HIST 345 : Islamic Orient

1- Zaydids dynsty

In the 9th–14th centuries, the northern Iranian regions of Tabaristan, Daylam and Gilan, sandwiched between the Caspian Sea and the Alborz range, came under the rule of a number of Alid dynasties, espousing the Zaydi branch of Shi'ism. The first and most powerful Zaydi emirate was established in Tabaristan in 864 and lasted until 928. It was interrupted by Samanid occupation in 900, but restored in 914 by another Alid branch. The second period of the Alid emirate was plagued by internal dissensions and power struggles between the two branches, and ended in the second conquest of the region by the Samanids in 928. Subsequently, some of the soldiers and generals of the Alavids joined the Samanids, among them the founder of the Ziyarid dynasty, Mardavij, and Ali, Hassan and Ahmad, the sons of Buya and founders of the Buyid dynasty.

2- Tahirid dynasty

The Tahirid dynasty was a dynasty, of Persian dihqan origin, that governed the Abbasid province of Khorasan from 821 to 873, and the city of Baghdad from 820 until 891. The dynasty was founded by Tahir ibn Husayn, a leading general in the service of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun. Their capital in Khorasan was initially located at Merv, but later moved to Nishapur. The Tahirids enjoyed a high degree of autonomy in their governance of Khorasan, although they remained subject to the Abbasid caliphate and were not independent rulers.

Rise

The founder of the Tahirid dynasty was Tahir ibn Husayn, a general who had played a major role in the civil war between the rival caliphs al-Amin and al-Ma'mun. He and his ancestors had previously been awarded minor governorships in eastern Khorasan for their service to the Abbasids. In 821, Tahir was made governor of Khorasan, but he died soon afterwards. The caliph then appointed Tahir's son, Talha, whose governorship lasted from 822–828. Tahir's other son, Abdullah, was instated as the wali of Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula, and when Talha died in 828 he was given the governorship of Khorasan. Abdullah is considered one of the greatest of the Tahirid rulers, as his reign witnessed a flourishing of agriculture in his native land of Khorasan, popularity among the populations of the eastern lands of the Abbasid caliphate and extending influence due to his experience with the western parts of the caliphate.

Fall

Abdullah died in 845 and was succeeded by his son Tahir II. Not much is known of Tahir's rule, but the administrative dependency of Sistan was lost to rebels during his governorship. Tahirid rule began to seriously deteriorate after Tahir's son Muhammad ibn Tahir became governor, due to his carelessness with the affairs of the state and lack of experience with politics. Oppressive policies in Tabaristan, another dependency of Khorasan, resulted in the people of that province revolting and declaring their allegiance to the independent Zaydi ruler Hasan ibn Zayd in 864. In Khorasan itself, Muhammad's rule continued to grow increasingly weak, and in 873 he was finally overthrown by the Saffarid dynasty, who annexed Khorasan to their own empire in eastern Persia.

3- Saffarid dynasty:

The Saffarids were a Muslim Persianate dynasty from Sistan that ruled over parts of eastern Iran, with its capital at Zaranj (a city now in southwestern Afghanistan). Khorasan, Afghanistan and Balochistan from 861 to 1003. The dynasty, of Persian origin was founded by Ya'qub bin Laith as-Saffar, born in 840 in a small town called Karnin (Qarnin), which was located east of Zaranj and west of Bost, in what is now Afghanistan - a native of Sistan and a local ayyar, who worked as a coppersmith (ṣaffār) before becoming a warlord. He seized control of the Sistan region and began conquering most of Iran and Afghanistan, as well as parts of Pakistan, Tajikestan and Uzbekistan.

The Saffarids used their capital Zaranj as a base for an aggressive expansion eastward and westward. They first invaded the areas south of the Hindu Kush in Afghanistan and then overthrew the Persian Tahirid dynasty, annexing Khorasan in 873. By the time of Ya'qub's death, he had conquered the Kabul Valley, Sindh, Tocharistan, Makran (Balochistan), Kerman, Fars, Khorasan, and nearly reached Baghdad but then suffered a defeat by the Abbasids.

The Saffarid empire did not last long after Ya'qub's death. His brother and successor, Amr bin Laith, was defeated at the Battle of Balkh against Ismail Samani in 900. Amr bin Laith was forced to surrender most of his territories to the new rulers. The Saffarids were subsequently confined to their heartland of Sistan, with their role reduced to that of vassals of the Samanids and their successors.

4- Samanid dynasty

The Samanid dynasty, also known as the Samanid Empire, or simply Samanids (819–999), was a Sunni Persian Empire in Central Asia, named after its founder Saman Khuda, a landowner from Balkh, who converted to Islam despite being from Zoroastrian nobility. It was a native Persian dynasty in Greater Iran and Central Asia after the collapse of the Sassanid Persian empire caused by the Arab conquest.

The Samanids were of Persian dehqan origin with roots stemming from Balkh in present-day northern Afghanistan. They reigned for 180 years, encompassing a territory which included Greater Khorasan (including Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat),Ray, Transoxiana, Tabaristan, Kerman, Gorgan, and west of these provinces up to Isfahan. At the peak of their power, the Samanids controlled territory extending as far as Quetta in the south[16] and Qazvin in the west. The Samanids were descendants of Bahrām Chobin, and thus descended from the House of Mihran, one of the Seven Great Houses of Iran. In governing their territory, the Samanids modeled their state organization after the Abbasids, mirroring the caliph's court and organization. They were rewarded for supporting the Abbasids in Transoxiana and Khorasan, and with their established capitals located in Bukhara, Balkh, Samarkand, and Herat, they carved their kingdom after defeating the Saffarids.

5- Ghaznavid dynasty:

Ghaznavid dynasty: victory tower of Mas’ūd III (977–1186 ce), dynasty of Turkic origin that ruled in Khorāsān (in northeastern Iran), Afghanistan, and northern India.

The founder of the dynasty was Sebüktigin (ruled 977–997), a former Turkic slave who was recognized by the Sāmānids (an Iranian Muslim dynasty) as governor of Ghazna (modern Ghaznī, Afghanistan). As the Sāmānid dynasty weakened, Sebüktigin consolidated his position and expanded his domains as far as the Indian border. His son Maḥmūd (ruled 998–1030) continued the expansionist policy, and by 1005 the Sāmānid territories had been divided. The Oxus River (Amu Darya) formed the boundary between the two successor states to the Sāmānid empire, the Ghaznavids ruling in the west and the Qarakhanids in the east.

Ghaznavid power reached its zenith during Maḥmūd’s reign. He created an empire that stretched from the Oxus to the Indus valley and the Indian Ocean; in the west he captured (from the Būyids) the Iranian cities of Rayy and Hamadan. A devout Muslim, Maḥmūd reshaped the Ghaznavids from their pagan Turkic origins into an Islamic dynasty and expanded the frontiers of Islam. The Persian poet Ferdowsī (d. 1020) completed his epic Shāh-nāmeh (“Book of Kings”) at the court of Maḥmūd about 1010.

Maḥmūd’s son Masʿūd I (reigned 1031–41) was unable to preserve the power or even the integrity of the Ghaznavid empire. In Khorāsān and Khwārezm, Ghaznavid power was challenged by the Seljuq Turks. Masʿūd suffered a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Dandānqān (1040), whence all the Ghaznavid territories in Iran and Central Asia were lost to the Seljuqs. The Ghaznavids were left in possession of eastern Afghanistan and northern India, where they continued to rule until 1186, when Lahore fell to the Ghūrids.

Little survives of Ghaznavid art, but the period is important for its influence on the Seljuq Turks in Iran and on later Islamic art in India. The Ghaznavids introduced the “four eyvān” ground plan in the palace at Lashkarī Bāzār near Lashkarī Gāh, on a plateau above the Helmond River, just north of Qalʾeh-ye Best, Afghanistan. An eyvān is a large vaulted hall, closed on three sides and open to a court on the fourth. The motif of a court surrounded by four eyvāns dominated Seljuq mosque architecture and was used continually through the Timurid and Ṣafavid periods in Persia. The victory tower of Masʿūd III (built 1099–1115) is a precursor of the Seljuq türbe, or tomb-tower. Of its two original stories, the remaining one is largely covered with ornamental inscription. Excavations at the site of the palace at Lashkarī Bāzār have uncovered figurative paintings whose stylistic elements are similar to early Seljuq work.

6- Ghurid dynasty

The Ghurids or Ghorids ) were a dynasty of Eastern Iranian descent (presumably Tajik, but the exact ethnic origin is uncertain), from the Ghor region of present-day central Afghanistan. The dynasty converted to Sunni Islam after the conquest of Ghor by the Ghaznavid emperor Mahmud of Ghazni in 1011. Abu Ali ibn Muhammad (reigned 1011-1035) was the first Muslim king of the Ghurid dynasty to construct mosques and Islamic schools in Ghor. The dynasty overthrew the Ghaznavid Empire in 1186, when Sultan Mu'izz ad-Din Muhammad of Ghor conquered the last Ghaznavid capital of Lahore. At their zenith, the Ghurid empire encompassed Khorasan in the west and reached northern India as far as Bengal in the east. Their first capital was Firozkoh in Mandesh, Ghor, which was later replaced by Herat, while Ghazni and Lahore were used as additional capitals, especially during winters. The Ghurids were patrons of Persian culture and heritage.