Les Sogdiens en Chine

The sogdians were not simply the great traders who, all the sources agree, bound China to Central Asia. These immigrants from Samakand or Bukhara, speaking an Iranian language, settled in Nothern China and played active roles there as soldiers, artisans, farmers, translators or diplomats in the social, economic, artistic and even political life from the fifth to the eight century AD. This book, a collection of twenty-one articles by Chinese, Japanese and Western scholars, draws on the most recent discoveries, both archaeological and textual, to present a vivid picture of Sogdian activities in China.