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References:
Some individuals and events mentioned in this chapter: Many will appear again
in later chapters.
Hindu KushThe Hindu Kush
is an 800-kilometre-long (500 mi) mountain range in Central and South Asia to
the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and western Afghanistan
into northwestern Pakistan and far southeastern Tajikistan.
Ariana Ariana was a general
geographical term used by some Greek and Roman authors of the ancient period
for a district of wide extent between Central Asia and the Indus River,
comprising the eastern provinces of the Achaemenid Empire] that covered the
whole of modern-day Afghanistan, as well as the easternmost part of Iran and up
to the Indus River in Pakistan.
AvestaThe Avesta is the
primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the
Avestan language.
CarmaniaCarmania
Middle Persian: Kirman is a historical region that approximately corresponds to
the modern Iranian province of Kerman, and was a province of the Achaemenid,
Seleucid, Arsacid, and Sasanian Empires. The region bordered Persia in the
west, Gedrosia in the south-east, Parthia in the north (later known as
Abarshahr), and Aria to the north-east. Carmania was considered part of Ariana.
Yazidis
Yazidis, also written as Yezidis - Kurdish: Ezidî, are an endogamous and
mostly Kurmanji-/Northern Kurdish-speaking minority, indigenous to the Kurdish
regions, which includes parts of Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey. The majority of
Yazidis remaining in the Middle East today live in the disputed territories of
Northern Iraq, primarily in the Nineveh and Dohuk governorates. There is a
disagreement on whether Yazidis are a religious sub-group of Kurds or a
distinct ethnoreligious group, among scholars and Yazidis themselves. The
Yazidi religion is monotheistic and has roots in a western pre-Zoroastrian
Iranic faith.
Yezidism emerged in the 12th century when Sheikh Adi, who, after studying in
Baghdad, established an order of his own called Adawiyya.
Balkh Balkh was historically
an ancient place of religions, Zoroastrianism and Buddhism, and one of the
wealthiest and largest cities of Khorasan, since the latter's earliest history.
The city was known to Persians as Zariaspa and to the Ancient Greeks as Bactra,
giving its name to Bactria (Greeks called the city also Zariaspa).
Bactria
Bactria or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia. Bactria proper was
north of the Hindu Kush mountain range and south of the Oxus river (modern Amu
Darya), covering Afghanistan. More broadly, Bactria was the area which was
located north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Tian Shan,
covering modern-day Tajikistan and Uzbekistan as well, with the Amu Darya
flowing west through the centre.
Drangiana
Drangiana or Zarangiana - Drangiane; was a historical region and administrative
division of the Achaemenid Empire. This region comprises territory around Hamun
Lake, wetlands in endorheic Sistan Basin on the Iran-Afghan border, and its
primary watershed Helmand river in what is nowadays southwestern region of
Afghanistan.
Hyrcania
Hyrcania is a historical region composed of the land south-east of the Caspian
Sea in modern-day Iran and Turkmenistan, bound in the south by the Alborz
mountain range and the Kopet Dag in the east.
Gedrosia
Gedrosia is the Hellenized name of the part of coastal Balochistan that roughly
corresponds to today's Makran. In books about Alexander the Great and his
successors, the area referred to as Gedrosia runs from the Indus River to the
north-eastern edge of the Strait of Hormuz. It is directly to the south of the
countries of Bactria, Arachosia and Drangiana, to the east of the country of
Carmania and due west of the Indus River which formed a natural boundary
between it and Western India. The native name of Gedrosia might have been
Gwadar as there are two towns by that name and a bay (Gwadar Bay) in central
Makran. It, along with Saurashtra, was an important part of the Maurya Empire
of ancient India.
Arachosia|
Arachosia is the Hellenized name of an ancient satrapy that existed in the
eastern parts of the Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Greco-Bactrian and
Indo-Scythian empires. It was centered around the valley of the Arghandab River
in modern-day southern Afghanistan, although its influence extended as far east
as the Indus River. The Arghandab River, a tributary of the Helmand River, was
known as the Arachotós during this period. The Greek-language term
"Arachosia" corresponds to the Aryan land of Harauti, which was
situated around modern-day Helmand. The capital of Arachosia was
Alexandropolis, an ancient city that is now known as Kandahar.
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan, or Khorasan is a historical eastern region in the Iranian
Plateau. The name Khorasan is Persian and means "where the sun arrives
from" or "the Eastern Province". The name was first given to the
eastern province of Persia during the Sasanian Empire and was used from the
late Middle Ages in distinction to neighboring Transoxiana. Greater Khorasan is
today sometimes used to distinguish the larger historical region from the
former Khorasan Province of Iran (1906–2004), which roughly encompassed
the western half of the historical Greater Khorasan.
Transoxiana
Transoxiana or Transoxania is an ancient name referring to a region and
civilization located in lower Central Asia roughly corresponding to modern-day
eastern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, southern Kazakhstan and southern Kyrgyzstan.
Geographically, it is the region between the rivers Amu Darya to its south and
the Syr Darya to its north.
Sistan
Sistan known in ancient times as Sakastan in Persian: "the land of the
Saka"), is a historical and geographical region in present-day Eastern
Iran (Sistan and Baluchistan Province) and Southern Afghanistan (Nimruz,
Helmand, Kandahar). Largely desert, the region is bisected by the Helmand
River, the largest river in Afghanistan, which empties into the Hamun Lake that
forms part of the border between the two countries.
Scythians
The Scythians (from Ancient Greek: Skúthes, or Scyths, also known as
Saka and Sakae (Old Persian: Saka; , were an ancient nomadic people living
primarily in the region known as Scythia, which today comprises the Eurasian
steppes of Kazakhstan, the Russian steppes of the Siberian, Ural, Volga and
Southern regions, and eastern Ukraine. Classical Scythians dominated the Pontic
steppe from approximately the 7th century BC until the 3rd century BC. They can
also be referred to as Pontic Scythians. They were part of the wider Scythian
cultures, stretching across the Eurasian Steppe. In a broader sense, Scythians
has also been used to designate all early Eurasian nomads, although the
validity of such terminology is controversial. According to Di Cosmo, other
terms such as "Early nomadic" would be preferable. Eastern members of
the Scythian cultures are often specifically designated as Sakas.
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