the ‘outside’ other 31
Northern Bulgaria, where Omurtag had most probably seen the dawn
for the fi rst time, was the former Roman province of “Moesia”. Of
course, the notion of the Bulgarians being a western ‘segment’ of the
Christian (meaning the Byzantine) kingdom would develop as a well
defi ned political concept much later, aft er the acceptance of Christi-
anity by the Bulgarians and especially during the reigns of Simeon
(893–927) and Peter (927–d. 970). However, some initial concepts in
this direction were to be observed as early as the pagan period of the
Bulgarian kingdom in the fi rst half of the ninth century.
Since the Sogdians did not have a strong and centralized state and
were merchants and craft smen mainly,^59 they were not a real threat to
the Turks and Uighurs. Th ey were instead the ones searching for the
protection of the powerful steppe khagans in order to set regulations
along the Great Silk Road.^60 For that reason, the notion of the Sogdian
could be expressed by the ‘friend-other’.^61 Th at is why it was not sur-
prising that the Sogdians were the ones to contribute the most to the
Turkic identity and its development aft er the mid-sixth century. It was
their towns that became a contact zone for the development of a syn-
cretic culture although the population was a bilingual one. Th e process
of acculturation there passed through several phases: 1) living together
and mutual acquaintance—aft er the 560s; 2) the accepted otherness
of the other social and cultural system—the eighth-ninth century;^62
3) the fi nal synthesis—aft er 840 A.D., aft er the Uighurs’ settling down
(^59) For the Sogdians-craft smen and traders as well as their colonies in Tarim basin,
China, etc. see, Ikeda 1981, 77–79. Especially for the Sogdian infl uence over the Turks
during the T’ang dynasty and with regard to the metals’ treatment see, Marshak 1971,
80–82. For the Sogdian traders in general and for the development of many of the
Central Asian civilizations thanks to their role see, De La Vaissière 2002, 196–221 (for
the connection Sogdians-Turks and Sogdians-Uighurs), 244–252 (for the connection
Sogdians-Khazars).
(^60) Pritsak 1981b, 14–17.
(^61) Barfi eld 1989, 158, also claims that the Sogdians regarded the steppe tribes as
allies and not enemies. Also see, Golden 1992, 172–173, for the Sogdian infl uence
over the Uighur culture.
(^62) Lobacheva 1979, 28, on the basis of comparsion of costumes, e.g. those in Afra-
siab (the seventh century) and Panjikand (the eighth century), where there are fres-
coes depicting some Turkic aristocrats, claims that at the eighth century there was
already a tendency towards a blending of traditional costumes of nobles from Turkic
origin and those of Sogdian milieu.