The image of a camel in Pre-Islamic art of Transoxiana (cultural and religious aspect)

Abstract

The image of a camel can be traced in the visual arts of Central Asia since the Bronze Age. This large, powerful animal, which had a high value in the economy of the nomadic tribes of desert — the semi-desert zones of the Great Steppe, occupied a solid niche in their religious beliefs. It embodied such qualities as power, belligerent ferocity, fecundity. With the development of Indo-Iranian religious beliefs, the Bactrian image evolved from totemistic to cosmogonic ideas; in the first world religion — Zoroastrianism (Mazdeism), in the image of this animal it has been displayed a series of deities with similar notable qualities.

The article attempts to trace the elaboration of the cult-religious image of the Bactrian camel in pre-Islamic Central Asia on the example of the monuments of the fine art of Khorezm and Sogd. Particular attention paid to the Sogdian monuments of the early Middle Ages — a period when the cultural and historical areas of the region experienced one of the brightest stages of its heyday. With the advent of Islam in the region, the old cults lose their significance, but the image of a camel still retains its sacred, magical and protective meaning in popular belief and art.