The Samanids

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CHAPTER 4THE SAMANIDS

The original home of the Samanids is uncertain, for some Arabic andPersian books claim that the name was derived from a village nearSamarqand, while others assert it was a village near Balkh or Tirmidh.1The latter is a shade more probable since the earliest appearance of theSamanid family in the sources seems to be in Khurasan rather than inTransoxiana. In some sources the Samanids claimed to be descendedfrom the noble Sasanian family of Bahram Chubin, whereas one authorclaimed that they were of Tur kish origin and. belonged to the Oghuztribe, which is most unlikely, but conceivably may be a later attemptto link them t o a Hephthalite or Turkish origin.2 All traditions relatingto the origin of the dynasty, however, have it that Saman acceptedIslam from Asad b. cAbd-Allah al-Qasri (or Qushairl), governor ofKhurasan 105-9/723-7, for subsequently Saman named his son Asadafter the governor. We hear no more of Asad until the time of al-Ma'mun, when his governor of Khurasan, Ghassan b . 'Abbad, re-warded the four sons of Asad for their support of al-Ma'mun against arebel Rar? b. Laith. Th is was abo ut the year 204/819, and the four sonsof Asad were appointed over the following cities: Nuh - Samarqand,Ahmad - Farghana, Yahya - Shash and Ilyas - Herat. This assignmentof rule to the sons of Asad marked the beginning of Samanid power inTransoxiana, for the line of Ilyas in Herat did not fare as well as did hisbrothers in the north. Ilyas died in 242/856 and his son Ibrahim tookhis place in Herat. Afterwards Ibrahim was called by Muhammad b .Tahir, governor of Khurasan, to become his army commander, but heunsuccessfully fought against the Kharijites in Sistan. When Ya'qub b.Laith besieged Herat, the Tahirid governor sent Ilyas against Ya'qub.A t a battle near Fushanj (or Pushang) in 253/867 Ilyas was defeated byYa'qiib and fled to Nishapur, where he later surrendered to Ya'quband was taken as a captive by him to Sistan.

In Transoxiana, at the death of Nuh (227/841-2), the governor ofKhurasan appointed both of Nuh's brothers, Yahya and Ahmad, over1 Yaqut , Mu'jam al-bulddn, p. 13.2 Muhammad Lari , Persian ms. Univ. of Is tanbul F 725, fol. 234a.

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THE SAMANIDSthe city of Samarqand, but Ahmad (d. 250/864-5) survived his brother(d. 241/85 5) and transmitted power to one son Nasr in Samarqand, andto another son, Ya'qub in Shash, who ruled there a long time. We donot know exactly what happened between Yahya and Ahmad, and whythe line of Ahmad replaced that of his brother Yahya. Perhaps Yahyasurrendered power to his more energetic brother Ahmad, who ruledmost of Transoxiana, other than the oasis of Bukhara and Khwarazm,while Yahya remained only a figurehead ruler in Samarqand. It issignificant that no coins of Yahya have been found whereas coppercoins {fals) of Ahmad begin in 244/858-9 in Samarqand. (The right ofthe Samanids to strike silver coins, dirhams, did not exist before Nasrb . Ahmad, c. 273/886.) With the breakdown of the authority of theTahirid governors of Khurasan and the victories of Ya'qub b. Laith,Nasr b. Ahmad found himself the virtually independent ruler ofTransoxiana with his capital in Samarqand. He consolidated his powerby sending his brother Isma'Il to Bukhara which was in a chaotic statein the vacuum left by the fall of the Tahirids. Khwarazmian troops hadraided and pillaged the town so Isma'Il was welcomed by the peoplew ho supported him from the outset as the restorer of order. It was no tlong before disagreem ent ov er the allocation of tax mo ney caused strifebetween Isma'Il and his brother Nasr. The story of the conflict betweenthe two, and the victory of Isma'Il, is related by Narshakhi, as well asby other sources. Although Isma'Il was the victor in the fratricidalstruggle, he did not move to Samarqand but made Bukhara the newcentre of the Samanid state.

Th e Samanid state had received recog nition in the year 261/875 w henthe caliph al-Mu'tamid sent the investiture for all of Transoxiana toNasr b. Ahmad, in opposition to the claims of Ya'qub b. Laith theSaffarid. Even after the victory of Isma'Il, in the eyes of the caliph N asrwas still the legal ruler of Transoxiana rather than his brother Isma'Il,and this legality Isma'Il recognized until the death of Nasr in Jumada I279/August 892.

Meanwhile, Ya'qub b. Laith had also died and was followed by hisbrother 'Amr, who considered himself the heir of the Tahirids, hencedejure ruler of Transoxiana, as well as Khurasan and other parts of Iran.'Amr persuaded the caliph to send him the investiture for Transoxiana,and this was done possibly with the hope that the Saffarids andSamanids would destroy each other. Isma'Il was victorious, and if thestories about 'Amr's defeat are to be believed, he was captured by



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THE SAMANIDSIsmail 's troops near Balkh without a skirmish. In any case 'Amr wascaptured and sent as a prisoner to Baghdad where the caliph orderedhis execution. The date of the victory of Isma'il over 'Amr is uncertain,but probably it was in the spring of 287/900.

The victory over 'Amr brought recognition to Isma'il from thecaliph as ruler over all of Khurasan. This formal recognition, in theform of documents, presents, and a robe of honour, meant only arecognition of the actual situation, since the power of the caliphate hadlong since ceased to extend to the east. Isma'il was the real founder ofthe Samanid state, and is highly regarded in all sources for his goodqualities as a ruler, indeed almost an idealized ruler.

Isma'il enlarged the Samanid domain in all directions. In 280/893 heraided to the north and captured the city of Taraz where a Nestorianchurch was reputedly turned into a mosque and m uch boo ty was taken.This expedition is reported differently by various sources, but they allagree in the success of Isma'il. This campaign and another by Isma'ilin 291/903, although it did not result in a great extension of theSamanid frontiers to the north and east, at least made that frontier safefrom raids of Turkish infidels, and enabled Muslim missionaries topropagate Islam into the steppes. We may surmise, if we study theextant coinage, that Isma'il ended the independent existence of a num-ber of small vassal states in Central Asia, placing them directly underSamanid rule. Probably in 280/893 he ended the local dynasty ofUshrusana in the upper Zarafshan valley, famous as the homeland ofthe ill-fated Afshin Haidar b. Kaus. 1 It is not known when the variousparts of Transoxiana submitted to the Samanids, but some of themremained under the control of their local rulers, for example inKhwarazm where the country became a part of the Samanid state afterIsma'il 's defeat of 'Amr b. Laith, but the local Khwarazmian dynastycontinued to flourish until 385/995 in the south of the country, while agov ern or of the Sam anids ruled in the no rth w ith his capital at Gu rga nj.In 385/995 the northern ruler defeated the southern and annexed hisdomains, but throughout the existence of the Samanid state both partsof Khwarazm remained true vassals of the Samanids. So Isma'il 'sdomains were composed both of provinces of the central governmentand of vassal princes.Since after the defeat of 'Amr b. Laith, Isma'il had received from thecaliph investiture ov er Ta baristan as well as K hur asan , Ray and Isfahan,

1 In the local language this place was called Ustrushana.138



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Map 3. The Samanid kingdomCambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press, 2008


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THE SAMANIDShe decided to annex these realms to his own. In 287/900 he sent an armyagainst M uham mad b. Zaid, the defacto ruler of Tabaristan and Gu rgan ,despite the attempts of the envoy of Muhammad to restrain him. Isma'ilwas successful and defeated and killed the ruler of Tabaristan. Thegeneral of Isma'il revolted, however, and in the following year Isma'ilhimself led an army into Tabaristan. The rebellious general, Muham-mad b. Harun, fled to Dailam and Isma'il re-established Samanid ruleover Gurgan and Tabaristan. Ray and all of Khurasan submitted toIsma'il but Sistan and Isfahan remained independent. Thus the heart ofIsmail 's domains remained Transoxiana with his capital at Bukhara.

Isma'il has come dow n in history not so much as a capable general oras a strong ruler, although he was both, but rather as the epitome of thejust and equitable ruler. Many stories in this vein about Isma'il are tobe found in both Arabic and Persian sources. For example, on oneoccasion he found that the weights used in the city of Ray to weigh theprecious m etals for the taxes were too heavy . H e ordered the m correctedand deducted the amount of excess which already had been collectedfrom the city taxes.1 Stone weights have been found with Ism a'il's nam eon them, so we may suspect that the ruler systematized the weights andmeasures in his domains although it is not mentioned in the sources.Isma'il introduced other reforms in his kingdom, and even at Qazvln,his westernmost outpost, he confiscated the possessions of some of thelandowners with the approbation of the common folk.2 Because of hiscampaigns, especially to the north against nomadic Turks, the heart ofthe kingdom, Transoxiana, was so safe from enemy attacks that thewalls and other defences of Bukhara and Samarqand w ere neglected. Aslong as Isma'il lived there was no need of defensive walls but later, atthe end of the dynasty, the earlier, but now dilapidated, walls weresorely missed.

Isma 'il was loyal to the caliph but there is no evidence that he, or anyof the Sam anid rulers, paid tribu te or taxes to Baghdad. Gifts were sent,for this was norm al procedure , reports on their activities were also sent,and coins were minted in the names both of the caliph and the rulingSamanid, while both names were also mentioned in the daily prayers, atleast until the rise of the Buyids. Nonetheless relations between theSamanids and the caliphs continued to be correct though formal to

1 Mirkhwand, p. 124.2 Abu'l-Qasim al-Rafi4!, Kitdb al-iadivlnfi dhikr ahl al-ilm hiQa^ivln, Arabic ms. Istanbul,Kogular 1007, fol. 147a.

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THE SAMANIDSthe end of the dynasty. All of the Samanid rulers are called amir in thesources, which in that age meant something like viceroy of the caliph,who himself was amir of all the Muslims. Like the 'Abbasid caliphs,the Samanids took throne names, for example amlr-i hamid for Nuh b.Nasr; some also had posthumous names, for example Isma'Il was calledamir-i mddi^ "the late amir", after his death, and Ahmad b. Isma'Il wascalled amir-i shahid, "the martyred amir", as was noted by Muqaddasi(P- 337)-Isma'il became sick and after a long interval died in the month ofSafar 29 5 /November 907, the exact day reported differently in varioussources. He was succeeded by his son Ahmad. At the outset of hisreign Ahmad set out to conquer Sistan which had remained under aSaffarid ruler. By 298/911 most of the province had submitted toSamanid rule. The province of Tabaristan, however, broke away fromthe Samanids with the revolt of a Zaidl ShTl leader called Nasir al-Ka bir. Before A hm ad could take measures to reconquer Tabaristan andGurgan, which had also revolted, he was assassinated by some of hisslaves who cut off his head when he was sleeping in his tent nearBukhara. Some sources say that the slaves killed Amir Ahmad becausehe relied too heavily on learned men for advice, and he had intro duc ed theuse of Arabic instead of Persian in orders and decrees, contrary to hisfather. He died in Jumada II 301/January 914 and his son succeededhim at the age of eight.

Nasr b. Ahmad, surnamed Sa'id "the fortunate", was just that inhaving Abu 'Abd-Allah al-Jaihanl as his prime minister. Jaihani wasnot only a capable administrator but also a famous geographer andlearned man. The accession to the throne of a boy of eight, however,led to a series of revolts, the most dangerous of which was that of theuncle of his late father, Ishaq b. Ahmad, a younger brother of Isma'llin Samarqand. Ishaq struck his own coins and his sons aided him; oneof them Mansiir seized Nishapur and several cities in Khurasan. Afterseveral battles Ishaq was defeated and captured while his son died inNishapur. Later Nasr's own brothers revolted against him, and withdifficulty he suppressed those revolts too. In spite of these interiortroubles, Nasr was able to reconquer some of the western provinceswh ich had left their allegiance to the Samanids at the death of A m irAhmad. Ray was reoccupied but Tabaristan proved much moredifficult. Much of the province returned to Samanid rule but then alocal leader called Makan b. Kaki not only took over Tabaristan but

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THE SAMANIDSalso raided Khurasan where he was defeated by a general of the Sama-nids in 940. Nasr died after a rule of twenty-nine years in 331/943.Several sources tell us that the leading officers of Nasr's army wereopposed to Nasr's support of Isma'ill missionaries in his realm andplotted to assassinate the amir. But Nuh, son of Nasr, heard of the plotand at a banquet to organize the revolt Nuh seized and decapitated thechief of the malcontents, promising, however, to put an end to theIsma'ilis. He persuaded his father to abdicate and shortly afterwardsNasr died.

In spite of the revolts and internal troubles, the reign of Nasr b.Ahmad might be called the high point or golden age of Samanid rule.More than the ruler, his two prime ministers were responsible for theflowering of literature and culture. We have already mentioned Jaihaniwho was prime minister from 302/914 to 310/922 and from 327/938 to331/941. The other was Abu'1-Fadl al-Balcami who held office from310/922 to 327/938. Jaihani wrote a geography which has not survivedbut parts of which were incorporated in other works. This geographycontained detailed information about lands and peoples to the east andnorth of Transoxiana, which the prime minister had obtained fromenvoys, merchants and others. His interest in geography led him toinvite geographers to the co urt at Bukhara, bu t the most famous one ofthe age, Abu Zaid al-Balkhl, refused to leave his native city of Balkh inspite of the attractions of the amir's court. But Jaihani's interests werenot limited to geography, since we know from the Fihrist of Ibnal-Nadim that he wrote other books which have not survived. Scien-tists, astronomers, men of letters and others did come to the capitalBukhara, such that its fame as a centre of learning spread throughoutthe Islamic world. Balami, w ho extended his patro nag e to manysavants and men of literature, was also a man of learning andculture. He replaced Jaihani, who had been suspected of harbouringShf i beliefs or even Ma nichaean dualist tendencies an d w as rem ove dfrom office. Bal'ami continued the policies of Jaihani and showedhimself an even more skilful administrator when he put down anuprising in the city of Bukhara led by brothers of Nasr, by inciting therebels against one another.

Anthologies of literary figures, such as the Yatimat al-dahr of AbuMansur al-Tha'alibl, the Lubab al-albdb of Muhammad 'Aufi and othersgive us the names and works of poets and authors of this age, and thelist is impressive. Not only religious scholars, writing in Arabic, but

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T HE S AMANIDSpoets writing in both Arabic and Persian, historians and scientistsadorned the court of Nasr b. Ahmad. To begin with geographers, notonly was Jaihani famous in this area bu t Ab u D ulaf w ent o n an embassyto China for Nasr and wrote a report of his travels. Ibn Amajural-Turki was an astronomer active for a time in Nasr's domain.Theologians were so many they cannot be discussed here. Althoughal-Farabl (d. 339/950) was born in Transoxiana, most of his life wasspent in Baghdad and elsewhere. Perhaps the most significant group ofliterary men at Nasr's court were the Persian poets, principally Rudakiwho died probably in 329/940. The rise of the New Persian languageand literature is discussed in another chapter. Suffice it to say thatduring the reign of Nasr both A rabic and Persian books were produ cedin his capital, as well as elsewhere in the kingdom, and a library wasassembled at Bukhara which won the praise of scholars including IbnSina, who used it later in the Samanid era.

The organization of the Samanid state was modelled after thecaliph's court in Baghdad with its central and provincial divisions. Wehave mentioned that the ruler appointed local governors, or localdynasts functioned as gov ern ors a lthou gh they were actually vassals ofthe Samanid amir. The primary duty of both governors and localpotentates was to collect taxes and provide troops if needed. The chiefgovernorship in the Samanid domains was the huge province ofKhurasan, south of the Oxus River, which was at first entrusted to arelative of the ruler or later to one of his trusted slaves. The governorof this province was usually the sipdh-saldr (Arabic: sahib al-juyush) orcommander of the principal army. Slaves, just as in Baghdad, couldrise to high positions of authority, and the palace school for courtslaves is described in detail by Nizam al-Mulk in his Siydsat-ndma. T hesystem of training remained a model for succeeding dynasties. Just asat Baghdad, so in Bukhara Turkish slaves eventually succeeded inusurping authority and the ruler became almost a puppet in theirhands.

The division of political functions between the court (dargdh) and thechancery {divdri) mirrored similar conditions at Baghdad. The office ofprim e minister or vizier (va%fr), was especially im po rtan t, for a pow erfulminister could appoint and dismiss other officials and could even holdcommand of the army. Theoretically the vizier was the head of thedivan, the bureaucracy, and thus was the counterpart in the bureaucraticinstitution of the head of the court, the chamberlain (hdjib). Actually,

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T HE S AMANIDSthe vizier became the right-hand man of the amir, and thus in effect thesecond in command in the Samanid state. The hajib y or hajib al-hujjdbas he is also called in the sources, was the equivalent of a modernminister of court, although under the early Samanids the vakil, or headof the amir's household seems to have been more influential than thehajib. As the Turkish palace guard became more powerful, the officeof hajib, which included authority over the guard, also increased,primarily at the expense of the vakil. Thus the constant factor in thegovernment of the Samanid state was the bureaucracy, presided overby the vizier, whereas the court could be the scene of conflict for powerbetween the domestic organization managed by the vakil and theexecutive branch of the dargah run by the hajib.

The executive branch was composed not only of the palace guard,but also the army. The problem of control of the army was later com-plicated, however, by the overwhelming importance of the governorof Khurasan as commander of the army of Khurasan, and also by thegrowth of the Turkish slave system at the Samanid court. After thereign of Isma'Il, the Samanids turned their prim e attention from CentralAsia to western Iran, and the Turkish slave system came to dominatethe court. Un til the middle of the 4th/ iot h century, how ever, the lime-light was held by the divan under the two remarkable viziers of AmirNasr whom we have mentioned above. Under them the divan, asdescribed by Narshakhi, received the form which was so admired byNizam al-Mulk and later authors. The historian (p. 24) tells us thatthere were ten ministries in the capital city, that of the prime minister(vattfr), the treasurer (mustaufi), correspondence (^amid al-mulk), captainof the guard {sahib shurat), postmaster {sahib band), inspector, fiscal aswell as general {mushrif), the private domains of the ruler, chief ofpolice {muhtasib), religious endowments {auqdf), and of justice {qadd).This central bureaucracy was matched by a similar organization in theprovincial capitals, but on a smaller scale. Some provinces, however,were not under the central government but maintained a quasi-autono-mous existence under local princes and with varied relationships toBukhara. Although the bureaucracy would flourish, or at least exhibitpower and influence, under a good vizier, it could and did continue tofunction, even poorly, under a weak vizier. This instrument of admini-stration, forged under the Samanids, continued to exist after the fall ofthe dynasty. It is not easy, however, to follow the fortunes of thebureaucracy throughout the 4th/ioth and 5th/nth centuries. For one

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T HE S AMANIDSmatter, we are not certain when Persian replaced Arabic as the officiallanguage of the bureaucracy. A remark by Hamd-Allah Qazvlnl, anhistorian of the 8th/i4th century (p. 381), that Amir Ahmad b. Isma'ilchanged proclamations and decrees from Persian to Arabic, indicatesthat before Ahmad Persian had been the language of the bureaucracy.In any case, the measure was not popular and had to be rescinded. Thelanguage question, however, is more important than a mere bureau-cratic change, for it is a keynote of the nature of the Samanid bureau-cracy, which was to have much influence later.

We must digress briefly to discuss the question of the use of Persianat the court of the Samanids. It is generally believed that in the chan-cellery of the Samanids, till the end of the dynasty, Arabic alone wasused and all attempts to introduce Persian failed. I believe the situationwas different. Since we know that Persian was used as the language ofbureaucracy under the Ghaznavids, and the vizier of Sultan Mahmud,M aimand i, failed in his attemp t to change usage from Persian to Arab ic,one must assume that Persian had been used previously. Furthermore,under the Buyids there was a kdtib al-rasd'il al-fdrisiya " secretary forPersian correspondence", and the name of one of them, Shlrzad b.Surkhab, is known. It has been presumed that this bureau was con-cerned with Zoroastrians and only used Pahlavi, but there is no reasonwhy the scribes could not have written Persian in Arabic characters inthe Buyid courts. Rudakl, the poet of Transoxiana, I believe pre-supposes some previous development of New Persian in Arabic script.Furthermore, |Chwarazmi in his book Mafdtih al-ulum (pp. 59, 117),although he does not say so, implies the existence of New Persianwriting. I suggest that much of the bureaucracy of the court ofBukhara was conducted in written Persian, while Persian was the"official" spoken language and Arabic was also used for more formal,for religious and for caliphal matters. In effect the Samanid bureaucracywas bilingual.

Unfortunately, we do not have enough evidence to reconstruct thecentral and provincial administration and bureaucracy of the Samanidstate in detail, but from later books, such as the Siydsat-ndma of Nizamal-Mulk, it is clear that the Samanid state organization pr ovid ed a mod elfor the Saljuqs and later states. The model itself was not a directinheritance from the Sasanian state apparatus but an interesting mixtureof Sasanian, local Central Asian and Arab-Islamic features, for Trans-oxiana, the dom ain of th e Sam anids, had no t been a par t of the Sasanian

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T HE S AMANIDSEmpire. A brief look into its origins may help to explain some of itsgeneral features.

From the beginning of the 2nd/8th century until the second half ofthe 3rd/9th century Transoxiana had been transformed from an area ofmany local dynasts, almost what one might call city states, usingSoghdian and other Iranian tongues as their "state" languages, into animportant part of the 'Abbasid Caliphate. If we take Samarqand in theyear 725, the "official sp o k en " language of the city was still Sog hdian,witness the Soghdian letters found in 1934 in Mt Mu g east of P anjikant.The "official written" language was Arabic, since the Arabs ruled thecity. The "religious" language was also Arabic for Muslims, andAvestan with Pahlavi for Zoroastrians. At home Soghdian dialects werespoken. A hundred years later Persian had replaced Soghdian as the"official spoken" language, whereas Arabic remained as the "officialwrit ten" language though soon (probably under Nasr b. Ahmad orIsma'il b. Ahmad) to be changed to Persian. The "religious" languagewas now almost exclusively Arabic since most of the population hadbecome Muslim. At home Soghdian dialects were still spoken as wellas more and more Persian. As noted above, we do not know where thefirst writing of Persian in the Arabic alphabet occurred, but theSamanid bureaucracy from th e time of Isma 'il was based on bo th Ara bicand the new Persian form of writing. The Samanids were the first to"Persianize" the bureaucracy as copied from Baghdad, which in turnhad borrowed from Ctesiphon, the capital of the defunct Sasanians.

It is probable that the Sasanian bureaucracy had been strongly underthe influence of the Zoroastrian clergy in pre-Islamic Iran. Referencesto mobads in the Middle Persian and Arabic literatures, as well as theenormous number of Sasanian seals with the names of priests on them,indicate the importance of the Sasanian clergy. The class of scribes,however, did exist and was separate from the clergy, which is why itsurvived to serve new Arab Muslim masters, whereas the priests, ofcourse, had to retire from any positions of influence in the governmentafter the coming of Islam. The scribes, on the other hand, were of vitalimportance for the bedouin conquerors, for only the scribes could keepthe accounts and help the Arabs rule their new conquests in the east.Consequently, after the Arab expansion the role of the scribes in Iranincreased in importance compared to Sasanian times, where they hadperformed little more than the bookkeeping for the secular chiefs andfor religious officials such as judges and lawyers.

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T HE S AMANIDSIn pre-Islamic Central Asia, on th e oth er h and , the rigid, almo st caste

system of Sasanian Iran had n ot held sway and the scribes, the "p rie sts "(Manichaean, Christian and Buddhist as well as Zoroastrian) and themen of letters were more equal in influence, for the society there wasmuch more a mercantile, trading one rather than a hierarchical castesociety as in Iran. The development of an egalitarian Islamic societytherefore was more propitious in Transoxiana than in Iran, which iswhy the well-known "Iranian Renaissance" began in Central Asiarather than in Iran itself. The name "renaissance", however, can bemisleading if it signifies a re-birth of the past, for it was rather anIslamic-Iranian Renaissance which flourished under the Samanids, andthe Islamic part of it was both more important and more characteristicthan the Iranian side. The Samanids liberated Islam from its narrowArab bedouin background and mores and made of it an internationalculture and society. They showed that Islam also was not bound to theArabic language, and in so doing they earned a significant niche inworld history.

The government structure of the Samanids reflected this, too, for thethree intellectual classes of Islamic society are clearly discernible in thesources on the Samanids, the scribes (Pers. dabir, A r. kdtib), the literati(^tzs.farhangi, Ar. adlb) and the religious scholar (Pers. ddnishmand, A r.ldlini)> more known in the Arabic plurals, kuttdb, udaba'> and ctilamd\ InBukhara, the Samanid capital, the scribes were the more important ofthe three in th e earlier years of the dyn asty and th e 'ulam a' at the end ofthe dynasty. All were eclipsed, however, at the end by the Turkishmilitary institution which will be discussed below.

Society unde r the Samanids thus was far from being a mere reflectionof the state governm ent divided between the court and the bureaucracy.Inde ed the religious leaders were frequently loath to accept any employ-ment by the government, even a judgeship, which was in the domainof religion. Like the learned men, poets and story-tellers, althoughfrequently supported by the amir or one of his entourage, at timesshowed their independence of and opposition to the Samanid govern-ment. Likewise, merchants, landowners (usually the dihqdns, a continua-tion of pre-Islamic society), and bazaar craftsmen could exert pressureon the state by virtue of their influence and co-operation to securemutual goals. During the first half of the 4th/ioth century economicconditions were good in the Samanid domains. The ghd^js were busyon the Central Asian frontiers against the pagan Turks, while the

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THE SAMANIDS'ayydrun or fitydn, who were active in many parts of Iran during thisperiod, were comparatively quiet in Transoxiana. With the conversionof Central Asian Turks to Islam and internal developments in theSamanid state, the situation changed in the last part of the 4th/iothcentury, which will be discussed below. Before turning to the Turks,however, the provincial organization of the Samanid state should beexamined.

Transoxiana at the time of the Arab conquests was an area of smalloasis states which might be divided into three linguistic and culturalareas: Khwarazm on the lower Oxus River and around the Aral Sea,where Khwarazmian was the official written and spoken language, witha local, native era dating from the first century A.D.1 Greater Soghdianaincluded not only Samarqand and Bukhara, but areas of Soghdianinfluence or colonization to the east such as Farghana and Shash. TheSoghdian language, and a culture based on trading as far as China andon the land ho ldings of the local aristocracy of dihqa ns, held sway ove rthis widely extended area. Finally in Bactria, which included Chaghan-iyan, most of present Tajikistan and northern A fghanistan the K us ha n-Bactrian languag e in a modified Gre ek alpha bet was in use in the ist/y thand 2nd/8th centuries. In Bactria, the centre of Iranian Buddhism, thatreligion still claimed many adherents. Finally, to the south in theHin duk ush m ountains, in the Kabul valley, Ghazna and in Zam indavar,a resurgence of Hinduism had reasserted Indian influence. Although bythe time of Isma'il b. Ahmad most of Soghdiana was Muslim andKhwarazm much the same, large parts of Bactria, and almost all of theHin duk ush and southern A fghanistan regions had not been Islamicized.In all these areas, however, no matter what the religious changes,ancient customs and practices of rule continued to exist. In the manyvalleys of the m oun taino us areas, the only political reality was expressedin the form of a vassal-lord relationship. Thus the Arabs in their con-quests in Central Asia had been obliged to make separate agreementswith each town or oasis, which probably considered the new mastersin the old vassal-lord relationship which had existed previously in thispart of the world. The Samanids were heirs of this tradition.

When the four sons of Asad were given governorships under theTahirids, they not only fitted into the Central Asian pattern of variouslocal dynasts, but the relationship between them was one of family

1 Cf. V. A. Livshits, " T h e K hwarezmian Calendar and the Eras of Ancient Ch orasm ia",A.cta A.ntiqua slcad. Sci. Hungaricae, vol. xvi (Budapest, 1968), pp. 433-46.1 4 8



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THE SAMANIDSsolidarity, a characteristic of that "feudal" society. We do not knowwhether the system of rule in pre-Islamic Soghdian society was basedon a strong family tradition where the eldest member of the familywould succeed to the paramount rule, but if we remember that lateramong the Biiyids the system of the senior amirate was a politicalreality, and among the Qarakhanid Turks, after the fall of the Samaniddynasty, such a system of succession was practised, one may ask if thissystem was not an old Iranian rather than a Central Asian custom. Wedo no t have eno ugh inform ation to answer this question , bu t it seems tohave existed in Central Asia at an early date.

In any case, in their dealings among members of their own familyand with petty dynasts in the east, the Samanids expanded their stateon the basis of vassal relationships. We have already mentionedKhwarazm which submitted to Isma'Il. In Chaghaniyan the localdynasty also accepted Samanid rule early, probably submitting toIsma'il, and in many sources the ruling family is called by the Arabicname of Muhtaj (Al Muhtaj). O ne of their mem bers, A bu 'All Chaghani,became governor of Khurasan about 318/930 and was removed in334/945, but he revolted and occupied Bukhara for a short time in336/947, then was defeated, pardoned and reinstated as governor ofKhurasan, dying in 344/95 5. Farther to the east, in the present Vakhshvalley, was the principality of Khuttalan which also submitted toSamanid overlordship. To the south of the Oxus River the family ofthe Farighunids ruled in Juzjan, the present-day area of Maimana inAfghanistan, and they were loyal vassals of the Samanids to the end oftheir rule. There were, of course, minor vassals whose existence canbe implied only from brief notes in the sources, such as the rulers ofGharchistan, Bust and Ghazna. All in all, Samanid rule weighed lightlyon their vassals and the benefits of centralized rule were more than anydisadvantages. Some local princely families, however, lost theirpatrimonies, such as the family of the ancient rulers of Bukhara andother towns in the Bukharan oasis. On the whole, however, theSamanids tried to tie the local rulers to B ukhara in a vassal relationsh ip,rather than extirpating the local dynasty. Peace was even made with theSaffarids in Sistan who became vassals of the Samanids for a time.

Th e rise of Turk ish slaves to great pow er in the Samanid state shouldbe examined, for they changed the balance of power to their ownadvantage. Turks were not newcomers in the Near East, for the Arabshad much difficulty fighting them in eastern Khurasan and in Trans-

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T HE S AMANIDSoxiana in the time of the Um ayyad caliphate. O ne of the reasons for theefforts of the early Samanids to expand their boundaries to the northand east was much more to obtain slaves than to spread Islam. Themissionaries who followed the Samanid armies, however, did convertmany pagans in the course of time. Even before Isma'll the Samanidshad participated in Tahirid raids and conquests in Transoxiana. Underthe govern orship of Talha b. Tahir his general Ahm ad b . Khalid raidedFarghana and Ushrusana, which had revolted against the rule ofAhmad b. Asad the governor in Shash. 1 In 207/822 Bunjikath, thecapital of Ushrusana, was burned, and under Isma'il Ushrusana wasincorporated into the Samanid kingdom and the last ruler, calledafshin, Sayyar b. 'Abd-Allah, was killed. His last coin, of copper, is dated279/892. General order was restored and some conversions made.According to Sam'ani (s.v. Samanl) in 225/839-40 Nuh b. Asad con-quered Isfljab and built a wall around it to protect the city from thenomadic Turks. It is difficult to gather all of the notices about theexpeditions of Isma'il against the Tu rk s, but th e year 280/893 is m em or-able for the conquest of Taraz/Talas, where converts to Islam weremade.2 On these expeditions the ghazls or warriors for the faith werean important factor in Samanid successes. All this time the slave tradein the Samanid domains was an important source of revenue for bothmerchants and the government, which taxed even the transit slavetrade to Baghdad and elsewhere. Turkish slaves were highly valued fortheir martial qualities and the Samanid amirs maintained schools forslaves who prepared for military or for administrative service. It isprobable that the amirs used Turkish slaves in their governmentbecause they were m ore reliable than the local dihqans and furtherm orethe slaves were well trained for their positions from childhood. Theirnumbers grew as did their influence. One Arab geographer says that inthe year 375/985 slaves were selling in Transoxiana for twenty or thirtydirham s a head, for the Samanids had made so many priso ners, and theymonopolized the slave trade so the prices dropped because of the gluton the market.3 So the number of Turks inside Samanid territory wasconsiderable.

The training of slaves at the Samanid court is described in detail byNizam al-Mulk, and their training prepared them well for positions of

1 Tabari , vol . in, pp. 1065-6.2 Tabari , vol . in, pp. 2138 and 2249; Mas 'udI , Muriij, vol . vin, p. 144.3 Muqaddasi , p. 340.1 5 0



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T HE S AMANIDSleadership in the state. These Turkish officials and generals then im-ported slaves themselves and thus the Turks became more and moreimportant in the army and in the administration. The ultimate Turkifi-cation of most of Transoxiana was thus begun in earnest under theSamanids, but it was not so much this which brought about the fall ofthe Samanids as the loss of confidence in the dynasty by the population,which in the end abandoned the Samanids to their fate.From the time of Nasr b. Ahmad to the end of the dynasty most ofthe energies of the Samanids were devoted to their western frontiers,for the rise of Shl'I dynasties in western Iran posed a threat to the SunniSamanids. The rise of the Buyids, and especially their conquest ofBaghdad in 333/945, heightened the threat in the west. The amir inBukhara was Nuh b. Nasr, who succeeded his father in 331/943. Thenew ruler was faced w ith a revolt in Khw arazm which was suppressed,and then with difficulties from Abu 'AH ChaghanI, mentioned above.Abu 'All refused to abdicate his post of gov erno r of Khurasan in favourof Ibrahim b . Slmjur, a Turk in the am ir's service. Instead he joined anuncle of Nuh, Ibrahim b. Ahmad, and raised the standard of revolt. In336/947 for a short time Ibrahim was recognized as ruler in Bukharaand N uh had to flee to Samarqand. The populace of Bukhara, how ever,did not support the new amir, so Nuh returned and took revenge onhis uncle and two brothers by blinding them. Even though Nuhsucceeded in sacking Abu 'All's capital in Chaghaniyan, he was obligedto m ake peace in 948 and reinstated Abu 'All in the rule of Chaghaniyan.In 341/952, after the death of the interim governor of Khurasan,Mansiir b. Qara-Tegin (Ibrahim b. Slmjur having died earlier in337/948), Ab u 'All was reappointed gov erno r of Khurasan and began awar against the Buyids. Th is struggle was instigated by the Ziyarids ofTabaristan who were enemies of the Buyids and allies of the Samanids.Abu 'All, though successful in the field, made a compromise with theBuyids in Ray which displeased Vushm gir the Ziyarid who complainedin Bukhara that Abu 'AH was making common cause with the enemy.As a result Abu 'All was again deposed from his governorship. Abu'AH thereupon joined the Buyids and received, through their agency,a diploma from the 'Abbasid caliph Mutl' for rule over Khurasan.

With the death of Nuh in 343/954 Abu 'AH had seemed to be in agood position to establish his independent rule over Khurasan, but hetoo died and Samanid rule was re-established. The new governor Bakrb. Malik al-Farghani had been appointed by Nuh, but this Turkish



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THE SAMANIDSofficer, who had carved out a fief for himself at a place called Nasrabadin the Farghana valley (a symptom of developments in the Samanidstate), was killed by the Turkish guard of the amir less than two yearsafter assuming office.1 He was succeeded for a time by Muhammad b.Ibrahim Simjuri, while the vizier was Abu Ja'far 'Utbi, from the sameprominent family which had produced an earlier vizier. It was clear,however, that the Turkish military establishment in Bukhara had takencontrol of the government, for 'Abd al-Malik, son and successor ofNuh, was incapable of acting without their agreement. The leaderof the Turk s was Alp-T egin and he had himself appointed go vern or ofKhurasan, at the same time securing the appointment as vizier ofMuhammad b. Abu 'AH Muhammad Bal 'aml, son of the Barami whohad been vizier under Amir Nasr. Unfortunately, the son was not ascapable as his father and affairs continued to devolve into the hands ofthe Turks. The death of the Amir 'Abd al-Malik at the end of 350/961did not change the picture.

The problem of succession, however, split the Turkish party, forAlp-Tegin supported the son of 'Abd al-Malik whereas another andlarger group, headed by a childhood companion of the amir's brotherMansur called Fa'iq, was successful in raising Mansur to the throne.Alp-Tegin, seeing his chances dim, left Nishapur the capital of Khura-san for Ghazna where he established himself independently of theSamanids and laid the foundations for the future Ghaznavid empire.

A bu Salih M ansu r b. N u h ruled for fifteen years in the same tra ditionas his predecessors, a patron of the arts and literature, but his govern-ment was now not only weak but chronically in debt. His governor ofKh urasan, Ab u'l-Hasan Mu hamm ad Simjuri, who remained in powerfrom 3 51/962 to the dea th of M ansur, fought against the Bu yids. It w aseasy to find a pretex t for hostilities since Vu shm gir, the Ziyarid princ e,had been driven from Tabaristan and Gurgan by the Buyids the sameyear in which Simjuri was appointed governor of Khurasan. The deathof V ushm gir in the following year pu t an end to hostilities, bu t the Buyidruler 'Adud al-Daula agreed to pay tribute to the Samanids who werehard pressed to raise money for their troops. The tribute unfortunatelydid not continue long.

One feature of the last part of Samanid rule in both Transoxiana andKhurasan was the decline of the dihqan class. Not only the rise of the1 E. A. Davidovich, "Vladete l i N asrabada" , Kratkie Soobshcheniya Instituta MaterialnoiKultury, vol . LXI (MOSCOW, 1956), pp. 107-13.

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T HE S AMANIDSTurks through the slave system of the court, but also the decline of thecountryside caused the impoverishment of the dihqans. Compared tothe Tahirids, the Samanids were a very centralized dynasty, and thegrowth of the bureaucracy paralleled a growth of cities. Bukhara,Samarqand, but especially Nlshapur, and other cities of Khurasanincreased greatly in size and complexity. For example, the oasis ofBukhara, which had been dotted w ith flourishing tow ns and surrou ndedby a wall which kept out the desert sands as well as nomads, under thelater Samanids becam e a metrop olis - Bu khara , with villages w hichwere almost suburbs, rather than a succession of towns. The wall wasneglected, as was agricu lture in general, as the sands encroache d on thesettled areas. Archaeology confirms the sources which indicate that thedihqans and peasants flocked to the cities in the second half of the 4th/10th century. The dihqan class lost its power and influence, and thecity proletariat was swollen in size. The government bought land, orconfiscated it in lieu of taxes thus diminishing the taxable land, whileland values declined, not helped by the growth of waqf or religiousendowment lands, attached to a mosque, hospital, school or the like.Revenue from the land dropped considerably, which is one reason whythe government was always in search of new revenue. So the old,traditional families gave way to new landowners, including merchantsand army officers. The peasantry was more oppressed than previouslyand they too fled to the cities. Contemporary writers complain of thelack of sanitation and crowded conditions in the cities, while manypeople suffered from the privileges which others had. For example,sayyids, descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, were exempted frompaying taxes by the Samanid government as were officers of the guardand others. All of this did not help the revenues of the state.We have mentioned religion only briefly. The Samanid amirs weredevout Muslims, and except for the interlude when Nasr b. Ahmadflirted w ith the Isma'llls, they remained Sunnis of the Hanafl persuasion .Shafi'Is existed but not in great numbers, while Shfis, in general afterNasr b. Ahmad, kept themselves underground. The Samanid amirspromoted missionary activities, and patronized the translation of re-ligious works from Arabic into Persian. It was under Mansur b. Nuhthat the Tafsir or commentary on the Qur'an by Tabari was translatedfrom Arabic into Persian by a gro up of scholars. O ther b ooks w ere pu tinto Persian at the orders of the Samanid amirs to help defend ortho-doxy against heresy. Abu'l-Qasim Samarqandi (d. 342/953) was one of

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T HE S AMANIDSthe religious writers active under the Samanids and he translated intoPersian his own Arabic treatises on orthodoxy. Until the end of thedynasty the 'ulama were pro-Samanid b ut at the end they too abandonedthe dynasty.The literati who flourished at the courts of the early Samanids, suchas Rudaki, continued to enjoy favour later. Not only were religiousworks translated from Arabic into Persian by order of the Samanidamirs, but secular works too were not neglected. The vizier Abu 'AllMuhammad Barami started his work on the translation of Tabarfsgreat history into Persian in 352/963 and finished it a few years later.Likewise books on medicine and drugs were written in Persian underthe Samanids, and the court library at Bukhara was famous. It providedan education for the young Ibn Sina who lived in Bukhara at the endof the Samanid dynasty. Another savant Muhammad b. Yusuf al-Khwarazml, who died c. ^SJ/^J, served in the Samanid bureaucracyand composed a small encyclopaedia in which he wrote about thebureaucracy among many other subjects. In short, scholars werewelcomed at the court of Bukhara as well as in the provincial courts ofthe Samanid state which copied Bukhara. The poets and story-tellerswere even more welcome, and the most famous was Daqiql.Abu Mansur Muhammad b. Ahmad Daqiql was invited to theSamanid court by Nuh II, the son of amir Mansur who commissionedthe poet to write the epic history of pre-Islamic Iran in verse. He didno t finish his work , for in 367/977 he was murdered , according to sometraditions by his own slave. Daqiqi was only one of a number of poetsor story-tellers in the 4th/ioth century who were seeking to preservethe heritage of ancient Iran before it was forgotten and absorbed by thenew Islamic culture which was changing not only the old Persianlanguage by a massive influx of Arabic words and expressions, but alsowas substituting new ideas and ideals for the ancient Iranian mores,preserved in the lays of minstrels and story-tellers. Firdausi, who beganhis wo rk u nder the Samanids but finished it under the Ghaznavids, wasnot, as he often has been described, the founder of New Persianliterature. Rather, he was the saviour of Middle Persian literature. True ,he wrote in the Arabic alphabet, but who could read Persian in thecumbersome Pahlavi alphabet in Firdausi's day? It was the Samanidcourt w hich initiated interest in preserving the pre-Islamic Iranian pastand Firdausi was the result of that interest.

Perhaps the main theme of the Shah-nama is the conflict between154



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T HE S AMANIDSIran and Turan, whose people in Firdausi's day were considered tohave been the ancestors of the Turks. Before the great epic poem wasfinished, however, the Turks had been converted to Islam and hadbecome part of Islamic society. We have already m entioned some of theSamanid expeditions against the pagan T urk s, but the role of dervishesand missionaries who went into the steppes was greater than themilitary in converting the Turks. Brief notices in the sources merelyindicate the activity of such missionaries as Abu'l-Hasan al-Kalamatifrom Nlshapur who, durin g the reign of Am ir 'A bd al-Malik, was activeamong the Turks (presumably the Qarakhanids).1 The raids of thepagan Turks in to the Samanid domains until at least the end of Isma'lPsrule, brought volunteers for the faith or ghazls from all over theeastern Islamic world to fight in Transoxiana against the infidels. Withthe conversion of the Turks, however, the services of the fighters forIslam were no longer needed in Central Asia, but still in Anatolia andthe Caucasus regions. In the history of the Buyids by Ibn Miskawaihunder the year 3 5 3/964, it is stated tha t 5,000 such warriors for the faithcame from Khurasan into Buyid territory and in 355/966 a host of20,000 of them came from Khurasan and asked permission to passthrough the Buyid lands to go west and fight against the Byzantines.Among these freebooter warriors were undoubtedly many Turks, fore-runners of the great movement of Turks to Anatolia in later centuries.In effect the barrier of ribdts or forts built by the Tahirids and earlySamanids against the infidel Turks in Central Asia, and manned bywarriors for the faith, in the second half of the 4th/ioth century losttheir purpose and were for the most part abandoned. The populationstill was predominantly Iranian but Turks had begun to settle on theland and mix with the local people. Since long before the Samanids, allnomads had been T urkish, and their close relations with the settled folkhelped to speed the process of assimilation.

The end of the dynasty was longer delayed than many expectedbecause the loyalty of the people to the house of Saman, in spite ofincompetent rulers, persisted for a time. A year before he died in thesummer of 366/976, Am ir Mansur gave the post of vizier to Ab u 'Abd-Allah Ahmad b. Muhammad Jaihani, grandson of the famous Jaihanimentioned above, but the new vizier could accomplish little more thanhis immediate predecessors. In the west the powerful Buyid ruler 'A dudal-Daula was able to wrest Kirm an from nominal Samanid overlordship

1 Sam'ani, s.v. " al-Kalamati".155



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T HE S AMANIDSand to prevail most of the time in Tabaristan and Gurgan against theZiyarid ruler Qabus b. Vushmgir, the ally of the Samanids. TheSamanids tried to recover lost lands in the west, but they were not ableto prevail against the Buyids.

Nuh II b. Mansur was a youth when he ascended the throne, and hewas assisted by his mother and a new vizier Abu'l-Husain 'Abd-Allahb. Ahmad 'Utbi, of the same family as a previous vizier. Khurasan wasgoverned, one might say almost ruled, separately from Bukhara, byA bu'l-H asan Simjuri, and the new vizier could only flatter the Simjuridand secretly undermine his position until in 982 he was able to replaceAbu'l-Hasan by a Turkish general called Tash who had been a slave of'Utbi's father and was devoted to the vizier. Abu'l-Hasan fled to hisappanage in Kuhistan south of Tus and Herat. The army of Khurasan,no w the only real standing arm y of the Saman ids, was assembled and ledagainst the Buyids later in the same year 372/982, but after initialsuccesses it was decisively defeated by the Buyids and only 'Adudal-Daula's death kept the Buyids from invading Khurasan. Before'Utbi could reorganize the army, he was assassinated by agents ofAbu'l-Hasan Simjuri and Fa'iq who had been chamberlain. Thegovernor of Khurasan, Tash, was called to Bukhara by the amir torestore order in the city following an uprising which had taken placeat the news of the death of the vizier 'Utbi. This he did and prepared tofight Abu'l-Hasan and his son Abu 'AH allied with Fa'iq. Tash foresawfuture trouble for himself, however, and made peace with his oppo-nents. He persuaded the amir to assign Balkh to Fa'iq to rule and Heratto Abu 'AH, while Abu'l-Hasan returned to Kuhistan and Tash toNishapur. The last proved a mistake, for the new vizier Muhammad b.'Uzair had been an enemy of 'Utbi and hence of Tash, and he lost notime in persuading the amir to remove Tash from the governorship ofKhurasan and reinstating Abu'l-Hasan Simjuri in his place. Tash atonce sought help from the Buyids but even with this help he wasdefeated by the Simjuris and Fa'iq at the end of 377/987, and fled toGurgan where he died the following year.

Abu'l-Hasan Simjuri also died shortly afterwards, and his sonsucceeded him as governor of Khurasan with more power than anygovernor before him. Fa'iq quarrelled with Abu 'AH and in the result-ing hostilities the former was defeated in 380/990. Fa'iq in retreat triedto take Bukhara but was defeated again, this time by Bektuzun aTurkish general serving the amir Nuh. Fa'iq returned to Balkh which

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THE SAMANIDShe was able to hold against Samanid vassals instigated to attack him byBukhara. A new menace, however, appeared in Transoxiana with theadvance of the Qarakhanid Turks deep into Samanid territory.The Qarakhanid dynasty had been consolidating its power inKashghar and Balasaghun, north of Isfljab for several decades prior totheir advance into Samanid territory. In 370/980 they had taken Isfljaband possibly earlier than that, in 366/976, they had captured the silvermines of the Samanids on the upper Zarafshan valley. More peacefully,however, the Qarakhanids simply inherited the small principalitieswhich had broken away from Samanid rule and already were ruled byautonomous Turkish "governors" of the Samanids.

The Qarakhanid ruler Bughra Khan moved at the end of 991 intoSamanid territory and the first army sent against him by Amir Nuh b.Mansur was completely defeated. Nuh then turned to Fa'iq, pardonedhim and made him governor of Samarqand with a commission to fightthe invaders. The course of events is unclear but after some fightingFa'iq surrendered to Bughra Khan who advanced on Bukhara causingNuh to flee. The Qarakhanid ruler entered the Samanid capital in thelate spring of 382/992. Some sources, such as the Kitdb al-yamim of'Utbi claim that Fa'iq invited the khan to invade the Samanid domains.Mirkhwand, and other later historians suggest that Abu 'All wanted todivide the Samanid state between himself and Bughra Khan, so heinvited the Qarakhanids to invade Samanid territory. These uncertainstories of invitations lead one to suspect that many people in theSamanid state were not unhappy to see the advance of a new power. Inany case, Fa'iq was re-appointed to Balkh by Bughra Khan and left thecapital.

Nuh wrote to Abu 'All in Nishapur requesting his help in regaininghis thro ne , but the latter at first refused a nd then reconsidered . H is helpwas not necessary for Bughra Khan fell sick in Bukhara and left thecity, dying on the road after leaving Samarqand for the north. Later inthe summer Nuh returned to Bukhara, easily defeating the representa-tives of the Qarakhanids in the city.

The turncoat Fa'iq tried to capture Bukhara but was defeated, andthis time he fled to his former enemy Abu 'All whom he joined. Thetwo rebels decided to put an end to Samanid rule, but amir Nuh lookedto Ghazna for aid, to Sebiik-Tegin who had succeeded Alp-Tegin asruler in Ghazna. Nuh also secured the aid of the Khwarazmians andother vassals as well as Sebiik-Tegin and in a battle in Khurasan in



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T HE S AMANIDSRajab 3 84/August 994 the rebels were completely defeated. Both Abu'All and Fa'iq fled to Gurgan where they gathered new forces. Nuhrewarded Sebiik-Tegin and his son Mahmud with titles and gave thegovernorship of Khurasan to Mahmud in place of Abu. 'All.The following year the two rebels returned and forced Mahmud toevacuate Nishapur. Sebiik-Tegin joined his son and they again defeatedAbu 'All and Fa'iq in a battle near Tus. The two fled northward andFa'iq eventually reached Qarakhanid territory after Nuh refused topardon him. Abu 'All, however, was pardoned and sent to Khw arazmwhere he was imprisoned by the Khwarazmshah. The Shah and Abu'All were both captured by the amir of Gurganj in northern Khwarazmand Ab u 'All was sent to Bukhara where the amir Nu h after a time senthim to Sebiik-Tegin in 386/996 and he was later executed in Ghazna.Although Fa'iq intrigued with Nasr Khan the successor of BughraKhan to attack Nuh and Sebiik-Tegin, the Qarakhanid instead madepeace. In this peace Fa'iq was pardoned by Nuh and even madegovernor of Samarqand. The situation was stabilized, but the Samaniddomains had shrunk considerably, now restricted to the Zarafshanvalley with Khwarazm only paying lip service as a vassal state.Khurasan and all lands south of the Oxus River gave no allegiance tothe Samanids, the Ghazna vids having replaced them in m ost reg ions.In 387/997 both Nuh and Sebiik-Tegin died, leaving very differentsuccessors.Nuh's son Abu'l-Harith Mansur II was too young to control hisstrong associates, and when a rebel called on Nasr Khan for help theQarakhanid came but arrested the rebel and sent Fa'iq, who wasreceived by the khan with great friendship, to Bukhara with a smallforce. Mansur II, not trusting Fa'iq, fled but was induced to return toBukhara, even though power remained in Fa'iq's hands. Affairs inKhurasan, after the death of Sebiik-Tegin, again invited interventionon the part of the Samanids. A Turkish general Bektuzun, mentionedpreviously, was sent by Mansur II to Nishapur as governor of Khura-san. Fa'iq, who was the real power in Bukhara, feared the growingpower of Bektuzun and persuaded Abu'l-Qasim Simjuri, the new rulerof Kuhistan, to attack Bektuzun . A conflict took place in the spring of388/998, and Bektuzun was victorious. He made peace with Abu'l-Qasim, however, and returned to Bukhara, and although he and Fa'iqdid not become friends, they joined forces against a new threat,Mahmud of Ghazna, who had succeeded in gaining supreme power in

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T H E S A M A N I D Shis kingdom after the suppression of his brother Isma'il and others.Mahm ud wanted back the governorsh ip of all Khurasan, and both Fa'iqand Bektuzun feared that the amir Mansur II might betray them infavour of Mahmud, so in Safar 389/February 999 they deposed andthen blinded Mansur, replacing him with his younger brother Abu'l-Fawaris 'Abd al-Malik.Mahmud saw an opportunity to assert his claims as the avenger of thedeposed amir, so he set out for Nishapur, but he realized that hisenemies, Bektuzun and Fa'iq, together w ith the Simjurld Abu'l-Qasim,were possibly too strong for him, so he made peace with them in theearly spring of 389/999, retaining Balkh and Herat under his rule. Theallies did not trust Mahmud and attacked the rearguard of his armywithout, however, defeating Mahmud. War was renewed and this timenear Marv he decisively defeated the allies. Mahmud now secured allof the lands south of the Oxus River. Even the rulers of Chaghaniyanand others north of the river submitted to him, and he appointed hisbrother Nasr governor of Khurasan. Power had definitely passed fromthe Samanids to the Ghaznavids south of the Oxus.

The Samanid amir 'Abd al-Malik, together with Fa'iq and laterBektuzun, in Bukhara attem pted to rally suppo rt for a campaign againstMahmud, but Fa'iq died just as the Qarakhanid ruler Nasr decided toput an end to the Samanid state. The Samanid amir tried to rouse thepeople of his domains against the invaders bu t he failed. T he people ofBukhara would not listen to the Samanids, especially when theirreligious leaders assured them that the Qarakhanids were goo d Muslimslike themselves and there was no need to fight for the discreditedSamanids against them. The Qarakhanids entered the capital withoutresistance and Bektuzun surrendered, while 'Abd al-Malik was takenprisoner. The Muslim Turks accomplished what the pagan Turks couldno t have done ; the Qarakhanids brou ght an end to the Samanid dynastyand Iranian rule. Thereafter Turks ruled in Central Asia.

There was a romantic postlude to the story of the Samanids. Ayounger brother of Mansur b. Nuh and of 'Abd al-Malik called Isma'Ilescaped from the Qarakhanid prison and fled to Khwarazm where hegathered support for the Samanid cause. He took the name Muntasir,"victorious", and he was successful at first in driving the Qarakhanidsfrom Bukhara and then from Samarqand. But then the main Q arakhanidarmy was mobilized and at its approach Muntasir had to abandon allof his conquests and flee to Khurasan. At first again he was successful



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T H E S A M A N I D SGENEA LOGICAL TABLE OF THE SAMANIDS

Nasr b . Ahmad c. 261/875-279/892Isma'il b. Ah m ad 279/892-295/907Ah ma d b. Isma' il 295/907-301/914Na sr II b. A hm ad 301/914-331/943N uh b. Nasr 331/943-343/954*Abd al-Malik 343/954-3 50/961Mansur 350/961-366/976N uh II 366/976-387/997Ab u' l -Hari th Mansur I I 387/997389/999'A bd al-Malik II 389/999Isma'Il M untas ir 390/1000-395/1005

II l6 l CHI

The Samanids

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