HISTORY OF KHOREZM STATEHOOD IN ANTIQUE SOURCES

Abstract

This article reveals the issue of coverage of the history of Khorezm statehood in ancient sources and the issue of new views and approaches to this problem. The issue of the emergence of the first statehood in the Khorezm region was not sufficiently reflected in ancient sources. Because the data in them are taken from a third source, during the comparative analysis with the results of archaeological research, they do not correspond to each other.

            In the works of Greek historians, the reports about the people called "Khorasmians" should be studied in two periods or stages (this feature is not sufficiently analyzed in the historical literature). The first period mil. avv. It belongs to the end of the VI century - the middle of the V century and is connected with the data of Skilak, Hecate and Herodotus. The second period belongs to the period of creation of the works of the last Greco-Roman historians (1st century BC - 2nd century AD). The content of these works, the description of historical events often repeats the information of Hecate, Herodotus, Ctesias, and is based on the reports of the authors of the time of Alexander the Great. The data of Skilak, Hecate, and Herodotus reflect the characteristics of the territorial boundaries formed in Central Asia during the reigns of the ancient Persian kings Cyrus II and Darius I. According to written sources, the Khorasmians lived in a valley “surrounded on all sides by mountains,” the Khorasmians, the Girkans, the Parthians, the Sarans, and the Tamaneys.By the time of Alexander the Great's march, the boundaries of the territorial distribution of the population in Central Asia would change considerably. In the works of Strabo, Curtius Rufus, and Arrian, the Khorasmians are described as a people living in the Lower Amudarya region.