Sogdians

For the first time, Sogdians are mentioned in the “Avesta” in the middle of the 1st millennium BC. In the VI. BC er Sogdians became part of the Persian-Achaemenid Empire. Like other nations of the “world power,” the Bactrians, Sogdians, Parthians, Khorezmians, and Saks paid enormous taxes to the Persian king. The Persians were exempt from paying taxes, and the population of Persia proper lived at the expense of requisitions levied from other areas of the state. The historian Herodot in the list of satrapies, founded by the Persian king Darius I, names the Khorezmians in the XVI taxable district, along with the Parthians, Sogdians and Aryans. Herodot, listing the units of the Persian army of Xerxes, which came out against Greece, called the detachments of Bactrians, Parthians, Khorezmians and Sogdians.

At the end of the II. n er - beginning of the 1st c. n O., in Sogd, the rulers of the Samarkand Sogd had a common origin from the house of Zhaow, that is, Yuezhi.

Sogdians performed a trade-intermediary function between the two great empires - Roman (later Byzantium) and Tang China. Chinese traveler Zhang Qian , visiting Sogdiana, wrote:

Kantszüy (Sogdiana) is located at a distance of 2,000 li (about 1,000 km) north-west of Davani (Fergana). People lead a nomadic lifestyle and their customs resemble the Yuezhi people. They have 80 or 90 thousand archers in service. This small country borders Davan and recognizes Yuezhi independence.

- “ Shi Ji ”, ch. 123, The Tale of Davan

Sogdians actively participated in trade along the Great Silk Road . There is information that weapons produced in Sogd (in particular, chain mail ) were purchased by the Chinese and residents of other countries ^[7] . In the 4th – 8th centuries, Sogdians dominated trade between East and West, their trade colonies were found far beyond Sogd, in particular, on the territory of modern eastern China. Sogdian was used as a lingua franca over a long stretch of the Silk Road and left traces in the form of borrowed vocabulary in Persian and a number of Turkic languages. Active trade ties between Sogdians and their neighbors contributed to the spread of Buddhism in Central Asia along with Zoroastrianism.

The commonality of some areas of material culture of the sedentary peoples of Central Asia and the nomadic Turks was associated with the well-known common interests of Sogdian cities and Turkic kagans. The colonization activities of the Sogdians and their international trade along the path that passed through the steppe was politically advantageous and brought revenues to the Turkic kagans, who patronized the Sogdians. A certain part of the Turks joined in the 6th — 8th centuries. in the composition of the Sogdian nobility and administrative apparatus. Mugh documents show that by the beginning of the VIII century. Turks played an important role in the city life of Sogd. Documents No. 3 and 4 fix the marriage of Ut tegin, a representative of the Turkic nobility, with a Sogdian, and, as can be judged from the documents B-1, Ut tegin was closely connected with the court of Divashtich. ^[eight]

In 651, the Arabs put an end to the Sassanid rule in Persia, after which they moved to Maverannahr , as they called the Sogdian lands beyond the Amu Darya (Arabic. ما وراء النهر, ma vara-n-nahr, Zarechie, tracing from the name of Fararod with the same meaning).

The Sogdians resisted for a long time, but in 722 Said al-Kharashi, the soldiers of the Khorasan Emir , were finally broken. They tricked one of the Sogdian rulers, Devashtich , out of the Mug fortress , where he, taking refuge with the remnants of warriors, led desperate resistance ^[9] . Subsequently, uprisings against the Arab conquerors took place in the region (in particular, in 728-729).

In the struggle of the Sogdians against the Arab invaders, their main allies were the Turks. The letter of the Sogdian ruler Divashtich to the Khokhsar sovereign Afarun contains indications that Divashtich considered himself a vassal of the kagan - this is, apparently, about the kagan of the Eastern Turgeshes: “I have the following news: Divashtich - V.L.: our messengers came down here and from Kagan I was given a high rank and honor. And a lot of troops arrived, as well as Turks ... " ^[10]

The 6th century is considered the peak of Sogdian culture, judging by its highly developed artistic tradition. At this point, the Sogdians became entrenched in the role of Central Asian travel and trade merchants, passing goods, culture and religion. ^[11] In the Middle Ages, the Zarafshan valley around Samarkand retained its Sogdian name - Samarkand. ^[12] According to the British Encyclopedia, medieval Arab geographers considered this place one of the four beautiful regions of the world. ^[12] Where Sogdians moved in significant numbers, their language had a significant impact on peoples and their languages. ^[13] For example, during the time of the Chinese Han dynasty, the local name of the city of Tarima in Lulan was Kroyeinoy, possibly from Greek due to the neighboring Hellenistic influence. However, after a century in 664 AD er a Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang designated him as “Nafupo” (納 縛 溥), which, according to Dr. Hisao Matsuda, is a transliteration of the Sogdian word “Navapa” meaning “new water”. ^[14]

Language

Sogdians spoke the Sogdian language of the Iranian branch of the Indo - European language family, related to the Bactrian and Khorezmian ones . ^[16] Writing was based on the Aramaic alphabet (ligature with the direction of the letter from right to left, and most of the vowels in the letter was not indicated). For a long time, Sogdian was an international language from the Caspian to Tibet. His writing became the basis for Uigur, Mongolian and Manchurian writing. Sogdian was also seen in the oasis city of Turfan in the region of the Tarim Basin of northwestern China (in present-day Xinjiang). Judging by the Sogdian Bugut inscription in Mongolia, written in 581, the Sogdian language was also the official language of the Turkic Kaganate created by Gokturks. ^{[17] [16]}

Later, the Sogdian language was ousted from the territory of Sogdiana by Arabic, classical Persian (and its Tajik dialect) and Turkic languages. ^[18] However, the Sogdian ( Novogogdian ) language is still in use among small numbers of yagnobts (according to various estimates, from 2 to 12 thousand speakers) and Penjikent in mountainous areas (estimated 500-700 people) in the Sogd region of Tajikistan and in the vicinity Dushanbe . ^[nineteen]

Sogdian Relics in Uzbek Language

According to the well-known orientalist M. Andreev, some words from the Sogdian language were included in the vocabulary of the Central Asian Turkic, and then the Uzbek language, such as Kup - many ( Uzbek ko'p ), Katta - large ( Uzbek katta ), Kalta - short or young ( uz . Kalta ). ^[20] Close Turkic-Sogdian ties promoted borrowing from Turkic to Sogdian and vice versa. Borrowings from the Turkic language are found in the Sogdian texts of the Mugi documents. For example, “ axşam ” - “evening”, “ kand ” - “settlement” and other ^{[21] [22]} .

Art

The painting of Afrasiab of the 6th – 7th centuries in Samarkand shows a rare surviving example of Sogdian art. Pictures of everyday life scenes and events such as the arrival of foreign ambassadors are in the ruins of aristocratic houses. It is not clear whether any of these palace residences served as the official palace of the rulers of Samarkand. ^[23] According to L. I. Albaum, the most numerous group of figures on the western wall of Afrasiab painting represents images of Turks ^[24]

The oldest preserved Sogdian monumental wall paintings date back to the 5th century and are located in Penjikent , Tajikistan . ^[23] Thanks to the monuments of art that have come down to us, we not only learn a lot about the society and political history of Sogd, but also about the beliefs of the ancient Sogdians. For example, it is clear that the Sogdian Buddhist pantheon included a number of ancient Iranian deities. Sogdian gilded bronze plaques with the image of mating of a male and female deity with outstretched hands next to a camel were found in Semirechye (pre-Buddhist motif, also reflected in the images of Samarkand and Penjikent . ^[23]

Turkic-Sogdian mutual influence in art was the subject of a study by B.I. Marshak. He believed that similar zoomorphic motifs embodied the common heroic ideal ^[25] F. Zaslavskaya and V. Meshkeris, who studied the Sogdian terracotta figurines of the 6th — VIIIth centuries, were characteristic of both Sogdian and Ancient Turkic art. They also noted the presence of the ancient Turkic theme in coroplasty of Sogdians (images of Turkic rider soldiers). ^[26]

Clothing

The clothes of both sexes were rather dense, the slim figure with narrow waist and wrists was highly valued. The similarity of many elements of clothing for men and girls was typical for Sogdians. The colors of the shoulder wear were usually three-colored, and the dresses and trousers were usually red, white ... Silhouettes for adult men and girls emphasized wide shoulders and narrowed to the waist; silhouettes for female aristocrats were more complex. Sughd clothing experienced a strong process of Islamization in subsequent centuries, while retaining some of the original elements. Turbans , caftans and sleeves began to spread instead. ^[27]

The dominant position of the Turks in Central Asia made their costumes popular. In this case, in a nonresident ethnic signs acted as a decorative element. For example, the Turkic caftans in the painting of Afrasiab did not have side cuts on the hem, only the collar and the ends of the sleeves were trimmed with decorative fabric and, in accordance with the style of court clothing, were maximally elongated. But the Turkic clothes in the painting of Penjikent already had side cuts, trimmed with decorative fabric, the floors were decorated and the design of the gate changed. ^[28]

Religion

During the period under review, Zoroastrianism dominated in Samarkand. Of the Zoroastrian deities, popular among the population of the city were Anahita and Mithra. However, the Sogdians also worshiped other deities. In Sogd, in the V — VII centuries. n er they don’t bury the corpses of the dead, but only their bones, which is associated with the worship of fire, water and earth, that is, with Zoroastrianism. The cleaned bones were folded into special ceramic vases — ossuaries, or “ossaries,” which were then kept in tombs — nausas, built behind a city wall. ^[29] Such a tradition is not characteristic of Iran, where, obviously, another version of Zoroastrianism prevailed.

Sogdians were distinguished by tolerance to various religious areas represented in their society ( Buddhism , Manichaeism , Nestorianism , Zoroastrianism ). The main sources of information about Sogdians and their language are religious texts that have come down to our time.

Sogdians and Turks

According to Orientalists, the facts clearly illustrate the gradual rapprochement and merger of Sogdians with the Turks. So, for example, Sogdians who moved to Dunhuang from Sogd in the 7th-8th centuries, most of them bore Turkic names, and they acquired these names back in Sogd ^[31] .

There was a process of mutual enrichment of the Sogdian and Turkic languages. In the early epigraphic inscriptions of the ancient Turkic kagans, Sogdian was the official language. In the Sogdian texts of the Mugi documents found borrowings from the Turkic language. For example, "yttuku" - "send", "embassy", "bediz" - "carving, ornament" and more. In one of the Mug documents, the Turkic title “tarkhan” is fixed at the court of the Panjakent ruler. The purely Turkic word “sozum” - “my order” is also found there. ^{[32] [33]}

In the north of Tulun , Kuytun and Nizhneudinsky districts and in the Bratsk district of the Irkutsk region of Russia (in the Iya and Uda river basins), the ancient Iranian hydronyms are distributed with an element about (for example, the name of the river Ob, which means water in Iranian languages ). According to A.P. Okladnikov, in the era of the Orkhon Turks and Uigurs, the Iranian-speaking population could be spread eastward to the Angara basin (the Unga river). Similar hydronyms are also found in the Pyanj basin in Tajikistan ^[34] .

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  Fragment of the riding a camel from the Samarkand site of ancient Afrasiab , VII c. AD

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  Sogdians on the Achaemenid relief from Apadana Persepolis , offering gifts to the Persian king Darius I , V c. BC er

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  Two Buddhist monks on the paintings in the Caves of thousands of Buddhas in Bezeklik ( Turfan oasis, Xinjiang , China, IX century AD). According to von Lecock (1913), a blue - eyed red - haired monk could be a Tokhar ^[35] . At the same time, the figures of the Sogdians of the Tang epoch (VII-VIII centuries) and the Uigur Khaganate (IX-XIII centuries) on the images in the same cave temple (No. 9) have the same Northern Caucasoid features . ^{[36] [37]}

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  Китайская фарфоровая статуэтка династии Тан согдийского купца, едущего на бактриане

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  Согдийцы, изображенные на китайском согдийском саркофаге династии Северной Ци (550-577 гг. н. э.)

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  Согдийское позолоченное серебряное блюдо с изображением тигра с явным влиянием персидского и серебряными украшениями VII-VIII вв.

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  Голова фигурки, вероятно согдиец, китайская династия Суй (581–618), Музей Чернуски , Париж

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  Чеканная монета Хунака , правителя Бухары , начало VIII в. н.э., с изображением коронованного правителя на аверсе и зороастрийского огненного алтаря на реверсе.

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  Сцена пранидхи, храм 9 (пещера 20) в Безеклике ( Синьцзян , Китай, IX в.н.э.) с фигурами, склонившимися перед Буддой. Из-за европеоидных черт и зелёных глаз , а также шапки на фигуре слева (в зелёном одеянии), похожей на те, что носили персидские князья в сасанидскую эпоху , Альберт фон Лекок отождествлял их с персами . ^[38] По мнению современных учёных, это могли быть согдийцы. ^[37]

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  Фигура конюха , керамика с остатками пигментов, эпоха Тан, Музей искусств Метрополитен

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  Китайская керамическая модель верблюда со всадником (шипящий на седока верблюд), из династии Тан (618-907 гг. н. э.), датируется концом VII века.

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  Музей Чернуски , Париж, Франция.

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  Музей Чернуски , Париж, Франция.

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  Династия Тан, иноземные погонщики, около 618-907. Музей Чернуши, Париж.

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  Династия Тан, Шаньси-Хэнань, иноземные погонщики верблюдов, около 650-700.

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  Династия Тан, согдийский купец, северный фарфор, VII-VIII вв. н.э.

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  Согдийский воин , Восточная Хань, начало III в. н.э., полихромная терракота. Музей Гиме , Париж.

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  Дольчатая чаша, Согдиана, конец VI — начало VII в. n э., чеканное серебро. Выставка в Freer Gallery of Art, Вашингтон, округ Колумбия, США.

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  Азиатский художественный музей в Сиэтле. Китайская керамическая фигура. Перевозчик, династия Тан.

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  Согдийские оссуарии

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  Согдийский оссуарий VI—VII вв. Самарканд

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  Согдийская живопись, изображающая согдийских купцов.

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  Статуэтка согдийского караванного торговца. Династия Тан. Музей Гиме (Париж).

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  Верблюд и согдиец. Глазурованная керамика в стиле сань-цай, эпоха Тан (618-907 гг.).

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  Дворцовый музей, Пекин. Верблюд и персидский (согийский) купец, стиль сань-цай , эпоха Тан, 618-907 н. er

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  Монета Тархуна, правителя Самарканда.

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  Фигурка среднеазиата из усыпальницы, Китай, династия Тан, 618-906 гг. n э., керамика со следами пигментов. Выставка в Восточноазиатском музее, Стокгольм, Швеция.

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  Музей Виктории и Альберта, Лондон. Китайская галерея: верблюд и всадник. Керамика, эпоха Тан (700-750 гг. н.э.)

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