Pendjikent — ancient Panjikent, in modern Tajikistan — was a Sogdian merchant city that maintained its own coinage well into the Arab conquest period, a remarkable act of local monetary persistence as the Umayyad caliphate swept through Transoxiana. The Bidkan type specifically is attributed to the ruling prince of Panch, one of several semi-autonomous Sogdian principalities that continued issuing bronze cash imitations derived ultimately from Chinese and Sasanian prototypes. Smirnova's catalog remains the foundational reference for this material, assembled largely from Soviet-era excavation finds at Panjikent itself.
Pendjikent — ancient Panjikent, in modern Tajikistan — was a Sogdian merchant city that maintained its own coinage well into the Arab conquest period, a remarkable act of local monetary persistence as the Umayyad caliphate swept through Transoxiana. The Bidkan type specifically is attributed to the ruling prince of Panch, one of several semi-autonomous Sogdian principalities that continued issuing bronze cash imitations derived ultimately from Chinese and Sasanian prototypes. Smirnova's catalog remains the foundational reference for this material, assembled largely from Soviet-era excavation finds at Panjikent itself.