The Impact of Trade on the Silk Road on the Rise and Social Mobility of Turkish Commanders (Ghaznavids Case Study)

Document Type : جغرافیای تاریخی خراسان بزرگ

Abstract

Geographical factors are the basis of many political events and social movements, while the Silk Road as an independent geographical factor has always been associated with many political, cultural and commercial transitions. These events include the facilitation of the transfer of commercial goods, in particular the transfer of slaves to the Muslim world, which as human commodities have been the ornament of the court of kings, caliphs and Aristocratic assemblies, as well as other incentives for independent military and social and political movements. The latter function applies to the Ghaznavids, as they are one of the few dynasties whose foundations were based on the slave trade on the Silk Road. This study seeks to answer the question of how the trade in the Silk Road has had an impact on the emergence and social mobility of the Turkish commanders, especially Amir Sabuktigin Ghaznavid? We formulated the answer on the premise that economic and commercial factors have had a major impact on the emergence and social mobility of the Ghaznawi Turkish commanders. Findings suggest that the Silk Road was a crossroad between the deserted tribes and the slave trade, especially through the Borskhanian crossing in the Noushajjans from the Transoxania frontier, which created a suitable platform for the role of both Muslim troops and merchants in buying and selling. It provided funding for the slave campaign, such as Sabuktigin and other slaves. On the other hand, slaves' economic break from the Samanids government and their economic dependence on their nascent homogenous leaders, especially in the case of Albetigin and Sabuktigin, provided the basis for their social mobility towards an independent state.
Keywords: Ghaznavids, Silk Road, Transoxania, Trade, Turkish Commanders, Social Mobility