I. Merchant diasporas and the Silk Road trade.

A. Local knowledge.
B. Specialization.
C. Networks.
D. The position of outsiders.

II. Who were the Sogdians?

III. Trade networks east and west: Sogdian colonies in China.

A. The 4th-century "Ancient Sogdian Letters" found near Dunhuang.
B. A document from Turfan from the 7th c.
C. Sogdian objects and their imitations.
D. Sogdians in Chinese society and administration.
E. Sogdians and the spread of religion.
F. An Lushan: Sogdians under the Tang.

III. Trade networks north and south.

A. The Stroganov silver from Perm.
B. From the valleys of the Karakorum to the ports of SE Asia.

IV. The cosmopolitan culture of Sogdians at home.

A. Sogdia at the center of the world in the mid-7th century.
B. Afrasiab (Samarkand).
C. Panjikent.
D. Sogdia and the Arab conquest.

1. Sogdian ruler Devashtich and Mt. Mug.
2. The evidence of the Varakhsha palace near Bukhara.