The Eastern Frontier: Limits of Empire in Late Antique and Early Medieval Central Asia

309 Pages·2019·9.477 MB·English

by  Robert Haug

THE EASTERN FRONTIER
ii
THE EASTERN FRONTIER
Limits of Empire in Late Antique and
Early Medieval Central Asia
Robert Haug
I.B. TAURIS
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First published in Great Britain 2019
Copyright © Robert Haug, 2019
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Cover image: A fresco from Ancient Sogdian Penjikent at the National Museum of
Antiquities in Dushanbe Tajikistan.
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In memory of my grandfather,
Lloyd George Scheffel (1920–2016)
vi
CONTENTS
List of abbreviations viii
List of maps ix
Acknowledgements x
INTRODUCTION 1
Chapter 1
THE GATE OF IRON: CONCEPTUALIZING THE EASTERN
FRONTIER IN MEDIEVAL GEOGRAPHIC LITERATURE 17
Chapter 2
SHAPING THE EASTERN FRONTIER: THE SASANIAN EMPIRE AND
ITS EASTERN NEIGHBOURS 43
Chapter 3
THE ARAB–MUSLIM CONQUESTS AND THE LATE ANTIQUE
IMPERIAL SHATTERZONE 71
Chapter 4
THE FRONTIER BEYOND THE CALIPHATE: KHURĀSĀN AND
THE SECOND FITNA 99
Chapter 5
EXTENDING THE FRONTIER: THE UMAYYADS IN SOGDIANA
AND BEYOND 111
Chapter 6
THE UNSETTLED FRONTIER: THE ABBASID AND OTHER
REVOLUTIONS AND THE EASTERN FRONTIER 139
Chapter 7
UNIFYING THE FRONTIER: THE FORMATION OF GREATER KHURĀSĀN 169
CONCLUSION: AT THE END OF THE FRONTIER 197
Notes 201
Bibliography 259
Index 282
ABBREVIATIONS
ANS American Numismatic Society.
Balādhūrī Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā al-Balādhūrī, Kitāb futūḥ al-buldān, M.J. de
Goeje [ed.] (Leiden: Brill, 1866).
Balʿamī Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad Balʿamī, Chronique de-Abou-Djaraf-
Mohammed-ben-Yezid Tabari, traduites sur la version persane
d’Abou ʿAli Mohammed ben Belʿami, Hermann Zotenberg
[trans.] (Paris: Oriental Translation Fund, 1867–74).
CHIr Cambridge History of Iran.
Dīnawarī Abū Ḥanīfa Aḥmad b. Dāwud al-Dīnawarī, Kitāb al-akhbār
al-ṭiwāl, Vladimir Guirgass and Ignatius Kratchkovsky [eds.]
(Leiden, 1888).
EIr E ncylopaedia Iranica, online edition, E. Yarshater [ed.],
(London: 1982–).
EI2 Encyclopaedia of Islam, second edition, (Leiden, 1960–2009).
HCCA3 B.A. Litvinsky [ed.], History of Civilizations of Central Asia: Vol.
III The Crossroads of Civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750, (Paris, 1996).
The History of Bukhara A bū Bakr al-Narshakhī, The History of Bukhara, Richard
Frye [trans.] (Cambridge, MA: The Mediaeval Academy of
American, 1954).
History of al-Ṭabarī Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, The History of
al-Ṭabarī. Ehsan Yarshater [ed.], 40 volumes (Albany, NY,
1985–99).
Ibn al-Athīr ʿ Izz al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥassan b. al-Athīr, al-Kāmil fī ‘l-ta’rīkh, Samīr
Shams [ed.] (Beirut, 2009).
Narshakhī Abū Bakr al-Narshakhī, Ta’rīkh-i Bukhārā, Mudarris Raẓavī [ed.]
(Tehran, Intishārāt-i Ṭūs, 1363/1984).
Origins Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā al-Balādhūrī, The Origins of the Islamic State,
Philip K. Hitti and Francis Clark Murgotten [trans.], (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1916–24).
Ṭabarī Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad b. Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, Ta’rīkh al-rusul wa’l-
mulūk, M.J. de Goeje [ed.] (Leiden, 1879–1901).
Thaʿālibī Abū Manṣūr ʿAbd al-Malik Thaʿālibī, Ghurar akhbār mulūk
al-Furs wa sīyarihim, Hermann Zotenberg [ed.] (Paris, 1900).
MAPS
Map 1 The Eastern Frontier in Modern Context 8
Map 2 The Chaghāniyān Road According to Ibn Khurradādhbih 18
Map 3 The Topography of the Eastern Frontier 24
Map 4 The Eastern Frontier in Late Antiquity 50
Map 5 The Sasanian Frontier in the Seventh Century 79
Map 6 The Eastern Frontier of the Umayyad Caliphate 122
Map 7 Major Revolts and Campaigns of the Mid and Late Eighth Century
(dates in parenthesis) 148