Karakum Desert

Around Merv, the southern Karakum was the dry margin of a river-fed oasis rather than a landscape with an immovable boundary between field and sand. The Murghab spread into the desert, and the inhabited area depended on channels carrying its water to cultivated ground. Across the late medieval and early modern centuries, maintaining or breaking these works could change where people were able to settle.

In the eighteenth century warfare made this dependence particularly visible. Forces sent by Nadir's brother Ibrahim Khan broke the dam to force Merv's fortress to surrender, leaving the town short of water and driving away much of its population. After proclaiming himself shah in 1736, Nadir brought cultivators into the region and repaired irrigation channels. In 1785 the ruler of Bukhara, Shah Murad, captured Merv, destroyed its dam and transferred inhabitants to Bukhara. Changes to the river's course reshaped the oasis margin. Sarik, Teke and Salor Turkmen subsequently became prominent inhabitants of the surrounding country. The history of these desert approaches was inseparable from waterworks, displacement and the changing reach of cultivation.