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KhorasanDabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 (; , ) is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau in West Asia and Central Asia that encompasses western and northern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, the eastern halves of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, and portions of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
The extent of the region referred to as Khorasan varied over time. In its stricter historical sense, it comprised the present territories of northeastern Iran, parts of Afghanistan and southern parts of Central Asia, extending as far as the Amu Darya (Oxus) river. However, the name has often been used in a loose sense to include a wider region that included most of Transoxiana (encompassing Bukhara and Samarqand in present-day Uzbekistan), extended westward to the Caspian Sea coast and to the Dasht-e Kavir southward to Sistan, (1986). 9789004078192, Brill u.a.. ISBN 9789004078192 and eastward to the Pamir Mountains. Greater Khorasan is today sometimes used to distinguish the larger historical region from the former Khorasan Province of Iran (1906–2004), which roughly encompassed the western portion of the historical Greater Khorasan.
The name Khorāsān is Persian language (from Middle Persian Xwarāsān, sp. xwlʾsʾn', meaning "where the sun arrives from" or "the Eastern Province").Sykes, M. (1914). "Khorasan: The Eastern Province of Persia". Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, 62(3196), 279–286.A compound of khwar (meaning "sun") and āsān (from āyān, literally meaning "to come" or "coming" or "about to come"). Thus the name Khorasan (or Khorāyān rtl=yes) means "sunrise", viz. ", East". Humbach, Helmut, and Djelani Davari, "Nāmé Xorāsān" , Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz; Persian translation by Djelani Davari, published in Iranian Languages Studies Website. MacKenzie, D. (1971). A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary (p. 95). London: Oxford University Press. The Persian word Khāvar-zamīn (), meaning "the eastern land", has also been used as an equivalent term. DehKhoda, "Lughat Nameh DehKhoda" The name was first given to the eastern province of Ancient Persia during the Sasanian Empire and was used from the late Middle Ages in distinction to neighbouring Transoxiana.Svat Soucek, A History of Inner Asia, Cambridge University Press, 2000, p.4C. Edmund Bosworth, (2002), 'Central Asia iv. In the Islamic Period up to the Mongols' Encyclopaedia Iranica (online)C. Edmund Bosworth, (2011), 'Mā Warāʾ Al-Nahr' Encyclopaedia Iranica (online) The Sassanian name Xwarāsān has in turn been argued to be a calque of the Bactrian name of the region, Miirosan (Bactrian spelling: μιιροσανο, μιροσανο, earlier μιυροασανο), which had the same meaning 'sunrise, east' (corresponding to a hypothetical Proto-Iranian form *miθrāsāna;Gholami, Saloumeh (2010), Selected Features of Bactrian Grammar (PhD thesis), University of Göttingen, p.25, 59 see Mithra, Bactrian μιυρο mihr,Sims-Williams, N. "Bactrian Language". Encyclopaedia Iranica. for the relevant solar deity). The province was often subdivided into four quarters, such that Nishapur (present-day Iran), Merv (present-day Turkmenistan), Herat and Balkh (present-day Afghanistan) were the centers, respectively, of the westernmost, northernmost, central, and easternmost quarters.Minorsky, V. (1938). "Geographical Factors in Persian Art". Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, 9(3), 621–652.
Khorasan was first established as an administrative division in the 6th century (approximately after 520) by the Sasanians, during the reign of Kavad I () or Khosrow I (), and comprised the eastern and northeastern parts of the empire. The use of Bactrian Miirosan 'the east' as an administrative designation under Alchon Huns rulers in the same region is possibly the forerunner of the Sasanian administrative division of Khurasan, occurring after their takeover of Hephthalites territories south of the Oxus. The transformation of the term and its identification with a larger region is thus a development of the late Sasanian and early Islamic periods. Early Islamic usage often regarded everywhere east of Jibal or what was subsequently termed Persian Iraq, as being included in a vast and loosely defined region of Khorasan, which might even extend to the Indus Valley and the Pamir Mountains. The boundary between these two was the region surrounding the cities of Gurgan and Qumis. In particular, the Ghaznavids, Seljuq dynasty and Timurid dynasty divided their empires into Iraqi and Khorasani regions. Khorasan is believed to have been bounded in the southwest by desert and the town of Tabas, known as "the Gate of Khorasan",Sykes, P. (1906). A Fifth Journey in Persia (Continued). The Geographical Journal, 28(6), 560–587. from which it extended eastward to the Hindu Kush. Sources from the 10th century onwards refer to areas in the south of the Hindu Kush as the Khorasan Marches, forming a frontier region between Khorasan and Hindustan.
With the rise of the Umayyad Caliphate, the designation was inherited and likewise stretched as far as their military gains in the east, starting off with the military installations at Nishapur and Merv, slowly expanding eastwards into Tukharistan and Sogdia. Under the Caliphate, Khorasan was the name of one of the three political zones under their dominion (the other two being Eraq-e Arab "Arabic Iraq" and Eraq-e Ajam "Non-Arabic Iraq or Persian Iraq"). Under the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates, Khorasan was divided into four major sections or quarters ( rub′), each section based on a single major city: Nishapur, Merv, Herat and Balkh. DehKhoda, "Lughat Nameh DehKhoda" By the 10th century, Ibn Khordadbeh and the Hudud al-'Alam mentions what roughly encompasses the previous regions of Abarshahr, Tokharistan and Sogdia as Khwarasan proper. They further report the southern part of the Hindu Kush, i.e. the regions of Sistan, Rukhkhaj, Zabulistan and Kabul etc. to make up the Khorasan marches, a frontier region between Khorasan and Hindustan. showing the names of territories during the Persian Safavid dynasty and Mughal Empire of India ( 1500–1747)]]By the late Middle Ages, the term lost its administrative significance, in the west only being loosely applied among the Turko-Persian dynasties of modern Iran to all its territories that lay east and north-east of the Dasht-e Kavir desert. It was therefore subjected to constant change, as the size of their empires changed. In the east, Khwarasan likewise became a term associated with the great urban centers of Central Asia. It is mentioned in the Baburnama (from the 1580s) that:
In modern times, the term has been source of great nostalgia and nationalism, especially amongst the Tajiks of Central Asia. Many Tajiks regard Khorasan as an integral part of their national identity, which has preserved an interest in the term, including its meaning and cultural significance, both in common discussion and academia, despite its falling out of political use in the region.Шакурӣ, Муҳаммадҷон (1996; 2005). Хуросон аст инҷо, Dushanbe; Shakūrī, Muḥammad (1393), Khurāsān ast īn jā, Tehran: Fartāb; According to Afghan historian Ghulam Mohammad Ghobar (1897–1978), Afghanistan's current Persian-speaking territories formed the major portion of Khorasān,Ghubar, Mir Ghulam Mohammad (1937). Khorasan, Kabul Printing House. Kabul, Afghanistan. as two of the four main capitals of Khorasān (Herat and Balkh) are now located in Afghanistan. Ghobar uses the terms "Proper Khorasan" and " Improper Khorasan" in his book to distinguish between the usage of Khorasān in its strict sense and its usage in a loose sense. According to him, Proper Khorasan contained regions lying between Balkh in the east, Merv in the north, Sistan in the south, Nishapur in the west and Herat, known as the Pearl of Khorasan, in the center. Improper Khorasan's boundaries extended to as far as Hazarajat and Kabul in the east, Baluchistan in the south, Transoxiana and Khwarezm in the north, and Damghan and Gorgan in the west. in 750]]
In the Sasanian era, Khorasan was further divided into four smaller regions, and each region was ruled by a marzban. These four regions were Nishapur, Marv, Herat and Balkh.
Khorasan in the east saw some conflict with the who became the new rulers in the area but the borders remained stable. Being the eastern parts of the Sassanids and further away from Arabia, Khorasan region was conquered after the remaining Persia. 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 Arab Muslims in 647 AD. Like other provinces of Persia it became a province of the Umayyad Caliphate.The Muslim Conquest of Persia By A.I. Akram. Ch:17 ISBN 0-19-597713-0
Abu Muslim helped the come to power but was later killed by Al-Mansur, an Abbasid Caliph. The first kingdom independent 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. Tahir had helped the Caliph subdue other nationalistic movements in other parts of Persia such as Mazyar's movement in Tabaristan.
Other major independent dynasties who ruled over Khorasan were the Saffarid dynasty from Zaranj (861–1003), Samanids from Bukhara (875–999), Ghaznavids from Ghazni (963–1167), Seljuq dynasty (1037–1194), Khwarezmids (1077–1231), Ghurid dynasty (1149–1212), and Timurid dynasty (1370–1506). In 1221, Genghis Khan's son Tolui oversaw the Mongol Empire subjugation of Khorasan, carrying out the task "with a thoroughness from which that region has never recovered." Cambridge History of Iran, Vol. V, Ch. 4, "Dynastic and Political History of the Il-Khans" (John Andrew Boyle), p.312 (1968).
Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth century, the majority of Islamic archaeological efforts were focused on the medieval era, predominantly in areas near what is today Central Asia.
In 724, immediately after the rise of Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 724–743) to the throne, Asad's brother Khalid al-Qasri was appointed to the important post of governor of Iraq, with responsibility over the entire Islamic East, which he held until 738. Khalid in turn named Asad as governor of Khorasan. The two brothers thus became, according to Patricia Crone, "among the most prominent men of the Marwanid period". Asad's arrival in Khorasan found the province in peril: his predecessor, Muslim ibn Sa'id al-Kilabi, had just attempted a campaign against Ferghana Valley and suffered a major defeat, the so-called "Day of Thirst", at the hands of the Turgesh Turkic peoples and the principalities of Transoxiana that had risen up against Muslim rule.
From the early days of the Muslim conquests, Arab armies were divided into regiments drawn from individual tribes or tribal confederations ( butun or ‘asha‘ir). Despite the fact that many of these groupings were recent creations, created for reasons of military efficiency rather than any common ancestry, they soon developed a strong and distinct identity. By the beginning of the Umayyad period, this system progressed to the formation of ever-larger super-groupings, culminating in the two super-groups: the northern Arab Mudaris or , and the south Arabs or "Yemenis" ( Yaman), dominated by the Azd and Rabi'ah tribes. By the 8th century, this division had become firmly established across the Caliphate and was a source of constant internal instability, as the two groups formed in essence two rival political parties, jockeying for power and separated by a fierce hatred for each other. During Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik's reign, the Umayyad government appointed Mudaris as governors in Khorasan, except for Asad ibn Abdallah al-Qasri's tenure in 735–738. Nasr's appointment came four months after Asad's death. In the interim, the sources report variously that the province was run either by the Bilad al-Sham general Ja'far ibn Hanzala al-Bahrani or by Asad's lieutenant Juday' al-Kirmani. At any rate, the sources agree that al-Kirmani stood at the time as the most prominent man in Khorasan and should have been the clear choice for governor. His Yemeni roots (he was the leader of the Azd in Khorasan), however, made him unpalatable to the Caliph.
Until the devastating Mongol invasion of the 13th century, Khorasan remained the cultural capital of Persia.Lorentz, J. Historical Dictionary of Iran. 1995 ; Shukurov, Sharif. Хорасан. Территория искусства, Moscow: Progress-Traditsiya, 2016. It has produced scientists such as Avicenna, Al-Farabi, Al-Biruni, Omar Khayyam, Al-Khwarizmi, Abu Ma'shar al-Balkhi (known as Albumasar or Albuxar in the west), Alfraganus, Abu Wafa, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Sharaf al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, and many others who are widely well known for their significant contributions in various domains such as mathematics, astronomy, medicine, physics, geography, and geology.Starr, S. Frederick, Lost Enlightenment. Central Asia's golden age from the Arab conquest to Tamerlane, Princeton University Press (2013)
There have been many archaeological sites throughout Khorasan, however many of these expeditions were illegal or committed in the sole pursuit of profit, leaving many sites without documentation or record.Petersen, A. (2014). Islamic Archaeology. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY.
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