Sogdian Traders: A History

by Étienne de la Vaissière, James Ward (Translator)

The Sogdian Traders were the main go-between of Central Asia from the fifth to the eighth century. From their towns of Samarkand, Bukhara, or Tashkent, their diaspora is attested by texts, inscriptions or archaeology in all the major countries of Asia (India, China, Iran, Turkish Steppe, but also Byzantium). This survey for the first time brings together all the data on their trade, from the beginning, a small-scale trade in the first century BC up to its end in the tenth century. It should interest all the specialists of Ancient and Medieval Asia (including specialists of Sinology, Islamic Studies, Iranology, Turkology and Indology) but also specialists of Medieval Economic History.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

406 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although the Sogdian people had a key role in Central Asian trade for many centuries, producing what is known in the modern imagination as the “Silk Road”, they left little behind and remain little known to the broader public. Étienne de la Vassière is a French scholar specializing in this part of the world, and in 2002 he published a friendly and accessible introduction to the world of Sogdian commerce, mainly in its heyday of the fourth century through the eighth.

Sogdian Traders is a somewhat expanded version of that French original, translated by James Ward. Although published under Brill’s “Handbook of Oriental Studies” series, which often contains daunting works by specialists for specialists, the English version retains the book's friendly approach. De la Vassière references a wide array of scholarship, such as archaeological digs, but provides citations in footnotes so that readers won't have to wade through the minutiae of excavations.

The book begins with the Sogdian Ancient Letters, a collection of documents between trading centres from the 4th century that show there was already an established network, not just a few enterprising individuals. However, most of the information we have on Sogdian trade comes from this people's neighbours to the east and west, namely the Chinese, Persians and Arabs. Sogdians (and other Iranian-speaking peoples) turned out to have a much greater role inside of China than I had ever thought possible.

The only downside of the book is the lack of a second edition. De la Vassière impressively wrote this book in his early thirties, but admits that he did not yet have the expertise in certain fields (such as the Chinese language) that would allow him to go deeper into the sources, leaving him to rely on older work by scholars like Pulleybank. Surely he has assimilated entire new disciplines in the years since, so it would be nice to get a revised version.

[Edith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading/skimming this book took me back to the sites that were the heart of ancient Sogdiana - Panjkent, Zarafshan Valley and Sughd, Khujand, and Badakhshan in Tajikistan, and the Ferghana Valley (Uzbekistan/Kyrgystan border). Reading this otherwise rather dry but informative text made me rather sentimental.