Imitations of Sassanian coins and Chinese cash coins as well as "hybrids" of both.[2][3]
Sogdia 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. 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.
^Jacques Gernet (31 May 1996). A History of Chinese Civilization. Cambridge University Press. pp. 286–. ISBN 978-0-521-49781-7.
^"Soghdian Kai Yuans (lectured at the Dutch 1994-ONS meeting)". T.D. Yih and J. de Kreek (hosted on the Chinese Coinage Website). 1994. Retrieved 8 June 2018.
^"Samarqand's Cast Coinage of the Early 7th–Mid-8th Centuries AD: Assessment based on Chinese sources and numismatic evidence". Andrew Reinhard (Pocket Change – The blog of the American Numismatic Society). 12 August 2016. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 9 June 2018.
Sogdia or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan...
an Eastern Iranian language spoken mainly in the Central Asian region of Sogdia (capital: Samarkand; other chief cities: Panjakent, Fergana, Khujand, and...
fall apart, including Bactria, which was the main center. Fleeing into Sogdia, he was arrested by his own officers, who handed him over to Alexander,...
Sughd Province (Tajik: Вилояти Суғд, romanized: Viloyati Sughd, lit. 'Sogdia Region'; Persian: ولایت سغد) is one of the four administrative divisions and...
Guangdong and northern Vietnam from Nanyue. Han involvement in Central Asia and Sogdia helped establish the land route of the Silk Road, replacing the earlier...
installations at Nishapur and Merv, slowly expanding eastwards into Tokharistan and Sogdia. Under the Caliphs, Khorasan was the name of one of the three political...
6th century Alemannic culture Elongated skulls from Afrasiab, Samarkand, Sogdia, 600–800 CE Elongated skulls of three women have been discovered among Viking-era...
Hissar Mountains to the north and the Hindu Kush to the east and south; Sogdia to the east of the middle course of the Oxus, and around the Zarafshan river;...
(r. 420–438). The family bore the title of sur and began ruling parts of Sogdia during the 6th century. There were five members of the family bearing the...
their cunning. Camels, women, girls, silver, and gold were seized from Sogdia during a raid by Qapaghan Qaghan. The whole Sogdian people leading by Asuk...
bordered Parthia to the south-west, Aria in the south, Bactria in the east and Sogdia in the north. Historians currently disagree as to the exact history of Margiana...
Great reached the Jaxartes in 329 BC, after travelling through Bactria and Sogdia without encountering any opposition, they met with the first instances of...
nomads, known as Scythians, who founded kingdoms in Khwarazm, Bactria, and Sogdia in the 8th–6th centuries BC, as well as Fergana and Margiana in the 3rd...
BC Anshanite Kingdom 635 BC–550 BC Neo-Babylonian Empire 626 BC–539 BC Sogdia c. 6th century BC–11th century AD Achaemenid Empire 550 BC–330 BC Kingdom...
based in Bactria, expanded eastwards to the Tarim Basin, westwards to Sogdia and southwards through Afghanistan, but they never went beyond the Hindu-Kush...
Northern Tajikistan (the cities of Khujand and Panjakent) was part of Sogdia, a collection of city-states which was overrun by Scytho-Siberians and Yuezhi...
north of modern Afghanistan. Bactria was strategically located south of Sogdia and the western part of the Pamir Mountains. The extensive mountain ranges...
2nd century BC, many Sakas were driven by the Yuezhi from the steppe into Sogdia and Bactria and then to the northwest of the Indian subcontinent, where...
Press, 2011), 25;"[...] his campaigns in Central Asia brought Khwarazm, Sogdia and Bactria under Graeco-Macedonian rule. As elsewhere, Alexander founded...
Baýramaly, Turkmenistan) was an early Iron Age culture of Margiana, Bactria and Sogdia (c. 1500–500 BC, or c. 1500–330 BC). It emerges at the top of late Bronze...
history, such as the Xiongnu, Scythia, Cimmeria, Sarmatia, Hunnic Empire, Sogdia, Xianbei, Mongol Empire and Göktürk Khaganate. The Eurasian Steppe extends...
the Hephthalite Empire and Kushan Empire. Shaivism was also popular in Sogdia and the Kingdom of Yutian as found from the wall painting from Penjikent...
Sogdian may refer to: anything pertaining to Sogdia / Sogdiana Sogdian language Sogdian alphabet Sogdian people Sogdian (Unicode block) Old Sogdian (Unicode...
designs during the 1st millennium, with most of the patterns imported from Sogdia and other parts of Central Asia. According to the Book of Sui, in the year...
Global Information