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{{Short description|Ancient Iranian civilization (6th century BCE – 11th century CE)}}
{{good article}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox country
| conventional_long_name = Sogdia, Sogdiana
| image_map              = Map of Sogdia.png
| image_map_caption      = Approximate extent of Sogdia, between the [[Oxus]] and the [[Jaxartes]].
| map_width              = 300px
| languages              = [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]]
| languages_type         = Languages
| religion               = [[Zoroastrianism]], [[Manichaeism]], [[Hinduism]], [[Buddhism]], [[Islam]], [[Nestorian Christianity]]<ref name="Gernet1996">{{cite book|author=Jacques Gernet|title=A History of Chinese Civilization|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern|url-access=registration|date=31 May 1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-49781-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern/page/286 286]–}}</ref>
| capital                = [[Samarkand]], [[Bukhara]], [[Khujand]], [[Shahrisabz|Kesh]]
| life_span              = 6th century BC to 11th century AD
| currency               = Imitations of [[Sassanian]] coins and [[Chinese cash coins]] as well as "hybrids" of both.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.charm.ru/coins/misc/soghdian-kaiyuan.shtml|title= Soghdian Kai Yuans (lectured at the Dutch 1994-ONS meeting)|year=1994|access-date=8 June 2018|work= T.D. Yih and J. de Kreek (hosted on the Chinese Coinage Website).}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://numismatics.org/pocketchange/tag/kai-yuan-tong-bao/|title= Samarqand's Cast Coinage of the Early 7th–Mid-8th Centuries AD: Assessment based on Chinese sources and numismatic evidence.|date= 12 August 2016|access-date= 9 June 2018|work= Andrew Reinhard (Pocket Change – The blog of the [[American Numismatic Society]]).|archive-date= 12 June 2018|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180612141714/http://numismatics.org/pocketchange/tag/kai-yuan-tong-bao/|url-status= dead}}</ref>
}}
'''Sogdia''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|s|ɒ|g|d|i|ə}}) or '''Sogdiana''' was an ancient [[Iranian peoples|Iranian civilization]] between the [[Amu Darya]] and the [[Syr Darya]] rivers, and in present-day [[Uzbekistan]], [[Turkmenistan]], [[Tajikistan]], [[Kazakhstan]], and [[Kyrgyzstan]]. Sogdiana was also a province of the [[Achaemenid Empire]], and listed on the [[Behistun Inscription]] of [[Darius the Great]]. Sogdiana was first conquered by [[Cyrus the Great]], the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, and then was annexed by the [[Macedon]]ian ruler [[Alexander the Great]] in 328 BC. It would continue to change hands under the [[Seleucid Empire]], the [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom]], the [[Kushan Empire]], the [[Sasanian Empire]], the [[Hephthalite Empire]], the [[Western Turkic Khaganate]], and the [[Muslim conquest of Transoxiana]].

The [[Sogdian city-states]], although never politically united, were centered on the city of [[Samarkand]]. [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]], an [[Eastern Iranian language]], is no longer spoken. However, a descendant of one of its dialects, [[Yaghnobi language|Yaghnobi]], is still spoken by the [[Yaghnobis]] of Tajikistan. It was widely spoken in Central Asia as a [[lingua franca]] and served as one of the [[First Turkic Khaganate]]'s court languages 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 AD). Sogdian merchants and diplomats travelled as far west as the [[Byzantine Empire]]. They played an essential part as middlemen in the [[Silk Road]] trade route. While initially practicing the faiths of [[Zoroastrianism]], [[Manichaeism]], [[Buddhism]] and, to a lesser extent, the [[Church of the East]] from [[West Asia]], the [[Islam in Tajikistan|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, as it was largely supplanted by [[New Persian]].

== Geography ==
Sogdiana lay north of [[Bactria]], east of [[Khwarezm]], and southeast of [[Kangju]] between the Oxus ([[Amu Darya]]) and the Jaxartes ([[Syr Darya]]), including the fertile valley of the [[Zeravshan River|Zeravshan]] (called the Polytimetus by the [[ancient Greeks]]).<ref name="encyclopedia britannica" /> Sogdian territory corresponds to the modern [[Samarkand Region|regions of Samarkand]] and [[Bukhara Region|Bukhara]] in modern 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 archeological 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 [[Akkadian language|Assyrian]] ''Aškuz'' and [[Greek language|Greek]] ''Skuthēs'', descend from *skeud-, an ancient [[Indo-European]] root meaning "propel, shoot" (cf. English shoot).<ref>{{harvnb|Szemerényi|1980|pp=45–46}}.</ref> *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 ({{langx|peo|Suguda-}}; {{langx|fa|سغد|Soġd}}; {{langx|tg|Суғд, سغد|Suġd}}; {{lang-zh|粟特|sùtè}}; {{langx|el|Σογδιανή|Sogdianē}}) 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]].<ref>{{harvnb|Szemerényi|1980|pp=26–36}}.</ref> 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 (phonetics)|syncope]]) > *Suγδa ([[assimilation (linguistics)|assimilation]]).<ref>{{harvnb|Szemerényi|1980|p=39}}.</ref>

== History ==
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=300|caption_align=center
| align    = right
| direction =horizontal
| image2   = 12-petalled flower MNAT SZM001.jpg
| image1   = Necklace Sarazm NMAT SZM5-190 1147-365 (cleanup).jpg
| footer='''Left''': Bead necklace from the tomb of the so-called "Sarazm princess" in [[Sarazm]], Sogdia, middle 4th millennium BC.<br> '''Right''': 12-petalled flower from the cult structure in [[Sarazm]], Sogdia, early 3rd millennium BC 
}}
{{further|Ethnic groups in Chinese history|Ethnic minorities in China|Western Regions}}

=== Prehistory ===
{{further|Indo-Iranians}}
Sogdiana possessed a [[Bronze Age]] urban culture: original Bronze Age towns appear in the archaeological record beginning with the settlement at [[Sarazm]], Tajikistan, spanning as far back as the 4th millennium BC, and then at Kök Tepe, near modern-day [[Bulungur]], Uzbekistan, from at least the 15th century BC.<ref name="Vaissière Encyclopædia Iranica">{{Encyclopædia Iranica|volume=online|first=É.|last=de La Vaissière|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sogdiana-iii-history-and-archeology|title=SOGDIANA iii. HISTORY AND ARCHEOLOGY|year=2011|access-date=31 August 2016}}</ref>

===Young Avestan period (c. 900–500 BC)===
{{further|Avestan period|Avestan geography}}
In the [[Avesta]], namely in the [[Mihr Yasht]] and the [[Vendidad]], the [[toponym]] of Gava ({{lang|ae|gava-, gāum}}) is mentioned as the land of the Sogdians. Gava is, therefore, interpreted as referring to Sogdia during the [[Avestan period|time of the Avesta]].{{Sfn|Grenet|2005|p=30|ps=: "Of a total of sixteen countries, seven have always been identified beyond doubt, as they kept their name until historical times or even to the present day. Five of these countries are at the beginning of the list, directly following Airyanem Vaējah: Gava "inhabited by the Sogdians", Merv, Bactria, Nisāya said to be "between 
Margiana and Bactria" and therefore corresponding at least in part to medieval Juzjān in northwest Afghanistan. Then comes the sixth country, Harōiva [.]"}} 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 [[Avestan|Young Avestan]] texts like the Mihr Yasht and the Vendiad in the first half of the first millennium BCE.{{Sfn|Skjaervø|1995|loc=p.166 "The fact that the oldest Young Avestan texts apparently contain no reference to western Iran, including Media, would seem to indicate that they were composed in eastern Iran before the Median domination reached the area."}}

[[File:Young avestan geography.png|thumb|Overview over the geographical horizon of the [[Avestan period|Young Avestan period]]. Sources for the different localizations are given in the file description.]]
The first mention of Gava is found in the Mihr Yasht, ie., the hymn dedicated to the [[Zoroastrian]] [[yazata|deity]] [[Mithra]]. In verse 10.14 it is described how Mithra reaches [[Hara Berezaiti|Mount Hara]] and looks at the entirety of the Airyoshayan ({{lang|ae|airiio.shaiianem}}, 'lands of the [[Arya (Iran)|Arya]]'),

{{Blockquote|
<poem>
where navigable rivers rush with wide a swell
towards Parutian Ishkata, [[Herat|Haraivian]] [[Margu]], Gava Sogdia ({{lang|ae|gaom-ca suγδəm}}), and [[Chorasmia]].
</poem>
|Mihr Yasht 10.14 (translated by Ilya Gershovitch).{{Sfn|Gershevitch|1967|pp=79–80}}}}

The second mention is found in the first chapter of the Vendidad, which consists of a list of the sixteen good [[Avestan geography|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:

{{Blockquote|
<poem>
The second of the good lands and countries which I, Ahura Mazda, created, was the Gava of the Sogdians ({{lang|ae|gāum yim suγδō.shaiianəm}}).
Thereupon came [[Angra Mainyu]], who is all death, and he counter-created the locust, which brings death unto cattle and plants.
</poem>
|Vendidad 1.4 (translated by [[James Darmesteter]]).{{Sfn|Darmesteter|1880|pp=5–9}}}}

While it is widely accepted that Gava referred to the region inhabited by the Sogdians during the Avestan period, its meaning is not clear.{{Sfn|Lurje|2017|loc= "The earliest records of the name of Sogdiana (Soḡd) are found in the Avesta (Vendīdād, 1.4; Yašt 10.14; the by-name of Sogdian lands in the Avesta is Gauua[.]"}} For example, [[Willem Vogelsang|Vogelsang]] connects it with Gabae, a Sogdian stronghold in western Sogdia and speculates that during the time of the Avesta, the center of Sogdia may have been closer to [[Bukhara]] instead of [[Samarkand]].{{Sfn|Vogelsang|2000|p=51|ps=: "If Gava and Gabae refer to an identical place, then the present text appears to refer to a situation whereby the center of Sogdia was to lie, not at Samarkand, but further to the west, perhaps at or near Bukhara."}}

=== Achaemenid period (546–327 BC)===
[[File:Artaxerxes III Sogdian soldier.jpg|thumb|upright=0.5|left|Sogdian soldier circa 338 BCE, tomb of [[Artaxerxes III]].]]
Achaemenid ruler [[Cyrus the Great]] conquered Sogdiana while [[Wars of Cyrus the Great|campaigning in Central Asia]] in 546–539 BC,<ref>Kirill Nourzhanov, Christian Bleuer (2013), ''Tajikistan: a Political and Social History'', Canberra: Australian National University Press, p. 12, {{ISBN|978-1-925021-15-8}}.</ref> a fact mentioned by the ancient Greek historian [[Herodotus]] in his ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]''.<ref name="simonin 2012 sogdiana">Antoine Simonin. (8 January 2012). "Sogdiana." ''[https://www.worldhistory.org/sogdiana/ World History Encyclopedia]''. Retrieved 31 August 2016.</ref> [[Darius I]] introduced the [[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic writing system]] and [[Achaemenid coinage|coin currency]] to [[Central Asia]], in addition to incorporating Sogdians into his [[standing army]] as regular soldiers and cavalrymen.<ref name="baumer 2012 pp202-203" /> Sogdia was also listed on the [[Behistun Inscription]] of Darius.<ref>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, {{ISBN|0-520-03765-0}}.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.avesta.org/vendidad/vd1sbe.htm|title=Avesta: Vendidad (English): Fargard 1|publisher=Avesta.org|access-date=4 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161004213252/http://www.avesta.org/vendidad/vd1sbe.htm|archive-date=4 October 2016}}</ref><ref name="dresden 2003 p1216" /> A contingent of Sogdian soldiers fought in the main army of [[Xerxes I]] during his second, ultimately-failed [[Second Persian invasion of Greece|invasion of Greece]] in 480 BC.<ref name="dresden 2003 p1216" /><ref name="dresden 1981 p3">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, {{ISBN|0-520-03765-0}}.</ref> A Persian inscription from [[Susa]] claims that the palace there was adorned with [[lapis lazuli]] and [[carnelian]] originating from Sogdiana.<ref name="dresden 2003 p1216" />

During this period of Persian rule, the western half of [[Asia Minor]] was part of the Greek civilization. As the Achaemenids conquered it, they met persistent resistance and revolt. One of their solutions was to ethnically cleanse rebelling regions, relocating those who survived to the far side of the empire. Thus Sogdiana came to have a significant Greek population.

[[File:Sogdian Tribute Bearers on the Apadana Staircase 16 (Best Viewed Size "Large") (4689076272).jpg|thumb|300px|Sogdians on an [[Achaemenid]] Persian [[relief]] from the [[Apadana]] of [[Persepolis]], offering tributary gifts to the Persian king [[Darius I]], 5th century BC]]
Given the absence of any named [[satrap]]s (i.e. Achaemenid provincial governors) for Sogdiana in historical records, modern scholarship has concluded that Sogdiana was governed from the satrapy of nearby [[Bactria]].<ref>Pierre Briant (2002), ''From Cyrus to Alexander: a History of the Persian Empire'', trans. Peter T. Daniels, Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, p. 746, {{ISBN|1-57506-120-1}}.</ref> The satraps were often relatives of the ruling Persian kings, especially sons who were not designated as the [[heir apparent]].<ref name="simonin 2012 sogdiana" /> Sogdiana likely remained under Persian control until roughly 400 BC, during the reign of [[Artaxerxes II]].<ref name="baumer 2012 p207">Christoph Baumer (2012), ''The History of Central Asia: the Age of the Steppe Warriors'', London, New York: I.B. Tauris, p. 207, {{ISBN|978-1-78076-060-5}}.</ref> Rebellious states of the Persian Empire took advantage of the weak Artaxerxes II, and some, such as [[Twenty-eighth Dynasty of Egypt|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 [[Wars of Alexander the Great|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 [[Scythia]]ns of the [[Black Sea]] region (even though this anticipated campaign never materialized).<ref name="baumer 2012 p207" />

During the Achaemenid period (550–330 BC), the Sogdians lived as a [[nomad]]ic people much like the neighboring [[Yuezhi]], who [[Bactrian language|spoke Bactrian]], an [[Indo-Iranian language]] closely related to Sogdian,<ref>Hansen, Valerie (2012), ''The Silk Road: A New History'', Oxford University Press, p. 72, {{ISBN|978-0-19-993921-3}}.</ref> and were already engaging in overland trade. Some of them had also gradually settled the land to engage in agriculture.<ref name="liu 2010 p67">Liu, Xinru (2010), ''The Silk Road in World History'', Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p 67.</ref> 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]].<ref name="liu 2010 p67" /> Although the Sogdians were at times independent and living outside the boundaries of large empires, they never formed a great empire of their own like the Yuezhi, who established the [[Kushan Empire]] (30–375 AD) of Central and [[South Asia]].<ref name="liu 2010 p67" />

=== Hellenistic period (327–145 BC)===
{{further|Wars of Alexander the Great|Chronology of the expedition of Alexander the Great into Asia|Hellenistic civilization}}
{{multiple image| align = right | direction = vertical | header = | header_align = left/right/center | footer = '''Top''': painted clay and [[alabaster]] head of a [[Mobad|Zoroastrian priest]] wearing a distinctive [[Bactria]]n-style headdress, [[Takhti-Sangin]], Tajikistan, 3rd–2nd century BC.<br>'''Bottom''': a [[barbaric]] copy of a coin of the [[Greco-Bactrian]] king [[Euthydemus I]], from the region of Sogdiana; the legend on [[Obverse and reverse|the reverse]] is in [[Aramaic]] script.| footer_align = left | image2 = Sogdian barbaric copy of a coin of Euthydemus.jpg | total_width = 250 | caption1 = | image1 = Head of Bactrian ruler (Satrap), Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i-Sangin, 3rd-2nd century BCE (left side).jpg | caption2 = }}
A now-independent and warlike Sogdiana formed a border region insulating the Achaemenid Persians from the nomadic [[Scythians]] to the north and east.<ref>"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).</ref> It was led at first by [[Bessus]], the Achaemenid [[satrap]] of [[Bactria]]. After assassinating [[Darius III]] in his flight from the [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonian Greek]] army,<ref>John Prevas (2004), ''Envy of the Gods: Alexander the Great's Ill-Fated Journey across Asia'', Da Capo Press, pp 60–69.</ref><ref>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.</ref> he became claimant to the Achaemenid throne. The [[Sogdian Rock]] or Rock of Ariamazes, a fortress in Sogdiana, was captured in 327 BC by the forces of [[Alexander the Great]], the ''[[basileus]]'' of Macedonian Greece, and conqueror of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.<ref>Horn, LT Bernd; Spencer, Emily, eds. (2012), ''No Easy Task: Fighting in Afghanistan'', Dundurn Press Ltd, p. 40, {{ISBN|978-1-4597-0164-9}}.</ref> [[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.<ref name="ahmed 2004 p61">Ahmed, S. Z. (2004), ''Chaghatai: the Fabulous Cities and People of the Silk Road'', West Conshokoken: Infinity Publishing, p. 61.</ref> Roxana, a Sogdian whose name ''Roshanak'' means "little star",<ref name="livius roxane">Livius.org. "[https://www.livius.org/articles/person/roxane/ Roxane]." ''Articles on Ancient History''. Page last modified 17 August 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2016.</ref><ref name="strachan 2008 p87">Strachan, Edward and Roy Bolton (2008), ''Russia and Europe in the Nineteenth Century'', London: Sphinx Fine Art, p. 87, {{ISBN|978-1-907200-02-1}}.</ref><ref>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, {{ISSN|2157-9687}}.</ref> was the mother of [[Alexander IV of Macedon]], who inherited his late father's throne in 323 BC (although the empire was soon divided in the [[Wars of the Diadochi]]).<ref>William Smith, eds et al. (1873), ''A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Volume 1'', London: John Murray, p. 122.</ref>

After an extended campaign putting down Sogdian resistance and founding military outposts manned by his Macedonian veterans, Alexander united Sogdiana with Bactria into one satrapy. The Sogdian nobleman and warlord [[Spitamenes]] (370–328 BC), allied with Scythian tribes, led an uprising against Alexander's forces. This revolt was put down by Alexander and his generals [[Amyntas (son of Andromenes)|Amyntas]], [[Craterus]], and [[Coenus (general)|Coenus]], with the aid of native Bactrian and Sogdian troops.<ref name="holt 1989 pp64-65">Holt, Frank L. (1989), ''Alexander the Great and Bactria: the Formation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia'', Leiden, New York, Copenhagen, Cologne: E. J. Brill, pp 64–65 (see also footnote #62 for mention of Sogdian troops), {{ISBN|90-04-08612-9}}.</ref> With the Scythian and Sogdian rebels defeated, Spitamenes was allegedly betrayed by his own wife and beheaded.<ref>Holt, Frank L. (1989), ''Alexander the Great and Bactria: the Formation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia'', Leiden, New York, Copenhagen, Cologne: E. J. Brill, p. 65 (see footnote #63), {{ISBN|90-04-08612-9}}.</ref> Pursuant with his own marriage to Roxana, Alexander encouraged his men to marry Sogdian women in order to discourage further revolt.<ref name="ahmed 2004 p61" /><ref>Holt, Frank L. (1989), ''Alexander the Great and Bactria: the Formation of a Greek Frontier in Central Asia'', Leiden, New York, Copenhagen, Cologne: E. J. Brill, pp 67–8, {{ISBN|90-04-08612-9}}.</ref> This included [[Apama]], daughter of the rebel Spitamenes, who wed [[Seleucus I Nicator]] and bore him [[Antiochus I Soter|a son and future heir]] to the [[Seleucid Empire|Seleucid throne]].<ref name="magill et al 1998 p1010">Magill, Frank N. et al. (1998), ''The Ancient World: Dictionary of World Biography, Volume 1'', Pasadena, Chicago, London,: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Salem Press, p. 1010, {{ISBN|0-89356-313-7}}.</ref> According to the Roman historian [[Appian]], Seleucus I named three new Hellenistic cities in Asia after her (see ''[[Apamea (disambiguation)|Apamea]]''<!--intentional link to DAB page-->).<ref name="magill et al 1998 p1010" /><ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Apamea}}</ref>

The military power of the Sogdians never recovered. Subsequently, Sogdiana formed part of the [[Hellenistic]] [[Greco-Bactrian Kingdom]], a breakaway state from the Seleucid Empire founded in 248 BC by [[Diodotus I]], for roughly a century.<ref>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, pp 8–9, {{ISSN|2157-9687}}.</ref><ref>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 3–5, {{ISBN|0-520-03765-0}}.</ref> [[Euthydemus I]], a former satrap of Sogdiana, seems to have held the Sogdian territory as a rival claimant to the Greco-Bactrian throne; [[Ancient Greek coinage|his coins]] were later copied locally and bore [[Aramaic language|Aramaic inscriptions]].<ref>Jeffrey D. Lerner (1999), ''The Impact of Seleucid Decline on the Eastern Iranian Plateau: the Foundations of Arsacid Parthia and Graeco-Bactria'', Stuttgart: Steiner, pp 82–84, {{ISBN|3-515-07417-1}}.</ref> The Greco-Bactrian king [[Eucratides I]] may have recovered sovereignty of Sogdia temporarily.

=== Saka and Kushan periods (146 BC–260 AD) ===
[[File:Saka warrior Termez Achaeological Museum.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Head of a [[Sakas|Saka]] warrior, as a defeated enemy of the [[Yuezhi]], from [[Khalchayan]], northern [[Bactria]], 1st century BCE.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Abdullaev |first1=Kazim |title=Nomad Migration in Central Asia (in After Alexander: Central Asia before Islam) |journal=Proceedings of the British Academy |date=2007 |volume=133 |pages=87–98 |url=https://www.academia.edu/6864202}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Greek Art in Central Asia, Afghan – Encyclopaedia Iranica |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/greece-viii#prettyPhoto[content]/7/}}</ref><ref>[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/bf/c2/42/bfc242271c38d714044837d179faab53.jpg Also a Saka according to this source]</ref>]]
Finally Sogdia was occupied by [[nomad]]s when the [[Sakas]] overran the [[Greco-Bactrian kingdom]] around 145 BC, soon followed by the [[Yuezhi]], the nomadic predecessors of the [[Kushans]]. From then until about 40 BC the Yuezhi tepidly minted coins imitating and still bearing the images of the Greco-Bactrian kings Eucratides I and [[Heliocles I]].<ref name="Michon, Daniel 2015 pp 112">Michon, Daniel (2015), ''Archaeology and Religion in Early Northwest India: History, Theory, Practice'', London, New York, New Delhi: Routledge, pp 112–123, {{ISBN|978-1-138-82249-8}}.</ref>

The Yuezhis were visited in [[Transoxiana]] by a Chinese mission, led by [[Zhang Qian]] in 126 BC,<ref name="megalithic">[http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=18006 ''Silk Road, North China''], C. Michael Hogan, The Megalithic Portal, A. Burnham, ed.</ref> which sought an offensive alliance with the Yuezhi against the [[Xiongnu]]. Zhang Qian, who spent a year in Transoxiana and [[Bactria]], wrote a detailed account in the ''Shiji'', which gives considerable insight into the situation in [[Central Asia]] at the time.{{sfn|Watson|1993|pp=233–236}} The request for an alliance was denied by the son of the slain Yuezhi king, who preferred to maintain peace in Transoxiana rather than seek revenge.

[[File:Noin-Ula carpet, Yuezhi fighting a SogdianNoin-Ula carpet, Yuezhi fighting a Sogdian.jpg|thumb|upright|A [[Yuezhi]] (left) fighting a Sogdian behind a shield (right), [[Noin-Ula|Noin-Ula carpet]], 1st century BC/AD.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Yatsenko |first1=Sergey A. |title=Yuezhi on Bactrian Embroidery from Textiles Found at Noyon uul, Mongolia |journal=The Silk Road |date=2012 |volume=10 |url=http://www.silkroadfoundation.org/newsletter/vol10/SilkRoad_10_2012_yatsenko.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170114012702/http://www.silkroadfoundation.org/newsletter/vol10/SilkRoad_10_2012_yatsenko.pdf |archive-date=14 January 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>]]
Zhang Qian also reported:

{{blockquote|text=the Great Yuezhi live 2,000 or 3,000 ''li'' [832–1,247 kilometers] west of ''[[Dayuan]]'', north of the ''Gui'' {{bracket|[[Oxus]] }} river. They are bordered on the south by ''[[Daxia]]'' {{bracket|[[Bactria]]}}, on the west by ''Anxi'' {{bracket|[[Parthia]]}}, and on the north by ''[[Kangju]]'' [beyond the middle [[Jaxartes]]/Syr Darya]. They are a nation of [[nomad]]s, moving from place to place with their herds, and their customs are like those of the Xiongnu. They have some 100,000 or 200,000 archer warriors.|title=''Shiji''|source=123{{sfn|Watson|1993|p=234}}}}

From the 1st century AD, the Yuezhi morphed into the powerful [[Kushan Empire]], covering an area from Sogdia to eastern [[India]]. The Kushan Empire became the center of the profitable Central Asian commerce. They began minting unique coins bearing the faces of their own rulers.<ref name="Michon, Daniel 2015 pp 112"/> They are related to have collaborated militarily with the Chinese against nomadic incursion, particularly when they allied with the [[Han dynasty]] general [[Ban Chao]] against the Sogdians in 84, when the latter were trying to support a revolt by the king of [[Kashgar]].<ref name="de crespigny 2007 5-6">de Crespigny, Rafe. (2007). ''A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23–220&nbsp;AD)''. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill. page 5-6. {{ISBN|90-04-15605-4}}.</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="150px" perrow="4">
File:Orlat plaque encounter.jpg|Battle scenes between "Kangju" Saka warriors, from the [[Orlat plaques]]. 1st century CE.<ref name="SPL42">{{cite book |last1=Ilyasov |first1=Djangar |title=Splendeurs des oasis d'Ouzbékistan |date=2022 |publisher=Louvre Editions |location=Paris |isbn=978-8412527858 |pages=42–47}}</ref>
File:Orlat plaque hunter.jpg|[[Orlat plaque]] hunter.
File:Kalchayan Prince (armour).jpg|Model of a [[Saka]] [[cataphract]] armour with neck-guard, from [[Khalchayan]]. 1st century BCE. [[Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan]], nb 40.<ref name="SPL56">{{cite book |last1=Frantz |first1=Grenet |title=Splendeurs des oasis d'Ouzbékistan |date=2022 |publisher=Louvre Editions |location=Paris |isbn=978-8412527858 |page=56}}</ref>
</gallery>

=== Sasanian satrapy (260–479 AD) ===
Historical knowledge about Sogdia is somewhat hazy during the period of the [[Parthian Empire]] (247 BC – 224 AD) in Persia.<ref name="dresden 1981 p5">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. 5, {{ISBN|0-520-03765-0}}.</ref><ref name="dresden 2003 p1217">Mark J. Dresden (2003), "Sogdian Language and Literature", in Ehsan Yarshater, The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1217, {{ISBN|0-521-24699-7}}.</ref> The subsequent [[Sasanian Empire]] of Persia conquered and incorporated Sogdia as a satrapy in 260,<ref name="dresden 1981 p5" /> an [[Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht|inscription dating to the reign of Shapur I]] claiming "Sogdia, to the mountains of [[Tashkent]]" as his territory, and noting that its limits formed the northeastern Sasanian borderlands with the [[Kushan Empire]].<ref name="dresden 2003 p1217" /> However, by the 5th century the region was captured by the rival [[Hephthalite Empire]].<ref name="dresden 1981 p5" />

=== Hephthalite conquest of Sogdiana (479–557 AD) ===
[[File:Sogdiana. Samarkand (Pre-Ikhshid), Hephthalite tamgha S2 on the reverse.jpg|thumb|Local coinage of [[Samarkand]], Sogdia, with the [[Hepthalite]] [[tamgha]] [[File:Hephthalite_tamgha.jpg|15px]] on the reverse.{{sfn|Alram|2008|loc=coin type 46}}]]
The [[Hephthalites]] conquered the territory of Sogdiana, and incorporated it into their Empire, around 479 AD, as this is the date of the last known independent embassy of the Sogdians to China.<ref name="CP" />{{sfn|de la Vaissière|2003|pp=128–129 and note 35}} The Hephthalites seem to have invaded Sogdiana from the south after their victory over the Sasanians.<ref>{{Cite book |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |publisher=UNESCO |year=2006 |isbn=978-9231032110 |pages=240}}</ref>

The Hephthalites may have built major fortified [[Hippodamian]] cities (rectangular walls with an orthogonal network of streets) in Sogdiana, such as [[Bukhara]] and [[Panjikent]], as they had also in [[Herat]], continuing the city-building efforts of the [[Kidarites]].{{sfn|de la Vaissière|2003|pp=128–129 and note 35}} The Hephthalites probably ruled over a confederation of local rulers or governors, linked through alliance agreements. One of these vassals may have been Asbar, ruler of [[Vardanzi]], who also minted his own coinage during the period.{{sfn|Adylov|Mirzaahmedov|2006|pp=34–36}}

[[File:Varahsha, Relief of a hunter, 5th-7th century CE.jpg|thumb|left|Relief of a hunter, [[Varakhsha|Varahsha]], Sogdia, 5th–7th century CE.]]
The wealth of the Sasanian ransoms and tributes to the Hephthalites may have been reinvested in Sogdia, possibly explaining the prosperity of the region from that time.{{sfn|de la Vaissière|2003|pp=128–129 and note 35}} Sogdia, at the center of a new [[Silk Road]] between China to the Sasanian Empire and the [[Byzantine Empire]] became extremely prosperous under its nomadic elites.{{sfn|de la Vaissière|2012|pp=144–160|ps=. "Sogdiana under its nomadic elites became the principal center of agricultural wealth and population in Central Asia." and paragraph on "The Shift of the Trade Routes"}} The Hephthalites took on the role of major intermediary on the [[Silk Road]], after their great predecessor the [[Kushans]], and contracted local [[Sogdians]] to carry on the trade of silk and other luxury goods between the Chinese Empire and the Sasanian Empire.<ref name="JAM28">{{cite book |last1=Millward |first1=James A. |title=The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction |date=2013 |publisher=Oxford University Press US |isbn=978-0-19-978286-4 |page=28 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M0uMBi67IngC&pg=PA28}}</ref>

Because of the Hephthalite occupation of Sogdia, the original coinage of Sogdia came to be flooded by the influx of Sasanian coins received as a tribute to the Hephthalites. This coinage then spread along the [[Silk Road]].<ref name="CP">{{cite journal |last1=Pei 裴 |first1=Chengguo 成国 |title=The Silk Road and the economy of Gaochang: evidence on the Circulation of silver coins |journal=Silk Road |date=2017 |volume=15 |page=57, note 5 |url=https://religiondocbox.com/74666854-Islam/Volume-contents.html}}</ref> The symbol of the Hephthalites appears on the residual coinage of [[Samarkand]], probably as a consequence of the Hephthalite control of Sogdia, and becomes prominent in Sogdian coinage from 500 to 700 AD, including in the coinage of their indigenous successors the [[Ikhshid]]s (642–755 AD), ending with the [[Muslim conquest of Transoxiana]].{{sfn|Rezakhani|2017|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=bjRWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA138 138]}}<ref name="MF">{{cite journal |last1=Fedorov |first1=Michael |title=ON THE PORTRAITS OF THE SOGDIAN KINGS (IKHSHĪDS) OF SAMARQAND |journal=Iran |date=2007 |volume=45 |page=155 |doi=10.1080/05786967.2007.11864723 |jstor=25651416 |s2cid=194538468 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25651416 |issn=0578-6967|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

=== Turkic Khaganates (557–742 AD) ===
[[File:An Jia with a Turkic Chieftain in Yurt. Xi’an, 579 CE. Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Xi’an.jpg|thumb|The Sogdian merchant [[An Jia]] with a Turkic Chieftain in his [[yurt]]. 579 AD.]]
The Turks of the [[First Turkic Khaganate]] and the Sasanians under [[Khosrow I]] allied against the Hephthalites and defeated them after an eight-day battle near [[Qarshi]], the [[Battle of Bukhara]], perhaps in 557.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Maas |first1=Michael |title=The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Attila |date=29 September 2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-06085-8 |page=284 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e0dcBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA284 |language=en}}</ref> The Turks retained the area north of the Oxus, including all of Sogdia, while the Sasanians obtained the areas south of it. The Turks fragmented in 581, and the [[Western Turkic Khaganate]] took over in Sogdia.

Archaeological remains suggest that the [[Turkic peoples|Turks]] probably became the main trading partners of the Sogdians, as appears from the tomb of the Sogdian trader [[An Jia]].<ref name="FG141">{{cite journal |last1=Grenet |first1=Frantz |last2=Riboud |first2=Pénélope |title=A Reflection of the Hephthalite Empire: The Biographical Narra- tive in the Reliefs of the Tomb of the Sabao Wirkak (494–579) |journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute |date=2003 |volume=17 |pages=141–142 |url=https://www.podgorski.com/main/assets/documents/A_reflection_of_the_Hephtalite_empire.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220531060342/https://www.podgorski.com/main/assets/documents/A_reflection_of_the_Hephtalite_empire.pdf |archive-date=31 May 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> The Turks also appear in great numbers in the [[Afrasiab murals]] of [[Samarkand]], where they are probably shown attending the reception by the local Sogdian ruler [[Varkhuman]] in the 7th century AD.<ref name="SW">{{cite book |last1=Whitfield |first1=Susan |title=The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith |year=2004 |publisher=British Library. Serindia Publications, Inc. |isbn=978-1-932476-13-2 |page=110 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ArWLD4Qop38C&pg=PA110 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Millward |first1=James A. |title=Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang |year=2007 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-13924-3 |page=31 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8FVsWq31MtMC&pg=PA31 |language=en}}</ref> These paintings suggest that Sogdia was a very cosmopolitan environment at that time, as delegates of various nations, including Chinese and Korean delegates, are also shown.<ref name="SW"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Compareti (University of California, Berkeley) |first1=Matteo |title=The Chinese Scene at Afrāsyāb |journal=Eurasiatica |date=2007 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287420208}}</ref> From around 650, China led the [[conquest of the Western Turks]], and the Sogdian rulers such as [[Varkhuman]] as well as the [[Western Turks]] all became nominal vassals of China, as part of the [[Anxi Protectorate]] of the [[Tang dynasty]], until the [[Muslim conquest of Transoxiana]].<ref name="CB243">{{cite book |last1=Baumer |first1=Christoph |title=History of Central Asia, The: 4-volume set |date=18 April 2018 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |isbn=978-1-83860-868-2 |page=243 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DhiWDwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA243 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Afrasiab West Wall.jpg|thumb|center|upright=3|Ambassadors from various countries ([[China]], [[Korea]], Iranian and Hephthalite principalities...), paying hommage to king [[Varkhuman]] and possibly [[Western Turk]] [[Khagan]] [[Irbis Seguy|Shekui]], under the massive presence of Turkic officers and courtiers. [[Afrasiab murals]], [[Samarkand]], 648–651 AD.<ref name="CB243"/>]]

===Arab Muslim conquest (8th century AD)===
{{Main|Muslim conquest of Transoxiana}}
{{further|Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri|Sogdian city-states}}
{{multiple image|perrow=2|total_width=400|caption_align=center
| align    = right
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| image1   = Letter of an Arab Emir to Devashtich.jpg
| caption1 = Letter of an Arab Emir to the Sogdian ruler [[Devashtich]], found in Mount Mugh
| image2   = Wealthy Arab, Palace of Devashtich, Penjikent.jpg
| caption2 = Wealthy Arab, Palace of Devashtich, [[Penjikent murals]]
| footer=
}}

====Umayyads (−750)====
[[Qutayba ibn Muslim]] (669–716), Governor of [[Greater Khorasan]] under the [[Umayyad Caliphate]] (661–750), initiated the Muslim conquest of Sogdia during the early 8th century, with the local ruler of [[Balkh]] offering him aid as an Umayyad ally.<ref name="dresden 2003 p1217" /><ref>Litvinski, B. A., A. H. Jalilov, A. I. Kolesnikov (1999), "The Arab Conquest", in ''History of Civilizations of Central Asia: Volume III, the Crossroads of Civilizations: A.D. 250–750'', eds B. A. Litvinski, Zhang Guangda, and R. Shabani Samghabadi, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, pp 457–58.</ref> However, when his successor [[al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah]] governed Khorasan (717–719), many native Sogdians, who had converted to Islam, began to revolt when they were no longer exempt from paying the tax on non-Muslims, the ''[[jizya]],'' because of a new law stating that proof of [[circumcision]] and literacy in the [[Quran]] was necessary for new converts.<ref name="dresden 2003 p1217" /><ref name="litvinski et al 1999 p459">Litvinski, B. A., A. H. Jalilov, A. I. Kolesnikov (1999), "The Arab Conquest", in ''History of Civilizations of Central Asia: Volume III, the Crossroads of Civilizations: A.D. 250–750'', eds B. A. Litvinski, Zhang Guangda, and R. Shabani Samghabadi, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, p. 459.</ref> With the aid of the Turkic [[Turgesh]], the Sogdians were able to expel the Umayyad Arab garrison from Samarkand, and Umayyad attempts to restore power there were rebuffed until the arrival of [[Sa'id ibn Amr al-Harashi]] (fl. 720–735). The Sogdian ruler (i.e. ''[[ikhshid]]'') of Samarkand, [[Gurak]], who had previously overthrown the pro-Umayyad Sogdian ruler [[Tarkhun]] in 710, decided that resistance against al-Harashi's large Arab force was pointless, and thereafter persuaded his followers to declare allegiance to the Umayyad governor.<ref name="litvinski et al 1999 p459" /> [[Divashtich]] (r. 706–722), the Sogdian ruler of [[Panjakent]], led his forces to the [[Zarafshan Range]] (near modern [[Zarafshan, Tajikistan]]), whereas the Sogdians following Karzanj, the ruler of Pai (modern [[Kattakurgan]], Uzbekistan), fled to the [[Principality of Farghana]], where their ruler at-Tar (or Alutar) promised them safety and refuge from the Umayyads. However, at-Tar secretly informed al-Harashi of the Sogdians hiding in [[Khujand]], who were then slaughtered by al-Harashi's forces after their arrival.<ref>Litvinski, B. A., A. H. Jalilov, A. I. Kolesnikov (1999), "The Arab Conquest", in ''History of Civilizations of Central Asia: Volume III, the Crossroads of Civilizations: A.D. 250–750'', eds B. A. Litvinski, Zhang Guangda, and R. Shabani Samghabadi, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, pp 459–60.</ref>

From 722, following the Muslim invasion, new groups of Sogdians, many of them [[Nestorian Christians]], emigrated to the east, where the Turks had been more welcoming and more tolerant of their religion since the time of Sassanian religious persecutions. They particularly created colonies in the area of [[Semirechye]], where they continued to flourish into the 10th century with the rise of the [[Karluks]] and the [[Kara-Khanid Khanate]]. These Sogdians are known for producing beautiful silver plates with Eastern Christian iconography, such as the ''[[Anikova dish]]''.<ref name="ES">{{cite book |last1=Sims |first1=Eleanor |title=Peerless images : Persian painting and its sources |date=2002 |publisher=New Haven : Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-09038-3 |pages=293–294 |url=https://archive.org/details/peerlessimagespe0000sims/page/294/mode/1up}}</ref><ref name="SEDU">{{cite web |title=Anikova Plate The Sogdians |url=https://sogdians.si.edu/anikova-plate/ |website=sogdians.si.edu}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=O'Daly |first1=Briton (Yale University) |title=An Israel of the Seven Rivers |journal=Sino-Platonic Papers |date=2021 |pages=10–12 |url=https://sino-platonic.org/complete/spp308_Zhetysu_Karluk_Turks_Sogdians.pdf| quote=Turkic peoples, both indirectly and directly, helped bring Christianity to [[Zhetysu]] after the Göktürk Khaganate took over the region in the sixth century. Following that conquest, the Sogdians, an Iranian people historically known for their commercial influence throughout the Silk Road networks, colonized the area under the encouragement of Turkic rulers eager for economic development. Syriac Christians would have numbered among these initial Sogdian colonists, and religious persecutions in the Sassanid Empire also drove Christians into Zhetysu, where the ruling Turks offered greater religious tolerance. The region experienced a significant religious-political development when the [[Karluk Turks]] conquered Zhetysu in 766 and then, most likely, converted to Syriac Christianity in the late eighth century.}}</ref>

====Abbasid Caliphate (750–819)====
[[File:Decorated niche, 750-825 CE, Afrasiab, Samarkand.jpg|thumb|Decorated niche from the Abbasid mosque of [[Afrasiyab (Samarkand)|Afrasiab]], Samarkand, 750–825 CE.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Allegranzi |first1=Viola |last2=Aube |first2=Sandra|title=Splendeurs des oasis d'Ouzbékistan |date=2022 |publisher=Louvre Editions |location=Paris |isbn=978-8412527858 |page=181}}</ref>]]
The Umayyads [[Abbasid Revolution|fell]] in 750 to the [[Abbasid Caliphate]], which quickly asserted itself in Central Asia after winning the [[Battle of Talas]] (along the [[Talas River]] in modern [[Talas Oblast]], Kyrgyzstan) in 751, against the Chinese Tang dynasty. This conflict incidentally introduced Chinese [[papermaking]] to the [[Islamic world]].<ref name="hanks 2010 p4">Hanks, Reuel R. (2010), ''Global Security Watch: Central Asia'', Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford: Praeger, p. 4.</ref> The cultural consequences and political ramifications of this battle meant the [[Protectorate General to Pacify the West|retreat of the Chinese empire from Central Asia]]. The [[An Lushan rebellion|An Lushan]] rebellion in China proper seems to have played a greater role in the withdrawal of Chinese armies from the Western regions rather than the battle in itself.<ref>{{Cite book |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |publisher=UNESCO |year=2006 |isbn=978-9231032110 |pages=344}}</ref>  Mass conversions to Islam began in the 750s, but the process of Islamization and the gradual waning of the power of local rulers took several more decades.<ref>{{Cite book |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |publisher=UNESCO |year=2006 |isbn=978-9231032110 |pages=242}}</ref>

====Samanids (819–999)====
{{main|Samanid Empire}}
The withdrawal of Chinese armies from Central Asia allowed for the rise of the [[Samanid Empire]] (819–999), a Persian state centered at Bukhara (in what is now modern [[Uzbekistan]]) that had nominally observed the Abbasids as their [[overlord]]s, yet retained a great deal of autonomy and upheld the mercantile legacy of the Sogdians.<ref name="hanks 2010 p4" /> The Samanids occupied the Sogdian region from circa 819 until 999, establishing their capital at [[Samarkand]] (819–892) and then at [[Bukhara]] (892–999). During this time the [[Sogdian language]] gradually declined in favor of the [[Persian language]] of the Samanids (the ancestor to the modern [[Tajik language]]), the spoken language of renowned poets and intellectuals of the age such as [[Ferdowsi]] (940–1020).<ref name="hanks 2010 p4" /> So too did the original religions of the Sogdians decline; [[Zoroastrianism]], [[Buddhism]], [[Manichaeism]], and [[Nestorian Christianity]] disappeared in the region by the end of the Samanid period.<ref name="hanks 2010 p4" /> The Samanids were also responsible for converting the surrounding [[Turkic peoples]] to [[Islam]].

===Turkic conquests: Kara-Khanid Khanate (999–1212)===
[[File:Kara-Khanid ruler (sitting cross-legged on a throne), Afrasiab, circa 1200 CE.jpg|thumb|Detail of a Kara-Khanid ruler of Samarkand (sitting cross-legged on a throne in the complete reconstructed relief), [[Afrasiyab (Samarkand)|Afrasiab]], [[Samarkand]], circa 1200 CE.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Karev |first1=Yury |title=Turko-Mongol rulers, cities and city life |date=2013 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |isbn=9789004257009 |pages=114–115|quote="The ceramics and monetary finds in the pavilion can be dated to no earlier than to the second half of the twelfth century, and more plausibly towards the end of that century. This is the only pavilion of those excavated that was decorated with paintings, which leave no doubt about the master of the place. (...) The whole artistic project was aimed at exalting the royal figure and the magnificence of his court. (...) the main scenes from the northern wall represents the ruler sitting cross-legged on a throne (see Figs 13, 14) (...) It was undoubtedly a private residence of the Qarakhanid ruler and his family and not a place for solemn receptions."}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Frantz |first1=Grenet |title=Splendeurs des oasis d'Ouzbékistan |date=2022 |publisher=Louvre Editions |location=Paris |isbn=978-8412527858 |pages=221–222|quote="Peintures murales qui ornaient (...) la résidence privée des derniers souverains qarakhanides de Samarkande (fin du 12ième - début du 13ième siècle (...) le souverain assis, les jambes repliées sur le trône, tient une flèche, symbole du pouvoir (Fig.171)."}}</ref> It was possibly defaced in 1212 when the [[Khwarazmian Empire]] shah [[Muḥammad b. Tekish]] took over Samarkand.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Karev |first1=Yury |title=Turko-Mongol rulers, cities and city life |date=2013 |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |isbn=9789004257009 |page=120|quote="We cannot exclude the possibility that this action was related to the dramatic events of the year 1212, when Samarqand was taken by the Khwarazmshah Muḥammad b. Tekish."}}</ref>]]
In 999 the Samanid Empire was conquered by an Islamic Turkic power, the [[Kara-Khanid Khanate]] (840–1212).<ref>Hanks, Reuel R. (2010), ''Global Security Watch: Central Asia'', Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford: Praeger, pp 4–5.</ref>

From 1212, the Kara-Khanids in Samarkand were conquered by the [[Khwarazmian Empire|Kwarazmians]]. Soon however, [[Mongol conquest of Khwarezmia|Khwarezmia was invaded]] by the early [[Mongol Empire]] and its ruler [[Genghis Khan]] [[Siege of Bukhara|destroyed]] the once vibrant cities of Bukhara and Samarkand.<ref>Sophie Ibbotson and Max Lovell-Hoare (2016), ''Uzbekistan'', 2nd edition, Bradt Travel Guides Ltd, pp 12–13, {{ISBN|978-1-78477-017-4}}.</ref> However, in 1370, Samarkand saw a revival as the capital of the [[Timurid Empire]]. The [[Turko-Mongol]] ruler [[Timur]] brought about the forced immigration to Samarkand of artisans and intellectuals from across Asia, transforming it not only into a trade hub but also into one of the most important cities of the Islamic world.<ref>Sophie Ibbotson and Max Lovell-Hoare (2016), ''Uzbekistan'', 2nd edition, Bradt Travel Guides Ltd, pp 14–15, {{ISBN|978-1-78477-017-4}}.</ref>

==Economy and diplomacy==
=== Central Asia and the Silk Road ===
{{Main|Sino-Persian relations|Cities along the Silk Road}}
{{multiple image| align = right | direction = horizontal | header = | header_align = left/right/center | footer = '''Left image''': a Sogdian [[silk]] [[brocade]] textile fragment, dated c. 700 AD<br /> '''Right image''': and a Sogdian [[silver]] wine cup with [[Mercury (element)|mercury]] [[gilding]], 7th century AD | footer_align = left | image1 = Sogdian-fragment-ca. 700 AD.jpg | caption1 = | image2 = Wine cup with elephant heads on ring handle, Sogdiana, probably Uzbekistan, early 7th century AD, hammered silver with mercury gilding - Freer Gallery of Art - DSC05588.JPG | total_width = 300| caption2 = }}
Most merchants did not travel the entire [[Silk Road]], but would trade goods through middlemen based in oasis towns, such as [[Khotan]] or [[Dunhuang]]. The Sogdians, however, established a trading network across the 1500 miles from Sogdiana to China. In fact, the Sogdians turned their energies to trade so thoroughly that the Saka of the [[Kingdom of Khotan]] called all merchants ''suli'', "Sogdian", whatever their culture or ethnicity.<ref name=wood>{{cite book|first=Francis|last=Wood|year= 2002|title= The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia|url=https://archive.org/details/silkroadtwothous0000wood|url-access=registration| publisher= University of California Press| location=Berkeley, CA| pages= [https://archive.org/details/silkroadtwothous0000wood/page/65 65–68]|isbn=978-0-520-24340-8}}</ref> The Sogdians had learnt to become expert traders from the Kushans, together with whom they initially controlled trade in the [[Ferghana Valley]] and [[Kangju]] during the 'birth' of the Silk Road. Later, they became the primary middlemen after the demise of the [[Kushan Empire]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dean |first=Riaz |title=The Stone Tower: Ptolemy, the Silk Road, and a 2,000-Year-Old Riddle |publisher=Penguin Viking |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-670-09362-5 |location=Delhi |pages=94–102 (Ch.9, Sogdian Traders) |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Vaissière |first=Étienne de La |title=Sogdian Traders: A History |publisher=Brill |year=2005 |isbn=90-04-14252-5 |location=Leiden |pages=32, 84, 91 |language=en|translator=James Ward}}</ref>

Unlike the empires of antiquity, the Sogdian region was not a territory confined within fixed borders, but rather a network of [[city-state]]s, from one oasis to another, linking Sogdiana to [[History of the Byzantine Empire|Byzantium]], [[History of India|India]], [[Indochina]] and [[History of China|China]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gorshenina |first1=Svetlana |author-link1=Svetlana Gorshenina |last2=Rapin |first2=Claude |author-link2=Claude Rapin |date=2001 |title=De Kaboul à Samarcande : Les archéologues en Asie centrale |series=Collection "[[Découvertes Gallimard]]" |volume=411 |location=Paris |publisher=Éditions Gallimard |page=104 |chapter=Chapitre 5 : Des Kouchans à l'Islam – Les Sogdiens sur la route de la soie |language=fr |isbn=978-2-07-076166-1}}</ref> Sogdian contacts with China were initiated by the embassy of the Chinese explorer [[Zhang Qian]] during the reign of [[Emperor Wu of Han|Emperor Wu]] (r. 141–87 BC) of the former [[Han dynasty]]. Zhang wrote a report of his visit to the [[Western Regions]] in Central Asia and named the area of Sogdiana as "[[Kangju]]".<ref>Watson, Burton (1993), ''Records of the Great Historian, Han Dynasty II'', Columbia University Press, p. 234, {{ISBN|0-231-08167-7}}; see also: Loewe, Michael, (2000), ''A Biographical Dictionary of the Qin, Former Han, and Xin Periods (221 BC – AD 24)'', Leiden, Boston, Koln: Koninklijke Brill NV, p 278, {{ISBN|90-04-10364-3}}.</ref>
{{multiple image| align = left | direction = horizontal | header = | header_align = left/right/center | footer = '''Left image''': Sogdian men feasting and eating at a banquet, from a wall mural of [[Panjakent]], Tajikistan, 7th century AD<br /> '''Right image''': Detail of a mural from [[Varakhsha]], 6th century AD, showing [[War elephant|elephant riders]] fighting [[tiger]]s and monsters.| footer_align = left | image1 = Hommes au banquet, pigment sur plâtre, Penjikent, Tadjikistan.jpg | width1 = 162 | caption1 = | image2 = Fregio rosso, palazzo di varakhsha, camera 11, pareti sud ed est (parz), VII-VIII sec, 03.JPG | total_width = 353| caption2  = }}

Following Zhang Qian's embassy and report, commercial Chinese relations with Central Asia and Sogdiana flourished,<ref name="megalithic"/> as many Chinese missions were sent throughout the 1st century BC. In his ''[[Shiji]]'' published in 94 BC, Chinese historian [[Sima Qian]] remarked that "the largest of these embassies to foreign states numbered several hundred persons, while even the smaller parties included over 100 members&nbsp;... In the course of one year anywhere from five to six to over ten parties would be sent out."<ref>[[Shiji]], trans. Burton Watson</ref> In terms of the silk trade, the Sogdians also served as middlemen between the Chinese Han Empire and the [[Parthian Empire]] of the Middle East and West Asia.<ref name="howard 2012 p133" /> Sogdians played a major role in facilitating trade between China and Central Asia along the Silk Roads as late as the 10th century, their language serving as a ''[[lingua franca]]'' for Asian trade as far back as the 4th century.<ref>Hanks, Reuel R. (2010), ''Global Security Watch: Central Asia'', Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford: Praeger, p. 3.</ref><ref>Mark J. Dresden (2003), "Sogdian Language and Literature", in Ehsan Yarshater, The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1219, {{ISBN|0-521-24699-7}}.</ref>

{{multiple image
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| footer            = '''Left image''': [[An Jia]], a Sogdian trader and official in China, depicted on [[Tomb of An Jia|his tomb]] in 579 AD.<br /> '''Right image''': [[Chinese ceramics|ceramic figurine]] of a Sogdian merchant in northern China, Tang dynasty, 7th century AD
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{{multiple image| align = right | direction = horizontal | header = | header_align = left/right/center | footer = '''Left image''': Sogdian coin, 6th century, [[British Museum]]<br /> '''Right image''': [[Ancient Chinese coinage|Chinese-influenced]] Sogdian coin, from [[Kelpin]], 8th century, British Museum| footer_align = left | image1 = SogdianCoin6thCentury.JPG | caption1 = | image2 = ChineseShapedSogdianCoinKelpin8thCenturyCE.jpg | total_width = 300| caption2 = }}

Subsequent to their domination by Alexander the Great, the Sogdians from the city of Marakanda ([[Samarkand]]) became dominant as traveling merchants, occupying a key position along the ancient Silk Road.<ref>Ahmed, S. Z. (2004), Chaghatai: the Fabulous Cities and People of the Silk Road, West Conshohocken: Infinity Publishing, pp 61–65.</ref> They played an active role in the spread of faiths such as [[Manicheism]], [[Zoroastrianism]], and [[Buddhism]] along the Silk Road. [[Chinese historiography|The Chinese]] ''Sui Shu'' (''[[Book of Sui]]'') describes Sogdians as "skilled merchants" who attracted many foreign traders to their land to engage in commerce.<ref name="howard 2012 p134">Howard, Michael C., ''Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies, the Role of Cross Border Trade and Travel'', McFarland & Company, 2012, p. 134.</ref> They were described by the Chinese as born merchants, learning their commercial skills at an early age. It appears from sources, such as documents found by Sir [[Aurel Stein]] and others, that by the 4th century they may have monopolized trade [[China–India relations|between India and China]]. A letter written by Sogdian merchants dated 313 AD and found in the ruins of a watchtower in [[Gansu]], was intended to be sent to merchants in [[Timeline of Samarkand|Samarkand]], warning them that after [[Liu Cong (Han Zhao)|Liu Cong]] of [[Han-Zhao]] sacked [[Luoyang]] and the [[Jin dynasty (265–420)|Jin emperor]] fled the capital, there was no worthwhile business there for Indian and Sogdian merchants.<ref name="dresden 1981 p3" /><ref name="howard 2012 pp133-34">Howard, Michael C., Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies, the Role of Cross Border Trade and Travel, McFarland & Company, 2012, pp 133–34.</ref> Furthermore, in 568 AD, a Turko-Sogdian delegation travelled to the Roman emperor in Constantinople to obtain permission to trade and in the following years commercial activity between the states flourished.<ref>J. Rose, 'The Sogdians: Prime Movers between Boundaries', Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, vol. 30, no. 3, (2010), p. 412</ref> Put simply, the Sogdians dominated trade along the Silk Road from the 2nd century BC until the 10th century.<ref name=wood />

[[Suyab]] and [[Taraz|Talas]] in modern-day [[Kyrgyzstan]] were the main Sogdian centers in the north that dominated the caravan routes of the 6th to 8th centuries.<ref>Grégoire Frumkin (1970), ''Archaeology in Soviet Central Asia'', Leiden, Koln: E. J. Brill, pp 35–37.</ref> Their commercial interests were protected by the resurgent military power of the [[Göktürks]], whose empire was built on the political power of the [[Ashina tribe|Ashina]] clan and economic clout of the Sogdians.<ref>Wink, André. ''Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World''. Brill Academic Publishers, 2002. {{ISBN|0-391-04173-8}}.</ref><ref name="Iranica">{{Encyclopædia Iranica|volume=online|last=de la Vaissiere |first=Étienne|url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sogdian-trade|title=Sogdian Trade|year=2004 |access-date=4 November 2011}}</ref><ref>Stark, Sören. ''Die Alttürkenzeit in Mittel- und Zentralasien''. Archäologische und historische Studien (Nomaden und Sesshafte, vol. 6). Reichert, 2008 {{ISBN|3-89500-532-0}}.</ref> Sogdian trade, with some interruptions, continued into the 9th century. For instance, camels, women, girls, silver, and gold were seized from Sogdia during a raid by [[Qapaghan Qaghan]] (692–716), ruler of the [[Second Turkic Khaganate]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Skaff |first=Jonathan Karam |date=2012 |title=Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors: Culture, Power, and Connections, 580–800 |series=Oxford Studies in Early Empires |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5OpoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA245 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=245 |isbn=978-0-19-987590-0 }}</ref> In the 10th century, Sogdiana was incorporated into the [[Uighur Empire]], which [[Kingdom of Qocho|until 840]] encompassed northern Central Asia. This [[khaganate]] obtained enormous deliveries of silk from Tang China in exchange for horses, in turn relying on the Sogdians to sell much of this silk further west.<ref name="liu 2001 p169" /> Peter B. Golden writes that the [[Uyghurs]] not only adopted the [[Sogdian alphabet|writing system]] and religious faiths of the Sogdians, such as Manichaeism, Buddhism, and Christianity, but also looked to the Sogdians as "mentors", while gradually replacing them in their roles as Silk Road traders and [[Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves|purveyors of culture]].<ref>Peter B. Golden (2011), ''Central Asia in World History'', Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, p. 47, {{ISBN|978-0-19-515947-9}}.</ref> [[Muslim geographers]] of the 10th century drew upon Sogdian records dating to 750–840. After the end of [[History of the Uyghur people|the Uyghur Empire]], Sogdian trade underwent a crisis. Following the [[Muslim conquest of Transoxiana]] in the 8th century, the [[Samanids]] resumed trade on the northwestern road leading to the [[Khazars]] and the [[Urals]] and the northeastern one toward the nearby Turkic tribes.<ref name="Iranica" />

During the 5th and 6th century, many Sogdians took up residence in the [[Hexi Corridor]], where they retained autonomy in terms of governance and had a designated official administrator known as a ''[[Sabao]]'', which suggests their importance to the socioeconomic structure of China. The Sogdian influence on trade in China is also made apparent by a Chinese document which lists taxes paid on caravan trade in the [[Turpan]] region and shows that twenty-nine out of the thirty-five commercial transactions involved Sogdian merchants, and in thirteen of those cases both the buyer and the seller were Sogdian.<ref>J. Rose, 'The Sogdians: Prime Movers between Boundaries', Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, vol. 30, no. 3, (2010), p. 416</ref> Trade goods brought to China included [[grape]]s, [[alfalfa]], and [[Sassanid Empire|Sassanian silverware]], as well as glass containers, Mediterranean coral, brass Buddhist images, Roman wool cloth, and [[Amber Road|Baltic amber]]. These were exchanged for Chinese paper, copper, and silk.<ref name=wood /> In the 7th century, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim [[Xuanzang]] noted with approval that Sogdian boys were taught to read and write at the age of five, though their skill was turned to trade, disappointing the scholarly Xuanzang. He also recorded the Sogdians working in other capacities such as farmers, carpetweavers, glassmakers, and woodcarvers.<ref>Wood 2002:66</ref>

=== Trade and diplomacy with the Byzantine Empire ===
{{Further|First Perso-Turkic War|Byzantine–Sasanian wars|Byzantine silk|Sogdian warriors|Sino-Roman relations|Byzantine-Mongol alliance|Europeans in Medieval China}}
[[File:Tang Dynasty emissaries at the court of Varkhuman in Samarkand carrying silk and a string of silkworm cocoons, 648-651 CE, Afrasiyab murals, Samarkand.jpg|thumb|Chinese silk in Sogdia: [[Tang dynasty]] emissaries at the court of the [[Ikhshids of Sogdia|Ikhshid of Sogdia]] [[Varkhuman]] in [[Samarkand]], carrying silk and a string of silkworm cocoons, circa 655 CE, [[Afrasiab murals]], Samarkand.]]
Shortly after the [[smuggling of silkworm eggs into the Byzantine Empire]] from China by [[Nestorian Christian]] monks, the 6th-century Byzantine historian [[Menander Protector]] writes of how the Sogdians attempted to establish a direct trade of Chinese [[silk]] with the [[Byzantine Empire]]. After forming an alliance with the Sasanian ruler [[Khosrow I]] to defeat the Hephthalite Empire, [[Istämi]], the [[Göktürk]] ruler of the [[First Turkic Khaganate]], was approached by Sogdian merchants requesting permission to seek an audience with the Sassanid king of kings for the privilege of traveling through Persian territories in order to trade with the Byzantines.<ref name="howard 2012 p133">Howard, Michael C., ''Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies'', the Role of Cross Border Trade and Travel, McFarland & Company, 2012, p. 133.</ref> Istämi refused the first request, but when he sanctioned the second one and had the Sogdian embassy sent to the Sassanid king, the latter had the members of the embassy poisoned.<ref name="howard 2012 p133" /> Maniah, a Sogdian diplomat, convinced Istämi to send an embassy directly to Byzantium's capital [[Constantinople]], which arrived in 568 and offered not only silk as a gift to Byzantine ruler [[Justin II]], but also proposed an alliance against Sassanid Persia. Justin II agreed and sent an embassy to the Turkic Khaganate, ensuring the direct silk trade desired by the Sogdians.<ref name="howard 2012 p133" /><ref name="liu 2001 p168" /><ref name="dresden 1981 p9" />

[[File:Lions, soie polychrome sogdienne, Asie centrale.jpg|thumb|left|A lion [[Motif (textile arts)|motif]] on Sogdian [[polychrome]] [[silk]], 8th century AD, most likely from [[Bukhara]].]]
It appears, however, that direct trade with the Sogdians remained limited in light of the small amount of [[Roman currency|Roman]] and [[Byzantine coins]] found in Central Asian and Chinese archaeological sites belonging to this era. Although [[Sino-Roman relations|Roman embassies]] apparently reached Han China from 166 AD onwards,<ref>de Crespigny, Rafe (2007), ''A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms (23–220 AD)'', Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, p. 600, {{ISBN|978-90-04-15605-0}}.</ref> and the [[Ancient Rome|ancient Romans]] imported Han Chinese silk while the Han dynasty Chinese imported [[Roman glass]]wares as discovered in their tombs,<ref>Brosius, Maria (2006), ''The Persians: An Introduction'', London & New York: Routledge, pp 122–123, {{ISBN|0-415-32089-5}}.</ref><ref>An, Jiayao (2002), "When Glass Was Treasured in China", in Juliano, Annette L. and Judith A. Lerner, ''Silk Road Studies: Nomads, Traders, and Holy Men Along China's Silk Road, 7'', Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, pp. 79–94, {{ISBN|2-503-52178-9}}.</ref> [[Valerie Hansen]] (2012) wrote that no Roman coins from the [[Roman Republic]] (507–27 BC) or the [[Principate]] (27 BC – 330 AD) era of the [[Roman Empire]] have been found in China.<ref name="hansen 2012 p97">Hansen, Valerie (2012), ''The Silk Road: A New History'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 97, {{ISBN|978-0-19-993921-3}}.</ref> However, [[Warwick Ball]] (2016) upends this notion by pointing to a hoard of sixteen Roman coins found at [[Xi'an]], China (formerly [[Chang'an]]), dated to the reigns of various emperors from [[Tiberius]] (14–37 AD) to [[Aurelian]] (270–275 AD).<ref name="ball 2016 p154">Warwick Ball (2016), ''Rome in the East: Transformation of an Empire'', 2nd edition, London & New York: Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0-415-72078-6}}, p. 154.</ref> The earliest gold [[Solidus (coin)|''solidus'' coins]] from the Eastern Roman Empire found in China date to the reign of Byzantine emperor [[Theodosius II]] (r. 408–450) and altogether only forty-eight of them have been found (compared to thirteen-hundred silver coins) in [[Xinjiang]] and the rest of China.<ref name="hansen 2012 p97" /> The use of silver coins in [[Turfan]] persisted long after the [[Tang campaign against Karakhoja]] and Chinese conquest of 640, with a gradual adoption of [[Ancient Chinese coinage|Chinese bronze coinage]] over the course of the 7th century.<ref name="hansen 2012 p97" /> The fact that these Eastern Roman coins were almost always found with [[Monetary history of Iran|Sasanian Persian silver coins]] and Eastern Roman gold coins were used more as ceremonial objects like [[talisman]]s, confirms the pre-eminent importance of [[Greater Iran]] in Chinese Silk Road commerce of Central Asia compared to Eastern Rome.<ref>Hansen, Valerie (2012), ''The Silk Road: A New History'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp 97–98, {{ISBN|978-0-19-993921-3}}.</ref>

===Sogdian traders in the Tarim Basin===
[[File:Cave 188, lunette, Central Asian foreigner.jpg|thumb|Central Asian foreigner worshipping [[Maitreya]], [[:Commons:Category:Buddha Cave (Cave 188)|Cave 188]]]]
The [[Kizil Caves]] near [[Kucha]], mid-way in the [[Tarim Basin]], record many scenes of traders from Central Asia in the 5–6th century: these combine influence from the Eastern Iran sphere, at that time occupied by the [[Sasanian Empire]] and the [[Hephthalites]], with strong Sogdian cultural elements.<ref name="EH48">{{cite book |last1=Hertel |first1=Herbert |title=Along the Ancient Silk Routes: Central Asian Art from the West Berlin State Museums |year=1982 |pages=48–49 |url=https://archive.org/details/AlongtheAncientSilkRoutesCentralAsianArtfromtheWestBerlinStateMuseums/page/n47/mode/2up}}</ref><ref name="CB99">{{cite book |last1=Baumer |first1=Christoph |title=History of Central Asia, The: 4-volume set |date=18 April 2018 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-83860-868-2 |pages=99, 484 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DhiWDwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA99}}</ref> Sogdia, at the center of a new [[Silk Road]] between China to the Sasanian Empire and the [[Byzantine Empire]] became extremely prosperous around that time.<ref>"Sogdiana under its nomadic elites became the principal center of agricultural wealth and population in Central Asia." and paragraph on "The Shift of the Trade Routes" in {{cite journal |last1=Vaissière |first1=Etienne de la |title=Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity: 5 Central Asia and the Silk Road |journal=In S. Johnson (Ed.), Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity, Oxford University Press, P. 142-169 |date=212 |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=144–160 |url=https://www.academia.edu/4824639}}</ref>

The style of this period in Kizil is characterized by strong Iranian-Sogdian elements probably brought with intense Sogdian-Tocharian trade, the influence of which is especially apparent in the Central-Asian [[caftan]]s with Sogdian textile designs, as well as Sogdian longswords of many of the figures.<ref name="CB165">{{cite book |last1=Baumer |first1=Christoph |title=History of Central Asia, The: 4-volume set |date=18 April 2018 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-83860-868-2 |page=165 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DhiWDwAAQBAJ&pg=RA1-PA165}}</ref> Other characteristic Sogdian designs are animals, such as ducks, within pearl medallions.<ref name="CB165"/>

<gallery widths="150px" heights="200px" perrow="5">
File:Dragon-King_Mabi_saving_traders,_Kizil_cave_14.jpg|Dragon-King Mabi saving traders, Cave 14, [[Kizil Caves]]
File:Dragon-King_Mabi_saving_traders,_Kizil_cave_17.jpg|Two-headed dragon capturing traders, Cave 17
Sab leading the way, Kizil Cave 17.jpg|Sab leading the way for the 500 traders, Kizil Cave 17.
</gallery>
{{clear}}

=== Sogdian merchants, generals, and statesmen in Imperial China ===
{{further|Iranians_in_China#Sogdians|Ethnic groups in Chinese history|Ethnic minorities in China|Western Regions}}
{{multiple image
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| footer = '''Left image''': kneeling Sogdian donors to the [[Buddha]] (fresco, with detail), [[Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves]], near [[Turpan]] in the eastern [[Tarim Basin]], China, 8th century <br />'''Right image''': Sogdians having a toast, with females wearing Chinese headdresses. [[Anyang funerary bed]], 550–577 AD.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Scaglia |first1=Gustina |title=Central Asians on a Northern Ch'i Gate Shrine |journal=Artibus Asiae |date=1958 |volume=21 |issue=1 |page=17 |doi=10.2307/3249023 |jstor=3249023 |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/3249023 |issn=0004-3648|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
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Aside from the Sogdians of Central Asia who acted as middlemen in the Silk Road trade, other Sogdians settled down in China for generations. Many Sogdians lived in [[Luoyang]], capital of the [[Jin dynasty (266–420)|Jin dynasty]] (266–420), but fled following the collapse of the Jin dynasty's control over northern China in 311 AD and the rise of northern nomadic tribes.<ref name="howard 2012 pp133-34" />

[[Aurel Stein]] discovered 5 letters written in Sogdian known as the "Ancient Letters" in an abandoned watchtower near Dunhuang in 1907. One of them was written by a Sogdian woman named [[Miwnay]] who had a daughter named Shayn and she wrote to her mother Chatis in Sogdia. Miwnay and her daughter were abandoned in China by Nanai-dhat, her husband who was also Sogdian like her. Nanai-dhat refused to help Miwnay and their daughter after forcing them to come with him to Dunhuang and then abandoning them, telling them they should serve the Han Chinese. Miwnay asked one of her husband's relative Artivan and then asked another Sogdian man, Farnkhund to help them but they also abandoned them. Miwnay and her daughter Shayn were then forced to became servants of Han Chinese after living on charity from a priest. Miwnay cursed her Sogdian husband for leaving her, saying she would rather have been married to a pig or dog.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/sogdlet.html |title=The Sogdian Ancient Letters 1, 2, 3, and 5 |others=translated by Prof. Nicholas Sims-Williams|website=Silk Road Seattle – University of Washington}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=5032|title= Aurel Stein Discovers the Sogdian "Ancient Letters" 313 CE to 314 CE|last=Norman |first=Jeremy |website=History of Information }}</ref><ref>Sogdian Ancient Letter No. 3. Reproduced from Susan Whitfield (ed.), The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith (2004) p. 248.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://sogdians.si.edu/ancient-letters/ |title=Ancient Letters |website=The Sogdians – Influencers on the Silk Roads |publisher= Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://kimon.hosting.nyu.edu/sogdians/items/show/869|title= Sogdian Ancient Letter III: Letter to Nanaidhat|last= Keramidas|first= Kimon|website= NYU|publisher= Telling the Sogdian Story: A Freer/Sackler Digital Exhibition Project|access-date= 19 April 2023|archive-date= 19 October 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231019174747/https://kimon.hosting.nyu.edu/sogdians/items/show/869|url-status= dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://ringmar.net/irhistorynew/index.php/welcome/introduction-4/from-temujin-to-genghis-khan/5-2-a-nomadic-state/5-3-how-to-conquer-the-world/5-4-dividing-it-all-up/sogdian-letters/|title= Sogdian letters |website= ringmar.net|date= 5 March 2021 |publisher=History of International Relations }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Vaissière|first=Étienne de la |date=2005 |title= Sogdian Traders: A History|url=https://brill.com/downloadpdf/book/9789047406990/BP000005.xml |series=Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 8 Uralic & Central Asian Studies|volume=10|publisher=Brill |chapter=Chapter Two About the Ancient Letters|pages=43–70 |isbn=978-90-47-40699-0|doi=10.1163/9789047406990_005}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | chapter-url=https://brill.com/display/book/9789047406990/BP000005.xml | doi=10.1163/9789047406990_005 | chapter=About the Ancient Letters | title=Sogdian Traders | year=2005 | pages=43–70 | publisher=Brill | isbn=9789047406990 | last1=Vaissière | first1=Étienne de la }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Livšic |first=Vladimir A. |editor1-last=Orlov |editor1-first=Andrei |editor2-last=Lourie|editor2-first=Basil |date=2009 |title =Symbola Caelestis: Le symbolisme liturgique et paraliturgique dans le monde chrétien |url= https://brill.com/downloadpdf/journals/scri/5/1/article-p344_21.xml|location= Piscataway|publisher=Gorgias Press |chapter=Sogdian "Ancient Letters" (II, IV, V)|pages=344–352 |isbn=9781463222543}}</ref> Another letter in the collection was written by the Sogdian Nanai-vandak addressed to Sogdians back home in Samarkand informing them about a mass rebellion by Xiongnu Hun rebels against their Han Chinese rulers of the Western Jin dynasty informing his people that every single one of the diaspora Sogdians and Indians in the Chinese Western Jin capital Luoyang died of starvation due to the uprising by the rebellious Xiongnu, who were formerly subjects of the Han Chinese. The Han Chinese emperor abandoned Luoyang when it came under siege by the Xiongnu rebels and his palace was burned down. Nanai-vandak also said the city of [[Ye (Hebei)|Ye]] was no more as the Xiongnu rebellion resulted in disaster for the Sogdian diaspora in China.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title= Ancient Letters|encyclopedia= Encyclopædia Iranica|date=15 December 1985 |last=Sims-Williams |first=N. |pages=7–9|volume=II|url=https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/ancient-letters }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= https://kimon.hosting.nyu.edu/sogdians/items/show/851|title= Sodgian Ancient Letter II|last= Keramidas|first= Kimon|website= NYU|publisher= Telling the Sogdian Story: A Freer/Sackler Digital Exhibition Project|access-date= 19 April 2023|archive-date= 25 September 2023|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230925174224/https://kimon.hosting.nyu.edu/sogdians/items/show/851|url-status= dead}}</ref> Han Chinese men frequently bought Sogdian slave girls for sexual relations.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1= Trombert|editor-first1= Eric|editor-last2= Vaissière|editor-first2=Étienne de la |last=Hansen|first=Valerie|date=2005|title=Les sogdiens en Chine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O44MAQAAMAAJ&q=Chinese+male+master+and+a+Sogdian+female+slave. |chapter= The Impact of the Silk Road Trade on a Local Community: The Turfan Oasis, 500–800|publisher=École française d'Extrême-Orient|pages=295–300 |isbn=9782855396538}}</ref>

[[File:Yingpan_man_(detail).jpg|thumb|upright|left|The [[Yingpan man]], [[Xinjiang]], China, 4th-5th century CE. He may have been a Sogdian trader.<ref name="RFG">{{cite book |last1=Cheang |first1=Sarah |last2=Greef |first2=Erica de |last3=Takagi |first3=Yoko |title=Rethinking Fashion Globalization |date=15 July 2021 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-350-18130-4 |page=101 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MostEAAAQBAJ&pg=PT101 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Tingting |last2=Fuller |first2=Benjamin T. |last3=Jiang |first3=Hongen |last4=Li |first4=Wenying |last5=Wei |first5=Dong |last6=Hu |first6=Yaowu |title=Revealing lost secrets about Yingpan Man and the Silk Road |journal=Scientific Reports |date=13 January 2022 |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=669 |doi=10.1038/s41598-021-04383-5 |pmid=35027587 |pmc=8758759 |bibcode=2022NatSR..12..669W |issn=2045-2322}}</ref>]]
Still, some Sogdians continued living in Gansu.<ref name="howard 2012 pp133-34"/> A community of Sogdians remained in the [[Northern Liang]] capital of [[Wuwei, Gansu|Wuwei]], but when the Northern Liang were defeated by the [[Northern Wei]] in 439 AD, many Sogdians were forcibly relocated to the Northern Wei capital of [[Datong]], thereby fostering exchanges and trade for the new dynasty.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Li |first1=Xiao |title=Studies on the History and Culture Along the Continental Silk Road |date=10 September 2020 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-981-15-7602-7 |page=11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DW78DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11 |language=en|quote="It is evident that when the Northern Wei defeated Northern Liang and seized its capital (439), they captured a large number of Sogdian merchants living in Wuwei and resettled them in Pingcheng (present-day Datong), the capital of the Northern Wei."}}</ref> Numerous [[:Commons:Category:Central Asian objects of Northern Wei tombs|Central Asian objects]] have been found in Northern Wei tombs, such as the tomb of [[Feng Hetu]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Watt |first1=James C. Y. |title=China: Dawn of a Golden Age, 200–750 AD |date=2004 |publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn=978-1-58839-126-1 |pages=148–160 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JbdS-R3y72MC&pg=PA148 |language=en}}</ref>

Other Sogdians came from the west and took positions in Chinese society. The ''[[Bei shi]]''<ref>ch. 92, p. 3047</ref> describes how a Sogdian came from Anxi (western Sogdiana or [[Parthia]]) to China and became a ''sabao'' (薩保, from [[Sanskrit]] ''sarthavaha'', meaning caravan leader)<ref name="liu 2001 p168">Liu, Xinru, "The Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Interactions in Eurasia", in ''Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History'', ed. Michael Adas, American Historical Association, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001, p. 168.</ref> who lived in Jiuquan during the [[Northern Wei]] (386 – 535 AD), and was the ancestor of An Tugen, a man who rose from a common merchant to become a top ranking minister of state for the [[Northern Qi]] (550 – 577 AD).<ref name="howard 2012 p134" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Vaissière |first1=Étienne de la |title=CHINESE-IRANIAN RELATIONS xiii. Eastern Iranian Migrations to China |url=https://iranicaonline.org/articles/chinese-iranian-xiii |website=iranicaonline.org}}</ref> Valerie Hansen asserts that around this time and extending into the [[Tang dynasty]] (618 – 907 AD), the Sogdians "became the most influential of the non-Chinese groups resident in China". Two different types of Sogdians came to China: envoys and merchants. Sogdian envoys settled, marrying Chinese women, purchasing land, with newcomers living there permanently instead of returning to their homelands in Sogdiana.<ref name="howard 2012 p134" /> They were concentrated in large numbers around Luoyang and Chang'an, and also [[Xiangyang]] in present-day [[Hubei]], building [[Zoroastrian]] [[Fire temple|temples]] to service their communities once they reached the threshold of roughly 100 households.<ref name="howard 2012 p134" /> From the Northern Qi to Tang periods, the leaders of these communities, the ''sabao'', were incorporated into the official hierarchy of state officials.<ref name="howard 2012 p134" />

During the 6–7th centuries AD, Sogdian families living in China created important tombs with funerary [[epitaph]]s explaining the history of their illustrious houses. Their burial practices blended both Chinese forms such as carved funerary beds with Zoroastrian sensibilities in mind, such as separating the body from both the earth and water.<ref>Howard, Michael C., ''Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies, the Role of Cross Border Trade and Travel'', McFarland & Company, 2012, pp 134–35.</ref> [[:Template:Sogdian tombs in China|Sogdian tombs in China]] are among the most lavish of the period in this country, and are only inferior to Imperial tombs, suggesting that the Sogdian ''Sabao'' were among the wealthiest members of the population.<ref name="FG">{{cite book |last1=GRENET |first1=Frantz |title=Histoire et cultures de l'Asie centrale préislamique |date=2020 |publisher=Collège de France |location=Paris, France |isbn=978-2-7226-0516-9 |url=https://journals.openedition.org/annuaire-cdf/pdf/15896|page=320|quote="Ce sont les décors funéraires les plus riches de cette époque, venant juste après ceux de la famille impériale; il est probable que les sabao étaient parmi les éléments les plus fortunés de la population. "}}</ref>

[[File:Huteng dancer.jpg|thumb|[[Sogdian language|Sogdian]] ''[[Huteng]]'' dancer, [[:Commons:Category:Pagoda of Xiuding Temple|Xiuding temple pagoda]], [[Anyang]], [[Hunan]], China, [[Tang dynasty]], 7th century.]]
In addition to being merchants, monks, and government officials, Sogdians also served as soldiers in the Tang military.<ref name="howard 2012 p135">Howard, Michael C., ''Transnationalism in Ancient and Medieval Societies, the Role of Cross Border Trade and Travel'', McFarland & Company, 2012, p. 135.</ref> [[An Lushan]], whose father was Sogdian and mother a Gokturk, rose to the position of a military governor (''[[jiedushi]]'') in the northeast before leading the [[An Lushan Rebellion]] (755 – 763 AD), which split the loyalties of the Sogdians in China.<ref name="howard 2012 p135" /> The An Lushan rebellion was supported by many Sogdians, and in its aftermath many of them were slain or changed their names to escape their Sogdian heritage, so that little is known about the Sogdian presence in North China since that time.<ref>J. Rose, 'The Sogdians: Prime Movers between Boundaries', Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, vol. 30, no. 3, (2010), p. 417</ref> The former Yan rebel general Gao Juren of [[Goguryeo]] descent ordered a mass slaughter of West Asian (Central Asian) [[Sogdians]] in Fanyang, also known as [[Jicheng (Beijing)]], in Youzhou [[Ethnic issues in China#History|identifying them through their big noses]] and lances were used to impale their children when he rebelled against the rebel Yan emperor Shi Chaoyi [[An Lushan Rebellion#Implosion of Yan and end of the rebellion|and defeated rival Yan dynasty forces under the Turk Ashina Chengqing]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hansen |first1=Valerie |date=2003 |title=New Work on the Sogdians, the Most Important Traders on the Silk Road, A.D. 500–1000 |jstor=4528925|journal=T'oung Pao |volume=89 |issue=1/3 |page=158 |doi= 10.1163/156853203322691347}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hansen |first1=Valerie |title=The Silk Road: A New History |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-021842-3 |pages=157–158 |edition=illustrated, reprint |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FDdRDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA157 |chapter=Chapter 5 – The Cosmopolitan Terminus of the Silk Road}}</ref> High nosed Sogdians were slaughtered in Youzhou in 761. Youzhou had Linzhou, another "protected" prefecture attached to it and Sogdians lived there in great numbers.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Morrow |first=Kenneth T. |date=May 2019 |title=Negotiating Belonging: The Church of the East's Contested Identity in Tang China |type=Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History of Ideas |chapter= |publisher=The University of Texas at Dallas |docket= |oclc= |url=https://utd-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/10735.1/6946/ETD-5608-017-MORROW-260204.19.pdf |pages=110, 111|access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=de la Vaissière |first=Étienne|author-link= |date=2018 |title=Sogdian Traders: A History |series=Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 8 Uralic & Central Asian Studies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cqWODwAAQBAJ&pg=PA220 |location= |publisher= Brill|page=220 |isbn=978-90-474-0699-0}}</ref> because Gao Juren, like Tian Shengong wanted to defect to the Tang dynasty and wanted them to publicly recognize and acknowledge him as a regional warlord and offered the slaughter of the Central Asian Hu "barbarians" as a blood sacrifice for the Tang court to acknowledge his allegiance without him giving up territory. according to the book, "History of An Lushan" (安祿山史記).<ref>{{cite thesis |last= Chamney|first=Lee |date= |title=The An Shi Rebellion and Rejection of the Other in Tang China, 618–763 |type= A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of History and Classics|chapter= |publisher=University of Alberta Libraries |docket= |oclc= |pages=93, 94|citeseerx=10.1.1.978.1069 }}</ref><ref>History of An Lushan (An Lushan Shiji 安祿山史記) "唐鞠仁今城中殺胡者重賞﹐於是羯胡盡殪﹐小兒擲於中空以戈_之。高鼻類胡而濫死者甚眾"</ref> Another source says the slaughter of the Hu barbarians serving [[Ashina Chengqing]] was done by Gao Juren in Fanyang in order to deprive him of his support base, since the Tiele, Tongluo, Sogdians and Turks were all Hu and supported the Turk Ashina Chengqing against the Mohe, Xi, Khitan and Goguryeo origin soldiers led by Gao Juren. Gao Juren was later killed by Li Huaixian, who was loyal to Shi Chaoyi.<ref>[https://www.163.com/dy/article/F4S4NUB7052384UI.html "成德军的诞生：为什么说成德军继承了安史集团的主要遗产" in 时拾史事 2020-02-08]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=AdjzDwAAQBAJ&q=%E8%93%9F%E9%97%A8%E5%86%85%E4%B9%B1&pg=PT423 李碧妍, 《危机与重构：唐帝国及其地方诸侯》2015-08-01]</ref> A massacre of foreign Arab and Persian Muslim merchants by former Yan rebel general [[Tian Shengong]] happened during the An Lushan rebellion in the [[Yangzhou massacre (760)]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wan |first1=Lei |year=2017 |title=The earliest Muslim communities in China |series=Qiraat No. 8 (February – March 2017) |publisher=King Faisal Center For Research and Islamic Studies |isbn=978-603-8206-39-3 |page=11 |url=https://www.kfcris.com/pdf/6b438689cf0f36eb4ce727e76d747c3d5af140055feaf.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220210005920/https://www.kfcris.com/pdf/6b438689cf0f36eb4ce727e76d747c3d5af140055feaf.pdf |archive-date=10 February 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Qi|2010|p=221-227}} since Tian Shengong was defecting to the Tang dynasty and wanted them to publicly recognized and acknowledge him, and the Tang court portrayed the war as between rebel hu barbarians of the Yan against Han Chinese of the Tang dynasty, Tian Shengong slaughtered foreigners as a blood sacrifice to prove he was loyal to the Han Chinese Tang dynasty state and for them to recognize him as a regional warlord without him giving up territory, and he killed other foreign Hu barbarian ethnicities as well whose ethnic groups were not specified, not only Arabs and Persians since it was directed against all foreigners.<ref>{{cite thesis |last= Chamney|first=Lee |date= |title=The An Shi Rebellion and Rejection of the Other in Tang China, 618–763 |type= A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of History and Classics|chapter= |publisher=University of Alberta Libraries |docket= |oclc= |url= https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/d0d042f4-42df-407d-add7-567543d720a1/view/ef1dbd57-a18a-4436-97a6-a6084c17a8d9/Lee-20Chamney-20Thesis-20final-20draft.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200218121905/https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/d0d042f4-42df-407d-add7-567543d720a1/view/ef1dbd57-a18a-4436-97a6-a6084c17a8d9/Lee-20Chamney-20Thesis-20final-20draft.pdf |archive-date=18 February 2020 |url-status=live|pages=91, 92, 93|access-date=}}</ref><ref>[[Old Tang History]] "至揚州，大掠百姓商人資產，郡內比屋發掘略遍，商胡波斯被殺者數千人" "商胡大食, 波斯等商旅死者數千人波斯等商旅死者數千人."</ref>

Sogdians continued as active traders in China following the defeat of the rebellion, but many of them were compelled to hide their ethnic identity. A prominent case was An Chongzhang, Minister of War, and Duke of Liang who, in 756, asked [[Emperor Suzong of Tang]] to allow him to change his name to [[Li Baoyu]] because of his shame in sharing [[An (surname)|the same surname]] with the rebel leader.<ref name="howard 2012 p135" /> This change of surnames was enacted retroactively for all of his family members, so that his ancestors would also be bestowed the [[Li (surname)|surname Li]].<ref name="howard 2012 p135" />

The [[Nestorian]] Christians like the [[Bactria]]n Priest Yisi of [[Balkh]] helped the Tang dynasty general [[Guo Ziyi]] militarily crush the An Lushan rebellion, with Yisi personally acting as a military commander and Yisi and the Nestorian Church of the East were rewarded by the Tang dynasty with titles and positions as described in the [[Nestorian Stele]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Scott Fitzgerald |date= 26 May 2017 |title=Silk Road Christians and the Translation of Culture in Tang China |url=https://cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-church-history/article/abs/silk-road-christians-and-the-translation-of-culture-in-tang-china/D8E48283153EA2E3C38AF5D36E238A0D |journal=Studies in Church History |volume=53 |issue= |pages=15–38 |publisher=Published online by Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/stc.2016.3 |s2cid=164239427 |access-date=|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Tang|editor1-first=Li |editor2-last=Winkler |editor2-first= Dietmar W. |last=Deeg |first=Max |author-link= |date=2013 |title=From the Oxus River to the Chinese Shores: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VYaMuV3N5vUC&dq=yisi+stele+guo+lushan&pg=PA113 |location= |publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|edition=illustrated |page=113 |chapter=A BELLIGERENT PRIEST – YISI AND HIS POLITICAL CONTEXT |isbn=978-3-643-90329-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Deeg |first1= Max |date=2007 |title=The Rhetoric of Antiquity. Politico-Religious Propaganda in the Nestorian Steleof Chang'an 安長 |journal=Journal for Late Antique Religion and Culture |volume=1 |issue= |pages=17–30 |issn=1754-517X|doi= 10.18573/j.2007.10291|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Godwin |first=R. Todd |author-link= |date=2018 |title=Persian Christians at the Chinese Court: The Xi'an Stele and the Early Medieval Church of the East |series= Library of Medieval Studies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wbmKDwAAQBAJ&dq=yisi+stele+guo+lushan&pg=PT179 |location= |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |page= |isbn=978-1-78672-316-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chin |first1=Ken-pa |date=26 September 2019 |title=Jingjiao under the Lenses of Chinese Political Theology |journal=Religions |volume=10 |issue=10 |pages=551 |doi=10.3390/rel10100551|location=Department of Philosophy, Fu Jen Catholic University, New Taipei City 24205, Taiwan |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Lippiello |first=Tiziana |editor1-last=Hoster |editor1-first=Barbara |editor2-last=Kuhlmann|editor2-first=Dirk |editor3-last=Wesolowski|editor3-first=Zbigniew |author-link= |date=2017 |title=Rooted in Hope: China – Religion – Christianity Vol 1: Festschrift in Honor of Roman Malek S.V.D. on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday |series=Monumenta Serica Monograph Series|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iYmjDgAAQBAJ&dq=yisi+stele+guo&pg=PT300 |location= |publisher=Routledge |page=|chapter=On the Difficult Practice of the Mean in Ordinary Life Teachings From the Zhongyong* |isbn=978-1-351-67277-1}}</ref>

[[Amoghavajra]] used his rituals against An Lushan while staying in Chang'an when it was occupied in 756 while the Tang dynasty crown prince and Xuanzong emperor had retreated to Sichuan. Amoghavajra's rituals were explicitly intended to introduced death, disaster and disease against An Lushan.<ref>{{cite book |last=Goble |first=Geoffrey C. |author-link= |date=2019 |title= Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra, the Ruling Elite, and the Emergence of a Tradition |series=The Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Buddhist Studies |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=tImQDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22rituals+that+brought+disease%2C+disaster%2C+and+death+to+one%27s+enemies%22&pg=PT20 |publisher=Columbia University Press |pages= 10, 11|isbn=978-0-231-55064-2}}</ref> As a result of Amoghavajrya's assistance in crushing An Lushan, Estoteric Buddhism became the official state Buddhist sect supported by the Tang dynasty, "Imperial Buddhism" with state funding and backing for writing scriptures, and constructing monasteries and temples. The disciples of Amoghavajra did ceremonies for the state and emperor.<ref>{{cite book |last=Goble |first=Geoffrey C. |author-link= |date=2019 |title= Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra, the Ruling Elite, and the Emergence of a Tradition |series=The Sheng Yen Series in Chinese Buddhist Studies |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=tImQDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22its+monasteries+were+established+by+the+state+over+several+centuries+in+order+to+supernormally+benefit+the+Chinese+imperium%22&pg=PT21 |location=|publisher=Columbia University Press |pages=11, 12|isbn=978-0-231-55064-2}}</ref> Tang dynasty Emperor Suzong was crowned as [[cakravartin]] by Amoghavajra after victory against An Lushan in 759 and he had invoked the Acala vidyaraja against An Lushan. The Tang dynasty crown prince Li Heng (later Suzong) also received important strategic military information from Chang'an when it was occupied by An Lushan though secret message sent by Amoghavajra.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Heirman |editor1-first=Ann |editor2-last=Bumbacher |editor2-first=Stephan Peter |last=Lehnert |first=Martin |author-link= |date=2007 |volume=16 of Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 8 Uralic & Central Asian Studies (Volume 16 of Handbuch der Orientalistik: Achte Abteilung, Central Asia) (Volume 16 of Handbuch der Orientalistik. 8, Zentralasien)|title=The Spread of Buddhism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kr_M1e7yImoC&dq=%22Though+Amoghavajra+had+been+detained+in+the+occupied+capital+he+was+able+to+secretly+communicate+strategically+sensitive+information+to+Li+Heng%22&pg=PA262 |location= |publisher=BRILL |page=262 |chapter= Antric Threads Between India and China 1. Tantric Buddhism—Approaches and Reservations|isbn=978-90-04-15830-6}}</ref>

Epitaphs were found dating from the Tang dynasty of a Christian couple in [[Luoyang]] of a Nestorian Christian Sogdian woman, who Lady An (安氏) who died in 821 and her Nestorian Christian Han Chinese husband, Hua Xian (花献) who died in 827. These Han Chinese Christian men may have married Sogdian Christian women because of a lack of Han Chinese women belonging to the Christian religion, limiting their choice of spouses among the same ethnicity.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Morrow |first=Kenneth T. |date=May 2019 |title=Negotiating Belonging: The Church of the East's Contested Identity in Tang China |type=Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History of Ideas |chapter= |publisher=THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS |docket= |oclc= |url=https://utd-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/10735.1/6946/ETD-5608-017-MORROW-260204.19.pdf |pages=109–135, viii, xv, 156, 164, 115, 116|access-date=}}</ref> Another epitaph in Luoyang of a Nestorian Christian Sogdian woman also surnamed An was discovered and she was put in her tomb by her military officer son on 22 January 815. This Sogdian woman's husband was surnamed He (和) and he was a Han Chinese man and the family was indicated to be multiethnic on the epitaph pillar.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Morrow |first=Kenneth T. |date=May 2019 |title=Negotiating Belonging: The Church of the East's Contested Identity in Tang China |type=Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History of Ideas |chapter= |publisher=The University of Texas at Dallas|docket= |oclc= |url=https://utd-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/10735.1/6946/ETD-5608-017-MORROW-260204.19.pdf |pages=155–156, 149, 150, viii, xv |access-date=}}</ref> In Luoyang, the mixed raced sons of Nestorian Christian Sogdian women and Han Chinese men has many career paths available for them. Neither their mixed ethnicity nor their faith were barriers and they were able to become civil officials, a military officers and openly celebrated their Christian religion and support Christian monasteries.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Morrow |first=Kenneth T. |date=May 2019 |title=Negotiating Belonging: The Church of the East's Contested Identity in Tang China |type=Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of The University of Texas at Dallas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History of Ideas |chapter= |publisher=The University of Texas at Dallas |docket= |oclc= |url=https://utd-ir.tdl.org/bitstream/handle/10735.1/6946/ETD-5608-017-MORROW-260204.19.pdf |pages=164|access-date=}}</ref>

[[File:Northern Zhou Dynasty Tomb of Shijun (roof reconstructed).jpg|thumb|The [[tomb of Wirkak]], a Sogdian official in China. Built in [[Xi'an]] in 580 AD, during the [[Northern Zhou]] dynasty. [[Xi'an City Museum]].]]
During the Tang and subsequent [[Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms|Five Dynasties]] and [[Song dynasty]], a large community of Sogdians also existed in the multicultural ''[[entrepôt]]'' of Dunhuang, Gansu, a major center of Buddhist learning and home to the Buddhist [[Mogao Caves]].<ref>Galambos, Imre (2015), "''She'' Association Circulars from Dunhuang", in Antje Richter, ''A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture'', Brill: Leiden, Boston, pp 870–71.</ref> Although Dunhuang and the Hexi Corridor were captured by the [[Tibetan Empire]] after the An Lushan Rebellion, in 848 the ethnic Han Chinese general [[Zhang Yichao]] (799–872) managed to wrestle control of the region from [[Era of Fragmentation|the Tibetans during their civil war]], establishing the [[Guiyi Circuit]] under [[Emperor Xuānzong of Tang]] (r. 846–859).<ref>Taenzer, Gertraud (2016), "Changing Relations between Administration, Clergy and Lay People in Eastern Central Asia: a Case Study According to the Dunhuang Manuscripts Referring to the Transition from Tibetan to Local Rule in Dunhuang, 8th–11th Centuries", in Carmen Meinert, ''Transfer of Buddhism Across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th Centuries)'', Leiden, Boston: Brill, pp 35–37.</ref><ref name=ZZTJ249>''[[Zizhi Tongjian]]'', [[:zh:s:資治通鑑/卷249|vol. 249]].</ref> Although the region occasionally fell under the rule of different states, it retained its multilingual nature as evidenced by an abundance of manuscripts (religious and secular) in [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[Tibetan languages|Tibetan]], but also [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]], [[Saka language|Khotanese]] (another [[Eastern Iranian language]] native to [[Western Regions|the region]]), [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]], and [[Sanskrit]].<ref>Galambos, Imre (2015), "''She'' Association Circulars from Dunhuang", in Antje Richter, ''A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture'', Brill: Leiden, Boston, p 871.</ref>

There were nine prominent Sogdian clans (昭武九姓). The names of these clans have been deduced from the [[Chinese surname]]s listed in a [[Dunhuang manuscripts|Tang-era Dunhuang manuscript]] (Pelliot chinois 3319V).<ref name="hansen 2012 p98" /> Each "clan" name refers to a different city-state as the Sogdian used the name of their hometown as their Chinese surname.<ref>Galambos, Imre (2015), "''She'' Association Circulars from Dunhuang", in Antje Richter, ''A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture'', Brill: Leiden, Boston, pp 871–72.</ref> Of these the most common Sogdian surname throughout China was [[Shí (surname)|Shí]] (石, generally given to those from Chach, modern [[Tashkent]]). The following surnames also appear frequently on Dunhuang manuscripts and registers: [[Shǐ (surname)|Shǐ]] (史, from Kesh, modern [[Shahrisabz]]), [[An (surname)|An]] (安, from Bukhara), [[Mi (surname)|Mi]] (米, from [[Panjakent]]), [[Kang (Chinese surname)|Kāng]] (康, from [[Samarkand]]), [[Cao (Chinese surname)|Cáo]] (曹, from Kabudhan, north of the [[Zeravshan River]]), and [[Hé]] (何, from Kushaniyah).<ref name="hansen 2012 p98" /><ref>Galambos, Imre (2015), "''She'' Association Circulars from Dunhuang", in Antje Richter, ''A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture'', Brill: Leiden, Boston, p. 872.</ref>

[[File:Tang Sancai Porcelain with Musicians on a Camel (no background).jpg|thumb|A [[Tang dynasty]] ''[[sancai]]'' statuette of Sogdian merchants riding on a [[Bactrian camel]], 723 AD, [[Xi'an]].]]
The influence of [[Sinicized]] and multilingual Sogdians during this ''Guiyijun'' (歸義軍) period (c. 850 – c. 1000 AD) of Dunhuang is evident in a large number of manuscripts written in [[Chinese characters]] from left to right instead of vertically, mirroring the direction of how the [[Sogdian alphabet]] is read.<ref>Galambos, Imre (2015), "''She'' Association Circulars from Dunhuang", in Antje Richter, ''A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture'', Brill: Leiden, Boston, pp 870, 873.</ref> Sogdians of Dunhuang also commonly formed and joined lay associations among their local communities, convening at Sogdian-owned [[tavern]]s in scheduled meetings mentioned in their [[epistle|epistolary letters]].<ref>Galambos, Imre (2015), "''She'' Association Circulars from Dunhuang", in Antje Richter, ''A History of Chinese Letters and Epistolary Culture'', Brill: Leiden, Boston, pp 872–73.</ref> Sogdians living in Turfan under the Tang dynasty and [[Gaochang]] Kingdom engaged in a variety of occupations that included: farming, military service, painting, [[leather crafting]] and selling products such as iron goods.<ref name="hansen 2012 p98" /> The Sogdians had been migrating to Turfan since the 4th century, yet the pace of migration began to climb steadily with the [[Muslim conquest of Persia]] and [[Fall of the Sasanian Empire]] in 651, followed by the Islamic conquest of Samarkand in 712.<ref name="hansen 2012 p98" />

== Language and culture ==
The 6th century is thought to be the peak of Sogdian culture, judging by its highly developed artistic tradition. By this point, the Sogdians were entrenched in their role as the central Asian traveling and trading merchants, transferring goods, culture and religion.<ref>Luce Boulnois (2005), ''Silk Road: Monks, Warriors & Merchants'', Odyssey Books, pp 239–241, {{ISBN|962-217-721-2}}.</ref> During the [[Middle Ages]], the [[Zarafshan Range|valley of the Zarafshan]] around Samarkand retained its Sogdian name, Samarkand.<ref name="encyclopedia britannica">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Sogdiana}}</ref> According to the ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|Encyclopædia Britannica]]'', medieval [[Arab geographers]] considered it one of the four fairest regions of the world.<ref name="encyclopedia britannica" /> Where the Sogdians moved in considerable numbers, their language made a considerable impact. For instance, [[History of the Han dynasty|during China's Han dynasty]], the native name of the Tarim Basin city-state of [[Loulan]] was "Kroraina", possibly [[Greek language|from Greek]] due to [[Indo-Greek Kingdom|nearby Hellenistic influence]].<ref>Kazuo Enoki (1998), "Yü-ni-ch'êng and the Site of Lou-Lan", and "The Location of the Capital of Lou-Lan and the Date of the Kharoshthi Inscriptions", in Rokuro Kono (ed.), ''Studia Asiatica: The Collected Papers in Western Languages of the Late Dr. Kazuo Enoki'', Tokyo: Kyu-Shoin, pp 200, 211–57.</ref> However, centuries later in 664 AD, the Tang Chinese Buddhist monk [[Xuanzang]] labelled it as "Nafupo" (納縛溥), which according to Hisao Matsuda is a transliteration of the Sogdian word ''Navapa'' meaning "new water".<ref>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, pp 20–21 footnote #38, {{ISSN|2157-9687}}.</ref>

=== Art ===
{{main article|Sogdian art}}{{see also|Art of Central Asia}}
The [[Afrasiab painting]]s of the 6th to 7th centuries in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, offer a rare surviving example of Sogdian art. The paintings, showing scenes of daily life and events such as the arrival of foreign ambassadors, are located within the ruins of aristocratic homes. It is unclear if any of these palatial residences served as the official palace of the rulers of Samarkand.<ref>A. M. Belenitskii and B. I. Marshak (1981), "Part One: the Paintings of Sogdiana" in Guitty Azarpay, ''Sogdian Painting: the Pictorial Epic in Oriental Art'', Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, p. 47, {{ISBN|0-520-03765-0}}.</ref> The oldest surviving Sogdian monumental wall murals date to the 5th century and are located at Panjakent, Tajikistan.<ref>A. M. Belenitskii and B. I. Marshak (1981), "Part One: the Paintings of Sogdiana" in Guitty Azarpay, ''Sogdian Painting: the Pictorial Epic in Oriental Art'', Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, p. 13, {{ISBN|0-520-03765-0}}.</ref> In addition to revealing aspects of their social and political lives, Sogdian art has also been instrumental in aiding historians' understanding of their religious beliefs. For instance, it is clear that Buddhist Sogdians incorporated some of their own [[Persian mythology|Iranian deities]] into their version of the [[Buddhist Pantheon]]. At [[Zhetysu]], Sogdian [[gilded]] bronze plaques on a [[Buddhist temple]] show a pairing of a male and female deity with outstretched hands holding a miniature [[camel]], a common non-Buddhist image similarly found in the paintings of Samarkand and Panjakent.<ref>A. M. Belenitskii and B. I. Marshak (1981), "Part One: the Paintings of Sogdiana" in Guitty Azarpay, ''Sogdian Painting: the Pictorial Epic in Oriental Art'', Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, pp 34–35, {{ISBN|0-520-03765-0}}.</ref>

=== Language ===
{{main article|Sogdian language}}
[[File:Rubbing of Epitaph of the Sa-pao Wirkak (Part 1).jpg|thumb|upright=2|Epitaph in Sogdian by the sons of [[Wirkak]], a Sogdian merchant and official who died in China in 580 CE.]]
The Sogdians spoke an [[Eastern Iranian]] language called Sogdian, closely related to [[Bactrian language|Bactrian]], [[Khwarezmian language|Khwarazmian]], and the [[Kingdom of Khotan|Khotanese]] [[Saka language]], widely spoken Eastern Iranian languages of Central Asia in ancient times.<ref name="dresden 1981 p5" /><ref name="tafazzoli 2003 p323">Tafazzoli, A. (2003), "Iranian Languages", in C. E. Bosworth and M. S. Asimov, ''History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume IV: The Age of Achievement, A.D. 750 to the End of the Fifteenth Century'', Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, p 323.</ref> Sogdian was also prominent in the [[oasis]] city-state of [[Turfan]] in the [[Tarim Basin]] region of [[Northwest China]] (in modern [[Xinjiang]]).<ref name="tafazzoli 2003 p323" /> Judging by the Sogdian [[Bugut inscription]] of [[Mongolia]] written c. 581, the Sogdian language was also an official language of the First Turkic Khaganate established by the [[Gokturks]].<ref name="dresden 1981 p9">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. 9, {{ISBN|0-520-03765-0}}.</ref><ref name="tafazzoli 2003 p323" />

Sogdian was written largely in three scripts: the [[Sogdian alphabet]], the [[Syriac alphabet]], and the [[Manichaean alphabet]], each derived from the [[Aramaic alphabet]],<ref>Tafazzoli, A. (2003), "Iranian Languages", in C. E. Bosworth and M. S. Asimov, ''History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume IV: The Age of Achievement, A.D. 750 to the End of the Fifteenth Century'', Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, pp 325–26.</ref><ref>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 5–6, {{ISBN|0-520-03765-0}}.</ref> which had been widely used in both the [[Achaemenid]] and [[Parthian Empire|Parthian]] empires of ancient Iran.<ref name="baumer 2012 pp202-203">Christoph Baumer (2012), ''The History of Central Asia: the Age of the Steppe Warriors'', London, New York: I.B. Tauris, p. 202–203, {{ISBN|978-1-78076-060-5}}.</ref><ref>Boyce, Mary (1983), "Parthian Writings and Literature", in Ehsan Yarshater, ''Cambridge History of Iran, 3.2'', London & New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1151–1152. {{ISBN|0-521-20092-X}}.</ref> The script they used was based on the religion to which they belonged. Manichaeans used the Manichaean script while the Christians used the Syriac script. They both sometimes wrote in the Sogdian script.<ref>{{Cite book |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |publisher=UNESCO |year=2006 |isbn=978-9231032110 |pages=255}}</ref> The Sogdian alphabet formed the basis of the [[Old Uyghur alphabet]] of the 8th century, which in turn was used to create the [[Mongolian script]] of the early [[Mongol Empire]] during the 13th century.<ref>Tafazzoli, A. (2003), "Iranian Languages", in C. E. Bosworth and M. S. Asimov, ''History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume IV: The Age of Achievement, A.D. 750 to the End of the Fifteenth Century'', Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, p 325.</ref> Later in 1599, the Jurchen leader Nurhaci decided to convert the Mongolian alphabet to make it suitable for the [[Manchu people]].

The [[Yaghnobi people]] living in the [[Sughd]] province of [[Tajikistan]] still speak [[Yaghnobi language|a descendant of the Sogdian language]].<ref name="dresden 2003 p1217" /><ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Bergne|title=The Birth of Tajikistan: National Identity and the Origins of the Republic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3coojMwTKU8C&pg=PA6|date=15 June 2007|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-84511-283-7|pages=6–}}</ref> Yaghnobi is largely a continuation of the medieval Sogdian dialect from the [[Osrushana]] region of the western [[Fergana Valley]].<ref>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 & 5, {{ISBN|0-520-03765-0}}.</ref> The great majority of the Sogdian people assimilated with other local groups such as the Bactrians, [[Kwaresm|Chorasmians]], and [[Persians]], and came to speak Persian. In 819, the Persian speaking population founded the Samanid Empire in the region. They are among the ancestors of the modern [[Tajiks]]. Numerous Sogdian [[cognate]]s can be found in the modern Tajik language, although the latter is a [[Western Iranian language]].

=== Clothing ===
[[File:Sogdian New Year Festival, Northern Qi.jpg|thumb|Sogdians, depicted on the [[Anyang funerary bed]], a Sogdian sarcophagus in China during the [[Northern Qi]] dynasty (550–577 AD). [[Guimet Museum]].]]
Early medieval Sogdian costumes can be divided in two periods: [[Hephthalite|Hephtalitic]] (5th and 6th centuries) and Turkic (7th and early 8th centuries). The latter did not become common immediately after the political dominance of the [[Gökturks]] but only in c. 620 when, especially following [[Western Turkic Khaganate|Western Turkic]] Khagan [[Tong Yabghu Qaghan|Ton-jazbgu]]'s reforms, Sogd was Turkized and the local nobility was officially included in the Khaganate's administration.<ref name="YatsenkoSogdianCostume">{{cite journal|url=http://www.transoxiana.org/Eran/Articles/yatsenko.html |first=Sergey A. |last=Yatsenko |title=The Late Sogdian Costume (the 5th – 8th centuries) |journal=Transoxiana |issue=Webfestschrift Marshak |year=2003}}</ref>

For both sexes clothes were tight-fitted, and narrow waists and wrists were appreciated. The silhouettes for grown men and young girls emphasized wide shoulders and narrowed to the waist; the silhouettes for female aristocrats were more complicated. The Sogdian clothing underwent a thorough process of Islamization in the ensuing centuries, with few of the original elements remaining. In their stead, turbans, [[kaftan]]s, and sleeved coats became more common.<ref name="YatsenkoSogdianCostume" />

=== Religious beliefs ===
{{further|Silk Road transmission of Buddhism|Mar Ammo|Bible translations into Sogdian}}
Our knowledge of religions in Sogdiana comes from works of art, funerary monuments and writings.<ref>{{Cite book |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |publisher=UNESCO |year=2006 |isbn=978-9231032110 |pages=249}}</ref> The Sogdians practiced a variety of religious faiths. Zoroastrianism, However was most likely their main religion, as demonstrated by material evidence, such as the discovery in Samarkand, Panjakent and Er-Kurgan of murals depicting votaries making offerings before fire altars and [[ossuaries]] holding the bones of the dead – in accordance with Zoroastrian ritual. At [[Turfan]], Sogdian burials shared similar features with traditional Chinese practices, yet they still retained essential Zoroastrian rituals, such as [[Tower of Silence|allowing the bodies to be picked clean]] by [[scavenger]]s before burying the bones in ossuaries.<ref name="hansen 2012 p98">Hansen, Valerie (2012), ''The Silk Road: A New History'', Oxford University Press, p. 98, {{ISBN|978-0-19-993921-3}}.</ref> They also [[Animal sacrifice|sacrificed animals]] to Zoroastrian deities, including the supreme deity [[Ahura Mazda]].<ref name="hansen 2012 p98" /> The Sogdians probably regarded themselves as Zoroastrians, as indeed they were considered by [[al-Biruni]] and other authors writing in Arabic.<ref>{{Cite book |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |publisher=UNESCO |year=2006 |isbn=978-9231032110 |pages=255}}</ref> Zoroastrianism remained the dominant religion among Sogdians until after the [[Early Muslim conquests|Islamic conquest]], when they gradually converted to Islam, as is shown by Richard Bulliet's "conversion curve".<ref name="Tobin">Tobin 113–115</ref>

One of the most widely worshiped deities in Sogdia was the goddess [[Nana (Bactrian goddess)|Nana]], derived from the Mesopotamian goddess [[Nanaya]], and is traditionally depicted as a 4 armed goddess riding a lion, holding the sun and moon. She and the river god [[Oxus (god)|Oxus]] were some of the most widely attested deities from the region.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Shenkar |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WZ6XCgAAQBAJ |title=Intangible Spirits and Graven Images: The Iconography of Deities in the Pre-Islamic Iranian World |date=8 September 2014 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-28149-3 |language=en}}</ref> She was regarded as a civic and astral goddess, and her sacred city was Panjikent.

{{multiple image| align = right |total_width=400 | direction = horizontal | header = | header_align = left/right/center | footer = '''Left''': An 8th-century [[Tang dynasty]] [[Chinese ceramics|Chinese clay figurine]] of a Sogdian man wearing a distinctive cap and face veil, a probable [[Mobad|Zoroastrian priest]] engaging in a ritual at a [[fire temple]], since face veils were used to avoid contaminating the holy fire with breath or saliva; [[Museum of Oriental Art (Turin)]], Italy.<ref>Lee Lawrence. (3 September 2011). [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111904332804576540533071105892 "A Mysterious Stranger in China"]. ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]''. Retrieved 31 August 2016.</ref><br /> '''Right''': A Zoroastrian fire worship ceremony, depicted on the [[Tomb of Anjia]], a Sogdian merchant in China.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jin |first1=Xu 徐津 |title=The Funerary Couch of An Jia and the Art of Sogdian Immigrants in Sixth-century China |journal=The Burlington Magazine |date=1 January 2019 |page=824 |url=https://www.academia.edu/40962371}}</ref>| footer_align = left | image1 = Dinastia tang, shanxi, straniero dal volto velato, 600-750 ca.JPG| image2 = Gable of the stone gate of the Tomb of An Jia with reproduction.jpg}}
The Sogdian religious texts found in China and dating to the [[Northern and Southern dynasties#The Northern dynasties|Northern dynasties]], [[Sui dynasty|Sui]], and Tang are mostly Buddhist (translated from Chinese sources), Manichaean, and [[Nestorian Christian]], with only a small minority of Zoroastrian texts.<ref name="Grenet">{{cite journal|last=Grenet |first=Frantz |title=Religious Diversity among Sogdian Merchants in Sixth-Century China: Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Manichaeism, and Hinduism | journal=Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East |volume=27 |issue=2 |year=2007 |publisher=Duke University Press |pages=463–478 |doi=10.1215/1089201x-2007-017|s2cid=144300435 }}</ref> But, tombs of Sogdian merchants in China dated to the last third of the 6th century show predominantly Zoroastrian motifs or Zoroastrian-Manichaean syncretism, while archaeological remains from Sogdiana appear fairly Iranian and conservatively Zoroastrian.<ref name="Grenet" />

However, the Sogdians epitomized the religious plurality found along the trade routes. The largest body of Sogdian texts are Buddhist, and Sogdians were among the principal translators of Buddhist sutras into Chinese. However, Buddhism did not take root in Sogdiana itself.<ref>A. M. Belenitskii and B. I. Marshak (1981), "Part One: the Paintings of Sogdiana" in Guitty Azarpay, ''Sogdian Painting: the Pictorial Epic in Oriental Art'', Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, p. 35, {{ISBN|0-520-03765-0}}.</ref> Additionally, the [[Bulayiq]] monastery to the north of Turpan contained Sogdian Christian texts, and there are numerous Manichaean texts in Sogdiana from nearby Qocho.<ref>J. Rose, 'The Sogdians: Prime Movers between Boundaries', ''Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East'', vol. 30, no. 3 (2010), pp. 416–7</ref> The reconversion of Sogdians from Buddhism to Zoroastrianism coincided with the adoption of Zoroastrianism by the Sassanid Empire of Persia.<ref name="liu 2001 p168" /> From the 4th century onwards, Sogdian Buddhist pilgrims left behind evidence of their travels along the steep cliffs of the [[Indus River]] and [[Hunza Valley]]. It was here that they carved images of the [[Buddha]] and holy [[stupa]]s in addition to their full names, in hopes that the Buddha would grant them his protection.<ref>Liu, Xinru (2010), ''The Silk Road in World History'', Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, p 67–8.</ref>

The Sogdians also practiced Manichaeism, the faith of [[Mani (prophet)|Mani]], which they spread among the Uyghurs. The [[Uyghur Khaganate]] (744–840 AD) developed close ties to Tang China once it had aided the Tang in suppressing the rebellion of An Lushan and his Göktürk successor [[Shi Siming]], establishing an annual trade relationship of one million bolts of Chinese silk for one hundred thousand horses.<ref name="liu 2001 p169">Liu, Xinru, "The Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Interactions in Eurasia", in ''Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History'', ed. Michael Adas, American Historical Association, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001, p. 169.</ref> The Uyghurs relied on Sogdian merchants to sell much of this silk further west along the Silk Road, a symbiotic relationship that led many Uyghurs to adopt [[Chinese Manichaeism|Manichaeism from the Sogdians]].<ref name="liu 2001 p169" /> However, evidence of Manichaean liturgical and canonical texts of Sogdian origin remains fragmentary and sparse compared to their corpus of Buddhist writings.<ref>Dresden, Mark J. (2003), "Sogdian Language and Literature", in Ehsan Yarshater, ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1224, {{ISBN|0-521-24699-7}}.</ref> The Uyghurs were also followers of Buddhism. For instance, they can be seen wearing silk robes in the ''praṇidhi'' scenes of the [[Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves|Uyghur Bezeklik Buddhist murals]] of Xinjiang, China, particularly Scene 6 from Temple 9 showing [[:File:BezeklikSogdianMerchants.jpg|Sogdian donors to the Buddha]].<ref name="gasparini 2014 pp134-163">Gasparini, Mariachiara. "[http://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/transcultural/article/view/12313/8711#_edn32 A Mathematic Expression of Art: Sino-Iranian and Uighur Textile Interactions and the Turfan Textile Collection in Berlin]", in Rudolf G. Wagner and Monica Juneja (eds), ''Transcultural Studies'', Ruprecht-Karls Universität Heidelberg, No 1 (2014), pp 134–163</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/index.php/transcultural/article/view/12313/8711#_edn32 |title=A Mathematic Expression of Art: Sino-Iranian and Uighur Textile Interactions and the Turfan Textile Collection in Berlin |journal=Transcultural Studies |date=3 January 2014 |volume=1 |issue=2014 |doi=10.11588/ts.2014.1.12313 |access-date=25 July 2017|last1=Gasparini |first1=Mariachiara }}</ref>

[[File:Shiva with Trisula Panjikent 7th–8th century CE Hermitage Museum.jpg|thumb|left|[[Shiva]] (with [[trisula]]), attended by Sogdian devotees. [[Penjikent murals|Penjikent]], 7th–8th century AD. [[Hermitage Museum]].]]
In addition to [[Puranas|Puranic cults]], there were five [[Hindu deities]] known to have been worshipped in Sogdiana.<ref name="kumar 2007 p8" /> These were [[Brahma]], [[Indra]], [[Shiva|Mahadeva]] (Shiva), [[Narayana]], and [[Vaishravana]]; the gods Brahma, Indra, and Shiva were known by their Sogdian names Zravan, Adbad and Veshparkar, respectively.,<ref name="kumar 2007 p8" />  As seen in an 8th-century mural from Panjakent, portable [[fire altar]]s can be "associated" with [[Mahadeva (Buddhism)|Mahadeva]]-Veshparkar, Brahma-Zravan, and Indra-Abdab, according to Braja Bihārī Kumar.<ref name="kumar 2007 p8">Braja Bihārī Kumar (2007). "India and Central Asia: Links and Interactions", in J.N. Roy and B.B. Kumar (eds), ''India and Central Asia: Classical to Contemporary Periods'', 3–33.  New Delhi: Published for Astha Bharati Concept Publishing Company. {{ISBN|81-8069-457-7}}, p. 8.</ref>

Among the Sogdian Christians known in China from inscriptions and texts were An Yena, a Christian from An country (Bukhara). Mi Jifen a Christian from Mi country (Maymurgh), Kang Zhitong, a Sogdian Christian cleric from Kang country (Samarkand), Mi Xuanqing a Sogdian Christian cleric from Mi country (Maymurgh), Mi Xuanying, a Sogdian Christian cleric from Mi country (Maymurgh), An Qingsu, a Sogdian Christian monk from An country (Bukhara).<ref>{{cite book |last=Nicolini-Zani |first= Mattco |editor1-last=Tang |editor1-first=Li |editor2-last=Winkler |editor2-first=Dietmar W. |date=2013 |title= From the Oxus River to the Chinese Shores: Studies on East Syriac Christianity in China and Central Asia |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=VYaMuV3N5vUC&pg=PA151 |publisher= LIT Verlag Münster |edition= illustrated |isbn=978-3-643-90329-7 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author= S.V.D. Research Institute, Monumenta Serica Institute |date=2009 |title= Monumenta Serica: Journal of Oriental Studies, Volume 57 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NzxDAQAAIAAJ&q=yena+sogdian+name |quote= The first one is the funerary inscription of another Bukharan Christian, who died during the Jinglong JptH era (707–710) in Guilin ££^, southern China, and whose name was An Yena^Wffi (see Jiang Boqin 1994). The second is the epitaph of the Sogdian gentleman Mi Jifen ^Iffi^ (714–805) from Maymurgh; in his study Ge Chengyong has discovered that Mi's son was a Christian monk and that his family was therefore most probably Christian, too (see Ge Chengyong 2001). Generally ... |publisher=H. Vetch |page=120 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Nicolini-Zani |first= Matteo |date=2006 |title= La via radiosa per l'Oriente: i testi e la storia del primo incontro del cristianesimo con il mondo culturale e religioso cinese (secoli VII-IX) |series= Spiritualità orientale |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=xhYQAQAAIAAJ&q=yena+sogdian |quote=... di almeno un testo cristiano in cinese, il rotolo P. 3847, contenente la traduzione cinese dell'inno siriaco Gloria in excelsis Deo, di cui fu redatta anche una traduzione sogdiana(giunta a noi in frammenti) a Bulayìq (Turfan). L'unico elemento che ci conferma, infine, una assai probabile presenza cristiana in quest'epoca nel sud della Cina, legata ai commerci marittimi, è il ritrovamento presso Guilin (odierno Guangxi) dell'epitaffio funebre del cristiano An Yena, morto tra il 707 e il 709. |publisher=Edizioni Qiqajon, Comunità di Bose |page=121 |isbn=88-8227-212-5 }}</ref>

[[File:Bezeklik caves, Pranidhi scene 14, temple 9.JPG|thumb|Pranidhi scene, temple 9 (Cave 20) of the [[Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves]], [[Turfan]], [[Xinjiang]], China, 9th century AD, with kneeling figures with [[Caucasian race|Caucasian]] features and [[Green-eyed|green eyes]] praying in front of the Buddha. Modern scholarship has identified [[:File:BezeklikSogdianMerchants.jpg|''praṇidhi'' scenes of the same temple]] (No. 9) as depicting Sogdians,<ref name="gasparini 2014 pp134-163" /> who inhabited Turfan as an ethnic minority during the phases of [[Tang dynasty|Tang Chinese]] (7th–8th century) and [[Kingdom of Qocho|Uyghur rule]] (9th–13th century).<ref name="hansen 2012 p98" />]]
When visiting [[Yuan-era]] [[Zhenjiang]], [[Jiangsu]], China during the late 13th century, the [[Venice|Venetian]] explorer and merchant [[Marco Polo]] noted that [[Europeans in Medieval China|a large number]] of [[Christian church]]es had been built there. His claim is confirmed by a Chinese text of the 14th century explaining how a Sogdian named Mar-Sargis from Samarkand founded six [[Church of the East in China|Nestorian Christian churches]] there, in addition to one in [[Hangzhou]] during the second half of the 13th century.<ref>Emmerick, R. E. (2003) "Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs", in Ehsan Yarshater, ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 275.</ref> Nestorian Christianity had existed in China earlier during the Tang dynasty when a Persian monk named [[Alopen]] came to Chang'an in 653 to [[proselytize]], as described in a dual Chinese and [[Syriac language]] inscription from Chang'an (modern Xi'an), dated to the year 781.<ref>Emmerick, R. E. (2003) "Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs", in Ehsan Yarshater, ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 274.</ref> Within the Syriac inscription is a list of priests and monks, one of whom is named Gabriel, the [[archdeacon]] of "Xumdan" and "Sarag", the Sogdian names for the Chinese capital cities [[Chang'an]] and [[Luoyang]], respectively.<ref>Emmerick, R. E. (2003) "Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs", in Ehsan Yarshater, ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 274–5.</ref> In regards to textual material, the earliest Christian [[gospel]] texts [[Bible translations into Sogdian|translated into Sogdian]] coincide with the reign of the Sasanian Persian monarch [[Yazdegerd II]] (r. 438–457), and were translated from the ''[[Peshitta]]'', the standard version of the [[Bible]] in [[Syriac Christianity]].<ref>Dresden, Mark J. (2003), "Sogdian Language and Literature", in Ehsan Yarshater, ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 1225–1226, {{ISBN|0-521-24699-7}}.</ref>

==Slave trade ==
{{further|History of slavery in China|Iranians in China}}
[[Slavery]] existed in China since ancient times, although during the Han dynasty the proportion of slaves to the overall population was roughly 1%,<ref>Hulsewé, A.F.P. (1986). "Ch'in and Han law", in The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220, 520–544. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 524–525, {{ISBN|0-521-24327-0}}.</ref> far lower than the estimate for the contemporary [[Greco-Roman world]] (estimated at 15% of [[Demography of the Roman Empire|the entire population]]).<ref>Hucker, Charles O. (1975). ''China's Imperial Past: An Introduction to Chinese History and Culture''. Stanford: Stanford University Press, p. 177, {{ISBN|0-8047-0887-8}}.</ref><ref>For specific figures in regards to percentage of the population being enslaved, see Frier, Bruce W. (2000). "Demography", in Alan K. Bowman, Peter Garnsey, and Dominic Rathbone (eds), ''The Cambridge Ancient History XI: The High Empire, A.D. 70–192''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 827–54.</ref> During the Tang period, slaves were not allowed to marry a commoner's daughter, were not allowed to have sexual relations with any female member of their master's family, and although fornication with female slaves was forbidden in the [[Tang Code|Tang code of law]], it was widely practiced.<ref>Anders Hansson (1996), ''Chinese Outcasts: Discrimination and Emancipation in Late Imperial China'', Leiden, New York, Koln: E.J. Brill, pp 38–39, {{ISBN|90-04-10596-4}}.</ref> [[Manumission]] was also permitted when a slave woman gave birth to her master's son, which allowed for her elevation to the legal status of a commoner, yet she could only live as a [[concubine]] and not as the wife of her former master.<ref>Anders Hansson (1996), ''Chinese Outcasts: Discrimination and Emancipation in Late Imperial China'', Leiden, New York, Koln: E.J. Brill, p. 39, {{ISBN|90-04-10596-4}}.</ref>

[[File:Contract written in Sogdian for the purchase of a slave in 639 CE, Astana Tomb No. 135.jpg|thumb|left|Contract written in Sogdian for the purchase of a slave in 639 CE, [[Astana Tomb]] No. 135.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Pei |first1=Chengguo |title=The Silk Road and the Economy of Gaochang: Evidence on the Circulation of Silver Coins |journal=The Silk Road |date=2017 |volume=15 |page=40 |url=http://www.silkroadfoundation.org/newsletter/vol15/srjournal_v15.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210517030834/http://www.silkroadfoundation.org/newsletter/vol15/srjournal_v15.pdf |archive-date=17 May 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref>]]
Sogdian and Chinese merchants regularly traded in slaves in and around Turpan during the Tang dynasty. [[Turpan]] under [[Tang dynasty]] rule was a center of major commercial activity between Chinese and [[Sogdian people|Sogdian]] merchants. There were many inns in Turpan. Some provided Sogdian sex workers with an opportunity to service the [[Silk Road]] merchants, since the official histories report that there were markets in women at [[Kucha]] and [[Khotan]].<ref>Xin Tangshu 221a:6230. In addition, [[Susan Whitfield]] offers a fictionalized account of a Kuchean courtesan's experiences in the 9th century without providing any sources, although she has clearly drawn on the description of the prostitutes' quarter in [[Chang'an]] in Beilizhi; Whitfield, 1999, pp. 138–154.</ref> The Sogdian-language contract buried at the [[Astana Cemetery|Astana graveyard]] demonstrates that at least one Chinese man bought a Sogdian girl in 639 AD. One of the archaeologists who excavated the Astana site, Wu Zhen, contends that, although many households along the Silk Road bought individual slaves, as demonstrated in the earlier documents from Niya, the Turpan documents point to a massive escalation in the volume of the slave trade.<ref>Wu Zhen 2000 (p. 154 is a Chinese-language rendering based on Yoshida's Japanese translation of the Sogdian contract of 639).</ref> In 639 a female Sogdian slave was sold to a Chinese man, as recorded in an [[Astana]] cemetery legal document written in Sogdian.<ref name="Skaff2012">{{cite book|author=Jonathan Karam Skaff|title=Sui-Tang China and Its Turko-Mongol Neighbors: Culture, Power, and Connections, 580–800|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qTm6Yka5GigC&pg=PA70|date=23 August 2012|publisher=OUP US|isbn=978-0-19-973413-9|pages=70–}}</ref> Khotan and [[Kucha]] were places where women were commonly sold, with ample evidence of the slave trade in Turfan thanks to contemporary textual sources that have survived.<ref name="TrombertVaissière2005">{{cite book|author1=Éric Trombert|author2=Étienne de La Vaissière|title=Les sogdiens en Chine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O44MAQAAMAAJ&q=slave|year=2005|publisher=École française d'Extrême-Orient|isbn=978-2-85539-653-8|page=299}}</ref><ref name="TrombertVaissière">{{cite web |url=http://history.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/hansen-silk-road-trade.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105062305/http://history.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/hansen-silk-road-trade.pdf |archive-date=5 November 2013 |url-status=live |title=Les Sogdiens en Chine: The Impact of the Silk Road Trade on a Local Community: The Turfan Oasis, 500–800 |first=Valerie |last=Hansen|website=History.yale.edu|access-date=25 July 2017}}</ref> In [[Tang poetry]] Sogdian girls also frequently appear as [[waiting staff|serving maids]] in the taverns and inns of the capital Chang'an.<ref>Rong, Xinjiang, "New light on Sogdian Colonies along the Silk Road : Recent Archaeological Finds in Northern China (Lecture at the BBAW on 20 September 2001)", in ''Berichte und Abhandlungen'' (17 December 2009); 10, S., p. 150.</ref>

Sogdian slave girls and their Chinese male owners made up the majority of Sogdian female–Chinese male pairings, while free Sogdian women were the most common spouse of Sogdian men. A smaller number of Chinese women were paired with elite Sogdian men. Sogdian man-and-woman pairings made up eighteen out of twenty-one marriages according to existing documents.<ref name="TrombertVaissière" /><ref name="TrombertVaissière2005 2">{{cite book|author1=Éric Trombert|author2=Étienne de La Vaissière|title=Les sogdiens en Chine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O44MAQAAMAAJ&q=slave|year=2005|publisher=École française d'Extrême-Orient|isbn=978-2-85539-653-8|pages=300–301}}</ref>

A document dated 731 AD reveals that precisely forty [[Bolt (cloth)|bolts]] of silk were paid to a certain Mi Lushan, a slave-dealing Sogdian, by a Chinese man named Tang Rong (唐榮) of Chang'an, for the purchase of an eleven-year-old girl. A person from Xizhou, a Tokharistani (i.e. Bactrian), and three Sogdians verified the sale of the girl.<ref name="TrombertVaissière" /><ref name="TrombertVaissière2005 3">{{cite book|author1=Éric Trombert|author2=Étienne de La Vaissière|title=Les sogdiens en Chine|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O44MAQAAMAAJ&q=Mi+Lushan|year=2005|publisher=École française d'Extrême-Orient|isbn=978-2-85539-653-8|page=300}}</ref>

Central Asians like Sogdians were called "Hu" (胡) by the Chinese during the Tang dynasty. Central Asian "Hu" women were stereotyped as barmaids or dancers by Han in China. Han Chinese men engaged in mostly extra-marital sexual relationships with them as the "Hu" women in China mostly occupied positions where sexual services were sold to patrons like singers, maids, slaves, and prostitutes.<ref>{{cite book |last= Abramson |first=Marc S. |series=Encounters with Asia|date= 2011 |title= Ethnic Identity in Tang China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-GLGnRspmcAC&dq=%22vast+numbers+of+non-Han+women+served+in+subordinate+positions%22&pg=PA20|location= |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=20 |isbn=978-0812201017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Abramson |first=Marc S. |series=Encounters with Asia|date= 2011 |title= Ethnic Identity in Tang China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-GLGnRspmcAC&pg=PA202|location= |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=202 |isbn=978-0812201017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Abramson |first=Marc S. |series=Encounters with Asia|author-link= |date= 2011 |title= Ethnic Identity in Tang China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-GLGnRspmcAC&dq=%22the+hu-chi,+mainly+Iranian+girls,+found+in+China+during+the+Tang+period%22&pg=PA235|location= |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=235 |isbn=978-0812201017|quote=Katô Hakushi Kanreki Kinen Ronbunshû Kankôkai. 83–91. Tokyo: Fuzanbô. ———. 1948. Tôshi sôshô. Tokyo: Kaname Shohô. ———. 1961. “The hu-chi, mainly Iranian girls, found in China during the Tang period.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Light|first=Nathan |date= 1998|title= Slippery Paths: The Performance and Canonization of Turkic Literature and Uyghur Muqam Song in Islam and Modernity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mCRkAAAAMAAJ&q=%22the+hu-chi,+mainly+Iranian+girls,+found+in+China+during+the+Tang+period%22|location= |publisher=Indiana University|page=303 |quote=... see Mikinosuke ISHIDA, " Etudes sino – iraniennes, I : A propos du Hou – siuan – wou, " AIRDTB, 6 ( 1932 ) 61–76, and " The Hu – chi, Mainly Iranian Girls, found in China during the Tang Period, " MRDTB, 20 ( 1961 ) 35–40 .}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |number=29 of Bibliographies and indexes in religious studies|last1= Israeli|first1=Raphael |last2= Gorman|first2=Lyn |date= 1994 |title=Islam in China: A Critical Bibliography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lLHgAAAAMAAJ&q=%22the+hu-chi,+mainly+Iranian+girls,+found+in+China+during+the+Tang+period%22|issn=0742-6836 |publisher=Greenwood Press|isbn=0313278571|page=153 |edition=illustrated, annotated|quote=... 1033 Chinese Mohammedans, " 9012 " How Can We Best Reach the Mohammedan Women ?, " 6025 " How Islam Entered China, " 1057 " The Hu - Chi, Mainly Iranian Girls Found in China during the Tang Period, " 2010 " The Hui and the ...}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor-last= Ling|editor-first1=Scott K. |date= 1975|title=近三十年中國文史哲論著書目: Studies on Chinese Philosophy, Religion, History, Geography, Biography, Art, and Language and Literature|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QrlqXza9oKAC&dq=%22the+hu-chi,+mainly+Iranian+girls,+found+in+China+during+the+Tang+period%22&pg=PA209|publisher=Liberal Arts Press|isbn=9575475399|page=209 |edition=illustrated, annotated|quote=... 1033 Chinese Mohammedans, " 9012 " How Can We Best Reach the Mohammedan Women ?, " 6025 " How Islam Entered China, " 1057 " The Hu - Chi, Mainly Iranian Girls Found in China during the Tang Period, " 2010 " The Hui and the ...}}</ref> Southern [[Baiyue]] girls were exoticized in poems.<ref>{{cite book |last= 李 |first= 白|date= |title=全唐詩|url=https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%85%A8%E5%94%90%E8%A9%A9/%E5%8D%B7184#%E8%B6%8A%E5%A5%B3%E8%A9%9E%E4%BA%94%E9%A6%96|location= |publisher= |page= |chapter=卷184#越女詞五首 卷一百八十四}}</ref> Han men did not want to legally marry them unless they had no choice such as if they were on the frontier or in exile since the Han men would be socially disadvantaged and have to marry non-Han.<ref>{{cite book |last= Abramson |first=Marc S. |series=Encounters with Asia|author-link= |date= 2011 |title= Ethnic Identity in Tang China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-GLGnRspmcAC&dq=%22documented+cases+of+marriage+between+Han+men+and+non-Han+women+occurred+when+the+Han+men+were+in+socially+liminal+situations%22&pg=PA158 |location= |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=158|isbn=978-0812201017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Abramson |first=Marc S. |series=Encounters with Asia|author-link= |date= 2011 |title= Ethnic Identity in Tang China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-GLGnRspmcAC&pg=PA218 |location= |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|page=218|isbn=978-0812201017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= 劉 |first= 昫|date= |title=舊唐書|url=https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%88%8A%E5%94%90%E6%9B%B8/%E5%8D%B7193 |chapter=卷193 卷一百九十三}}</ref> The task of taking care of herd animals like sheep and cattle was given to "Hu" slaves in China.<ref>{{cite book |last= Abramson |first=Marc S. |series=Encounters with Asia|author-link= |date= 2011 |title= Ethnic Identity in Tang China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-GLGnRspmcAC&dq=%22presented+the+captured+women+and+livestock%22&pg=PA136 |location= |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|pages=135, 136|isbn=978-0812201017}}</ref>

== Modern historiography ==
{{further|German Turfan expeditions|Albert von Le Coq}}
[[File:KhunakCoin.jpg|thumb|A minted [[Bukhar Khudahs|silver coin of Khunak]], king of [[Bukhara]], early 8th century, showing the [[Crown (headgear)|crowned]] king [[Obverse and reverse|on the obverse]], and a [[Fire temple|Zoroastrian fire altar]] on the reverse.]]
In 1916, the French [[Sinologist]] and historian [[Paul Pelliot]] used [[Dunhuang manuscripts|Tang Chinese manuscripts]] excavated from Dunhuang, Gansu to identify an ancient Sogdian colony south of [[Lop Nur]] in Xinjiang (Northwest China), which he argued was the base for the [[spread of Buddhism]] and Nestorian Christianity in China.<ref name="rong 2009 p148">Rong, Xinjiang, "New light on Sogdian Colonies along the Silk Road : Recent Archaeological Finds in Northern China (Lecture at the BBAW on 20 September 2001)", in ''Berichte und Abhandlungen'' (17 December 2009); 10, S., p. 148.</ref> In 1926, Japanese scholar Kuwabara compiled evidence for Sogdians in Chinese historical sources, and by 1933, Chinese historian Xiang Da published his ''Tang Chang'an and Central Asian Culture'', detailing the Sogdian influence on Chinese social religious life in the [[History of Xi'an|Tang-era Chinese capital city]].<ref name="rong 2009 p148" /> 

The Canadian Sinologist [[Edwin G. Pulleyblank]] published an article in 1952, demonstrating the presence of a Sogdian colony founded in Six Hu Prefectures of the [[Ordos Loop]] during the Chinese Tang period, composed of Sogdians and Turkic peoples who migrated from the [[Mongolian steppe]].<ref name="rong 2009 p148" /> The Japanese historian Ikeda on wrote an article in 1965, outlining the history of the Sogdians inhabiting Dunhuang from the beginning of the 7th century, analyzing lists of their [[Chinese surname|Sinicized names]] and the role of Zoroastrianism and Buddhism in their religious life.<ref>Rong, Xinjiang, "New light on Sogdian Colonies along the Silk Road : Recent Archaeological Finds in Northern China (Lecture at the BBAW on 20 September 2001)", in ''Berichte und Abhandlungen'' (17 December 2009); 10, S., pp 148–9.</ref> Yoshida Yutaka and Kageyama Etsuko, Japanese [[ethnographer]]s and [[linguist]]s of the Sogdian language, were able to reconstruct Sogdian names from forty-five different Chinese [[transliteration]]s, noting that these were common in Turfan whereas Sogdians living closer to the center of Chinese civilization for generations adopted traditional [[Chinese name]]s.<ref name="hansen 2012 p98" />

== Notable people ==
* [[Amoghavajra]], prolific translator and one of the most politically powerful Buddhist monks of Chinese history, of Sogdian descent through his mother<ref name="Lehnert">
{{Cite book
|last       = Lehnert
|first      = Martin
|year       = 2010
|title      = Esoteric Buddhism and the Tantras in East Asia
|publisher  = Brill
|page       = 351
|isbn=978-90-04-20401-0
|url = https://brill.com/abstract/book/edcoll/9789004204010/Bej.9789004184916.i-1200_033.xml
}}
</ref><ref name="Yang">
{{Cite thesis
|last       = Yang
|first      = Zeng
|year       = 2010
|title      = A Biographical Study on Bukong 不空 (aka. Amoghavajra, 705–774) : Networks, Institutions, and Identities
|publisher  = University of British Columbia
|page       = 23
|doi      = 	10.14288/1.0363332
|url = https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0363332
}}
</ref>
* [[An Lushan]] (安祿山),<ref name="howard 2012 p135" /> a military leader of Sogdian (from his father's side) and [[Gökturks|Tūjué]] origin during the [[Tang dynasty]] in China; he rose to prominence by fighting (and losing) frontier wars between 741 and 755. Later, he precipitated the catastrophic [[An Lushan Rebellion]], which lasted from 755 to 763 and led to the decline of the Tang dynasty
* [[An Qingxu]] (安慶緒), son of [[An Lushan]]
* [[An Chonghui]] (安重誨), a minister of China's [[Later Tang]]
* [[An Congjin]] (安從進), a general of Later Tang and China's [[Later Jin (Five Dynasties)]]
[[File:Sogdian musicians on the tomb of Wirkak.jpg|thumb|Sogdian musicians and attendants on the [[tomb of Wirkak]], 580 AD.]]
* [[An Chongrong]] (安重榮), a general of China's Later Jin (Five Dynasties)
* [[Apama]],<ref name="magill et al 1998 p1010" /> daughter of [[Spitamenes]] (see below) and wife of [[Seleucus I Nicator]], founder of the [[Seleucid Empire]]
* [[Azanes (general)|Azanes]],<ref name="dresden 2003 p1216">Mark J. Dresden (2003), "Sogdian Language and Literature", in Ehsan Yarshater, ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 1216, {{ISBN|0-521-24699-7}}.</ref> son of Artaios, who led a contingent of Sogdian troops in the [[Persian army]] of [[Xerxes I]] during the [[Second Persian invasion of Greece]] in 480 BC
* [[Divashtich]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Vohidov |first1=Rahim |last2=Eshonqulov |first2=Husniddin |date=2006 |title=O'zbek Mumtoz Adabiyoti Tarixi (Eng qadimgi davrlardan XVI asr oxirigacha)|url=http://n.ziyouz.com/books/kollej_va_otm_darsliklari/ona-tili_va_adabiyot/O'zbek%20mumtoz%20adabiyoti%20tarixi%20(Rahim%20Vohidov,%20Husniddin%20Eshonqulov).pdf |publisher=O'zbekiston Respublikasi Oliy Va O'rta Maxsus Ta'lim Vazirligi |chapter=III-BOB X X II ASRLAR O'ZBEK ADABIYOTI 3 .1 . X -X II asrlardagi madaniy hayot|page=52 }}</ref> 8th-century ruler of [[Panjakent]]
* [[Fazang]],<ref name="Gernet1996 2">{{cite book|author=Jacques Gernet|title=A History of Chinese Civilization|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern|url-access=registration|date=31 May 1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-49781-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern/page/278 278]–}}</ref> Buddhist monk and influent philosopher of the 7th century, considered the founder of the [[Huayan school]]
* [[Gurak]],<ref name="litvinski et al 1999 p459" /> 8th-century ruler of [[Samarkand]]
* [[Kang Senghui]] (康僧會),<ref name="Nguyen2008">{{cite book|author=Tai Thu Nguyen|title=The History of Buddhism in Vietnam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tUN8tC0ftJcC&pg=PA36|year=2008|publisher=CRVP|isbn=978-1-56518-098-7|pages=36–}}</ref> Buddhist monk of the 3rd century who lived in [[Jiaozhi]] (modern-day [[Vietnam]]) during the [[Three Kingdoms]] period
* Kang Jing (康景)? – a possible Sogdian who worked at the [[Ming dynasty]] Mansion of the Prince of Qin ([[w:zh:明朝藩王列表 (秦王系)|明朝藩王列表 (秦王系)]]) as a servant<ref>{{cite book |last=Chen (陈) |first=Boyi (博翼) |date=2011 |chapter=10 跋《明秦府承奉正康公墓志铭》"A Sogdian Descendant?—Study of the Epitaph of Kang Jing: The Man Who Served at Ming Prince Qin's Mansion"|title=Collected Studies on Ming History 明史研究论丛 |url=https://www.academia.edu/18786949 |volume=9|publisher=China Academic Journal Electronic Publishing House |pages=283–297 }}</ref><ref name="中國文物硏究所">{{cite book|author=中國文物硏究所|title=新中國出土墓誌: 陜西 (no.1-2)|year=1994|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LS8aAQAAMAAJ&q=%E6%98%8E%E7%A7%A6%E5%BA%9C%E6%89%BF%E5%A5%89%E6%AD%A3%E5%BA%B7%E5%85%AC%E5%A2%93%E5%BF%97%E9%93%AD|publisher=文物出版社|isbn=978-7-5010-0662-5}}</ref>
* [[Khaydhar ibn Kawus al-Afshin]],<ref name="RaffatʻAlavī1985">{{cite book|author1=Donné Raffat|author2=Buzurg ʻAlavī|title=The Prison Papers of Bozorg Alavi: A Literary Odyssey|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mhmwnM9o6i4C&pg=PA85|year=1985|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-0195-1|pages=85–}}</ref> a general of the [[Abbasid caliphate]] and a [[vassal]] of the Abbasids as the prince of [[Osrushana]] during the 9th century
* [[Kaydar Nasr ibn 'Abdallah]],<ref>[[Ibn Taghribirdi]], Jamal al-Din Abu al-Mahasin Yusuf (1930), ''Nujum al-zahira fi muluk Misr wa'l-Qahira, Volume II'', Cairo: Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya, p. 218.</ref> Abbasid governor of [[Egypt in the Middle Ages|Egypt]] during the 9th century
* [[Li Baoyu]] (李抱玉),<ref name="howard 2012 p135" /> formerly known as An Chongzhang (安重璋) and [[Chinese nobility|ennobled]] as Duke Zhaowu of [[Western Liang (Sixteen Kingdoms)|Liang]] (涼昭武公), a general of the Chinese Tang dynasty who fought against the rebellion of [[An Lushan]] and the [[Tibetan Empire]]
* [[Mi Fu]] (米芾),<ref name="kai">{{cite book|author=Kaikodo (Gallery : New York, N.Y.), Sarah Handler|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wQpJAQAAIAAJ|title=懐古堂|pages=74|publisher=[[LIT Verlag|LIT]]|year=1999|isbn=978-962-7956-20-4|quote=Mi Fu (1052-1107), a Northerner by birth (and of Sogdian heritage) developed a passionate attachment to [...]}}</ref> painter, poet, and calligrapher of the [[Song dynasty]]
* [[Malik ibn Kaydar]],<ref>Gordon, Matthew S. (2001), ''The Breaking of a Thousand Swords: A History of the Turkish Military of Samarra (A.H. 200-275/815-889 C.E.)'', Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, p. 77, {{ISBN|0-7914-4795-2}}.</ref> a 9th-century general of the Abbasid caliphate
* [[Muzaffar ibn Kaydar]], son of Kaydar Nasr ibn 'Abdallah (see above), and yet another Abbasid governor of Egypt during the 9th century
* [[Oxyartes]],<ref name="ahmed 2004 p61" /><ref name="livius roxane" /><ref name="strachan 2008 p87" /> Sogdian warlord from [[Bactria]], follower of [[Bessus]], and father of [[Roxana]], the wife of [[Alexander the Great]]
* [[Roxana]],<ref name="ahmed 2004 p61" /><ref name="livius roxane" /><ref name="strachan 2008 p87" /><ref>Carlos Ramirez-Faria (2007), ''Concise Encyclopedia of World History'', New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, p. 450, {{ISBN|81-269-0775-4}}.</ref> the primary wife of Alexander the Great during the 4th century BC
* [[Shi Jingtang]] (石敬瑭),<ref>{{cite thesis|type= PhD|last= Barenghi|first= Maddalena|title= Historiography and Narratives of the Later Tang (923–936) and Later Jin (936–947) Dynasties in Tenth- to Eleventh century Sources|date= 2014|url= https://edoc.ub.uni-muenchen.de/20635/|page= 3-4}}</ref> Emperor of China, [[temple name]] Gaozu (高祖)
* [[Spitamenes]],<ref name="holt 1989 pp64-65" /> a Sogdian warlord who led an uprising against Alexander the Great in the late 4th century BC
* [[Tarkhun]],<ref name="litvinski et al 1999 p459" /> 8th-century ruler of Samarkand
* [[Abu'l-Saj Devdad]], emir and official of the Abbasid caliphate and ancestor of the [[Sajid dynasty]]<ref>Clifford Edmund Bosworth, The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual, Columbia University, 1996. pg 147: "The Sajids were a line of caliphal governors in north-western Persia, the family of a commander in the 'Abbasid service of Soghdian descent which became culturally Arabised."</ref>
*[[Muhammad al-Bukhari]],  Hadith composer and Islamic scholar, writer of [[Sahih al-Bukhari|''Salih Al-Bukhari'']].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Latham |first=John Derek |title=A Guide to Eastern Literatures |publisher=C. Tinling & Co |year=1971 |isbn=0297002740 |editor-last=Lang |editor-first=David Marshall |location=London |pages=33 |language=en |chapter=Arabic Literature}}</ref>

== Diaspora areas ==
* A community of merchant Sogdians resided in [[Northern Qi]] era [[Ye (ancient China)|Ye]].<ref name="Gernet1996 3">{{cite book|author=Jacques Gernet|title=A History of Chinese Civilization|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern|url-access=registration|date=31 May 1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-49781-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/historyofchinese00gern/page/193 193]–}}</ref>
* A community of Sogdians existed in [[Jicheng (Beijing)]] since at least the time of the [[Tang dynasty]]. They were targeted for slaughter by the Tang government during the [[An Lushan rebellion]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hansen |first1=Valerie |date=2003 |title=New Work on the Sogdians, the Most Important Traders on the Silk Road, A.D. 500–1000 |jstor=4528925|journal=T'oung Pao |volume=89 |issue=1/3 |pages=158 |doi= 10.1163/156853203322691347}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hansen |first1=Valerie |title=The Silk Road: A New History |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-021842-3 |pages=157–158 |edition=illustrated, reprint |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FDdRDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA157 |chapter=CHAPTER 5 The Cosmopolitan Terminus of the Silk Road}}</ref>
* [[Zoroastrianism in Sichuan#Sogdians|Sogdians in Yizhou (Sichuan)]]
* Turkic Khaganate era [[Inner Mongolia]].<ref>{{cite journal|author=Pulleyblank, Edwin G.|title=A Sogdian Colony in Inner Mongolia. |journal=T'oung Pao |series=Second Series|volume=41|year=1952|issue=4/5 |pages=317–56|doi=10.1163/156853252X00094 |jstor=4527336}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Ancient history}}
* [[Ancient Iranian peoples]]
* [[Buddhism in Afghanistan]]
* [[Buddhism in Khotan]]
* [[Étienne de La Vaissière]]
* [[History of Central Asia]]
* [[Huteng]]
* [[Iranian languages]]
* [[Kangju]]
* [[List of ancient Iranian peoples]]
* [[List of Sodgian states|List of Sodgian States]]
* [[Margiana]]
* [[Philip (satrap)]]
* [[Poykent]]
* ''[[Sogdian Daēnās]]''
* [[Sughd Province]]
* [[Tajiks]]
* [[Tomb of Wirkak]]
* [[Tomb of Yu Hong]]
* [[Tocharians]]
* [[Yaghnobi people]]
* [[Yagnob Valley]]
* [[Yazid ibn al-Muhallab]]

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{reflist}}

=== Sources ===
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* {{cite journal |last=de la Vaissière |first=Etienne |title=Is There a "Nationality of the Hephtalites"? |journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute |date=2003 |volume=17 |pages=119–132 |jstor=24049310 |issn=0890-4464 |url=https://www.academia.edu/1476531}}
* {{cite journal |last=Vogelsang|first=Willem|year=2000|author-link=Willem Vogelsang|title=The sixteen lands of Videvdat – Airyanem Vaejah and the homeland of the Iranians|journal=Persica|volume=16|doi=10.2143/PERS.16.0.511}}
* von Le Coq, Albert. (1913). [http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/LFc-42/V-1/page/0003.html.en ''Chotscho: Facsimile-Wiedergaben der Wichtigeren Funde der Ersten Königlich Preussischen Expedition nach Turfan in Ost-Turkistan'']. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer (Ernst Vohsen), im Auftrage der Gernalverwaltung der Königlichen Museen aus Mitteln des Baessler-Institutes, [http://dsr.nii.ac.jp/toyobunko/VIII-1-B-31/V-1/page-hr/0107.html.en Tafel 19]. (Accessed 3 September 2016).
* {{cite book |last=Watson |first=Burton |year=1993 |title=Records of the Great Historian, Han Dynasty II |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=0-231-08167-7}}
* Wood, Francis (2002). ''The Silk Road: Two Thousand Years in the Heart of Asia''. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. {{ISBN|978-0-520-24340-8}}.
{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite web|url=https://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO202019854292764.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923150236/http://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO202019854292764.pdf |archive-date=23 September 2020 |url-status=live|title=The Sogdian Descendants in Mongol and post-Mongol Central Asia: The Tajiks and Sarts|work=Joo Yup Lee|publisher=ACTA VIA SERICA Vol. 5, No. 1, June 2020: 187–198doi: 10.22679/avs.2020.5.1.007}}
* [https://sogdians.si.edu/sidebars/retracing-the-sounds-of-sogdiana-sogdian-music-and-musical-instruments-in-central-asia-and-china/ Sogdian music] by the [[Smithsonian Institution]]

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Sogdia}}
{{Wikivoyage}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080225031154/http://www.geocities.com/interlinguae/sogdian.html Sogdian on Interlinguae]
* [https://www.livius.org/x/xerxes/xerxes_ii.html Xerxes II and Sogdianus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921075535/https://www.livius.org/x/xerxes/xerxes_ii.html |date=21 September 2013 }}
* [http://sogdians.si.edu/ ''The Sogdians: Influencers on the Silk Roads'' (Online exhibition)]

{{Achaemenid Provinces}}
{{Authority control}}
{{coord|40.4|N|69.4|E|display=title}}

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