The Sogdians were from the Iranian Plateau and of Transoxiana antiquity .
Strabo , in his Geographica , mentions the unity of Medes , Persians , Bactrians and Sogdians : The `` Aryan '' Language , Gherardo Gnoli , Instituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente , Roma , 2002The Bactrian ( a Middle Iranian language ) inscription of Kanishka ( the founder of the Kushan Empire ) at Rabatak , which was discovered in 1993 in an unexcavated site in the Afghan province of Baghlan , clearly refers to this Eastern Iranian language as Arya .
Iranian peoples