Original subtitles

(ORIENTAL MUSIC)

This is the untold story

of the making of the modern world.

A fresh perspective,

charting the spread of civilisation across the globe.

From the dawn of mankind

and the first cities and empires

to the belief in One God.

(Calls for prayer)

We follow the flow of civilisation

from the Middle East...

an extraordinary place that has been a vital link

between the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe for millennia.

An economic, scientific and cultural centre of the world.

This is an epic journey of discovery...

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

from the East to the West.

Today, on the outskirts of the town of Sivas in modern Turkey,

horsemen gather together to play Cirit -

an ancient game of immense skill and stamina -

using the traditional cirit or spear.

(RHYTHMIC MUSIC)

It is an extreme test of reflex, bravery and horsemanship.

Riders attempt to catch their opponent's spear in mid-flight,

before launching into a fresh assault.

But cirit isn't just a game.

It's a thousand year old tradition

an echo of an ancient lifestyle on horseback,

when the ancestors of these riders played it

to hone their equestrian and battle skills

as they began to transform the world forever.

(SWELLING MUSIC)

A thousand years ago

the dividing lines in Middle East and Asia Minor

seemed firmly drawn between the Great Islamic empires,

and the lands of the Byzantines

- the Christian successors of the eastern Roman Empire.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

But at the turn of the new millennium,

new forces were beginning to rise in the distant steps of central Asia

that would turn this old order upside down.

(OMINOUS MUSIC)

First came the Seljuk Turks

who journeyed thousands of miles and took on the Byzantines,

followed by Genghis Khan

and his Mongol tribes who wrought destruction

throughout the Islamic world, before converting to the faith themselves.

Timur the Great, who from his glittering capital in Samarkand

created an Islamic renaissance.

And his descendants the Moghuls, whose rule in India would produce

one of the richest, most vibrant cultures in history.

This is the story of a region that created

some of the greatest empires and emperors the world has ever seen,

transforming the balance of world power

and redefining both East and West forever.

This is the story of the Asian crucible.

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

The rugged steppes of Central Asia

- a thousand years ago,

a bleak terrain inhabited by nomadic, horsemen.

A region on the fringes of the Islamic world

since it had been conquered by the Arab armies.

A vast landmass

which stretched from modern day China and Mongolia in the east,

to the Caspian Sea in the west.

Afghanistan in the south,

to Russia in the north,

but a region that had also played an important role

as a hub between East and West,

the territory through which the Great Silk Road passed,

bringing riches from China and India through to Europe.

By the 11th century,

the most powerful inhabitants of this region were a Turkic people,

the Seljuks - recent converts to Islam,

whose tribal warlike culture had given them dominance

over this harsh, inhospitable terrain.

Over 300 years

- using their military skills,

driven by the search of better pasture and the spoils of war,

the Seljuk Turks not only swept throughout the steppes

but began to spread out of their Central Asian homeland

towards Anatolia,

the lands of Modern Turkey.

Their arrival changed the balance of world power forever

as the cultures of East and West -

the Christians of Byzantium

and the Muslim Turks -

clashed head to head.

(EERIE MUSIC)

It was here in Eastern Anatolia,

on 26th August, 1071,

outside the town of Malazgirt,

that the Seljuk forces came face to face

with their Byzantine foes.

The Seljuk leader, Alp Arslan, confidently led his army

to the edge of the plains...

the barren landscape a perfect setting tor an army

which had thrived in the harsh terrain

of the Central Asian steppes.

Alp Arslan's forces

had already capitalised on their adaptability to this landscape,

weakening their enemy through skirmishing and sabotage.

They had burned the Byzantines' food sources and poisoned their wells.

But still the Seljuk cavalry were heavily outnumbered.

And rather than going for all-out attack,

the Seljuks used hit and run tactics

to draw their enemy into a lethal trap.

They had the speed,

they had the weaponry,

but most importantly they were highly skilled.

Under pressure, the Byzantine infantry attacked.

As the Byzantines approached,

the Turks feigned retreat.

Then from behind the rocky hills,

the hidden Seljuk archers emerged on horseback .

The Byzantines were surrounded and in disarray.

The Turks closed in and crushed them.

Against the odds,

Alp Arslan's warriors had destroyed the mighty Byzantine army,

the Byzantine empire losing its hold over the rich lands of Anatolia.

The land known as Rum, meaning “Roman Empire",

that had been ruled by Christian Byzantines,

was now the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum ruled by Muslim Sultans.

As they cemented their rule,

their new capital Konya became the spiritual and cultural heart

of the Seljuk state.

Scholarship, craftsmanship and religion -

including Sufism, a mystic branch of Islam -

flooded in from all over the Muslim world,

bringing with it, the cultural heritage of Central Asia

and the Middle East.

The departure of the Byzantines

and the arrival of the Seljuks marked a monumental regime change,

but it didn't mark a complete break with the past.

The region of Cappadocia, “the land of beautiful horses",

had been the hub of Anatolian Christianity

for many centuries before the Seljuk invasion.

And today, in the town of Aksaray,

Christian dwellings, rock monasteries and frescoed churches

still honeycomb the steep gorges and hillsides.

But it is nearby, in the 16 mile rock cut gorge,

the lhlara Valley,

where archaeological evidence reveals the remarkable relationship

between the Christians and the incoming Muslims.

This richly decorated rock chapel dates from about 1290.

It was put up to be the burial chamber

of some rich local citizens

and they could afford to decorate the church

to the very highest Byzantine standards.

There you see archangels dressed

as they would have been 200 years earlier

in the heyday of the Byzantines,

and there's Christ in Transfiguration,

and over this side you can see the Twelve Apostles.

(STATELY MUSIC)

Over the centuries, the frescoes have been defaced.

But what they reveal is that this is the tomb of a wealthy local Christian

living under Seljuk rule.

The Seljuks' success wasn't simply territorial;

it was a victory over hearts and minds.

What we've got over here is really quite remarkable.

There's nothing like it either in Turkey

and certainly not in Cappadocia.

Here we've got someone in Oriental dress.

This gentleman is wearing a turban,

big black beard, flowing white robes, long sword by his side.

And he's standing beside someone who is recognisably the Christian saint,

Saint George.

Well, who are they?

Well, the answer was written on the wall, at the time.

What's important are these big lettered inscriptions in white.

Those were painted at the time.

They tell us very clearly that this person here is Basil Giagoupes,

he commands Christian troops,

he's probably also a local landowner,

but his loyalty is not to the Byzantine Emperor Andronicus,

but to Mesud the Second.

So although Basil Giagoupes was a Christian of Byzantine ancestry,

under this new world order

he actively embraced the Turkic way of life...

not only wearing Seljuk dress,

but pledging allegiance to the Seljuk sultan.

And this is a very interesting snapshot

of how quite wealthy and prosperous Christians lived,

worked and served the Seljuk Dynasty,

even to the point of fighting for it and presumably dying for it.

(ETHEREAL MUSIC)

One gets the impression that the two populations

mixed relatively easily in the centre of the country

and that's one of the reasons why lslamicisation

went so deep here so early.

Through ethnic, religious and cultural interaction,

the line between conqueror and conquered began to disappear.

Here, there was no clear East-West divide,

this was a cultural crossroads.

(RHYTHMIC MUSIC)

This cultural vibrancy was enhanced

by the constant flow of caravan traffic travelling east and west

through the region along the Silk Route.

(BACKGROUND MUSIC)

And to help the movement of travellers and trade,

the Seljuks built a series of fortified rest-stops

- caravanserais - 3O to 4O kilometres from one another,

the equivalent of a day's travel,

allowing trade to flourish between east and west like never before.

By the 13th century the Seljuks had created a vast empire -

not only ruling Anatolia,

but controlling swathes of Central Asia and the Middle East.

In their original homeland, tribal rulers acted as lieutenants

to the Seljuk sultanate.

The stability created by their governance

brought vast amounts of wealth

into the whole of Central Asia.

And as a result,

cities like Bukhara in modern Uzbekistan

became some of the richest and most vibrant centres

in the Islamic world.

Its prominence epitomised

by one of the last remaining architectural wonders of the period.

Standing at over 5O metres high,

the Kalon minaret was an engineering triumph,

the tallest building in Central Asia at the time.

And to support this vast structure,

its foundations were buried over nine metres deep into the ground.

(CALL TO PRAYER)

By the turn of the 13th century,

Bukhara could look back on centuries of glittering achievements.

But in 1220, all that was about to change,

with events that would not only transform the future of the city,

but the whole of Central Asia and the Seljuk empire.

As the city's look-outs surveyed the distant horizon

from their monumental watch tower,

it wasn't the welcome sight of an incoming trade caravan

that met their eyes.

(MUSIC REACHES DRAMATIC CRESCENDO)

It was the terrifying vision

of an invading army preparing for battle.

(THUNDEROUS MUSIC)

The Mongol forces had arrived;

at their head one of the most bloodthirsty

and fearsome warlords the world had ever seen -

Genghis Khan.

Genghis Khan was, I think, one of the greatest leaders in history.

He started from practically nothing

and as a nobody,

and yet he created the world's greatest land Empire.

It was many times larger than the Roman Empire,

and that was just the beginning.

By the year 1220,

Genghis had already united the tribes of Mongolia,

and under his leadership his territory also covered half of China.

But now his attentions turn to Central Asia.

Although aware of the fate that might await them,

the Bukharans refused to surrender.

With the misplaced confidence that they could hold out

and defeat their enemy within the mighty defences of their citadel,

the Ark, a fortress-like structure

which had been built and rebuilt since the 5th century,

with 20-metre-high walls surrounding the whole perimeter of the city.

The effect on Bukhara was devastating.

Its wonderful monuments,

the glittering culture that had flourished tor 400 years,

now lay in ruins, only the citadel and the minaret surviving,

one of the great wonders of the Islamic world

now towering above a wasteland

as a sad, solitary reminder of this once glorious city.

No wonder that Genghis Khan's invasion of Central Asia

inspired terror throughout the Muslim world.

To his enemies, he was a complete catastrophe.

And people in the Middle East still look back to Genghis Khan

as a mass murderer,

who brought the greatest devastation that you can imagine,

to the great cities of Central Asia and the Muslim world.

As Genghis swept through the Islamic world,

any city that resisted, suffered the same fate as Bukhara...

from Konya the capital of the Seljuks

to Baghdad... home to the House of Wisdom.

And the Mongol empire now stretched for thousands of miles.

At its greatest extent, covering an area of 33 million square kilometres

- 22% of the earth's total land mass -

with over a hundred million people under Mongol dominion.

But while the Mongols' rampage

initially decimated the Islamic world,

as they began to interact with the inhabitants

of the territories they had conquered,

the Mongols themselves would eventually turn to Islam.

Today in Isfahan, Iran, the Friday Mosque reveals

that some Mongols were no longer the enemies of Islam,

but were becoming devout followers.

The writings on the Mihrab

celebrate the conversion of Genghis Khan's great-great-grandson,

to Islam.

The Mongols gradual conversion had a dramatic effect

on the lives of the people they conquered -

as archaeological investigations in eastern Anatolia,

once the heartland of the great Seljuk Empire,

have recently revealed.

The city - Ahlat - had flourished as an important trade centre.

It is still home to a huge historic Islamic cemetery.

The tour thousand tombstones which survive,

record the lives of the elite of Seljuk society in Ahlat

between the 11th and 15th centuries.

But it's the nearby cave tombs

which reveal the way different Mongol groups

interacted with the people they conquered.

Discoveries in these caves show how the incoming peoples

learned to co-exist with the local population.

Here in Ahlat,

it seems that a mixed community of Seljuks,

Moslem llkhanate Mongols from Iran, and Buddhists from Mongolia

were able to live and be buried alongside each other.

The discoveries of Ahlat reveal how Islam encouraged the Mongols

to live more amicably with other cultures.

But throughout Central Asia, growing cultural and religious harmony

in no way amounted to peace and tranquility.

(AGITATED BUZZING MUSIC)

The conflict seems typified

by the regions traditional sport - of buzkashi.

700 years ago,

the lack of a dominant figure such as Genghis Khan

or the Seljuk Sultan,

left a power vacuum,

and the region was beset by infighting

as tribal warlords sought to gain the upper hand.

(RHYTHMIC DRUMMING)

But in the middle of the 14th century,

from the Chagatai Khanate in Central Asia,

a new leader, with both Turkic and Mongol ancestry was about

to build a new Islamic empire, Timur the Great.

Timur claimed that he was a perfect Mongol.

He claimed that he was the only one who understood,

who really understood, Genghis Khan's heritage.

Timur's ambition was to create an empire

that would rival that of his role model,

Genghis Khan.

As city after city and region after region fell before him,

as they had before Genghis Khan's Mongol horde,

the destruction was similarly devastating.

But whilst Timur was just as brutal as his predecessor,

he wasn't simply driven by bloodlust.

Although he spent 90% of his life as a nomadic warrior,

as a great Islamic leader, he wanted to leave behind

something more than a great empire and trail of destruction.

Timur was aware of the fact that

although he had this nomadic background,

he needed to present himself

as an urban sedentary ruler, so that's why he needed a capital.

The location he chose

was a 100 kilometres from his birthplace, Kesh:

Samarkand.

Like Bukhara, Samarkand had grown rich on the fruits of the silk trade,

but it too had been devastated by the Mongol hordes.

But now, as his new capital,

Timur was determined that the city would not only rival

but surpass its former glory.

(STATELY MUSIC)

And today, his greatest monument, the Bibi Khanum Mosque built in 1399

when he was over 6O years of age,

is still one of the largest mosques in the world

- testament to the scale of his ambition.

As Timur rebuilt his capital with magnificent monuments,

Samarkand grew into one of the greatest cities

the Islamic world had ever seen:

the pearl of the East.

Its population soaring to 150,000.

It attracted not only traders along the Silk Road,

but artisans and craftsmen

whom Timur had gathered from across the globe

throughout his conquests.

And today, Timur's legacy still dominates the modern city.

The Registan, built by his grandson Uleg Beg,

not only reflects the monumental scale of the Timurids achievements,

but their patronage of scholarship and learning.

By the end of the 14th century,

Samarkand was the epicenter of an Islamic renaissance,

at the core of an empire which connected trade and ideas

between East and West.

Timur's dream had been realised.

Over the past four centuries,

Central Asia had become a crucible spawning some of the greatest,

yet bloodiest leaders the world had ever seen,

the power of their empires

not only illustrated by a flowering of culture,

but rampant destruction in equal measure.

But while these rulers had triumphed at home and in the West,

one prize had always evaded them all:

the East.

But at the turn of the 16th century

all that was about to change,

as a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan

emerged from the Steppes of Central Asia.

The first of the Moghul emperors:

Babur '

a ruler who would take Central Asian ideas and culture

in a totally new direction:

India.

Genghis Khan himself wanted to conquer India.

He came up to the borders of India and went back. Timur, of course,

came here and conquered, and then went back.

Babur, in fact, says,

“I came to India because it belonged to my ancestors.“

It was on 21st April 1526,

at the Battle of Panipat,

that the Moghul leader Babur set his forces

against the incumbent Sultan of Delhi,

armed with 15,000 troops and a limited artillery

his army was pitted against a force of over 150,000,

bolstered with 300 war elephants.

(DRAMATIC PORTENTOUS MUSIC)

But within a matter of hours,

Babur had out-maneuvered and killed his foe.

The leader of the Moghuls had become a Moghul emperor.

But ironically, although Babur was now the ruler

of one of the richest kingdoms in the world,

he disliked his new prize and yearned for home.

In many ways, coming from Central Asia,

India or Hindustan as it was called then,

must have seemed like land of plenty - you planted grain

in the fields and it just seemed to grow miraculously.

But Babur was still clearly challenged by the conditions there,

and we know this because he wrote about it

in his autobiography, the Baburnama.

“Hindustan is a country of few charms.

“It's people have no good looks.

“Of social intercourse, paying and receiving visits, there is none.

“In handicraft and work there is no symmetry, method or quality.

“There are no good horses, no good dogs,

“no grapes, musk-melons or first rate fruits,

“no candles, no torches, not even candlesticks..."

But despite his loathing of the country,

Babur wasn't about to give up his prize.

He was here to stay

and if he wasn't going to return to his beloved Central Asia.

He was going to create a little oasis of it right here in India.

What you are seeing here is a typical Moghul char bargh

a garden design tradition

which was brought by Babur to the Indian landscape. It was...

a very tenuous link with the landscape that he had left behind,

so he wanted to superimpose

a very familiar spatial order onto this alien land so to speak,

and they were like territorial markers

that is it was trying to establish control over the land.

Water channels not only helped to remind Babur

of the flowing streams of Central Asia,

the earthly paradise he had left behind.

These gardens were also a symbol of heavenly paradise.

There is a description in the Qur'an of paradise being a place

beneath which flow the rivers.

The original Paradise Garden would have had a lot of fruit trees -

all this would have been filled with orchards

or with a whole lot of shrubs exuding a lot of smell

because fragrance was the essence of paradise.

They really became centres for courtly life.

And anybody who was somebody had to have a river-facing garden.

(DREAMY HAUNTING MUSIC)

By while recreating a slice of Asia was motivated by Babur's desire

to feel at home and stamp his mark on India,

his ultimate ambition was to recreate an empire

which would equal the achievements of his ancestors Timur

and Genghis Khan.

Babur's own territories now stretched thousands of miles

across northern India

and within 3O years, although he wouldn't live to see it,

the Moghuls too would boast monuments and achievements

worthy of his ancestors.

The first was a tomb built for his own son, Humayan.

For the first time, Central Asian design began to be fused

with Indian materials and craftsmanship.

It's unbelievable that the Moghuls got such great perfection

in the very first building, the dynasty built in India.

Just like 400 years ago, even today visitors are filled with awe

because of the splendour of the building.

And importantly, the Moghuls realised that it that was to happen,

they couldn't survive simply by importing central Asian culture

into the country as Babur had done with his gardens.

If the empire really wanted to flourish,

its rulers had to engage with the local landscape

- its people and traditions.

Humayan's tomb when it was built was built as a family tomb.

It is still known as the house of Timur

because there are 160 Moghul family graves in the building.

But what is so special about Humayan's tomb is

that this was a first on many fronts.

It was the first enclosed garden tomb built to this scale.

The Humayan's tomb is almost 150 ft tall.

The building itself covers a floor area of over two acres.

Just the finial is six metres, almost two storeys.

The earlier tombs in Delhi -

ten of them would fit into this one building..

This was the announcement of the Moghuls in India.

Here is a new dynasty,

a much greater dynasty than India's seen before

and we are here to stay.

And as the tomb undergoes major repairs today,

the restoration project on over 72 niches,

reveals how the Moghuls engaged with Indian culture.

While the geometric patterns are central Asian in design,

the craftsmen carrying out the work are Indian,

just as they were 300 years ago when the tomb was built.

I think what was important about this building

was Persian and Indian craftsmen came together

to produce a synthesis of Timurid architecture that.

Almost breathes perfection into the whole.

You've got motifs such as the kanguola pattern.

The six-sided star, the six-sided star you see in Islamic buildings

from here all the way to Turkey and beyond.

Arches, domes, corner minarets ceramic work...

no wonder that this was the architectural style chosen

for the most famous Moghul monument of all, Taj Mahal.

So Humayan's tomb is actually the precursor to the Taj.

Cultural integration played an important role

in the establishment of the Moghul empire.

But it required more than the blending of architectural influences

and the employment of local craftsmen to ensure any lasting success.

(RHYTHMIC CLAPPING MUSIC)

The luxurious lifestyle of the court in these pleasure palaces

was the exclusive realm of the Moghul elite,

and in the 16th century that elite numbered around 700

ruling over a population of 120 million.

(TINKLING MUSIC)

The Moghuls laced a huge challenge to keep the people on side,

people who were not only culturally and financially worlds apart

but the majority of whose religious beliefs were also at odds.

90% of the population were Hindu,

while the Moghuls were orthodox Sunni Muslims.

Remarkably, however, the early Moghuls did manage

to create harmony out of potential division.

Part of the key to their success was

was that they also patronised another branch of Islam

which was instrumental in spreading the religion throughout India -

Sufism.

Shrines like that to Nizamuddin Aulea

still attracts Sufi devotees today.

For the past 700 odd years, this has been a sacred spot.

It's not just for pilgrimage,

but a place where people come for...

of course to seek the Sufis' blessings,

but also to come and communicate with themselves,

with a higher mystical order.

To listen to qawwalis, it is in a sense a mystic getaway

in a city like Delhi.

Sufism is the mystic part of Islam.

The Sufi loves God more than anybody else

and the Sufi is in a direct quest for God.

(SUFI MUSIC)

By 1200 AD there was a constant stream of visitors coming

through Multan, through Afghanistan, coming into India,

bringing the message of another type of Islam.

(SACRED SINGING)

And so much so that Delhi was the beating heart of Sufi Islam.

(SACRED SINGING)

When the Moghuls arrived in India, they were quick to support Sufism

as their ancestors had done in Central Asia,

a decision which, in this multi-faith melting pot,

aided the acceptance of their rule.

(EXALTED SINGING)

There are places of worship which keep away some people.

The Sufis are very inclusive.

Nobody is excluded, everybody is allowed in.

(SINGING ACCELERATES)

Sufism helped the Moghuls enormously

because the Moghuls could not have ruled over this large an empire

if they had held a brief for only one lot of people

and I think what they learned from the Sufis was how

you need to take along people, you need to be inclusive.

(EXALTED SINGING)

The patronage of the Sufis was particularly advantageous

to the early Moghul empire.

The Sufis' inclusiveness

meant diversity in religion could create harmony, not discord.

Through leadership, organisation

and the fusion of cultural and religious values

from Central Asia and India,

the Moghuls created a period of remarkable stability

and as a consequence, an immensely wealthy empire.

And it was under the Emperor Shah Jahan,

that the Empire would not only enter its golden age,

but begin to attract global attention.

By the time of Shah Jahan,

the levels of wealth and opulence were quite extraordinary.

Visitors from all over world at this time,

recognised just how splendid this place is.

This for example is the accounts of two Dutchmen

who came to visit the place.

“The nobles here

“live in indescribable

“luxury and extravagance,

“caring only to indulge themselves whilst they can

“in every kind of pleasure.

“In the palaces of these lords dwell all the wealth there is -

“wealth which glitters indeed

“resplendent in the eyes of the world.”

(AWED MUSIC)

(TINKLING DANCE MUSIC)

Shah Jahan was keen to spread that grandeur across his empire.

In 1638, when he moved his capital from Agra to Delhi,

he named it Shahjahanabad,

and began creating fantastic monuments worthy of his ancestors:

The Jama Masjid, reminiscent of the monumental mosques

built by his Central Asian forefather Timur,

and the Red Fort

- a palace, surpassing the grandeur reached

by any of the earlier Moghuls.

By the time he had finished

it was not only the largest city in world

but also considered the grandest.

But it was on the banks of the Yamuna river in Agra

that he created the monument that would tor ever epitomise

the magnificence of Moghul rule...

ironically, not built only as a show of power...

but as an expression of personal grief...

of undying love...

the Taj Mahal.

(NOSTALGIC PASSIONATE MUSIC)

Shah Jahan's wife, Mumtaz Mahal his favourite wife, died giving birth

to the 14th child of the couple and Shah Jahan was shattered...

And he wanted to immortalise his love for the lady in a manner

that the world would remember her

for as long as the world lasts...

In Shah Jahan's imagination, this is how paradise would look like.

One, the white marble signifies serenity, peace.

There would also be perfect order in paradise

and therefore everything is symmetrical, everything is in place.

There is no sense of any chaos here.

Despite its sad origins,

the Taj Mahal marked the pinnacle

of both Shah Jahan's and the Moghuls' achievements.

The Taj Mahal itself stands at the pinnacle

of not only Shah Jahan's glory,

but Moghul Empire's glory in a way.

It stands for it because

it sort of signifies...

peace, serenity, harmony, symmetry,

so in a way it's a metaphor as it were,

for the whole empire and its duration.

Following in the footsteps of his ancestors,

Shah Jahan had created a monument which reflected the past -

his Central Asian heritage,

celebrated the present

- the greatness of the Moghul empire,

and most importantly, promised a future,

with a legacy which to this day epitomises the grandeur,

the beauty and the achievements of the empires and emperors,

who a thousand years ago emerged from the steps of Central Asia...

the Asian Crucible which would forever shape the makeup

of the modern world.

Subtitles © SBS Australia 2012