IAAS Lecture on Sogdian Coins by Dr. Barakatullo Ashurov

February 20, 2019
Sogdian Coins image

Dr. Ashurov is a visiting scholar in NELC at Harvard. Join us Wednesday February 20 (1:15 pm, CGIS-South S250) for his lecture on

Marks of Faith: Observation on Christian Iconography of the Sogdian Coins

Ol’ga Smirnova one of the eminent Russian Orientalist and specialist of Sogdian history and numismatics in one of her studies published in 1957 has highlighted two groups of Sogdian coins one of which had special iconographic difference. She has rightfully identified that this newly observed iconography was a cross and might have association with the Byzantine and hence Christianity. However, given the paucity of data at that time she has not returned to the further investigation of these coins. However, in the past decades multiple specimens of such coins have been discovered and registered. Equally, there has been a number of studies devoted to the Christian iconography in coins undertaken that allows in-depth comparative art-historical research in order to understand the emergence, evolution and denotation of the cross on coinage.

The focus of this talk is to present a short analysis of a group of Sogdian coins depicting the sign of the cross in their wider historical context, namely the development of this sign in Byzantine and Persian (Sassanid) coinage and spread of Christianity in Persia and Central Asia. The Sogdian coins under discussion here represent those from Bukhara oasis as well as Panjikent and Osrušana.

Dr. Barakatullo Ashurov, Visiting Scholar in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC), Harvard University

Harvard IAAS Lecture

Wednesday, February 20, 2019, 1:15 - 2:30 pm

CGIS South Building room S250, 1730 Cambridge Street,