Everything about Greater Khorasan totally explained
Greater Khorasan (also written
Khorasaan,
Khurasan and
Khurasaan) is a modern term for eastern territories of ancient
Persia since the 3. century A.D..
Khorasan is a
Pahlavi and
Avestan (Khurshid; -sân) word which means
"the land of sunrise". Greater Khorasan included territories that presently are part of
Afghanistan,
Iran,
Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, and
Uzbekistan.
Greater Khorasan contained mostly
Nishapur and
Tus (now in Iran),
Herat,
Balkh,
Kabul and
Ghazni (now in Afghanistan),
Merv and
Sanjan (now in Turkmenistan),
Samarqand and
Bukhara (both now in
Uzbekistan),
Khujand and
Panjakent (now in Tajikistan).
These days, the adjective
greater is partly used to distinguish it from
Khorasan province, in modern-day
Iran, that forms western parts of these territories, roughly half in area . It is also used to indicate that Greater Khorasan encompasses territories that were perhaps called by some other popular name when they were individually referred to. For example
Transoxiana (covered Uzbekistan and Tajikistan),
Bactria,
Kabulistan
,
Khwarezm (containing Samarkand and Bukhara)
.
Until the devastating
Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century, Khorasan was considered the cultural capital of Persia. (Lorentz 1995)
Geographical Distribution
According to Mir Ghulam Mohammad, Afghanistan's current territories formed the major part of Khorasan while other sources say otherwise. According to these latter sources, Khorasan province of Iran roughly comprises half of Greater Khorasan. Khorasan's boundaries have varied greatly during ages. The term was loosely applied to all territories of Persia that lay east and north east of
Dasht-e Kavir and therefore were subjected to change as the size of empire changed.
In the
Middle Ages,
Persian Iraq and
Khorasan were the two most important parts of the territory of
Greater Iran. The dividing region between these two was mostly along with
Gurgan and
Damaghan cities. Especially the
Ghaznavids,
Seljuqs and
Timurids, divided their Empire to Iraqi and Khorasani regions. This point can be observed in many books such as
"Tārīkhi Bayhaqī" of
Abul Fazl Bayhqi,
Faza'ilul al-anam min rasa'ili hujjat al-Islam (a collection of letters of
Al-Ghazali) and other books.
Ghulam Mohammad Ghubar, an ethnic
Tajik scholar and historian from Afghanistan, talks of
Proper Khorasan and
Improper Khorasan in his book titled "Khorasan". According to him, Proper Khorasan contained regions lying between Balkh (in the East), Merv (in the North),
Sijistan (in the South), Nishapur (in the West) and Herat, known as
The Pearl of Khorasan, in the center. While Improper Khorasan's boundaries extended to Kabul and Ghazni in the East,
Sistan and
Zabulistan in the South, Transoxiana and Khwarezm in the North and
Damaghan and
Gurgan in the West.
In
Memoirs of Babur, it's mentioned that Indians called non-Hindustanis (non-Indians) as Khorasanis. Regarding the boundary of
Hindustan and Khorasan, it's written:
"On the road between Hindustān and Khorasān, there are two great marts: the one Kābul, the other Kandahār." 1
Thus, Improper Khorasan bordered Hindustan (old
India).
Historical overview
Greater Khorasan is one of the regions of
Greater Iran. Before being conquered by
Alexander the Great in 330 BC, it was part of the
Achaemenid Persian Empire. In 1st century AD, the eastern regions of greater Khorasan fell into the hands of the
Kushan empire. The Kushans introduced Buddhist culture to these regions, as numerous Kushanian temples and buried cities with treasures in the northern and central areas of Khurasan (nowadays mainly Afghanistan) have been found. However the western parts of Greater Khorasan remained predominantly Zoroastrian as one of the three great fire-temples of the Sassanids "Azar-burzin Mehr" is situated in the western regions of Khorasan, near Sabzevar in Iran. The boundary was pushed to the west towards the Persian Empire by the Kushans. The boundary kept changing until the demise of the
Kushan Empire where
Sassanids took control of the entire region. In
Sassanid era,
Persian empire was divided into four quarters, "Xwawaran" meaning
west, apAxtar meaning
north, Nīmrūz meaning
south and Xurasan (Khorasan) meaning
east. The Eastern regions saw some conflict with
Hephthalites, but the borders remained much stable afterwards until the Muslim invasion.
Being the eastern parts of the
Sassanid empire and further away from Arabia, Khorasan quarter was conquered in the later stages of Muslim invasions. In fact the last Sassanid king of Persia, Yazdgerd III, moved the throne to Khorasan following the Arab invasion in the western parts of the empire. After the assassination of the king, Khorasan was conquered by the Islamic troops in 647. Like other provinces of Persia it became one of the provinces of
Umayad dynasty.
The first liberal movement against the Arab invasions was led by
Abu Muslim Khorasani between 747 and 750. He helped the
Abbasids come to power but was later killed by Al-Mansur, an Abbasid Caliph. The first independent kingdom from Arab rule was established in Khorasan by
Tahir Phoshanji in 821. But it seems that it was more a matter of political and territorial gain. In fact Tahir had helped the Caliph subdue other nationalistic movements in other parts of Persia such as
Maziar's movement in
Tabaristan.
The first dynasty in Khorasan, after the introduction of Islam, whose rulers considered themselves
Iranian was the
Saffarid dynasty (861-1003). Other grand Iranian dynasties were
Samanids (875-999),
Ghaznavids (962-1187),
Ghurids (1149-1212),
Seljukids (1037-1194),
Khwarezmids (1077-1231) and
Timurids (1370-1506). It should be mentioned that some of these dynasties were not Persian by ethnicity, nonetheless they were the advocates of
Persian language and were praised by the poets as the kings of
Iran.
Among them, the periods of
Ghaznavids of
Ghazni and
Timurids of
Herat are considered as one of the most brilliant eras of Khorasan's history. During these periods, there was a great cultural awakening. Many famous Persian poets, scientists and scholars lived in this period. Numerous valuable works in
Persian literature were written.
Nishapur,
Herat,
Ghazni and
Merv were the centers of all these cultural developments.
Most of the Khorasani regions were then parts of the
Moghul Empire between 1506 and 1707. For Moghuls, Khorasan was always a region with great importance.
Khurasan in the Hadiths and prophecies of Mohammad
The prophet of
Islam,
Muhammad, mentioned the country Khurasan many times concerned to the Islamic/divine prophecies over the future.
In the country Khurasan in Taluqan (northern Afghanistan) that at that place are treasures of Allah, but these are not of gold and silver but consist of people who have recognised Allah as they should have. (Al-Muttaqi al-Hindi, Al-Burhan fi Alamat al-Mahdi Akhir al-zaman, p.59)
Abd Allah ibn al-Harith ibn Juz al-Zubaydi said, The Prophet said: "A people will come out of the East who will pave the way for the Mahdi." (Ibn Majah) From Khurasan will emerge black flags, whom none will be able to turn back (and they, the flag bearers, will continue moving forward) till they reach Illya (Jerusalem) and embed their flags into its earth. (Tirmizi) In the era preceding Qyamah the Christians will control/govern the whole world. The Christians will reach
Khaybar (Place in present day
Saudi close to
Madina. (Hadith quoted in Bab-al-Qeyamah by Muhaddith Shah Rafee-ud-din)".
Prophet Mohammad: "Before your treasure, three will kill each other -- all of them are sons of a different caliph but none will be the recipient. Then the Black Banners will appear from the East and that'll kill you in a way that has never before been done by a nation." Thawban, a companion said: 'Then he said something that I don't remember by heart' then continued to say that the Prophet, praise and peace be upon him, said: "If you see him give him your allegiance, even if you've to crawl over ice, because surely he's the Caliph of Allah, the Mahdi. If you see the black flags coming from Khurasan, join that army, even if you've to crawl over ice, for this is the army of the Caliph, the Mahdi and no one can stop that army until it reaches
Jerusalem."
Related by Abu Hurayrah: Prophet Mohammad said: "(Armies carrying) black flags will come from Khurasan (Afghanistan). No power will be able to stop them and that'll finally reach Jerusalem where that'll erect their flags." (Tirmidhi)
On the authority of Thawbaan, the Messenger of Allah said:
"If you see the Black Banners coming from Khurasan go to them immediately, even if you must crawl over ice, because indeed amongst them is the Caliph, Al Mahdi." [Narratedon authority of Ibn Majah, Al-Hakim, Ahmad]
Amr ibn Hurayth quoted AbuBakr as-Siddiq as saying that Allah's Messenger told them the
Dajjal would come forth from a land in the East called Khurasan, followed by people whose faces resembled shields covered with skin.
References and footnotes
- Lorentz, J. Historical Dictionary of Iran. 1995 ISBN 0-8108-2994-0
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