Professor Azad N. Shamatov,

Chairman South Asian languages Department of the Tashkent State

Institute of Oriental Studies, Vice-President Uzbek-India Society
 

This problem represents a very obscure and controversial picture due to a paucity and sometimes scarcity of written sources as a whole. Yet it is a crucial task in particular to be carried out because this period seems to be extremely important exhibiting a starting point of the clash between different civilizations perceived in both Central Asia and India while the bearers of Islamic culture for the first time invaded the domains of indigenous Zoroastrian, Buddhist and Hindu civilizations over there. In particular this time is considered as an epoch of great scholar al-Beruni (973-1048) who himself witnessed many curious events and phenomena in Literary and Language spheres within material and spiritual life. According to S.K.Chatterji al-Beruni proved having been a very rare example of the scholarly approach to Indian culture at the general background of destructive and barbarian deeds of his contemporary rulers like Mahmud Ghaznavi. So proceeding from the facts mentioned above the present monographic essay is designed in general to review the most significant features of the problem..

That s why our attention is concentrated mainly on some preconditions for Literary and Language Links already described by us previously / which was dedicated especially to the influence of Islamic Culture on the whole process of rapprochement between Indian and Muslim civilizations. It is well known that the earliest scientific investigations in the field of General Linguistics first formed on visibly in the Eastern States of China and India then spread over to Greece and Arab countries. Hence the one finally found its bold embodiment in European Linguistics traditions. But at the same time it should be underlined that the main achievements acquired in ancient Indian and Chinese Linguistics schools officially reached Europe not earlier than the 18th and the 19th centuries.

Meanwhile rather naturally than officially these appear to have arrived over there through a traditional historical and cultural links between neighboring territories of Central Asia, Iran and Arab with Greece established much earlier. For example it must happen the most probably via Great Silk Road as well. It might be also pointed out that though the great exploits in Ancient Linguistics attained by Greek, Indian and Arab scholars and reflected contemporary in Research and Instruction compositions have been already recognized now as in the capacity of renowned Linguistics Schools. But meanwhile the Central Asian scientific genii who have made tremendous discoveries in this sphere actually didn’t so far gain a worldwide popularity. That is why our paper is targeted to discuss here a problem of Ancient Central Asian Linguists feats being worthy to be highly contemplated because they in fact are regarded as a first shoots of Modern Linguistics Trends.

Before one can proceed directly to the Central Asian School of Ancient Linguistics let us recollect that besides Greek-Arab scientific links there existed also a lot of literary sources indicating that the Ancient Indian Science impacted Arab Linguistics very immensely throughout many centuries. But according to a majority of specialists the Chinese and Indian Science and in particular Linguistics traditions compared to neighboring countries had been developing both independently and connectedly.

Referring to other opinions the Impact of Indian traditions on Chinese more or less distinctly found its realization in many aspects and especially in Phonetics. For example, while classifying a syllable in Chinese Linguistics having defined all Phonologic oppositions in the initial parts of Hieroglyphs were selected and sorted out on the basis of Indian term Varga i.e. a group, a class ultimately dividing these on different groups. There is one more matter specified on indeed that the Fundamentals of General Linguistics were formed on during an up rise of Ancient Greek Philosophy as two main principles, which in their own turn determined a commencement of Classical Indian and Chinese Linguistic Traditions. These are in particular on the one hand a Problem of Speech Genesis and on other hand a Research Studies in the Art of Grammar i.e. that of written features pertaining to teaching ways how to read and to write alike.

In case if one would treat these as much as deep and seriously there is one common definite and clear peculiarity integrating mutually the Greek, Indian and Chinese traditions which denotes of a tendency to mark the Parts of Speech by differing their grammatical meaning. For instance, in case if the Greeks used to differentiate the Conjunction, the Noun and the Verb while the Indians resorted to make difference between the four Parts of Speech like the Noun, the Verb, the Prefix and the Participle. Thus they prescribed these a special distinction respectively to their ability of either preserving or losing own grammatical meaning within a framework of sentence. As far as the Chinese Linguistics is concerned since the Chinese s grammatical isolation or specificity first of all there the Subordinate word term has developed on from Ancient times and later on there the Full and the Empty word terms have been composed on. Besides in the Indian and the Chinese school of Linguistics the Speech has been regarded as a Divine Power so that all words and forms were treated equally. On the contrary the Greek Scholars used to sort out the standard and non-standard abnormal words.

In case if one would glance at scientific trends within a Linguistics of Ancient and Medieval Central Asia then it would be found out to be directed and developed mainly on the basis of Arabic, Persian and partly Turki data along with being tied to the scientific traditions of the Arab School of Linguistics as a whole. Regarding meanwhile a fate of immediately Pre-Islamic Cultural life of Central Asia one can cite al-Beruni’s following account given in his famous book “Al-Asar un baqi anilqurnnil haliya” (The Monuments left by Ancient peoples). Arab invader Qutaiba ibn Muslim has eliminated completely all those people who used to know properly Khorezmiyan Script as well as to have studied and to have taught the History of the people and its legends having executed them down.

Just in such a situation in case if one would pay a corresponding logistic attention to the historical routes of world science one definitely shall reach the objective put on before. It s quite natural that on these routes there is the most significant role to be played by a favorable conditions enhancing an utilization and benefiting of rich and deep cultural traditions as well as of high level of material development pertinent to the given society. Such conditions first were established in Ancient Eastern States because of that there was created a firm basis for collecting a practical knowledge. As a result of that it was initial thinkers who succeeded in embedding abstract concepts into their practical thought s development thus managing to acquire a particular means for expressing them as convincing arguments.

Alike another field of knowledge the Philological Sciences also in its own turn were formed and developed on independently both in India and Greece from the very Ancient times going on along with Philosophy toward moulding out an own categorized shape.

That’s why problems of Epistemology became very acute to be put on scientific agenda as a whole. So it was inevitable to expect such a development of Philology as a science of speech and literature arising on as matching definitely to Philosophical Theory of Knowledge indeed. To speak in another way, once upon a time while human beings started thinking on Speech they unconsciously used to resort to deliberations on the Existence matters too. By the way they began to differ such a notions like Subject and Object during the thinking process proper supported by intellectual observations. Consequently a phenomenon of the living speech, which does surround the mankind, became to be classified on Parts of Speech and various names. So the Ancient Philosophers initiated to be engaged equally on one hand with the theories of Logics and Knowledge and on the other hand, with problems of the Language and the Method. Therefore these two sides have been shaping on a whole intellectual matter within a framework of both parallel directions. So it s not surprising that the Philology did reached the most mounting positions owing to its accompanying the very great stages of the Philosophy s Development at all.

Among such Philosophers one can mention the personality of outstanding Central Asian scholar Abu Nasr Muhammad Ibn Uzlugh Tarkhan al-Farabi (873-950). His investigations in the realm of Philosophy were entirely connected with his teacher Aristotle’s treatises as well as with his Philology compositions. Very thoroughly he studied Medicine and Logics from Christian tutors alongside with engagements in Greek Philosophy. According to some sources he knew over 70 languages. It s well known that the most important work of al-Farabi On the Origin and Classification of Sciences has embraced a lot of natural, philosophical and social sciences elaborated on in Medieval East. Proceeding from functional and objective parameters he arranged all scholars into five big groups. The first one of these is a science of Language (ilm al-lisan), consisting of seven parts to include Grammar, Poetics, Orthography etc. Apart from al-Farabi there are also Mahmud Qashghari, az-Zamahshari and Abu Reikhan al-Beruni who directly contributed immensely in the sphere of Linguistics. Whereas the former two scholar's activities and compositions had been an object for profound and long Research Studies since many years and were studied very seriously, as far as that regarding Linguistics interests of al-Beruni are concerned his scientific exploits in this direction so far didn t become a special target for solid examination. A main reason of that there might be an absence of such a specialists who could combine equal efficiency in both Arabic and Sanskrit and operate simultaneously with Indology and Arabic Studies as well.

While one would concentrate on his scientific heritage so it may be concluded that despite the predominance in his engagements of Natural and Exact Sciences nevertheless it s not very difficult to discern his direct theoretical novations in Linguistics appearing distinctly in many of his works. First of all he should be regarded as an initiator in working out a certain Linguistic Analysis Methods, which prepared a stable ground for Modern Linguistic inquiries indeed. In case if one can throw a glance on the History of Indian Languages so he would reveal a period of the 11th century proved to be reflected clearly in al-Beruni s compositions as a crucial turning point of Indo-Aryan Languages Evolution which was perceived for first time in World Linguistics Tradition.

Acting as an Arabic speaking scholar capable to use the Phonological Approach to original factological database beside the Arabic which he exploited as a Metalanguage al-Beruni expressed his pioneering effort to attract the Phonemes of own mother tongue the Ancient Khorezmian too. Thus in this work having described an interaction processes between Indian, Arabic and Central Asian Languages he laid down a brand new ground for original etymological assessments. For example, as an evidence for that one may judge from his comparison of Arabic and Sanskrit while analyzing an origin of Arabic karkidon for a rhinoceros proving that the word in fact has derived from Sanskritic khadgadanta for a having a sword like tooth. Therefore it may be treated as a curious experience to try Comparative Typology observations over these both speeches.

In particular as the most challenging aspect of al-Beruni s scholarly legacy apparently concerns with those phenomena, which he witnessed himself, but actually didn’t reach our days. One can mean still unknown compositions and their authors as well as such surprising varieties of script like Bhaishukhi and Udunpur constituting in general all new facts substantially upgrading the importance of al-Beruni’s creative deeds. The problem seems complicated and controversial, because Pre-Islamic and more previous periods of cultural as well as another kinds of relations between the both regions so far have not been a direct object for systematized and profound scientific investigations and even remained a some kind of entirely untouched points of the History as a whole. That is mostly due to actual lack of any traces in those historical chronics or annual records which pertain to that period and rather leave a greater space for archeological and epigraphic data to be regarded as the only reliable source for this purpose.

Thus while observing the main points of the problem it may be underscored that Early Medieval period of Scholarly Links between the two regions notwithstanding a paucity of reliable sources as well as because of being a time space abundant of unfavorable conditions caused by historical reasons does deserve a particular discussion. So it might be emphasized that in al-Beruni s genius work dedicated to India there is available a lot of rudiments pertaining to Modern Linguistics Trends of high priority like Linguistics Methodology, Languages in Contact Theory, Comparative Typology, Etymology and Paleography represented in more or less visible and neat form.

At the same time one should state that al-Beruni being himself a rare scholar who was not only entirely alien to India but yet managed to preserve his own culture from non-desirable impact. In fact he displayed a wonderful ability having dealt very carefully and skillfully with the very delicate philological problems and even succeeded in making poetical translations from the Sanskrit regarded as a sacred divine speech of India into Arabic and Greek. Accordingly it may be stressed upon that al-Beruni almost 500 years before Timurid dynasty descendants like Babur and his successors has been able to take a lead in bringing close two great civilizations - on one hand the Indian one and on the another the Central Asian one thus enhanced them benefiting mutually. The most importantly he has established a solid basis for reciprocal influence between Indian, Arab and Greek sciences which haven t been bounded so tightly ever before. That is why the heritage of al-Beruni does deserve to be qualified as one of the most needed tasks of Uzbek Indology nowadays.

Going ahead one should also add that he has accumulated in his works all wisdom and cultural achievements of India and moreover gave some hints and clues on particular connections between Central Asia and India regarding Kashmir too. It may be pointed out also that such scholars as al-Beruni and al-Farabi made an immense contribution to fill up the gap appeared on as a result of destructive actions toward conventional spiritual heritage of the both regions.

“Diplomatist”, October 2006