Sogdiana

Sogdia (/ˈsɒɡdiə/) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilization in present-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Sogdia Sogdian: soɣdcode: sog is deprecated
6th century BC to 11th century AD
Sogdiana, c. 300 BC, then under the Seleucid Empire, one of the successor states to the empire created by Alexander the Great
Capital	Samarkand, Bukhara, Khujand, Kesh
Sogdian language
Religion	Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Buddhism, Islam, Nestorian Christianity
Currency	Imitations of Sassanian coins and Chinese cash coins as well as "hybrids" of both.

Sogdiana Media

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  Sogdian soldier circa 338 BCE, tomb of Artaxerxes III.

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  Sogdians on an Achaemenid Persian relief from the Apadana of Persepolis, offering tributary gifts to the Persian king Darius I, 5th century BC

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  Relief of a hunter, Varahsha, Sogdia, 5th–7th century CE.

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  The Sogdian merchant An Jia with a Turkic Chieftain in his yurt. 579 AD.

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  Decorated niche from the Abbasid mosque of Afrasiab, Samarkand, 750–825 CE.

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  Detail of a Kara-Khanid ruler of Samarkand (sitting cross-legged on a throne in the complete reconstructed relief), Afrasiab, Samarkand, circa 1200 CE. It was possibly defaced in 1212 when the Khwarazmian Empire shah Muḥammad b. Tekish took over Samarkand.

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  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.

Related pages

• Iranian languages
• Tocharians

Sources

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Further reading

• "The Sogdian Descendants in Mongol and post-Mongol Central Asia: The Tajiks and Sarts" (PDF). Joo Yup Lee. ACTA VIA SERICA Vol. 5, No. 1, June 2020: 187–198doi: 10.22679/avs.2020.5.1.007.

Other websites

• Sogdian on Interlinguae
• Xerxes II and Sogdianus Archived 21 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine
• The Sogdians: Influencers on the Silk Roads (Online exhibition)