Abstract
Historical studies of pre-Islamic Central Asia have a long tradition at the Collège de France, but until now have been carried out mainly by the History of China Chair. The notion of Central Asia emerged late in geographical literature, where it was only in 1825 that it supplanted "Tartary", a term connoting the association with the Mongol terror that was the paroxysm of a very old and enduring perception of Central Asia as the focus of a peril ready to melt in all directions. At the same time, the notion of "Central Asia" is a variable-geometry one, and the present Chair aims to refocus it within the limits that archaeologists have agreed upon over the last few decades, encompassing under this term the five former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as Afghanistan.
The renewal of studies is first and foremost due to archaeology, a relatively young field that was formed in the course of the 20th century, around two main components that have now largely merged in the field: the French school led by the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan, and the Soviet school of large multidisciplinary "expeditions". A second renewal has come from the rediscovery of the region's two main languages, Sogdian and Bactrian, with a large body of texts in each case, where literary creation is still poorly represented, its existence known to us mainly indirectly through the figurative arts. Current research is marked by the often unpredictable nature of discoveries, often made outside the scope of regular excavations, which must be welcomed and managed.
