The Return of the Aryan Myth: Tajikistan in Search of a Secularized National Ideology

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Notes

1. On this question of autochthony, see Suny, Intellectuals and the Articulation of the Nation; and Shnirelman, Who Gets the Past?

2. Dudoignon, “Le Tadjikistan existe-t-il?”; Djalili, Le Tadjikistan à l'épreuve de la guerre civile.

3. Laruelle and Peyrouse, Asie centrale, la dérive autoritaire.

4. “Predmet issledovanii—etnogenez,” Vechernyi Dushanbe, 9 February 1989, 3.

5. Shozimov, Tadzhikskaya identichnost' i gosudarstvennoe stroitel'stvo v Tadzhikistane.

6. Dudoignon, “Changements politiques et historiographiques en Asie centrale (Tadjikistan et Uzbékistan, 1987–1993),” 85–135.

7. Masov, Merosi niëgon—Nasledie predkov, 2.

8. Rakhmonov, “Tysyacha let v odnu zhizn',” Narodnaya gazeta, 23 September 1999, 2.

9. Rakhmonov, Opening speech at the conference for 1,100 years of the Samanid state, Narodnaya gazeta, 13 May 1999, 1.

10. Rakhmonov, “Tadzhikskaya gosudarstvennost': ot samadinov do rubezha XXI veka,” Narodnaya gazeta, 10 September 1999, 1.

11. Rakhmonov, Zoroastrizm i ego znachenie v razvitii tsivilizatsii narodov Blizhnego i Srednego Vostoka, 28.

12. Laruelle, Mythe aryen et rêve impérial dans la Russie du xix ^e siècle.

13. According to the commentaries of those who were able to compare the Russian and Tajik editions, it seems that the text is different in the two versions, but nobody has drawn up a list of the differences between both texts.

14. See B. G. Gafurov: dialog kul'tur i tsivilizatsii.

15. See Mukhtarov and Sharipov, Akademik Bobodzhan Gafurov.

16. Gafurov, Istoriya tadzhikskogo naroda v kratkom izlozhenii, 23.

17. Ibid., 26.

18. Ibid., 50.

19. Tolstov et al., Istoriya uzbekskoi SSR, VI.

20. Ibid., 173.

21. Gafurov, Tadzhiki, 294.

22. See Ashurov, “Ideinaya bor'ba vokrug knigi Akademika B. G. Gafurova Tadzhiki,” 72–78.

23. See Gafurov and Litvinskii, Uzlovye problemy etnogeneza i etnicheskoi istorii narodov Srednei Azii i Kazakhstana (teoreticheskii aspekt), 7.

24. The Avesta is a collection of the sacred texts of the Zoroastrian religion (Mazdeism). Although some of the texts are very old, the term “Avesta” itself only dates to the second century ce. The most important portion is the hymns thought to have been composed by Zarathustra himself around 1,000 bce.

25. Avesta i mirovaya tsivilizatsiya, 153.

26. This information was provided by Nargiz Khodzhaeva, junior scholar at the Institute of History, and confirmed by Rakhim Masov, Dushanbe, June 2004.

27. Vklad iranskikh narodov v razvitie mirovoi tsivilizatsii. Istoriya i sovremennost', 15.

28. Mumidzhanov, “Avesta ob etnogeneze tadzhikov,” 89–97.

29. Rakhmonov, Tadzhiki v zerkale istorii, 152.

30. P'yankov, “Ariana po svidetel'stvam antichnykh avtorov,” 39.

31. Drevnyaya tsivilizatsiya i ee rol' v slozhenii i razvitii kul'tury Tsentral'noj Azii epokhi samanidov.

32. Negmatov, Tadzhiki, 16.

33. Ibid., 129.

34. Renfrew, L'énigme indo-européenne.

35. Laruelle, “Continuité des élites intellectuelles, continuité des problématiques identitaires,” 45–76.

36. Masov, “Turan—eto ne Turkestan,” 21.

37. Negmatov, Tadzhikskii fenomen, 97–104.

38. Negmatov, Gosudarstvo samanidov (Mavarannakhr i Khorasan v IX–X vv.), p. 231.

39. Nasirova, “Chtrikhi k prarodine ariev (gorizonty molekulyarnoi genetiki cheloveka),” 187.

40. Ibid., 199.

41. Nasledie predkov, no. 4 (1999), 7–8.

42. R. Masov, “Rol' Rossii v istoricheskikh sud'bakh tadzhikskogo naroda i ego nacional'no-gosudarstvennoi stroitel'stve,” Nasledie predkov, no. 5 (2001), 4.

43. Masov, Tadzhiki, 20.

44. Ibid., 87.

45. Ibid., 29.

46. E. P. Rakhmonov, “O gode ariiskoi tsivilizatsii,” Narodnaya gazeta, 12 September 2003, 1.

47. Available from http://www.lenta.ru/news/2005/12/09/rahmonov/; INTERNET (accessed March 2006).

48. N. N. Negmatov, “Istoki etnogeneza i kul'turogeneza ariev ariany,” Narodnaya gazeta, 24 March 2004, 4.

49. V. Volkov, N. Bukhari-zade, and Yu. Chernogaev, “Storony ‘ariiskoi’ medali,” Nemetskaya volna, 8 January 2005, available from http://www.materik.ru/print.php?section = analitics&bulsectionid = 13049; INTERNET.

50. M. Ilolov, “Nasledie nashikh predkov. 2006-oi—God ariiskoi tsivilizatsii,” CentrAsia, 26 June 2005.

51. Ibid.

52. A. Gershenzon, “Ariiskaya mifologiya i Tsentral'naya Aziya,” CentrAsia, 17 and 20 September 2003.

53. Askarov, “Ariiskaya problema,” 81–91.

54. R. Masov, “Tyurkizatsiya ariitsev: chush' ili nedomyslie? Otvet na statiyu A. Askarova Ariiskaya problema: novye podkhody i vzglyady,” CentrAsia, 6 January 2006.

55. A. Akhmedov, “Vozvrachshayas' k istorii ‘ariitsev’ (k polemike mezhdu R. Masovym i A. Askarovym),” CentrAsia, 20 January 2006. See also another article opposed to the Tajik point of view: R. Arslonzoda, “Istina rozhdaetsya v spore,” CentrAsia, 2 February 2006.

56. A. Akhmedov, “Echshe raz ob ariiskoi probleme,” CentrAsia, 23 March 2006.

57. A. Gafurov, “Kto zhe obostryaet situatsiyu? K voprosu o diskussii istorikov Tadzhikistana i Uzbekistana,” CentrAsia, 8 February 2006.

58. R. Masov, “Fal'sifitsirovat' i prisvaivat' chuzhuyu natsitoriyu nel'zya (otvet pantukistam),” CentrAsia, 9 March 2006.

59. R. Masov, Arii: istoriya i sovremennost.'

60. Nasledie predkov, no. 9, September 2006.

61. M. Strukova, “Svet s Vostoka,” Zavtra, 24 December 2004, available from http:// zavtra.ru/cgi//veil//data/zavtra/04/580/51.html; INTERNET (accessed March 2006).

62. V. Volkov, N. Bukhari-zade, and Yu. Chernogaev, “Storony ‘ariiskoi’ medali,” Nemetskaya volna, 8 January 2005.

63. Tengrism is an intellectual and religious craze in Turkic nationalist circles which consists in presenting Islam as a faith alien to these populations and in rehabilitating the ancient animist cult of the god Tengri by presenting it as a monotheism ahead of its time that would offer a cosmogony that is perfectly adapted to the contemporary world. Cf. Laruelle, “Tengrism.”