The Sogdian Network Beyond Samarkand

We've talked about Sogdian merchants and their letters. But what about the Sogdian communities that actually lived inside China—whole neighborhoods in Chang'an and Luoyang, with their own temples, their own fire rituals, even their own militia? And what happened to them after the An Lushan Rebellion, when a Sogdian-led revolt turned them from trusted middlemen into targets? In this episode, Lucas and Luna trace the arc of the Sogdian diaspora: from the caravans that brought Manichaean monks to the Tang court, to the tragic pogroms of the 760s, and the final slow fade into Chinese society. Along the way, they visit the ruins of a Sogdian village in the Taklamakan, decipher a tombstone that mentions both Zoroastrian and Buddhist dates, and ask: when does a diaspora stop being itself? #Sogdians #TangDynasty #SilkRoad #AnLushanRebellion #SogdianDiaspora #Zoroastrianism #Manichaeism #ChangAn #Luoyang #Turfan #SogdianTombstones #Mani #Nestorianism #CentralAsia #TradeRoutes #FexingoHistory #History #WorldHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo