The Mount Mugh Documents and Sogdian Epigraphy

Sogdian epigraphy of Central Asia and Semirech’e.

by Vladimir A. Livshits,  

Translated from the Russian by Tom Stableford. 

Edited by Nicholas Sims-Williams 

Corpus Inscriptionum Iranicarum 

Part II Inscriptions of the Seleucid and Parthian Periods and of Eastern Iran and Central Asia 

Vol. III. Sogdian). London: School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

This volume presents the English translations of some very important and major works of  Vladimir Aronovich Livshits on the Sogdian language, culture and sources. The volume is arranged in two parts. The first part is a translation of Sogdian documents from Mount Mug (kuh-e moḡ), site of the 7th-8th-century refuge of the rulers of Penjikent in Sogdiana, located in the upper reaches of the Zeravshan in northern Tajikistan, where an important archive of documents written in Sogdian was discovered by A. A. Freiman’s 1933 expedition. Livshits has taken part  first and foremost, in the deciphering of the Mnt. Mug archive of Sogdian documents from Mount Mug.

The second part of the volume, dedicated to the English translations of some ten important articles of Livshits, concerning the Sogdian epigraphy, in which he examines “not only the purely philological problems but also questions of the history and culture of Sogd, aided by his frequent participation in archaeological excavations and journeys to the lands of historical Sogdiana in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kirgizia”.

Part I. DOCUMENTS FROM MOUNT MUG: LEGAL DOCUMENTS AND LETTERS

• Legal documents
• Letters
• Financial documents

Part II. ARTICLES ON SOGDIAN EPIGRAPHY

• Kesh (Shahrisabz) in Sogdian texts and coin legends
• ‘Created by Fire and Good Thought’ in a Sogdian inscription from Penjikent
• Sogdian documents from the fortress of Chilkhujra
• A Sogdian alphabet from Penjikent
• The leader of the people of Chāch in Sogdian inscriptions and coin legends
• Sogdian and Bactrian wall inscriptions at the site of Afrasiab
• Sānak, a Manichaean Sogdian bishop of the 5th to early 6th century
• The Sogdian Buddhist fragment Kr IV/879 no. 4263 from the manuscript collection of the St. Petersburg branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences
• A Sogdian document from Old Samarkand
• Sogdian epigraphy of Semirech’e

About the Author:

Vladimir Aronovich Livshits is Chief Researcher at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (IOM) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).