Sogdia () or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian civilisation located between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya rivers, in what is now Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also a province of the Achaemenid Empire, and is listed on the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great. Sogdiana was first conquered by Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, and was later annexed by the Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great in 328 BC. It would subsequently change hands under the Seleucid Empire, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, the Kushan Empire, the Sasanian Empire, the Hephthalite Empire, the Western Turkic Khaganate, and following the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana.
The Sogdian city-states, although never politically united, were centred on the city of Samarkand. Sogdian, an Eastern Iranian language, is no longer spoken. However, a descendant of one of its dialects—Yaghnobi—is still spoken by the Yaghnobis of Tajikistan. Sogdian was widely spoken in Central Asia as a lingua franca and served as one of the court languages of the First Turkic Khaganate 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 CE). Sogdian merchants and diplomats travelled as far west as the Byzantine Empire. They played an essential role as middlemen in the Silk Road trade route. While initially practising the faiths of Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Buddhism, and, to a lesser extent, the Church of the East 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, which was largely supplanted by New Persian.
Geography Sogdiana lay north of Bactria, east of Khwarezm, and south-east of Kangju, between the Oxus (Amu Darya) and the Jaxartes (Syr Darya), and included the fertile valley of the Zeravshan (called the Polytimetus by the ancient Greeks). Sogdian territory corresponds to the modern regions of Samarkand and Bukhara in present-day 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 archaeological 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').. *skud- is the zero-grade; that is, a variant in which the -e- is not present. The restored Scythian name is *Skuδa ('archer'), which among the Pontic or Royal Scythians became *Skula, in which the δ has been regularly replaced by an l. According to Szemerényi, Sogdiana (; ; ; ; ) was named from the Skuδa 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.. Applying sound changes apparent in other Sogdian words and inherent in Indo-European, he traces the development of *Suγδa from Skuδa, 'archer', as follows: Skuδa > *Sukuda by anaptyxis > *Sukuδa > *Sukδa (syncope) > *Suγδa (assimilation)..
History
Prehistory
Sogdiana possessed a Bronze Age urban culture: original Bronze Age towns appear in the archaeological record beginning with the settlement at Sarazm, Tajikistan, which dates back as far as the 4th millennium BCE, and then at Kök Tepe, near modern-day Bulungur, Uzbekistan, from at least the 15th century BCE.
Young Avestan period (c. 900–500 BCE)
In the Avesta, namely in the Mihr Yasht and the Vendidad, the toponym of Gava () is mentioned as the land of the Sogdians. Gava is, therefore, interpreted as referring to Sogdia during the time of the Avesta. Although there is no universal consensus on the chronology of the Avesta, most scholars today argue for an early chronology, which would place the composition of Young Avestan texts such as the Mihr Yasht and the Vendidad in the first half of the first millennium BCE.
The first mention of Gava is found in the Mihr Yasht, i.e. the hymn dedicated to the Zoroastrian deity Mithra. In verse 10.14, it is described how Mithra reaches Mount Hara and looks at the entirety of the Airyoshayan (, 'lands of the Arya').
The second mention is found in the first chapter of the Vendidad, which consists of a list of the sixteen good regions created by Ahura Mazda for the Iranians. Gava is the second region mentioned on the list, directly behind Airyanem Vaejah, the homeland of Zarathustra and the Iranians, according to Zoroastrian tradition:
While it is widely accepted that Gava referred to the region inhabited by the Sogdians during the Avestan period, its meaning is not clear. For example, Vogelsang connects it with Gabae, a Sogdian stronghold in western Sogdia, and speculates that during the time of the Avesta, the centre of Sogdia may have been closer to Bukhara than to Samarkand.
Achaemenid period (546–327 BC)
Achaemenid ruler Cyrus the Great conquered Sogdiana while campaigning in Central Asia in 546–539 BCE,Kirill Nourzhanov, Christian Bleuer (2013), Tajikistan: a Political and Social History, Canberra: Australian National University Press, p. 12, . a fact mentioned by the ancient Greek historian Herodotus in his Histories.Antoine Simonin. (8 January 2012). "Sogdiana." World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved 31 August 2016. 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. Sogdia was also listed on the Behistun Inscription of Darius.Mark J. Dresden (1981), "Introductory Note", in Guitty Azarpay, Sogdian Painting: the Pictorial Epic in Oriental Art, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, pp 2–3, . A contingent of Sogdian soldiers fought in the main army of Xerxes I during his second, ultimately unsuccessful, invasion of Greece in 480 BCE.Mark J. Dresden (1981), "Introductory Note", in Guitty Azarpay, Sogdian Painting: the Pictorial Epic in Oriental Art, Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, p. 3, . A Persian inscription from Susa claims that the palace there was adorned with lapis lazuli and carnelian originating from Sogdiana.
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.Pierre Briant (2002), From Cyrus to Alexander: a History of the Persian Empire, trans. Peter T. Daniels, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, p. 746, . The satraps were often relatives of the ruling Persian kings, especially sons who were not designated as the heir apparent. Sogdiana likely remained under Persian control until roughly 400 BCE, during the reign of Artaxerxes II.Christoph Baumer (2012), The History of Central Asia: the Age of the Steppe Warriors, London, New York: I.B. Tauris, p. 207, . 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 materialised).
During the Achaemenid period (550–330 BCE), the Sogdians lived as a nomadic people, much like the neighbouring Yuezhi, who spoke Bactrian, an Indo-Iranian language closely related to Sogdian,Hansen, Valerie (2012), The Silk Road: A New History, Oxford University Press, p. 72, . and were already engaging in overland trade. Some of them had also gradually settled the land to engage in agriculture.Liu, Xinru (2010), The Silk Road in World History, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p 67. 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". Although the Sogdians were at times independent and living outside the boundaries of large empires, they never formed a great empire of their own, unlike the Yuezhi, who established the Kushan Empire (30–375 CE) in Central and South Asia.
Hellenistic period (327–145 BC)
A now-independent and warlike Sogdiana formed a border region insulating the Achaemenid Persians from the nomadic Scythians to the north and east."The province of Sogdia was to Asia what Macedonia was to Greece: a buffer between a brittle civilization and the restless barbarians beyond, whether the Scyths of Alexander's day and later or the White Huns, Turks and Mongols who eventually poured south to wreck the thin veneer of Iranian society" (Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great (1973) 1986:301). It was led at first by Bessus, the Achaemenid satrap of Bactria. After assassinating Darius III in his flight from the Macedonian Greek army,John Prevas (2004), Envy of the Gods: Alexander the Great's Ill-Fated Journey across Asia, Da Capo Press, pp 60–69.Independent Sogdiana: Lane Fox (1973, 1986:533) notes Quintus Curtius, vi.3.9: with no satrap to rule them, they were under the command of Bessus at Gaugamela, according to Arrian, iii.8.3. he became claimant to the Achaemenid throne. The Sogdian Rock, or Rock of Ariamazes, a fortress in Sogdiana, was captured in 327 BCE by the forces of Alexander the Great, the basileus of Macedonia and conqueror of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.Horn, LT Bernd; Spencer, Emily, eds. (2012), No Easy Task: Fighting in Afghanistan, Dundurn Press Ltd, p. 40, . 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.Ahmed, S. Z. (2004), Chaghatai: the Fabulous Cities and People of the Silk Road, West Conshokoken: Infinity Publishing, p. 61. Roxana, a Sogdian whose name Roshanak means 'little star',Livius.org. "Roxane." Articles on Ancient History. Page last modified 17 August 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2016.Strachan, Edward and Roy Bolton (2008), Russia and Europe in the Nineteenth Century, London: Sphinx Fine Art, p. 87, .For another publication calling her "Sogdian", see 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, p. 4, . was the mother of Alexander IV of Macedon, who inherited his late father's throne in 323 BCE (although the empire was soon divided in the Wars of the Diadochi).William Smith, eds et al. (1873), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Volume 1, London: John Murray, p. 122.