From mount to manuscript: revisiting commodity terms in a mugh document

Internet publication : Blog

In the spring of 1932, a shepherd fortuitously discovered a wicker basket containing a manuscript at Mount Mugh, Tajikistan. This paper manuscript, later labeled 1.I,1 written in a script then unknown in the region and preserved today only in a photograph, paved the way to one of the most significant archives of early medieval Central Asia, comprising approximately 75 documents in Sogdian, alongside one in Arabic, one in Old Turkic, and three in Chinese. The Sogdian documents from Mount Mugh provide a unique local perspective on the political, social, and economic life of Sogdiana during its arguably most turbulent period, the Arab-Muslim conquest.

Authors: Begmatov, A

• Publication status: Published
• Publisher: Invisible East
• Series: Document of the Month
• Series number: 15
• Place of publication: Oxford
• Publication date: 2026-01-27
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-eowoae8w9
• Language: English
• Keywords: Tajikistan; documents; Sogdian; Mount Mugh; Invisible East
• Subtype: Blog