Sogdiana, anciently a province of the empire of Persia in the time of the Achaemenians, corresponded to the modern districts of Samarcand and Bokhara and the valley of Zerafshan. Under the Greeks, after its conquest by Alexander the Great, it was united with Bactria. The Arab geographers describe its fertility and beauty in terms of exaggerated eulogy.
Sogdiana
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 9: Bound to Swansea, p. 556
Source scan(s): p. 0569