Sogdiana, now occupied by modern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, was a settled and well-populated region by the time of Alexander's conquest of Central Asian in 328 BCE. The Seleucids, who established their governorship soon after Alexander's death, was the first of many foreign administrations to control the region, as it passed hands from one empire to another over the next several centuries. Sogdiana was the point where East, West, and South Asia collided. Greco-Macedonians, Parthians, Kushans, Hephthalites, and Sassanians, as well as Wei-and Tang-era Chinese, all left their mark on local Sogdian culture, religion, and language. In the mid-seventh century Sogdiana was absorbed by Arab conquests, and was dominated by Islamic culture from that point until the present day.

Occupying a major crossroads region in the overland trade routes, centrally situated between the two extremes of the Silk Route, Sogdians became successful both as traders and as suppliers for caravans. Basically an oasis culture, Sogdian urban areas grew around water supplies, and the markets of these oasis towns and cities were often stocked with luxury items from both the Mediterranean and from China, and all points between. As Sogdian merchants plied their trade on all legs of the Silk Route, their written and spoken language developed into a common tongue among traders of many ethnicities.

Sogdian artisans were admired for their excellent craftsmanship, and their interesting blend of western and eastern motifs and imagery (including Sassanian, Hellenistic, Indian and Chinese) is particularly recognizable in art surviving from many of the Buddhist monastic caves and other religious centers scattered throughout the Tarim Basin. Besides decorative motifs and patterns, Sogdians were also instrumental for the spread of many Near and Middle Eastern religious traditions into Asia, such as Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism and Nestorians.

As Albert E. Dien has noted, Sogdiana underwent great changes with the arrival of the Arabs. Dien describes how the conquest of the region began in earnest in the early 8th century:

The governor-general of Khurasan, the great general Qutayba ben Muslim, in 706 to 712, took over, and the local rulers became the vassals of the Arabs. There were some local uprisings, the area suffered from the campaigns, some of the cities being abandoned or destroyed, and with the change in the caliphate dynasty, from the Umayyads to 'Abbasids, in 750, came large scale conversions to Islam.¹

(1) The Glories of Sogdiana, by Albert E. Dien: