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TURKO-SOGDIAN COINAGE, issues of the khaqans (ḵāqāns)
of the Western Turkic khanate in Central Asia between the 6th and 8th
centuries CE, so called because the Turkic rulers issued them with
Sogdian inscriptions (Smirnova, 1952). The existence of the coinage
points to the khaqans’ consolidation of political and economic power
and control over local rulers.
During the last decades of the 20th century, excavations in the
regions of medieval Čāč (q.v.), Čaḡāniān (q.v.), and Otrār in modern
Ukbekistan and Semirechye (south of Lake Balkhash) in modern Kyrgyzstan
significantly increased the number of known Turko-Sogdian coins. Among
these finds, there are new types with inscriptions, not only in
Sogdian, but also in Bactrian, the language of Farghana (see FARḠĀNĀ),
and Arabic. The relatively small number of these coins found in Sogd,
Čāč, and Farghana reflects the impact of the Arab conquest of
Transoxiana (Māwarāʾan-nahr) and the subsequent introduction of new
Islamic coins.
The coinage is not yet well studied, but it has been
proposed to call them Old Turkic coins, because all seem to be related
to Turkic rule despite the various languages of their legends and
countermarks (Baratova, 1999).
Local monetary traditions determined the manufacture of
these coins. In southern Central Asia (i.e., lower Transoxiana), Turkic
rulers adopted the Sogdian and Bactrian practice of countermarking
Sasanian silver coins (see DIRHAM i. IN PRE-ISLAMIC PERSIA). In
mid-Central Asia (evidenced at sites in the valleys of the Kafirnagan
and Vakhsh rivers in Tajikistan), coin design was influenced by Chinese
designs as well as local patterns. Turko-Sogdian coinages can be
roughly divided into three large classes with several groups and types.
A. Various silver and copper coinages that circulated in
Toḵāristān (Transoxania): (1) Imitations of coins ascribed to Ḵosrow II
(591-628) with the inscription “Vraḵa-tigin” (Göbl, emission 208). This
name has been identified with Baraḵ-tigin or Baḵra-tigin, the founder
of the Kabolšāhi dynasty (Humbach, pp. 59-62). (2) Coins issued by
Turkic rulers in Arachosia, imitations of drachms of Ḵosrow II. These
are new types not included in Göbl’s classification (Nikitin). (3)
Issues with Sogdian countermarks, consisting of the Turkic titles ḵān (ḵāqān) and tkyn (tigin), on coins of Pērōz (459-84) and their imitations. (4) Coins ascribed to Sasanian rulers countermarked with tamgas
(dynastic symbols) of the Turgesh (West Turkic) khaqan. (5) Coins with
Bactrian legends containing the Turkic titles ḵāqān, tigin, tudun, and tarḵān.
These were issued between the end of the 7th and the beginning of the
8th century by the rulers of Zābolistan. It remains an open question
whether they can be considered Turko-Sogdian (Göbl, II, p. 257; Davary,
pp. 281-83; Klyashtorniĭ, p. 159).
B. Bronze coins which follow the principal design of the
Chinese cash (i.e., with a square hole in the center) and have Sogdian
inscriptions. (1) Turgesh coins from Semirechye, dated toward the end
of the 7th century. (2) Coins of the “Turgesh circle” with Sogdian
script on both sides, known as “Tukhus coins.” A Turgesh tamga and
runic sign occur on the obverse, and the names of the local Sogdian
ruler are on the reverse in Sogdian script. Seven types of such Turgesh
coins were issued in Semirechye after 730. (3) Coins with Turkic names
and titles, issued in the cities of Soghd, Čāč, Farghana, and
Semirechye from the end of the 7th to the mid-8th century. (4) Coins of
anonymous khaqans from Soghd, Čāč, and Farḡana around the middle of the
8th century. A possible answer to the important question of who were
these anonymous ḵāqāns is suggested by the distribution of the coin
finds, the Turkic traditions of political rule, and Central Asian
history. The title of khaqan was used as an equivalent of the Sogdian
title xwʾβ (xwabu “lord, ruler”), which often appeared on
Central Asian coins of the 6th-8th centuries. Therefore it seems
probable that these coins were issued by Turkic sovereigns who ruled
for a short time over parts of Soghd and Čāč. (5) “Proto-Qaraḵanid”
(see ILAK-KHANIDS) coins from Semirechye in the 9th-10th centuries with
Arabic inscriptions in Kufic script.
C. Copper coins with Turkic images and tamgas and Sogdian
inscriptions. which do not always convey Turkic names and titles. At
present, the Turkic titles tudun and khatun have been
identified, but most of the titles are of eastern Iranian origin. Their
use is not surprising, since the Turks of the Western and Eastern
Turkic khanates accepted the Sogdian language, and especially employed
the script, for official purposes.
See also ILĀQ.
Bibliography: Larissa Baratova,
“Alttürkische Münzen Mittelasiens aus dem 6.-10. Jh.n.Chr.: Typologie,
Ikonographie, historische Interpretation,” Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan
31, 1999, pp. 219-92. Idem, “O nadchekanakh na sasanidskikh monetakh i
ikh podrazhaniyakh v Tokharistane” (On countermarks on Sasanian coins
and their imitations in Tokharistan), in Termez City and its Place in the World Civilization,
Tashkent and Termez, 2001, pp. 53-56. Larissa Baratova and Vladimir
Livshits, “O sogdiĭskikh nadchekanakh na sasanidskikh monetakh i
podrazhaniyakh im” (On Sogdian countermarks on Sasanian coins and their
imitations), in Kul’turnoe nasledie Sredneĭ Azii, ed. R. Suleimanov, Tashkent, 2002, pp. 21-26. Iakinf [Nikita Yakovlevich Bichurin, d. 1853], Sobranie svedenii o narodakh, obitavshikh v Sredneĭ Azii v drevnie vremena (A
collection of information on the peoples living in Central Asia in the
ancient period), ed. N. Ya. Bichurin, 3 vols., Moscow and Leningrad,
1950 -53. Édouard Chavannes, Documents sur les Tou-Kiue (Turcs) occidentaux, St. Petersburg, 1903. Gholam Djelani Davary, Baktrisch: Ein Wörterbuch auf Grund der Inschriften, Handschriften, Münzen und Siegelsteine, Heidelberg, 1982. Robert Göbl, Dokumente zur Geschichte der iranischen Hunnen in Baktrien und Indien, 4 vols., Wiesbaden, 1967. Helmut Humbach, Baktrische Sprachdenkmäler, Wiesbaden, 1966. Alexander M. Kamyshev, Rannesrednevekovyĭ monetnyĭ kompleks Semirech’ia (The
early medieval monetary complex of Semirechye), Bishkek, 2002. Sergei
G. Klyashtorniĭ, “Versiya drevneturkskoĭ genealogicheskoĭ legendy u
al-Biruni” (A version of the Old Turkish genealogical legend and
Biruni) in G. F. Girs et al., Srednevekovyĭ Vostok. Istoriya, kul’tura, istochnikovedenie, Moscow, 1980, pp. 159-61. Vladimir Livshits, “Pis’mennost’ drevneĭ Fergani” (Written languages of ancient Ferghana), Narody Azii i Afriki 6,
1968, p. 230. Vladimir Nastich, “Monetnyie nakhodki iz Kazakhstana i
Kirgizii” (Coin finds from Kazakhstan and Kirgizstan), in Tezisy dokladov vtoroĭ numizmaticheskoĭ konferentsii,
Moscow, 1987, pp. 52-53. Alexander Nikitin, “Monety ‘iranskikh gunnov’
v sobranii Gosudarstvennogo istoricheskogo muzeya” (Coins of the
“Iranian Huns” in the collection of the State Historical Museum), in Trudy Gosudarstvennogo istoricheskogo muzeya 61, Moscow, 1986, pp. 82-88. O. I. Smirnova, Materialy k svodnomu katalogu sogdiĭskikh monet (Materials for a general catalogue of Sogdian coinage), Moscow, 1952. Eadem, Svodnyĭ katalog Sogdiĭskikh monet: Bronza (General catalogue of Sogdian coins: bronze), Moscow, 1981. Francois Thierry, “Sur les monnaies des Türgesh,” in Coins, Art and Chronology: Essays on Pre-Islamic History of the Indo-Iranian Borderlands,
ed. M. Alram and D. Klimburg-Salter, Wien, 1999, pp. 322-49. E. V.
Zeimal, “The Circulation of Coins in Central Asia during the Early
Medieval Period (Fifth–Eighth Centuries A.D.),” Bulletin of the Asia Institute,
N.S. 8, 1994, pp. 245-267. L. Zhou and Sh. Ren, “Dui Tuqishi Sute wen
qian de tantao” (On Turkic Coins with Sogdian Inscriptions), ZGQB/China Numismatics 1, 1995, pp. 8-12.
(Larissa Baratova)
October 7, 2005 |