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In this lecture, the author will attempt to summarise what we know of fire worship in Sogdiana (the land in present-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) which was inhabited by eastern Iranian people.

These groups, being active traders on the Eurasian tracks, developed a sophisticated culture in the pre-Islamic period. The images on mural paintings and other media, archaeological discoveries, and the few references in the written texts show that worship in front of a fire was a significant part of the ritual practices of Sogdians.

However, some ritual features that relate to the kindling of fire can be questioned. In some cases, the fire rituals depicted or described have a direct link to Zoroastrian practices spanning from Sasanian Iran to the present day. In many other cases, however, they have an unmistakable relation to the Buddhist incense burning known in Gandharan, Serindian, and Chinese contexts of the first millennium CE. These later instances, however, could be a heritage of the worship practices of the pre-Buddhist population of the Indo-Iranian frontier region.

There will be a light reception following the lecture.

About the speaker

Dr Pavel Lurje studied history of Afghanistan and Iran at Saint Petersburg State University from 1993 to 1998. He defended his PhD on the toponymy of Sogdiana at the Petersburg branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies in 2004 under the guidance of Prof. Vladimir A. Livshits. He then went on to complete a post-Doc fellowship (2004 – 2009) at the Institute of Iranian Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences, whereby he published the volume "Personal Names in Sogdian Texts" for the series Iranisches Personennamenbuch (2010). Since 2009 he has worked in the Department of the State Hermitage Museum and acts as co-director of the Panjakent archaeological expedition. He is also co-author, editor, or co-editor of the fascicles XII - XXVII of the Materials of the Panjakent archaeological expedition.

Since 2020, he has been co-directing the Central Iranian archaeological expedition, a project within the Hermitage Museum. Currently, Dr. Lurje is the invited researcher at the French Institute of Advanced Studies in Paris for this academic year. His main research fields include Sogdian and Chorasmian texts and onomastics, in addition to his pursuits in archaeology, arts, and the history of Central Asia. 

Contact

SSPIZS@soas.ac.uk

Event Registration

Preregistration is required through Microsoft Forms if attending in person, or Zoom if attending online.

Image: Sogdian wall painting