Sogdian inscriptions from the collection of the Samarkand State Museum Reserve Inventory No. – Кп-6000/8

Sogdian inscriptions from the collection of the Samarkand State Museum Reserve Inventory No. – Кп-6000/8

Letter of Afshun to Karte. Inventory No. – Кп-6000/8 Settlement of Afrasiab.

Year of discovery—1933. Refound in 1998 during the inventory of the Afrasiab Museum. Sogdian text written on leather, 13.5 x 8.3 cm. The inscription is written in ink. The leather on which the document is inscribed has traces of folds and seams on the left side. An earlier text (washed away), also Sogdian, left faint traces of letters. On the front side there are 3 full lines, on the back - 2 lines, incomplete and partially damaged.  The sealing (bulla) on red clay is affixed to the upper left corner of the document.

Transliteration

(R) /1/ ʼt βγw xwβw pryw ʼšyw /2/ krtk MN xypδ [βn]tk /3/ rwstyk xwβ ʼpšʼwn (V) /1/ βγw xwβw [ /2/ ] MN [

Translation

(R) /1-2/ To the lord and sovereign Kartē, beloved and oft remembere, from his [sla]ve /3/ Afshūn, sov-ereign of Rōst (V) /1/ [To] the lord and sovereign [ /2/ ] from [

Notes: The initial part of Afshun’s letter to Karte. In terms of paleography and spelling, this document is similar to the Mug documents (where there is a lot of correspondence from Afshun). It can be attributed to the first quarter of the 8th century.  During this period, the villages of Khakhsar and Rust (near modern Urgut) were part of the Panch dominion, the ruler of which Dewashtich formed a coalition of cantons southeast of Samarkand and along the Upper Zeravshan.

Bibliography:

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