Tocari (Battria)

I Tocari (in latino: Tochari, dall'esonimo greco antico Τόχαροι Tókharoi; esonimo sanscrito: तुखाराः Tukhārāḥ [singolare: तुखार Tukhāra]; esonimo persiano classico: تخارها Tukhār-hā [singolare: تخار Tukhār]) furono un popolo antico della Battria, una regione storica dell'Asia centrale che corrisponde grosso modo all'Afghanistan settentrionale e a parti dell'Uzbekistan e del Tagikistan.

A volte si pensava che i Tocari fossero un ramo dei popoli turchi,^[1] ma ora sono generalmente considerati parte degli Yuezhi,^[2] un gruppo di tribù di lingua indoeuropea menzionate da fonti cinesi. I Tocari si stabilirono nelle parti orientali della Battria nel I secolo a.C.^[3]

Note

↑ Crawford, 1957, p. 137: “Meanwhile Bactria submitted to the Tochari of Western writers (Sanskrit, Tukhāra). They have been sometimes supposed to have been a branch of the Turkish tribes, while the Hiung-nu have been seen as Mongols, the forerunners of the Hūnas and Chionites. It was a section of the Tocharians who later followed the Greeks across the Hindu-kush and created the great Kushan empire in North India.”
↑ Knobloch, 1972, p. 20: “This time the nomads were the Yue-che (Yüe-czi), who, according to one authority (Tolstov), could be the same as the Greater Getae or Massagetae. It was probably a group of tribes, undoubtedly of Indo-European origin, one of which were the Tokhars who gave their name to Bactria (Tokharistan).”
↑ Huseini, 2024, pp. 37–38

Bibliografia

(EN) Antiquity, 31–32, 1957.
(EN) S. R. Huseini, Framing the conquest: Bactrian local rulers and Arab muslim domination of Bactria (31–128 AH/651–746 CE), University of Leiden, 2024.
(EN) Edgar Knobloch, Beyond the Oxus: Archaeology, Art & Architecture of Central Asia, 1972.

Portale Asia

Portale Storia

[1] Crawford, 1957, p. 137: “Meanwhile Bactria submitted to the Tochari of Western writers (Sanskrit, Tukhāra). They have been sometimes supposed to have been a branch of the Turkish tribes, while the Hiung-nu have been seen as Mongols, the forerunners of the Hūnas and Chionites. It was a section of the Tocharians who later followed the Greeks across the Hindu-kush and created the great Kushan empire in North India.”

[2] Knobloch, 1972, p. 20: “This time the nomads were the Yue-che (Yüe-czi), who, according to one authority (Tolstov), could be the same as the Greater Getae or Massagetae. It was probably a group of tribes, undoubtedly of Indo-European origin, one of which were the Tokhars who gave their name to Bactria (Tokharistan).”

[3] Huseini, 2024, pp. 37–38

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