Sistan
- For the liquid container, see cistern.
Sīstān (Persian: سیستان) is a border region in eastern Iran (Sistan and Baluchestan Province), southern Afghanistan (Nimroz, Kandahar and Zabul provinces) and southwestern Pakistan (northern Balochistan Province).
Sistan was once the homeland of Sakas, a Scythian tribe of Iranic origin. The Saffarids, one of the early Iranian dynasties of the Islamic era, were originally from Sistan.
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[edit] Etymology
Sistan derives its name from Sakastan, which Sistan was once the westernmost part of. The name Sakastan, on its part, derives from Old Persian zaranka ("waterland"; cf. Pashto dzaranda). This older form is also the root of the name Zaranj, capital of the Afghan Nimruz Province.
Encyclopædia Iranica says "The name of the country and its inhabitants is first attested as Old Persian z-r-k (i.e., Zranka) in the great Bīsotūn (q.v. iii) inscription of Darius I (q.v.; col. I l. 16), apparently the original name. This form is reflected in the Elamite (Sir-ra-an-qa and variants), Babylonian (Za-ra-an-ga), and Egyptian (srng or srnḳ) versions of the Achaemenid royal inscriptions, as well as in Greek Zarángai, Zarangaîoi, Zarangianḗ (Arrian; Isidore of Charax), and Sarángai (Herodotus) and in Latin Zarangae (Pliny). Instead of this original form, characterized by non-Persian z (perhaps from proto-IE. palatal *γ or *γh), in some Greek sources (chiefly those dependent upon the historians of Alexander the Great, q.v.) the perhaps hypercorrect Persianized variant (cf. Belardi,p. 183) with initial d-, *Dranka (or even *Dranga?), reflected in Greek Drángai, Drangḗ, Drangēnḗ, Drangi(a)nḗ (Ctesias; Polybius; Strabo; Diodorus; Ptolemy; Arrian; Stephanus Byzantius) and Latin Drangae, Drangiana, Drangiani (Curtius Rufus; Pliny; Ammianus Marcellinus; Justin) or Drancaeus (Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 6.106, 6.507) occurs."[1]
In the Shahnameh, Sistan is also referred to as Zabulistan, after Zabol, a city in the region. In Ferdowsi's epic, Zabulistan is in turn described to be the homeland of the mythological hero Rostam.
[edit] History of Sistan
In prehistoric times, the Jiroft Civilization covered parts of Sistan and Kerman Province (possibly as early as the 3rd millennium BC).
Later the area was occupied by Aryan tribes related to the Indo-Aryans and Iranian Peoples. Eventually a kingdom known as Arachosia was formed, parts of which were ruled by the Medean Empire by 600 BC. The Medes were overthrown by the Achaemenid Persian Empire in 550 BC, and the rest Arachosia was soon annexed. In the 3rd century BC, Macedonian king Alexander the Great (known in East as Sikander) annexed the region during his conquest of the Persian Empire and founded the colony of "Alexandria in Arachosia" (modern Kandahar).
Alexander's Empire fragmented after his death, and Arachosia came under control of the Seleucid Empire, which traded it to the Mauryan dynasty of India in 305 BC. After the fall of the Mauryans, the region fell to their Greco-Bactrian allies in 180 BC, before breaking away and becoming part of the Indo-Greek Kingdom.
After the mid 2nd century BC, much of the Indo-Greek Kingdom was overrun by tribes known as the Indo-Scythians or Sakas, from which Sistan (from Sakastan) eventually derived its name. The Indo-Scythians were defeated around 100 BC by the Parthian Empire, which briefly lost the region to its Suren vassals (the Indo-Parthian) around 20 AD, before the region was conquered by the Kushan Empire in the mid 1st century AD. The Kushans were defeated by the Sassanid Persian Empire in the mid 3rd century, first becoming part of a vassal Kushansha state, before being overrun by the Hephthalites in the mid 5th century. Sassanid armies reconquered Sistan in by 565 AD, but lost the area to the Arab Rashidun Caliphate after the mid 640s. (For Sistan's history after the Islamic conquest, see History sections of Afghanistan and Iran).
[edit] Islamic Conquest
| “ | Sistan was invaded and conquered by expeditions from Kirman. The Muslim conquest of Sistan began in AH 23 (643/644 AD) when Asim bin Amr and Abdullah bin Umar made an incursion and seized Zarang. The Sistanis concluded a treaty with the Muslims, to the effect that they should pay Kharaj. The commander of a Muslim army camped in Kirman Abd Allah B Amir sent Al Rabi B Ziyad (In Tarikh i Sistan it is Al Ziyalap-28) al Hinithi to Sistan . Rabi crossed that desert between Kirman and that province ie Sistan and reached Zaliq, a fortress between five farsangs of the Sistan frontier whose dihaqan surrendered to him . Rabi reduced two other localities (or the fortress) of Karkuya (mention of whose Fire Temple in the song of the Fire of Karakuya has come down to us in the annoymously written Tarikh i Sistan and Heisum) without bloodshed. Falling back on Zaliq, Rabi projected the seizure of Zaranj of which though formerly it had submitted to the Muslims had once more to be subdued. Between Zaliq and Zarang, some minor localities like Zught, Nasrudh and Sherwadh were taken with much fighting.
The Marzban of Zaranj Aparwez who commanded at Zaranj strongly contested the advance of Rabi, but at last was obliged to surrender it to the Muslims. It is said that when Aparwez appeared before Rabi to discuss terms, he found the Arab general sitting on the corpse of a dead soldier .[2] |
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The Saffarids (861-1002 CE), who were originally from Sistan, were one of the early Iranian dynasties of the Islamic era. Mahmud of Ghazni invaded Sistan in 1002, ending the Saffarid dynasty. A year later, Sistan revolted. In response, Mahmud brought an army to suppress the revolt. Mahmud's Hindu troops sacked the mosque of Zarang massacring the Moslems inside.[3]
Sistan has a very strong connection with Zoroastrianism and during Sassanid times Lake Hamun was one of two pilgrimage sites for followers of that religion. In Zoroastrian tradition, the lake is the keeper of Zoroaster's seed and just before the final renovation of the world, three maidens will enter the lake, each then giving birth to the saoshyans who will be the saviours of mankind at the final renovation of the world.
The most famous archaeological sites in Sistan are Shahr-e Sukhteh and the site on Kuh-e Khwajeh, a hill rising up as an island in the middle of Lake Hamun.
[edit] See also
- Al-Sijistani - prominent people who have been identified with the region
- Daryācheh-ye Sīstan - transborder lake in the Sistan region
[edit] References
- ^ Schmitt, Rüdiger (15 December 1995). "DRANGIANA or Zarangiana; territory around Lake Hāmūn and the Helmand river in modern Sīstān". Encyclopædia Iranica. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/drangiana.
- ^ World religions and Islam: a critical study, Part 1 By Hamid Naseem Rafiabadi , Published by Sarup and Sons ,Page 137
- ^ C.E. Bosworth, The Ghaznavids 994-1040, (Edinburgh University Press, 1963), 89.
