KHAGAN (Ḵāqān, “supreme ruler”), title of Xianbei (a leading nomadic group in northern China) origin that entered Persian during the…

KUSHANSHAHS i. History “Kushanshah” (Kušānšāh) was the title of the rulers, known between the 3rd-century Sasanian conquests and 4th/5th-century Hunnic…

SOGDIAN TRADE. The people of Sogdiana were the main caravan merchants of Central Asia from the 5th to the 8th…

XIONGNU (Hsiung-nu), the great nomadic empire to the north of China in the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE, which extended…

CHINESE-IRANIAN RELATIONS xiii. EASTERN IRANIAN MIGRATIONS TO CHINA Communities of Sogdian and Bactrian immigrants settled in many cities of Northern…

ČĀKAR, personal soldier-retainer of the nobility in pre-Islamic Central Asia. The earliest attestations of the word are in Chinese and…