Herat from the 10Th to the 14Th Century Ute Franke
Herat from the 10th to the 14th Century Ute Franke Political Background – A Summary1 The toppling of the Umayyads and the subsequent shift of power towards the east deeply affected the region. Abu Muslim, a protagonist and major military The history of Herat during the first decades of the figure in the Abbasid movement, established his centre in Merv in 747, Islamic era is still rather poorly known. After the soon after his emissaries had driven the representative of the last Umayyad capitulation of Zaranj in 642, Sistan became the governor out of Herat. Due to his conciliatory politics, Abu Muslim received springboard for the Arab armies to move into India strong support throughout Khorasan, also from Shiites, Sunnis, Zoroastrians, and Khorasan, at first bypassing Herat.2 The city Jews, and Christians. His murder in 755 during a visit to the caliph al-Mansur surrendered in 651/52 CE and a peace treaty was in al-Mada’in fostered major upheavals and led to intermittent rules by drawn for Herat, Badghis, and Bushanj. Although various parties over smaller areas.7 One of the larger opposition movements Herat remained a political, administrative and was led by Ostadhsis in 767 or 768. His role, background and religious economic centre, it was of secondary importance affiliation8 are unclear, but he is mentioned as ‘Ruler of Herat’9, and was for a long time compared to Nishapur and Merv.3 reportedly able to muster 300,000 supporters, including Turks from Badghis The subsequent decades are marked by unrests, and Kharijites of Sistan. Larger Kharijite settlements existed in Herat and its economic constraints on the population, environs apparently until the 10th century.10 shifting political alliances among local rulers The appointment of Tahir Husayn Dhu’l-yaminayn as governor of Khorasan and with the Umayyad government, and by in 820/1 gave rise to a strong regional development.
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