Roads and Kingdoms.

• Superior document: Eastern Christian Studies
• Author: Savchenko, Alexei.
• Place / Publishing House: Qu_bec City : : BRILL,, 2022.; ©2023.
• Year of Publication: 2022
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Eastern Christian Studies
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (257 pages)

"This book solves the long-standing mystery of a Christian monastery near Samarkand, seen and described by two Arab travellers in the tenth century. Despite several attempts made since the 1890s, its precise location had never been established. The first part covers the quest, the find, and the archaeological excavations' results. Then the author proceeds to search for a mediaeval Christian enclave near modern Tashkent, which appears to have been washed away by a river that changed its course over centuries. Apart from the Christians, the book also touches upon the Manichaeans, Buddhists, Zoroastrians and other Sogdians, their languages, faiths, and material remnants"-- Provided by publisher.

Table of Contents

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Figures and Tables -- Abbreviations -- Note on Orthography -- The Monastery in Urgut -- 1 Res ipsa loquitur -- 1.1 First Landmark -- 1.2 Second Landmark -- 1.3 Urgut Obscured -- 1.4 Urgut Explained -- 2 Searching for Evidence -- 3 Closing the Books -- 3.1 The Rock -- 3.2 The Gorge -- 3.3 The Cross -- 3.4 The Scene -- 4 Hunting the Thimble -- 5 Urgut Unearthed -- 5.1 Monastic Compound -- 5.2 Hermits' Caves -- 5.3 Reconstruction -- 5.4 Finds -- 6 The Timeline -- 6.1 Terminus post quem -- 6.2 Terminus ante quem -- 6.3 Cemetery -- 7 Whence and Whither -- 7.1 From al-ʿIrāq to Urgut -- 7.2 From Urgut to Panjikent -- 7.3 From Urgut to Samarkand -- 7.4 The Urgut Side -- 7.5 The Bukhara Side -- 7.6 Priest's Daughter -- The Village in Chach -- 1 Res ipsa loquitur -- 2 Sound and Sense -- 2.1 ويش -- 2.2 كرد -- 3 Closing the Books -- 4 Hunting the Thimble -- 5 The Environs -- 5.1 Chach and Ilaq -- 5.2 Ferghana -- Appendix -- Concordance of the Variant Readings Discussed in the Text -- Works Cited -- Index of Geographical Names.