Samanid
The Samanid Empire () was a Persianate society, Persianate Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslim empire, ruled by a dynasty of Iranian peoples, Iranian ''dehqan'' origin. The empire was centred in Greater Khorasan, Khorasan and Transoxiana, at its greatest extent encompassing northeastern Iran and Central Asia, from 819 to 999. Four brothers—Nuh ibn Asad, Nuh, Ahmad ibn Asad, Ahmad, Yahya ibn Asad, Yahya, and Ilyas ibn Asad, Ilyas—founded the Samanid state. Each of them ruled territories under Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid suzerainty. In 892, Ismail Samani (892–907) united the Samanid state under one ruler, thus effectively putting an end to the feudal system used by the Samanids. It was also under him that the Samanids became independent of Abbasid Caliphate, Abbasid authority. However, by 945, the government was under the de facto control of the Turkic military slave faction, and the Samanid family's authority had become purely symbolic. The Samanid Empire is part of the Iranian Interm ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ismail Samani
Abū Ibrāhīm Ismā'īl ibn-i Aḥmad-i Sāmāni (; May 849 – 24 November 907), better known simply as Amir Ismail-i Samani (), and also known as Isma'il ibn-i Ahmad (), was the Samanid amir of Transoxiana (892–907) and Khorasan (900–907). His reign saw the emergence of the Samanids as a powerful force. He was the son of Ahmad ibn-i Asad and a descendant of Saman Khuda, the eponymous ancestor of the Samanid dynasty who renounced Zoroastrianism and embraced Islam. Background The Samanids were native to Balkh, which suggests that they came from a Bactrian background. The family itself claimed to be the descendants of the Parthian Mihran family, one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran during the pre-Islamic Sasanian era. However, this was possibly a mere attempt to enhance their lineage. They may originally have been of Hephthalite descent, as suggested by the fact that one of the coins issued by them is executed in the same style as those of the Hephthalites, rather than ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Nasr II
Nasr ibn Ahmad or Nasr II (), nicknamed "the Fortunate", was the ruler ('' amir'') of Transoxiana and Khurasan as the head of the Samanid dynasty from 914 to 943. His reign marked the high point of the Samanid dynasty's fortunes. He was the son of Ahmad ibn Isma’il. Biography Accession and suppression of revolts Nasr was the son of Ahmad ibn Isma'il (), who was assassinated on the night of 23 January 914 by his own guards, due to his favouring Arabic-speaking officials in his court. Nasr thus became emir at the age of eight. Due to his youth, the vizier Abu Abdallah al-Jayhani undertook the regency. Almost immediately a series of revolts broke out within the state, the most serious being the one led by his great-uncle, Ishaq ibn Ahmad, at Samarkand. Ishaq's sons took part in the rebellion; one son, Abu Salih Mansur, took control of Nishapur and several other cities in Khurasan. Eventually, Ishaq was defeated and surrendered to the general Hamuya ibn Ali, while Abu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Turko-Persian Tradition
The composite Turko-Persian, Turco-Persian, ''Turko-Persia in historical perspective'', Cambridge University Press, 1991 or Turco-Iranian () is the distinctive culture that arose in the 9th and 10th centuries AD in Khorasan and (present-day , , , [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rudaki
Rudaki (also spelled Rodaki; ; – 940/41) was a poet, singer, and musician who is regarded as the first major poet to write in New Persian. A court poet under the Samanids, he reportedly composed more than 180,000 verses, yet only a small portion of his work has survived, most notably parts of his versification of the '' Kalila wa-Dimna'', a collection of Indian fables. Born in the village of Banoj (located in the present-day Rudak area), the most important part of Rudaki's career was spent at the court of the Samanids. While biographical information connects him to the Samanid ''amir'' (ruler) Nasr II (), he may have already joined the court under the latter's predecessor, Ahmad Samani (). Rudaki's success was largely due to the support of his primary patron, the vizier Abu'l-Fadl al-Bal'ami (died 940), who played an important role in the blooming of New Persian literature in the 10th-century. Following the downfall of Bal'ami in 937, Rudaki's career deteriorated, even ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Iranian Intermezzo
The Iranian Intermezzo, also called the Persian Renaissance, was a period in Iranian history marked by the rise to power of the first Iranian Muslim dynasties. Beginning nearly 200 years after the Arab conquest of Iran and lasting until the middle of the 11th century, it is noteworthy since it was an interlude between the decay of Arab power under the Abbasid Caliphate and the rise of Turkic power under the Seljuk Empire, which triggered the Sunni Revival. The Iranian Intermezzo brought an end to Arab hegemony over Iranian lands and revived Iran's national spirit, albeit in conformity with Islam, though there were some non-Muslim movements (e.g., Mardavij) that outright rejected the Islamization of Iran. Although Zoroastrianism continued to decline, the movement did succeed in revitalizing the Persian language, with the most significant Persian literature from this period being the ''Shahnameh'' by Ferdowsi. The Iranian dynasties that took part in this effort were the Tahiri ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Persianate Society
A Persianate society is a society that is based on or strongly influenced by the Persian language, culture, literature, art and/or identity. The term "Persianate" is a neologism credited to Marshall Hodgson. In his 1974 book, ''The Venture of Islam: The expansion of Islam in the Middle Periods'', he defined it thus: "The rise of Persian had more than purely literary consequences: it served to carry a new overall cultural orientation within Islamdom.... Most of the more local languages of high culture that later emerged among Muslims... depended upon Persian wholly or in part for their prime literary inspiration. We may call all these cultural traditions, carried in Persian or reflecting Persian inspiration, 'Persianate' by extension."Hodgson says, "It could even be said that Islamicate civilization, historically, is divisible in the more central areas into an earlier 'caliphal' and a later 'Persianate' phase; with variants in the outlying regions—Maghrib, Sudanic lands, Southern ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Abd Al-Malik II (Samanid Emir)
'Abd al-Malik II was amir of the Samanids (999). His brief reign saw the downfall of the Samanid state. He was the son of Nuh II. Reign In February 999, 'Abd al-Malik's brother Mansur II was deposed and blinded. He was then appointed amir by Fa'iq and the general Bektuzun, the same two individuals who had overthrown his brother and together controlled most of the power in the state. Mansur's overthrow was used as a pretext by Mahmud of Ghazni to conquer the remainder of Khurasan still in the hands of the Samanids. Bektuzun and Fa'iq, together with the ruler of Kuhistan, Abu'l-Qasim Simjuri, however, were judged to be too powerful by Mahmud. He therefore made peace with them in the spring of 999, keeping Balkh and Herat. The allies spoiled the peace by attacking the rearguard of Mahmud's army. Mahmud's forces however, remained intact, and hostilities were resumed. Mahmud defeated the allies near Merv and subsequently seized all land south of the Oxus. He also gained the loya ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bukhara
Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and the city has existed for half that time. Located on the Silk Road, the city has long served as a center of trade, scholarship, culture, and religion. Bukhara served as the capital of the Khanate of Bukhara, Emirate of Bukhara and later Bukhara People’s Soviet Republic. It was the birthplace of the scholar Imam Bukhari. The city has been known as "Noble Bukhara" (''Bukhārā-ye sharīf''). Bukhara has about 140 architectural monuments. UNESCO has listed the historic center of Bukhara (which contains numerous mosques and madrasas) as a List of World Heritage Sites in Uzbekistan, World Heritage Site. Names The exact name of the city of Bukhara in ancient times is unknown. The whole Oasis of Bukhara, oasis was called Bukhara in ancient times, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Abbasid Caliphate
The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes its name. After overthrowing the Umayyad Caliphate in the Abbasid Revolution of 750 CE (132 AH), they ruled as caliphs based in modern-day Iraq, with Baghdad being their capital for most of their history. The Abbasid Revolution had its origins and first successes in the easterly region of Khurasan, far from the Levantine center of Umayyad influence. The Abbasid Caliphate first centered its government in Kufa, modern-day Iraq, but in 762 the caliph al-Mansur founded the city of Baghdad as the new capital. Baghdad became the center of science, culture, arts, and invention in what became known as the Golden Age of Islam. By housing several key academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom, as well as a multiethnic and multi- ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ferdowsi
Abu'l-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi (also Firdawsi, ; 940 – 1019/1025) was a Persians, Persian poet and the author of ''Shahnameh'' ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest epic poetry, epic poems created by a single poet, and the greatest epic of Persian-speaking people, Persian-speaking countries. Ferdowsi is celebrated as one of the most influential figures of Persian literature and one of the greatest in the history of literature. Name Except for his ''kunya (Arabic), kunya'' ( – , meaning 'father of Qasem') and his Takhallus, pen name ( – ''Ferdowsī'', meaning 'Paradise, paradisic'), nothing is known with any certainty about his full name. According to Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh, the information given by the 13th-century author Bundari about Ferdowsi's name should be taken as the most reliable. Bundari calls the poet al-Amir al-Hakim Abu'l-Qasem Mansur ibn al-Hasan al-Ferdowsi al-Tusi. From an early period on, he has been referred to by different additional na ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ahmad Ibn Asad
Ahmad ibn Asad (d. 864/865) was a Samanid Amir of Ferghana (819-864/5) and Samarkand (851/2-864/5). He was a son of Asad. In 819, Ahmad was granted authority over the city of Ferghana by Caliph Al-Ma'mun's governor of Khorasan, Ghassan ibn 'Abbad, as a reward for his support against the rebel Rafi' ibn Laith. Following the death of his brother Nuh, who ruled in Samarkand, Ahmad and another brother Yahya were given rule over the city by Abdallah, the governor of Khurasan. Yahya's power was subsequently significantly curtailed by Ahmad, and he may have ruled as simply a figurehead until his death in 855. Yahya's line was then superseded by Ahmad's. By the time of Ahmad's death in 864 or 865, he was the ruler of most of Transoxiana, Bukhara and Khwarazm Khwarazm (; ; , ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the east by the Kyzylkum Desert, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Samarkand
Samarkand ( ; Uzbek language, Uzbek and Tajik language, Tajik: Самарқанд / Samarqand, ) is a city in southeastern Uzbekistan and among the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in Central Asia. Samarkand is the capital of the Samarkand Region and a district-level city, that includes the urban-type settlements Kimyogarlar, Farxod, Farhod and Xishrav, Khishrav. With 551,700 inhabitants (2021), it is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, third-largest city in Uzbekistan. There is evidence of human activity in the area of the city dating from the late Paleolithic Era. Though there is no direct evidence of when Samarkand was founded, several theories propose that it was founded between the 8th and 7th centuries BC. Prospering from its location on the Silk Road between East Asia, China, Persia and Europe, at times Samarkand was one of the largest cities in Central Asia,Guidebook of history of Samarkand", and was an important city of t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |