ABSTRACT

In the late spring of 1990, more than a year before the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) began to break up, the leaders of the five Central Asian republics gathered in Alma-Ata (now Almaty) to contemplate a common response to what they described as the area's "social, political, economic, and moral crises." Central Asia's ancient past was determined not by its geography, that is, by its location at the heart of the Eurasian landmass, but rather by its topological features. In the middle part of the fourth century B.C. Alexander of Macedonia passed through Central Asia on his march to conquer India. The Central Asia that Alexander found was composed of city-states. Sogdiana at this time was centered in Samarkand in today's Uzbekiston. Central Asia became a center of learning. In the oases of Central Asian antiquity, particularly in Khorezm and Bukhara, Arabic learning left behind a rich intellectual legacy.