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Central Asia Quotes

Browse 24 quotes about Central Asia.

Central Asia Quotes

“Russian authorities distinguished between steppe Islam, suffused, they believed, with Shamanism, and the Islam of the Uzbek cities, which they considered hotbeds of fanaticism. Catherine viewed Islam as a "civilizing" tool that would first make Kazakhs good Muslims, then good citizens, eventually good Christians. She used Tatar teachers, her subjects, who could travel among the nomads and speak their language, to preach a more "correct" Islam. The Tatars became an important factor in implanting in the steppe an Islam that adhered more closely to traditional Muslim practices.”

IslamPoliciesCentral AsiaKazakhRussian EmpireUzbek
Book:Central Asia in World History
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“In Lenin's view, such changes were positive: nations, as products of capitalist economic relations, fitted into classic Marxist stage theory of development. Even Stalin, who differed on the implications for Soviet policy, agreed that nations were an inescapable phase through which all humans communities must pass. Ultimately, they (like, capitalism) would be superseded, but for precapitalist societies national development and nationalist movements were treated as progressive. Lenin drew a further distinction between great-power nationalism, which oppressed others, and small-power nationalism, which formed in response o it. In places - such as Russia - that had been responsible for national and colonial oppression of others, nationalism was to be combated without mercy and torn out by the roots. Among groups that had been victims of national or colonial oppression, by contrast-such as in the tsarist imperial periphery, where Russian power had created deep economic, political, and social resentment-the Leninist approach was to build socialism while encouraging indigenous development and national differentiation.”

NationalismUssrStalinLeninCentral AsiaUzbekistanNational Question
Book:Veiled Empire: Gender and Power in Stalinist Central Asia
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“Deprived of their direct ties with Central Asia -- and with it their access to Turkish slaves, mercenaries and war horses -- the later Ghaznavids lost their wider, imperial vision an acquired the character of a regional, North Indian state. They were certainly not seen as menacing aliens who might have posed a civilzational threat to Indian culture. Contemporary Sanskrit inscriptions refer to the Ghaznavids not as Muslims but as 'turushkas' (Turks), an ethnic term, or as 'hammiras', a Sanskritized rendering of 'amir' (Arabic for commander), an official title. For their part, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries Ghaznavid rulers in India issued coins from Lahore bearing the same legends that had appeared on those of their Indian predecessors, the Hindu Shahi dynasty (c.850-1002). These included Śiva's bull Nandi and the Sanskrit phrase 'śri samanta deva' (Honourable Chief Commander) inscribed in Devanagari script. Such measures point to the later Ghaznavids' investment in establishing cultural and monetary continuity with North Indian kingsdoms. Moreover, despite the dynasty's rhetoric about defending Sunni Islam, religion posed no bar to military recruitment, as Indians had always been prominent in Ghaznavid armies. In 1033 Mahmud of Ghazni gave the command of his army stationed in Lahore to a Hindu general, and in Ghazni itself Indian military contingents had their own commanders, inhabited their own quarter of the city, and were generally considered more reliable soldiers than the Turks. Crucially, the Ghaznavids brought to the Punjab the entire gamut of Persianate institutions and practices that would define the political economy of much of India for centuries to come. Inherited from the creative ferment of tenth-century Khurasan and Central Asia under the Samanid rulers of Bukhara, these included: the elaboration of a ranked and salaried bureaucracy tied to the state's land revenue and military systems; the institution of elite, or military, slavery; an elaboration of the office of 'sultan'; the courtly patronage of Persian arts, crafts and literature; and a tradition of spiritually powerful holy men, or Sufis, whose relations with royal power were ambivalent, to say the least.”

HistoryIndiaSufisTurksCentral Asia
Book:India in the Persianate Age, 1000–1765
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“Everybody's suffering is mine but not everybody's murdering ... I do not distinguish for one moment whether my child is in danger or a child in central Asia. But I will not accept responsibility for what other people do because I happen to belong to that nation or that race or that religion. I do not believe in guilt by association.”

PeopleBelieveChildrenMomentsHappensSufferingNationsRaceResponsibilityAcceptingDangerMinesGuiltMy ChildrenAssociationAsiaCentral Asia
Author:Margaret Mead
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“You've got problems in Central Asia. And you've got problems within our own communities back home. So if we end up saying, look, this has nothing to do with Islam or it's got no connection with that broader question, then we look, frankly, as if we're in denial about the problem. And the interesting thing in the Middle East is that they have absolutely no problem there in identifying that as Islamist extremism and calling it that.”

IfsLooksEndsProblemHomeCommunityInterestingMiddleCallingConnectionsIslamEastDenialMiddle EastAsiaNo ProblemExtremismInteresting ThingsBack HomeIdentifyingIslamistsCentral Asia
Author:Tony Blair
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“You have a lot of suspicion from the neighbors of Afghanistan about U.S. intentions. Iran is already, to some extent, trying to undermine the U.S. in Afghanistan. Russia is now becoming increasingly nervous about a more permanent U.S. presence in Central Asia. And China is not keen that the U.S. should be so close to its borders over a long period of time. Certainly, if the U.S. is going to be there for a long time, it's going to exacerbate regional tensions.”

IfsShouldTryingLongBecomingPeriodsLong TimeIntentionChinaNeighborRussiaNervousPermanentBordersTensionIranAfghanistanSuspicionAsiaLong Periods Of TimeCentral Asia
Author:Ahmed Rashid
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“With every throb of the climatic pulse which we have felt in Central Asia,, the centre of civilisation has moved this way and that. Each throb has sent pain and decay to the lands whose day was done, life and vigour to those whose day was yet to be.”

WayLifeDonePainScienceFeltLandCivilizationMovedDecayCentreAsiaPulseCivilisationCentral Asia
Book:The Pulse of Asia: A Journey in Central Asia Illustrating the Geographical Basis of History
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“The momentum of Asia's economic development is already generating massive pressures for the exploration and exploitation of new sources of energy and the Central Asian region and the Caspian Sea basin are known to contain reserves of natural gas and oil that dwarf those of Kuwait, the Gulf of Mexico, or the North Sea.”

EnergyNaturalKnownSeaEconomicSourceDevelopmentPressureOilGasRegionsMassiveExplorationMexicoReservesExploitationAsiaAsianMomentumEconomic DevelopmentDwarfsDwarvesNatural GasKuwaitGulf Of MexicoCentral AsiaNorth SeaCaspian Sea
Book:The Grand Chessboard
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“I have information about things that our government has lied to us about. I know. For example, to say that since the fall of the Soviet Union we ceased all of our intimate relationship with Bin Laden and the Taliban - those things can be proven as lies, very easily, based on the information they classified in my case, because we did carry very intimate relationship with these people, and it involves Central Asia, all the way up to September 11.”

PeopleKnowsWayGovernmentLyingFallCasesInformationExampleUnionsIntimateSovietSeptemberProvenAsiaSoviet UnionLiedBin LadenSeptember 11TalibanIntimate RelationshipsCentral Asia
Author:Sibel Edmonds
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“Since the Bush-Cheney Administration took office in January 2001, controlling the major oil and natural gas fields of the world had been the primary, though undeclared, priority of US foreign policy... Not only the invasion of Iraq, but also the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan, had nothing to do with 'democracy,' and everything to do with pipeline control across Central Asia and the militarization of the Middle East.”

WorldNaturalDemocracyMiddlePolicyFieldsOfficeMajorsIraqOilEastPrioritiesAdministrationPrimariesGasAfghanistanForeign PolicyMiddle EastAsiaInvasionJanuaryTalibanPipelineNatural GasCentral AsiaUs Foreign Policy
Author:F. William Engdahl
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“This document will play an important role in protecting the strategic interests of Russia and Uzbekistan and ensuring stability and security in the region, which some politicians call Russia's soft underbelly. It's not a secret that after the Soviet collapse and especially in recent years, Central Asia has become the focus of interest of major nations because of its geographic location and rich mineral resources.”

YearsImportantPlayNationsInterestSecretRolesRichFocusSecurityPoliticianMajorsResourcesRussiaRegionsStabilitySovietCollapseDocumentsLocationAsiaStrategicMineralsCentral AsiaUzbekistanMineral Resources
Author:Islom Karimov
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