The Sogdiens were people of Iranian language which lived formerly in an area recovering part of the Ouzbékistan and including Samarkand and Bukhara, to which they gave their name: the Sogdiane. Their language was more precisely of the be-Iranian group; it was about identical to that of the inhabitants of the Bactriane, which was in the south of Sogdiane. It was supplanted by the Tadjik, another Iranian dialect identical to current Persan, but it did not completely disappear. A dialect coming from the sogdien is spoken in a group of villages located on along the Yaghnob river. It is a river which is thrown in the Zeravshan, river which sprinkles Samarkand. This dialect is called the yaghnobi . In addition, the Sogdien gave some words to the modern Persan.

History

History of the origins at the beginning of the Christian era

Sogdiens undoubtedly lived in current Ouzbékistan since the beginning of the thousand-year-old IE front J. - C. The Avesta, the crowned text of the zoroastriens, knows Sughda- “Sogdiens, Sogdiane”, but it is unfortunately very difficult to date. It goes back in any case to a high Antiquity. Sogdiens seem of Scytho-Saces to be sédentarisés. The Scythian and Saces were nomads iranophones occupying an immense territory, which went from the Ukraine to the solid mass of the Altaï, in the west of the Mongolia.

The city of Samarkand was founded by Sogdiens. It existed already in IVe front century J. - C., since Alexandre Large the on the occasion to conquer it. Previously, between 546 and 540 av. J. - C., Cyrus had perhaps integrated Sogdiens, at the same time as of other close people, the Bactriens, the Parthes and the Chorasmiens (with the Khwarezm), with the Persian empire. It is known that these people were already submitted when Darius arrived at the capacity, in 522.

After the death of Alexandre, in 323, one of its lieutenants, Séleucos, founded an empire of the Syria at the borders of the India. It took the control of the Sogdiane at the time of a campaign in High the satrapies of Central Asia between 310 and 308. With died of its descendant Antiochos II, in 246, the Greek satrap of Bactriane and Sogdiane, Diodotos (or Diodote), was proclaimed independent. The kingdom thus created is qualifé of gréco-bactrien. Under the reign of Euthydemos, the second successor of Diodotos, the séleucide Antiochos III tried to take again possession of Bactriane, but it failed and had to recognize the independence of this kingdom. An important urban development characterized this period. With Samarkand, that the Greeks called Maracanda, a Greek rampart was superimposed on the old fortifications.

The last sovereign gréco-bactrien, Hélioclès, reigned approximately of 145 with 130 av. J. - C.. Its kingdom was victim of the arrival of the Yuezhi, people tokharien wandering originating in the west of the Gansu, which had been overcome by the constrained Xiongnu of Mongolia between 174 and 161 and with the scattering. They arrived in Bactriane little before 128 and reconstituted a powerful State there. Sogdiens were most probably subjected to them. The Chinese sent at Yuezhi an ambassador, Zhang Qian, which arrived at destination towards 128. It carried out a description of what is the Ouzbékistan today, but it seems that Sogdiens do not appear in it. He speaks about a country called the Kangju. There certain authors wanted to see Sogdiane, but it is not possible, since according to Zhang Qian, people of Kangju were “wandering and similar to Yuezhi by their habits”, whereas Sogdiens were sedentary practitioner an irrigated agriculture. The territory of Kangju would have rather been in the area of Tachkent.

During Ier century of the Christian era, Yuezhi were replaced by the Kushan, which based an empire also centered on Bactriane. Although Sogdiens were its septentrional neighbors, they were not integrated there. The oases of Samarkand and Bukhara experienced an important development, amplified by the trade with the other parts of the Asia: they were on the Silk route. The coins which were struck with Samarkand carried legends in sogdien and Greek, but the seconds tended to be degraded or to even disappear with the profit from the first. The replacement of the Greek by the sogdien is also observed with Bukhara. For the first time, documents called “Old Letters” make it possible to know the company sogdienne. It was made up of three classes, the aristocrats ( āzāt , āzātkār ), the merchants ( xvākar ), then the free peasants and the craftsmen ( kārikār ). There were also many slaves, who were not regarded as members of the city (the nāf ). The āzāt were owners of the grounds and of the villages and the āzātkār were free people associated with the āzāt . These letters were not found in Sogdiane, but in a tower of the Chinese border of this time, with Dunhuang. They testify to the commercial activity of Sogdiens. The latter also left a few hundreds of short inscriptions on rock in the north of current the Pakistan, on another shopping street. They are kind: “Bōxsāk, wire of Vanxarak, citizen of Paykand” (the town of Paykand was close to Bukhara).

History of the beginning of the Christian era with the Arab invasion

In 230, Persia Ardashir, founder of the dynasty of the Sassanides, annexed the Western part of the empire of the Kushans. Sogdiens were also attacked, but their territory was not occupied. The events which occurred then are not clear. It is known that between 350 and 400, people designated by the name of Hun ( xwn in sogdien) killed the sovereign of the Sogdiane. But which was exactly these Huns? This term designated several wandering people in Central Asia. It is perhaps about people called Kidarite Huns by the Greeks, Chionites the Latin authors and Huna by the Indians. They are mentioned for the first time towards 350, as combined of Sassanides, and their Greek name comes apparently from a king who was called Kidara. It is certain that Kidarites seized Bactriane, which had then taken the name of Tokharistan. Their presence in Sogdiane is only hypothetical. One found there seven coins carrying the inscription kydr (Kidara).

The Sassanides, being scrambled with Kidarites, attacked them starting from 442. Was this countryside completed in 467 with the catch by Persians of the capital of Kidarites (the town of Balkh?), in Tokharistan. Persians had a new ally, the Hephthalites, which were frightening warriors and who illustrated themselves later by terrible massacres, in particular in India of North. They also, were described as Huns. Left the north of Tourfan, in the current Chinese province of the Xinjiang, they constituted an empire and seized Sogdiane towards 509. The Chinese then accepted a “embassy” sent by Hephthalites, who in fact especially consisted of merchants sogdiens. It was starting from the Sogdiane that Hephthalites launched their attacks against their old allies, Sassanides. One scrambled oneself easily.

Hephthalites were swept between 557 and 561 by a new wandering empire, founded starting from the Mongolia by the Blue Turks (Köktürks, Tujue in Chinese). At that time, a tyrant called Abrui reigned on the oasis of Bukhara. He was originating in the town of Paykand, referred to above. Fleeing its brutality, the noble ones and merchants were installed in the south-east of current the Kazakhstan, on the course of the river Ili (in an area which one calls Semiretchie). The remaining citizens claimed the assistance of the Turks, who reversed Abrui. Had the emigrants had to pass by the area of Tashkent, from where people of Kangju had left (overcome by Kidarites?) and which had become sogdienne. This expansion helped Sogdiens to control trade route. It served also the interests of the Turks, who could count on the diplomats sogdiens to make the roads as sure as possible. The latter were then combined Sassanides. They divided the territories left by Hephthalites. Sogdiane returned to the Turks, but Sogdiens had with the Turks a relation much more friendship than of tender. The sogdien became the official language of the Turkish administration. To the beginning of VIIe century, one announces a marriage between the king of Samarkand and the girl of a Turkish emperor.

The Turks had created their empire in 552. It was divided in an Eastern wing, Mongolia, and a Western wing, in the north of the current Chinese province of the Xinjiang. The Chinese destroyed the first in 630 and the second in 657. They took, in theory, possession of all the territories Turkish, which made fall the Sogdiane in their bosom, but it was too much far so that they could exert an effective control there. The Turkish empire was reconstituted as from the years 680, grace in particular to an exceptional minister, Tonyuquq. In 711, it overcame another Turkish people, Türgesh, and continued the runaways until in Sogdiane. But in the area of Samarkand, it ran up against newcomers: Arab .

Sogdiane confronted with the Arabs

In Persian, the Arabs had put an end to the reign Sassanides, into 651. The Sogdiane was on the other side of the river Amou-Daria, that the Greeks called Oxus. It was thus the Transoxiane, name which the Arabs translated by Mavarannahr ( Mā warā 'l-nahr ) “what is beyond the river”. They crossed this river first once into 673 to attack Bukhara, which was then controlled by a woman, the khatun , mother of a king child named Tughshada. It obtained the withdrawal of the invaders against the payment of a ransom. They returned to Bukhara in 676, then turned to Samarkand, but they failed to take the city. Other raids occurred, but Sogdiens did not take this threat with the serious one. Much more, some of their kings required of the Arabs their support against of other sovereigns sogdiens.

In 705, Qutaiba ibn Muslim became the governor of the Khorassan, province of the North-East of Persia. It benefitted from the internal quarrels of the sovereigns of the Central Asia to be introduced there, but it encountered a sharp resistance to Paykand. The city was finally destroyed and its massacred defenders. Of Sogdiens united and Turks barred the road of to him Bukhara in 707 and 708, but it could conquer the city in 709 thanks to the support of the king sogdien Tarkhun. This last was détrôné by its subjects in 710. The city of Samarkand had to go in 712, after one month of seat, and a year later, it was with the tower of the area of Tashkent to subject itself. Having succeeded in conquering all Sogdiane, Qutaiba started to install Arabs there and to propagate the Islam there, but it was killed in 715 by a revolt of its troops.

Sogdiens which agreed to convert with Islam were exempted taxes. Vis-a-vis the extent of conversions and the consecutive fall of the revenues from taxes, the Arab issued that the new converts should be circoncis and to have a good knowledge of the Coran. This measurement involved a vast revolt. In 720 and 721, Sogdiens destroyed the Arab garrison of Samarkand with the assistance of the Turks. A new governor was then named with the Khorassan, Said ibn Amr Al-Harashi. The rebels sogdiens chose this time a strategy of retirement. Under the control of Divashtich, king of the Eastern city of Panjikand, a part of them took refuge in the fortress of Abargar, located on the Mug mount. At this place, on left bank of the Zeravshan, the archeologists found many documents rich in lesson on the company sogdienne. The Arabs having besieged the fortress, Divashtich had to go. It was carried out with the autumn 722 by Al-Harashi.

In 728, the governor of the Khorassan Ashras ibn Abdallah Al-Sulami offered a freedom from tax for the new converts, which produced the same effects exactly as the first time. With the assistance of the Turks, Bukhara became the center of the revolt sogdienne. It was subjected during the summer 729, after several months of hard combat. Samarkand, directed by king Ghurak (successor of Tarkhun), had not been raised. In spite of the repression carried out by the Arabs, the resistance of Sogdiens did not stop. It was particularly sharp in 733 and 734. The governor Nasr ibn Sayyar (738 - 748) decided to follow a policy more reconciling with the local elites.

Towards the end of civilization sogdienne

The Arabs were then controlled by the dynasty of the Omeyyades. It had enemies, among whom the Abbassides appeared, of the descendants of Abbas, a paternal uncle of Mahomet. Their leader in Khorasan and in Transoxiane was Abû Muslim, a man at the somewhat obscure origins born in 718 or 719. He started to gather troops in June 747 and put them moving at the beginning of the year 748. It entered Merv (current Turkménistan) in February. Nasr Ben Sayyar had to flee this city to take refuge in Persia, with Nichapur. Abû Muslim sent against him one of its officers, Qahtaba Ben Humayd, which obliged it to continue its escape in the west more. The Omeyyades reacted then by sending reinforcements to him, but they were demolished by Qahtaba and Nasr was killed. Qahtaba kept the control of Persia, making it possible the Abbassides to reach the town of Kufa, in Iraq, on August 29th 749. One year later, Omeyyades were reversed. Abû Muslim was then named governor of the Khorassan. At spring 751, it had to face a revolt of a Chiite, Sharik Ben Shaykh, in Bukhara. The officer whom it sent, Ziyad Ben Salih, could come to end from the insurrectionists only with the assistance from the aristocracy sogdienne.

Sogdiane was always under theoretical suzerainty of the China, but the Chinese had not intervened. The initiative came from a Chinese general, Gao Xianzhi, which was the governor of the “Countries of Occident”. The sovereign of the Ferghana (in the east of the Ouzbékistan), asked for his assistance against king de Tashkent. Gao Xianzhi went in this oasis, captured the king in question and made it carry out, but the son of the late sovereign called the Arabs with the assistance. In July 751, Ziyad Ben Salih faced a Chinese army of 30.000 men and crushed it with the support of Turkish people, the Karluk, on the river Talas, in the North-East of Tachkent. China was definitively eliminated from Sogdiane.

The Omeyyades worried about the any power of Abû Muslim. They named its general Ziyad Ben Salih governor of Sogdiane. This one was overcome by Abû Muslim and was killed by a knight sogdien at whom it had taken refuge. A caliph of the Abbasid arrived at the capacity in 754, Abu Jafar Al-Mansur, convened treacherously Abû Muslim at the court and made it carry out. That involved revolts of close relations of Abû Muslim, who were however not Moslems. The zoroastrien Sunbādh raised the Khorassan against the Abbasids. Those carried out a very wild repression, going until massacring women and children. Other revolts zoroastriennes occurred, the most important last and taking place between 776 and 783. It was carried out by Hashim Ben Hakim. Although this character had an Arab name, its movement was rather antimusulman and anchored in the farming community sogdienne. It had also a support in the town of Samarkand. The repression of this revolt and the suicide of Hashim Ben Hakim marked the final victory of Islam over the local religions.

During the 9th century, the Transoxiane fell gradually, in a peaceful way, between the hands of a family originating in the village (bactrien?) of Saman, the Samanides. In 874, the caliph Al-Mu' tamid named one of his members, Nasr Ben Ahmad, governor Transoxiane, with Samarkand for residence. The same year, Nasr installed his/her little brother Ismail Ben Ahmad in Bukhara, but in 888, the two men clashed and Nasr was overcome. With died of this last in 892, Ismail became the only Master of an independent State de facto . In 900, it annexed Khorasan. The Samanides were good Moslems, but they undertook the desarabisation of the Transoxiane and the Khorasan. From this time, the Persan one started to supplant the sogdien and the bactrien. The term Tāzīk (in Persan means) was used in the west of Persia to designate the Arabs. It applied then to the Moslems of Khorasan and Transoxiane. Today, marked inhabitant of Tajik , it designates the populations of language Persian of the Central Asia, with the Tadjikistan, the north of the Afghanistan, but also in Ouzbékistan, where this language remains very much used, in particular in the big cities like Samarkand or Bukhara.

With the arrival of the Islam and the Persan one, it was a new civilization which settled in Sogdiane.

Civilization

The company

According to the documents of the Mug mount, it does not seem to have known great changes since the time of the Old Letters: three classes there are always distinguished. The highest title of the aristocracy was that of the king, the afshīn or the ikhshid . The sovereign of Bukhara carried a special title, Bukhār khudāt . During VIIe and VIIIe centuries, the kings were elected by the noble ones more and more, which limited their capacity. It is in this manner that the ikhshid Ghurak is assembled on the throne of Samarkand, after the fall of Tarkhan. Among the noble ( āzād ), there were the dihqān . This class was much more open than in Europe: in the town of Panjikand, it did not represent less than fifteen percent of the population. She included/understood the landowners, who enjoyed a considerable capacity sometimes and had professional warriors at their disposal, the to chakir . The latter constituted the core of the armies sogdiennes.

The Persian historian Narshakhi gave this description of the court of Tughshada, the queen of Bukhara. Its habit was each day of:

“to sit down on a throne, while in front of it, were held of the slaves, the Masters of the seraglio, i.e. the eunuques ones, and the noble ones. It had made an obligation for the population that each day, of the dihqān to the princes, two thousand young people, girded belts of gold and carrying swords the shoulder, should appear for the service and to be held remotely. When the Khatun left, everyone made him obedience while it carried out research on the businesses of the State. It gave orders and prohibitions; it offered a clothing to honor which it wanted and punished which it wanted… At the evening, it left the same manner and sat down on the throne. Some dihqān and princes was held in front of it in two rows, with its service until laying down it sun.”

Paintings sogdiennes show dihqān feasting. The men carried gold belts, where superb swords or daggers were hung. Women their held company. All had sat or extended on carpets, with their servants in background.

At the time about which we speak, the Turks had exerted an influence on Sogdiens. The most administrative title, the tudun (perhaps the chief of the civil service), was of Turkish origin. There remained however dignitaries purely sogdiens, like the farmandār , in load of all the financial and economic businesses, the commander of the armed forces and the archivist as a chief, as well as collectors of taxes. This administration functioned in a bureaucratic way, but effectively and without inequality.

With the eyes from abroad, Sogdiens were especially merchants. Their marketing activity was undeniable, but their economy rested especially on the practice of agriculture. The weather conditions forced them to develop networks of Irrigation. The village sogdien appears to have coincided with the group agnatic.

The manufacture of Soie began in Sogdiane in the neighborhoods from the year 700. During the battles of the Catholic students, of the Chinese craftsmen who could manufacture Papier were captured. That was worth with Samarkand to become an important paper production center. The craftsmen and the small shopkeepers lived in houses with a stage and several parts. Some were to rent workshops or shops.

The slaves were numerous. It acted people captured at the time of the wars, taken as hostages, sold by their family or who had placed themselves under the protection of a Master.

Chinese testimonys

Annals of the Chinese dynasty of the Tang gives the following description of the habits sogdiennes:

“The inhabitants of these principalities like the wine. They enjoy to dance and sing in the streets. The king has a felt hat which it decorates of gold and various jewels. The women are made a chignon: they wear a black bonnet to which they bend gold flowers. When they were confined of a child, they make him eat candy sugar and they put adhesive to him on the hand, in the desire that when it is large, it has soft words and holds the invaluable objects as if they were adherent with his hands. These people are accustomed to write in horizontal lines. They excel with the trade and like the profit. As soon as a man is twenty years old, it from goes away in the close kingdoms. Everywhere where one can gain, they went.”

At the same time, the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang left this testimony on Samarkand:

“Its capital has more than 20 Li of turn (approximately 10 km), excessively strong with an important population. The country has a large commercial warehouse, is very fertile, abundant in flowers and trees and provides many beautiful horses. Its inhabitants are skilful and energetic craftsmen. All the Hu countries (Iranian) regard this kingdom as their center and are made a model of its institutions. The king is a man of spirit and courage which the Neighboring states obey. He has a superb army where the majority of the soldiers are to chakir . They are men of great value, who see in death a return towards their parents, and against which no enemy can hold with the combat.”

The religion

Generally, with regard to the religion, Sogdiens were rather permeable with the external influences. In their texts, one finds the names of old Iranian divinities. Their names are given in graeco-latin transcription of the writing sogdienne, which was unaware of the vowels:

• Verethragna ( wsγn ), warlike god similar to Indra. One of the principal Iranian gods. It is called Orlagno by Bactriens, Varlagn by the Saces, Arlagn by Chorasmiens (with the Khwarezm).

• Druvāspa ( δrw'sp ), the “Mistress of the quite bearing horses”. Present in the Avesta, it is called Lrooaspo by Bactriens.
• Haoma ( γwm ). It is the plant of immortality of the Iranians, which is divinisée.
• Khvarnah ( prn ), entity multiform, luminous, comparable with a fire, that any Iranian king was to have.

The most important female divinity was Nanai, which had four arms and sat down on a lion. Ahura Mazdā ( Xwrmzt'βγ ), the theoretically single god of the Zoroastrisme, was very seldom mentioned, but Sogdiens knew its founder, Zarathoustra ( Zrwsc ). They adhered to a current of this religion which placed Zervan ( zrw ), Time, at the head of the Pantheon. He was regarded as the father of Ahura Mazdā (or Ohrmazd) and of his enemy Angra Mainyu (or Ahriman), the Evil spirit. The names of the six Amesha Spenta, divinities auxiliary of Ahura Mazdā according to the philosophy of Zarathoustra, were used like personal names.

Just as Sogdiens never created unified State, they never gave central authority to their religion. It is an essential difference with the Zoroastrisme such as it was practiced in the Perse Sassanides. The religion sogdienne was an individual business. Each family and each community had her own owners. Furnace bridges were arranged in each house. The Arabs mentioned “temples of fire” very richly decorated and “silver and gold idols”, sometimes of big size. The practice zoroastrienne of emaciation of the corpses is attested at least until the fifth century.

Being in contact with all the countries of the Asia, Sogdiens knew the Indian divinities of course. They took as a starting point the Indian iconography to represent their own gods. Zurvan was thus represented in the form of Brahma.

The Bouddhisme arrived to China while passing by Sogdiane, but if there remained present on this territory, it always occupied a marginal place there. One knows Sogdien which converted with Buddhism with the Vietnam, then called Giao-Chi, at the 3rd century. He was the son of traders who had settled in this country. It was able at Nankin into 247 in order to convert the king Sun Quan and it died there into 280 after having translated many books Sanskrits into Chinese. Its name, pronounced with the Chinese manner, is Kangsenghui.