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"Bactrian" redirects here. For the camel, see Bactrian camel. Bactria (Bactriana, Bākhtar in Persian, also Bhalika in Arabic and Indian languages, and Ta-Hsia in Chinese) was the ancient Greek name of the country between the range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya (Oxus); its capital, Bactra or Balhika or Bokhdi (now Balkh), was located in what is now Afghanistan. Bactria was bounded on the south by the ancient region of Gandhara. The Bactrian language is an Iranian language of the Indo-Iranian sub-family of the Indo-European family. The Bactrians are one of the ancestral lines of the modern-day Pashtuns, Tajiks, of Central Asia.
Geography Bactria is basically what is now northern Afghanistan. It is a mountainous region with a moderate climate. Water is abundant and the land is very fertile. Bactria was the home of one of the Iranian tribes. Modern authors have often used the name in a wider sense, as the designation of the whole countries of Central Asia. History Bactria was originally the homeland of Aryan tribes who moved south-west into Iran and into North-Western India around 2000-2500 BCE Later it became the north province of the Persian Empire in Central Asia.(Cotterell, 59) It was in these regions, where the fertile soil of the mountainous country is surrounded by the Turanian desert, that the prophet Zoroaster was born and gained his first adherents. Avestan, the language of the oldest portions of the Zoroastrian Avesta, was once called "old Bactrian". Cyrus and Alexander It is not known whether Bactria formed part of the Median Empire, but it was subjugated by Cyrus the Great, and from then formed one of the satrapies of the Persian empire. After Darius III of Persia had been defeated by Alexander the Great and killed in the ensuing chaos, his murderer Bessus, the satrap of Bactria, tried to organize a national resistance based on his satrapy. Alexander conquered Sogdiana and Iran without much difficulty; it was only in to the south, beyond the Oxus, that he met strong resistance. After 2 years of bloody war Bactria became a province of the Macedonian empire, but Alexander never successfully subdued the people. After Alexander's death the Macedonian empire was eventually divided up between generals in Alexander's army. Bactria became a part of the Seleucid empire, named after its founder, Seleucus I. Seleucid Empire The Macedonians (and especially Seleucus I and his son Antiochus I) established the Seleucid Empire, and founded a great many Greek towns in eastern Iran, and the Greek language became for some time dominant there. The paradox that Greek presence was more prominent in Bactria than in areas far more adjacent to Greece could possibly be explained by the supposed policy of Persian kings to deport unreliable Greek colonists to this the most remote province of their huge empire. Greco-Bactrian Kingdom Main article: Greco-Bactrian Kingdom The many difficulties against which the Seleucid kings had to fight and the attacks of Ptolemy II of Egypt, gave Diodotus, satrap of Bactria, the opportunity of making himself independent (about 255 BC) and conquering Sogdiana. He was the founder of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Diodotus and his successors were able to maintain themselves against the attacks of the Seleucids - particularly from Antiochus III the Great, who was ultimately defeated by the Romans (190 BC). The Greco-Bactrians were so powerful that they were able to expand their territory as far as India: "As for Bactria, a part of it lies alongside Aria towards the north, though most of it lies above Aria and to the east of it. And much of it produces everything except oil. The Greeks who caused Bactria to revolt grew so powerful on account of the fertility of the country that they became masters, not only of Ariana, but also of India, as Apollodorus of Artemita says: and more tribes were subdued by them than by Alexander...." (Strabo, 11.11.1) Indo-Greek Kingdom
Contacts with China Bactria (known as Daxia to the Chinese) was visited by the Chinese explorer Zhang Qian in 126 BC. The reports of Zhang Qian were put into writing in the Shiji ("Records of the Great Historian") by Sima Qian in the 1st century BC. They describe an important urban civilization of about one million people, living in walled cities under small city kings or magistrates. Daxia was an afluent country with rich markets, trading in an incredible variety of objects, coming as far as Southern China. By the time Zhang Xian visited Daxia, there was no longer a major king, and the Bactrians were suzerains to the nomadic Yuezhi, who were settled to the north of their territory beyond the Oxus. Overall, Zhang Qian depicted a rather sophisticated but demoralized people who were afraid of war. These contacts immediately led to the dispatch of multiple embassies from the Chinese, which helped to develop the Silk Road. Tokharistan Following the settlement of the Yuezhi (described in the West as "Tocharians"), the general area of Bactria came to be called Tokharistan. From the 1st century CE to the 3rd century CE, Tokharistan was under the rule of the Kushans. They were followed by Sassanides (Indo-Sassanians). Later, in the 5th century, it was controlled by the Khionits and the Hephthalites. In the 7th century, after a brief rule under the Turkish Khaganats, it was conquered by the Arabs. See also Archaeological sites | ||||||||||
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