Merv (Turkmen: Merw, Persian: مرو Marw), formerly AchaemenidSatrapy of Margiana, and later Alexandria (Ἀλεξάνδρεια) andAntiochia in Margiana (Greek: Ἀντιόχεια τῆς Μαργιανῆς), was a major oasis-city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, located near today's Mary in Turkmenistan. Several cities have existed on this site, which is significant for the interchange of culture and politics at a site of major strategic value. It is claimed that Merv was briefly the largest city in the world in the 12th century.[1] The site of ancient Merv has been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. (See List of World Heritage Sites in Turkmenistan)
Merv's origins are prehistoric: archaeological surveys have revealed many traces of village life as far back as the 3rd millennium BC and that the city was culturally part of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex. Under the name ofMouru, Merv is mentioned with Balkh in the geography of the Zend-Avesta (commentaries on the Avesta). Under theAchaemenid dynasty Merv is mentioned as being a place of some importance: under the name of Margu it occurs as part of one of the satrapies in the Behistun inscriptions (ca. 515 BC) of the Persian monarch Darius Hystaspis. The first city of Merv was founded in the 6th century BC as part of the expansion into the region by the Achaemenid Empire[2] of Cyrus the Great(559–530 BC), but the Achaemenid levels are deeply covered by later strata at the site.
Alexander the Great's visit to Merv is merely legendary, but the city was named Alexandria (Ἀλεξάνδρεια) for a time. After Alexander's death, Merv became the capital of the Province of Margiana of the Seleucid, Parthian, and Sassanid states. Merv was renamed Antiochia Margiana by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus Soter, who rebuilt and expanded the city at the site presently known as Gyaur Gala (Turkish Gayur Kala) (Fortress). It was ruled in succession by Bactria, Parthia, and theKushans after the fall of the Seleucid dynasty. It was a major city of Buddhist learning for many centuries until its Islamicization.
After the Sassanid Ardashir I (220–240 AD) took Merv, the study of numismatics picks up the thread: a long unbroken direct Sassanian rule of four centuries is documented from the unbroken series of coins originally minted at Merv. During this period Merv was home to practitioners of various religions beside the official Sassanid Zoroastrianism, including Buddhists,Manichaeans, and Christians of the Church of the East. Between the 6th (553) and 11th centuries AD, Merv was the seat of an East Syrian metropolitan province. Sassanid rule was briefly interrupted by the Hephthalite occupation from the end of the 5th century to 565 a.d.
Arab occupation and influence
Sassanian rule came to an end when the last Sassanian ruler, Yazdegerd III (632–651) was murdered not far from the city and the Sassanian military governor surrendered to the approaching Arab army. The city was occupied by lieutenants of the caliph Umar, and became the capital of the Umayyad province of Khorasan. In 671, Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan sent 50,000 Arab troops to Merv as a colony. This colony retained its native Kufan sympathies and became the nucleus of Khurasan.[3] Using this city as their base, the Arabs, led by Qutayba ibn Muslim, brought under subjection large parts of Central Asia, includingBalkh, Bokhara, Fergana and Kashgaria, and penetrated into China as far as the province of Gansu early in the 8th century.[4]Merv, and Khorasan in general was to become one of the first parts of the Persian-speaking world to become majority-Muslim. Arab immigration to the area was substantial. A Chinese captured at Talas, Du Huan, was brought to Baghdad and toured the caliphate. He observed that in Merv, Khurasan, Arabs and Persians lived in mixed concentrations.[5]
Merv reached renewed importance in February 748 when the Iranian general Abu Muslim (d. 755) declared a new Abbasid dynasty at Merv, expanding and re-founding the city, and, in the name of the Abbasid line, used the city as a base of rebellion against the Umayyad caliphate. After the Abbasids were established in Baghdad Abu Muslim continued to rule Merv as a semi-independent prince until his eventual assassination. Indeed, Merv was the center of Abbasid partisanship for the duration of the Abbasid revolution, and later on became a consistent source of political support for the Abbasid rulers inBaghdad, and the governorship of Khurasan at Merv was considered one of the most important political figures of theCaliphate. The influential Barmakid family was based in Merv and played an important part in transferring Greek knowledge (established in Merv since the days of the Seleucids and Greco-Bactrians) into the Arab world.
Throughout the Abbasid era, Merv remained the capital and most important city of Khurasan. During this time, the Arab historian Al-Muqaddasi called Merv “delightful, fine, elegant, brilliant, extensive, and pleasant.” Merv's architecture perhaps provided the inspiration for the Abbasid re-planning of Baghdad. The city was notable for being a home for immigrants from the Arab lands as well as from Sogdia and elsewhere in Central Asia (Herrmann 1999). Merv's importance to the Abbasids was highlighted in the period from 813 to 818 when the temporary residency of the caliph al-Ma'mun effectively made Merv the capital of the Muslim world. Merv was also the center of a major 8th-century Neo-Mazdakite movement led by al-Muqanna, the “Veiled Prophet”, who gained many followers by claiming to be an incarnation of God and heir to Abu Muslim; the Khurramiyya inspired by him persisted in Merv until the 12th century.
During this period Merv, like Samarkand and Bukhara, was one of the great cities of Muslim scholarship; the celebrated historian Yaqut studied in its libraries. Merv produced a number of scholars in various branches of knowledge, such asIslamic law, hadith, history, and literature. Several scholars have the name Marwazi المروزي designating them as hailing from Merv, including the famous Ahmad Ibn Hanbal. The city continued to have a substantial Christian community. In 1009 the Archbishop of Merv sent a letter to the Patriarch at Baghdad asking that the Keraits be allowed to fast less than other Nestorian Christians.[6]
As the caliphate weakened, Arab rule in Merv was replaced by that of the Persian general Tahir b. al -Husayn and his Tahiriddynasty in 821. The Tahirids were in turn replaced in Merv by the first the Saffarids, then the Samanids and later theGhaznavids.
Turks in Merv
In 1037, the Seljuks, a clan of Oghuz Turks moving from the steppes east of the Aral Sea, peacefully took over Merv under the leadership of Toghril Beg—the Ghaznavid sultan Masud was extremely unpopular in the city. Togrul's brother Çagry stayed in Merv as the Seljuk domains grew to include the rest of Khurasan and Iran, and it subsequently became a favorite city of the Seljuk leadership. Alp Arslan and his descendant Sultan Sanjar were both buried at Merv.
It is during this period that Merv expanded to its greatest size—Arab and Persian geographers termed it "the mother of the world", the "rendezvous of great and small", the "chief city of Khurasan" and the capital of the eastern Islamic world. Written sources also attest to a large library and madrasa founded by Nizam al-Mulk, as well as many other major cultural institutions. Perhaps most importantly, Merv was said to have a market that is "the best of the major cities of Iran and Khurasan" (Herrmann 1999). It is believed that Merv was the largest city in the world from 1145 to 1153, with a population of 200,000.[1].
Sanjar's rule, marked by conflict with the Kara-Khitai and Khwarazmians, ended in 1153 when the Turkish Ghuzz nomads from beyond the Amu Darya pillaged the city. Subsequently Merv changed hands between the Khwarazmians of Khiva, the Ghuzz, and the Ghurids, and began to lose importance relative to Khurasan's other major city, Nishapur.
Mongols in Merv
In 1221, Merv opened its gates to Tolui, son of Genghis Khan, chief of the Mongols, on which occasion most of the inhabitants are said to have been butchered. The Persian historian Juvayni, writing a generation after the destruction of Merv, wrote
“The Mongols ordered that, apart from four hundred artisans. .., the whole population, including the women and children, should be killed, and no one, whether woman or man, be spared. To each [Mongol soldier] was allotted the execution of three or four hundred Persians. So many had been killed by nightfall that the mountains became hillocks, and the plain was soaked with the blood of the mighty.”
Some historians believe that over one million people died in the aftermath of the city's capture, including hundreds of thousands of refugees from elsewhere, making it one of the most bloody captures of a city in world history.
Excavations revealed drastic rebuilding of the city's fortifications in the aftermath, but the prosperity of the city was over. The Mongol invasion was to spell the end for Merv and indeed other major centres for more than a century. After Moghol conquest, it was part of Ilkhanate. In the early part of the 14th century, the town was made the seat of a Christian archbishopric of the Eastern Church. By 1380 Merv belonged to the empire of Timur (Tamerlane).
Uzbeks in Merv and its Final Destruction
In 1505, the city was occupied by the Uzbeks, who five years later were expelled by Shah Ismail, the founder of the Safavid dynasty of Persia. It was in this period that a large dam (the 'Soltanbent') on the river Murghab was restored by a Persiannobleman, and the settlement which grew up in the area thus irrigated became known as 'Baýramaly', by which name it is referred to in some 19th-century texts. Merv remained in the hands of Persia except Uzbek rule between 1524 and 1528 and again between 1588 and 1598 until 1785, when it was captured by Shah Murad the Emir of Bokhara. Few years later in 1788 and 1789, the Bukharan Shah Murad Beg, razed the city to the ground, broke down the dams, and converted the district into a waste. The entire population of the city and the surrounding oasis of about 100,000 were then deported in several stages to the Bukharan oasis and the Zarafshan Valley. Being nearly all Persian-speaking Shi'as, the deportees resisted assimilation into the Sunni population of Bukhara, despite the common language they spoke with most Bukharan natives. These Marvis survive today—and were listed as "Iranis/Iranians" in Soviet censuses through the 1980s. They are found now in Samarkandas well as Bukhara and the area in between on the Zarafshan river.
Nineteenth century
Merv was passed to Khanate of Khiva in 1823. Sir Alexander Burnes traversed the country in 1832. About this time, theTekke Turkomans, then living on the Tejen River, were forced by the Persians to migrate northward. Khiva contested the advance of the Tekkes, but ultimately, about 1856, the latter became the sovereign power in the country, and remained so until the Russians occupied the oasis in 1884. By 1868 the Russians had taken most of Russian Central Asia except Turkmenistan. They approached this area from the Caspian and in 1881 captured Geok Tepe. Merv was taken bloodlessly by a man named Alikhanov. He was a Muslim from the Caucasus who had risen to the rank of Major in the Russian service. After fighting a duel with a superior officer he was demoted to the ranks and by 1882 had risen to lieutenant. In 1882 he entered Merv claiming to be a Russian merchant and negotiated a trade agreement. Meanwhile Russian agents had used a mixture of bribes and threats to develop a pro-Russian party in the area. The Russians occupied the oasis of Tejend eighty miles to the west. In 1884 Alikhanov entered Merv in the uniform of a Russian officer along with a number of Turkoman notables who had already submitted. He claimed that the troops at Tejend were the spearhead of a larger force and that local autonomy would be respected. Seeing no hope of support from Persia or Britain, the elders submitted. The next Russian move was south toward Herat.
Wow I didnt't know that Alp Arslan the Seljuk ruler and his son Sanjar were buried in Merv. As you know he was the Turk who conquered Anatolia which was called Turkey in the 12th century. I don't think that there is any city in this world whoose history is so tragic and diverse like Mervs
Merv's origins are prehistoric: archaeological surveys have revealed many traces of village life as far back as the 3rd millennium BC and that the city was culturally part of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex. Under the name ofMouru, Merv is mentioned with Balkh in the geography of the Zend-Avesta (commentaries on the Avesta). Under theAchaemenid dynasty Merv is mentioned as being a place of some importance: under the name of Margu it occurs as part of one of the satrapies in the Behistun inscriptions (ca. 515 BC) of the Persian monarch Darius Hystaspis. The first city of Merv was founded in the 6th century BC as part of the expansion into the region by the Achaemenid Empire[2] of Cyrus the Great(559–530 BC), but the Achaemenid levels are deeply covered by later strata at the site.
Alexander the Great's visit to Merv is merely legendary, but the city was named Alexandria (Ἀλεξάνδρεια) for a time. After Alexander's death, Merv became the capital of the Province of Margiana of the Seleucid, Parthian, and Sassanid states. Merv was renamed Antiochia Margiana by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus Soter, who rebuilt and expanded the city at the site presently known as Gyaur Gala (Turkish Gayur Kala) (Fortress). It was ruled in succession by Bactria, Parthia, and theKushans after the fall of the Seleucid dynasty. It was a major city of Buddhist learning for many centuries until its Islamicization.
After the Sassanid Ardashir I (220–240 AD) took Merv, the study of numismatics picks up the thread: a long unbroken direct Sassanian rule of four centuries is documented from the unbroken series of coins originally minted at Merv. During this period Merv was home to practitioners of various religions beside the official Sassanid Zoroastrianism, including Buddhists,Manichaeans, and Christians of the Church of the East. Between the 6th (553) and 11th centuries AD, Merv was the seat of an East Syrian metropolitan province. Sassanid rule was briefly interrupted by the Hephthalite occupation from the end of the 5th century to 565 a.d.
Arab occupation and influence
Sassanian rule came to an end when the last Sassanian ruler, Yazdegerd III (632–651) was murdered not far from the city and the Sassanian military governor surrendered to the approaching Arab army. The city was occupied by lieutenants of the caliph Umar, and became the capital of the Umayyad province of Khorasan. In 671, Ziyad ibn Abi Sufyan sent 50,000 Arab troops to Merv as a colony. This colony retained its native Kufan sympathies and became the nucleus of Khurasan.[3] Using this city as their base, the Arabs, led by Qutayba ibn Muslim, brought under subjection large parts of Central Asia, includingBalkh, Bokhara, Fergana and Kashgaria, and penetrated into China as far as the province of Gansu early in the 8th century.[4]Merv, and Khorasan in general was to become one of the first parts of the Persian-speaking world to become majority-Muslim. Arab immigration to the area was substantial. A Chinese captured at Talas, Du Huan, was brought to Baghdad and toured the caliphate. He observed that in Merv, Khurasan, Arabs and Persians lived in mixed concentrations.[5]
Merv reached renewed importance in February 748 when the Iranian general Abu Muslim (d. 755) declared a new Abbasid dynasty at Merv, expanding and re-founding the city, and, in the name of the Abbasid line, used the city as a base of rebellion against the Umayyad caliphate. After the Abbasids were established in Baghdad Abu Muslim continued to rule Merv as a semi-independent prince until his eventual assassination. Indeed, Merv was the center of Abbasid partisanship for the duration of the Abbasid revolution, and later on became a consistent source of political support for the Abbasid rulers inBaghdad, and the governorship of Khurasan at Merv was considered one of the most important political figures of theCaliphate. The influential Barmakid family was based in Merv and played an important part in transferring Greek knowledge (established in Merv since the days of the Seleucids and Greco-Bactrians) into the Arab world.
Throughout the Abbasid era, Merv remained the capital and most important city of Khurasan. During this time, the Arab historian Al-Muqaddasi called Merv “delightful, fine, elegant, brilliant, extensive, and pleasant.” Merv's architecture perhaps provided the inspiration for the Abbasid re-planning of Baghdad. The city was notable for being a home for immigrants from the Arab lands as well as from Sogdia and elsewhere in Central Asia (Herrmann 1999). Merv's importance to the Abbasids was highlighted in the period from 813 to 818 when the temporary residency of the caliph al-Ma'mun effectively made Merv the capital of the Muslim world. Merv was also the center of a major 8th-century Neo-Mazdakite movement led by al-Muqanna, the “Veiled Prophet”, who gained many followers by claiming to be an incarnation of God and heir to Abu Muslim; the Khurramiyya inspired by him persisted in Merv until the 12th century.
During this period Merv, like Samarkand and Bukhara, was one of the great cities of Muslim scholarship; the celebrated historian Yaqut studied in its libraries. Merv produced a number of scholars in various branches of knowledge, such asIslamic law, hadith, history, and literature. Several scholars have the name Marwazi المروزي designating them as hailing from Merv, including the famous Ahmad Ibn Hanbal. The city continued to have a substantial Christian community. In 1009 the Archbishop of Merv sent a letter to the Patriarch at Baghdad asking that the Keraits be allowed to fast less than other Nestorian Christians.[6]
As the caliphate weakened, Arab rule in Merv was replaced by that of the Persian general Tahir b. al -Husayn and his Tahiriddynasty in 821. The Tahirids were in turn replaced in Merv by the first the Saffarids, then the Samanids and later theGhaznavids.
Turks in Merv
In 1037, the Seljuks, a clan of Oghuz Turks moving from the steppes east of the Aral Sea, peacefully took over Merv under the leadership of Toghril Beg—the Ghaznavid sultan Masud was extremely unpopular in the city. Togrul's brother Çagry stayed in Merv as the Seljuk domains grew to include the rest of Khurasan and Iran, and it subsequently became a favorite city of the Seljuk leadership. Alp Arslan and his descendant Sultan Sanjar were both buried at Merv.
It is during this period that Merv expanded to its greatest size—Arab and Persian geographers termed it "the mother of the world", the "rendezvous of great and small", the "chief city of Khurasan" and the capital of the eastern Islamic world. Written sources also attest to a large library and madrasa founded by Nizam al-Mulk, as well as many other major cultural institutions. Perhaps most importantly, Merv was said to have a market that is "the best of the major cities of Iran and Khurasan" (Herrmann 1999). It is believed that Merv was the largest city in the world from 1145 to 1153, with a population of 200,000.[1].
Sanjar's rule, marked by conflict with the Kara-Khitai and Khwarazmians, ended in 1153 when the Turkish Ghuzz nomads from beyond the Amu Darya pillaged the city. Subsequently Merv changed hands between the Khwarazmians of Khiva, the Ghuzz, and the Ghurids, and began to lose importance relative to Khurasan's other major city, Nishapur.
Mongols in Merv
In 1221, Merv opened its gates to Tolui, son of Genghis Khan, chief of the Mongols, on which occasion most of the inhabitants are said to have been butchered. The Persian historian Juvayni, writing a generation after the destruction of Merv, wrote
“The Mongols ordered that, apart from four hundred artisans. .., the whole population, including the women and children, should be killed, and no one, whether woman or man, be spared. To each [Mongol soldier] was allotted the execution of three or four hundred Persians. So many had been killed by nightfall that the mountains became hillocks, and the plain was soaked with the blood of the mighty.”
Some historians believe that over one million people died in the aftermath of the city's capture, including hundreds of thousands of refugees from elsewhere, making it one of the most bloody captures of a city in world history.
Excavations revealed drastic rebuilding of the city's fortifications in the aftermath, but the prosperity of the city was over. The Mongol invasion was to spell the end for Merv and indeed other major centres for more than a century. After Moghol conquest, it was part of Ilkhanate. In the early part of the 14th century, the town was made the seat of a Christian archbishopric of the Eastern Church. By 1380 Merv belonged to the empire of Timur (Tamerlane).
Uzbeks in Merv and its Final Destruction
In 1505, the city was occupied by the Uzbeks, who five years later were expelled by Shah Ismail, the founder of the Safavid dynasty of Persia. It was in this period that a large dam (the 'Soltanbent') on the river Murghab was restored by a Persiannobleman, and the settlement which grew up in the area thus irrigated became known as 'Baýramaly', by which name it is referred to in some 19th-century texts. Merv remained in the hands of Persia except Uzbek rule between 1524 and 1528 and again between 1588 and 1598 until 1785, when it was captured by Shah Murad the Emir of Bokhara. Few years later in 1788 and 1789, the Bukharan Shah Murad Beg, razed the city to the ground, broke down the dams, and converted the district into a waste. The entire population of the city and the surrounding oasis of about 100,000 were then deported in several stages to the Bukharan oasis and the Zarafshan Valley. Being nearly all Persian-speaking Shi'as, the deportees resisted assimilation into the Sunni population of Bukhara, despite the common language they spoke with most Bukharan natives. These Marvis survive today—and were listed as "Iranis/Iranians" in Soviet censuses through the 1980s. They are found now in Samarkandas well as Bukhara and the area in between on the Zarafshan river.
Nineteenth century
Merv was passed to Khanate of Khiva in 1823. Sir Alexander Burnes traversed the country in 1832. About this time, theTekke Turkomans, then living on the Tejen River, were forced by the Persians to migrate northward. Khiva contested the advance of the Tekkes, but ultimately, about 1856, the latter became the sovereign power in the country, and remained so until the Russians occupied the oasis in 1884. By 1868 the Russians had taken most of Russian Central Asia except Turkmenistan. They approached this area from the Caspian and in 1881 captured Geok Tepe. Merv was taken bloodlessly by a man named Alikhanov. He was a Muslim from the Caucasus who had risen to the rank of Major in the Russian service. After fighting a duel with a superior officer he was demoted to the ranks and by 1882 had risen to lieutenant. In 1882 he entered Merv claiming to be a Russian merchant and negotiated a trade agreement. Meanwhile Russian agents had used a mixture of bribes and threats to develop a pro-Russian party in the area. The Russians occupied the oasis of Tejend eighty miles to the west. In 1884 Alikhanov entered Merv in the uniform of a Russian officer along with a number of Turkoman notables who had already submitted. He claimed that the troops at Tejend were the spearhead of a larger force and that local autonomy would be respected. Seeing no hope of support from Persia or Britain, the elders submitted. The next Russian move was south toward Herat.
Wow I didnt't know that Alp Arslan the Seljuk ruler and his son Sanjar were buried in Merv. As you know he was the Turk who conquered Anatolia which was called Turkey in the 12th century. I don't think that there is any city in this world whoose history is so tragic and diverse like Mervs
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