Sogdiana, Semirechie: Tugesh Kaganate (800-850AD) AE Cash? (Kamyshev #27)

[Quant.Geek]

Sogdiana, Semirechie: Tugesh Kaganate (800-850AD) AE Cash? (Kamyshev #27)

Obv: Sogdian legend around square hole; βγy twrkys γ'γ'n pny (Fen of King of Turgesh's Kagan)
Rev. Scarce type of tamgha with elongated connection from square hole corner to tamgha

A high-resolution image of this coin is available at FORVM Ancient Coins

[Figleaf]

This coin is not in the Uzbek national museum publications. A coin that is probably related is, but it has a different Kamga.

Since you have an interest in writing systems, you are hereby officially encouraged to analyse the writing on this coin. The key is here. (How did people study before the internet? )

Peter

[Manzikert]

Mine (very poorly cleaned compared to yours) is supposed to be K. 24 and appears to have exactly the same legend. The difference presumably is that the reverse tamgha on mine is connected directly to the central square, without the 'neck' on your coin.

For what it's worth the translation supplied with mine is 'Fen of king of Turgesh's Kagan', presumably meaning "coin issued by the local governor ('kagan') of the King of Turgesh". Was any translation supplied with yours?

Alan

[Quant.Geek]

You are absolutely correct in that there is very little difference between #27 and #24, other than the connection of the tamgha.  The legend on both coins are identical as well.  The translation of the legend that came with my coin was:

bgy twrkys g'g'n pny which was translated as "Fen of King of Turgesh's Kagan".

Thanks for the additional translation of the "local governor" as that was missing from my translation...

Cheers,

Ram

[Figleaf]

A fen is a Chinese monetary unit. Interesting, because the Turgesh sought support from Tang dynasty China against the Arabs. Turgesh is ambivalent, as the tribe was usually split in a Western and an Eastern part. There are some good illustrations of these coins here. Alexander Kamychev's introduction to these coins is here. It's in Russian, but Google translate works on this page.

Peter

[Manzikert]

Sorry, my image came out a lot larger than I expected, corrected now.

Thank you for the transliteration of the Sogdian, mine didn't come with that.

I'm afraid the 'local governor' is my assumption, 'kagan' is obviously a lower rank individual, but it could be as accurately translated as 'prince' for all I know

Alan

[Figleaf]

Kagan is emperor. See here.

Peter

[Manzikert]

It could well be: if so I suppose we should read the inscription as the coin being issued by the King of Turgesh acknowledging some unidentified 'Kagan' as his overlord.

Alan

[Figleaf]

The Turgesh lands are called a Kaganate and the title of the tribal chiefs is Kagan.

As a title, it is no different from Shahanshah or High King. Emperor says little about the size of the area held by the ruler or his power. Towards its fall, the border of the Byzantine empire were the walls of Constantinople. The last Moghul emperor ruled only over his palace/fortress complex. Many Japanese emperors were powerless figureheads. There are other examples. I suppose that in the end, such titles were an expression of ego and vanity only.

Peter

[Quant.Geek]

Thanks to Prods Oktor Skjærvø and Étienne de la Vaissière, both legendary researchers in Sogdian history and scripts, I now have fonts for the various Sogdian scripts.  So, as an experiment, here is the legend for this coin in Sogdian.  Note, that it is written in the so-called Ancient Letters Script and not the horrible cursive script that is on the coin.  The conjoining of the letters makes a difficult script nearly impossible to read.  Remember, this is just a trial run just to see if it is worthwhile.  Do let me know your comments.  Note, that Sogdian is read right to left, whereas the transliteration above is read left to right. Also, here is one of the Ancient Letters that was found that the font is based off of (click on image to enlarge):

[Figleaf]

I think it's great research into Sogdian script, I am grateful people are doing this worthwhile work and I really hope it will make many ancient documents accessible, but it doesn't help me read the coin.

Peter