Volume 1 Number 2 “The Bridge between Eastern and Western cultures” December 2003

In This Issue

• The Archaeology of Sogdiana FROM THE EDITOR • Returning to Varakhsha • Sogdians in China: A Short History It is my pleasure to introduce the sec- remains of Sogdian culture. To the and Some New Discoveries ond issue of the Silkroad Foundation’s casual visitor, the dusty mounds of • Pre-Islamic Civilization of the Newsletter which contains a range of Afrasiab or Panjikent or even the dark- Sogdians (seventh c. BCE to articles that should interest general ened and damaged originals of their eighth c. CE): A Bibliographic reader and specialist alike. I respond murals barely speak, but they come Essay to these essays on both a personal and alive through the expertise of scholars a professional level. On the one hand, such as those whose essays on the • Bamiyan: Professor Tarzi’s Survey the Silk Road embodies a kind of ro- Sogdians occupy the largest part of this and Excavation Archaeological mantic and romanticizing vision of a issue of our Newsletter. I have had Mission, 2003 past which may come alive when I visit the personal pleasure of hearing Boris • “Knowing the Road That Leads You the locations where history unfolded. Marshak lecture for our Silk Road Se- Home”: Family, Genealogy, and On the other hand the historian in me attle events back in 2002 and witness- keeps whispering that I should beware ing how his gentle erudition charmed Migration in Post-Soviet of reading too much into the past from all who met him. For half a century he Kazakhstan its remains that have survived to the has been one of the giants of Sogdian • Among the Kazakhs of Xinjiang present. studies. More recently, in conjunction with the stunning exhibit of Silk Road Next Issue It has been my privilege to have seen art at the Dayton (Ohio) Art Institute the Sogdian murals at Afrasiab on the (in which many of the objects spoke to • On the Antiquity of the Yurt by outskirts of Samarkand, to have vis- the importance of the Sogdians) I Professor David Stronach ited, however briefly, the famous shared the stage with Aleksandr Sogdian town of Panjikent, to have Naymark and heard first-hand his dis- seen Sogdian petroglyphs in the Hunza cussion of the remarkable Varakhsha • Dr. John Sommer on Klavdiya Valley in northern Pakistan, and to have palace which he has now written up for Antipina, Ethnographer of the Kyrgyz driven out to the Dunhuang “limes” in these pages. His essay offers an ex- the area not far from where Aurel Stein cellent example of historical detection, • Professor Al Dien on Palmyra discovered the famous “ancient where the written sources and mate- Sogdian letters.” In fact, almost any- rial remains can be brought together • Stride, Padwa and Kansa on the where we might step along the vari- into a narrative that questions accepted ous paths of the ancient Silk Roads, wisdom in attempting to make sense GIS Atlas of Ancient Bactria we can imagine we are following in the of events which occurred some 1200- footsteps of the Sogdians, who played 1300 years ago. Étienne de la And more... such an important role in the Inner Vaissière’s elegant summary about Asian trade for a major part of the first what we are learning on the lively fron- millennium CE. Similarly, visiting the tier of the study of the Sogdians in About Kazakhs or (in my case) the Kyrgyz in China should encourage everyone to their Central Asian mountain pastures The Silk Road is a publication of the read his book, the first major synthe- Silkroad Foundation. The Silk Road can brings to life the remarkable, centu- sis of all that is known about the also be viewed online at ries-old, descriptive accounts we are Sogdian merchants and one which de- http://www.silkroadfoundation.org fortunate to have regarding the tradi- serves to be translated for those who tional culture of the pastoral nomads cannot read the French. Everywhere Please feel free to contact us with any who contributed so significantly to the one turns in the literature on Sogdiana, questions or contributions. movement of peoples and goods across one encounters the name of Frantz historic Eurasia. Grenet, who is Director of the Franco- The Silkroad Foundation P.O. Box 2275 Uzbek Archaeological Mission that has Saratoga, CA 95070 As a historian interested in periods for been continuing the excavations at [email protected] which the archaeological record pro- Afrasiab and at other sites nearby. We vides essential source material, I am can be much encouraged by the way in Editor: Daniel C. Waugh with the assis- especially intrigued by the material which international participation in Cen- tance of Heather Salfrank

©2003 Silkroad Foundation tral Asian excavations has expanded in the continuation of major excavations cape diesel fumes, fast food and the post-Soviet era, not the least of and the study of their results should busloads of tourists, it would be a mis- the benefits being that the results are be a higher priority than the recon- take, of course, to imagine that the life becoming more widely known than they struction of the standing Buddhas of of the herding families is unchanged were in the days where so much of the Bamiyan, however important symboli- from the way it was, say, back in the important scholarship appeared mainly cally that might be. It is no small time when William of Rubruck or Marco in Russian. miracle that in current conditions in Polo travelled through Inner Asia. Afghanistan any kind of serious archae- Yet Sogdiana rarely makes the front ology can be undertaken. We need to remember that the chro- page news, whereas the tragedy of nologically most recent layer in any Bamiyan is, alas, all too fresh in the Saulesh Yessenova’s article introduces kind of excavation, be it in the ground minds of everyone. The destruction of us to another important aspect of the or in human memory, may not be a so much of value in Afghanistan’s cul- preservation and understanding of the reliable guide to the layers of earlier tural heritage and the threats from loot- past. It is at once alarming and heart- centuries. As we learn more about ing to that which remains in the ground ening to learn how Kazakh family ge- the Silk Road, on whatever level we should not obscure the fact we are also nealogies are in danger of being ig- study it, we find ourselves both over- living in a time when important new nored by the younger generation and whelmed by how much is known (and discoveries continue there. One thinks, at the same time are being actively pre- is there to be learned) and dismayed for example, of the earliest physical served by their elders. This, in a cul- by how much may never be known. To copies of Buddhist writings, which ture where memory of family and kin me the romance of the Silk Road is its somehow were spirited out of Afghani- has always been at the heart of iden- challenge to venture into what for most stan before the Taliban could destroy tity. Just as in many places we are of us is terra incognita. Just as we think them and are now being made avail- racing against time to rescue material we are beginning to identify secure able for scholars to decipher. Just as culture from the architects of modern landmarks along the way, we realize we await eagerly the appearance of development, so also is it important to that even the best experts may dis- each volume in the Early Buddhist record and preserve traditions that in- agree about what they mean. Our chal- Manuscripts Project, we wait with bated evitably change due to the realities of lenge is to overcome the limitations breath to learn the results of the con- “modernization.” imposed by our experiences in the tinuing excavations by Zemaryalai present in order to be able to recover Tarzi, in search of the reclining Bud- Bob Jones’s experience among the a past whose shards are buried in the dha at Bamiyan. If the international Kazakhs of Xinjiang serves as another sands of memory. community wishes to contribute to reminder of how rapidly tradition is projects honoring and preserving the being encroached upon by the eco- Daniel Waugh cultural heritage of this true crossroads nomic demands and temptations of Department of History of civilizations, then supporting the development. Even where one can go University of Washington (Seattle) protection of archaeological sites and high enough into the mountains to es- [email protected]

2 The Archaeology of Sogdiana

Boris I. Marshak

The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

Sogdiana (or Sogd) is a region in Cen- ever, for a more complete picture we in Samarkand region and the Dashti tral Asia that was populated by need to note the monuments of earlier Kozy tomb to the east of Panjikent. Sogdians, people speaking and writing periods. These unrelated monuments do not in an Eastern Iranian language. Accord- help, however, to explain the origins ing to Greek and Roman authors, The most ancient archaeological find- of the Sogdians. Sogdiana included territories between ings on the territory of Sogdiana date two rivers, the Amu Darya and Syr to the Middle Paleolithic period. There Urban development in Sogdiana began Darya. Khoresm, which occupied the are a few Upper Paleolithic settlements sometime in the early first millennium Amu Darya delta, was not part of (in Samarkand, for example) as well; BCE, i.e., in the early Iron Age, when a Sogdiana. Later Sogdiana, beginning at the same time, nothing from the new culture emerged in Samarkand at least in the first and second centu- Neolithic period has yet been found. and Kashkadarya, Sogdiana ries CE, occupied a smaller territory. Sarasm, situated between Samarkand [Isamiddinov]. Some characteristic fea- Thus its southern border was no longer and Panjikent, is an Eneolithic monu- tures of this culture are more archaic along the Amu Darya but along the ment dated to the fourth and third mil- than those included in the Bactrian- Zeravshan mountain range. Ferghana lennia BCE. Abdullo Isakov and his stu- Margiana cultural circle or even those and Ustrushana, situated between dents, as well as Roland Besenval and of the more ancient culture of Sarasm. Chach (the Tashkent oasis), Ferghana Bertille Lyonnet, studied this monu- For example, so-called semi-huts ap- and Sogdiana, did not belong to ment which consists of several settle- peared in place of houses made of Sogdiana, although the inhabitants of ments that occupy hundreds of hect- unbaked brick and consisting of sev- Ustrushana wrote and, perhaps, spoke ares. Sarasm pottery combines char- eral rooms. Plain pottery, sometimes the Sogdian language. Big Tokharistan, acteristics of northern Iranian (Tepe decorated with simple painting, re- a successor of Bactria, was located Hissar), southern Turkmen (Geoksur), placed dishware found in sedentary south of the Zeravshan mountain southern Afghan (Mundigak), Khoresm settlements which was produced with range. It is not clear, however, whether (Keltiminar), and even southern Sibe- the use of a potter’s wheel. This pot- the Sogdians populated all the lands rian (Afanasiev) cultures. There are, tery is different from the Andronov which Greek and Roman authors at- perhaps, local types as well. Bezanval type. At the same time, the emergence tribute to Sogdiana. It is possible that attributes such “multiculturalism” of of Iranian-speaking tribes in the first these authors referred to administra- Sarasm to the resettlement of people millennium BCE, including the ances- tive boundaries of the Achaemenid from different lands to this area, at- tors of historical Sogdians in the re- Empire, ignoring population distribution tracted there by the mineral resources gions where the latter lived, is often in the area. According to archaeologi- of the upper reaches of the Zeravshan associated (although empirically un- cal convention, any monument located River. supported) with the arrival of Andronov in the lower Zeravshan and tribes. Kashkadarya River valleys (but not to The Bronze Age is not well studied. the south or north-east of this terri- However, we are aware of the If, indeed, these tribes that populated tory) is defined as Sogdian regardless Zamanbaba culture in the lower the steppe during the late Bronze Age of the date. I should note, however, Zeravshan Valley. Dated to the early invaded Sogdiana, they must have lost that prior to the first and second cen- Bronze period, this culture is close to their older pottery tradition by the time turies CE, in archaeological terms, the Afanasiev culture in Siberia. Also, of the invasion. The fact is that, about there is no difference between Sogdian a burial cave was discovered in the same time, in the beginning of the culture and cultures to the south of the Zardcha-Khalifa, a location near first millennium BCE, nomadic pasto- Zeravshan mountain range. This said, Panjikent, dated the beginning of the ralism had developed in the steppe, the in the present article, following the es- second millenium BCE. This cave is at- original area of the Andronov culture, tablished convention, Sogdiana de- tributed to the second phase of the replacing the old herding-agricultural notes the region including the Sappali culture, a variant of the Bac- type of economy. Nomadic pastoralists, Zeravshan and Kashkadarya River ba- trian-Margiana culture. The Andronov as ethnographic research has shown, sins. Clearly, the archaeology of steppe culture penetrates the do not make pottery. Most likely, it was Sogdiana is dated no earlier than the Zeravshan basin somewhat later, in the the invasion of the nomads that re- first millennium BCE, when Sogdians first half of the second millennium BCE, duced to practically nothing the emerged on the historical stage. How- as evidenced in the Muminabad tomb achievements of the Bactrian-Margiana

3 characteristic of Iranian culture) spread only in the fourth century BCE during the late Achaemenid and the early Hel- lenic periods. During the Hellenic pe- riod, semi-huts were built along with unbaked brick constructions. The Kurgancha settlement in southern Sogdiana, which was excavated by M. Khasanov, dated the fourth and the third centuries BCE, is characteristic of this trend.

Neither Persian influence during the Achaemenid period nor Greek influence in the Hellenic epoch had an immedi- ate impact on the Sogdian culture. Greek forms in the Afrasiab pottery, in- cluding “fish plates” and kraters ap- peared in the third century BCE during the rule of the Seleucids, not right af- ter Alexander the Great’s conquest of Sogdiana in the 320s BCE. Nomads conquered Sogdiana in the end of the Copyright © 1979 Daniel C. Waugh third century. Greeks may have re- The ruins of Panjikent turned to Sogdiana in the first half of the second century, but by mid-cen- culture, although it did not eliminate survived to some degree. tury, the nomads took it over again. old traditions completely. Some invad- Ancient oriental elements prevail in the ers settled on deserted and fertile lands A new stage in cultural development architecture of the Greek period. A typi- and took up agriculture. Mountain in Sogdiana began in the seventh and cal example is the Afrasiab city wall. people, always in need of additional the sixth centuries BCE. Its character- It was built from large unbaked bricks land, participated in this process as istics were found in Bactria, Margiana, of a type unknown in Greece on which well. Pottery has always been a typi- northern Parthia, and, somewhat later, were written the names of the makers cal product among them, right down in Khoresm as well. These characteris- in Greek letters. Unbaked brick con- to modern times [Peshchereva]. tics (for example, cylinder cone-shaped structions were typical of Sogdiana dur- pottery made with the use of the ing its whole history. The French-Uzbek In the eighth and seventh centuries potter’s wheel and the production of expedition excavated at the Afrasiab BCE, settlements with semi-huts were large, rectangular, unbaked brick) did citadel a large storehouse for grain that replaced by large cities, among them not spread beyond the territories in the belonged to the state or the temple. Kok-tepe (with an area of 100 hect- northeast of Sogdiana. It has been ar- This storehouse had been built in the ares; the name is the modern one) and gued that these lands were included in time of Greek rule and then was Samarkand (220 hectares; the ancient the same state in the seventh and the burned, most likely during the nomadic town was Afrasiab). The study of these sixth centuries. However, it is not clear conquest. sites by the Uzbek-French expedition yet what was this state’s major politi- demonstrates that the process of erect- cal and administrative center. Even be- Burial sites of the nomadic population ing city walls in Samarkand and Kok- fore this period, a new large urban cen- near oases date from first centuries tepe and shrines in Kok-tepe included ter, the remnants of which are now BCE to the first centuries CE. Artifacts large-scale works [Rapin, Isamiddinov called Er-kurgan, emerged in southern produced by sedentary masters, includ- and Khasanov]. According to Sogdiana. In 1950, Aleksei I. ing pottery made on the potter’s wheel, Isamiddinov’s reasonable hypothesis, Terenozhkin developed relative and were popular among pastoralists. Dur- irrigation canals in Samarkandian absolute systems of chronology of ing the period between about the late Sogdiana, the length of which was more Sogdian pottery and other specimens second and the first centuries and the than 100 km, were built at about the that were dated between the sixth cen- first and the second centuries CE, tall same time as the cities. With some tury BCE and the end of the eighth cen- goblets became a widespread item, and changes, these canals survived until the tury CE. Cultural change (as much as iron arrowheads replaced those made present. Three important factors facili- it can be assessed by archaeologists) of bronze. The urban culture of tated this socio-economic transforma- did not occur immediately after Bactria, Samarkand, Er-kurgan, and other cit- tion: rapid population growth on fer- Sogdiana, and Khoresm were con- ies and settlements dating from this tile land, military organization of a quered by Cyrus the Great and became period is well explored. However, in newly established state ruled by those part of the Achaemenid Persian Em- contrast with the situation for Er- who not long before were nomads, and pire in the second half of the sixth cen- kurgan, the later period from the end the advanced cultural traditions of the tury BCE. New elements (in particular, of the second to the fourth centuries is Bactrian-Margiana culture, which still open forms of pottery - cups and bowls, not well studied for Samarkand. Under

4 the rule of the Kushan kings in the sec- survived in Samarkandian Sogd and burial chambers were constructed in ond and the beginning of the third cen- in the upper Zeravshan Valley. Panjikent to hold the ossuaries in which, turies, urban life flourished in Tokhari- according to Zoroastrian custom, the stan. Sogdiana, on the other hand, de- Very little is known about the struc- bones of the deceased were collected. clined during the same period, although ture of ancient Sogdian cities. The so- Such chambers and ossuaries were the depth of the decline should not be called palace of Er-kurgan is similar to common in Samarkandian and exaggerated. The Sogdian “Ancient Let- houses of wealthy urban residents in Bukharan Sogdiana in the sixth and on ters” show that in the beginning of the Hellenic and Kushan Bactria. The down to the eighth century. fourth century many Samarkandians streets of Er-kurgan crossed at 90 de- lived and traded in China, mailing and gree angles, making square blocks. Growing prosperity in Sogdiana resulted receiving letters from their hometown. However, it is uncertain when we in the emergence of a new type of A public temple of the gods with two should date this systematic design. In dwellings for aristocrats in the seventh pillars made of burnt brick in the main Samarkand of the third to fifth centu- and the eighth centuries. These dwell- hall was built around the third century ries, a wall separated the northern ings were divided into three parts: liv- in Er-kurgan. third of the city that was densely filled ing quarters, quarters for the domestic with houses from the other part of the economy, and ceremonial public rooms. At least from the second century BCE huge area, which was only sparsely The ceremonial halls were decorated to the first century CE, there were also settled. Starting with the sixth century, with wall paintings and wooden reliefs smaller fortified buildings, often with a houses of aristocrats were built be- and statues. Houses of the elite in square main floor. These buildings had tween this wall and the ancient outer Samarkand and Panjikent were similar towers at the corners of the square floor palisade. In the fourth century, some to the palaces of the Sogdian rulers at or in the middle of each side. In the Huns conquered Sogdiana and founded Varakhsha and Panjikent, albeit smaller latter case, the floor plan of the build- a new Samarkandian dynasty. Later, in size, and the homes of the wealthy ing is cross-like. These tall, two-story by the end of the fourth century and, urban residents resembled those of the constructions were built for military especially, in the fifth century, the aristocrats. Standards of living among defense and were not suitable for liv- population of the country rapidly in- ordinary citizens improved as well. Pro- ing. Sometimes walls were built around creased. In the fifth century, new ur- fessional builders constructed two-story the central fort, and the space between ban centers such as Panjikent were houses with complex vaulting both for the fort and the wall was filled with built, which included both citadels and nobility and ordinary inhabitants. In dwellings. Similar forms in rural forts cities proper laid out in a regular plan. the seventh and first half of the eighth emerged much earlier in Iran (Shakh- The city walls dating from that period centuries the bronze coins minted in i-Kumys). They were also found in were tall with frequent towers and Samarkand, Panjikent and other cen- Ferghana, Ustrushana, and Chach. In many loopholes. They looked impres- ters had square holes in the center (imi- Sogdiana, citadels in small rural settle- sive, but were ill suited for military tating Chinese designs) so that they ments were expanded so that the origi- defense. The Hellenic (Bactrian) tra- could be strung on cords. The abun- nal four towers and spaces between dition survived in the architecture of dance of these coins is an indication of them were transformed into inner quar- temples in Panjikent and Jar-tepe (be- the growth of retail trade in these cit- ters around which new walls with eight tween Panjikent and Samarkand). Be- ies. towers were erected. In the fifth cen- ginning in the third century BCE, tury, there were landlords’ palaces near stamped terracotta statuettes ap- The pottery of the third to the sixth cen- citadels. These palaces were fortified, peared, specifically those depicting a turies speaks to emergence of local and, by the sixth and the seventh cen- seated Hellenic goddess. In the first schools that developed distinct forms turies, actual castles emerged with a centuries CE, largely female votive (at Tali Barzu near Samarkand [layers tripartite system of military defense. figurines became widespread. 1 to 4, G. V. Grigoriev’s excavation]; Each palace consisted of a residential Terracotta icons depicting a god or god- earlier layers of Panjikent). In the sev- tower, often built around the old fort dess in a temple niche were typical in enth century, a new style of pottery, tower, as well as the inner and outer Samarkandian Sogd in the sixth cen- imitating the designs on silver dishes, systems of reinforcement. In most tury. Right up to the fifth century, emerged in new pottery centers such cases, warriors inhabited residential Sogdian coins imitated Hellenic types. as Kafyr-kala near Samarkand (G. V. towers and masters stayed in the in- In the fifth century and especially in Grigoriev’s excavation). This develop- ner yard, while the outer wall served the sixth century, Sassanian silver ment reflects urban dwellers’ attempts to defend dwellings of subordinate coins began to circulate in Sogdiana. to affect the lifestyle of wealthier coun- landownders landowners and tenants. Local imitations of Sassanian drachmas terparts. In the periphery, however, also date from the same period. especially in mountain regions, pottery Iurii Iakubov discovered a settlement was still hand-modeled and burnt in a in the upper reaches of the Zeravshan In general the fifth century marked a fire rather than being made with a River (Gardani Khisor) dated to the end number of important changes. A Zo- potter’s wheel and fired in a furnace. of the seventh or beginning of the roastrian House of Fire was added to Urban citizens used hand-modeled pot- eighth centuries that was built entirely one of the two temples in Panjikent. tery as well, including dishes for meal around the master’s palace. Later, An altar with the perpetual fire ap- preparation. Many artisan shops, in- when these palaces were abandoned peared as well in the fifth century in a cluding those whose masters worked by their inhabitants, they eroded into temple in Er-kurgan. This is also the with metal, were found in Sogdian cit- flattened hills, hundreds of which have period when the first vaulted, surface ies such as Panjikent.

5 The houses of peasants who lived in The Uzbek-French expedition [Frantz References the mountains were different from ur- Grenet, Ivanitskii, Iurii Karev] discov- ban dwellings, resembling the houses ered in Samarkand two palaces of Arab (For additional references, see the of Mountain Tajiks in the twentieth cen- vicegerents dated to the 740s or 750s. annotated bibliography by Frantz tury. In the plain, and especially in Their architecture is not Sogdian. Un- Grenet in this Newsletter. There is proximity to cities, there were houses der the Arabs, local principalities gradu- some overlap between the two listings, which more or less corresponded to ally lost autonomy, and noblemen and but the editor felt it important to urban norms. The architecture of for- wealthy merchants abandoned small reproduce Dr. Marshak’s selection in tified residences was similar to that of towns such as Panjikent. However, it its entirely.) the houses of wealthy citizens. was a time of the rapid growth of large cities, such as Samarkand and Al’baum, L. I. Zhivopis’ Afrasiaba In the Sogdian decorative arts images Bukhara, which then became adminis- [The Painting of Afrasiab]. Tashkent, of the gods were formed under the trative centers. In the ninth century, 1975. Greek influence, to which were added Sogdiana lost its ethnic and cultural dis- Iranian elements in the fifth century tinctiveness, although many elements Azarpay, Guitty. Sogdian painting. and, in the sixth century, Indian ele- of Sogdian material culture are found The pictorial epic in oriental art. ments. Secular narrative painting was in materials dating from the ninth to Berkeley; Los Angeles; London: used to illustrate literature of different the eleventh centuries. This is why, University of California Press, 1981 genres, such as epics, fairy-tales and starting with the ninth century, it is im- (with contributions by A.M. fables that used local, Iranian, Indian, possible to speak of Sogdian culture Belenitskii, B.I. Marshak, and Mark and Greek plots. Feasts and other cel- on the territory of Sogdiana itself at J. Dresden). ebrations, and equestrian hunts were the same time that it survived until the favorite themes in this painting. Oc- eleventh century among Sogdian im- Belenitskii, A. M. Monumental’noe casionally, artists utilized events of re- migrants who resettled in eastern Cen- iskusstvo Pendzhikenta. Zhivopis’. cent history. The mature Sogdian style tral Asia and China. Skul’ptura [Monumental art of of the seventh and the eighth centu- Panjikent: painting, sculpture]. ries was dynamic, and featured a bright About the Author Moscow: Iskusstvo, 1973. and harmonious palette. Among the mineral pigments ochre predominated, Dr. Boris Il’ich Marshak has headed the Belenitskii, A. M.; Bol’shakov, O. G.; and Badakhshani ultramarine was used Central Asian and Caucasian Section Bentovich, I. B. Srednevekovyi for the backgrounds. of the Hermitage Museum in St. Pe- gorod Srednei Azii [The medieval tersburg since 1978, the same year in city in Central Asia]. Leningrad: In the eighth century after several mili- which he assumed direction of the ar- Nauka, 1973. tary actions the Arabs conquered chaeological excavation at the impor- Sogdiana, which became one of the tant Sogdian town of Panjikent Belenitskii, A. M.; Marshak, B. I.; richest parts of the Caliphate. How- (Tajikistan) where he had been work- Raspopova, V. I. “Sogdiiskii gorod v ever, economic prosperity was com- ing since 1954. The leading expert on nachale srednikh vekov (itogi i bined with cultural assimilation. In the the archaeology and art history of metody issledovaniia drevnego second half of the eighth and the ninth Sogdiana, he is a fellow of many inter- Pendzhikenta) [The Sogdian city at centuries, urban citizens adopted Is- national learned societies and has lec- the beginning of the Middle Ages: lam. Simultaneously Persian (Tajik) tured widely around the world. His results and methods of the study of language replaced Sogdian, although books include Sogdian Silver (in Rus- ancient Panjikent].” Sovetskaia for a long time afterwards inhabitants sian) (Moscow, 1971) and most re- arkheologiia [Soviet archaeology], of rural areas continued to speak cently Legends, Tales, and Fables in the 1981, No. 2, 94-110. Sogdian. Art of Sogdiana (New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, 2002). Belenitsky, Aleksandr. Central Asia. Tr. James Hogarth. Geneva etc.: Nagel, 1968. (Archaeologia Mundi).

Belenizki, A. M. Mittelasien: Kunst der Sogden. Tr. Lisa Schirmer. Leipzig: E.A. Seemann, 1980.

Berdimuradov, A. E.; Samibaev, M. K. Khram Dzhartepa – II (k problemam kul’turnoi zhizni Sogda v IV-VIII vv.) [The Temple of Jartepa - II (On the problems of cultural life of Sogdiana in the 4th-8th cen- Copyright © 1999 Daniel C. Waugh turies)]. Tashkent, 1999.

Ossuaries on display in the Samarkand Museum of History, Art, and Ethnography

6 Bernard, Paul; Grenet, Frantz; soobshcheniia Instituta istorii Marshak, Boris. “La thématique Isamiddinov, Muxammedzhon, et material’noi kul’tury [Brief sogdienne dans l’art de la Chine de collaborateurs. “Fouilles de la communications of the Institute of la seconde moitié du VIe siècle.” mission franco-soviétique à the history of material culture], vyp. Comptes rendus de l’Académie des l’ancienne Samarkand (Afrasiab): 12 (1946). Inscriptions & Belles-lettres, 2001, première campagne, 1989.” 227-264. Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Iakubov, Iu. Pargar v VII-VIII vv. Inscriptions & Belles-lettres, 1990, n.e. (Verkhnii Zeravshan v epokhu Marshak, Boris. Legends, tales, and 356-380. rannego srednevekov’ia) [Pargar in fables in the art of Sogdiana. New the 7th and 8th centuries CE (The York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, - - - -. “Fouilles de la mission franco- upper Zeravshan in the early Middle 2002. (With an Appendix by V.A. ouzbèke à l’ancienne Samarkand Ages)]. Dushanbe: Donish, 1979. Livshits). (Afrasiab): deuxième et troisième campagnes (1990-1991).” Comptes Iakubovskii, A. Iu. “Drevnii Marshak, Boris. “Le programme Rendus de l’Académie des Pendzhikent [Ancient Panjikent].” In iconographique des peintures de la Inscriptions & Belles-lettres, 1992, Po sledam drevnikh kul’tur ‘Salle des Ambassadeurs’ à Afrasiab 275-311. [Following the traces of ancient (Samarkand).” Arts Asiatiques, 49 cultures]. Moscow: Gos. izd-vo (1994), 5-20. Besenval, R. and Isakov, A. “Sarazm kulturno-prosvetitel’noi lit-ry, 1951. et les debuts du peuplement agricole Marshak B. I., and Raspopova V. I. dans la region de Samarkand.” Arts Isakov, A. I. Sarazm (k voprosu “Cultes communautaires et cultes Asiatiques, t. 44 (1989). stanovleniia rannezemledel’cheskoi privés en Sogdiane.” In P. Bernard & kul’tury Zeravshanskoi doliny) F. Grenet, ed., Histoire et cultes de Bobomulloev, S. “Ein bronze- (raskopki 1977-1983) [Sarazm (on l’Asie centrale préislamique. Paris : zeitliches Grab aus Zardca Chalifa the origins of early agriculture in the Editions du CNRS, 1991, 187-195, bei Pendzikent (Zeravsan-Tal).” Zeravshan Valley) (excavations of Pl. LXXIII-LXXVIII. Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran 1977-1983)]. Dushanbe, 1991. und Turan, Bd. 29 (1997). Mode, Markus. “Die Religion der Isakov, A. I. Tsitadel’ drevnego Sogder im Spiegel ihrer Kunst.” In K. Drevnosti Tadzhikistana. Katalog Pendzhikenta [The citadel of ancient Jettmar and E. Kattner, ed., Die vystavki [The antiquities of Panjikent]. Dushanbe: Donish, vorislamischen Religionen Tajikistan. An exhibit catalogue]. 1977. Mittelasiens. Stuttgart: W. Dushanbe: Donish, 1985. Kohlhammer, 2003 (=Die Religionen Isamiddinov, M. Kh. Istoki gorodskoi der Menschheit, Bd. 4/3), pp. 141- Grenet, Frantz. “L’art zoroastrien en kul’tury Samarkandskogo Sogda 218. Sogdiane. Etudes d’iconographie (problemy vzaimodeistviia funeraire.” Mesopotamia, XXI kul’turnykh traditsii v epokhu Mode, Markus. Sogdien und die (1986). rannezheleznogo veka i v period Herrscher der Welt. Türken, antichnosti) [The sources of the Sasaniden und Chinesen in - - - -. “Old Samarkand: Nexus of urban culture of Samarkandian Sogd Historiengemälden des 7. the Ancient World.” Archaeology (problems of the interaction of Jahrhunderts n. Chr. aus Alt- Odyssey, September/October 2003. cultural traditions in the early iron Samarqand. Frankfurt/M. etc.: Peter age and in the period of Classical Lang Verlag, 1993 (= Europäische Grenet, Frantz, and Marshak, Boris Antiquity)]. Tashkent, 2002. Hochschulschriften, Reihe XXVII, “Le mythe de Nana dans l’art de la Kunstgeschichte, Bd. 162). Sogdiane.” Arts Asiatiques, t. 53 Isamiddinov, M. Kh., and Sulei- (1998), pp. 5-18. manov, R. Kh. Erkurgan Obel’chenko, O. V. “Liavandakskii (stratigrafiia i periodizatsiia) [Er- mogil’nik [The Liavandak tomb].” In Grigor’ev, G. V. “Gorodishche Tali- kurgan (stratigraphy and Istoriia material’noi kul’tury Barzu. Kratkii ocherk [The fortified periodization)]. Tashkent, 1984. Uzbekistana [History of the material complex of Tali-Barzu. A brief culture of Uzbekistan], vyp. 2. sketch].” Trudy Otdela Vostoka Marshak, B. I. “Iskusstvo Sogda Tashkent: Izd-vo “Fan” Uzbekskoi Ermitazha [Works of the Eastern [The art of Sogdiana].” In SSR, 1961. Section of the Hermitage], vol. 2 Tsentral’naia Aziia. Novye (Leningrad, 1940). pamiatniki pis’mennosti i iskusstva. Obel’chenko, O. V. “Mogil’nik Sbornik statei [Central Asia: New Akdzhar-tepe [The tomb of Akdzhar- Grigor’ev, G. V. “K voprosu o monuments of writing and art. A tepe].” In Istoriia material’noi khudozhestvennom remesle collection of articles.]. Moscow: kul’tury Uzbekistana [History of the domusul’manskogo Sogda [On the Izd-vo “Nauka,” Glav. red. material culture of Uzbekistan], vyp. question of artistic crafts in pre- vostochnoi lit-ry, 1987, 233-247. 3. Tashkent: Izd-vo “Fan” islamic Sogdiana].” Kratkie Uzbekskoi SSR, 1962.

7 Obel’chenko, O. V. “Sazaganskie Shishkina, G.V. “Ancient Samarkand: soobshcheniia Instituta istorii kurgany [The Sazagan burial Capital of Soghd.” Bulletin of the material’noi kul’tury [Brief mounds].” In Istoriia material’noi Asia Institute, 8 (1994 [1996]), 81- communications of the Institute of kul’tury Uzbekistana [History of the 99. the history of material culture], vyp. material culture of Uzbekistan], vyp. 33 (1950). 7. Tashkent: Izd-vo “Fan” Uzbek- Shishkina, G. V. “Ellenisticheskaia skoi SSR, 1966. keramika Afrasiaba [The Hellenic Voronina, V. L. “Arkhitekturnyi ceramics of Afrasiab].” Sovetskaia ornament drevnego Pendzhkenta Oxus. Tesori dell’Asia Centrale. arkheologiia [Soviet archaeology], [Architectural ornament of ancient Roma: Ed. De Luca, 1993 1975, No. 2. Panjikent].” In Skul’ptura i zhivopis’ drevnego Pendzhikenta [Sculpture Peshchereva, E. M. Goncharnoe Shkoda, V.G. “Le culte du feu dans and painting of ancient Panjikent]. proizvodstvo Srednei Azii [The les sanctuaires de Pendzikent.” In Moscow: Izd-vo AN SSSR, 1959, production of pottery in Central Cultes et monuments religieux dans 87-138. Asia]. Moscow: Izd-vo ANSSSR, l’Asie préislamique. Paris, 1987. 1959. Voronina, V. L. “Arkhitektura Silvi, Antonini C., “The Paintings in Srednei Azii VI-VIII vv. [The Pougatchenkova, G.A. “Les osto- the Palace of Afrasiab (Samarkand).” architecture of Central Asia in the teques de Miankal.” Mesopotamia, Rivista di Studi Orientali, 1990. 6th-8th centuries CE].” In Vse- XX (1985). obshchaia istoriia arkhitektury [A Skul’ptura i zhivopis’ drevnego general history of architecture], vol. Pugachenkova, G. A. Drevnosti Pendzhikenta. Sbornik statei 8. Moscow: Izd-vo Akademii Miankalia. Iz rabot Uzbekistanskoi [Sculpture and painting of ancient arkhitektury SSSR, 1969. iskusstvovedcheskoi ekspeditsii [The Panjikent. A collection of articles]. antiquities of Miankal. From the Moscow: Izd-vo AN SSSR, 1959 Zeimal’, E. V. Drevnie monety work of the Uzbek art historical Tadzhikistana [Ancient coins of expedition]. Tashkent, 1989. Smirnova, O. I. Svodnyi katalog Tajikistan]. Dushanbe, 1983. sogdiiskikh monet. Bronza [General Rapin, Claude; Isamiddinov, catalogue of Sogdian coins. Bronze]. Zhivopis’ drevnego Pendzhikenta. Mukhammadjon; Khasanov, Mutallib. Moscow: “Nauka,” Glavnaia red. Sbornik statei [The painting of “La tombe d’une princesse nomade à vostochnoi literatury, 1981. ancient Panjikent. A collection of Koktepe près de Samarkand.” articles]. Moscow: Izd-vo AN SSSR, Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Stavitskii, B. Ia. “Istoricheskie 1954. Inscriptions & Belles-lettres, 2001, svedeniia o verkhnoi chasti 33-92. Zeravshanskoi doliny (do arabskogo zavoevaniia) [Historical accounts Rapin, Claude. “Fortifications about the upper Zeravshan Valley hellénistiques de Samarcande (before the Arab conquest)].” In (Samarkand-Afrasiab).” Topoi, 4/2 Istoriia material’noi kul’tury (1994), 547-565. Uzbekistana [History of the material culture of Uzbekistan], vyp. 1. Raspopova, V. I. Metallicheskie Tashkent: Izd-vo “Fan” Uzbekskoi izdeliia rannesrednevekovogo Sogda SSR, 1959, 81-93. [Metal artifacts of Sogdiana in the Early Middle Ages]. Leningrad: Stavitskii, B. Ia.; Bol’shakov, O. G.; Nauka, 1980. Monchadskaia, E. A. “Piandzhikent- skii nekropol’ [The Panjikent ne- Raspopova, V. I. Zhilishcha cropolis].” In Materialy i issledovaniia Pendzhikenta (Opyt istoriko- po arkheologii SSSR [Materials and sotsial’noi interpretatsii) [The studies in the archeology of the dwellings of Panjikent: An essay in USSR], vyp. 37 (1953). socio-historic interpretation]. Leningrad: Nauka, 1990. Suleimanov, R. Kh. Drevnii Nakhshab. Problemy tsivilizatsii Semenov, G. L. Sogdiiskaia Uzbekistana VII v. do n. e.-VII v. n. fortifikatsiia V-VIII vv. [Sogdian e. [Ancient Nakhshab. Problems of fortifications in the 5th – 8 th the civilization of Uzbekistan from centuries]. Sankt-Peterburg, 1996. the 7th century BCE to the 7th century CE]. Samarkand; Tashkent, 2000. Shishkin, V. A. Varakhsha. Moscow: Izd-vo AN SSSR, 1963. Terenozhkin, A. I. “Sogd i Chach [Sogdiana and Chach].” Kratkie

8 Returning to Varakhsha

Aleksandr Naymark

Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York

There are archaeological monuments in order to update it in the context of extensive ruins lie buried; in this and archaeological monuments. After recently-studied monuments and to place after rain, people go to dig a while you start distinguishing a kind make use of materials brought to light for such articles, and find a great of individual presence in these hills. by the last decades of research. many; particularly plate, and uten- Some of them are grim and unfriendly, sils of gold and silver, for all of others leave a light, pleasant imprint which they find a ready market with on your soul. Varakhsha is one of the The very first Sogdian archeologi- Russian merchants, who, he as- most welcoming and enjoyable sites cal site sured me, would give five times where I have been fortunate to exca- their weight for such articles of vate. Even the wind performing its A British artist and adventurer, James metal, and a very high price for all lonely dance in the roofless empty halls Fraser, who collected information about carved gems. I should indeed have of the palace sounds like a distant cho- the Uzbek Khanates while traveling in doubted greatly the rates he rale. As to the Sogdian lunar god Mah, Khorasan in 1821 and 1822, mentioned quoted for such things, and would whose light floods the uninterrupted that the Bukharan oasis would have believed that it was a trick to dreamy plains stretching from the foot induce me to make purchases, had of the citadel to the flat horizon, I have afford a rich field to the antiquar- it not been for the prices actually not seen him so beautiful in any other ian, for there are several sites of demanded by others in Mushed, part of the world. These personal feel- ancient cities scattered over it, and those which he himself offered ings make me wish to revisit the site, among the ruins of which, gems, for individual articles, which con- but, by themselves, they do not con- coins, medals, and various antique vinced me that the merchants of stitute a legitimate reason for a schol- utensils and arms are to be found. Bockhara had found ready, and arly return to Varakhsha, a monument One person who was himself a probably ignorant purchasers for which has held an exceptional place in dealer in such articles, mentioned things of which they could hardly the history of exploration of Sogdiana. to me a city called Khojahwooban, be judges. [Fraser, p. 98] Such a scholarly re-examination is nec- which he described as having been essary for our understanding of the site overwhelmed by sand, under which Fifteen years later, another British trav- eler, Alexander Burnes wrote:

About twenty-five miles north-west of Bokhara, and on the verge of the desert, there lie the ruins of an ancient city, called Khojuoban, and which is assigned by tradition to the age of the caliph Omar. Mahommedans seldom go beyond the era of their Prophet, and this proves nothing. There are many coins to be procured in this neigh- borhood; and I am fortunate in possessing several beautiful speci- mens, which have turned out to be genuine relics of the monarchs of Bactria. They are of silver, and nearly as large as a half-crown piece. A head is stamped on one side, and a figure is seated on the reverse. The execution of the former is very superior; and the ex- pression of features and spirit of the whole do credit even to the age

9 of Greece, to which it may be said oasis appears in a local chronicle as twenty-first day is then New Year’s they belong. They brought numer- early as the late Ashtarkhanid period day, and they call it the New Year’s ous antiques from the same place, [Tali - Semenov 1959, p. 138]. The rea- day of the farmers. The farmers of representing the figures of men son why the name of the one and not Bukhara reckon from that (day) and animals cut out on cornelians very significant site was extended to and count from it. The New Year’s and other stones. Some of these the large territory was the great popu- day of the Magians is five days bore a writing that differs from any larity of the mazar, the “holy grave” later. [Narshakhi-Frye 1954, p. 18] which I have before seen, and re- situated on the top of the archaeologi- sembled Hindee. [Burnes, pp. 319- cal mound of Khwaja Uban. [Among As we know from ethnographic mate- 320] the early descriptions is that by rials, Central Asian festivals of this type Vambery. The most detailed is Shishkin required participation of local lords or Indeed coins and gemstones presented 1963, p. 134; for fictionalized descrip- squires - dihqans, whose role was to in the engraved plates illustrating tion of life on this mazar in the early start the agricultural year by plowing Burnes’ book are of great interest. twentieth century, see Aini 1949, p. 210 the first furrow. The “farmer’s New ff.]. Bukharans shared a popular belief Year” of the entire Bukharan oasis The same Khwaja Uban was said to be that this mazar had special healing would require participation of the a source of important finds under the powers and the complex of the build- Dihqan of Bukhara, i.e. the Bukhar Russian colonial rule. The famous Rus- ings constructed in the fifteenth to Khuda, originally the king and then a sian scholar and eager collector of gem- nineteenth centuries on the top of the descendant of the kings. This very well stones, Alexander Semenov mentions mound served as a makhaw khona - corresponds to various passages in that one of the most resourceful people “a reservation for lepers.” In other contemporary early Islamic writings trading in antiques at the turn of the words, it was not the Khwaja Uban site, (for example: Biruni, Firdawsi) ascrib- 20th century used to say that the most but the huge zone of desolate lands of ing to dihqans and kings from old dy- precious of his objects came from ancient irrigation in the western part nasties the function of the ritual lead- Khwaja Uban [Semenov 1957, pp. 149- of the Bukharan oasis (about 700 sq. ers of the agricultural community. 150]. Semenov thought that his in- km), that produced such a large vol- formant referred to the site situated in ume of various archaeological finds. Apart from the temporary political and the now deserted area beyond the Yet, there is little, if any, doubt that religious significance connected to its western border of the Bukharan oasis the ruins of the ancient city “over- residence status, well-fortified on the road to Khoresm [Semenov whelmed by sand” mentioned by Fraser Varakhsha was an important military 1945, p. 30]. and Burnes are the remains of outpost on the western border of the Varakhsha, by far the largest and the oasis [Muqaddasi - de Goeje 1906, p. The very first archaeological survey most impressive among the archaeo- 282]. It was also a considerable trade conducted in the area of Khwaja Uban logical sites situated in this zone. This center situated on the road between by Vasilii Shishkin in the early 1950s makes Varakhsha the very first Sogdian Bukhara and Khoresm [Istakhri - de established that the actual site bear- archaeological site mentioned in Euro- Goeje 1870, p. 338; Ibn Hawqal - de ing this name is rather small and did pean literature. Goeje 1873, p. 400] and in the contact not conform to this image of an anti- zone between the nomads and seden- quarian Klondike responsible for the gi- On the other hand, the name of tary population. As its population de- gantic volume of finds which through- Varakhsha was well known to the his- liberately rejected township rights, it out the nineteenth and early twentieth torians of Central Asian long before was considered “the largest of the vil- centuries filled the local market with Shishkin identified it with the mysteri- lages” in the Bukharan oasis [Narshaki antiquities. Shishkin’s survey brought ous Khwaja Uban. This was due to the - Frye 1954, p. 18], but we can safely to light almost no archaeological ma- important role that Varakhsha played assume that it was also a major center terial from the surrounding plain either. in local history during the dramatic of crafts, because Narshakhi states that Moreover, the hillock Khwaja Uban and period of the Arab conquests. At that the suburbs of Varakhsha “were like the area around it produced nothing time, the old Bukharan ruling family those of Bukhara” itself [Narshaki - datable prior to the fifteenth century, moved the royal court to Varakhsha, Frye 1954, p. 17; Naymark 1999, pp. except for the bricks of the early Is- thus turning it into the scene of many 49-50]. This statement of the chronicle lamic period which were re-used in the tragic events of their dynastic history. is supported by the discovery of the construction of the building itself traces of industrial quarters in [Shishkin 1963, p. 134]. This “residence” status may also ex- Varakhsha’s environs made in the plain the exceptional role that course of the surveys and small scale The explanation for this little mystery Varakhsha later played in the traditional excavations conducted by the archaeo- of Khwaja Uban turned out to be the pre-Islamic calendar of Bukhara. The logical expedition of the Museum of local toponyms. Shishkin pointed out history of Bukhara written by Oriental Art in the 1980s. Last, but that by the end of the nineteenth cen- Muhammad Narshakhi in 943-4 CE re- not least, Varakhsha was the center of tury the entire zone of the abandoned lates that a large agricultural area “irrigated by lands of ancient irrigation situated to the twelve canals” [Narshakhi - Frye the West of the Bukharan oasis was every (year) for fifteen days there 1954, p. 17]. called Chul’-i Khwaja Uban. We know is a market in this village, but when now that this designation of the desert the market is at the end of the year Varakhsha’s role in local history, and on the western fringes of the Bukharan they hold it for twenty days. The especially the abundance of the infor-

10 Source: Shishkin, Varakhsha (1963), facing p. 96 The Varkhsha palace (V.A. Nil’sen’s reconstruction) mation in written sources, attracted the with the representatives of Russian co- drafted once more, this time by the Red attention of scholars as early as the lonial administration (Zimin, for ex- Army. Following the end of the Civil nineteenth century, but it was Vladimir ample, perished in the hands of the War, he was ordered to Turkestan. Fas- Barthold who first suggested the cor- Baku Revolutionary Tribunal). The tur- cinated by Central Asia and not an army rect location of the ancient settlement moil of the Civil War (1918-1920) left man by persuasion, Shishkin demobi- by placing it near the well Varakhchin Russia ruined, and the subsequent pro- lized and by 1926 graduated from the had marked on the nineteenth-century cess of rebuilding the country’s Oriental Department of Tashkent Uni- maps [Barthol’d 1963, p. 167]. Later economy prevented the allocation of versity. In 1928, he received an ap- Barthold’s student and one of the first resources to support Central Asian ar- pointment to Bukhara as the local rep- serious amateur archaeologists of Rus- chaeological research. New investiga- resentative of the Uzbekistan commit- sian colonial Turkestan, L.A. Zimin, tions of ancient cultures of the area tee for the preservation of cultural heri- mentioned in the report on his archaeo- started in the second half of the 1920s tage. Despite the strained conditions logical trip to this area that the remains and reached a fairly significant scale and limited resources, he did a lot for of the ancient town were the large only by the second half of the 1930s. the preservation of Bukhara’s cultural mound Varakhsha and extensive adja- heritage. These, however, were the cent ruins [Zimin 1917, p. 131, n. 4]. By that time, Vasilii Shishkin, the man roughest years of the Soviet era when These were situated at a distance from who was destined to become the real almost any activity was pregnant with Bukhara which corresponds quite well discoverer of Varakhsha, had already trouble. Well versed in local languages, to the four farsakhs mentioned by spent a fairly significant amount of time Shishkin worked closely with the sur- Sam’ani [Bartol’d 1963, p. 167] or a in Bukhara. He originally did not plan viving Bukharan architects, ganchkors, one day trip reported by Ibn Hawqal to become an archaeologist at all. Born painters, embroiderers and other art- [Ibn Hawqal - de Goeje 1873, p. 400]. in 1889 in the village of Spaso-Talitskoe ists. Many of them were famous in the near Viatka, Shishkin followed the steps pre-Soviet era, and some worked on Vasilii Shishkin and archaeological of his father in selecting the profes- the orders of the former Amirs. Accord- exploration of Varakhsha sion of a teacher. After graduating from ing to the then existing practice, these Viatka College, he received an appoint- lucky ones were assigned a court rank. Yet Varakhsha had to wait for its true ment in the Siumsin Higher Initial Col- In 1936, however, the record of such a explorer for two more decades. Dur- lege as a teacher of drawing, but in formal affiliation with the Amir’s court ing the Bolshevik revolution the only September of 1915 was drafted into proved to be dangerous: when the two archaeological institutions of Rus- the army and fought on the south-west- wave of Stalin’s proscriptions reached sian Turkestan - the Tashkent and the ern front. With the end of the First Bukhara this “incriminating fact” Ashkhabad Circles of the Amateur Ar- World War in 1918, Shishkin returned started being used as sufficient pre- chaeologists - disappeared together to his peaceful occupation but was text to sentence a person to certain

11 death in Siberian camps. Shishkin tried The Varakhsha excavations, which had Institute of Archaeology of the to save old artists by using his official been interrupted by World War II, re- Uzbekistan Academy of Sciences re- status and the position of an outsider. sumed in 1949 and then continued for moved the paintings on the southern He testified on their behalf during the another six years. They stood out wall of the Blue Hall at Varakhsha, but court procedures, although he certainly among the contemporary archaeologi- without any effort to clarify the realized the danger of engaging in con- cal work in Central Asia because of the building’s history. In 1986-1991, the troversy with local secret police unusual attention devoted to the build- team from the Moscow Museum of Ori- (NKVD), which of course saw him as a ing history of the edifice and the me- ental Art conducted more or less ex- mere obstacle in their efforts to meet ticulous recording of different architec- tensive excavations on the site of their targets of a certain number of ar- tural materials. I believe that Shishkin’s Varakhsha, but because of conserva- rests and convictions. This “unwise be- initial education as a painter and his tion concerns, its work on the palace havior” labeled Shishkin, a Russian later interest in the history of architec- was mostly limited to the so-called from Viatka, as a “Bukharan national- ture were largely responsible for this eiwan in the western part of the pal- ist,” and one day a warrant was issued unusually advanced methodology. The ace. These small scale excavations dis- for his arrest. Shishkin’s personal popu- quality of the work on the excavation covered three different stages in the larity and a mere chance, however, turned Shishkin’s expedition into one history of this part of the building saved him - a well-wisher inside the of the major schools of Central Asian [Alpatkina 1999; Alpatkina 2002], but NKVD who happened to learn about the field work in which many future lead- provided practically no dating materi- pending arrest warned Shishkin sev- ing scholars, like archaeologist Lazar als. Unexpectedly interrupted in 1991, eral hours in advance. Shishkin caught Albaum, orientalist Nataliia D”iakonova, they could not solve the major prob- a train to Tashkent shortly prior to the the architect V. A. Nil’sen, and art his- lems related to the chronology of the beginning of the regular nightly har- torian V. A. Meshkeris were trained. different stages in the edifice’s build- vest by the NKVD. As often happened ing history, leaving us with the firm at the time, the prosecution did not Yet Varakhsha’s primacy in the study belief that more archaeological work is bother to pursue him; they could hardly of Central Asian adobe brick architec- needed. cope with the plan of proscriptions im- ture carried negative aspects as well. posed on them by the central author- The majority of simple “methodologies” Narshakhi’s story of the Varakhsha ity. Shishkin returned to Bukhara as a allowing an archaeologist to synchro- palace member of the Tashkent Institute of nize different stages in rebuilding of History and Archaeology a year later, adobe architectural structures, now Yet, it is possible to solve some of the when a new wave of repressions had considered to be the alpha and beta of puzzles even without excavations. In wiped out those NKVD investigators Central Asian archaeology, had not yet doing this, we can utilize some new themselves. Yet, after this incident he been developed at the time of data accumulated in Sogdian numis- completely switched to the safer field Varakhsha excavations. For example, matics, art history and archaeology in of archaeology and for a while did not excavators did not pay special atten- general. Even more beneficial, however, work in the city itself. tion to the passages between the may become yet another unique fea- rooms; in the majority of cases, no ef- ture of the Varakhsha palace: this pal- fort was made to establish the corre- ace is the only archaeologically known It is, however, a rare ill wind that blows spondence of numerous floor levels in Sogdian architectural structure which no good. Indeed, it was this dramatic neighboring rooms through the connec- has a written history. Indeed, in the encounter with the almighty secret tion to the repairs of their common Tarikh-i Bukhara composed in 332 AH/ police that pushed Vasilii Shishkin to walls, etc. Consequently, no true ar- 943-4 CE by Muhammad Narshakhi we the lands of old irrigation on the west- chaeological stratigraphy was elabo- find a special passage devoted to this ern fringes of the Bukharan oasis. The rated, and hence no archaeological building: further steps simply followed the logi- dates could be offered for the famous cal path: the largest and the most Varakhsha paintings and stucco. There was a palace in it [Varakhsha impressive of the monuments situated - A.N.], the beauty of which is told in this zone, Varakhsha, simply called The Varakhsha excavations came to a in a proverb. It was built by a for excavation. Once on the site, halt in 1954. Since then, Central Asian Bukhar Khudah more than a thou- Shishkin noticed the outlines of rooms archaeology and art history advanced sand years ago. This palace had on the surface of the elevation to the both by the accumulation of a large been destroyed and abandoned for east of the citadel. This looked prom- quantity of new precise data and many years when Khnk Khudah re- ising, and the first excavation spot was through the development of research stored it. It again fell into ruins, set there. One of the rooms turned out methodologies. As a result, our under- and again Bunyat b. Toghshada, to be filled with the fragments of orna- standing of Varakhsha, once the most Bukhar Khudah, rebuilt it in Islamic mental and figurative decorative stucco advanced monument of Sogdian ar- times and made his court there till in early (what was then considered chaeology, lagged behind the now he was killed in it. Amir Isma’il Sasanian) style. This find became a much better dated and understood Samani convoked the people of the true archaeological sensation. That is monuments excavated on the sites of village and said, “I shall give how the palace of Varakhsha became Panjikent and Afrasiab. 20,000 dirhams and wood, and the very first Sogdian monumental edi- shall take care of the rebuilding fice to undergo archaeological excava- In the 1970s, a joint expedition of the of it. Part of the building is stand- tions. Moscow Institute of Restoration and the ing. You make a grand mosque out

12 trolled by the bearer of the title. In Khunak or Khanuk. Another type of of this place.” The village people the case of Khnk Khuda, however, Khunak/Khanuk coins has puzzled did not want it, and said that a such an interpretation seems to be scholars since the beginning of the grand mosque was unnecessary implausible - we are aware neither twentieth century - the so called and unreasonable for their village. of an apanage, nor even of a village drachms with the long Sogdian leg- So the palace existed till the time called Khnk in Sogdiana. The silence end, which reads clearly pwx’r xr’’ xwâ of the amir Ahmad b. Nuh b. Nasr of written sources can hardly result xw/nn/wk - “Bukharan *Great King b. Ahmad b. Isma’il al-Samani. He from a gap in our knowledge. Judg- Khunak”.2 On the basis of typologic and brought the wood of that palace to ing from his role in the coalition of the stratigraphic considerations these coins the city and used it to build a man- year 88/707 (commander of large can be attributed to the time of the sion which he made at the gate of army) and from his rebuilding of the Arab conquests, which makes the the fortress of Bukhara. [Narshaki great palace, Khnk Khuda must have Khunak/Khanuk mentioned on them - Frye 1954, pp. 17-18] been a major prince. In other words, chronologically compatible with Khnk the title of this personage as it is of Narshakhi and Ya’qubi (707 CE), the Although no exact dates are found in given by Tarikh-i Bukhara appears to father of Shukr b. Khnk of Tabari (722 this passage, it gives us an opportu- be “suspicious.” CE). In other words, a cross-examina- nity to enhance the dating of different tion of coins and written sources al- stages in the history of the building if Fortunately, the same personage ap- lows identification of the personage we use the four mentioned historical pears in the description of this very epi- mentioned in Tarikh-i Bukhara as the figures as chronological anchors. sode in Ya’qubi’s Tarikh: “When Qutaiba restorer of the Varakhsha palace as a left, Tarkhun Sahib of al-Sughd began Bukhar Khuda named Khunak/Khanuk, Stage One - The Palace of Khunak to agitate and then Khnk Abu Shukr who was active around 707 CE. Bukhar Khuda and Kurmaghanun an- The information provided is certainly Nufasi came at the head of the Turks.” insufficient to identify the anonymous [Ya’qubi - Houtsma 1969, p. 342]. Con- However, turning to the history of the Bukhar Khudah, who built the palace trary to Narshakhi, Ya’qubi treats Khnk Bukharan royal family as described in “more than a thousand years ago.” Yet as a personal name. The accuracy of Tarikh-i Bukhara, we do not find such the second personage of this story, Ya’qubi’s account compared with the a ruler. In an abridged form, the story Khnk Khuda is certainly a historical fig- version found in Narshakhi’s work is told by Narshakhi reads as follows. Af- ure. He appears once more in the text attested by the appearance of a cer- ter the death of Bukhar Khudah Bidun, of Tarikh-i Bukhara as one of the lead- tain Shukr b. Khnk, evidently a son of power was assumed by his wife, who ers of the anti-Arab coalition of 88/707: the person mentioned by Ya’qubi, ruled fifteen years on behalf of her mi- among other Central Asian princes in nor son Toghshada. The reign of this Among the villages of Bukhara, be- Tabari’s account of the siege of Mug queen (whom sources usually call by tween Tarab, Khunbun, and castle in 722 CE [Tabari - de Goeje her title, Khatun) started prior to 674 Ramitin, many troops gathered and 1906, II, 1447]. CE, for she is said to have been in surrounded Qutaiba [b. Muslim - charge of Bukhara during the first Arab A.N.]. Tarkhun, ruler of Sughd, There is another drastic difference be- attack on Sogdiana led in that year by came with many troops. Khnk tween the information of the two ‘Ubaidallah b. Ziyad. According to 1 Khudah came with a large army; sources - Ya’qubi supplies Khnk with Narshakhi, she reigned for fifteen Vardan Khudah with his troops, and the title of Bukhar Khuda. The veracity years, i.e. to 689 CE or a little earlier. king Kur Maghanun, nephew of the of Ya’qubi’s account in this matter is At the time of Khatun’s death her son emperor of Chin also came. indirectly supported by Narshakhi him- Toghshada was already fit to rule, but [Narshakhi - Frye 1954, p. 45] self: it is unclear why a certain Khnk the throne was usurped by the ruler of Khudah would resolve on restoring the Vardana, who remained in power until It is quite obvious that even combined Varakhsha palace of the Bukhar Khudah the systematic conquest of Sogdiana the two mentions of Khnk Khudah in dynasty; yet if we accept the version by Qutaiba b. Muslim, which started in the Tarikh-i Bukhara are insufficient to of Ya’qubi, everything falls into place. 707 CE. “Qutaiba had to fight many help with the identification of this mys- battles against him. Several times, he terious man. In other words, the fairly slim data of drove him from this district so that he written sources suggest that the re- fled to Turkistan. Vardan Khudah died, The presence of the Khuda component storer of the Varkhsha palace, a cer- and Qutaiba seized Bukhara. Qutaiba of the name (New Persian - “master” tain Khnk, was a Bukhar Khuda who gave Bukhara back to Toghshada and as a substitution for Sogdian xws) ruled over Bukhara around 707 CE. All made him ruler.” [Narshakhi - Frye places this personage in a group with this may seem rather speculative, but 1954, p. 10]. This happened in 90 or Central Asian princes such as Bukhar fortunately there is an independent and 91 AH/708 or 710 CE.3 Toghshada’s Khuda - “Lord of Bukhara”, Vardan authentic source which supports reign ended with his assassination in Khuda - “Lord of Varadana”, Chaghan Ya’qubi’s information - Sogdian legends Ramadan of 121 AH (August 11- Sep- Khuda - “Lord of Chaghanian”, Khuttal on Bukhar Khuda drachms. One of the tember 9, 739 CE) near Samarkand, Khudah - “Lord of Khuttal”, Saman types of Bukhar Khuda drachms, which in the tent of the Arab governor of Khuda - “Lord of Saman”, etc. Yet in all until now has escaped the attention of Khurasan Nasr b. Saiyar [Tabari - de known titles of this type, the first com- numismatists, carries the inscription Goeje 1906, II, p. 1693; Narshakhi - ponent is the name of the realm con- pwx’r xwâ xn/wn/wk - Bukharan King Frye 1954, pp. 60-2].

13 ² this latter title when mentioning the rected the Arabic text by splitting the How does our newly discovered enthronement of Toghshada in the original Vardan/Bukhar Khuda Khnk Bukhar Khudah Khunak fit this pic- year 91/709-710 [Tabari - de Goeje into two separate personages, Khnk ture? Chronologically his rule coin- 1906, II, p. 1230]. In other words, the Khuda and Bukhar Khuda. There is a cides with the usurpation of Vardan discrepancies between the two clear trace of this simple operation in Khudah, and the simplest way to Tarikhs (Abu Shukr Khnk Bukhar the text: the two “Khudahs” are men- settle the discrepancy between the Khudah of Ya’qubi versus Vardan tioned only under their “titles,” while sources is to put an equals mark be- Khudah of Tabari) likely result from “Tarkhun, ruler of Sughd” and “king Kur tween these two figures. This seems the political agendas of the time. Like- Maghanun, the nephew of the emperor quite possible since none of the writ- wise, the appearance of the strange of Chin” retained both their titles and ten accounts mentions Vardan combinatory creature Khnk Khudah in their names. Khudah’s personal name. Moreover, the Tarikh-i Bukhara seems to reflect there could be quite a reasonable ex- a retrospective attempt on the part What effect may this little investiga- planation how this one personage be- of a descendant of the Bukhar Khuda tion into the chronology of the Bukhar came “split” into two separate histori- family who supplied Narshakhi with Khuda dynasty have on our under- cal figures: since it was Qutaiba b. the information about the Varakhsha standing of the history of Varakhsha Muslim who “restored” Toghshada to palace to deprive the usurper of the palace? I believe it establishes the fact the throne, Arab historians deliberately royal title. In the part of his book writ- that the actual building of the palace negated the legitimacy of Vardan ten later, Narshakhi ran into Bukhar by Bukhar Khudah Khnk after “the Khudah’s claim to the throne of Khuda Khunak once more, while copy- thousand years” of neglect took place Bukhara. Tabari, for example, labels ing the text of the Arabic source from sometime immediately prior to Vardan Khudah the “Malik of Bukhara” which he borrowed the episode about Qutaiba’s conquest of Bukhara. If we [Tabari - de Goeje 1906, II, p. 1230], Qutaiba’s encounter with coalition go further and accept the identification which is the exact Arabic equivalent of forces in 707 CE. In order to smooth of Khnk, the Bukhar Khuda, with the the title Bukhar Khuda, but never calls the contradiction, Narshakhi gave pref- anonymous usurper Vardan Khudah, him Bukhar Khuda although he uses erence to his oral local source and cor- we would be able to attribute this ma-

14 jor re-building of the edifice to the thought, but rather to the end of the century, but an investigation into the time span between 689 (or a little seventh century. Unfortunately, with- textiles depicted in it led Alexander earlier) and 709-710 CE. out additional excavations, we can say Belenitskii and Boris Marshak to be- very little about the actual layout of lieve that the eighth century is more Shishkin distinguished the earliest walls this building. appropriate as their date [Belenitskii of the Varakhsha palace by their spe- and Marshak 1979; Belenitskii and cific bond of vertically alternating Stage Two - the Palace of Marshak 1981, p. 49]. The date of this courses of headers and stretchers Toghshada painting suggested by Belenitskii and “floating” in thick layers of unformatted Marshak equally well fits into the rule clay mortar. The stage in the building The building of the second period is of any of the two Bukhar Khudas of history of the edifice characterized by quite well known: the principal layout the early eighth century: usurper this rather specific masonry technique of rooms six (Eastern Hall), eleven (Red Khunak (689-708/9 CE) and his chal- ended in the major redesigning which Hall), thirteen, fifteen (Western Hall), lenger and successor Toghshada b. was outlived only by a few walls incor- sixteen to twenty-one and the original Bidun (709-732 CE), but since there porated into the later structure. Since walls of the so-called eiwan date to this are sufficient grounds to associate Shishkin’s excavations did not specifi- time. the previous stage in the building’s cally aim to study this period, the origi- history with the former, we can attrib- nal floors connected to this first build- Our attribution of the early palace to ute the second stage in the history ing were reached only in a few cases, the time of Khunak pushes the dates of the building and the paintings of and we do not have a single complete of the next stage in the construction the Blue Hall to the reign of Toghshada chamber pertaining to this stage, ex- history of the building to the eighth cen- b. Bidun. cept for tiny room twelve. Yet there is tury. Unfortunately, almost no archaeo- a very important piece of evidence logical and numismatic material be- On the first glance the clearly coming from one of these floors. A longing to this stage has been recov- “zoroastrian” content of these paint- coin found in the stratigraphic trench ered during the excavations. Some ings, which shows the royal couple per- under room fourteen (Northern Hall) support for our date of this stage is forming a fire ritual in front of the gi- belongs to the most common type in provided by the famous scene painted ant figure of Vashagn, the Sogdian god the Bukharan “camel” series, which on on the southern wall in the Eastern Hall. of war and the celestial patron of the typologic grounds can be dated to the Previously it was dated to the seventh Bukhar Khuda family, seems to con- second quarter of the seventh century [Naymark 2001, p. 174]. From the stratigraphic data received during the recent excavations in Paykend we know that such “camel coins” circulated along with Bukharan cash at least until the very end of the seventh century [Semenov 2003, p. 148]. How can this find affect the date of the earliest build- ing? Even if we accept the earliest possible date of this “camel” coin (sec- ond quarter of the seventh century) as the date of the earliest structure in which it was found, it would be hard to fit a long period of neglect (even if it was ten times shorter than the meta- phorical 1000 years of Tarikh-i Bukhara) between the middle of the seventh century and the reign of Khunak, which started in 689 or even earlier. In other words, the date of the coin does not allow us to associate the structure in question with the legend- ary palace of the anonymous Bukhar (det.) XIV Plate (1963), Khuda. On the other hand, Khunak’s restoration of the palace reported by

Narshakhi fits quite well into the end Varakhsha of this interval, i.e. it is possible that these earliest structural remains belong to his reign.

In other words, the earliest palace Shishkin, Source: building does not belong to the fifth or Painting of the fire ritual in the East Hall the sixth century, as it was earlier

15 tradict the statement of the sources, ern Hall, which for some reason did the Red Hall also remains a matter of that Toghshada b. Bidun “accepted Is- not satisfy the owners of the palace speculation. Even the completely read- lam from the hands of Qutaiba b. Mus- any more. The Eastern Hall was not able repeating scenes of the lower reg- lim” [Narshakhi - Frye 1954, p. 10]. architecturally altered, but seems to ister, which show a fierce fight between We have, however, a reason to sus- have lost its function as a gala hall - the hero riding an elephant and beasts, pect that Toghshada’s conversion was instead of proper repainting and res- real and fantastic, finds no parallels in only a part of a political deal and that, toration having been undertaken, the other Sogdian paintings. In other in secret, he kept practicing the tradi- losses of the painted surface on the words, little has changed since tional Sogdian form of Zoroastrianism. southern wall which occurred during Shishkin’s times when the absence of In addition to the plain statement of this period were replaced with a firm parallels prevented him from sug- Tarikh-i Bukhara that “he was still an primitive geometric motif. No changes gesting an interpretation of these unbeliever in secret” [Narshakhi - Frye took place in the principal layout of scenes [Shishkin 1963, p. 205]. This 1954, pp. 60-2], we know that he was the Red Hall, but here a new layer of forces us to look for the formal proto- buried according to the local version paintings covered the older one. The types beyond Sogdiana. The enlarged of Zoroastrian burial rites [Tabari - de Western Hall (room fifteen), however, earlobes and the naked figure of the Goeje 1906, II, p. 1693; Narshakhi - was significantly modified and painted main hero, together with rich gold jew- Frye 1954, p. 62]. anew. Unfortunately, the state of elry of undoubtedly Indian type recall preservation does not allow us to the typical iconography of a However, it is hard to imagine that an judge the content of these paintings. Bodhisattva. The immediate source of open statement of Toghshada’s actual Similar decorative works must have this image was probably the iconogra- religious affiliation, like the one we find been planned for room thirteen, but phy of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, in the Eastern Hall, could be issued this hall was apparently still in the pro- who is shown riding an elephant. Be- during the life of Qutaiba b. Muslim or cess of remodeling with the intention sides the strikingly similar ratio be- during Toghshada’s close affiliation with that it be decorated with paintings tween the body size of the elephant the Arabs in the 720s or 730s. There when the owners of the palace re- and the rider, which are exactly those seems to be only one point in solved on a new, fundamental alter- found in the images of Samantabhadra, Toghshada’s career when he could al- ation of the building’s layout. Judg- this analogy is supported by an “ana- low himself to do something of this sort. ing from this unfinished business, the tomic anomaly” of Varakhsha el- It was after the death of Qutaiba b. third stage must have been very ephants. The elephant of Saman- Muslim, when the Arab power in short. In the process of preparation for tabhadra has six tusks, three on each Mawarannahr was shaken, and the the next building stage, the Red Hall side. The Varakhsha painter did not re- Bukharan King decided that time came and room thirteen were partially de- produce this fantastic aspect of Bud- to abandon his new masters. In 719, stroyed, walled up and filled with de- dhist iconography, and reduced the he asked the Chinese Emperor for help bris separated by the regular layers of number of tusks to normal. Yet, since against the Arabs [Chavannes 1903, p. brick. the three tusks of Samantabhadra’s el- 203; 1904, p. 39; Bartol’d 1964, pp. 381-2]. His copper coin type which It is not clear what caused damage of shows the scene of the fire ritual on the paintings in the Eastern Hall and the reverse belongs apparently to the why it became necessary to repaint the same year(s) [Naymark 1999]. It was Red Hall. Shishkin thought that this was probably this apostasy of Toghshada the result of simple aging, but this that prompted the Arabs to keep an- theory is incompatible with the newly other challenger for the Bukharan established dates of the previous stage throne, Shukr b. Khunak, among their (eighth century, most likely around 719 troops while suppressing the Sogdian AD), because, as we shall see later, uprising of 722 CE [Tabari - de Goeje there was not enough time for simple 1906, II, p. 1447]: if necessary this aging. There could be other reasons for landless prince could turn into a handy neglect of some paintings and for the political resource. repainting of others. For example, a scene of a fire ritual involving the own- In other words, the second rebuilding ers of the castle, like the one in the of the palace is likely to have taken Eastern Hall, could cause major trouble place under Toghshada and most likely for the owner of the edifice in the (1963), Plate I (det.) was completed around 719. quickly changing political and confes- sional situation of the eighth century.

Stage Three - The Aesopic lan- Since we do not know what was the Varakhsha guage of the Red Hall subject of the earlier paintings of the Red Hall, all theories about the causes The alterations of the third stage aimed for repainting would be mere specula- the creation of the new system of gala tion. halls. This involved modifying, partially

Source: Shishkin, replacing and extending the older com- Surprisingly, the subject of the well- bination of the Red Hall and the East- preserved upper layer of paintings in Detail of elephant from Red Hall

16 Source: Shishkin, Varakhsha (1963), Plate IV The hunting mural in the Red Hall ephant were “filling” the entire the trousseau of the “daughter of the tify him as the depiction of a god. On mouth, the painter of Varakhsha faced king of Chin” and was established in the other hand, this absence of the an unexpected problem: he did not Ramitan near Bukhara [Narshakhi - standard indicators of the divine sta- know from where a single tusk should Frye 1954, p. 8]. tus may not be taken as an absolute grow. Unable to solve this riddle, he The establishment of the iconographic negative proof, because, as we shall made a wrong choice and placed the prototype, however, does not provide see further, the paintings of the Red remaining tusk in the lower jaw. much help in deciphering the meaning Hall stand out from the entire system of the depicted scenes - there is no way of Sogdian art by their genre charac- that the fiercely fighting hero of the teristics, and thus the data accumu- In other words, the scholarly opinion Varakhsha painting could be a lated in the course of the study of which generally recognizes a strong In- Bodhisattva. Two interpretations of this Sogdian paintings may not be com- dian influence in the Red Hall paint- figure seem possible. pletely applicable in this case. ings is correct. Yet this “Indic” iconog- raphy was not derived directly from The first one was suggested by Another possibility is to see in the el- India, but rather from eighth-century Belenitskii and Marshak, who thought ephant rider of the Varakhsha painting Tang art, or, more likely from the art of that the main hero of this painting was the King of the South, one of the four Eastern Turkestan of the Tang period. Adbag, the supreme divinity of the great monarchs of the four cardinal It is Puxian, the Chinese version of Sogdian pantheon. This idea rests on points [Pelliott 1923; Bartol’d 1966, p. Samantabhadra [see for example: Li a strong, but sole argument: Adbag’s 216; Marshak 2000, pp. 77-8]. This Jian 2003, p. 161], who is usually de- live attribute, an animal companion “geopolitical” concept was Buddhist in picted riding a bridled and saddled el- similar to the Indian vahane, which origin but undoubtedly popular in ephant with festooned ears, i.e. an el- could be depicted as the god’s throne Sogdiana; its artistic embodiment is ephant which shares all the highly un- or as his riding animal, is known to be found in a building in the Sogdian city realistic characteristics of its cousin at an elephant [Belenitskii and Marshak of Kushania [Chavannes 1903, p. 145]. Varakhsha. Our Sogdian painter could 1981]. Yet this interpretation is very The image of the King of the South, have encountered the Chinese iconog- hard to prove; the elephant rider dis- who was also known as the king of the raphy of Puxian in the but-khaneh, the plays no standard divine attributes elephants and the king of wisdom, house of idols, which was brought in which would allow a Sogdian to iden- would require the Indian appearance

17 and this, in turn, would explain why in Sogdian art, but all animals in the able to investigate visually prior to re- the Varakhsha painter drew on the ico- Varakhsha palace display one very un- moval of the last paintings during the nography of Samantabhadra - Puxian. usual feature - they are all saddled. re-excavations in the Red Hall in 1987, It is harder to explain why the King of Since each Sogdian god had an animal certainly do not comply with this no- the South was selected for depiction throne, often depicted as an Indian tion. First of all, the easiest way to on the walls of the palace of Bukhar vahane, a riding animal, this proces- damage the wall painting on dry plas- Khudas. These images could have a sion of saddled animals can be inter- ter would simply be to scratch off the certain genealogical significance in le- preted as the depiction of the deities painted surface, as we see in damaged gitimizing the origin of the Bukhar of the Sogdian pantheon [Belenitskii paintings of Afrasiab. If something Khuda dynasty or could be a part of a and Marshak 1981, pp. 32-3]. Yet this more serious was needed, the plaster larger iconographic program that in- way of representing deities certainly itself could be knocked off the wall and cluded an “Indian Hall”, analogous to deviated from standard iconographic brought down, as was done in the gala what was found in European palaces programs commonly found in Sogdian halls of The Panjikent palace. In the during the popularity of Chinoiserie in gala halls, where gods would be de- latter case, one would expect chaotic the eighteenth century. There seems picted mostly in a sort of “blown up” cuts going parallel to the surface of the to be one aspect of this unusual imag- icon on the back wall of the hall, as wall in order to break off large “slabs” ery that supports the second interpre- Vashagn, for example, was represented of plaster. Yet, the person who cut tation over the first one. The main de- in the slightly earlier paintings of the pieces of paintings in the Red Hall first viation from the rather faithfully repro- neighboring Eastern Hall. Together with marked the borders of the pieces that duced iconography of Samantabhadra the unusual genre characteristics of the interested him by cutting circles around - Puxian, which makes the elephant lower register, this leaves the impres- them. Then he cut deep into the wall, rider at Varakhsha certainly a non-Bud- sion that the patron ordered both the so that the final product of his work dhist figure, is the fierce fight with the religious content and the political looked like a cone for which the painted fantastic and real beasts of prey. This agenda of the paintings to be “coded” surface of the wall served as a flat base. alteration, however, is nothing other and hidden under the neutral cover of In other words, these cuts seem to be than the application of an ancient Near the rhythmically organized anthropo- the result of very accurate and time- Eastern iconographic formula, which morphic and zoomorphic “ornament.” consuming work aimed at the removal was widely used in the Iranian world of wall fragments with an intact painted in general and in Sogdiana in particu- In the historical context of the eighth surface. Since each cut concentrated lar. As far as I know, in the Iranian century, these observations on the lan- on a certain compact element of im- world from at least the Achaemenid guage of the Red Hall paintings may ages, like the head of a man or the period and in the Near East in general be used as a dating resource. Such an wing of a gryphon, these cuts are very throughout the early medieval period, Aesopic language perfectly fits the situ- likely to be done by a artist who used a king and not a deity is depicted fight- ation in which Toghshada would find this opportunity to obtain samples of ing beasts. Retrieval of this old icono- himself from the time when Arabs re- superior work for his pattern collection graphic formula could have transpar- stored their control over Sogdiana in from the paintings destined for inevi- ent political connotations in the 722 until his death in 738 CE. It is not table destruction. This unusual fact troubled eighth century. clear how much time passed between provides us with a rare insight into one the completion of the second stage of the mechanisms that allowed the Yet the most puzzling aspect of this (around 719 CE.) and the beginning of elements of pre-Islamic artistic tradi- painting is its genre characteristics. In- the third one. It is, however, tempting tion to be passed to the art of the early deed, in all known monuments of to suggest that the sharp change of Islamic period. Sogdian art, we find a clear tendency building plans, such as the interrup- to avoid repetition of scenes while here tion of the unfinished reconstruction of Stage Four - The Palace of Qutaiba we see at least eleven similar compo- the rooms, and subsequent conversion b. Toghshada sitions rhythmically repeated on the of the entire block of gala halls into a walls of the hall. Such intentional reit- platform for a new building, indicates We know almost nothing about the next eration of one and the same statement the “arrival” of a new master, i.e. re- stage in the palace’s life. It was during yields very little information, but flects the situation when the power this stage that the central element of stresses the majesty of the main per- passed from Toghshada to his son the later palace’s plan, the elbow cor- sonage. This would fit well with the Qutaiba in 738 CE, upon Toghshada’s ridor, was designed. Marshak pointed principles of imperial Achaemenid art, death. If this bold suggestion is cor- out that such corridors were typical for but it looks odd in Sogdiana, where rect, then the paintings of the Red Hall Sogdian palaces and rich dwellings, and most painted decoration is narrative in are likely to belong to the later part of that even such details as the engaged nature. Toghshada’s reign, probably the 730s. wooden column fortifying the protrud- ing corner on the elbow finds analo- A rational explanation for the peculiari- Before the final demolition of the roof gies in the early medieval architecture ties of this genre can be offered if we construction, somebody cut off several of Central Asia [Marshak 2000, p. 155]. accept Belenitskii and Marshak’s con- pieces of paintings in the Red Hall. Some traces of rooms belonging to this genial “religious” interpretation of the Shishkin thought that this was an act period were discovered on the top of “animal run” frieze in the second reg- of vandalism performed by iconoclas- the platform that incorporated the ister of the Red Hall paintings. Similar tic Moslems [Shishkin 1963, p. 83]. booted remains of the Red Hall and friezes with an “animal run” are known Several of these “cuts”, which I was room thirteen. Judging from the brief

18 Source: Shishkin, Varakhsha (1963), facing p. 80 The eiwan in V. A. Nil’sen’s reconstruction textual description (none of Shishkin’s ures in high relief covered with a thin lim for a while until he apostatized in several publications devoted to the ex- layer of alabaster ground. Another un- the time of Abu Muslim (may God show cavations in Varakhsha provides us with published slab of this type preserved mercy on him). Abu Muslim heard [of any illustrative materials), these indis- in the Bukharan Museum shows a his apostasy] and killed him. He also tinct fragments of walls could not be gryphon in low relief. Most likely be- killed his brother with his followers” made into a comprehensible plan. longing to the fourth period, neither [Narshakhi - Frye 1954, p. 10]. This Apatkina dates the erection of the mas- the material nor the technique used took place in late 751 or early 752. sive arches of the eiwan to this period in their production are found in the [Apatkina 1999, 2002], but this does earlier architectural decor of not seem right to me; the foundations Sogdiana, and they do not seem to Stage Five - the Palace of Buniyat of these constructions cut through the find a place in the decoration of the b. Togshada corresponding floor and certainly be- third stage, which, in terms of tech- long to the next stage (palace of nique, is very traditional. Altogether, Our information about the second per- Buniyat). these slabs look like an experiment sonage mentioned in the history of the which was meant to imitate some for- Varakhsha palace, Bukhar Khuda Of the finds of this period which could eign prototype but, due to its unsuc- Buniyat b. Toghshada, is limited to the be used for dating, Shishkin mentions cessful nature, was not continued. two passages in the Tarikh-i Bukhara only an early shahada “Caliphate” fals. Yet, the string drapery of these re- recording the succession of Bukharan Although the coin is preserved in the liefs seems to correspond quite well rulers. The first of these passages is Coin Room of the Samarkand Institute to that known in Sogdian terra cotta likely to be a later, literary interpola- of Archeology, its poor state leaves no figures and on slab-molded ossuaries tion full of chronological mistakes, chance of a more precise attribution. of Samarkandian Sogd of the seventh contraditions, and inconsistencies No other dating materials are reported century. [Narshakhi - Frye 1954, p. 8-9]. This on the floors of this period, which were suspicious passage is the only place reached in the Western Hall, in the “el- This period terminated with a major where a certain Sukah is mentioned as bow” corridor, in a trench in the North- fire, traces of which are found in all brother and successor of Qutaiba b. ern Hall and in the eiwan. the rooms where floors of this period Toghshada and as brother and prede- were reached, except for the Eastern cessor of Buniyat b. Toghshada. We have almost no knowledge of the Hall and vaulted rooms in the south. palace’s decoration at that time. Re- This fire likely resulted from an event The second of these passages, on the used in the next, fifth, state were the which Narshakhi described by saying contrary, bears no evident traces of large terra cotta slabs with human fig- that Qutaiba b. Toghshada “was a Mus- later distortions. It repeats twice that

19 Buniyat b. Toghshada directly re- This assumption is perfectly supported tempt to present themselves to Ar- placed his brother Qutaiba b. by the investigation of architectural abs as pious converts to Islam on the Toghshada, who was killed by Abu remains; Shishkin was certainly right other. Muslim in Varakhsha around 753 CE in attributing the latest reconstruction [Narshakhi - Frye 1954, p. 10-11]. of the palace to the early Abbasid About the Author The majority of scholars who dealt period. With the significant bulk of Born in Tashkent, Aleksandr Naymark with the dates of the Buniyat’s reign archaeological materials accumulated received his education in tried to smooth out the severe dis- during the last 60 years of archaeo- archaeology and history at Tashkent crepancies between these two pas- logical exploration in Sogdiana, we and Moscow Universities. After sages and to combine their informa- can now point to three prominent ar- moving to the United States in 1992, tion in one coherent “system.” As a chitectural features which put the he received a Ph.D. in Central result, in all published chronological early Islamic date of the reconstruc- Eurasian Studies from Indiana and genealogical charts devoted to tion carried out during stage five be- University, his dissertation being on the Bukhar Khudah dynasty, we see yond a reasonable doubt: (1) the use “Sogdiana, Its Christians and Sukah suceeding his brother of baked brick (not recorded in Byzantium: A Study of Artistic and Toghshada and ruling for seven years, Sogdiana until the 730s or even Cultural Connections in Late Antiquity with Buniyat stepping in after the 740s); (2) the massive round brick and the Early Middle Ages.” He has death of Sukah and remaining in columns supporting the passages in participated in more than 30 power until his own assassination by the so-called “eiwan” (one of the stan- excavations in Central Asia and for a the order of al-Mahdi [Smirnova 1981, dard features in the repertory of east- time worked in the Moscow Museum pp. 426-8; Goibov 1989, pp. 39-44, ern Abbasid architecture, possibly of Oriental Art as its curator of 89-95; Frye 1995; Rtveladze 1999, p. derived from the older Sasanian tra- Central Asian pre-Islamic art and 33]. dition, but completely unknown in coins. Between 1997 and 1999 he However, the methodology of source pre-Islamic Sogdiana); (3) and the was a fellow of the German studies does not allow a scholar to very use of stucco as the means of Archaeological Institute in Berlin. Dr. merge such diverging accounts with- architectural decoration (completely Naymark is currently an Assistant out an investigation into the causes absent from the monuments of this Professor in Art History at Hofstra of the contradictions between them, area prior to the Arab conquest). University. He has published widely especially when they appear in the on early Islamic art, numismatics and adjacent chapters of one and the Some Conclusions archaeology in Central Asia. He may same source. Once started, such an be contacted at Aleksandr.Naymark examination immediately reveals that The original building of the palace @Hofstra.edu. the first of the passages is a later in- dates to the reign of Khunak (689- terpolation by a real ignoramus who 709 CE). The first remodeling took not only made a number of major mis- place during the reign of Toghshada takes in chronology, but also “con- and the paintings on the blue back- structed” evidence. One of his “con- ground (the Eastern Hall and an early structs” is Sukah with his biography layer of paintings in the Red Hall) most while, in reality, it was Buniyat who likely belong to the period of his replaced his brother Qutaiba b. “apostasy” around 719. The new (1963), p. 65 Toghshada. Fortunately, there are paintings of the Red Hall belong to not any discrepancies in sources the later part of Toghshada’s reign, when it comes to the date of Buniyat’s which ended in 738 CE. The fourth Varakhsha death: both these passages of the stage in the history of the building Tarikh-i Bukhara agree that he was was connected to the enthronement murdered in the Varakhsha palace in of his son Qutaiba b. Toghshada (738- 166/782-3 on the order of Caliph al- 753 CE). Finally, Buniyat b. Toghshada

Mahdi, who suspected him of sympa- (753-782) was responsible for the Source: Shishkin, thizing with Muqanna’s revolt. In major reconstruction of the palace other words, Buniyat “ruled” for 30 and the first stucco decoration. The years from 751/52 to 782/3. content and genre characteristics of the Varakhsha paintings as well as Since we attributed the construction their fate reflect the political instabil- activities of stage four to the times of ity of the time and the dubious posi- Qutaiba b. Toghshada and inter- tion in which the rulers of Bukhara preted the traces of fire which are found themselves. Bukhar Khudas found all over the palace as the evi- had to balance between their own dence for the destruction of the build- pretension to rule over the Bukharan ing which occurred at the moment oasis and the overwhelming power when Qutaiba b. Toghshada was of the Arabs. This position required a killed, we should look at the subse- sophisticated maneuvering between quent reconstruction of the edifice as the old national and religious tradi- the work of Buniyat b. Toghshada. tions on the one hand and the at- Stucco relief from the Northern Hall

20 References In Guitty Azarpay, Sogdian Painting, The Dayton Art Institute, 2003. The Pictorial Epic in Oriental Art. Ber- Aini 1949 keley and Los Angeles: University of Marshak 2000 California Press, 1981. Saddriddin Aini. Yeddoshtho, vol. II. Boris I. Marshak. “The Ceilings of the Dushanbe, 1949. Varakhsha Palace.” In Parthica. Incontri Burnes 1973 di culture nel mondo antico. Issue 2. Alpatkina 1999 Alexander Burnes. Travels into Pisa-Rome: Istituti editoriali e Bokhara, vol. I-III. Karachi and Lon- poligrafici internazionali, 2000. T. G. Alpatkina. “Paradnyi aivan don: Oxford University Press, 1973. Varakhshi: novye issledovaniia” [The gala eiwan of Varakhsha: a new Muqaddasi - de Goeje 1906 investigation]. In L.M. Noskova, T.K. Chavannes 1903 Descriptio imperii Moslemici. Auctore Shams ad-Din Abu Abdallah Mkrtychev, eds., Material’naia Chavannes, Éd. Documents sur les Tou- Mohammmed ibn Ahmed ibn abi kul’tura Vostoka [Material culture of kiue (Turcs) occidentaux. Sankt- Bekral-Bann’a al-Basshari’i [sic] al- the East], vyp. 3. Moscow, 2002. Peterburg, 1903 (Sbornik trudov Moqaddasi, ed. by M.J. de Goeje Orkhonskoi ekspeditsii, VI). Alpatkina 2002 Leiden: Brill, 1906 (BGA, III). T. G. Alpatkina. “Ganchevyi dekor Chavannes 1904 Narshakhi - Frye 1954 dvortsa Varakhshi iz fondov Chavannes, Éd. “Notes additionnels sur The History of Bukhara. Translated from Gosudarstvennogo muzeia Vostoka: les Tou-kiue (Turcs) occidentaux.” In a Persian Abridgement of the Arabic novye otkrytiia” [Stucco decor of the T’oung Pao. Leide, 1904. Varakhsha Palace in the Collection of Original by Narshakhi by Richard N. Frye. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The the State Museum of Oriental Art: new Fraser 1984 discoveries]. In L.M. Noskova, T.K. Medieval Academy of America, 1954. James B. Fraser. Narrative of a Jour- Mkrtychev, eds., Material’naia kul’tura ney into Khorasan in the Years 1821 Vostoka, vyp. 3. Moscow, 2002. Naymark 1999 and 1822. Delhi, 1984. Aleksandr Naymark. “The Size of Bartol’d 1898 Samanid Bukhara: A Note on Settle- Frye 1996 V. V. Bartol’d. Turkestan v epokhu ment Patterns in Early Islamic Richard N. Frye. The Heritage of Cen- mongol’skogo nashestviia [Turkestan Mawarannahr.” In Attilio Petruccioli tral Asia. From Antiquity to the Turk- down to the Mongol invasion], vol. I [ed.] Bukhara. The Myth and the Ar- ish Expansion. Princeton: Markus (Texts). Sankt-Peterburg, 1898. chitecture. Cambridge, Mass.: AKPIA, Wiener, 1996. 1999.

Bartol’d 1963 Frye 1996 Naymark 2001 V. V. Bartol’d. “Turkestan v epokhu Richard N. Frye. The Heritage of Cen- Aleksandr Naymark. “Sogdiana, its mongol’skogo nashestiviia” tral Asia. From Antiquity to the Turk- Christians and Byzantium: a Study of [Turkestan down to the Mongol ish Expansion. Princeton: Markus Artistic and Cultural Connections in Late invasion, vol. II (Study)]. In V. V. Wiener, 1996. Antiquity and Early Middle Ages.” Ph. Bartol’d. Sochineniia, vol. I. Mos- D. Dissertation. Bloomington: Indiana cow: Izdatel’stvo vostochnoi Goibov 1989 University, 2001. literatury, 1963. G. Goibov. Rannie pokhody arabov v Sredniuiu Aziiu (644-704 gg.) [Early Naymark 2001a Bartol’d 1966 Arab campaigns in Central Asia (644- Aleksandr Naimark. “Monety “V. V. Bartol’d. “Musul’manskii mir” 704 CE]. Dushanbe: Donish, 1989. bukharskogo tsaria Khanuka/Khunak” [The World of Islam].” In V. V. Bartol’d. [Coins of Bukharan King Khanuk/ Sochineniia, vol. VI. Moscow: Izda- Ibn Hawqal - de Goeje 1873 Khunak]. In Deviataia Vserossiiskaia tel’stvo vostochnoi literatury, 1966. Viae et regna. Descriptio ditionis numizmaticheskaia konferentsiia [Ninth moslemicae. Auctore Abu’l Kásim Ibn all-Russian numismatic conference]. Belenitskii and Marshak 1979 Haukal, ed. by M.J. de Goeje Leiden: Sankt-Peterburg: State Hermitage, Brill, 1873 (Bibliotheca geographorum Alexander M. Belenitskii and Boris I. 2001. Arabicorum [=BGA], II). Marshak. “Voprosy khronologii zhivopisi rannesrednevekovogo Sogda” [The Naymark 2004 questions of the chronology of early Istakhri - de Goeje 1870 Aleksandr Naymark. “Coins of medieval Sogdian paintings]. In Viae regnorum. Descriptio ditionis Bukharan King Khunak/Khanuk.” In Uspekhi Sredneaziatskoi arkheologii moslemicae. Auctore Abu Ishak al- Madhuvanti Ghose and Lilla Russel- [Successes of Central Asian archaeol- Farisi al-Istakhri, ed. by M.J. de Goeje Smith, eds. From Nisa to Niya. Stud- ogy] 4 (1979). Leiden: Brill, 1870 (BGA, I). ies in Silk Road Art and Archaeology. London: Safron, 2004 (forthcoming). Belenitskii and Marshak 1981 Li Jian 2003 Alesander M. Belenitskii and Boris I. Li Jian, ed. The Glory of the Silk Road. Pelliot 1923 Marshak. “The paintings of Sogdiana.” Art from Ancient China. Dayton, OH: Paul Pelliot. “La théorie des quatre fils

21 de ciel.” T’oung Pao, vol. XXII, no. 2, Shishkin 1948 Islamicam continens, ed. by M.Th. Mai 1923. V. A. Shishkin. “Mechet’ Magoki Attari Houtsma. Leiden: Brill, 1969 (repr. of v Bukhare (XII vek)” [The Mosque of 1883 ed.). Rtveladze 1999 Magoki Attari in Bukhara]. In Trudy Edvard Rtveladze. “Coins of Ancient Instituta istorii i arkheologii AN UzSSR Zimin 1917 Bukhara.” In Attilio Petruccioli, ed. [Works of the Uzbek SSR Institute of L.A. Zimin. “Otchet o dvukh poezdkakh Bukhara: the Myth and the Architec- History and Archaeology], vol. I. po Bukhare s arkheologicheskoi tsel’iu ture. Cambridge, Mass.: AKPIA, 1999. Tashkent, 1948. [Report on two trips to Bukhara for ar- chaeological purposes].” In Protokoly Sam’ani - Margoliouth 1913 Shishkin 1963 Turkestanskogo kruzhka liubitelei The Kitab al-Ansab of ‘Abd al-Karim ibn V. A. Shishkin. Varakhsha. Moscow: arkheologii [Protocols of the Turkestan Muhammad al-Sam’ani, ed. by D. Izdatel’stvo Akademii Nauk, 1963. Circle of the Lovers of Archaeology], Margoliouth. Leiden-London, 1913 year XX (1917), issue 2. (Gibb Memorial Series, XX). Smirnova 1981 O.I. Smirnova. Svodnyi katalog Notes Semenov 1945 sogdiiskikh monet. Bronza. [General A. A. Semenov. Material’nye pamiatniki catalogue of Sogdian coins. Bronze]. 1. Thus, in the majority of manuscripts, iranskoi kul’tury v Srednei Azii [Mate- Moscow: “Nauka,” GRVL, 1981. in both scholarly editions and in all rial remains of Iranian culture in Cen- translations. The MS of the American tral Asia]. Stalinabad, 1945. Tabari - de Goeje 1906 Oriental Society reads Khbk Khuda Annales quos scripsit Abu Djafar [Narshakhi - Frye 1954, p. 45, n. ‡]. Semenov 1957 Mohammed ibn Djarir at-Tabari, ed. by A. A. Semenov. “Nechto o Sredne- M.J. de Goeje. Leiden: Brill, 1906 (re- 2. For detailed discussion see: Naymark aziatskikh gemmakh, ikh liubiteliakh i print ed. 1964). 2001, pp. 264-278; Naymark 2001a, sobirateliakh (iz vospominanii pp. 56-7; Naymark 2004. proshlogo)” [Something about Central Tali - Semenov 1959 Asian gems, their lovers and collectors Abdurrakhman-i Tali’. Istoriia Abulfeiz- 3. Tabari dates this enthronement to (from the memories of the past)]. In Khana (Abulfayizhon Tarikhi) [History 91 A.H. which leaves 31 years to the Izvestiia Akademii nauk Tadzhikskoi of Abulfeiz-Khan]. Russian transl. by death of Toghshada in 121 A.H., while SSR. Otdelenie Obshchestvennykh A. A. Semenov. Tashkent: Izdatel’stvo Narshakhi speaks about Toghshada’s nauk [News of the Tajik SSR Academy Akademii Nauk Uzbekskoi SSR, 1959. 32 years of rule. of Sciences. Division of Social Sci- ences], 14 (1957). Ya’qubi - Houtsma 1969 Shishkin 1934 Ibn-Wadhih qui dicitur al-Ja’qubi, Historiae. Pars prior historiam ante- V. A. Shishkin. “Iz opyta Bukhkom- starisa po okhrane pamiatnikov material’noi kul’tury” [From the expe- rience of the Bukharan Committee for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage in the Protection of the Monuments of Material Culture]. Problemy istorii dokapitalisticheskikh obshchestv [Prob- lems of the history of pre-capitalist societies], no. 11-12. Leningrad, 1934.

Shishkin 1936a V. A. Shishkin. “Arkheologicheskoe obsledovanie mecheti Magoki-Attari v Bukhare” [Archaeological investigation of the Mosque Magoki-Attari in Bukhara]. Sotsialisticheskaia nauka i tekhnika [Socialist science and tech- nology], no. 2. Tashkent, 1936.

Shishkin 1936b Copyright © 1999 Daniel C. Waugh V. A. Shishkin. Arkhitekturnye pamiatniki Bukhary [Architectural Detail from mural of procession on south wall of monuments of Bukhara]. Tashkent, the palace at Afrasiab (photographed in Afrasaib 1936. Museum)

22

1999

© Sogdians in China: A Short History and Some New Discoveries

Étienne de la Vaissière

École pratique des hautes études Sciences historiques et philologiques, Paris

The Sogdians were the inhabitants of can still be found in many recent books chants and men of low origins. They fertile valleys surrounded by deserts, or articles, makes Alexander the Great wish to exchange their goods and con- the most important of which was the the villain of the story. Due to the di- duct trade, under the pretext of pre- Zeravshan valley, in today’s Uzbekistan saster which befell Sogdiana during his senting gifts” [Han shu, Hulsewé 1979, and Tajikistan. This Iranian-speaking campaigns there in 329-328 BCE, the p. 109]. The Sogdians were doing ex- people had a fifteen-centuries-long his- Sogdians would have been forced to actly the same thing at the same time, torical identity between the sixth cen- emigrate as far east as China. The cre- and the first testimonies, in 29 and 11 tury BCE and the tenth century CE ation of the Sogdian trading network BCE, on a Sogdian in China might also when it vanished in the Muslim, Per- between Samarkand and China thus be found in the Han shu: “If in view of sian-speaking world. Although the was a by-product of the Greek conquest these considerations, we ask why Sogdians constructed such famous of the Achaemenid Empire. Needless [Kangju] sends his sons to attend [at towns as Samarkand and Bukhara, to say, there is nothing in the available the Han court], [we find] that, desir- they are quite unknown. Only special- sources to support such an idea, which ing to trade, they use a pretence ists on the Silk Road know that they survived only because of its classical couched in fine verbiage” [Han shu, were among the main go-betweens of flavor and its familiar ring to the Hulsewé 1979, p. 128]. Kangju, a no- the exchanges in the steppe, in Cen- historian’s ears. In fact the Chinese, madic state, the center of which was tral Asia, and in China during the first Yuezhi, Bactrians, Indians and in what is now the southern part of the millennium CE, and especially between Sogdians who created the historical Silk Tashkent oasis, included Sogdiana dur- the fifth and the eighth centuries CE. Road did not need Greek help. Trade is ing the first century BCE. This desire During this period, the “inland silk road” yet another item that should be re- to trade was a Sogdian one. and the “Sogdian trading network” are moved (after irrigation, town-planning almost synonymous. The contemporary and state-formation) from the long list It is difficult to understand the next step Sogdian, Chinese, Arabic, Byzantine, of supposed Greek influences in the his- in the establishment of Sogdian com- and Armenian sources describe the tory of Central Asia. The list of real in- munities in China. It seems that some Sogdians as the great traders of Inner fluences is already full enough with of the ambassadors and their families Asia. They managed to sell their prod- coinage, iconography and the alpha- settled in China, especially in Gansu. ucts - musk, slaves, silverware, silk and bet (in Bactria)! Some late genealogies of Sogdian fami- many other goods - to all the surround- lies in China seem at least to imply such ing peoples. A Greek text describes It has long been known that Chinese a reconstruction. We know on a firm their trading embassies to Byzantium, diplomacy towards the nomads in the textual basis that as early as 227 CE, some caravaneers’ graffiti prove that second century BCE was instrumental in Liangzhou (Gansu), when a conquer- they were in India, Turkish vocabulary in creating in Central Asia and further ing army was approaching from the is a testimony to their cultural and eco- west, in Parthia, a market for Han prod- South, “The various kings in Liangzhou nomic power in the Turkish steppe... ucts, especially silk. Chinese embas- dispatched twenty men including Zhi sies traveled with thousands of bolts Fu and Kang Zhi, the ennobled leaders But their main market was always of silk but at very irregular intervals. of the Yuezhi and Kangju Hu, to re- China. The Chinese branch of their net- The merchants in northwestern India ceive the military commander, and work is by far the best known, and in and eastern Iran were quick to appre- when the large army advanced north China the number of new discoveries ciate the potential for this exchange they competed to be the first to re- on the Sogdians is quickly growing. and followed the steps of the Chinese ceive us” [Sanguo zhi, 4, p. 895]. The ambassadors back to China. As Du Qin, Hu from Kangju are the Sogdians, while When did the first Sogdian arrive in a Chinese statesman, put it in 25 BCE, the Yuezhi are the traders from Bactria China to trade? Various answers have “There are no members of the royal and Gandhara, the Kushan Empire cre- been given to this quite simple ques- family or noblemen among those who ated by the Yuezhi tribes. The leaders tion, but one of the most popular, which bring the gifts. The latter are all mer- of the biggest trading communities in

23 Gansu were sent to the invading army, generation moved into the main Chi- 669), was translator in the Imperial and the Sogdians were already on a nese towns, and some Sogdians man- Secretariat of the Tang. Another son, par with the greatest merchants of An- aged to reach the court. For instance, Shi Daoluo (d. 658) was a soldier. A tiquity, the Kushan ones. the biography of An Tugen in the Bei grandson, Shi Tiebang (d. 666), was shi (chap. 92 p. 3047) describes how in charge of an army horse-breeding The next step in the history of the An Tugen’s great grandfather came farm near Guyuan. Shi Daode (d. 678), Sogdians in China is provided by the from Anxi (western Sogdiana) to the from another branch of the Shi clan, “Sogdian Ancient Letters.” These let- Wei and established himself in Jiuquan and his uncle, Shi Suoyan, who is bur- ters were left in the ruins of a Han (the western end of Gansu). Later on, ied in same graveyard, were also mem- watchtower, 90 kilometers west of An Tugen rose from the position of mer- bers of the military and officialdom. We Dunhuang in 313. Sir Aurel Stein dis- chant to Grand Minister of the North- know also by name many other mem- covered them there in 1907. They were ern Qi in the middle of the sixth cen- bers of the family. Some of these sent by some Sogdian traders from tury. names are simply transcriptions of Gansu to the West. One of them was Sogdian names: Shewu is the honor- sent from Gansu to Samarkand and de- New discoveries from Guyuan in the ific personal name, but the public name scribed the political upheavals in North- Chinese province of Ningxia (Southern was Pantuo. Shewu was pronounced ern China. The Xiongnu, who were then Ordos) provide a very good example Jia-mut, and Pantuo banda; together sacking the main towns there, were of Sogdian families in China who did they provide Jimatvande, a well-known called for the first time in an Indo-Eu- not achieve such high distinction. Six Sogdian name, “servant of Demeter”, ropean language by the name which graves of one Sogdian family have been which was only divided in two halves would be theirs in Europe a century excavated there [Luo Feng, 1996 and for the need of the interpretatio sinica. later: the Xwn, Huns. The letter de- 2001]. According to its name, the fam- The first names of the next generation scribed also the ruin of the Sogdian ily should have originated from the sound Chinese, except in the elder trading network in these towns: “The Sogdian town of Kesh (Shahr-i Sabz, branch: Shi Hedan and his son Shi last emperor, so they say, fled from in Uzbekistan), and the texts of the Huluo have first names that seem to Luoyang because of the famine and fire funerary epitaphs describe indeed how be transcriptions. After so many gen- was set to his palace and to the city, the family and the palace was burnt and the city migrated [destroyed]. Luoyang is no more, Ye is from the no more! [...] And, sirs, if I were to western write to you about how China has fared, countries. it would be beyond grief: there is no The archaeo- profit for you to gain from it [...] [in] logical con- Luoyang... the Indians and the tent of these Sogdians there had all died of starva- looted tombs tion” [Sims-Williams, 2001, p. 49]. But confirms the same text describes a Sogdian net- these west- work well established in Gansu which ern links, as was still there a century later. A Chi- some Byzan- nese text explains how “Merchants of tine and that country [Sogdiana] used to come Sasanian in great number to the district Liang coins, a seal [the present Wuwei in Gansu] to trade. stone in- When Guzang [i.e. Wuwei] was con- scribed in quered [by the Wei in 439] all of them Pahlavi, and were captured. In the beginning of the a Zoroastrian reign of Gaozong [452-465] the king symbol were [of Sogdiana] sent embassies to ask found there. for their ransom” [Wei shu, Enoki 1955, The great Ory Copyright © CNRS/F. p. 44]. grandfather, The Sogdian Sabao and ambassador An Jia negotiating with a Miaoni, and Qaghan The fifth and sixth centuries were cer- the grandfa- tainly the high days of Sogdian emi- ther, Boboni, “served their country in erations in China, some of the mem- gration to China. After the disruption the capacity of Sabao.” The father, bers of the families still married in the of the Inner China network in the fourth Renchou, “idled away his life, accom- Sogdian milieu, among them Shi century, a new network of Sogdian plishing nothing in his official career.” Hedan, great-great-grandson of Shi communities was created then. Many A member of the fourth generation, Shi Miaoni, who married a Kang (the Chi- Sui and Tang texts or funerary epitaphs Shewu (d. 610), was the great man of nese surname of the natives of of Sogdian families describe how the the family, and through him the family Samarkand), and Shi Suoyan, who great grandfather came to China dur- became integrated into Chinese soci- married an An (from Bukhara). ing the Wei as Sabao, i.e. chief ety. He was a military officer of the Sui, caravaneer. These families established and his grave and funerary epitaph are These data are fascinating, because themselves first in Gansu, the next Chinese. His elder son, Shi Hedan (d. with the Shi family we can follow the

24 The main (western) wall of the Afrasiab painting in Samarkand: Chinese, Korean, and Copyright © CNRS/F. Ory Iranian ambassadors. destiny of a specific Sogdian family in installed in China. Most of the main clearly displayed: two priests half-bird, China and see how it became inte- towns of Northern China had in the half-human wearing the traditional grated first in the Sogdian milieu and sixth and seventh centuries their padam (a piece of cloth in front of the then how it became sinicized in the Chi- Sogdian community headed by a mouth) and Mithra and his sacrificial nese administration. So far we lack Sabao, who received a mandarinal rank horse facing each other on each side other examples, due mainly to the nov- in the offical hierarchy, at least from of the entry [Marshak 2002, and Riboud elty of the interest towards the Sogdian the Northern Qi to the Tang. These 2003]. families in Chinese archaeology. Some nouveaux riches had some wealthy other Sogdian graveyards have been funerary beds carved for them, where The trade links with Central Asia pro- found but badly published [See de la they displayed both their Sogdian cul- vided the communities from the fifth Vaissière and Trombert 2004, forth- ture and their integration into Chinese to the eighth centuries with waves of coming, for other examples from tex- society, in a way the iconographic coun- new immigrants. One specific example tual sources]. terpart of the epitaphs of the Shi fam- of these links is from a discovery on ily. These funerary beds were an old the main stage of the route, Turfan, in The ancestors of Shi Shewu bore a title, Chinese tradition well suited for Zoro- Xinjiang. Many Chinese documents Sabao, which is very interesting for the astrian purposes because it isolated the were used there to cut paper clothing history of the Sogdians in China. It body from earth and water. Some of for the dead who were buried in the proves that the Sogdian communities them have been known for a long time; Astana cemetery. Among them is a list in China were deeply rooted in the cara- for example, the Anyang (Ye) one, of taxes paid on caravan trade in the van trade. This title is a transcription which shows a Sabao in his garden re- Gaochang kingdom (Turfan) in the of the Sogdian word sartapao, itself a ceiving the members of his community. 620s. The text is not complete but gives Sogdian transcription of the Indian Others have been found recently and a fairly good idea of the identity of the sârthavâha, chief-caravaneer, through have found their way into Chinese or main traders in Turfan: out of 35 com- a Bactrian intermediary [Sims-Will- foreign museums. mercial operations in this text, 29 in- iams, 1996]. In India the sârthavâha volved a Sogdian trader. In 13 in- was not only the chief-caravaneer but One of the most interesting was dis- stances both the seller and the buyer also the head of the traders’ guild. In covered two years ago near Taiyuan by were Sogdians. China the title was imported first as a team of the Shanxi Archaeological early as the second century CE under Institute. The tomb of Yu Hong, who In Inner China, the seventh century the form sabo directly from India, for died in 593 at age 58, contained a saw an evolution in the official posi- example in Buddhist texts which de- funerary bed in the shape of a Chinese tion of the Sogdian communities. It scribed the Buddha as a chief- house, adorned by 53 carved panels of seems that the Tang transformed quite caravaneer, and then a second time marble, originally painted and gilded. independent and autonomous Sogdian from the Sogdian form with the pre- Yu Hong had traveled extensively, act- communities loosely integrated in the cise administrative meaning “head of ing as an ambassador to the Ruanruan, mandarinal hierarchy into more con- the local Sogdian community.” The in Persia and Bactria or Gandhara trolled “submitted counties” without “river of the sabao” in Chinese geog- (Yuezhi), and to the Tuyuhun tribes Sogdian hierarchy. The Sabaos disap- raphy is the Zeravshan, which flows in near lake Qinghai. Then he served the peared from the epigraphical and tex- Samarkand and Bukhara. So the heads Northern Qi and Zhou, and the Sui. He tual sources after the middle of the sev- of the Sogdian communities in China became Sabao in 580 and then nomi- enth century. But this period, up to the bore the titles of “chief caravaneer,” and nal governor of a town. We know this middle of the eighth century, was cer- it is on this ambiguity that Shi Shewu because the funerary epitaphs of Yu tainly the climax of Iranian influence played when he wrote that his ances- Hong and his wife were discovered in on Chinese civilization. If the commu- tors “served their country in the ca- the tomb. And the iconography fits very nities were suppressed, the families pacity of Sabao.” For a Chinese ear, well the geography of the texts: we see and individuals who were before in- they were officials, while for a Sogdian on the panels Yu Hong hunting with clined to stay within the Sogdian com- one, they were simply heads of cara- nomads on horses, but also hunting on munities now were integrated more van! We can see in the textual and an Indian elephant or banqueting with thoroughly into Chinese society. We can epigraphical sources many such Sabao his wife. Zoroastrian symbols are see people with typical Sogdian sur-

25 names, such as Kang, getting involved there in the markets, became a sol- end of one millennium of a Sogdian in all the fields of Tang social life. dier and climbed from the rank and presence in China. file to the top of the army. His rebel- Obviously many of them were mer- lion in 755 nearly destroyed the Tang chants: around the main markets of dynasty and put an end to one of About the Author the capitals, Chang’an and Luoyang, China’s Golden Ages. The rebellion Sogdian temples, Sogdian taverns, and was quelled only in 763 with the help Étienne de la Vaissière is Assistant Pro- Sogdian shops flourished. They sold to of the Uighur nomads. fessor at the Ecole pratique des hautes the Tang elite the Western goods that études, in Paris, where he teaches Me- were then à la mode [Schafer 1963]. The rebellion has been described as if dieval History of Central Asia. His dis- Many young nobles or drunken poets it was only a military coup by autono- sertation on the Sogdian trade, a com- celebrated the charms of the Sogdian mous and very powerful armies prehensive analysis of the trading net- girls, and the most famous of them, Li [Pulleyblank, 1955]. The Sogdian iden- work from its creation to its end based Bo, wrote: tity of the rebels has never been in- on all the available sources, archaeo- vestigated as such. Yet many texts de- logical and textual, has been published That Western hour with features like a scribed it as a Sogdian rebellion and (see below; it can be ordered on flower described how many Sogdian traders www.deboccard.com). He is currently She stands by the wine-warmer, and supported An Lushan. Furthermore, working on Central Asian medieval so- laughs with the breath of spring some new discoveries prove that this ciology, on the Chinese as well as the Laughs with the breath of spring, idea was not due to a xenophobic bias Iranian side. Dances in a dress of gauze! in the Chinese descriptions of the re- Will you be going some where, milord, volt but in a way was something References now, before you are drunk? claimed by the rebels themselves: Shi [transl. Schafer 1963, p. 21] Seming, the second successor of An Lushan, himself a Sogdian, put the Vaissière 2002 It was not just merchants, but soldiers, Sogdian royal title of Jamuk (Jewel, Étienne de la Vaissière. Histoire des monks, and high or low officials who transcribed Zhaowu in Chinese) on par marchands sogdiens. Paris: Collège de were of Sogdian descent. We have seen with Huangdi on his recently discov- France et Institut des Hautes Études that the sons and grandsons of Shi ered ceremonial jades. The troops of chinoises, Bibliothèque de l’I.H.E.C., n° Shewu served in the army. To quote the rebels bore the Sogdian name of XXXII, 2002. another example, the New History of Zhejie, a fair transcription of the the Tang describes the family of An Sogdian Châkar “professional soldier” Vaissière 2004 Chongzhang, Minister of War from 767 [de la Vaissière 2004, forthcoming]. ______. “Châkars et Ghulâms. À to 777. His ancestors were sabao in propos de plusieurs travaux récents.” Wuwei (Gansu) during three genera- The Sogdian milieu was torn apart by Studia Iranica (forthcoming in 2004). tions. At the fourth generation, a mem- the rebellion, many Sogdians in China ber of the family An Xinggui became siding with the Tang. But from then on Vaissière and Trombert 2004 “Wude-era meritous servant” and from the Sogdians in China began to con- then on the family belonged to the ad- ceal their foreign origins. Maybe the Étienne de la Vaissière and Eric ministration: the sixth-generation An clearest example is An Chongzhang, Trombert. “Des Chinois et des Hu. Mi- Zhongjing was military Vice-commis- the Minister of War. In 756 he asked gration et Intégration des des Iraniens sary-in-chief of Hexi, and An Chong- for the authorization to change his fam- orientaux en milieu chinois durant le zhang was the leading member of the ily name, “being ashamed to bear the Haut Moyen-Âge.” Annales. Histoire et seventh generation. same name” as An Lushan. He became Civilisations (forthcoming in 2004). Li Baoyu and the exchange was retro- Research on such materials is just be- active: his ancestors’ family name Enoki 1955 ginning. Many funerary epitaphs of the changed also [Forte 1995, pp. 24-7]. Kazuo Enoki. “Sogdiana and the Tang period should be used to under- There are many other examples of this Hsiung-nu.” Central Asiatic Journal, I/ stand the rapid pace of the sinicization kind of social hiding. To the degree that 1 (1955), 43-62 of the Sogdians that took place under we can follow the destiny of some the Tang. It is already clear though that Sogdian families in Northern China up Forte 1995 the rebellion of An Lushan is a major to the ninth century, we see that their Antonino Forte. The Hostage An Shigao stage in this process. An Lushan was great days are already by then gone. and his Offspring. An Iranian Family in the main military governor of north- The pace of sinicization grew faster for China. Kyoto, 1995. eastern China on the frontier with Ko- security reasons, while the interna- rea and the Kitans. His father was a tional trade with its new waves of im- Hulsewé 1979 Sogdian installed in the Turk Empire migrants was totally disrupted in the Anthony F. P. Hulsewé. China in Cen- and his mother was Turk; his first name second half of the eighth century and tral Asia : the Early Stage : 125 B.C. - is a straight transcription of the Sogdian reborn only on a very low level, if at A.D. 23. An annotated translation of Rokhshan, “luminous” (the same as all, during the ninth century. The Per- chapters 61 and 96 of the History of Roxane, Alexander’s wife). He estab- sian traders, arriving by sea in the main the Former Han Dynasty, with an in- lished himself as a young boy in north- harbors of Southern China, became the troduction by Michael A.N. Loewe. eastern China, acted as a translator main traders of the age. This was the Leiden: Brill, 1979.

26 © Copyright CNRS/F. Ory. From the website of The Association for the Preservation of the From the website of The Association for Preservation Ory. Copyright CNRS/F. (www.afrasiab.org) Paintings Afrasiab A segment of the procession depicted on the south wall of the palace at Afrasiab

Feng 1996 seconde moitié du VIe siècle.” Edward H. Schafer. The Golden Peaches Luo Feng, Guyuan nan jiao Sui Tang Comptes rendus des séances de of Samarkand. A Study of T’ang Exot- mudi [Graveyard of Sui and Tang dy- l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles- ics. Berkeley: University of California nasties in the south suburbs of Lettre, séances de l’année 2001. Paris, Press, 1963. Guyuan] Beijing : Wenwu chubanshe, 2002, 227-264. 1996. Sims-Williams 1996 Pulleyblank 1955 Nicholas Sims-Williams. “The Sogdian Feng 2001 Edwin G. Pulleyblank. The Background Merchants in China and India.” In _____. “Sogdians in Northwest China,” of the Rebellion of An Lu-shan. Oxford: Alfredo Cadonna et Lionello Lanciotti, in Annette L. Juliano and Judith A. University Press, 1955. eds., Cina e Iran da Alessandro Magno Lerner, eds., Monks and Merchants. alla Dinastia Tang. Firenze: Olschki, Silk Road Treasures from Northern Riboud 2003 1996, 45-67. China. Gansu and Ningxia 4th-7th Pénélope Riboud. “Le cheval sans cava- Century. New York: H.N. Abrams & lier dans l’art funéraire sogdien en Sims-Williams 2001 Asia Society, 2001, 239-245. Chine: à la recherche des sources d’un _____. “Sogdian Ancient Letter II.” In thème composite.” Arts Asiatiques, 58 Annette L. Juliano and Judith A. Lerner, Marshak 2002 (2003) (in press). eds., Monks and Merchants. Silk Road Boris Marshak. “La thématique Treasures from Northern China. Gansu sogdienne dans l’art de la Chine de la Schafer 1963 and Ningxia 4th-7th Century. New York: Abrams & Asia Society, 2001, 47-9.

27 The Pre-Islamic Civilization of the Sogdians (seventh century BCE to eighth century CE): A Bibliographic Essay (studies since 1986)

Frantz Grenet yearly since 1990 with special issues). stan, 1922-1982) to which most of its Sogdiana and the Sogdians have ex- founding members had belonged. École pratique des hautes erted the greatest attraction, thanks Other foreign missions have followed to their historical role as intermediar- recently: Italians in the Bukharan oa- études/Centre National de ies along the Silk Road and also to their sis (la Sapienza University, Rome) and la Recherche Scientifique, particularly refined artistic culture (al- now in the southern Zeravshan valley Paris ready in 1981 Sogdian Painting, pub- (Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e lished under the direction of Guitty l’Oriente); and a joint mission of the Azarpay, was a revelation for many). University of California, Berkeley, and the Samarkand Institute of Archaeol- In reality, Sogdian studies have never ogy in the Shahr-i Sabz oasis. Two Introduction ceased being cultivated in the West German missions, a Polish one, and since the beginning of the 20th cen- another French one (in Tajikistan) are In the second half of the 1980s, an tury, but for the main part had been also operating, but they specialize in unprecedented development in Sogdian confined to philologists working on the the pre- and proto-historical periods studies began. This did not result from text material brought back by the Brit- which are not covered in the present the discovery of a mass of new written ish, German, French, and Russian ex- paper. documents (contrary to what happened peditions in the Tarim region. The with Bactrian studies), nor to a large Sogdian part of this material is now Another decisive factor in the develop- extension of field archaeology (on the fully published, except for some stray ment of Sogdian studies has been the contrary, the great excavations inher- fragments. These generations of phi- recent recognition of the Sogdian in- ited from the Soviet period have since lologists achieved step-by-step a good flux as a major factor in the cultural shrunk due to financial difficulties, with understanding of the native Sogdian history of China in the Wei, Qi, Song a few exceptions such as Samarkand language, an Iranian language written and early Tang periods (fifth to eighth and Paykend). The main reason for the in several scripts (in accordance to the centuries) after many years of indif- blossoming of Sogdian studies has various religions) which has been ex- ference or actual denial by Chinese been, on the one hand, better com- tinct since the eleventh century. In con- scholars. Commercial records in Turco- munication among the specialists in- trast, Western museums had contained Sogdian and Chinese, found in Turfan volved, and, on the other hand, chance very few items from Sogdiana (mostly and Dunhuang, shed new light on the discoveries in China, which have added coins), and just a few of these objects integration of Sogdian colonies into the a new angle to the perception of the originated from Sogdian colonies in social fabric of early mediaeval China. historical role of the Sogdians. China (the funerary reliefs from Anyang At the same time, the spectacular dis- and the religious image from the Pelliot covery of several sets of funerary re- Archaeological information from the collection, only recently recognized as liefs commissioned by Sogdians in the Soviet republics, hitherto very sparsely Sogdian). What made Western archae- second half of the sixth century has disseminated in Western publications, ologists eventually come to the Sogdian revealed a fully developed secular ico- has quite suddenly become more abun- field was the inaccessibility of Afghani- nography in Sogdiana itself for this dant. This is partly because all Soviet stan after 1979 and, later, the invita- early period, of which almost no record scholars, not only the senior ones, have tions extended by the Soviet archaeo- survives. At present Sogdians are very been systematically encouraged to logical authorities as a consequence of much in fashion among Chinese ar- publish abroad, and partly because two perestroika. The French mission chaeologists and historians, a trend one newly created journals took a great (MAFOUZ, i.e. Mission Archéologique can only be pleased with, even if it oc- interest in Central Asia: The Bulletin of Franco-Ouzbèke) opened the way at casionally is accompanied by some the Asia Institute (USA, published Samarkand in 1989, using the experi- over-interpretation of the data. One can yearly since 1987) and Silk Road Art ence acquired by the DAFA (Délégation be sure that more texts and archaeo- and Archaeology (Japan, published Archéologique Française en Afghani- logical objects will surface in the near

28 future. The masterly book by Etienne Bibliographical listings with 4. Sogdian texts of direct histori- de la Vaissière, Histoire des marchands commentaries cal relevance (editions and stud- sogdiens (Paris 2002), was the first fruit ies) of the recognition of the existence of a Some preliminary observations: “Sogdian space” extending far beyond 5. Toponymy, historical geography the narrow limits of Sogdiana itself: to 1) Almost all the works listed have been lands of Sogdian agricultural coloniza- published since 1986. A few references 6. Coins tion in southern Kyrgyzstan and prior to that date have been kept, how- Kazakhstan, to communities in the ever, when they still retain their value 7. Historiography of archaeologi- heart of China and Crimea, to admin- as books for daily consultation (e.g. I. cal research istrators at the court of the Turkish Gershevitch, A grammar of Manichean qaghans in Mongolia, and even to indi- Sogdian, 1954, or G. Azarpay, Sogdian 8. Architecture (general) vidual traders in the Southern Seas. Painting, 1981). 9. Visual arts (general) The international community of 2) As usual (unfortunately) in scholar- Sogdians was numerous, but today the ship, all the more so in Soviet and post- 10. Music community of “Sogdologists” is still Soviet scholarship, many authors “re- very narrow. The reader will probably cycle” material from articles to books, 11. Archaeological sites notice a tedious recurrence of authors’ or from article to article, or from a ver- names in the following listings. This sion published in one language to a a. Samarkand situation, however, is rapidly changing version in another. In such cases an b. Middle Zeravshan valley (in- as more and more students (especially effort has been made to retain only the icluding the nomadic American, Chinese, French, Italian, most accessible and/or up-to-date pre- cemeteries Japanese, and Russian) are entering sentation. this worthwhile field. c. Bukhara and Paykend 3) Materials of purely local relevance d. Kashka-darya valley or miscellaneous character have not (southern Sogdiana) Reference journals been retained, as they are incorporated e.Panjikent (or destined to be incorporated) into f. Upper Zeravshan Valley In addition to the two main journals broader synthesis. For such informa- already quoted (Bulletin of the Asia In- tion the reader is referred to the tables g. Ustrushana (northeast of stitute and Silk Road Art and Archae- of contents of the archaeological jour- Samarkand) ology), Studia Iranica (published in nals listed above. This rule does not h. Chach (the Tashkent area) Paris) devotes much space to Sogdian apply, of course, to major sites, monu- i. Sogdian settlements in subjects, both linguistic and archaeo- ments or works of art, each of which southern Kyrgyzstan logical. In Russian, Rossiiskaia generates a substantial bibliography by arkheologiia [Russian archaeology, for- itself. merly Sovetskaia Arkheologiia] and 12. Studies on specific historical periods Vestnik drevnei istorii [Journal of an- 4) References in Russian (marked by cient history], both published in Mos- an asterisk) have been kept to a mini- 13. The Sogdians in the interna- cow, still occasionally publish articles mum, i.e. to materials which have not tional trade on Central Asia, but far less than be- been channelled through a Western lan- fore. For local information one has to guage. Although their relative impor- 14. Archeological and textual consult Istoriia material’noi kul’tury tance is decreasing, much important testimonies of Sogdians in China Uzbekistana (IMKU) [History of the information is and will remain acces- material culture of Uzbekistan], pub- sible only through publications in Rus- 15. Religions lished by the Institute of Archaeology sian and no student specializing in at Samarkand, and to Arkheolo- Sogdian studies can avoid learning this a.Local (Sogdian form of gicheskie raboty v Tadzhikistane (ART) language (a most rewarding invest- [Archaeological works in Tajikistan], ment anyway). Zoroastrianism) published by the Institute of History at b. Buddhism in Sogdiana Dushanbe. The first journal is published The material is organized under the c. Christianity in Sogdiana and regularly, the second one with long following headings: in the Sogdian colonies delays. Both can be obtained only through academic contacts. The 1. General works on Sogdiana, d. Manicheism in Sogdiana and Samarkand Institute of Archaeology books on the history and archaeol- in the Sogdian colonies also publishes monographs, and a col- ogy of Central Asia lection of yearly archaeological reports: Arkheologicheskie issledovaniia v 2. Bibliographies Uzbekistane [Archaeological researches in Uzbekistan]. 3. Sogdian language and litera- ture (general)

29 1. General Works on Sogdiana, 2. Bibliographies 4. Sogdian texts of direct his- books on the history and ar- torical relevance (editions and chaeology of Central Asia Grenet, Frantz et collaborateurs: L’Asie studies) centrale préislamique. Bibliogra- phie critique 1977-1986. Téhéran- * Brykina, G.A., editor. Sredniaia Aziia Grenet, Frantz & Sims-Williams, Nicho- Paris: Institut Français de Recher- i Dal’nii Vostok v epokhu las. “The historical context of the che en Iran, 1988 (Abstracta srednevekov’ia / Sredniaia Aziia v Sogdian Ancient Letters.” In Tran- Iranica, volume hors-série 3) [re- rannem srednevekov’e [Central sition periods in Iranian history. print of reviews published in Asia and the Far East in the medi- Actes du symposium de Fribourg- Abstracta Iranica 1-10, with aeval epoch / Central Asia in the en-Brisgau (22-24 mai 1985). supplement and indexes; contin- early Middle Ages]. Moscow: Paris: Association pour ued, mainly by É. de la Vaissière, “Nauka,” 1999 (series l’Avancement des études in the subsequent volumes of Arkheologiia). iraniennes, 1987, 101-122 (Studia Abstracta Iranica (11-23-), section Iranica - Cahier 5). “Est de l’Iran”]. Harmatta, J., editor. History of civili- zations of Central Asia. Vol. II : The Grenet, Frantz; Sims-Williams, Nicho- “Bibliography,” in B.A. Litvinskii & Carol development of sedentary and las; la Vaissière, Étienne de. “The Altman Bromberg, editors. “The ar- nomadic civilizations: 700 B.C. to Sogdian Ancient Letter V.” Bulletin chaeology and art of Central Asia. A.D. 259”; Vol. III : The crossroads of the Asia Institute, 12 (1998 Studies from the former Soviet of civilizations : A.D. 250 to 750, [2001]), 91-104. Union.” Bulletin of the Asia Insti- ed. B.A. Litvinsky. Paris: UNESCO tute, 8 (1994 [1996]), 269-290. Publishing, 1994 and 1996. Grenet, Frantz & la Vaissière, Étienne de. “The last days of Panjikent.” Silk * Koshelenko, G.A., editor. Drevneishie 3. Sogdian language and litera- Road Art and Archaeology, 8 gosudarstva Kavkaza i Srednei Azii ture (general) (2002), 155-196. [The most ancient states of the Caucasus and Central Asia]. Mos- Gershevitch, Ilya. A grammar of Moriyasu, T. & Ochir, A., eds. Provisional cow: “Nauka,” 1985 (series Manichean Sogdian. Oxford: Basil report of researches on historical Arkheologiia SSSR) Blackwell, 1954 (reprinted 1961). sites and inscriptions in Mongolia from 1996 to 1998. Osaka: The So- Litvinskij, Boris A. La civilisation de Gharib, B. Sogdian dictionary. Tehran: ciety of Central Eurasian Studies, l’Asie centrale antique. Rahden / Farhangan Publications, 1995. 1999. Westf.: Leidorf, 1998 (Archäologie in Iran und Turan, Bd. 3). Sims-Williams, Nicholas. “Sogdian.” In Sims-Williams, Nicholas. Sogdian and R. Schmitt, ed., Compendium other Iranian inscriptions of the The two volumes of the UNESCO His- Linguarum Iranicarum. Wiesbaden, Upper Indus. 2 vols. London: Cor- tory of civilizations of Central Asia 1989, 173-192. pus Inscriptionum Iranicarum, which cover the period under exami- 1989-92. nation are very unevenly reliable and Tremblay, Xavier. Pour une histoire de were loosely coordinated. The chapters la Sérinde. Le manichéisme parmi ----. “The Sogdian inscriptions of were distributed according to principles les peoples et les religions d’Asie Ladakh.” In K. Jettmar, ed., Antiq- of geopolitical “balance” hardly com- centrale d’après les sources uities of Northern Pakistan. Reports patible with good scholarship. This in- primaires. Wien: Verlag der and Studies, vol. 2. Mainz: Verlag convenience, does not, however, much Österreichischen Akademie des Philipp von Zabern, 1993, 151-163. affect the chapters concerning Wissenschaften, 2001. Sogdiana, which were entrusted to ----.“The Iranian inscriptions of competent archaeologists, albeit too Sims-Williams provides an update for Shatial.” Indologica Taurinensia, many (Mukhamedjanov, Litvinsky, Gershevitch’s Grammar which remains 23-24 (1997-98), 523-541. Negmatov, Zadneprovskiy, Zeimal, indispensable (not only for the Marshak, Zhang Guang-da). The pub- Manichean variant of the Sogdian lan- ----. “The Sogdian Ancient Letter II.” lication was long delayed, which results guage). Yutaka Yoshida has announced In M.G. Schmidt und W. Bisang, in excessive outdating. Litvinskij’s The Sogdian language, a textbook ed.,Philologica et Linguistica. handbook is solid, but also slightly out- which will be most useful. Tremblay is Historia, Pluralitas, Universitas. dated by the time of its publication. The not easy reading, but his book (despite Festschrift für Helmut Humbach same remark applies the two Russian the limited scope of its title) offers the zum 80. Geburstag am 4. volumes, which however recommend only existing exhaustive bibliography Dezember 2001. Trier: Wissen- themselves (even to those who do not on every text which has come to us in schaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2001, read Russian) by their plates combin- every language once spoken in Cen- 267-280. ing on a homogeneous scale selections tral Asia. of material representative from all re- Sims-Williams, Nicholas & Hamilton, gions and sub-periods. James. Documents turco-sogdiens du IXe-Xe siècle de Touen-houang.

30 London: Corpus Inscriptionum Turkish empire) and by Sims-Williams photographs, and satellite photo- Iranicarum, 1990. (in particular for the Upper Indus in- graphs, which are not accessible to scriptions discovered since 1979; his them or, when they are, cannot be Yakubovich, Ilya. “Mugh 1.I. revisited.” publication also provides the main ref- published. Consequently, the results Studia Iranica, 31 (2002), 231- erence to date on Sogdian onomastics). of these surveys often take the form 253. For recently discovered documents of of bare lists of sites which are not a day-to-day character concerning precisely located. At the moment the Yoshida, Yutaka. “Translation of the Sogdian communities in China (mer- best map of the Sogdian principalities contract for the purchase of a slave chants, peasants, monks), see below, (but with a limited choice of sites) is girl found at Turfan and dated 639.” the section “Archaeological and textual in la Vaissière 2002 (see below, sec- Appendix to V. Hansen, review of testimonies of Sogdians in China” (de tion “The Sogdians in the international de la Vaissière, Etienne, Histoire la Vaissière & Trombert, Sims-Will- trade”). An issue presently under dis- des marchands sogdiens, and iams). Taken all together, these writ- cussion concerns where the exact Rong, Xinjiang, Zhonggu Zhongguo ten records in the Sogdian language border of the historical regions of yu wailai wenming. T’oung Pao provide no more than glimpses on spe- Bactria and Sogdiana was in Antiq- (forthcoming). cific places and periods. The bulk of uity. The present author’s opinion, information on Sogdiana itself comes shared with Claude Rapin (see joint The two main collections of primary from Chinese records from the sixth to article quoted), but not with all spe- historical sources in Sogdian are: eighth centuries (E. Chavannes, Docu- cialists, is that the area called ments sur les Tou-kiue (Turcs) Sogdiana initially extended south- a) the five Ancient Letters (written in occidentaux. Saint-Pétersbourg, 1903) ward to the Oxus river (the Amu- 313-314 by Sogdian merchants in and from Arabic chronicles concerning darya) and shrank subsequently, the Kansu, discovered in 1907 by Sir Aurel the conquest (mainly The History of al- limit being established on the Hisar Stein near Dunhuang, kept in the Brit- Tabari, 38 vols., Albany: State Univer- and Baysun ranges only from the ish Library); sity of New York Press, 1987-97). Kushan period (first to third centuries CE). Taken in this perspective, the Hel- b) the Mugh documents (the archive 5. Toponymy, historical geogra- lenistic temple of the Oxus excavated of Dewashtich, last king of Panjikent, phy at Takht-i Sangin on the northern hidden in 722 in a mountain castle on bank was originally on Sogdian terri- the Upper Zeravshan, discovered in tory. On these excavations, the main Grenet, Frantz & Rapin, Claude. 1932, kept in the Institute of Oriental references in Western languages are “Alexander, Ai Khanum, Termez: Studies in Saint-Petersburg). For the now : Litvinskii, B.A. & Pichikian, I.R., remarks on the spring campaign of latter the documents are accessible in “The Hellenistic architecture and art 328.” Bulletin of the Asia Institute, facsimile (Documents from Mt. Mugh, of the temple of the Oxus,” Bulletin of 12 (1998 [2001]), 79-89. Moscow: Corpus Inscriptionum the Asia Institute, 8 (1994 [1996]), 47- Iranicarum, 1963) and in a complete 66; Litvinskij, Boris A. & Pichikjan, Igor Lurje, Pavel B. “Arabosogdica: place- Russian edition which retains most of R., Taxt-i Sangin, Der Oxus-Tempel, names in Transoxiana as written in its value: Sogdiiskie dokumenty s Gory Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Arabic script.” Manuscripta Mug. Chtenie, perevod, kommentarii 2002 (Archäologie in Iran und Turan, Orientalia, 7/4 (2001), 22-29. [Sogdian documents from Mount Mugh. Bd. 4); Bernard, Paul, “Le temple du Reading, translation, commentaries]. dieu Oxus à Takht-i Sangin en ----.“The element -KAQ / -KAND in Moscow, 3 vols, 1962-63 (A.A. Bactriane: temple du feu ou pas?,” Transoxanian place-names.” Studia Freiman, V.A. Livshits, M.N. Bogoliubov, Studia Iranica, 23 (1994), 81-121 (a Iranica, 32/2 (2003) (in press). O.I. Smirnova). Several documents critical assessment of some interpre- have been recently re-edited (see tations of the excavators). Tremblay, Xavier. “La toponymie de la above Grenet & de la Vaissière, “The Sogdiane et le traitement de last days of Panjikent”; Yakubovich), 6. Coins *xè et *fè en iranien.” Studia others are in the process of re-edition. Rtveladze, E.V. “Pre-Muslim coins of Iranica, 32/2 (2003) (in press). Chach.” Silk Road Art and Archae- For the Ancient Letters the pioneering ology, 5 (1997/98), 307-328. edition by H. Reichelt (Die soghdischen The historical geography of metropoli- Handschriftenreste des Britischen Mu- tan Sogdiana is for the most part the * Smirnova, O.I. Svodnyi katalog seums, II: Die nicht-buddhistischen domain of philologists (the ultimate sogdiiskikh monet. Bronza. [Gen- Texte, Heidelberg, 1931), accompanied reference being W. Barthold, eral catalogue of Sogdian coins. with facsimiles, is obsolete and will Turkestan down to the Mongol invasion. Bronze]. Moscow, 1981. eventually be replaced by a new edi- 3rd ed. London, 1968, chap. I: Geo- tion by N. Sims-Williams, who has al- graphical survey of Transoxiana). Ar- Zeimal, E.V. “The political history of ready published articles alone or with chaeologists in Soviet Central Asia, Transoxiana.” In E. Yarshater, collaborators who have written the his- and now in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, ed., Cambridge History of Iran, torical commentaries (see above). undertook various regional surveys, III.1. Cambridge, 1983, 232-262, Sogdian epigraphy is covered by but they were (and still are) not in a Pl. 19-24. Moriyasu and Ochir (the Sogdian in- position to back them with a proper scriptions commissioned by the first apparatus of large-scale maps, air ----. “The circulation of coins in Cen-

31 tral Asia during the early medieval 9. Visual arts (general) 11. Archaeological sites period” (fifth to eighth centuries A.D.).” Bulletin of the Asia Insti- Azarpay, Guitty. Sogdian Painting. The a. Samarkand tute, 8 (1994 [1996]), 245-267. pictorial epic in oriental art. Ber- keley; Los Angeles; London: Uni- Bernard, Paul. “Marcanda-Afrasiab, Zeimal’s article in the Cambridge His- versity of California Press, 1981 colonie grecque.” In La Persia e tory of Iran, a translation of an article (with contributions by A.M. l’Asia centrale da Alessandro al X originally published in Russian, pre- Belenitskii, B.I. Marshak, and Mark secolo (Atti dei convegni Lincei, sents the best analysis (despite a bias J. Dresden). 127). Rome : Accademia Nazionale for late dating) of the early stage of dei Lincei, 1996, 331-365. the coinage of Sogdiana, from the imi- Chuvin, Pierre, editor. Les arts de l’Asie tations of Greek coinage untill the sev- centrale. Paris: Citadelles & Bernard, Paul; Grenet, Frantz; enth century. His article in BAI follows Mazenod, 1999 (contributions by Isamiddinov, Muxammedzhon, et up. B. Marshak and F. Grenet on the collaborateurs. “Fouilles de la mis- arts of Sogdiana). sion franco-soviétique à l’ancienne 7. Historiography of archaeo- Samarkand (Afrasiab): première logical research Lapierre, Nathalie. “La peinture campagne, 1989." Comptes monumentale de l’Asie centrale Rendus de l’Académie des Inscrip- Gorshenina, Svetlana. “Un précurseur soviétique: observations tech- tions & Belles-lettres, 1990, 356- de l’archéologie et de l’ethnologie niques.” Arts Asiatiques, 45 (1990), 380. françaises en Asie centrale: Jo- 28-40. seph-Antoine Castagné (1875- ----.“Fouilles de la mission franco- 1958).” Comptes rendus de Marshak, Boris. Silberschätze des Ori- ouzbèke à l’ancienne Samarkand l’Académie des inscriptions & ents. Metallkunst des 3.-13. (Afrasiab): deuxième et troisième Belles-lettres, 1997, 255-272. Jahrhunderts und ihre Kontinuität. campagnes (1990-1991).” Leipzig: VEB E.A. Seemann Verlag, Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des ----. “Premiers pas des archéologues 1986. Inscriptions & Belles-lettres, 1992, russes et français dans le Turkestan 275-311. russe (1870-1890). Méthodes de ----. Legends, tales, and fables in the recherche et destin des collections.” art of Sogdiana. New York: Grenet, Frantz. “L’Inde des astrologues Cahiers du Monde russe, 40/3 Bibliotheca Persica Press, 2002. sur une peinture sogdienne du VIIe (1999), 365-384. (With an Appendix by V.A. siècle”. In C. Cereti, M. Maggi, E. Livshits). Provasi, eds. Religious themes and Gorshenina, Svetlana & Rapin, Claude. texts in pre-Islamic Iran and Cen- De Kaboul à Samarcande. Les ----. “Pre-Islamic Painting of the Ira- tral Asia. Studies in honour of archéologues en Asie centrale. nian Peoples and Its Sources in Professor Gherardo Gnoli. Paris: Découvertes Gallimard, Sculpture and the Decorative Arts,” Wiesbaden : Dr. Ludwig Reichert 2001. Ch. 1 in Eleanor Sims et al., Peer- Verlag, 2003 (forthcoming). less Images: Persian Painting and 8. Architecture (general) Its Sources. New Haven and Lon- ----. “La contribution respective des don: Yale University Press, 2002, sources écrites et de l’investigation esp. pp. 15-19. Chmelnizkij,Sergej. Zwischen archéologique à la connaissance de Kuschanen und Arabern. Die la Samarkand pre-mongole (VIIe Tanabe, Katsumi, editor. New History architektur Mittelasiens im V.-VIII. siècle av. n.è. - XIIIe siècle de of World Art, 15. Shogakukan, Jh. Berlin: Hosemann & Goebel n.è.).” Annales. Histoire et 1999 (in Japanese). (contributions GmbH u. Co Verlag KG, 1989. civilisations (2004) (forthcoming). by M. Tanabe and B. Marshak on the arts of Sogdiana). * Semenov, G.L. Sogdiiskaia Grenet, Frantz & Rapin, Claude. “De la fortifikatsiia V-VIII vekov [The Samarkand antique à la Samar- The books edited by Chuvin and by Sogdian fortification in the Vth- kand médiévale: continuités Tanabe provide the best selection of VIIIth centuries]. Sankt-Peterburg, et ruptures.” In R.-P. Gayraud, ed., colour photographs now available. 1996. Colloque international d’archéologie islamique. Cairo: Chmelnizkij is good reference for the Institut Français d’Archéologie abundance and quality of the illustra- 10. Music Orientale, 1998, 387-402. tions, but his interpretations of the functions of some individual monu- Karomatov, F. M.; Meshkeris, V. A.; * Inevatkina, O.N. “Fortifikatsiia ments are controversial. Together with Vyzgo, T.S.. Musikgeschichte in akropolia drevnego Samarkanda v a first-class study of the fortifications Bildern, Bd. II: Musik des Altertums seredine pervogo tysiacheletiia do Semenov provides very interesting / Lieferung 9: Mittelasien. Leipzig: n.e. [The fortification of the acropo- analyses on the historical context of VEB Deutscher Verlag für Musik, lis of ancient Samarkand in the the period covered. 1987. middle of the first millenium BC].”

32 Materialnaia kul’tura Vostoka, 3 Miankalia [The antiquities of the This last book, unfortunately difficult (2002), 24-46. (Moscow: Miankal]. Tashkent: “Fan,” 1989. to obtain, gives an account of combined Gosudarstvennyi muzei Vostoka). surveys and excavations of the hith- Rapin, Claude; Isamiddinov, erto little known south-western part of Kageyama, Etsuko. “A Chinese way Mukhammadjon; Khasanov, Sogdiana (the historical region of of depicting foreign delegates dis- Mutallib. “La tombe d’une princesse Nakhshab) which flourished mostly in cerned in the paintings of Afrasiab.” nomade à Koktepe près de the period between the first and the In Ph. Huyse, ed., Iran: questions Samarkand.” Comptes Rendus de sixth century AD, before the main fo- et connaissances, vol. I: La période l’Académie des Inscriptions & cus of Sogdian civilization shifted to the ancienne. Paris: Association pour Belles-lettres, 2001, 33-92. Zeravshan valley. There is still no spe- l’avancement des études cific study of the upper Kashka-darya iraniennes, 2002, 313-327. c. Bukhara and Paykend valley (the Shahr-i Sabz region).

Marshak, Boris. “Le programme *Askarov A.A., editor. Gorodishche e. Panjikent iconographique des peintures de la Paikend [The ancient town of ‘Salle des Ambassadeurs’ à Paykend] (contributors: A.R. * Belenitskii, A. M.; Marshak, B. I.; Afrasiab (Samarkand).” Arts Mukhamedzhanov, Sh.T. Adylov, Raspopova, V. I. Yearly reports on Asiatiques, 49 (1994), 5-20. D.K. Mirzaakhmedov, G.L. the Panjikent excavations in Semenov). Tashkent: “Fan,” 1988. Arkheologicheskie raboty v Rapin, Claude. “Fortifications Tadzhikistane, continued until the hellénistiques de Samarcande Marshak, Boris I. “The ceilings of the 1985 season, in issue 25 (published (Samarkand-Afrasiab)”. Topoi, 4/ Varakhsha palace.” Parthica, 2 1994). Followed by Marshak, B.I.; 2 (1994), 547-565. (2000), 153-167. Raspopova, V. I.; Shkoda, V. G. “Kratkii otchet o rabotakh na Shishkina, G.V. “Ancient Samarkand: Semenov, Grigori L. Studien zur gorodishche Pendzhikenta v 1986- Capital of Soghd.” Bulletin of the sogdischen Kultur an der 1999 godakh [Short report on the Asia Institute, 8 (1994 [1996]), 81- Seidenstrasse. Wiesbaden: works at the ancient site of 99. Harrassowitz Verlag, 1996. Panjikent in 1986-1999],” in is- sue 27 (published 2000), 189-208 Shishkina gives a clear and complete * Semenov, G.L. and Mirzaakhmedov, (with full bibliography of the ma- summary of the state of knowledge on Dzh.K., editors. Raskopki v terials found during these sea- pre-Islamic Samarkand before the Pajkende v 1999 godu [Exca- sons). Then superseded by: Franco-Uzbek archaeological mission vations at Paykend in 1999; con- started its work in 1989. Work is still tinued in 2000, 2001]. Sankt- * Marshak, B. I.; Raspopova, V. I.; progressing in the interpretation of the Peterburg: Gos. Ermitazh, 2000. Shkoda, V. G. Otchet o raskopkakh cycle of mural paintings known as the (with English summaries). gorodishcha drevnego “Ambassadors’ painting,” executed c. Pendzhikenta v 1998 godu [Re- 660 in a royal residence and discov- Semenov, “Studien...,” tackles also port on the excavations at the site ered in 1965 (see Grenet, Kageyama, some questions not related to finds in of ancient Panjikent in 1998; con- Marshak). Paykend, e.g. the repertory of tales in tinued in 1999, 2000, 2001, the painting of Panjikent. 2002...]. Sankt-Peterburg : Gos. b. Middle Zeravshan valley (includ- Ermitazh, 1999 (with English sum- ing the nomadic cemeteries) maries). d. Kashka-darya valley (southern Abdullaev, Kazim. “Nomadism in Cen- Sogdiana) Marshak, B., “Les fouilles de tral Asia: the archaeological evi- Pendjikent.” Comptes Rendus de dence (2nd-1st centuries B.C.).” In Sulejmanov, R.X. “L’architecture l’Académie des Inscriptions and A. Invernizzi, ed., In the land of monumentale d’Erkurgan. Com- Belles-lettres, 1990, 286-313. the Gryphons. Turin: Casa editrice plexes cultuels et communau- Le Lettere, 1995, 151-161. taires.” Histoire et cultes de Marshak, B. I. & Raspopova, V. I. “A l’Asie centrale préislamique, ed. P. hunting scene from Panjikent.” Ilyasov, Jangar Ya. and Rusanov, Bernard & F. Grenet. Paris: Edi- Bulletin of the Asia Institute, 4, Dmitriy V. “A study of the bone tions du CNRS, 1991, 167-172. Pl. 1990 [1992], 77-94. plates from Orlat.” Silk Road Art LXV-LXVIII. and Archaeology, 5 (1997/98), * Raspopova, V.I. Zhilishcha 107-159. * _ _ Drevnii Nakhshab. Problemy Pendzhikenta [The dwellings of tsivilizatsii Uzbekistana VII v. do Panjikent]. Leningrad: “Nauka,” * Obel’chenko, O.V. Kul’tura antichnogo n.e. - VII v. n.e. [Ancient 1990. Sogda [The culture of Soghd in An- Nakhshab. Problems of the civili- tiquity]. Moscow: “Nauka,” 1992. zation of Uzbekistan in the 7th c. Raspopova, Zhilishcha... is fundamen- BC - 7th c. AD]. Samarkand; tal for a social study of the town. * Pugachenkova, G.A. Drevnosti Tashkent: “Fan,” 2000. Marshak, Legends, tales, and fables in

33 the art of Sogdiana (see above, sec- ----. “A propos de l’histoire de la cul- Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, tion “Visual arts [general]”) is mostly ture de la région de Tachkent au 1996, 367-390. based on material from Panjikent and Ier millénaire av. n.è. et au Ier gives the fullest subject analysis so far millénaire de n.è.” In P. Bernard & ----. “Regional interaction in Central attempted. For separate publications of F. Grenet, ed., Histoire et cultes Asia and Northwest India in the some paintings see also the articles by de l’Asie centrale préislamique. Kidarite and Hephtalite periods.” Marshak, Marshak & Raspopova, sec- Paris: Editions du CNRS, 1991, In N. Sims-Williams, ed., Indo-Ira- tion “Religions”. 197-204, Pl.LXXIX-LXXXII. nian languages and peoples (Pro- ceedings of the British Academy, f. Upper Zeravshan valley * Filanovich, M.I. “Sistema rasselenia 116). Oxford : Oxford University i gradostroitel’nye formy Press, 2002, 203-224. * Iakubov, Iu. Rannesrednevekovye tashkentskogo mikrooazisa v sel’skie poseleniia gornogo Sogda drevnosti i rannem srednevekov’e Lyonnet, B. “Les Grecs, les nomades [The early medieval rural settle- [Distribution of population and et l’indépendance de la Sogdiane, ments in mountainous Soghd]. urbanistic forms in the Tashkent d’après l’occupation comparée d’Aï Dushanbe: “Donish,” 1988. micro-oasis in the Antiquity and Khanoum et de Marakanda au Middle Ages].” In G.A. Pugachen- cours des derniers siècles avant g. Ustrushana (northeast of kova, ed., Kul’tura srednego notre ère.” Bulletin of the Asia In- Samarkand) Vostoka. Gradostroitel’stvo i stitute, 12 (1998 [2001]), 141- arkhitektura. Tashkent, “Fan,” 159. * Negmatov, N.N. “Bozhestvennyi i 1989, 35-51. demonicheskii panteony * Rtveladze, E.V. Aleksandr Make- Ustrushany i ikh indoiranskie ----. “Les relations historiques, donskii v Baktrii i Sogdiane parallely [The divine and demoniac culturelles et idéologiques et les [Alexander the Great in Bactria and pantheons of Ustrushana and their échanges entre le Châch, la Sogdiana]. Tashkent, 2002. Indo-Iranian parallels].” In V.M. Sogdiane et la Chorasmie au début Masson, ed., Drevnie kul’tury du Moyen-Age, d’après les données Srednei Azii i Indii. Leningrad: de l ‘étude des résidences fortifiées 13. The Sogdians in the inter- “Nauka,” 1984, 146-164. au VIe-VIIIe s. de notre ère.” In national trade P. Bernard & F. Grenet, ed., Histoire et cultes de l’Asie centrale * Negmatov, N.N. & Mamadzhanova, Grenet, Frantz. “Les Sogdiens dans préislamique. Paris : Editions du S.M. “Bundzhikat - srednevekovaia les Mers du Sud.” Cahiers d’Asie CNRS, 1991, 197-204, Pl.LXXIX- stolitsa Ustrushany [Bundzhikat, centrale, 1-2 (1996), 65-84. the medieval capital of Ustru- LXXXII. shana]”. In G.A. Pugachenkova, Kageyama, Etsuko. “Use and pro- ed., Kul’tura srednego Vostoka. i. Sogdian settlements in southern duction of the silks in Sogdiana.” Gradostroitel’stvo i arkhitektura. Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan Bulletin of the Society for Near Tashkent, “Fan”, 1989, 91-99. Eastern Studies in Japan (Nippon * Baipakov, K.M. Srednevekovaia Oriento Gakkai), 45/1, (2002), 37- Color reproductions of the remarkable gorodskaia kul’tura Iuzhnogo 55 (in Japanese, with English sum- paintings from Shahristan Kazakhstana i Semirech’ia [The mary). (Bundzhikat), which include an image medieval urban culture in South of the Roman she-wolf suckling the ern Kazakhstan and Semirechie]. la Vaissière, Étienne de. “Les twins, are unfortunately incomplete Alma-Ata, 1986. marchands d’Asie centrale dans and scattered in various books on the l’empire khazar.” In M. Kazansky, art of Central Asia and Sogdiana. ----. “Nouvelles données sur la culture A. Nercession, C. Zuckerman, ed., sogdienne dans les villes Les centres protourbains russes h. Chach (the Tashkent area) médiévales du Kazakhstan” (avec entre Scandinaves, Byzance et Ori- une note additionnelle par F. ent. (Réalités Byzantines, VII), Bogomolov, G. I. & Burjakov, Ju. F. Grenet). Studia Iranica, 21, 1992, Paris : Lethielleux, 2000, 367-378. “Sealings from Kanka.” In A. 33-48, Pl. II-IX. Invernizzi, ed., In the land of the ----. Histoire des marchands sogdiens. Gryphons. Turin: Casa Editrice Le 12. Studies on specific histori- Paris: Collège de France, 2002 Lettere, 1995, 217-237. cal periods (Bibliothèque de l’Institut des Hautes Etudes chinoises, vol. 32). * Buriakov, Iu.F. (ed.). Drevnii i Grenet, Frantz. “Crise et sortie de crise srednevekovyi gorod vostochnogo en Bactriane-Sogdiane aux IVe-Ve Sims-Williams, Nicholas. “The Sogdian Maverannakhra [The ancient and siècles: de l’héritage antique à merchants in China and India.” In medieval town in Eastern l’adoption de modèles sassanides.” A. Cadonna & L. Lanciotti, ed., Cina Maverannahr]. Tashkent: “Fan,” La Persia e l’Asia centrale da e Iran da Alessandro Magno alla 1990. Alessandro al X secolo (Atti dei dinastia Tang. Florence: Leo S. convegni Lincei, 127). Rome: Olschki editore, 1996, 45-67.

34 Trombert, Eric. “La vigne et le vin en Comptes rendus de l’Académie des ----. “Mithra, dieu iranien: nouvelles Chine. Misères et succès d’une tra Inscriptions & Belles-lettres, 2001, données.” Topoi, 11 (2003) (in dition allogène.” Journal Asiatique, 227-264. press). 289 (2001), 285-327. Mode, Markus. “Sogdian gods in ex- Grenet, Frantz and Marshak, Boris. “Le 14. Archaeological and textual ile. Some iconographic evidence mythe de Nana dans l’art de la testimonies of Sogdians in China from Khotan in the light of recently Sogdiane.” Arts Asiatiques, 53 excavated material from (1998), 5-18. Sogdiana.” Silk Road Art and Ar- China Archaeology and Art Digest, vol. chaeology, 2, 1991/92, 179-214. la Vaissière, Etienne de & Riboud, IV, number 1: Zoroastrianism in Pénélope, avec note additionnelle China. Beijing, 2000. Riboud, Pénélope. “Le cheval sans de F. Grenet. “Les livres des cavalier dans l’art funéraire sogdien sogdiens.” Studia Iranica, 32, Grenet, Frantz & Guangda, Zhang. “The en Chine: à la recherche des 2003. last refuge of the Sogdian religion: sources d’un thème composite.” Dunhuang in the ninth and tenth Arts Asiatiques, 58 (2003) (in Marshak, B.I. “The historico-cultural centuries.” Bulletin of the Asia In- press). significance of the Sogdian calen- stitute, 10 (1996 [1998]), 175- dar.” Iran, 30 (1992), 145-206. 186. Marshak’s article is now the main ref- erence on the Sogdian funerary reliefs ----. “On the iconography of ossuaries Kageyama, Etsuko. “The ossuaries found in Northern China, as it gives the from Biya-Naiman.” Silk Road Art (bone-receptacles of Zoroastrians) only systematic comparative study of and Archaeology, 4 (1995/96), unearthed in Chinese Turkestan.” the five main graves, together with 299-321. Bulletin of the Society for Near excellent parallels with the art of met- Eastern Studies in Japan (Nippon ropolitan Sogdiana. Marshak, B.I. and Raspopova, V.I. Oriento Gakkai), 40 /1 (1997), 73- “Wall paintings from a house with 89 (in Japanese, with English sum- a granary, Panjikent, 1st quarter mary). 15. Religions of the 8th century.” In Silk Road Art and Archaeology, 1 (1990), Juliano, Annette L. & Lerner, Judith A. a) Local (Sogdian form of Zoroas- 123-176. “Cultural crossroads: Central Asian trianism) and Chinese entertainers on the ----. “Cultes communautaires et Miho funerary couch.” Orientations, Berdimuradov, Amruddin & Samibaev, cultes privés en Sogdiane.” In P. Oct. 1997, 72-78. Masud. “Une nouvelle peinture Bernard & F. Grenet, ed., Histoire murale dans le temple de et cultes de l’Asie centrale ----. “The Miho couch revisited in Dzhartepa II” (avec notes préislamique. Paris: Editions du the light of recent discoveries.” Ori- additionnelles par F. Grenet & B. CNRS, 1991, 187-195, Pl. LXXIII- entations, Oct. 2001, 54-61. Marshak). Studia Iranica, 30 LXXVIII. (2001), 45-66. la Vaissière, Étienne de & Trombert, ----. “Worshippers from the north- Eric. “Des Chinois et des Hu. Mi- Grenet, Frantz. Les pratiques funéraires ern shrine of Temple II, Penjikent.” gration et intégration des Iraniens dans l’Asie centrale sédentaire de Bulletin of the Asia Institute, 8 orientaux en milieu chinois dans le la conquête grecque à l’islamisa- (1994 [1996]), 187-207. haut Moyen Age.” Annales. Histoire tion. Paris: Editions du CNRS, et civilisations (2004) 1984. Sims-Williams, Nicholas. “Mithra the (forthcoming). Baga.” In P. Bernard & F. Grenet, ----. “L’art zoroastrien en Sogdiane. ed., Histoire et cultes de l’Asie Lerner, Judith. “Central Asians in sixth- Etudes d’iconographie funéraire.” centrale préislamique. Paris: Edi- century China: a Zoroastrian Mesopotamia, 21 (1986), 97-131, tions du CNRS, 1991, 177-186. funerary rite.” Iranica Antiqua, 30, figs. 35-48. 1995, 179-190. ----. “Some reflections on Zoroastrian- ----, ed. “Trois nouveaux documents ism in Sogdiana and Bactria.” In Luo Feng. “Sogdians in Northwest d’iconographie religieuse D. Christian & C. Benjamin, ed., China.” In A.L. Juliano & J.A. Lerner, sogdienne.” Studia Iranica, 22 Silk Road Studies, IV: Realms of ed., Monks and merchants. Silk (1993), 49-68, Pls. I-VI (with con the Silk Roads: Ancient and Mod- Road treasures from Northern tributions by K. Abdullaev, N.I. ern. Macquarie University. China. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Krasheninnikova, S.B. Lunina, N.P. Turnhout: Brepols, 2000, 1-12. Inc., with the Asia Society, 2002, Stoljarova). 239-245. Shkoda, V.G. “The Sogdian temple: ----. “Vaishravana in Sogdiana. About structure and rituals.” Bulletin of Marshak, Boris. “La thématique the origins of Bishamon-ten.” Silk the Asia Institute, 10 (1996 sogdienne dans l’art de la Chine de Road Art and Archaeology, 4 [1998]), 195-206. la seconde moitié du VIe siècle.” (1995/96), 277-297.

35 Most of the literature is about indi- d) Manicheism in Sogdiana and in archaeology and history of religions vidual deities, paintings, and objects the Sogdian colonies in Central Asia. His publications in- (the most informative of these being clude Les pratiques funé-raires dans the ossuaries, terracotta receptacles Sundermann, Werner. “Iranian l’Asie centrale sédentaire, de la used for keeping the bones prelimi- Manichaean Turfan texts concern conquête grecque à l’islamisation narily excarnated according to the ing the Turfan region.” In A. (1984), A History of Zoroastrianism, Zoroastrian ritual and sometimes car- Cadonna, ed., Turfan and Tun- vol. III: Zoroastrianism under rying images). A complete repertory huang. The texts. Encounter of civi- Macedonian and Roman Rule (1991) of all known images of Sogdian gods, lizations on the Silk Route. (with Mary Boyce), and numerous im- together with their possible identifi- (Orientalia Venetiana, IV). Firenze: portant articles, many dealing with the cations in the Zoroastrian and/or Leo S. Olschki editore, 1992, 63- Sogdians. He is a Corresponding Mem- Hindu pantheons, is now much in 84. ber of L’Académie des Inscriptions et need. Sims-Williams, “Some reflec- Belles-Lettres. He may be contacted tions...” provides a stimulating ap- (see also Tremblay 2001). at: [email protected]. proach to the specificity of Sogdian (and Bactrian) Zoroastrianism com- pared with the “orthodox,” i.e. Sasa- nian, one. For a criticism of some of Marshak’s views on the Sogdian cal- About the Author endar see de Blois, François, “The Persian calendar,” Iran, 34 (1996), 39- 54, esp. 46-49. Frantz Grenet heads the program in b) Buddhism in Sogdiana Religions of the Ancient Iranian World in the Division of Religious Studies at the École pratique des hautes études/ * Karev, Iu.V. “Statuetka Bodkhisattvy Centre National de la Recherche Avalokiteshvary iz Samarkanda [A Scientifique in Paris. Since 1989 he Statuette of the Bodhisattva has been director of the Mission Avalokiteshvara from Samar- archéologique franco-ouzbèke kand].” Vestnik drevnei istorii, (MAFOUZ) in Samarkand (http:// 1998, 108-117 (with English www.archeo.ens.fr/WEBAFRAS/asie- summary). centrale.html), which is in charge of the ongoing excavations at Afrasiab Marshak, Boris and Raspopova, and other important sites. Dr. Valentina. “Buddha icon from Grenet is one of the most distin- Panjikent.” Silk Road Art and Ar- chaeology, 5 (1997/98), 297-305. guished specialists on the c) Christianity in Sogdiana and in the Sogdian colonies

Klein, Wassilios. Das nestorianische Christentum an den Handelswegen durch Kyrgyzstan bis zum 14. Jh. Turnhout: Brepols, 2000 (Silk Road Studies III).

Sims-Williams, Nicholas. “Christianity: iii. In central Asia and Chinese Turkestan. iv. Christian literature in Middle Iranian languages.” Encyclopaedia Iranica, V/5 (1991), 530-532.

---. “Sogdian and Turkish Christians in the Turfan and Tun-huang manuscripts.” In A. Cadonna, ed., Turfan and Tun-huang. The texts. Encounter of civilizations on the Silk Route (Orientalia Venetiana, IV). Firenze: Leo S. Olschki editore, 1992, 43-61.

Copyright © 2003 Zermaryalai Tarzi The 2003 excavations at Bamiyan against the backdrop of the Northern cliff

36 Bamiyan: Professor Tarzi’s Survey and Excavation Archaeological Mission, 2003

Zemaryalai Tarzi

The Marc Bloch University, Strasbourg

The Bamiyan Valley is one of the sites of the Sui dynasty were also found in a from the Muslim period found during most often referred to in studies re- kind of storage pit. surveys in the ruins of the Ghol-Ghola garding the history and archaeology of city; Bertille Lyonnet and Jean-Claude Central Asia. It figures especially in Following World War II several archaeo- Gardin studied the ceramics collected studies of the expansion of Buddhism, logical studies were undertaken in by Marc Le Berre in the ruins of the thanks to the region’s strategic loca- Bamiyan. The most important ones, Hindukush fortifications. Until the ex- tion between India and China. Bamiyan which provide a clear date for the foun- cavations of 2002-2003, however, no is best known for its two giant stand- dation of Bamiyan and its remains, are one had attempted to study the free- ing Buddha statues, carved into the those by Zemaryalai Tarzi, Takayasu standing Buddhist monuments and re- rock of the great cliff dominating the Hugushi and Deborah Klimburg-Salter. lated monumental architecture. north side of the peaceful valley. One During the 1970s, eager to preserve statue was 55 meters high and the the grottos of this famous valley in the In preparation for this, Zemaryalai Tarzi other 38 meters high. The destruction Hindukush, Afghan scholars were as- had undertaken several survey mis- of these two colossal statues by the sisted by Indian experts from the Ar- sions during his travels to verify the Taliban in 2001 was headline news in chaeological Survey of India. all the international media. The major projects were com- pleted during the 1970s under Ever since the signature of the Ar- the direction and supervision chaeological Convention between the of Directors of Archaeology and French Republic and the Afghan king- Preservation of Historical dom in 1922, French archaeologists Monuments, Chaibai Mosta- have expressed an interest in Bamiyan. mandy and Zemaryalai Tarzi. In his first report on the archaeologi- cal remains of Afghanistan, Alfred A great deal was accomplished Foucher, who had played a major role in these studies. One focus of in drafting the convention, had under- the work was the architecture lined the importance of conducting ar- of the region. Marc Le Berre, chaeological studies in Bamiyan. Some then DAFA architect, studied time later a mission was dispatched the Hindukush fortifications in under the direction of André Godard, the Bamiyan area and its sur- accompanied by Joseph Hackin and roundings. The result of sev- Jean Carl. A second mission followed, eral years of surveying, Pre- this time under the direction of Joseph Islamic Monuments of the Cen- Hackin, accompanied by his wife and tral Hindukush, was published Jean Carl as his architect. The result in 1987 as a posthumous work of their efforts is in volumes 2 (1928) in volume XXIX of the DAFA and 3 (1933) of the Memoirs of the Memoirs. In 1965 Paul Ber- French Archaeological Delegation in nard, who was also DAFA di- Afghanistan (DAFA Memoirs) These rector, studied the Shahr-e two missions studied the colossal stat- Zohak (the Red City), situated ues, their niches’ murals and the ar- to the east of the Bamiyan Val- © chitecture and décor of the grottos in- ley. There he found medical cluding their reliefs and murals. Only manuscripts in Sanskrit dating one excavation was opened in the col- from the fifth century C.E. Tarzi Zermaryalai 2003 Copyright lapsed Grotto G, where, in addition to Other research focused on the The head of a Buddhist divinity excavated very old décor, objects such as Greek- study of ceramics: Jean- at Bamiyan in 2003 Buddhist moldings and wood statues Claude Gardin dated ceramics

37 certitude, although it may be as early as the third century CE. Excavations in 2004 will examine the two-meter ac- cumulation of soil which separates the layer of the initial period from that of the second. The stratigraphic similar- ity between Bamiyan, on one hand, and Tape Tope Kalan of Hadda and Lalma and Tape Sardar of Ghazni on the other, deserves careful study.

Bamiyan’s second period is revealed most clearly around the site of the stupa. There one finds three rooms whose floors were tiled with cut lime- stone or schist. The final fire, probably initiated in the ninth century C.E. by the well-known Saffarid iconoclast, Yaqub b. Layth, left traces by trans- forming the limestone tiles into lime. Ceramic shards with relief from the Copyright © 2003 Zermaryalai Tarzi Copyright © 2003 Zermaryalai Ghaznavid period (late tenth-eleventh Overview of the 2003 excavation at Bamiyan centuries) were collected from around the base of the stupa. And glazed ce- testimony of the famous Chinese pil- depth the floor was not reached. ramics were also collected in an ap- grim Xuanzang, who had visited proximately two-meter thick layer, the Bamiyan in 632. In a conference at Three large sites were opened: Site A, oldest shards being from the Ghurid the Guimet Museum in Paris Prof. Tarzi composed of nine rectangles of 9 x 2.5 period (late twelfth century). reported on his unfinished research and meters, along the north-south eastern expressed confidence in the existence border of the large (100 x 80 meter) Finally during survey A9 Prof. Tarzi’s of the “Eastern” monastery where square M; Site B, to the north, west team made the most remarkable dis- Xuanzang saw a reclining 1000-foot- and south the stupa and also part of covery consisting in a substantial num- long Buddha statue. The “Eastern” the large square M; and Site E opened ber of clay moldings which had fallen monastery is located to the southeast in the large square east of the 100- from the upper parts of a monument of the 38-meter standing Buddha meter side. These three sites provided into a kind of well over an area 9 x 2 statue, somewhere in the lower area data on the geomorphology of the ter- meters square and one meter thick. In of the eastern part of the great cliff rain, cycles of flooding, snow melt, the this heap of fragments and clay stat- and not far from the only Bamiyan agricultural system, the initial estab- ues seven heads or masks of the faces stupa. Now a French citizen, Prof. Tarzi lishment of the Buddhist site and its of Buddhist divinities were excavated was named Director for the French partial recovery during the Ghaznevid with some difficulty due to the moist Survey and Excavation Missions in and Ghurid periods. conditions and compression. This dis- Bamiyan, funded by the French Minis- covery confirms that the excavators try of Foreign Affairs. The work began In the absence of coin discoveries or have discovered the Bamiyan ”Eastern” in 2002 but was unfortunately brought specific ceramic data, at present the monastery visited by Xuanzang where to a halt by General Djawad. initial establishment of the “Eastern” the 1000-foot-long reclining Buddha monastery site cannot be dated with statue may yet be found. In 2003 the team of three Afghans and three French went to Bamiyan to con- tinue the work aborted in the previous year. One goal was better to under- stand the topography of the terrain, which had been substantially altered by cultivated, terraced fields. The ex- cavation was difficult and dangerous because of the fragility of the layers of heterogeneous sediments, which were extremely damp from intensive irriga- tion of potato fields. Thus the surveys were done on a large scale, with the installation of a 5-meter grid. The depth of the excavation was generally about 3.5 meters but in some places as deep as 5.6 meters, such as in sur- Harold Copyright and Franklin © 1971 Ruth vey A9 where, however, even at that The Bamiyan Valley (view to the north)

38 About the Author Klimburg-Salter, D. E. The Kingdom of Bamiyan, Buddhist Art and Culture of Born in 1939 in Kabul, Professor the Hindu Kush. Naples and Rome, Zemaryalai Tarzi completed his stud- 1989. ies under the supervision of Professor Daniel Schlumberger, in the process Kodera M.; K. Maeda, K.; and Miyaji. obtaining three PhDs. Bamiyan. Nagoya, 1971 (in Japanese).

From 1973 to 1979, he was Director Rowland, B. The Wall-Paintings of In- General of Archaeology and Preserva- dia, Central Asia and Ceylon. Boston, tion of Historical Monuments of Af- 1938. ghanistan. He later directed the exca- vations in Bamiyan and Hadda on the Tarzi, Z. L’architecture et le décor sites of Tape Shotor and Tape Tope rupestre des grottes de Bamiyan, 2 Kalan. Exiled to France in 1979, he vols. Paris, 1977. assumed the post of Professor of East- ern Archaeology at the Marc Bloch Uni- versity of Strasbourg, France. He is currently Director for the French Ar- chaeological Missions for the Surveys and Excavations of Bamiyan. Prof. Tarzi is the author of some sixty articles and books, he is also President for the Association for the Protection of Afghan Archaeology, Inc. based in San Rafael California.

For more information please contact [email protected] and/or visit www. apaa.info.

References

Foucher, A. “Rapport A. Foucher.” Jour- nal Asiatique, April-Jeune, 1923, 354- 68 (a letter adressed to E. Senart about the Antiquities of Bamiyan).

Foucher, A. La vieille route de l’Inde de Bactres à Taxila, 2 vols. Paris, 1942- 47 (MDAFA 1)

Godard, A.; Godard, Y.; Hackin, J. Les antiquités bouddhiques de Bamiyan. Paris and Brussels, 1928 (MDAFA 2).

Hackin, J. and Carl, J. Nouvelles recherches archéologiques à Bamiyan, Paris, 1933 (MDAFA 3).

Hackin, J.; Carl J. ; Meunie, J. Diverses recherches archéologiques en Afghani- stan (1933-1940). Paris, 1959 (MDAFA 8).

Hichuchi, T. Bamiyan: Art and Archaeo- © logical Research in the Buddhist Cave Temple in Afghanistan 1970-1978. Kyoto, 1983 (in Japanese). Harold Copyright and Franklin 1971 Ruth The 55-meter high standing Buddha at Bamiyan

39 ‘Knowing the Road That Leads You Home’: Family, Genealogy, and Migration in Post-Socialist Kazakhstan1

Saulesh Yessenova

University of British Columbia, Vancouver

In 1990, soon after the beginning of lectuals, as well as distinguished citi- Bekarys - one of the three sons “perestroika” (restructuring) in the zens of the time when the shezhyre of Alash, the ancestor of all former USSR and the rise of open pub- was written. The shezhyre contains Kazakhs. Meiram had four sons: lic discontent with the Soviet regime pedigree, details on kinship relations Kuandyk, Suyundyk, Bugendyk, and its colonial practices in non-Rus- between tribes and lineages, myths of and Shugendyk. [...] My family sian republics, the Kazakh shezhyre - origins, and tribal demographics. comes from Suyundyk. He had a genealogy register of all Kazakh tribes Densely filled with detail, the shezhyre four sons as well. and lineages - was published for the is hard to read, especially for readers first time since the establishment of the unaccustomed to historical chronicles. Akimbek-aga turned to the next page, communist regime in Kazakhstan.2 In the summer of 1999, in the midst of and, using his finger to guide him Two versions of the shezhyre, similar my fieldwork, I was pleased to meet through the text, continued: “The to each other, compiled by Kazakh his- Akimbek-aga, a retired professor from names of his sons are Toshkarak, torians in the first decade of the 20th an Almaty Veterinary School in his late Orazgeldy, Sygenshy and Karzhas. century, were published in 1990.3 They sixties.4 He has been known among Manshyk and Mamyk (they all are came out in Almaty in both languages, his family members and friends as a Orazgeldy’s sons); my direct ancestors Kazakh and Russian, and not long af- person with a keen interest in shezhyre, go from Mamuk...” As he reached more ter that, multiple shezhyre charts - and they kindly referred me to him. recent ancestry, Akimbek-aga fre- schematic descriptions of genealogical quently elaborated on the contents of structures drawn from these registers- Akimbek-aga showed me his neat col- the book, which would set him off on became publicly available as well, dis- lection of books, brochures, and manu- tangents, telling stories and legends tributed in Almaty and other cities in scripts, containing biographies and ge- concerning his lineage, and then re- Kazakhstan through bookstores and nealogy records that he kept in his turning again to the book itself. After newspaper kiosks. I recall experienc- Almaty apartment. He reached for the he was through his genealogy, ing a somewhat surprised and euphoric shelf and pulled out a book in a solid Akimbek-aga posed a question, relat- feeling when I first saw a shezhyre dis- black cover, which he seemed to have ing it to my initial inquiry, that is, what played in one of the Almaty kiosks. The prepared for our meeting. It was a I, as a Kazakh woman, should look for shezhyre, it had seemed to me, was a shezhyre of the Argyn, including bio- in shezhyre. “If somebody asked you, testimony that was guarded from graphic data on a great succession of Kandi Kazaksyng” [“which kind of people by public officials, hidden for men, as well as some women, associ- Kazakh are you?”], what would you decades in closed stacks with limited ated with this large Kazakh tribe in the say?” After a short pause that he made access in the National Library or other Orta zhuz. Akimbek-aga explained to make sure that I was listening, he restricted archives among other histori- that this shezhyre was of particular im- said: cal records. Disclosing such documents, portance to him because it was his it seemed to me, was an act confirm- grandfather who compiled it before he The answer is in your ances- ing an ideological change, and a move- died in the early 1950s. His cousin, a try. You should recount as ment toward the rediscovery of the his- retired historian from The Kazakh Acad- many as seven generations - torical dignity of the Kazakh people. emy of Sciences in Almaty, finalized the zhety ata - of your ances- manuscript and published it in 1996. tors.5 You start with your Each of the two shezhyre versions is a Akimbek-aga turned the first pages of father’s name then you note hundred-page genealogical account of the book and immediately located the your grandfather’s name, the Kazakh historic tribes, which fo- most distant ancestors of his lineage: and then the names of all cuses on the lineages that gave birth other ancestors that you to Kazakh historical figures, political My shezhyre starts with know. This is how you let leaders, warriors, thinkers, and intel- Meiram. He comes from people know about yourself,

40 your ru [lineage]; you pay We don’t have rela- respect to your ances try this tives in the village.7 way and show appreciation of your Kazakh origin shared by all Young and middle-aged vil- [Kazakhs]. lagers who have moved to Almty are quite similar in The tradition of shezhyre originated this regard to their urban among Kazakh pastoralists to specify counterparts; in the city, kinship links and ancestral paths in a the shezhyre survives with single systematic manner. The the new senior enthusiasts shezhyre served the purpose of social like Akimbek-aga and his structuring and lineage segmentation; cousin who try to preserve thus, it was the major principle regu- it as body of knowledge lating community affairs and legal dis- that relates histories of dis- putes. Moreover, as a powerful dis- persed Kazakh lineages to cursive representation, it embodied the the national past. lore that surrounded every social event. More recently, the shezhyre has be- Despite the relative lack of come a topic often discussed within interest in the structure of communities of rural elders who hold Kazakh tribes and lineages it as a cultural medium through which that we find in Kazakh so- they express their values, construct ciety, in general the and communicate their perceptions of shezhyre is commonly ac- social organization, and maintain local knowledged as an unusu- politics. Younger generations of Kazakh ally respectful cultural tra- villagers, however, do not seem to be dition and a powerful testi- concerned with community activities mony to Kazakh identity. I requiring expertise in the shezhyre. was not surprised then to © Most of my informants, especially those hear from a young Kazakh with living parents, when I asked them man, who had his zhety ata whether they knew who were their lin- (names of seven genera- Jones Bob 2003 Copyright eage ancestors, excused themselves by tions of his ancestors) dis- Yurt on an alpine meadow in the eastern Tianshan referring me to their parents’ records: played as if it were a fam- ily photograph in his office I do not know much about my at an international organization in [Cohen 1979, p. 102], and, therefore, genealogy, but my mother Almaty, that “any Kazakh person, who tailored to specific situations. From this should have our pedigree chart..., has at least some degree of self-re- standpoint, relative lack of interest in spect, should preserve the knowledge shezhyre among younger Kazakhs does or of his lineage ancestors.” Such com- not preclude their responding to its mitment to seeing the shezhyre as an appeal once they reach an older age I am Argyn... Well, my father ultimate source of moral rigor and iden- when the shezhyre can serve them as told me the names in our ru... I tity prompted me to think of it as a a source of their authority in commu- just cannot remember... I was “dominant symbol” among Kazakhs, nity affairs and help to handle the life about forty when my father which, similarly to the mudyi (milk) tree crisis situation that occurs when some- wanted to talk to me, his analyzed by Turner “refers to values one becomes part of the shezhyre at a oldest daughter [child], about that are regarded as ends in them- lineage cemetery. Furthermore, the our ru for the first time.....6 selves” [1967, pp. 19-47]. This major meanings of the shezhyre and its rel- characteristic of such a symbol, accord- evance to society’s needs and tastes A young Kazakh woman, a university ing to Turner, lays the basis for its shift across broader social and tempo- student in Almaty and one of those with multivocality - the complexity of mean- ral realms. The intensity with which it more consistent shezhyre knowledge, ing that indigenous actors, specialists draws boundaries between genealogi- commented: and ordinary participants of the given cally defined communities and rein- cultural practice invest in it, and upon forces community solidarity, provides We are all Naymans in our which anthropologists, who are as well a meaningful frame for linking fami- village. Nayman is a very large involved in production of meaning in lies, generations, and communities; tribe that has many ru. I can’t the culture they study, build up their creates points of attachment to ances- remember the ru that occurs in interpretations and analyses [ibid.]. tral land, bridges rural and urban seg- our village... I’m Kozhambet as Following the perspective advanced in ments of the society; and supports of the seventh generation, and symbolic anthropology, the meaning(s) other cultural practices, such as lineage my baska ru [minimal lineage] of a “dominant” symbol is “associated segmentation, exogamy code, and pa- is Dortoul. We are the only with human interests, purposes, ends, triarchy, which depend on the histori- Dortoul family in the village.... and means” [ibid., p. 20], “satisfying cal context in which the shezhyre is both existential and political ends” conveyed.

41 This contingency of cultural forms and ciety form a “mirror image” of the or- cious summer kitchen in the yard that their role in creating “the unity in ex- dering principles suggested in the her husband built for her this year. A perience” [Douglas 1966, p. 2] has shezhyre. Had they done so or had few days ago, she returned to their been overlooked in research seeking Kazakh society generated what small indoor kitchen, separated from a causal-functional explanations of Khazanov [1995, p. 125] calls “pure living room by an improvised curtain. Kazakh identity. It has been argued forms of tribalism” based on genealogi- Every time when she had to reach for that the tradition of shezhyre emerged cal divisions, then (speaking in terms something, trying to avoid corners of within the Kazakh pastoral system as of my own research) we should expect compactly arranged cupboards, appli- “a way of thinking, a way of interpret- to see native place associations formed ances, and boxes, she complained ing ongoing processes through the by migrants (a common phenomenon about the inconvenience of the size of prism of the genealogy of the individual in other developing countries) on the her indoor kitchen. or group” [Masanov 2002, p. 1], and, basis of their regions of origin. Yet, after sedentarization of Kazakh nomads through extensive interviews carried In the living room, Ultugan-apa,9 in the 1930s, formed a “natural” con- out with recent Kazakh migrants who Madina’s mother-in-law, played with stituency in their ethos as a nation came to Almaty from different regions her granddaughter while trying to keep [Masanov 2000; Karin and Chebotarev of Kazakhstan during my fieldwork in an eye on the TV. At one moment, she 2000]. Statements in which authors 1999, I found none. asked the girl: “Men saghan kimmin?” assert that genealogical thinking was [“Who am I?”]. “Siz menin ejemsiz” transplanted unchanged from the past In this essay, I explore the shezhyre in [“You’re my grandmother”], the girl into the Kazakh present-day culture respect to its meaning in the context replied, giving Ultugan-apa a big smile. and social reality have followed this of rural to urban migration to post-so- Their relaxed interaction was inter- fairly consistent argument. For ex- cialist Almaty. Special attention is paid rupted when the other child, an older, ample, Khazanov believes that for a to how the idea of ancestral and family energetic boy about to turn five, de- Kazakh “his parochial, regional, and/ ties, a Kazakh cultural repertoire that cided to run to the kitchen demanding or kin-based tribal and clanal affilia- places much emphasis on moral rigor, his mother’s attention. Ultugan-apa tions still have significant meaning and community spirit and solidarity, and wanted the boy to come back so he play an important role in his loyalties” family/kin group obligations, is involved would not distract his mother from [1995, pp. 124-125]. In his research, in Kazakh migrants’ lives. I intend to cooking. Trying to manage the two the shezhyre has figured as a “burden” expand on this theme by drawing on children at the same time, she pointed of the pre-colonial past that has a par- an ethnographic case study. This study her finger at the boy while asking the ticularly strong impact on rural soci- recounts a series of episodes from a girl: “Myna bala kim bolady saghan?” ety: history of a couple of recent Kazakh [“Who is this boy?”]. “Arsen,” she said migrants, Madina and Zhanbolat (her moving towards her brother. Ignoring Kazakhs who migrated from husband), who arrived in Almaty a few his sister, the boy ran to a window in their lands to other parts of years ago from a rural area bordering the living room, trying to see if his ekeji the country, particularly those with Uzbekistan in southern Kazakh- [father], was coming home from work. who settled in the multiethnic stan. Following Mary Douglas’ analy- “Arsen mening agham....” [“Arsen is my districts of Northern Kazakh- sis of religious symbolism, I argue that, older brother”], the girl added. “Have stan, at present understand in the given context, the shezhyre is a you heard what she just said?” Ultugan- the clan structure less well creative movement aimed at reducing apa asked the boy, now afraid that he than those who continue to live anxiety on the part of older generation would get hurt if the window suddenly in their traditional territories. of villagers who use genealogical opened. He did not respond; instead, However, in the purely Kazakh knowledge in an attempt to restore a he ran across the living room to the districts even the children are “unity of experience” within their fami- television and increased the volume. well aware of their clanal affilia- lies and communities that was dis- “Hey, Arsen!” his grandmother could tions. [ibid., p.125] rupted, from a rural point of view, by not resist yelling at him. Not quite outmigration to the city. scared, the boy nevertheless decided The problem with this approach is that, to seek sanctuary with his mother, ask- by following conventional wisdom of It was a lovely autumn evening in mid- ing her for a treat immediately as he functional analysis, it fails to recognize October 1999. The weather was fairly reached for her skirt. She objected to that the shezhyre may only seem to warm, although after sunset the air was his request, arguing that dinner was represent some sort of “a long estab- infused with chills indicating that sum- coming soon. He firmly held his lished pattern of values,” which in turn mer was gone. Madina was preparing mother’s skirt and kept insisting when “implies a rigid mental outlook or rigid dinner for her family, her husband and the door opened and his father entered social institutions,” as Mary Douglas their two children, and her mother-in- the living room. [1966, pp. 4-5] insisted in her critique law, who was visiting them in Almaty. of a materialist treatment of religion. She had already diced meat and veg- As he heard him coming, the boy re- In fact, the shezhyre is a symbolic form etables in small cubes and was mak- leased his mother’s skirt and immedi- that communicates a more general ing pasta, vigorously manipulating the ately ran towards him. Zhanbolat, his view of the social order.8 For this rea- dough which came out of her wooden father, lifted his son over his head: son, we cannot simply assume that rolling pin as a large sheet, thin as pa- “How are you, Arsen?” He let the boy social/ethnic processes in Kazakh so- per. In the summer Madina used a spa- down on the floor, and, at the same

42 moment, Ultugan-apa gently presented is Sapar, my father is Zhanbolat, and time, both his sisters were married, liv- the girl to him since she was going to my name is Arsen!]” When the boy ing with their husbands in neighboring seclude herself in their bedroom to do finished, his grandmother and his fa- villages, and so was his brother who Namaz (a Muslim evening prayer). ther, who had just come back from the stayed with his wife and children in a Madina came out of the kitchen to greet yard where he had a cigarette, ap- house that their father built for his fam- her husband too. Briefly hugging him, plauded him, praising his talents, which ily in Zhan Tobe. Zhanbolat and Madina she announced that the dinner was al- made him feel shy. Arsen hid behind met while she was visiting her distant most ready. As everyone sat at the his mother’s skirt when she entered the cousin in his village. They were both table, Ultugan-apa took the little girl room holding a plastic bag with can- twenty-one at that time, and, when from her kelin’s [daughter-in-law’s] lap, dies. She offered him a candy but he Zhanbolat’s parents became aware of placing her on her own. Madina mildly refused, expecting a gum. “What’s so his interest in her, they encouraged him objected but her mother-in-law [ene] good about gum? Candy is better!” she to marry, driven by the desire to see insisted, as she wanted Madina to en- tried to tease her son. “You can swal- their youngest son settled down joy her meal while she would feed the low the gum... Anybody want a candy? (Zhanbolat was a late child; he was girl. After dinner, noticing that Madina ...Apa [mother], would you like a born in 1971 when his mother was was about to put some leftover food in candy? ... Tea is going to be ready in a forty-one years old). They married in the garbage, the older woman com- minute.” Madina then turned to her the summer of 1992 and stayed with mented that it was sinful to waste food. son: “All right, let me get you a gum if Zhanbolat at his parents’ house where Madina seemed to have appreciated the you want it so much.” they had their first baby boy. comment, as she agreed that throw- ing food away was a bad urban habit Madina’s family comes from the By the time of their marriage, which that she did not intend to acquire. The Dzhetysay village, formerly a sovkhoz coincided with the collapse of the So- manner in which the two women inter- [state farm] center in southern viet economy, life in Zhan Tobe had acted displayed nothing but concern, Kazakhstan near Shymkent, the larg- become more difficult. Zhanbolat and mutual respect, and warm feelings. est town in the region. This village was his parents maintained a tobacco field re-built during the Soviet period on the like many other families in the village. Madina came out of the kitchen carry- basis of an old Kazakh settlement. Zhanbolat marketed their harvest in ing a food plate. She was going to see Vineyards have become its major ag- rural Russia where people liked to roll Zoya Il’inishna, an elderly Russian ricultural business, serving as the ba- tobacco leaves into cigarettes. In or- woman in her eighties, with whom they sis for a newly constructed winemaking der to increase their income, his par- shared the house. Madina did not re- factory. Road maintenance, transpor- ents involved everyone in the family in call seeing their landlady on that day tation, and garage services were part working the field, including Madina, and wanted to make sure that she was of the village infrastructure in the who had to leave her baby with her all right. She was well, Madina gladly 1970s, along with a clinic and a pro- husband’s young cousins. One day in reported when she returned; she sim- fessional school. Madina’s father was August 1993, a fourteen-year-old girl ply decided to stay inside, trying to a car mechanic, and her mother worked was looking after the baby. Having adjust to the colder weather. As soon at a local clinic as an accountant. trouble pacifying the baby, she gave as his mother was back, Arsen followed Madina was a middle child, having a him a small piece of cucumber, assum- her to the kitchen, asking for chewing younger brother and an older sister, ing that it was an appropriate food for gum, but she told him to wait and his Enzhu, who went to study nursing in him. The baby swallowed the cucum- grandmother shepherded the boy to Shymkent after she finished school. ber, which made him terribly sick, but the living room. Enzhu married in Shymkent, and she the girl was afraid to tell anyone about and her husband relocated to Almaty what she had done, hoping that it would “Tell me [the names of] your ‘seven where her husband was hired at a con- pass. Late at night, they rushed to see fathers’ [zhety ata],” Ultugan-apa struction firm at the invitation of his a village doctor, who refused to see the asked the boy who was not pleased ex-classmate who had arrived there baby at that hour. They drove to the with his mother, “and you will get the earlier. Zhanbolat, Madina’s husband, hospital in the district center, which thing.” The boy climbed up the chair was born in Zhan Tobe, a smaller vil- took another three hours, but it was and, standing still on it, started re- lage populated by less than a hundred too late to help their baby. counting his genealogy, which was families in southern Kazakhstan. It is quite a performance: “Mening zheti located near a district center named Madina and Zhanbolat were devas- atam [my ‘seven fathers’ are]...” He after a Kazakh poet, Abay, which is the tated. Enzhu, Madina’s older sister paused, trying to focus, and proceeded: largest settlement in the area. immediately came to the village when “Mening dey atam [my ‘big fathers’ are] Zhanbolat was the fourth child in the she received the terrible news about Amangeldy, Zholdybay, ... hmm... family of his parents born after their her little sister’s baby, and so did their Orazgeldy, Orynbasar...” The boy two daughters and one son. Both his parents, who came to support their spoke seriously and loudly, exclaiming parents worked in the cotton industry, daughter as well. Surrounded by her each word. His grandmother nodded which was a major branch of their vil- family, Madina secretly shared her in approval with every name, encour- lage economy. When Zhanbolat re- thoughts: she blamed her in-laws who aging the boy to continue. “Mening turned from military service in 1990, wanted her to work in the field. Had atam Sapar, mening eken Zhanbolat, he replaced his father by taking up his she looked after her baby herself, he Arsen mening aghan! [My grandfather job as a water-truck operator. By that would have been alive. Agreeing with

43 Madina, Enzhu wanted to help her sis- stay in Almaty, blaming Madina, who In 1995, their group disintegrated af- ter to recover from her grief and in- they thought had convinced their son ter getting into serious trouble with vited her to Almaty. Zhanbolat was to stay away from home against his some bazaar crooks. Zhanbolat hung not aware of the discussion; however, will. When Zhanbolat telephoned around the bazaar for another year, he hoped that his wife’s visit to Almaty home, his mother tried to interfere, doing different jobs here and there that would do her good. The only person arguing that he let his wife have the gave him some income and much less who was not happy about this decision upper hand. Zhanbolat had a good time moral satisfaction. He was still deter- was Ultugan-apa, Zhanbolat’s mother. in Almaty, meeting new people and mined to become a commersant again. She was not sure about her daughter- making friends, but he preferred not As he said in 1999: “commerce was in-law separating from her husband to argue with his mother and tried to the only thing that I wanted to do.” In and his family and told her husband ignore what she said. In the early 1997, while Madina was expecting an- and her son. Zhanbolat could not join spring of 1994, he thought that they other baby, Zhanbolat had to abandon his wife at that moment, as he wanted would return to the village, when his plans and decided to find a job else- to join a team of his village fellows Madina announced that she was preg- where. Short of money, they wanted going to a marketplace in Russia. In nant. This news provoked Zhanbolat to find an apartment with a lower rent. this critical situation, Madina’s parents to abandon his idea of going back intervened, insisting that Madina home: they had lost one baby there, Madina insisted that Zhanbolat should needed this trip to the city. When and he could not let it happen again. talk about a job with his bazha who Zhanbolat came back from Russia, Arsen was born in Almaty in Novem- had promised her that he would hire Madina was still in Almaty. He was sad ber 1994, which was almost a year af- her husband. To her disappointment, about the loss of their baby, for which ter Zhanbolat came to the bazaar. He Zhanbolat refused, trying to find his he blamed the local doctor and the appreciated his job; however, by that own way in the city. He believed that entire healthcare system that he felt time, he became aware of the risks his bazha did not care about them and had let it happen. Later, Zhanbolat ad- associated with the bazaar: his promises were empty. One day, mitted that he increasingly “hated ev- Zhanbolat’s friend referred him to a erything about life in the village.” Not Work at the bazaar gave me coal distribution company in Almaty, long after he returned from Russia, he good money, but it was a dan- which was hiring truck drivers. He fi- went to Almaty in November 1993. His gerous place. As sellers, we had nally had a job. Every morning, parents believed that he wanted to to maneuver between police- Zhanbolat had to load his truck with a bring his wife home. However, he in- men and groups of crooks portion of coal (two to three tons), de- tended to join her, planning to spend [raketchikov]. Each group, liver it to a customer and promptly the winter in the city. trying to squeeze cash from us, come back to the station for another insisted that they would “pro- portion. In December 1998, his job While Zhanbolat searched for work, tect” us from other groups. took him to a small neighborhood be- they stayed with Enzhu and her fam- We simply could not afford hind the Kazakh Drama Theatre com- ily. Madina suggested that Zhanbolat their “protection,” as there were prised of individual dwellings. As he talk to her sister’s husband, but her too many groups. found his customer’s house, Zhanbolat husband seemed to be unexcited about impatiently signaled with the horn. He a construction business in which his Zhanbolat was also confused about why was about to leave, assuming that no- bazha was involved. He met his friend there was not much solidarity among body was home, when he saw an eld- from the military, a young Kazakh man Kazakhs in Almaty and believed that it erly Russian woman appear on the from the country who worked at a ba- was disgraceful for Kazakhs to oppose porch. Zhanbolat was going to dump zaar and invited Zhanbolat to join their each other. He commented: his load right on the street, as he was group of sellers. Zhanbolat had suit- supposed to, when the woman asked able skills that he had gained at a Rus- You know, one thing I could him kindly to unload it in the yard. sian marketplace, which helped, but, never understand: when I Zhanbolat reluctantly agreed. in contrast to his previous experience was in the army (I served in retail as an agricultural retailer, in in Minsk [Byelorussia]), Zhanbolat thought about this woman Almaty, Zhanbolat felt like a there were quite a few on the way back to the station, won- commersant. They marketed textile Kazakh guys, and we always dering about her family and children and wool products imported from In- stayed together. If one of and why she had no one to help her. dia supplied by an urban relative. His us was in trouble, we all mo- He remembered other elderly women, job at the bazaar, Zhanbolat thought, bilized. [The situation] in mostly Russian he thought, whom he was much better than the one that his Almaty is different. For ex- saw sitting at sidewalks selling news- bazha could help him with at the con- ample, at the bazaar, papers and tobacco or begging for cash. struction firm. Soon, Zhanbolat and Kazakh guys confront each Zhanbolat decided that this happens Madina rented an apartment in Almaty other arguing about money. because it is normal for Russians to and obtained residence permits. This does not make Kazakhs abandon their elderly parents, as op- look good in front of Russ- posed to Kazakhs who have more con- In the meantime, Zhanbolat’s parents ians who, perhaps, think cern about their parents. Zhanbolat expected them to return to the village. that Kazakhs are like that, had an image of his own mother whom They were upset about their prolonged [i.e.,] have no unity. he had left in the village. This was not

44 right, he thought, and suddenly felt commerce but I was thinking to the hostess for a refill. In other parts guilty. He also felt angry with his wife, only about myself. I did not of Kazakhstan, and especially in urban realizing she was responsible for their think of my family, all I wanted areas, it is different; so I asked Madina decision to settle down in the city. He was to be successful and if she could pour more tea in my cup, blamed himself for not listening to his have cash. It was selfish, as I in this way exposing my non-southern mother, who now seemed right in ask- did not think about my family origin to Ultugan-apa, whom I saw for ing him to return home. Angry and and my children. They needed the first time that day. She asked me confused, Zhanbolat decided to go for me to be more caring and sup- whether I was from Almaty or else- a drink with his friends. He also de- portive. where, and about my parents, their cided not to inform his wife that the names and origins. The conversation elderly Russian woman, to whom he They went to see Zoya Il’inishna, the gradually moved to their own family brought the coal, was looking for ten- elderly woman who was looking for ten- affairs. Ultugan-apa had arrived in ants in exchange for a little cash and ants, and soon after they moved into Almaty about three weeks ago. In the household help. They did not need a her house. Zhanbolat fixed the roof village, she had not been feeling well new apartment, he thought, as he in- and the gate. This was an old house and Zhanbolat wanted her to visit a tended to go back to the village with with a yard and a garden. It was built cardiologist in Almaty, which, accord- his family. before centralized heating and a sewer ing to Madina, was the major purpose system were established in Almaty and of her visit. Ultugan-apa, however, said That night, because it was not the first it had no access to any of these that she had come to observe an an- time that Zhanbolat returned home in infrastructural advantages. Madina cient Kazakh tradition, which is to wel- a drunken state, Madina was more up- looked after their landlady when she come the spirits of their ancestors set with her husband than usual. She was sick and tried to make sure that it [eruaktar]11 to their new home, men- refused to serve him dinner and raised was warm in her rooms and that she tioning a doctor’s appointment only in her voice when he protested against had food. Appreciating her tenants’ passing. The cardiologist gave her a such treatment. Zhanbolat barked that concern and their kind contribution to prescription, suggesting that she Madina had transformed into one of the household, the woman stopped should make another appointment af- those Russian women who have no re- charging them rent. ter she finished the treatment. But spect for their husbands. She dis- Ultugan-apa said that she could not agreed, yelling that it was him, instead, Eventually, Madina found a job at a stay away from home for that long. Her who had become Russian--”Look at restaurant specializing in Kazakh tra- older son and his wife looked after the your drunk face! What kind of a Kazakh ditional cuisine. She joined a team of garden and the livestock that they are you when you drink vodka every women making traditional Kazakh shared, but she believed that they night!” Angry and frustrated, refusing pasta. Zhanbolat used to come by the needed her back soon. A major rea- to accept his situation with alcohol, restaurant when she finished work at son why she intended to leave for the Zhanbolat hit Madina across the face. midnight. One night he was waiting village, however, was her oldest Outraged with her husband’s violent for her when he saw an older Uzbek daughter’s son’s circumcision ritual to behavior, Madina left their home and man who had come to see someone as be followed by a party [sundet toi] to headed to her sister’s house. Over- well and asked Zhanbolat for a ciga- which she was invited. whelmed with what had happened, she rette. The Uzbek man recognized a did not notice the freezing cold weather southern accent in Zhanbolat’s speech, Her oldest daughter and family, includ- on that winter night. The next day her and they engaged in a conversation. ing her husband and their three chil- daughter had a severe fever. The poor This man was a self-employed chef, dren, lived in a village fifty kilometers girl was diagnosed with pneumonia and specializing in palau10 that he cooked from Zhan Tobe. Her husband’s father the doctors suggested she should stay outdoors in a large iron cauldron was a sovkhoz director under social- in the hospital with her mother. After [kazan]. People invited him for funeral ism. These days he was retired but a few days, Madina’s zhizde, as she luncheons, picnics and parties at their still actively engaged in local politics called her older sister’s husband, went out-of-town cottages. He had a siz- and had organized a peasant co-op spe- to see his bazha. Zhanbolat was drunk. able clientele among Almaty residents, cialized in raising tobacco in which his The news about his daughter’s illness including Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and Rus- sons were involved as well. Their family helped Zhanbolat to sober up. He re- sian families. He planned to buy a car was well-to-do: they had sponsored the membered how their first baby died and and was looking for a partner. A few construction of a house for a young was afraid that the same thing could days later, they finalized the deal. couple when they married, purchased happen to his daughter. Zhanbolat took Zhanbolat and Madina finally acquired some furniture, and, recently, their son it as a wake-up call and reconsidered some degree of stability and, by the had purchased an imported car that he his approach to his family: time I met them in 1999, they had was going to drive to bring his mother- managed to rebuild their lives in the in-law to the party. The mother-in-law They need me. And for me, city. was somewhat jealous of their family. my life has no meaning without Because their father was well and able my family. I just did not Madina served tea, pouring just a tiny to provide his sons with jobs, they all realize what my family means bit in rounded Kazakh cups [kese], stayed close to their parents’ house- to me. I was unhappy because which was the manner in southern hold. One of her sons went to Almaty I could not find the right job for Kazakhstan. One could empty the cup to try his fortune; the other was at myself. I wanted to work in in one sip, after which it was returned home, but he was not ready to assume

45 the responsibility over the household By using such a poetic thought ren- rural family members in response to the way her husband had done. dering genealogy as a metaphorical their anxiety caused by outmigration. Ultugan-apa did not object to the fact connection with home, Ultugan-apa has that Zhanbolat and his wife decided to expressed her concern about the unity In her classic study of religious rituals stay in Almaty: and identity of her family in a way that and rules of avoidance, Mary Douglas eloquently explains her motivation to [1966, p. 3] demonstrates that some Schooling and hospitals are teach her grandson about his “seven pollution ideas express “a general view better here, they say, and they fathers.” To sum up on a broader note, of the social order” through their rela- have jobs. Nowadays nobody this case study supports my earlier ar- tion to social life. “In chasing dirt..., wants to work in the [agricul- gument that by emphasizing one’s re- decorating,” she argues, “we are not tural] field. Only my little lation to his or her ancestry, the governed by anxiety to escape disease, daughter still works in the shezhyre provided a meaningful frame but are positively re-ordering our en- cotton field for such little for linking individuals, families, and vironment, making it to conform to an money, eh poor her... But she generations. As in the case of my other idea” [ibid., p. 29]. This idea (or ideas) has no choice because her informants whose stories I discussed is grounded in concrete cultural norms, husband is an alcoholic and elsewhere [Yessenova 2003], this eld- the observance of which supports ex- they have two children whom erly woman tried to shape her pectations of integrity among members she has to feed. grandson’s awareness of his ancestry. of given community. Therefore, as In all situations, the flow of knowledge, Douglas insists, “our pollution behav- She no longer tried to convince her son the names of lineage ancestors and the ior is the reaction which condemns any that he and his family should return to stories and legends describing their object or idea,” emerging in a commu- the village. Instead, she chose a dif- lives and virtues, indicates cultural nity as a result of external pressures ferent strategy that she thought would transmission across generations. and is “likely to confuse or contradict help her grandchildren who would grow Thus, by playing an important role in cherished classifications” [ibid., p.36]. up in the city to assert their link to their raising grandchildren, Kazakh grand- Quite similarly, in my view, Kazakh ru- native village and the rest of the fam- parents provide their offspring with a ral families employ the idea of com- ily despite their being physically dis- sense of generational continuity and mon ancestry in dealing with their anxi- tanced: shape their sense of the past.12 This ety caused by the outmigration of their situation clearly resonates with ac- members. Genealogical knowledge in My husband did not pay atten- counts originating in different cultural this case is a “metaphor of holiness” tion to whether his sons knew settings [Epstein 1981; Paerregaard [ibid, p.54] that by reinforcing group their [ancestral] roots or not. 1997; Ferguson 1999] in which grand- boundaries expected to sustain conti- He has his zhety ata [seven parents become important attachment nuity across the rural/urban divide fathers’ names] on a paper that figures, acting in one way or another plays out in the same way as the di- his father wrote before he died. as major mediators across “an un- etary rules and rules of avoidance in I kept it in a safe place, as I bridgeable divide springing up between other societies. knew that it would be needed rural and urban kin” [Epstein 1981, p. some day. I want my grand- 292]. children to learn it by heart, especially Zhanbolat’s children, My informants who arrived in Almaty because they moved out of our from rural areas in the wake of post- village where everyone knows socialism commonly acknowledged the About the Author each other. shezhyre as an important aspect of Kazakh culture. At the same time, their Saulesh Yessenova received her Ph.D. I want them to know their roots, testimonies also revealed the shallow- in Anthropology from McGill University in which case people here would ness of their genealogical knowledge, in 2003. Currently, she is a post-doc- know that they are not [kandyr- the fact of which did not seem to bother toral fellow in the Department of An- ghan duana - i.e., a person with any of them. The present case study, thropology and Sociology at the Uni- no roots like the dry tumble- unfolding a dialogue between younger versity of British Columbia. Her re- weed] but have ancestry as all migrants and older members of their search focuses on Central Asia where, good Kazakhs. Here in Almaty, families across the rural/urban divide, over the past years, she carried her there are all kinds of people and suggests that my other informants’ re- fieldwork as a doctoral student and as things to do, and therefore it is sponses have not reflected all the pro- a fellow at the Center for the Study of easy to forget where you come cesses associated with their migration, Nationalism, Prague, and the Univer- from. I have been afraid that especially those emerging at the rural sity of Wisconsin’s Global Collabora- once my son and his wife moved end. It is there, more specifically, tive Research Program. Now she is here, they and their children within the space created through the preparing for a new field trip to would forget their way home. flow of discourse between migrants’ old Kazakhstan’s Caspian region where This is why I want my grand- and new homes, where thoughts and she works with local communities of children to know their roots. anticipations of attachment are gener- herders. She may be reached on e- To know who your ancestors are ated. These projects that may or may mail at: [email protected]. is the same as knowing the road not have an immediate impact on those that leads you home. who left for the city are initiated by

46 References Rodoslovnaia tiurkov, kirgizov, Notes kazakhov i khanskikh dinastii. Almaty, Cohen 1979 izdatel’stvo Zhaushi. Reprint of 1911 1. I am thankful for suggestions from Abner Cohen. “Political Symbolism.” ed.) Robbyn Seller (McGill University) and Annual Review of Anthropology, 8 for useful comments on earlier drafts (1979), 87-113. Masanov 2000 of this essay, the ethnographic mate- Nurbulat Masanov. “Perceptions of Eth- rial for which was collected as part of my doctoral research. The twelve- Douglas 1966 nic and All-National identity in Kazakhstan.” In Natsuko Oka, ed., The months of fieldwork (1999) for this re- Mary Douglas. Purity and Danger. Lon- search was supported by grants from don: Routledge, 1966. Nationalities Question in Post-Soviet Kazakhstan. Chiba: Institute of Devel- the Research Support Scheme of the oping Economies, 2000 (Middle East Open Society Support Foundation Epstein 1981 Studies Series, 51). (grant No.: 98/1998), Social Sciences Arnold Leonard. Urbanization and Kin- & Humanities Research Grants Sub- ship: The Domestic Domain on the Masanov 2002 committee, and Pastoral and Agrarian Copperbelt of Zambia. 1950-1956. Lon- Systems Equipe (FCAR). An Arthur Nurbulat Masanov. “The Role of Clans don: Academic Press, 1981. Tagge McGill University Major Fellow- in Kazakhstan Today.” The Jamestown ship (1999-2000) and the Supplemen- Foundation (http://www.jamestown. Esenova 2002 tary Global Grant Program of the Open org/pubs/view/pri_004_003_005. Society University (2000-2002) funded Saulesh B. Esenova. “Soviet National- htm). ity, Identity, and Ethnicity in Central a subsequent period of writing. I am Asia: Historic Narratives and Kazakh grateful to these institutions for their Privatsky 1998 Ethnic Identity.” Journal of Muslim Mi- support. I would like to express my nority Affairs (UK), 22/1 (2002), 12- Bruce G. Privatsky. “Turkistan: Kazakh warmest gratitude to my informants 36. Religion and Collective Memory.” Ph.D. whose kind cooperation made my re- Dissertation. The University of Tennes- search project possible. see, Knoxville, 1998 (published as: Ferguson 1999 Muslim Turkistan: Kazak Religion and James Ferguson. Expectations of Mo- 2. The term “shezhyre” was adopted Collective Memory. Richmond, Surrey: in the Kazakh language after the Per- dernity: Myths and Meanings of Urban Curzon, 2001). Life on the Zambian Copperbelt. Ber- sian and Arabic word meaning “tree.” keley: University of California Press, Among the Kazakhs, it denoted spe- Turner 1967 1999. cifically the oral tradition of genealogy Victor Turner. “Betwixt and Between: reckoning that served the purpose of The Liminal Period in Rites of Passage.” formation of political alliances, social Erlan and Chebotarev 2000 In The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of structuring, and lineage segmentation, Karin Erlan and Andrei Chebotarev. Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell and was ultimately linked to the divi- “The Policy of Kazakhization in State University Press, 1967. sion of pasturelands and annual migra- and Government Institutions in tion routes. The unified shezhyre, a Kazakhstan.” In Natsuko Oka, ed., The Tynyshpaev 1990 (1925) written genealogical account(s) of all Nationalities Question in Post-Soviet Kazakh tribes and lineages to which I Kazakhstan. Chiba: Institute of Devel- Muhametzhan Tynyshpaev. Materialy k istorii kirgiz-kazakskogo naroda [Ma- refer here was compiled in the first two oping Economies, 2000 (Middle East decades of the 20th century as a form Studies Series, 51). terials for the history of the Kyrgyz- Kazakh people]. Tashkent, 1990 (re- of Kazakh political resistance. For an print of 1925 ed.). extended discussion of the shezhyre as Paerregaard 1997 an important historical narrative that Karsten Paerregaard. Linking Separate Werner 1998 effectively shaped the boundaries of Worlds: Urban Migrants and Rural Lives Kazakh ethnicity, see Esenova (2002). in Peru. Oxford; New York: Berg, 1997. Cynthia Ann Werner. “Household Net- works and the Security of Mutual In- 3. These are by Shakarim Kudayberdy- debtedness in Rural Kazakhstan.” In Khazanov 1995 Uly (1990; [1991; 1911]) and Central Asian Survey, 17/4, 1998: 597- Tynyshpaev Muhametzhan (1990 Anatoly Khazanov. After the USSR. 612. Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Politics in [1925]). the Commonwealth of Independent Yessenova 2003 States. Madison: The University of Wis- 4. “Aga” is a Kazakh term and a re- consin Press, 1995. Saulesh Yessenova. “The Poetics and spectful address to an older man that Politics of the Nation: Urban Narratives can be glossed in English as ‘uncle’ and of Kazakh Identity.” Ph.D. Dissertation. Kudayberdy-Uly 1990 (1991; 1911) may or may not be suggestive of a kin- McGill University, Canada, 2003. Shakarim Kudayberdy-Uly. Turik, ship relation. kyrgyz-kazak clem khandar sheshiresi [Genealogy of Turks, Kyrgyz-Kazakhs 5. In the past, each Kazakh lineage was and khan dynasties]. Almaty: Sana, composed of seven generations of the 1990 (1991) (Russian translation: kindred stemming from the same

47 founding ancestor. When the lineage 9. Ultugan is her first name. The suf- 12. Kazakh grandparents were always was expanding beyond seven genera- fix -apa indicates her advanced age as involved in the raising of their grand- tions, each set of the seventh a grandmother. children. During the Soviet period, this generation’s siblings was expected to tradition was, perhaps, reinforced be- form separate lineages. Zhety ata, 10. Palau is an Uzbek traditional meal cause of the Soviet labor policy, ac- glossed in English as “seven fathers,” based on fried meat with carrot and cording to which young mothers had was the principle regulating exogamy rice. to return to work after a short mater- expectations among Kazakhs. nity leave. See Cynthia Ann Werner 11. “In their role as visitors in the home [1998, p. 600] for more information 6. The term “ru” in Kazakh language, and agents of blessing, the Kazakh on this issue. in a literal sense, denotes “lineage.” ancestors are called aruaq... or, more However, it is popularly used with ref- comprehensively, ata-babalarding erence to both lineage (minimal and aruaq, the spirits of the ancestors. expanded) and “tribe” (however, the [Arabic origin, Turkic plural form: proper term for the latter is “taypa”). aruaqtar]” [Privatsky 1998, p. 205]. Such inclusive use of the term ru has “Kazakhs have ways of talking about also been adopted in the contempo- their ancestors in genealogical terms... rary literature on Kazakh social orga- But when the ancestor-spirits are nization (see also Werner 1998, p. ‘touched’ with the blessing of shared 610). food and holy words around the family table, Kazakhs do not use the Turkic 7. The term Baska ru stands for a mini- terminology for the progenitors of the mal lineage, including seven genera- horde (juz) and clan (ru), nor the more tions of kindred stemming from the recent lineage of the “seven grandfa- same ancestor, zhety ata [seven fa- thers” (zhety ata). Instead it is the thers]. aruaq, the ancestor-spirits, character- ized with an Arabic collective noun, who 8. In her classic work on pollution ritu- are united conceptually with the spir- als Douglas demonstrated that the its of saints (auliyening aruaq) and “contrary may be true.” As she argues, prophets (paygambarding aruaq)” “... some pollutions are used as analo- [ibid., p. 257]. ... “The aruaq are the gies for expressing general view of the primary actors in the Kazakh spirit- social order. For example, there are world...” [ibid., p. 205]. Accompany- beliefs that each sex is a danger to the ing serving and eating fried pastries other through contact with sexual flu- with words, such as “Aruaqqa tiye ids. ... Such patterns of sexual danger bersin” (may it touch the spirit) in the can be seen to express symmetry or dedication of the meal... to the memory hierarchy. It is implausible [however] of the ancestors... the practice that the to interpret them as suggesting some- family is trying to strengthen a rela- thing about the actual relation of the tional bond with the ancestors, who are sexes” [ibid., p. 3-4]. ritually passive” [ibid., p. 230]. Copyright © 1999 Daniel C. Waugh Pik Pobedy (Mt. Tomur) in the Tianshan on the border between Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang

48 Among the Kazakhs of Xinjiang

By Bob Jones

City College of San Francisco

Below me, a spectacular view of the eas in China where the hand of devel- line. The hillsides and ridges are dark western Tianshan and the glinting sil- opment has touched, the hand and green with firs and dotted with sun- ver on the blue Issyk Kul. I was flying touch are heavy. A cold mountain drenched meadows. A golden eagle back to Urumqi from Chymkent and stream in the valley below the lake is sails high above the lake. Next to it is Almaty, after two weeks driving west marred by ugly concrete kiosks placed a pile of yurt parts: three feet of felts, on hard seats and mostly bumpy roads awkwardly in mid-stream. Waterfalls folded and stacked neatly on the through the mountains of western are defaced with construction litter. wooden door; on top of that is the China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. I Swiss-style chalets of incongruous con- accordioned latticework and the ceil- was terrifically excited about returning crete and white tile mar the lower ing spokes, which fit into the chanrach, to Xinjiang and I anticipated the time I meadow area. An incomprehensible the circular hub that holds the entire was to spend in the mountains. I was cable car system that, because of structure together like myriad hands to embark on a week-long horse trek safety concerns, has never operated holding a ring aloft. It now sits like a in this magnificent range, an explora- defaces the middle canyon from the crown on the top of the stack. The pile tion among the people who made these entrance station to just below the lake. awaits loading onto the backs of cattle, hills their home. The Tianshan, or Heav- to be transported high into the sum- enly Mountains, stretch for fifteen hun- The lake itself is still beautiful, how- mer pastures. dred miles, from eastern Xinjiang near ever, and so I place my back to the Barkol to the sandy wastes of development and look out toward the I have no complaints about sleeping in Uzbekistan near Tashkent. It is the snow-covered peaks to the south. The a yurt here at Tianchi. It is warm and world’s northernmost mountain range lake is small, only two miles long, and the sleeping quilts are more than ad- with 7000m-plus (22,960 ft.) peaks, narrow. Its eastern shore is a precipi- equate. It is large and roomy. I drank the highest, Pik Pobedy (Mt. Tomur), tous slope falling from a high, forested a great deal of beer with Sailik and two on the Kyrgyz-Xinjiang border, reach- ridgeline. While the western shore is of his cousins last night. We drank by ing 24,400 ft. The eastern range is cli- not flat, animal trails follow the shore- candlelight, Kazakh style, with each of maxed by grand Bogda Ola - the “Peak of God” - at 18,270 ft. in plain view from downtown Urumqi, the region’s bustling capital. Bogda’s white, cathe- dral-like peak stands shoulders above everything else. The range has been summer pasture for both Torgut Mongols and Kazaks for centuries; it is with these horse-riding and sheep- grazing nomads that I wish to visit.

I’m one day into my adventure. My young Kazakh guide Sailik has many friends here at Tianchi (Heavenly Lake) and seems to recognize everybody. Ambling about with Sailik I never seem to walk a straight line - too many people to greet. I end up sitting among the yurts of the Kazaks who summer near the lake. While the Kazaks here live in some of them, others are rented out to tourists. Tianchi has come down in the world. There has been rampant and Copyright © 2003 Bob Jones uncontrolled development at the north end of the lake, and like all scenic ar- A dismantled yurt ready for transport

49 us drinking in turn from the same bowl, when I was riding, and a few times refilling and passing it along. It is the when I was leading he would nudge way friends drink, he says. But Sailik me along. My first long-term commit- is a clever guy. Maybe they had only ment to a horse seemed to be working one bowl. Though I slept well, my out, though my impression of a sense thighs are sore from riding a horse into of equine congeniality was a bit pre- the hills yesterday, balanced on a small, mature. Once at camp he would not inadequately padded Kazakh saddle of let me near him. wood. I fear the upcoming ride. © We are encamped on a ridge top, or The plan was to ride up into the moun- rather just below the ridgeline, on the tains with Sailik, searching out Kazakh north side. Only a few feet separate Copyright 2003 Bob Jones encampments, and we would rely on the magnificent views north and south. My Kazakh host Adal their famed hospitality to stay the The weather over the Tianshan spreads night. It is now almost dusk, and the out in all directions above us, but I can Gulnur and Archen will head back day has been long. Two hours to the see below it to the south and north- down. Relatives often help out with this end of the lake, another two into a west. To the south is a deep valley, and transhumant (i.e., vertical) migration beautiful west-leading valley to meet the tall massive bulk of Bogda Ola is to summer pastures, ensuring that the with the party of Sailik’s cousin, then covered with clouds. To the northwest campsite is cleared and everything is another couple of hours leading the stretches the Zungarian Plain. In the set up quickly, helping to construct the horses straight up to their summer late afternoon sun, five large lakes lay yurt, and doing the initial herd count. encampment (awil in Kazakh). The yurt glinting in the flat distance. It is a typi- Arriving at the encampment, Adal’s was put up in ninety minutes in the cal daytime mountain weather pattern: brother and father have helped with family’s traditional spot overlooking a the morning is clear; in the afternoon, the initial setup. Sultan Sharip, how- high alpine bowl, probably at about ten there is a buildup of thunderheads and ever, will leave the next day for the thousand feet. The mountains under a threat of thunderstorms. The sky lake, and Aikun has already left to find my feet are rock and mottled green clears again in the evening. a missing cow. grass, cross-hatched here and there in patches where the grazing of sheep and Sultan Sharip Kös is the 61-year-old The Kös family has little, yet much. goats is more noticeable. Only two patriarch of this family. His son is Adal, They seem content, but Adal and other encampments are visible from 30 years old. Adal’s wife is Gulnur, 23, Gulnur’s yurt is small by comparison here, far away across the bowl. The and they have a two-and-a-half-year to other Kazak yurts, and I was happy river creases the mountainside, and old-son, Archen. Adal and Gulnur have to record with my camera the five smaller watercourses are revealed by been married three years. Aikun is adults as they quickly assembled the the upward advancing arrows of firs, a Adal’s older brother, 32 years old. Sul- structure from the great pile of parts dark healthy green. Here and there are tan Sharip Kös and Aikun have come on the ground. The yurt (otaw in constellations of white sheep and goats up with Adal to help set up the sum- Kazakh) is an extremely efficient and set against the firmament of green mer camp. In a day or so all but Adal, highly movable structure. The materi- meadows. It is all quite magnificent.

The ride up was comfortable, unlike that of the previous day. This saddle is broad and comfortable, the pace slow. Leaving the trash-covered north end of the lake behind us, we enter another, natural world. We ascend the trails and cross the streambeds surrounded by Kazakhs and their flocks. No tourists are here. Twice our horses splash across the deep cold river. My small Kazakh horse seems to take to me, or at least take advantage of me. I lead him up during the last climb, a steep ascent across young, green summer grass, and he rests his big head on my back and shoulder when we take the occasional break from the relentless climb. He has not yet had much exer- cise himself this year. He tries to lie © down in the thick grass a few times, though Sailik says I must not allow him to do so. No kicks, no bites. He would Copyright 2003 Bob Jones turn around a few times to look at me Gulnur and Archen in their yurt

50 floor of a Kazakh yurt is di- that againu ntil the fall. Approximately vided into two basic sections, 450 of the animals are sheep raised the entryway and a raised for wool, about 100 for their meat, and sleeping platform, which is 150 are goats. They have ten adult earthen and covered with cows with five or six calves. Three felts and rugs. The dirt horses round out the spread. entryway is where boots are taken off and left. At the cen- The sheep and goats must be counted ter of the yurt is the iron each night, and Adal must account for stove and stovepipe that fun- them all. Naturally, the number of nels the smoke out the top. sheep and goats increases from day to On cold days it dispenses day now, with the birth of lambs and

Copyright © 2003 Bob Jones much heat. The yurt is also kids. The animals are driven into an divided along gender lines. As area just west of the yurt. Then, with Erecting the frame of the yurt one steps inside the yurt, to people lining up across the field but the door’s left are hung all leaving a wide opening, on a whistle the horse paraphernalia: and verbal command the animals be- lariats, bridles, ropes, and gin to run through the opening. As they other horse-related items. do, the couple counts them, Adal the This is the men’s domain. To sheep and Gulnur the goats. With only the right are the cooking two people here during the rest of the implements that belong to summer, the counting must be quite a the camp’s domestic com- challenge. The clamor of the animals mander, the wife. A wash- is constant, but with darkness, they all basin stands there and settle down quickly to a quiet sleep.

© kitchen implements hang The newborn lambs and kids, so frag- from the latticework. To the ile in the first day or two after birth, back wall are the trunks are brought into the warm yurt for the which hold clothing and other night. In their helplessness they are a Copyright 2003 Bob Jones domestic items, and which very sweet addition to the group. Adal are piled high with blankets is up at daybreak before five a.m. to The completed yurt and comforters. The back take the animals to the pastures, or als used for its construction are easily wall itself is hung with the large and jaylaw. Late in the afternoon he must obtained. The latticework and spokes exquisite embroidery on velvet which again climb or descend to herd them are of willow or poplar, and the felt was part of the bride’s dowry, and which back to the camp. The animals respond blankets and straps are made from the is bestowed the place of pride in the to verbal commands to move, and an wool of the sheep that is the mainstay yurt. The sleeping platform is divided occasional well-thrown and strategi- of the Kazakh economy. The bright red along the same lines, with the right side cally placed rock encourages them in latticework is of round-sectioned poles belonging to the women and the other the right direction. (the Mongol variant has a square sec- to the men. tion) and held together with metal con- Adal took me along this day, up onto nectors and cord. It is stretched out It is early morning, but I have already the ridge high above his camp. I search like an accordion into a circle that acts been up for hours. I slept well in the out a good view of Bogda Feng. There as the wall structure, while the low and high mountain air, on the felt-matted is a gentle, flower-strewn meadow colorfully painted wooden door and sleeping platform with six other people. above this pastureland, beautiful be- frame are the anchors to the lattice- Everyone is up with the daylight, and, yond words, green and lush, punctu- work. The ceiling spokes are about after milk tea and bread, the men are ated along the broad back of the ridge eight feet long and curved at one end, out tending to the livestock. There is by rocky outcrops, colored with orange each one tied to the top of the lattice- no water source close by the camp; so and yellow lichens. From near the top work, while the straight end is inserted every few days Adal and Gulnur must of this fairyland, I can look upon the into the chanrach. This curve makes take the horses along the mountain vast, broad side of the Bodga Massif, the dome and the sidewalls higher, the path to the closest spring, quite a ways the drifting clouds sometimes sparse yurt roomier. The skeleton, thus con- away, and fill the two ten-gallon plas- and fleeting, accentuating the height structed, is covered with large water- tic jugs they use in camp. Adal does of the 18,000-foot mountain. From proof felt blankets, and tied off with not say much, but he is a very decisive where I stand, the main peak rises be- cords and flat woven or plaited straps. person. He quit drinking years ago, quit hind Akbulak, “White Headwaters,” a Rounding off the remaining essential smoking only the previous year. He lower, rocky handmaiden that sets off parts of the yurt are the potbelly stove takes care of the flocks of four closely the awesome beauty of Bogda. A creek and stovepipe and the reed screens, related families, over 700 sheep and falls over a sheer rocky wall running which are placed between the outside goats, plus horses and cattle. His fam- across the empty valley, and the sound felt and inside latticework. ily will be up here until October. The of the falling water carries clearly over sheep and goats were sheared once in the distance. There are horses grazing The interior of the yurt is roomy. The April; he does not need to worry about above me. A lone shepherd whistles to

51 his flock, somewhere hidden from my loaf easily baked in camp, where there They are encouraged to give up old view. I am tempted to follow the sum- is no oven. It is nutritious, tasteless ways. On the other hand, the govern- mer routes along this magnificent val- but palatable when dipped in tea. Be- ment is also concerned about the stan- ley, up beyond this idyllic place. The cause of its saltiness, the chaisz is thirst dard of Kazakh living, and would pre- track below in the valley parallels the quenching, similar in effect to a sports fer them to go to school, live closer to river, and for the past two days I have drink. The brick tea is broken into adequate medical care, and, in gen- seen small caravans of Kazakh fami- smaller pieces and dumped into a large eral, to raise their standard of living. lies, horses and cattle loaded down with teakettle and boiled. The resulting tea But the transition to a sedentary all their summer needs - yurts, bed- is not too strong and delicious on its lifestyle has been a perilous one for ding, pots and pans - slowly making own. The preparer then measures out many formerly nomadic Kazakhs. Al- their way up to their family pastures. the right amount of salt into a bowl, cohol and drug abuse is common Often the sheep and goats are one or pours tea into it, and then pours it all among young Kazakhs, and crime is two days ahead of the family, herded back into the kettle to mix and dissolve all too frequent in the towns. by one or two family members. thoroughly. Bowls are placed on the felt platform, and fresh milk (first heated, There are few economic opportunities It has been a few days, and I am hav- then cooled) is ladled into each bowl, for the Kazakh youths these days. The ing some stomach distress. I am not and tea is poured to mix them. The tourist trade at Heavenly Lake is domi- used to the plain Kazakh food and the final product, with bits of cream and nated by Han Chinese, who run the somewhat unsanitary conditions of the curd floating on the surface, is refresh- hotels, shops and restaurants. Kazakhs camp. Before driving up to the lake, ing, and bowl after bowl is consumed, (not known for their mercantile skills) Sailik and I had stopped off at a local along with pieces of nan and irimshiq, are relegated to renting out their horses open-air market to purchase food for hard, sour Kazakh cheese. and yurts to tourists, and Kazakh chil- the pack trip. Besides the biscuits, fruit dren pose with lambs and ponies. Few and cabbage, he also bought two kilos It is time to leave the Kös family and Kazakhs go on to high school or col- of fresh lamb. Plopped into a plastic return to Heavenly Lake. Adal is already lege. Sailik is one of few Kazakhs I met bag, the meat hung from his saddle up and gone to take his sheep and in Xinjiang who had gone to college and for almost three days before we cooked goats out by the time I awoke. I have graduated. As an educated Kazakh, he and consumed it. Aged, or rather, ripe. a real respect for him and his wife, with was troubled by the rivalry and chaos It is extremely difficult to keep clean all the work they must do every day to among the horse owners, each one jos- under any conditions, given the huge raise their animals and little boy. Dur- tling with the other in the rush to rent numbers of animals and manure in the ing the day I spent with him up in the their horse to a tourist. Sailik had un- camp’s immediate vicinity. It is a pastures, I saw him as a very inde- dertaken the cause of attempting to miracle that little Archen is not con- pendent and self-sufficient man, who organize these horsemen and to bring stantly sick. Kids that age constantly understood well the mountains and some harmony and cooperation to this put fingers and other objects into their weather, his animals and the solitary fledgling tourist industry. The tradi- mouths, and he is no exception. His life of a nomadic family. The previous tional clan system seems to encour- shoes are always sticky with cow dung. day, I had presented him with a pair of age dissention between rival families He is always running and constantly Russian-made binoculars that I had rather than cooperation. An old falling down. He wears split crotch bought in the Urumqi bazaar. Certainly Bakhtiyari saying is relevant to the situ- pants, and, for a little boy reveling in he would need them more than I. Their ation of the Kazakhs in China: “Me, my the dirt, he probably has worms or residence here for the summer and brother, and my cousin against the other parasites. But he is a bright, much of the autumn would be lonely world; me and my brother against my healthy, cheerful and friendly little boy, enough. cousin; me against my brother.” who will reach up to grab my hand, who does not mind my holding him, Kazakhs today in China are in transi- We are heading back down from the who likes to play with his very loving tion, and one day the future of this tra- mountains. The vertical haul that took father Adal and who misses his mother ditionally independent people will be two hours the first day is accomplished Gulnur when she is out of sight. He has determined. There are about a million in only 30 minutes in reverse and with already developed a relationship with and a half Kazakhs living in Xinjiang. the help of gravity. By the mid-after- the animals around him. He has a won- The central government wants them to noon, I am comfortably resting in the derful time commanding the cows - live in permanent villages and adopt a Kös family yurt above the north shore animals that are ten times his size, yet sedentary life. Many do, as the increas- of the lake. They have done fairly well seem afraid of him. The staples of ing numbers of Kazakh villages and in catering to the tourist industry. The Kazakh meals are nan - the ubiquitous towns at the foot of the Tianshan at- yurt is outfitted with a refrigerator, and bread of Central Asian peoples - and test. There are two sides to this gov- there is a small stereo and television. chaisz, or milk tea: a concoction of brick ernment policy. On the one hand, some Old Sultan Sharip is rather proud. Sailik tea, fresh cow’s milk and salt; sour would consider it a kind of cultural im- poses with his uncle and cousins, and cheese; and short noodles, whittled perialism, forcing the traditionally there is a wonderful closeness in this from a ball of dough. Kumiss [qimiz], horse-riding and nomadic Kazaks to live family. Sailik is the joker, and as we or fermented mare’s milk, is popular the way the agrarian and town-dwell- pose for some pictures, he teases Sul- during the summer months. The nan ing Han Chinese do, as farmers and tan Sharip about his fly being open. is unlike the round, flatbread of the merchants, and closer to the centers We all laugh heartily. My legs are fine. Uyghurs and Uzbeks. It is a small, hard of administrative and political control. My horse, about as much in shape as I

52 was, is very glad for the rest. Back on my feet, I explore the nearby forest slopes. Now and again, riders come Announcements through leading their horses. I come across a few men butchering a sheep beneath a tree. And I sleep well that The Central Eurasian Studies Soci- Current and upcoming exhibi- night. The next morning, before we ety (CESS) announces its Fifth Annual tions (as announced on the web Conference, to be held October 14-17, take the van back to the city, Sailik sites of the hosting institutions): and I head down to the creek to wash. 2004 at Indiana University, Bloom- Only after I have scrubbed by face with ington, Indiana, U.S.A. the clear water, do I notice the very Salvation: Images of the Bud- clean sheep entrails draped over the CESS invites panel and paper propos- dhist Deity of Compassion shrubs and gently weaving back and als on topics relating to all aspects of forth in the flow of creek water nearby. humanities and social science scholar- August 14, 2003–July 5, 2004 But they do not faze Sailik, and his ship on Central Eurasia. The deadline toilet is quickly done. We are soon on for submission of panel/paper propos- The Los Angeles County Museum of the road back to Urumqi. als: APRIL 2, 2004. The geographic Art (LACMA) celebrates the importance domain of Central Eurasia extends from of the Buddhist deity Avalokiteshvara— the Black Sea and Iranian Plateau to also known as Guanyin, Kwanum, and Mongolia and Siberia, including the Kannon—across Buddhist Asia. “Salva- Caucasus, Crimea, Middle Volga, Af- tion: Images of the Buddhist Deity of About the Author ghanistan, Tibet, and Central and In- Compassion” is on view in the Master- ner Asia. Given the substantial inter- piece in Focus gallery. Avalokiteshvara, Bob Jones is a professional guide and est in this conference, the program the primary source of Buddhist salva- Professor of Asian Studies at City Col- committee will be able to accept only tion, was the subject of extraordinary lege of San Francisco, where he has a portion of the proposals submitted. works of devotional art in various forms run the College’s Summer Program in The conference web pages for addi- across many cultures. Spanning 1,500 China since 1998. He specializes in the tional information are: years, these works represent the fin- history and people of the Silk Road, est creative achievements of India, and has lectured and led Silk Road ex- Main conference website: Central Asia, China, Korea, Japan, and peditions for the Smithsonian Institu- http://cess.fas.harvard.edu/ Tibet. For more information, visit the tion, the American Museum of Natural CESS_Conference.html Museum’s website at http:// History, City College of San Francisco, Registration: www.lacma.org. and for Geographic Expeditions. He http://cess.fas.harvard.edu/ *** contributed to the Silk Road CESS_Conf-Reg.html Foundation’s “Travel the Silk Road” Program: (available in June 2004): Tibet: Treasures from the Roof webpage (www.silkroadfoundation.org http://cess.fas.harvard.edu/ of the World /toc/index.html/). He is scheduled to CESS_Program.html lead a 17-day China-only Silk Road trip October 12, 2003 - May 16 2004 from May 4-20, 2004, for Crane House/ Full information about hosting and lo- The Bowers Museum of Cultural The Asia Institute and the University cation at Indiana University: of Louisville School of Arts and Sci- http://www.iub.edu/~cess2004 Art ences. From September 5-30, 2004, 2002 North Main Street he will lead “The Silk Road Across CONFERENCE-RELATED CORRESPON- Santa Ana, CA 92706 Turugart Pass,” a 26-day tour for Geo- DENCE SHOULD BE ADDRESSED TO: graphic Expeditions of San Francisco, Through the prism of its finest art, which visits China, Kyrgyzstan, and CESS 2004 Annual Conference Inner Asian and Uralic National Re- “Tibet: Treasures from the Roof of the Uzbekistan. For information on both World” offers Americans a rare glimpse tours, contact Geographic Expeditions source Center (IAUNRC) Indiana University into a great and mysterious world at 1-800-777-8183 or Bob Jones at culture. Travelers trekked thousands [email protected]. Goodbody Hall 324 Bloomington, IN 47405 U.S.A. of miles to see these treasured and fax: +1 (812) 855-8667 priceless artifacts. Emperors presented tel.: +1 (812) 856-5263 them as gifts. Now, for the first time e-mail: [email protected] in the Western World, Americans will be able to see nearly 200 of these The Mongolia Society will hold its an- exquisitely created sacred objects, all nual meeting in conjunction with the with great cultural significance. The CESS conference. For more informa- objects are from collections in Lhasa, tion: http://www.indiana.edu/ including the Potala Palace and from ~mongsoc/. the Tibet Museum.

53 For a preview: http://www.bowers.org Originating in India, the concept of interaction on the arts of the first /Tibet/exhibits_tibet.asp “Luohan”—enlightened beings millennium CE. Ornaments, bowls, cups, bottles, jars, mirrors, ewers, and Founded in 1936 as the Charles W. exempted by the great Buddha from ritual objects in gold, silver or silver Bowers Memorial Museum and re- the cycle of rebirth in order to act as and gilt, earthenware, or porcelain from opened in 1992, the Bowers Museum guardians of the law—became a part Iran, China, Turkey, Syria, and of Cultural Art is one of Southern of Buddhist cultic worship in China, Afghanistan are included. California’s finest museums and where a small number of monks who Orange County’s largest. International were considered to have realized For an online preview of the material: partnerships have been developed with enlightenment, were selected to be http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/ the Palace Museum, Beijing, the British luohans. The earliest Chinese online/luxuryarts/default.htm Museum, and many others. representations of luohans can be traced to the 4th century, but it was *** not until after the 8th century that Note also the online exhibition of Freer Gallery of Art / Arthur M. sinicized dragon-subduing, tiger- Silk Road art: http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/ Sackler Gallery taming, or sea-crossing luohans evolved, forming a new group known online/silkroad/default.htm Smithsonian Institution as the Eighteen Luohans. Over time, and depictions of luohans evolved from the gallery guide for Arts of the The galleries are located on the individualized to more formalized Islamic World: National Mall in Washington D.C., steps portraits. Arranged in chronological http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/ from the Smithsonian Metro stop. The order, this exhibition presents 22, late online/islamic/default.htm Sackler Gallery is located at 1050 12th to 18th century works as well as Independence Avenue, SW. The Freer an 8th century T’ang ewer and *** Gallery of Art is located at Jefferson describes major trends in the evolution Drive at 12th Street, SW. As the of luohan paintings as executed by national museum of Asian art for the Selected Pottery Treasures both regional or court professionals United States, the Freer and Sackler and followers of literati traditions. The from Xian (http://www.asia.si.edu/) contain exhibition also includes a discussion some of the best collections in the of current scholarship about the March 16 - June 10, 2004 world and also feature outstanding Eighteen Luohans. visiting exhibits. Note the following: The Miho Museum (Shiga Prefecture, ** Japan) Fountains of Light: Islamic Metalwork from the Nuhad Es- Among the exhibits continuing Chang’an (present-day Xian) was the Said Collection capital of seven dynasties in China, indefinitely, note: beginning with the Han (206 B.C.–A.D. 220) and ending in the Tang (618–907) Through February 29, 2004 Buddhist Art Arthur M. Sackler Gallery period. Come see the flowering of clay figurines from the pre-Han to Yüan Freer Gallery of Art The Nuhad Es-Said collection, arguably (1271–1368) dynasties, through many This exhibition features painted scrolls, the finest collection of Islamic masterworks—highlighting swift bronze and wood sculptures, and metalwork in private hands, consists horses from the West that fascinated bronze ritual bells from Japan; stone of twenty-seven inlaid brass, bronze, the ancient Chinese and beautiful carvings and sculptures from India; and steel objects dating from the tenth women of the various dynasties— and Buddhist cave carvings and bronze to the nineteenth century. “Fountains excavated from the vicinity of Xian. statues from Imperial China all of Light: Islamic Metalwork from the reflecting the influence Buddhism has Website: http://www.miho.jp Nuhad Es-Said Collection,” the first had on these cultures. exhibition of this superb group of *** objects in the United States, provides For an online gallery guide: http:// an in-depth view of the history of inlaid www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/online/ metalwork from its inception in Iran buddhism/default.htm and present-day Afghanistan and The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, Uzbekistan to its later development in ** War and Faith Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Anatolia (present-day Turkey). Luxury Arts of the Silk Road 23 April - 5 September 2004 ** Empires The British Library (London) in asso- Guardians of the Law: Chinese Arthur M. Sackler Gallery ciation with the British Museum pre- Luohan Paintings sents priceless and rarely seen Silk The exhibit features examples of Road treasures from Aurel Stein’s col- metalwork and ceramics from the lection - considered one of the richest December 2, 2003 - May 23, 2004 collections of each museum which in the world - on display alongside key Freer Gallery of Art illustrate the effect of multicultural items from around the globe. The

54 A valuable exhibition Spanning the centuries that catalogue containing witnessed the rise and fall of the essays by Dr. Susan Roman Empire and the early Middle Whitfield (who is also Ages in the West, the Han (206 B.C.– the organizer of the ex- A.D. 220) and Tang (618–907) hibition) and other im- dynasties mark the two great eras portant specialists on in early imperial China. During these the Silk Road will be periods of dynamic expansion, available. For more in- through political disunity and foreign formation on the British invasion, Chinese civilization Library and its collec- underwent a major transformation. tions: This landmark exhibition will tell the http://www.bl.uk. story of Chinese art and culture during this formative period, focusing Dr. Whitfield is Director especially on cross- cultural of the International interchange between East and West. Dunhuang Project, Comprising some 300 objects in all, based at the British Li- this will be one of the largest brary, which is a multi- exhibitions ever to come out of China. year effort to make While most of the objects are available on the Chinese in origin, the exhibition will

(1963), p. 169 p. (1963), Internet the documen- also present gold artifacts of the tation from the Inner nomadic peoples from Mongolia, who Asian expeditions along occupied north China after the

Varakhsha the Silk Road, starting collapse of the Han dynasty, and with the Stein materials luxury articles of glass and precious in the British Library. To metals imported from Western and date, facsimiles of a Central Asia during the 4th to 6th great many of the docu- century. Works associated with the

ments have been posted early spread of Buddhism in China Source: Shishkin, Shishkin, Source: along with Survey of In- will be displayed as well, including Stucco ornamentation from Varakhsha dia maps incorporating some of the most famous early the Stein expeditions’ data, photo- Chinese Buddhist sculptures. The scholar, archaeologist and explorer Sir graphs taken by Stein, and some ad- exhibition will conclude with a Aurel Stein fought rivals at the turn of ditional materials intended for educa- spectacular assemblage of works in the last century to be the first to un- tional use by younger audiences. The every medium from the Tang period, cover long-lost multicultural civilisa- Project’s web page is at: interpreted as the culmination of tions. The evidence had lain buried for http://idp.bl.uk/. several centuries of cultural up 2,000 years in tombs, tips and exchange and adaptation resulting temples beneath the desert sands of *** mass migrations and long-distance eastern Central Asia. This exhibition international trade. For information brings together over 200 of Stein’s sel- China: Dawn of a Golden Age dom seen Central Asian manuscripts, (200–750 AD) paintings, objects and textiles, along Note: The URLs (internet addresses given in this newsletter contain no with other fascinating artefacts from October 5, 2004–January 23, 2005 museums in China, Japan, Germany spaces where they break at the end of The Metropolitan Museum of Art lines. and France. (New York)

Take a journey eastwards from Samarkand via Dunhuang to Turfan through the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts. You will be immersed in the landscape, history and cultures of the Silk Road, as well as learning about the everyday lives of people living along the route. Their concerns are timeless to the human condition. Exhibits range from anti-war poetry, court documents to reclaim land from squatters and plague down to mousetraps, desert shoes and a letter apologising for get- Waugh C. Daniel 1999 © Copyright ting drunk and behaving badly at a din- View from Panjikent ruins over the Zeravshan Valley ner party.

55 Source: Skul’ptura i zhivopis’ drevnego Pendzhikenta (1959), pl. VII (det.)

Drawing of mural from Panjikent, including famous image of harpist at left

56