This article revisits the conventional theory concerning state formation on the steppe by reexamining the historical relationships between the Oirad nomads and Central Asian oasis people. Conventional wisdom has considered that steppe nomads needed to depend on Central Asian oasis people to build a state because nomads lacked a stable economic basis and sophisticated means of statecraft. According to this view, nomads had to occupy at least some of Central Asian oases before they attempted to build a state on the steppe. A close reading of primary sources, however, reveals that the rise of the Oirad states actually predated the Oirad expansion to the Central Asian oasis region. From this discovery, this article argues that steppe nomads did not necessarily rely on the settled people of Central Asian oases to construct their states. Thus, in terms of state formation on the steppe, internal dynamics of steppe politics, economy, and society were more crucial than external factors, such as the relationship with neighboring sedentary regions.
1. Introduction
2. Theories on State Formation on the Steppe
3. The Qalmaqs and Moghuls in the Fifteenth and S ixteenth Centuries
4. The Qalmaqs and Moghuls in the Late Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
5. Conclusion
Bibliography