Harmatta János (szerk.): Studies in the sources on the history of Pre-Islamic Central Asia - Collection of the sources on the history of Pre-Islamic Central Asia. Series 1. 2. (Budapest, 1979)
STUDIES IN THE SOURCES ON THE HISTORY OF PRE-ISLAMIC CENTRAL ASIA The study of the history of Central Asia imposes an important task on international scholarship. Being a territory across which the peoples, states and civilizations of East and West as well as those of North and South came into contact with one another, Central Asia played an important role in history. Her geographical position assured the exchange of commodities and cultural goods, the interpenetration of different ethnical elements and cultures during several epochs. The study of the history of Central Asia encounters, however, great difficulties because of the lack of historical sources for some periods and the insufficient understanding even of the extant evidence. Therefore, working on a collection of the literary, epigraphic, numismatic and archaeological sources for the history of Pre- Islamic Central Asia, scholars are facing various problems of interpretation. The present volume contains a series of studies dealing with some important texts written in OKI Persian, Avestan, Classical and Byzantine Greek, Latin, Middle Persian (Pahlavi), Sogdian, Gändhäri Prakrit, Arabic and Chinese. By a careful analysis and interpretation, these studies written by excellent experts of the ancient languages and civilizations of Central Asia, elucidate essential problems of the source materials. The scope of the volume ranges from the Achaemenian Age up to the Arabic conquest of Central Asia. AKADÉMIAI KIADÓ PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES BUDAPEST