Lecture Series on the History and Culture of Central Asia (Winter Term 2024/25)Archery and Kingship in Pre-Islamic Soghd and in Early Islamic MawarannahrA lecture by Aleksandr Naymark, Hofstra University

17 December 2024

Photo: © Sinani

We are delighted to announce the second lecture in the winter term series on the history and culture of the Zerafshan Valley. The series is jointly organized by Prof. Dr. Stefan Heidemann, Department of Islamic Studies at the Asien-Afrika-Institut (Universität Hamburg), and Dr. Shovosil Ziyodov, director of the Imam Bukhari International Scientific Research Center in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

The subsequent lecture will be presented by Prof. Dr. Aleksandr Naymark, Professor of Fine Arts, Design, and Art History at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

• Subject: Archery and Kingship in pre-Islamic Soghd and in early Islamic Mawarannahr
• Date: December 17th, 2024, 13:00 CET
  
• Place: online via ZOOM

Abstract:
Coins and written sources recorded several different motifs in Qarakhanid propaganda meant to legitimize this dynasty’s rule over Mawarannahr. To Islamic population these rulers presented themselves as zealous Muslims. For Turks they were Khāqāniya or al-Muluk al-Khāniya al-Atrāk. With Persians they tried to be Āl-e Afrāsiāb “the house of Afrasiab”. Qarakhanid ruler could call himself malik al-mashriq wa’l-Ṣin – “the king of East and China”, and occasionally claimed to be Ṭamghach or Tabgach Khan, i.e. the Emperor of China. Yet the remarkable discovery of the Qarakhanid palace on Afrasiab by Yurii Karev and his meticulous reconstruction of the paintings decorating this edifice prompted a suggestion that there was one more legitimization concept – the king as the Master of Archery. Recently re-interpreted Sogdian numismatic materials and some early Mediaeval images combined with the information of a Chinese travel account allow us to discern in the images of the Afrasiab Qarakhanid palace a local Sogdian tradition that can be traced even further back to ancient Iranian beliefs.      

Profile of the lecturer:
Native of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Aleksandr Naymark was trained as an archaeologist and historian at Tashkent and then Moscow Universities. From 1983 to 1991 he worked at the Moscow Museum of Oriental Art directing excavation projects in Central Asia. In 1992 he enrolled at the Department of Centra Eurasian Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington, eventually receiving double Ph.D. in Central Eurasian Studies and Art History. In 1993 he studied at the summer seminar at the American Numismatic Society. As a Horstman Fellow he was in 1997-1999 affiliated with the Eurasian Department of the German Archaeological in Institute in Berlin. For the last 25 years Dr. Naymark has been teaching at Hofstra University as a Professor of Art History and the Director of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Program. He also taught at Columbia University in New York and Humboldt University in Berlin and held Shama Fellowship in Middle Eastern Numismatics and Epigraphy at Oxford University three times. Professor Naymark publishes on various aspects Central Asian art, archaeology, and numismatics. 

In order to participate, please click here or use the following Zoom credentials:

Meeting ID: 446 979 3351
Password: 12345

For the poster of the lecture in full size, click here!
For more information about the joint Lecture Series on the History and Culture of Central Asia, please see here.