in 1220 which caused the destruction of many large cities in the Greater Khorasan Greater Khorasan is a modern term for a historical geographic region spanning north-eastern and east of Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, western and northern Afghanistan and the North Western Areas of Pakistan...
territories, leaving Mashhad relatively intact. Thus the survivors of the massacres migrated to Mashhad. |
| Ürümqi Ürümqi or Ürümchi , formerly Dihua, is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, in the northwest of the country....
|
PRC Xinjiang ARXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
, PRCThe People's Republic of China , commonly known as China, is the largest country in East Asia and the most populous in the world with over 1.3 billion people, approximately one-fifth of the world's population...
|
2,681,834
(2006) |
|
The capital and largest city in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous RegionXinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China and also claimed by the territory of the Republic of China.-Names:Older English-language reference works often refer to the area as Chinese Turkestan, Sinkiang, East...
and the cultural center of UyghursThe Uyghur are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China....
. Two thousand years ago Ürümqi was an important town on the northern route of the Silk RoadThe Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe...
, a vast network of trade routes that also facilitated cultural exchanges throughout EurasiaEurasia is a large landmass covering about 52,990,000 km 2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface...
. |
Mazar-e SharifMazār-e Sharīf or Mazāri Sharīf is the fourth largest city of Afghanistan, with population of 300,600 people . It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by roads to Kabul in the south-east, Herat to the west and Uzbekistan to the north...
|
Afghanistan |
300,600
(2008) |
 |
The fourth largest city in Afghanistan and capital of Balkh provinceBalkh is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan. It is in the north of the country and its name derives from the ancient city of Balkh, near the modern town. Its capital is Mazar-e Sharif. Tajiks make up the majority of the province. The current governor of Balkh is Ustad Atta Mohammed Noor...
and is linked by roads to KabulKabul , is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of over 2.5 million, and is located in the province of Greater Kabul...
in the south-east, HeratHerāt , classically called the Aria, is a major city in western Afghanistan, in the province also known as Herāt. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan,...
to the west and Uzbekistan to the north. |
| Ulaanbaatar |
Mongolia |
1,067,472
(2008) |
|
The capital and largest city in MongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It borders Russia to the north and the People's Republic of China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only 24 miles from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator,...
and the cultural center of Mongolians. The city was founded in 1639 as an initially nomadic BuddhistBuddhism in Mongolia is essentially Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelugpa school. Traditionally, Mongols worshiped heaven and their ancestors, and they followed ancient northern Asian practices of shamanism, in which human intermediaries went into trance and spoke to and for some of the numberless...
monasticMonasticism is one of the most fundamental institutions of Buddhism. Monks and nuns are responsible for preserving and spreading Buddhist teachings, as well as educating and guiding Buddhist lay followers...
centre. Since 1778 it has been located in the Tuul river valley. In the 20th century, Ulaanbaatar grew into a major manufacturing centre. |
SamarkandSamarkand is the second-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of Samarqand Province. The city is most noted for its central position on the Silk Road between China and the West, and for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study. The Bibi-Khanym Mosque remains one of the city's most famous...
|
Uzbekistan |
596,300
(2008) |
 |
The second-largest city in Uzbekistan and the capital of Samarqand ProvinceSamarqand Province is a viloyat of Uzbekistan located in the center of the country in the basin of Zarafshan River. It borders with Tajikstan, Navoiy Province, Jizzakh Province and Qashqadaryo Province. It covers an area of 16,400 km²...
. The city is most noted for its central position on the Silk RoadThe Silk Road is an extensive interconnected network of trade routes across the Asian continent connecting East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean world, as well as North and Northeast Africa and Europe...
between China and the West, and for being an Islamic centre for scholarly study. |
BishkekBishkek , formerly Pishpek and Frunze, is the capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan.Bishkek is also the administrative centre of Chuy Province which surrounds the city, even though the city itself is not part of the province but rather a province-level unit of Kyrgyzstan.The name is thought to...
|
Kyrgyzstan |
1,250,000
(2007) |
|
The capital and the largest city of Kyrgyzstan. Bishkek is also the administrative center of Chuy ProvinceChuy Province or Chui Province is the northernmost province of the Kyrgyz Republic. It is bounded, on the north by Kazakhstan, and clockwise, Issyk Kul Province, Naryn Province, Jalal-Abad Province and Talas Province...
which surrounds the city, even though the city itself is not part of the province but rather a province-level unit of Kyrgyzstan. |
| Tous Toos also spelled as Tous, Tus or Tūs, is an ancient city in the Iranian province of Razavi Khorasan. To the ancient Greeks, it was known as Susia...
|
Iran |
N/A |
 |
An ancient city in the Iranian province of Razavi Khorasan. To the ancient Greeks, it was known asn Susia (Gr. Σούσια). It was captured by Alexander the Great in 330 BC. The city was almost entirely destroyed by Genghis KhanGenghis Khan , ; 1162–1227), born , was the founder, Khan and Khagan of the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous empire in history....
's Mongol conquest in 1220. |
AstanaAstana , is the capital and second largest city of Kazakhstan, with an officially estimated population of 750,700 as of November 2008....
|
Kazakhstan |
700,000
(2009) |
|
The capital and second largest city in Kazakhstan. After Kazakhstan gained its independence in 1991, the city and the region were renamed "Aqmola". The name was often translated as "White Tombstone", but actually means "Holy Place" or "Holy Shrine". The "White Tombstone" literal translation was too appropriate for many visitors to escape notice in almost all guide books and travel accounts. In 1994, the city was designated as the future capital of the newly-independent country, and again renamed to the present "Astana" after the capital was officially moved from AlmatyAlmaty is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of 1,348,500 , which represents 9% of the population of the country....
in 1997. |
DushanbeDushanbe , population 679,400 people , is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan...
|
Tajikistan |
679,400
(2008) |
|
The capital and largest city of Tajikistan. Dushanbe means "Monday" in Tajik Tajik, Tajik Persian, or Tajiki, is a modern variety of Persian spoken in Central Asia. Most speakers of Tajik live in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan...
and PersianPersian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is widely spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and to some extent in Iraq and Bahrain, and has a status of official language in the first three countries under different names...
, and the name reflects the fact that the city grew on the site of a village that originally was a popular Monday marketplaceA marketplace is the space, actual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie...
. |
BukharaBukhara , also transliterated Bukhoro and Bokhara, from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 237,900...
|
Uzbekistan |
237,900
(1999) |
|
The nation's fifth-largest city and the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. Bukhara has been one of the main centres of Persian civilization from its early days in 6th century BCE and since 12th century CE, Turkic speakers gradually moved in. Its architecture and archaeological sites form one of the pillars of the Central Asian history and art. |
AlmatyAlmaty is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of 1,348,500 , which represents 9% of the population of the country....
|
Kazakhstan |
1,420,747
(2009) |
 |
It was the capital of Kazakhstan (and its predecessor, the Kazakh SSRThe Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Kazakh SSR for short, was one of republics that made up the Soviet Union. At 2,717,300 square kilometres in area, it was the second largest constituent republic in the USSR, after the Russian SFSR. Its capital was Alma-Ata...
) from 1929 to 1998. Despite losing its status as the capital, Almaty remains the major commercial center of Kazakhstan. |
NishapurNishapur, or Neyshābūr , is a city in the Razavi Khorasan province in northeastern Iran, situated in a fertile plain at the foot of the Binalud Mountains, near the regional capital of Mashhad....
|
Iran |
270,972
(2006) |
|
The city is located in the Razavi Khorasan provinceRazavi Khorasan is a province located in northeastern Iran. Mashhad is the centre and capital of the province....
in northeastern Iran, situated in a fertile plain at the foot of the Binalud MountainsMount Binālud is the highest peak in Razavi Khorasan province, Iran. It is also called Khorasan roof. This mountain is 26 km north of Neyshabur and to the west of Mashhad.-Links:**...
, near the regional capital of MashhadMashhad is one of the largest cities in Iran and one of the holiest cities in the Shia world. It is located east of Tehran, at the center of the Razavi Khorasan Province close to the borders of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan...
. It's hometown of several respected Persian poets and artists, including Omar KhayyámOmar Khayyám , , was a Persian polymath, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and poet. He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, music and was a physicist....
, Attar Neyshapuri and Kamal-ol-molkMohammad Ghaffari better known as Kamal-ol-Molk was a famous Iranian painter.Born in 1847 in Kashan, Iran, he went to Tehran and studied at Dar-ol-Fonoon...
. |
See also
- Agriculture in Central Asia
Agriculture in Central Asia provides a brief regional overview of agriculture in the five contiguous states of former Soviet Central Asia – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan...
- Central Asian studies
Central Asian studies is the discipline of studying the culture, history, and languages of Central Asia. The roots of Central Asian studies as a social science discipline goes to 19th century Anglo-Russian Great Game...
- Central Asian Union
A Central Asian Union was proposed by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbaev on April 26, 2007, in order to merge the four Central Asian Turkic republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan into one country, with the proposed name of "Turkestan"...
- ECO
The Economic Cooperation Organization is an intergovernmental organization involving seven Asian and three Eurasian nations. It provides a platform to discuss ways to improve development and promote trade, and investment opportunities. The ECO is an ad hoc organization under the...
- Eurasian nomads
Eurasian nomads are a large group of peoples of the Eurasian Steppe. This generic title encompasses the ethnic groups inhabiting the steppes of Central Asia, Mongolia, and Eastern Europe. They domesticated the horse, and their economy and culture emphasizes horse breeding and horse riding...
- Euro-Asian Steppe
- Great Game (the rivalry between the British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
and Tsarist Russia in the 19th century for control of Central Asia)
- Hindutash
Hindutash, also known as Hindu-tagh Pass, is the name of a historical mountain pass in the western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China...
- Khotan
The oasis town of Hotan or Hetian is the capital of Hotan Prefecture, Xinjiang, China. It was previously known in Chinese as 于窴 pinyin: Yutian....
- Music of Central Asia
Central Asian music encompasses numerous different musical styles originating from a large number of Asian cultures. Central Asian music most often uses the pentatonic scale....
- Soviet Central Asia
Soviet Central Asia refers to the section of Central Asia formerly controlled by the Soviet Union, as well as the time period of Soviet control . In terms of area, it is nearly synonymous with Russian Turkestan, the name for the region during the Russian Empire...
(1924-1991)
- Survey of India
The Survey of India is India's central engineering agency in charge of mapping and surveying. Set up in 1767 to help consolidate the territories of the British East India Company, it is one of the oldest Engineering Departments of the Government of India...
- Turkistan
*Türkistan is the local name for Turkestan, a region of Central Asia.*Türkistan, Kazakhstan is a historic city and place of pilgrimage in southern Kazakhstan...
- Afghan Turkestan
Afghan Turkestan is a region in northern Afghanistan, on the border with the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It was the name of a former province in this area, which was centred on Mazari Sharif and included territory in the modern provinces of Balkh, Jowzjan,...
- International University Of Kyrgyzstan
International University of Kyrgyzstan «МЕЖДУНАРОДНЫЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ КЫРГЫЗСТАНА» is one of the major universities in the Kyrgyz Republic. Located in the capital city of Bishkek, in the shadow of the world-class Tien Shan mountain range, the University was established soon after the Kyrgyz Republic...
- University Of Central Asia
The University of Central Asia
was founded in 2000 by the governments of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and His Highness the Aga Khan...
- Ancient India and Central Asia
General references
- Dani, A.H. and V.M. Masson eds. UNESCO History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Paris: UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations established on 16 November 1945...
, 1992.
- Mandelbaum, Michael
Michael Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter Professor and Director of the American Foreign Policy program at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. He wrote The Case For Goliath: How America Acts As The World's Government in the Twenty-first Century, in which he...
. ed. Central Asia and the World: Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Turkmenistan New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
: Council on Foreign RelationsThe Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit and nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to improving the understanding of U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
Press, 1994.
- Olcott, Martha Brill
Martha Brill Olcott is a leading U.S. expert on Central Asian and the Caspian. She is a senior associate with the Russian and Eurasian Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, co-directing the Carnegie Moscow Center's Project on Ethnicity and Politics in the former Soviet Union....
. Central Asia's New States: Independence, Foreign policy, and Regional security. Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. , formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790...
: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1996.
- Soucek, Svatopluk
Dr. Svat Soucek is a compiler and author of works in relation to Central Asia, and Central Asian studies and works in the Oriental division of the New York Public Library. His works include Turkish Mapmaking After Columbus and A History of Inner Asia....
. A History of Inner Asia. CambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. It is also at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen....
: Cambridge University PressCambridge University Press is a printer and publisher granted a Royal Letters Patent by Henry VIII in 1534. It is the world's oldest continually operating book publisher...
, 2000.
- Marcinkowski, M. Ismail. Persian Historiography and Geography: Bertold Spuler on Major Works Produced in Iran, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Pakistan and Early Ottoman Turkey, Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, lying north of the equator, south of the Malaysian state of Johor and north of Indonesia's Riau Islands. At , Singapore is a microstate and the smallest nation in Southeast...
: Pustaka Nasional, 2003.
- Rall, Ted
Ted Rall , is an American columnist, syndicated editorial cartoonist, and author. His political cartoons often appear in a multi-panel comic-strip format and frequently blend comic-strip and editorial-cartoon conventions. The cartoons appear in approximately 100 newspapers around the United States...
. "Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East?" New York: NBM PublishingNBM Publishing is an American publisher of graphic novels. The company specializes in non-superhero comic genres and has translated and published over 150 graphic novels from Europe and Canada, as well as several works by Americans...
, 2006.
- Stone, L. A' 'The International Politics of Central Eurasia', (272 pp). Central Eurasian Studies On Line: Accessible via the Web Page of the International Eurasian Institute for Economic and Political Research: http://www.iicas.org/forumen.htm
- Weston, David. Teaching about Inner Asia, Bloomington, Indiana: ERIC Clearinghouse for Social Studies, 1989.
External links
- The Spektator - Society, culture and travel articles on Kyrgyzstan and the Central Asian region
- Central Asia Health Review
- University of Cambridge Central Asia Forum
- Central Asia Gateway
- Central Asia Travel - Travel to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan
- You travel guide in Central Asia
- Central Eurasian Studies World Wide
- National Geographic.com - Nat Geo Music: Central Asian Classical Music page
- National Geographic.com - Nat Geo Music: Central Asian Bardic Music page
- Publications on the history of Central Asia Prior to 1917
- Policymakers' Guide to Central Asia
- University of Central Asia
- Discovery Central Asia magazine: Publications on the travel, history and culture of Central Asia
- New Europe News Extensive news coverage and analysis of Central Asia.
- Where West Meets East: The Complex mtDNA Landscape of the Southwest and Central Asian Corridor
- Texas Tech University, full-text examples of Central Asian literature
- International University Of Kyrgyzstan
- http://www.iicas.org/forumen.htm The International Politics of Central Eurasia], (272 pp). Central Eurasian Studies On Line: The International Eurasian Institute for Economic and Political Research, 2001.
- Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies (RIFIAS) Library Online Catalog Text Collection is one of North America's premier resources for teaching and research in the history, languages, literatures, geography, religions, and cultures of Inner Asia and is located at Indiana University
- University of Turin-Observatory on Central Asia
- Mansi Mehrotra India and US Strategic Convergence in Central Asia
- The Library: Central on politics, universities, culture, languages, etc.