Paper long abstract:

The written sources gave us information about migration processes took place in Central Asia in the 9th - 12th centuries. This paper focuses on migration processes in Central Asia during the 9th - 12th centuries through the analysis of Arabic and Persian sources written by Tabari, Bayhaqi, Ibn Al-Athir, Istakhri, Ibn Haukal and others. From the Ancient times in the territory of Central Asia lived side-by-side representatives of settled and nomadic population. The migration of the nomadic population was intensive in compare with the sedentary population. The dynamics of migration processes were directly influenced by political, socio-economic, cultural and spiritual processes. Political, socio-economic and cultural-spiritual reasons directly influenced the dynamics of migration processes.

The following picture can be seen in the migration map of Transoxiane of the study period. On the one hand, as a result of the influence of the Islam and other reasons, during this period continued mass or individual relocations of Arabs, representatives of Iranian and other peoples from the south to the region. As a result of the special military policy of the Samanids, Qarakhanids, Khorezmshahs and others based on the Turkic force was intensified the relocation of Turkic nomadic tribes and clans to Transoxiane and some of them were settled.

This paper discusses about the factors affecting migration processes. In contrast to standard interpretations in the paper I consider the motivational reasons for migration . First of all, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the migration process had compulsory or voluntary natures. Migration of a compulsory nature mainly arose because of the actions of certain rulers tried to strengthen their power and expand the territory of their kingdom. The sources contain data on the forced relocation of some tribes, clans, religious groups and communities from one territory to another.

Also, such rulers as Ismail Samani, Ibrahim Tamgachkhan, Alauddin Tekesh, Alauddin Muhammad and others ruled in the region took away famous scientists, craftsmen, singers, poets and other talents to their capitals after successful raids to some cities and countries. Moreover, many tribes, clans, religious communities and individual persons moved from one place by the influence of various economic, social and other factors.

The article will trace causes of migration took place in Transoxiane on the example of individuals and various groups, and an attempt will be made to analyze the dynamics of migration processes.

Paper long abstract:

In my paper I am focusing on the role of the Uighurs in the translation and spread of Buddhist texts in the Tangut state of Western Xia. The main purpose of my paper is to present the active involvement of the Uighurs in the great translation project initiated by the first Tangut emperor Li Yuanhao. The texts were purchased from the Northern Song court and were translated into the Tangut language.

By focusing on relevant primary sources in Chinese and in the Tangut language, I will discuss some key features of the translating centers as well as requirements for Uighur translators. For example, whether or not this kind of translation activity was considered an official duty or as an action of personal merit accumulation. In addition, I will look at some particular textual examples from sūtras and demonstrate possible linguistic influences of the Uighur language on the translated text in Tangut. Finally, I am going to look at the Uighur activity after the fall of Western Xia in 1227, especially their engagement in reprinting the Tangut Tripitaka under the Mongol rule in the beginning of the fourteenth century.

Paper short abstract:

TBD

Paper long abstract:

The term refugium has been used to denote areas where Eurasian steppe peoples were safe from their enemies owing to remoteness, difficulty of access, or some combination of such factors (not to be confused with refugium as a temporary fortification of medieval villagers). This term was coined by Annemarie von Gabain and employed most frequently by Omeljan Pritsak, and as well by Peter Golden. A degree of sacredness was ascribed to some refugia by their possessors. Examples of refugia are the region north of the Göbi Desert for the Hiung-nu, Rouran, and Türks, the Semirechye/Yetisu for the West Türk Qaganate and Türgesh, the Blue Forest on the Samara River for Polovtsians/Qipchaqs, and Burqan Qaldun mountain for the Mongols of Chinggis Khan.

Because of the scarcity of explicit, unambiguous sources (pace Orkhon inscriptions) and a tendency to make casual use of the term, refugium has yet to be established as a recurring, archetypical phenomenon (real or imagined) in Eurasian history. Nor has it been well-defined as an analytical concept. I will argue that it is crucial to distinguish between a desert, steppe, forest, wetland, mountain, or other wilderness zone that provided refuge for bandits, insurgents, qazaqs, and other fugitives and a true refugium that, with or without sacred attributes, provided a territorial basis for the creation of a robust and more lasting center of power or a sociopolitical formation (or served as a crucial territorial component thereof). This paper will analyze the aforementioned regions and others in the Great Eurasian Steppe, such as the countless islands and wetlands of the lower Dnipro River below its rapids (Zaporozhia) where the genesis of Ukrainian cossackdom occurred. Also considered will be remote shores of the Baltic Sea whence the Goths (pace Jordanes) and the Vikings emerged, and likewise the Arabian Peninsula for the Arabs and Islam. A comparison and analysis of such places will show that (1) not all of them qualified as full-fledged refugia and few were considered sacred; (2) ideal-type notions of a refugium were not commonplace, hence no historical term for the concept—that Turkic terms such as yïsh (mountain-forest) or quz (sunless place) denoted refugia as opposed to landscapes is unproven; (3) most importantly, there was a continuum between simple refuges and full-fledged refugia and it is important to scrutinize the particular physical geographic features and other circumstances that lent a place longer-term efficacy rather than just short-term refuge status.

Paper long abstract:

A successor state of the Golden Horde and a vassal of the Ottoman Empire in 1475-1774, the Crimean Khanate (1441-1783) possessed its own institution of slavery which, similar to other Muslim polities of the time, was shaped and regulated by Islamic law. This paper will argue that Crimean slavery was also to a large degree a product of the khanate's location at the east European steppe frontier and its Turko-Mongol tribal legacy, and that these circumstances set the Khanate's system of slavery apart from that of the Ottoman Empire.

The human geography of the Crimean side of the steppe frontier was characterized by the presence of nomadic and semi-nomadic Turkic tribal groups, the Nogays and Crimean Tatars. During the heyday of the Crimean slave raiding (late 15th-17th centuries) the khanate's slaving zone (to use Jeff Fynn-Paul's theoretical concept) was Poland-Lithuania (especially Ukraine), southern Muscovy, and the North Caucasus.

With the Black Sea and a huge Ottoman slave market to the south and wide-open frontier zone to the north the khanate elevated its slaving to the level of a commercial enterprise. With the majority of the Slaves being of Slavic origin, likewise the Crimean terminology of slavery included Slavic loan-words (e.g., devke, kopna). A three-directional movement of chattel developed: from east Europe to the khanate; from the khanate to the Ottomans; and from the khanate back to countries of origin, through ransom or exchange. The profits accrued from all these transactions constituted a key source of revenue sustaining the khanate's economy of predation until the turn of the 18th century.

The Crimean system of slavery also appears to have been influenced by the Khanate's Turko-Mongol tribal ethos. The well-known tendency of nomadic and semi-nomadic pastoralist groups to perceive themselves superior to the sedentary populations which also lacked a tribal affiliation, may explain the Khanate's willingness to release its slaves and ex-slaves to their countries of origin as well its reluctance to fully integrate former slaves and their descendants into the Crimean society, as evidenced by the survival of such descendants (çora, tuma) as a separate group. This sense of superiority was likely boosted by the Chinggisid legacy of the Khanate's ruling dynasty, which as shown by Alan Fisher, and more recently by Natalia Królikowska-Jedlińska and Ilya Zaytsev, was an enduring trope in the Khanate's political theory and historiographical tradition.