The Mongols crossed the Jaxartes (Syr Darya)
and begin their invasion of Transoxiana.
Transoxiana is the ancient name used for the
portion of Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan
and southwest Kazakhstan.
Geographically, it means the region between the Amu Darya and Syr
Darya rivers. When used in the present, it usually implies that
one is talking about that region in the time prior to about the 8th century AD,
although the term continued to remain in use among western historians for
several centuries after. In the Persian epic Shahnameh, written by the poet Ferdowsi,
Transoxiana is the homeland of the Iranian nomadic tribes and the Oxus river is
the border between Iran
and Turan.
The region was one of the satrapies
of the Achaemenid dynasty of Persia
under the name Sogdiana. Transoxiana, however, is Latin, and literally means
"beyond the Oxus River", the Greek name for the Amu
Darya, which describes the region perfectly from the viewpoint of
the Greeks and Romans. The Arabic "mā
wara` an-nahr", "that which is beyond the river": is an
alternate name for the country. See also Khwarezm and Greater Khorasan.