Sasanian and Arab-Sasanian silver coins from Turfan: Their relationship to international trade and the local economy

JK Skaff - Asia Major, 1998 - JSTOR
JK Skaff
Asia Major, 1998JSTOR
Along Inner the Asia" Silk and Road," the Indian which Ocean, ran between China China
exported and goods the Near-silk East being via Inner Asia and the Indian Ocean, China
exported goods-silk being the best known-and in return received other products. Beyond this
broad generalization, however, we know little about the actual commerce, especially as we
go further back in history. Who carried out this trade, how they operated, and what goods,
besides silk, they dealt in are questions that remain rela-tively unanswered. Fortunately …
Along Inner the Asia" Silk and Road," the Indian which Ocean, ran between China China exported and goods the Near-silk East being via Inner Asia and the Indian Ocean, China exported goods-silk being the best known-and in return received other products. Beyond this broad generalization, however, we know little about the actual commerce, especially as we go further back in history. Who carried out this trade, how they operated, and what goods, besides silk, they dealt in are questions that remain rela-tively unanswered. Fortunately, silver coins and documents discovered in Turfan provide us with an opportunity to gain deeper insights into Inner Asian commerce during the period lasting from the late-sixth to early-eighth centuries. These finds provide information about the identity of the merchants, the type of goods that they traded, the periodization and location of their activities, and their relationship to Turfan's local economy. Sasanian and Arab-Sasanian silver coins constitute the majority of specie relevant to international trade that has been discovered at Turfan. 1 Sasanian coins were minted by the Iranian dynasty of the same name. The Sasanians overthrew the Parthians circa 224 ad and reigned until the final Arab con-I am grateful to Richard Frye, Michael Bates, Rudi Paul Lindner, Michael Alram, and participants at the Second and Third Silk Road Conferences for valuable comments and suggestions on previous versions of this paper. I also want to thank Valerie Hansen for facilitating my research trip to Turfan and Urumchi in May, 1996. Moreover, I want to express special appreciation for two of my teachers, Rudi Paul Lindner and the late K. Allin Luther, for stimulating, respectively, my interest in numismatics and the Sogdians.
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