Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

part iv | migrations of cultures
4.6
SOGDIAN
SEAFARERS
Captain Ismailawayh told me that these species of fish are often found in the sea of
Zanj and in the ocean of Samarkand.
– Buzurg ibn Shahriyar, 10th century
Textual sources, historical works and tales and legends of the
peoples of Central Asia have all provided details of the sea and ocean voyages undertaken
by Sogdians, and of the role of navigation, in ancient and medieval times along the Amu
Darya, which was undoubtedly a wider, deeper and more full-flowing river than it is today.
During these periods, there were numerous large and small rivers and lakes in
Transoxiana. The Avesta hymn dedicated to the goddess of water and fertility Ardvi,
whose epithets were Sura – ‘strong’ and Anahita – ‘pure, untainted’ – says:
‘All the shores of the sea Vouru-Kasha are boiling over, all the middle of it is boiling
over, when she runs down there, when she streams down there, she, Ardvi Sura Anahita,
who has a thousand cells and a thousand channels … .’ 6
Nineteenth-century scholars believed this
passage described the delta of the Amu Darya
(ancient Oxus), and they equated the sea of
Vouru-Kasha with the Aral Sea, and the
goddess Ardvi with the Goddess of the Amu
Darya. These assumptions are still more or
less valid, although there are different views
about the location of the places.
Here, it is worth noting that an English
envoy called Jenkinson, who had visited
Khorezm in 1558, wrote of the river Ardok,
the main channel of the Amu Darya. The
Besh-tobe (near Nukus). A rock
painting showing a sailing vessel.
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