Military-Diplomatic Strategies of the Sughd Rulers Against the Invasion of the Arab Caliphate of the Beginning of the 8th Century (On the Example of Tarkhun, Gurak and Devashtich Activities)

Drawing on a comparison of Sogdian, Chinese and Arabic sources, the article analyses how the rulers of Sogd – Tarkhun, Ghurak and Devashtich, lord of Panch – responded to the expansion of the Arab Caliphate in the first quarter of the eighth century. Compromise, alliance-building, appeals for outside help and open armed struggle are treated as alternating strategies of the Sogdian elite. The author argues that the conduct of local rulers is best explained through the logic of their geopolitical situation rather than through one-dimensional moral verdicts.