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41-634: They were ultimately deposed by a rival family, the Ma'munids of Gurganj , who became the new rulers of Khwarazm. Al-Biruni , the native Khwarezmian scholar, mentions twenty-two members of the Afrighid dynasty for a total span of 690 years with an average rule of 31 years for each ruler. According to him, the Afrighids ruled from 305, through the Arab conquests under Qutayba ibn Muslim in 712, and up to their overthrow in 995 by

82-717: A minaret which still survives till this day, and has an inscription crediting Ma'mun II ( r.  1009–1017 ) its founder. However, the Ma'munids soon fell into conflict with the Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud ( r.  999–1030 ), who sought to pressurize his Qarakhanid enemies by extending his rule into Khwarazm. In 1014, Mahmud demanded that Ma'mun II should add his name in the khutba (Friday sermon) in Khwarazm, thus acknowledging his suzerainty. Unable to gain military assistance or appease Mahmud through other means, Ma'mun II

123-526: A large fortress called Fil or Fir constructed on the fringe of the capital Kath , which by the time of al-Biruni was in ruins, due to the changes in the flow of the Oxus in the 10th-century. Coinage confirms the existence of the Afrighid shah Arsamuh , who lived during the time of the Islamic prophet Muhammad . Reliable information about Khwarazm first starts to appear in the early 8th-century. Khwarazm had initially been

164-480: A much larger territory . The territories of Khwarazm , Sogdiana, Chaghaniyan , and Khuttal were located in the southern part of Transoxiana; Chach , Osrushana , and Farghana were located in the northern part. Historically known in Persian as Farā-rūd ( Persian : فرارود , [fæɾɒːˈɾuːd̪] – 'beyond the [Amu] river'), Faro-rüd ( Tajik : Фарорӯд ), and Varaz-rüd ( Tajik : Варазрӯд ),

205-544: A reference to the geography of Khwarazm and its abundant water). However, Dr. Parviz Azkai, in his annotations on Al-Biruni's Chronology of Ancient Nations , explains that this is a popular etymology. Azkai explains that Afrigh was originally Ap-Air-ig meaning from the Aryan descent : ap or af is the same in 'afrashtan' (Persian: افراشتن) to raise; air is the root meaning Aryan as seen in Iraj , and Eran/Iran (land of Aryan); and -ig

246-404: A separate distinctive Iranian language and culture. Under the Ma'munids, their capital of Gurganj became a centre of learning, attracting many prominent figures, such as the philosophers Avicenna and Abu Sahl al-Masihi , the mathematician Abu Nasr Mansur , the physician Ibn al-Khammar , and the philologist al-Tha'alibi . The Ma'munids also embellished their capital with buildings such as

287-508: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Transoxiana Transoxiana or Transoxania ( lit.   ' Land beyond the Oxus ' ) is the Latin name for the region and civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to modern-day eastern Uzbekistan , western Tajikistan , parts of southern Kazakhstan , parts of Turkmenistan and southern Kyrgyzstan . The name

328-539: Is not attested anywhere besides al-Biruni, which has led scholars to suggest that the name never existed. The Iranologist Clifford Edmund Bosworth adds that "If this [Afrig] era was actually in use, it must have been unofficial." Likewise, many of the Khwarazmshahs recorded by al-Biruni are not supported by archeological evidence; however, this may be due to scribal errors. The first four centuries of Afrighid rule are particularly obscure. According to al-Biruni, Afrig had

369-553: Is the suffix of relation in Iranian languages and cognate to '-ic' in English or '-ique' in French . Khwarazm was a well-irrigated, rich agricultural region on the lower Oxus . Bordered by steppeland and desert on all sides, Khwarazm was geographically secluded from other areas of civilization, which allowed it to preserve a separate distinctive Iranian language and culture. Khwarazm was possibly

410-504: The Arabs . Khwarazm was one of the few Iranian states which survived through the early Islamic period. The Afrighids and the local population were most likely adherents of Zoroastrianism . The first Khwarazmshah to convert to Islam was Azkajwar-Abdallah , who ruled in the early 9th-century, perhaps coinciding with the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun ( r.  813–833 ). Regardless,

451-566: The Khwarazmian native language and knew of the Khwarazmian heritage, history, and culture. He then killed all their Zoroastrian priests and burned and wasted their books, until gradually the illiterate only remained, who knew nothing of writing, and hence the region's history was mostly forgotten. It has been suggested that 'Afrigh' is the Arabicized of 'Abriz' in Persian (آبریز where water flows,

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492-683: The Khwarezmian names were incomprehensible for most non-natives. Al-Biruni himself utilizes the extra letters of Khwarezmian which were not used in Arabic writings. More is known about the dynasty in the Islamic era after the beginning of the 8th century and their conversion to Islam. Name of the rulers given by the native Khwarezmian speaker Al-Biruni , and modern scholars. Ma%27munids The Maʾmunids ( Persian : مأمونیان ) were an independent dynasty of Iranian rulers in Khwarazm . Their reign

533-570: The Mongol Empire , invaded Transoxiana in 1219 during his conquest of Khwarezm . Before his death in 1227, he assigned the lands of Western Central Asia to his second son Chagatai , and this region became known as the Chagatai Khanate . In 1369, Timur , of the Barlas tribe, became the effective ruler and made Samarkand the capital of his future empire . Transoxiana was known to be flourishing in

574-617: The Muslim conquest of Persia . It was also ruled by Göktürks until the Arab conquest between 705 and 715, the area became known by the Arabic phrase Mā warāʼ al-Nahr "what is beyond the river", sometimes rendered as "Mavarannahr". Transoxiana's major cities and cultural centers are Samarkand and Bukhara . Both are in the southern portion of Transoxiana (though still to the north of the Amu Darya itself, on

615-611: The Sasanian (Sassanid) Empire , it was often called Sogdia, a provincial name taken from the Achaemenid Empire , and used to distinguish it from nearby Bactria . The Chinese explorer Zhang Qian , who visited the neighbouring countries of Bactria and Parthia along with Transoxiana in 126 BCE, made the first known Chinese report on this region. Zhang Qian clearly identifies Parthia as an advanced urban civilisation that farmed grain and grapes, and made silver coins and leather goods. It

656-727: The Umayyads from 715 to 738. The conquest was consolidated by Nasr ibn Sayyar between 738 and 740, and continued under the control of the Umayyads until 750, when it was replaced by the Abbasid Caliphate . The Tang dynasty of China also controlled the eastern part of the region until the An Lushan Rebellion broke out. In the early Islamic period, the people of Transoxania spoke Sogdian (an Iranian language) and were divided among several principalities . The Arab conquest resulted in

697-461: The satrapies (provinces) of the Achaemenid Empire of Persia under the name Sogdia . It was defined within the classical world of Persia to distinguish it from Iran proper , especially its northeastern province of Khorasan , a term originating with the Sasanians , although early Arab historians and geographers tended to subsume the region within the loosely defined term "Khorasan" designating

738-561: The 7-8th century. There were multiple figures in the Muslim world who had conquered these lands. Some include the Umayyad and Abbasid Arabs that took over lands that are now Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Apart from a presence in Kushan Bactria , Hinduism unlike Buddhism, seems to have made little inroad into Central Asia north of Bactria. Even when Brahmins are depicted in

779-505: The Afrighid shah Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad ( r.  967–995 ), thus marking the end of the first Khwarazmshah line of the Afrighids, and the inauguration of the second Khwarazmshah line of the Ma'munids. The Khwarazmian population practiced a variant of Zoroastriansm mixed with local paganism . Contrary to Iran, Zoroastrianism was not an official religion of Khwarazm, and thus did not follow strict writings. The Iran-based and Khwarazmian variants differed significantly from each other; while

820-619: The Islamization of the local population was much slower. In the early 10th-century, the Khwarazmshahs were made vassals of the Samanid dynasty , a Persian family which ruled mainly in Transoxania and Khurasan . Although the Khwarazmshahs sometimes granted sanctuary to Samanid rebels, they generally ruled a peaceful domain. During the end of the Samanids, the Khwarazmshahs extended their rule as far as

861-633: The Khwarazmians, like the Sogdians, mourned the dead, as demonstrated by the paintings on the Toprak-Kala ossuaries. Veneration of the dead was highly esteemed in Khwarazm, with food being placed in the burial chambers on the last five days of the last (twelfth) month and five extra days during the New Year. The local cult of Vakhsh—the tutelary spirit of the element of water—was a sign of early animism amongst

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902-411: The Khwarazmians. They commemorated the feast of Vakhsh on the tenth day of the last month of the year. The native language of Afrighid Khwarazm was Old Khwarazmian , written an indigenous script derived from Aramaic , which had been imported by the Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC) during their rule over Khwarazm. According to the 10th-century Arab traveller Ahmad ibn Fadlan , the language sounded "like

943-555: The ancient history of the country; however, according to Bosworth, this is exaggerated. Once the Arabs withdrew from their raid, the Shahs recovered power in Khwarezm and they continued to adhere to their ancestral faith, which according to Al-Biruni was Zoroastrianism . The local shahs continued to ally with local Iranian princes, Soghdian merchants and even Turks and Chinese in order to resist

984-592: The area had been known to the ancient Iranians as Turan , a term used in the Persian national epic Shahnameh . The corresponding Chinese term for the region is Hezhong ( Chinese : 河中地区 - land between rivers (Amu and Syr) ). The Arabic term Mā Warāʾ an-Nahr ( Arabic : ما وراء النهر , [ˈmaː waˈraːʔ anˈnahr] , which means "what is beyond the [Jayhūn] river") passed into Persian literary usage and stayed on until post-Mongol times. The name Transoxiana stuck in Western consciousness because of

1025-588: The art of Central Asia, this is within the setting of Buddhist art, where we can even observe a tendency to present such figures as caricatures, quite in line with the criticism of them in the Buddhist scriptures. Transoxania was a great center of Muslim civilization; it was the centre of the Timurid Empire and saw influential Muslim leaders like Oghuz Khan . An excerpt from a dynastic history commissioned by Eltüzer Khan of Khwarazm: "Oghuz Khan, who could speak at

1066-452: The chattering of starlings." Only consonants of the pre-Islamic names are known with long vowels, since in Arabic script, the short vowels are not written and diacritic signs are used to clarify when required. After the conversion of 'Abdallah, all the names except possibly 'Eraq are Arabic and their pronunciation is known. Unfortunately, the manuscripts that have also come down have also suffered some corruption due to scribal errors, since

1107-652: The early homeland of the Iranians. In the Islamic era, the region had three main cities; Kath, Gurganj and Hazarasp . Most of Afrighid history is recorded by the Khwarazmian scholar al-Biruni (died 1050), whose reliability has been questioned. According to al-Biruni, the Afrighids were founded by Afrig in 305, succeeding the semi-legendary line of the Siyavushids, founded by the Iranian king Kay Khosrow . However, extensive Soviet archeological findings demonstrate that al-Biruni

1148-636: The exploits of Alexander the Great , who extended Greek culture into the region with his invasion in the 4th century BCE. Alexander's successors would go on to found the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom , ushering in a distinct Greek cultural presence within Transoxiana that existed for over two hundred years. The city of Ai-Khanoum , situated on the Oxus in northern Afghanistan, remains the only Graeco Bactrian city to have been found and extensively excavated. During

1189-538: The local Khwarazmian forces at Hazarasp , brutalized the population of Gurganj, and captured many Khwarazmians, who were taken to the capital of Ghazni as slaves. Abu'l-Harith Muhammad was deposed and imprisoned, while Khwarazm was incorporated into the Ghaznavid realm, thus marking the end of the Ma'munid dynasty, the last ethnically Iranian line of Khwarazmshahs. Seleucid Empire : Seleucus I Antiochus I Antiochus II This Iranian history -related article

1230-411: The mid-14th century. The historian Mark Dickens notes: Transoxiana's principal pre-Islamic religion was Zoroastrianism , albeit in local manifestations. However, Buddhism , [Nestorian] Christianity , Manichaeism , and Mazdakism also had many adherents, especially in urban areas. This initial religious diversity was gradually eroded after the Arab conquest . Muslims had conquered Transoxiana by

1271-563: The northern edges of Khurasan, ruling frontier posts such as Farawa and Nasa . An uncertain part of Khwarazmian history is the rise of Ma'munid family , who came to rule their hometown of Gurganj , one of the three main cities of the country. The city had risen to rival Kath, most likely due to its commercial success as a trading post between the steppe and the Kievan Rus' . The Ma'munids and Afrighids eventually became rivals, with conflict soon ensuing. The Ma'munid Ma'mun I deposed and killed

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1312-414: The remains of the deceased was buried in niches carved in rock or in arched burial chambers, while the Khwarazmians used ossuaries , which was a survival of earlier doctrines. The Khwarazmians continued to bury their dead in ossuaries until the 3rd-century, when they were replaced with stone boxes, a sign of the expanding influence of orthodox Zoroastrianism from Iran. Contrary to the orthodox Zoroastrians,

1353-462: The rising rival family of Ma'munids . The main source on the Afrighids prior to Islam is also Al-Biruni. Part of the reason for the gap in information about this dynasty is mentioned by Al-Biruni. Al-Biruni states: When Qutaibah bin Moslem under the command of Al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf was sent to Khwarazmia with a military expedition and conquered it for the second time, he swiftly killed whoever wrote in

1394-511: The river Zarafshan ) and Uzbekistan, and the majority of the region was dry but fertile plains. Both cities remained centres of Persian culture and civilisation after the Islamic conquest of Iran , and played a crucial role in the revival of Persian culture with establishment of the Samanid Empire . Part of this region was conquered by Qutayba ibn Muslim between 706 and 715 and loosely held by

1435-543: The spread of Arabic elite culture, and, more paradoxically, of Persian "as a spoken and eventually written language" in the region. The Arab conquest also resulted in contacts with Tang China, where fragments of the Sasanian ruling elite, including Peroz III , had taken shelter after Iran's conquest by the Arabs. However, it did not result in Transoxania having major interactions with Chinese culture. Genghis Khan , founder of

1476-420: The subject of ineffective raids by the Arabs, who occasionally attacked from the neighbouring regions of Khurasan and Transoxiana . In 712, however, the Arab governor of Khurasan, Qutayba ibn Muslim , capilizated on the civil war between the shah Azkajwar II and his brother Khurrazad. Khwarazm was devastated, and Azkajwar II was killed. According to al-Biruni, the Arabs killed all Khwarazmian scholars who knew

1517-452: Was first coined by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC when Alexander's troops were able to conquer the region. The region may have had a similar Greek name in the days of Alexander the Great, but the earlier Greek name is no longer known. Geographically, it is the region between the rivers Amu Darya to its south and the Syr Darya to its north. The region of Transoxiana was one of

1558-474: Was forced to accept his demands, much to the dislike of the Khwarazmian nobles and military officers. This eventually resulted in a patriotic revolt, led by the commander-in-chief Alptigin, which led to the murder of Ma'mun II and accession of his nephew Abu'l-Harith Muhammad in March 1017. Ma'mun II was the brother-in-law of Mahmud, which afforded the latter a pretext to invade Khwarazm. The Ghaznavid army defeated

1599-472: Was in reality not well-acquainted with pre-Islamic Khwarazmian history. Coin findings show that before the advent of the Afrighids, Khwarazm was part of the Parthian Empire . The start of the Khwarazmian era seemingly took place in the early 1st-century, after they had freed themselves of Parthian rule, and established their own local dynasty of shahs. The dynastic name of "Afrighid" ( Khwarazmian : ʾfryḡ )

1640-677: Was ruled successively by Seleucids , the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom , the Parthian Empire and the Kushan Empire before Sassanid rule. In Sasanian times, the region became a major cultural center due to the wealth derived from the Northern Silk Road . Sassanid rule was interrupted by the Hephthalite invasion at the end of the 5th century and didn't return to the Sassanids until 565. Many Persian nobles and landlords escaped to this region after

1681-477: Was short-lived (995–1017), and they were in turn replaced by the expansionist Ghaznavids . The ancient Iranian kingdom of Khwarazm had been ruled until 995 by the old established line of Afrighids of Kath. Khwarazm, or the classical Chorasmia, was the well irrigated and rich agricultural region of lower Oxus . Surrounded on all sides by steppe land and desert, it was geographically isolated from other areas of civilization. This isolation allowed it to maintain

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