2. The Destruction of Central Asia’s Economic Foundations
The qanat network transported water from its sources over long distances to more arid locales for use in agriculture, and to satisfy the needs of the region’s teeming cities. The network required regular maintenance and upkeep by skilled workers and engineers, paid for and supervised by a governmental bureaucracy that understood the work’s importance. During the Mongol invasions, many of the qanats were deliberately destroyed, and many of the skilled workers who maintained the water network were either killed, enslaved and taken prisoner, or fled.
The Mongol conquerors had little understanding of or interest in infrastructure projects such as the qanats. So after they settled into their recently conquered realms, the new rulers invested little time, effort, and resources, into the restoration of the ruined underground water system. By the time Mongol rule came to an end centuries later, most of the qanats had been ruined, the engineering and artisan skill sets to restore them to their heyday had been forgotten, and new economic patterns had been established.
