Ancient and Early Medieval Kingdoms of the Pamir Region of Central Asia

One of the first studies in English on ancient and early medieval Shughn-n, drawing on numerous contemporary primary sources as well as modern scholarly research to provide a holistic overview of the kingdom and locate its capital, K-hán. Suitable for students and scholars studying ancient and medieval Central Asia.

Muzaffar Zoirshoevich Zoolshoev is Research Assistant in the Central Asian Studies Unit, Department of Academic Research and Publications at the Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, United Kingdom. His research focuses on the history and culture of the peoples of Central Asia and he is the author of several articles and chapters on this subject.

Introduction; PART 1: Historical survey of Shughn-n; The earliest habitation of the Pamirs (10,000-2,000 BCE); Theories on the ancient peoples and societies of the Pamirs (2,000-1,000 BCE); The K-firs and the Mak people; The Sakas/Scythians, Achaemenids, Greeks and Macedonians (6th-2nd centuries BCE); The Yuèzh-, Kushans, Kidarites/Chionites and Hephtalites (2nd century BCE - 6th century CE); The Turkic kaghans (6th-8th centuries CE); Xuánzàng's description of Shughn-n; The rise of the Chinese Tang Dynasty (7th-8th centuries CE); Shughn-n during the Chinese-Tibetan confrontation (the first half of the 8th century CE); The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, --hirid and S-m-nid states (8th-10th centuries CE); On the names and origins of the earliest kings of Shughn-n; Conclusion to Part 1 - Progress, problems and potential for future research; PART 2: The search for the lost capital of Shughn-n - the town of K-hán; The passage from the Táng Sh-, and its Russian, French and German translations; The search for K-hán outside present-day Shughn-n; The Search for K-hán within present-day Shughn-n