SOGDIAN MERCHANTS AS TRANSREGIONAL MEDIATORS: TRADE, DIPLOMACY, AND CULTURAL CONNECTIVITY IN CENTRAL ASIA UNDER THE TURKIC KHAGANATE

Abstract

This paper examines the role of Sogdian communities in the international relations of Central Asian oasis polities during the sixth–eighth centuries. Sogdians should not be viewed merely as commercial intermediaries along the Silk Roads. Their merchant networks, multilingual competence, settlement communities, and access to political elites enabled them to operate simultaneously as economic brokers, diplomatic intermediaries, cultural transmitters, and agents of regional connectivity. The study combines historical-comparative analysis of written sources with contextual interpretation of archaeological and material evidence. The findings suggest that Sogdian agency contributed substantially to the integration of otherwise competing political and economic zones and that their networks helped transform the Silk Roads into a multidirectional system of exchange rather than a single east–west corridor.