The Sogdians were a people that populated the region near the Taklamakan Desert, thus serving as commercial intermediaries in the 4th to 8th centuries for the silk road. (Lerner et al.) This region was named Sogdiana, located in modern-day Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. (Lerner al. al) Their most famous and prosperous settlement was the great trading city of Samarkand, where many significant figures visited on their journeys to the west or east like the Chinese Monk Xuanzang. (Hansen, 193) The Persian Achaemenid Dynasty first mentioned the region and its people, who held the area as a province of its empire. Alexander the Great would later conquer the territory on his Great Journey across Asia. (Lerner et al.) The Sogdians were an Iranian people and spoke a form of Middle Iranian called Sogdian, which became the lingua franca of the Silk Road. (Hansen, 199) A series of letters called the Sogdian Letters to revealed a series of Sogdian Communities across the Silk Road. (Hansen, 199) These communities include cities as far west as Panjikent and as far east as Luoyang, with many communities in the middle like Dunhuang or Liangzhou. (Hansen, 202-203) [1]
Interestingly they did not establish their influence through political or even military power solely by utilizing their ability to trade with other communities. Most Sogdians states and polities were never Empires or even Kingdoms, just small principalities and city-states. (Hansen, 209) While the various Sogdian states certainly had armies and militias, Sogdians were successful due to their flexibility in dealings, their knack for bilingualism, and their syncretic attitude toward foreign influences. (Lerner et al.) They had to be flexible as the Sogdians were located in the middle between two great powers in the form of Chinese and Persian Dynasties; they had to accommodate both sides. [2]
The Sogdians practiced many different religions during this time, but the Zoroastrians were the most prominent, which they obtained from influence from the Persian Empires. When a community reached a specific size, the Sogdians would build a Fire Temple and appoint a Sabao to perform ritual practices and act as headman. (Hansen, 199) Unlike Zoroastrianism that developed in Iran, the Sogdians were polytheists worshiping foreign and , native gods. The Sogdians practice various faiths including Nestorian Christianity (Hansen, 205), Hinduism, Buddhism, Shaivism, Judaism, and Manichaeism. (Lerner et al.) In Panjkent, Archaeologists are excavating a Sogdian city house by house and have found some interesting facts on the Sogdian religious practices. Nearly every large home has a room in their house where a Fire Altar where family prayers were made. The Reception hall also had a smaller Fire Altar where guests may pray to gods like Ahura Mazda or Mithra. (Hansen, 206) The vast amount of Fire Altar in the city indicated that most of the residents were Zoroastrians; however, they were also open to foreign gods. The Mestopmian Goddess Nana was placed at the center of honor in one house, demonstrating their willingness to accept a non-Sogdian Deity. (Hansen, 207)
However, the wealth and the prosperity of the Sogdian peoples would not last. After the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, the Islamic empires began to expand out of Arabia by 651, reaching the great Sogdian City of Samarkand and conquering it by 671. (Hansen,212) King Tarkhun, the ruler of Samarkand by the conquest, had surrendered to the invading Arabs but was later killed by a revolt. Some Sogdians fled to the Fortress of Mount Mugh under the leadership of Devashtich, who claimed to be Tarkhun’s successor. (Hansen,220) He and all of the followers surrendered and were slaughtered in 722 when allied Turks had refused to assist in his resistance against the Arabs. (Hansen, 221) The Remaining Sogdians fled to the relative safety of Tang Dynasty China, However, their presence was not as secure because now they had to live under a regime that was suspicious toward them. Xuanzang presents a common view of the Sogdians as greedy merchants and swindlers. (Hansen,235) Many Sogdians adopted Chinese style surnames such “An” over their history with the Chinese, (Lerner et al.) the most famous of which was An Lushan. An Lushan was a Tang General of Sogdian and Turkish descent who attempted to overthrow the Tang Dynasty. He was defeated and the Tang Dynasty began pogroms against the Sogdian communities in China; remaining Sogdians soon assimilated into the broader Chines culture by adopting Han names and culture.(Lerner et al.)
when the image file has been uploaded to the images folder in our GitHub repo.-->[1] This is the text of footnote one.
[2] This is the text of footnote two.
[3] This is the text of footnote three.
Hansen, Valerie. The Silk Road: A New History with Documents (Oxford, 2016).
Lerner, Judith A., et al. “The Sogdians Influencers on the Silk Roads.” The Sogdians, Smithsonian Institution, https://sogdians.si.edu/introduction/.