213

tienne de la Vaissire

the last Bactrian Kings

In praise of J. Marquart

in the sogdian Mugh document V8, dated 707708, the title of the reigning prince of Panjikent, qan r
Bilg, has been translated or identified in very diverse ways: it can be read xtyk MLK pncy MRY. the second
part of the title, pncy MRY, is clear and belongs to the usual titulature of the prince of Panjikent. We now
know that the title MRY was pronounced in sogdian Afn, as demonstrated by Yaqbs arabic transcription
iid al-Sughd Afn Samarqand of the legend swdyk MLK smrkndc MRY on the coins of the town, as well
as by my recent reading of this title in the legend on a Bactrian seal.1 the aristocratic
hierarchy was organized along a three-tier system in sogdiana, with the x (MLK) on the top, as the king
of sogdiana, then the Afn (MRY) as the prince of the main oasis or towns, and then the khv (xw) which
could be translated by english sir, or French sire, both in their precise meaning of noble landlord and as a
common name for noble, from the king down to the esquire. But the first part of xtyk MLK pncy MRY is
still mysterious. Olga smirnova proposed to regard it as a translation, based on the common iranian word baxt,
fate, fortune, of the turkish title qutlug, fortunate.2 Vladimir livshic, due to the strong parallel with swdyk
MLK, the sogdian royal title of dwt, qan r Bilgs successor on the throne, would have preferred
it to be a toponym, and in the second edition of his edition of the sogdian documents from Mount Mugh, read
it as the name of a small rustaq at the border of Ustrushana, *Baghtn.3 ilya Gershevitch proposed the small
town of Faghkath, near Khujand.4 recently, Pavel lure returned to smirnovas interpretation but preferred
to see the turkish lglg behind xtyk, the etymology of both being having a share, hence fortunate.5
each of these two lines of interpretation has problems of its own. i regard livshics and Gershevitchs iden-
tifications of the toponym as impossible, as there was a clear and strong hierarchy of titles in sogdiana. the
highest title, MLK, king, is only used for large countries, never for small places or even small regions. if there
were some MRY of upper Zarafshan, or of Ustrushana, or of samarqand itself, there were only kings of sog-
diana as a whole, or of Farghana. no king of a small rustaq or town could have existed. if xtyk is a toponym,
it should be an important one. so we are left with the idea of smirnova as modified or not by lure. it is clearly
a good idea, well connected with the fact that the prince of Panjikent is then a turk. Moreover we know that
during this period the epithet qutlug is indeed known, as it is attested in the Bactrian documents as oooo.6
However the same remark applies: even if we are to regard xtyk as a sogdian translation of qutlug, then we

1 see la Vaissire 2007: 2829. rahman, sims-Williams and Grenet 2006: 128.
2 lure 2005: 129 n. 6. P. lure informs me that O. smirnova published her idea in smirnova 1963: 11.
3 livic 1962: 49. livic 2008: 5355. the toponym is itself a reconstruction. it is usually read Faknn.
4 Gershevitch 1975: 206, with Barthold 1968: 167.
5 lure 2005: 128130.
6 sims-Williams 2000: 9899. document t dated 478, i.e. most probably 701 Ce.
214 tienne de la Vaissire

still need to find the reason for the royal title MLK. King of what? this high title is left without any precise
meaning, which is even more unlikely than livshics or Gershevitchs identifications. Obviously it would be
possible to regard it as part of the translation, and to read it as qaghan. But qaghan is always transcribed in
sogdian (xn), from the Bugut inscription onwards, and never rendered by MLK. Furthermore the name of
the tribe is always mentioned. On the contemporary trgesh coins, both xn and prn are to be found.7 Prn
is the normal translation of the idea of qut in sogdian, as rightly pointed out by Pavel lure.8 We do have
plenty of examples of one being translated by the other, including into titles, where qutlug is translated by
prnxwnt.9 as regards the possibility adduced by Pavel lure, lglg, although fitting quite well the would-
be etymology of xtyk, it is unknown on coins or inscriptions.10
But Pavel lure adds also to the corpus a strong parallel to the word xtyk which proved to be the key to
the interpretation: on two series of Bactrian coins, 244 and 245 in Gbl, it is possible to read
and .11 these are the coins of the ruler Pangul of the first half of the
8th c. in Zabulistan.12 the only problem in the parallel, as nicholas sims-Williams kindly pointed out to me,
is the double gamma of the Bactrian form, which would rather be a suffixmeaning made of (pronounced
ing) than the simple derivative for which one single gamma would be necessary, although he has himself trans-
lated it, on a provisional basis, as meaning of Baghd.13 to this parallel one should add another one in Pahlavi,
first noticed by a.B. nikitin: on the 265 series of Gbl, and maybe also on the 266, the title ybgw bhlkn can
be read.14 these coins are also from Zabulistan of the first half of the 8th century, the 266 from the 720s. this
last title is devoid of any ambiguity. the turkish lords of Zabulistan who issued the 265 and 266 coins graced
themselves with the lordship on the bhlkn, i.e. the Bactrians.
these parallels give some very good reasons to think that, 1) this word xtyk/ is linked to the
turkish or sogdo-turkish world as it belongs to the title of turkish lords, qan r Bilg, a Qaghan and a
tarkhan tudun; 2) with these Bactrian coins it is far less likely that this word should be a sogdian toponym.
it should be somewhere in Bactria. We can perfectly imagine some sogdo-turkish condottiere of Panjikent
making some inroads in Bactria during the big turmoil of the second half of the 7th century, and bringing back
a title, but it is far more difficult to imagine princes of Zabulistan making inroads to the east of samarqand
in the first half of the 8th century, for obvious geographical and historical reasons. Moreover, as our analysis
of the title MLK still stands, it should be a big place, not an obscure region or town. if xt/ is to be a
big place in Bactria, i am wondering if the simplest is not to regard it as Bactria or Bactra. Only for a city as Bac-
tra, the biggest in Central asia, enclosing 400 hectares in the second stage of its wall, even if depopulated as Xu-
anzang wrote, could the title MLK be meaningful. this idea is plainly supported by the Pahlavi parallel.
Can qan r Bilg be such a condottiere established in Bactra or Bactria? in fact, there is at least one
link between him and Bactria. We know from Mugh V-8 the name of his father, pycwtt. the name of a perfect
homonym just in the right period has been read by nicholas sims-Williams on Bactrian coins dated from 689
to 692 from Jzjn, the region to the West of Balkh.15 the name is , i.e. Bsut, pronounced Btsut,
rightly transcribed in sogdian pycwtt. a turko-sogdian condottiere from Panjikent might have established
himself briefly over Western Bactria or Bactra xtyk is an adjectival form and means simply Bactrian and
passed the proud title of king to his son in Panjikent. if qan r Bilg was the son of Bsut or at least from
his close family it is normal that on his coins he tried to remind one of the familial heritage in Bactria where
his father had struck coins.

7 thierry 1999: 323324.

8 several examples in lure 2005: 129130.
9 Y. Yoshida in Moriyasu and Ochir 1999: 218 Fr. 7, 7/21.
10 it seems to be known only in the Manichaean turkish and Uighur texts from turfan: Clauson 1972: 144. lg alone is known as
part of some Uighur titles.
11 Gbl 1967: 167 no.244/116 rev-2; no.245/16 rev.
12 Humbach 1996.
13 sims-Williams 2002: 235.
14 nikitin 1984: 235; Gbl 1967: 182 no. 265.
15 sims-Williams 2008: 119.
 the last Bactrian Kings 215

We should now switch to an entirely different set of data, the Chinese ones. according to the article of sh.
Kuwayama on the Hephthalites in tokharistan, and except for Xuanzang who described in details the land
of Fuhe (eMC *Buak-xat),16 of unclear phonology, Bactra would be totally absent from the Chinese
sources, which are our best sources for the Hephthalite and turkish empires.17 in fact, Kuwayama criticized
an article by K.enoki, On the date of the Kidarites in which numerous names of Bactrian towns were listed
in the Chinese sources. enoki demonstrated that all of them go back to two pronounciations: *Baxl, and *Baxt,
or even more archaizing forms.18 For an instance of the former, among others, Poqialuo , pronounced
in eMC *Ba-kha-la, in the translation of the Saddharma-smtyupasthna-stra, for an instance of the latter
the town of Boti , pronounced in eMC *Bak-dj in the Weishu but also the town of Bozhi , pronounced
in eMC *Bak-tri19 enoki analyzed this discrepancy as a chronological one, the latter series being the oldest,
although he recognized that there are examples belonging to the former series up to the 9th c. and assigned all
of them to Bactra. Kuwayama criticized this list of names on chronological grounds too, and rightly so, at
least theoretically: *Baxdi can mean Balkh only in the Avesta. But in the fourth to fifth centuries, Balkh was
normally called *baxl.20 therefore, all of these series of names should be linked with other town(s). More
precisely, he analyzed the name Fudiye (eMC *Buak-tj-jia) in Hye Cho (Hui Chao) s text, the
most embarassing of the *Baxt series: the Korean pilgrim Hye Cho went through Bactria in 726 and is an eye-
witness. to dismiss his testimony, Kuwayama commented upon the distance of 20 days given by Hye Cho
between Bamiyan and Fudiye, while according to ibn awqal only 10 days were necessary between Bamiyan
and Bactra. But it is not possible to accept Kuwayamas criticism: Hye Cho adds also that from Fudiye to
Badakhshan one should travel during one month, while the actual distance from Balkh to Badakhshan accord-
ing to the arabic geographers was only two weeks. Fudiye would have accordingly been sought far to the
West of Balkh, not to the east as Kuwayama tries to place Fudiye, near Baghlan. Hye Cho seems to have dou-
bled all these distances, or else we would have to search the town visited by Hye Cho somewhere near Marw.21
there cannot be any doubt that the town visited by the pilgrim, which the arab army occupied and garrisoned,
was Balkh, which became the seat of the arabic governor of Bactria by the settling of troops in the town itself
just two years before the arrival of our pilgrim.22
the key pointhere is that if Hye Cho, among many others, has heard *Baxt for Balkh we just have to
accept that testimony as it stands. He was an eyewitness and it is impossible to dismiss the name he gave to
Bactra by creating new towns unattested in any other source, as Kuwayama is in fact doing. He is indeed
unable to provide any precise identification or even reason for that name, just saying quite vaguely that it
should be sought elsewhere and that all these various texts are referring to various towns. there should have
been, in addition to the current , known from the Bactrian documents, 23 another name of Bactra, *Baxt.
this second pronunciation is exactly the one reflected by the title of qan r Bilg or by the titles known
from the coins of Pangul. in Chinese sources, and Hye Cho, as well as in the sogdian title of a turk and in
legends in Bactrian of turkish rulers of Zabulistan we do have references to a word *Baxt, the capital of
tokharistan in Chinese, and in a context in the sogdian and turkish titles where a toponym is also the most
likely choice. the sogdian system of titulature and the simple logic imply that this toponym is a big town or
important region, both for rulers in the Zarafshan valley and in Zabulistan like Pangul. the Pahlavi parallel
as well as the testimonies of Hye Cho and of the Chinese sources point to Bactra.

16 Pulleyblank 1991: 98, 122.

17 Kuwayama 1989.
18 enoki 1969: 914.
19 Pulleyblank 1991: 41, 304, 405.
20 Kuwayama 1989: 127.
21 the same can be said of his argument on Boti: as the Weishu wrote that to the south of Boti a big river flowed to the West,
Kuwayama rightly commented that it cannot be Balkh. However a more precise look at this passage of the Weishu shows that all
the directions of space are garbled in this very part of the text: samarkand is to the West of Boti, Persia to the north and
Bamiyan to the east, so that a river flowing to the West was actually flowing to the north, as is the river of Balkh.
22 abar ii 1490. i am not aware of arabic armies settled further to the east.
23 sims-Williams 2007: 74.
216 tienne de la Vaissire

But we still have to explain the origin of this word. Once more, the normal current word for Bactra in the 7th
and 8th century, or even earlier, was , not . Why are some Chinese sources so continuously making
use of the latter? We should go back to the two series of names proposed by enoki. He failed to see the actual
discrepancy between his two series: it is not so much a chronological one than a discrepancy ofmilieu: one
series, the *Baxl one, arrived in China with the Buddhist network while the other one is mainly diplomatic
and goes back to a pronounciation *Baxt. as regard the former, it is to be found in the Chinese translation of
the Saddharma-smtyupasthna-stra, in the Xu Gaoseng zhuan (the Life of Eminent Monks continuated), in
the Commentaries on Tripiaka, in the Xiyu Qiufa Gaoseng zhuan (the Life of Eminent Monks who went to the
Western Countries in search of the Law). as regard the latter, it is to be found in the Liangshu, in the Nanshi,
in the Liang Zhigongtu, in the Tangshu, in the Tang Hui Yao, in the Youyang Zazu.
Bactria was a shelter for Buddhist monks, for centuries. they were at home in termez or Bactra. it is per-
fectly normal that in the Buddhist network the actual name of the town, , was in use. the situation is
very different as regard the names in the official Chinese chronicles, which made use of a systematic ques-
tioning of the foreign ambassadors. But we know for sure that, beginning with the 5th century, sogdian was
the lingua franca of the silk road, and that the sogdians were the main ambassadors between the Chinese
and the various countries of the north-West. they were the main caravaneers and Hye Cho, a monk of limited
knowledge who just went through Bactria, might have heard the name not directly from Bactrian peasants or
officials, but through intermediaries, for instance in his caravan from sogdian caravaneers. We know also that
the sogdians were the main go-between of the steppe and that, above all, they were the first to be in touch
with the turks, long before the Bactrians were. in other words, the sogdians have played the role of interme-
diaries both for the Chinese and for the turks, and the strange diplomatic and official spelling of the name of
Bactra is likely to be an official sogdian or turko-sogdian one, as reflected by the title of qan r Bilg.24
the idea of a sogdian, or may be turko-sogdian name of Bactra, *Baxt, would explain in a single way all our
set of data, the sogdian title of course, but also the turkish title transcribed in the Bactrian alphabet on the
coins of Pangul and the whole series of Chinese names.25

anneX: tHe Fate OF tHe last xtyk MlK?

i am wondering if the king mentioned by Hye Cho as having been expelled from the town of Fudiye might
not belong to a slightly earlier period and be identified as nzak tarkhan. if he was not the official king of
tokharestan nzak was certainly its main political leader. the official king of tokharistan, the turkish
Yabghu, was his prisoner. He several times made use of Balkh as a political base (esin 1977: 327328) and
is even described in one text as the governor of Balkh. Hye Cho wrote that the king escaped to Badakhshan.

24 in sogdian we only have once the word in a late Christian text, under the form bhl. Gharib 1995: 103.
25 not being a philologist, i will refrain here to try to explain the origin of *Baxt. recent discussions of the various names of Bac-
tra from a philologist point of view in Witzel 1980 and tremblay 2004: 136138. My warmest thanks to P. lure who provided
me with Witzels article, as well as with the text of the Tarikh-e Badakhshn. i would have been in favour of an archaizing form
kept alive in the diplomatic and official usage, if my learned colleagues would not have told me that it is too late a period for
this to be possible. However, i should mention here that according to ibn awqal, one of the gates of Balkh in the 10th century
was indeed still named Bb Bakht (BGa 448, the emendations to Bb Yay in the editions of al-iari and al-Muqadass are
not supported by the manuscripts). Bactra is still associated with Bkhtar in the Tarikh-e Badakhshn: after that, Jahandar-shah
volens nolens came to Balkh-i Bkhtar, that is Mazar-i sharif (p. 95b). according to the Voyage en Boukharie, iii, p. 172, of a.
Burnes (1835) les habitants modernes disent que le pays entre Balkh et Caboul tait nomm Bakhtar Zemin (pays de Bakhtar).
it would be possible also that the original name would have been kept alive by a popular etymology, linking it with baxt, fate,
fortune. One argument in favour of this explanation has been provided during the conference by n.schindel, who pointed out
that one of the names of the mint of Balkh under the Umayyad was precisely al-Mubaraka, the blessed one (but there are other
examples of urban mints so qualified in the 8th c.).
 the last Bactrian Kings 217

While most of the articles published after Minorskys attempt to explain the geography of the capture of nzak
by Qutayba b. Muslim in 710 have placed this capture in the upper surkhab, on the road to Bamiyan, far from
Badakhshan (esin 1977: 329; Grenet 2002: 216218), it should be said that Minorsky was certainly wrong
in this regard. abar ii, 12181228, wrote that nzak set off from his house, crossed the Farghnah valley,
sent his baggage and wealth to the Kbul shh, and went on until he stopped at al-Kurz, being followed by
abd al-ramn b. Muslim. abd al-ramn stopped and took control of the defiles of al-Kurz, and Qutaybah
stopped at iskmisht, two parasangs away. nzak took refuge in al-Kurz, having no way out save in one direc-
tion, which was difficult, since it could not be negotiated by riding animals. trying to incerta pro certis mutare,
Minorsky proposed an elaborate scenario based on numerous reconstructions of toponyms as well as on the
idea that nzak could only have followed by the same road his baggage, strange if we consider that all of this
was done in great haste, with the arab cavalry close at hand. He did not comment on the only toponym known
for sure in this story, ishkmish, between Baghln and tluqn on the frontier of Badakhshan (Minorsky 1970:
338340). a distance of two parasangs from ishkmish points to the Chl valley, a north-south valley leading
by a very difficult pass to the Panjshir and to Kabul, as described in the text. if Qutayba was stationed in the
northern part of the ishkmish plateau, just before the Chl pass, then the namak valley, i.e. medieval Khost,
known for its inexpugnable character (Minorsky 1970: 341), is also possible, being at 23 farsakhs from the
Chl pass. even if the king described by Hye Cho is not nzak, this analysis of nzaks fate still holds. the
geography is clear: he crossed the Baghln valley (everybody agrees to recognize it as the surkhab, the river
of Baghln: Farghnah might stand for dargomanes, the river of Baghln in Ptolemy (Grenet in lazard, Grenet
and de lamberterie 1984:202) darghm in the udd al-lam (Minorsky 1970: 71)), sent his baggage to
the south as an attempt to lure the arabs, as he had already done in the past and according to the formal agree-
ment concluded in 709 with the Kbul shh (abar ii, 1206) tried to escape to the heart of the Hephthalite
country, the ishkmish sector (Grenet 2002: 214), and was trapped by the fast arab cavalry in a lateral valley.

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