The Time of the Hephthalites

WHILE I WAS watching the news, I noticed that on the map of Eurasia behind the person Tajikistan was colored light blue, meaning that it had reported no Covid-19 cases. Syria was another zero country, as was Kyrghizstan. I assumed that Tajikistan just wasn’t reporting but some research proved me wrong about Tajikistan yet again. Apparently the government is asserting that there are actually no cases there because they closed the borders in time, they say.

Since this writing, Tajikistan reported cases. They made it into the national news service I listen to while I work.

But let’s escape the oppressive present and go wandering in the oppressive past. In the fourth century CE, Tajiks likely dreamed about the luxuries of the great cities of Sasanian Persia, wondering how they might be