Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

2 .2
Sogdian: the son of Seleucus and Apama, daughter of the Sogdian leader Spitamenes.
Consequently, all the subsequent members of this dynasty, which lasted until the
middle of the 1st century BC, had Sogdian blood.
Likewise, the Kushan kingdom, which lasted from the 1st century AD to the
middle of the 3rd century, was an absolute, and more than that, a pronounced
theocratic monarchy.
Throughout this period, with the exception of the reign of the first king, Kujula
Kadphises, the southern regions of Transoxiana were part of the Kushan state. It
was divided into distinct satrapies whose rulers were completely dependent on the
Kushan kings. In addition, the Kushan kingdom included specific border regions
akin to margravates, headed by kanarangs/karalrangs, military leaders, known as
karalraggo by Bactrians. The present-day Surkhan Darya province in Uzbekistan was
probably one of these regions.
The Khorezmian kingdom, which emerged in the second half of the 4th
century BC before the collapse of the Achaemenid state, appears to have been a
similar type of state. From the 1st century AD onwards a new hereditary dynasty was
established here with coinage issued by a centralised mint.
From the middle of the 3rd century AD until the end of the 4th century, Northern
Bactria was part of the Sassanid kingdom, with Bactria enjoying special rights within
it. Bactria was ruled by Sassanid princes with the title ‘Kushanshah’, who were
descended from different branches of the dynasty and were entitled to mint gold,
silver and copper coins. Some of them later became kings of the entire Sassanid state.
2. Confederative kingdoms
The form of government in confederative kingdoms was a kind of limited monarchy.
The Kangju and Yuezhi states or the Large Yuezhi state in the first, pre-Kushan period
of its existence can be classified as confederative kingdoms. These kingdoms usually
consisted of several independent dominions ruled by tribal leaders or heads of clans,
who minted their own coins.
For example, the Kangju state had at least five such dominions: Bukhara and
its environs, whose rulers issued imitations of the coinage of Euthydemus, with
inscriptions of their own names and titles; the southeast of Bukhara Sogdia and
northwest of Samarkand Sogdia, ruled by leaders from the Hyrcodes dynasty;
Samarkand Sogdia, which issued coins with the names of different kings; and
Southern Sogdia, which also had an independent mint. No Kangju coinage was
shared by these dominions at this time. Khorezm was a completely independent
kingdom whose rulers bore the highest title – MR’Y MLK’ (lord-king – MR’Y means
‘lord’, MLK’ means ‘king’).
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