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{{hatnote|For the land of the Saka under the Sassanid dynasty, see [[Sakastan]]. Not to be confused with the [[Sakha]], the endonym of the Yakut people of Siberia. For other uses, see [[Saka (disambiguation)]].}}
[[Image:Scythia-Parthia 100 BC.png|thumb|300px|Scythia and Parthia in about 170 BC (before the [[Yuezhi]] invaded Bactria).]]
{{Indo-European}}

The '''Saka''' or '''Saca''' {{nowrap|([[Persian language|Persian]]: <small>[[Old Persian|old]]</small> ''Sakā'',}} <small>[[Persian language|mod.]]</small>&nbsp;{{lang|ps|'''ساکا'''}}; {{lang-sa|''Śaka''}}; {{lang-grc-gre|Σάκαι}}, ''Sákai''; {{lang-la|Sacae}}; {{zh|{{linktext|塞}}}}, <small>[[Old Chinese|old]]</small>&nbsp;''*Sək'', <small>[[pinyin|mod.]]</small>&nbsp;''Sāi''){{efn|Variants include '''Sacha'''.<ref>[[:File:Ptolemy Cosmographia 1467 - Caspian Sea Central Asia.jpg|1]].</ref>}} was the term used in [[Middle Persian|Persian]] and [[Sanskrit]] sources for the [[Scythians]], a large group of [[Eastern Iranian languages|Eastern]] [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]] [[Eurasian nomads|nomadic]] tribes on the [[Eurasian Steppe]].<ref name="West">{{harvnb|West|2009|pp=713–717}}</ref><ref name="EBScythian">{{cite web |url=http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/530361/Scythian |author= |title=Scythian |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]] |accessdate=January 18, 2015}}</ref><ref>P. Lurje, “[http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/yarkand Yārkand]”, Encyclopædia Iranica, online edition</ref> Modern scholars usually use the term Saka to refer to Iranians of the Eastern Steppe and the Tarim Basin.<ref name="beckwith"/> [[René Grousset]] wrote that they formed a particular branch of the "[[Sarmatians|Scytho-Sarmatian family]]" originating from nomadic Iranian peoples of the northwestern steppe in [[Eurasia]].<ref name=Rene>{{Cite book |last=Grousset |first=Rene |title=The Empire of the Steppes |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=1970 |isbn=0-8135-1304-9 |pages=29–31}}</ref> They migrated into [[Sogdiana]] and [[Bactria]] in Central Asia and then to the northwest of the Indian subcontinent where they were known as the [[Indo-Scythians]]. In the [[Tarim Basin]] and [[Taklamakan desert]] region of [[Northwest China]], they settled in [[Kingdom of Khotan|Khotan]] and [[Kashgar]] which were at various times [[vassal]]s to greater powers, such as the [[Han dynasty|Han]] and [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] dynasties of [[History of China|Imperial China]].

==Usage of name==
[[Image:MenWithDragons.jpg|thumb|left|Gold artifacts of the Saka in [[Bactria]], at the site of [[Tillia tepe]], northern [[Afghanistan]].]]
Modern debate about the identity of the "Saka" is partly from ambiguous usage of the word by ancient, non-Saka authorities. According to [[Herodotus]], the Persians gave the name "Saka" to all Scythians.<ref>Herodotus Book VII, 64</ref> However, [[Pliny the Elder]] (''Gaius Plinius Secundus'', AD 23–79) claims that the Persians gave the name Sakai only to the Scythian tribes "nearest to them".<ref>Naturalis Historia, VI, 19, 50</ref> The Scythians to the far north of Assyria were also called the ''Saka suni'' (Saka or Scythian sons) by the Persians.{{citation needed|date=May 2014}} The [[ancient Assyrians|Assyrians]], of the time of [[Esarhaddon]], record campaigning against a people they called in the [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] the ''Ashkuza'' or ''Ishhuza''.<ref name=west506>{{cite book|first=Claus|last=Westermann|others=John J. Scullion (trans.)|title=: A Continental Commentary|year=1984|location=Minneapolis|page=506|isbn=0800695003}}</ref> However, modern scholarly consensus is that the Saka language, ancestor to the [[Pamir languages]] in [[northern India]] and Khotanese in [[Xinjiang]], China belongs to the [[Scythian languages]].<ref>Kuz'mina, Elena E. (2007). ''The Origin of the Indo Iranians''. Edited by J.P. Mallory. Leiden, Boston: Brill, pp 381-382. ISBN 978-90-04-16054-5.</ref>

Another people, the ''[[Gimirrai]]'',<ref name=west506/> who were known to the [[ancient Greece|ancient Greeks]] as the [[Cimmerians]], were closely associated with the Sakas. In ancient [[Hebrew]] texts, the ''Ashkuz'' (''[[Ashkenaz]]'') are considered to be a direct offshoot from the Gimirri (Gomer).<ref>"The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath,[a] and Togarmah." See also the entry for Ashkenaz in {{cite book|first=Robert|last=Young|title=Analytical Concordance to the Bible|publisher=Mac Donald Publishing Company|location=McLean, Virginia|isbn=0-917006-29-1}}</ref>
[[Image:Issyk Golden Cataphract Warrior.jpg|thumb|200px|A [[cataphract]]-style parade armour of a Saka royal, also known as "[[The Golden Warrior]]", from the [[Issyk kurgan]], an historic burial near ex-capital city of [[Almaty]],  [[Kazakhstan]]]] The Saka were regarded by the Babylonians as synonymous with the ''Gimirrai''; both names are used on the trilingual [[Behistun inscription]], carved in 515&nbsp;BC on the order of Darius the Great.<ref>[[George Rawlinson]], noted in his translation of ''History of Herodotus'', Book VII, p. 378</ref> (These people were reported to be mainly interested in settling in the kingdom of [[Urartu]], later part of [[Armenia]], and Shacusen in Uti Province derives its name from them.<ref>{{cite book|first=Vahan M.|last=Kurkjian|title=A History of Armenia|publisher=Armenian General Benevolent Union of America|year=1964|location=New York|page=23}}</ref>) The Behistun inscription initially only gave one entry for saka, they were however further differentiated later into three groups:<ref name=gershevitch /><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lxQ9W6F1oSYC&pg=PA173#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire |first= Pierre |last=Briant |page=173 |publisher=Eisenbrauns |date=29 July 2006|isbn=978-1575061207 }}</ref><ref name="dandamayev"/>
*the ''Sakā tigraxaudā'' – "Saka with pointy hats/caps",
*the ''Sakā haumavargā'' – interpreted as "[[haoma]]-drinking saka" but there are other suggestions,<ref name=gershevitch /><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g7N74BFaC90C&pg=PA334#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=The Culture and Social Institutions of Ancient Iran |authors= Muhammad A. Dandamaev, Vladimir G. Lukonin |publisher= Cambridge University Press|date= 21 August 2008 |isbn=978-0521611916|page=334 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/haumavarga |title=Haumavargā |work=Encyclopedia Iranica}}</ref>
*the ''Sakā paradraya'' – "Saka beyond the sea", a name added after Darius' [[European Scythian campaign of Darius I|campaign into Western Scythia]] north of the [[Danube River|Danube]].<ref name=gershevitch>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BBbyr932QdYC&pg=PA254#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 2|editor= Ilya Gershevitch |author=J. M. Cook |chapter=The Rise of the Achaemenids and Establishment of Their Empire |pages=253–255 |publisher= Cambridge University Press; Reissue edition |date=6 June 1985|isbn= 978-0521200912 }}</ref>
An additional term is found in two inscriptions elsewhere:<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nNDpPqeDjo0C&pg=PA173&lpg=PA173#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume IV |page=173 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=24 November 1988 |isbn= 978-0521228046 }}</ref>
*the ''Sakā para Sugdam'' – "Saka beyond Sugda ([[Sogdia]]na)", a term was used by Darius for the people who formed the limits of his empire at the opposite end to [[Kingdom of Kush|Kush]] (the Ethiopians), therefore should be located at the eastern edge of his empire.<ref name=gershevitch /><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lxQ9W6F1oSYC&pg=PA178#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=From Cyrus to Alexander: A History of the Persian Empire |first= Pierre |last=Briant |page=178 |publisher=Eisenbrauns |date=29 July 2006|isbn=978-1575061207 |quote= "This is Kingdom which I hold, from the Scythians [Saka] who are beyond Sogdiana, thence unto Ethiopia [Cush]; from Sind, thence unto Sardis."}}</ref>

The ''Sakā paradraya'' were the western Scythians (European Scythians) or Sarmatians. Both the ''Sakā tigraxaudā'' and ''Sakā haumavargā'' are thought to be located in Central Asia east of the [[Caspian Sea]].<ref name=gershevitch /> ''Sakā haumavargā'' is considered to be the same as [[Amyrgians]], the Saka tribe in closest proximity to [[Bactria]] and [[Sogdiana]]. It has been suggested that the ''Sakā haumavargā'' may be the ''Sakā para Sugdam'', therefore ''Sakā haumavargā'' is argued by some to be located further east than the ''Sakā tigraxaudā'', perhaps at the [[Pamirs]] or [[Xinjiang]], although  [[Jaxartes]] is considered to be their more likely location given that the name says "beyond Sogdiana" rather than Bactria.<ref name=gershevitch />

In the modern era, the archaeologist [[Hugo Winckler]] (1863&ndash;1913) was the first to associate the Sakas with the Scyths. [[John Manuel Cook|J. M. Cook]], in ''The Cambridge History of Iran'', states: "The Persians gave the single name Sakā both to the nomads whom they encountered between the Hunger steppe and the Caspian, and equally to those north of the Danube and Black Sea against whom Darius later campaigned; and the Greeks and Assyrians called all those who were known to them by the name Skuthai (Iškuzai). Sakā and Skuthai evidently constituted a generic name for the nomads on the northern frontiers."<ref name=gershevitch />  Persian sources often treat them as a single tribe called the Saka (''Sakai'' or ''Sakas''), but [[Greek language|Greek]] and [[Latin]] texts suggest that the Scythians were composed of many sub-groups.<ref name="Books.google.com">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J_gAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA322&lpg=PA322&dq=HAIHAIYA+AHIR#v=onepage&q=AHIR&f=false |title=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society ...&nbsp;– Google Books |publisher=|date=2007-04-06 |accessdate=2010-12-30}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland By Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland-page-323</ref>  Modern scholars usually use the term Saka to refer to Iranian-speaking tribes who inhabited the Eastern Steppe and the Tarim Basin.<ref name="beckwith"/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UwueDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA383&lpg=PA383#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=ARCHAEOLOGY – Volume I |chapter= The Archaeology of Eurasian Nomads |editor= Donald L. Hardesty |page=383 |author=L. T. Yablonsky |publisher= EOLSS |isbn=9781848260023}}</ref>
<!-- Commented out the following section due to a lack of any relevance to lay readers, i.e. Who are the Aseni/Asoi, the Sacarauls /Sarauceans etc and what is their connection to the Saka?   ===Ancient accounts of Central Asians in South Asia===
{{see also|Central Asians in Ancient Indian literature}}
[[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] also mentions ''Aseni'' and ''Asoi'' clans south of the [[Hindukush]].<ref>Pliny: ''Hist Nat''., VI.21.8–23.11, ''List of Indian races''</ref> [[Alexandria Bucephalus|Bucephala]] was the capital of the ''Aseni'' which stood on the Hydaspes (the [[Jhelum River]]).<ref>''Alexander the Great, Sources and Studies'', p 236, W. W. Tarn; ''Political History of Indian People'', 1996, p 232, H. C. Raychaudhury, B. N. Mukerjee</ref> The Sarauceans and Aseni are the Sacarauls and [[Asioi]] of Strabo.<ref>''History and Culture of Indian People, Age of Imperial Unity'', p 111; ''Political History of Ancient India'', 1996, p 692.</ref>{{clarify|reason=this relies on primary sources, is original research and the relevance to Saka is unclear|date=October 2011}} ''Asio'', ''Asi'', ''Asii'', ''Asva'', ''Aswa'', ''Ari-aspi'', ''Aspasios'', ''Aspasii'' and ''Hippasii'' are variant names the classical writers have given to the horse-clans of the [[Kambojas]].<ref>For nomenclature Aspasii, Hipasii, see: [[Olaf Caroe]], ''The Pathans'', 1958, pp 37, 55–56. [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] also refers to horse clans like ''Aseni, Asoi'' living in north-west of India (which were none-else than the [[Ashvayana]] and [[Ashvakas|Ashvakayana]] Kambojas of Indian texts). See: ''Hist. Nat''. VI 21.8–23.11; See ''Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian'', Trans. and edited by J. W. McCrindle, Calcutta and Bombay,: Thacker, Spink, 1877, 30–174.</ref> The Old-Persian words for horse, "asa" and "aspa, have most likely been derived from this.<ref>[http://www.iranica.com/newsite/articles/unicode/v2f7/v2f7a048.html Encyclopedia Iranica Article on Asb]</ref> If one accepts this connection,{{Or|date=October 2011}} then the Tukharas (= Rishikas = Yuezhi) controlled the eastern parts of Bactria (Chinese ''Ta-hia'') while the combined forces of the ''Sakarauloi'', ''Asio'' (''horse people = Parama Kambojas'') and ''Pasinoi'' of Strabo occupied its western parts after being displaced from their original home in the [[Fergana]] valley by the Yuezhi. Ta-hia ([[Daxia]]) is then taken to mean the [[Tushara Kingdom]] which also included [[Badakshan]], [[Chitral]], [[Kafirstan]] and [[Wakhan]]<ref>''Political History of Ancient India'', 1996, Commentary, p 719, B. N. Mukerjee. Cf: "It appears likely that like the Yue-chis, the Scythians had also occupied a part of Transoxiana before conquering Bactria. If the Tokhario, who were the same as or affiliated with Yue-chihs, and who were mistaken as Scythian people, participated in the same series of invasions of Bactria of the Greeks, then it may be inferred that eastern Bactria was conquered by Yue-chis and the western by other nomadic people in about the same period. In other words, the Greek rule in Bactria was put to end in c 130/29 BC due to invasion by the Great Yue-chis and the Scythians Sakas nomads (Commentary: ''Political History of Ancient India'', 1996, p 692-93, B.N. Mukerjee). It is notable that before its occupation by Tukhara Yue-chis, Badakashan formed a part of ancient Kamboja i.e. Parama Kamboja country. But after its occupation by the Tukharas in the 2nd century BC, it became a part of Tukharistan. Around the 4th or 5th century, when the fortunes of the Tukharas finally died down, the original population of Kambojas re-asserted itself and the region again started to be called by its ancient name Kamboja (See: Bhartya Itihaas ki Ruprekha, p 534, J.C. Vidyalankar; ''Ancient Kamboja, People and the Country'', 1981, pp 129, 300 J.L. Kamboj; ''Kambojas Through the Ages'', 2005, p 159, S Kirpal Singh). There are several later-time references to this Kamboja of Pamirs/Badakshan. Raghuvamsha, a 5th c Sanskrit play by Kalidasa, attests their presence on river Vamkshu (Oxus) as neighbors to the Hunas (4.68–70). They have also been attested as ''Kiumito'' by 7th-century Chinese pilgrim Hiun Tsang. King Lalitadiya of Kashmir in the 8th century, had invaded the Oxian Kambojas as is attested by Rajatarangini of Kalhana (See: Rajatarangini 4.163-65). Here they are mentioned as living in the eastern parts of the Oxus valley as neighbors to the Tukharas who were living in western parts of Oxus valley (See: ''The Land of the Kambojas'', Purana, Vol V, No, July 1962, p 250, D. C. Sircar). These Kambojas apparently were descendants of that section of the Kambojas who, instead of leaving their ancestral land during second c BC under assault from Ta Yue-chi, had compromised with the invaders and had decided to stay put in their ancestral land instead of moving to Helmond valley or to the Kabol valley. There are other references which equate Kamboja= Tokhara. A Buddhist Sanskrit Vinaya text (N. Dutt, Gilgit Manuscripts, III, 3, 136, quoted in B.S.O.A.S XIII, 404) has the expression ''satam Kambojikanam kanayanam'' i.e a hundred maidens from Kamboja. This has been rendered in Tibetan as ''Tho-gar yul-gyi bu-mo brgya'' and in Mongolian as ''Togar ulus-un yagun ükin''. Thus ''Kamboja'' has been rendered as ''Tho-gar'' or Togar. And Tho-gar/Togar is Tibetan/Mongolian names for Tokhar/Tukhar. See refs: Irano-Indica III, [[H. W. Bailey]], Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 13, No. 2, 1950, pp. 389–409; see also: Ancient Kamboja, Iran and Islam, 1971, p 66, H. W. Bailey.</ref> According to other scholars, it were the Saka hordes alone who had put an end to the Greek kingdom of Bactria.<ref>Cambridge History of India, Vol I, p 510; Taxila, Vol I, p 24, Marshal, Early History of North India, p 50, S. Chattopadhyava.</ref>  -->

==History==
[[File:TilliaTepeReconstitution.jpg|thumb|upright =1.2|left|Artifacts found the tombs 2 and 4 of Tillia Tepe and reconstitution of their use on the man and woman found in these tombs]]

The Saka people were an [[Iranian peoples|Iranian]] people who spoke a language belonging to the [[Iranian languages|Iranian branch]] of the [[Indo-European languages]]. They are known to the ancient Greeks as [[Scythians]] and are attested in historical and archaeological records dating to around the 8th century BC.<ref name="mallory">{{cite web |url=http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3yysAsLqccYJ:www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/52-3/mallory.pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk |title=Bronze Age Languages of the Tarim Basin |author= J. P. mallory |work=Penn Museum }}</ref> In the Achaemenid-era [[Old Persian]] inscriptions found at [[Persepolis]], dated to the reign of Darius I (r. 522-486 BC), the Saka are said to have lived just beyond the borders of [[Sogdia]]na.<ref name="bailey 1996 pp1230-1231"/> Likewise an inscription dated to the reign of [[Xerxes I]] (r. 486-465 BC) has them coupled with the [[Dahae]] people of Central Asia.<ref name="bailey 1996 pp1230-1231"/> The contemporary [[Greek historiography|Greek historian]] [[Herodotus]] noted that the Achaemenid Persians called all of the Iranian [[Scythia]]n peoples as the Saka.<ref name="bailey 1996 pp1230-1231"/>
[[File:Behistun.Inscript.Skunkha.jpg|thumb|150px|Captured Saka king [[Skunkha]], from [[Mount Behistun]], Iran, [[Achaemenid Empire|Achaemenid]] stone relief from the reign of [[Darius I]] (r. 522-486 BC)]]

Greek historians wrote of the wars between the Saka and the [[Medes]], as well as their wars against [[Cyrus the Great]] of the Persian [[Achaemenid Empire]] where Saka women were said to fight alongside their men.<ref name="eolss">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UwueDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA380&lpg=PA380#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=ARCHAEOLOGY – Volume I |chapter= The Archaeology of Eurasian Nomads |editor= Donald L. Hardesty |page=383 |author=L. T. Yablonsky |publisher= EOLSS |isbn=9781848260023}}</ref> According to Herodotus, Cyrus the Great confronted the [[Massagetae]], a people related to the Saka,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCiNqFj3MQsC&pg=PA516#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania |author=  Barbara A. West |page=516 }}</ref> while campaigning to the east of the [[Caspian Sea]] and was killed in the battle in 530 BC.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=osQ9CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA206#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia |first= Barry |last=Cunliffe |page=206 |publisher= Oxford University Press |date=24 September 2015|isbn= 978-0199689170 }}</ref>  [[Darius the Great]] also waged wars against the eastern Sakas, who fought him with three armies led by three kings according to [[Polyaenus]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/amorges |title=Amorges |author=A. Sh. Shahbazi, |work=Encyclopaedia Iranica }}</ref> In 520–519 BC, Darius I defeated the ''Sakā tigraxaudā'' tribe and captured their king [[Skunkha]] (depicted as wearing a pointed hat in Behistun).<ref name="beckwith">{{cite book |url=http://silkroadarchaeology.weebly.com/uploads/6/2/5/5/6255878/beckwith_ch._2.pdf |title=Empires of the Silk Road |page=68 |first=Christopher |last=Beckwith |publisher= Princeton University Press|date=8 May 2011|isbn= 978-0691150345 }}</ref> The territories of Saka were absorbed into the Achaemenid Empire as part of [[Chorasmia (satrapy)|Chorasmia]] that included much of [[Amu Darya]] (Oxus) and [[Syr Darya]] (Jaxartes),<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=osQ9CgAAQBAJ&pg=PA235#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=By Steppe, Desert, and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia |first= Barry |last=Cunliffe |page=235 |publisher= Oxford University Press |date=24 September 2015|isbn= 978-0199689170 }}</ref> and the Saka then supplied the Persian army with large number of mounted bowmen in the Achaemenid wars.<ref name="dandamayev">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DguGWP0vGY8C&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia Volume II: The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 BC to AD 250 | pages=44–46|author= M. A. Dandamayev |publisher=UNESCO|isbn=978-8120815407 }}</ref> They were also mentioned as among those who resisted [[Alexander the Great]]'s incursions into Central Asia.<ref name="eolss"/>

The [[Shakya]] clan of India, to which [[Gautama Buddha| Siddhārtha Gautama Śākyamuni Buddha]] belonged, has been identified as Sakas by [[Michael Witzel]]<ref> Jayarava Attwood, Possible Iranian Origins for the Śākyas and Aspects of Buddhism. Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies 2012 (3): 47-69 https://www.academia.edu/25950011/Possible_Iranian_Origins_for_the_%C5%9A%C4%81kyas_and_Aspects_of_Buddhism</ref> and [[Christopher I. Beckwith]].<ref>Christopher I. Beckwith, "Greek Buddha: Pyrrho's Encounter with Early Buddhism in Central Asia", 2016, pp 1-21</ref> 

The Saka were known as the Sai (塞, sāi, ''sək'' in Old Sinitic) in ancient Chinese records.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FcKtIPVQ6REC&pg=PA283#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia Volume III: The crossroads of civilizations: AD 250 to 750 | page=283 |author= Zhang Guang-da |publisher=UNESCO|isbn=978-8120815407 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OOK-fBNwZ7kC&pg=PA67&lpg=PA67#v=onepage&q&f=false |title= Indo-Scythian Studies: Being Khotanese Texts|author= H. W. Bailey |page=67 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn= 978-0521118736 }}</ref> These records indicate that they originally inhabited the [[Ili River|Ili]] and [[Chu River]] valleys of modern [[Kyrgyzstan]] and [[Kazakhstan]].  In the Chinese ''[[Book of Han]]'', the area was called the "land of the Sai", i.e. the Saka.<ref name="yu 2010 p13"/> The exact date of the Saka's arrival in the valleys of the rivers Ili and [[Chu River|Chu]] in Central Asia is unclear, perhaps it was just before the reign of [[Darius I]].<ref name="yu 2010 p13"/>  Around 30 Saka tombs in the form of [[kurgan]]s (burial mounds) have also been found in the [[Tian Shan]] area dated to between 550–250 BC. Indications of Saka presence have also been found in the Tarim Basin region, possibly as early as the 7th century BC.<ref name="mallory"/>

The Saka were pushed out of the Ili and Chu River valleys by the Indo-European [[Yuezhi]], thought by some to be [[Tocharians]]. An account of the movement of these people is given in [[Sima Qian]]'s ''[[Shiji]]''.  The Yuezhi, who originally lived between Tängri Tagh ([[Tian Shan]]) and [[Dunhuang]] of [[Gansu]], China,<ref>{{cite book |author1=Mallory, J. P.  |author2=Mair, Victor H.  |lastauthoramp=yes |page= 58|year=2000 |title=The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West |publisher=Thames & Hudson. London |isbn= 0-500-05101-1 }}</ref> were assaulted and forced to flee from the [[Hexi Corridor]] of Gansu by the [[Proto-Mongols|Mongolic]] forces of the [[Xiongnu]] ruler [[Modu Chanyu]], who conquered the area in 177-176 BC.<ref>Torday, Laszlo. (1997). ''Mounted Archers: The Beginnings of Central Asian History''. Durham: The Durham Academic Press, pp 80-81, ISBN 978-1-900838-03-0.</ref><ref>Yü, Ying-shih. (1986). "Han Foreign Relations," in ''The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220'', 377-462. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 377-388, 391, ISBN 978-0-521-24327-8.</ref><ref>Chang, Chun-shu. (2007). The Rise of the Chinese Empire: Volume II; Frontier, Immigration, & Empire in Han China, 130 B.C. – A.D. 157. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, pp 5-8 ISBN 978-0-472-11534-1.</ref><ref>Di Cosmo, Nicola. (2002). ''Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 174-189, 196-198, 241-242 ISBN 978-0-521-77064-4.</ref> In turn the Yuezhi were responsible for attacking and pushing the Sai (i.e. Saka) west into Sogdiana, where around 140 and 130 BC the latter crossed the [[Syr Darya]] into [[Bactria]]. The Saka also moved southwards towards to the Pamirs and northern India where they settled in Kashmir, and eastwards to settle in some of the oasis city-states of Tarim Basin sites like Yanqi (焉耆, [[Karasahr]]) and Qiuci (龜茲, [[Kucha]]).<ref>Yu Taishan (June 2010), "The Earliest Tocharians in China" in Victor H. Mair (ed), ''Sino-Platonic Papers'', Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, pp. 13-14, 21-22.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.transoxiana.org/Eran/Articles/benjamin.html |title= The Yuezhi Migration and Sogdia |first=Craig |last=Benjamin }}</ref>  The Yuezhi, themselves under attacks from another nomadic tribe the [[Wusun]] in 133-132 BC, moved again from the [[Ili River]] and [[Chu River]] valleys and occupied the country of "[[Daxia]]" (大夏) or [[Bactria]].<ref name="yu 2010 p13">Yu Taishan (June 2010), "The Earliest Tocharians in China" in Victor H. Mair (ed), ''Sino-Platonic Papers'', Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, University of Pennsylvania Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, p. 13.</ref><ref>Bernard, P. (1994). "The Greek Kingdoms of Central Asia". In Harmatta, János. ''History of civilizations of Central Asia, Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D. 250''. Paris: UNESCO. pp. 96–126. ISBN 92-3-102846-4.</ref>

The ancient Greco-Roman geographer [[Strabo]] noted that the four tribes that took down the Bactrians in the Greek and Roman account – the  ''[[Asii|Asioi]]'', ''Pasianoi'', ''Tokharoi'' and ''Sakaraulai'' – came from land north of [[Syr Darya]] where the Ili and Chu valleys are located.<ref name=Rene/><ref name="yu 2010 p13"/> Identification of these four tribes varies, but ''Sakaraulai'' may indicate an ancient Saka tribe, the ''Tokharoi'' is possibly the Yuezhi, and while the Asioi had been proposed to be groups such as the Wusun or [[Alans]].<ref name=Rene/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yglkwD7pKV8C&pg=PA296#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=The History of Central Asia: The Age of the Steppe Warriors|first= Christoph |last=Baumer |publisher=I.B.Tauris |date=30 November 2012|isbn=978-1780760605 |page=296 }}</ref>

Grousset wrote of the migration of the Saka: "the Saka, under pressure from the [[Yueh-chih]] [Yuezhi], overran Sogdiana and then Bactria, there taking the place of the Greeks."  Then, "Thrust back in the south by the Yueh-chih," the Saka occupied "the Saka country, Sakastana, whence the modern Persian Seistan."<ref name=Rene/>  According to [[Harold Walter Bailey|Harold W. Bailey]], the territory of [[Drangiana]] (in modern Afghanistan and Pakistan) became known as "Land of the Sakas", and was called Sakastāna in the Persian language of contemporary Iran, in Armenian as [[Sakastan]], with similar equivalents in Pahlavi, Greek, Sogdian, Syriac, Arabic, and the [[Middle Persian]] tongue used in [[Turfan]], Xinjiang, China.<ref name="bailey 1996 pp1230-1231" /> This is attested in a contemporary [[Kharosthi]] inscription found on the [[Mathura lion capital]] belonging to the Saka kingdom of the [[Indo-Scythians]] (200 BC - 400 AD) in [[northern India]],<ref name="bailey 1996 pp1230-1231">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y7IHmyKcPtYC&pg=PA1230&lpg=PA1230#v=onepage&q&f=false |author= Bailey, H.W. |date=1996|chapter=Chapter 34: Khotanese Saka Literature |editor= Ehsan Yarshater |title =The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, Part 2 |edition=reprint  |publisher=Cambridge University Press|origyear=14 April 1983|isbn=978-0521246934|pages= 1230–1231}}</ref> roughly the same time the Chinese record that the Saka had invaded and settled the country of ''Jibin'' 罽賓 (i.e. [[Kashmir]], of modern-day India and Pakistan).<ref name="theobald 2011 saka">Ulrich Theobald. (26 November 2011). "[http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Altera/sakas.html Chinese History - Sai 塞 The Saka People or Soghdians]." ''ChinaKnowledge.de''. Accessed 2 September 2016.</ref>

Migrations of the 2nd and 1st century BC have left traces in [[Sogdia]] and Bactria, but they cannot firmly be attributed to the Saka, similarly with the sites of [[Sirkap]] and [[Taxila]] in [[Outline of ancient India|ancient India]]. The rich graves at [[Tillya Tepe]] in [[Afghanistan]] are seen as part of a population affected by the Saka.<ref>Yaroslav Lebedynsky, P. 84</ref>

===Indo-Scythians===
{{Main article|Indo-Scythians}}
The region in modern Afghanistan and Pakistan where the Saka moved to became known as "land of the Saka" or [[Sakastan]].<ref name="bailey 1996 pp1230-1231"/> The Sakas also captured [[Gandhara]] and [[Taxila]], and migrated to [[North India]].<ref name="Sulimirski 1970 113–114">{{cite book |title=The Sarmatians |volume=Volume 73 of Ancient peoples and places |pages=113–114 |last=Sulimirski |first=Tadeusz |author-link=Tadeusz Sulimirski |publisher=Praeger |location=New York |year=1970 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gdjhuAAACAAJ |quote=The evidence of both the ancient authors and the archaeological remains point to a massive migration of Sacian (Sakas)/Massagetan tribes from the Syr Daria Delta (Central Asia) by the middle of the second century B.C. Some of the Syr Darian tribes; they also invaded North India.}}</ref>  An Indo-Scythians kingdom was established in [[Mathura]] (200 BC - 400 AD).<ref name="bailey 1996 pp1230-1231"/> [[Weer Rajendra Rishi]], an Indian linguist, identified linguistic affinities between Indian and Central Asian languages, which further lends credence to the possibility of historical Sakan influence in North India.<ref name="Sulimirski 1970 113–114"/><ref>{{cite book |title= India & Russia: linguistic & cultural affinity |page=95 | last=Rishi |first=Weer Rajendra |author-link=Weer Rajendra Rishi |publisher=Roma |year=1982 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vns_AAAAMAAJ&q=Getae#search_anchor}}</ref> According to historian Michael Mitchiner, the [[Abhira tribe]] were a Saka people cited in the Gunda inscription of the [[Western Satraps|Western Satrap]] [[Rudrasimha I]] dated to 181 CE.<ref name="Mitchiner1978">{{cite book|last=Mitchiner|first=Michael|title=The ancient & classical world, 600 B.C.-A.D. 650|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zuQLAQAAMAAJ|year=1978|publisher=Hawkins Publications ; distributed by B. A. Seaby|isbn=978-0-904173-16-1|page=634}}</ref>

===Kingdom of Khotan===
{{Main article|Kingdom of Khotan}}
[[File:KingGurgamoyaKhotan1stCenturyCE.jpg|thumb|Coin of [[Gurgamoya]], king of Khotan. Khotan, 1st century CE.<br>
''Obv:'' [[Kharosthi]] legend, "Of the great king of kings, king of Khotan, Gurgamoya.<br>
''Rev:'' Chinese legend: "Twenty-four grain copper coin". [[British Museum]]]]

The Kingdom of Khotan was a Saka city state in on the southern edge of the Tarim Basin. As a consequence of the [[Han–Xiongnu War]] spanning from 133 BC to 89 AD, the [[Tarim Basin]] region of [[Xinjiang]] in [[Northwest China]], including [[Khotan]] and [[Kashgar]], fell under [[Han Chinese]] influence, beginning with the reign of [[Emperor Wu of Han|Emperor Wu]] (r. 141-87 BC) of the [[Han Dynasty]].<ref>Loewe, Michael. (1986). "The Former Han Dynasty," in The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220, 103–222. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 197-198. ISBN 978-0-521-24327-8.</ref><ref>Yü, Ying-shih. (1986). "Han Foreign Relations," in ''The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220'', 377-462. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 410-411. ISBN 978-0-521-24327-8.</ref>  During the later [[Tang dynasty]], the region once again came under Chinese [[suzerainty]] with the campaigns of conquest by [[Emperor Taizong of Tang]] (r. 626-649).<ref>Xue, Zongzheng (薛宗正). (1992). History of the Turks (突厥史). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, p. 596-598. ISBN 978-7-5004-0432-3; OCLC 28622013</ref> From the late 8th to 9th centuries, the region changed hands between the Chinese Tang Empire and the rival [[Tibetan Empire]].<ref>Beckwith, Christopher. (1987). The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp 36, 146. ISBN 0-691-05494-0.</ref><ref>Wechsler, Howard J.; Twitchett, Dennis C. (1979). Denis C. Twitchett; John K. Fairbank, eds. ''The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China, 589–906, Part I''. Cambridge University Press. pp. 225–227. ISBN 978-0-521-21446-9.</ref> However, by the early 11th century the region fell to the Muslim Turkic peoples of the [[Kara-Khanid Khanate]], which led to both the [[Turkification]] of the region as well as its conversion from [[Buddhism]] to [[Islam]].
[[File:Khotanese animal zodiac BLI6 OR11252 1R2 1.jpg|thumb|200px|A document from [[Khotan]] written in [[Saka language|Khotanese Saka]], part of the [[Eastern Iranian languages|Eastern Iranian branch]] of the [[Indo-European languages]], listing the animals of the [[Chinese zodiac]] in the cycle of predictions for people born in that year; ink on paper, early 9th century]]

Archaeological evidence and documents from Khotan and other sites in the Tarim Basin provided information on the language spoken by the Saka.<ref name="bailey 1996 pp1230-1231"/><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QtpQZ1DD6tEC&pg=PA377&lpg=PA377#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=Iranian Languages |editor= Gernot Windfuhr |author=Ronald E. Emmerick |chapter=Khotanese and Tumshuqese |publisher=Routledge |page=377}}</ref>
The official language of Khotan was initially [[Gāndhārī language|Gandhari Prakrit]] written in the [[Kharosthi]] script, and coins from Khotan dated to the 1st century bear dual inscriptions in Chinese and Gandhari Prakrit, indicating links of Khotan to both India and China.<ref name="emmerick 2003 p265">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ko_RafMSGLkC&pg=PA265#v=onepage&q&f=false |author=Emmerick, R. E. |publisher=Cambridge University Press; Reissue edition |date=14 April 1983|isbn=978-0521200929|chapter =Chapter 7: Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs|editor=Ehsan Yarshater |title=The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, Part 1 |pages= 265–266 }}</ref>  Surviving documents however suggest that an Iranian language was used by the people of the kingdom for a long time Third-century AD documents in Prakrit from nearby [[Shanshan]] record the title for the king of Khotan as ''hinajha'' (i.e. "generalissimo"), a distinctively Iranian-based word equivalent to the [[Sanskrit]] title ''[[senapati]]'', yet nearly identical to the Khotanese Saka ''hīnāysa'' attested in later Khotanese documents.<ref name="emmerick 2003 p265"/> This, along with the fact that the king's recorded regnal periods were given as the Khotanese ''kṣuṇa'', "implies an established connection between the Iranian inhabitants and the royal power," according to the Professor of Iranian Studies Ronald E. Emmerick.<ref name="emmerick 2003 p265"/> He contended that Khotanese-Saka-language royal rescripts of Khotan dated to the 10th century "makes it likely that the ruler of Khotan was a speaker of [[Iranian languages|Iranian]]."<ref name="emmerick 2003 p265"/> Furthermore, he argued that the early form of the name of Khotan, ''hvatana'', is connected semantically with the name Saka.<ref name="emmerick 2003 p265"/>

Later Khotanese-Saka-language documents, ranging from medical texts to [[Buddhist literature]], have been found in Khotan and [[Tumxuk|Tumshuq]] (northeast of Kashgar).<ref name="bailey 1996 pp1231-1235">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y7IHmyKcPtYC&pg=PA1231&lpg=PA1231#v=onepage&q&f=false |author= Bailey, H.W. |date=1996|chapter= Khotanese Saka Literature |editor= Ehsan Yarshater |title =The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods'', Part 2 |edition=reprint |publisher = Cambridge University Press|pages= 1231–1235}}</ref> Similar documents in the Khotanese-Saka language dating mostly to the 10th century have been found in [[Dunhuang manuscripts|Dunhuang]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://history.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/VH%20BAI%20paper%2009.pdf |title=The Tribute Trade with Khotan in Light of Materials Found at the Dunhuang Library Cave|first=Valerie |last=Hansen |journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute|volume= 19|date=2005|pages= 37–46}}</ref>

Although the ancient Chinese had called Khotan ''Yutian'' (于闐), another more native Iranian name occasionally used was ''Jusadanna'' (瞿薩旦那), derived from Indo-Iranian ''Gostan'' and ''Gostana'', the names of the town and region around it, respectively.<ref name="theobald 2011 yutian">Ulrich Theobald. (16 October 2011). "[http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Altera/citystates.html#yutian City-states Along the Silk Road]." ''ChinaKnowledge.de''. Accessed 2 September 2016.</ref>

===Shule Kingdom===
{{main article|Shule Kingdom}}
Much like the neighboring people of the Kingdom of Khotan, people of [[Kashgar]], the capital of Shule, [[Saka language|spoke Saka]], one of the [[Eastern Iranian languages]].<ref>Xavier Tremblay, "The Spread of Buddhism in Serindia: Buddhism Among Iranians, Tocharians and Turks before the 13th Century", in ''The Spread of Buddhism'', eds Ann Heirman and Stephan Peter Bumbacker, Leiden: Koninklijke Brill, 2007, p. 77.</ref>  According to the ''[[Book of Han]]'', the Saka split and formed several states in the region.  These Saka states may include two states to the northwest of Kashgar, and [[Tumxuk|Tumshuq]] to its northeast, and [[Tashkurgan Town|Tushkurgan]] south in the Pamirs.<ref name="DaniLitvinsky1996"/> Kashgar also conquered other states such as [[Yarkant County|Yarkand]] and [[Kucha]] during the Han dynasty, but in its later history, Kashgar was controlled by various empires, including [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] China,<ref>Whitfield 2004, p. 47.</ref><ref name="wechsler">Wechsler, Howard J.; Twitchett, Dennis C. (1979). Denis C. Twitchett; John K. Fairbank, eds. The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China, 589–906, Part I. Cambridge University Press. pp. 225–228. ISBN 978-0-521-21446-9.</ref>  before it became part of the Turkic [[Kara-Khanid Khanate]] in the 10th century. In the 11th century, according to [[Mahmud al-Kashgari]], some non-Turkic languages like the Kanchaki and [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]] were still used in some areas in the vicinity of Kashgar,<ref name="LeviSela2010 2">{{cite book|author1=Scott Cameron Levi|author2=Ron Sela|title=Islamic Central Asia: An Anthology of Historical Sources|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAX5ohFkcVgC&pg=PA72 |year=2010|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=0-253-35385-8|pages=72–}}</ref> and Kanchaki is thought to belong to the [[Saka language]] group.<ref name="DaniLitvinsky1996">{{cite book|author1=Ahmad Hasan Dani|author2=B. A. Litvinsky|author3=Unesco|title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations, A.D. 250 to 750|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=883OZBe2sMYC&pg=PA283&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=1 January 1996|publisher=UNESCO|isbn=978-92-3-103211-0|pages=283–}}</ref> It is believed that the Tarim Basin was linguistically Turkified before the 11th century ended.<ref name="Akiner2013">{{cite book|author=Akiner|title=Cultural Change & Continuity In|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=udjWAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA71#v=onepage&q&f=false|date=28 October 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-15034-0|pages=71–}}</ref>

==Language==
{{main article|Saka language}}
[[Image:Issyk inscription.png|thumb|200px|Drawing of the [[Issyk inscription]]]]
Attestations of Saka show that it was an [[Eastern Iranian language]]. Both dialects contain many borrowings from the Middle Indo-Aryan [[Prakrit]], but also share features with modern [[Wakhi language|Wakhi]] and [[Pashto language|Pashto]].<ref>{{cite conference|booktitle=History of civilizations of Central Asia|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=8120815408|title=Religions and religious movements|last=Litvinsky|first=Boris Abramovich|author2=Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya, M.I |pages=421–448|year=1999}}</ref> The [[Issyk kurgan|Issyk inscription]], a short fragment on a silver cup found in the [[Issyk kurgan]] (modern Kazakhstan) is believed to be an early example of Saka, constituting one of very few autochthonous epigraphic traces of that language.{{Citation needed|date=October 2011}} The inscription is in a variant of the [[Kharoṣṭhī]] script. Harmatta identifies the dialect as Khotanese Saka, tentatively translating its as: "The vessel should hold wine of grapes, added cooked food, so much, to the mortal, then added cooked fresh butter on".<ref name="harmatta">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9U6RlVVjpakC&pg=PA421&lpg=PA421#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations |first=János|last=Harmatta|publisher=UNESCO |date=20 August 1994 |isbn=978-9231028465 |pages=420–421}}</ref>

The linguistic heartland of the [[Saka language]] was the [[Kingdom of Khotan]], which had two dialects, corresponding to the major settlements at [[Khotan]] (modern [[Hotan]]) and [[Tumshuq]] (Tumxuk).<ref>Sarah Iles Johnston, Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide, Harvard University Press, 2004. pg 197</ref><ref>Edward A Allworth,''Central Asia: A Historical Overview'',Duke University Press, 1994. pp 86.</ref> The Saka heartland was gradually conquered during the [[Turkic expansion]], beginning in the 4th century and the area was gradually "[[Turkification|Turkified]]" linguistically (under the [[Uighurs]]).

==See also==
* [[Saka language]]
* [[Sakas in the Mahabharata]]
* [[Saka era]]
* [[Sakzai]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==

===Citations===
{{reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
*  Akiner (28 October 2013). ''Cultural Change & Continuity In Central Asia''. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-15034-0.
* [[Bailey, H. W.]] 1958. "Languages of the Saka." ''Handbuch der Orientalistik'', I. Abt., 4. Bd., I. Absch., Leiden-Köln. 1958.
* Bailey, H. W. (1979). ''Dictionary of Khotan Saka''. Cambridge University Press. 1979. 1st Paperback edition 2010. ISBN 978-0-521-14250-2.
* Beckwith, Christopher. (1987). ''The Tibetan Empire in Central Asia''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-05494-0.
* Bernard, P. (1994). "The Greek Kingdoms of Central Asia". In Harmatta, János. ''History of civilizations of Central Asia, Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D. 250''. Paris: UNESCO. pp.&nbsp;96–126. ISBN 92-3-102846-4.
* Bailey, H.W. (1996) "Khotanese Saka Literature", in Ehsan Yarshater (ed), ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, Part 2'' (reprint edition), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Chang, Chun-shu. (2007). ''The Rise of the Chinese Empire: Volume II; Frontier, Immigration, & Empire in Han China, 130 B.C. – A.D. 157''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-11534-1.
* Davis-Kimball, Jeannine. 2002. ''Warrior Women: An Archaeologist's Search for History's Hidden Heroines''. Warner Books, New York. 1st Trade printing, 2003. ISBN 0-446-67983-6 (pbk).
* Di Cosmo, Nicola. (2002). ''Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-77064-4.
* ''Bulletin of the Asia Institute: The Archaeology and Art of Central Asia''. Studies From the Former Soviet Union. New Series. Edited by B. A. Litvinskii and Carol Altman Bromberg. Translation directed by Mary Fleming Zirin. Vol. 8, (1994), pp.&nbsp;37–46.
* Emmerick, R. E. (2003) "Iranian Settlement East of the Pamirs", in Ehsan Yarshater (ed), ''The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol III: The Seleucid, Parthian, and Sasanian Periods, Part 1'' (reprint edition) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 265–266.
* Hill, John E. (2009) ''Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE''. John E. Hill. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. ISBN 978-1-4392-2134-1.
* Hill, John E. 2004. ''[http://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/weilue/weilue.html The Peoples of the West from the Weilue]'' 魏略 ''by Yu Huan'' 魚豢'': A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE.'' Draft annotated English translation.
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* Loewe, Michael. (1986). "The Former Han Dynasty," in ''The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220, 103–222''. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-24327-8.
* Millward, James A. (2007). ''Eurasian Crossroads: A History of Xinjiang'' (illustrated ed.). Columbia University Press. ISBN 0231139241.
* [[Pulleyblank, Edwin G.]] 1970. "The Wu-sun and Sakas and the Yüeh-chih Migration." ''Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 33'' (1970), pp.&nbsp;154–160.
* Puri, B. N. 1994. "The Sakas and Indo-Parthians." In: ''History of civilizations of Central Asia, Volume II. The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D. 250''. Harmatta, János, ed., 1994. Paris: UNESCO Publishing, pp.&nbsp;191–207.
*  Sulimirski, Tadeusz (1970). ''The Sarmatians. Volume 73 of Ancient peoples and places''. New York: Praeger. pp.&nbsp;113–114. "The evidence of both the ancient authors and the archaeological remains point to a massive migration of Sacian (Sakas)/Massagetan tribes from the Syr Daria Delta (Central Asia) by the middle of the second century B.C. Some of the Syr Darian tribes; they also invaded North India."
* Theobald, Ulrich. (26 November 2011). "[http://www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Altera/sakas.html Chinese History - Sai 塞 The Saka People or Soghdians]." ''ChinaKnowledge.de''. Accessed 2 September 2016.
* Thomas, F. W. 1906. "Sakastana." ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'' (1906), pp.&nbsp;181–216.
* Torday, Laszlo. (1997). ''Mounted Archers: The Beginnings of Central Asian History''. Durham: The Durham Academic Press, ISBN 978-1-900838-03-0.
* Tremblay, Xavier (2007), "The Spread of Buddhism in Serindia: Buddhism Among Iranians, Tocharians and Turks before the 13th Century", in ''The Spread of Buddhism'', eds Ann Heirman and Stephan Peter Bumbacker, Leiden: Koninklijke Brill.
* Xue, Zongzheng (薛宗正). (1992). ''History of the Turks'' (突厥史). Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe. ISBN 978-7-5004-0432-3; OCLC 28622013.
* Yu, Taishan. 1998. ''A Study of Saka History''. Sino-Platonic Papers No. 80. July, 1998. Dept. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Pennsylvania.
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* Yü, Ying-shih. (1986). "Han Foreign Relations," in ''The Cambridge History of China: Volume I: the Ch'in and Han Empires, 221 B.C. – A.D. 220'', 377-462. Edited by Denis Twitchett and Michael Loewe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-24327-8.
*  Wechsler, Howard J.; Twitchett, Dennis C. (1979). Denis C. Twitchett; John K. Fairbank, eds. ''The Cambridge History of China, Volume 3: Sui and T'ang China, 589–906, Part I''. Cambridge University Press. pp.&nbsp;225–227. ISBN 978-0-521-21446-9.
*{{cite book |last=West |first=Barbara A. |authorlink= |title=Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania |language= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pCiNqFj3MQsC |date=January 1, 2009 |publisher=[[Infobase Publishing]] |location= |page= |pages= |isbn=1438119135 |accessdate=January 18, 2015 |ref=harv}}

==External links==
* [http://www.livius.org/sao-sd/scythians/scythians.html Scythians/Sacae] by [[Jona Lendering]]
* [http://evolutsioon.ut.ee/publications/Kivisild2003b.pdf Article by Kivisild et al. on genetic heritage of early Indian settlers]
* [http://boole.cs.iastate.edu/book/3-%CA%B7(%C0%FA%CA%B7)/3-%CA%C0%BD%E7%C0%FA%CA%B7/www.friesian.com/sangoku.htm#saka, Indian, Japanese and Chinese Emperors]

{{Achaemenid Provinces}}

[[Category:Scythians]]
[[Category:Nomadic groups in Eurasia]]
[[Category:Iranian nomads]]
[[Category:Ancient foreign relations of India]]
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[[Category:Ancient history of Afghanistan]]
[[Category:History of Kazakhstan]]
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