Afshin (Persian General)
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Khaydār b. Kāvūs Afshīn known by his hereditary title as Afshin (Persian افشین, Arabized Haydar b. Kavus)[1], d. May-June 841, was a senior Persian general and a son of the vassal prince of Oshrūsana[2], in Shahristan[3], at the court of Abbasid caliphs.
The contemporary Arabic sources regard Afshin's rebellious acts as those of a protagonist of Iranian religious and imperial feeling, and as the expression of anti-Arab resentment for the loss of ancient Iranian political domination, feelings which were at this time finding a more harmless outlet on the literary level in the Shu'ubiyya movement.[1]
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[edit] Etymology
Afshin is a hereditary title of Oshrūsana princes at the time of the Muslim conquest of Iran.[1]. The term is an arabicized form of Pahlavi Pišīn, Avestan Pisinah-, an Iranian proper name of uncertain etymology.
[edit] Early Years
During the reign of the third Abbasid caliph Al-Mahdi (775-85) the Afshin of Oshrusana is mentioned among several Iranian rulers of Transoxania and the Central Asian steppes who submitted nominally to him.[4] But it was not until Harun al-Rashid's reign in 794-95 that Fazl b. Yahya Barmati led an expedition into Transoxania and received the submission of the ruling Akin known as Kharākana[5]. This Karākana had never previously humbled himself before any other potentate. Further expeditions were nevertheless sent to Oshrusana by Al-Ma'mun when he was governor in Marv and after he had become caliph. Kavus, son of the Afshin Karākana who had submitted to Fazl b. Yahya, withdrew his allegiance from the Arabs; but shortly after Ma'mun arrived in Baghdad from the east (817-18 or 819-20), a power struggle and dissensions broke out among the reigning family of Oshrusana.
According to most of the sources, al-Ma'mun's heir, Al-Mu'tasim not only made Afshin governor of Azarbaijan and seconded high-ranking officers to serve under him, but also ordered exceptionally large salaries, expense allowances, and rations for him[6]. In 831-833, he suppressed uprisings in Egypt from remote regions to Alexandria. On June 2, 832 the news was proclaimed of his great success in taking Bima in Egypt. It surrendered to Afshin's extension of al-Ma'mun's promise of safe conduct.
[edit] Afshin's Betrayal of Babak
See the main article: Babak Khorramdin
Caliph al-Mu'tasim appointed Afshin governor of Jibal and sent him against his compatriot, the freedome fighter Babak Khorramdin, in June 835. Babak was a Persian leader of the anti-Islamic and neo-Mazdakite movement of the Korramiya[1]. He was one of a series of such opponents to the Arab invaders of Iran. He in particular had been especially challenging for the occupiers' armies. That year Afshin met Babak in battle, defeated him and inflicted heavy losses. Babak escaped. The next year, Afshin avoided the traps Babak planned and instead surprised Babak, captured his camp and drove off his forces.
Afšhin brought up siege machinery and naphtha-throwers, and finally stormed Babak Castle in August 837. Ya'qubi (Tarikh II, 579) records Afshin freeing 7,600 Arab prisoners from this fortress, and he destroyed the castle. He wrote to the Armenian ruler advising him that Babak was heading his way. This was a highpoint of Afshin's career. and the caliph rewarded him richly, adding the governorship of Sind to his existing ones of Armenia and Azarbaijan province.[1]
[edit] Anatolian campaign
Afshin fought alongside Mo`tasem during his Anatolia campaign of 838, which reached as far as Amorium, commanding the right wing in the onslaught against this fortress[1].
As the two prongs entered Byzantine territory separated by a hundred and fifty miles, Theophilos (emperor) decided to hit one of the portions of the Muslim army, before the entire invasion force joined together. It was Afshin the emperor attacked. Afshin steadied his troops. His men met the Byzantines' full force as commanded by their emperor. Afshin's men held. He counter-attacked. This battle, on July 21, 838, was a decisive Muslim victory. Afshin triumphed. The emperor and his surviving soldiers withdrew in disorder. They did not interfere as Afshin continued on to Ankyra meeting up there with al-Mu'tasim.
From Ankara, the full Muslim force advanced on the Byzantine stronghold of Amorium. A Muslim captive escaped from that city and disclosed the weakness of a section of its walls. The caliph concentrated his bombardment on this section. A breach was made. Amorium was captured.
[edit] Downfall
Afshin's star began to decline, apparently as a result of jealousies which he had already shown against Abu Dolat- and `Abdallah b. Taher, governor of Khorasan and apparently regarded by Afshin as an upstart and a rival for power in Transoxania. He had begun intriguing with Maziar son of Qaren, an Iranaian prince and Spahbed of Tabarestan in the Caspian region. Afšin allegedly encouraged Māzyār in secret, in the hope that `Abdallāh b. Tāher would be deprived of his governorship and he Afšīn, would fall heir to it. Maziar rebellion was quashed in 839 and Afshin's position now became increasingly difficult, which caused Afshin to fall from favour. His situation was made worse by the finding of alleged correspondence between him and Maziar. Further, the Khurasanian governor, Abdallah ibn Tahir, alleged that he had intercepted some of Babak's wealth Afshin had obtained in that campaign and was seeking to transfer secretly to Afshin's lands in Oshrusana. When Mazyar arrived in Samarra, Afshin was arrested.
Maziar participated in the interrogation of the former general, asserting that Afshin had conspired with him. Others present raised additional questions concerning the sincerity of Afshin's conversion to Islam from Zoroastrianism. Afshin had answers to all the allegations. He claimed that Zoroastrian artefacts and books in his possession were family heirlooms from before he had become Muslim. He explained that when he punished a pair of Muslim fanatics destroying idols in Ushrusanah he was exercising reasonable leadership aimed at maintaining the harmony of his religiously diverse territory. He told his detractors that the formulaic address his people used in writing to him in Persian as "Lord of lords," was simply a tradition and did not invalidate his personal belief in one God.[7]
All such replies were unsuccessful. Al-Mu'tasim had a special prison built for Afshin. It was known as "The Pearl" and was in the shape of a minaret. There he spent the final nine months of his life and there he passed away in May-June of 841.
[edit] References and notes
- ^ a b c d e f C. E. Bosworth, Afshin, (LINK)
- ^ Gh. H. Yousefi, Babak Khorrami, The Persian Hero, (LINK); accessed March 14, 2007.
- ^ Boris Y. Stavisky, Once More About Peculiarities of the Sogdian Civilization of the 4th-10th Centuries, (LINK)
- ^ Ya`qubi, II, p.479.
- ^ whose name, by inference from Tabari, III, p. 1066, was something like Kharākana; according to Gardīzī led. Habibi, p. 130
- ^ Gh. H. Yousefi, Babak Khorrami, The Persian Hero, (LINK); accessed March 14, 2007.
- ^ Tabari v. 33, p. 187f.
[edit] Bibliography
- C. E. Bosworth, "Afshin" (LINK).
- Tabari History v. 32 "The Reunification of the Abbasid Caliphate," SUNY, Albany, 1987; v. 33 "Storm and Stress along the Northern Frontiers of the Abbasid Caliphate," transl. C.E. Bosworth, SUNY, Albany, 1991
- John Bagot Glubb, The Empire of the Arabs, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1963
