Bukhar Khudahs
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The Bukhar Khudahs or Bukhar Khudats ( Sogdian: ''βuxārak Xwaday'') were a local
Sogdia Sogdia (Sogdian language, Sogdian: ) or Sogdiana was an ancient Iranian peoples, Iranian civilization between the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, and in present-day Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Sogdiana was also ...
n dynasty, which ruled the city of
Bukhara Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region. People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...
from an unknown date to the reign of the
Samanid 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 Kho ...
ruler
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 S ...
, who incorporated Bukhara into the Samanid state.


Etymology

The word “Bukhar” means Bukhara, while “khuda” means “lord”. Thus the word means “the lord of Bukhara”.


History

The founding date of the Bukhar Khudahs remains unknown; the 10th-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 ...
historian
Narshakhi Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Jafar Narshakhi (or Narshaki) (ca. 899–959), a Sogdian scholar from the village of Narshak in the Bukhara oasis is the first known historian in Central Asia. His unique ''History of Bukhara'' (''Tarikh-i Bukhara'') was writ ...
is known to have mentioned several names of rulers of Bukhara, but it is not known if they were all from the same dynasty. The first ruler mentioned by Narshakhi is Abru'i (also spelled Abarzi). According to Narshakhi, he was a cruel ruler, who was overthrown by a certain Turkic king named Qara Jurjin. The next ruler is named
Kana The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most pr ...
, who is said to have introduced the minting of coins in Bukhara, which is, however, doubted by modern scholars. The next ruler is given as
Makh Makh ( fa, ماخ, also Romanized as Mākh) is a village in Charuymaq-e Sharqi Rural District, Shadian District, Charuymaq County, East Azerbaijan Province, Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called ...
, who was credited with the building of a
bazaar A bazaar () or souk (; also transliterated as souq) is a marketplace consisting of multiple small Market stall, stalls or shops, especially in the Middle East, the Balkans, North Africa and India. However, temporary open markets elsewhere, suc ...
that was named after him. The first ruler mentioned with the title of Bukhar Khudah is named Bidun, who was killed in 681 by the
Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...
general
Salm ibn Ziyad Abū Ḥarb Salm ibn Ziyād ibn Abīhi () (died late 692) was a general and statesman of the Umayyad Caliphate, who later defected to the caliphate of Abd Allah ibn al-Zubayr during the Second Muslim Civil War before returning to the Umayyads' ran ...
during the first Arab attempts to conquer
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 ...
. He was succeeded by his few months-old son
Tughshada Tughshada was Bukhar Khudah (king of Bukhara) from 681 to 739. He was the son and successor of Bindu. Biography Tughshada was born in ca. 681—a few months later, during the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana, Bindu was killed by the Umayyad ge ...
. However, the kingdom was in reality controlled by Tughshada's mother, who is only known by her title of
Khatun Khatun ( Mongolian: хатан; otk, 𐰴𐰍𐰣, katun; ota, خاتون, hatun or قادین ''kadın''; fa, خاتون ''khātūn''; ; hi, ख़ातून ') is a female title of nobility and counterpart to " khan" or "Khagan" prominen ...
, and is celebrated in the local historical tradition for her wisdom and capable management. She is reported to have held court daily, "inquired into the affairs of state and issued orders and prohibitions," while at a distance stood "two hundred youths from the landowners and the princes ready for service, girded with gold belts and bearing swords." In 676 she dispatched a contingent to aid an Arab assault on
Samarqand fa, سمرقند , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from the top: Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zin ...
. In 706, a civil war erupted in Bukhara and its surrounding cities and towns; the ruler of the nearby Wardana, known as the ''Wardan Khudah'', had seized most of the principality, while a Sogdian magnate named Khunuk Khudah, managed to rally the nobles of Bukhara around him and declared himself as the Bukhar Khudah. At the same time, the new Umayyad governor of
Khurasan Greater Khorāsān,Dabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 or Khorāsān ( pal, Xwarāsān; fa, خراسان ), is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plate ...
,
Qutayba ibn Muslim Abū Ḥafṣ Qutayba ibn Abī Ṣāliḥ Muslim ibn ʿAmr al-Bāhilī ( ar, أبو حفص قتيبة بن أبي صالح مسلم بن عمرو الباهلي; 669–715/6) was an Arab commander of the Umayyad Caliphate who became governor of ...
, had captured Paykand, a city near Bukhara. The city soon revolted, and the Arabs responded by sacking the city. The brutality of the sack of Paykand shocked the Sogdian world, and led the nobles of Bukhara under Khunuk to make an alliance with the Wardan Khudah. However, during the fighting between the Arabs and Sogdians, the Wardan Khudah was killed, which probably constituted a heavy blow to the Bukhara-Wardana alliance. Bukhara was shortly after captured by Qutayba, who imposed a tribute of 200,000 ''
dirham The dirham, dirhem or dirhm ( ar, درهم) is a silver unit of currency historically and currently used by several Arab and Arab influenced states. The term has also been used as a related unit of mass. Unit of mass The dirham was a un ...
s'', and installed an Arab garrison to secure against rebellion. During the same time, another Sogdian king named
Tarkhun Tarkhun ( Chinese: 突昏 ''tū-hūn'', died 710) was a Sogdian ruler ( Sogdian: ''ikhshid'') of Samarkand from somewhere 705-707 to 710. After receiving the news of the capture of Bukhara by the Umayyad general Qutayba ibn Muslim in 709, Tarkhun ...
, who was the ruler of
Samarkand fa, سمرقند , native_name_lang = , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from the top:Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zinda, ...
, acknowledged the authority of the Umayyad Caliphate. After having settled an affair in
Tokharistan Tokharistan (formed from "Tokhara" and the suffix ''-stan'' meaning "place of" in Persian) is an ancient Early Middle Ages name given to the area which was known as Bactria in Ancient Greek sources. In the 7th and 8th century CE, Tokharistan c ...
, Qutayba restored Bukhara to the young Tughshada, and the faction of Khunuk including himself were executed. Later, in 712/3, in order to spread
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
in Bukhara, Qutayba built a mosque in the city's citadel, and even encouraged the natives to convert by paying them to attend the prayers. However, Islamization proceeded very slowly, and the rulers of Bukhara would remain
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 on ...
until their downfall. Tughshada, however, still tried to achieve independence from the Umayyad Caliphate, and in 718, along with Tarkhun's successor Gurak, Narayana, the king of Kumadh, and Tish, the king of
Chaghaniyan Chaghaniyan (Middle Persian: ''Chagīnīgān''; fa, چغانیان ''Chaghāniyān''), known as al-Saghaniyan in Arabic sources, was a medieval region and principality located on the right bank of the Oxus River, to the south of Samarkand. His ...
, he sent an embassy to the
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
of
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, where they asked for aid against the Arabs. In ca. 728, an anti-Arab revolt erupted in Bukhara, which was suppressed one year later. Tughshada was assassinated by two angry ''
dehqan The ''dehqân'' ( fa, دهقان) or ''dehgân'' ( fa, دهگان), were a class of land-owning magnates during the Sasanian and early Islamic period, found throughout Iranian-speaking lands. The ''deqhans'' started to gradually fade away under t ...
'' nobles in 739, and was succeeded by his son Qutayba, who was named in honour of the Umayyad general. In 750, the Umayyad Caliphate was conquered by the
Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...
, who became the new masters of
Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...
. However, this erupted in a local rebellion in Bukhara led by a certain Sharik ibn Shaikh. The Abbasid general
Abu Muslim Khorasani , image = Abu Muslim chastises a man for telling tales, Folio from the Ethics of Nasir (Akhlaq-e Nasiri) by Nasir al-Din Tusi (fol. 248r).jpg , caption = "Abu Muslim chastises a man for telling tales," Folio from the '' ...
sent an army under Ziyad ibn Salih to suppress the rebellion, but the rebels managed to emerge victorious. Qutayba, at the head of an army numbering 10,000 soldiers, aided the Abbasids in their fight against Sharik, and in the end managed to defeat and kill the latter. However, because of Qutayba's attitude towards the Arabs, he was murdered in 750 at the orders of Abu Muslim Khorasani, and was succeeded by his brother Sakan, who ruled until ca. 757 when he too was murdered by Abbasid agents. He was succeeded by another brother named Bunyat, who, because of his support to
al-Muqanna Hashim (Arabic/Persian: هاشم), better known as al-Muqanna‘ ( ar, المقنع "The Veiled", died c. 783.) was leader of an anti Islamic revolt who claimed to be a prophet, and founded a religion which was a mixture of Zoroastrianism and Islam. ...
, was murdered in 783. After the rule of Bunyat, there is no information about any of his successors, except for the last ruler of Bukhara, Abu Ishaq Ibrahim, whose kingdom was annexed by the
Samanid 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 Kho ...
ruler
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 S ...
. Abu Ishaq died in 913, but his descendants' royal status was still known during the lifetime of Narshakhi.


Religion

The majority of the inhabitants of Bukhara, including the rulers of the city, were Zoroastrians. However, there were also traces of
Nestorian Christianity The Church of the East ( syc, ܥܕܬܐ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ, ''ʿĒḏtā d-Maḏenḥā'') or the East Syriac Church, also called the Church of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, the Persian Church, the Assyrian Church, the Babylonian Church or the Nestorian C ...
, and even a church in Bukhara during the rule of the Bukhar Khudahs is mentioned by Narshakhi.


References


Sources

* * * * * * * {{cite encyclopedia , article = BUKHARA i. In Pre-Islamic Times , last = Frye , first = Richard N. , url = http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bukhara-i , encyclopedia = Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. IV, Fasc. 5 , pages = 511–513 , location = London et al. , publisher = C. Edmund Bosworth Zoroastrian rulers History of Bukhara Sogdians Former monarchies of Central Asia Former countries in Central Asia States and territories disestablished in the 9th century