Editing Bactria (section)

== Bactrian people ==
[[File:Head of Bactrian ruler (Satrap), Temple of the Oxus, Takht-i-Sangin, 3rd-2nd century BCE (left side).jpg|thumb|Painted clay and [[alabaster]] head of a [[Zoroastrian]] priest wearing a distinctive Bactrian-style headdress, [[Takhti-Sangin]], [[Tajikistan]], [[Greco-Bactrian kingdom]], 3rd-2nd century BC.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=LITVINSKII |first1=B. A. |last2=PICHIKIAN |first2=I. R. |title=The Hellenistic Architecture and Art of the Temple of the Oxus |journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute |date=1994 |volume=8 |pages=47–66 |jstor=24048765 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/24048765.pdf |issn=0890-4464}}</ref>]]
Several important trade routes from [[India]] and [[China]] (including the [[Silk Road]]) passed through Bactria and, as early as the [[Bronze Age]], this had allowed the accumulation of vast amounts of wealth by the mostly nomadic population. The first proto-urban civilization in the area arose during the [[2nd millennium BC]].

Control of these lucrative trade routes, however, attracted foreign interest, and in the 6th century BC the Bactrians were conquered by the [[Achaemenid Empire|Persians]], and in the 4th century BC by [[Alexander the Great]]. These conquests marked the end of Bactrian independence. From around 304 BC the area formed part of the [[Seleucid Empire]], and from around 250 BC it was the centre of a [[Greco-Bactrian kingdom]], ruled by the descendants of [[Greeks]] who had settled there following the conquest of [[Alexander the Great]].

The Greco-Bactrians, also known in [[Sanskrit]] as [[Yavanas]], worked in cooperation with the native Bactrian aristocracy. By the early 2nd century BC the Greco-Bactrians had created an impressive empire that stretched southwards to include north-west India. By about 135 BC, however, this kingdom had been overrun by invading [[Yuezhi]] tribes, an invasion that later brought about the rise of the powerful [[Kushan Empire]].

Bactrians were recorded in Strabo's ''Geography'':
"Now in early times the Sogdians and Bactrians did not differ much from the nomads in their modes of life and customs, although the Bactrians were a little more civilised; however, of these, as of the others, Onesicritus does not report their best traits, saying, for instance, that those who have become helpless because of old age or sickness are thrown out alive as prey to dogs kept expressly for this purpose, which in their native tongue are called "undertakers," and that while the land outside the walls of the metropolis of the Bactrians looks clean, yet most of the land inside the walls is full of human bones; but that Alexander broke up the custom."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/11K*.html|title=LacusCurtius • Strabo's Geography — Book XI Chapter 11|website=penelope.uchicago.edu|language=en|access-date=7 September 2017}}</ref>

The Bactrians spoke [[Bactrian language|Bactrian]], a [[East Iranian|north-eastern Iranian]] language. Bactrian became extinct, replaced by north-eastern<ref>[http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/eastern-iranian-languages "The Modern Eastern Iranian languages are even more numerous and varied. Most of them are classified as North-Eastern: Ossetic; Yaghnobi (which derives from a dialect closely related to Sogdian); the Shughni group (Shughni, Roshani, Khufi, Bartangi, Roshorvi, Sarikoli), with which Yaz-1ghulami (Sokolova 1967) and the now extinct Wanji (J. Payne in Schmitt, p. 420) are closely linked; Ishkashmi, Sanglichi, and Zebaki; Wakhi; Munji and Yidgha; and Pashto.]</ref> Iranian languages such as [[Munji language|Munji]], [[Yidgha language|Yidgha]], [[Ishkashimi language|Ishkashimi]], and [[Pashto]]. The ''[[Encyclopaedia Iranica]]'' states:{{blockquote|Bactrian thus occupies an intermediary position between [[Pashto language|Pashto]] and [[Yidgha language|Yidgha]]-[[Munji language|Munji]] on the one hand, [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]], [[Khwarezmian language|Choresmian]], and [[Parthian language|Parthian]] on the other: it is thus in its natural and rightful place in Bactria.<ref>N. Sims-Williams. [http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bactrian-language "Bactrian language"]. ''Encyclopaedia Iranica''. Originally Published: December 15, 1988.</ref>}} The principal religions of the area before the Islamic invasion were [[Zoroastrianism]] and [[Buddhism]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Peoples, nations and cultures|author=John Haywood and Simon Hall| location=London |year=2005}}</ref>

Contemporary [[Tajiks]] are the descendants of ancient Eastern Iranian inhabitants of Central Asia, in particular, the [[Sogdia]]ns and the Bactrians, and possibly other groups, with an admixture of Western Iranian Persians and non-Iranian peoples.<ref>[https://www.loc.gov/item/97005110/ Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan : country studies] Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, page 206</ref><ref>[[Richard Foltz]], ''A History of the Tajiks: Iranians of the East'', London: [[Bloomsbury Publishing|Bloomsbury]], 2019, pp. 33-61.</ref><ref>[[Richard Nelson Frye]], ''"Persien: bis zum Einbruch des Islam"'' (original English title: ''"The Heritage Of Persia"''), German version, tr. by Paul Baudisch, Kindler Verlag AG, [[Zürich]] 1964, pp. 485–498</ref> The ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' states:{{blockquote|The Tajiks are the direct descendants of the Iranian peoples whose continuous presence in Central Asia and northern Afghanistan is attested from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. The ancestors of the Tajiks constituted the core of the ancient population of Khwārezm (Khorezm) and Bactria, which formed part of Transoxania (Sogdiana). They were included in the empires of Persia and Alexander the Great, and they intermingled with such later invaders as the Kushāns and Hepthalites in the 1st–6th centuries AD. Over the course of time, the eastern Iranian dialect that was used by the ancient Tajiks eventually gave way to Persian, a western dialect spoken in Iran and Afghanistan.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/581047/Tajikistan/214553/History#ref=ref599015| title = Tajikistan: History| date = 28 August 2023}} ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia''</ref>}}