The Sogdian language loaned to Turkic certain significant words (Old Turkic borč “debt,” Sogd. pwrc; or Uighur styr “coin,” Sogd. styr). The birth of the Turkish empire and its extension throughout the entire steppes greatly contributed to the economic power of the Sogdian merchants. They provided the Turks with their first chancellery language and administrative infrastructure.
Mavi Boncuk |
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1,000-year-old silk shirt expected to fetch £500,000 at auction
Golden garment made by Sogdian people decorated with images of ducks wearing scarves
The Sogdians, centred on modern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, were known for their magnificent textiles – ideal portable wealth for a nomadic people – and their prowess as traders in everything from slaves to perfumes along the ancient Silk Road and across a region stretching from Constantinople to India.
The Chinese wanted their splendid horses, and in return the Sogdians got silk of exceptional quality. Some of their surviving textiles include three-metre silk panels used as tent hangings.
Their empire died out in the 10th century, and the shirt is dated to between the seventh and ninth centuries AD. The shirt, which was previously owned by a French collector, will be auctioned in the Arts of the Islamic world sale at Sotheby’s in London on 25 April.
The first known Turkic inscription, at Bugut in Mongolia, is in Sogdian (Klyaštornyj and Livšic, 1972 **), and the first historical text to mention the Turks from the standpoint of the Chinese connects them with the Sogdians (Zhou shu, chap. 50, p. 908). Menander Protector’s history does likewise on the Byzantine side; in particular, it reports an actual case, within the period 568-75, of how the Sogdians used their diplomatic influence with the Turks to open up new markets. After failing with the Sasanians, the Sogdian merchants persuaded the ḵāqān to get in touch with Byzantium in order to export the thousands of silk rolls which China paid as tribute to the Turks (Menander, tr. Blockley, pp. 111-15). Under Turkish protection, and later under that of the succeeding states, the Sogdians established themselves within the trade of the western steppe. In the 7th century, when a trading entrepôt under Khazar protection was founded in the Crimea, it bore the name Sogdaia. During this period almost half of the Sasanian and Central Asian silver dishes found near the Urals had gone through Sogdian or Khwarezmian hands, and in the 8th century, three-quarters had done so (de la Vaissière, 2000, pp. 368-69).
Sogdiana was the center where some of the luxury fabrics imported by Byzantium and the West were traded at that time (Shepherd and Henning, 1959). In the east, at the border between the steppe and the Chinese world, the Sogdians also played a great part north of the Ordos. Here they bred and sold horses, the principal trade of the region in the 8th century (Pulleybank, 1952, pp. 331 f.), and their hold was such that the northern Ordos was called the “Six Sogdian prefectures,” both in Chinese and in Turkish (Klyashtornyĭ, 1964, pp. 78-101).
However, after the end of the Uighur empire, Sogdian trade went through a second crisis. Although some Sogdian merchants traveling to China are still mentioned in the first third of the 10th century (Masʿudi, tr. Pellat, I, p. 142), they disappeared afterwards. What mainly issued from Muslim Central Asia was the trade of the Samanids, which resumed the northwestern road leading to the Khazars and the Urals and the northeastern one toward the nearby Turkic tribes. These were roads already familiar to the Sogdians, but within very different economic conditions. (On the part played by silver money in the commerce of the later period, see Noonan, 1984 and 1992.) However, no Samanid coin has been found in China, and Chinese porcelain is almost absent in Samanid Samarkand. Sogdian trade, which was based on barter and on the connections with China, disappeared, and the expatriate Sogdian communities became assimilated (Sims-Williams and Hamilton, 1990).
SOURCE
Mavi Boncuk |
1,000-year-old silk shirt expected to fetch £500,000 at auction
Golden garment made by Sogdian people decorated with images of ducks wearing scarves
The Sogdians, centred on modern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, were known for their magnificent textiles – ideal portable wealth for a nomadic people – and their prowess as traders in everything from slaves to perfumes along the ancient Silk Road and across a region stretching from Constantinople to India.
The Chinese wanted their splendid horses, and in return the Sogdians got silk of exceptional quality. Some of their surviving textiles include three-metre silk panels used as tent hangings.
Their empire died out in the 10th century, and the shirt is dated to between the seventh and ninth centuries AD. The shirt, which was previously owned by a French collector, will be auctioned in the Arts of the Islamic world sale at Sotheby’s in London on 25 April.
The first known Turkic inscription, at Bugut in Mongolia, is in Sogdian (Klyaštornyj and Livšic, 1972 **), and the first historical text to mention the Turks from the standpoint of the Chinese connects them with the Sogdians (Zhou shu, chap. 50, p. 908). Menander Protector’s history does likewise on the Byzantine side; in particular, it reports an actual case, within the period 568-75, of how the Sogdians used their diplomatic influence with the Turks to open up new markets. After failing with the Sasanians, the Sogdian merchants persuaded the ḵāqān to get in touch with Byzantium in order to export the thousands of silk rolls which China paid as tribute to the Turks (Menander, tr. Blockley, pp. 111-15). Under Turkish protection, and later under that of the succeeding states, the Sogdians established themselves within the trade of the western steppe. In the 7th century, when a trading entrepôt under Khazar protection was founded in the Crimea, it bore the name Sogdaia. During this period almost half of the Sasanian and Central Asian silver dishes found near the Urals had gone through Sogdian or Khwarezmian hands, and in the 8th century, three-quarters had done so (de la Vaissière, 2000, pp. 368-69).
Sogdiana was the center where some of the luxury fabrics imported by Byzantium and the West were traded at that time (Shepherd and Henning, 1959). In the east, at the border between the steppe and the Chinese world, the Sogdians also played a great part north of the Ordos. Here they bred and sold horses, the principal trade of the region in the 8th century (Pulleybank, 1952, pp. 331 f.), and their hold was such that the northern Ordos was called the “Six Sogdian prefectures,” both in Chinese and in Turkish (Klyashtornyĭ, 1964, pp. 78-101).
However, after the end of the Uighur empire, Sogdian trade went through a second crisis. Although some Sogdian merchants traveling to China are still mentioned in the first third of the 10th century (Masʿudi, tr. Pellat, I, p. 142), they disappeared afterwards. What mainly issued from Muslim Central Asia was the trade of the Samanids, which resumed the northwestern road leading to the Khazars and the Urals and the northeastern one toward the nearby Turkic tribes. These were roads already familiar to the Sogdians, but within very different economic conditions. (On the part played by silver money in the commerce of the later period, see Noonan, 1984 and 1992.) However, no Samanid coin has been found in China, and Chinese porcelain is almost absent in Samanid Samarkand. Sogdian trade, which was based on barter and on the connections with China, disappeared, and the expatriate Sogdian communities became assimilated (Sims-Williams and Hamilton, 1990).
SOURCE
