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Invasions of
Afghanistan
Afghanistan is a mountainous landlocked country at the crossroads of Central
and South (Southern) Asia. Some of the invaders in the history of Afghanistan
include the Maurya Empire, the Ancient Macedonian Empire of Alexander the Great
of Macedon, the Rashidun Caliphate, the Mongol Empire led by Genghis Khan, the
Timurid Empire of Timur, the Mughal Empire, various Persian Empires, the Sikh
Empire, the British Empire, the Soviet Union, and most recently a coalition
force of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops, the majority
from the United States, .
Gandhara
Gandhara was an ancient region in the Kabul, Peshawar, Swat, and Taxila areas
of what are now northwestern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. The cultural
influence of "Greater Gandhara" extended across the Indus River into
the Potohar Plateau of Punjab, westward into Bamyan, and northward up to the
Karakoram range. The wider region around Gandhara, including Sattagydia (Bannu
basin) in the south, was also known as Paropamisadae. In the 6th century BCE,
Paropamisadae became a taxation district of the Achaemenid Empire and was known
in Old Persian as Gandara.
Firdausi - Shah-Nama
- Sassanid Empire
The Sasanian or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians and
also called the Neo-Persian Empire by historians, was the last Persian imperial
dynasty before the Muslim conquest in the mid-7th century AD. Named after the
House of Sasan, it endured for over four centuries, from 224 to 651 AD, making
it the longest-lived Persian dynasty. The Sasanian Empire succeeded the
Parthian Empire, and re-established the Iranians as a major power in late
antiquity alongside its neighboring arch-rival, the Roman-Byzantine Empire.
Ardashir I
or Ardeshir I also known as Ardashir the Unifier (180 – 242 AD), was the
founder of the Sasanian Empire. He was also Ardashir V of the Kings of Persis,
until he founded the new empire. After defeating the last Parthian shahanshah
Artabanus IV on the Hormozdgan plain in 224, he overthrew the Parthian dynasty
and established the Sasanian dynasty. Afterwards, Ardashir called himself
"shahanshah" and began conquering the land that he called Iran.
Sasanian
civil war 628-632
The Sasanian civil war of 628–632, also known as the Sasanian Interregnum
was a conflict that broke out after the execution of the Sasanian king Khosrau
II between the nobles of different factions, notably the Parthian (Pahlav)
faction, the Persian (Parsig) faction, the Nimruzi faction, and the faction of
general Shahrbaraz. Rapid turnover of rulers and increasing provincial
landholder power further diminished the empire. Over a period of 4 years and 14
successive kings, the Sasanian Empire weakened considerably, and the power of
the central authority passed into the hands of its generals, contributing to
its fall.
Rigveda
The Rigveda is the oldest known Vedic Sanskrit text. Its early layers are one
of the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language. The sounds and texts
of the Rigveda have been orally transmitted since the 2nd millennium BCE. The
philological and linguistic evidence indicates that the bulk of the Rigveda
Samhita was composed in the northwestern region (see Rigvedic rivers) of the
Indian subcontinent, most likely between c. 1500 and 1000 BCE, although a wider
approximation of c. 1900–1200 BCE has also been given.
Paradhata (Pishdadian dynasty)
The history of Persia, so far as its inhabitants know it, begins with a
legendary dynasty, termed Pishdadian or "Early Law Givers". The
founder of this was Keiomarz(QMars), the Zoroastrian Adam, who, with his two
successors Hushang and Tahmurz, is supposed to have laid the foundation of
civilization in Iran.
Rostam
The offspring of the marriage of Zal and Rudabah was Rustam, the great champion
of Iran, whose fabulous exploits as a warrior, and a hunter still loom immense
in the minds of Persians. Closely connected with the hero was his horse Raksh,
whose size and courage are legendary; in Sistan, ruins situated a mile apart
are pointed out as having been the "manger" and
"heel-ropes" of Raksh! Rustam's prowess was mainly displayed in the
wars waged between Turan and Iran, which began after the death of Manuchehr and
the accession of his unworthy son Nozar, and lasted for more than a generation.
The Turanian leader was Afrasiab, who slew Nozar and ruled Persia for twelve
years, and this period of gloom saw the end of the Pishdadian Dynasty.
Ferdowsi
Abul-Qâsem Ferdowsi Tusi, also Firdawsi was a Persian poet and the author
of Shahnameh ("Book of Kings"), which is one of the world's longest
epic poems created by a single poet, and the greatest epic of Persian speaking
countries. Ferdowsi is celebrated as one of the most influential figures of
Persian literature and one of the greatest in the history of literature.
Zarathushtra
Zoroaster, also known as Zarathushtra was an ancient Iranian prophet (spiritual
leader) who founded what is now known as Zoroastrianism. His teachings
challenged the existing traditions of the Indo-Iranian religion and inaugurated
a movement that eventually became the dominant religion in Ancient Persia. He
was a native speaker of Old Avestan and lived in the eastern part of the
Iranian Plateau, but his exact birthplace is uncertain.
Zoroastrianism
Zoroastrianism or Mazdayasna is an Iranian religion and one of the world's
oldest continuously practiced organized faiths, based on the teachings of the
Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster (also known as Zara?uštra in Avestan or
as Zartosht in Modern Persian). It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil
and an eschatology which predicts the ultimate conquest of evil by good.
Zoroastrianism exalts an uncreated and benevolent deity of wisdom known as
Ahura Mazda (lit.? 'Wise Lord') as its supreme being. The unique historical
features of Zoroastrianism, such as its monotheism, messianism, belief in
judgement after death, conception of heaven and hell, and free will may have
influenced other religious and philosophical systems, including Gnosticism,
Greek philosophy, Islam, and the Bahá'í Faith.
Ahura Mazda
Ahura Mazda also known as Oromasdes, Ohrmazd, Ahuramazda, Hourmazd, Hormazd,
and Hurmuz, is the creator deity in Zoroastrianism. He is the first and most
frequently invoked spirit in the Yasna. The literal meaning of the word Ahura
is "lord", and that of Mazda is "wisdom".
King Garshasp
Garshasp was, in Persian mythology, the last Shah of the Pishdadian dynasty of
Persia according to Shahnameh. He was a descendant of Zaav, ruling over the
Persian Empire for about nine years, and is also the name of a monster-slaying
hero in Iranian mythology. The Avestan form of his name is K?r?saspa and in
Middle Persian his name is Kirsasp.
Achaemenid Empire
730 -329 BC
The Achaemenid Empire, also called the First Persian Empire, was an ancient
Iranian empire that was based in Western Asia and founded by Cyrus the Great in
550 BC. It reached its greatest extent under Xerxes I, who conquered most of
northern and central ancient Greece. At its greatest territorial extent, the
Achaemenid Empire stretched from the Balkans and Eastern Europe in the west to
the Indus Valley in the east. The empire was larger than any previous empire in
history, spanning a total of 5.5 million square kilometers (2.1 million square
miles).
Achaemenid
Dynasty
The Achaemenid dynasty was an ancient Persian royal house. They were the ruling
dynasty of the Achaemenid Empire from about 700 to 330 BC. The rulers from the
Achaemenid dynasty, starting with Cambyses II, who conquered Egypt, the
historian Manetho placed as pharaohs in the Twenty-seventh Dynasty of Egypt.
satrap
Satraps were the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and
Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian
Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The satrap served as viceroy to the king,
though with considerable autonomy. The word came to suggest tyranny or
ostentatious splendour.] A satrapy is the territory governed by a satrap.
Massagetae
The Massagetae, or Massageteans, were an ancient Eastern Iranian nomadic tribal
confederation, who inhabited the steppes of Central Asia, north-east of the
Caspian Sea in modern Turkmenistan, western Uzbekistan, and southern
Kazakhstan. They belonged to the Saka people, and were part of the wider
Scythian cultures, According to Greek and Roman scholars, the Massagetae were
neighboured by the Aspasioi (possibly the Asvaka) to the north, the Scythians
and the Dahae to the west, and the Issedones (possibly the Wusun) to the east.
Sogdia lay to the south.
Hephthalites, The
Hephthalites sometimes called the White Huns (also known as the White Hunas, in
Iranian as the Spet Xyon and in Sanskrit as the Sveta-huna), were a people who
lived in Central Asia during the 5th to 8th centuries CE. They formed an
empire, the Imperial Hephthalites, and were militarily important from 450 CE,
when they defeated the Kidarites, to 560 CE, when combined forces from the
First Turkic Khaganate and the Sasanian Empire defeated them. After 560 CE they
established "principalities" in the area of Tokharistan, under the
suzerainty of the Western Turks (in the areas north of the Oxus) and of the
Sasanian Empire (in the areas south of the Oxus), before the Tokhara Yabghus
took over in 625.
Tokharistan
Tokharistan (formed from "Tokhara" and the suffix -stan meaning
"place of" in Persian) is an ancient Early Middle Ages name given to
the area which was known as Bactria in Ancient Greek sources. Today,
Tokharistan is fragmented between Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, but
it was recognized as a single unit by the Chinese Empire in the 7th and 8th
century CE, as a region of the Protectorate General to Pacify the West.
Kushans
The Kushan Empire was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, in the Bactrian
territories in the early 1st century. It spread to encompass much of modern-day
territory of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and northern India, at least as far
as Saketa and Sarnath near Varanasi (Benares), where inscriptions have been
found dating to the era of the Kushan Emperor Kanishka the Great.
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