Who Was When

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Sogdia

Middle East & Central AsiaHeartland today: Uzbekistan and Tajikistan

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Iranian-speaking city-states around Samarkand and Bukhara, between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya. Sogdian merchants carried goods and their language along the Silk Road until Arab armies took the region in 706-712.

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Key events

  1. – Sogdiana passes under Achaemenid Persian rule and becomes a satrapyDisputed

    World History Encyclopedia dates Persian control to Cyrus, between 546 and 539 BCE. EBSCO lists Sogdiana as a satrapy of Darius I, who reigned from 521 BCE.

  2. – Alexander the Great conquers Bactria and Sogdiana after hard fighting

    The campaign ran from early 329 to May 327 BCE in World History Encyclopedia and ended in 328/7 BCE in EBSCO's account.

  3. – Sogdian merchants dominate Central Asian trade, and Sogdian becomes the common language along the Silk Road

    The dates are the 6th through 8th centuries, the peak period EBSCO gives.

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  4. – Murals of foreign envoys are painted in a hall at Afrasiab, with an inscription naming Samarkand's king VarkhumanDisputed

    Wikipedia dates the murals to 648-651 and describes the room as part of a private house; Albert Dien calls it a large audience hall and notes that scholars still debate how to read the paintings, including who commissioned them.

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  5. – Tang China makes Samarkand a governor-generalship and names its king, Varkhuman, governor-general

    Dien says the governor-generalship was set up "sometime after 650". EBSCO dates the Chinese protectorate to 650-675.

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  6. – Umayyad armies take over Sogdiana, and conversion to Islam spreads after about 750

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