Saman Khuda (Saman Khoda, Saman-khudat; fa, سامانخدا، سامانخدات) was an 8th-century
Iranian
Iranian may refer to:
* Iran, a sovereign state
* Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran
* Iranian lan ...
noble whose descendants (the House of Saman) later became rulers of
Khurasan (the
Samanid Empire
The Samanid Empire ( fa, سامانیان, Sāmāniyān) also known as the Samanian Empire, Samanid dynasty, Samanid amirate, or simply as the Samanids) was a Persianate Sunni Muslim empire, of Iranian dehqan origin. The empire was centred in ...
). He was a
Dehqan from the village of Saman in
Balkh province
Balkh (Dari: , ''Balx'') is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north of the country. It is divided into 15 districts and has a population of about 1,509,183, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a Persian-speaking society. The c ...
in present-day northern
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. In the early 8th century, he came to
Merv
Merv ( tk, Merw, ', مرو; fa, مرو, ''Marv''), also known as the Merve Oasis, formerly known as Alexandria ( grc-gre, Ἀλεξάνδρεια), Antiochia in Margiana ( grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐν τῇ Μαργιανῇ) and ...
, seat of the
Caliphal governor of
Khorasan,
Asad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Qasri (ruled 723-727). Saman was originally a
Zoroastrian
Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheistic ...
. However, he was so impressed with the piety of Asad ibn 'Abd-Allah al-Qasri, that he converted to
Islam. He named his son
Asad, allegedly in the governor's honor.
Caliph
al-Mamun
Abu al-Abbas Abdallah ibn Harun al-Rashid ( ar, أبو العباس عبد الله بن هارون الرشيد, Abū al-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hārūn ar-Rashīd; 14 September 786 – 9 August 833), better known by his regnal name Al-Ma'mu ...
(786-833) subsequently appointed Asad's four sons – Saman Khuda's grandsons – as governors of
Samarkand,
Ferghana,
Shash
Tashkent (, uz, Toshkent, Тошкент/, ) (from russian: Ташкент), or Toshkent (; ), also historically known as Chach is the capital and largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of 2 ...
and
Ustrushana, and
Herat
Herāt (; Persian: ) is an oasis city and the third-largest city of Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Selseleh-ye Safē ...
in recognition of their role in the suppression of a revolt.
[Shamsiddin Kamoliddin, "To the Question of the Origin of the Samanids", ''Transoxiana'' 10 (July 2005)](_blank)
This began the House of Saman; Saman Khuda's great-grandson
Isma'il ibn Ahmad
Abū Ibrāhīm Ismā'īl ibn-i Aḥmad-i Sāmāni ( fa, ابو ابراهیم اسماعیل بن احمد سامانی; May 849 – 24 November 907), better known simply as Ismail-i Samani (), and also known as Isma'il ibn-i Ahmad (), was the Sa ...
(849-907) became Amir of
Transoxiana
Transoxiana or Transoxania (Land beyond the Oxus) is the Latin name for a region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to modern-day eastern Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, parts of southern Kazakhstan, parts of Tu ...
and
Khorasan.
Saman was a 4th or 5th generation descendant of
Bahram Chobin
Bahrām Chōbīn ( fa, بهرام چوبین) or Wahrām Chōbēn ( Middle Persian: ), also known by his epithet Mehrbandak ("servant of Mithra"), was a nobleman, general, and political leader of the late Sasanian Empire and briefly its ruler as ...
,
a noble of the ancient
House of Mihran
The House of Mihrān or House of Mehrān (Middle Persian: 𐭬𐭨𐭥𐭠𐭭; new Persian: مهران), was a leading Iranian noble family (''šahrdārān''), one of the Seven Great Houses of the Sassanid Persian Empire which claimed descent f ...
, who played an important role in the history of the later
Sassanian Empire
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the History of Iran, last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th cen ...
.
[R. N. Frye, ''The Golden Age of Persia'', London: Butler & Tanner Ltd., 1996, p. 200.]
Family tree
References
Sources
*
Samanids
Converts to Islam from Zoroastrianism
8th-century monarchs in Asia
People from Balkh Province
People from Balkh
Year of death unknown
Year of birth unknown
8th-century Iranian people
Dehqans
{{CAsia-hist-stub