Transoxiana and Sogdiana: The Thrilling Conclusion, Pt. 2

In my last post, I discussed a lot of maps, and I wondered if the place names "Transoxiana" and "Sogdiana" were completely interchangeable. By that, I mean do these two terms refer to the same area. And based upon my research, I have drawn the following conclusion:

Kind of, sort of, maybe.

Here is the map from Empires of the Silk Road again. This map is probably the most helpful map because it lists Transoxiana and Sogdiana together. This map goes the extra mile in demonstrating that Transoxiana is, in fact, a much larger area than Sogdiana. It is the ideal map for this kind of investigation, and I wish other maps would take the hint.

But there is more evidence beyond maps to support my theory that Sogdiana is part of the larger Transoxiana area. There is no shortage of literature describing the borders of Sogdiana. This is a description of Sogdiana's varying borders by Etienne de la Vassiere:

[Sogdiana is an] Iranian-speaking region in Central Asia [stretching] from the rivers Amu Darya in the south to the Syr Dara in the north, with its heart in the valleys of the Zarafsan and the Kaska Darya...Sogdian colonial expansion in the north during the Early Middle Ages led to a Chinese pilgrim in the mid-seventh century to define Sogdiana as the entire region stretching from Lake Issyk Kul in eastern Kyrgyzstan to the Amy Darya (Xuanzang, tr. p. 26). After the ninth century, the name Sogd/al-Sogd was restricted to the rural area between Samarkand and Bukhara (Ebn Hawqal, p. 492; on Sogdian geography, see Barthold).(1)

 And here is a description of the borders of Transoxiana from The Cambridge History of Iran. 

Turan, or Transoxiana, was there vaguely defined as the area between the Oxus River and Khotan "on the frontiers of China"...Today Transoxiana would be the roughly rectangular area between the Amu Darya (Oxus) and the Syr Darya (Jaxartes) rivers, which flow into the Aral Sea from the Pamir and Tien Shan mountain ranges respectively.(2)

And, for my final pieces of evidence, I present two quotes from the Hudud al-Alam ('The Regions of the World') describing Transoxiana and its location.

East of this country are the borders of  Tibet; south of it, Korasan and its Marches; west of it, the Ghuz and the borders of the Khallukh; north of it, also the borders of the Khallukh. This is a vast, propserours, and very pleasant country. It is the gate of Turkistan and a resort of merchants.(3)

The second quote from the Hudud al-Alam goes further to describe the region of "Sughd" (this is the same as the aforementioned "Sogd"/"al-Sogd") located in Transoxiana.

Sughd, a region. There is no place among the eastern regions more flourishing than this. It has running waters, many trees, and a good climate. The people are hospitable and sociable. It abounds in amenities, is prosperous, and mild, pious people are numerous there.(4)

The way my investigation is shaping up, it appears that Sogdiana is, in fact, part of the larger area of Transoxiana. However, if any of my dear readers are like me, they will likely be wondering where the confusion came from. I believe I may have an answer for that, as well.

Transoxiana, according to Albert E. Dien, is comprised of three regions: Khorezm, Ferghana, and Sogdiana (5). So, if we refer to this map from Etienne de la Vassiere's Sogdian Traders: A History, we can get a better idea of just what Transoxiana encompasses.

This map displays the areas of Khorezm, Sogdiana, and Ferghana very nicely and prominently. We can also see Bactria, Sogdiana's immediate southern neighbor. What is important to note about these areas, as Dien points out, is that these are all areas with predominantly Iranian-speaking populations.(6) An important characteristic of Sogdiana is that Sogdians were the dominant language group there. And, while Sogdian kings with imperial intentions grew the borders of Sogdiana to encompass Lake Issyk Kul (just north of the Tarim Basin and Tianshan mountains on the above map) all the way to the Amu Darya (7), this does not change the following facts: The Sogdian heartland is in the Sogdian plains, and the larger area of Transoxiana includes Sogdiana as just a part of a larger whole. Border expansion and contraction, along with such closely related languages among related Iranian groups, may have contributed greatly to the jumbling of these terms.

Sogdiana is just a part of the lovely Iranian-language tapestry that is Transoxiana.

In his article on Transoxiana, Vassiere discusses the use and definition of this place name:

Ma wara al-nahr (lit. "What lies beyond the river") [is] the classical designation for Transoxiania or Transoxiana. It was defined by the early Arabic historians and geographers as the lands under Muslim control lying to the north of the middle and upper Oxus or Amu Darya, in contrast to Iran proper and its eastern province of Khorasan, sometimes called Ma dun al-nahr (lit. "what lies this side of the river")...The norther frontiers of Ma wara al-nahr are ill-defined and tended to correspond to the limits of Arab military expansion, but by early Abbasid times (ca. 800 CE) they might be taken to comprise the regions between the Oxus and Jaxartes or Syr Darya, that is, Sogdia, the upper Oxus provinces of Caganiyan, Kottal, and Wakan, Osrusana to the south of the middle Syr Darya; Cac [Chach] or Sas beyond the middle Syr Darya, and Fargana and the vally of the upper Syr Darya.(8)

Sogdiana's borders have variously grown and retracted, just as the definition of Transoxiana has. However, it is clear that Transoxiana has been used to refer to far more land area than Sogdiana, and, depending on the time period being discussed, likely should be properly designated and distinguished in future research to avoid confusion.

It is my hope that this research of the geography of Sogdiana, Transoxiana, and Central Eurasia has provided some insight to the issue of discussing places that have had nebulous, changing borders and inconsistent sources on those borders. I hope my dear readers can get a sense of how difficult it can be to research these areas, even on a question that should be as straightforward and simple as names for regions on a map.

Sources

1) de la Vassiere, Etienne. "Sogdiana iii. - History and Archaeology," Encyclopedia Iranica online edition, 2011. available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sogdiana-iii-history-and-archeology accessed October 7, 2015

2) Guity, Azarpay, "The Development of Arts in Transoxiana," Cambridge History of Iran: Seleucid, Parthian, and Sassanian Periods. ed. Ehsan Yarshater. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 1130.

3)Unknown, Hudud al-Alam 'The Regions of the World': A Persian Geography 37 A.H - 982 A.D. trans.Vladimir Minorsky. ed. C. E. Bosworth. (London: Gibb Memorial Trust, 2015), 119

4) Ibid.

5) Dien, Albert E. "The Glories of Sogdiana", The Silk Road Foundation. accessed 10/9/2015. http://www.silk-road.com/artl/sogdian.shtml

6) Ibid.

7) de la Vassiere, Etienne. "Sogdiana iii. - History and Archaeology," Encyclopedia Iranica online edition, 2011. available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/sogdiana-iii-history-and-archeology accessed October 7, 2015

8) Bosworth, C. Edmund. "Ma Wara al-Nahr", Encyclopedia Iranica online edition, 2011. available at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/mawara-al-nahr accessed 10/7/2015

Maps 

MAP 1
Unknown. Premodern Central Eurasia [map]. no scale. In: Christopher I. Beckwith. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009, inside cover.


MAP 2 and MAP 3
Unknown. Central Asia General Map [map]. 3" = 1000 km. In: Etienne de la Vassiere. Sogdian Traders: A History. Leiden: Brill, 2005, 14.