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Central Asia Shirin Akiner and Nicholas Sims-

williams (ed.), Languages and Scripts of Central
Asia. ix, 156 pp. London: School of Oriental and
African Studies, 1997. £23.

J. C. Wright

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies / Volume 61 / Issue 02 / June 1998, pp
385 - 386
DOI: 10.1017/S0041977X00014439, Published online: 05 February 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0041977X00014439

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J. C. Wright (1998). Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 61, pp
385-386 doi:10.1017/S0041977X00014439

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 REVIEWS
least one pro-abortion narrative) and the regret
some women might feel as a result; the possible
guilt felt by a generation that lived through the
war and survived into an era of economic and
social success towards those who did not live
to see these changes in Japan; or the fact (as
Hardacre herself has noted in her previous
work) that there is a new concept of the self
developing in Japan and that regret for a lost
baby might relate to this more introverted
sense of self—are not explored in the conclu-
sion. Instead we move into that fifth, unsatisfy-
ing chapter where Hardacre takes us on her
journey in search of this ' moribund' cult and
produces evidence to support her argument
that mizuko kuyo was no more than a brief
media-produced event. Again, while under-
standing that Hardacre wanted to make clear
what a diverse, non-homogeneous society Japan
can be, it might have helped to look also at
some of the very active centres of the cult
385
(Japanese religions have always favoured
centres); or do some in-depth interviewing of
practioners (lay people and not just priests).
All this might appear to suggest that the
book is less interesting than it is, but in fact
Marketing the menacing fetus is an important
addition to our knowledge on modern Japan.
In its attempts to draw a picture of a society
with different concerns from a Western Judaeo-
Christian one when it comes to both birth
control and abortion, it is very successful
indeed. It is certainly a book which I immedi-
ately added to my reading list. However, that
fifth chapter still worries me, particularly as all
evidence points to its being hurriedly put
together and not copy-edited at all (sentences
without verbs suddenly appear and the paren-
theses around phrases such as 'See Figure 3'
disappear)—it weakens an otherwise significant
book which should appeal beyond the usual
ranks of Japanologists.
D. P. MARTINEZ

CENTRAL ASIA

SHIRIN AKINER a n d NICHOLAS SIMS- Manichaean religion. Also working with the
WILLIAMS (ed.), Languages and Turfan Research Team, Peter Zieme has identi-
fied and deciphered a Sanskrit-Turkish bilingual
scripts of Central Asia, ix, 156 pp. annotation of much topographical interest:
London: School of Oriental and besides attesting Sanskrit (dasa)haihura ' (On)
African Studies, 1997. £23. Uighur' and secuva(desa) 'Xizhou, Western
Region, Qoco', the fragment gives information
The papers assembled here provide an updating about the regional capital Liikcung. Csato and
survey of many crucial issues in Indo-Iranian, Johanson seek an explanation for the behaviour
Tocharian, and Turkological aspects of the of the gerund in Turkic (behaviour that seems
cultures of Central Asia. They stem from explicable on the basis that gerunds develop
conferences, etc., organized at the School of from nouns rather than verbs). A tentative
Oriental and African Studies by the Central description of the interplay of tense and aspect
Asian Studies Association, and are uniformly in Baburndma is offered by Claus Schonig. The
presented in impeccable English. textual history of Rabghuzl's Qisas is examined
by Hendrik Boeschoten in manuscripts ranging
On the basis of palaeographical and other from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century;
evidence, Dieter Maue is able to reassert the and the incorporation of the tales of Manas
fundamental independent contribution made into Kirghiz national epic and their subsequent
by Tocharians to the transmission of Buddhist evolution are described by Hatto. The problems
culture via the Northern Silk Road. Klaus that attend the translation into French of the
Schmidt contributes materially to the clarifica- fluid oral tradition of the Uzbek epic Koroglu
tion of Tocharian phonology with further are the concern of Remy Dor.
evidence that graphic vowel length had purely
qualitative significance. This, like its use of sa in Welcome is the initiative of Adam Molnar
uniting ethnography and lexicography for
as the palatal sibilant and sa as palatal affricate, an examination
seems to have significance for the phonology history of wordsofdenoting the linguistic geography and
of the northern dialects of Middle Indo-Aryan. Asia. MacKenzie gives a 'clear plough' in Central
Dieter Weber's re-examination of Iranian loan- the ostensible history of Pashto exposition of
words in Niya Prakrit goes far towards con- which, with its curious progressionorthography from max-
firming Burrow's conclusion that Iranian imal to minimal distinction between sounds,
influence on the language had been exerted and from diacritic circles to hamzas and
mainly already in Gandhara; even Khotanese hamza to triple dots, looks to be the from very
had drawn material on occasion 'by way of opposite of the actual train of events (surely
Bactrian from older Parthian'. Again the point there must be a suspicion that a later copyist
has a bearing on the much altered morphology has read more into Bayazld's ambition to
and syntax of Niya Prakrit. In the Khotanese emulate quranic orthography than his words
Ramdyana, Emmerick has plausibly uncovered actually warranted). The volume ends with
in varaka ' refuge, nest' and pustaka ' shaving- John
cloth' items of Sanskrit (but surely rather of thePayne's study of the Indo-Aryan language
Sanskritized Iranian) vocabulary, the latter in much Parya of Tadzhikistan, finding it to be
more recognizably Rajasthani than
association with an interpolated joke. Oranskij had realized (the reference to it in the
Werner Sundermann, leader of the Turfan foreword as a Gypsy language seems to misrep-
Research Team in Berlin, discusses the basis resent Payne's opening remark).
and implications of the polyglottism of This interesting and instructive volume is a
386 REVIEWS
worthy attestation of the School's long-standing
involvement and continuing interest in the
study of Central Asia, which one must hope
will one day be more copiously reflected in
terms of academic staff. No misprints of any
consequence were observed. The intention of
the map on p. 130 is clear enough, although
the required diagonal hatching in the key is
not visible; the reproduction of the Bratirni-
Uighur fragment on p. 50 is, however, far
from adequate.
J. C. WRIGHT
R. D. McCHESNEY: Central Asia: founda-
tions of change. (Leon B. Poullada
Memorial Lecture, Vol. 2.) 204 pp.
Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press,
1996. $35.
This is a carefully constructed book based on
a series of lectures in memory of a former US
ambassador and scholar who specialized on the
history of Afghanistan and Iran. Robert
McChesney moves effortlessly from the general
to the particular, from present conditions to
the middle ages, securing the interest of the
general reader and the specialist alike by his
flowing style, his useful glossary and biblio-
graphy, his tables and coloured plates, well-
chosen quotations of original works and copi-
ous end-notes. Newspaper articles, statistics,
learned studies, historical gossip, modern films
and even cartoons are drawn upon to illustrate
a change in Sufi leadership, the creation of
wealth in a pastoral environment or the
importance of Chingiz Khan as a symbol
of power.
The introduction outlines the contradictions
and difficulties that beset the newly independent
countries of Central Asia, and suggests that
knowledge of precedents and time-hallowed
institutions might help to explain, and solve,
many present-day problems. The first chapter,
which bears the unusual title of ' Central Asia
imagined', deals with its religious significance,
the importance of tomb shrines, Ibn Battuja's
concern at the apparent neglect of theological
studies in 1333 and Lansdell's late nineteenth-
century account of local life seen through
biblical spectacles. Condemning the 'artificial
ethnicity' which underpinned the creation of
local republics in the 1920s, McChesney high-
lights some of the difficulties resulting from it.
He then explains the importance of Central
Asia in relation to the Silk Road and the Great
Game, before dealing, rather belatedly, with
the physical geography of the area. This section,
however, provides an excellent summary of all
the main features. Buttressed by maps and a
series of coloured aerial views, it enables the
author to refer to modern problems caused by
the Kara Kum Canal, the sharing of rivers and
the dessication of the Aral Sea.
In the chapter on 'economic fundamentals'
McChesney rejects the theory that the economy
of Muslim Asia declined after the opening of
the maritime routes. He points to the appear-
ance of tobacco in the area and, more contro-
versially, to the increase in building in late
sixteenth-century Bukhara, as showing an
awareness of the New World, its produce and
riches. This is followed by a detailed list of
local fruit and staple crops based on sixteenth-
to nineteenth-century sources, and a learned
description of property rights according to
Muslim law, with their application north and
south of the Amu-Darya since the sixteenth
century. The preservation of wealth through
trusts and endowments, the Soviet annexation
of private property and the redistribution of
land in Afghanistan after 1978 are also
illustrated.
In the third and longest chapter the author
returns to the shrines, dealing at length with
names, types, importance and history. He
compares the power and influence of shrine
families with that of the American 'dynastic
families' mentioned by Marcus and Hall who
use endowments and trusts to preserve and
transfer their possessions through the genera-
tions, while serving, or appearing to serve, a
more general and altruistic purpose than per-
sonal aggrandisement and wealth. The shrines
are shown as employers of men, recipients of
donations from pilgrims and rulers, centres for
the celebration of Muslim festivals, venues for
literary competitions and debates, and the
resting-place of rulers and eminent people.
Thirteen major shrines are listed, five of
which—the Ansari in Herat, the so-called 'Alid
shrine in Mazar-i Sharif, the Baha' al-DIn and
Char Bakr in Bukhara and the Ahrari in
Samarqand—are studied exhaustively. Details
are given of the saint's life, the shrine's history,
endowments, income, administrators and con-
nections with the various rulers. McChesney
even analyses rivalries within shrine families.
He points out that although 'Abdallah II
refurbished the shrine which the Juibari shaykhs
administered in gratitude for their help, neither
he, nor his father, chose to be buried there.
And under the Astarkhanids another family of
shaykhs was seated higher than them at Court.
In hisfinalchapter McChesney explains that,
although Chingiz Khan introduced neither a
specific concept of sovereignty, nor even per-
haps the body of laws known as Yasa into
Central Asia, local rulers were expected to
descend from him through the male line, and
the Yasa was invoked to legitimize Court and
military ceremonies, together with unfamiliar
practices. The resulting difficulty for historians
preferring to stress their monarch's commit-
ment to the Sharia is illustrated, together with
the drawbacks of a system based on seniority,
military conquest, clan rule and semi-
independent appanages. The waning of the
Chingizid legacy is carefully traced in eight-
eenth-century Bukhara and Balkh. However,
Khwarazm is dealt with far too cursorily. It is
dismissed as ' a parallel ... state with basically
the same constitutional system', although in
fact it had a tradition of interference in
succession arrangements which began 50 years
earlier than its neighbours'. Its description as a
state ' in the delta region of the Amu' hardly
does it justice, for it extended beyond Hazarasp
in the south and its rulers exercised some form
of control in the west as far as the Caspian.
Non-Chingizid Afghan rulers, active between
1747 and 1973, are studied next whose legitim-
acy, as reflected by their titles of 'shah' and
'amir', was based on military organization and