The Sogdian “Ancient Letters” (I–Iii)1

Vladimir A. Livšic St. Petersbourg

THE SOGDIAN “ANCIENT LETTERS” (I–III)1

The “Ancient Sogdian LeĴ ers” in Iranian Studies are the leĴ ers wriĴ en on Chinese paper that were found by Aurel Stein in 1907 in the ruins of watchtower T.XIIIa of the Chinese Wall. The tower was situ- ated to the west of Dunkhuan near the “Jasper Gates.” The garrison of the tower guarded the section of the Silk Road be- tween Dunkhuan (Sogd. Grw’n/ Grw’’n / Όruw¬n/, TΕΓΣΑ΅ by Claudius Ptolemaeus) and Loulyan (Sogd. Kr’wr’n / Krçr¬n/). Six leĴ ers were preserved entirely, and there were found some fragments of three other leĴ ers. Each leĴ er was folded up several times; the names of the sender and addressee were wriĴ en on the front side. The second leĴ er, wrapped in silk cloth and packaged in a rough Ě ax cover, was addressed to Samarkand (Sogd. Sm’(’)rknGh / Sm¬rkanΌ(¬)), 3800 km to the west of Dunkhuan. According to the text of the leĴ ers we can say that at least two of them were wriĴ en in Dunkhuan and one in Gutszan. We can suppose that a mailman on his way from the East to the West lost or maybe threw away a bag with the leĴ ers. The second, fourth, and ę Ğ h letters contain business information for Sogdian merchants from their contractors who were making trade deals in China. The ę rst and third leĴ ers (that are translated below) were dictated by a woman named M¾wn¬y (lit. “tiger cub”), who had been leĞ by her husband NanaiΈat (“Created by goddess Nanai”) in Dunkhuan. The “Ancient LeĴ ers” are the earliest Sogdian handwriĴ en texts. Like other Sogdian documents, found or purchased by Stein, they are kept at the British Library in London. The leĴ ers are dated to ca. 312–313, as was established by W. B. Hen- ning. He analyzed the second leĴ er which spoke about events that took place in China at that time: a war with the Huns (Sogd. xwn /xĀn/), a ę re in the western capital Louyang (Sogd. sr· /Sara·/), destruction of Louyang and E (Sogd. ’nkp’ /AnkapӦ/), Ě ight of the Emperor. Henning has shown that the leĴ ers were wriĴ en aĞ er the capture of city E by

(1) This article was wriĴ en with the ę nancial support of RGSF; project 06-01-00463 ɧ. Vladimir A. Livšic 307 the Huns in 307 and Louyang in 311.2 J. HarmaĴ a suggested dating the leĴ ers to the year 196,3 but F. Grenet and N. Sims-Williams have proved the dating oě ered by Henning.4 Sogdian trading stations in Chinese cities in the beginning of the 4th century were rather signię cant. In “Ancient LeĴ ers” a “hundred noble men” from Samarkand are mentioned, being in a city whose name was not preserved. In Chuchan (Chinese Tsintsjuan) there were forty Sogdian men. The second leĴ er was addressed to Samarkand; the other four were sent, apparently, to Louyang and other cities of Western China. Three leĴ ers describe commercial transactions made by Sogdian merchants. Purchase of silks (Sogd. pyrcyk /pÎr²Îk/), lit. “concerning the silkworm,”5 linen and course fabrics, musk, pepper, camphor, wheat, lead, and gold products are mentioned. The prices for the goods are reported in silver staters (values of their weight and costs are the same as in Cen- tral Asia of this period) or at the rate of the bronze coins which were issued in China. The ę rst leĴ er was sent from Dunkhuan. It was dictated by M¾wn¬y and was addressed to her mother Chatise (ctysh /+atis/). The name is Indian, it can be found in Prakrit documents of the 3th century from Niya (Kroraina). The third leĴ er was addressed to NanaiΈat, the husband of M¾wn¬y. In the third leĴ er the address was wriĴ en on behalf of Sh¾n (šyn), daughter of M¾wn¬y and NanaiΈat. Lines 27–35 in this leĴ er were an addition dictated by Sh¾n. There was no data in the ę rst

(2) W. B. Hђћћіћє, The Date of the Sogdian Ancient LeĴ ers, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 12.3/4 (1948) 601–615. (3) J. Hюџњюѡѡю, Eine neue Quelle zur Geschichte der Seidenstrasse, Jah- rbuch für WirtenschaĞ sgeschichte 2 (Berlin, 1971) 135–143; Iёђњ, The Archaeo- logical Evidence for the Date of the Sogdian “Ancient LeĴ ers,” in: J. Hюџњюѡѡю (ed.), Studies in the sources on the history of pre-Islamic Central Asia (Budapest, 1979) 75–90; Iёђњ, Sir Aurel Stein and the Date of the Sogdian “Ancient Let- ters,” in: E. Aѝќџ (ed.), Jubilee Volume of the Oriental Collection 1951–1976 (Bu- dapest, 1978) 73–88. (4) F. Gџђћђѡ and N. SіњѠ-WіљљіюњѠ, The Historical Context of the Sogdi- an Ancient LeĴ ers, in: Transition Periods in Iranian History. Actes du Symposium de Friburg-en-Brisgau (22–24 mai 1985) (Leuven, 1987) (Studia Iranica. Cahier 5) 101–122. (5) Cf. Khot. pira — “a worm, a silkworm” (see P. O. Sјїæџѣø, Sogdian Notes, Acta Orientalia 37 (Copenhagen, 1976) 113–114.