1. Liyi 栗弋
[Li-i]
= Sogdiana. This name is an obvious mistake for Suyi 粟弋
[Su-i]. For details
on the name Sūlī
= Sogdiana, see Bailey (1958), pp. 76-78, and Pulleyblank (1968), p.
125.
See also the
note on Kangju at 2.13 above.
“The name of
Soghdak or Sogdiana first appears in the Hou-han-shu, Bk. 118. It is transcribed
Li-i 栗弋,
which is to be read Su-i 粟弋
[the very
similar characters su 粟
and
li 栗
are commonly
confused], *Siwok-ick (*Siwok-dck)
“Soghdak.” The passage runs as follows: “The country of Li-i belongs to
K’ang-chü. Excellent horses, cattle, grapes and many other kinds of fruit are
produced there. Among other things the country is famous for wine because of
(its) water of superior quality.” The description could apply quite well to
Sogdiana in Central Asia, which has been famous for its beautiful water, wine,
and splendid horses from ancient times to the present. K’ang-chü is the present
Kirghiz Steppe to the north of the Syr and must not be identified with
Sogdiana.” Enoki (1955), p. 51.
Sogdiana was
centred in the Zerafshan (Zaravshan) and Kashka Daryâ valleys, and included the
important oases cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, on the main trade route to Merv
and beyond.
“This was a time when large-scale
irrigation systems were developed in the Zerafshan and Kashka Darya valleys and
the Tashkent oasis.... As a result of the development of irrigation in the
Zerafshan valley, a vast area was supplied with water and brought under
cultivation. According to our calculations, some 3,400-3,500 km2 of
land along the lower reaches of the Zerafshan alone were irrigated in the period
from the first to the fourth century A.D.
The western boundary of these ancient irrigated lands, which today passes
through the sands of the Kyzyl Kum, was then at certain points situated some
tens of kilometres beyond the present-day limits of the Bukhara oasis. Thus,
during the Kushan period, practically the entire flood-plain of the Zerafshan
valley was brought under cultivation, and the two large agricultural oases of
Samarkand and Bukhara were established.” Mukhamedjanov (1996), p.
266.
There is no
evidence that the Kushans ever directly controlled Sogdiana – but it was
controlled by the Kangju who seem to have maintained friendly relations with the
Kushans. This friendship was sealed by the marriage of a Kangju princess to the
Kushan Emperor in 84 CE.
(See the biography of Ban Chao in Hou Hanshu, 77.6 b, Chavannes (1906),
p. 230; Zürcher (1968), p. 369.
Pliny NH (b) (VI.
XVIII)
describes Sogdiana as an independent entity:
“Beyond [the
Bactri centred at Zariasta or Balkh] are the Sogdiani and the town of Panda, and
on the farthest confines of their territory Alexandria [= modern Khujand],
founded by Alexander the Great. At this place there are altars set up by
Hercules and Father Liber, and also by Cyrus and Samiramis and by Alexander, all
of whom found their limit in this region of the world, where they were shut in
by the river Syr Darya, which the Scythians call the Silis and which Alexander
and his soldiers supposed was the Don.... Beyond are some tribes of
Scythians....”
I have been unable to find references to a town called ‘Panda’ in other
sources. It must be assumed to refer to Samarkand (ancient Maracanda
–
the site now known as Afrasiab). It is tempting, however, to associate it with
the similar-sounding town of Panjikent some 60 km east of Samarkand but it is
thought that Panjikent was not founded until the 5th century.
Alexandria Eschate (‘Alexandria-the-farthest’ = modern Khujand, also
called Khojand, Khodzent or Leninabad) on the Jaxartes (Syr Darya), is briefly
mentioned in the Weilue. The passage indicates that, by the time of the Weilue,
Sogdiana had been broken up into semi-independent kingdoms within the Kangju
federation: “Northern Wuyi
(modern Khujand) is a separate ‘kingdom’ within Kangju (Tashkent plus the Chu, Talas
and middle Jaxartes basins).”
“Alexander now
camped on the Syr Darya river, 250 kilometres to the north-east of Samarkand,
and the northern frontier of the Persian empire. Here, he had selected a site
for a city, but work was postponed by news of the growing rebellion in Sogdia,
which was spreading to Bactria, where a 7,000 cavalry nucleus had joined
Spitamenes. Alexander immediately sent forces to blockade Cyropolis (today’s
Kurkath is Kurus katha: ‘city of Cyrus’) a frontier town founded by Cyrus of
Persia in 530 BC. Cyropolis was the centre of seven towns and
the Greeks sacked these, one by one, mercilessly applying their military
convention of killing all the men of military age. Cyropolis resisted sharply;
so, too, did the fortress of a people known as the Memaceni – probably the
ancient citadel of Ura-Tyube, which stand on a high mound 50 kilometres south of
the river….
After the fall of Cyropolis, and its neighbouring towns, Alexander
returned to the Syr Darya to build his new town, which was now urgently needed
as a forward-campaign base, given the worsening military situation. In seventeen
days, a wall of sun-dried brick, 6 kilometres long, was thrown up around the
camp to form the basis of the city which would have the honour, among over
thirty Alexandrias, of being Alexandria Escharte – the Farthermost. It was
populated by the usual mix: wounded, invalids, press-ganged mercenaries, retired
veterans (some unwilling), but also with freed captives. Curtius claims
(although how he knows this is unclear) that in his day (AD 30s) the descendants of these people still
retained their identity as a group because of their memory of Alexander. The
town was a successful place in the Middle Ages, notable for its ‘chivalrous’
population, and ‘as famous for its pomegranates as Samarkand is for its apples’.
It survived and is still a nice spot today, though burning hot in summer.
Khodzent, in Tajikistan (having recently reverted to its medieval name after a
few decades as Leninabad), is a pleasant modern town with a promenade along the
river, and the Mogul Tau mountains rising nearly 1600 metres immediately beyond
the town. Here Alexander would build his northernmost altars dedicated to
Dionysus, perhaps somewhere near the spot where, today, a gleaming titanium
statue of Lenin stand gesturing to the East, a monument to another wave of
history which shook the world and then receded. Although the city may not quite
have fulfilled Alexander’s hope of being ‘a world famous place’, Khodzent is
still one of his happier legacies.” Grant (2001), pp.
156-158.