the ‘outside’ other 39
was an opportunity for soft ening the extreme features of the image of
the sedentary Other. Th is way, the focus on the otherness and its rejec-
tion aimed at creating the own identity observed among the above-
mentioned communities can be examined not only through the prism
of the sedentarism-nomadism, or steppe (suitable for transhumance)-
plain (suitable for agriculture). Th e initial ecological (natural) reason
for a diff erentiation between these two ‘worlds’ had lowered its inten-
sity aft er the eighth century since in a number of regions (especially
in Southeastern Europe, to the north of Caucasus and in the old Sog-
diana), no sharp ecological boundaries existed in fact. Of course, “the
steppe (ecological) perspective” towards the Other had the longest life
among the Uighurs since they were the only ones in the ninth century
who inhabited the classic steppe region to the north of China.
From a geographic point of view, the concept of the Outside Other in
the ‘Steppe Empire’, in the sixth-ninth century, is based mainly on the
opposition between north-south and not on that between east-west.
Th e steppe rulers thought of the South as a direction of expansion,
both as an abstraction and as reality; it embodied the otherness in the
best possible way since it also played an essential role in the formation
of Bulgar, Khazar, Turkic, and Uighur identity. Th e North was at the
opposite pole; it was regarded as a direction of refrain, especially by
the Bulgars, Khazars, and Uighurs.
For the sedentary civilizations and especially for Byzantium, the Sas-
sanians, and China, the important Others—from a geographic point of
view—were situated along the east-west axis; it was the direction of the
greatest tensions (wars, expansion) while the North, i.e. the ‘Steppe
Empire’, was regarded mainly as the direction of refrain and defense.
For that reason, the aristocrats from “Pax Nomadica” regarded the
South as weak, feminine, and perfi dious while they looked at them-
selves through the prism of manliness since, compared to the South,
they seemed active, dynamic, and aggressive, all masculine characteris-
tics. Th ese arguments taken from the sphere of morality by the repre-
sentatives of the ‘Steppe Empire’ and used in relation to the sedentary
civilizations are more fully explored in another chapter.
However, the otherness, as it is well known, fi nds its support and
manifestation not only in the natural but also in the human and the
religious factor.