![Ilaq Tenth Century](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Ilaq_Tenth_Century.svg)
Ilaq ( ar, إيلاق) was a medieval region in
Transoxiana
Transoxiana or Transoxania (Land beyond the Oxus) is the Latin name for a region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to modern-day eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...
which was located in modern northeastern
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan (, ; uz, Ozbekiston, italic=yes / , ; russian: Узбекистан), officially the Republic of Uzbekistan ( uz, Ozbekiston Respublikasi, italic=yes / ; russian: Республика Узбекистан), is a doubly landlocked co ...
, to the east of the
Syr Darya and south of
Tashkent
Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of 2 ...
. The capital of the district was
Tunkath.
Geography
In the medieval period, Ilaq lay along the valley of the
Angren River, to the north of the large bend of the
Syr Darya near
Khujand
Khujand ( tg, Хуҷанд, Khujand; Uzbek: Хўжанд, romanized: Хo'jand; fa, خجند, Khojand), sometimes spelled Khodjent and known as Leninabad (russian: Ленинабад, Leninabad; tg, Ленинобод, Leninobod; fa, لنی ...
. The district, which was composed of a mixed terrain of plains and mountains, was bounded on the west by the Syr Darya and on the north by the region of Shash (modern Tashkent), and it extended to the western edge of the
Tian Shan
The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...
in the east. Due to the proximity of Shash and Ilaq, the two districts were sometimes linked by
Muslim geographers
Medieval Islamic geography and cartography refer to the study of geography and cartography in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age (variously dated between the 8th century and 16th century). Muslim scholars made advances to the map-maki ...
, who either treated them as one united area or characterized Ilaq as a dependency of Shash. As a combined unit, Shash-Ilaq constituted one of the five primary sedentary regions of pre-modern
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 t ...
, along with
Sughd,
Khwarazm
Khwarazm (; Old Persian: ''Hwârazmiya''; fa, خوارزم, ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the ea ...
,
Farghana
Fergana ( uz, Fargʻona/Фарғона, ), or Ferghana, is a district-level city and the capital of Fergana Region in eastern Uzbekistan. Fergana is about 420 km east of Tashkent, about 75 km west of Andijan, and less than 20 km fr ...
, and the area of
Balkh.
Ilaq was known to feature a large number of settlements, with
al-Istakhri listing fourteen towns that belonged to it. The largest town of the district, at half the size of Binkath in Shash, was
Tunkath, which also served as the residence of a local
''dihqan''. Relatively little is known about the other towns of Ilaq, with both their specific locations and the spelling of their names remaining uncertain.
History
Ilaq is known to have existed prior to the
Muslim conquest of Transoxiana
The Muslim conquest of Transoxiana or Arab conquest of Transoxiana were the 7th and 8th century conquests, by Umayyad and Abbasid Arabs, of Transoxiana, the land between the Oxus (Amu Darya) and Jaxartes (Syr Darya) rivers, a part of Central A ...
, with archeological and numismatic evidence demonstrating that it was extant as far back as the sixth or seventh centuries. Bronze coins dating to this period contain
Soghdian
The Sogdian language was an 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, Kazakhst ...
inscriptions which include the name Tunakand, an earlier form of Tunkath, and depict the image of a local ruler. Modern excavation projects have also revealed the site of a possible
fire temple in Tunkath, suggesting that
fire worship was practiced by the inhabitants of the region during the pre-Islamic era.
Ilaq presumably fell into Islamic hands during the conquest of Transoxiana in the eighth century, but no mention of it is made in accounts of the Muslim campaigns, possibly indicating that it was considered a part of Shash at the time. In the decades following the conquest it remained a border district, as it lay along the frontier separating the lands of Islam from those of the pagan Turks.
More is known about Ilaq in the ninth and tenth centuries, as relatively extensive information was provided about the region by geographers of that era. It was described as a large and prosperous province situated between the mountains and the steppe, with numerous towns and districts. A large number of mines were in operation in the region, which produced a significant quantity of silver, gold, and other minerals, and local coins were minted bearing the names Ilaq or Tunkath. The chief of the province, known as the ''dihqan-i Ilaq'', resided in Tunkath and was considered to be a powerful individual. Religiously, the ''dihqan'' was known to be sympathetic to
Isma'ili
Isma'ilism ( ar, الإسماعيلية, al-ʾIsmāʿīlīyah) is a branch or sub-sect of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor ( imām) to Ja'far al- ...
doctrines propagated by
Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Nasafi
Abu'l-Hasan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Bazdawi al-Nasafi (or al-Bazdahi, al-Nakhshabi) (died 943/945) was an early 10th-century Isma'ili missionary () and theologian. In he succeeded in converting the Samanid emir, Nasr II, to Isma'ilism, and usher ...
during the reign of the
Samanid ruler
Nasr ibn Ahmad (r. 914–943), while the people of the district largely adhered to the creed of those "in white raiment," presumably in reference to the eighth century rebel
al-Muqanna'.
With the ascension of the Samanids in Transoxiana in the ninth century, Ilaq became subject to the amirs in
Bukhara, and remained so until the last years of Samanid rule. In 992, in the same year as a major
Qarakhanid
The Kara-Khanid Khanate (; ), also known as the Karakhanids, Qarakhanids, Ilek Khanids or the Afrasiabids (), was a Turkic khanate that ruled Central Asia in the 9th through the early 13th century. The dynastic names of Karakhanids and Ilek K ...
raid into Transoxiana, the Ilaq mint began producing coins bearing the name of the Qarakhanid leader
Harun or Hasan Bughra Khan, and the region became subject to the Turks, although the ''dihqan''s continued to hold power in Tunkath. Coins featuring the names Ilaq or Tunkath continued to be produced until the mid-eleventh century; after that, however, no further numismatic evidence exists, and the district likely became a part of Shash around this time.
[; .]
Notes
References
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* {{cite book , title=The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions , others=Trans. Basil Collins , last=Al-Muqaddasi , first=Muhammad ibn Ahmad , author-link=Al-Muqaddasi , year=2001 , publisher=Garner Publishing Limited , location=Reading , isbn=1-85964-136-9 , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=LBO1PijX1qsC
Geographic history of Uzbekistan