Balkh and the Sasanians: Economy and Society of Northern Afghanistan As

Balkh and the Sasanians: Economy and Society of Northern Afghanistan as

Reflected in the Bactrian Economic Documents

Khodadad Rezakhani

In study of ancient history, seldom does it happen that one can find sources directly related to everyday life of the ordinary people. The regular tools of the historians, texts, stop short of commenting the life of the people and concern themselves most often with politics or religion. Economy is mostly glanced upon by the study of coins, which mostly indicat commerce and market activity and tell us less about production of goods and the non-market oriented economy. Archaeology can be exceptionally useful in understanding the exploitation of land by people and the way they lived, grew their food, or manipulated their environment. This, sadly, has been done less for Afghanistan, where archaeology is most often interested in finds of more conventional archaeological goods such as art objects and monumental architecture1.

This is why it has been an extra-ordinary event, at least for the history of the Iranian

World, for a large collection of primary material relating to economy to have surfaced. These documents, dubbed the “Bactrian Documents”2 are a collection of records of economic transactions, marriage contracts, slave manumissions, tax lists, and correspondence that have

1 D. W. MacDowall and M. Taddei, “The Pre-Muslim Period,” in The Archaeology of Afghanistan: From Earliest Times to the Timurid Period, edited by F. R. Allchin and Norman Hammond (London: Academic Press, 1978), 255. 2 Sims-Williams, Nicholas. Bactrian Documents from Northern Afghanistan, I. Legal and Economic Documents. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001 (BD1). & ibid. Bactrian Documents from Northern Afghanistan II: Letters and Buddhist Texts. London, 2007. (Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, Vol.2, pt. 4) (BD2). I would like to offer my sincere gratitude to Prof. Sims-Williams who has been very kind in providing me with the information I have needed, including unpublished articles and an electronic copy of the earlier version of BD2.

2 emerged from Northern Afghanistan3. Their scope is wider than anything we have seen before, and the information contained in them gives us an unprecedented glimpse into the life of the people of the region and their dealings, however limited the area might be. That is why I have chosen to devote this chapter exclusively to this collection and the information contained in them. I will then try to corRōb orate and compare the information contained in these documents with the archaeological and historical records in the next chapter. I should mention that while the scope of these two chapters will necessarily be more than just Bactria/Balkh and will include areas of the Helmand River basin as well, since the documents are from a limited locality, this chapter will accordingly only concentrate on the regions to which the documents refer.

An obvious, but not necessarily common, question to ask about the geography of

Bactria is its relation to the subject of this study, the Sasanian Economy. It is a fact that except in the early Sasanian period, Bactria was not politically a part of the Sasanian Empire and was rather dominated by the Chionites, the Hephthalites and possibly Turkic kingdoms centered usually further north in Transoxiana. Consequently, its relation to what we might define as the

“Sasanian” economy might be questionable. A full response to this challenge requires a discussion of the issue of economic boundaries and the possible limits of what the Sasanian economy itself means. Indeed, a proper question would be to ask whether there was ever a

“Sasanian” economy, and if yes, how that might be defined, whether in the context of the

Sasanian administrative control and the supposed centralization of the Sasanian Empire or in

3 For a general introduction to the condition of the documents and the circumstances involving their discovery and decipherment, see K. Rezakhani, “The Bactrian Collection: an Important Source for Sasanian Economic History,” e- Sasanika 3 (2008), some of the information in that articles has been incorporated into the current chapter.

3 the context of the dependence or significant interaction between a supposed “central”

Sasanian economy and its peripheries4. Indeed, a major point of this study is to provide a possible idea of this dependence/interaction and the role of the administration in the economy.

Consequently, a study of Bactria and its economy, as a region which bordered the Sasanian territories and was indeed sometimes part of those territories as well, will not only be useful, but crucial in understanding the above question5.

Geography of Bactria and the Bactrian Documents

Bactria is the Greek form of the name of a region in the north of Afghanistan. It originates in Old Persian baktriš and is reflected in the present name of the region Balx (alt.

Balkh). Today, it is also a province of Afghanistan with its capital at Mazār-i Sharīf, less than 50 km from the historic city of Balkh itself. The Bactrian Economic documents, however, mostly refer to a city called Rōb in the documents (Bactr. Ρoβ)6. This is most likely the modern town of

Ruy, to the southeast of Balkh and actually closer to Bamiyan. This can potentially be significant, since although Rōb is quite close to Bamiyan, there seldom is any mention of that large city in the documents, a fact that can be attributed to the great mountain range that separates the Bamiyan valley from the Bactrian lowlands, including Rōb . Apart from Rōb , other

4 Although not quite in place here, I suspect that there might have existed a Sasanian family interest in Bactria as well, particularly after Ardashir II and the fall of the Kushano-Sasanian dynasty. 5 For what has influenced me the most in asking this question, naturally see Morony, Michael G. "Economic Boundaries? Late Antiquity and Early Islam." Journal of the economic and social history of the Orient, vol. 47 (2), 2004. pp. 166-194. 6 Frantz Grenet, “Regional Interaction in Central Asia and Northwest India in the Kidarite and Hephthalite Period,” in Indo-Iranian Languages and Peoples, edited by Nicholas Sims-Williams (Oxford: The British Academy/Oxford University Press, 2002), 203-224. Grenet casually refers to a “Kingdom of Rōb” although the documents themselves never use the word Þαο (king, c.f. Pers. Shah) and always refer to the ruler of Rōb as χαραγγο “lord.”

4 major centers such as Guzgan or Lizg are also mentioned. Some like Warnu, are geographically too far from Rōb to have been realistically under its control.

Map of Central Asia, including northern Afghanistan and Balkh.

The Bactrian Documents appear to be the archives of a few individuals or even one individual7 – the ruler of the district of Rōb – and consequently, have a limited geographical expanse. However, from what we know of the geography of historical Bactria (present day provinces of Balkh, Bamiyan, and Samangan in Afghanistan) the localities mentioned in the documents seem to be representing the area of Bactria rather well. Other locales, outside the area of Balkh, such as Bukhara and Tirmidh are also mentioned and their mention is also connected with exceptional cases. The documents, then, cover a sizable piece of territory and can be relied on to reflect the situation in the whole of Bactria during the time period of their concern (discussed below).

7 Nicholas Sims-Williams. “Four Bactrian economic documents”, BAI, XI, 1997 [2000], 3-15.

A map of the region of Bactria with places mentioned in the documents marked

Interestingly enough, a place whose name is not often mentioned (only once in fact) is

Balkh itself, brought up only in an undated letter and in conjunction with the purchase of some linen shirts (Doc. cd). This is actually consistent with other evidence we have of this region, namely reports of Chinese travelers such as the pilgrim Xuanzang that the city “though well fortified, is thinly populated…”8. This is also confirmed by the few archaeological soundings and surface explorations that show untouched and uninhabited layers in the plain of Bactra before the arrival of the Muslims9.

8 Xuanzang. Si-yu-ki. Buddhist Records of the Western World. translated by Sammuel Beal, London: Trübner & Co., 1884, p. 44. 9 Jean-Claude Gardin, Ceramique de Bactres, Paris: MDAFA XV, 1957.

Chronology of the Bactrian Documents

The chronology of the Bactrian documents is one of the most important, and controversial, aspects of their study. Most of the research about the subject has been done by the same team that undertook the translation of the documents10. However, due to the lack of a concrete understanding of the chronology of the events in the region, the era in which the documents have been dated remains uncertain11. In short, the dated legal and contractual documents, as well as the letters, are spread between 110 and 549 of an unspecified era and are often dated clearly even by month and day. Previously, Sims-Williams had fixed the beginning of this era, dubbed “the Kushano-Sasanid era” at 233 AD, the supposed date of the fall of the Kushanid kingdom at the hand of the Sasanians12. This has, however, since changed, the research group now opting for a “Sasanian Era”, based on the establishment of the

Sasanian Empire by Ardashir I at 223 AD13. The last batch of the documents are clearly written after the Islamic conquest as they have references to both an “Arab Tax” as well as Arab

10 Most significantly: Nicholas Sims-Williams & F. de Blois. “The Bactrian calendar”, BAI X, 1996 [1998], pp. 149-65. ibid. “The Bactrian calendar: new material and new suggestions”, Languages of Iran: Past and Present. Iranian studies in memoriam David Neil MacKenzie, ed. D. Weber, Wiesbaden, 2005 [2006], pp. 185-96. and N. Sims-Williams and J. Cribb. “A new Bactrian inscription of Kanishka the Great”, SRAA IV,1996, pp. 75-142. 11 Basically, the date could either be a certain “Era of Kanishka” or the Sasanian Era proposed by Sims-Williams (see below). On the former, see h. Falk, “The Yuga of Sphujiddhvaja and the Era of the Kusanas,” Silk Road Art and Archaeology 7 (2001), 121-136, R. Göbl, “The Rabatak Insciption and the date of Kanishka,” in Coins, Art and Chronology, edited by Michael Alram and D. E. Klimburg-Salter (Vienna: Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1999), 151-176 and J. Cribb, “The Early Kushan Kings: New Evidence for Chronology. Evidence from the Rabatak Inscription of Kanishka I,” in Coins, Art and Chronology, edited by Michael Alram and D. E. Klimburg-Salter (Vienna: Verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1999), 177-206. 12 NSW and J. Cribb, 1996 (note 5). 13 N. Sims-Williams. “Bactrian Chronography Project,” paper presented at the Sixth Conference of the European Society of Iranian Studies, 19-22 September 2007, Vienna, Austria. This obviously causes great difficulty if one is trying to make any sense of the documents, something I will discuss more below.

7 coins14. We also have a few documents from the same collection which are written in Arabic and even involve some of the same personages mentioned in the Bactrian documents15.

The currently accepted dating, proposed by Sims-Williams, is the Sasanian Era beginning with the coronation of Ardashir I (AD 223, although 224 is the correct date). This, despite the reasoning, sounds extremely unusual, if for nothing other than the simple fact that there is no evidence for the Sasanians themselves to have ever used this era. This would also not make sense, since even if we accept the idea that there indeed was a full scale conquest of the region by Shapur I in AD 248, there will still be no reason for using AD 223 as a starting date. We could also make an argument for an earlier era using numismatics. As MacDowall and Taddei mention, finds of Sasanian silver coins are quite common in Afghanistan after the reign of

Shapur II (AD 309-379)16. However, the first mention of silver coinage in the documents is from

Doc. N (dated 407), corresponding to AD 630 on the Sasanian Era proposed. Silver coinage of

King Kawad is mentioned in Doc. Q (dated 449, AD 672 ‘Sasanian Era’) close to 150 years after the death of Kawad (AD 488-529).

This would naturally lead one to suggest an earlier beginning for the dating of the documents. While it is true that later documents give the month names in what we believe are

Sasanian Zoroastrian month-names17, this only starts with Doc. F (dated 247). We know that the evidence for the Sasanian control of Bactria comes from a single mention in the ŠKZ inscription of Shapur I 18, where some Kushan territories are claimed as part of the Sasanian territories. But the real campaigns of the Sasanians in Bactria only happen in the mid-fourth century,

14 Doc. W2. 15 Nicholas Sims-Williams, New Lights on Ancient Afghanistan: the Decipherment of Bactrian (London: SOAS, 1997), 16 MacDowall and Taddei: 251. 17 Sims-Williams 2002: 227 and Sims-Williams and de Blois 1998. 18 MacDowall and Taddei: 234.

8 sometimes around AD 356. This will then be a good candidate for the start of a Sasanian influenced dating in Bactria, evident in the use of the month-name Ardibehesht in Doc. F.

However, the year in which this document is dated seems to be a simple continuation of the same era used before the introduction of Sasanian month names, and there is no reason to believe that the Bactrian documents might have started being dated in a new era following the

Sasanian incursion.

As the AD 356 is about 110 years away from the date of Doc. F (247), there is a possibility for the existence of an era with about a century of difference with the Common Era.

This easily presents itself in the Era of Kanishka, the famous Kushan king. The dating of Kanishka has been the cause of much controversy, its beginning ranging from AD 57 to 230, but the most commonly accepted date now is AD 12719. If we assume that the Bactrian Documents are dated in the Era of Kanishka, which makes most sense in the region, we could also attribute the slightly later appearance of Sasanian silver coins, as well as the silver coins of Kawad, to the remote geography of the region. It is well known that Bactria’s position behind a range of the

Hindu-Kush made it inaccessible, and at the same time hard to control, from the south, the most likely direction of influence. Consequently, the introduction of coins, whether Sasanian or

Arab (first mentioned in Doc. V, dated 507) would have been done with a little delay, while the

Hephthalite invasion, coming from the north, would have been reflected immediately (Doc.

Ii)20.

19 h. Falk, “The Yuga of Sphujiddhvaja and the Era of the Kusanas,” Silk Road Art and Archaeology 7 (2001), 121- 136. 20 Ii is dated 260, meaning AD 387 in the Era of Kanishka. Indeed, the first Hephthalite incursions into Bactria took place in the late 4th century (A.D.H. Bivar, “Hephthalites,” Encyclopaedia Iranica, 2004).

Document Types

In the currently available publication of the documents, they have been arranged in two volumes based on the presence or absence of a date. The first volume includes all the legal and economic documents that are dated, including tax lists and lists of the products from each household. The second volume is made up of the undated documents, mostly letters and some

Buddhist confessions of faith. These, despite being undated, are closely associated with the first batch, as the names of the persons in the dated legal documents commonly appear in the letters. It is obvious that the legal documents were dated according to the law, while personal and professional correspondences were not.

This arrangement causes some problems for the study of the documents. While the legal documents are great for knowing the official acts that took place, they have a repetitive and formulaic nature. It is only with the reading of the letters that a context can be provided for the legal documents. The legal documents talk about the need to pay debts or taxes, but it is the letters that provide the real motivations behind the sales and contracts, and also give a true glimpse to the life of the people. An example, which also shows the prominence of legally binding contracts in the Bactrian society, is Doc. ci where a lord seems to have given a piece of property to another based on an oral agreement. However, his representative tells the lord that

“Your lordship yourself ought to know that they do not give one quart of grain from the lord’s house, nor one gallon of wine, to (anyone) who does not bring a sealed document, let alone a

(piece of) land! But if Nawaz brings me a document with two seals from the lord, then I will not do him any injury but 14will give him the land immediately.” Here, it is clearly implied that a

10 legal document, with at least two seals (as witnesses) needs to be presented for an exchange of land to take place, indeed providing us with a context for all the documents and their attached seals.

History of Bactria as Reflected in the Bactrian Documents

The Bactrian Documents are surprisingly barren of direct references to the political situation of their periods. Although certain historical titles can be seen in the documents (such as Turk yabγu or Ilitbär21) and in some cases such as Doc T, one can see the presence of non- native elements such as the Turkish rulers, still, no references to an overlord or a larger kingdom (whether Sasanian, Kidarite, or Hephthalite) are made. However, we still have some references to the changing political climate, mostly reflected in the already discussed terms

“Hephthalite Tax”, “Arab Tax”, and “Dirhams of King Kawad.”

We know that the direct Sasanian rule over Bactria ended in the late fourth century22.

Coins of the last Kushano-Sasanian ruler of the region, Warahram II, are found commonly in the region and are dated to before 37523, the most pRōb ably date for the fall of Kushano-Sasanian

Bactria to the Kidarite Chionites24. Sasanian involvement in the eastern regions in further

21 On the occurrence of both, see Nicholas Sims-Williams, “Ancient Afghanistan and Its Invaders: Linguistic Evidence from the Bactrian Documents and Inscriptions,” in Indo-Iranian Languages and Peoples, edited by Nicholas Sims-Williams (Oxford: The British Academy/Oxford University Press, 2002), 235-36. 22 Pretty much as with everything else about the history of the region, the chronology and sequence of the events is much debated. I found the best summary, and the most convincing use of literary, numismatic, and archaeological evidence to be Grenet 2002:204-211. 23 E. V. Zeimal, “The Kidarite Kingdom and Central Asia,” in History of Civilisations of Central Asia, edited by B. A. Litvinsky (Paris: UNESCO, 1996), 119-133 24 I, following scholars of the field, am very skeptical about the Byzantine identification of the tribes called Chionites in Middle Persian with the “Huns” (Ammianusm Marcellinus, XIX, 1, 7-2,6). So, I am using the term Chionite simply to designate what the successors of Kidara were called by the Sasanians. See Grenet 2002: 206.

11 diminished by another defeat in Kapisa (Gandahar) sometimes after AD 38025, although as we can see in the dating of the Bactrian documents, influence of Sasanian culture (e.g. calendar) continues in the region26.

The Kidarite rule continued in the first half of the fifth century, but it was soon eliminated by a joint force of Hephthalites and Sasanians27. From here on, until the advancements of the Western Turks in the late sixth century, Hephthalites were the strongest powers in Bactria and Central Asia. In the Bactrian Documents, the Hephthalites are mentioned in two occasions by name (Doc. Ii and J) where a certain tax (Bact. τω(γ)γο) is imposed on the persons who are selling their lands28.

The issue of the rule of the Hephthalites bears further investigation, particularly in light of the available coinage. Doc. M mentions the borrowing of three dirhams of Kawad and is dated to 388 (thus AD 611 in the “Sasanian Era”) which is almost 90 years after the death of

Kawad I himself. However, we know that after the Hephthalite defeat of the Sasanian emperor

25 It is important to note that the Kidarite kingdom does not seem to have been established in the region until the early fifth century (Grenet 2002: 206 n.4). This might force us to reconsider the reading and dating of certain coins from the Tepe Maranjān which are normally attributed to Kidara, but might in fact belong to the Sasanian Kay Wahram (Grenet 2002:206-7 and Frantz Grenet, “Crise et sortie de crise en Bactriane-Sogdiane aux IVe-Ve siecles,” in La Persia e l’Asia centrale da Alessandro al X secolo (Rome: Academia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1996). 26 Nicholas Sims-Williams and Francois de Blois, I, following scholars of the field, am very skeptical about the Byzantine identification of the tribes called Chionites in Middle Persian with the “Huns” (Ammianusm Marcellinus, XIX, 1, 7-2,6). So, I am using the term Chionite simply to designate what the successors of Kidara were called by the Sasanians. See Grenet 2002: 206. 26 It is important to note that the Kidarite kingdom does not seem to have been established in the region until the early fifth century (Grenet 2002: 206 n.4). This might force us to reconsider the reading and dating of certain coins from the Tepe Maranjān which are normally attributed to Kidara, but might in fact belong to the Sasanian Kay Wahram (Grenet 2002:206-7 and Frantz Grenet, “Crise et sortie de crise en Bactriane-Sogdiane aux IVe-Ve siecles,” in La Persia e l’Asia centrale da Alessandro al X secolo (Rome: Academia Nazionale dei Lincei, 1996). 26 Nicholas Sims-Williams and Francois de Blois “The Bactrian Calendar,” Bulletin of the Asia Institute 10 (1998), 151-152. 27 The History of Al-Tabari: The Sasanids, the Byzantines, the Lakhmids, and Yemen, Translation C.E. Bosworth, (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1999): I, 872. 28 In the glossary to BD1, Sims-Williams gives the meaning of τω(γ)γο as “Poll-tax” while in Doc. J, the τωγο is specifically mentioned for “the house”, implying a property tax.

Pēroz, a hefty sum of silver coinage was paid to the Hephthalites29 which then became the major prototype in Afghanistan and Northern India30. No mention of the coins of Pēroz are made in the Bactrian Documents, although Pēroz himself is mentioned in several of the letters31 and at least in one of them, the writer identifies himself as “True to Peroz” and in the other,

“Governor of Glorious Peroz,” possibly suggesting a direct Sasanian control of the region32.

Although as early as Doc. T, we have seen Turkish titles present in the documents, they don’t have any direct evidence of the period of the dominance of the Western Turks which followed the fall of the Hephthalites and the rise of the Muslim rule in the region. No particular Turkish tax is mentioned and the involvement of the people with Turkic titles is limited to being witnesses at contracts or administrators of their own separate regions and clans, clearly marked as such. The only exception is the widespread use of the term ilitbär which seems to have become a common title even among the non-Turkic people33.

It is under the Hephthalite rule that Bactria is united with Sogdiana and other

Transoxianan regions, represented in at least one document (Ss. Dated 478) where a merchant from Bukhara asks for a large sum of money34 from local market traders of Ambēr. The

Hephthalite rule seemingly opened the doors of commerce from Bactria to Sogdiana, an event which might have had a significant effect on Sogdiana’s transformation from a rural region to

29 Tabari: I, 873. 30 Grenet 2002:218. 31 Letters ck and ea. 32 The name of the governor in letter ea is Meyam. He also is mentioned in Docs. Uu and V which are dated to 500 and 507 respectively and are thus very unlikely to have been the same as the governor, although there is further similarity in names of the other characters present in the contract and letter. 33 Sims-Williams 2002: 235 talks about the relationship between this title and Rutbil (with a metathesis of the two liquids; this title is often erroneously “corrected” to Zunbil in the modern editions of texts, the result of a confisuin .a title known for the ruler of Tukharistan and Sistan from the Islamic times ,( ز and ر between 34 200 struck gold coins. Sims-Williams in his introductory notes has “loan of 100 gold coins” which should be corrected to 200 based on the text.

13 the center of a commercial empire35. This is done, presumably, with the opening of the trade roots between Northern India and Central Asia, via Bactria and is also the root for the diffusion of artistic and religious trends of India in Bactria and Central Asia, reflected in many artistic representations in Bactria and Bamiyan, as well as the Buddhist documents za and zb in the

Bactrian Documents.

Bactrian Economic Production

The Bactrian documents are concerned first and foremost with matters of economy and commerce, in various forms and shapes. Among these are issues of land-ownership, production, exchange, and human capital. The subject of slavery is present in form of contracts of the sale of slaves, one manumission contract, and one donation of a slave to a priest by a

Turkish princess. Among the interesting aspects of these is the detail to which the seller goes to show that the slave has completely been released of his control (either freed or transferred to a new master). However, none of these details mention slaves working in the agricultural sector and their duties seem to be more domestic. On the working of the laborers in farms, we have a letter where a certain “lord” writes to another, requesting the freeing of some obviously free- born workers from their obligations at the latter’s estate so they can assist in harvesting at the estate of the former.

35 Grenet 2002: 212-14. See Étienne de la Vaissière, Sogdian Traders: A History: Brill Academic Pub, 2005 for a complete treatment of the Sogdian rise to power. I am very thankful to Dr. de la Vaissiere for providing me with an unpublished manuscript on the available sources for Bactrian traders who, however, belong to an earlier date.

Products like wheat and onions are mentioned in the documents, as well as live animals such as ox and sheep, also horses, although the prominent “Bactrian camel” is not present.

Istakhri mentions that Bactra produces so much live-stock that it could actually export them.

This might not be that amazing, as he also mentions that all of the major “towns of the district of Khottal are on mountains with the exception of Wakhsh which is on a plain”36.

Aside from these, wine and its manufacturing unit, the vineyard, is quite present, mentioned in almost any document relating to sale or lease of land. In Islamic sources, Bactria is supposedly well-known for its orchard products and fruits, something that aside from the vineyards, is not really reflected in these documents.

Legal Cases relating to the economy

The documents make it very clear that the vigorous way in which the contracts were drawn (in two copies, with many witnesses and seals) was the normal way of doing business in the region. One particular document, a letter from a subordinate to a lord, sarcastically mentions that one cannot even buy a sheep without presenting proper documentation in the region, and he reprimands the lord for expecting the subordinate to give a whole piece of land to someone, based only on an oral message.

The documents always have several witnesses, often important and influential people of the region such as the military commander, the treasurer, the market overseer, or even the

36 Istakhri, 290.

15 local god37, presumably represented by his priest who affixes his seal on the bullae. The names of these individuals and their ranks are clearly marked, such as Wind-Ormuzd Kulagan, who is mentioned in document A as the lord of the district where the marriage contract was being concluded. Almost all contracts and judgments carry with them guarantees of surety in form of hefty fines (sometimes as much as five times the amount of the sale or worth of the legal settlement)38.

Taxes and Production

Taxes are mentioned in a few occasions, most significantly in form of foreign imposed taxes. At least two documents (Ii and J) mention a tax, levied by the “Hephthalite” lords, as a result of which the seller in the contracts has to sell his land to be able to pay the heavy tax39.

One of the last dated documents (W2, closed version of W) also mentions an Arab tax (dated

525 Bactrian Era). This probably is the first mention of the elusive Hephthalite Tax we have from a primary documents, since this levy was formerly only known from the Islamic sources which did not elaborate on its imposition or collection.

In other places, lists of products from the farms in the region are given, presumably for tax assessment, although this is not specifically mentioned. In another document, a cash price is assigned to the goods received in kind (at the rate of a dinar for an ox and ten for an horse).

Whether this is really tax or rent leaves room for argument, since we don’t have a good idea of

37 At least in one document (ce), the god is one of the sides of the contract. 38 Doc. K where the rate is given as “five times the amount of the legal settlement.” 39 Docs. Ii (dated 260) and J (dated 295).

16 who is receiving the products. An undate document (je) has an interesting insight into this, as it seems to be written by an individual (a land-owner perhaps?) to another (his steward), ordering him to give back the animals he has taken from a farmer for “taxation”, as his taxes have been assessed otherwise. Whether the tax here is indeed a tax and the individuals are government agents is hard to say, as in other cases, the official positions are mentioned. In fact, several other documents mention cash payments, but these seem to have a more official tone and are often addressed to someone from the chief scribe or “the Yabghu of the Hephthal”. However, we could easily think of this as rent.

In the letters, some of the addressees are identified as tax-agents of the “Persian King

Pērōz”40 or “the Lord of the Hephthal”41. In some cases, the issues involved are matters of taxation, such as the one mentioned above. In other cases, the individual seems to be a representative of a land-lord, again making it possible to think of the legal argument as a matter of rent instead of a tax. Considering the unstable status of Bactria as sometimes a

Sasanian and at other times a Hephthalite, or even a Turkish, possession (as some of the documents seem to suggest by the use of Turkish names and titles), figuring out the exact purpose of the tax or rents and their destination can be a rather daunting task.

Money and Markets

As mentioned in the legal documents and the correspondence, we have quite real and robust use of actual currency in the Bactrian documents. Lands are being sold for cash, either

40 Letter ea. 41 Doc. J.

17 gold or silver, and hefty fines are being laid for those who breach contracts, again in cash. This does not seem to be only a locally valid, “token” like money either, the type de la Vaissiere mentions for Sogdiana42. It is the specifically mentioned “struck gold” and “silver dirham of King

Kawad” or later “silver dirham of the Arabs”. This is money that is not circulating only in the bazaars of Bactria, but it is traveling long distance.

We have a direct mention of a market, that of the city of Amber, in Doc. Ss where a trader from Bukhara is attempting to borrow some cash (or establish some credit) with two local market traders. This is also interesting, since most of the coins minted by a certain “Gorigo

Shah” (Zhun-lad, king of Guzgan) in the late seventh century, bear the mint mark of ANBYR, very close to the name of Amber indeed. Many other documents mention the market of the city of Rōb and its chief overseer, often present as a witness for sale and loan contracts. The existence of a bazaar, a trading market, then seems undeniable.

The Family of Kamird-Far

It is possible to take the case of single family mentioned in the Bactrian documents in order to better understand the social and economic situation of the region at the time. Starting with Doc. T (dated 478), we hear of a priest of the god Kamird who is, appropriately, called

Kamird-Far (the Glory of Kamird). The priest is given a piece of irrigated land and a slave woman as deeds of gift to the god. The donor is a princess, called the “Great Turkish Princess, the

42 Etienne de la Vaissiere, Sogdian Traders: A History. HdO VIII.10, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2005: 173. However, we know that under the Kushan rule, the common copper coinage was devalued to the point of becoming a token money (MacDowall and Taddei: 245). The documents, however, uniformly mention silver coins which was introduced only under the Sasanian rule (ibid.: 251).

Queen of the Khalach people” who is making the donation for the life of her infant. Despite her title and her position, she seems to be from a local background, if her donation to a local god and also her name, Bag-aziyas (God-sacrificed) are to be taken so.

The family of Kamird-Far is from this point on mentioned quite frequently in the documents. Sons of Kamird-far are involved in several property purchases and in turn, they bring forward legal cases against each other in order to clarify the control of the properties acquired. Their continued purchases of properties, as well as conflicts, drag even to the Islamic times and the Arabic documents and are a very fascinating insight into the dealings of the local landowners.

What is worth noticing in these documents is the amount of land and the type of land acquired by the family of Kamird-far. The father seems to be more interested in his religious duties, although at the beginning, he is involved in the purchase of at least one vineyard. The sons and grandsons are quite aggressive about expanding their possessions, however. In most of the deeds of purchase involving them, the properties that border the land they are purchasing is already owned by the family of Kamird-far. It appears as if they are purchasing whole districts and are making sure that they control all of the irrigated lands in that district.

However, in none of the contracts for loans there seems to be a member of this family involved, nor do they seem to be involved in purchasing government land. The letters never mention a member of the Kamird-far family and they don’t seem to have an administrator for their properties. They also never appear as guarantors of loans or witnesses to the loan and purchase contracts. In one contract, the grandsons of Kamird-far declare the equal division of

19 all properties among the brothers, even a wife called Zeran. This seems highly unusual, and despite precedence in Hindu mythology, we don’t really have another instance of wife-sharing.

What could all this mean? It seems obvious that the Kamird-far family is in the process of acquiring great pieces of agricultural land. Their beginning is also quite clear, the start of their land acquisition going back to their patriarch Priest Kamird-far himself. He pRōb ably used his position as the priest, and care-taker of donations to his god, to start land acquisitions. His sons and grandsons, however, are not in any visible way involved in religious duties. What could we call their position? They seem to be urban dwellers and we don’t have any indication of them directly farming their lands. The absence of a steward or a land supervisor also makes us think that despite their rapid acquisitions, they are still small land-owners.

The activities of the Kamird-far family are obviously concentrated in a small area of

Bactria, although the contracts are concluded in different cities with considerable distances between them43. Their activities, however, could be an example of the situation at the time, a possible trend for the accumulation of land and concentration of wealth and power in the hands of landowning families. Whether this might be fit the general trend of late Sasanian economy remains a matter than needs to be studied in the next chapter.

43 The contracts are drawn in Madr, Rob, and and Lizg, all within the same region, but not necessarily in the same administrative divisions, as we are to judge by the authorities who have witnessed and sealed them. Doc. T, the original deed of gift, was drawn in Lizg (as is apparent by the closed copy Tt). Doc. U (490) is witnessed by the Steward of Madr and in the court of the Khars of Rob. Doc. W (525) is drawn in Gandar. Doc. X (527) in Zuwar and the court of Wargun. In Doc. Y (549), Mir son of Bek (thus grandson of Kamird-far) is called “from Asp”. Asp is the locale where the lands donated in Doc. T were located.

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