The Tajik people came under Russian rule in the 1860s. The Basmachi revolt broke out in the wake of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and was quelled in the early 1920s, during the Russian Civil War. In 1924, Tajikistan became an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within Uzbekistan, known as the Tajik ASSR. In 1929, Tajikistan was made one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union—the Tajik Soviet Socialist Republic (Tajik SSR)—and retained this status until gaining independence in 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Since then, it has experienced three changes in government and the Tajikistani Civil War. A peace agreement among rival factions was signed in 1997.
Antiquity (600 BC – 710 AD)
In ancient times, Tajikistan was bordered to the north by the Scytho-Siberian world. Sogdiana, Bactria, Merv, and Khorezm were the four principal divisions of ancient Central Asia inhabited by the ancestors of the present-day Tajiks of Tajikistan. Today, Tajiks are found only in historic Bactria and Sogdiana. Merv is now inhabited by the Turkomans, and Khorezm by Uzbeks and Kazakhs. Sogdiana consisted of the Zeravshan and Kashka-Darya river valleys. Currently, two of the surviving peoples of Sogdiana who speak dialects of the Sogdian language are the Yaghnobis and the Shugnanis.
Tajikistan was part of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex in the Bronze Age, candidate for Proto-Indo-Iranian or Proto-Iranian culture. Bactria was located in northern Afghanistan (present-day Afghan Turkestan) between the mountain range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya (Oxus) River and some areas of current south Tajikistan. During different periods, Bactria was a center of various Kingdoms or Empires, and is probably where Zoroastrianism originated. The "Avesta"—the holy book of Zoroastrianism—was written in the old-Bactrian dialect; it is also thought that Zoroaster was most likely born in Bactria.
Some authors have also suggested that in the 7th and 6th century BCE parts of modern Tajikistan, including territories in the Zeravshan valley, formed part of Kambojas, which were referenced in the Mahabharata epic as the Parama Kamboja, before it became part of the Achaemenid Empire.See: The Deeds of Harsha: Being a Cultural Study of Bāṇa's Harshacharita, 1969, p 199, Dr Vasudeva Sharana Agrawala; Proceedings and Transactions of the All-India Oriental Conference, 1930, p 118, Dr J. C. Vidyalankara; Prācīna Kamboja, jana aura janapada =: Ancient Kamboja, people and country, 1981, Dr Jiyālāla Kāmboja, Dr Satyavrat Śāstrī – Kamboja (Pakistan).Linguistic evidence, combined with ancient literary and inscriptional evidence suggests the Kambojas originally emigrated from Central Asia.Dr J. C. Vidyalankara, Proceedings and Transactions of 6th A.I.O. Conference, 1930, p 118; cf: Linguistic Survey of India, Vol X, pp 455–56, Dr G. A. Grierson.
Achaemenid Period (550 BC – 329 BC)
During the Achaemenid period, Sogdiana and Bactria were part of the Achaemenid Empire. Sogdians and Bactrians held important positions in the administration and military of the Achaemenid Empire.
Hellenistic Period (329 BC – 90 BC)
After the Achaemenid Empire was defeated by Alexander the Great, Bactria, Sogdiana, and Merv—having been part of the Persian Empire—had to defend themselves against new invaders. In fact, the Macedonians faced very stiff resistance under the leadership of the Sogdian ruler Spitamenes. Alexander the Great managed to marry Roxana, the daughter of a local ruler, and thereby inherited his land. Following Alexander's brief occupation, the Hellenistic successor states of the Seleucids and Greco-Bactrians controlled the area for another 200 years, in what is known as the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. During the period from 90 BC to 30 BC, the Yuezhi destroyed the last Hellenistic successor states and, together with the Tokhari (to whom they were closely related), created the Kushan Empire around AD 30.
Kushan Empire (30 BC – 410 AD) For another 400 years, until AD 410, the Kushan Empire was a major power in the region, along with the Roman Empire, the Parthian Empire, and Han China. Notable contact was made with local peoples when envoys of the Han dynasty journeyed to this area in the 2nd century BC. At the end of the Kushan period, the Empire became much smaller and had to defend itself against the powerful Sassanid Empire, which had replaced the Parthian Empire. The famous Kushan king Kanishka promoted Buddhism, and during this time Buddhism was exported from Central Asia to China.
The Sassanids, Hephthalites, and Gokturks (224–710)
The Sassanids once controlled much of what is now Tajikistan, but lost the territory to the Hephthalites (possibly also of Iranian descent) during the reign of Peroz I.
The Hephthalites created a powerful empire that succeeded in making Iran a tributary state around 483–485. Peroz, the Shah of Persia, fought three wars against the Hephthalites. During the first war, he was captured by the Hephthalite army and later released after the Byzantine emperor paid a ransom for him. During the second war, Peroz was captured again and was released after paying a huge contribution to the Hephthalite king. During the third war, Peroz was killed. The Hephthalites were subjugated in 565 by a combination of Sassanid and Kök-Turk forces. Subsequently, present-day Tajikistan was ruled by the Göktürks and the Sassanids. However, when the Sassanid Empire fell, the Turks kept control of Tajikistan, but later lost it to the Tang dynasty. They later managed to regain control of Tajikistan once again, only to lose it to the Arabs in 710.
Medieval history (710–1506)
Arab Caliphate (710–867)
The Transoxiana principalities never formed a viable confederacy. Beginning in 651, the Arabs organised periodic marauding raids deep into the territory of Transoxiana, but it was not until the appointment of Ibn Qutaiba as Governor of Khorasan in 705, during the reign of Walid I, that the Caliphate adopted the policy of annexing the lands beyond the Oxus. In 715, the task of annexation was accomplished. The entire region thus came under the control of the Caliph and of Islam, but the Arabs continued to rule through local Soghdian kings and dihqans. The ascension of the Abbasids to rule the Caliphate (750–1258) opened a new era in the history of Central Asia. While their predecessors, the Umayyads (661–750), had been little more than leaders of a loose confederation of Arab tribes, the Abbasids set out to build a huge multi-ethnic centralized state that would emulate and perfect the Sassanian government machine. They gave the Near East and Transoxiana a unity that they had been lacking since the time of Alexander the Great.
Samanid Empire (819–999)
The Samanid dynasty ruled (819–1005) in Khorasan (including eastern Iran and Transoxiana) and was founded by Saman Khuda. The Samanids were one of the first purely indigenous dynasties to rule in Persia after the Muslim Arab conquest. During the reign (892–907) of Saman Khuda's great-grandson, Ismail I (known as Ismail Samani), the Samanids expanded into Khorasan. In 900, Ismail defeated the Saffarids in Khorasan (in the area of present-day north-western Afghanistan and north-eastern Iran), while his brother was the governor of Transoxiana. Thus, Samanid rule was acclaimed over the combined regions. The cities of Bukhara (the Samanid capital) and Samarkand became centres of art, science, and literature; industries included pottery-making and bronze casting. After 950, Samanid power weakened, but was briefly revitalised under Nuh II, who ruled from 976 to 997. However, with the encroachment of Muslim Turks, the Samanids lost their domains south of the Oxus river, which were taken by the Ghaznavids. In 999, Bukhara was taken by the Qarakhanids. The Samanid Isma'il Muntasir (died 1005) tried to restore the dynasty (1000–1005), until he was assassinated by an Arab bedouin chieftain.
The attack of the Qarakhanid Turks ended the Samanid dynasty in 999, and dominance in Transoxiana passed to Turkic rulers.
Qarakhanids (999–1211) and Khwarezmshahs (1211–1218) After the collapse of the Samanid dynasty, Central Asia became the battleground for many Asian invaders who came from the north-east.
Mongol rule (1218–1370)
The Mongol Empire swept through Central Asia, invaded the Khwarezmian Empire, and sacked the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand, looting and massacring people everywhere.
Timurid Empire (1370–1506) Timur, founder of the Timurid Empire, was born on 8 April 1336 in Kesh, near Samarkand. He was a member of the Turkicised Barlas tribe, a Mongol subgroup that had settled in Transoxiana after taking part in the campaigns of Genghis Khan's son Chagatai in that region. Timur began his life as a bandit leader. During this period, he received an arrow wound to the leg, as a result of which he was nicknamed Timur-e Lang (in Dari) or Timur the Lame. Although the last Timurid ruler of Herat, Badi az Zaman, finally fell to the armies of the Uzbek Muhammad Shaibani Khan in 1506, the Timurid ruler of Ferghana, Zahir-ud-Din Babur, survived the collapse of the dynasty and re-established the Timurid dynasty in India in 1526, where they became known as the Mughals.
Early modern history (1506–1868) Shaybanid rule (1506–1598) The Shaybanid state was divided into appanages between all male members (sultans) of the dynasty, who would designate the supreme ruler (Khan), the oldest member of the clan. The seat of the Khan was first Samarkand, the capital of the Timurids, but some of the Khans preferred to remain in their former appanages. Thus, Bukhara became the seat of the Khan for the first time under Ubaid Allah Khan (r. 1533–1539).
The period of political expansion and economic prosperity was short-lived. Soon after the death of Abdullah Khan II, the Shaibanid dynasty died out and was replaced by the Janid, or Astrakhanid (Ashtarkhanid), dynasty, another branch of the descendants of Jöchi, whose founder, Jani Khan, was related to Abdullah Khan II through his marriage to Abdullah Khan's sister. The Astrakhanids are also said to be connected to the Hashemites on account of Imam Quli Khan's status as a Sayyid. Their descendants today live in India. In 1709, the eastern part of the Khanate of Bukhara seceded and formed the Khanate of Kokand. Thus, the eastern part of present-day Tajikistan passed to the Khanate of Kokand, while the western part remained part of the Khanate of Bukhara.
Iranian and Bukharan rule (1740–1868) In 1740, the Janid khanate was conquered by Nader Shah, the Afsharid ruler of Iran. The Janid khan Abu al Faiz retained his throne, becoming Nadir's vassal.
After the death of Nader Shah in 1747, the chief of the Manghit tribe of Uzbeks, Muhammad Rahim Biy Azaliq, overcame his rivals from other tribes and consolidated his rule over the Khanate of Bukhara. His successor, however, ruled in the name of puppet khans of Janid origin. In 1785, Shah Murad formalised the family's dynastic rule (Manghit dynasty), and the khanate became the Emirate of Bukhara.Soucek, Svat. A History of Inner Asia (2000), p. 180.
Russian and Soviet rule (1868–1991)
Russian vassalage (1868–1920)