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Varkhuman
Varkhuman, also Vargoman (, c. 640-670 CE) was an Ikhshid (King) of Sogdia, residing in the city of Samarkand in the 7th century CE. He succeeded King Shishpin. He is known from the Afrasiab murals of Afrasiyab in Samarkand, where he is seen being visited by embassies from numerous countries, including China. There is also an inscription in the murals directly mentioning him. His name is also known from Chinese histories. One of the murals show a Chinese Embassy carrying silk and a string of silkworm cocoons to the local Sogdian ruler. The scene depicted in the Afrasiyab murals probably occurred soon after 658 CE, when the Tang dynasty had conquered the Western Turkic Khaganate. Varkhuman was a nominal vassal to the Chinese. He is mentioned in the Chinese annals: Varkhuman's legacy was short-lived, as his palace was destroyed by the Arab general Sa'id ibn Uthman between 675 and 677 CE. At that time, according to Narshakhi there was no king of Samarkand anymore. Inscriptio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afrasiab Murals
The Afrasiab murals, also called the Paintings of the Ambassadors, is a rare example of Sogdian art. It was discovered in 1965 when the local authorities decided to construct a road in the middle of Afrāsiāb mound, the old site of pre-Mongol Samarkand. It is now preserved in a special museum on the Afrāsiāb mound. Description The paintings date back to the middle of the 7th century CE. They were probably painted between 648 and 651 CE, while the Western Turkic Khaganate was in decline and the Tang Dynasty was increasing its territory in Central Asia. Paintings on four walls of the room of a private house at the site depict three or four lands neighbouring Central Asia: On the northern wall, China (a Chinese festival, with the Empress on a boat, and the Emperor hunting); on the Southern Wall, Samarkand (i.e.; the Iranian world: a religious funerary procession in honor of the ancestors during the Nowruz festival); on the eastern wall India (as the land of astrologers and of pyg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afrasiyab (Samarkand)
Afrasiyab (),( ''afrāsiyāb'') is an ancient site in Northern Samarkand, present day Uzbekistan, that was occupied from c. 500 BC to 1220 AD prior to the Mongol invasion in the 13th century (see Siege of Samarkand (1220)).Archaeological Research in Central Asia of the Muslim Period', World Archaeology Vol. 14, No. 3, Islamic Archaeology (Feb., 1983), pp. 393–405 (13 pages) The oldest layers date from the middle of the first millennium BC. Today, it is a hilly grass mound located near the Bibi Khanaum Mosque. Excavations uncovered the now famous Afrasiab frescoes exposed in the Afrasiab Museum of Samarkand, located next to the archaeological site. Overview Afrasiyab is the oldest part and the ruined site of the ancient and medieval city of Samarkand. It was located on high ground for defensive reasons, south of a river valley and north of a large fertile area which has now become part of the city of Samarkand. The habitation of the territories of Afrasiyab began in the 7th� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sogdia
Sogdia () or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, 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 Macedonian 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 Taji ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tang Dynasty
The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Historians generally regard the Tang as a high point in Chinese civilisation, and a Golden age (metaphor), golden age of cosmopolitan culture. Tang territory, acquired through the military campaigns of its early rulers, rivalled that of the Han dynasty. The House of Li, Li family founded the dynasty after taking advantage of a period of Sui decline and precipitating their final collapse, in turn inaugurating a period of progress and stability in the first half of the dynasty's rule. The dynasty was formally interrupted during 690–705 when Empress Wu Zetian seized the throne, proclaiming the Wu Zhou dynasty and becoming the only legitimate Chinese empress regnant. The An Lushan rebellion (755 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tashkent
Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. It is located in northeastern Uzbekistan, near the border with Kazakhstan. Before the influence of Islam in the mid-8th century AD, Sogdian people, Sogdian and Turkic people, Turkic culture was predominant. After Genghis Khan destroyed the city in 1219, it was rebuilt and profited from its location on the Silk Road. From the 18th to the 19th centuries, the city became an Tashkent (1784), independent city-state, before being re-conquered by the Khanate of Kokand. In 1865, Tashkent fell to the Russian Empire; as a result, it became the capital of Russian Turkestan. In Soviet Union, Soviet times, it witnessed major growth and demographic changes due to Population transfer in the Soviet Union, forced deportations from throughout the Soviet Unio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chaganian
Chaghaniyan (Middle Persian: ''Chagīnīgān''; ''Chaghāniyān''), known as al-Saghaniyan in Arabic sources, was a medieval region and principality located on the right bank of the Oxus River, to the south of Samarkand. History Hephthalite rule Chaganian was an "Hephthalite buffer principality" located between Denov and Termez, and became a sanctuary for the Hephthalites following their defeat against the Sasanian Empire and the First Turkic Khaganate in 563-567 CE. They resettled in Chaganian and other territories of Tokharistan, under their new king Faghanish, who established a dynasty. Soon, the new Hephthalite territories north of the Oxus, to which Chaganian belonged, fell under Western Turk suzerainty, while the territories south of the Oxus were nominally controlled by the Sasanian Empire. The territories under the Turks rebelled in 581 CE. Their coinage in Chaganian was an imitation of the Sasanian coinage, Sasanian coins of Khusrau I, with sometimes the addition of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samarkand
Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia. Samarkand is the capital of the Samarkand Region and a district-level city, that includes the urban-type settlements Kimyogarlar, Farxod, Farhod and Xishrav, Khishrav. With 551,700 inhabitants (2021), it is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, third-largest city in Uzbekistan. There is evidence of human activity in the area of the city dating from the late Paleolithic Era. Though there is no direct evidence of when Samarkand was founded, several theories propose that it was founded between the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Prospering from its location on the Silk Road between East Asia, China, Persia and Europe, at times Samarkand was one of the largest cities in Central Asia,Guidebook of history of Samarkand", and was an important city of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sa'id Ibn Uthman
Sa'id ibn Uthman ibn Affan al-Umawi (; died ) was an Umayyad general and military governor of Khurasan in 676–677 during the reign of Caliph Mu'awiya I. He was a son of Caliph Uthman () and a one-time seeker of the caliphate in 675/76. During his short term in Khurasan, he launched a campaign deep into Transoxiana and defeated one or two Soghdian armies. He reportedly captured Bukhara and besieged Samarkand, gaining tributary status from the latter, before proceeding to capture Tirmidh. He was dismissed by Mu'awiya, possibly due to concerns that his popularity and battlefield successes had strengthened Sa'id's previous bid to seek the caliphate instead of Mu'awiya's designated successor, Yazid I (). He was killed in Medina by his Soghdian slaves. Life Sa'id was a son of Caliph Uthman () and the latter's wife Fatima bint al-Walid, a scion of the prominent Banu Makhzum clan of the Quraysh. Caliph Mu'awiya I () had partly based his claim to the caliphate on his pursuit of justi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sogdian Monarchs
Sogdian may refer to: * anything pertaining to Sogdia / Sogdiana * Sogdian language * Sogdian alphabet * Sogdian people * Sogdian (Unicode block) See also * Old Sogdian (Unicode block), a separate Unicode block * Sogdian Rock The Sogdian Rock or Rock of Ariamazes, a fortress located north of Bactria in Sogdiana (near Samarkand), ruled by Arimazes, was captured by the forces of Alexander the Great in the early spring of 327 BC as part of his conquest of the Achaeme ..., a fortress in Sogdia {{Disambiguation Language and nationality disambiguation pages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Afrasiab Sogdian Inscription
Afrasiyab ( ''afrāsiyāb''; ; Middle-Persian: ''Frāsiyāv, Frāsiyāk'') is the name of the mythical king and hero of Turan. He is the main antagonist of the Persian epic ''Shahnameh'', written by Ferdowsi. Name and origin ''Afrā'' is the poetic form of the Persian word ''Farā'' (itself a poetic word), which means "beyond, further", while Sīāb comes from ''sīāh'' meaning "black" and ''Āb'' meaning "water", "river", "sea" (depending on the context). Scholars see it as a distortion of the Tajik ''Parsīāb'' (from Sogdian ''Paršvāb''), meaning "above the black river" a reference to the Sīāhāb or Sīāb.According to the ''Shahnameh'' (''Book of Kings''), by the Persian epic poet Ferdowsi, Afrasiab was the king and hero of Turan and an archenemy of Iran. In Iranian mythology, Afrasiab is considered by far the most prominent of all Turanian kings; he is a formidable warrior, a skilful general, and an agent of Ahriman, who is endowed with magical powers of deception to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narshakhi
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Jafar Narshakhi (or Narshaki) (ca. 899–959), a Sogdian scholar from the village of Narshak in the Bukhara oasis is the first known historian in Central Asia. His unique ''History of Bukhara'' (''Tarikh-i Bukhara'') was written in Arabic and presented to the Samanid emperor Nuh I either in 943 or 944. The book provides important information on Bukhara that cannot be found in other contemporary sources. Nothing is known about Narshakhi except his authorship of this one book. Biography Narshakhi was a Sogdian. Even though the Sogdian language had been mostly supplanted by Persian language in densely populated places of Sogdia in his day, it is likely that Narshakhi still spoke Sogdian very well. His ''History of Bukhara (Tarikh-i Bukhara)'' was composed for a patron who supported Sunni Islam against Isma'ilism. Through Da'i missionaries engaged in the da'wah the Isma'ili sect of Shi'ism had spread and was regarded as a threat by the Sunni. It was writte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ikhshid
( Persian: اخشید; from , ) was the princely title of the Iranian rulers of Soghdia and the Ferghana Valley in Transoxiana during the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods. The title is of Iranian origin; scholars have derived it variously from the Old Iranian root , , or from , 'ruler, king' (which is also the origin of the title 'shah'). The Ikhshids of Sogdia, with their capital at Samarkand, are well attested during and after the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana. The line survived into Abbasid times, although by then its seat was in Istikhan. Among the most notable and energetic of the Soghdian kings was Gurak, who in 710 overthrew his predecessor Tarkhun and for almost thirty years, through shifting alliances, managed to preserve a precarious autonomy between the expanding Umayyad Caliphate and the Türgesh khaganate. Also, The ruler of Kāš (Kashgar) in the late 8th century, according to the Middle Persian Manichean text Mahrnāmag (Müller, lines 75-76), was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
