Settled rather than saddled Scythians: the easternmost Sakas

Waghmar, Burzine

Abstract

At the easternmost edge of the Iranic world, settled rather than saddled Scythians ran the kingdom of Khotan as Iranian-speaking Buddhists who traded and tussled with their T’ang and Tibetan neighbours. Straddling the Sino-Tibetan and Irano-Indic oecumenes, these Saka dynasts of the southern ‘Silk Road’ were conquered and converted by the Turkification and Islamisation of the Tarim Basin. Their effect, both historical and artistic, merits consideration in Scythian studies for their own achievements. This survey is based on the existing corpora of administrative and religious texts in Khotanese, an amply documented Middle Iranian language, which enables the tracing of the trajectory of these Scythian legatees until the end of antiquity.

Citation

Waghmar, B. (2020). Settled rather than saddled Scythians: the easternmost Sakas. In S. Pankova, & S. J. Simpson (Eds.), Masters of the Steppe: the Impact of the Scythians and Later Nomad Societies of Eurasia. Proceedings of a conference held at the British Museum, 27-29 October 2017 (639-649). Archaeopress

• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: Jan 29, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 29, 2021
• Pages: 639-649
• Book Title: Masters of the Steppe: the Impact of the Scythians and Later Nomad Societies of Eurasia. Proceedings of a conference held at the British Museum, 27-29 October 2017.
• ISBN: 9781789696479
• Keywords: Bactria; Mahayana Buddhism; eastern Middle Iranian; Khotan; Khotanese Saka; Kushans; Parthia; Sakas; Scythians; Sistan; Tarim Basin; Tillya tepe; Yuezhi
• Related Public URLs: https://archaeopress.com/ArchaeopressShop/Public/displayProductDetail.asp?id={9AAB5339-80D4-4683-969B-E68DF70643C5}
• Additional Information: Additional Information : Volume of papers read at a conference accompanying the BP exhibition, Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia, The British Museum, London, 14 Sep. 2017-14 Jan. 2018.