GUIDE QUESTIONS FOR FILM

Silk Road: The Soghdian Merchants

Chang’an: ancient capital in Shanxi province, known after the early 20^th-century as Xian.  The city is located on the loess (soil) plain of the Wei River. Chang’an served as the capital of several ruling dynasties and as an important market and trade center.

Mount Mug: the mountain, to which the Sogdian ruler of Penjikent, Divashtich, fled when the Arabs invaded his kingdom in the early eighth century.

#1. What changes occurred with the Arab conquests in Sogdiana?

#2.  Describe in some detail Sogdian material culture at the former capital of Panjikent (in modern-day Tajikistan).

#3. What did the Sogdians (and other “western barbarians”) export to the Tang capital and that city’s residents?