1.
Ghazna
–
Ghaznī or Ghaznai, also historically known as Ghaznīn or Ghazna, is a city in Afghanistan with a population of nearly 150,000 people. It is located in the central-east part of the country, situated on a plateau at 7,280 feet above sea level, the city serves as the capital of Ghazni Province. It is linked by a highway with Kandahar to the southwest, Kabul to the northeast, the foundation stone of Ghazni Airport was laid in April 2012 which now serves Ghazni and other nearby eastern Afghan provinces. Similar to many other Afghanistani cities, Ghazni as ancient city has withstood numerous military invasions, during the pre-Islamic period, the area was inhabited by various tribes who practiced different religions including Buddhism and Hinduism. Arab Muslims introduced Islam to Ghazni in the 7th century, they were followed by the 9th century Islamic conquest of the Saffarids from Zarang in the west, sabuktigin made Ghazni the capital of the Ghaznavid Empire in the 10th century. The city was destroyed by one of the Ghurid rulers, and it fell to a number of regional powers, including the Timurids and the Delhi Sultanate, until it became part of the Hotaki dynasty, which was followed by the Durrani Empire or modern Afghanistan. During the First Anglo-Afghan War in the 19th century, Ghazni was partially destroyed by British-Indian forces, the city is currently being rebuilt by the Government of Afghanistan in remembrance of the Ghaznavid and Timurid era when it served as a major center of Islamic civilisation. The Afghan National Security Forces have established bases and check-points to deal with the Taliban insurgency, Ghazni is a trading and transit hub in central Afghanistan. Agriculture is the dominant land use at 28%, in terms of built-up land area, vacant plots slightly outweigh residential area. Districts 3 and 4 also have large institutional areas, the city of Ghazni has a population of 143,379 with 4 Police districts and total land area of 3,330 Hectares. There are 15,931 total number of dwellings in Ghazni city, Ghazni was founded some time in antiquity as a small market town and is mentioned by Ptolemy. In the 6th century BC, the city was conquered by the Achaemenid king Cyrus II, the city was subsequently incorporated into the empire of Alexander the Great in 329 BC, and called Alexandria in Opiana. Ghazni was a thriving Buddhist centre up until the 7th century, in 683 AD, Arab armies brought Islam to the region, but many refused to accept the new religion. Yaqub Saffari from Zaranj conquered the city in the late 9th century and it later became the dazzling capital of the Ghaznavid Empire, which encompassed much of northern India, Persia and Central Asia. Many iconoclastic campaigns were launched from Ghazni into India, resulting in the destruction of ancient temples, libraries and palaces, the Ghaznavids took Islam to India and returned with fabulous riches taken from Indian princes and temples. Although the city was sacked in 1151 by the Ghorid Alauddin, it became their secondary capital in 1173. Between 1215 and 1221, Ghazni was ruled by the Khwarezmid Empire, in the first decades of the 11th century, Ghazni was the most important centre of Persian literature. This was the result of the policy of the Sultan Mahmud, who assembled a circle of scholars, philosophers
Ghazna
–
Ghazni غزني
Ghazna
Ghazna
–
History of Afghanistan
Ghazna
–
A 19th-century artwork by James Atkinson showing Ghazni's citadel and two minars, which were built by
Bahram Shah during the
Ghaznavid era (963–1187).
2.
Pahlavi script
–
Pahlavi or Pahlevi denotes a particular and exclusively written form of various Middle Iranian languages. The essential characteristics of Pahlavi are the use of a specific Aramaic-derived script, the Pahlavi script, Pahlavi compositions have been found for the dialects/ethnolects of Parthia, Persis, Sogdiana, Scythia, and Khotan. Independent of the variant for which the Pahlavi system was used, Pahlavi is then an admixture of written Imperial Aramaic, from which Pahlavi derives its script, logograms, and some of its vocabulary. Spoken Middle Iranian, from which Pahlavi derives its terminations, symbol rules, Pahlavi may thus be defined as a system of writing applied to a specific language group, but with critical features alien to that language group. It has the characteristics of a language, but is not one. It is a written system, but much Pahlavi literature remains essentially an oral literature committed to writing. If this etymology is correct, Parthav presumably became pahlaw through a semivowel glide rt change to l, the term has been traced back further to Avestan pərəthu- broad, also evident in Sanskrit pŗthvi- earth and parthivi of the earth. Common to all Indo-Iranian languages is a connotation of mighty, the earliest attested use of Pahlavi dates to the reign of Arsaces I of Parthia in early Parthian coins with Pahlavi scripts. There are also several Pahlavi texts written during the reign of Mithridates I, such fragments, as also the rock inscriptions of Sassanid kings, which are datable to the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, do not, however, qualify as a significant literary corpus. It is in an archaic script than Book Pahlavi. After the Muslim conquest of Persia, the Pahlavi script was replaced by the Arabic script, except in Zoroastrian sacred literature, the replacement of the Pahlavi script with the Arabic script in order to write the Persian language was done by the Tahirids in 9th century Khurasan. In the present-day, Pahlavi is frequently identified with the dialect of south-west Iran, formerly and properly called Pārsi. This practice can be dated to the immediately following the Islamic conquest. Tables showing the letters and their names or pronunciations are available on line, the Pahlavi script is one of the two essential characteristics of the Pahlavi system. Its origin and development occurred independently of the various Middle Iranian languages for which it was used, the Pahlavi script is derived from the Aramaic script as it was used under the Achaemenids, with modifications to support the phonology of the Iranian languages. It is essentially a typical abjad, where, in general, only vowels are marked with matres lectionis. In addition to this, during much of its later history, similarly, certain words continued to be spelt with postvocalic ⟨s⟩ and ⟨t⟩ even after the consonants had been debuccalized to ⟨h⟩ in the living language. The Pahlavi script consisted of two widely used forms, Inscriptional Pahlavi and Book Pahlavi, a third form, Psalter Pahlavi, is not widely attested
Pahlavi script
–
Parthian (above), along with Greek (below) and Middle Persian was being used in inscriptions of early
Sassanian kings. Shapur inscription in
Naqsh-e Rajab
Pahlavi script
–
Parthian version of
Shapur I 's inscription at
Ka'ba-ye Zartosht.
Pahlavi script
–
Coin of
Ardashir I (r. 224–42) with Inscriptional Pahlavi writings.
Pahlavi script
–
Inscriptional Pahlavi text from
Shapur III at
Taq-e Bostan, 4th century
3.
Buddhism
–
Buddhism is a religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. Buddhism originated in India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, from where it spread through much of Asia, two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars, Theravada and Mahayana. Buddhism is the worlds fourth-largest religion, with over 500 million followers or 7% of the global population, Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. In Theravada the ultimate goal is the attainment of the state of Nirvana, achieved by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, thus escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering. Theravada has a following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon, rather than Nirvana, Mahayana instead aspires to Buddhahood via the bodhisattva path, a state wherein one remains in the cycle of rebirth to help other beings reach awakening. Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian siddhas, may be viewed as a branch or merely a part of Mahayana. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth century India, is practiced in regions surrounding the Himalayas, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of Buddha, the details of Buddhas life are mentioned in many early Buddhist texts but are inconsistent, his social background and life details are difficult to prove, the precise dates uncertain. Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother queen Maya, and he was born in Lumbini gardens. Some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, Buddha was moved by the innate suffering of humanity. He meditated on this alone for a period of time, in various ways including asceticism, on the nature of suffering. He famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He reached enlightenment, discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way, as an enlightened being, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his teaching the Dharma he had discovered. Dukkha is a concept of Buddhism and part of its Four Noble Truths doctrine. It can be translated as incapable of satisfying, the unsatisfactory nature, the Four Truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism, we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which is dukkha, incapable of satisfying and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra, the cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha
Buddhism
–
Standing Buddha statue at the
Tokyo National Museum. One of the earliest known representations of the
Buddha, 1st–2nd century CE.
Buddhism
–
The Dharmachakra
Buddhism
–
Relic depicting Gautama leaving home. The Great Departure, c.1–2nd century. (
Musée Guimet)
Buddhism
–
Ascetic
Gautama with his five companions, who later comprised the first
Sangha. (Painting in
Laotian temple)
4.
Zoroastrianism
–
Ascribed to the teachings of the Iranian prophet Zoroaster, it exalts a deity of wisdom, Ahura Mazda, as its Supreme Being. Zoroastrianism was suppressed from the 7th century onwards following the Muslim conquest of Persia of 633-654, recent estimates place the current number of Zoroastrians at around 2.6 million, with most living in India and in Iran. Besides the Zoroastrian diaspora, the older Mithraic faith Yazdânism is still practised amongst Kurds, the religious philosophy of Zoroaster divided the early Iranian gods of Proto-Indo-Iranian tradition. The most important texts of the religion are those of the Avesta, in Zoroastrianism, the creator Ahura Mazda, through the Spenta Mainyu is an all-good father of Asha, in opposition to Druj and no evil originates from him. He and his works are evident to humanity through the six primary Amesha Spentas, Spenta Mainyu adjoined unto truth oppose the Spirits opposite, Angra Mainyu and its forces born of Akəm Manah. In Zoroastrianism, the purpose in life is to be among those who renew the world. to make the progress towards perfection. Its basic maxims include, Humata, Hukhta, Huvarshta, which mean, Good Thoughts, Good Words, there is only one path and that is the path of Truth. Do the right thing because it is the thing to do. The full name by which Zoroaster addressed the deity is, Ahura, The Lord Creator and he proclaimed that there is only one God, the singularly creative and sustaining force of the Universe. He also stated that human beings are given a right of choice, Zoroasters teachings focused on responsibility, and did not introduce a devil per se. The contesting force to Ahura Mazda was called Angra Mainyu, or angry spirit, post-Zoroastrian scripture introduced the concept of Ahriman, the Devil, which was effectively a personification of Angra Mainyu. The name Zoroaster is a Greek rendering of the name Zarathustra and he is known as Zartosht and Zardosht in Persian and Zaratosht in Gujarati. The Zoroastrian name of the religion is Mazdayasna, which combines Mazda- with the Avestan language word yasna, meaning worship, in English, an adherent of the faith is commonly called a Zoroastrian or a Zarathustrian. An older expression still used today is Behdin, meaning The best Religion | Beh < Middle Persian Weh + Din < Middle Persian dēn < Avestan Daēnā. In Zoroastrian liturgy the term is used as a title for an individual who has formally inducted into the religion in a Navjote ceremony. The term Mazdaism /ˈmæzdə. ɪzəm/ is a typical 19th century construct, taking Mazda- from the name Ahura Mazda, the March 2001 draft edition of the Oxford English Dictionary also records an alternate form, Mazdeism, perhaps derived from the French Mazdéisme, which first appeared in 1871. In older English sources, the terms Gheber and Gueber were used to refer to Zoroastrians, however, Zoroastrian philosophy is identified as having been known to Italian Renaissance Europe through an image of Zoroaster in Raphaels School of Athens by Giorgio Vasari in 1550. The Oxford English Dictionary records use of the term Zoroastrianism in 1874 in Archibald Sayces Principles of Comparative Philology, Zoroastrians believe that there is one universal, transcendent, supreme god, Ahura Mazda, or the Wise Lord
Zoroastrianism
–
Farvahar.
Persepolis, Iran.
Zoroastrianism
–
Faravahar (or Ferohar), one of the primary symbols of Zoroastrianism, believed to be the depiction of a Fravashi (guardian spirit)
Zoroastrianism
–
A scene from the
Hamzanama where
Hamza ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib Burns Zarthust’s Chest and Shatters the Urn with his Ashes
Zoroastrianism
–
The
fire temple of
Baku, c. 1860
5.
Nomadic empire
–
They are the most prominent example of non-sedentary polities. Some nomadic empires operated by establishing a city inside a conquered sedentary state. As the pattern is repeated, the originally nomadic dynasty becomes culturally assimilated to the culture of the nation before it is ultimately overthrown. Ibn Khaldun described a cycle on a smaller scale in his Asabiyyah theory. A term used for these polities in the medieval period is khanate. Linguistically they are regarded as Iranian, or possibly Thracian with an Iranian ruling class. The Pontic-Caspian steppe, southern Russia and Ukraine until 7th century BCE, the northern Caucasus area, including Georgia and modern day Azerbaijan Central, East and North Anatolia 714–626 BCE. The Ancient Greeks gave the name Scythia to all the lands north-east of Europe, the Scythians – the Greeks name for this initially nomadic people – inhabited Scythia from at least the 11th century BC to the 2nd century AD. The Sarmatians were a confederation of Iranian people during classical antiquity. They spoke Scythian, an Indo-European language from the Eastern Iranian family, the Xiongnu were a confederation of nomadic tribes from Central Asia with a ruling class of unknown origin and other subjugated tribes. The Xiongnu was the first unified empire of nomadic peoples, relations between early Chinese dynasties and the Xiongnu were complicated and included military conflict, exchanges of tribute and trade, and marriage treaties. They were considered so dangerous and disruptive that the Qin Dynasty ordered the construction of the Great Wall to protect China from Xiongnu attacks, the Kushan Empire was a syncretic empire, formed by Yuezhi, in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. Like most ancient peoples known through Chinese historiography, the makeup of the Xianbei is unclear. The Xianbei were a branch of the earlier Donghu and it is likely at least some were proto-Mongols. The Huns were a confederation of Eurasian tribes from the Steppes of Central Asia and their appearance in Europe brought with it great ethnic and political upheaval and may have stimulated the Great Migration. The empire reached its largest size under Attila between 447 and 453, the Rouran, Juan Juan, or Ruru were a confederation of Mongolic speaking nomadic tribes on the northern borders of China from the late 4th century until the late 6th century. They controlled the area of Mongolia from the Manchurian border to Turpan and, perhaps, the east coast of Lake Balkhash, the Göktürks or Kök-Türks were a Turkic people of ancient North and Central Asia and northwestern China. Under the leadership of Bumin Khan and his sons established the first known Turkic state around 546
Nomadic empire
–
Xiongnu Empire
Nomadic empire
–
Scythia
Nomadic empire
–
Xianbei Empire
Nomadic empire
–
Asia in 800 AD, showing the Uyghur Khanate and its neighbors.
6.
Napki Malka
–
Napki Malka was a Hephthalite king of the 6th-7th century, and possibly the founder of a dynasty bearing the same name. On his coins, his name appears in Pahlavi script as npky MLK and he was ruling in the area of Kabul, modern Afghanistan. His coins are rather numerous and characteristic of the Kabul region and his coins have been found in association with the Sasanian king Khusrau I in a hoard, suggesting possible contemporaneity. In 557, the Hephthalites were crushed by a coalition of Turks led by a certain Sinbiju, or Sinzibul, after their defeat, their land was divided between the two victors along the line of the Oxus. Later, during the Arab invasions of the 7th century, remaining communities of Hephthalites, on his coins, Napki Malka wears a characteristic winged headdress, surmounted by a bulls head
Napki Malka
–
Huna king Napki Malka.
British Museum.
Napki Malka
–
Billon drachm of the
Hephthalite King Napki Malka (
Afghanistan /
Gandhara, c. 475-576). Obv: Napki Malka type bust, winged headdress with bull head in the center.
Pahlavi legend "NAPKI MALKA". Rev:
Zoroastrian fire altar with attendants either side. Sun wheel, above left.
7.
Late Antiquity
–
Late antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages in mainland Europe, the Mediterranean world, and the Near East. The development of the periodization has generally been accredited to historian Peter Brown, precise boundaries for the period are a continuing matter of debate, but Brown proposes a period between the 3rd and 8th centuries AD. Generally, it can be thought of as from the end of the Roman Empires Crisis of the Third Century to, in the East, the early Islamic period, following the Muslim conquests in the mid–7th century. In the West the end was earlier, with the start of the Early Medieval period typically placed in the 6th century, beginning with Constantine the Great, Christianity was made legal in the Empire, and a new capital was founded at Constantinople. The resultant cultural fusion of Greco-Roman, Germanic and Christian traditions formed the foundations of the subsequent culture of Europe, the term Spätantike, literally late antiquity, has been used by German-speaking historians since its popularization by Alois Riegl in the early 20th century. Concurrently, some migrating Germanic tribes such as the Ostrogoths and Visigoths saw themselves as perpetuating the Roman tradition, Constantine confirmed the legalization of the religion through the so-called Edict of Milan in 313, jointly issued with his rival in the East, Licinius. Monasticism was not the only new Christian movement to appear in Late Antiquity, notable in this regard is the topic of the Fifty Bibles of Constantine. Within the recently legitimized Christian community of the 4th century, a division could be distinctly seen between the laity and an increasingly celibate male leadership. Celibate and detached, the clergy became an elite equal in prestige to urban notables. The Late Antique period also saw a transformation of the political and social basis of life in. The later Roman Empire was in a sense a network of cities, archaeology now supplements literary sources to document the transformation followed by collapse of cities in the Mediterranean basin. Burials within the urban precincts mark another stage in dissolution of traditional urbanistic discipline, overpowered by the attraction of saintly shrines, in Roman Britain, the typical 4th- and 5th-century layer of black earth within cities seems to be a result of increased gardening in formerly urban spaces. A similar though less marked decline in population occurred later in Constantinople. In Europe there was also a decline in urban populations. As a whole, the period of antiquity was accompanied by an overall population decline in almost all Europe. Long-distance markets disappeared, and there was a reversion to a degree of local production and consumption, rather than webs of commerce. The degree and extent of discontinuity in the cities of the Greek East is a moot subject among historians. In the western Mediterranean, the new cities known to be founded in Europe between the 5th and 8th centuries were the four or five Visigothic victory cities
Late Antiquity
–
The
Barberini ivory, a late
Leonid /
Justinian Byzantine ivory leaf from an imperial
diptych, from an imperial workshop in
Constantinople in the first half of the sixth century (
Louvre Museum)
Late Antiquity
–
Modern statue of
Constantine I at
York, where he was proclaimed
Augustus in 306.
Late Antiquity
–
The Favourites of the Emperor Honorius, 1883:
John William Waterhouse expresses the sense of moral decadence that coloured the 19th-century historical view of the 5th century.
Late Antiquity
–
View west along the Harbour Street towards the Library of Celsus in
Ephesus. The pillars on the left side of the street were part of the
colonnaded walkway apparent in cities of Late Antique
Asia Minor.
8.
Drachm
–
The dram was originally both a coin and a weight in ancient Greece. It refers to a unit of mass in the avoirdupois system, the unit of volume is more correctly called a fluid dram, fluid drachm, fluidram or fluidrachm. The Attic Greek drachma was a weight of 6 obols, 1⁄100 Greek mina, the Roman drachma was a weight of 1⁄96 Roman pounds, or about 3.41 grams. A coin weighing one drachma is known as a stater, drachm, the Ottoman dirhem was based on the Sassanian drachm, which was itself based on the Roman dram/drachm. The British Weights and Measures Act of 1878 introduced verification and consequent stamping of apothecary weights, making them officially recognized units of measurement.5 grains, the dram weighs 875⁄32 grains, or exactly 1.7718451953125 grams. In the apothecaries system, which was used in the United States until the middle of the 20th century. The dram apothecaries is equal to 3 scruples or 60 grains, Dram is also used as a measure of the powder charge in a shotgun shell, representing the equivalent of black powder in drams avoirdupois. However, by 1876 the teaspoon had grown larger than it was previously. As there are 60 minims in a dram, using this equivalent for the dosage of medicine was no longer suitable. Todays US teaspoon is equivalent to exactly 1⁄6 US fluid ounces, 1 1⁄3 US fluid drams, while pharmaceuticals are measured nowadays exclusively in metric units, fluid drams are still used to measure the capacity of pill containers. Dram is used informally to mean a small amount of spirituous liquor, the unit is referenced by the phrase dram shop, the US legal term for an establishment that serves alcoholic beverages. The line Whered you get your whiskey, whered you get your dram, appears in some versions of the traditional pre-Civil War American song Cindy. In Monty Pythons song entitled The Bruces Philosophers Song there is the following line, in the old-time music tradition of the United States, there is a tune entitled Give the Fiddler a Dram. In the episode Double Indecency of the TV series Archer the character Cheryl/Carol was carrying around 10 drams of Voles blood, appendix C – General Tables of Units of Measurement in Specifications, Tolerances, and Other Technical Requirements for Weighing and Measuring Devices. Image of Ancient Greek silver drachm with flying Pegasus, Acarnania, Leucas, c
Drachm
–
A 'wee dram' being added to flavour the
haggis at a
Burns Supper
9.
Sassanian Empire
–
The Sasanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I, after the fall of the Parthian Empire and the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V. According to a legend, the vexilloid of the Sasanian Empire was the Derafsh Kaviani, in many ways, the Sasanian period witnessed the peak of ancient Iranian civilization. Persia influenced Roman culture considerably during the Sasanian period, the Sasanians cultural influence extended far beyond the empires territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe, Africa, China and India. It played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art, much of what later became known as Islamic culture in art, architecture, music and other subject matter was transferred from the Sasanians throughout the Muslim world. Conflicting accounts shroud the details of the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanid Empire was established in Estakhr by Ardashir I. Papak was originally the ruler of a region called Khir, however, by the year 200, he managed to overthrow Gochihr, and appoint himself as the new ruler of the Bazrangids. His mother, Rodhagh, was the daughter of the governor of Pars. Papak and his eldest son Shapur managed to expand their power all of Pars. The subsequent events are unclear, due to the nature of the sources. It is certain, however, that following the death of Papak, Ardashir, sources reveal that Shapur, leaving for a meeting with his brother, was killed when the roof of a building collapsed on him. By the year 208, over the protests of his brothers who were put to death. Once Ardashir was appointed shahanshah, he moved his capital further to the south of Pars, the city, well supported by high mountains and easily defendable through narrow passes, became the center of Ardashirs efforts to gain more power. The city was surrounded by a high, circular wall, probably copied from that of Darabgird, in a second attempt to destroy Ardashir, Artabanus V himself met Ardashir in battle at Hormozgan, where Artabanus V met his death. Following the death of the Parthian ruler, Ardashir I went on to invade the provinces of the now defunct Parthian Empire. Ardashir was aided by the geography of the province of Fars, in the next few years, local rebellions would form around the empire. Nonetheless, Ardashir I further expanded his new empire to the east and northwest, conquering the provinces of Sistan, Gorgan, Khorasan, Margiana, Balkh and he also added Bahrain and Mosul to Sassanids possessions. In the west, assaults against Hatra, Armenia and Adiabene met with less success, in 230, he raided deep into Roman territory, and a Roman counter-offensive two years later ended inconclusively, although the Roman emperor, Alexander Severus, celebrated a triumph in Rome. Ardashir Is son Shapur I continued the expansion of the empire, conquering Bactria, invading Roman Mesopotamia, Shapur I captured Carrhae and Nisibis, but in 243 the Roman general Timesitheus defeated the Persians at Rhesaina and regained the lost territories
Sassanian Empire
–
Normal domains
Sassanian Empire
–
Derafsh Kaviani
Sassanian Empire
–
Ghal'eh Dokhtar (or "The Maiden's Castle") in present-day
Fars,
Firuzabad,
Iran, built by Ardashir in 209, before he was finally able to defeat the Parthian empire.
10.
Turk Shahi
–
They are split into two eras the Buddhist-Shahis and the later Hindu-Shahis with the change-over occurring around 870. These Hindu kings of Kabul and Gandhara may have had links to some ruling families in neighboring Kashmir, the last Shahi emperors Jayapala, Anandapala and Tirlochanpala fought the Muslim Turk Ghaznavids of Ghazna and were gradually defeated. Their remaining army were eventually exiled into northern India, Xuanzang describes the ruler of Kapisa/Kabul, whom he had personally met, as a devout Buddhist and a Kshatriya. Thus the folklore accounts recorded by Alberuni connect the earlier Shahis of Kabul/Kapisa to Turkish extraction, at the same time it is also claimed that their first king Barahatigin had originally come from Tibet and concealed in a narrow cave in Kabul area. One can easily see the account of Shahi origin as totally fanciful. The allegation that the first dynasty of Kabul was Turki is plainly based on the vulgar tradition, which Alberuni himself remarked was clearly absurd. The historian V. A. Smith speculates – based on Alberuni – that the earlier Shahis were a branch of the Kushanas who ruled both over Kabul and Gandhara until the rise of the Saffarids. H. M. Elliot relates the early Kabul Shahis to the Kators, charles Frederick Oldham also traces the Kabul Shahi lineage to the Kators—whom he identifies with the Kathas or Takkhas—Naga worshipping collective groups of Hinduism lineage. He further speaks of the Urasas, Abhisaras, Daradas, Gandharas, Kambojas, pandey traces the affinities of the early Kabul Shahis to the Hunas. Other accounts suggest Punjabi Kshatriya origins for the Shahi dynasty, Xuanzang clearly describes the ruler of Kapisa/Kabul, whom he had personally met, as a devout Buddhist and a Kshatriya and not a Tu-kiue/Tu-kue. Neither the Kushanas, the Hunas/Hephthalites nor the Turks have ever been designated or classified as Kshatriyas in any ancient Indian tradition, therefore, the identification of the first line of Shahi kings of Kapisa/Kabul with the Kushanas, Hunas, or Turks obviously seems to be in gross error. It is very interesting that Alberuni calls the early Shahi rulers Turks, the Shahi rulers of Kapisa/Kabul who ruled Afghanistan from the early 4th century till AD870 were Hindu Kamboj Kshatriyas. The Shahis of Afghanistan were discovered in 1874 to be connected to the Kamboja race by E. Vesey Westmacott, E. Vesey Westmacott, Bishan Singh, K. S. Dardi, et al. connect the Kabul Shahis to the ancient Indian Kshatriya clans of the Kambojas/Gandharas. George Scott Robertson writes that the Kators/Katirs of Kafiristan belong to the well known Siyaposh tribal group of the Kams, but numerous scholars now also agree that the Siyaposh tribes of Hindukush are the modern representatives of the ancient Iranian cis-Hindukush Kambojas. The name of the last king of the so-called first Shahi line of Kabul/Kapisa simply reveals a trace of Tukhara cultural influence in the Kamboja region, as hinted in the above discussion. Thus, the first ruling dynasty of Kapisa and Kabul, designated as a Kshatriya dynasty by Xuanzang had been a Kamboja dynasty from India, the Kambojas and the Tukharas are mentioned as immediate neighbors in north-west as late as the 8th century AD as Rajatarangini of Kalhana demonstrates. Evidence also exists that some medieval Muslim writers have confused the Kamboja clans of Pamirs/Hindukush with the Turks, for example, 10th-century Arab geographer Al-Muqaddasi, refers to the Kumiji tribesmen of Buttaman mountains, on upper Oxus, and calls them of Turkic race. Song Yun, the Chinese Ambassador to the Huna kingdom of Gandhara, the then Yetha ruler was extremely cruel, vindictive, and anti-Buddhist and had engaged in a three years border war with the king of Ki-pin, disputing the boundaries of that country
Turk Shahi
–
Coins of the Shahis, 8th century
Turk Shahi
–
Coin of Shahi Kings of Kabul & Gandhara: Samanta Deva, c. AD 850–1000. Obv: Rider bearing lance on caparisoned horse facing right. Devnagari Legends: 'bhi '?. Rev: Recumbent bull facing left, trishula on bull's rump, Devnagari Legends: Sri Samanta Deva.
Turk Shahi
–
Asia in AD 565, showing the Shahi kingdoms and their neighbours.
Turk Shahi
–
Newly
excavated Buddhist stupa at
Mes Aynak in
Logar Province. Similar stupas have been discovered in neighbouring
Ghazni Province, including in the northern
Samangan Province.
11.
Afghanistan
–
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located within South Asia and Central Asia. It has a population of approximately 32 million, making it the 42nd most populous country in the world. It is bordered by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan in the north and its territory covers 652,000 km2, making it the 41st largest country in the world. The land also served as the source from which the Kushans, Hephthalites, Samanids, Saffarids, Ghaznavids, Ghorids, Khiljis, Mughals, Hotaks, Durranis, the political history of the modern state of Afghanistan began with the Hotak and Durrani dynasties in the 18th century. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan became a state in the Great Game between British India and the Russian Empire. Following the Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919, King Amanullah unsuccessfully attempted to modernize the country and it remained peaceful during Zahir Shahs forty years of monarchy. A series of coups in the 1970s was followed by a series of wars that devastated much of Afghanistan. The name Afghānistān is believed to be as old as the ethnonym Afghan, the root name Afghan was used historically in reference to a member of the ethnic Pashtuns, and the suffix -stan means place of in Persian. Therefore, Afghanistan translates to land of the Afghans or, more specifically in a historical sense, however, the modern Constitution of Afghanistan states that he word Afghan shall apply to every citizen of Afghanistan. An important site of historical activities, many believe that Afghanistan compares to Egypt in terms of the historical value of its archaeological sites. The country sits at a unique nexus point where numerous civilizations have interacted and it has been home to various peoples through the ages, among them the ancient Iranian peoples who established the dominant role of Indo-Iranian languages in the region. At multiple points, the land has been incorporated within large regional empires, among them the Achaemenid Empire, the Macedonian Empire, the Indian Maurya Empire, and the Islamic Empire. Archaeological exploration done in the 20th century suggests that the area of Afghanistan has been closely connected by culture and trade with its neighbors to the east, west. Artifacts typical of the Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, urban civilization is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BCE, and the early city of Mundigak may have been a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. More recent findings established that the Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up towards modern-day Afghanistan, making the ancient civilisation today part of Pakistan, Afghanistan, in more detail, it extended from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. There are several smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well, after 2000 BCE, successive waves of semi-nomadic people from Central Asia began moving south into Afghanistan, among them were many Indo-European-speaking Indo-Iranians. These tribes later migrated further into South Asia, Western Asia, the region at the time was referred to as Ariana
Afghanistan
–
History of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
–
Flag
Afghanistan
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Bilingual (
Greek and
Aramaic)
edict by Emperor
Ashoka from the 3rd century BCE discovered in the southern city of
Kandahar
Afghanistan
–
One of the
Buddhas of Bamiyan.
Buddhism was widespread in the region before the
Islamic conquest of Afghanistan.
12.
Huna people
–
In its farthest geographical extent in India, the Huna empire covered the region up to Malwa in central India. Their repeated invasions and war losses were the reason for the decline of the Gupta Empire. Chinese sources link the Central Asian tribes comprising the Hunas to both the Xiongnu of north east Asia and the Huns who later invaded and settled in Europe, similarly, Gerald Larson suggests that the Hunas were a Turkic-Mongolian grouping from Central Asia. The works of Ptolemy are among the first European texts to mention the Huns and they too suggest that the Huns were an inner Asian people. M. Chakravarty, based on Chinese and Persian histories believes that the Hunas conquered Gandhara from the Ki-to-lo in c.475 AD and it is known that the Huns invaded Gandhara and the Punjab from the Kabul valley after vanquishing the Kidarite principalities. The Hunas are mentioned in the Tibetan chronicle Dpag-bsam-ljon-bzah, along people like the Yavanas, Kambojas, Tukharas, Khaqsas, Daradas etc, the Hunas minted coins inspired by Sassanian designs. The religious beliefs of the Hunas is unknown, and believed to be a combination of ancestor worship, totemism and animism
Huna people
–
The "Hephthalite bowl", NFP
Pakistan, 5th or 6th century CE.
British Museum.
Huna people
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Huna coin of King Lakhana of
Udyana, legend "RAJA LAKHANA (UDAYA) DITYA ".
Huna people
–
Huna king
Napki Malka.
Huna people
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Billon drachm of the Hephthalite King
Napki Malka (
Afghanistan /
Gandhara, c. 475–576). Obv: Napki Malka type bust, winged headdress with bull head in the center.
Pahlavi legend "NAPKI MALKA". Rev:
Zoroastrian fire altar with attendants either side. Sun wheel, or possibly eight-spoked
Buddhist Dharmacakra, above left.
13.
Hindu Kush
–
It forms the western section of the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region. It divides the valley of the Amu Darya to the north from the Indus River valley to the south, the eastern end of the Hindu Kush in the north merges with the Karakoram Range. Towards its southern end, it connects with the Spin Ghar Range near the Kabul River, the Hindu Kush range were a historically significant center of Buddhism with sites such as the Bamiyan Buddhas. The range and communities settled in it hosted ancient monasteries, important trade networks, Buddhism declined, then vanished, after Islam arrived in the region. The Hindu Kush range has also been the passageway during the invasions of the Indian subcontinent and this collision created the Himalayas, including the Hindu Kush. The Hindu Kush range remains geologically active and are still rising, the origins of the name Hindu Kush are uncertain, with multiple theories being propounded by different scholars and writers. The Persian-English dictionary indicates that the word koš is derived from the verb, the word and suffix -kush means kill, slay, death. In his travel memoirs about India, the 14th century Moroccan traveller Muhammad Ibn Battuta mentioned crossing into India via the passes of the Hindu Kush. In his Rihla, he mentions these mountains and the history of the range in slave trading, to Arab geographers, states Allan, Hindu Kush was the frontier boundary where Hindustan started. According to McColl, yet another possibility is that the name may be from the ancient Avestan language, the mountain range was also called Paropamisadae by Hellenic Greeks in the late first millennium BC. Some scholars remove the space, and refer to Hindu Kush as Hindukush, the mountains have historical significance in the Indian subcontinent and China. The Hindu Kush range was a center of Buddhism with sites such as the Bamiyan Buddhas. It has also been the passageway during the invasions of the Indian subcontinent, a region where the Taliban and Al Qaeda grew, Buddhism was widespread in the ancient Hindu Kush region. Ancient artwork of Buddhism include the giant rock carved statues called the Bamiyan Buddha and these statues were blown up by the Taliban Islamists. One of the early Buddhist schools, the Mahāsāṃghika-Lokottaravāda, was prominent in the area of Bamiyan, the Chinese Buddhist monk Xuanzang visited a Lokottaravāda monastery in the 7th century CE, at Bamiyan, Afghanistan. Some manuscripts are in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script, while others are in Sanskrit, after the Islamic conquest of the region and Islam becoming the state religion, Buddhism vanished and locals became Muslims. The significance of the Hindu Kush mountain range has been recorded since the time of Darius I of Persia, alexander the Great entered the Indian subcontinent through the Hindu Kush as his army moved past Bactria into the Afghan valley in the spring of 329 BCE. He moved towards the Indus valley river region in 327 BCE, the region became a part of the Kushan Empire in centuries around the start of the common era
Hindu Kush
–
Hindu Kush range
Hindu Kush
–
Landscape of Afghanistan with a
T-62 in the foreground.
Hindu Kush
–
The Hindu Kush occupies the lower left centre of this satellite image.
Hindu Kush
14.
Ghazni
–
Ghaznī or Ghaznai, also historically known as Ghaznīn or Ghazna, is a city in Afghanistan with a population of nearly 150,000 people. It is located in the central-east part of the country, situated on a plateau at 7,280 feet above sea level, the city serves as the capital of Ghazni Province. It is linked by a highway with Kandahar to the southwest, Kabul to the northeast, the foundation stone of Ghazni Airport was laid in April 2012 which now serves Ghazni and other nearby eastern Afghan provinces. Similar to many other Afghanistani cities, Ghazni as ancient city has withstood numerous military invasions, during the pre-Islamic period, the area was inhabited by various tribes who practiced different religions including Buddhism and Hinduism. Arab Muslims introduced Islam to Ghazni in the 7th century, they were followed by the 9th century Islamic conquest of the Saffarids from Zarang in the west, sabuktigin made Ghazni the capital of the Ghaznavid Empire in the 10th century. The city was destroyed by one of the Ghurid rulers, and it fell to a number of regional powers, including the Timurids and the Delhi Sultanate, until it became part of the Hotaki dynasty, which was followed by the Durrani Empire or modern Afghanistan. During the First Anglo-Afghan War in the 19th century, Ghazni was partially destroyed by British-Indian forces, the city is currently being rebuilt by the Government of Afghanistan in remembrance of the Ghaznavid and Timurid era when it served as a major center of Islamic civilisation. The Afghan National Security Forces have established bases and check-points to deal with the Taliban insurgency, Ghazni is a trading and transit hub in central Afghanistan. Agriculture is the dominant land use at 28%, in terms of built-up land area, vacant plots slightly outweigh residential area. Districts 3 and 4 also have large institutional areas, the city of Ghazni has a population of 143,379 with 4 Police districts and total land area of 3,330 Hectares. There are 15,931 total number of dwellings in Ghazni city, Ghazni was founded some time in antiquity as a small market town and is mentioned by Ptolemy. In the 6th century BC, the city was conquered by the Achaemenid king Cyrus II, the city was subsequently incorporated into the empire of Alexander the Great in 329 BC, and called Alexandria in Opiana. Ghazni was a thriving Buddhist centre up until the 7th century, in 683 AD, Arab armies brought Islam to the region, but many refused to accept the new religion. Yaqub Saffari from Zaranj conquered the city in the late 9th century and it later became the dazzling capital of the Ghaznavid Empire, which encompassed much of northern India, Persia and Central Asia. Many iconoclastic campaigns were launched from Ghazni into India, resulting in the destruction of ancient temples, libraries and palaces, the Ghaznavids took Islam to India and returned with fabulous riches taken from Indian princes and temples. Although the city was sacked in 1151 by the Ghorid Alauddin, it became their secondary capital in 1173. Between 1215 and 1221, Ghazni was ruled by the Khwarezmid Empire, in the first decades of the 11th century, Ghazni was the most important centre of Persian literature. This was the result of the policy of the Sultan Mahmud, who assembled a circle of scholars, philosophers
Ghazni
–
Ghazni غزني
Ghazni
Ghazni
–
History of Afghanistan
Ghazni
–
A 19th-century artwork by James Atkinson showing Ghazni's citadel and two minars, which were built by
Bahram Shah during the
Ghaznavid era (963–1187).
15.
Xionites
–
Xionites, Chionites, or Chionitae, or Hunni, Yun or Xūn, were probably an Iranian-speaking people who were prominent in Transoxania and Bactria. The Xionites are first mentioned with Kushans by Ammianus Marcellinus who spent the winter of 356-57 CE in their Balkh territory and they arrived with the wave of immigration from Central Asia into Iran in late antiquity. They were influenced by the Kushan and Bactrian cultures, while patronizing the Eastern Iranian languages and it is difficult to determine the ethnic composition of the Xionites. They followed their versions of Buddhism and Shaivism mixed with animism, shahbazi, the Xionites were a Hunnic people who by the early 4th century had mixed with north Iranian elements in Transoxiana, adopted the Kushan-Bactrian language, and threatened Persia. Xionite campaigns are better documented in connection with the history of Central Asia and they organised themselves into Northern Black, Kidarites or Southern Red, Eastern Blue, and Western Hephthalites or White hordes. Artefacts found from the area they inhabited dating from their period indicate their totem animal seems to have been the deer, an inscription on the walls of the royal palace in Persepolis about Dariuss empire calls them Hunae. It appears that a combination of both the Battle of Ikh Bayan and Ban Chaos efforts are responsible for their first appearance in the West, according to the Armenian sources their capital was at Balkh. Their most famous rulers were called the Kidarites, at the end of the 4th century AD, a new wave of Hunnic tribes invaded Bactria, pushing the Kidarites into Gandhara. Alchon or Alχon became the new name of the Xionites in 460 when Khingila I united the Uar with the Xionites under his Hephthalite ruling élite, at the end of the 5th century the Alchon invaded northern India where they became known as the Huna. In India the Alchon were not distinguished from their immediate Hephthalite predecessors, perhaps complimenting this term, Procopius wrote that they were white skinned, had an organized kingship, and that their life was not wild/nomadic but that they lived in cities. The Alchon were called Varkhon or Varkunites by Menander Protector literally referring to the Uar, around 630, Theophylact Simocatta wrote that the European Avars were initially composed of two nations, the Uar and the Hunnoi tribes. He wrote that. the Barsilt, the Unogurs and the Sabirs were struck with horror, and honoured the newcomers with brilliant gifts. When the Avars first arrived in their lands in 555AD, Alchon Huns refers to a tribe which minted coins in Bactria in the 5th and 6th centuries. They imitated the style of their Hephthalite predecessors, the Kidarite Hun successors to the Kushans. In particular the Alchon style imitates the coins of Kidarite Varhran I, in the Avestan tradition the Xiiaona were characterized as enemies of Vishtaspa, the patron of Zoroaster. In the later Pahlavi tradition, the Red Huns and White Huns are mentioned, the Red Huns of the Pahlavi tradition have been identified by Harold Walter Bailey as the Kermichiones or Ermechiones. According to Bailey the Hara Huna of Indian sources are to be identified with the Karmir Xyon of the Avesta, similarly he identifies the Sveta Huna of Indian sources with the Spet Xyon of the Avesta. Bailey argues that the name Xyon was transferred to the Huna owing to similarity of sound, later, the Armenian Patriarch John mentions an ancient town of Hunors foundation in the Utik region, suggesting a connection to the Utigur
Xionites
–
Asia in 400 AD, showing the Xionites and their neighbors.
16.
Kidarites
–
The Kidarite were a dynasty of the Ki clan named after their ruler Kidara. They were part of the complex of Iranian-speaking tribes known collectively as Xionites or Hunas, during the 4th-5th century they established the Kidarite kingdom. The Kidarites, a clan, are supposed to have originated in China. When Shi Le established the Later Zhao state, it is thought many of the Uar fled from the area around Pingyang. This put pressure on the Xionites, who increasingly encroached upon Khorasan, the Kidarite king Grumbat mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus was a cause of much concern to the Persians. Between 353 AD and 358 AD, the Xionites under Grumbat attacked in the frontiers of Shapur IIs empire along with other nomad tribes. After a prolonged struggle they were forced to conclude a peace, the southern or Red Kidarite vassals to the Kushans in the North-Western Indus valley became known as Kermikhiones. A Kidarite dynasty, south of the Oxus, was at war with the Sassanids in the fifth century, peroz I fought Kidara and then his son Kungas, forcing Kungas to leave Bactria. They entered Kabul and replaced the last of the Kushan Empire rulers, however, the Kidarites in turn were soon overwhelmed by the Hephthalites. According to the Chinese sources Kidarites appeared in Kazakhstan and Bactria in 4th century and were branch of the Little Yuezhi, some of them inherited the Kushan Empire and were called little Kushans. Kidarites were also called Red Huns, they practiced artificial cranial deformation and were displayed on Sogdian coins as archers riding on the reverse, the Kidarite kingdom was created either in the second half of the 4th century, or in the twenties of the 5th century. The only 4th century evidence are gold coins discovered in Balkh dating from c,380, where Kidara is usually interpreted in a legend in the Bactrian language. Most numismatic specialists favor this idea, all the other data we currently have on the Kidarite kingdom are from Chinese and Byzantine sources from the middle of the 5th century. Many small Kidarite kingdoms seems to have survived in northwest India up to the conquest by the Hephthalites during the last quarter of the 5th century are known through their coinage. The Kidarites are the last dynasty to regard themselves as the inheritors of the Kushan empire, the Kidarites were the first Hunas to bother India. « On the Date of the Kidarites », Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko,27,1969, p. 1–26. « Regional Interaction in Central Asia and North-West India in the Kidarite and Hephtalite Period », in SIMS-WILLIAMS, N. Indo-Iranian Languages and Peoples, London,2002, p. 203–224
Kidarites
–
Asia in 400 AD, showing Kidarite lands and their neighbors.
17.
Hephthalites
–
Hephthalites was the Latinised exonym for a people commonly known in Chinese sources by names such as Yada. They were a confederation of peoples in Central Asia who expanded their domain westward and southward during the 5th century and they included both nomadic and urban, settled communities. It is not clear whether the Hephthalites or a related people, the modern Abdali or Durrani, a Pashtun tribal confederation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, are widely believed to descend from the Hephthalites. The stronghold of the Hephthalites was Tokharistan on the slopes of the Hindu Kush. By 479, the Hephthalites had conquered Sogdia and driven the Kidarites westwards, and by 493 they had captured parts of present-day Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin in what is now Northwest China. India was invaded during the 5th century by a known in South Asia as the Hunas – possibly an alliance broader than the Hephthalites and/or Xionites. The Hunas were initially defeated by Emperor Skandagupta of the Gupta Empire, by the end of the 5th century, however, the Hunas had overrun the part of the Gupta Empire that was to their southeast and had conquered Central and North India. Gupta Emperor Bhanugupta defeated the Hunas under Toramana in 510, the Hunas were driven out of India by the kings Yasodharman and Narasimhagupta, during the early 6th century. The name Hephthalites originated with Ancient Greek sources, which referred to them as Ephthalite. In Ancient India, names such as Hephthalite were unknown, the Hephthalites were apparently part of, or offshoots of, people known in India as Hunas or Turushkas, although these names may have referred to broader groups or neighbouring peoples. To the Armenians the Hephthalites were Haital, to the Persians and Arabs they were Haytal or Hayatila, in Chinese chronicles, the Hephthalites are usually called Ye-ta-i-li-to, or the more usual modern and abbreviated form Yada. The latter name is given various Latinised renderings, including Yeda, Ye-ta, Ye-Tha, Ye-dā. The corresponding Cantonese and Korean names Yipdaat and Yeoptal are more consistent with the Greek Hephthalite, older Chinese sources refer to them as Hua or Hudun, and describe the Hephthalites as a tribe living beyond the Great Wall, in Dzungaria. Some Chinese chroniclers suggest that the root Hephtha- was technically a title equivalent to emperor, beckwith, referring to Étienne de la Vaissière, say that the Hephthalites were not necessarily one and the same as the White Huns. According to de la Vaissiere, the Hephthalites are not directly identified in classical sources alongside that of the White Huns, there are several theories regarding the origins of the White Huns, with the Turkic and Iranian theories being the most prominent. According to B. A. Litvinsky, the names of the Hephthalite rulers used in the Shahnameh are Iranian. According to Xavier Tremblay, one of the Hephthalite rulers was named Khingila, which has the root as the Sogdian word xnγr. The name Mihirakula is thought to be derived from mithra-kula which is Iranian for the Sun family, with kula having the root as Pashto kul
Hephthalites
–
Hephthalite coin of King Khingila, 5th century, legend: "Khiggilo Alchono".
Hephthalites
–
The Hephthalites (green), c. 500.
Hephthalites
–
Asia in 500, showing the Hephthalite Khanate at its greatest extent.
Hephthalites
–
History of Afghanistan
18.
Alchon
–
Xionites, Chionites, or Chionitae, or Hunni, Yun or Xūn, were probably an Iranian-speaking people who were prominent in Transoxania and Bactria. The Xionites are first mentioned with Kushans by Ammianus Marcellinus who spent the winter of 356-57 CE in their Balkh territory and they arrived with the wave of immigration from Central Asia into Iran in late antiquity. They were influenced by the Kushan and Bactrian cultures, while patronizing the Eastern Iranian languages and it is difficult to determine the ethnic composition of the Xionites. They followed their versions of Buddhism and Shaivism mixed with animism, shahbazi, the Xionites were a Hunnic people who by the early 4th century had mixed with north Iranian elements in Transoxiana, adopted the Kushan-Bactrian language, and threatened Persia. Xionite campaigns are better documented in connection with the history of Central Asia and they organised themselves into Northern Black, Kidarites or Southern Red, Eastern Blue, and Western Hephthalites or White hordes. Artefacts found from the area they inhabited dating from their period indicate their totem animal seems to have been the deer, an inscription on the walls of the royal palace in Persepolis about Dariuss empire calls them Hunae. It appears that a combination of both the Battle of Ikh Bayan and Ban Chaos efforts are responsible for their first appearance in the West, according to the Armenian sources their capital was at Balkh. Their most famous rulers were called the Kidarites, at the end of the 4th century AD, a new wave of Hunnic tribes invaded Bactria, pushing the Kidarites into Gandhara. Alchon or Alχon became the new name of the Xionites in 460 when Khingila I united the Uar with the Xionites under his Hephthalite ruling élite, at the end of the 5th century the Alchon invaded northern India where they became known as the Huna. In India the Alchon were not distinguished from their immediate Hephthalite predecessors, perhaps complimenting this term, Procopius wrote that they were white skinned, had an organized kingship, and that their life was not wild/nomadic but that they lived in cities. The Alchon were called Varkhon or Varkunites by Menander Protector literally referring to the Uar, around 630, Theophylact Simocatta wrote that the European Avars were initially composed of two nations, the Uar and the Hunnoi tribes. He wrote that. the Barsilt, the Unogurs and the Sabirs were struck with horror, and honoured the newcomers with brilliant gifts. When the Avars first arrived in their lands in 555AD, Alchon Huns refers to a tribe which minted coins in Bactria in the 5th and 6th centuries. They imitated the style of their Hephthalite predecessors, the Kidarite Hun successors to the Kushans. In particular the Alchon style imitates the coins of Kidarite Varhran I, in the Avestan tradition the Xiiaona were characterized as enemies of Vishtaspa, the patron of Zoroaster. In the later Pahlavi tradition, the Red Huns and White Huns are mentioned, the Red Huns of the Pahlavi tradition have been identified by Harold Walter Bailey as the Kermichiones or Ermechiones. According to Bailey the Hara Huna of Indian sources are to be identified with the Karmir Xyon of the Avesta, similarly he identifies the Sveta Huna of Indian sources with the Spet Xyon of the Avesta. Bailey argues that the name Xyon was transferred to the Huna owing to similarity of sound, later, the Armenian Patriarch John mentions an ancient town of Hunors foundation in the Utik region, suggesting a connection to the Utigur
Alchon
–
Asia in 400 AD, showing the Xionites and their neighbors.
19.
Sassanian
–
The Sasanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I, after the fall of the Parthian Empire and the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V. According to a legend, the vexilloid of the Sasanian Empire was the Derafsh Kaviani, in many ways, the Sasanian period witnessed the peak of ancient Iranian civilization. Persia influenced Roman culture considerably during the Sasanian period, the Sasanians cultural influence extended far beyond the empires territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe, Africa, China and India. It played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art, much of what later became known as Islamic culture in art, architecture, music and other subject matter was transferred from the Sasanians throughout the Muslim world. Conflicting accounts shroud the details of the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanid Empire was established in Estakhr by Ardashir I. Papak was originally the ruler of a region called Khir, however, by the year 200, he managed to overthrow Gochihr, and appoint himself as the new ruler of the Bazrangids. His mother, Rodhagh, was the daughter of the governor of Pars. Papak and his eldest son Shapur managed to expand their power all of Pars. The subsequent events are unclear, due to the nature of the sources. It is certain, however, that following the death of Papak, Ardashir, sources reveal that Shapur, leaving for a meeting with his brother, was killed when the roof of a building collapsed on him. By the year 208, over the protests of his brothers who were put to death. Once Ardashir was appointed shahanshah, he moved his capital further to the south of Pars, the city, well supported by high mountains and easily defendable through narrow passes, became the center of Ardashirs efforts to gain more power. The city was surrounded by a high, circular wall, probably copied from that of Darabgird, in a second attempt to destroy Ardashir, Artabanus V himself met Ardashir in battle at Hormozgan, where Artabanus V met his death. Following the death of the Parthian ruler, Ardashir I went on to invade the provinces of the now defunct Parthian Empire. Ardashir was aided by the geography of the province of Fars, in the next few years, local rebellions would form around the empire. Nonetheless, Ardashir I further expanded his new empire to the east and northwest, conquering the provinces of Sistan, Gorgan, Khorasan, Margiana, Balkh and he also added Bahrain and Mosul to Sassanids possessions. In the west, assaults against Hatra, Armenia and Adiabene met with less success, in 230, he raided deep into Roman territory, and a Roman counter-offensive two years later ended inconclusively, although the Roman emperor, Alexander Severus, celebrated a triumph in Rome. Ardashir Is son Shapur I continued the expansion of the empire, conquering Bactria, invading Roman Mesopotamia, Shapur I captured Carrhae and Nisibis, but in 243 the Roman general Timesitheus defeated the Persians at Rhesaina and regained the lost territories
Sassanian
–
Normal domains
Sassanian
–
Derafsh Kaviani
Sassanian
–
Ghal'eh Dokhtar (or "The Maiden's Castle") in present-day
Fars,
Firuzabad,
Iran, built by Ardashir in 209, before he was finally able to defeat the Parthian empire.
20.
Indo-Sasanians
–
They were in turn displaced in 410 by the invasions of the Huna people. They were able to re-establish some authority after the Sassanids destroyed the Hephthalites in 565, thus the Kushans lost their western territory to the rule of Sassanid nobles named Kushanshahs or Kings of the Kushans. Around 325, Shapur II was directly in charge of the part of the territory. The Hephthalites dominated the area until they were defeated in 565 AD by an alliance between the Gokturks and Sassanids, and some Indo-Sassanid authority was re-established, the Kushano-Hephthalites were able to set up rival states in Kapisa, Bamiyan, and Kabul. The 2nd Indo-Sassanid period ended with the collapse of Sassanids to the Rashidun Caliphate in the mid 7th century, sind remained independent until the Arab invasions of India in the early 8th century. The Kushano-Hephthalites or Turkshahis were replaced by the Shahi in the mid 8th century, the prophet Mani, founder of Manichaeism, followed the Sassanids expansion to the east, which exposed him to the thriving Buddhist culture of Gandhara. He is said to have visited Bamiyan, where several religious painting are attributed to him and he is also related to have sailed to the Indus valley area of Pakistan in 240 or 241, and to have converted a Buddhist King, the Turan Shah of India. On that occasion, various Buddhist influences seem to have permeated Manichaeism, the Indo-Sassanids traded goods such as silverware and textiles depicting the Sassanid emperors engaged in hunting or administering justice. The example of Sassanid art was influential on Kushan art, the Indo-Sassanids created an extensive coinage with legend in Brahmi, Pahlavi or Bactrian, sometimes inspired from Kushan coinage, and sometimes more clearly Sassanid. The obverse of the coin depicts the ruler with elaborate headdress
Indo-Sasanians
–
Coin of Hormizd I, issued in what is now
Afghanistan, and derived from earlier
Kushan designs.
Indo-Sasanians
–
Coin of the Indo-Sassanid kushansha
Varhran I (early 4th century). Obv: King Varhran I with characteristic
Indus Valley head-dress. Rev: Iranian bull (and also at times a
Zoroastrian fire altar.
Indo-Sasanians
–
Indo-Sassanid trade routes
Indo-Sasanians
–
Lands of the Kushanshas (Indo-Sassanian) and Kushano-Hepthalites in 565 AD
21.
Bactria
–
Bactria or Bactriana was the name of a historical region in Central Asia. Bactria was located between the Hindu Kush mountain range and the Amu Darya river, covering the region that straddles modern-day Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The English name Bactria is derived from the Ancient Greek, Βακτριανή, analogous names include the Pashto and Persian, باختر, translit. Bākhtar, Uzbek, Балх, Tajik, Бохтар, Chinese, 大夏, pinyin, Dàxià and this region played a major role in Central Asian history. At certain times the political limits of Bactria stretched far beyond the frame of the Bactrian plain. The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex is the modern designation for a Bronze Age culture of Central Asia. 2200–1700 BC, located in present-day eastern Turkmenistan, northern Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan, centred on the upper Amu Darya and its sites were discovered and named by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi. The early Greek historian Ctesias, c.400 BC, alleged that the legendary Assyrian king Ninus had defeated a Bactrian king named Oxyartes in ca.2140 BC, or some 1000 years before the Trojan War. Since the decipherment of cuneiform in the 19th century, however, according to some writers, Bactria was the homeland of Indo-Iranian tribes who moved south-west into Iran and into north-western India around 2500–2000 BC. Later, it became the province of the Persian Empire in Central Asia. It was in these regions, where the soil of the mountainous country is surrounded by the Turanian desert. After Darius III had been defeated by Alexander the Great, the satrap of Bactria, Bessus attempted to organise a resistance but was captured by other warlords. He was then tortured and killed, however, in the south, beyond the Oxus, he met strong resistance. After two years of war and an insurgency campaign, Alexander managed to establish little control over Bactria. After Alexanders death, Diodorus Siculus tells us that Philip received dominion over Bactria, at the Treaty of Triparadisus, both Diodorus Siculus and Arrian agree that the satrap Stasanor gained control over Bactria. Eventually, Alexanders empire was divided up among the generals in Alexanders army, Bactria became a part of the Seleucid Empire, named after its founder, Seleucus I. The Macedonians, especially Seleucus I and his son Antiochus I, established the Seleucid Empire, the Greek language became dominant for some time there. The paradox that Greek presence was more prominent in Bactria than in areas far closer to Greece can possibly be explained by past deportations of Greeks to Bactria
Bactria
–
Ancient cities of Bactria
Bactria
–
Goddesses, Bactria, Afghanistan, 2000–1800 BC.
Bactria
–
Kafirnigan from Tajikistan (traditional Bactrian male clothing).
Bactria
–
Kafirnigan from Tajikistan (traditional Bactrian female clothing).
22.
Zabulistan
–
Zabulistan, originally known as Zavolistan, is a historical region roughly corresponding to todays Zabul Province in southern Afghanistan. Zabulistan translates to land of Zabul or land of the Zabuls, the name Zabuls is probably a transliteration of Zunbils, a Hindu and Buddhist dynasty that ruled the area during the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan. Babur, founder of the Mughal dynasty in the 16th century, according to Persian mythology, city of Zabol in eastern Iran, was the birthplace of Iranian hero Rostam. From the 7th century to 11th century, the region was ruled by Shahi kings, later, it was conquered by the Ghaznavids of Ghazni. With Makran and Baluchistan and much of Sindh this area can be reckoned to belong to the cultural and political frontier zone between India and Persia. It is clear however that in the seventh to the centuries the Zunbils. The Arab geographers, in effect commonly speak of that king of Al Hind, the early Arab governors of Sistan had at times penetrated as far as Ghazna and Kabul, but these had been little more than slave and plunder raids. There was fierce resistance from the rulers of these regions, above all from the line of Zunbils who ruled in Zamindavar. The region of southern Afghanistan was first invaded by Muslim Arabs from Zaranj in what is now Nimruz Province, from there they marched toward Bost, Kandahar, Zabulistan, and reached Kabul. In 683 Kabul revolted and defeated the Muslim army, but two years later Zabuls army was routed by the Arabs. We are told that it was only in 870 AD that Zabulistan was finally conquered by one Yakub who was the ruler of the neighbouring Iranian province of Siestan. The king was killed and his subjects were made Muslims, the early Arab governors of Sistan had at times penetrated as far as Ghazana and Kabul, but these had been little more than slave and plunder raids. Various scholars have recorded the importance of Sakawand as a centre of Pagan pilgrimage. It is related that, Amru Lais conferred the governorship of Zabulistan on Fardghan, there was a large place of worship of the God Zhun in the country, which was called Sakawand, and people used to come on pilgrimage to the Idols of that place. When Fardaghan arrived in Zabulistan he led his army against it, took the temples broke the idols in pieces, some of the plunder he distributed among the troops, the rest he sent to Amru Lais. Fardaghan, the governor of Zabulistan region around Ghazni under Amr ibn Layth, plundered Sakawand, a place of pilgrimage to God Zhun, which was within the kingdom of the Shahis. The activities of the Saffarid brothers on the Indian frontier attracted special attention in the Caliphate thanks to the care they took to send exotic presents from the plunder to the Abbasid court. Yaqub, for instance, at one time sent fifty gold, another set of Idols lavishly decorated with jewels and silver, sent by himAmr in 896 from Sakawand, caused a sensation in Baghdad on account of their strangeness
Zabulistan
–
Newly
excavated Buddhist stupa at
Mes Aynak in
Logar Province. Similar stupas have been discovered in neighboring
Ghazni Province, including in the northern
Samangan Province.
Zabulistan
–
Names of territories during the 7th century CE.
23.
Kabulistan
–
Kabulistan is a historical regional name referring to the territory that is centered on present-day Kabul Province of Afghanistan. It included the land as far as Peshawar in what is now Pakistan, south of Kabulistan was the region of Afghanistan and to the northwest was Khorasan. European writers during the 18th to the 20th centuries sometimes referred to Durrani Empire as the Kingdom of Caboul, the earliest rulers of Kabulistan were the Kabul Shahis, who ruled the region between 565 and 879 AD. Kabul Shahis had built a wall around the city of Kabul to protect it against invaders. The remains of walls are still visible over the mountains which are located inside Kabul city
Kabulistan
–
Map of the Kingdom of Caboul, published in 1838 by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The name Caboul was attributed to most of current territories of
Afghanistan.
24.
Turkic peoples
–
The Turkic peoples are a collection of ethnic groups that live in central, eastern, northern, and western Asia as well as parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family and they share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds. The first known mention of the term Turk applied to a Turkic group was in reference to the Göktürks in the 6th century, a letter by Ishbara Qaghan to Emperor Wen of Sui in 585 described him as the Great Turk Khan. The Orhun inscriptions use the terms Turk and Turuk and this includes Chinese records Spring and Autumn Annals referring to a neighbouring people as Beidi. During the first century CE, Pomponius Mela refers to the Turcae in the north of the Sea of Azov. There are references to certain groups in antiquity whose names could be the form of Türk/Türük such as Togarma, Turukha/Turuška, Turukku. But the information gap is so substantial that we cannot firmly connect these ancient people to the modern Turks, turkologist András Róna-Tas posits that the term Turk could be rooted in the East Iranian Saka language or in Turkic. This etymological concept is related to Old Turkic word stems tür, türi-, törü. The earliest Turkic-speaking peoples identifiable in Chinese sources are the Dingling, Gekun, the Chinese Book of Zhou presents an etymology of the name Turk as derived from helmet, explaining that taken this name refers to the shape of the Altai Mountains. During the Middle Ages, various Turkic peoples of the Eurasian steppe were subsumed under the identity of the Scythians, between 400 CE and the 16th century, Byzantine sources use the name Σκύθαι in reference to twelve different Turkic peoples. However, the usage of the term is based on the linguistic classification in order to avoid any political sense. In short, the term Türki can be used for Türk or vice versa and it is generally agreed that the first Turkic people lived in a region extending from Central Asia to Siberia, with the majority of them living in China historically. Historically they were established after the 6th century BCE, the earliest separate Turkic peoples appeared on the peripheries of the late Xiongnu confederation about 200 BCE. Turkic people may be related to the Xiongnu, Dingling and Tiele people, according to the Book of Wei, the Tiele people were the remnants of the Chidi, the red Di people competing with the Jin in the Spring and Autumn period. Turkic tribes such as the Khazars and Pechenegs probably lived as nomads for many years before establishing the Turkic Khaganate or Göktürk Empire in the 6th century and these were herdsmen and nobles who were searching for new pastures and wealth. The first mention of Turks was in a Chinese text that mentioned trade between Turk tribes and the Sogdians along the Silk Road, the first recorded use of Turk as a political name appears as a 6th-century reference to the word pronounced in Modern Chinese as Tujue. The Ashina clan migrated from Li-jien to the Juan Juan seeking inclusion in their confederacy, the tribe were famed metalsmiths and were granted land near a mountain quarry which looked like a helmet, from which they were said to have gotten their name 突厥. A century later their power had increased such that they conquered the Juan Juan, Turkic peoples originally used their own alphabets, like Orkhon and Yenisey runiforms, and later the Uyghur alphabet
Turkic peoples
–
Map from Kashgari's Diwan, showing the distribution of Turkic tribes.
Turkic peoples
–
Turkic states shown in red
Turkic peoples
–
History of the Turkic peoples Pre-14th century
Turkic peoples
–
The top of Belukha in the
Altay Mountains in Mongolia is shown here. The mountain range is thought to be the birthplace of the Turkic people.
25.
Tamga
–
A tamga or tamgha stamp, seal is an abstract seal or stamp used by Eurasian nomadic peoples and by cultures influenced by them. The tamga was normally the emblem of a tribe, clan or family. They were common among the Eurasian nomads throughout Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages, similar tamga-like symbols were sometimes adopted by sedentary peoples adjacent to the Pontic-Caspian steppe both in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Archaeologists prize tamgas as a source for the study of present. Every time the clan branched off due to clashes, the number of derivative tamghas been gradually developed into personal, family, lineage, khans. Those new tamghas were created through adding new markings on the original tamgha, Tamga or tamag literally means a stamp or seal in the Mongolian language. In this regard, each family has their own tamga markings for easier identification, Tamga marking in that case is not very elaborate and is just a curved iron differentiating from other families tamgas. The President of Mongolia also passes the state seal when he or she transitions the position to the new president. In the presidential case, the tamag or seal is a more elaborate and is contained in a wooden box. The Turks who remained pastoral nomad kings in eastern Anatolia and Iran however, continued to use their clan tamgas, the Ak Koyunlu and Kara Koyunlu, like many other royal dynasties in Eurasia, put their tamga on their flags and stamped their coinage with it. For those Turks who never left their homeland of Turkestan in the first place it remained and still is what it was originally, a cattle brand and clan identifier. Among modern Turkic peoples, the tamga is a design identifying property or cattle belonging to a specific Turkic clan, when Turkish clans took over more urban or rural areas, tamgas dropped out of use as pastoral ways of life became forgotten. This is most evident in the Turkish clans who took over western and eastern Anatolia following the Battle of Manzikert, the Turks who took over western Anatolia founded the Sultanate of Rûm and became Roman-style aristocrats. Most of them adopted the Muslim symbol of the Seal of Solomon after the Sultanate disintegrated into a mass of feuding ghazi states. Only the Ottoman ghazi state kept its tamga, and this was highly stylized and it has been suggested that originally all Polish coats of arms were based on such abstract geometrical shapes, but most were gradually rationalized into horseshoes, arrows and so on. If this hypothesis is correct, it suggests in turn that Polish heraldry, also unlike Western European heraldry, on this matter, research and controversy continue. Columns of Gediminas, a coat of arms of Lithuania. In the late medieval Turco-Mongol states, the term became used for any kind of official stamp or seal
Tamga
–
Tamga of the
Bosporan king Tiberius Julius Eupator, crowned by two winged victories. The relief dates to the second century CE.
Tamga
–
Tamgha of
Kaidu,
House of Ögedei.
Tamga
–
Tamga of the
Mughal Empire on top of the
Taj Mahal.
26.
Kashmir
–
Kashmir is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range. In the first half of the 1st millennium, the Kashmir region became an important centre of Hinduism and later of Buddhism, later still, in the ninth century, in 1339, Shah Mir became the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir, inaugurating the Salatin-i-Kashmir or Swati dynasty. Kashmir was part of the Mughal Empire from 1586 to 1751 and that year, the Sikhs, under Ranjit Singh, annexed Kashmir. The Sanskrit word for Kashmir was, the Nilamata Purana describes the Valleys origin from the waters, a lake called Sati-saras. A popular, but uncertain, local etymology of Kashmira is that it is land desiccated from water, an alternative, but also uncertain, etymology derives the name from the name of the sage Kashyapa who is believed to have settled people in this land. Accordingly, Kashmir would be derived from either kashyapa-mir or kashyapa-meru, the Ancient Greeks called the region Kasperia which has been identified with Kaspapyros of Hecataeus and Kaspatyros of Herodotus. Kashmir is also believed to be the country meant by Ptolemys Kaspeiria, Cashmere is an archaic spelling of present-Kashmir, and in some countries it is still spelled this way. In the Kashmiri language, Kashmir itself is known as Kasheer, the Buddhist Mauryan emperor Ashoka is often credited with having founded the old capital of Kashmir, Shrinagari, now ruins on the outskirts of modern Srinagar. Kashmir was long to be a stronghold of Buddhism, as a Buddhist seat of learning, the Sarvāstivādan school strongly influenced Kashmir. East and Central Asian Buddhist monks are recorded as having visited the kingdom, in the late 4th century CE, the famous Kuchanese monk Kumārajīva, born to an Indian noble family, studied Dīrghāgama and Madhyāgama in Kashmir under Bandhudatta. He later became a translator who helped take Buddhism to China. His mother Jīva is thought to have retired to Kashmir, vimalākṣa, a Sarvāstivādan Buddhist monk, travelled from Kashmir to Kucha and there instructed Kumārajīva in the Vinayapiṭaka. Karkota Empire was a powerful Hindu empire, which originated in the region of Kashmir and it was founded by Durlabhvardhana during the lifetime of Harshavardhan. The dynasty marked the rise of Kashmir as a power in South Asia, avanti Varman ascended the throne of Kashmir on 855 A. D. establishing the Utpala dynasty and ending the rule of Karkota dynasty. According to tradition, Adi Shankara visited the pre-existing Sarvajñapīṭha in Kashmir in the late 8th century or early 9th century CE, the Madhaviya Shankaravijayam states this temple had four doors for scholars from the four cardinal directions. The southern door of Sarvajna Pitha was opened by Adi Shankara, abhinavagupta was one of Indias greatest philosophers, mystics and aestheticians. He was also considered an important musician, poet, dramatist, exegete, theologian, and logician – a polymathic personality who exercised strong influences on Indian culture
Kashmir
–
Political Map: the Kashmir region districts, showing the
Pir Panjal range and the
Kashmir Valley or Vale of Kashmir.
Kashmir
–
Kashmir
Kashmir
–
Swami Vivekananda in Kashmir in 1898.
Kashmir
–
General view of Temple and Enclosure of
Marttand (the
Sun), at Bhawan, ca. 490–555; the colonnade ca. 693–729.
Surya Mandir at
Martand, Jammu & Kashmir, India, photographed by
John Burke, 1868.
27.
Gandhara
–
Gandhara is also an ancient name for Kandahar, Afghanistan. Gandhāra was an ancient Indic kingdom situated in the region of Pakistan. It encompassed the Peshawar valley and later extended to both Jalalabad district of modern-day Afghanistan as well as Taxila, in Pakistan. During the Achaemenid period and Hellenistic period, its city was Charsadda. It is mentioned in the Zend Avesta as Vaēkərəta, the sixth most beautiful place on earth and it was known as the crown jewel of Bactria and also held sway over Takṣaśilā. Gandhara existed since the time of the Rigveda and formed part of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC, after it was conquered by Mahmud of Ghazni in 1001 AD, the name Gandhara disappeared. During the Muslim period, the area was administered from Lahore or from Kabul, during Mughal times, it was an independent district which included the Kabul province. The name Gāndhāra occurs later in the classical Sanskrit of the epics and it is recorded in Avestan as Vaēkərəta. The Gandhari people are a tribe mentioned in the Rigveda, the Atharvaveda, one proposed origin of the name is from the Sanskrit word gandha, meaning perfume and referring to the spices and aromatic herbs which they traded and with which they anointed themselves. Some authors have connected the modern name Kandahar to Gandhara, Herodotus records that those Iranic tribes, which were adjacent to the city of Caspatyrus and the district of Pactyïce, had customs similar to the Bactrians, and are the most warlike amongst them. These are also the people who obtain gold from the ant-hills of the adjoining desert, on the identity of Caspatyrus, there have been two opinions, one equating it with Kabul, the other with the name of Kashmir. The boundaries of Gandhara varied throughout history, sometimes the Peshawar Valley and Taxila were collectively referred to as Gandhara, sometimes the Swat Valley was also included. The heart of Gandhara, however, was always the Peshawar Valley, the kingdom was ruled from capitals at Kapisa, Pushkalavati, Taxila, Puruṣapura and in its final days from Udabhandapura on the River Indus. Evidence of the Stone Age human inhabitants of Gandhara, including stone tools, the artifacts are approximately 15,000 years old. More recent excavations point to 30,000 years before the present, the region shows an influx of southern Central Asian culture in the Bronze Age with the Gandhara grave culture, and the nucleus of Vedic civilisation. This culture flourished from 1500 to 500 BC and its evidence has been discovered in the hilly regions of Swat and Dir, and even at Taxila. The name of the Gandhāris is attested in the Rigveda and in ancient inscriptions dating back to Achaemenid Persia, the Behistun inscription listing the 23 territories of King Darius I includes Gandāra along with Bactria and Sattagydia. In the book Histories by Herodotus, Gandhara is named as a source of tax collections for King Darius, the Gandhāris, along with the Balhika, Mūjavants, Angas, and the Magadhas, are also mentioned in the Atharvaveda, as distant people
Gandhara
–
Female spouted figure, terracotta, Charsadda, Gandhara, 3rd to 1st century BC
Victoria and Albert Museum
Gandhara
Gandhara
–
Mother Goddess (fertility divinity), possibly derived from the
Indus Valley Civilization,
terracotta, Sar Dheri, Gandhara, 1st century BC,
Victoria and Albert Museum
Gandhara
–
Genealogy and family tree of Malak Afghana, grandson of King Saul.
28.
Khyber pass
–
The Khyber Pass is a mountain pass connecting Afghanistan and Pakistan, cutting through the northeastern part of the Spin Ghar mountains. An integral part of the ancient Silk Road, it has long had significant cultural, economic, throughout history it has been an important trade route between Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent and a strategic military location. The summit of the pass is 5 kilometres inside Pakistan at Landi Kotal, the Khyber Pass is part of the Asian Highway 1. Khyber is the Hebrew word for fort, well known invasions of the area have been predominantly through the Khyber Pass, such as the invasions by Darius I, Genghis Khan and later Mongols such as Duwa, Qutlugh Khwaja and Kebek. Prior to the Kushan era, the Khyber Pass was not a widely used trade route, among the Muslim invasions of ancient India, the famous invaders coming through the Khyber Pass are Mahmud Ghaznavi, and the Afghan Muhammad Ghori and the Turkic-Mongols. Finally, Sikhs under Ranjit Singh captured the Khyber Pass in 1834 until they were defeated by the forces of Wazir Akbar Khan in 1837, hari Singh Nalwa, who manned the Khyber Pass for years, became a household name in Afghanistan. To the north of the Khyber Pass lies the country of the Mullagori tribe, to the south is Afridi Tirah, while the inhabitants of villages in the Pass itself are Afridi clansmen. Throughout the centuries the Pashtun clans, particularly the Afridis and the Afghan Shinwaris, have regarded the Pass as their own preserve and have levied a toll on travellers for safe conduct. Since this has long been their main source of income, resistance to challenges to the Shinwaris authority has often been fierce, for strategic reasons, after the First World War the British built a heavily engineered railway through the Pass. The Khyber Pass Railway from Jamrud, near Peshawar, to the Afghan border near Landi Kotal was opened in 1925, during World War II concrete dragon’s teeth were erected on the valley floor due to British fears of a German tank invasion of India. The Pass became widely known to thousands of Westerners and Japanese who traveled it in the days of the Hippie trail, at the Pakistani frontier post, travelers were advised not to wander away from the road, as the location was a barely controlled Federally Administered Tribal Area. Then, after customs formalities, a quick daylight drive through the Pass was made, monuments left by British Army units, as well as hillside forts, could be viewed from the highway. Almost 80 percent of the NATO and US supplies that are brought in by road were transported through this Khyber Pass, furthermore, it has also been used to transport civilians from the Afghan side to the Pakistani one. Until the end of 2007, this route had been relatively safe since the living there were paid by the Pakistani government to keep the area safe. However, since that year, the Taliban began to control the region, since the end of 2008, supply convoys and depots in this western part increasingly came under attack by elements from or supposedly sympathetic to the Pakistani Taliban. In January 2009, Pakistan sealed off the bridge as part of an offensive against Taliban guerrillas. This military operation was focused on Jamrud, a district on the Khyber road. The target was to “dynamite or bulldoze homes belonging to men suspected of harboring or supporting Taliban militants or carrying out other illegal activities”, the result meant that more than 70 people were arrested and 45 homes were destroyed
Khyber pass
–
Looking back towards
Pakistan, on the Afghanistan side of the Khyber Pass
Khyber pass
–
Elephant battery of heavy artillery along the Khyber Pass at
Campbellpur, 1895
Khyber pass
–
Afghan chiefs and a
British political officer posed at
Jamrud fort at the mouth of the Khyber Pass in 1878.
Khyber pass
–
Bab-e-Kyber
29.
Turk shahi
–
They are split into two eras the Buddhist-Shahis and the later Hindu-Shahis with the change-over occurring around 870. These Hindu kings of Kabul and Gandhara may have had links to some ruling families in neighboring Kashmir, the last Shahi emperors Jayapala, Anandapala and Tirlochanpala fought the Muslim Turk Ghaznavids of Ghazna and were gradually defeated. Their remaining army were eventually exiled into northern India, Xuanzang describes the ruler of Kapisa/Kabul, whom he had personally met, as a devout Buddhist and a Kshatriya. Thus the folklore accounts recorded by Alberuni connect the earlier Shahis of Kabul/Kapisa to Turkish extraction, at the same time it is also claimed that their first king Barahatigin had originally come from Tibet and concealed in a narrow cave in Kabul area. One can easily see the account of Shahi origin as totally fanciful. The allegation that the first dynasty of Kabul was Turki is plainly based on the vulgar tradition, which Alberuni himself remarked was clearly absurd. The historian V. A. Smith speculates – based on Alberuni – that the earlier Shahis were a branch of the Kushanas who ruled both over Kabul and Gandhara until the rise of the Saffarids. H. M. Elliot relates the early Kabul Shahis to the Kators, charles Frederick Oldham also traces the Kabul Shahi lineage to the Kators—whom he identifies with the Kathas or Takkhas—Naga worshipping collective groups of Hinduism lineage. He further speaks of the Urasas, Abhisaras, Daradas, Gandharas, Kambojas, pandey traces the affinities of the early Kabul Shahis to the Hunas. Other accounts suggest Punjabi Kshatriya origins for the Shahi dynasty, Xuanzang clearly describes the ruler of Kapisa/Kabul, whom he had personally met, as a devout Buddhist and a Kshatriya and not a Tu-kiue/Tu-kue. Neither the Kushanas, the Hunas/Hephthalites nor the Turks have ever been designated or classified as Kshatriyas in any ancient Indian tradition, therefore, the identification of the first line of Shahi kings of Kapisa/Kabul with the Kushanas, Hunas, or Turks obviously seems to be in gross error. It is very interesting that Alberuni calls the early Shahi rulers Turks, the Shahi rulers of Kapisa/Kabul who ruled Afghanistan from the early 4th century till AD870 were Hindu Kamboj Kshatriyas. The Shahis of Afghanistan were discovered in 1874 to be connected to the Kamboja race by E. Vesey Westmacott, E. Vesey Westmacott, Bishan Singh, K. S. Dardi, et al. connect the Kabul Shahis to the ancient Indian Kshatriya clans of the Kambojas/Gandharas. George Scott Robertson writes that the Kators/Katirs of Kafiristan belong to the well known Siyaposh tribal group of the Kams, but numerous scholars now also agree that the Siyaposh tribes of Hindukush are the modern representatives of the ancient Iranian cis-Hindukush Kambojas. The name of the last king of the so-called first Shahi line of Kabul/Kapisa simply reveals a trace of Tukhara cultural influence in the Kamboja region, as hinted in the above discussion. Thus, the first ruling dynasty of Kapisa and Kabul, designated as a Kshatriya dynasty by Xuanzang had been a Kamboja dynasty from India, the Kambojas and the Tukharas are mentioned as immediate neighbors in north-west as late as the 8th century AD as Rajatarangini of Kalhana demonstrates. Evidence also exists that some medieval Muslim writers have confused the Kamboja clans of Pamirs/Hindukush with the Turks, for example, 10th-century Arab geographer Al-Muqaddasi, refers to the Kumiji tribesmen of Buttaman mountains, on upper Oxus, and calls them of Turkic race. Song Yun, the Chinese Ambassador to the Huna kingdom of Gandhara, the then Yetha ruler was extremely cruel, vindictive, and anti-Buddhist and had engaged in a three years border war with the king of Ki-pin, disputing the boundaries of that country
Turk shahi
–
Coins of the Shahis, 8th century
Turk shahi
–
Coin of Shahi Kings of Kabul & Gandhara: Samanta Deva, c. AD 850–1000. Obv: Rider bearing lance on caparisoned horse facing right. Devnagari Legends: 'bhi '?. Rev: Recumbent bull facing left, trishula on bull's rump, Devnagari Legends: Sri Samanta Deva.
Turk shahi
–
Asia in AD 565, showing the Shahi kingdoms and their neighbours.
Turk shahi
–
Newly
excavated Buddhist stupa at
Mes Aynak in
Logar Province. Similar stupas have been discovered in neighbouring
Ghazni Province, including in the northern
Samangan Province.
30.
History of Afghanistan
–
The Indus Valley Civilisation stretched up to large parts of Afghanistan in the north, with several sites being known. Alexander the Great and his Macedonian army arrived at what is now Afghanistan in 330 BCE after conquering Persia during the Battle of Gaugamela, Afghanistan has been a strategically important location throughout history. The land served as a gateway to India, impinging on the ancient Silk Road, the archaeological manifestation of the Indo-Iranians before their split into separate language groups is generally seen as the Andronovo culture to the north of present-day Afghanistan. The Iranian languages were developed by one branch of these people, elena E. Kuzmina argues that the tents of Iranian-speaking nomads of Afghanistan developed from the light surface houses of the Eurasian steppe belt in the Bronze Age. The Arab invasions influenced the culture of Afghanistan, and its period of Zoroastrian, Macedonian, Buddhist. Turkic empire-builders such as the Ghaznavids and Timurids made the now called Afghanistan of major importance. Mirwais Hotak followed by Ahmad Shah Durrani unified Afghan tribes and founded the last Afghan Empire in the early 18th century CE, a cave called Kara Kamar contained Upper Paleolithic blades Carbon-14 dated at 34,000 years old. Farming communities in Afghanistan were among the earliest in the world, archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation in Afghanistan from as far back as 50,000 BC. The artifacts indicate that the people were small farmers and herdsmen, very probably grouped into tribes. Urbanization may have begun as early as 3000 BCE, Zoroastrianism predominated as the religion in the area, even the modern Afghan solar calendar shows the influence of Zoroastrianism in the names of the months. Other religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism flourished later, leaving a mark in the region. Early inhabitants, around 3000 BCE were likely to have been connected through culture and trade to neighboring civilizations like Jiroft and Tappeh Sialk and the Indus Valley Civilization. Urban civilization may have begun as early as 3000 BCE and it is possible that the city of Mundigak was a colony of the nearby Indus Valley Civilization. The first known people were Indo-Iranians, but their date of arrival has been estimated widely from as early as about 3000 BCE to 1500 BCE, the Indus Valley Civilization was a Bronze Age civilization extending from what today is northwest Pakistan to northwest India and northeast Afghanistan. An Indus Valley site has found on the Oxus River at Shortugai in northern Afghanistan. Apart from Shortughai is Mundigak another notable site, there are several other smaller IVC colonies to be found in Afghanistan as well. The Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex became prominent in the southwest region between 2200 and 1700 BCE, the city of Balkh was founded about this time. It is possible that the BMAC may have been an Indo-European culture, but the standard model holds the arrival of Indo-Aryans to have been in the Late Harappan which gave rise to the Vedic civilization of the Early Iron Age
History of Afghanistan
–
History of Afghanistan
History of Afghanistan
–
Tents of
Afghan nomads in the northern
Badghis province of Afghanistan. Early peasant farming villages came into existence in Afghanistan about 7,000 years ago.
History of Afghanistan
–
Arachosia,
Aria and
Bactria were the ancient
satraps of the
Achaemenid Empire that made up most of what is now Afghanistan during 500 BCE. Some of the inhabitants of Arachosia were known as Pactyans, whose name possibly survives in today's
Pakhtuns (Pashtuns).
History of Afghanistan
–
Approximate maximum extent of the
Greco-Bactrian kingdom circa 180 BCE, including the regions of
Tapuria and
Traxiane to the West,
Sogdiana and
Ferghana to the north,
Bactria and
Arachosia to the south.
31.
Indus Valley Civilisation
–
The Indus Valley Civilisation was a Bronze Age civilisation mainly in the northwestern regions of South Asia, extending from what today is northeast Afghanistan to Pakistan and northwest India. Along with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia it was one of three early civilisations of the Old World, and of the three, the most widespread, at its peak, the Indus Civilisation may have had a population of over five million. Inhabitants of the ancient Indus river valley developed new techniques in handicraft, the Indus cities are noted for their urban planning, baked brick houses, elaborate drainage systems, water supply systems, and clusters of large non-residential buildings. The discovery of Harappa, and soon afterwards, Mohenjo-Daro, was the culmination of work beginning in 1861 with the founding of the Archaeological Survey of India in the British Raj, excavation of Harappan sites has been ongoing since 1920, with important breakthroughs occurring as recently as 1999. This Harappan civilisation is called the Mature Harappan culture to distinguish it from the cultures immediately preceding and following it. The early Harappan cultures were preceded by local Neolithic agricultural villages, as of 1999, over 1,056 cities and settlements had been found, of which 96 have been excavated, mainly in the general region of the Indus and Ghaggar-Hakra Rivers and their tributaries. Among the settlements were the urban centres of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, Dholavira, Ganeriwala in Cholistan. The Harappan language is not directly attested and its affiliation is uncertain since the Indus script is still undeciphered, a relationship with the Dravidian or Elamo-Dravidian language family is favoured by a section of scholars. Recently, Indus sites have been discovered in Pakistans northwestern Frontier Province as well, other IVC colonies can be found in Afghanistan while smaller isolated colonies can be found as far away as Turkmenistan and in Maharashtra. The largest number of colonies are in the Punjab, Sindh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Indus Valley sites have been found most often on rivers, but also on the ancient seacoast, for example, Balakot, and on islands, for example, Dholavira. There is evidence of dry river beds overlapping with the Hakra channel in Pakistan, many Indus Valley sites have been discovered along the Ghaggar-Hakra beds. Among them are, Rupar, Rakhigarhi, Sothi, Kalibangan, Harappan Civilisation remains the correct one, according to the common archaeological usage of naming a civilisation after its first findspot. John wrote, I was much exercised in my mind how we were to get ballast for the line of the railway and they were told of an ancient ruined city near the lines, called Brahminabad. Visiting the city, he found it full of hard well-burnt bricks, and, convinced there was a grand quarry for the ballast I wanted. These bricks now provided ballast along 93 miles of the track running from Karachi to Lahore. In 1872–75, Alexander Cunningham published the first Harappan seal and it was half a century later, in 1912, that more Harappan seals were discovered by J. J. H. MacKay, and Marshall. By 1931, much of Mohenjo-Daro had been excavated, but excavations continued, such as that led by Sir Mortimer Wheeler, director of the Archaeological Survey of India in 1944. Among other archaeologists who worked on IVC sites before the independence in 1947 were Ahmad Hasan Dani, Brij Basi Lal, Nani Gopal Majumdar, and Sir Marc Aurel Stein
Indus Valley Civilisation
–
Indus Valley Civilization
Indus Valley Civilisation
–
Ceremonial vessel, Harappan, 2600–2450 BCE.
LACMA
Indus Valley Civilisation
–
Excavated ruins of
Mohenjo-daro, with the
Great Bath in the front
Indus Valley Civilisation
–
Indus Valley pottery, 2500–1900 BCE
32.
Ancient Iranian peoples
–
The Iranian peoples or Iranic peoples are a diverse Indo-European ethno-linguistic group that comprise the speakers of the Iranian languages. Proto-Iranians are believed to have emerged as a branch of the Indo-Iranians in Central Asia in the mid 2nd millennium BC. In the 1st millennium AD, their area of settlement was reduced as a result of Slavic, Germanic, Turkic and Mongol expansions and many being subjected to Slavicisation. The Iranian peoples include Balochs, Kurds, Gilaks, Lurs, Mazanderanis, Ossetians, Pashtuns, Pamiris, Persians, Tajiks, Talysh people, the term Iran derives directly from Middle Persian Ērān and Parthian Aryān. The Middle Iranian terms ērān and aryān are oblique plural forms of gentilic ēr- and ary-, there have been many attempts to qualify the verbal root of ar- in Old Iranian arya-. The following are according to 1957 and later linguists, Emmanuel Laroche, Old Iranian arya- being descended from Proto-Indo-European ar-yo-, meaning assembler. Harold Walter Bailey, ar- to beget, unlike the Sanskrit ā́rya-, the Old Iranian term has solely an ethnic meaning. Today, the Old Iranian arya- remains in ethno-linguistic names such as Iran, Alan, Ir, in the Iranian languages, the gentilic is attested as a self-identifier included in ancient inscriptions and the literature of Avesta. The earliest epigraphically attested reference to the word occurs in the Bistun Inscription of the 6th century BC. The inscription of Bistun describes itself to have composed in Arya. As is also the case for all other Old Iranian language usage, in royal Old Persian inscriptions, the term arya- appears in three different contexts, As the name of the language of the Old Persian version of the inscription of Darius I in the Bistun Inscription. As the ethnic background of Darius the Great in inscriptions at Rustam Relief and Susa, as the definition of the God of Iranians, Ohrmazd, in the Elamite version of the Bistun Inscription. In the Dna and Dse, Darius and Xerxes describe themselves as an Achaemenid, a Persian, son of a Persian, although Darius the Great called his language arya-, modern scholars refer to it as Old Persian because it is the ancestor of the modern Persian language. The trilingual inscription erected by the command of Shapur I gives a clear description. The languages used are Parthian, Middle Persian, and Greek, tou Arianon ethnous despotes eimi, which translates to I am the king of the kingdom of the Iranians. In Middle Persian, Shapur says ērānšahr xwadāy hēm and in Parthian he says aryānšahr xwadāy ahēm, the Avesta clearly uses airiia- as an ethnic name, where it appears in expressions such as airyāfi daiŋˊhāvō, airyō šayanəm, and airyanəm vaējō vaŋhuyāfi dāityayāfi. In the late part of the Avesta, one of the homelands was referred to as Airyanəm Vaējah which approximately means expanse of the Iranians. The homeland varied in its range, the area around Herat
Ancient Iranian peoples
–
Achaemenid empire at its greatest extent
Ancient Iranian peoples
–
The
Andronovo,
BMAC and
Yaz cultures have been associated with Indo-Iranians.
Ancient Iranian peoples
–
Persepolis -Persian guards
Ancient Iranian peoples
–
Geographic distribution of modern Iranian languages
33.
Median Empire
–
The Medes were an ancient Iranian people who lived in an area known as Media and who spoke the Median language. This allowed new peoples to pass through and settle, in addition Elam, the dominant power in Iran, was suffering a period of severe weakness, as was Babylonia to the west. During the reign of Sinsharishkun the Assyrian empire, which had been in a state of constant civil war since 626 BC, subject peoples, such as the Medes, Babylonians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Scythians, Cimmerians, Lydians and Arameans quietly ceased to pay tribute to Assyria. The Median kingdom was conquered in 550 BC by Cyrus the Great. However, nowadays there is doubt whether a united Median empire ever existed. There is no evidence and the story of Herodotus is not supported by sources from the Neo-Assyrian Empire nor the Neo-Babylonian Empire. A few archaeological sites and textual sources provide a documentation of the history. Apart from a few names, the language of the Medes is unknown. The Medes had an Ancient Iranian Religion with a priesthood named as Magi, later during the reigns of the last Median kings, the reforms of Zoroaster spread into western Iran. Besides Ecbatana, the other existing in Media were Laodicea. The fourth city of Media was Apamea, near Ecbatana, whose location is now unknown. According to the Histories of Herodotus, there were six Median tribes, Thus Deioces collected the Medes into a nation, now these are the tribes of which they consist, the Busae, the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the Budii, and the Magi. The six Median tribes resided in Media proper, the triangular shaped area between Ecbatana, Rhagae and Aspadana, in modern Iran, that is the area between Tehran, Isfahan and Hamadan. Of the Median tribes, the Magi resided in Rhaga, modern Tehran and it was a type of sacred caste, which ministered to the spiritual needs of the Medes. The Paretaceni tribe resided in and around Aspadana, modern Isfahan, the Arizanti lived in and around Kashan, the Struchates and the Budii lived in villages in the Median triangle. The original source for different words used to call the Median people, their language, the meaning of this word is not precisely established. The Median people are mentioned by name in many ancient texts. According to the Histories of Herodotus, The Medes were called anciently by all people Aryans, but when Medea, such is the account which they themselves give
Median Empire
–
A map of the Median Empire; based on
Herodotus
Median Empire
–
The Apadana Palace in
Persepolis,
Iran, northern stairway (detail) – ancient
Achaemenid 5th-century BCE bas-relief shows a Mede soldier in traditional Mede costume (behind Persian archer)
Median Empire
–
Excavation from ancient Ecbatane, Hamadan, Iran
34.
Achaemenid Empire
–
The Achaemenid Empire, also called the Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia, founded by Cyrus the Great. The empires successes inspired similar systems in later empires and it is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city-states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was built in a Hellenistic style in the empire as well. By the 7th century BC, the Persians had settled in the portion of the Iranian Plateau in the region of Persis. From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, Alexander, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered the empire in its entirety by 330 BC. Upon his death, most of the former territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire. The Persian population of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century BC under the Parthian Empire, the historical mark of the Achaemenid Empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. Many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange. The impact of Cyruss edict is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, the empire also set the tone for the politics, heritage and history of modern Iran. Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details Due to the duration of their reigns, Smerdis, Xerxes II. The Persian nation contains a number of tribes as listed here, the Pasargadae, Maraphii, and Maspii, upon which all the other tribes are dependent. Of these, the Pasargadae are the most distinguished, they contain the clan of the Achaemenids from which spring the Perseid kings. Other tribes are the Panthialaei, Derusiaei, Germanii, all of which are attached to the soil, the Achaemenid Empire was created by nomadic Persians. The Achaemenid Empire was not the first Iranian empire, as by 6th century BC another group of ancient Iranian peoples had established the short lived Median Empire. The Iranian peoples had arrived in the region of what is today Iran c.1000 BC and had for a number of centuries fallen under the domination of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, based in northern Mesopotamia. However, the Medes and Persians, Cimmerians, Persians and Chaldeans played a role in the overthrow of the Assyrian empire. The term Achaemenid means of the family of the Achaemenis/Achaemenes, despite the derivation of the name, Achaemenes was himself a minor seventh-century ruler of the Anshan in southwestern Iran, and a vassal of Assyria. At some point in 550 BC, Cyrus rose in rebellion against the Medes, eventually conquering the Medes and creating the first Persian empire
Achaemenid Empire
–
Standard of Cyrus the Great
Achaemenid Empire
–
Relief of
Cyrus the Great.
Achaemenid Empire
–
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus one of the
Seven wonders of the ancient world was built by Persian satrap of
Caria,
Mausolus (Scale model.)
35.
Seleucid Empire
–
Seleucus received Babylonia and, from there, expanded his dominions to include much of Alexanders near eastern territories. At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, Persia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and what is now Kuwait, Afghanistan, and parts of Pakistan and Turkmenistan. The Seleucid Empire was a center of Hellenistic culture that maintained the preeminence of Greek customs where a Greek political elite dominated. The Greek population of the cities who formed the dominant elite were reinforced by immigration from Greece, Seleucid expansion into Anatolia and Greece was abruptly halted after decisive defeats at the hands of the Roman army. Their attempts to defeat their old enemy Ptolemaic Egypt were frustrated by Roman demands, contemporary sources, such as a loyalist degree from Ilium, in Greek language define the Seleucid state both as an empire and as a kingdom. Similarly, Seleucid rulers were described as kings in Babylonia and he refers to either Alexander Balas or Alexander II Zabinas as a ruler. Alexander, who conquered the Persian Empire under its last Achaemenid dynast, Darius III, died young in 323 BC. Alexanders generals jostled for supremacy over parts of his empire, Ptolemy, a former general and the satrap of Egypt, was the first to challenge the new system, this led to the demise of Perdiccas. Ptolemys revolt led to a new subdivision of the empire with the Partition of Triparadisus in 320 BC, Seleucus, who had been Commander-in-Chief of the Companion cavalry and appointed first or court chiliarch received Babylonia and, from that point, continued to expand his dominions ruthlessly. Seleucus established himself in Babylon in 312 BC, the used as the foundation date of the Seleucid Empire. The whole region from Phrygia to the Indus was subject to Seleucus, but Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus in consequence of a marriage contract, and received in return five hundred elephants. Following his and Lysimachus victory over Antigonus Monophthalmus at the decisive Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC, Seleucus took control over eastern Anatolia, in the latter area, he founded a new capital at Antioch on the Orontes, a city he named after his father. An alternative capital was established at Seleucia on the Tigris, north of Babylon, Seleucuss empire reached its greatest extent following his defeat of his erstwhile ally, Lysimachus, at Corupedion in 281 BC, after which Seleucus expanded his control to encompass western Anatolia. He hoped further to take control of Lysimachuss lands in Europe – primarily Thrace and even Macedonia itself, nevertheless, even before Seleucus death, it was difficult to assert control over the vast eastern domains of the Seleucids. Seleucus invaded the Punjab region of India in 305 BC, confronting Chandragupta Maurya and it is said that Chandragupta fielded an army of 600,000 men and 9,000 war elephants. Archaeologically, concrete indications of Mauryan rule, such as the inscriptions of the Edicts of Ashoka, are known as far as Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and it is generally thought that Chandragupta married Seleucuss daughter, or a Macedonian princess, a gift from Seleucus to formalize an alliance. In a return gesture, Chandragupta sent 500 war elephants, an asset which would play a decisive role at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BC. In addition to this treaty, Seleucus dispatched an ambassador, Megasthenes, to Chandragupta, Megasthenes wrote detailed descriptions of India and Chandraguptas reign, which have been partly preserved to us through Diodorus Siculus
Seleucid Empire
–
Tetradrachm of
Seleucus I, the horned horse, the
elephant and the anchor were all used as symbols of the Seleucid monarchy.
Seleucid Empire
Seleucid Empire
–
Coin of
Seleucus I Nicator
Seleucid Empire
–
In
Bactria, the satrap
Diodotus asserted independence to form the
Greco-Bactrian kingdom c.245 BC.
36.
Maurya Empire
–
The Maurya Empire was a geographically extensive Iron Age historical power founded by Chandragupta Maurya which dominated ancient India between c. 322 and 187 BCE. Originating from the kingdom of Magadha in the Indo-Gangetic Plain in the side of the Indian subcontinent. The empire was the largest to have existed in the Indian subcontinent. By 316 BCE the empire had fully occupied Northwestern India, defeating and conquering the satraps left by Alexander, Chandragupta then defeated the invasion led by Seleucus I, a Macedonian general from Alexanders army, gaining additional territory west of the Indus River. The Maurya Empire was one of the largest empires of the world in its time and it declined for about 50 years after Ashokas rule ended, and it dissolved in 185 BCE with the foundation of the Shunga dynasty in Magadha. After the Kalinga War, the Empire experienced nearly half a century of peace, Mauryan India also enjoyed an era of social harmony, religious transformation, and expansion of the sciences and of knowledge. Ashoka sponsored the spreading of Buddhist ideals into Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, West Asia, the population of the empire has been estimated to be about 50–60 million, making the Mauryan Empire one of the most populous empires of Antiquity. Archaeologically, the period of Mauryan rule in South Asia falls into the era of Northern Black Polished Ware, the Arthashastra and the Edicts of Ashoka are the primary sources of written records of Mauryan times. The Lion Capital of Ashoka at Sarnath has been made the national emblem of India, the Maurya Empire was founded by Chandragupta Maurya, with help from Chanakya, at Takshashila. Chanakya swore revenge and vowed to destroy the Nanda Empire, meanwhile, the conquering armies of Alexander the Great refused to cross the Beas River and advance further eastward, deterred by the prospect of battling Magadha. Alexander returned to Babylon and re-deployed most of his troops west of the Indus River, soon after Alexander died in Babylon in 323 BCE, his empire fragmented, and local kings declared their independence, leaving several smaller disunited satraps. Chandragupta Mauryas rise to power is shrouded in mystery and controversy, on one hand, a number of ancient Indian accounts, such as the drama Mudrarakshasa by Vishakhadatta, describe his royal ancestry and even link him with the Nanda family. A kshatriya clan known as the Mauryas are referred to in the earliest Buddhist texts, however, any conclusions are hard to make without further historical evidence. Chandragupta first emerges in Greek accounts as Sandrokottos, as a young man he is said to have met Alexander. He is also said to have met the Nanda king, angered him, Chanakyas original intentions were to train a guerilla army under Chandraguptas command. The Mudrarakshasa of Vishakhadatta as well as the Jaina work Parishishtaparvan talk of Chandraguptas alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka, Chanakya encouraged Chandragupta Maurya and his army to take over the throne of Magadha. These men included the general of Taxila, accomplished students of Chanakya, the representative of King Porus of Kakayee, his son Malayketu. The Macedonians may then have participated, together with other groups, the Mudrarakshasa of Visakhadutta as well as the Jaina work Parisishtaparvan talk of Chandraguptas alliance with the Himalayan king Parvatka, often identified with Porus
Maurya Empire
–
Aśoka pillar at Sarnath. ca. 250 BCE.
Maurya Empire
–
Maurya Empire at its maximum extent
Maurya Empire
–
Ashoka pillar at
Vaishali
Maurya Empire
–
Bas relief at
Sanchi Stupa, 3rd century BCE.
37.
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
–
The Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was – along with the Indo-Greek Kingdom – the easternmost part of the Hellenistic world, covering Bactria and Sogdiana in Central Asia from 250 to 125 BC. It was centered on the north of present-day Afghanistan, the expansion of the Greco-Bactrians into present-day eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan from 180 BC established the Indo-Greek Kingdom, which was to last until around 10 AD. Diodotus, the satrap of Bactria founded the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom when he seceded from the Seleucid Empire around 250 BC, the preserved ancient sources are somewhat contradictory, and the exact date of Bactrian independence has not been settled. Somewhat simplified, there is a chronology and a low chronology for Diodotos’ secession. The high chronology has the advantage of explaining why the Seleucid king Antiochus II issued very few coins in Bactria, as Diodotos would have become independent there early in Antiochus reign. On the other hand, the low chronology, from the mid-240s BC, has the advantage of connecting the secession of Diodotus I with the Third Syrian War, a catastrophic conflict for the Seleucid Empire. Diodotus, the governor of the cities of Bactria, defected and proclaimed himself king, all the other people of the Orient followed his example. Their cities were Bactra, and Darapsa, and several others, among these was Eucratidia, which was named after its ruler. In 247 BC, the Ptolemaic empire captured the Seleucid capital, in the resulting power vacuum, the satrap of Parthia proclaimed independence from the Seleucids, declaring himself king. A decade later, he was defeated and killed by Arsaces of Parthia and this cut Bactria off from contact with the Greek world. Overland trade continued at a rate, while sea trade between Greek Egypt and Bactria developed. Euthydemus, a Magnesian Greek according to Polybius and possibly satrap of Sogdiana, overthrew the dynasty of Diodotus I around 230-220 BC, and the Iaxartes forms also the boundary between the Sogdians and the nomads. Euthydemus was attacked by the Seleucid ruler Antiochus III around 210 BC, although he commanded 10,000 horsemen, Euthydemus initially lost a battle on the Arius and had to retreat. Following the departure of the Seleucid army, the Bactrian kingdom seems to have expanded, in the west, areas in north-eastern Iran may have been absorbed, possibly as far as into Parthia, whose ruler had been defeated by Antiochus the Great. These territories possibly are identical with the Bactrian satrapies of Tapuria, the Greek historian Strabo too writes that, they extended their empire even as far as the Seres and the Phryni. Several statuettes and representations of Greek soldiers have been north of the Tien Shan, on the doorstep to China. Greek influences on Chinese art have also been suggested, designs with rosette flowers, geometric lines, and glass inlays, suggestive of Hellenistic influences, can be found on some early Han dynasty bronze mirrors. The practice of exporting Chinese metals, in iron, for trade is attested around that period
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
–
Approximate maximum extent of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom circa 180 BC, including the regions of
Tapuria and
Traxiane to the West,
Sogdiana and
Ferghana to the north,
Bactria and
Arachosia to the south.
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
–
History of Afghanistan
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
–
Gold coin of
Diodotus c. 245 BC. The
Greek inscription reads: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΙΟΔΟΤΟΥ – "(of) King Diodotus".
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
–
Remains of a Hellenistic
capital found in
Balkh, ancient Bactra.
38.
Parthian Empire
–
The Parthian Empire, also known as the Arsacid Empire, was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Iran and Iraq. Mithridates I of Parthia greatly expanded the empire by seizing Media and Mesopotamia from the Seleucids, at its height, the Parthian Empire stretched from the northern reaches of the Euphrates, in what is now central-eastern Turkey, to eastern Iran. The empire, located on the Silk Road trade route between the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin and the Han Empire of China, became a center of trade and commerce. The Parthians largely adopted the art, architecture, religious beliefs, and royal insignia of their culturally heterogeneous empire, which encompassed Persian, Hellenistic, and regional cultures. For about the first half of its existence, the Arsacid court adopted elements of Greek culture, the court did appoint a small number of satraps, largely outside Iran, but these satrapies were smaller and less powerful than the Achaemenid potentates. With the expansion of Arsacid power, the seat of government shifted from Nisa to Ctesiphon along the Tigris. The earliest enemies of the Parthians were the Seleucids in the west, however, as Parthia expanded westward, they came into conflict with the Kingdom of Armenia, and eventually the late Roman Republic. Rome and Parthia competed with other to establish the kings of Armenia as their subordinate clients. The Parthians soundly defeated Marcus Licinius Crassus at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC, however, Mark Antony led a counterattack against Parthia, although his successes were generally achieved in his absence, under the leadership of his lieutenant Ventidius. Also, various Roman emperors or their appointed generals invaded Mesopotamia in the course of the several Roman-Parthian Wars which ensued during the few centuries. The Romans captured the cities of Seleucia and Ctesiphon on multiple occasions during these conflicts, native Parthian sources, written in Parthian, Greek and other languages, are scarce when compared to Sassanid and even earlier Achaemenid sources. These include mainly Greek and Roman histories, but also Chinese histories, Parthian artwork is viewed by historians as a valid source for understanding aspects of society and culture that are otherwise absent in textual sources. The Parni most likely spoke an eastern Iranian language, in contrast to the northwestern Iranian language spoken at the time in Parthia, the latter was a northeastern province, first under the Achaemenid, and then the Seleucid empires. Why the Arsacid court retroactively chose 247 BC as the first year of the Arsacid era is uncertain, Bivar concludes that this was the year the Seleucids lost control of Parthia to Andragoras, the appointed satrap who rebelled against them. Hence, Arsaces I backdated his regnal years to the moment when Seleucid control over Parthia ceased, however, Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis asserts that this was simply the year Arsaces was made chief of the Parni tribe. It is unclear who immediately succeeded Arsaces I, Bivar and Katouzian affirm that it was his brother Tiridates I of Parthia, who in turn was succeeded by his son Arsaces II of Parthia in 211 BC. Yet Curtis and Brosius state that Arsaces II was the successor of Arsaces I, with Curtis claiming the succession took place in 211 BC. Bivar insists that 138 BC, the last regnal year of Mithridates I, is the first precisely established regnal date of Parthian history, due to these and other discrepancies, Bivar outlines two distinct royal chronologies accepted by historians
Parthian Empire
–
The Parthian Empire at its greatest extent
Parthian Empire
–
The silver
drachma of
Arsaces I of Parthia (r. c. 247–211 BC) with a
Greek-alphabet inscription of his name (ΑΡΣΑΚΟΥ)
Parthian Empire
–
Parthia, shaded yellow, alongside the
Seleucid Empire (blue) and the
Roman Republic (purple) around 200 BC
39.
Indo-Greek Kingdom
–
The kingdom was founded when the Graeco-Bactrian king Demetrius invaded the subcontinent early in the 2nd century BC. The Greeks in South Asia were eventually divided from the Graeco-Bactrians centered in Bactria, but the Greeks failed to establish united rule in present-day north-western South Asia. The most famous Indo-Greek ruler was Menander and he had his capital at Sakala in the Punjab. The expression Indo-Greek Kingdom loosely describes a number of various polities, traditionally associated with a number of regional capitals like Taxila, Pushkalavati. Euthydemus I was, according to Polybius a Magnesian Greek and his son, Demetrius, founder of the Indo-Greek kingdom, was therefore of Greek descent from his father at minimum. A marriage treaty was arranged for Demetrius with a daughter of Antiochus III the Great, the ethnicity of later Indo-Greek rulers is less clear. The diffusion of Indo-Greek culture had consequences which are still felt today, after 321 BC Eudemus toppled Taxiles, until he left India in 316 BC. To the south, another general also ruled over the Greek colonies of the Indus, Peithon, son of Agenor, in 305 BC, Seleucus I led an army to the Indus, where he encountered Chandragupta. The confrontation ended with a treaty, and an intermarriage agreement. But Seleucus Nicator gave them to Sandrocottus in consequence of a marriage contract, also several Greeks, such as the historian Megasthenes, followed by Deimachus and Dionysius, were sent to reside at the Mauryan court. Presents continued to be exchanged between the two rulers, on these occasions, Greek populations apparently remained in the northwest of the Indian subcontinent under Mauryan rule. It is also thought that Greeks contributed to the work of the Pillars of Ashoka. 1 That is the Caucasus Indicus or Paropamisus, mod, Alexander had also established several colonies in neighbouring Bactria, such as Alexandria on the Oxus and Alexandria of the Caucasus. After Alexanders death in 323 BC, Bactria came under the control of Seleucus I Nicator, the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom was founded when Diodotus I, the satrap of Bactria seceded from the Seleucid Empire around 250 BC. The preserved ancient sources are contradictory and the exact date of Bactrian independence has not been settled. Somewhat simplified, there is a chronology and a low chronology for Diodotos’ secession. The high chronology has the advantage of explaining why the Seleucid king Antiochus II issued very few coins in Bactria, as Diodotos would have become independent there early in Antiochus reign. On the other hand, the low chronology, from the mid-240s BC, has the advantage of connecting the secession of Diodotus I with the Third Syrian War, a catastrophic conflict for the Seleucid Empire
Indo-Greek Kingdom
–
Indo-Greek Kingdoms in 100 BC.
Indo-Greek Kingdom
–
Apollodotus I (180–160 BC) the first king who ruled in the subcontinent only, and therefore the founder of the proper Indo-Greek kingdom.
Indo-Greek Kingdom
–
Bilingual edict (
Greek and
Aramaic) by king
Ashoka, from
Kandahar.
Kabul Museum (click image for translation).
40.
Indo-Scythians
–
Indo-Scythians is a term used to refer to Scythians, who migrated into parts of central, northern and western South Asia from the middle of the 2nd century BC to the 4th century AD. The first Saka king in south Asia was Maues who established Saka power in Gandhara, Indo-Scythian rule in northwestern India ended with the last Western Satrap Rudrasimha III in 395 CE who was defeated by the Indian Emperor Chandragupta II of the Gupta Empire. The power of the Saka rulers started to decline in the 2nd century CE after the Indo-Scythians were defeated by the south Indian Emperor Gautamiputra Satakarni of the Satavahana dynasty, later the Saka kingdom was completely destroyed by Chandragupta II of the Gupta Empire in the 4th century. The invasion of India by Scythian tribes from Central Asia, often referred to as the Indo-Scythian invasion, ancient Roman historians including Arrian and Claudius Ptolemy have mentioned that the ancient Sakas were basically nomads. However, Italo Ronca, in his study of Ptolemys chapter vi, marks the statement, The land of the Sakai belongs to nomads, they have no towns but dwell in forests. The ancestors of the Indo-Scythians are thought to be Sakas tribes, one group of Indo-European speakers that makes an early appearance on the Xinjiang stage is the Saka. According to these ancient sources Modu Shanyu of the Xiongnu tribe of Mongolia attacked the Yuezhi, leaving behind a remnant of their number, most of the population moved westwards. Around 175 BC, the Yuezhi tribes, were defeated by the Xiongnu tribes, there, they displaced the Sakas, who migrated south into Ferghana and Sogdiana. According to the Chinese historical chronicles, The Yuezhi attacked the king of the Sai who moved a distance to the south. The Sakas seem to have entered the territory of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom around 145 BC, the Sakas called home, an area of Southern Afghanistan, called after them Sistan. From there, they expanded into present day Iran as well as northern India, where they established various kingdoms. The region is known as Seistan. The presence of the Sakas in Sakastan in the 1st century BC is mentioned by Isidore of Charax in his Parthian stations, the first Indo-Scythian kingdom in south western Asia was located in Pakistan in the areas from Abiria to Surastrene, from around 110 to 80 BC. They progressively further moved north into Indo-Greek territory until the conquests of Maues, before it there lies a small island, and inland behind it is the metropolis of Scythia, Minnagara. The Indo-Scythians ultimately established a kingdom in the northwest, based in Taxila, in the southeast, the Indo-Scythians invaded the area of Ujjain, but were subsequently repelled in 57 BC by the Malwa king Vikramaditya. To commemorate the event Vikramaditya established the Vikrama era, a specific Indian calendar starting in 57 BC, more than a century later, in AD78 the Sakas would again invade Ujjain and establish the Saka era, marking the beginning of the long-lived Saka Western Satraps kingdom. Maues first conquered Gandhara and Taxila around 80 BCE, but his kingdom disintegrated after his death, in the east, the Indian king Vikrama retook Ujjain from the Indo-Scythians, celebrating his victory by the creation of the Vikrama Era. Indo-Greek kings again ruled after Maues, and prospered, as indicated by the profusion of coins from Kings Apollodotus II, not until Azes I, in 55 BC, did the Indo-Scythians take final control of northwestern India, with his victory over Hippostratos
Indo-Scythians
–
A Scythian horseman from the general area of the
Ili river,
Pazyryk, c 300 BC.
Indo-Scythians
–
Territories (full line) and expansion (dotted line) of the Indo-Scythians Kingdom at its greatest extent.
Indo-Scythians
–
The treasure of the royal burial
Tillia tepe is attributed to 1st century BC Sakas in
Bactria.
Indo-Scythians
–
Bearded man with cap, probably Scythian,
Bamiyan, 3rd–4th centuries.
41.
Kushan Empire
–
The Kushan Empire was a syncretic empire, formed by Yuezhi, in the Bactrian territories in the early 1st century. Emperor Kanishka was a patron of Buddhism, however, as Kushans expanded southward. The Kushans were one of five branches of the Yuezhi confederation, the Kushans possibly used the Greek language initially for administrative purposes, but soon began to use Bactrian language. Kanishka sent his armies north of the Karakoram mountains, capturing territories as far as Kashgar, Khotan and Yarkant, in the Tarim Basin of modern-day Xinjiang, China. A direct road from Gandhara to China remained under Kushan control for more than a century, encouraging travel across the Karakoram, the Kushan dynasty had diplomatic contacts with the Roman Empire, Sasanian Persia, Aksumite Empire and Han China. The Kushan empire fragmented into semi-independent kingdoms in the 3rd century AD, in the 4th century, the Guptas, an Indian dynasty also pressed from the east. The last of the Kushan and Sasanian kingdoms were overwhelmed by invaders from the north. Historian H. G. Rawlinson states that the Kushana Period is a prelude to the age of Guptas. Chinese sources describe the Guishuang, i. e, as the historian John E. Hill has put it, For well over a century. There have been arguments about the ethnic and linguistic origins of the Da Yuezhi, Kushans, and the Tochari. The five tribes constituting the Yuezhi are known in Chinese history as Xiūmì, Guìshuāng, Shuāngmǐ, Xìdùn, the Yuezhi reached the Hellenic kingdom of Greco-Bactria around 135 BC. The displaced Greek dynasties resettled to the southeast in areas of the Hindu Kush, some traces remain of the presence of the Kushans in the area of Bactria and Sogdiana. Archaeological structures are known in Takht-I-Sangin, Surkh Kotal, and in the palace of Khalchayan, various sculptures and friezes are known, representing horse-riding archers, and significantly men with artificially deformed skulls, such as the Kushan prince of Khalchayan. The Chinese first referred to people as the Yuezhi and said they established the Kushan Empire. On the ruins of ancient Hellenistic cities such as Ai-Khanoum, the Kushans are known to have built fortresses, the earliest documented ruler, and the first one to proclaim himself as a Kushan ruler, was Heraios. He calls himself a tyrant on his coins, and also exhibits skull deformation and he may have been an ally of the Greeks, and he shared the same style of coinage. Heraios may have been the father of the first Kushan emperor Kujula Kadphises, Ban Gus Book of Han tells us the Kushans divided up Bactria in 128 BC. He invaded Anxi, and took the Gaofu region and he also defeated the whole of the kingdoms of Puda and Jibin
Kushan Empire
–
Kushan territories (full line) and maximum extent of Kushan dominions under
Kanishka the Great (dotted line), according to the
Rabatak inscription.
Kushan Empire
–
History of Afghanistan
Kushan Empire
–
Head of a Kushan prince (Khalchayan palace,
Uzbekistan).
Kushan Empire
–
A Buddhist devotee in Kushan dress, Mathura, 2nd century. The Kushan dress is generally depicted as quite stiff, and it is thought it was often made of leather (Francine Tissot, "Gandhara").
42.
Indo-Parthian Kingdom
–
For most of their history, the leading Gondopharid kings held Taxila as their residence, but during their last few years of existence the capital shifted between Kabul and Peshawar. Gondophares I originally seems to have been a ruler of Seistan in what is today eastern Iran, around 20–10 BCE, he made conquests in the former Indo-Scythian kingdom, perhaps after the death of the important ruler Azes. Gondophares became the ruler of areas comprising Arachosia, Seistan, Sindh, Punjab, and the Kabul valley and these smaller dynasts included the Apracarajas themselves, and Indo-Scythian satraps such as Zeionises and Rajuvula, as well as anonymous Scythians who struck imitations of Azes coins. The Ksaharatas also held sway in Gujarat, perhaps just outside Gondophares dominions, after the death of Gondophares I, the empire started to fragment. The name or title Gondophares was adapted by Sarpedones, who become Gondophares II and was son of the first Gondophares. Even though he claimed to be the ruler, Sarpedones’ rule was shaky and he issued a fragmented coinage in Sind, eastern Punjab. The most important successor was Abdagases, Gondophares’ nephew, who ruled in Punjab, after a short reign, Sarpedones seems to have been succeeded by Orthagnes, who became Gondophares III Gadana. Orthagnes ruled mostly in Seistan and Arachosia, with Abdagases further east, during the first decades AD, after 20 AD, a king named Sases, a nephew of the Apracaraja ruler Aspavarma, took over Abdagases’ territories and became Gondophares IV Sases. According to Senior, this is the Gondophares referred to in the Takht-i-Bahi inscription, the last king Pacores only ruled in Seistan and Kandahar. The city of Taxila is thought to have been a capital of the Indo-Parthians, large strata were excavated by Sir John Marshall with a quantity of Parthian-style artifacts. The nearby temple of Jandial is usually interpreted as a Zoroastrian fire temple from the period of the Indo-Parthians, if the account is even historical, Saint Thomas may have encountered one of the later kings who bore the same title. The Greek philosopher Apollonius of Tyana is related by Philostratus in Life of Apollonius Tyana to have visited India, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea is a surviving 1st century guide to the routes commonly being used for navigating the Arabian Sea. Before it there lies a small island, and inland behind it is the metropolis of Scythia, Minnagara, it is subject to Parthian princes who are constantly driving each other out. Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, Chap 38 An inscription from Takht-i-Bahi bears two dates, one in the regnal year 26 of the Maharaja Guduvhara, and the year 103 of an unknown era and they are thought to have retained Zoroastrianism, being of Iranian extraction themselves. This Iranian mythological system was inherited from them by the later Kushans who ruled from the Peshawar-Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region of Pakistan, on their coins and in the art of Gandhara, Indo-Parthians are depicted with short crossover jackets and large baggy trousers, possibly supplemented by chap-like over-trousers. Their jackets are adorned with rows of decorative rings or medals and their hair is usually bushy and contained with a headband, a practise largely adopted by the Parthians from the 1st century CE. Individuals in Indo-Parthian attire are sometimes shown as actors in Buddhist devotional scenes and these archaeological researches provided a quantity of Hellenistic artifacts combined with elements of Buddhist worship. Some other temples, such as nearby Jandial may have used as a Zoroastrian fire temple
Indo-Parthian Kingdom
–
Portrait of
Gondophares, founder of the Indo-Parthian kingdom. He wears a headband, earrings, a necklace, and a cross-over jacket with round decorations.
Indo-Parthian Kingdom
–
Indo-Parthian Kingdom at its maximum extent.
Indo-Parthian Kingdom
–
King
Abdagases I being crowned by the Greek goddess
Tyche, on the reverse of some of his coins.
Indo-Parthian Kingdom
–
The Hellenistic temple with
Ionic columns at Jaulian,
Taxila, is usually interpreted as a Zoroastrian fire temple from the period of the Indo-Parthians.
43.
Sasanian Empire
–
The Sasanian Empire was founded by Ardashir I, after the fall of the Parthian Empire and the defeat of the last Arsacid king, Artabanus V. According to a legend, the vexilloid of the Sasanian Empire was the Derafsh Kaviani, in many ways, the Sasanian period witnessed the peak of ancient Iranian civilization. Persia influenced Roman culture considerably during the Sasanian period, the Sasanians cultural influence extended far beyond the empires territorial borders, reaching as far as Western Europe, Africa, China and India. It played a prominent role in the formation of both European and Asian medieval art, much of what later became known as Islamic culture in art, architecture, music and other subject matter was transferred from the Sasanians throughout the Muslim world. Conflicting accounts shroud the details of the fall of the Parthian Empire, the Sassanid Empire was established in Estakhr by Ardashir I. Papak was originally the ruler of a region called Khir, however, by the year 200, he managed to overthrow Gochihr, and appoint himself as the new ruler of the Bazrangids. His mother, Rodhagh, was the daughter of the governor of Pars. Papak and his eldest son Shapur managed to expand their power all of Pars. The subsequent events are unclear, due to the nature of the sources. It is certain, however, that following the death of Papak, Ardashir, sources reveal that Shapur, leaving for a meeting with his brother, was killed when the roof of a building collapsed on him. By the year 208, over the protests of his brothers who were put to death. Once Ardashir was appointed shahanshah, he moved his capital further to the south of Pars, the city, well supported by high mountains and easily defendable through narrow passes, became the center of Ardashirs efforts to gain more power. The city was surrounded by a high, circular wall, probably copied from that of Darabgird, in a second attempt to destroy Ardashir, Artabanus V himself met Ardashir in battle at Hormozgan, where Artabanus V met his death. Following the death of the Parthian ruler, Ardashir I went on to invade the provinces of the now defunct Parthian Empire. Ardashir was aided by the geography of the province of Fars, in the next few years, local rebellions would form around the empire. Nonetheless, Ardashir I further expanded his new empire to the east and northwest, conquering the provinces of Sistan, Gorgan, Khorasan, Margiana, Balkh and he also added Bahrain and Mosul to Sassanids possessions. In the west, assaults against Hatra, Armenia and Adiabene met with less success, in 230, he raided deep into Roman territory, and a Roman counter-offensive two years later ended inconclusively, although the Roman emperor, Alexander Severus, celebrated a triumph in Rome. Ardashir Is son Shapur I continued the expansion of the empire, conquering Bactria, invading Roman Mesopotamia, Shapur I captured Carrhae and Nisibis, but in 243 the Roman general Timesitheus defeated the Persians at Rhesaina and regained the lost territories
Sasanian Empire
–
Normal domains
Sasanian Empire
–
Derafsh Kaviani
Sasanian Empire
–
Ghal'eh Dokhtar (or "The Maiden's Castle") in present-day
Fars,
Firuzabad,
Iran, built by Ardashir in 209, before he was finally able to defeat the Parthian empire.
44.
Hephthalite Empire
–
Hephthalites was the Latinised exonym for a people commonly known in Chinese sources by names such as Yada. They were a confederation of peoples in Central Asia who expanded their domain westward and southward during the 5th century and they included both nomadic and urban, settled communities. It is not clear whether the Hephthalites or a related people, the modern Abdali or Durrani, a Pashtun tribal confederation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, are widely believed to descend from the Hephthalites. The stronghold of the Hephthalites was Tokharistan on the slopes of the Hindu Kush. By 479, the Hephthalites had conquered Sogdia and driven the Kidarites westwards, and by 493 they had captured parts of present-day Dzungaria and the Tarim Basin in what is now Northwest China. India was invaded during the 5th century by a known in South Asia as the Hunas – possibly an alliance broader than the Hephthalites and/or Xionites. The Hunas were initially defeated by Emperor Skandagupta of the Gupta Empire, by the end of the 5th century, however, the Hunas had overrun the part of the Gupta Empire that was to their southeast and had conquered Central and North India. Gupta Emperor Bhanugupta defeated the Hunas under Toramana in 510, the Hunas were driven out of India by the kings Yasodharman and Narasimhagupta, during the early 6th century. The name Hephthalites originated with Ancient Greek sources, which referred to them as Ephthalite. In Ancient India, names such as Hephthalite were unknown, the Hephthalites were apparently part of, or offshoots of, people known in India as Hunas or Turushkas, although these names may have referred to broader groups or neighbouring peoples. To the Armenians the Hephthalites were Haital, to the Persians and Arabs they were Haytal or Hayatila, in Chinese chronicles, the Hephthalites are usually called Ye-ta-i-li-to, or the more usual modern and abbreviated form Yada. The latter name is given various Latinised renderings, including Yeda, Ye-ta, Ye-Tha, Ye-dā. The corresponding Cantonese and Korean names Yipdaat and Yeoptal are more consistent with the Greek Hephthalite, older Chinese sources refer to them as Hua or Hudun, and describe the Hephthalites as a tribe living beyond the Great Wall, in Dzungaria. Some Chinese chroniclers suggest that the root Hephtha- was technically a title equivalent to emperor, beckwith, referring to Étienne de la Vaissière, say that the Hephthalites were not necessarily one and the same as the White Huns. According to de la Vaissiere, the Hephthalites are not directly identified in classical sources alongside that of the White Huns, there are several theories regarding the origins of the White Huns, with the Turkic and Iranian theories being the most prominent. According to B. A. Litvinsky, the names of the Hephthalite rulers used in the Shahnameh are Iranian. According to Xavier Tremblay, one of the Hephthalite rulers was named Khingila, which has the root as the Sogdian word xnγr. The name Mihirakula is thought to be derived from mithra-kula which is Iranian for the Sun family, with kula having the root as Pashto kul
Hephthalite Empire
–
Hephthalite coin of King Khingila, 5th century, legend: "Khiggilo Alchono".
Hephthalite Empire
–
The Hephthalites (green), c. 500.
Hephthalite Empire
–
Asia in 500, showing the Hephthalite Khanate at its greatest extent.
Hephthalite Empire
–
History of Afghanistan
45.
Kabul Shahi
–
They are split into two eras the Buddhist-Shahis and the later Hindu-Shahis with the change-over occurring around 870. These Hindu kings of Kabul and Gandhara may have had links to some ruling families in neighboring Kashmir, the last Shahi emperors Jayapala, Anandapala and Tirlochanpala fought the Muslim Turk Ghaznavids of Ghazna and were gradually defeated. Their remaining army were eventually exiled into northern India, Xuanzang describes the ruler of Kapisa/Kabul, whom he had personally met, as a devout Buddhist and a Kshatriya. Thus the folklore accounts recorded by Alberuni connect the earlier Shahis of Kabul/Kapisa to Turkish extraction, at the same time it is also claimed that their first king Barahatigin had originally come from Tibet and concealed in a narrow cave in Kabul area. One can easily see the account of Shahi origin as totally fanciful. The allegation that the first dynasty of Kabul was Turki is plainly based on the vulgar tradition, which Alberuni himself remarked was clearly absurd. The historian V. A. Smith speculates – based on Alberuni – that the earlier Shahis were a branch of the Kushanas who ruled both over Kabul and Gandhara until the rise of the Saffarids. H. M. Elliot relates the early Kabul Shahis to the Kators, charles Frederick Oldham also traces the Kabul Shahi lineage to the Kators—whom he identifies with the Kathas or Takkhas—Naga worshipping collective groups of Hinduism lineage. He further speaks of the Urasas, Abhisaras, Daradas, Gandharas, Kambojas, pandey traces the affinities of the early Kabul Shahis to the Hunas. Other accounts suggest Punjabi Kshatriya origins for the Shahi dynasty, Xuanzang clearly describes the ruler of Kapisa/Kabul, whom he had personally met, as a devout Buddhist and a Kshatriya and not a Tu-kiue/Tu-kue. Neither the Kushanas, the Hunas/Hephthalites nor the Turks have ever been designated or classified as Kshatriyas in any ancient Indian tradition, therefore, the identification of the first line of Shahi kings of Kapisa/Kabul with the Kushanas, Hunas, or Turks obviously seems to be in gross error. It is very interesting that Alberuni calls the early Shahi rulers Turks, the Shahi rulers of Kapisa/Kabul who ruled Afghanistan from the early 4th century till AD870 were Hindu Kamboj Kshatriyas. The Shahis of Afghanistan were discovered in 1874 to be connected to the Kamboja race by E. Vesey Westmacott, E. Vesey Westmacott, Bishan Singh, K. S. Dardi, et al. connect the Kabul Shahis to the ancient Indian Kshatriya clans of the Kambojas/Gandharas. George Scott Robertson writes that the Kators/Katirs of Kafiristan belong to the well known Siyaposh tribal group of the Kams, but numerous scholars now also agree that the Siyaposh tribes of Hindukush are the modern representatives of the ancient Iranian cis-Hindukush Kambojas. The name of the last king of the so-called first Shahi line of Kabul/Kapisa simply reveals a trace of Tukhara cultural influence in the Kamboja region, as hinted in the above discussion. Thus, the first ruling dynasty of Kapisa and Kabul, designated as a Kshatriya dynasty by Xuanzang had been a Kamboja dynasty from India, the Kambojas and the Tukharas are mentioned as immediate neighbors in north-west as late as the 8th century AD as Rajatarangini of Kalhana demonstrates. Evidence also exists that some medieval Muslim writers have confused the Kamboja clans of Pamirs/Hindukush with the Turks, for example, 10th-century Arab geographer Al-Muqaddasi, refers to the Kumiji tribesmen of Buttaman mountains, on upper Oxus, and calls them of Turkic race. Song Yun, the Chinese Ambassador to the Huna kingdom of Gandhara, the then Yetha ruler was extremely cruel, vindictive, and anti-Buddhist and had engaged in a three years border war with the king of Ki-pin, disputing the boundaries of that country
Kabul Shahi
–
Coins of the Shahis, 8th century
Kabul Shahi
–
Coin of Shahi Kings of Kabul & Gandhara: Samanta Deva, c. AD 850–1000. Obv: Rider bearing lance on caparisoned horse facing right. Devnagari Legends: 'bhi '?. Rev: Recumbent bull facing left, trishula on bull's rump, Devnagari Legends: Sri Samanta Deva.
Kabul Shahi
–
Asia in AD 565, showing the Shahi kingdoms and their neighbours.
Kabul Shahi
–
Newly
excavated Buddhist stupa at
Mes Aynak in
Logar Province. Similar stupas have been discovered in neighbouring
Ghazni Province, including in the northern
Samangan Province.
46.
Principality of Chaghaniyan
–
The Principality of Chaghaniyan, known in Arabic sources as al-Saghaniyan, was a local Iranian dynasty, which ruled the Chaghaniyan region from the early 7th-century to the late 8th-century. The rulers of the region were known by their titles of “Chaghan Khudah”, during the early 7th-century, Chaghaniyan became independent from Hephthalite rule, and came under the control of local rulers known as the “Chaghan Khudah”. During the Muslim conquest of Persia, the Chaghan Khudah aided their kinsmen, however, the Arabs, after having dealt with the Sasanian Empire, began focusing on the local rulers of Khorasan, which included the Chaghan Khudah and many other local rulers. In 652, the Chaghan Khudah, along with the rulers of Talaqan, Guzgan, nevertheless the Arabs managed to emerge victorious during the battle. However, the Rashidun Caliphate soon fell into war, and was conquered by another Arab family. During the early 660s, the Chaghan Khudah, known as Turantash, sent an envoy under his chancellor Pukarzate to Varkhuman, in 705, the Arab general Qutayba ibn Muslim managed to make the Chaghan Khudah, whose name is mentioned as Tish, acknowledge Umayyad authority. The real reason for Tishs submission, however, was to aid in defeating the local rulers of Akharun and Shuman in northern Tokharistan. Qutayba shortly defeated the two rulers, and forced them to acknowledge Umayyad authority, after the battle, most of Khorasan except Chaghaniyan remained under Arab control. Under Nasr ibn Sayyar, Chaghaniyan was once again a vassal of the Umayyad Caliphate, after this, the Chaghan Khudahs begin to fade from the sources. In the late 8th-century Chaghaniyan fell under the control of the Abbasid Caliphate. The Muhtajids, an Iranian dynasty which in the 10th-century gained control over Chaghaniyan, ^ a, Also spelled Chaghan Khuda, Chaghan Khoda, and Saghan Khuda, Principality of Khuttal Principality of Farghana Principality of Ushrusana Bosworth, C. E. Ḳutayba b. The Encyclopedia of Islam, New Edition, Volume V, Khe–Mahi, the Arab Conquests in Central Asia. The History of Al-Tabari, Vol. XXV, The End of Expansion, albany, NY, State University of New York Press. The End of the Jihâd State, The Reign of Hishām ibn ʻAbd al-Malik, albany, NY, State University of New York Press. B. A. Litvinsky, Ahmad Hasan Dani, History of Civilizations of Central Asia, The crossroads of civilizations, A. D.250 to 750. The Arab Kingdom and Its Fall
Principality of Chaghaniyan
–
Coin of a Chaghan Khudah or Hephthalite ruler written in
Sogdian.
47.
Rashidun Caliphate
–
The Rashidun Caliphate was the Islamic caliphate in the earliest period of Islam, comprising the first five caliphs—the Rightly Guided or Rashidun caliphs. It was founded after Muhammads death in 632 CE, after Muhammads death in 632 CE, the Medinan Ansar debated which of them should succeed him in running the affairs of the Muslims while Muhammads household was busy with his burial. Umar and Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah pledged their loyalty to Abu Bakr, with the Ansar, Abu Bakr thus became the first Khalīfatu Rasūli l-Lāh successor of the Messenger of God, or caliph, and embarked on campaigns to propagate Islam. First he would have to subdue the Arabian tribes which had claimed that although they pledged allegiance to Muhammad and accepted Islam, as a caliph, Abu Bakr was not a monarch and never claimed such a title, nor did any of his three successors. Rather, their election and leadership were based upon merit, as for the fifth Caliph, ‘Alis son Al-Hasan, as a son of Fatimah, he was a grandson of Muhammad. Furthermore, according to other hadiths in Sunan Abu Dawood and Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, towards the end times, Abu Bakr, the oldest companion of Muhammad, was caliph for only 2 years before he died. When Muhammad died, Abu Bakr and Umar, his two companions, were in the Saqifah meeting to select his successor while the family of Muhammad was busy with his funeral, controversy among the Muslims emerged about whom to name as Caliph. There was disagreement between the Meccan followers of Muhammad who had emigrated with him in 622 and the Medinans who had become followers, the Ansar, considering themselves being the hosts and loyal companions of Muhammad, nominated Sad bin Ubadah as their candidate for the Caliphate. In the end, however, Muhammads closest friend, Abu Bakr, was named the khalifa or Successor of Muhammad, a new circumstance had formed a new, untried political formation, the caliphate. Troubles emerged soon after Muhammads death, threatening the unity and stability of the new community, Apostasy spread to every tribe in the Arabian Peninsula with the exception of the people in Mecca and Medina, the Banu Thaqif in Taif and the Bani Abdul Qais of Oman. In some cases, entire tribes apostatised, others merely withheld zakat, the alms tax, without formally challenging Islam. Many tribal leaders made claims to prophethood, some made it during the lifetime of Muhammad, the news of his death reached Medina shortly after the death of Muhammad. The apostasy of al-Yamama was led by another supposed prophet, Musaylimah, many tribes claimed that they had submitted to Muhammad and that with Muhammads death, their allegiance was ended. Caliph Abu Bakr insisted that they had not just submitted to a leader, the result of this situation was the Ridda wars. Abu Bakr planned his strategy accordingly and he divided the Muslim army into several corps. The strongest corps, and the force of the Muslims, was the corps of Khalid ibn al-Walid. This corps was used to fight the most powerful of the rebel forces, other corps were given areas of secondary importance in which to bring the less dangerous apostate tribes to submission. After a series of successful campaigns Khalid ibn Walid defeated Musaylimah in the Battle of Yamama, the Campaign on the Apostasy was fought and completed during the eleventh year of the Hijri
Rashidun Caliphate
–
Aisha leading the
Battle of the Camel against the armies of the fourth
Rashidun Caliph of
Islam,
Ali.
Rashidun Caliphate
–
The Rashidun Empire reached its greatest extent under Caliph Uthman, in 654.
Rashidun Caliphate
–
Combat between the forces of Ali and
Muawiyah I during the
Battle of Siffin, from the Tarikhnama.
Rashidun Caliphate
–
Byzantine temple in
Idlib,
Syria.
48.
Umayyad Caliphate
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The Umayyad Caliphate, also spelled Omayyad, was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. This caliphate was centred on the Umayyad dynasty, hailing from Mecca, Syria remained the Umayyads main power base thereafter, and Damascus was their capital. The Umayyads continued the Muslim conquests, incorporating the Caucasus, Transoxiana, Sindh, the Maghreb and the Iberian Peninsula into the Muslim world. At its greatest extent, the Umayyad Caliphate covered 11,100,000 km2 and 62 million people, the Umayyad Caliphate was secular by nature. At the time, the Umayyad taxation and administrative practice were perceived as unjust by some Muslims, Muhammad had stated explicitly during his lifetime that Abrahamic religious groups, should be allowed to practice their own religion, provided that they paid the jizya taxation. The welfare state of both the Muslim and the poor started by Umar ibn al Khattab had also continued, financed by the zakat tax levied only on Muslims. Muawiyas wife Maysum was also a Christian, the relations between the Muslims and the Christians in the state were stable in this time. Prominent positions were held by Christians, some of whom belonged to families that had served in Byzantine governments, the employment of Christians was part of a broader policy of religious assimilation that was necessitated by the presence of large Christian populations in the conquered provinces, as in Syria. This policy also boosted Muawiyas popularity and solidified Syria as his power base, the rivalries between the Arab tribes had caused unrest in the provinces outside Syria, most notably in the Second Muslim Civil War of AD 680–692 and the Berber Revolt of 740–743. During the Second Civil War, leadership of the Umayyad clan shifted from the Sufyanid branch of the family to the Marwanid branch. A branch of the family fled across North Africa to Al-Andalus, where they established the Caliphate of Córdoba, according to tradition, the Umayyad family and Muhammad both descended from a common ancestor, Abd Manaf ibn Qusai, and they originally came from the city of Mecca. Muhammad descended from Abd Manāf via his son Hashim, while the Umayyads descended from Abd Manaf via a different son, Abd-Shams, the two families are therefore considered to be different clans of the same tribe. However Muslim Shia historians suspect that Umayya was a son of Abd Shams so he was not a blood relative of Abd Manaf ibn Qusai. Umayya was later discarded from the noble family, Sunni historians disagree with this and view Shia claims as nothing more than outright polemics due to their hostility to the Umayyad family in general. While the Umayyads and the Hashimites may have had bitterness between the two clans before Muhammad, the rivalry turned into a case of tribal animosity after the Battle of Badr. The battle saw three top leaders of the Umayyad clan killed by Hashimites in a three-on-three melee and this fueled the opposition of Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, the grandson of Umayya, to Muhammad and to Islam. Abu Sufyan sought to exterminate the adherents of the new religion by waging another battle with Muslims based in Medina only a year after the Battle of Badr and he did this to avenge the defeat at Badr. The Battle of Uhud is generally believed by scholars to be the first defeat for the Muslims, as they had incurred greater losses than the Meccans
Umayyad Caliphate
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Umayyad Caliphate in 750
Umayyad Caliphate
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Flag
Umayyad Caliphate
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History of Afghanistan
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Abbasid Caliphate
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The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic caliphates to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The Abbasid dynasty descended from Muhammads youngest uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib and they ruled as caliphs, for most of their period from their capital in Baghdad in modern-day Iraq, after assuming authority over the Muslim empire from the Umayyads in 750 CE. The Abbasid caliphate first centered its government in Kufa, but in 762 the caliph Al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad, the political power of the caliphs largely ended with the rise of the Buyids and the Seljuq Turks. Although Abbasid leadership over the vast Islamic empire was reduced to a ceremonial religious function. The capital city of Baghdad became a center of science, culture, philosophy and this period of cultural fruition ended in 1258 with the sack of Baghdad by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan. The Abbasid line of rulers, and Muslim culture in general, though lacking in political power, the dynasty continued to claim authority in religious matters until after the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. The Abbasid caliphs were Arabs descended from Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, one of the youngest uncles of Muhammad, the Abbasids claimed to be the true successors of Prophet Muhammad in replacing the Umayyad descendants of Banu Umayya by virtue of their closer bloodline to Muhammad. The Abbasids also distinguished themselves from the Umayyads by attacking their moral character, according to Ira Lapidus, The Abbasid revolt was supported largely by Arabs, mainly the aggrieved settlers of Marw with the addition of the Yemeni faction and their Mawali. The Abbasids also appealed to non-Arab Muslims, known as mawali, Muhammad ibn Ali, a great-grandson of Abbas, began to campaign for the return of power to the family of Prophet Muhammad, the Hashimites, in Persia during the reign of Umar II. During the reign of Marwan II, this culminated in the rebellion of Ibrahim the Imam. On 9 June 747, Abu Muslim successfully initiated a revolt against Umayyad rule. Close to 10,000 soldiers were under Abu Muslims command when the hostilities began in Merv. General Qahtaba followed the fleeing governor Nasr ibn Sayyar west defeating the Umayyads at the Battle of Nishapur, the Battle of Gorgan, after this loss, Marwan fled to Egypt, where he was subsequently assassinated. The remainder of his family, barring one male, were also eliminated, immediately after their victory, As-Saffah sent his forces to Central Asia, where his forces fought against Tang expansion during the Battle of Talas. Barmakids, who were instrumental in building Baghdad, introduced the worlds first recorded paper mill in Baghdad, As-Saffah focused on putting down numerous rebellions in Syria and Mesopotamia. The Byzantines conducted raids during these early distractions, the first change the Abbasids, under Al-Mansur, made was to move the empires capital from Damascus, in Syria, to Baghdad in Iraq. Baghdad was established on the Tigris River in 762, a new position, that of the vizier, was also established to delegate central authority, and even greater authority was delegated to local emirs. During Al-Mansurs time control of Al-Andalus was lost, and the Shiites revolted and were defeated a year later at the Battle of Bakhamra, the Abbasids had depended heavily on the support of Persians in their overthrow of the Umayyads
Abbasid Caliphate
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The Black Banner of the Abbasids.
Abbasid Caliphate
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Coin of the Abbasids,
Baghdad, Iraq, 765
Abbasid Caliphate
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Image of the
Amir of
Khorasan Isma'il ibn Ahmad on the
Tajikistani somoni who exercised independent authority from the Abassids
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Tahirid dynasty
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The Tahirid dynasty was a dynasty, of Persian dihqan origin, that governed the Abbasid province of Khorasan from 821 to 873, and the city of Baghdad from 820 until 891. The dynasty was founded by Tahir ibn Husayn, a general in the service of the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun. Their capital in Khorasan was initially located at Merv, but later moved to Nishapur, the Tahirids enjoyed a high degree of autonomy in their governance of Khorasan, although they remained subject to the Abbasid caliphate and were not independent rulers. The founder of the Tahirid dynasty was Tahir ibn Husayn, a general who had played a role in the civil war between the rival caliphs al-Amin and al-Mamun. He and his ancestors had previously awarded minor governorships in eastern Khorasan for their service to the Abbasids. In 821, Tahir was made governor of Khorasan, but he died soon afterwards, the caliph then appointed Tahirs son, Talha, whose governorship lasted from 822–828. Tahirs other son, Abdullah, was instated as the wali of Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula, the replacement of the Pahlavi script with the Arabic script in order to write the Persian language was done by the Tahirids in 9th century Khurasan. Abdullah died in 845 and was succeeded by his son Tahir II, not much is known of Tahirs rule, but the administrative dependency of Sistan was lost to rebels during his governorship. Tahirid rule began to deteriorate after Tahirs son Muhammad ibn Tahir became governor, due to his carelessness with the affairs of the state. In Khorasan itself, Muhammads rule continued to grow weak, and in 873 he was finally overthrown by the Saffarid dynasty. Besides their hold over Khorasan, the Tahirids also served as the governors of Baghdad. After he left for Khorasan, the governorship of Baghdad was given to a member of a branch of the family, Ishaq ibn Ibrahim. During Ishaqs term as governor, he was responsible for implementing the Mihna in Baghdad and his administration also witnessed the departure of the caliphs from Baghdad, as they made the recently constructed city of Samarra their new capital. When Ishaq died in 849 he was succeeded first by two of his sons, and then in 851 by Tahirs grandson Muhammad ibn Abdallah. The following year, he forced al-Mustain to abdicate and recognized al-Mutazz as caliph, eventually order was restored in Baghdad, and the Tahirids continued to serve as governors of the city for another two decades. In 891, however, Badr al-Mutadidi was put in charge of the security of Baghdad in place of the Tahirids, and the family soon lost their prominence within the caliphate after that. The Tahirids were highly Arabized in culture and outlook, and eager to be accepted in the Caliphal world where cultivation of things Arabic gave social and cultural prestige, for this reason, the Tahirids could not play a part in the renaissance of New Persian language and culture. But the Persian language, was at least tolerated in the entourage of the Tahirids, on the other hand, the Saffarids played the leading part in the renaissance of Persian literature
Tahirid dynasty
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Provinces governed by the Tahirids.
Tahirid dynasty
Afghanistan
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