سغناق

سغناق

Сығанақ қалашығы
Ruins of Syganak. Southeastern view.
سغناق Shown within قزخستان
المكان	Kyzylorda Region, كازاخستان
الإحداثيات	44°09′24″N 66°57′42″E
النوع	Ancient settlement
التاريخ
تأسس	5th–8th centuries
هـُـجـِر	18th century
ملاحظات حول الموقع
Also known as Sunaq and Sunaqata. The city was destroyed during the Dzungar invasions.

Sighnaq on a 2019 postage stamp of Kazakhstan

Sighnaq (Turki/Kypchak: سغناق؛ قزخ: Сығанақ, romanized: Syğanaq) was an ancient city in Central Asia, in what is now Kyzylorda Region of Kazakhstan. It was the capital of the Blue Horde, although the city is almost unknown. The region in which Sighnaq was situated was called Farab. It was located between the settlements of Isfijab and Jand. The name means 'Shelter', a name that is found also in other regions, especially in Transcaucasia.

According to Hayton of Corycus, Sighnaq was located in the Karatau Mountains, from where the river Kara Ichuk, a tributary of Syr Darya, emanates. Klaproth says that the city was located on the banks of Mutkan, a right hand side tributary of Syr Darya, that emanates from the Karatau mountains, but he does not mention his source. Sherif al-Din speaks of Sabran and Sighnaq as two border cities of Turkestan and says that Sighnaq was located 40 km from Otrar; the biographical book called Tabakatol hanefiyet, by Ketevi, placed it near the town of Yassy (i.e. the modern city of Turkistan). The 19th-century Hungarian turkologist and traveller Vámbéry says, without mentioning the source, that Jand was connected to a channel. It seems to have been one of the main Turkish settlements of the region east of the Caspian Sea together with Yengikent, Sawran or Sabran and others. Mahmud Kashghari expressly stated it was a town of the Oghuz, al-Muqaddasi also associates it with Otrar and says that it was "24 farsakhs further up the Syr Darya". On the basis of all of this information, the most reasonable localization appears to be the area around Babai Kurgan, and finally, Sunak Kurgan, a few kilometers northeast of Tyumen Arik along the Orenburg-Tashkent railway, was identified as the ruins of Sighnaq.

 التاريخ

Тәуке ханның Сығанақ қаласының тұрғындарына жарлығы (1675-1676).

Сығанақ қалашығы. Қираған кесене. 1927 ж. фотосурет.

Сығанақ қалашығы. Мазар немесе ханкананың қираған орны. 1927 ж. фотосурет.

It is believed that in the 10th century there was a semi-sedentary city of the Oghuz Turks near the border, where they exchanged their products with those of Muslim states to the south. The Hudud al-'Alam indicates that bows were manufactured for export. The region was known as Dar al-Kufr. In the twelfth century it was the capital of the khanate of Kipchak (still pagan), and was exposed to raids of the 'ghazis'. At least two incursions (ghazawat) are known, one in 1152 and one in 1195, from Khwarezm, the second one occurred while Kayir Toku Khan ruled Sighnaq. However, at the beginning of the thirteenth century علاء الدين محمد الخوارزمي conquered the land and annexed it to his empire; a few years later, his rule was replaced with that of Genghis Khan, who conquered the region after a siege in 1220. The population was massacred.

Annexed by Timur in the late fourteenth century, in 1427, Baraq Khan, khan of the Blue Horde and also of the Golden Horde, claimed Sighnaq from Shah Rukh, the son of Tamerlane, who refused; Baraq defeated the Timurids and occupied the city; the Timurids recovered it after his death (1428ح. 1428), but Abu'l-Khayr, founder of the Uzbek Khanate, conquered it in turn in 1446. In 1457, the battle of Kuk Kashanah, or Kök Kašane, took place 7 km to the south, in which the Kalmyks defeated the Uzbeks and Abu'l-Khayr had to accept whatever peace Uz Timur the Kalmyk would offer. Muhammad Shaybani, refounder of the Uzbek Khanate, was born in the region of Sighnaq. In the sixteenth century, it belonged to the Kazakhs, but it lost importance and eventually disappeared.

 أطلال البلدة

Сығанақ қалашығы. Кесененің орталық бөлмесіне жүргізілген археологиялық қазба жұмысы.

Сығанақ қалашығы. Цитаделіне жасалған стратиграфиялық қазба жұмысы.

تقع أطلال مدينة **سيغاناق** بين محطتي تۆمەناريق وشييلي على خط السكك الحديدية، إلى الشمال من السكة، في وادي **سوناق آتا** وسط غابة كثيفة تنمو فيها أشجار السنجد والسكساول والأثل. ويقوم الموقع على هضبة خماسية الأضلاع يتراوح طولها بين 175 و320 متراً.

ويؤدي إلى داخل المدينة ممر ضيق يبلغ طوله نحو 20 متراً، شُيّد داخل سور ترابي بارز يحيط بساحة المدينة. ويصل ارتفاع هذا السور في بعض المواضع إلى 6–7 أمتار، ولا تزال بقايا 15 برجاً قائمة عليه، وقد وُزعت هذه الأبراج بواقع ثلاثة أبراج عند كل زاوية من زوايا التحصين. أما الساحة الداخلية، التي يحيط بها السور من جميع الجهات، فيبلغ ارتفاعها نحو 4–5 أمتار. ويتسم المنحدر الخارجي للسور بانحدار شديد، ويأخذ في بعض المواضع هيئة جرف صخري قائم، في حين يكون الجانب الداخلي أقل انحداراً.

وتتصل بهذه الساحة من ثلاث جهات، باستثناء الجهة الشرقية، بقايا ما يُرجح أنه كان **الشهرستان**، كما تمتد حولها أطلال **الربض**، وهو مساحة واسعة كانت محاطة هي الأخرى بأسوار ترابية. ويأخذ الربض هيئة مضلع خماسي يمتد من الشمال إلى الجنوب.

وتنتشر بين الأحراج المحيطة بالموقع آثار منشآت عمرانية عديدة على هيئة تلال متفاوتة الأشكال والأحجام. ولم يبق من ضريح–مسجد **سوناق آتا** سوى بقايا من الآجر المحروق والطين.

وفي الوقت الحاضر تعرض جزء كبير من الموقع للتدمير نتيجة الأعمال الزراعية والإنشائية. كما تحولت التلة المركزية (الشهرستان) إلى مقبرة منذ القرن السابع عشر، وأقيمت في جهتها الشرقية مقابر حديثة. كذلك شُقت الطرق، وأُنشئت مواقف للمركبات، وأُقيمت مبانٍ خدمية ومساكن داخل حدود الموقع الأثري.

 المصادر

• Favereau, Marie (20 April 2021). The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World (in الإنجليزية). Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-24421-4.
• Howorth, Henry Hoyle: History of the Mongols, from the 9th to the 19th Century. Part II, division I. The so-called tartars of Russia and Central Asia. London: Longmans, Green and Co, 1880.

 وصلات خارجية

• Coins of the Golden Horde minted in Sighnaq Archived 3 أبريل 2017 at the Wayback Machine