Sogdian fragment

Just published: Bulletin of the Asia Institute, Vol. 30

Jo SalisburyBook Notes Leave a Comment

Vol. 30 of the Bulletin of the Asia Institute has just appeared. In addition to many other interesting articles (see full list below) it contains two papers by our Chair of Trustees, Nicholas Sims-Williams. The first is his edition of the Bactrian inscription of Jaghori (Ghazni Province, Afghanistan), the discovery of which we reported in an earlier blog . The inscription is dated in the middle of the 8th century CE, probably in July 757 (140 AH), and commemorates the defeat of an “Indian prince” by a local prince named …

A new Bactrian inscription from Jaghori, Afghanistan

Jo SalisburyNews 11 Comments

Bactrian, the main administrative language of pre-Islamic Afghanistan, is unique amongst the languages of the Iranian family in being written in a script derived from Greek, a legacy of the conquest of the region by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE. Until recently, the Bactrian language was almost unknown. Over the last 25 or 30 years, however, nearly 200 Bactrian documents written in cursive Greek script on parchment, cloth or wood have gradually come to light. Most of these documents have been edited and translated by our Chair …