Greater Khorasan: History, Geography, Archaeology And Material Culture

Greater Khorasan Studies in the History and Culture of the Middle East Edited by Stefan Heidemann, Gottfried Hagen, Andreas Kaplony and Rudi Matthee Volume 29 Greater Khorasan History, Geography, Archaeology and Material Culture Edited by Rocco Rante ISBN 978-3-11-033155-4 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-033170-7 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-039001-8 ISSN 2198-0853 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston Printing: Hubert & Co. GmbH und Co. KG, Göttingen ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Preface The region of Greater Khorasan, with its shifting and ambiguous geographic definitions, has been poorly studied in comparison with many other parts of the Sassanian and Islamic worlds. The seminal work of Barthold¹, the masterful reviews undertaken and edited by the sadly recently departed Richard Fyre², the important collected works in the Cambridge history of Iran series³ , and the more recent contributions in the UNESCO Central Asian series⁴, all provide some very useful wider context; but there have been little recent published work collating the important archaeological work that is taking place across this disparate region. This makes the volume particularly welcome. Khorasan is often portrayed as being on the north-east fringe of the civilised world. In many ways this characterisation has placed it at the periphery of events and thus historical narratives. However, it played a dynamic, arguably central, role in the Sassanian and Islamic world. During much of its existence it formed a frontier to the lands to the east; but more importantly it was the arena for permeable interaction to the east (Central Asia and China) and the south-east (South Asia – modern day Pakistan and India). This dynamic location ensured that it played a crucial role in the fortunes of the wider empires it existed within: the disastrous end of the Sassanian Empire was entwined with Khorasan, both the sapping wars to the east and the ultimate death of the last king, Yazdegerd III. It also occupied a vital place in the history of the early Islamic state. Twice within a century movements from this region overthrew the established regimes of the central Islamic lands: the Abbasid revolution and Ma’mun defeat of his brother in the civil war. Furthermore, its relationship to the empires and polities to the east was crucial to the formation and integrity  Barthold, V V (1898) Turkestan v ėpokhu mongolʹskago nashestvīiâ [Turkestan down to the Mongol invasion]. St. Peterburg: Akademiia Nauk.  Frye, R N (ed) (1975) The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4: The Period from the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Frye, R N (1996) The Heritage of Central Asia. From Antiquity to the Turkish expansion. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers.  Especially, Boyle, J A (ed) (1968) The Cambridge history of Iran. Volume 5, The Saljuq and Mongol periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  History of Civilizations of Central Asia, 5 vols, the most relevant being: Litvinsky, B A (ed) (1996) History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. Paris: UNESCO; Asimov, M S & Bosworth, C E (eds) (1998) History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume IV. The age of achievement: AD 750 to the end of the Fifteenth Century. Part One: The Historical, Social and Economic Setting. Paris: UNESCO; Asimov, M S & Bosworth, C E (eds) (2000) History of Civilizations of Centr