Download PDF | The ebb and flow of an empire: the Ghūrid polity of central Afghanistan in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by David Colin Thomas, PH.D, La Trobe University, 2012.
610 Pages
The iconic minaret of Djām stands in a remote mountain valley in central Afghanistan, the finest surviving monument of the enigmatic Ghūrid dynasty. The seasonally nomadic Ghūrids rose to prominence ca 545 / 1150-1 when they devastated the capitals of the neighbouring Ghaznawid dynasty. Over the next sixty-five years, the Ghūrids expanded their polity into Khurāsān and the northern Indian sub-continent, before succumbing to the Khwārazm-Shāh and then the Mongols.
Their summer capital of Fīrūzkūh, which isthought to be modern Djām, was abandoned and never re-occupied. The re-discovery of the minaret half a century ago prompted renewed interest in the Ghūrids, and this has intensified since Djām became Afghanistan’s first World Heritage site in 2002. The few studies that have been published, however, have largely been historical or architectural; relatively little archaeological data has been collected from Ghūrid sites and Djām has suffered extensive looting in recent years.
Two seasons of archaeological fieldwork at Djām, the detailed analysis of satellite images and the innovative use of Google Earth as a cultural heritage management tool have resulted in a wealth of new information about known Ghūrid sites, and the identification of hundreds of previously undocumented archaeological sites across Afghanistan. Drawing inspiration from the Annales School and Adam T. Smith’s concept of an ‘archipelagic landscape’, I have used these data to re-assess the Ghūrids and generate a more nuanced understanding of this significant Early Islamic polity.
In addition to complementing the événements which form the focus of the urban-based historical sources, the new archaeological data have enabled me to reconsider the urban characteristics of the Ghūrids’ summer capital and explore the issues of Ghūrid identity, ideology and the sustainability of their polity. The use of Google Earth, in particular, represents an advance in archaeological methodology applicable to semi-arid landscapes throughout the region.
Preface
The challenges (and rewards) of undertaking archaeological fieldwork in a country like Afghanistan have been numerous and need to be outlined to put the following research in context. This thesis draws heavily on the work of the Minaret of Jam Archaeological Project (MJAP), which I initiated in 2003 in conjunction with Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente (IsIAO). I embarked on the project, which was under the overall direction of Prof. Giovanni Verardi (IsIAO), envisaging that it would be comprised of three seasons – the great potential and urgent need for archaeological fieldwork at the site were immediately evident when we reached Djām on 8th August 2003, although our original remit was merely to conduct an archaeological impact assessment of the proposed route of a new road on behalf of UNESCO and NAIA. The short 2003 season highlighted the previously undocumented extent of the looting at Djām and the limited data about the site as a whole.
Unfortunately, our plans for a second season of fieldwork in 2004 had to be postponed for security reasons due to a rebellion in Ghūr province. Further security concerns in 2005 prompted the Italian government to place restrictions on its institutions’ activities in Afghanistan, so Prof. Verardi suggested that I sever the project’s official link with IsIAO and run MJAP as an independent project. I succeeded in raising A$67,400 (US$72,400 – nearly three times the 2003 budget) in funding, enabling us to undertake a highly productive three weeks of fieldwork at Djām in August 2005, again in conjunction with our colleagues in NAIA, and with UNESCO’s approval. Alison Gascoigne, who participated in the 2005 field season as the project’s ceramicist, joined me as co-director of the project in 2006.
Once again, however, despite raising a considerable sum of funding, assembling a highly capable, diverse team and receiving approval from UNESCO and the Afghan authorities, we were forced to postpone the fieldwork, twelve hours before departure. On this occasion, Andrea Bruno, the architect responsible for overseeing the structural stabilization of the minaret, raised objections about our proposed stay in the MoIC rest house at Djām overlapping with his work there and the nature of our planned archaeological fieldwork. Attempts by Prof. Graeme Barker to facilitate a compromise with Bruno and his allies in UNESCO ultimately proved fruitless – we remain perplexed at how non-intrusive archaeological survey work could jeopardize the stability of the minaret which has stood for eight centuries.
The subsequent moratorium on further archaeological fieldwork at Djām increased the importance of other aspects of our research – i.e. the analysis of satellite images available through Google Earth. With the approval of our funding bodies and the MoIC, we decided to use the A$120,000 (US$128,500) we had raised to undertake a study of other, less well-known Early Islamic sites in Ghūr province in 2007, integrating detailed analysis of satellite images and archaeological fieldwork. The collaborative fieldwork we planned with NAIA and students from Kābul University was designed to complement a series of seminars and practicals we gave on archaeological survey techniques in Kābul University in August 2007, as part of Afghanistan’s National Development Strategy for capacity building. Bilingual booklets based on the seminars have since been published (Thomas 2009b) and donated to NAIA and Kābul University.
Unfortunately, the kidnappings of twenty-three South Koreans and two Germans in southern Afghanistan just prior to us going into the field, prevented us from leaving Kābul. Although we made good use of our prolonged time in Kābul (Gascoigne & Thomas in prep.; Thomas et al. 2008), the repeated frustration of our attempts to conduct fieldwork in central Afghanistan caused us to initiate the Archaeological Sites of Afghanistan in Google Earth (ASAGE) project.
We are particularly grateful to the trustees of the Cary-Robertson Fund for permitting us to divert funds allocated for the 2007 survey work towards this ground-breaking research, which has been so productive (Thomas & Zipfel 2008; Thomas, Kidd et al. 2008; Thomas in press; inter alia).
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