Saman Khuda
Saman Khuda (Saman Khoda, Saman-khudat; Persian: سامانخدا، سامانخدات) was an 8th-century nobleman and the eponymous ancestor of the Samanid Dynasty. He was a Dehqan from the village of Saman in Balkh province in present-day northern Afghanistan.[1]
Origins
[edit]His origins are disputed, with Iranian or Sogdian [2] roots suggested. The Samanids themselves later claimed Saman was a 4th or 5th generation descendant of the famed Sassanian general Bahram Chobin,[3][4] of the ancient House of Mihran.[5] He has been suggested to have been of Sogdian origin,[6] or from a Hephthalite princely background.[7]
In the early 8th century, he came to Merv, seat of the Caliphal governor of Khorasan, Asad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Qasri (ruled 723-727). Saman was originally a Zoroastrian.[8] However, he was impressed by the piety of al-Qasri and converted to Islam.[9] He named his son Asad, allegedly in the governor's honour.[10] He was also influenced by the teachings of the scholar Abu Hanifa.
Caliph al-Mamun (786-833) subsequently appointed Asad's four sons – Saman Khuda's grandsons – as governors of Samarkand, Ferghana, Shash and Ustrushana, and Herat in recognition of their role in the suppression of a revolt.[3] This began the House of Saman; Saman Khuda's great-grandson Isma'il ibn Ahmad (849-907) became Amir of Transoxiana and Khorasan.
Family tree
[edit]| Bahram Gushnasp | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mardansina | Unknown | Bahram Chobin | Gorduya | Gordiya | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Noshrad | Mihran Bahram-i Chubin | Shapur | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Siyavakhsh | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Toghmath | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jotman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Saman Khuda | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
References
[edit]- ^ Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual p. 162
- ^ Bosworth, C. E. (1963). The Ghaznavids: Their Empire in Afghanistan and Eastern Iran, 994–1040. Edinburgh University Press. OCLC 3601436.
- ^ a b Shamsiddin Kamoliddin, "To the Question of the Origin of the Samanids", Transoxiana 10 (July 2005).
- ^ Narshaki (trans. R. N. Frye), History of Bukhara, p. 79
- ^ R. N. Frye, The Golden Age of Persia, London: Butler & Tanner Ltd., 1996, p. 200.
- ^ Bosworth, C. E. (1963). The Ghaznavids: Their Empire in Afghanistan and Eastern Iran, 994–1040. Edinburgh University Press. p. 27. OCLC 3601436.
- ^ Herzig, Edmund; Stewart, Sarah Rosemary Anne (2012). Early Islamic Iran. The Idea of Iran. London New York New York: I.B. Tauris. pp. 5–6. ISBN 978-1-78076-061-2.
- ^ Dhalla, M. N. History of Zoroastrianism (1938) Part 6, Chapter XLIII
- ^ Mohammad Taher, Encyclopaedic Survey of Islamic Culture, p. 84
- ^ Bosworth, C.E. (1988). "BĀḎḠĪS". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica. Vol. III/4: Bačča(-ye) Saqqā–Bahai Faith III. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 370–372. ISBN 978-0-7100-9116-1.
Sources
[edit]- Frye, R.N. (1975). "The Sāmānids". In Frye, R.N. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 136–161. ISBN 0-521-20093-8.
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