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Aug 113 min read

Clashes in Transoxiana

I have to admit that I am drawn to coins that are not popular and periods in history that are not well known. One current interest is the "forced token currency" of Muhammad bin Tughluq - a failed experiment in the 14th century Delhi Sultanate - especially interesting when the sultan issuing these coins put instructions on the coin:

Instruction (obv): Obey Allah and obey the prophet and those in authority among you (i.e. obey me as you would God and the prophet)


Instruction (rev): If there were no Sultan verily the people would devour each other (i.e. give thanks for me, the sultan)


More on this experiment in this recent Note: Stupor Mundi.


Today's coin is one that looks Chinese from a Turkic Khaganate with Sogdian writing on the obverse reading : "Fen of the King of Turghesh's Khagan". Fen meaning coin or the denomination, and Khagan meaning "Khan of Khans".  The Turgesh people or Tūqíshī as they were known to the Chines were a Turkic tribe that lived in Transoxiana (parts of modern Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan).

 

The coin was probably cast in the period 712-738 CE, during the rule of Suluk and continued to circulate for a century. Suluk was khan during this period and was married to the Tang Princess Jiaohe. He clashed with the Umayyads in Samarqand in this important region of Silk Road trade between Kokand (Khoqand) and Bukhara and near the fertile Fergana Valley.

The battle on the banks of the Jaxartes river known as the "Day of Thirst" c.724 CE The Umayyad found themselves in harsh conditions with little water and suffered as the army led by the governor of Khurasan, al-Harith ibn Surayj, was ambushed by Turgesh forces led by Suluk. In 731, "The Battle of the Defile" fought in Takhtakaracha Pass (in modern Uzbekistan), Suluk again held off the Umayyad general general Junayd ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Murri. For the Umayyad armies their tactical retreat was claimed as a victory - although it was a "Pyrrhic victory" in which the Ummayad lost control of the control of the region until ~740 CE and which was a contributing factor in then end of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750 CE as the Abbasid's overthrew the Ummayyad dynasty. 


Suluk was called Abū Muzāhim "The Father of the Fight/Competition" as he managed to take on and win battles against the two super-powers of his day: the Umayyad Caliphate and the Tang Dynasty.


Here's an Umayyad "post-reform" coin from 104 AH == 722/723 CE from Yazid II Umayyad Caliph from 720 to 724 CE. He was succeeded by his brother Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik. This coin was minted in Wasit, an Islamic city built at the end of the first Hijri century (7th century CE) by Al-Hajaj bin Yousif Al-Thaqafi, as the administrative center for Iraq.

Umayyads, time of Yazid II AR Dirham. Wasit mint, AH 104 = AD 722.

Obv: Kalima in three lines; mint and date formula around

Rev: Surah 112 in four lines; Quran IX, 33 around. Album 135;


Islamic Umayyad, Wasit mint, Hisham, AH 105-125, struck AH 116 (734 CE), AR Dirham, 28mm, 2.91g


Suluk was murdered by a rival in 738 CE and there was a confusing set of leaders jockeying for succession along with continued Umayyad and Chinese engagement. Ultimately, Turghes continued as a puppet khanate, dependent on the Uyghur Khaganate until 766, when the Karluks, another Turkic confederacy gained control of the region. The Karluks (Qarluqs) became the Qarakhanids in 999 CE when Hārūn (or Ḥasan) Bughra Khān, occupied the Samanid capital of Bukhara, and split up Samanid territory with Ghaznavids with the Oxus River as the boundary line.


References

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