Baptiste Michellod

Le Regard Libre N° 33 - Baptiste Michellod

Samarkand, Bukhara, Merv, Balkh. So many names whose mere mention has the gift of taking the reader on a journey. These places, currently part of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, are grouped together under the name Transoxiana. Transoxiane refers to all the lands beyond the Oxus River, the ancient name of the Amou Darya. The territory was successively located on the borders of the Persian, Hellenic, Arab and Russian empires. Even distant China coveted Transoxiana, attempting to seize it in the 8th century.^e century AD, shortly after the Arab conquests. The Battle of Talas, won by the Arabs in 751, put an end to both Chinese expansion to the West and Arab conquests to the East, and turned Central Asia definitively towards the Islamic world.

Now overwhelmingly Muslim, Transoxiana is also home to Christian and Jewish communities. Originally a land of frontiers, Transoxiana became a land of trade as trade routes developed between India, China and the Mediterranean world. The country is also dotted with Greek, Zoroastrian, Buddhist and Hindu relics. Many civilizations have influenced each other here.