Merv, Mary and Margu are all names for this historic site in present day Turkmenistan. Its geographic location as an oasis on the silk road allowed it to serve as a convenient trade hub, stopping place, and even military strategic point for the various peoples and kingdoms that have possessed it. As with any strategically important location, Merv is not unique in that it changed hands with some frequency, with its population waxing and waning through various periods.
Due to its geographic location between numerous cultures, Merv saw many periods of occupation by multiple cultures simultaneously, allowing for trade and cultural exchange during the better periods of its existence. When one stands back and observes the cycle, the population swells may look like a Kontratiev wave, but with peaks and troughs coinciding to changes in population and cultural exchange instead of economic expansion and recession.
This project explores when the peaks and troughs of cultural exchange and trade occurred during the history of Merv between the 6th century BCE, and the 13th century AD, and how the changing of ownership of the city changed the city's structure. The period between the 6th C BCE and 13th C AD were chosen based on the growth on the city, which peaked in the 13th century.
Definitions:
In the following exploration, and reference to "Merv" refers to the area as a whole, and specific city sites will be indentified by their scholarly accepted name. That is to say, there are many different "towns" built at Merv, and they have their own names, and will be referred to as such.
A satellite photo of the sites at Merv10
The Start of a city - Erk Kala
Erk Kala was a small town, likely established sometime before the Achaemenian empire rose to power in the 6th century BCE, as determined by some pre-Archaemanid ceramics found at the site1. During the time of the Achaemenian empire however, this town was likely developed as a trade hub for the eastern edge of the Persian empire, which extended as far as parts of modern Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. What we do know for sure, is that Erk Kala was part of the independent satrap of Margiana, as declared by Cyrus the Great. 2
The one real problem with talking about Erk Kala is that it was occupied so long ago that all the evidence is buried under literally 2500 years of deposition. Furthermore, over 1500 of those years of deposition were from the city's occupation and the various ongoings of daily life, so archaeologists literally have to dig through many different ages in order to learn more detail about Erk Kala. It is for this reason that we know fairly little detail about how Erk Kala was built and occupied during its lifetime. However, we are able to surmise that the construction of a new city brought population to the area.
3rd C BCE to 7th C AD - Gyaur Kala
Under the Olympians
In the 4th century BCE, Alexander the Great marched his armies east, bringing their culture with them, and essentially Hellenized the other cultures they came into contact with. There was even a short period of time where Merv was known as Alexandria.
Following the collapse of Alexander's empire, other forces moved into the power vacuum to consume the political space. As a result, Merv came under rule by the Seleucid empire, who would go on to expand the city.
The person of interest in this period is Antiochus Soter, who reigned as king over the Seleucid empire from about 281-261 BCE. Antiochus undertook a massive expansion of the city in Merv, raising the city's size to nearly 2 kilometres wide, and he appropriately renamed the city Antiochia Marginana after himself, and the province it was located in. Today, we know this massive city site as Gyaur Kala, which surrounds the old city of Erk Kala. As Gyaur Kala was built up, Erk Kala was subsequently converted into a citadel. Hyaur Kala stayed occupied for the next 1000 years to come by the various peoples inhabiting it.
A drawing of the Merv site with Scale 7
This massive construction project would provide an interesting draw for migrants to the newly enlarged city. What is even more interesting is the construction of a city within a predominantly Zoroastrian area, by an Olympian state. This construction project proved successful, making Merv a highly populated oasis stop on the Silk road, and convenient trade hub in the Karakorum desert. The very fact that Gyaur Kala was occupied for nearly a millennia is a testament to its importance to the empires who possessed it, and has implications for great amounts of cultural exchange and trade.
Under the Zoroastrians
Gyaur Kala continued to develop as the Persian empire cycled through its dynasties. Merv never really fell out of disuse under the Parthian dynasty (250 BCE - 225 AD), and was developed as an administrative and trade centre, as well a strategic military centre. Throughout the centuries, the defences of Gyaur Kala were repeatedly rebuilt, inferring its military importance.3
Merv saw special attention during the Sassanid dynasty (226 AD - 651 AD) of the Persian empire, as it served as a mint for the Sassanid currency for 4 centuries. A study of the coins found at the historic sites at Merv found that Sassanid currency dominated, with few foreign coins being found.4 This period in Merv's timeline is especially exciting because of the evidence of numerous religions living within its walls, which inevitably led to a peak in cultural exchange. Christian symbols on jewellery such as pendants were found in the Sassanid layers of the dig sites within Merv.4 It is actually unsurprising that there was a Christian population establishing itself in these years at Merv, due to the fact that the Nestorian church had enough followers within Merv to establish it as a metropolitanate, and used it as a springboard to spread Christianity further east.5 Furthermore, various texts report that St. Thomas brought the Christian religion near Merv much sooner, as early as the 1st century AD. And even if this is only mere legend, then the deportation of Syrian Christians into the Sassanid empire by the Romans surely would have brought Christianity eastwards to Merv.6 This coupled with the proliferation of Manichaeism in the 3rd century AD, and the spread of Buddhism westwards likely made for a great intermixing of cultures in Merv.
The Persian period of Merv proves to be one of the most prosperous so far, but it was not without its low points. In the 5th century AD, the Hephthalites went to war with the Persian empire. Due to Merv's location in the north-easterly area of the Persian empire, close to the borders of the Hephthalites, Merv was likely used as a military bastion against the Hephthalite invaders, which probably impacted trade negatively in that specific time.
Under the Arabs
In the 7th century AD, the Arab army swept through Persia, and Merv was subsequently conquered, and named the capital of Khurasan; thus Merv changed hands once more. After conquering Merv, the Arabs built a new town east of Gyaur Kala named Shaim Kala, seemingly as a camp for their military.7 The shame in discussing Shaim Kala is that the site has been mostly destroyed by modern developments, and little remains.7 What we can say however, is that there was indeed a walled camp built outside of Gyaur Kala to house the Arab migrants to the city, which would undoubtedly increase cultural diversity and exchange.
In the 740's, Abu Muslim conquered Merv and launched the Abbasid revolution against the Umayyad caliphate. When all was said and done, and the Abbasid caliphate established itself, Merv became the proxy for the capital of Baghdad and the eastern part of the empire.
Birth of Sultan Kala
After conquering Merv, Abu Muslim commissioned a Mosque to be built about 1 kilometre west of the walls of Gyaur Kala, which eventually lead to the end of the thousand year old city.
In the 11th century AD under the Seljuk dynasty, a new city known today as Sultan Kala was finished, and ended up being much larger than the older Gyaur Kala. The mosque commissioned 3 centuries prior essentially became the centre of a planned city that was built on the west side of the old city.
Sultan Kala was designed from the ground up to be a more modern replacement for the old town. Various features of the town included organized public spaces, buildings, and clean water infrastructure which were important for the practice of Islam. As the more modern city rose, the now one thousand year old city of Gyaur Kala fell into disuse. It was during this period for a time that Merv was one of the most populated cities in the world.
This period would go on to provide the more potential for cultural exchange than any site before it. Not only did the larger, more organized city create a draw for immigrants from both outside and inside of Merv, it allowed for the intermixing of the numerous religions and peoples who were established and migrating at this time. Christianity, Buddhism and Manichaeism were not seedlings anymore with geographical or ethnic limits, but were full blown and blooming through the silk road and its inhabitants.
Map of Merv with sites highlighted10
The Mongols
It seems that every good thing must come to an end, and thats what happened to Merv when the Mongol armies came. In 1221, Toloui, the youngest son of Ghengis Khan, beseiged Merv with 70,000 troops. In 6 days, the city surrendered, and Toloui marched its entire population outside of the gates. After spending 4 days removing people from the city, Tolui's army undertook the slaughter of nearly the entire population of Merv, sparing only some four hundred to be kept as slaves. Following the slaughter, the entire city was pillaged and burned to the ground. Thus ended Sultan Kala, and the peak of Merv's occupation.8
Post Mortem
Calling this section of the project "post mortem" may be melodramatic because Merv did not completely die out after the Mongolian army left. Sultan Kala was occupied by squatters as well as the Mongols for some time afterwards.9 However, the site never fully recovered, and never made it back to its former glory. By the 15th century, a new town arose 2 kilometers to the south named Abdullah Khan Kala, built by the Timurs. Although it was a recovery of sorts for Merv, it did not compare to what Sultan Kala once was.
The Waves of Merv
Drawing the peaks and troughs of potential population booms and cultural exchange paints an interesting picture of Merv. While it does not conform very well to the classic Kondratiev wave, it does map out a picture of the prosperity and strife that Merv underwent. I have assigned values to these periods, 1 coincides with periods of growth of population and cultural exchange as demarked by the events outlined above. 0 coincides with periods of little change or little information. -1 coincides with periods of loss from various wars and other happenings. 2 and -2 are used to demark the periods of greatest prosperity and greatest loss.
By looking at this simplified version of history, we can get an idea of the cycles of prosperity and disparity that the people of Merv were exposed to. During the peaks, Merv was a bustling metropolis, with accelerating rates of cultural exchange occurring between different cultures and religions, forging new ties, understandings and relationships. In the troughs, Merv saw wars which would have driven away trade and immigration for a period of time, reducing the amount of cultural exchange between peoples of different religions who would have otherwise met in this silk road oasis.
