Transoxiane

The Transoxiane (in Arab rear RTL ماوراءالنهر My wara' un-Nahr , in Uzbek Movaraunahr ) is the old name of part of the Central Asia located beyond the Oxus river (current Amou-Daria). It corresponds roughly to the modern Ouzbékistan and the south-west of the Kazakhstan. Geographically, it is about the area located between the Amou-Daria rivers and Syr-Daria. The use of this term nowadays generally implies that one speaks about the area at one time former to the 8th century. However the term remained of use among the Western historians several centuries afterwards.

The name is of origin Latin E and means word-with-word “beyond the river Oxus”, old name of Amou-Daria, which describes perfectly the area from the point of view of the Greek and the Romains. The name however remained in Occident because of the exploits of Alexandre Large the, which brought the Greek culture in this area by its conquests (fourth century BC). Transoxiane then represented the north-eastern end of the hellenistic culture.

Since the Antiquity until the end of, Transoxiane was inhabited by people of Iranian language, in particular by the Sogdiens (this is why the area was also called Sogdiane). In the south, on the higher course of Amou-Daria, the Bactriens lived. The Khwarezm was in the south of the Mer of Aral, on the delta of Amou-Daria. The most important town of Transoxiane was Samarkand, another town of great importance was Bukhara. Both were sogdiennes and located in the southern part of Transoxiane (however always in the north of Oxus, on the river Zeravshan), the majority of the area consisted of dry but fertile plains.

After the Arab conquest at the 8th century, the area was called My wara' un-Nahr (what means in Arab “what is beyond the river”). Gengis Khan invades Transoxiane in 1219 at the time of its conquest of Khwarezm. Before its death in 1227, it gave the grounds of the Western Central Asia to its second wire Djaghataï. This area became then the Khanat de Djaghataï. In 1369, Tamerlan, tribe Barlas, became leading under the authority of the dynasty of the Djaghataïdes and made of Samarkand the capital of its future empire.

Transoxiane is also the name of an Argentinian investment company.

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