Uzbekistan located in the basin of the Zerafshan and Kashkadarya

Samarkand offered gold, sal ammoniac, incense, white pearls, velvet, and carpets. Trading with nomads was not unusual. Main places of goods exchange were set in the points, located on the border with steppe regions. The Turkic tribes brought here their cattle and handicrafts which were exchanged for various goods brought by Sogdian merchants from their homeland and other countries.
In the first centuries Sogdiana had the reputation not only for its handicrafts and trade, but also for its literature and arts. Sogdian written language was based on the use of Aramiac alphabet. The earliest Sogdian texts, which survived to our days, date back to the beginning of the 6th century and represent private correspondence written in a rather literary language.

Forty years ago during excavations on one of the hills of Afrosiab there was found a rich man's house the walls of which were decorated with pictures of elegantly dressed horsemen and women sitting on elephants, camels and horses. On the dress of one of the men, whose features bear ethnic distinction from faces of other characters, there was an inscription made in the Sogdian language. Having deciphered the inscription, scientists managed to read the following text, "I am Byr-Zatak, Chaganian head of chancellery. I arrived to Samarkand to express my respect to the king of Samarkand. And you do not harbour any suspicion toward me, for I am well informed of the gods and written language of Samarkand…".
Sogdian artists were passionate about imaging richness and luxury of noblemen. On the walls of temples and palaces in Samarkand, Varakhsha, and Penjikent they created splendid pictures of the nobility dressed in luxurious clothes made of brocade and silk, in golden crowns and sash, with daggers tucked behind their sashes, wearing precious earrings, necklaces and bracelets; with gentle faces and thin girlish waists, with gilded cups in their hands.
When in the 7th century Arab conquerors met the Sogdian noblemen in reality, the latter were no less sumptuous than those on the mural paintings. And this luxury could not but call forth envy and avidity in the Arabs, thus provoking a larger scale of Arabic aggression.
In 651 Arabs' army reached