Sayram
Encyclopedia
Sayram is a city located in southeastern South Kazakhstan Province
on the Sayram Su River, which rises at the nearby 4000 meter mountain Sayram Su. In medieval times, the city and countryside were located on the banks of the Arys/Ares
River, into which the Sayram Su river flows.
The city celebrated the 3000th anniversary of its founding in 1999. It is among the oldest cities in Kazakhstan
, site of the first mosque
in Kazakhstan, and similarly among the oldest cities in Transoxania. Sayram is significant today for maintaining mud-brick architecture and the absence of Soviet-style architecture. There are many pre-20th century mausoleums, and more continue to be built.
Archaeology
in Central Asia was active following its conquest by the Russian Empire
, but remains a relatively understudied area. There has been some field work done in the city both before and during the rise of the Soviet Union
, and there is likewise renewed interest in the city as one of the oldest cities of the independent country of Kazakhstan
. Notable among the archaeological discoveries is evidence of an early plumbing
system like the kinds found in Samarqand and other cities of the early Persian empires.
There is another city named Sayram in Xinjiang
, China located between Kucha
and Aksu, which, according to local tradition, was founded by captives captured by the Qalmaqs
.
mentioned it as the “White City which is called Isbīd̲j̲āb," suggesting its connection with the Soghdian/Persian word for white, sipīd or ispīd. Kashgari also mentioned that the city was known as Sayram at that time, the name which the town bears today. The Russian Orientalist
N. S. Lykoshin suggested that Sayram's correct name was Sar-i-ayyām, or "Ancient of Days." His editor held, however, that instead of ayyām, it was instead the Arabic yamm, sea, river and referred to the source of a stream. If the name Sayrām is actually Turkic, it probably refers to a place of shallow water. To wit, al-Kāsghari
gives, alongside his entry on Sayrām as the name of Isfijāb, the phrase sayram süw, or shallow water, which coincidentally is the name of the river running east of the center of the city. al-Kāsghari also later notes the verb sayramlan-, to become shallow, with the phrase "sùw sayramlandï," as in, "the water was shallow."
The modern city of Sayram celebrated its 3000th year of continued habitation in 1999.
Sayram is a city on the frontier between irrigated farmland and the pastures of the Dasht-i Qipchaq. It has a long history of commercial and political importance as a border town and has been the site of numerous conquests and reconquests.
, the holy book of Zoroastrianism
. There are several names mentioned, though it is possible they refer to people, places, cities, or geographic features. Historian Richard Frye states that "even guesses about their identity do not help us in reconstructing history." The word appearing in the Avesta is Sairima, which some historians equate with the name Sayram. There is mention of a river, and a land or people called Sairima elis, or people or land of/near Sayram. Sayram would have been a northern border town in the North-eastern reaches of the Achaemenid Empire, later conquered by Alexander. There is no mention of Sayram in the histories surrounding the acts of Alexander.
) of the Tu-lu Turkic tribe took refuge in Isfijab from the Nu-shih-pi.
After the expulsion of the heretical sects of Christianity, there came a large number of Christians to Central Asia and the East. Largest among them were the Nestorians
, who were condemned at the First Council of Ephesus in 431. There was a community of Nestorian Christians in Sayram when Islam
first came to Sayram in 766 AD who resisted conversion. Buddhism was also prevalent in Central Asia at that time.
The Arab Conquest was led by Iskak, known today in Sayram as Iskak-bab. The standard bearer of these soldiers of Islam was Abd al-Aziz. One surviving manuscript, entitled Nasabname tells how the Muslim warriors under Iskak-bab came to Sayram and met with the Nestorian patriarch of Sayram, Nakhibar.
The same manuscript goes on to describe Iskak-bab's building of the first mosque in Sayram, which would make it the first mosque in all of present-day Kazakhstan, as well.
Nūḥ b. Asad wrested control of the city from the Turks. In that year, Nūḥ built a wall around it to protect it from the Turks. By this time the city was a flourishing market center at the nexus of nomad and sedentary lands. It was also a lynch-pin in the broad zone of protective forts built to protect the Samanid empire from nomadic raiders. Moqaddasi numbered these fortresses, or rebats, at 1700. They built outer walls to protect the crops of the inhabitants from raiders, but the town was not only a military outpost. Traders from Bukhara and Samarkand constructed large caravanserais for themselves in Sayram.
Sayram was also the main contact between Samanid Islam and the Qaghan Turks of Turpan, Kashgar
, and Kucha
. The alternate southern routes were controlled by rival factions, leaving the primary route east through Farab
and Sayram.
Sayram is significant for maintaining a degree of independence from the Samanids, remaining a possession of the local Turkic dynasty. The rulers owed three signs of loyalty to the Samanids: military service, the presentation of symbolic gifts, and the name of the Samanid ruler on minted currency. Sayram at this time was one-third the size of Banākaṯ (now in ruins near present-day Chinaz, Uzbekistan), the chief town of the neighboring district of Šāš (present-day Tashkent).
Sayram was divided into three districts, like others of the time: qohandez (citadel), madīna (inner town), and rabaż (suburb), the latter two being protected by walls. All the houses were of mud brick. The government center (dār al-emāra), the prison, and the Friday mosque were all in the inner city. There were four main gates to the inner town, each guarded by a rebat manned by ḡāzīs (volunteer fighters for the faith) recruited from Bukhara
and Samarkand
. The ruler of Sayram apparently also exercised some authority within the steppes, since Moqaddasi mentions that the “king of the Turkmen” at the nearby place of Ordū habitually sent presents to Asfīǰāb.
of the Samanid
Empire. At this time, according to al-Istakhri, the city marked the border between Karluks and Oguz Turks. Sayram was part of the eastern Qarakhanid khanate based on three cities: Sayram itself, Talas, and Farḡāna. Coins were minted there by the Qarakhanid rulers. In the opening years of the 7th/13th century, the district seems to have been taken over by the Qipchaqs of the middle Syr Darya, for the Khorezmshah ʿAlāʾ-al-dīn Moḥammad devastated the area beyond the Syr Darya to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Mongol leader Küčlüg.
using catapults under the command of the Siet Alahai.
In 1220, the Taoist monk Qiu Chuji
left his home town of Shandong
in northern China and traveled to Persia to present himself before Genghis Khan. His fame as a pious exemplar of Taoist belief had preceded him, and his travels carried him over roads newly restored by the Mongols, roads that were then in better condition than when the Russian
Imperial Orientalist V. V. Barthold described them in the early 20th century. Qui Chuji (Chan-Chun, or Чан-чунь in Barthold's work) traveled through the land of the Uyghurs, through Kulja, through Zhetysu, crossing first the Chu River
on a wooden bridge, then the Talas River
on a bridge of stone, before reaching Sayram in November of 1221. The city of Sayram is mentioned in some detail in Qui Chuji's book Travels to the Western Regions
recorded by his disciples after Chuji returned home.
Genghis Khan
camped in Sayram, and awaited the arrival of his sons in 1223. Sayram's neighbor to the West was not so lucky, the doomed city of Otrar
, also called Utrar or Farab, and the birthplace of Al-Farabi
, which was utterly destroy by the Mongol leader.
The famous historian Rashid-al-Din (1247 - 1318） wrote that Sayram was also known as Kary Sailam (Old Sayram). At that time it was a large city with forty gates, and it took one whole day to cross the city.
Abder-razzak wrote that in 1410 the fortress of Sayram was besieged by Moghul forces, and by the end of th 15th century was given to Yunus Khan
of Moghulistan, where in 1496 his son was reigning there.
During the Ming dynasty
, envoy Chen Cheng (陈诚) was sent by Emperor Yongle to the Timurid
khanate and subsequently dedicated one chapter of his book A Record of the Babarian Countries in the Western Region
to Sayram.
Toward the end of the Timurid power, in the middle of the 15th century, Sayram was raided regularly (along with Turkestan) by the Moghul amir Mir Haqq-Berdi Bekichek.
soon grew in power and Sayram became a common prize of raids and wars between the Qazaqs, the Uzbeks, and the Qalmaqs
.
, leader of the Qazaqs
, at his approach to the city. Qasim Khan was very respected, and Babur
said that no Khan ever controlled the Qazaqs as well, and that he commanded at his height over 300,000 men.
Mansur Khan led an expedition against the Qazaqs
in 1522 in response to their raids from Sayram into the Farghana
. Thereafter, Sayram remained out of the hands of the Uzbeks, and came under the control of the Qazaqs.
In 1723, the year of the Barefoot Flight of the Kazakhs, Sayram, Turkistān and Tashkent passed under the control of the Qalmaqs
and remained within their control until their destruction by the Chinese in 1758.
in 1810. The local Qazaq population, and possibly the local sedentary population, revolted against Kokand control in 1820-1. There is little mention of Sayram in regional histories until its fall to the Russians in 1864, by which time the nearby city of Chimkent had already begun to eclipse Sayram in local importance.
in 1864, several new villages were founded around Sayram. They were found to be prosperous by I. I. Geier, a local Russian journalist/historian writing in the first decade of the 20th century, though Sayram was still noted for its superior wheat, horse market, historical background, and many tombs.
. At that time, the majority of modern-day Kazakhstan, including the steppe regions, were part of the separate Kirgizistan ASSR. After this period of border drawing and redrawing, Sayram eventually became part of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. It remains in the successor independent country of the Kazakh SSR, Kazakhstan
.
can be heard played by the city's mosques.
Sayram has thus earned the nickname Little Uzbekistan
. The economy of Kazakhstan
being much stronger than Uzbekistan, Sayram has seen an increase of migrant laborers from Uzbekistan, as well as those coming to stay as permanent residents.
. There is small minority of other ethnicities, mostly Kazakhs
.
. Like most of Central Asia's Muslims
, the people of Sayram identify with the Hanafi
school of Islam.
, which is host to an international airport that also receives domestic flights from Kazakhstan international hubs Almaty
and Astana
.
sources show evidence of pushing the date of his life to before the Mongol Conquest, ie c. 1103 - 1166. This chronology is generally accepted in contemporary Central Eurasian studies. His first teacher was Hazrat Shayh Shaxobiddin Isfijabi. Today he is known by the nickname Oqota Baba (White Grandfather). Near his mausoleum, there is a small stream bridged by the main road into Sayram. This bridge is the focus of a local legend concerning the meeting of Ahmed as a boy and the great wanderer Arslan Bab.
's followers. He had already lived 300 years before meeting Muhammed, and was well versed in all of the world's religions, though he chose to follow Islam alone. As Muhammed's death drew near, he asked his followers who would take the stone of his holy date, a carrier of all Islamic knowledge, and give it to the next generation. Arslan replied that he would gladly bear this burden, and taking the stone, continued on his journey. Hundreds of years later, as he passed through the small town of Isfijab, Arslan baba [his title of respect] was stopped on the road by a young boy. "Grandfather, give me my date stone!" demanded the young Ahmad. Arslan relinquished the stone, and following the death of Ahmad's father in 1113, journeyed with Ahmad to Yasa. From there Ahmad became a prize pupil and one of the rising stars of Sufism
. Arslan baba finally succumbed to old age and was buried near Otrar
. Following Arslan's death, Ahmed moved to Bukhara and followed the studies of Yusuf Hamdani
before moving to Yasi
.
. Their order was known for its disdain for hypocrisy and also the inclusion of certain historic Central Eurasian traditions identified with Zoroastrianism
and Manichaeism
. The earliest historical record of the Yasavi Order comes from Hakim Ata, and the uncertainty surrounding Ahmad's order stems from the confusion regarding the multiple dates given for Hakim's life and possible direct descent from Ahmad as the second, third, fourth, or fifth generation of the order.
Ahmed's mother and father are buried in Sayram. Their mausoleums are both major sites of pilgrimage today, drawing pilgrims from all over Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan
, Uzbekistan
, and the surrounding area. Tīmūr bin Taraghay Barlas
decreed that the mausoleum
be raised over the site of the Sufi's grave.
South Kazakhstan Province
South Kazakhstan Province is the southernmost province of Kazakhstan, with a population of 2,282,500 people. Its capital is Shymkent, with 539,600 people. Other cities in South Kazakhstan include Turkestan, Sayram, Kentau, Arys, Shardara, Jetysu, Saryag'ash and Lenger...
on the Sayram Su River, which rises at the nearby 4000 meter mountain Sayram Su. In medieval times, the city and countryside were located on the banks of the Arys/Ares
Arys River
The Arys is a river of southern Kazakhstan and a tributary of the Syr Darya. The length of the river is 378 km, covering a basin area of 14,900 km2....
River, into which the Sayram Su river flows.
The city celebrated the 3000th anniversary of its founding in 1999. It is among the oldest cities in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, site of the first mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
in Kazakhstan, and similarly among the oldest cities in Transoxania. Sayram is significant today for maintaining mud-brick architecture and the absence of Soviet-style architecture. There are many pre-20th century mausoleums, and more continue to be built.
Archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
in Central Asia was active following its conquest by the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The 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...
, but remains a relatively understudied area. There has been some field work done in the city both before and during the rise of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and there is likewise renewed interest in the city as one of the oldest cities of the independent country of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
. Notable among the archaeological discoveries is evidence of an early plumbing
Plumbing
Plumbing is the system of pipes and drains installed in a building for the distribution of potable drinking water and the removal of waterborne wastes, and the skilled trade of working with pipes, tubing and plumbing fixtures in such systems. A plumber is someone who installs or repairs piping...
system like the kinds found in Samarqand and other cities of the early Persian empires.
There is another city named Sayram in Xinjiang
Xinjiang
Xinjiang is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. It is the largest Chinese administrative division and spans over 1.6 million km2...
, China located between Kucha
Kucha
Kuchaor Kuche Uyghur , Chinese Simplified: 库车; Traditional: 庫車; pinyin Kùchē; also romanized as Qiuzi, Qiuci, Chiu-tzu, Kiu-che, Kuei-tzu from the traditional Chinese forms 屈支 屈茨; 龜玆; 龟兹, 丘玆, also Po ; Sanskrit: Kueina, Standard Tibetan: Kutsahiyui was an ancient Buddhist kingdom...
and Aksu, which, according to local tradition, was founded by captives captured by the Qalmaqs
Oirats
Oirats are the westernmost group of the Mongols who unified several tribes origin whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of western Mongolia. Although the Oirats originated in the eastern parts of Central Asia, the most prominent group today is located in the Republic of Kalmykia, a federal...
.
Etymology
The oldest name of the city according to historical evidence is Isfijab (Espijâb, Isfīdjāb, Asfīdjāb), which remained until the Mongol Conquest. Mahmud KashgariMahmud Kashgari
Mahmud ibn Hussayn ibn Muhammad al-Kashgari was an 11th century Turkic scholar and lexicographer of Turkic languages from Kashgar.His father, Hussayn, was the mayor of Barsgan and related to the Qara-Khanid ruling dynasty...
mentioned it as the “White City which is called Isbīd̲j̲āb," suggesting its connection with the Soghdian/Persian word for white, sipīd or ispīd. Kashgari also mentioned that the city was known as Sayram at that time, the name which the town bears today. The Russian Orientalist
Oriental studies
Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...
N. S. Lykoshin suggested that Sayram's correct name was Sar-i-ayyām, or "Ancient of Days." His editor held, however, that instead of ayyām, it was instead the Arabic yamm, sea, river and referred to the source of a stream. If the name Sayrām is actually Turkic, it probably refers to a place of shallow water. To wit, al-Kāsghari
Mahmud Kashgari
Mahmud ibn Hussayn ibn Muhammad al-Kashgari was an 11th century Turkic scholar and lexicographer of Turkic languages from Kashgar.His father, Hussayn, was the mayor of Barsgan and related to the Qara-Khanid ruling dynasty...
gives, alongside his entry on Sayrām as the name of Isfijāb, the phrase sayram süw, or shallow water, which coincidentally is the name of the river running east of the center of the city. al-Kāsghari also later notes the verb sayramlan-, to become shallow, with the phrase "sùw sayramlandï," as in, "the water was shallow."
History
Sayram is a city on the frontier between irrigated farmland and the pastures of the Dasht-i Qipchaq. It has a long history of commercial and political importance as a border town and has been the site of numerous conquests and reconquests.
Earliest history
Some local historians have attempted to find proof of Sayram's prehistory in the holy book of the Zoroastrian faith. They state that the first recorded mention of Sayram is in the AvestaAvesta
The Avesta is the primary collection of sacred texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language.-Early transmission:The texts of the Avesta — which are all in the Avestan language — were composed over the course of several hundred years. The most important portion, the Gathas,...
, the holy book of Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
. There are several names mentioned, though it is possible they refer to people, places, cities, or geographic features. Historian Richard Frye states that "even guesses about their identity do not help us in reconstructing history." The word appearing in the Avesta is Sairima, which some historians equate with the name Sayram. There is mention of a river, and a land or people called Sairima elis, or people or land of/near Sayram. Sayram would have been a northern border town in the North-eastern reaches of the Achaemenid Empire, later conquered by Alexander. There is no mention of Sayram in the histories surrounding the acts of Alexander.
Before Islam
In the 7th century, the Western Turkic confederation consisted of five Tu-lu and five Nu-shih-pi tribes, known collectively as the On Ok (Ten Arrows) and by the Chinese as Shih Hsing (Ten Clans). In 642, the Khaqan (KhanKhan (title)
Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...
) of the Tu-lu Turkic tribe took refuge in Isfijab from the Nu-shih-pi.
After the expulsion of the heretical sects of Christianity, there came a large number of Christians to Central Asia and the East. Largest among them were the Nestorians
Nestorianism
Nestorianism is a Christological doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428–431. The doctrine, which was informed by Nestorius's studies under Theodore of Mopsuestia at the School of Antioch, emphasizes the disunion between the human and divine natures of Jesus...
, who were condemned at the First Council of Ephesus in 431. There was a community of Nestorian Christians in Sayram when Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
first came to Sayram in 766 AD who resisted conversion. Buddhism was also prevalent in Central Asia at that time.
Islamic Conquest
Sayram was already an important trading site in the centuries before the Arab Conquest. Islam was brought to Sayram and its neighboring cities by a detachment of Arabic and Arabic-speaking soldier-evangelicals from the already converted lands to the south. Sayram, or Isfijab as it was then known, served as a border town between the Islamic lands and the pagan Turks..The Arab Conquest was led by Iskak, known today in Sayram as Iskak-bab. The standard bearer of these soldiers of Islam was Abd al-Aziz. One surviving manuscript, entitled Nasabname tells how the Muslim warriors under Iskak-bab came to Sayram and met with the Nestorian patriarch of Sayram, Nakhibar.
Iskak-bab invited Nakhibar to the true faith. But Nakhibar replied, "I am a tarsa (Christian) of the seventieth generation, and my faith is true! That is why I shall fight you." Hand-to-hand combat ensued, and lasted for three days and nights. Ten thousand Nestorian tarsas and fifteen thousand Muslim evangelicals died for their faith. The color-bearer of the Muslim forces was Abd al-Aziz.
The same manuscript goes on to describe Iskak-bab's building of the first mosque in Sayram, which would make it the first mosque in all of present-day Kazakhstan, as well.
"After that he set up a Friday mosque in Sayram. The first stone in the foundation was laid by his hands. He sanctified the stone with holy water."
Under the Samanids
In 840 AD, the Samanid chief of SamarkandSamarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
Nūḥ b. Asad wrested control of the city from the Turks. In that year, Nūḥ built a wall around it to protect it from the Turks. By this time the city was a flourishing market center at the nexus of nomad and sedentary lands. It was also a lynch-pin in the broad zone of protective forts built to protect the Samanid empire from nomadic raiders. Moqaddasi numbered these fortresses, or rebats, at 1700. They built outer walls to protect the crops of the inhabitants from raiders, but the town was not only a military outpost. Traders from Bukhara and Samarkand constructed large caravanserais for themselves in Sayram.
Sayram was also the main contact between Samanid Islam and the Qaghan Turks of Turpan, Kashgar
Kashgar
Kashgar or Kashi is an oasis city with approximately 350,000 residents in the western part of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China. Kashgar is the administrative centre of Kashgar Prefecture which has an area of 162,000 km² and a population of approximately...
, and Kucha
Kucha
Kuchaor Kuche Uyghur , Chinese Simplified: 库车; Traditional: 庫車; pinyin Kùchē; also romanized as Qiuzi, Qiuci, Chiu-tzu, Kiu-che, Kuei-tzu from the traditional Chinese forms 屈支 屈茨; 龜玆; 龟兹, 丘玆, also Po ; Sanskrit: Kueina, Standard Tibetan: Kutsahiyui was an ancient Buddhist kingdom...
. The alternate southern routes were controlled by rival factions, leaving the primary route east through Farab
Farab
Farab may refer to:*Farab, Ardabil, a village in Iran*Farab, an old name for Otrar, Kazakhstan...
and Sayram.
Sayram is significant for maintaining a degree of independence from the Samanids, remaining a possession of the local Turkic dynasty. The rulers owed three signs of loyalty to the Samanids: military service, the presentation of symbolic gifts, and the name of the Samanid ruler on minted currency. Sayram at this time was one-third the size of Banākaṯ (now in ruins near present-day Chinaz, Uzbekistan), the chief town of the neighboring district of Šāš (present-day Tashkent).
Sayram was divided into three districts, like others of the time: qohandez (citadel), madīna (inner town), and rabaż (suburb), the latter two being protected by walls. All the houses were of mud brick. The government center (dār al-emāra), the prison, and the Friday mosque were all in the inner city. There were four main gates to the inner town, each guarded by a rebat manned by ḡāzīs (volunteer fighters for the faith) recruited from Bukhara
Bukhara
Bukhara , from the Soghdian βuxārak , is the capital of the Bukhara Province of Uzbekistan. The nation's fifth-largest city, it has a population of 263,400 . The region around Bukhara has been inhabited for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time...
and Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
. The ruler of Sayram apparently also exercised some authority within the steppes, since Moqaddasi mentions that the “king of the Turkmen” at the nearby place of Ordū habitually sent presents to Asfīǰāb.
Under the Qarakhanids
The Qarakhanids seized the city in 980, during the reign of Nuh IINuh II of Samanid
Nuh II was amir of the Sāmānids . He was the son of Mansur I.-Beginning and Middle of Reign:Having ascended the throne as a youth, Nuh was assisted by his mother and his vizier Abu'l-Husain 'Abd-Allah ibn Ahmad 'Utbi. Sometime around his ascension, the Karakhanids invaded and captured the upper...
of the Samanid
Samanid
The Samani dynasty , also known as the Samanid Empire, or simply Samanids was a Persian state and empire in Central Asia and Greater Iran, named after its founder Saman Khuda, who converted to Sunni Islam despite being from Zoroastrian theocratic nobility...
Empire. At this time, according to al-Istakhri, the city marked the border between Karluks and Oguz Turks. Sayram was part of the eastern Qarakhanid khanate based on three cities: Sayram itself, Talas, and Farḡāna. Coins were minted there by the Qarakhanid rulers. In the opening years of the 7th/13th century, the district seems to have been taken over by the Qipchaqs of the middle Syr Darya, for the Khorezmshah ʿAlāʾ-al-dīn Moḥammad devastated the area beyond the Syr Darya to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Mongol leader Küčlüg.
Sayram under the Mongols
The city of Sayram was captured by the MongolsMongol Empire
The Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...
using catapults under the command of the Siet Alahai.
In 1220, the Taoist monk Qiu Chuji
Qiu Chuji
Qiu Chuji was a Daoist disciple of Wang Chongyang. He was the most famous among the Seven True Daoists of the North...
left his home town of Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
in northern China and traveled to Persia to present himself before Genghis Khan. His fame as a pious exemplar of Taoist belief had preceded him, and his travels carried him over roads newly restored by the Mongols, roads that were then in better condition than when the Russian
Imperial Orientalist V. V. Barthold described them in the early 20th century. Qui Chuji (Chan-Chun, or Чан-чунь in Barthold's work) traveled through the land of the Uyghurs, through Kulja, through Zhetysu, crossing first the Chu River
Chu River
"Chui River" redirects here. For the South American Chuí or Chuy River, on the Brazil-Uruguay border and Brazil's southernmost point, see Chuí River. For the Nam Sam River or Chu River, on the Lao-Vietnam border, see Nam Sam River....
on a wooden bridge, then the Talas River
Talas River
The Talas River rises in the Talas Province of Kyrgyzstan and flows west into Kazakhstan. It is formed from the confluence of the Karakol and Uch-Koshoy...
on a bridge of stone, before reaching Sayram in November of 1221. The city of Sayram is mentioned in some detail in Qui Chuji's book Travels to the Western Regions
Travels to the West of Qiu Chang Chun
Qiu Chang Chun Xi You Ji was a record of journey of the Taoist monk Qiu Chuji from Shandong, China through central Asia to Persia to present himself before Genghis Khan....
recorded by his disciples after Chuji returned home.
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan
Genghis Khan , born Temujin and occasionally known by his temple name Taizu , was the founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death....
camped in Sayram, and awaited the arrival of his sons in 1223. Sayram's neighbor to the West was not so lucky, the doomed city of Otrar
Otrar
Otrar or Utrar is a Central Asian ghost town that was a city located along the Silk Road near the current town of Karatau in Kazakhstan. Otrar was an important town in the history of Central Asia, situated on the borders of settled and agricultural civilizations...
, also called Utrar or Farab, and the birthplace of Al-Farabi
Al-Farabi
' known in the West as Alpharabius , was a scientist and philosopher of the Islamic world...
, which was utterly destroy by the Mongol leader.
The famous historian Rashid-al-Din (1247 - 1318） wrote that Sayram was also known as Kary Sailam (Old Sayram). At that time it was a large city with forty gates, and it took one whole day to cross the city.
Sayram under Timur
It is unclear when the city fell under Timur's rule. Under the Timurids, Sayram was an important border city, a center of trade, and Timur gave rule of the city to his grandson Ulugbek. In 1404, the right wing of Timur's China-bound invasion force wintered in Sayram, Tashkent, and Banākaṯ.Abder-razzak wrote that in 1410 the fortress of Sayram was besieged by Moghul forces, and by the end of th 15th century was given to Yunus Khan
Yunus Khan
Yunus Khan , was Khan of Moghulistan from 1462 until his death. He is identified by many historians with Ḥājjī `Ali , of the contemporary Chinese records.- Background and Family :...
of Moghulistan, where in 1496 his son was reigning there.
During the Ming dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
, envoy Chen Cheng (陈诚) was sent by Emperor Yongle to the Timurid
Timurid Dynasty
The Timurids , self-designated Gurkānī , were a Persianate, Central Asian Sunni Muslim dynasty of Turko-Mongol descent whose empire included the whole of Iran, modern Afghanistan, and modern Uzbekistan, as well as large parts of contemporary Pakistan, North India, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the...
khanate and subsequently dedicated one chapter of his book A Record of the Babarian Countries in the Western Region
Xi yu fan guo zhi
西域番国志 was a report submitted by Ming dynasty...
to Sayram.
Toward the end of the Timurid power, in the middle of the 15th century, Sayram was raided regularly (along with Turkestan) by the Moghul amir Mir Haqq-Berdi Bekichek.
Sayram under Muhammad Shaybani
Shaybani Khan took Sayram in 1503. With the coming of Uzbek power in the region, Sayram fell to Muhammad Shaybani Khan along with the rest of the region. However, peace in the region was elusive. The QazaqsKazakhs
The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
soon grew in power and Sayram became a common prize of raids and wars between the Qazaqs, the Uzbeks, and the Qalmaqs
Dzungar people
The Dzungar or Zunghar is the collective identity of several Oirat tribes that formed and maintained the Zunghar Khanate in the 17th to 18th century...
.
Sayram under the Qazaqs
In 1512, the keys of the city were given to Qasim KhanQasim khan
Qasím Khan was the first khan of the Qasim Khanate, a Tatar khanate since 1450s. He was the son of Kazan khan Oluğ Möxämmäd....
, leader of the Qazaqs
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
, at his approach to the city. Qasim Khan was very respected, and Babur
Babur
Babur was a Muslim conqueror from Central Asia who, following a series of setbacks, finally succeeded in laying the basis for the Mughal dynasty of South Asia. He was a direct descendant of Timur through his father, and a descendant also of Genghis Khan through his mother...
said that no Khan ever controlled the Qazaqs as well, and that he commanded at his height over 300,000 men.
Mansur Khan led an expedition against the Qazaqs
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
in 1522 in response to their raids from Sayram into the Farghana
Fergana Valley
The Fergana Valley or Farghana Valley is a region in Central Asia spreading across eastern Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Divided across three subdivisions of the former Soviet Union, the valley is ethnically diverse, and in the early 21st century was the scene of ethnic conflict...
. Thereafter, Sayram remained out of the hands of the Uzbeks, and came under the control of the Qazaqs.
In 1723, the year of the Barefoot Flight of the Kazakhs, Sayram, Turkistān and Tashkent passed under the control of the Qalmaqs
Oirats
Oirats are the westernmost group of the Mongols who unified several tribes origin whose ancestral home is in the Altai region of western Mongolia. Although the Oirats originated in the eastern parts of Central Asia, the most prominent group today is located in the Republic of Kalmykia, a federal...
and remained within their control until their destruction by the Chinese in 1758.
Sayram under the Khanate of Kokand
The city of Sayram was taken by the Ming of the Kokand KhanateKhanate of Kokand
The Khanate of Kokand was a state in Central Asia that existed from 1709–1883 within the territory of modern eastern Uzbekistan, southern Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan...
in 1810. The local Qazaq population, and possibly the local sedentary population, revolted against Kokand control in 1820-1. There is little mention of Sayram in regional histories until its fall to the Russians in 1864, by which time the nearby city of Chimkent had already begun to eclipse Sayram in local importance.
Sayram under the Russians
After the Russian conquestRussian Empire
The 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 1864, several new villages were founded around Sayram. They were found to be prosperous by I. I. Geier, a local Russian journalist/historian writing in the first decade of the 20th century, though Sayram was still noted for its superior wheat, horse market, historical background, and many tombs.
Sayram under the Soviet Union
During National delimitation, the area of Sayram was at one point part of the Turkistan ASSRTurkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created from the Turkestan Krai of Imperial Russia...
. At that time, the majority of modern-day Kazakhstan, including the steppe regions, were part of the separate Kirgizistan ASSR. After this period of border drawing and redrawing, Sayram eventually became part of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic. It remains in the successor independent country of the Kazakh SSR, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
.
Demographics
The population of over 40,000 is roughly 95% Uzbek, 3% Kazakh, and 1% Russian, with the remainder being Uzbek-speaking Azeris, Chechens, Tajiks and Iranians. Sayram is a city of observant Muslims, and the call to prayerAdhan
The adhān is the Islamic call to prayer, recited by the muezzin at prescribed times of the day. The root of the word is meaning "to permit"; another derivative of this word is , meaning "ear"....
can be heard played by the city's mosques.
Sayram has thus earned the nickname Little Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
. The economy of Kazakhstan
Economy of Kazakhstan
The economy of Kazakhstan is the largest economy in Central Asia. It possesses enormous fossil fuel reserves as well as minerals and metals. It also has considerable agricultural potential with its vast steppe lands accommodating both livestock and grain production, as well as developed space...
being much stronger than Uzbekistan, Sayram has seen an increase of migrant laborers from Uzbekistan, as well as those coming to stay as permanent residents.
Ethnic groups
The citizens of modern Sayram are ethnic UzbeksUzbeks
The Uzbeks are a Turkic ethnic group in Central Asia. They comprise the majority population of Uzbekistan, and large populations can also be found in Afghanistan, Tajikstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Pakistan, Mongolia and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China...
. There is small minority of other ethnicities, mostly Kazakhs
Kazakhs
The Kazakhs are a Turkic people of the northern parts of Central Asia ....
.
Religion
The religion of the inhabitants of Sayram is IslamIslam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. Like most of Central Asia's Muslims
Islam in Central Asia
Islam is the most widely practiced religion in Central Asia. The Hanafi school of thought is the most popular.-Medieval:The Battle of Talas in 751 between the Abbasid Caliphate and the Chinese Tang Dynasty for control of Central Asia was the turning point initiating mass conversion into Islam in...
, the people of Sayram identify with the Hanafi
Hanafi
The Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhab in jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Persian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani...
school of Islam.
Main sights
Modern Sayram is still very much a part of ancient Central Asia. Unlike most of Kazakhstan, it bears almost no mark of Soviet planning or modernization. The streets curve in many directions, while the center of the town is the same crossroads that have been used for centuries. There are no apartments in the city proper, and no buildings more than two-stories high, allowing the skyline to be dominated by the domes of local minarets, mosques, and mausoleums, some more than 1000 years old.Transportation
Sayram is reachable via a ten- to fifteen-minute bus, taxi, or marshrutka ride from ShymkentShymkent
Shymkent , formerly known as Chimkent , is the capital city of South Kazakhstan Province, the most populated region in Kazakhstan. It is the third most populous city in Kazakhstan behind Almaty and Astana with a population of 629,600 . A major railroad junction on the Turkestan-Siberia Railway, the...
, which is host to an international airport that also receives domestic flights from Kazakhstan international hubs Almaty
Almaty
Almaty , also known by its former names Verny and Alma-Ata , is the former capital of Kazakhstan and the nation's largest city, with a population of 1,348,500...
and Astana
Astana
Astana , formerly known as Akmola , Tselinograd and Akmolinsk , is the capital and second largest city of Kazakhstan, with an officially estimated population of 708,794 as of 1 August 2010...
.
Ahmed Yasavi and Sayram
The man who later became Khoja Ahmed Yasavi was born in Sayram. The date of his birth is difficult to ascertain from historical documents, and later 13th century hagiographicalHagiography
Hagiography is the study of saints.From the Greek and , it refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders. The term hagiology, the study of hagiography, is also current in English, though less common...
sources show evidence of pushing the date of his life to before the Mongol Conquest, ie c. 1103 - 1166. This chronology is generally accepted in contemporary Central Eurasian studies. His first teacher was Hazrat Shayh Shaxobiddin Isfijabi. Today he is known by the nickname Oqota Baba (White Grandfather). Near his mausoleum, there is a small stream bridged by the main road into Sayram. This bridge is the focus of a local legend concerning the meeting of Ahmed as a boy and the great wanderer Arslan Bab.
Ahmad in Local Legends
According to legend, Arslan was one of the Islamic prophet MuhammadMuhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
's followers. He had already lived 300 years before meeting Muhammed, and was well versed in all of the world's religions, though he chose to follow Islam alone. As Muhammed's death drew near, he asked his followers who would take the stone of his holy date, a carrier of all Islamic knowledge, and give it to the next generation. Arslan replied that he would gladly bear this burden, and taking the stone, continued on his journey. Hundreds of years later, as he passed through the small town of Isfijab, Arslan baba [his title of respect] was stopped on the road by a young boy. "Grandfather, give me my date stone!" demanded the young Ahmad. Arslan relinquished the stone, and following the death of Ahmad's father in 1113, journeyed with Ahmad to Yasa. From there Ahmad became a prize pupil and one of the rising stars of Sufism
Sufism
Sufism or ' is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a '...
. Arslan baba finally succumbed to old age and was buried near Otrar
Otrar
Otrar or Utrar is a Central Asian ghost town that was a city located along the Silk Road near the current town of Karatau in Kazakhstan. Otrar was an important town in the history of Central Asia, situated on the borders of settled and agricultural civilizations...
. Following Arslan's death, Ahmed moved to Bukhara and followed the studies of Yusuf Hamdani
Yusuf Hamdani
Hadrat Abu Yaqub Yusuf Hamdani is the first of the group of Central Asian Sufi teachers known simply as Khwajagan of the Naqshbandi order.-Life:...
before moving to Yasi
Hazrat-e Turkestan
-References:*Hill, John E. Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1.*Hulsewé, A. F. P. and Loewe, M. A. N. 1979...
.
The Yasavi Order
He spent the majority of his life in Yasi, taking the name Ahmed Yasawi. His order is known as the Yasawiyya/Yasavi, and is particularly important in the history of the region, as well as in AnatoliaAnatolia
Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...
. Their order was known for its disdain for hypocrisy and also the inclusion of certain historic Central Eurasian traditions identified with Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
and Manichaeism
Manichaeism
Manichaeism in Modern Persian Āyin e Māni; ) was one of the major Iranian Gnostic religions, originating in Sassanid Persia.Although most of the original writings of the founding prophet Mani have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived...
. The earliest historical record of the Yasavi Order comes from Hakim Ata, and the uncertainty surrounding Ahmad's order stems from the confusion regarding the multiple dates given for Hakim's life and possible direct descent from Ahmad as the second, third, fourth, or fifth generation of the order.
Ahmed's mother and father are buried in Sayram. Their mausoleums are both major sites of pilgrimage today, drawing pilgrims from all over Central Asia: Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, and the surrounding area. Tīmūr bin Taraghay Barlas
Timur
Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...
decreed that the mausoleum
Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasavi
The Mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi is an unfinished mausoleum in the city of Turkestan, in southern Kazakhstan. The structure was commissioned in 1389 by Timur, who ruled the area as part of the expansive Mongol Empire, to replace a smaller 12th-century mausoleum of the famous Turkic poet and...
be raised over the site of the Sufi's grave.
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