The Historical Alphabet/Qalam
Discovering something new about the world in which our ancestors lived—and our own today—is a truly exciting experience! To share this joy with our readers, the Qalam editorial staff, together with the technology company Citix @citix.me, has created a fascinating project of important and interesting historical facts collected in an alphabet. You can now see them on Citix city smartboards and read more on our website.
Mavarannahr (Mā warāʼ al-Nahr)
The Arabic name for Central Asia
This name emerged as a result of the Arab conquests of the seventh to eighth centuries and denoted the territories on the right bank of the Jayḥūn (Amu Darya).
The Mavarannahr region included the south of modern Kazakhstan, practically all of Uzbekistan, and part of Tajikistan. In Europe, this region was more often called Transoxiana, meaning ‘beyond the Oxus River’ (the ancient Greek name of the Amu Darya).
Transoxania and the neighbouring regions of Greater Khorasan and Khwarazm in Central Asia/Wikimedia Commons
