Sogdians: Silk Road Traders - A depiction of Sogdians, renowned traders along the Silk Road

eLibrary: Sogdian Traders

The Sogdians were originally an eastern Iranian civilisation but were later concentrated in Central Asia, with Samarkand as the main city. Literally straddling the ancient silk roads, many became traders and settled in communities throughout Asia, but especially in China. Wherever they went, they took their language, culture and traditions with them. In the 8th century their civilisation became eclipsed by the Muslim conquests in the West and by their association an unsuccessful rebellion in China.

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Articles

EXCELLENT INTRODUCTION The Sogdians Influencers on the Silk Roads Illustrated text to an exhibition at the Freer Gallery, Washington DC [website]

Ashurov, B., ‘Sogdian Christian texts: socio-cultural observations’, Archiv orientální, 83(1) 2015 pp.53-70. [pdf]

Ashurov, B. Tarsākyā: an analysis of Sogdian Christianity based on archaeological, numismatic, epigraphic and textual sources. PhD Thesis. SOAS, London, 2013, 229pp [pdf]

Ashurov, B., Religions and Religious Space in Sogdian Culture: A View from Archaeological and Written Sources, Sino-Platonic Papers, 306, 2020 [pdf]

Compareti, M., ‘Classical Elements in Sogdian Art: Aesop’s Fables Represented in the Mural Paintings at Penjikent’, Iranica Antiqua, 47, 2012, 303-316. [pdf]

Compareti, M., ‘The role of the Sogdian colonies in the diffusion of the pearl roundels pattern’, Ērān ud Anērān, Webfestschrift 2003. [website]

Dien, A.E., ‘The tomb of the Sogdian master Shi: Insights into the life of a Sabao’, The Silk Road, 7, 2009, .42-50. [pdf]

Frye, R. and Litvinsky, B., ‘The Northern Nomads, Sogdiana and Chorasmia’, History of Humanity, 3, 1994.467-672 [pdf]

Gayibov, B., ‘About to the Question of the Main Origin of Sogdian Rulers’, International journal of Humanities & Social Science Studies, 3, ????, .235-242. [pdf]

Grenet, F., ‘Religious diversity among Sogdian merchants in sixth-century China: Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Manichaeism, and Hinduism’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 27(2) 2007.463-478. [Researchgate]

Grenet, F., ‘The Pre-Islamic Civilization of the Sogdians (seventh century BCE to eighth century CE): A Bibliographic Essay (studies since 1986)’ The Silk Road, 1(2), 2003, 28-36. [pdf]

Grenet, F., Riboud, P. and Yang, J., ‘Zoroastrian Scenes on a Newly Discovered Sogdian Tomb in Xi&aposan, Northern China’, Studia iranica, 33(2), 2004, 273-284. [pdf]

Gulácsi, Z. and BeDuhn, J., ‘The religion of Wirkak and Wiyusi: the Zoroastrian iconographic program on a Sogdian sarcophagus from sixth-century Xi’an’, Bulletin of the Asia Institute, 26, 2012 pp.1-32. [pdf]

Henning, W.B., ‘Sogdian tales’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 11(3), 1945, 465-487. [pdf]

Hou, W., The Application and Enlightenment of the Arrangement and Combination Characteristics, Music and Dance Performance Methods and Style Analysis of Sogdian Musical Instruments in the Reform of Contemporary Music Teaching in the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry, 24(1), 2004.39-49. [pdf download]

Liu, C. ‘Sogdian Traders Along the Silk Road: Causes for Their Commercial Success’, Communications in Humanities Research, 4,1, 2023, 26-34. [Researchgate]

Livshits, V.A., ‘Sogdian Sānak, a Manichaean Bishop of the 5th–Early 6th Centuries’, Bulletin of the Asia Institute, 14, 2000, 47-54. [pdf]

Lurje, P.B., ‘Buddhist Indian Loanwords in Sogdian and the Development of Sogdian Buddhism’, Entangled Religions, 11(6) 2021 [pdf download]

Masaharu, A.,. Aspects of Sogdian Trading Activities under the Western Turkic State and the Tang Empire. Journal of Central Eurasian Studies, 2, 2011, 25-40. [pdf]

Ôsawa, T.,. ‘Aspects of the relationship between the ancient Turks and Sogdians-Based on a stone statue with Sogdian inscription in Xinjiang’, Ērān ud Anērān. Webfestschrift 2003 [website]

Reck, C., ‘The Sogdians and Their Religions in Turfan: Evidence in the Catalogue of the Middle Iranian Fragments in Sogdian Script of the Berlin Turfan Collection’, Entangled Religions, 11(6) 2021 [pdf download]

Sims-Williams, N., “The Sogdian epitaph of Shi Jun and his wife’, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 84(3), 2021, 505-513. [pdf]

Skaff, J.K., ‘The Sogdian trade diaspora in East Turkestan during the seventh and eighth centuries’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 46(4), 2003, 475-524. [pdf]

Slautina, M. ‘Telling the Sogdian Story: Sogdians, the Cultural Bees of Central Asia’, [Academia]

de la De la Vaissière, É, ‘The Rise of the Sogdian Merchants and the Role of the Huns: The historical importance of the Sogdian Ancient Letters’ in S. Whitfield(ed) The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith, 2004, 19-23. [Academia]

de la De la Vaissière, É., ‘Sogdians in China: A Short History and Some New Discoveries’, The Silk Road, 1(2), 2003, .23-27. [pdf]

Wang, Y., From Samarkand to Chang’an–The Regionality of Sogdian Cultural Identity during the Tang Dynasty (Doctoral dissertation, University of Nottingham). [pdf]

Wertmann, P., Wagner, M. and Tarasov, P., ‘Sogdian careers and families in sixth-to seventh-century northern China: a case study of the Shi family based on archaeological finds and epitaph inscriptions’, The history of the family, 22(1), 2017 103-135. [pdf]

Xinjiang, R., ‘New Light on Sogdian Colonies along the Silk Road. Recent Archaeological Finds in Northern China’, Akademie der Wissenschaften: Berichte und Abhandlungen, 10, 2006147-164. [pdf download]

Yakubovich, I., ‘Sogdian etymological notes’, Acta Orientalia, 64(2), 2011, 161-181. [pdf]

Yatsenko, S.A., On the images of peoples from the Sogdian diaspora in China. ВЕСТНИК РГГУ, 2020.67. [pdf]

Yatsenko, S., e.a. ‘Sogdian Costume in Chinese and Sogdian Art of the 6th–8th Centuries’, Serica–Da Qin Studies in Archaeology, Philology and History of Sino-Western Relations (Selected Problems), 2012101-14. [pdf]

Yoshida, Y., ‘Relationship between Sogdiana and Turfan during the 10th–11th centuries as reflected in Manichaean Sogdian texts’, Journal of the International Silk Roads Studies, 1, 2017.113-25. [pdf download]