Sogdiana

The present paper examines written sources pertinent to Alexander the Great's expedition in Bactria and Sogdiana. It focuses on the impact of the military campaigns on the local inhabitants in four interconnected fields of human activity (military, political, urban, and administrative) and addresses their responses to the invading army. It argues that Alexander's military activities took place not in Bactria-Sogdiana as a whole, but rather in specific Sogdian territories, inflicting heavy casualties in the process. It proposes that Alexander's decision to appoint Artabazus as satrap disrupted the political status quo, forcing a Sogdian faction to rebel and that his alliance with another local faction was crucial for pacifying the region. Comparing the available textual and archaeological evidence regarding the settlements of Bactria-Sogdiana in the 320s BC it assess that Alexander's city building activity was limited. Lastly, the majority of the local population seems to have accepted the regime change.

The territory of Samarkand (Uzbekistan) represents an excellent case study for understanding the damage in- flicted on the archaeological heritage of the region. The hinterland of Samarkand became one of the largest urban areas of Central Asia through a number of transformations to its landscape since the 1950s, changes that continue today and have seriously compromised the integrity of the remaining archaeological record. Here we infer the temporal sequence of this destruction through a multi-proxy approach based on the collection of spatial datasets from different periods, field surveys, and interviews with local farmers in the Taylak district. The present research also made it possible to ascertain whether the loss of archaeological information was more likely to be a consequence of either agricultural expansion or urban development.

The Türgesh – one of the 10 “tribes” of the On Oq federation of the Western Türk – succeeded the Western Ashinas-Türk as an imperial power in the Western Central Asian steppes. Although the Türgesh Empire was relatively short-lived – it thrived for only about 20 years under their energetic khagan Sulu – it played an important role in the concert of great powers during the first half of the 8th century, largely on a par with Tang China, the Umayyad Caliphate, Tibet, and the Eastern Türks. The Türgesh are particularly known for having posed a serious threat to Umayyad rule in Mawarannahr and Eastern Khorasan/Tokharestan, inflicting several major defeats on Muslim armies in the 720s and 730s C.E. After the death of Sulu the Türgesh Empire quickly disintegrated, giving way to the immigrating Qarluq as the new dominant power in the steppes north of the Tianshan.

Keywords: mid-6th–mid-8th centuries ce; Chinese Empire; Eurasia; imperialism and conquest; nomads; steppe

Asya, Orta Doğu ve Anadolu’ya kadar ticari anlamda mekik dokuyan ve mahir diplomat özelliği taşıyan Soğd’lar, ipek yoluna hakim olan devletle birlikte egemenlik altına girmişlerdir. Ancak bu egemenlik bir asimilasyondan ziyade, gitmiş oldukları veya boyun eğdikleri toplumlara kendi kültürlerini taşımışlardır.

The Sogdian language was once the lingua franca of the Silk Road. After the Arab invasion to Central Asia the language lost its prestige status and slowly diminished. Since the Samanid Empire Persian became the prestigious language and later became a new lingua franca of the region. Sogdian or its dialects, however, did not disappear completely – at first it was an adstrate language in former Sogdiana, later it transformed into a substrate language, that was replaced by local Persian/Tajik vernacular(s) – these varieties of Persian are to be met in the Upper Zarafshon region North-Western Tajikistan. The Upper Zarafshon (or Central) dialects of Tajik reflect many Eastern Iranian linguistic features that can be connected with vernaculars of Sogdiana such as Sogdian and its dialects and Yaghnobi, a language closely related to Sogdian. Eastern Iranian loans in the Central Tajik dialects show rather complicated linguistic situation in the mountainous parts of Sogdiana. It seems, that the Upper Zarafshon Tajik dialects reflect a lost Sogdian dialect related to Yaghnobi, but having features of its own. The paper will show possibilities of study of the lost Sogdian dialect of the old Sogdian region of pyttmʼn/Buttamān.

It is known to very few, that five hundred years ago, before the arrival of the Mughals, the demographics of the northern regions comprising Pakistan were much different. There existed a substantial and well established Tajik (Persian) farming population here from ancient times in the lush valleys of Peshawar and Swat (the Gandhara region). These areas formed part of a kingdom, ruled since Ghori times by a family of Muslim Tajiks known as Gibaris (also Swati and Jehangiri) who were converts from Zoroastrianism. They were the Sultans of the Kingdom of Swat or “Pakhli Sarkar” as it was known – which later became a dependency of the Sultanate of Kashmir founded by their kinsmen. Kashmir in turn was a “provincial sultanate” of the renowned Delhi Sultanate.
The violent displacement from Kabul of the Yusufzai Pashtuns by the Timurids resulted in their migration to the Swat Kingdom, and both this and the subsequent Timurid (Mughal) conquests of India brought about the fall of both the Delhi and Swat Sultanates. Although the Delhi Sultanate is world famous, that of Swat is shrouded in mystery. It is the objective of this paper to apprise the reader of that history, as well as explain why it has been obscured.

When examining Alexander the Great’s conquest of the region of Sogdiana (encompassing most of modern day Uzbekistan) it is clear Alexander managed to successfully conquer and control Sogdiana due to his extraordinary mix of attributes and an intuitive sense of how and when to employ them. The successes achieved during the campaign were due to Alexander’s imaginative policy towards the Sogdians, which could be at times brutal or accommodating, his sharp sense of cultural and situational awareness, and his building campaign in Sogdiana that would create a makeover of that civilization. In turn, these feats left a lasting influence from his death to the present. Alexander’s legacy is evidenced through coinage, the history of the colonies he planted in the region, and the remembrance and cultural references within Uzbek society today.

(222 plates of illustrations will be in special file. The pages' numeration is special for each big chapter. For real book numeration move the cursor to the right border of each pages / 222 таблицы иллюстраций будут в специальном файле. Нумерация по техническим причинам – отдельная для каждого большого раздела. Подлинную нумерацию стрнице в книге можно выяснить, подведя курсор к правой границе каждой страницы).
ABSTRACT:
In this book, you will find a complex research of the clothes of Iranian-speaking peoples beginning from their appearance in the world politics and in the written sources of the 7th–6th cc. BC and up to the Islamization of Iran and Transoxiana in the 7th–8th cc. AD. The accessories of the costume (except belts), the military costume, the rulers’ crowns and the costume materials themselves are not the subject matter of the text; but the hairstyle and sometimes tattoos are being under consideration. The first three chapters are devoted to analysis of the main periods of pre-Islamic history of the Iranian world (the time bounds being different for different regions): [1] the Achaemenid-Scythian time (the 7th–6th cc. BC — 4th–3rd cc. BC, for Transoxiana—up to the mid. of the 2nd cc. BC); [2] the Parthian-Sarmatian time (the 4th/3rd cc. BC — the 3rd/4th cc. AD); [3] the Sassanid and Early Medieval time (the 3/4th — the 7/8th cc. AD). The sections of these chapters deal with materials on the 13 peoples: (1) the Persians of the Achaemenian time; (2) the Early Scythians; (3) the Scythians of the “classic” period (the 5th–4th cc. BC); (4) the “Pazyrykians” of the Altai; (5) the Chorasmians (for all the 3 periods); (6) the Parnes—Parthians of Iran; (7) the Sarmatians and Early Alans; (8) the Yuech-chihs / Kushans of Bactria; (9) the Sogdians (the 2nd and 3rd periods); (10) the Indo-Scythians of Gandhara; 11) the Persians of the Sassanid time; (12) the Khotano-Sakas of Southern Xinjiang (the 2nd and 3rd periods); (13) the Tokharistanians (with other ethnic elements). As far as each of the above-mentioned peoples is concerned the above-stated ideas are analyzed and new materials (including unpublished ones) are taken into account, the details of many depictions are defined and the data on peoples are generalized for the first time. First of all, we have studied the costume of these 13 peoples, which gives the most abundant and many-sided information on the costume as clothes in real life are a mass phenomenon and can be studied productively and correctly only in big series (in case of single depictions rare costume elements and the looks of gods of foreign origin are mistakenly taken for typical ones).
The main tasks of the book are: 1. The reconstruction of the look of the ethnic clothing complex for each of the above-mentioned peoples: the silhouette, the cut (the information about the latter is limited) and the decorative prin-ciples, the last task being the most labour-intensive. The results allow of a reliable attribution of many artifacts from museums and private collections. 2. Eliciting the aesthetical ideal of different ethnic groups reflected in the costume; the analysis of the depictions of supposed representatives of a certain people in the art of other countries for defining the degree of the authenticity in the costume depiction and its representativeness for this ethnic group. 3. The comparative analysis of the costume of each separately taken synchronous people in each of the three main historical epochs; the analysis of the costume of each ethnic group in different periods for defining the character of the costume evolution and heredity. 4. The retrospective eliciting of the look of the original costume of the most ancient Iranians and the “costume” traces of the Iranian penetration to the west of Iran. 5. Eliciting the type of the costume contacts of ancient Iranian-speaking peoples and the difference in their importance. 6. The analysis of the summarized data on the least studied significant functions of the costume aiming at eliciting the specificity of the Iranian world and some of its peoples.
We suggest a complex approach including following elements: (1) dealing with all kinds of sources alongside ob-serving the most possible scope of facts on each studied people (in case of a technical impossibility, the representative statistic excerpts are studied); (2) the proper selection of the costume décor remnants from burials under analysis (only the accounts and publications of high quality are used) excluding significantly fragmented and stylized depictions and, for some regions, images of gods; (3) the analysis of the material according to the linguistic and ethnic principles—not a regional one (which is not typical for modern research on the costume history); (4) considering all the main costume attributes of the ethnic group as a single costume complex that reflects the specificity of the people; 5) the description of the costume of each ethnic group according to the common program in chapters 1–3; (6) considering ethnic complexes against the background of the synchronous neighbouring ones and both earlier and later ones up to their successors in the 19th–20th cc. AD (otherwise the rightfulness of most conclusions is difficult to guarantee); (7) the analysis of costume evolution of separate ethnic groups under the influence of different factors; (8) compiling a special summary tables on the costume of each people (each drawing in them not being an exact copy of a definite depiction, but given in the most appropriate foreshortening without unnecessary details interfering with perception).
MORE INFORMATION: 2nd Internet ed., Moscow: X-lab, 2011: http://www.narodko.ru/article/yatsenko/eurazia/ .

CONTENTS:
PREFACE 5
CHAPTER 1. The Achaemenian-Scythian time (7th/6th cc. — 4th/3rd cc. BC) 29
1.1. The Persians 29
1.2. The European Scythians 47
1.3. The Pazyryk culture of the Altai Mountains 83
1.4. The Khorasmians 102
The main conclusions 106
CHAPTER 2. The Parthian-Sarmatian time (3rd cc. BC — 3rd/4th cc. AD) 112
2.1. Parthian Iran 113
2.2. The Sarmatians, the Early Alans and the “Late Scythians” 131
2.3. The Yuech-chihs/Kushans 170
2.4. The Khorasmians 187
2.5. The Indo-Scythians 192
2.6. The Sogdians 197
2.7. The Khotano-Sakas 201
The main conclusions 207
CHAPTER 3. The Sasanian and Early Medieval (Pre-Islamic) time (3rd/4th–7th/8th cc. AD) 212
3.1. Sasanian Iran 213
3.2. The Sogdians 231
3.3. Tokharistan and the neighboring regions to the South 247
3.4. The Khorasmians 262
3.4. The Khotano-Sakas 266
The main conclusions 274
CHAPTER 4. The mechanisms of the costume contacts and
the ways of evolution of the costume of ancient Iranians.
The symbolism of costume 279
4.1. The mechanisms of the costume contacts 280
4.2. The ways of evolution of the costume of various peoples 314
4.3. The sign functions of the costume 322
The main conclusions 362
CONCLUSION 364
APPENDIX. The suggestions on the methods of fixation and description of the costume relics
in burial complexes 367
Glossary 370
BIBLIOGRAPHY 371
Abbreviations 416
List of Iluustrations (in English)          418
List of illustrations (in Russian) 423
Illustrations 435-657
Summary                    658
Contents                      663

The monotheistic ideology that Darius imposed on the nascent Achaemenid state resulted in a religious revolution with far reaching effects, as it reverberated on two different levels. At the top level, the imposition of an omnipotent abstract god, Ahura Mazda,created a sharp reaction that led to the general massacre of the opposition termed as Magophonia by Herodotus. Several centuries of doctrinal development led to Zoroastrianism, a religion marked by the art of compromise and virulent rhetoric. While the Zoroastrian influence on Abrahamic religions has mainly been investigated in respect to borrowed concepts such as Paradise or Day of Judgment, its influence on the art of compromise and rhetoric has been neglected. So has been the influence of its underground opposition, organized as brotherhood. The underground opposition affected early Christianity, while the Iranian clergy influenced the Judaic priesthood. Together, they ended up affecting Islam.

Various documentary and numismatic sources mention the Kidarites, an enigmatic group of nomads in Central Asian history. This article attempts to reconstruct the chronology of the Kidarites primarily on the basis of documentary sources, especially Chinese Buddhist sources which have not yet been thoroughly studied. From this study we can see that much historical information is preserved in the biographies and chronicles of Chinese Buddhist literature. The author also discusses the ethno-political affinities of the Kidarites as well as their relationships with other contemporary ethnic groups.

Sogdian artists constantly adopted external religious iconographies from Mesopotamia, Greece, and India to represent local deities without major problems. Apparently, they did the same in their colonies abroad and especially in Buddhist Dunhuang where the main cultural milieu was Chinese. Two deities represented on a paper fragment from Dunhuang have been puzzling scholars since the 1990s. They present very strong Sogdian religious elements that, however, should be studied within the framework of Sino–Uighur art and culture of the Western Regions and Dunhuang. Many scholars considered the two deities both to be women. This article discusses the possibility that they actually represent a couple despite their aspect. Only one of them is a woman who can be identified with Nana. The other deity is probably Tish who was Nana’s husband and corresponded to the Avestan rain god Tishtrya and, in the Mesopotamian cultural sphere, to Nabu. Nana and Nabu formed a divine couple in Mesopotamian religion. Nabu was in origin the patron of scribes and corresponded to Greek Hermes and Egyptian Thoth. He was also connected to the planet Mercury that Chinese artists represented as a woman. Nana and Tish formed a powerful icon that Sogdians reproduced on inexpensive material that could be easily transported and possibly invoked as protectors of the family.

Abstract

The Khaganate (or Qaghanate) of the Türk, centered in the Central Eurasian steppes, was one of the hegemonic powers in Eurasia during the second half of the 6th and the first part of the 7th centuries C.E., exerting suzerainty over large parts of the Eurasian continent. The constituent hallmark of the empire of the Türk was the principle of collective sovereignty, vesting legitimate rule over the Türkic realm in the Ashinas lineage. This tradition – like other ideological as well as structural key features of their polity – the Türk inherited from their various predecessors in the steppes, notably the Xiongnu and the Rouran. Türk rule had a long-lasting impact on imperial ideologies and structures of governance in Eurasia down to the time of the Mongol Empire. Like the pax Mongolica in the 13th century, the unification of territories under Türk rule, from Manchuria in the east to Crimea in the west, resulted in a considerable increase of trans-cultural economic and diplomatic exchanges across Eurasia.

Keywords: mid-6th–mid-8th centuries CE ; Chinese Empire; Eurasia; imperialism and conquest; nomads; steppe

In the art of Chinese and Chinese Sogdians of the mid. 6th – mid. 8th cc. the general features of the Sogdian costume are trustworthily reflected by the main iconographic schemes and it can be easily explained. First, we deal with the people well known and significant enough for the customers. Second, the costume in traditional societies was an effective analogy of future passports and certificates of identity giving to the viewer the most important information of the owner of the garment. But in Chinese Sogdian art we see some important costume details unknown in the Sogdians' motherland. The poses here are often less canonical and more variable than in Sogd, they are less official and more intimate, we can feel the author's personal attitude; it gives a possibility to see more rare details. Sometimes the differences in the costume were caused by different subject plots. On Early Tang burial terracotta the costume of Sogdian merchants reflect the influence of traditions and demands of Chinese population with whom they lived and worked alongside.

In study of ancient history, seldom does it happen that one can find sources directly related to everyday life of the ordinary people. The regular tools of the historians, texts, stop short of commenting the life of the people and concern themselves most often with politics or religion. Economy is mostly glanced upon by the study of coins, which mostly indicat commerce and market activity and tell us less about production of goods and the non-market oriented economy. Archaeology can be exceptionally useful in understanding the exploitation of land by people and the way they lived, grew their food, or manipulated their environment. This, sadly, has been done less for Afghanistan, where archaeology is most often interested in finds of more conventional archaeological goods such as art objects and monumental architecture 1 . This is why it has been an extra-ordinary event, at least for the history of the Iranian World, for a large collection of primary material relating to economy to have surfaced. These documents, dubbed the "Bactrian Documents" 2 are a collection of records of economic transactions, marriage contracts, slave manumissions, tax lists, and correspondence that have 1 D. W. MacDowall and M. Taddei, "The Pre-Muslim Period," in The Archaeology of Afghanistan: From Earliest

СУҒДИЁНА-ИПАК ЙЎЛИНИНГ ЮРАГИ «Суғдиёна-Ипак йўлининг юраги» китоб-альбомида аҳолиси илк ўрта асрларнинг халқаро савдосида муҳим роль ўйнаган, шунингдек, авлодларга мерос сифатида ажойиб санъат асарлари-саройлар деворларини безатган нақшлар, юмшоқ металлдан ишланган маҳсулотлар, матолар, оссуарийлар ва дафн саркофаглари, шунингдек кўплаб бошқа ёдгорликларни қолдирган ажойиб тарихий-маданий минтақа ҳақида кенг таассурот уйғотувчи маълумотлар берилган. Тасвирлар киритилган қисмда ҳам Суғдиёна ҳудудида, ҳам унинг чегараларидан ташқарида яратилган ёдгорликлар жамланган. Жилд устида Ўзбекистон, Хитой, Италия ва Россия олимларидан иборат халқаро гуруҳ иш олиб борди. Ушбу нашр нафақат олим ва тадқиқотчилар, балки Ўзбекистоннинг бой маданий меросига қизиқувчи барча маҳаллий ва хорижий ўқувчилар, ёш авлод вакиллари учун мўлжалланган. Жаҳонда ўхшаши йўқ ушбу Лойиҳа мустақиллик йилларида яратилган имкониятлар ва Ўзбекистон Республикаси Президенти Шавкат Мирзиёевнинг ўзбек халқининг маданий, тарихий ва интеллектуал меросини асраб-авайлаш, бойитиш ҳамда янада кўпайтириш масалаларига бўлган шахсан эътибори туфайли амалга оширилмоқда. Саҳифаларда қўшимча визуал маълумотларни олиш учун планшет ёки смартфонда сканерлашга мўлжалланган QR-кодлар мавжуд. «Ўзбекистон маданий мероси жаҳон тўпламларида» кўпжилдли туркуми Ўзбекистоннинг ноёб тарихий-маданий меросининг бошқа намуналарига бағишланган китоб-альбомларни чоп этишни ҳам назарда тутади. Книга-альбом «Согдиана-сердце Шелкового пути» дает многогранное представление об удивительной историко-культурной области, население которой сыграло важнейшую роль в международной торговле раннего средневековья, а также оставило в наследие потомкам удивительные произведения искусства-росписи, украшавшие стены дворцов, изделия художественного металла, ткани, оссуарии, погребальные саркофаги и многое другое. Иллюстративная часть включает в себя памятники, созданные как на территории Согдианы, так и далеко за ее пределами. Над томом работал международный коллектив ученых из Узбекистана, Китая, Италии, России. Издание рассчитано не только на представителей научно-исследовательских кругов, но и на широкую отечественную и зарубежную аудиторию, представителей молодого поколения, интересующихся богатым культурным наследием Узбекистана. Проект, аналогов которому нет в мире, осуществляется благодаря условиям, созданным в годы независимости, и личному вниманию Президента Республики Узбекистан Шавката Мирзиёева к вопросам бережного сохранения, обогащения и приумножения исторического, культурного и интеллектуального наследия узбекского народа. На страницы книги-альбома нанесены специальные QR-коды для сканирования планшетом или смартфоном для получения дополнительной визуальной информации. Многотомная серия «Культурное наследие Узбекистана в собраниях мира» предусматривает публикацию и других книг-альбомов, посвященных уникальным образцам историко-культурного наследия Узбекистана. The illustrated volume "Sogdia: The Heart of the Silk Road" gives a multifaceted idea of an amazing historical and cultural region, the population of which played an important role in the international trade of the early Middle Ages, and also left amazing works of art as a legacy to descendants such as paintings that adorned the walls of palaces, works of art metal, fabrics, ossuaries and burial sarcophagi and much more. The illustrative part includes monuments created both in the territory of Sogdia and far beyond its borders. An international team of scholars from Uzbekistan, China, Italy and Russia has worked on the volume. The publication is intended not only for members of the academic research community, but also for broad local and foreign audiences, as well as the younger generation interested in the rich cultural heritage of Uzbekistan. The project without any analogue in the world has been carried out due to favourable conditions created in the years of Independence and to the personal attention of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to such issues as the careful preservation, enrichment and augmentation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the Uzbek people. The pages are marked with special QR codes for scanning with a tablet or smartphone for additional visual information. The multi-volume series "Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan in World Collections" provides for publication of other books devoted to the unique masterpieces of the historical and cultural legacy of Uzbekistan.

Among the seal impressions found at the late Sogdian/early Islamic site of Kāfer Qalʿa, a few kilometers south of Samarkand, certain ones deserve special attention due to the divinities which embellish them. Two of these seal impressions are studied in detail in the present paper, within the framework of Zoroastrian religion and iconography. Some hypotheses on the utility of Kāfer Qalʿa as an important Sogdian administrative center during Late Antiquity are presented as well.

Ancient Chorasmia was a polity which belonged to the Indo-Iranian cultural koiné of Central Asia. It was situated at the northern borders of these territories surrounded by deserts, thus relatively isolated as an “oasis” during its long history. After the pioneering work of Soviet archaeologist S.P. Tolstov and colleagues in the region (correspondent with parts of today’s Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), the polity has been neglected and since then the idea of its cultural isolation in the frame of Central Asian antiquity acknowledged by scholars. But the history of this ancient Persian “nation” is a history of exchanges and interrelations, closely related with the social and cultural development of the whole Central Asian region and of the Eurasian Steppes. This book is centred on the study of these external relations and considers their impact on the inner development of the polity during a time span of ca. six centuries. The chosen timeframe corresponds with the period beginning with the emergence of true settled civilisation in Ancient Chorasmia - with its integration in the Achaemenid sphere of influence - and ends with the expansion of the Kushan Empire in Central Asia - after the advance of the Hellenistic civilization. This volume presents new hypotheses on the historical position of Chorasmia within Central Asia, challenging the current established chronology which needed to be revisited in the light of the most recent scholarly and field works on the subject.

from Online journal (https://edspace.american.edu/silkroadjournal/volume-17-2019/ ):
So far, the male costume of the Sogdians of the Early Tang period has been studied mainly on the material of “mingqi” / 冥器 burial figurines.14 specific elements, characteristic of the Chinese Sogdians were partly identified previously (Yatsenko 2017; 2018). It was possible to identify only a part of the images because of their stylization, frequent usage of everyday or work clothes without bright gala elements and borrowings of Chinese elements by foreigners.
The elements of the Sogdian costume in other types of images (stone carvings, wall paintings of tombs) in the Imperial capital are also analyzed. Some other details of the costume (pelerines) or another manner of wearing (a buttoned-up caftan collar) are more often accentuated in them than on terracotta. These differences in many cases are explained by the specificity of depictions subjects and the status of the depicted foreigners.
Borrowings of the Sogdian costume details (trousers decor, a caftan combined with shirts of specific parameters) by Han servants and guards are interesting. It was not a full-fledged trend of the Sogdian costume (as opposed to the Turkic one) for Chang'an Han population.

By analyzing the epitaph of a possible Sogdian who worked at the Ming dynasty Mansion of the Prince of Qin as a servant, this article explores Kang Jing's life and the activities of people around him from the fifteenth to the early sixteenth centuries, including the background of northwestern borderland of Ming China, and the multi-ethnic and cultural interactions.
本文通过对一则墓志的分析，勾勒出墓主康景的乡里、信仰背景及其所任职的秦王府的人事和活动，推测墓主有可能为九姓胡后裔，并探寻了他周围可能的胡人后裔和群体。康景只是一个小小的人物，而通过碑刻对其透露的人物、活动及变动的时代和背景的揭示则有管窥全豹之妙。

The article discusses a unique Arab-Sogdian copper coin issued in 160 AH in Ishtihan, sixty kilometres west of Samarqand. The Arabic date and mint name in combination with the tamgha on the Sogdian side suggest that the coin was issued by the Ikhshid of Soghd, whose court was in Ishtihan. The date coincides with the peak of the uprising led by al-Muqanna' who pushed the Arabs out of Samarqand and established control over most of the Zaravshan valley and Kesh. The absence of religious or political propaganda suggests the coin was meant to remind the Sogdians and Arabs about the Ikhshid's ancestral rights over Samarqand and Eastern Soghd. At this time the copper minted in the main centres of Mawarannahr corresponded in appearance with the standard format of Abbasid fulus, so this coin marks the fi nal stage in the transition from pre-Islamic Sogdian coinage to the new Islamic monetary system. 1 This paper was read at the Third seminar on early Iranian and Central Asian numismatics in memoriam

The study of urbanism in the oases of pre-Islamic south-western Central Asia remains a critical issue. However, modern perspectives are typically shaped by the iconic image of cities as densely populated commercial centres of intensively farmed oasis hinterlands, characteristic for the region during the pre-Islamic and Islamic Middle Ages. Yet for Sogdiana during antiquity, such a picture is problematic. At least for Bukharan Sogdiana – the focus of this study – there is no evidence for genuine urban centres before the 4th or 5th century CE. It is not easy to address questions concerning the character of settlements in the Bukhara oasis during antiquity. Certainly, part of the issue lies in the fact that Antique-period levels have not been extensively excavated inside the oasis, mostly due to the presence of massive later medieval occupation levels. Only at the fringes of the oasis – in areas outside the present-day and the medieval irrigated oasis – can we hope to get a more systematic insight into the question of how settlements and their patterns in the region looked during antiquity. In this paper we focus on the Antique site of Bashtepa and its surrounds, lying at the interface of the Bukhara oasis and the Kyzyl-kum Desert, in order to explore an example of a Central Asian oasis without cities.

The Yaghnobi language is often referred to as Neo-Sogdian and Yaghnobis and some Tajiks claim the people are true descendents of Sogdians. The Yaghnobi language is however rather more archaic than Sogdian is - differences on phonology and morphology point to a fact, that Yaghnobi cannot be derived from the Sogdian language as known from majority of texts. Instead of daughter and her mother we have an aunt and her niece...

مهاجران سغدی که به مناطق مختلف سفر می‌کردند گهگاه با خود عناصر ایرانی را می‌بردند. از یافته‌های جالب متون سغدی می‌توان به داستان رستم و دیوها اشاره کرد که در «غارهای هزاربودا» نزدیک شهر توئن هوانگ (دون هوانگ) در ایالت کانسوی چین یافت شده است. آنچه درباره نام رستم در این متن جالب می‌نماید این است که نام رستم در متن سغدی، آوای زبان‌های ایرانی غربی را دارد و بیشتر شبیه به پارسی میانه و پارتی است تا سغدی! این نشان می‌دهد که احتمالاً سغدیان داستان را از دیگر مردمان ایرانی شاید اشکانیان وام گرفته اند

The present article focuses on the numismatic finds by the Uzbek-Italian Archaeological Program “Samarkand and Its Territory” in the Sogdian and early Islamic site of Kafir Kala (Uzbekistan). The overall number of coins discovered at Kafir Kala amounts to 178. The major part of them came from the citadel. Beside many Sogdian copper coins of the 7th and first half of the 8th century, the most important discovery was an Abbasid dīnār and a hoard of 132 dirhams. The coins are described in their stratigraphic context. Kafir Kala represents a very important case-study for the comprehension of the changes in the monetary circulation in Sogdiana at the beginning of the Islamic expansion in Central Asia.

Buddhist Sogdian texts contain about 300 loanwords of Indian origin excluding the ones that are known also in Manichaean, secular, or Christian Sogdian texts. About sixty percent of these can easily be seen to be borrowed from Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. A further twenty percent or so are not so easily recognized as from that source because they also reflect linguistic developments within Sogdian. Another twenty percent are from a Prakrit or show the intermediation of another language, such as Parthian (probably including pwty ‘Buddha’), Tocharian, or Chinese. About one percent has unclear sources. The Indian loanwords in Manichean, Christian and secular Sogdian texts, in contrast, are in the majority from a Middle Indian source. In Buddhist Sogdian, the narrative texts like the Vessantara Jātaka feature more of the less regular loan shapes, which suggests a different path of transmission and probably an earlier date. An appendix discusses the role of Buddism in Sogdiana from finds th...