Sart

Sart is a name for the settled inhabitants of Central Asia and the Middle East, which has had shifting meanings over the centuries. Sarts, known sometimes as Ak-Sart in ancient times, did not have any particular ethnic identification, and were usually (though not always) town-dwellers. Since the 16th century and onward Mughal historians referred to the Tajiks of the Kabulistan (now Afghanistan) and surrounding regions as Sarts.

Origin

There are several theories about the origin of the term. It may be derived from the Sanskrit "sarthavaha" (merchant, caravan leader), a term supposedly used by nomads to described settled townspeople. Or it may be a corruption of the Sogdian ethnonym "Soghd."

The earliest known use of the term is in the Turkic text Kutadgu Bilig ("Blessed Knowledge"), dated 1070, in which it refers to the settled population of Kashgaria. In that period the term apparently referred to all settled Muslims of Central Asia, regardless of language.

Rashid-al-Din Hamadani in the Jami' al-Tawarikh writes that Genghis Khan commanded that Arslan Khan, prince of the Muslim Turkic Karluks, be given the title "Sartaqtai", which he considered to be synonymous with "Tajik" (It is possible, however, that Rashid al-din, who was Persian, misunderstood the meaning of this, as "Sartaqtai" was the name of one of the Genghis Khan's sons).

Sart (album)

Sart is the third album by Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, his second released on the ECM label, and is performed by Garbarek's quintet featuring Bobo Stenson, Terje Rypdal, Arild Andersen and Jon Christensen.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Brian Olewnick awards the album 4 stars and states "A strong recording and, along with all of the other early ECM Garbarek releases, recommended for fans who came upon him much later in his career".

Track listing

All compositions by Jan Garbarek except as indicated

Personnel

References

Sart (disambiguation)

Sart is a name for the settled inhabitants of Central Asia. It may also refer to:

SART may refer to: