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Slavery In Asia
An overview of Asian slavery has existed in all regions of Asia throughout its history. Although slavery is now illegal in every Asian country, some forms of it still exist today. Afghanistan Slavery was present in the post-Classical history of Afghanistan, continued during the Middle Ages, and persisted into the early 20th century. After the Islamic conquest of Persia, regions of both Persia and Afghanistan that had not converted to Islam were considered infidel regions, and as a result, they were considered legitimate targets of slave raids that were launched from regions whose populations had converted to Islam: for example Daylam in northwestern Iran and the mountainous region of Ḡūr in central Afghanistan were both exposed to slave raids which were launched from Muslim regions. It was considered legitimate to enslave war captives; during the Afghan occupation of Persia (1722-1730), for example, thousands of people were enslaved, and the Baluch made regular incursions ...
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Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area of , about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8.7% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which has long been home to the majority of the human population, was the site of many of the first civilizations. Its 4.7 billion people constitute roughly 60% of the world's population. In general terms, Asia is bounded on the east by the Pacific Ocean, on the south by the Indian Ocean, and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. The border of Asia with Europe is a historical and cultural construct, as there is no clear physical and geographical separation between them. It is somewhat arbitrary and has moved since its first conception in classical antiquity. The division of Eurasia into two continents reflects East–West cultural, linguistic, ...
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Ladakh
Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory which constitutes a part of the larger Kashmir region and has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since 1947. (subscription required) Quote: "Jammu and Kashmir, state of India, located in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent in the vicinity of the Karakoram and westernmost Himalayan mountain ranges. From 1947 to 2019, Ladakh was part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which has been the subject of dispute between India, Pakistan, and China since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947." Quote: "Jammu and Kashmir: Territory in northwestern India, subject to a dispute between India and Pakistan. It has borders with Pakistan and China." Ladakh is bordered by the Tibet Autonomous Region to the east, the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh to the south, both the Indian-administered union territory of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), Jammu and Kashmir and the Pakistan-administ ...
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Sassanian Inscriptions
This is a list of Sasanian inscription, which include remaining official inscriptions on rocks, as well as minor ones written on bricks, metal, wood, hide, papyri, and gems. Their significance is in the areas of linguistics, history, and study of religion in Persia. Some of the inscriptions are lost and are known only through tradition. List of Sasanian inscriptions Early royal Sasanian inscriptions were trilingual: Middle Persian (in Inscriptional Pahlavi), Parthian (in Inscriptional Parthian) and Greek. Since the rule of Narseh, Greek was omitted. Book Pahlavi script replaced Inscriptional Pahlavi in late Middle Persian inscriptions. File:Shapur Kabe Zartosht.png, Parthian version of Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht File:Naqsh-e Rajab - Shapur parade - detail of inscription.jpg, Parthian (above), along with Greek (below) versions of Shapur inscription in Naqsh-e Rajab File:Taq-e Bostan - Pahlavi writing.jpg, Shapur III's inscription in Taq-e Bostan File:Sas ...
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Tocharian Languages
The Tocharian (sometimes ''Tokharian'') languages ( or ), also known as ''Arśi-Kuči'', Agnean-Kuchean or Kuchean-Agnean, are an extinct branch of the Indo-European language family spoken by inhabitants of the Tarim Basin, the Tocharians. The languages are known from manuscripts dating from the 5th to the 8th century AD, which were found in oasis cities on the northern edge of the Tarim Basin (now part of Xinjiang in Northwest China) and the Lop Desert. The discovery of these languages in the early 20th century contradicted the formerly prevalent idea of an east–west division of the Indo-European language family as centum and satem languages, and prompted reinvigorated study of the Indo-European family. Scholars studying these manuscripts in the early 20th century identified their authors with the ''Tokharoi'', a name used in ancient sources for people of Bactria (Tokharistan). Although this identification is now believed to be mistaken, "Tocharian" remains the usual term for t ...
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Khotanese Language
Saka, or Sakan, was a variety of Eastern Iranian languages, attested from the ancient Buddhist kingdoms of Khotan, Kashgar and Tumshuq in the Tarim Basin, in what is now southern Xinjiang, China. It is a Middle Iranian language. The two kingdoms differed in dialect, their speech known as Khotanese and Tumshuqese. The Saka rulers of the western regions of the Indian subcontinent, such as the Indo-Scythians and Western Satraps, spoke practically the same language. Documents on wood and paper were written in modified Brahmi script with the addition of extra characters over time and unusual conjuncts such as ''ys'' for ''z''. The documents date from the fourth to the eleventh century. Tumshuqese was more archaic than Khotanese, but it is much less understood because it appears in fewer manuscripts compared to Khotanese. The Khotanese dialect is believed to share features with the modern Wakhi and Pashto. Saka was known as "Hvatanai" in contemporary documents. Many Prakrit ter ...
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Prakrit
The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usually applied to the middle period of Middle Indo-Aryan languages, excluding earlier inscriptions and the later Pali. ''Prākṛta'' literally means "natural", as opposed to ''saṃskṛta'', which literally means "constructed" or "refined". Prakrits were considered the regional spoken (informal) languages of people, and Sanskrit was considered the standardized (formal) language used for literary, official and religious purposes across Indian kingdoms of the subcontinent. Literary registers of Prakrits were also used contemporaneously (predominantly by śramaṇa traditions) alongside Classical Sanskrit of higher social classes. Etymology The dictionary of Monier Monier-Williams (1819–1899), and other modern authors however, interpret ...
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Sogdian Language
The Sogdian language was an Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian language spoken mainly in the Central Asian region of Sogdia (capital: Samarkand; other chief cities: Panjakent, Fergana, Khujand, and Bukhara), located in modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan; it was also spoken by some Sogdian immigrant communities in ancient China. Sogdian is one of the most important Iranian languages#Middle Iranian languages, Middle Iranian languages, along with Bactrian language, Bactrian, Saka language, Khotanese Saka, Middle Persian, and Parthian language, Parthian. It possesses a large literary corpus. The Sogdian language is usually assigned to a Northeastern group of the Iranian languages. No direct evidence of an earlier version of the language ("Old Sogdian") has been found, although mention of the area in the Old Persian inscriptions means that a separate and recognisable Sogdia existed at least since the Achaemenid Empire (559–323 BCE). Like Khotanese, ...
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The Silk Road
The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the East and West. The name "Silk Road", first coined in the late 19th century, has fallen into disuse among some modern historians in favor of Silk Routes, on the grounds that it more accurately describes the intricate web of land and sea routes connecting East and Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, the Middle East, East Africa and Europe. The Silk Road derives its name from the highly lucrative trade of silk textiles that were produced almost exclusively in China. The network began with the Han dynasty's expansion into Central Asia around 114 BCE, which largely pacified the once untamed region. Imperial envoy Zhang Qian was commissioned to explore the unknown lands beyond the region in s ...
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Susan Whitfield
Susan Whitfield (born 1960) is a British scholar, currently Professor in Silk Road Studies at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures (SISJAC), University of East Anglia. She previously worked at the British Library in London, England. She specialises in the history and archaeology of the Silk Road but has also written on human rights and censorship in China. Career Whitfield obtained a PhD in historiography from SOAS, University of London in 1995, with a dissertation entitled ''Politics against the Pen'' on the Tang dynasty poet Liu Zongyuan. Whitfield was the first director of the International Dunhuang Project, a position which she held for 24 years, from 1993 until July 2017. In this capacity she was involved in research and cataloguing of Central Asian manuscripts at the British Library and elsewhere. She has a particular interest in censorship and forgeries from Dunhuang. In an interview at the University of Minnesota in 2013, she talks about how ...
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Central Asia
Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes the former Soviet Union, Soviet republics of the Soviet Union, republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, which are colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as the countries all have names ending with the Persian language, Persian suffix "-stan", meaning "land of". The current geographical location of Central Asia was formerly part of the historic region of Turkestan, Turkistan, also known as Turan. In the pre-Islamic and early Islamic eras ( and earlier) Central Asia was inhabited predominantly by Iranian peoples, populated by Eastern Iranian languages, Eastern Iranian-speaking Bactrians, Sogdians, Khwarezmian language, Chorasmians and the semi-nomadic Scythians and Dahae. After expansion by Turkic peop ...
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Afridi (Pashtun)
The Afrīdī ( ps, اپريدی ''Aprīdai'', plur. ''Aprīdī''; ur, آفریدی) are a Pashtun tribe present in Pakistan, with substantial numbers in Afghanistan. The Afridis are most dominant in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, inhabiting about of rough hilly area in the Zarlash eastern Spin Ghar range west of Peshawar, covering most of Khyber Agency, FR Peshawar and FR Kohat. Their territory includes the Khyber Pass and Maidan in Tirah. Afridi migrants are also found in India, mostly in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.Study of the Pathan Communities in Four States of India
''Khyber.org'' (retrieved 30 January 2008)
Historically, the Afridi have been known for the strategic locati ...
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Aurora Nilsson
Aurora Nilsson, also known as ''Rora Asim Khan'' (1 January 1894 – 1972), was a Swedish writer who became known for her autobiographical depiction, ''Flykten från harem'' ("Escape from Harem"), about her experiences in Afghanistan during her marriage to an Afghan diplomat, Asim Khan, in the 1920s. A novel by Thomas Löfström is based upon her story. Her autobiography gives a valuable insight in the life of a harem in 1920s Afghanistan. Her divorce (1927) was at the time unique in Afghanistan. Early life and marriage Nilsson was born Västerhaninge. In 1925, she was studying art in Berlin; the Golden Twenties was a vibrant period in the history of the city. There she met and married Asim Khan, an Afghan who was the son of a former government minister, who was studying technique at the expense of the Afghan government. The Afghan embassy acknowledged the marriage after Nilsson signed a statement that she would accept Afghan customs and, some time in the future, convert t ...
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