Afshin (Caliphate General)

Khaydār b. Kāvūs Afshīn known by his hereditary title as Afshin (Persian: افشین, Arabized Haydar b. Kavus) was a senior general at the court of Abbasid caliphs and a son of the vassal prince of Oshrūsana.[1][2]

Contents

Name and family background

Further information: Afshin

Afshin is a hereditary title of Oshrusana princes at the time of the Muslim conquest of Persia.[2] The term is an Arabicized form of the Middle Persian Pishin and Avestan Pisinah, a proper name of uncerain etymology.[2] Minorsky suggests that the title Afshin was of Sogdian origin.[3]

During the time when the first Arab invasion of the country of Oshrusana took place under Qutayba ibn Muslim (94-5/712-14), Ushrusana was inhabited by an Iranian population,[1] ruled by its own princes who bore the traditional title of Afshin.[4]

Afshin is generally considered an Iranian,[1][5][6][7][8][9] and although two classical sources( and some authors) have called him a Turk,[9][10] he came from an Iranian cultural region[1][9] and was not usually considered Turkish.[9] The confusion comes from the fact that the term “Turk” was used loosely by Arab writers of the time to denote the new troops of the caliph despite the inclusion among them some elements of Iranian origin, including Ferghana and Oshrusana.[9][11][12]

Early years

According to Yaqubi, during the reign of the third Abbasid caliph Al-Mahdi (775-85), Afshin of Oshrusana was mentioned among several Iranian and Turkish rulers of Transoxania and the Central Asian steppes who submitted nominally to him.[2] But it was not until Harun al-Rashid's reign in 794-95 that al-Fadl b. Yahya al-Barmaki led an expedition into Transoxania and received the submission of the ruling Akin known as Kharākana.[13] 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.[14] 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.

Afshin and Babak

Main article: Babak Khorramdin

In 835, Caliph al-Mu'tasim appointed Afshin as a governor of Azerbaijan[15] to fight against Babak Khorramdin, leader of anti-Islamic neo-Mazdakite Persian movement of the Khurramites.[2]

After a fierce resistance by Babak's army, Afshin eventually defeated it and captured Babak's castle of Bazz in August 837. Ya'qubi (Tarikh II, 579) records Afshin freeing 7,600 Arab prisoners from this fortress, and he destroyed the castle.[2] The Khurramite leader escaped to hiding under the protection of local Christian prince Sahl ibn-Sunbat[16] who later turned him in to Afshin. In return to Afshin'a achievements, caliph rewarded him governorship of Sind in addition to that of Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Anatolian campaign

Main article: Sack of Amorium

Afshin fought alongside Mo`tasem during his campaign of 838 against the Byzantine Empire, which reached as far as Amorium, commanding the right wing in the onslaught against this fortress.[2]

As the two prongs entered Byzantine territory separated by a hundred and fifty miles, Byzantine emperor Theophilos decided to hit one of the portions of the Muslim army, before the entire invasion force joined together. It was Afshin the emperor attacked, on 21 July 838. The ensuing battle was a decisive Muslim victory. Although the Byzantines initially held the upper hand, the effect of the Turkic horse-archers and an erroneous belief that Theophilos had been killed demoralized the Byzantine army, which broke and fled. The emperor and his surviving soldiers withdrew in disorder. They did not interfere as Afshin continued on to Ancyra, where he linked up with al-Mu'tasim.

From Ancyra, 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 there and Amorium was captured.

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 Iranian 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.[17]

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 died in May–June 841.

References and notes

  1. ^ a b c d C. Edmund Bosworth(2005), "OSRUŠANA " in Encyclopaedia Iranica. Accessed November 2010 [1] "At the time of the Arab incursions into Transoxania, Osrušana had its own line of Iranian princes, the Afšins (Ebn Ḵordāḏbeh, p. 40), of whom the most famous was the general of the caliph Moʿtaṣem (q.v. 833-42), the Afšin Ḵayḏar or Ḥaydar b. Kāvus (d. 841; see AFŠIN)", "The region was little urbanized, and it long preserved its ancient Iranian feudal and patriarchal society. "
  2. ^ a b c d e f g C.E. Bosworth. "Afshin". Encyclopedia Iranica. http://www.iranica.com/articles/afsin-princely-title. "During the reign of the caliph Mahdi (158-69/775-85) the Afshin of Oshrusana is mentioned among several Iranian and Turkish rulers of Transoxania and the Central Asian steppes who submitted nominally to him (Yaqubi, II, p. 479)" 
  3. ^ V. Minorsky, Studies in Caucasian history, Cambridge University Press, 1957, (footnote on page 111).
  4. ^ Kramers, J.H. "Usrūshana." Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman , Th. Bianquis , C.E. Bosworth , E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2007
  5. ^ Lewis,Bernard. "The Political Language of Islam", Published by University of Chicago Press, 1991. excerpt from pg 482: "Babak's Iranianizing Rebellion in Azerbaijan gave occasion for sentiments at the capital to harden against men who were sympathetic to the more explicitly Iranian tradition. Victor (837) over Babak was al-Afshin, who was the hereditary Persian ruler of a district beyond the Oxus, but also a masterful general for the caliph."
  6. ^ Clifford Edmund Bosworth (Translator with Commentary), The History of al-Tabari Vol. 33 "Storm and Stress along the Northern Frontiers of the 'Abbasid Caliphate: The Caliphate of al-Mu'tasim A.D. 833-842/A.H. 218-227", SUNY Press, 1991. Footenote 176 on pg 59: "Abu Dulaf's contigent of volunteers from lower Iraq would be mainly Arabs, and there seems in fact to have been hostility between him, as a representative of Arab influence at the caliphate court, and the Iranian Al-Afshin"
  7. ^ P.B. Golden, "Khazar Turkic Ghulams in Caliphal Service", Journial Asiatique, 2004, vol. 292. pg 292:Some of the soldiers were slaves, others, such as al-Afshin, the scion of a ruling Central Asian (Ustrushana/Ushrusana) Iranian family, clearly were not".
  8. ^ Mottahedeh, Roy, "The Abbassid Caliphate in Iran", Cambridge History of Iran, IV, ed. R.N. Frye, 57-89. 1975 pg 75:" Al Mu'atism chose for this task the Afshin, the Iranian king of Ushrusuna".
  9. ^ a b c d e D. Pipes. Turks in Early Muslim Service — JTS, 1978, 2, 85—96. excerpt:"Although two classical sources claim him a Turk, he came from Farghana, an Iranian cultural region and was not usually considered Turkish"
  10. ^ Sourdel, D. "The Abbasid Caliphate." Pages 104-39 in P.M. Holt, Ann K.S. Lambton, and Bernard Lewis (eds.), The Cambridge History of Islam, I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970. Quote from Pg 125: "and finally of Mazyar, a local chieftain of Tabaristan, against whom the caliph sent the Turkish general Afshin, the conqueror of Babak"
  11. ^ M.A. Shaban, “Islamic History”, Cambridge University Press, v.2 1978. Page 63:"These new troops were the so-called “Turks”. It must be said without hesitation that this is the most misleading misnomer which has led some scholars to harp ad nauseam on utterly unfounded interpretation of the following era, during which they unreasonably ascribe all events to Turkish domination. In fact the great majority of these troops were not Turks. It has been frequently pointed out that Arabic sources use the term Turk in a very loose manner. The Hephthalites are referred to as Turks, so are the peoples of Gurgan, Khwarizm and Sistan. Indeed, with the exception of the Soghdians, Arabic sources refer to all peoples not subjects of the Sassanian empire as Turks. In Samarra separate quarters were provided for new recruits from every locality. The group from Farghana were called after their district, and the name continued in usage because it was easy to pronounce. But such groups as the Ishtakhanjiyya, the Isbijabbiya and groups from similar localities who were in small numbers at first, were lumped together under the general term Turks, because of the obvious difficulties the Arabs had in pronouncing such foreign names. The Khazars who also came from small localities which could not even be identified, as they were mostly nomads, were perhaps the only group that deserved to be called Turks on the ground of racial affinity. However, other groups from Transcaucasia were classed together with the Khazars under the general description."
  12. ^ ʻUthmān Sayyid Aḥmad Ismāʻīl Bīlī, "Prelude to the Generals", Published by Garnet & Ithaca Press, 2001. pg 47:"The name Turk was given to all these troops, despite the inclusion amongst them of some elements of Iranian origin, Ferghana, Ushrusana, and Shash – places were in fact the centers were the slave material was collected together....Judging from the specific names of their origin, Soghd, Farghana, Urshusuna, Shahs, the majority of them might have been of Iranian origin"
  13. ^ whose name, by inference from Tabari, III, p. 1066, was something like Kharākana; according to Gardīzī led. Habibi, p. 130
  14. ^ Encyclopedia Iranica, "Babak Khorrami" by G.H. Yusofi
  15. ^ Daftary, F. (1998) "2" in Asimov, M.S.; Bosworth, C.E. Sectarian and national movements in Iran, Khurasan and Transoxania during Umayyad and early Abbasid times [History of Civilizations of Central Asia: Age of Achievement, 8750 Ad to the End of the 15th Century] UNESCO p. 50 ISBN 9231034677 http://books.google.com/books?id=18eABeokpjEC&pg=PA50 
  16. ^ Dowsett, C.J.F. (1957). "A Neglected Passage in the "History of the Caucasian Albanians". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) 19 (3): 463. "Among the prisoners captured by Bogha al-Kabir in 854, John Catholicos and Tovma Arcruni mention three Albanian princes: Atrnerseh, lord of Khachen, Sahl ibn-Sunbat, lord of Shake, Esay Abu Musa, lord of Ktish in Artsakh." 
  17. ^ Tabari v. 33, p. 187f.

Bibliography

See also