Dēwāštīč was the lord of Panjikent in the upper Zarafshan valley. He led the Sogdian nobles who resisted the Arabs after the fall of Samarkand in 712.[1] Arabic accounts of the conquest record his part in the resistance.[1] Part of the nobility of Samarkand took refuge with him. In 721–722 he claimed the title of king of Sogdiana.[1] He died in 722. After his death the Arabs devastated Panjikent.[1]

His archive survived. The Mount Mugh documents were found in 1933 on Mount Mugh in Tajikistan. They are mostly letters on the war against the Arabs and on the administration of his estates.[2] One of them is a report to him on the fall of Khujand. It says: “Khujand is at an end, and the whole people has gone out on trust of the amir”. The people were nobles, merchants and workmen, fourteen thousand in all.[3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d de la Vaissière 2005a, p. 272
  2. ^ de la Vaissière 2005a, p. 161
  3. ^ Mount Mugh documents

Sources

Literature

  • Étienne de la Vaissière, Sogdian Traders: A History (2005)

Related

What links here7

Battles & Events
The capture of Samarkand, 712
Places
Panjikent · Samarkand · Sogdiana
Peoples
Sogdians
Sources
Mount Mugh documents
Controversies
Turkic-Sogdian Synthesis

Cite this article

Yavuz, Emre-E. “Dēwāštīč.” Turkic Atlas, revised 22 October 2026. https://turkicatlas.org/persons/dewashtich/

Last revised: 22 October 2026