Alexander the Great. Hike to Bactria and Sogdiana
Seleucus' co-ruler in the East was his son Antiochus, half Sogdian (his mother Apana was the daughter of Spitamen).
Ancient Marakanda, devastated during wars and uprisings, began to recover under the Seleucids. There is no direct information about the state of the city of that era in historical sources. However, it is known that a certain upsurge was observed in the economic life of Sog, Bactria, and Margiana. New cities were built, old ones were strengthened, crafts and trade developed, coins were regularly minted, and the irrigation network expanded.
Speaking of the densely populated fertile oasis irrigated by the waters of Zarafshan, which the Greek authors called Polytimet, it can be argued that artificial irrigation was expanding more and more in the ancient era. Samarkand archaeologist V. V. Grigoriev, exploring the settlement of Tali-Barzu, located near Samarkand, established that already in the II-I centuries BC, artificial irrigation was widely developed here.
Peasants of Marakanda and the entire Zarafshan Valley at that time grew wheat, rice, millet, alfalfa, cotton, planted orchards and vineyards. Sources say that in Fergana and in "neighboring countries" (i.e., in Sogd and Bactria), the population used wine. "They love their wine, as their horses love alfalfa." The rich aged wine in cellars for several decades.
Inhabitants of Sogdiana, along with agriculture, were also engaged in cattle breeding. This is evidenced by archaeological finds of bones of domestic animals, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, pigs. Horse breeding was especially widely developed. Horses of pure blood from Sogdiana were known from mediterranean sea before Pacific Ocean.
& nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbspb an ancient era through Central Asia was a lively trade between East and West. The famous "silk road" passed through the Sogdian cities, crossing the Asian continent. Samarkand was located at the main crossroads of the most important caravan routes from India, Byzantium, China, Tibet, Iran, Siberia, Scythia.
The peoples of Sogdiana, maintaining close economic relations with the West and East, North and South, enriched their culture and at the same time had a strong influence on the development of neighboring countries. It has been proven that, for example, the Chinese borrowed from the peoples Central Asia alfalfa, grapes, pomegranate, walnut, many garden plants. China adopted the cotton culture from the Amu Darya, Zarafshan and Syr Darya valleys. The same Chinese exported horses from the Ferghana Valley, which they called "heavenly" for their beauty, tirelessness, and agility. The inhabitants of Sogdiana, in turn, borrowed sericulture, paper production, the art of making gold and silver jewelry, and weapons from the East.
In the last centuries before new era in the course of the struggle of the Sogdians against foreigners, frequent changes in the map of Central Asia took place, large public entities, such as the Greco-Bactrian kingdom and a number of others. 
In the 1st century AD, Sogdiana and Bactria became part of a powerful slave state, known in history as the power of the Great Kushans. The Kushan period (I-IV century AD) for Central Asia was a period of significant growth. At this time, city life is revived here, trade relations of Sogdian cities, including Samarkand with China and India, are strengthened. Silk, jade, iron, nickel, lacquer and leather products were imported from East Asia, and glass, precious stones, and jewelry items were imported from Central Asia. From India, instead of glassware and other Central Asian goods, spices, incense, paper and woolen fabrics were brought.
In the middle of the 5th century, the Kushan Empire, which experienced a deep decline in the 3rd and 4th centuries, fell under the onslaught of warlike nomadic tribes, known collectively as the Hephthalites. In turn, in the 4th century, the Ephthalites were swept away by the Turkic tribes, who formed the Turkic Khaganate.
Despite the change of kingdoms and dynasties, Samarkand continued to play an important role in the economic, political and cultural life of Central Asia and the entire East.
Sogdians were known as skilled farmers and artisans, enterprising merchants, talented musicians and dancers. The crafts of their cities continued to be famous. The people of Samarkand minted their own coins, carried on a lively trade with many countries, had their own script and literature. And it was not for nothing that the well-known orientalist V.V. Bartold, speaking of the Sogdians, emphasized that their cultural activity along the caravan routes of Central Asia was not much inferior to cultural activities Phoenicians along the Mediterranean trade routes. Indeed, it is difficult to overestimate the role of the Sogdians in those days. They actually controlled trade along the entire eastern section of the "Silk Road", which stretched from Merv to the Huang He River. Along the entire length of the ancient trade route, they founded their colonies, established business and economic contacts with local merchants and the population, and widely traded their goods.
Overcoming great obstacles created by the kings of Iran, Sogdian merchants penetrated further and further to the West. In the middle of the VI century, they twice tried to establish good relations with the central regions of Iran. The first embassy from Sogdiana, headed by Maniah, was received at the court of the Sassanian king with extremely unkindness: the Persians demonstratively burned the silk brought by Sogdian merchants in front of the ambassadors. The Sogdians sent a new caravan. But this attempt ended tragically: the king of Iran ordered the poisoning of the ambassadors of Sogd.
The cruel actions of the Iranian rulers could not shake the enterprise and perseverance of the Sogdian merchants. As the Byzantine historian Menander testifies, the envoys of Sogd used the ancient steppe routes bypassing Iran along the northern coast of the Caspian Sea and established direct contact with Byzantium.
The Sogdian embassy arrived in Constantinople. It was headed by the same Maniah. The Byzantine emperor, in turn, sent his envoy to Central Asia in 568.
In this way, the Sogdians managed to establish strong trade, diplomatic and cultural connections with Byzantium, which lasted for many years.
The measure of the high and original culture of the Sogdians is their writing. They usually wrote from right to left, often the lines were arranged vertically. Then they wrote with black ink on leather, sticks, tablets, clay shards x, less often on paper.
The earliest Sogdian texts known to science are the so-called "Old Letters" found by A. Stein's expedition in 1906-1908. in the ruins of a watchtower west of Dunhuang. These documents date back to the beginning of the 4th century AD. As the studies of the French Iranian scholar R. Gauthio have shown, they are written in the Sogdian language and represent a private correspondence.
& nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbspv of two letters dictated by the scribble of the Sogdian Mevanchi ("cat" or "tigeron") in the name of their mother who lived in Samarkand, it was reported then the sogdios in the trading colonies of the eastern Tu Urkestan; about trade affairs; O privacy letter writer. So, for example, a girl complains about her sad fate - her guardian Nanidat wants to marry her, but she does not agree: "I'd rather be the wife of a dog or a pig than the wife of Nanidat," Mevancha wrote to her mother in Samarkand. But a few years later everything changed. From another letter we learn that the girl has become Nanidat's wife, that she is happily married and tenderly cares for her beloved husband.
"Old letters" were not delivered to Samarkand recipients. For almost 1600 years they lay in the ruins of the tower, until they were discovered by archaeologists at the beginning of our century.
And finally, Sogdiana herself spoke. In the spring of 1965, under the loess strata of the Afrasiab hills, in one of the excavated rooms, archaeologists discovered inscriptions that had remained silent for many centuries. A preliminary analysis of the text of the Afrasiab find led to the conclusion that the inscription contains a message about the arrival of an embassy to the Samarkand king from Chaganian, an area located then in the region of present-day Termez. This embassy was headed, judging by the inscription, by the head of the office, a certain Bur-Zatak. The text consists of 16 lines and has been preserved almost entirely. Only four words are corrupted at the end. The researchers suggest that the inscription was made by a professional scribe and its language is very close to the colloquial speech of the late 7th - early 8th centuries.
The inscription, deciphered by V. A. Lifshitz, reads:
& nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp "When the Ambassador of the Khunn Tsar arrived, he opened his mouth (and said):" I am a chagan chief of the office (son of Bura), arrived from the Chaganian state of Turandash with expression of veneration to the Samarka of the Nada Tsar. And here I am before the (Samarkand) king, full of reverence. And you have absolutely no suspicions about me - I am well aware of the Samarkand gods and Samarkand writing and I am full of respect (?) To the power of (your) king, and you are in complete prosperity. And also the Xiongnu king..." (the text is destroyed at this point). That's what the Chaganian chief of the office said"
In addition to the Samarkand king, whose name is not indicated in the inscription, the "King of the Huns" is also mentioned, and it follows from the text that he was a major ruler - Chaganian, from where the embassy arrived, should have been part of his kingdom. It can be assumed that the "king of the Huns" should be understood as the ruler of the Hephthalites, who sometimes appears in written sources under the name of the king of Tokharistan. The caveat regarding the Samarkand religion ("gods") and writing is very curious - the ambassador wants to assure the inhabitants of Samarkand that he does not even think of encroaching on their faith or writing.
In addition to these sixteen lines of Sogdian text, up to ten more inscriptions were found on Afrasiab.
Are Afrasiab paintings and Sogdian inscriptions a reflection of a real historical event? Or is it just a legend? So far, no definitive answer can be given to this question. Researchers believe that the names of the characters in the 16-line Sogdian inscription speak of an official event in the history of Sogd.
& nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbsp & nbspo of the high art of Samarkand of that time is evidenced by the artistic merits of the wall painting of Afrasiab, which took up its appropriate place in the history of world art.
New archaeological finds prove that Samarkand was one of the brilliant centers of the Middle Ages before the Arab conquest. No wonder the Arabs, who had seen Mesopotamia and Iran before, admired the fertility and abundance of Sogd, calling it the "Garden of the Victorious Caliph." And about the capital of Sogd - Samarkand, one of the participants in the Kuteiba campaign wrote:
"In its greenness it is like the sky, and its palaces are like stars in heaven, and its river is a mirror for open spaces, and its wall is the sun for horizons!"
This is how the Arab hordes of Kuteiba found Sogd and its flourishing center Samarkand.
The poetic lines of the "Avesta", composed in the 9th-7th centuries BC, sing of the legendary emergence of this region: "Then I, Ahura Mazda, created the incomparable Sogdiana, rich in gardens."
Sogdiana was a historical region on the territory of modern Uzbekistan, located in the basins of the Zeravshan and Kashkadarya rivers. According to one version, the very name of Sogd is translated as "The country of fertile valleys."
At the turn of the old and new eras, when state formations were formed and disintegrated on the territory of Central Asia, Sogdiana became a member of a political confederation that united about twenty different principalities and free cities. In the 1st century AD, Sogdiana, like Bactria, became part of the powerful state of the Great Kushan.
LEGENDS AND STORIES
The history of Sogd was bright, eventful and changeable. Already in the 7th-6th centuries BC, the country had many fortified urban settlements and an extensive network of irrigation facilities. The Sogdians grew wheat, rice, grapes, raised cattle and for centuries peacefully coexisted with the nomadic tribes of Sakas and Massagets.
In the middle of the sixth century BC, Sogdiana became part of the Achaemenid Empire, but its inhabitants fiercely resisted the invaders. "Father of history" Herodotus tells about the queen of the Massagetae Tomaris, who became the head of the army, which destroyed the hordes of Persians in a stubborn battle. In this battle, the Persian king Cyrus the Great also died. Tomaris ordered his head to be thrown into a leather fur filled with blood, so that he "drank his fill" of it.
His successor Darius also faced a fierce rebuff from the Central Asian peoples. The ancient author Polien described the story of the Saka shepherd Shirak. A courageous young man, calling himself a guide, deliberately led the Persians into a waterless desert, for which he paid with his life.
On the northern outskirts of Samarkand, there is a hilly area known as Afrasiab. Here, under the centuries-old loess layers, there are the ruins of Marakanda, the ancient capital of Sogdiana. Zoroastrian tradition connected the foundation of the city with the name of the epic hero Siyavush.
HELLENIC TRAIL
In 329 Marakand was seen by the soldiers of Alexander the Great. It was a large flourishing walled city with a citadel surrounded by numerous residential buildings.
These years were not peaceful for the invaders. The population of Central Asia offered spontaneous resistance to the Macedonians from the moment they appeared, until in Sogdiana it escalated into a real war. The conqueror had to endure an armed uprising led by the noble Sogdian Spitamen. It was a people's liberation movement, which also covered a number of neighboring regions, in particular, Bactria. Alexander the Great had to make a lot of efforts to suppress the uprising. Spitamen himself, according to legend, was killed by his own wife, who at such a price wanted to save the life of herself and her three children.
After the death of the great commander, Sogd became part of the Seleucid state and the Greco-Bactrian kingdom.
Scientists knowingly attribute Sogdiana, headed by Markanda, to one of the centers of ancient world civilizations. Excavations that have been going on for several decades at Afrasiab have yielded many interesting finds. Various objects were brought to light, testifying, in particular, to the noticeable influence of the Hellenistic culture. Among them are high-quality ceramics, including a goblet with the name of the goddess of victory Nike, terracotta heads of Athena, bronze items, arrowheads, carved Greek gems, coins of the Seleucid and Greco-Bactrian rulers.
"ALL FLOWERS FLOWERED"
The inhabitants of ancient Sogdiana professed mainly Zoroastrianism, and statuettes of the goddess of fertility Anahita, various ossuaries - receptacles for the remains of fire worshipers were found in the cultural layer of the city. Images of the chariot, found in wall paintings and in gold figurines from the famous Amu Darya treasure, stored in the British Museum in London, resemble the words of the Zoroastrian hymn from the Avesta, which sings of the sun god: “We worship Mirtra, who rides on his heavenly chariot with high wheels. Four white immortal stallions lead that chariot, their front hooves are forged with gold, their rear with silver.
In the spiritual life of Sogdiana since ancient times was a place of distribution and intersection of different religions, in the first centuries of our era, Zoroastrianism was crowded out by new world religions - Buddhism and Christianity. It is known that in the first centuries of our era on the territory of Sogdiana near the modern city of Urgut, which is sixty kilometers from Samarkand, there was a center for the spread of Christianity. It was here that scientists discovered the remains of a Nestorian monastery. According to the Chinese pilgrim monk Xuan Jiang, who visited Samarkand in the 7th century, he visited the Buddhist monastery located here, however, he found it already in a state of decay and desolation.
The main thing in this cohabitation of beliefs in the Kushan era was their mutual tolerance, tolerance. In Sogdiana, in the religious sense, "all flowers bloomed," and this continued until the invasion of the Arabs, who put an end to all free-thinking in matters of faith.
SAMARKAND AQUEDUCT
Sogdiana was a prosperous region. The leading place in the economy was Agriculture and, above all, agriculture based on artificial irrigation. And it must be said that the ancient Sogdians achieved great success in the development of irrigation. So, the inner part of Samarkand - shahristan was supplied with water by a special sprinkler, which was separated from the main city canal Chakardiz. In historical sources, the channel is mentioned under the name "Jui-Arziz", or "Lead Canal". Water was supplied to the city through an arched overpass, which supported a plumbing aqueduct covered with lead on top. Special overseers guarded this unique hydraulic structure built of baked bricks all year round, which was not inferior to Roman aqueducts.
Sogdian artisans made woolen and silk fabrics. Cotton fabrics, which were made in the village of Vedar near Samarkand, were especially successful, and which were in demand not only in Central Asia, but also beyond its borders.
In many cities of Sogdiana, during archaeological excavations, pottery workshops were found in which glazed glazed ceramics were made. Craftsmen achieved great skill in the manufacture of products from colored glass and writing paper.
SPRAYING THE LANGUAGE WITH "STONE HONEY"
Already in the Hellenistic era, the famous Great Silk Road passed through the Sogdian cities, and Marakanda (Samarkand) was located at the main crossroads of the most important caravan roads. Lively trade relations had a strong influence on the culture of neighboring countries. If the Sogdians borrowed sericulture, paper production technology, weapons from China, the Chinese took seeds and seedlings of grapes, cotton, alfalfa from Central Asia. From here, from the Ferghana Valley, tireless horses were supplied to the Celestial Empire.
According to contemporaries, the Sogdians were skillful traders. They held in their hands trade in virtually the entire eastern section of the Silk Road - from Merv to the banks of the Yellow River. Samarkand, the main city of the country, was both a commercial and industrial center and a leading hub on the Great Silk Road. It concentrated the largest number foreign goods, as well as the bulk of local handicraft products.
Trade relations of Sogd also extended to the West to the Mediterranean. As the Byzantine historian Menander testifies, envoys from Sogdiana, led by the merchant Maniah, reached Constantinople by the ancient steppe routes, bypassing Iran along the northern coast of the Caspian Sea, and established diplomatic and trade relations with Byzantium.
According to the same Xuan Jiang, half of the inhabitants of Sogdiana were engaged in agriculture, the other half - in trade. In Samarkand, born boys were smeared with “stone honey” on their tongues, and glue was put on their palms so that they would hold the money tightly. From the age of five they studied books, and when they grew up, they were sent to learn to trade. Having reached the age of twenty, the young men left for neighboring possessions, where they could hope for a profitable trade.
Fairs were one of the oldest forms of trade in Sogd. Xuan Jiang noted in his notes that “every year, merchants from all countries came to large fairs and there they discussed their trade affairs, sold and bought. At fairs, they also traded with nomads. The main places of exchange were established in the regions bordering the steppe, where the Turks drove their cattle and brought their products, and where, in turn, Sogdian merchants arrived for purchase and exchange.
OUTSTANDING LUXURY OF KNOWLEDGE
Sogdiana in the first centuries of our era was famous not only for crafts and trade. Arts and literature flourished in the cities of Sogd. Sogdian writing was based on the use of the Aramaic alphabet. The earliest Sogdian texts that have come down to our time date back to the beginning of the 4th century and represent a private correspondence expressed in a very literary language.
Forty years ago, during the excavations of one of the hills of Afrasiab, a rich house was discovered, in which the walls were decorated with paintings depicting smartly dressed horsemen and horsemen sitting on elephants, camels and horses. On the clothes of one of the men, whose facial features have ethnic differences from the faces of other characters, there was a Sogdian inscription. Having deciphered it, the scientists read the text, which read: “I am the head of the Chancellery named Bur-Zatak. I arrived in Samarkand with an expression of respect for the Samarkand king. And you have absolutely no suspicions about me - I am well aware of the Samarkand gods and writing ... "
Sogdian artists enthusiastically depicted the wealth and luxury of noblemen. On the walls of the temple and palace halls in Samarkand, Varakhsh and Penjikent, they painted noble nobles in luxurious clothes made of brocade and silk, in golden crowns and belts, with daggers at their belts, in precious earrings, necklaces and bracelets, with pampered faces and thin girlish waists. , with gilded bowls in graceful hands.
The Arabs also saw them in reality, which aroused envy and greed in them, and, no doubt, the defiant luxury of the local nobility influenced the scope of the Arab conquests.
THE FALL OF SOTH
The Arab armies reached Sogdiana, nicknamed by them the "Garden of the Victorious Caliph" in 651. But here they faced a long and difficult struggle. Only in 712 Sogd was defeated by the Muslim troops of Kuteiba ibn Muslim. The Sogdian ishkhid (king) - Afshin of Samarkand Divashtich did not submit to the conquerors, and the Arabs appointed Gurek as king.
Divashtich retired to his ancestral possession of Penjikent and there, seventy kilometers from the city, on Mount Mug, he built an impregnable castle. Ten years later, the governor of Khorasan, Emir Said al-Kharashi, decided to put an end to the recalcitrant Afshin. The Arabs destroyed the palace and fire temple in Penjikent, smashed statues, destroyed wall frescoes, burned Sogdian manuscripts. The fortress on Mount Mug was taken by storm, and Divashtich himself was captured. He was crucified on the wall of the mausoleum-naus near the modern city of Aktash in the Samarkand region.
The Arabs uprooted local religions and made Islam the state religion, the Sogdian language was supplanted by the Dari language, writing was replaced by Arabic script, this kind of "Eastern Latin".
After the 10th century, Sogd, as the name of a country and region, fell into disuse and, under the Temurids, was preserved only as the name of two small rustaks to the west of Samarkand.
In the early spring of 329 B.C. army Alexander the Great chasing the fugitive Bessa by going Hindu Kush, stepped on the ground Bactria. This satrapy met the king very unfriendly, the inhabitants hid all the products, and the soldiers, in order to somehow feed themselves, had to slaughter pack animals, but nothing could stop the stubborn king and the army began to move inland. The first Bactrian cities have already been conquered Aorn And Baktry, on the path of the Macedonian lies a waterless desert, which the army passes in five days. Pursuing the enemy, the troops go to the river Oks(Amu Darya).
Wide and full-flowing, with fast current, the river seemed an almost insurmountable barrier. Since all ships were burned by order of the retreating Bessa, Alexander ordered his men to stuff sacks of animal skins with grass and use them for the crossing. Today, thanks to the research of historians, under the guidance of Academician of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences E. Rtveladze, we know for sure that this historical event took place thirty kilometers to the west Termez a to a village called Chushka-Guzar and borrowed from the army Alexandra a few days.
But after forcing Oksa the pursuit of the enemy loses all meaning, since to Alexander messengers arrived - representatives of the local nobility, a Sogdian Spitamen and Bactrian datafern who offered to issue Bessa. Once a satrap, now proclaiming himself king Persia- Bess, was held by his former associates in custody in a small town in the region Nautaka(hillfort Uzunkyr close to modern Kitaba). They hoped that the Macedonian would leave the country, having received a hated traitor, but Alexander's troops turned to the side Maracanda.
In the rebellious city, the emperor seriously counted on help Spitamena, but he himself called the people Sogdiana to arms, and if earlier the Sogdians looked at Macedonian, as a liberator from the Persian yoke, now he was another invader for them. Despite the fact that the uprising was supported by the Bactrians and nomadic Saks, Alexander managed to suppress the turmoil and brutally crack down on disobedience, literally wiping out several large cities of the rebels from the face of the earth.
Having finished with the rebels, the Macedonian army moved to Jaxartu(Syrdarya) and here in a very convenient location Alexander decides to arrange his outpost with a loud name Alexandria - Eskhata.
The city was built in as soon as possible, in just 20 days and surrounded by a high fortress wall. Population Alexandria were soldiers of the Macedonian army unfit for service, and the local population who wished to remain. However, the tribes of the Scythians across the river saw in the built city a potential threat to their independence and Alexander was literally torn, trying to establish relations with the nomads and suppress the re-erupted uprising in maracande.
Relatively calm winter of 328-328 Macedonian spent on the territory Bactria V Zariaspe, and with the advent of spring reappeared Spitamen and the riots began. Those who came to Sogdiana the Macedonian troops did not know pity, many lands simply died out after the massacre. Afraid to continue guerrilla war, Alexander founded in the territory Sogd 8 fortified cities-fortresses, in order to have the necessary shelter from the rebels for themselves and their army.
In the winter of 328, the king received a luxurious gift. The Massagetae, who had gone over to his side, killed Spitamena, and presented the head Alexander(according to another version, the wife did all this Spitamena tired of endless wanderings). It would seem that calm will finally come in the country, but the spring, which promised to be calm, brought another riot.
This time, the instigators of the unrest were Sogdian aristocrats, who were extremely negative towards the emperor. Sowing in their impregnable mountain castles, they incessantly sowed confusion among the population. The Greeks called these castles - petra (rocks).
Alexander was waiting for a new campaign, and the first to stand in his way was " rock» one of the Sogdian nobles - Sisimitra. According to E. Rtveladze, this happened at the border Bactria And Sogdiana in the gorge Dara-i-Buzgala on the river Shurob-sai.
It was early spring and there was deep snow on the slopes. Family of a Sogdian nobleman oxyart, together with the soldiers took refuge in a high-mountain family castle on top of impregnable rocks. Alexander surrounded the fortress, but seeing the hopelessness of his enterprise, he invited the besieged to surrender, to which he listened to a series of ridicule, which overflowed the cup of his patience. Having summoned 300 warriors skilled in rock climbing, he promised them an incredible reward, and the soldiers did not disappoint. As soon as dawn broke, they settled in the fortress and saw not far above them an impressive detachment of Macedonians preparing for an attack. The besieged were amazed and surrendered to the mercy of the victor.
When the young king at the head of the army along a narrow path he climbed to the conquered fortress, the prisoners were taken out into the courtyard. The door to the chambers of the defeated prince slowly opened and a short girl stepped into the courtyard flooded with light. Hair the color of ripe wheat and big shining eyes - that's all I saw. Alexander, but one glance was enough to understand that the young woman is incredibly good. Roxanne, and that was the name of the captive, it was instantly offered to become his wife.
The wedding ceremony was simple: they cut bread with a sharp sword and gave a piece to the bride and groom (not from here - whether the Uzbek custom began to break the cake on the engagement day), but the wedding itself became very pompous. Indeed, on this day, ten thousand followed the example of the king soldiers of Alexander. And if earlier these local detachments, recruited into the Macedonian army, acted as independent units, then after such a significant event they became equal units Alexander's troops, and their leaders, such as brother Roxanne and the sons of sotraps, and completely became its elite.
Alexander systematically implemented his plan. After all, he understood that he could not hold the conquered lands only by force of arms, so he diligently mixed tribes and nationalities in order to eventually create a single eastern nation - the basis of his kingdom.
Father of his betrothed - Oxyartha Alexander received with great honor and respect. He was not only returned family estates, consisting of lands from the southeastern foothills Hissar a upstream Surkhandarya, but presented new ones. Now he became the satrap of a vast territory, including parts of Northern And Southern Bactria to the pass Hindu Kush.
But even the wedding could not tear the Macedonian away from the war for a long time. It was necessary to put things in order in the rest of the mountain castles.
The second fortified citadel that stood in the way of Alexander was " Horient rock". Surrounded on all sides by a deep abyss, this family nest of the local satrap was completely inaccessible. But that didn't stop Macedonian. Having ordered to cut the age-old fir trees growing on the slopes and to make flooring, Alexander step by step approached the rebellious fortress, but the troublemakers did not give up, and only when numerous arrows of the enemy reached the shelter, Horien agree to negotiate...
In 327 B.C. The Central Asian campaign of the great commander was over. His opinion about the peoples inhabiting this region has changed dramatically. Coming here just three years ago Alexander counted on an easy victory over the natives, but instead met with a fierce rebuff and readiness to continue the struggle for their independence. Yes, and local barbarians" turned out to be people of high culture, arts and crafts, to imitate which, according to the Alexandra It wasn't embarrassing at all.
In the summer of that year, leaving Sogdians And Bactria large military garrisons Alexander's army moved again Hindu Kush and left lands of Central Asia.
A new campaign of an ambitious Macedonian began, now his path lay in India…
In 323, in the thirty-third year of his life, the emperor died of an unknown illness in Babylon, after an unsuccessful Indian campaign. Roxanne She remained with her husband to the end, and a few days after his death she gave birth to a son. And though evil tongues claimed that Alexander was poisoned by his wife out of jealousy for his friend, who also died suddenly, this has not been proven and is not known for certain.
And it is known that Roxanne was well received by the mother Alexandra, and her teenage son was even on the throne for a while Macedonia. However Alexander's mother - Olympics, unfortunately I was not wise woman and managed to turn the Macedonians against herself and her family. In 317 BC. their rule was overthrown, and in 311 Roxanne and her son Alexander IV who were under arrest in the fortress were killed…
So the race was cut off Temeidov, who managed Macedonia from ancient times. Huge empire founded Alexander the Great, fell apart. The largest states were Egypt, with a ruling dynasty Ptolemaic, Syria, ruled by a dynasty Seleucid, which included the land Persian kingdom And Macedonia retaining its power over Greece, where the ancestor of the royal family became Antigonus Horatus. All the newly-minted rulers left the cabhort Alexander the Great where they were his favorite friends and associates.
A new era has begun Hellenism, proclaimed Greek dominance in the Middle East which led to the interweaving of Western and Eastern civilizations.
Ancient SogdianaSeleucus' co-ruler in the East was his son Antiochus, half Sogdian (his mother Apana was the daughter of Spitamen). The ancient country, devastated during the war and uprisings, began to recover under the Seleucids. There are no direct reports on the state of Marakanda at that time in historical sources. However, it is known that a certain rise was observed in the economic life of Sogd, Bactria, Margiana. New cities were built, old ones were strengthened, crafts and trade developed, coins were minted, and the irrigation network expanded.
Speaking about the densely populated fertile oasis irrigated by the waters of Zarafshan, which the Greek authors called Polytimet, it can be argued that artificial irrigation was increasingly expanding in ancient times as well. Samarkand archaeologist G. V. Grigoriev, exploring the settlement of Talibarzu, located near Samarkand, established that already in the 1st - 1st centuries BC, artificial irrigation was widely developed here. The peasants of Marakanda and the Zarafshan valley at that time grew wheat, rice, millet, alfalfa, cotton, planted orchards and vineyards. Sources say that in Ferghana and in the "neighboring countries" (ie, in Sogd and Bactria), the inhabitants made wine. "They love their wine as their horses love alfalfa." Wealthy landowners aged wine in cellars for several decades.
The inhabitants of Sogdiana, along with agriculture, were also engaged in cattle breeding. This is evidenced by archaeological finds of bones of domestic animals, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, pigs. Horse breeding was especially developed. Horses of pure blood from Sogdiana were known from the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. In ancient times, the country carried on a lively trade with East and West. The famous "silk road" passed through the Sogdian cities, crossing the Asian continent. Marakanda (Samarkand) was located at the main crossroads of the most important caravan routes from India, Byzantium, China, Tibet, Iran, Siberia, Scythia. The peoples of Sogdiana borrowed a lot from the countries of the West and the East and at the same time exerted a strong influence on neighboring countries. It has been proven that, for example, the Chinese borrowed from the peoples of Central Asia alfalfa, grapes, pomegranates, walnuts, many garden plants, China adopted cotton culture from the valleys of the Amu Darya, Zarafshan and Syr Darya. The same Chinese exported horses from the Ferghana Valley, which they called “heavenly” for their beauty, tirelessness, playfulness. In the last centuries BC, during the struggle of the Sogdians against foreigners, there were frequent changes in the historical map of Central Asia, borders changed, large state formations, such as the Greco-Bactrian kingdom and others, formed and disintegrated.
In the first century AD, Sogdiana and Bactria became part of a powerful slave-owning state, known in history as the power of the Great Kushans. The Kushan period (I-IV century AD) for Central Asia was a time of significant growth. City life is revived, trade relations of Sogdian cities, including Samarkand, with China and India are intensifying. Silk, jade, iron, nickel, lacquer and leather products came from East Asia, and glass, precious stones, and jewelry were exported from Central Asia. From India, instead of glassware and other Central Asian goods, spices, incense, paper and woolen fabrics were delivered. The Kushan Empire, which experienced a deep decline in the 3rd and 4th centuries, fell under the onslaught of warlike nomadic tribes, collectively known as the Hephthalites. In turn, in the 4th century, the Ephthalites were swept away by the tribes that formed the Turkic Kaganate.
Despite the upheavals caused by the change of kingdoms and dynasties, Samarkand continued to play an important role in the economic, political and cultural life of Central Asia and the entire East.
The Sogdians were known as skilful farmers and artisans, enterprising merchants, talented musicians and dancers. The historian V. V. Bartold, speaking of the Sogdians, emphasized that their cultural activity along the caravan routes of Central Asia was not much inferior to the cultural activity of the Phoenicians along the Mediterranean trade routes. And it is really difficult to overestimate the role of the Sogdians in those days. They actually controlled trade along the entire eastern section of the "Silk Road", which stretched from Merv to the Huang He River. Along the entire length of the ancient trade route, they founded their colonies, established business and economic contacts with local merchants and the population, and widely traded their goods. Overcoming artificial and deliberate obstacles created by the shahs of Iran, Sogdian merchants also penetrated the West. In the middle of the VI century, they twice tried to establish trade relations with the central regions of Iran. The first embassy from Sogdiana, headed by Maniah, was received at the court of the Sassanian king with extremely unkindness: the Persians demonstratively burned the silk brought by Sogdian merchants in front of the ambassadors. The Sogdians sent a new caravan. But this attempt ended tragically: the king of Iran ordered the ambassadors of Sogd to be poisoned.
The intrigues of the Iranian rulers could not shake the enterprise and perseverance of the Sogdian merchants. As the Byzantine historian Menander testifies, the messengers of Sogd used the ancient steppe routes that bypassed Iran along the northern coast of the Caspian Sea and established direct contact with Byzantium. The Sogdian embassy arrived in Constantinople. It was headed by the same Maniah. The Byzantine emperor, in turn, sent his envoy to Central Asia in 568. In this way, the Sogdians managed to establish strong trade, diplomatic and cultural ties with Byzantium, which lasted for many years. The measure of the high and original culture of the Sogdians is their writing. They usually wrote from right to left, often the lines were arranged vertically. Then they wrote with black ink on leather, sticks, tablets, clay shards, less often on paper.
The earliest Sogdian texts known to science are the so-called "Old Letters" found by A. Stein's expedition in 1906-1908. in the ruins of a watchtower west of Dunhuang. These documents date from the beginning of the 4th century AD. As the studies of the French Iranian scholar R. Gauthio have shown, they are written in the Sogdian language and represent a private correspondence.
In two letters dictated to the scribe by the Sogdian Mevancha (“Kitty” or “Tiger”) addressed to her mother, who lived in Samarkand, it is reported about the troubled days that the Sogdians then experienced in the trading colonies of Eastern Turkestan in connection with the onslaught of the Huns; about trade affairs; about the private life of the author of the letters. So, for example, a girl complains about her sad fate - her guardian Nanidag wants to marry her, but she does not agree: "I'd rather be the wife of a dog or a pig than the wife of Nanidat," Mevancha wrote to her mother in Samarkand. But a few years later everything changed. From another letter we learn that the girl has become Nanidat's wife, that she is happily married and tenderly cares for her beloved husband.
"Old letters" did not reach the addressees. For almost 1600 years they lay in the ruins of the tower, until they were discovered by archaeologists at the beginning of our century. In the spring of 1965, under the loess strata of the Afrasiab hills, in one of the excavated rooms, archaeologists discovered inscriptions that had remained silent for many centuries. A preliminary analysis of the text of the Afrasiab find led to the conclusion that the inscription contains a message about the arrival of an embassy to the Samarkand king from Chaganian, a region located then in the region of present-day Termez. This embassy was headed, judging by the inscription, by the head of the office, a certain Bur-Zatak. The text consists of 16 lines and has been preserved almost entirely. Only four words are corrupted at the end. The inscription, as researchers suggest, was made by a professional scribe, and its language is very close to colloquial speech of the late 7th - early 8th centuries.
The text of the inscription, deciphered by Professor V. A. Lifshitz, reads: “When the ambassador of the Xiongnu king arrived, he opened his mouth (and said): “I am the Chaganian head of the office, named Bur-Zatak (Son of Bur), I came from the Chaganian state of Turantash to Samarkand with an expression of respect for the Samarkand king. And here I am before the (Samarkand) king, full of reverence. And you have absolutely no suspicions about me - I am well aware of the Samarkand gods and Samarkand writing and I am full of respect (?) To the power of (your) king, and you are in complete prosperity. And also the Xiongnu king...” (the text is destroyed at this point). That's what the head of the Chancellery said." In addition to the Samarkand king, whose name is not indicated in the inscription, the “King of the Huns” is also mentioned, and it follows from the text that he was a major ruler - Chaganian should have been part of his kingdom, from where the embassy arrived. There is reason to believe that the "King of the Huns" should be understood as the ruler of the Ephthalites, who sometimes appears in written sources under the name of the king of Tokharistan. The caveat regarding the Samarkand religion (“gods”) and writing is very curious - the ambassador wants to assure the inhabitants of Samarkand that he does not even think of encroaching on their faith or writing.
In addition to these sixteen lines of the Sogdian text, up to ten more inscriptions were found on Afrasiab. Are Afrasiab paintings and Sogdian inscriptions a reflection of a real historical event? Or is it just a legend? So far, no definitive answer can be given to this question. Researchers believe that the names of the characters in the 16-line Sogdian inscription speak of an official event in the history of Sogd. The high level of the art of Samarkand of that time is evidenced by the artistic merit of the unique examples of Afrasiab wall painting, which occupied an exceptional place in the history of world art.
New archaeological finds prove that Sogdiana was a flourishing country before the Arab conquest. No wonder the Arabs, who had seen Mesopotamia and Iran before, admired the fertility and abundance of Sogd, calling it "the garden of the victorious caliph." And about the capital of Sogd - Samarkand, one of the participants in the Kuteiba campaign wrote: “Truly, it is like the sky in its greenery, and its palaces are like stars in heaven, and its river is a mirror for open spaces, and its wall is the sun for horizons!” This is how the Arab hordes of Kuteiba found Sogd and its flourishing center Samarkand.
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