A HISTORY OF INNER ASIA

114 A history of Inner Asia
unprecedented formation with China at the eastern end and southern
Russia and Iraq at the western, reinforced Central Asia’s role as the
crossroads of trade and civilizations.True, this structure had begun to
break down by the time Qubilay and his kinsmen came to power in the
second half of the thirteenth century; moreover, their internecine struggles
for both supreme and local power were compounded by the first
appearance of religious “defections” – the Islamization of the Ilkhanids
under Ghazan Khan (1295–1304), and of the Batuids (the Golden
Horde) under Uzbek Khan (1312–41).
What then was the effect that the Mongols had on Central Asia? The
picture presents a kaleidoscope of contradictions.Let us consider the
cities and urban civilization.Taken as a whole, the effect was initially disastrous;
most cities suffered plunder and decimation of their populations.But
there were two kinds of final outcome: those that sooner or
later recovered, as Samarkand, Bukhara and Urgench for example; and
those that never really did, as Merv for example.Moreover, this statement
applies mainly to Transoxania proper and Khurasan; the outcome
was different in Semireche, where not only cities but settled life disappeared
altogether.The explanation lies in a variety of factors.One is the
magnitude of the original blow.Merv appears to have been fully and
deliberately obliterated, for the complete massacre of its population –
with the exception of some 400 craftsmen deported to Mongolia –
deprived it of the labor force necessary to maintain the irrigation of its
oasis and protect it from the surrounding desert.The disappearance of
this Khurasanian metropolis is lamented in almost Biblical terms by a
contemporary witness, the renowned Arab geographer Yaqut:
I stayed there three years, and if it had not been for the destruction that befell
the country with the Tatar invasion, I would not have left Merv to the end of
my days: this because of the supportiveness [of the people], gentle climate,
good company, and multitude of excellent scholarly books there.When I left it,
there were ten endowed libraries [in Merv] whose like I have not seen anywhere
else in the world in terms of size and excellence.There were for example two
collections in the main mosque; one of these was called Aziziya, because it had
been endowed by a certain Aziz al-Din Abu Bakr Atiq al-Zanjani; he used to
be Sultan Sanjar’s faqqa’i, [and before that] he had been selling fruit and aromatic
plants at the market of Merv, then he became the sultan’s maker of
drinks.He enjoyed his esteem; the library [he had endowed] contained about
twelve thousand volumes.The other collection [in the mosque] was called
Kamaliya, [but] I do not know [which Kamal] it was attributed to.Then there
was the library of Sharaf al-Mulk al-Mustawfi ibn Sad Muhammad ibn