HISTORICAL ROOTS OF TURKISH-SOGHD RELATIONS IN CENTRAL ASIA

The system of trade routes of regional and international importance, formed in the territory of Central Asia, has become important in the life of the peoples of the East and West. Mil. cf. This road, which began its activity in the III-II millennium cf. In 138 AD, Zhang Jiang revealed to China that the Sughdians were not only skillful traders, but also suppliers of quality goods to the markets. Sogdian products went from Byzantium to Korea and Japan, from Tibet to Sri Lanka by land and sea, there was a great demand for agricultural and handicraft products of Sogd abroad.

Chinese sources told the Sughd region: “The climate is warm, suitable for growing high-quality wheat.” The inhabitants are inclined towards gardening and agriculture. The trees are beautiful,” he described. During this period, horticultural products (peach and cherry), viticulture (raisins), thoroughbred horses and sheep were exported to China. According to the 7th-century Chinese tourist and monk Xuan Tsang, who competed with the Sogd homeland of China in silk production, the customs of the Sutulisen (Ustrushona) people were similar to those of the Choch people, and their king was considered a vassal of the Turkic Khagan. This shows that Ustrushena is under the influence of Turkic khanates such as Sogd and Choch and its place in Turkish-Sogdian relations.

During the time of the Turkic Khanate, the Turks became the leading force in the oasis. But the Turkic rulers of the oasis used the Sogdian script in their legal proceedings. In particular, coins dating back to the 7th-8th centuries were minted in Sogdian script and language. In this science, they are called Turkic-Sogdian coins. In the early Middle Ages, under the influence of the Sogdian population, the Chochians used their language and writing. The language of communication of the Turkic layer here was the Sogdian language. The Ferghana Valley and the transit routes passing through it played an incomparable role in the trade relations of the Sogd with the East and Turkish-Sogdian relations. The trade routes passing through the Ferghana Valley formed a network in the regional and external relations of the Sogd, and in this direction the Sogdians followed the same route as the Choch. cf. Those who started the movement from the IV-III centuries.

From the 1st century, the Sogdians reached the Indian territories through Tokharistan. In particular, out of more than one and a half thousand written materials in 17 languages ​​found by the German-Pakistani expedition in the Karakorum valley, 250 belong to the Sogdians. The Sughdians actively traded on the mountainous Shatial and Khilos roads of the Karakoram valley and extended their activities to the southern and Turkish-Sogdian relations continued in an easterly direction and went beyond the borders of Central Asia and found a peculiar development in the oases of East Turkestan of Central Asia and in the areas adjacent to China.

It is known that the Silk Road increased China’s interest not only in Davan (Fergana), but also in the whole of Central Asia. Therefore, the emperors sent their spy tourists (Song Yun, Xuan Jian, Hoi Chao, etc.) to Central Asia and tried to collect a lot of information. Sogdians million cf. From the 5th to the 4th centuries, it penetrated into the oases of East Turkestan through trade routes. Mil. cf. Trade relations with China have been established since the 3rd century. During these times, the first Sogdian colonies appeared in East Turkestan. The role of the Sogdians in the creation of the Turkic khanate in Central Asia was incomparable. As representatives of the Sogdian colonies in Gansu, they took over the trade to the south, east and north.

With the Turkish Khanate having defeated the Chinese Sui dynasty, the Sogdians took control of the province of Hami near the city of Kumul and introduced khaganate rule here.Kan Su-mi from Samarkand was appointed to the post of ruler (duhufusi) of the Beyan district in Ordos. During this period, immigrants from Sogd continued to arrive in these areas. It was not easy for the Sogdians to trade with China. Historian Hou Ren-chih writes that China, which pursued a policy of “no pay, no trade, there is pay – there is trade,” was primarily Turkic.

The Sughdians sold their fabrics, garments and handicrafts to the Turks at a low price, based on economic and political interests. In the 7th-8th centuries, under the influence of the Turkish Khanate, Chinese-style coins were minted in Sogd. The trading activities of the Sogdians throughout Central Asia prepared the political, socio-economic and ethno-cultural ground for Turkic-Sogdian relations in the early Middle Ages and intensified the process of creating a single ethno-cultural space in a vast region. In addition, the network of the Great Silk Road from Marv to the Great Wall of China united the peoples and peoples who lived in this area. On the basis of economic cooperation, it brought them closer politically and ethno-culturally.

Competing with China in the East and Iran in the West, the Turks and Sogdians worked equally hard to preserve the independence of the region. Since the 6th century, the Turks have united and successfully used not only military, but also diplomatic methods to conquer other territories. Sogdian diplomacy helped them in this matter. The diplomatic abilities of the Sogdians in this regard were not lost sight of by the rulers of the newly formed Turkic state. Annapanto (Nakhband), a native of Bukhara and a Sogdian living in Gansu, who supported the independent policy of the Turks, went to the palace of the Chinese emperor in 544 as an ambassador of the Turks.

The conquest of Eastern Turkestan and Central Asia by the Hephthalites, and Khorasan and Balkh by the Sassanids led to a struggle between the allies for the possession of the Silk Road. The attitude of the leading Sogdians in trade to this issue was of great importance. The Sughdians served the interests of the kaganate, faithful to the tradition of brotherhood with the Turks. The Kaganate expected advice, economic participation and support from the Sogdians in this matter. Because it was possible to gain control over trade routes through the Sogdians. But the caravan routes to the West passed through Iran. The connection of the Turkish Khanate with Byzantium through the territory of Iran and Iran with China through Central Asia prompted the parties to compromise. The rapprochement of the Turks with Byzantium put Iran in a difficult position, as a result of which “political and economic conflicts between the allies intensified.”

The movement of Sogdian merchants through Iran was limited. They could solve this problem only with the help of the Turkish Khanate. No wonder the Turks and Sogdians were depicted side by side on the paintings in Afrosiab and Penjikent.

The father, who was the guardian of the Motherland in his youth, and who protected every inch of his country like the apple of his eye, is now retired. grandfather loved his profession more than his life and worked tirelessly until retirement. Now he is alone at home with his wife. At first, they were busy with their work and spent time visiting their relatives. A month passed, something called him to his old office. He went to his office, turned around and walked along the paths he used to walk. grandfather wanted his children to become soldiers, and raised them from a young age by playing sports. 

Unfortunately, they did not choose this profession. The eldest son is an ambassador abroad, and the youngest son works in a tourism company and travels around the world. The military father married them. She had grandchildren, but she could not hold them when she wanted, because her children and their families had gone to the country where they were working. When he misses his children, when he sleeps at night, he wakes up from the agony of seeing them in his dreams. But he did not let his women notice this, he was always laughing. Time flows like water, years seem to pass like the wind, sometimes it's summer, sometimes it's winter, but I still have the same thought, the same dream, and I want to return to my work. 

One day, he made a phone call and gave the happy news that we will go on a honeymoon in the next few days. Hearing this, the fathers were full of joy, and the fathers made soup and cooked various dishes with their wives and waited eagerly. And those moments came. He was happy to see his children, and he was happy to see that his grandchildren had grown up so much. His wife was crying. Seeing this situation, his sons decided not to go back. "I will be by your side," my father used to say. 

The father took his grandchildren to his workplace. It was obvious that they love their profession. The only thing that made him happy was that even though his grandchildren grew up abroad, he listened to his grandfather's words and followed them. But they did not fire the father's son. His immediate return to work had to take his children with him. Unable to tell his father, he finally decided. "I will take you too. "I will not leave you alone," he said. Grandfather remained in peace. He didn't want to leave, but he thought that he would be able to see his grandchildren again, so he agreed to leave. 

Father and mother did not like another country and wanted to return to their village. In the meantime, the father was not in the mood and ordered his son to take him to my village as soon as possible. He had no choice but to say that His child is going to be patient because he has a lot of work. In November, they bought tickets and set off. Grandfather was in a constant hurry, walking ahead as if he would die before he could catch up. A 6-hour drive and they arrived at the destination. Grandfather looked out of the window and whispered, "You are my country." The women waved, "Don't sleep, get up, we've landed, we're going down." Grandfather passed away at this time. 

Their faces were smiling happily. The reason is that they died in their country, in their land, in their homeland, which once protected every corner of their land. Yes, grandfather's dreams have come true. His grandsons became soldiers and received the title of Colonel General.



Safarova Farangiz, 19 years old. 2nd year student of the Faculty of Korean Language of the International University of Kimyo. Teacher and founder of online Korean language courses "hangug-eo with Farangiz". Head of the Social Protection Department of the Youth Union of Uzbekistan, Samarkand region, 5 years of experience and volunteering.

Official guest of Stars International University Conference. Graduate of "Future Scientific Girls Community Educational Exchange Program". About 30 participants of offline and online conferences.
Published articles: India, Russia

Welcome to Synchronized Chaos’ second May issue! This month many of the submissions focus on growth, healing, and change.

Beth Gulley’s poems draw us into nature’s continual motion and transformation.

Vernon Frazer’s pieces explode with color and sound, evoking the Big Bang, and Mark Young’s art presents ordered geographies of color and design.

In J.K. Durick’s poetry, we fly, fall, and lurch forward into the future. In Emina Delilovic-Krevic’s work, a young girl experiences the refreshing embrace of nature on a warm spring day, while Don Bormon evokes the rhythms of day and night and the renewal of sunshine in his cloud poetry.

Young writer Bahira Baxtiyorova urges us in an essay to go take action, achieve our dreams. Elmaya Jabbarova calls us to lives of hard work and integrity, along with celebrating her homeland of Azerbaijan and the exquisite emotions of romantic longing.

Christopher Bernard reviews Toshi and Bernice Johnson Reagon’s operatic dramatization of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, a novel that explores how we can find and generate community and meaning in dystopian times. The young heroine creates a spiritual path that reveres change.

Death and the accompanying grief are also forms of and catalysts for transformation when we attempt to recover and heal.

Chris Butler’s nihilistic pieces offer humorous responses to death. Kendall Snipper reflects on how our bodies will ultimately decay, or transform, back into other aspects of nature.  

Michael Lee Johnson’s poetic speakers are full of vibrant life and movement, yet acquiescence to their inevitable deaths.

Boronova Sevinch reflects on her grief over nearly losing her Mom.

Robiul Awal Esa presents a tale of death at the hands of human cruelty, which cannot be undone even with clever poetic (musical?) justice.

Stagnation, being unable to move beyond an unpleasant status quo, is another cause of grief.

Arikewusola Abdul Awal highlights the grief of a young man trapped by tradition.

Combat veteran and poet Steven Croft writes of memories stirred by Putin’s long war in Ukraine. His work shows how war ages people and can become more than we can handle psychologically.  Bruce Roberts also speaks to the absurdity of armed conflict through rhyming pieces about the Russian invasion.

Pat Doyne comments on the tragedy of gun violence in the USA.

Ibn Yushau remembers a sister shunned by her family for her choice of husband.

Clive Gresswell conveys stuck-ness in the face of physical and political realities through surrealist stylized poems meant to evoke feelings.

Z.I. Mahmud explicates the social satire of Gulliver’s Travels, lampooning human foibles that have lasted centuries.

J.J. Campbell relates his discomfort at being faced with reality, whether from potential partners on dating sites or from silent medical office waiting rooms.

Ian Copestick gripes about sarcastic bus drivers who are unpleasant, and not open to the journey of life.

Others write about vague anxiety, alienation, or other psychological griefs. Change can be scary as well as a welcome relief.

Leslie Lisbona relates a new experience that wasn’t as good as she expected.

David Kopaska-Merkel tells a clever story about an alien who returns home to a parallel but very different family life, who is out of place in both worlds.

Jahnavi Gogoi’s poems probe grief and solace and various kinds of lostness and being found again.

Azemina Krehic contributes a poetic lament for an abandoned lover.

Mesfakus Salahin’s speakers pine away for lost love and search for spiritual communion in the desert.

Texas Fontanella’s surrealist word kaleidoscope echoes modern struggles.

Sarah Daly speaks to our grief and our human efforts to overcome life’s challenges and finds poetry in everyday matters, such as showers and punctuation.

Noah Berlatsky probes Generation X’s lostness, being caught between the past and the future, between nature and technology.

On the other hand, Steve Brisendine makes peace with memories, crafting dream sequences within Midwestern towns. Places become superimposed on each other, confused but not frightening, evoking the comfort of the past.

On another hopeful note, Peter Cherches’ poems tell stories about a man who tries to do good but gets everything wrong, yet it works out.

John Tustin asks us to consider what is important and what we should notice in our everyday lives (squirrels!), and speculates on what will become memorable.

Duane Vorhees brings a curiosity about our place in the universe to his poetry. Do we really know what we know, where do we belong in the world?

Channie Greenberg’s monthly set of photos shows towns situated within nature, belonging and growing together with the local flora and fauna in an ecosystem. Wazed Abdullah also celebrates country village life in his poem.

John Culp calls our attention to the emotionally and spiritually transformative journey of love, and how each step along the way is worth it.

Mahbub Alam’s paired poems explore intense moments in nature (a cyclone near the coast) and in a blissful connection between people.

Maja Milojkovic exhorts her readers to wait for true and unselfish love and to celebrate it when it occurs.

John Brantingham relates a tale of love rekindled among prehistory.

Ammanda Moore’s short story narrator remembers an experience that helped her realize how she was open to a different way of loving.

Garret Schuelke reflects on love and respect earned and bestowed after death.

Gulsevar Xojamova offers up a paean to a mother’s constant love while Feruza Abdullayeva affirms the heroism of caring parents.

Ergash Masharipov relates how her loving mother inspires her to care for her future child, while Nozima Ulo’g’uva claims there is hope for the future thanks to the young and the mothers who raised them.

Turakhanova Mumtozbegim Bunyodjon highlights the young people creating the future of Uzbekistan through increased educational opportunities.

Some of this future is shown by academic research including Guzal Sunnatova and Sohiba Rahmanova’s history of an Islamic shrine in Uzbekistan and Atajanova Ogultuwakh Makhsadowna’s exposition of Annimarie Schimmel’s scholarship on Islam that showed that women and girls were respected and important.

Other Uzbek writers advocate inclusion and justice. Makhsadowna also highlights women and girls’ active roles in modern Uzbekistan and Feruz Sheraliyeva calls out stridently for an end to corruption.

Elsewhere, in Bangladesh, Mahbub Alam describes his experience at a professional development retreat on learning how to teach foreign languages. Publishing this essay de-centralizes English, reminding readers that it’s by far not the world’s only language, and further highlights education for all ages as an avenue for personal growth and cultural interchange. 

The Graves of Heroes and Villains

On my weekend vacation to Chicago, I revisited the graves of labor activists and leaders I've long admired, as well as the graves of two genuine, absolute monsters.

On the hero side: the Haymarket Martyrs', Emma Goldman, Lucy Parsons, and all the other socialists,   communists, anarchists, unionists, and other leftists buried in Forest Home Cemetery.

On the villain side: Allan Pinkerton and George Pullman - the mercenary and the industrialist, whose          actions and power decimated the poor and working class during their eras, buried in Graceland Cemetery.

(Additionally, I also visited the grave of famous boxer Jack Johnson, and returned to the grave of Augustus Dickens, brother of Charles Dickens.)

I remember part of a conversation I had with a Grand Rapids comedian on my podcast awhile back,            where we basically agreed that leftists generally care more about their comrades - living and dead - than reactionaries do.

Today, and yesterdays, grave visits reminded me of how right we were.

The graves and monuments on Forest Home's "Radicals Row" are visited often, and are abound with tokens of respect, remembrance, and Love - flowers, coins, buttons, handwritten personal      
messages, and sometimes even discarded employee I.D.'s!

There have been numerous gatherings, lectures, vigils, and even concerts in this area!

People not only want to visit these comrades, they feel like they NEED to come here.

They need to honor those who have passed, those that are struggling now, those who will join the fight in the future, and to honor themselves - to know that their lives are not futile.

Pinkerton and Pullman's graves, on the other hand, show no such signs of visitations and affection.

Parts of Pinkerton's grave, along with his family members, and agents who I guess were deemed worthy enough to be buried next to their boss, are so washed out now that you can barely make out some of the inscriptions.

His grave had to be guarded 24/7 for some time after he passed because it was feared that the various peoples his organization oppressed, beaten, and murdered would dig him up and fuck with his 
corpse.

You don't see the FBI, CIA, or other intelligence and "security" agencies coming by to pay respects to Allan's plot, even though they descend from his organization.

Other than being known as historical, strike-breaking, union busting thugs, the only real time you hear of the Pinkerton's these days is when they're suing games companies like Rockstar for         
defaming their image by making them the bad guys in their games, or bands like Weezer for apparently infringing on their trademarks by titling one of their two great albums after a opera character who shares the same name.

What a shitty legacy to have.
 
(NOTE: this poem is largely made up of a Facebook post I made of this visit, and the best comment I got was "Pinkerton's went after Arthur Morgan too I’ll never forget")

Pullman's grave is much better off, but then you remember that he had his lead casket encased in cement, steel rails, and even MORE cement, because he feared the workers he exploited and  attacked would still be so pissed at him that, after he took a dirt nap, they would dig him up and             fuck with his corpse.

You won't ever see corporate maniacs like Musk or Bezos leaving flowers on Pullman's grave, despite their thought processes and business tactics descending from scumbags like him.

You won't see your typical small business tyrant looking up to Pullman as a hero, even though they have the same desire to control their workers, as well as their communities if it'll help them fill their pockets.

And you certainly won't see these sigma grindset, alpha male motivational influencers cite Pullman as someone to emulate - and you can be sure these huskers have NEVER even heard of him - even though they share the same fiery motivation to be looked upon as capitalist deities.

What a REALLY shitty legacy to have.

TLDR: if you gain money and power by fucking over people, you won't be honored nor remembered,  even by those whose emulate your actions in the far future.

If you try to help mankind, even if you die early, penniless, and in pain, you will be honored,      remembered, and Loved by those who continue the fight.

Keep that in mind.

(FINAL NOTE: Jack Johnson's grave was adorned with flowers, coins, and cigarettes, and Augustus Dickens had nothing, because who's gonna remember Charles Dickens brother other than literary nerds like me?)


Garret Schuelke is the author of the GODAN series (Bakunin Incorporated), WHUP JAMBOREE: STORIES (Elmblad Media Group), and ANAMAKEE (Riot Forge Studios). He hosts The Garret Schuelke Podcast, and makes music under the moniker Neobeatglory. He currently resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and can be found on Twitter: @garretschuelke

 

Garret Schuelke is the author of the GODAN series (Bakunin Incorporated), WHUP JAMBOREE: STORIES (Elmblad Media Group), and ANAMAKEE (Riot Forge Studios). He hosts The Garret Schuelke Podcast, and makes music under the moniker Neobeatglory. He currently resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and can be found on Twitter: @garretschuelke

Polyamorous Heart

When I was hospitalized for my manic episode, I flirted with any woman I found attractive. My partner would hold my hand and walk me to my room while I winked and gestured and giggled at the security guards and nurses. They all knew me by name and would call out, “Settle down, Ammanda.” And I would call back something to the effect of, “But you’ve got me all riled up, baby!”

My partner was so patient with me. 

He’s always loved that flirtatious side to me. Thankfully, he understands my heart. In my manic state, I knew I had a partner that I was married to who I could come home and be safe with. But there was also this other, freer, part of me that wanted to love and be loved, that wanted another lover, a girlfriend. 

That’s when I met LaTara. LaTara was a curvaceous woman, with thick thighs and heavy breasts. She had walnut-colored skin, deep brown eyes, and short, curly hair. Her laugh echoed big and bold. She was missing a tooth right next to her canine tooth, and that gave her a crooked, open smile. She wasn’t afraid to show that missing tooth. She always found something to laugh about. Oh that woman could make herself laugh!

She reminded me of the first woman I’d ever loved. 

She was tired there and wanted to get out to her wife and kids, but I treasured every moment with her. One day she needed a dress to wear and I lent her mine, joking about how I’d like to take it off her. Another day she was tired from sitting in too small chairs, and I lent her my special camper chair that accommodated my wide hips. She thanked me and fell asleep wrapped in my blanket.

She finally gave me her number and told me to call her Qu33n. I was so glad to hear she would be released in time for her son’s birthday party.

I never did call her after I got out. 

But I am thankful for how she opened up my heart to realize that I can love and be loved beyond a monogamous relationship. My heart is too wild and free to be limited.

Ammanda Selethia Moore is a non-binary poet and writer who also teaches English at Norco College. Their poetry has been published in DASH Literary Journal, Literary Yard, and The Journal of Radical Wonder. They live with their partner in sunny southern California. Follow their exploits @prof.ammanda on Instagram.

The Mammoth inside You

You leave with Ellen on your first trip together while dawn is still bluing so that when you get to that spot on the 60 freeway, she sees the sculpture of the mammoth silhouetted against the sky and says, “Oh my,” and then “What’s that?”

You think about saying, “Are you kidding me? How long have you lived in LA?” but you stop yourself, keep your snide smugness to yourself. Instead you say, “You never drive the 60?”

“Never.”
“It’s a life-sized metal sculpture of a mammoth. Actually it’s kind of funny. It’s wrong?”
“What do you mean by ‘wrong’?”
“I mean that’s the sculpture of a European mammoth. American mammoths looked different.” 

“You big freaking nerd,” she says and laughs, and you laugh about what she said and at the surprise of the memory she’s evoking like a spell from 25 years ago, the first time you went out while you both were in high school, and you pointed up at the stars one night and said, “You know a lot of those stars are over 200 miles away,” and she’d called you “a big freaking nerd” and days later you told her that monarch butterflies go through four generations of animals as they migrate across the continent, and she called you “a big freaking nerd,” and you told her later that month that you’d be accepted to the University of Pittsburgh, and she called you “a big freaking nerd,” and then she’d broken up with you a month later because she was going to go to U.C. Berkeley although you told everyone that it was mutual and pretended that you hadn’t begged her to stay together, and the next time you’d heard about her she was married to a banker name Bruce, and when you ran into her 24 years later she told you that her banker man was going to jail for embezzlement, and she was divorcing him because she told him that she didn’t know he could do such a thing, and that was when he backhanded her. All of that between the last time she’d called you “a big freaking nerd” and now.

You laugh and almost say, “Yeah, I’m not a cool guy like Bruce.” But you swallow your words before they leak out of your mouth. Then you think of saying, “I wish I’d been cool. Maybe you would have gone to U Pitt with me,” but you hold that back too, and you’re not sure why you keep almost treating her with some of the same cruelty that Bruce the Banker did. 
You say instead, “Yes, but isn’t it nice that I’m no average nerd. I mean, I stick the landing.”
She laughs and lays a hand on your leg. “That you do.”

As you pass the mammoth, you think about asking her about the break-up all those years ago. You didn’t realize that you’re still angry about that, but it must be sitting there subdermally. The memory of you begging and weeping, and your knowledge that she must have been disgusted at your weakness is there too. The memory of your rebound girlfriends, and the woman you almost married and then who broke up with you because you were still in love with Ellen is there. The sickening happiness you felt when you discovered that Bruce the Banker was such a bad man is there. All of it is there. These emotions loom inside you, hidden as big as the mammoth you’re passing on the hill.
She says, “Yes, nerdiness is just one of the things that I love about you.”

And you take her hand. It’s the first time she has used the word “love” in connection to you in 25 years. It is maybe enough. Right now you think that it probably is enough.

James Beattie’s critical appreciation of Gulliver’s Travels exalts in acclaiming “the keenness of satire, the energy of descriptions and the veracity of language”. Examine the critical appreciation of Gulliver’s Travels spotlighting themes of misogyny and misanthropy.  

Felicity A.  Nussbaum’s stroke of criticism in the vein of the politically naive and inept giant whose masculine authority comically seems to be in jeopardy, “Gulliver himself is a gendered object of satire and his antifeminist sentiments may be among those mocked.” 

Deborah Needleman Armintor critiquing the progression of Gulliver’s milieu from a man of science to a woman’s plaything…toylike and accessible pocket microscope: Swift has Gulliver frequently invoke the sensory (as opposed to the reflective) word nauseous to describe this and other magnified images in Brobdingnag not only to reveal the neurotic depths of Gulliver’s misogyny but also to show how the male nausea can be used as countermeasure against the perceived threats of female consumption. Swift has Gulliver associate these magnified acts of female consumption with the act of “throwing up” —the opposite of and the antidote to the act of gastronomic consumption.” 

Eminent English novelist and journalist William Makepeace Thackray critical reception of Gulliver’s Travels as ‘blasphemous’ can be examined in exploitative ostracization of  humanoid to the brink of dehumanization as dehumanoids. And thus this decadence of human spirit can be sheerness poignancy in ludicrousness and idiosyncrasy. On the contrary, Edward Stones appreciation of the beast fables interwoven in the travel adventures fantasy of Gulliver’s Travels ought to be viewed as comical rather than cynical misanthropical interpretation. Shortcomings of humankind are further allegorised in   Gulliver’s mental malady of exaggerating comical description upon his return homeland from Houyhnhnm Land. Swift delineates satirically for humours effect and horses Houyhnhnms superiority over the inferior humankind Yahoos personifying prudential intellect, judgmental conscientiousness and moral reasoning  are not meant to be taken literally.    



Explore and explain Gulliver's Travels as a social and political prose satire.
Or
Explain the geopolitical and historical context and significance of the Swiftian prose satire Gulliver's Travels.
Or
Fantasy is the literal level of Gulliver’s Travels. Discuss.
Or
Gulliver’s Travels was accused of that “it  was full of improbable lies.” Elaborate your views on this statement.
Or
Consider Gulliver’s Travels as a story of fantasy and adventure.
Or
Gulliver’s Travels is a bitter satire wrapped in a fantasy of adventures. Discuss.
Or
Gulliver’s Travels is a blend of fantasy and satire. Do you think so?Justify your answer.
Or
Children enjoying Gulliver’s Travels but, there underlies the bitterest comments on mankind. Elucidate your answer in this context.
Or
‘Scintillating touch of suspense and sheer mindblowing Gulliver’s Travels is Jonathan Swift’s political satire and prose fiction. Examine the 18th century novel in the vein of this commentary.
Or
“...It was only an heap of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions and banishments, the worst effects that avarice, faction, hypocrisy, perfidiousness, cruelty, rage, madness, hatred, envy, lust, malice or ambition could produce.” Examine Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels in the light of the passage.
Or
“A most pernicious race of the little odious vermins that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth…impotent and grovelling insect…could entertain such inhuman ideas.”  Examine Gulliver’s Travels as a sociopolitcoeconomic allegorical prose satire.
Jonathan Swift’s 1776 Gulliver’s Travels is a prose satire of adventure fantasy and travel journal chronicling the faction partisan vehemence unrivaled even in the vehement and partisan age of the animosity between the Whigs and Tories. Swift was the servant of human liberty, the defender of the poor clergy of the lower gentry, the advocate of the common ordinary men and women and the spokesman for the Irish economic, political and ecclesiastical interests. As a champion pamphleteer and demagogue, Jonathan Swift polemically satirizes the follies and vices, depravities and decadence of humankind as depicted in the Blefuscian and Belfaborac rivalry. His propaganda favored the reign of British monarchy over the parliament, and in this sense, Swift is often caricatured to be a Jacobite for his allegiance to the castaway Stuarts over the reigning Hanoverians in the reign of Queen Anne (1710-14) [Jonathan Swift worked for the St. John viscount of Bolingbroke and Robert Harley Earl of Oxford as well as Tory administration].  Jonathan Swift portrays Gulliver in the vein of Irish anti-catholic Protestant and spirit of Irish nationalist patriotism. 
Swift’s satire on human pride and pretense in Gulliver’s Travels hints pointing insult upon humankind and establishes the author’s stature as archetypal misanthrope. Gulliver, who seemed to be more lovable and humane among Lilliputians appears to be an ignominious and morally insensitive being in contrast with the much more benevolent and enlightened Brobdingnagians. Mountain giant Gulliver was loaded to a cart with provisions of basketful fruits, breads and beer caskets to be pulleyed by nine hundred six inches height Lilliputians and discarded to a dilapidated ruins of a temple. Gulliver damages the fleet of Blefuscu and achieves the monarch’s appreciation and finally extinguishes blazing flame of the royal palace by urination. Spots, pimples and freckles of English lady’s breast looking through magnified glass whilst glancing the nanny's breast -feeding in a farming community’s pastoral countryside cottage. Being Queen’s royal consort upon the Brobdingnagian king’s behest, Gulliver’s was entrusted to Glumdalclitch-the pleasant frolicsome and tender teaser girl. Gulliver’s confrontation with another Dwarfish creature like himself makes him wedging upon cream and dipping into hollow of the bone-marrow. Gulliver is trapped in hailstorm and eventually giant hailstones torments his misery to a further extent. Swift disparagingly criticized the Struldbruggs as decrepit and deranged and dirty and disgusting Yahoos provides atonement for the moral exemplum and divined  poetic justice for misanthropy and misogyny. Anglo Irish allegorical satirist Jonathan Swift exposes the European civilization staked with progressive degeneration through the sorcerers and magicians fantasy of Glubbdubdrib. Gulliver acquaints himself with scientific and mathematical philosophical foundations and appetites of the royal society in Balnabarbi and Laputa such as sunbeams from cucumber’s extracts, recycling human excrements to be converted into edible food, and spinning of spiders’ webs. In 1726 Jonathan Swift’s satirical novel Gulliver’s Travels Struldbruggs are humans of luggnaggs whose caricature depicts the evils of immortality without youth. Struldbrugg’s association intrigued Gulliver to compelled by the alluring enticements of wealth, wisdom and philosophic serenity.  Humanoid and grotesque yahoos portray symbolic misanthropy that is intolerance toward humankind. Psychological distortion and psychological disposition caused the author to satirise the human nature in the novel. Gulliver prefers to endanger his life by drowning and from this metamorphoses springs forth his misanthropic disposition.      
Swift was a Tory who became a champion against the oppression and exploitation of adopted Ireland by the English court and parliament despite his detestation of Irish Catholicism. [I would but conclude the bulk of the most pernicious race of little odious vermins that nature ever crawled upon the surface of the earth.  Religiously different sectarianism of Christianity including the Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinistic Churches, aroused resentment among Jonathan Swifts’ more contemporaries with good reason, that Swift by implication was deviating from the pristine truth of Christianity. Swift became a chief publicist and trusted friend of the Tory administration. In 1713 he was entrusted as Dean of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland.     
          Aspects of economic and financial implications of the satirical novel highlights these following points:
The South Sea Bubble and the Mississippi Crash together contributed to the proposal for establishing a national bank [1720s].
Wolverhampton Metal Manufacturing Company’s William Wood was entrusted and sanctioned to produce copper pennies and farthings to ameliorate the dilapidated and grossly inadequate currency management. [1723-25 controversy]
Furthermore economic instability and financial crises triggered by the debacles of catastrophic famines in the 1727 till mid 1729 contributed to the poor harvests and subsequent critique of ‘A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of the Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to their Parents Or Country.. 
The Church had undergone depredation and despoilation initiated by Henry VIII, who confiscated the fruits of the Anglican Churches in the form of treasury parish revenues, which Queen Anne had recently restored to the Church of England, creating a funding for the poor clergy known as the Queen Anne’s Bounty. James II threatened the Restoration through political settlement by appointing Catholic to officialdom, eventually provoking the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and thus, forfeiting his throne to the Dutch Protestants William of Orange and Queen Mary. In 1701, Parliament passed the Act of Settlement restricting the throne to the Protestant heirs. Henceforth, loyalties of the Catholic Stuarts or Pretenders, they were called Jacobites, from Latin for James I. Foppery and godlessness following the accompaniment of absolutism and republicanism thence prevailed. Swift was a profound skeptical conservative who placed his trust more in intuitions and stability rather than individual and changes— warfaring and wayfaring Christian. Swift satirizes the Whigs in allegiance of commonwealth republicanism and alteration of the churches. In Gulliver’s Travels, Swift recapitulates his bumbling position as a government employee ascertaining his punishment for unclean expedients: when Gullivers puts out a palace fire by urinating on it, he wins not gratitude but the Queen of Lilliput’s confounded indignation. This maybe Swift’s most ironic commentary on his brilliant career as a government propagandist. The treacherous intrigue against Gulliver has a choice of either destroying the Lilliputians or submitting to the barbarous intentions or fleeing. Gulliver is acclaimed for his sound judgment, morality, uprightness, humility, humanity and Englishness in the first voyage of the narrative.
‘Everyman, as a member of the commonwealth ought to be contended with his own opinion in private without perplexing his neighbour or disturbing the public.’ Swift cherishes this view in Gulliver’s Travels when he assigned a similar view to the wise king Brobdingnag. The War of Spanish Succession as a ruinous lawsuit involving rural neighbours is later satirized: In the same spirit, Swift later literalizes the issue of the standing army presenting, “Gulliver as a one man expeditionary force in Lilliput whose appetite threatened to bankrupt the kingdom. By refusal of enslaving Blefuscudians, Gulliver exemplifies noble generosity and respect for others liberty. Gulliver’s voyage to the Brobdingnagians appears to be more caustic mockery compared to the Lilliputian voyage, Gulliver boasts of what he would have done to the idiosyncratic monkey by unseathing the sword, he glories in the seamanship spirit while he exhibits to court ladies and finally demonstrates his physical prowess in the unfortunate affair of the cow-dung.

Further Reading and Notes

Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Swift Editorship of Christopher Fox University of Notre Dame Indiana.

Critical commentary of The Voyage to the Lilliputs The Greenhaven Press Literary Companion to British Literature Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels  

Elaborate the significance of the discussion of Gulliver’s voyage to the Lilliputs. 

Or
Explain the allegorical satire of the Gulliver’s travels to the land of the Lilliputians,’
Or
Examine a critical study of allegorical significance of Gulliver’s England with the Lilliputian kingdom.

 Gulliver, who seemed to be more lovable and humane among Lilliputians appears to be an ignominious and morally insensitive being in contrast with the much more benevolent and enlightened Brobdingnagians. Mountain giant Gulliver was loaded to a cart with provisions of basketful fruits, breads and beer caskets to be pulleyed by nine hundred six inches height Lilliputians and discarded to a dilapidated ruins of a temple The Emperor issued a commission obliging “all villages nine hundred yards round the City” to furnish victuals necessary for Gulliver’s sustenance. The inhabitants dwrafians would be grduallyh less apprehensive by degrees malevolent alien, and moreover, children from the surrounding clan ventured to come and play “Hide and Seek” amongst gullible Gulliver’s hair.  Gulliver damages the fleet of Blefuscu and achieves the monarch’s appreciation and finally extinguishes blazing flame of the royal palace by urination. 

Gulliver’s mountain giant expeditionary force stands out as the stark foible of the England’s Spanish Succession’s ruinous lawsuit leading to the bankruptcy followed by financial crisis during the reign of Queen Anne through James I and Charles II. Gulliver’s insurmountable gluttony satirizes the vehement appetite causing bankruptcy and his association with Big Endians and Little Endians alludes to the banishment of the Catholics by the Protestants after the Reformation springsforth numerous religious disputes and fanaticism. Wolverhampton of Metal Manufacturing Company’s William Wood was entrusted to the functionary of the dilapidated and instable currency controversy of 1723-25 after the proposal for the establishment of a national bank and treasury for the management of South Sea Bubble and the Mississippi Crash.  

Docility, gentleness and modesty personifies Gulliver’s triumph of the bloodless fleet over the Blefuscians. The Emperor’s ambition is thrown into relief by the innocence, generosity, magnanimity, clemency, humility, humanitarianship and humaness of Gulliver’s attitude: the most idealistic of the Roman Republicans or the Humanists. The ambassadors from Blefuscu hails appreciative praises in Gulliver’s valour and generosity in in opposing the Lilliputian Emperor’s military expedients 

With his humanistic attitude, Gulliver is willing to fight even the Emperor and the country against invaders ( he shall not “force Consciences or destory Liberties and Lives of the innocent People”); but he will not pursue the war for glory to be got at the cost of enslaving free people. The parallel to the Tory attitude toward {English general considered among the history’s greatest military leaders] Marlborough’s continental campaigns against France is clear, the Tories were the “Lovers of Peace”, Swift believed.


The Queen’s  palace caught on fire and Gulliver’s attempt to put off the fire earned the Queen’s wrath and this act of indecency was condemned. Her Excellency Queen Anne’s Bounty Act of 1703 was an act of the Parliament of England granting in perpetuity the revenues of the First Fruits and Tenths for the support of the poor clergy in England. Gulliver’s seditious activities pertaining to the treason of staking the innocent Blefuscians of their liberties and Queen’s Palace contaminated by urination allegorises articles of impeachment brought by the writ of the courtiers of the Emperor such as Skyresh Bolgolam and Flimnap, who privilege far resourcefulness and zestfulness in murdering their benefactor-the government pamphleteer and political propagandist. Starvation aftermath of blinding as a retribute justice was compromised by Reldresal’s intervention amidst the malice of injustice’s viciousness.     

Discuss the main points of the plot in the II part of the voyage of the Brobdingnagians by experienced by Gulliver.
Or
Critically examine the satire of the second voyage in Gulliver’s Travels.
Or
“The steady Torry of the I Part became the war crazed of the II Part.” Elaborate from the context of both voyages to the Lilliputians and the Brobdingnagians. 
Or
Nicholson argues “A Voyage to Brobdingnag” serves as one of many examples of the covertly and overtly microscope oriented fiction, drama and periodical literature of the Enlightenment. When read together as a genre, Nicholson argues, these texts demonstrate how the figure of the microscopist and his fascination with little worlds made large was a popular object of both satire and awe in the age of Enlightenment. Describe the significance of the Voyage to Brobdingnag,    

Swift satirizes the metaphorical shrinkage of the fate of microscopes —the worst symbolic castration from   a sizeable and relatively inaccessible tool of male dominated society transforms into feminized commodity —plaything —-a portable pocket microscope by the upper and middle class women and ladies of the English society as Gulliber is taken to be fit inside the travelling closet beside the windowsill by gigantic female owner Glumdalclitch. In the close reading of the wasp stinger incident Gulliver is only in a position to observe these enormous specimens in magnified detail.The baby’s attempt to consume Gulliver, followed by the breastfeeding scene further satirizes the devolution of the microscope and microscopist from participants in the elite masculine world of the Royal Society to consumable objects in the world of women and children. Deborah Needleman Armintor argues, “Swift has Gulliver frequently invoke the sensory (as opposed to the reflective) word nauseous to describe this and other magnified images in Brobdingnag not only to reveal the neurotic depths of Gulliver’s misogyny, but also to show how male nausea can be used as a pathetic countermeasure against the perceived threat of female consumption. Swift has Gulliver associate these magnified acts of female consumption with the act of “throwing up”-----the opposite of and antidote to the act of gastronomic consumption.   

Part II of the voyage to Brobdingnagians the inferiority of European culture has been exposed to familiarize readers, if not demystify the entire narrative plot of the travel adventures.  Swift has managed Gulliver’s transition into a new world of wonders with extraordinary physical and psychological imagination. Gulliver overcomes from ‘Grief and Despair’ in the harvest seasons of the cornfield to be picked up by reaper farming community in a manner as if he wouldn’t scratch or bite the giant forty feet people, which might be comparable to the translocation of Weasel of England. 

Monster midget Gulliver was a subject of puppetry to the exhibiting Rabble of the House of the entertainment fair by the exploitative farmer. Later on, the Queen of Lorbulgrud purchases him from enslavement and keeps him as the Court Jester under the caregiving supervision of the farmer’s nine-year-old daughter Glumdalclitch In contrast to the Lilliputians the Brobdingnagians have no military crises even though there are trifle dissensions between monarchs and nobles. Society and government have been the matter of utmost important discourse between the midget monster Gulliver and the giant king of the Brobdingnagians. 

Gulliver was exploited to humiliations and frustrations while he was pantomiming for spectators and marshaling in defensive feedback loop.  Humorous stream of episodes develops satirically and tragically with the encountering of birds and beasts and even the Court Dwarf throughout the second part of the narrative. 

Swaggering Dwarf was a deplorable stigma to Gulliver’s conscience and this prompted Gulliver to wrestle in wrangle with the repartees of being addressed in mockery of ‘littleness’. Afterwards the woman with  cancer in her breast swelling to freckles of pimples and bumps, horrifying cliff hanging revelations including the limbs of the vermin and the fastidious Queen’s feasting. Best-looking and frolicsome maid of honour astride upon one of her nipples enchants Gulliver’s wonderment to awed feelings. Gulliver’s interviews with the Brobdingnagian Monarch pertaining to the party faction in polity and clergy envisioned the conclusion to be mostly quoted passage of the whole travels, “I cannot but conclude the Bulk of your Natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermins that Nature ever suffered to crawl upon the Surface of the Earth” and this discovery was the result of the aftermath in the words, “an heap of conspiracies, rebellions, murders, massacres, revolutions and banishments…the worst effects that avarice, faction, perfidiousness, hypocrisy, cruelty, rage, hatred, madness, envy, lust, malice or abhorrence could produce.” 

Standing armies, war, taxes and national debts were also coverage of the conversation featured in this voyage. Mercenary expeditionary standing army of Britain and the instability of the currency system and sunken debts of national treasury are satirized henceforth. Gulliver stormy and fiery temper evokes the protest of “narrowness of thinking” ….”wholly secluded from the rest of the World” justifies the viewpoint of an ignominious and morally insensitive being in contrast the more enlightening and benevolent Brobdingnag. 

His rejection of the commonwealth cause can he cited as exemplary manifestation in this regard despite the king’s proclamation for stability and organization, “Every man as a member of the Commonwealth ought to be contended with his own opinion in private without perplexing his neighbor or disturbing the public.” This is an ironic reversal of Gulliver’s adopted views of the “Effect of narrow principles and Short Views!”      

 In the end, Gulliver is rescued the swoop of an eagle’s flight to be disembarked upon the deck of an English Vessel. His Evil Destiny was safely recused with a providential deliverance of six shillings from the English Captain. Meanwhile he feels like a giant and everyone else seems to him like a pigmy.  Compare and contrast the world of diminutive Lilliputians and the monstrous Brobdingnagians in Jonathan Swift’s satirical allegory Gulliver’s Travels.