Greater Khorasan

File:Naderafshartomb.jpg

Nader Shah's tomb in Mashad.

Greater Khorasan is a modern term for eastern territories of ancient Persia. The very term khorasan means east in Middle Persian, or more exactly where sun comes from or land of sunrise. Greater Khorasan included territories that presently are part of Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.

Greater Khorasan contained mostly Herat, Balkh, Kabul and Ghazni (now in Afghanistan), Nishapur, Tus and Sistan (now in Iran), Merv and Sanjan (now in Turkmenistan), Samarqand and Bukhara (both now in Uzbekistan) as well as the Bactrian regions (now in Afghanistan and Tajikistan).

These days, the adjective greater is partly used to distinguish it from Khorasan province, in modern Iran, that forms western parts of these territories. It is also used to indicate that Greater Khorasan encompasses territories that were perhaps called by some other popular name when they were individually referred to. For example Transoxiana in Uzbekistan, the Bactrian regions in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, Kabulistan , Khwarezm (containing Samarqand and Bukhara) .

Geographical Distribution

Afghanistan's current territories form the major part of Khorasan. Khorasan's boundaries have varied greatly during ages. The term was loosely applied to all territories of Persia that lied east and north east of "Kavir-e-namak" and therefore were subjected to change as the size of empire changed.

File:Map of Timurids Empire and region of Khorasan.JPG

Map of the Timurid Dynasty in 15th century. The regions of Khorasan are apparently displayed.

Ghulam Mohammad Ghubar, an Afghan scholar and historian, talks about Proper Khorasan and Improper Khorasan in his book titled "Khorasan". According to him, Proper Khorasan contained regions lying between Balkh (in the East), Merv (in the North), Sijistan (in the South), Nishapur (in the West) and Herat in the center. While Improper Khorasan's boundaries extended to Kabul and Ghazni in the East, Balochistan and Zabulistan in the South, Transoxiana and Khwarezm in the North and Semnan in the West.

In Memoirs of Babur, it is mentioned that non-Hindustanis were called as Khorasanis. Regarding the boundary of Hindustan and Khorasan, it is written: "On the road between Hindustān and Khorasān, there are two great marts (meaning "countries"): the one Kābul, the other Kandahār." 1 Thus, Improper Khorasan bordered the country of Hindustan.

Historical Overview

Greater Khorasan is one of the regions of Greater Iran. Being conquered by Alexander in 330 BC, it was then part of the Persian Empires such as Achaemenids and Sassanids. In 1st century AD, the eastern regions of greater Khorasan fell into the hands of the Kushan empire. The Kushans introduced Buddhism culture to these regions, as numerous Kushanian temples and buried cities with treasures in the northern and south-eastern areas of Afghanistan have been found. However the western parts of Greater Khorasan remained predominantly Zoroastrian as one of the three great fire-temples of the Sassanids "Azar-burzin Mehr" is situated in the western regions of Khorasan, near Sabzevar in contemporary Iran. The boundary was pushed to the west towards the Persian Empire during the Kushans. The boundary kept changing until the demise of the Kushan Empire where Sassanids took control of the region. It remained much stable afterwards until the Muslim invasion.

Being the eastern parts of the Sassanid empire and further away from Arabia, Khorasan was conquered in the later stages of Muslim invasions. In fact the last Sassanid king of Persia, Yazdgerd III, moved the throne to Khorasan following the Arab invasion in the western parts of the empire. After the assassination of the king, Khorasan was conquered by the Islamic troops in 647. Like other provinces of Persia it became one of the provinces of Umayad dynasty.

The first liberal movement against the Arab invasions was led by Abu Muslim Khorasani between 747 and 750 AD. He helped the Abbasids come to power but was later killed by Al-Mansur, an Abbasid Caliph. The first independent kingdom from Arab rule was established in Khorasan by Tahir Phoshanji in 821. But it seems that it was more a matter of political and territorial gain. In fact Tahir had helped the Caliph subdue other nationalistic movements in other parts of Persia such as Maziar's movement in Tabaristan.

File:Maps of Timurids and Safavids.jpg

Maps of both Timurids and Safavids Empires from the year 1407 to 1739.

The first dynasty in Khorasan, after the introduction of Islam, whose rulers considered themselves Iranian (check Greater Iran) was the Saffarid dynasty (861-1003). Other grand Iranian dynasties were Samanids (875-999), Ghaznavids (962-1187), Ghurids (1149-1212), Seljukids (1037-1194), Khwarezmids (1077-1231) and Timurids (1370-1506). It should be mentioned that some of these dynasties were not Perisan by ethnicity, nonetheless they were the advocates of Persian language and were praised by the poets as the kings of Iran.

Among them, the periods of Ghaznavids of Ghazni and Timurids of Herat are considered as one of the most brilliant eras of Khorasan's history. During these periods, there was a great cultural awakening. Many famous Persian poets, scientists and scholars lived in this period. Numerous valuable works in Persian or Dari litterature were written. Nishapur, Herat, Ghazni and Merv were the centers of all these cultural developments. Most of the Khorasani regions were then parts of the Moghul Empire between 1506 and 1707. For Moghuls, Khorasan was always a region with great importance.

References

• Lorentz, J. Historical Dictionary of Iran. 1995 ISBN 0-8108-2994-0

See also

• Khorasan
• Khwarezm