Nanai-vandak

Nanai-vandak was a Sogdian merchant in the Gansu corridor. Most probably in 313 he wrote the letter now called Ancient Letter II. He addressed it to the noble Varzakk, son of Nanai-thvār, of the family Kānakk.^[1] Nanai-vandak managed the network in Gansu and China, and Varzakk sat in Samarkand. Below Nanai-vandak stood local agents at Jiuquan, at Guzang and in the towns further in.^[2] He calls himself Varzakk’s servant. The expressions of respect are largely set formulas, however, and in places he writes to Varzakk as an equal. The two families seem to have been related.^[2]

His letter reports that the emperor had fled Luoyang in a famine. Luoyang and Ye were no more, and the Huns, “who yesterday were the emperor’s subjects”, had done it.^[1] He had sent men into China eight years and four years earlier and had no news of them. His caravan found that all the Sogdians and Indians at Luoyang had died of starvation.^[1] “And day after day we are expecting to be killed or robbed.”^[1] The letter never reached Samarkand.^[3]