Sogdia

Sogdia
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Sogdia, Sogdiana
6th century BC to 11th century AD
Approximate extent of Sogdia, between the Oxus and the Jaxartes.
Capital Samarkand, Bukhara, Khujand, Kesh
Languages Sogdian language
Religion Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Buddhism, Islam, Nestorian Christianity[1]
Imitations of Sassanian coins and Chinese cash coins as well as "hybrids" of both.
Currency [2][3]
Sogdia (Sogdian: soγδ) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization between the
Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the
Achaemenid Empire, and listed on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great.[4][5][6]
Sogdiana was first conquered by Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid
Empire, and then was annexed by the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great in 328
BC. It would continue to change hands under the Seleucid Empire, the Greco-Bactrian
Kingdom, the Kushan Empire, the Sasanian Empire, the Hephthalite Empire, the
Western Turkic Khaganate and the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana.
The Sogdian city-states, although never politically united, were centered on the city of
Samarkand. Sogdian, an Eastern Iranian language, is no longer spoken, but a
descendant of one of its dialects, Yaghnobi, is still spoken by the Yaghnobis of
Tajikistan. It was widely spoken in Central Asia as a lingua franca and served as one
of the First Turkic Khaganate's court languages for writing documents.
Sogdians also lived in Imperial China and rose to prominence in the military and
government of the Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). Sogdian merchants and
diplomats travelled as far west as the Byzantine Empire. They played an important
part as middlemen in the trade route of the Silk Road. While originally following the
faiths of Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Buddhism and, to a lesser extent, Nestorian
Christianity from West Asia, the gradual conversion to Islam among the Sogdians and
their descendants began with the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana in the 8th century.
The Sogdian conversion to Islam was virtually complete by the end of the Samanid
Empire in 999, coinciding with the decline of the Sogdian language, as it was largely
supplanted by Persian.
Contents
 1 Geography
 2 Name
 3 History
o 3.1 Prehistory
o 3.2 Achaemenid period (546-327 BC)
o 3.3 Hellenistic period (327-145 BC)
o 3.4 Saka and Kushan periods (146 BC-260 AD)
o 3.5 Sasanian satrapy (260 AD)
o 3.6 Hephthalite conquest of Sogdiana (479-557 AD)
o 3.7 Turkic Khaganates (557-742 AD)
o 3.8 Arab Muslim conquest (8th century AD)
 4 Economy and diplomacy
o 4.1 Central Asia and the Silk Road
o 4.2 Trade and diplomacy with the Byzantine Empire
o 4.3 Sogdian traders in the Tarim Basin
o 4.4 Sogdian merchants, generals, and statesmen in Imperial China
 5 Language and culture
o 5.1 Art
o 5.2 Language
o 5.3 Clothing
o 5.4 Religious beliefs
 6 Slave trade
 7 Modern historiography
 8 Notable people
 9 Diaspora areas
 10 See also
 11 References
o 11.1 Citations
o 11.2 Sources
 12 Further reading
 13 External links
Geography
Sogdiana lay north of Bactria, east of Khwarezm, and southeast of Kangju between
the Oxus (Amu Darya) and the Jaxartes (Syr Darya), including the fertile valley of the
Zeravshan (called the Polytimetus by the ancient Greeks).[7] Sogdian territory
corresponds to the modern regions of Samarkand and Bukhara in modern Uzbekistan,
as well as the Sughd region of modern Tajikistan. In the High Middle Ages, Sogdian
cities included sites stretching towards Issyk Kul, such as that at the archeological site
of Suyab.
Name
Oswald Szemerényi devotes a thorough discussion to the etymologies of ancient

ethnic words for the Scythians in his work Four Old Iranian Ethnic Names: Scythian
– Skudra – Sogdian – Saka. In it, the names provided by the Greek historian
Herodotus and the names of his title, except Saka, as well as many other words for
"Scythian", such as Assyrian Aškuz and Greek Skuthēs, descend from *skeud-, an
ancient Indo-European root meaning "propel, shoot" (cf. English shoot).[8] *skud- is
the zero-grade; that is, a variant in which the -e- is not present. The restored Scythian
name is *Skuda (archer), which among the Pontic or Royal Scythians became *Skula,
in which the d has been regularly replaced by an l. According to Szemerényi,
Sogdiana (Old Persian: Suguda-; Uzbek: Sug'd, Sug'diyona; Persian: ‫سغد‬,
romanized: Soġd; Tajik: Суғд, ‫سغد‬, romanized: Suġd; Chinese: 粟特; Greek: Σογδιανή,
romanized: Sogdiane) was named from the Skuda form. Starting from the names of the
province given in Old Persian inscriptions, Sugda and Suguda, and the knowledge
derived from Middle Sogdian that Old Persian -gd- applied to Sogdian was
pronounced as voiced fricatives, -γδ-, Szemerényi arrives at *Suγδa as an Old
Sogdian endonym.[9] Applying sound changes apparent in other Sogdian words and
inherent in Indo-European, he traces the development of *Suγδa from Skuda,
"archer", as follows: Skuda > *Sukuda by anaptyxis > *Sukuδa > *Sukδa (syncope) >
*Suγδa (assimilation).[10]
History
Left: Bead necklace from the tomb of the so-called “Sarazm princess” in Sarazm, Sogdia,
middle 4th millennium BC.
Right: 12-petalled flower from the cult structure in Sarazm, Sogdia, early 3rd millennium BC
Further information: Transoxiana, Turkestan, History of Central Asia, History of Uzbekistan,

and History of Tajikistan
Prehistory
Further information: Indo-Iranians
Sogdiana possessed a Bronze Age urban culture: original Bronze Age towns appear in
the archaeological record beginning with the settlement at Sarazm, Tajikistan,
spanning as far back as the 4th millennium BC, and then at Kök Tepe, near modern-
day Bulungur, Uzbekistan, from at least the 15th century BC.[11]
This original culture was gradually displaced by the Indo-European migrations of the
Iron Age, forming the Andronovo culture (c. 2000–1450 BC), which included Eastern
Iranian speaking peoples such as the historical Sogdians.[12] In the Avesta the
Sogdians are mentioned as living in the lands created by Ahura Mazda for the Iranian
peoples.
Achaemenid period (546-327 BC)
Sogdian soldier circa 338 BCE, tomb of Artaxerxes III.
Achaemenid ruler Cyrus the Great conquered Sogdiana while campaigning in Central
Asia in 546–539 BC,[13] a fact mentioned by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus in
his Histories.[12] Darius I introduced the Aramaic writing system and coin currency to
Central Asia, in addition to incorporating Sogdians into his standing army as regular
soldiers and cavalrymen.[14] A contingent of Sogdian soldiers fought in the main army
of Xerxes I during his second, ultimately-failed invasion of Greece in 480 BC.[6][15] A
Persian inscription from Susa claims that the palace there was adorned with lapis
lazuli and carnelian originating from Sogdiana.[6]
During this period of Persian rule, the western half of Asia Minor was part of the
Greek civilization. As the Achaemenids conquered it, they met persistent resistance
and revolt. One of their solutions was to ethnically cleanse rebelling regions,
relocating those who survived to the far side of the empire. Thus Sogdiana came to
have a significant Greek population.
Sogdians on an Achaemenid Persian relief from the Apadana of Persepolis, offering tributary
gifts to the Persian king Darius I, 5th century BC
Given the absence of any named satraps (i.e. Achaemenid provincial governors) for
Sogdiana in historical records, modern scholarship has concluded that Sogdiana was
governed from the satrapy of nearby Bactria.[16] The satraps were often relatives of the
ruling Persian kings, especially sons who were not designated as the heir apparent.[12]
Sogdiana likely remained under Persian control until roughly 400 BC, during the
reign of Artaxerxes II.[17] Rebellious states of the Persian Empire took advantage of
the weak Artaxerxes II, and some, such as Egypt, were able to regain their
independence. Persia's massive loss of Central Asian territory is widely attributed to
the ruler's lack of control. However, unlike Egypt, which was quickly recaptured by
the Persian Empire, Sogdiana remained independent until it was conquered by
Alexander the Great. When the latter invaded the Persian Empire, Pharasmanes, an
already independent king of Khwarezm, allied with the Macedonians and sent troops
to Alexander in 329 BC for his war against the Scythians of the Black Sea region
(even though this anticipated campaign never materialized).[17]
During the Achaemenid period (550–330 BC), the Sogdians lived as a nomadic
people much like the neighboring Yuezhi, who spoke Bactrian, an Indo-Iranian
language closely related to Sogdian,[18] and were already engaging in overland trade.
Some of them had also gradually settled the land to engage in agriculture.[19] Similar
to how the Yuezhi offered tributary gifts of jade to the emperors of China, the
Sogdians are recorded in Persian records as submitting precious gifts of lapis lazuli
and carnelian to Darius I, the Persian king of kings.[19] Although the Sogdians were at
times independent and living outside the boundaries of large empires, they never
formed a great empire of their own like the Yuezhi, who established the Kushan
Empire (30–375 AD) of Central and South Asia.[19]
Hellenistic period (327-145 BC)

Further information: Wars of Alexander the Great, Chronology of the expedition of
Alexander the Great into Asia, and Hellenistic civilization
Top: painted clay and alabaster head of a Zoroastrian priest wearing a distinctive Bactrian-
style headdress, Takhti-Sangin, Tajikistan, 3rd–2nd century BC.
Bottom: a barbaric copy of a coin of the Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus I, from the region
of Sogdiana; the legend on the reverse is in Aramaic script.
A now-independent and warlike Sogdiana formed a border region insulating the

Achaemenid Persians from the nomadic Scythians to the north and east.[20] It was led
at first by Bessus, the Achaemenid satrap of Bactria. After assassinating Darius III in
his flight from the Macedonian Greek army,[21][22] he became claimant to the
Achaemenid throne. The Sogdian Rock or Rock of Ariamazes, a fortress in Sogdiana,
was captured in 327 BC by the forces of Alexander the Great, the basileus of
Macedonian Greece, and conqueror of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.[23] Oxyartes, a
Sogdian nobleman of Bactria, had hoped to keep his daughter Roxana safe at the
fortress of the Sogdian Rock, yet after its fall Roxana was soon wed to Alexander as
one of his several wives.[24] Roxana, a Sogdian whose name Roshanak means "little
star",[25][26][27] was the mother of Alexander IV of Macedon, who inherited his late
father's throne in 323 BC (although the empire was soon divided in the Wars of the
Diadochi).[28]
After an extended campaign putting down Sogdian resistance and founding military
outposts manned by his Macedonian veterans, Alexander united Sogdiana with
Bactria into one satrapy. The Sogdian nobleman and warlord Spitamenes (370–328
BC), allied with Scythian tribes, led an uprising against Alexander's forces. This
revolt was put down by Alexander and his generals Amyntas, Craterus, and Coenus,
with the aid of native Bactrian and Sogdian troops.[29] With the Scythian and Sogdian
rebels defeated, Spitamenes was allegedly betrayed by his own wife and beheaded.[30]
Pursuant with his own marriage to Roxana, Alexander encouraged his men to marry
Sogdian women in order to discourage further revolt.[24][31] This included Apama,
daughter of the rebel Spitamenes, who wed Seleucus I Nicator and bore him a son and
future heir to the Seleucid throne.[32] According to the Roman historian Appian,
Seleucus I named three new Hellenistic cities in Asia after her (see Apamea).[32][33]
The military power of the Sogdians never recovered. Subsequently, Sogdiana formed
part of the Hellenistic Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, a breakaway state from the Seleucid
Empire founded in 248 BC by Diodotus I, for roughly a century.[34][35] Euthydemus I, a
former satrap of Sogdiana, seems to have held the Sogdian territory as a rival claimant
to the Greco-Bactrian throne; his coins were later copied locally and bore Aramaic
inscriptions.[36] The Greco-Bactrian king Eucratides I may have recovered sovereignty
of Sogdia temporarily.
Saka and Kushan periods (146 BC-260 AD)
Head of a Saka warrior, as a defeated enemy of the Yuezhi, from Khalchayan, northern
Bactria, 1st century BCE.[37][38][39]
Finally Sogdia was occupied by nomads when the Sakas overran the Greco-Bactrian
kingdom around 145 BC, soon followed by the Yuezhi, the nomadic predecessors of
the Kushans. From then until about 40 BC the Yuezhi tepidly minted coins imitating
and still bearing the images of the Greco-Bactrian kings Eucratides I and Heliocles I.
[40]
The Yuezhis were visited in Transoxiana by a Chinese mission, led by Zhang Qian in
126 BC,[41] which sought an offensive alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu.
Zhang Qian, who spent a year in Transoxiana and Bactria, wrote a detailed account in
the Shiji, which gives considerable insight into the situation in Central Asia at the
time.[42] The request for an alliance was denied by the son of the slain Yuezhi king,
who preferred to maintain peace in Transoxiana rather than seek revenge.
A Yuezhi (left) fighting a Sogdian behind a shield (right), Noin-Ula carpet, 1st century BC/AD.
[43]
Zhang Qian also reported:

the Great Yuezhi live 2,000 or 3,000 li [832–1,247 kilometers] west of Dayuan, north
of the Gui [Oxus ] river. They are bordered on the south by Daxia [Bactria], on the
west by Anxi [Parthia], and on the north by Kangju [beyond the middle Jaxartes/Syr
Darya]. They are a nation of nomads, moving from place to place with their herds,
and their customs are like those of the Xiongnu. They have some 100,000 or 200,000
archer warriors.
— Shiji, 123[44]
From the 1st century AD, the Yuezhi morphed into the powerful Kushan Empire,
covering an area from Sogdia to eastern India. The Kushan Empire became the center
of the profitable Central Asian commerce. They began minting unique coins bearing
the faces of their own rulers.[40] They are related to have collaborated militarily with
the Chinese against nomadic incursion, particularly when they allied with the Han
dynasty general Ban Chao against the Sogdians in 84, when the latter were trying to
support a revolt by the king of Kashgar.[45]
Sasanian satrapy (260 AD)
Historical knowledge about Sogdia is somewhat hazy during the period of the
Parthian Empire (247 BC – 224 AD) in Persia.[46][47] The subsequent Sasanian Empire
of Persia conquered and incorporated Sogdia as a satrapy in 260,[46] an inscription
dating to the reign of Shapur I claiming "Sogdia, to the mountains of Tashkent" as his
territory, and noting that its limits formed the northeastern Sasanian borderlands with
the Kushan Empire.[47] However, by the 5th century the region was captured by the
rival Hephthalite Empire.[46]
Hephthalite conquest of Sogdiana (479-557 AD)
Local coinage of Samarkand, Sogdia, with the Hepthalite tamgha on the reverse.[48]
The Hephthalites conquered the territory of Sogdiana, and incorporated it into their
Empire, around 479 AD, as this is the date of the last known independent embassy of
the Sogdians to China.[49][50]
The Hephthalites may have built major fortified Hippodamian cities (rectangular
walls with an orthogonal network of streets) in Sogdiana, such as Bukhara and
Panjikent, as they had also in Herat, continuing the city-building efforts of the
Kidarites.[50] The Hephthalites probably ruled over a confederation of local rulers or
governors, linked through alliance agreements. One of these vassals may have been
Asbar, ruler of Vardanzi, who also minted his own coinage during the period.[51]
Relief of a hunter, Varahsha, Sogdia, 5th-7th century CE.
The wealth of the Sasanian ransoms and tributes to the Hephthalites may have been
reinvested in Sogdia, possibly explaining the prosperity of the region from that time.
[50]
Sogdia, at the center of a new Silk Road between China to the Sasanian Empire
and the Byzantine Empire became extremely prosperous under its nomadic elites.[52]
The Hephthalites took on the role of major intermediary on the Silk Road, after their
great predecessor the Kushans, and contracted local Sogdians to carry on the trade of
silk and other luxury goods between the China Empire and the Sasanian Empire.[53]
Because of the Hephthalite occupation of Sogdia, the original coinage of Sogdia came
to be flooded by the influx of Sasanian coins received as a tribute to the Hephthalites.
This coinage then spread along the Silk Road.[49] The symbol of the Hephthalites
appears on the residual coinage of Samarkand, probably as a consequence of the
Hephthalite control of Sogdia, and becomes prominent in Sogdian coinage from 500
to 700 AD, including in the coinage of their indigenous successors the Ikhshids (642-
755 AD), ending with the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana.[54][55]
Turkic Khaganates (557-742 AD)

The Sogdian merchant An Jia with a Turkic Chieftain in his yurt. 579 AD.
The Turks of the First Turkic Khaganate and the Sasanians under Khosrow I allied
against the Hephthalites and defeated them after an eight-day battle near Qarshi, the
Battle of Bukhara, perhaps in 557.[56] The Turks retained the area north of the Oxus,
including all of Sogdia, while the Sasanians obtained the areas south of it. The Turks
fragmented in 581, and the Western Turkic Khaganate took over in Sogdia.
Archaeological remains suggest that the Turks probably became the main trading
partners of the Sogdians, as appears from the tomb of the Sogdian trader An Jia.[57]
The Turks also appear in great numbers in the Afrasiab murals of Samarkand, where
they are probably shown attending the reception by the local Sogdian ruler
Varkhuman in the 7th century AD.[58][59] These paintings suggest that Sogdia was a
very cosmopolitan environment at that time, as delegates of various nations, including
Chinese and Korean delegates, are also shown.[58][60] From around 650, China led the
conquest of the Western Turks, and the Sogdian rulers such as Varkhuman as well as
the Western Turks all became nominal vassals of China, as part of the Anxi
Protectorate of the Tang dynasty, until the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana.[61]
Ambassadors from various countries (China, Korea, Iranian and Hephthalite principalities...),
paying hommage to king Varkhuman and possibly Western Turk Khagan Shekui, under the
massive presence of Turkic officers and courtiers. Afrasiab murals, Samarkand, 648-651 AD.
[61]
Arab Muslim conquest (8th century AD)

Main article: Muslim conquest of Transoxiana
Further information: Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri and Sogdian city-states
Letter of an Arab Emir to the Sogdian ruler Devashtich, found in Mount Mugh
Wealthy Arab, Palace of Devashtich, Penjikent murals
Qutayba ibn Muslim (669–716), Governor of Greater Khorasan under the Umayyad
Caliphate (661–750), initiated the Muslim conquest of Sogdia during the early 8th
century, with the local ruler of Balkh offering him aid as an Umayyad ally.[47][62]
However, when his successor al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah governed Khorasan (717–719),
many native Sogdians, who had converted to Islam, began to revolt when they were
no longer exempt from paying the tax on non-Muslims, the jizya, because of a new
law stating that proof of circumcision and literacy in the Quran was necessary for new
converts.[47][63] With the aid of the Turkic Turgesh, the Sogdians were able to expel the
Umayyad Arab garrison from Samarkand, and Umayyad attempts to restore power
there were rebuffed until the arrival of Sa'id ibn Amr al-Harashi (fl. 720–735). The
Sogdian ruler (i.e. ikhshid) of Samarkand, Gurak, who had previously overthrown the
pro-Umayyad Sogdian ruler Tarkhun in 710, decided that resistance against al-
Harashi's large Arab force was pointless, and thereafter persuaded his followers to
declare allegiance to the Umayyad governor.[63] Divashtich (r. 706–722), the Sogdian
ruler of Panjakent, led his forces to the Zarafshan Range (near modern Zarafshan,
Tajikistan), whereas the Sogdians following Karzanj, the ruler of Pai (modern
Kattakurgan, Uzbekistan), fled to the Principality of Farghana, where their ruler at-
Tar (or Alutar) promised them safety and refuge from the Umayyads. However, at-Tar
secretly informed al-Harashi of the Sogdians hiding in Khujand, who were then
slaughtered by al-Harashi's forces after their arrival.[64]
Coin of Turgar, the last Ikhshid of Sogdia. Excavated in Penjikent, 8th century CE, National
Museum of Antiquities of Tajikistan.[65]
The Umayyads fell in 750 to the Abbasid Caliphate, which quickly asserted itself in
Central Asia after winning the Battle of Talas (along the Talas River in modern Talas
Oblast, Kyrgyzstan) in 751, against the Chinese Tang Dynasty. This conflict
incidentally introduced Chinese papermaking to the Islamic world.[66] The cultural
consequences and political ramifications of this battle meant the retreat of the Chinese
empire from Central Asia. It also allowed for the rise of the Samanid Empire (819–
999), a Persian state centered at Bukhara (in what is now modern Uzbekistan) that
nominally observed the Abbasids as their overlords, yet retained a great deal of
autonomy and upheld the mercantile legacy of the Sogdians.[66] Yet the Sogdian
language gradually declined in favor of the Persian language of the Samanids (the
ancestor to the modern Tajik language), the spoken language of renowned poets and
intellectuals of the age such as Ferdowsi (940–1020).[66] So too did the original
religions of the Sogdians decline; Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Manichaeism, and
Nestorian Christianity disappeared in the region by the end of the Samanid period.[66]
The Samanids were also responsible for converting the surrounding Turkic peoples to
Islam, which presaged the conquest of their empire in 999 by an Islamic Turkic
power, the Kara-Khanid Khanate (840–1212).[67]
During the early 13th century, Khwarezmia was invaded by the early Mongol Empire
and its ruler Genghis Khan destroyed the once vibrant cities of Bukhara and
Samarkand.[68] However, in 1370, Samarkand saw a revival as the capital of the
Timurid Empire. The Turko-Mongol ruler Timur forcefully brought artisans and
intellectuals from across Asia to Samarkand, transforming it not only into a trade hub
but also one of the most important cities of the Islamic world.[69]
Economy and diplomacy

Central Asia and the Silk Road
Main articles: Sino-Persian relations and Cities along the Silk Road
Left image: a Sogdian silk brocade textile fragment, dated c. 700 AD

Right image: and a Sogdian silver wine cup with mercury gilding, 7th century AD
Most merchants did not travel the entire Silk Road, but would trade goods through
middlemen based in oasis towns, such as Khotan or Dunhuang. The Sogdians,
however, established a trading network across the 1500 miles from Sogdiana to
China. In fact, the Sogdians turned their energies to trade so thoroughly that the Saka
of the Kingdom of Khotan called all merchants suli, "Sogdian", whatever their culture
or ethnicity.[70] The Sogdians had learnt to become expert traders from the Kushans,
together with whom they initially controlled trade in the Ferghana Valley and Kangju
during the 'birth' of the Silk Road. Later, they became the primary middlemen after
the demise of the Kushan Empire.[71][72]
Unlike the empires of antiquity, the Sogdian region was not a territory confined
within fixed borders, but rather a network of city-states, from one oasis to another,
linking Sogdiana to Byzantium, India, Indochina and China.[73] Sogdian contacts with
China were initiated by the embassy of the Chinese explorer Zhang Qian during the
reign of Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC) of the former Han dynasty. Zhang wrote a
report of his visit to the Western Regions in Central Asia and named the area of
Sogdiana as "Kangju".[74]
Left image: Sogdian men feasting and eating at a banquet, from a wall mural of Panjakent,
Tajikistan, 7th century AD
Right image: Detail of a mural from Varakhsha, 6th century AD, showing elephant riders
fighting tigers and monsters.
Following Zhang Qian's embassy and report, commercial Chinese relations with
Central Asia and Sogdiana flourished,[75] as many Chinese missions were sent
throughout the 1st century BC. In his Shiji published in 94 BC, Chinese historian
Sima Qian remarked that "the largest of these embassies to foreign states numbered
several hundred persons, while even the smaller parties included over 100 members ...
In the course of one year anywhere from five to six to over ten parties would be sent
out."[76] In terms of the silk trade, the Sogdians also served as middlemen between the
Chinese Han Empire and the Parthian Empire of the Middle East and West Asia.[77]
Sogdians played a major role in facilitating trade between China and Central Asia
along the Silk Roads as late as the 10th century, their language serving as a lingua
franca for Asian trade as far back as the 4th century.[78][79]
Left image: An Jia, a Sogdian trader and official in China, depicted on his tomb in 579 AD.
Right image: ceramic figurine of a Sogdian merchant in northern China, Tang Dynasty, 7th
century AD
Left image: Sogdian coin, 6th century, British Museum
Right image: Chinese-influenced Sogdian coin, from Kelpin, 8th century, British Museum
Subsequent to their domination by Alexander the Great, the Sogdians from the city of
Marakanda (Samarkand) became dominant as traveling merchants, occupying a key
position along the ancient Silk Road.[80] They played an active role in the spread of
faiths such as Manicheism, Zoroastrianism, and Buddhism along the Silk Road. The
Chinese Sui Shu (Book of Sui) describes Sogdians as "skilled merchants" who
attracted many foreign traders to their land to engage in commerce.[81] They were
described by the Chinese as born merchants, learning their commercial skills at an
early age. It appears from sources, such as documents found by Sir Aurel Stein and
others, that by the 4th century they may have monopolized trade between India and
China. A letter written by Sogdian merchants dated 313 AD and found in the ruins of
a watchtower in Gansu, was intended to be sent to merchants in Samarkand, warning
them that after Liu Cong of Han Zhao sacked Luoyang and the Jin emperor fled the
capital, there was no worthwhile business there for Indian and Sogdian merchants.[15]
[82]
Furthermore, in 568 AD, a Turko-Sogdian delegation travelled to the Roman
emperor in Constantinople to obtain permission to trade and in the following years
commercial activity between the states flourished.[83] Put simply, the Sogdians
dominated trade along the Silk Road from the 2nd century BC until the 10th century.
[70]
Suyab and Talas in modern-day Kyrgyzstan were the main Sogdian centers in the
north that dominated the caravan routes of the 6th to 8th centuries.[84] Their
commercial interests were protected by the resurgent military power of the Göktürks,
whose empire was built on the political power of the Ashina clan and economic clout
of the Sogdians.[85][86][87] Sogdian trade, with some interruptions, continued into the 9th
century. For instance, camels, women, girls, silver, and gold were seized from Sogdia
during a raid by Qapaghan Qaghan (692–716), ruler of the Second Turkic Khaganate.
[88]
In the 10th century, Sogdiana was incorporated into the Uighur Empire, which
until 840 encompassed northern Central Asia. This khaganate obtained enormous
deliveries of silk from Tang China in exchange for horses, in turn relying on the
Sogdians to sell much of this silk further west.[89] Peter B. Golden writes that the
Uyghurs not only adopted the writing system and religious faiths of the Sogdians,
such as Manichaeism, Buddhism, and Christianity, but also looked to the Sogdians as
"mentors", while gradually replacing them in their roles as Silk Road traders and
purveyors of culture.[90] Muslim geographers of the 10th century drew upon Sogdian
records dating to 750–840. After the end of the Uyghur Empire, Sogdian trade
underwent a crisis. Following the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana in the 8th century,
the Samanids resumed trade on the northwestern road leading to the Khazars and the
Urals and the northeastern one toward the nearby Turkic tribes.[86]
During the 5th and 6th century, many Sogdians took up residence in the Hexi
Corridor, where they retained autonomy in terms of governance and had a designated
official administrator known as a Sabao, which suggests their importance to the
socioeconomic structure of China. The Sogdian influence on trade in China is also
made apparent by a Chinese document which lists taxes paid on caravan trade in the
Turpan region and shows that twenty-nine out of the thirty-five commercial
transactions involved Sogdian merchants, and in thirteen of those cases both the buyer
and the seller were Sogdian.[91] Trade goods brought to China included grapes, alfalfa,
and Sassanian silverware, as well as glass containers, Mediterranean coral, brass
Buddhist images, Roman wool cloth, and Baltic amber. These were exchanged for
Chinese paper, copper, and silk.[70] In the 7th century, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim
Xuanzang noted with approval that Sogdian boys were taught to read and write at the
age of five, though their skill was turned to trade, disappointing the scholarly
Xuanzang. He also recorded the Sogdians working in other capacities such as farmers,
carpetweavers, glassmakers, and woodcarvers.[92]
Trade and diplomacy with the Byzantine Empire

Further information: First Perso-Turkic War, Byzantine–Sasanian wars, Byzantine silk,
Sogdian warriors, Sino-Roman relations, Byzantine-Mongol alliance, and Europeans in
Medieval China
Chinese silk in Sogdia: Tang Dynasty emissaries at the court of the Ikhshid of Sogdia
Varkhuman in Samarkand, carrying silk and a string of silkworm cocoons, circa 655 CE,
Afrasiab murals, Samarkand.
Shortly after the smuggling of silkworm eggs into the Byzantine Empire from China
by Nestorian Christian monks, the 6th-century Byzantine historian Menander
Protector writes of how the Sogdians attempted to establish a direct trade of Chinese
silk with the Byzantine Empire. After forming an alliance with the Sasanian ruler
Khosrow I to defeat the Hephthalite Empire, Istämi, the Göktürk ruler of the First
Turkic Khaganate, was approached by Sogdian merchants requesting permission to
seek an audience with the Sassanid king of kings for the privilege of traveling through
Persian territories in order to trade with the Byzantines.[77] Istämi refused the first
request, but when he sanctioned the second one and had the Sogdian embassy sent to
the Sassanid king, the latter had the members of the embassy poisoned.[77] Maniah, a
Sogdian diplomat, convinced Istämi to send an embassy directly to Byzantium's
capital Constantinople, which arrived in 568 and offered not only silk as a gift to
Byzantine ruler Justin II, but also proposed an alliance against Sassanid Persia. Justin
II agreed and sent an embassy to the Turkic Khaganate, ensuring the direct silk trade
desired by the Sogdians.[77][93][94]
A lion motif on Sogdian polychrome silk, 8th century AD, most likely from Bukhara.
It appears, however, that direct trade with the Sogdians remained limited in light of
the small amount of Roman and Byzantine coins found in Central Asian and Chinese
archaeological sites belonging to this era. Although Roman embassies apparently
reached Han China from 166 AD onwards,[95] and the ancient Romans imported Han
Chinese silk while the Han-dynasty Chinese imported Roman glasswares as
discovered in their tombs,[96][97] Valerie Hansen (2012) wrote that no Roman coins
from the Roman Republic (507–27 BC) or the Principate (27 BC – 330 AD) era of the
Roman Empire have been found in China.[98] However, Warwick Ball (2016) upends
this notion by pointing to a hoard of sixteen Roman coins found at Xi'an, China
(formerly Chang'an), dated to the reigns of various emperors from Tiberius (14–37
AD) to Aurelian (270–275 AD).[99] The earliest gold solidus coins from the Eastern
Roman Empire found in China date to the reign of Byzantine emperor Theodosius II
(r. 408–450) and altogether only forty-eight of them have been found (compared to
thirteen-hundred silver coins) in Xinjiang and the rest of China.[98] The use of silver
coins in Turfan persisted long after the Tang campaign against Karakhoja and Chinese
conquest of 640, with a gradual adoption of Chinese bronze coinage over the course
of the 7th century.[98] The fact that these Eastern Roman coins were almost always
found with Sasanian Persian silver coins and Eastern Roman gold coins were used
more as ceremonial objects like talismans, confirms the pre-eminent importance of
Greater Iran in Chinese Silk Road commerce of Central Asia compared to Eastern
Rome.[100]
Sogdian traders in the Tarim Basin
Central Asian foreigner worshipping Maitreya, Cave 188
The Kizil Caves near Kucha, mid-way in the Tarim Basin, record many scenes of
traders from Central Asia in the 5-6th century: these combine influence from the
Eastern Iran sphere, at that time occupied by the Sasanian Empire and the
Hephthalites, with strong Sogdian cultural elements.[101][102] Sogdia, at the center of a
new Silk Road between China to the Sasanian Empire and the Byzantine Empire
became extremely prosperous around that time.[103]
The style of this period in Kizil is characterized by strong Iranian-Sogdian elements

probably brought with intense Sogdian-Tocharian trade, the influence of which is
especially apparent in the Central-Asian caftans with Sogdian textile designs, as well
as Sogdian longswords of many of the figures.[104] Other characteristic Sogdian
designs are animals, such as ducks, within pearl medallions.[104]
Dragon-King Mabi saving traders, Cave 14, Kizil Caves
Two-headed dragon capturing traders, Cave 17
Sab leading the way for the 500 traders, Kizil Cave 17.
Sogdian merchants, generals, and statesmen in Imperial China
Further information: Ethnic groups in Chinese history, Ethnic minorities in China, and
Western Regions
Left image: kneeling Sogdian donors to the Buddha (fresco, with detail), Bezeklik Thousand
Buddha Caves, near Turpan in the eastern Tarim Basin, China, 8th century
Right image: Sogdians having a toast, with females wearing Chinese headdresses. Anyang
funerary bed, 550–577 AD.[105]
Sogdian Huteng dancer, Xiuding temple pagoda, Anyang, Hunan, China, Tang dynasty, 7th
century.
Aside from the Sogdians of Central Asia who acted as middlemen in the Silk Road
trade, other Sogdians settled down in China for generations. Many Sogdians lived in
Luoyang, capital of the Jin Dynasty (266–420), but fled following the collapse of the
Jin Dynasty's control over northern China in 311 AD and the rise of northern nomadic
tribes.[82] Still, some Sogdians continued living in Gansu.[82] A community of Sogdians
remained in the Northern Liang capital of Wuwei, but when the Northern Liang were
defeated by the Northern Wei in 439 AD, many Sogdians were forcibly relocated to
the Northern Wei capital of Datong, thereby fostering exchanges and trade for the
new dynasty.[106] Numerous Central Asian objects have been found in Northern Wei
tombs, such as the tomb of Feng Hetu.[107]
Other Sogdians came from the west and took positions in Chinese society. The Bei
shi[108] describes how a Sogdian came from Anxi (western Sogdiana or Parthia) to
China and became a sabao (薩保, from Sanskrit sarthavaha, meaning caravan leader)
[93]
who lived in Jiuquan during the Northern Wei (386 – 535 AD), and was the
ancestor of An Tugen, a man who rose from a common merchant to become a top
ranking minister of state for the Northern Qi (550 – 577 AD).[81][109] Valerie Hansen
asserts that around this time and extending into the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 AD), the
Sogdians "became the most influential of the non-Chinese groups resident in China".
Two different types of Sogdians came to China, envoys and merchants. Sogdian
envoys settled, marrying Chinese women, purchasing land, with newcomers living
there permanently instead of returning to their homelands in Sogdiana.[81] They were
concentrated in large numbers around Luoyang and Chang'an, and also Xiangyang in
present-day Hubei, building Zoroastrian temples to service their communities once
they reached the threshold of roughly 100 households.[81] From the Northern Qi to
Tang periods, the leaders of these communities, the sabao, were incorporated into the
official hierarchy of state officials.[81]
During the 6-7th centuries AD, Sogdian families living in China created important
tombs with funerary epitaphs explaining the history of their illustrious houses. Their
burial practices blended both Chinese forms such as carved funerary beds with
Zoroastrian sensibilities in mind, such as separating the body from both the earth and
water.[110] Sogdian tombs in China are among the most lavish of the period in this
country, and are only inferior to Imperial tombs, suggesting that the Sogdian Sabao
were among the wealthiest members of the population.[111]
In addition to being merchants, monks, and government officials, Sogdians also

served as soldiers in the Tang military.[112] An Lushan, whose father was Sogdian and
mother a Gokturk, rose to the position of a military governor (jiedushi) in the
northeast before leading the An Lushan Rebellion (755 – 763 AD), which split the
loyalties of the Sogdians in China.[112] The An Lushan rebellion was supported by
many Sogdians, and in its aftermath many of them were slain or changed their names
to escape their Sogdian heritage, so that little is known about the Sogdian presence in
North China since that time.[113] The former Yan rebel general Gao Juren of Goguryeo
descent ordered a mass slaughter of West Asian (Central Asian) Sogdians in Fanyang,
also known as Jicheng (Beijing), in Youzhou identifying them through their big noses
and lances were used to impale their children when he rebelled against the rebel Yan
emperor Shi Chaoyi and defeated rival Yan dynasty forces under the Turk Ashina
Chengqing,[114][115] High nosed Sogdians were slaughtered in Youzhou in 761.
Youzhou had Linzhou, another "protected" prefecture attached to it and Sogdians
lived there in great numbers.[116][117] because Gao Juren, like Tian Shengong wanted to
defect to the Tang dynasty and wanted them to pubicly recognize and acknowledge
him as a regional warlord and offered the slaughter of the Central Asian Hu
"barbarians" as a blood sacrifice for the Tang court to acknowledge his alleigance
without him giving up territory. according to the book, "History of An Lushan" (安祿
山史記).[118][119] Another source says the slaughter of the Hu barbarians serving Ashina
Chengqing was done by Gao Juren in Fanyang in order to deprive him of his support
base, since the Tiele, Tongluo, Sogdians and Turks were all Hu and supported the
Turk Ashina Chengqing against the Mohe, Xi, Khitan and Goguryeo origin soldiers
led by Gao Juren. Gao Juren was later killed by Li Huaixian, who was loyal to Shi
Chaoyi.[120][121] A massacre of foreign Arab and Persian Muslim merchants by former
Yan rebel general Tian Shengong happened during the An Lushan rebellion in the
Yangzhou massacre (760),[122][123] since Tian Shengong was defecting to the Tang
dynasty and wanted them to publicly recognized and acknowledge him, and the Tang
court portrayed the war as between rebel hu barbarians of the Yan against Han
Chinese of the Tang dynasty, Tian Shengong slaughtered foreigners as a blood
sacrifice to prove he was loyal to the Han Chinese Tang dynasty state and for them to
recognize him as a regional warlord without him giving up territory, and he killed
other foreign Hu barbarian ethnicities as well whose ethnic groups were not specified,
not only Arabs and Persians since it was directed against all foreigners.[124][125]
Sogdians continued as active traders in China following the defeat of the rebellion,
but many of them were compelled to hide their ethnic identity. A prominent case was
An Chongzhang, Minister of War, and Duke of Liang who, in 756, asked Emperor
Suzong of Tang to allow him to change his name to Li Baoyu because of his shame in
sharing the same surname with the rebel leader.[112] This change of surnames was
enacted retroactively for all of his family members, so that his ancestors would also
be bestowed the surname Li.[112]
The Nestorian Christians like the Bactrian Priest Yisi of Balkh helped the Tang
dynasty general Guo Ziyi militarily crush the An Lushan rebellion, with Yisi
personally acting as a military commander and Yisi and the Nestorian Church of the
East were rewarded by the Tang dynasty with titles and positions as described in the
Nestorian Stele.[126][127][128][129][130][131]
Amoghavajra used his rituals against An Lushan while staying in Chang'an when it
was occupied in 756 while the Tang dynasty crown prince and Xuanzong emperor
had retreated to Sichuan. Amoghavajra's rituals were explicitly intended to introduced
death, disaster and disease against An Lushan.[132] As a result of Amoghavajrya's
assistance in crushing An Lushan, Estoteric Buddhism became the official state
Buddhist sect supported by the Tang dynasty, "Imperial Buddhism" with state funding
and backing for writing scriptures, and constructing monasteries and temples. The
disciples of Amoghavajra did ceremonies for the state and emperor.[133] Tang dynasty
Emperor Suzong was crowned as cakravartin by Amoghavajra after victory against
An Lushan in 759 and he had invoked the Acala vidyaraja against An Lushan. The
Tang dynasty crown prince Li Heng (later Suzong) also received important strategic
military information from Chang'an when it was occupied by An Lushan though
secret message sent by Amoghavajra.[134]
Epitaphs were found dating from the Tang dynasty of a Christian couple in Luoyang
of a Nestorian Christian Sogdian woman, who Lady An (安氏) who died in 821 and
her Nestorian Christian Han Chinese husband, Hua Xian (花献) who died in 827.
These Han Chinese Christian men may have married Sogdian Christian women
because of a lack of Han Chinese women belonging to the Christian religion, limiting
their choice of spouses among the same ethnicity.[135] Another epitaph in Luoyang of a
Nestorian Christian Sogdian woman also surnamed An was discovered and she was
put in her tomb by her military officer son on 22 January, 815. This Sogdian woman's
husband was surnamed He (和) and he was a Han Chinese man and the family was
indicated to be multiethnic on the epitaph pillar.[136] In Luoyang, the mixed raced sons
of Nestorian Christian Sogdian women and Han Chinese men has many career paths
available for them. Neither their mixed ethnicity nor their faith were barriers and they
were able to become civil officials, a military officers and openly celebrated their
Christian religion and support Christian monasteries.[137]
The tomb of Wirkak, a Sogdian official in China. Built in Xi'an in 580 AD, during the Northern
Zhou dynasty. Xi'an City Museum.
During the Tang and subsequent Five Dynasties and Song Dynasty, a large
community of Sogdians also existed in the multicultural entrepôt of Dunhuang,
Gansu, a major center of Buddhist learning and home to the Buddhist Mogao Caves.
[138]
Although Dunhuang and the Hexi Corridor were captured by the Tibetan Empire
after the An Lushan Rebellion, in 848 the ethnic Han Chinese general Zhang Yichao
(799–872) managed to wrestle control of the region from the Tibetans during their
civil war, establishing the Guiyi Circuit under Emperor Xuānzong of Tang (r. 846–
859).[139][140] Although the region occasionally fell under the rule of different states, it
retained its multilingual nature as evidenced by an abundance of manuscripts
(religious and secular) in Chinese and Tibetan, but also Sogdian, Khotanese (another
Eastern Iranian language native to the region), Uyghur, and Sanskrit.[141]
There were nine prominent Sogdian clans (昭武九姓). The names of these clans have
been deduced from the Chinese surnames listed in a Tang-era Dunhuang manuscript
(Pelliot chinois 3319V).[142] Each "clan" name refers to a different city-state as the
Sogdian used the name of their hometown as their Chinese surname.[143] Of these the
most common Sogdian surname throughout China was Shí (石, generally given to
those from Chach, modern Tashkent). The following surnames also appear frequently
on Dunhuang manuscripts and registers: Shǐ (史, from Kesh, modern Shahrisabz), An
(安, from Bukhara), Mi (米, from Panjakent), Kāng (康, from Samarkand), Cáo (曹,
from Kabudhan, north of the Zeravshan River), and Hé (何, from Kushaniyah).[142][144]
Confucius is said to have expressed a desire to live among the "nine tribes" which
may have been a reference to the Sogdian community.[145]
A Tang Dynasty sancai statuette of Sogdian merchants riding on a Bactrian camel, 723 AD,
Xi'an.
The influence of Sinicized and multilingual Sogdians during this Guiyijun (歸義軍)
period (c. 850 – c. 1000 AD) of Dunhuang is evident in a large number of manuscripts
written in Chinese characters from left to right instead of vertically, mirroring the
direction of how the Sogdian alphabet is read.[146] Sogdians of Dunhuang also
commonly formed and joined lay associations among their local communities,
convening at Sogdian-owned taverns in scheduled meetings mentioned in their
epistolary letters.[147] Sogdians living in Turfan under the Tang dynasty and Gaochang
Kingdom engaged in a variety of occupations that included: farming, military service,
painting, leather crafting and selling products such as iron goods.[142] The Sogdians
had been migrating to Turfan since the 4th century, yet the pace of migration began to
climb steadily with the Muslim conquest of Persia and Fall of the Sasanian Empire in
651, followed by the Islamic conquest of Samarkand in 712.[142]
Language and culture
The 6th century is thought to be the peak of Sogdian culture, judging by its highly
developed artistic tradition. By this point, the Sogdians were entrenched in their role
as the central Asian traveling and trading merchants, transferring goods, culture and
religion.[148] During the Middle Ages, the valley of the Zarafshan around Samarkand
retained its Sogdian name, Samarkand.[7] According to the Encyclopædia Britannica,
medieval Arab geographers considered it one of the four fairest regions of the world.
[7]
Where the Sogdians moved in considerable numbers, their language made a
considerable impact. For instance, during China's Han dynasty, the native name of the
Tarim Basin city-state of Loulan was "Kroraina," possibly from Greek due to nearby
Hellenistic influence.[149] However, centuries later in 664 AD, the Tang Chinese
Buddhist monk Xuanzang labelled it as "Nafupo" (納縛溥), which according to Dr.
Hisao Matsuda is a transliteration of the Sogdian word Navapa meaning "new
water."[150]
Art
Main article: Sogdian art
See also: Art of Central Asia
The Afrasiab paintings of the 6th to 7th centuries in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, offer a
rare surviving example of Sogdian art. The paintings, showing scenes of daily life and
events such as the arrival of foreign ambassadors, are located within the ruins of
aristocratic homes. It is unclear if any of these palatial residences served as the
official palace of the rulers of Samarkand.[151] The oldest surviving Sogdian
monumental wall murals date to the 5th century and are located at Panjakent,
Tajikistan.[152] In addition to revealing aspects of their social and political lives,
Sogdian art has also been instrumental in aiding historians' understanding of their
religious beliefs. For instance, it is clear that Buddhist Sogdians incorporated some of
their own Iranian deities into their version of the Buddhist Pantheon. At Zhetysu,
Sogdian gilded bronze plaques on a Buddhist temple show a pairing of a male and
female deity with outstretched hands holding a miniature camel, a common non-
Buddhist image similarly found in the paintings of Samarkand and Panjakent.[153]
Language
Main article: Sogdian language
Epitaph in Sogdian by the sons of Wirkak, a Sogdian merchant and official who died in China
in 580 CE.
The Sogdians spoke an Eastern Iranian language called Sogdian, closely related to
Bactrian, Khwarazmian, and the Khotanese Saka language, widely spoken Eastern
Iranian languages of Central Asia in ancient times.[46][154] Sogdian was also prominent
in the oasis city-state of Turfan in the Tarim Basin region of Northwest China (in
modern Xinjiang).[154] Judging by the Sogdian Bugut inscription of Mongolia written
c. 581, the Sogdian language was also an official language of the First Turkic
Khaganate established by the Gokturks.[94][154]
Sogdian was written largely in three scripts: the Sogdian alphabet, the Syriac
alphabet, and the Manichaean alphabet, each derived from the Aramaic alphabet,[155]
[156]
which had been widely used in both the Achaemenid and Parthian empires of
ancient Iran.[14][157] The Sogdian alphabet formed the basis of the Old Uyghur alphabet
of the 8th century, which in turn was used to create the Mongolian script of the early
Mongol Empire during the 13th century.[158] Later in 1599, the Jurchen leader Nurhaci
decided to convert the Mongolian alphabet to make it suitable for the Manchu people.
The Yaghnobi people living in the Sughd province of Tajikistan still speak a
descendant of the Sogdian language.[47][159] Yaghnobi is largely a continuation of the
medieval Sogdian dialect from the Osrushana region of the western Fergana Valley.
[160]
The great majority of the Sogdian people assimilated with other local groups such
as the Bactrians, Chorasmians, and in particular with Persians, and came to speak
Persian. In 819, the Persians founded the Samanid Empire in the region. They are
among the ancestors of the modern Tajiks. Numerous Sogdian cognates can be found
in the modern Tajik language, although the latter is a Western Iranian language.
Clothing
Sogdians, depicted on the Anyang funerary bed, a Sogdian sarcophagus in China during the
Northern Qi Dynasty (550–577 AD). Guimet Museum.
Early medieval Sogdian costumes can be divided in two periods: Hephtalitic (5th and
6th centuries) and Turkic (7th and early 8th centuries). The latter did not become
common immediately after the political dominance of the Gökturks but only in c. 620
when, especially following Western Turkic Khagan Ton-jazbgu's reforms, Sogd was
Turkized and the local nobility was officially included in the Khaganate's
administration.[161]
For both sexes clothes were tight-fitted, and narrow waists and wrists were
appreciated. The silhouettes for grown men and young girls emphasized wide
shoulders and narrowed to the waist; the silhouettes for female aristocrats were more
complicated. The Sogdian clothing underwent a thorough process of Islamization in
the ensuing centuries, with few of the original elements remaining. In their stead,
turbans, kaftans, and sleeved coats became more common.[161]
Religious beliefs
Further information: Silk Road transmission of Buddhism, Mar Ammo, and Bible translations
into Sogdian
The Sogdians practiced a variety of religious faiths. However, Zoroastrianism was
most likely their main religion, as demonstrated by material evidence, such as the
discovery in Samarkand, Panjakent and Er-Kurgan of murals depicting votaries
making offerings before fire altars and ossuaries holding the bones of the dead - in
accordance with Zoroastrian ritual. At Turfan, Sogdian burials shared similar features
with traditional Chinese practices, yet they still retained essential Zoroastrian rituals,
such as allowing the bodies to be picked clean by scavengers before burying the bones
in ossuaries.[142] They also sacrificed animals to Zoroastrian deities, including the
supreme deity Ahura Mazda.[142] Zoroastrianism remained the dominant religion
among Sogdians until after the Islamic conquest, when they gradually converted to
Islam, as is shown by Richard Bulliet's "conversion curve".[162]
Left: An 8th-century Tang dynasty Chinese clay figurine of a Sogdian man wearing a
distinctive cap and face veil, a probable Zoroastrian priest engaging in a ritual at a fire
temple, since face veils were used to avoid contaminating the holy fire with breath or saliva;
Museum of Oriental Art (Turin), Italy.[163]
Right: A Zoroastrian fire worship ceremony, depicted on the Tomb of Anjia, a Sogdian
merchant in China.[164]
The Sogdian religious texts found in China and dating to the Northern Dynasties, Sui,
and Tang are mostly Buddhist (translated from Chinese sources), Manichaean, and
Nestorian Christian, with only a small minority of Zoroastrian texts.[165] But, tombs of
Sogdian merchants in China dated to the last third of the 6th century show
predominantly Zoroastrian motifs or Zoroastrian-Manichaean syncretism, while
archaeological remains from Sogdiana appear fairly Iranian and conservatively
Zoroastrian.[165]
However, the Sogdians epitomized the religious plurality found along the trade routes.
The largest body of Sogdian texts are Buddhist, and Sogdians were among the
principal translators of Buddhist sutras into Chinese. However, Buddhism did not take
root in Sogdiana itself.[166] Additionally, the Bulayiq monastery to the north of Turpan
contained Sogdian Christian texts, and there are numerous Manichaean texts in
Sogdiana from nearby Qocho.[167] The reconversion of Sogdians from Buddhism to
Zoroastrianism coincided with the adoption of Zoroastrianism by the Sassanid Empire
of Persia.[93] From the 4th century onwards, Sogdian Buddhist pilgrims left behind
evidence of their travels along the steep cliffs of the Indus River and Hunza Valley. It
was here that they carved images of the Buddha and holy stupas in addition to their
full names, in hopes that the Buddha would grant them his protection.[168]
The Sogdians also practiced Manichaeism, the faith of Mani, which they spread
among the Uyghurs. The Uyghur Khaganate (744–840 AD) developed close ties to
Tang China once it had aided the Tang in suppressing the rebellion of An Lushan and
his Göktürk successor Shi Siming, establishing an annual trade relationship of one
million bolts of Chinese silk for one hundred thousand horses.[89] The Uyghurs relied
on Sogdian merchants to sell much of this silk further west along the Silk Road, a
symbiotic relationship that led many Uyghurs to adopt Manichaeism from the
Sogdians.[89] However, evidence of Manichaean liturgical and canonical texts of
Sogdian origin remains fragmentary and sparse compared to their corpus of Buddhist
writings.[169] The Uyghurs were also followers of Buddhism. For instance, they can be
seen wearing silk robes in the praṇidhi scenes of the Uyghur Bezeklik Buddhist
murals of Xinjiang, China, particularly Scene 6 from Temple 9 showing Sogdian
donors to the Buddha.[170][171]
Shiva (with trisula), attended by Sogdian devotees. Penjikent, 7th–8th century AD.
Hermitage Museum.
In addition to Puranic cults, there were five Hindu deities known to have been
worshipped in Sogdiana.[172] These were Brahma, Indra, Mahadeva (Shiva), Narayana,
and Vaishravana; the gods Brahma, Indra, and Shiva were known by their Sogdian
names Zravan, Adbad and Veshparkar, respectively.[172] Durga, a mother goddess in
Shaktism, may be represented in Sogdian art as a four-armed goddess riding atop a
lion.[172] As seen in an 8th-century mural from Panjakent, portable fire altars can be
"associated" with Mahadeva-Veshparkar, Brahma-Zravan, and Indra-Abdab,
according to Braja Bihārī Kumar.[172]
Among the Sogdian Christians known in China from inscriptions and texts were An
Yena, a Christian from An country (Bukhara). Mi Jifen a Christian from Mi country
(Maymurgh), Kang Zhitong, a Sogdian Christian cleric from Kang country
(Samarkand), Mi Xuanqing a Sogdian Christian cleric from Mi country (Maymurgh),
Mi Xuanying, a Sogdian Christian cleric from Mi country (Maymurgh), An Qingsu, a
Sogdian Christian monk from An country (Bukhara).[173][174][175]
Pranidhi scene, temple 9 (Cave 20) of the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, Turfan, Xinjiang,
China, 9th century AD, with kneeling figures with Caucasian features and green eyes praying
in front of the Buddha. Modern scholarship has identified praṇidhi scenes of the same
temple (No. 9) as depicting Sogdians,[170] who inhabited Turfan as an ethnic minority during
the phases of Tang Chinese (7th–8th century) and Uyghur rule (9th–13th century).[142]
When visiting Yuan-era Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China during the late 13th century, the
Venetian explorer and merchant Marco Polo noted that a large number of Christian
churches had been built there. His claim is confirmed by a Chinese text of the 14th
century explaining how a Sogdian named Mar-Sargis from Samarkand founded six
Nestorian Christian churches there, in addition to one in Hangzhou during the second
half of the 13th century.[176] Nestorian Christianity had existed in China earlier during
the Tang Dynasty when a Persian monk named Alopen came to Chang'an in 653 to
proselytize, as described in a dual Chinese and Syriac language inscription from
Chang'an (modern Xi'an), dated to the year 781.[177] Within the Syriac inscription is a
list of priests and monks, one of whom is named Gabriel, the archdeacon of
"Xumdan" and "Sarag", the Sogdian names for the Chinese capital cities Chang'an
and Luoyang, respectively.[178] In regards to textual material, the earliest Christian
gospel texts translated into Sogdian coincide with the reign of the Sasanian Persian
monarch Yazdegerd II (r. 438–457), and were translated from the Peshitta, the
standard version of the Bible in Syriac Christianity.[179]
Slave trade
Further information: History of slavery in China and Iranians in China
Slavery existed in China since ancient times, although during the Han dynasty the
proportion of slaves to the overall population was roughly 1%,[180] far lower than the
estimate for the contemporary Greco-Roman world (estimated at about 15% of the
entire population).[181][182] During the Tang period, slaves were not allowed to marry a
commoner's daughter, were not allowed to have sexual relations with any female
member of their master's family, and although fornication with female slaves was
forbidden in the Tang code of law, it was widely practiced.[183] Manumission was also
permitted when a slave woman gave birth to her master's son, which allowed for her
elevation to the legal status of a commoner, yet she could only live as a concubine and
not as the wife of her former master.[184]
Contract written in Sogdian for the purchase of a slave in 639 CE, Astana Tomb No. 135.[185]
Sogdian and Chinese merchants regularly traded in slaves in and around Turpan
during the Tang dynasty. Turpan under Tang dynasty rule was a center of major
commercial activity between Chinese and Sogdian merchants. There were many inns
in Turpan. Some provided Sogdian sex workers with an opportunity to service the
Silk Road merchants, since the official histories report that there were markets in
women at Kucha and Khotan.[186] The Sogdian-language contract buried at the Astana
graveyard demonstrates that at least one Chinese man bought a Sogdian girl in 639
AD. One of the archaeologists who excavated the Astana site, Wu Zhen, contends
that, although many households along the Silk Road bought individual slaves, as
demonstrated in the earlier documents from Niya, the Turpan documents point to a
massive escalation in the volume of the slave trade.[187] In 639 a female Sogdian slave
was sold to a Chinese man, as recorded in an Astana cemetery legal document written
in Sogdian.[188] Khotan and Kucha were places where women were commonly sold,
with ample evidence of the slave trade in Turfan thanks to contemporary textual
sources that have survived.[189][190] In Tang poetry Sogdian girls also frequently appear
as serving maids in the taverns and inns of the capital Chang'an.[191]
Sogdian slave girls and their Chinese male owners made up the majority of Sogdian
female-Chinese male pairings, while free Sogdian women were the most common
spouse of Sogdian men. A smaller number of Chinese women were paired with elite
Sogdian men. Sogdian man-and-woman pairings made up eighteen out of twenty-one
marriages according to existing documents.[190][192]
A document dated 731 AD reveals that precisely forty bolts of silk were paid to a
certain Mi Lushan, a slave dealing Sogdian, by a Chinese man named Tang Rong (唐
榮) of Chang'an, for the purchase of an eleven-year-old girl. A person from Xizhou, a
Tokharistani (i.e. Bactrian), and three Sogdians verified the sale of the girl.[190][193]
Central Asians like Sogdians were called "Hu" (胡) by the Chinese during the Tang
dynasty. Central Asian "Hu" women were stereotyped as barmaids or dancers by Han
in China. Han Chinese men engaged in mostly extra-marital sexual relationships with
them as the "Hu" women in China mostly occupied positions where sexual services
were sold to patrons like singers, maids, slaves and prostitutes.[194] Han men did not
want to legally marry them unless they had no choice such as if they were on the
frontier or in exile since the Han men would be socially disadvantaged and have to
marry non-Han.[195] The task of taking care of herd animals like sheep and cattle was
given to "Hu" slaves in China.[196]
Modern historiography
Further information: German Turfan expeditions and Albert von Le Coq
A minted silver coin of Khunak, king of Bukhara, early 8th century, showing the crowned king
on the obverse, and a Zoroastrian fire altar on the reverse.
In 1916, the French Sinologist and historian Paul Pelliot used Tang Chinese
manuscripts excavated from Dunhuang, Gansu to identify an ancient Sogdian colony
south of Lop Nur in Xinjiang (Northwest China), which he argued was the base for
the spread of Buddhism and Nestorian Christianity in China.[197] In 1926, Japanese
scholar Kuwabara compiled evidence for Sogdians in Chinese historical sources, and
by 1933, Chinese historian Xiang Da published his Tang Chang'an and Central Asian
Culture, detailing the Sogdian influence on Chinese social religious life in the Tang-
era Chinese capital city.[197] The Canadian Sinologist Edwin G. Pulleyblank published
an article in 1952, demonstrating the presence of a Sogdian colony founded in Six Hu
Prefectures of the Ordos Loop during the Chinese Tang period, composed of Sogdians
and Turkic peoples who migrated from the Mongolian steppe.[197] The Japanese
historian Ikeda on wrote an article in 1965, outlining the history of the Sogdians
inhabiting Dunhuang from the beginning of the 7th century, analyzing lists of their
Sinicized names and the role of Zoroastrianism and Buddhism in their religious life.
[198]
Yoshida Yutaka and Kageyama Etsuko, Japanese ethnographers and linguists of
the Sogdian language, were able to reconstruct Sogdian names from forty-five
different Chinese transliterations, noting that these were common in Turfan whereas
Sogdians living closer to the center of Chinese civilization for generations adopted
traditional Chinese names.[142]
Notable people
 Amoghavajra, prolific translator and one of the most politically powerful Buddhist
monks of Chinese history, of Sogdian descent through his mother [199][200]
 An Lushan (安祿山),[112] a military leader of Sogdian (from his father's side) and
Tūjué origin during the Tang dynasty in China; he rose to prominence by fighting
(and losing) frontier wars between 741 and 755. Later, he precipitated the
catastrophic An Lushan Rebellion, which lasted from 755 to 763 and led to the
decline of the Tang dynasty
 An Qingxu (安慶緒), son of An Lushan
 An Chonghui (安重誨), a minister of China's Later Tang
 An Congjin (安從進), a general of Later Tang and China's Later Jin (Five Dynasties)
Sogdian musicians and attendants on the tomb of Wirkak, 580 AD.
 An Chongrong (安重榮), a general of the China's Later Jin (Five Dynasties)

 Apama,[32] daughter of Spitamenes (see below) and wife of Seleucus I Nicator,
founder of the Seleucid Empire
 Azanes,[6] son of Artaios, who led a contingent of Sogdian troops in the Persian army
of Xerxes I during the Second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC
 Divashtich,[201] 8th-century ruler of Panjakent
 Fazang,[202] Buddhist monk and influent philosopher of the 7th century, considered
the founder of the Huayan school
 Gurak,[63] 8th-century ruler of Samarkand
 Kang Senghui (康僧會),[203] Buddhist monk of the 3rd century who lived in Jiaozhi
(modern-day Vietnam) during the Three Kingdoms period
 Kang Jing (康景)?- a possible Sogdian who worked at the Ming dynasty Mansion of
the Prince of Qin (明朝藩王列表 (秦王系)) as a servant[204][205]
 Khaydhar ibn Kawus al-Afshin,[206] a general of the Abbasid caliphate and a vassal of
the Abbasids as the prince of Osrushana during the 9th century
 Kaydar Nasr ibn 'Abdallah,[207] Abbasid governor of Egypt during the 9th century
 Li Baoyu (李抱玉),[112] formerly known as An Chongzhang (安重璋) and ennobled as
Duke Zhaowu of Liang (涼昭武公), a general of the Chinese Tang Dynasty who
fought against the rebellion of An Lushan and the Tibetan Empire
 Mi Fu (米芾),[208] painter, poet, and calligrapher of the Song dynasty
 Malik ibn Kaydar,[209] a 9th-century general of the Abbasid caliphate
 Muzaffar ibn Kaydar, son of Kaydar Nasr ibn 'Abdallah (see above), and yet another
Abbasid governor of Egypt during the 9th century
 Oxyartes,[24][25][26] Sogdian warlord from Bactria, follower of Bessus, and father of
Roxana, the wife of Alexander the Great
 Roxana,[24][25][26][210] the primary wife of Alexander the Great during the 4th century BC
 Shi Jingtang (石敬瑭),[211] Emperor of China, temple name Gaozu (高祖)
 Spitamenes,[29] a Sogdian warlord who led an uprising against Alexander the Great in
the late 4th century BC
 Tarkhun,[63] 8th-century ruler of Samarkand
 Abu'l-Saj Devdad, emir and official of the Abbasid caliphate and ancestor of the Sajid
dynasty[212]
Diaspora areas
 A community of merchant Sogdians resided in Northern Qi era Ye.[213]

 A community of Sogdians existed in Jicheng (Beijing) since at least the time of the
Tang Dynasty. They were targeted for slaughter by the Tang government during the
An Lushan rebellion.[214][215]
 Turkic Khaganate era Inner Mongolia.[216]
See also
Ancient history
Preceded by prehistory
Near East
Europe
Horn of Africa
Eurasian Steppe
Central Asia
East Asia
South Asia
Northern America
Mesoamerica
Andes
Caribbean
West Africa and Central Africa
Southeast Asia and Oceania
See also
Followed by Post-classical History
 v
 t
 e
 Ancient Iranian peoples

 Buddhism in Afghanistan
 Buddhism in Khotan
 Étienne de La Vaissière
 History of Central Asia
 Huteng
 Iranian languages
 Margiana
 List of ancient Iranian peoples
 Philip (satrap)
 Poykent
 Sogdian Daēnās
 Sughd Province
 Kangju
 Tocharians
 Tomb of Wirkak
 Tomb of Yu Hong
 Yaghnobi people
 Yagnob Valley
 Yazid ibn al-Muhallab
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  Scaglia, Gustina (1958). "Central Asians on a Northern Ch'i Gate Shrine". Artibus Asiae.
21 (1): 17. doi:10.2307/3249023. ISSN 0004-3648. JSTOR 3249023.
  Li, Xiao (10 September 2020). Studies on the History and Culture Along the Continental
Silk Road. Springer Nature. p. 11. ISBN 978-981-15-7602-7. It is evident that when the
Northern Wei defeated Northern Liang and seized its capital (439), they captured a large
number of Sogdian merchants living in Wuwei and resettled them in Pingcheng (present-day
Datong), the capital of the Northern Wei.
  Watt, James C. Y. (2004). China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD. Metropolitan
Museum of Art. pp. 148–160. ISBN 978-1-58839-126-1.
  ch. 92, p. 3047
  Vaissière, Étienne de la. "CHINESE-IRANIAN RELATIONS xiii. Eastern Iranian Migrations

to China". iranicaonline.org.
Cross Border Trade and Travel, McFarland & Company, 2012, pp 134–35.
  GRENET, Frantz (2020). Histoire et cultures de l'Asie centrale préislamique. Paris, France:
Collège de France. p. 320. ISBN 978-2-7226-0516-9. Ce sont les décors funéraires les plus
riches de cette époque, venant juste après ceux de la famille impériale; il est probable que les
sabao étaient parmi les éléments les plus fortunés de la population.

  Hansen, Valerie (2003). "New Work on the Sogdians, the Most Important Traders on the
Silk Road, A.D. 500–1000". T'oung Pao. 89 (1/3): 158. doi:10.1163/156853203322691347.
JSTOR 4528925.
  Hansen, Valerie (2015). "Chapter 5 – The Cosmopolitan Terminus of the Silk Road". The
Silk Road: A New History (illustrated, reprint ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 157–158.
ISBN 978-0-19-021842-3.
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EAST'S CONTESTED IDENTITY IN TANG CHINA (PDF) (DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty
of The University of Texas at Dallas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN HISTORY OF IDEAS). THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS.
pp. 110, 111.
  de la Vaissière, Étienne (2018). Sogdian Traders: A History. Handbook of Oriental

Studies. Section 8 Uralic & Central Asian Studies. BRILL. p. 220. ISBN 978-90-474-0699-0.
  Chamney, Lee. The An Shi Rebellion and Rejection of the Other in Tang China, 618-763 (A
thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of History and Classics). University
of Alberta Libraries. pp. 93, 94. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.978.1069.
  History of An Lushan (An Lushan Shiji 安祿山史記) "唐鞠仁今城中殺胡者重賞﹐於是

羯胡盡殪﹐小兒擲於中空以戈_之。高鼻類胡而濫死者甚眾"
  "成德军的诞生：为什么说成德军继承了安史集团的主要遗产" in 时拾史事 2020-

02-08 [1]
  李碧妍, 《危机与重构：唐帝国及其地方诸侯》2015-08-01 [2]
  Wan, Lei (2017). The earliest Muslim communities in China (PDF). Qiraat No. 8 (February
– March 2017). King Faisal Center For Research and Islamic Studies. p. 11. ISBN 978-603-
8206-39-3.
  Qi 2010, p. 221-227.
  Chamney, Lee. The An Shi Rebellion and Rejection of the Other in Tang China, 618-763
(PDF) (A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial
fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of History and
Classics). University of Alberta Libraries. pp. 91, 92, 93.
  Old Tang History "至揚州，大掠百姓商人資產，郡內比屋發掘略遍，商胡波斯被殺
者數千人" "商胡大食, 波斯等商旅死者數千人波斯等商旅死者數千人."
  Johnson, Scott Fitzgerald (26 May 2017). "Silk Road Christians and the Translation of
Culture in Tang China". Studies in Church History. Published online by Cambridge University
Press. 53: 15–38. doi:10.1017/stc.2016.3. S2CID 164239427.
  DEEG, MAX (Cardiff University, UK) (2013). "A BELLIGERENT PRIEST - YISI AND HIS
POLITICAL CONTEXT". In Tang, Li; Winkler, Dietmar W. (eds.). From the Oxus River to the
Chinese Shores: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia (illustrated ed.).
LIT Verlag Münster. p. 113. ISBN 978-3-643-90329-7.
  Deeg, Max (2007). "The Rhetoric of Antiquity. Politico-Religious Propaganda in the

Nestorian Steleof Chang'an 安長". Journal for Late Antique Religion and Culture. 1: 17–30.
doi:10.18573/j.2007.10291. ISSN 1754-517X.
  Godwin, R. Todd (2018). Persian Christians at the Chinese Court: The Xi'an Stele and the
Early Medieval Church of the East. Library of Medieval Studies. Bloomsbury Publishing.
ISBN 978-1-78672-316-1.
  Chin, Ken-pa (26 September 2019). "Jingjiao under the Lenses of Chinese Political
Theology". Religions. Department of Philosophy, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City
24205, Taiwan. 10 (10): 551. doi:10.3390/rel10100551.
  LIPPIELLO, TIZIANA (2017). "ON THE DIFFICULT PRACTICE OF THE MEAN IN ORDINARY
LIFE TEACHINGS FROM THE ZHONGYONG*". In Hoster, Barbara; Kuhlmann, Dirk;
Wesolowski, Zbigniew (eds.). Rooted in Hope: China – Religion – Christianity Vol 1: Festschrift
in Honor of Roman Malek S.V.D. on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday. Monumenta Serica
Monograph Series. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-67277-1.
  Goble, Geoffrey C. (2019). Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra, the Ruling Elite,
and the Emergence of a Tradition. The Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Buddhist Studies.
Columbia University Press. pp. 10, 11. ISBN 978-0-231-55064-2.
  Goble, Geoffrey C. (2019). Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra, the Ruling Elite,
and the Emergence of a Tradition. The Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Buddhist Studies.
Columbia University Press. pp. 11, 12. ISBN 978-0-231-55064-2.
  Lehnert, Martin (2007). "ANTRIC THREADS BETWEEN INDIA AND CHINA 1. TANTRIC
BUDDHISM—APPROACHES AND RESERVATIONS". In Heirman, Ann; Bumbacher, Stephan
Peter (eds.). The Spread of Buddhism. Vol. 16 of Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 8
Uralic & Central Asian Studies (Volume 16 of Handbuch der Orientalistik: Achte Abteilung,
Central Asia) (Volume 16 of Handbuch der Orientalistik. 8, Zentralasien). BRILL. p. 262.
ISBN 978-90-04-15830-6.

pp. 109–135, viii, xv, 156, 164, 115, 116.

pp. 155–156, 149, 150, viii, xv.

p. 164.
  Galambos, Imre (2015), "She Association Circulars from Dunhuang", in Antje Richter, A
History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture, Brill: Leiden, Boston, pp 870–71.
  Taenzer, Gertraud (2016), "Changing Relations between Administration, Clergy and Lay
People in Eastern Central Asia: a Case Study According to the Dunhuang Manuscripts
Referring to the Transition from Tibetan to Local Rule in Dunhuang, 8th–11th Centuries", in
Carmen Meinert, Transfer of Buddhism Across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th
Centuries), Leiden, Boston: Brill, pp 35–37.
  Zizhi Tongjian, vol. 249.
History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture, Brill: Leiden, Boston, p 871.
  Hansen, Valerie (2012), The Silk Road: A New History, Oxford University Press, p. 98,
ISBN 978-0-19-993921-3.
History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture, Brill: Leiden, Boston, p. 872.
  Chung, Ha-Sung H. "Traces of the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel in Chinese and Korean
Sources".
History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture, Brill: Leiden, Boston, pp 870, 873.
  Luce Boulnois (2005), Silk Road: Monks, Warriors & Merchants, Odyssey Books, pp 239–
241, ISBN 962-217-721-2.
  Kazuo Enoki (1998), "Yü-ni-ch'êng and the Site of Lou-Lan," and "The Location of the
Capital of Lou-Lan and the Date of the Kharoshthi Inscriptions," in Rokuro Kono (ed.), Studia
Asiatica: The Collected Papers in Western Languages of the Late Dr. Kazuo Enoki, Tokyo: Kyu-
Shoin, pp 200, 211–57.
  Christopoulos, Lucas (August 2012), "Hellenes and Romans in Ancient China (240 BC –
1398 AD)," in Victor H. Mair (ed), Sino-Platonic Papers, No. 230, Chinese Academy of Social
Sciences, University of Pennsylvania Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations,
pp 20–21 footnote #38, ISSN 2157-9687.
  A. M. Belenitskii and B. I. Marshak (1981), "Part One: the Paintings of Sogdiana" in

Guitty Azarpay, Sogdian Painting: the Pictorial Epic in Oriental Art, Berkeley, Los Angeles,
London: University of California Press, p. 47, ISBN 0-520-03765-0.


London: University of California Press, pp 34–35, ISBN 0-520-03765-0.
  Tafazzoli, A. (2003), "Iranian Languages," in C. E. Bosworth and M. S. Asimov, History of

Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume IV: The Age of Achievement, A.D. 750 to the End of the
Fifteenth Century, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, p 323.

Fifteenth Century, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, pp 325–26.
5–6, ISBN 0-520-03765-0.
  Boyce, Mary (1983), "Parthian Writings and Literature", in Ehsan Yarshater, Cambridge
History of Iran, 3.2, London & New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1151–1152. ISBN 0-
521-20092-X.

Fifteenth Century, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, p 325.
  Paul Bergne (15 June 2007). The Birth of Tajikistan: National Identity and the Origins of
the Republic. I.B.Tauris. pp. 6–. ISBN 978-1-84511-283-7.
2 & 5, ISBN 0-520-03765-0.
  Yatsenko, Sergey A. (2003). "The Late Sogdian Costume (the 5th – 8th centuries)".
Transoxiana (Webfestschrift Marshak).
  Tobin 113–115
  Lee Lawrence. (3 September 2011). "A Mysterious Stranger in China". The Wall Street
Journal. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
  Jin, Xu 徐津 (1 January 2019). "The Funerary Couch of An Jia and the Art of Sogdian
Immigrants in Sixth-century China". The Burlington Magazine: 824.
  Grenet, Frantz (2007). "Religious Diversity among Sogdian Merchants in Sixth-Century

China: Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Manichaeism, and Hinduism". Comparative Studies of
South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Duke University Press. 27 (2): 463–478.
doi:10.1215/1089201x-2007-017.


South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, vol. 30, no. 3 (2010), pp. 416–7
  Liu, Xinru (2010), The Silk Road in World History, Oxford and New York: Oxford
University Press, p 67–8.
  Dresden, Mark J. (2003), "Sogdian Language and Literature", in Ehsan Yarshater, The
  Gasparini, Mariachiara. "A Mathematic Expression of Art: Sino-Iranian and Uighur

Textile Interactions and the Turfan Textile Collection in Berlin," in Rudolf G. Wagner and
Monica Juneja (eds), Transcultural Studies, Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg, No 1
(2014), pp 134–163
  Gasparini, Mariachiara (3 January 2014). "A Mathematic Expression of Art: Sino-Iranian

and Uighur Textile Interactions and the Turfan Textile Collection in Berlin". . Transcultural
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  Braja Bihārī Kumar (2007). "India and Central Asia: Links and Interactions," in J.N. Roy
and B.B. Kumar (eds), India and Central Asia: Classical to Contemporary Periods, 3–33. New
Delhi: Published for Astha Bharati Concept Publishing Company. ISBN 81-8069-457-7, p. 8.
  Nicolini-Zani, Mattco (2013). Tang, Li; Winkler, Dietmar W. (eds.). From the Oxus River
to the Chinese Shores: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia
(illustrated ed.). LIT Verlag Münster. ISBN 978-3-643-90329-7.
  S.V.D. Research Institute, Monumenta Serica Institute (2009). Monumenta Serica:

Journal of Oriental Studies, Volume 57. H. Vetch. p. 120. The first one is the funerary
inscription of another Bukharan Christian, who died during the Jinglong JptH era (707–710) in
Guilin ££^, southern China, and whose name was An Yena^Wffi (see Jiang Boqin 1994). The
second is the epitaph of the Sogdian gentleman Mi Jifen ^Iffi^ (714–805) from Maymurgh; in
his study Ge Chengyong has discovered that Mi's son was a Christian monk and that his
family was therefore most probably Christian, too (see Ge Chengyong 2001). Generally ...
  Nicolini-Zani, Matteo (2006). La via radiosa per l'Oriente: i testi e la storia del primo
incontro del cristianesimo con il mondo culturale e religioso cinese (secoli VII-IX). Spiritualità
orientale. Edizioni Qiqajon, Comunità di Bose. p. 121. ISBN 88-8227-212-5. ... di almeno un
testo cristiano in cinese, il rotolo P. 3847, contenente la traduzione cinese dell'inno siriaco
Gloria in excelsis Deo, di cui fu redatta anche una traduzione sogdiana(giunta a noi in
frammenti) a Bulayìq (Turfan). L'unico elemento che ci conferma, infine, una assai probabile
presenza cristiana in quest'epoca nel sud della Cina, legata ai commerci marittimi, è il
ritrovamento presso Guilin (odierno Guangxi) dell'epitaffio funebre del cristiano An Yena,
morto tra il 707 e il 709.
  Emmerick, R. E. (2003) "Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs", in Ehsan Yarshater, The
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Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 524–525, ISBN 0-521-24327-0.
  Hucker, Charles O. (1975). China's Imperial Past: An Introduction to Chinese History and
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  For specific figures in regards to percentage of the population being enslaved, see Frier,
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(eds), The Cambridge Ancient History XI: The High Empire, A.D. 70–192. Cambridge:
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Imperial China, Leiden, New York, Koln: E.J. Brill, pp 38–39, ISBN 90-04-10596-4.
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  Xin Tangshu 221a:6230. In addition, Susan Whitfield offers a fictionalized account of a

Kuchean courtesan's experiences in the 9th century without providing any sources, although
she has clearly drawn on the description of the prostitutes' quarter in Chang'an in Beilizhi;
Whitfield, 1999, pp. 138–154.
  Wu Zhen 2000 (p. 154 is a Chinese-language rendering based on Yoshida's Japanese

translation of the Sogdian contract of 639).
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Neighbors: Culture, Power, and Connections, 580–800. OUP USA. pp. 70–. ISBN 978-0-19-
973413-9.
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d'Extrême-Orient. p. 299. ISBN 978-2-85539-653-8.
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Community: The Turfan Oasis, 500–800" (PDF). History.yale.edu. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
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Archaeological Finds in Northern China (Lecture at the BBAW on 20 September 2001)", in
Berichte und Abhandlungen (17 December 2009); 10, S., p. 150.
d'Extrême-Orient. pp. 300–301. ISBN 978-2-85539-653-8.
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University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 135, 136. ISBN 978-0-8122-0101-7.
Berichte und Abhandlungen (17 December 2009); 10, S., p. 148.
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  Lehnert, Martin (2010). Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia. Brill. p. 351.
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  Yang, Zeng (2010). A Biographical Study on Bukong 不空 (aka. Amoghavajra, 705-774) :

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  VOHIDOV, RAHIM; ESHONQULOV, HUSNIDDIN (2006). "III-BOB X X II ASRLAR O'ZBEK

ADABIYOTI 3 .1 . X -X II asrlardagi madaniy hayot". O'ZBEK MUMTOZ ADABIYOTI TARIXI (Eng
qadimgi davrlardan XVI asr oxirigacha) (PDF). O'ZBEKISTON RESPUBLIKASI OLIY VA O'RTA
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  Jacques Gernet (31 May 1996). A History of Chinese Civilization. Cambridge University
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  Kaikodo (Gallery : New York, N.Y.), Sarah Handler (1999). 懐古堂. LIT. p. 74. ISBN 978-
962-7956-20-4. Mi Fu (1052-1107), a Northerner by birth (and of Sogdian heritage)
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JSTOR 4528925.
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Sogdia

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6th century BC to 11th century AD

Approximate extent of Sogdia, between the Oxus and the Jaxartes.

Capital Samarkand, Bukhara, Khujand, Kesh

Languages Sogdian language

Religion Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Buddhism, Islam, Nestorian Christianity[1]

Oswald Szemerényi devotes a thorough discussion to the etymologies of ancient

Further information: Transoxiana, Turkestan, History of Central Asia, History of Uzbekistan,

Achaemenid period (546-327 BC)

Sogdian soldier circa 338 BCE, tomb of Artaxerxes III.

Hellenistic period (327-145 BC)

A now-independent and warlike Sogdiana formed a border region insulating the

Zhang Qian also reported:

Sasanian satrapy (260 AD)

Hephthalite conquest of Sogdiana (479-557 AD)

Turkic Khaganates (557-742 AD)

Arab Muslim conquest (8th century AD)

Further information: Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri and Sogdian city-states

Wealthy Arab, Palace of Devashtich, Penjikent murals

Economy and diplomacy

Left image: a Sogdian silk brocade textile fragment, dated c. 700 AD

Trade and diplomacy with the Byzantine Empire

Sogdian traders in the Tarim Basin

Central Asian foreigner worshipping Maitreya, Cave 188

The style of this period in Kizil is characterized by strong Iranian-Sogdian elements

Dragon-King Mabi saving traders, Cave 14, Kizil Caves

Two-headed dragon capturing traders, Cave 17

In addition to being merchants, monks, and government officials, Sogdians also

Language and culture

See also: Art of Central Asia

Sogdian musicians and attendants on the tomb of Wirkak, 580 AD.

 An Chongrong (安重榮), a general of the China's Later Jin (Five Dynasties)

 A community of merchant Sogdians resided in Northern Qi era Ye.[213]

West Africa and Central Africa

Southeast Asia and Oceania

Followed by Post-classical History

 Ancient Iranian peoples

  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Sogdiana" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge

  Szemerényi 1980, pp. 45–46.

  Szemerényi 1980, pp. 26–36.

  Szemerényi 1980, p. 39.

  de La Vaissière, É. (2011). "SOGDIANA iii. HISTORY AND ARCHEOLOGY". In Yarshater,

  Antoine Simonin. (8 January 2012). "Sogdiana." World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved

  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Apamea" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge

  Greek Art in Central Asia, Afghan – Encyclopaedia Iranica.

  Also a Saka according to this source

  Watson 1993, pp. 233–236.

  Yatsenko, Sergey A. (2012). "Yuezhi on Bactrian Embroidery from Textiles Found at

  Watson 1993, p. 234.

  de Crespigny, Rafe. (2007). A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three

  Alram 2008, coin type 46.

  de la Vaissière 2003, pp. 128–129 and note 35.

  Adylov & Mirzaahmedov 2006, pp. 34–36.

  Rezakhani 2017, p. 138.

  Millward, James A. (2007). Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang. Columbia

  Compareti (University of California, Berkeley), Matteo (2007). "The Chinese Scene at