Arachosia

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Arachosia as satrapy in the Achaemenid Empire around 500 BC Chr.
Arachosia, approx. 300 BC Chr.

Arachosia was a historical area and province in the southeast of the ancient Persian and other ancient empires. Arachosia was in the south of what is now Afghanistan and in neighboring Pakistan . In the center of Arachosia, the city of Kandahar was founded by Alexander the Great .

Surname

The ancient area is called Haraxvaitī in the Avestian Vendidâd (the -ax ima- is of non- Avestial origin) and in Vedic Sanskrit as Sarasvatī (meaning: rich in ponds ) and was thus a mythical world river comparable to Anahita . In the Behistun Inscription Arachosia is on Old Persian Harauvatiya and Harahuvatiš designated with a revolt against his Great King Darius I associated. In the Elamite language the region is called Ha (r) -ra-u-ma-ti-iš , Ha (r) -ru-ma-ti-iš , hyrwty u. and in the Aramaic language as Haraxvatī , as well as in Babylonian as KUR a-ru-ha-at-ti and a-ru-hat .

Under Arachosia (Latinized form of the Greek Arachōsíā ) the area was only known after Alexander the Great had conquered the Persian Achaemenid Empire and Greeks also settled in this area. With Ptolemy and Strabo , among many other cities, the names of a capital and a river, both of which were called Arachotus, are handed down. The river can be identified with the arghandāb .

The Arabs and other Western historians and geographers used the names Arokhaj, Rokhaj, Al-rokhaj, Roh Kaj or Roh for short for all of Arachosia.

location

Arachosia was an area that was located on the soil of today's Afghanistan and Pakistan (more precisely Baluchistan ) and possibly even extended partially to the Indus River . An exact location of its borders is still not possible today. According to the traditions of some Greek chroniclers and historians, Arachosia's neighboring countries were Drangiana , Sattagidia , Maka in the west, Gedrosia in the south , Gandhara in the north , possibly also Bactria , although there is no evidence that the Kabul valley belonged to Bactria despite the extremely similar culture and language. and in the east Sindhu (today's Sindh ). The largest city in the region is still Kandahar ( Is kandar - Alexander ), which was founded by Alexander the Great as Alexandria in Arachosia . We know from Claudius Ptolemy that the Greeks had other cities built in Arachosia.

Isidorus of Charax is often quoted because he founded Arachosia in the 1st century BC. Chr. Described. He mentioned the Greek population and cities, which probably date from the time of the Graeco-Bactrians and Indo-Greeks.

Residents

In ancient times, Arachosia was home to many ethnic groups, including Iranian and non-Iranian peoples. The most important ethnic group were the so-called Eoritae / Arattas / Aroras, also called Arokha or Roh. There were also the ethnic groups of the Rhopluteans, the Sidris / Satris and the so-called Parsaeteans . Surprisingly, none of these tribes appear in the traditions of Herodotus , nor the name of the region as Arachosia or the population as Arachosians , but they are likely to be identified with the Thamineans (Greek: Thaminaei), which suggests that it is There were probably power struggles between the ethnic groups and the old ruling class, the Thamineans, were replaced by a new one, the Arachosian tribe. A background to this could have been the Alexanderzug against Persia and other previous wars against the Persian Empire, which shook the Persian Empire in the east and created a power vacuum. Another ancient and religiously significant base in Nordwestarachosien were the vedasprechdenden Pakhas / Paktas / Pakat (Herodotus called Paktyans ), probably the ancestors of today's dardischen Paschais , among other things, of Marco Polo and Babur mentioned the Mughal and as a significant Hindu population of Khorasan are called . Other peoples were the Iranian Ormurs and other once widespread peoples like the Gawars, who are now only minorities.

Today only very few of the original population of Arachosia live in the Kandahar region and the surrounding area, either because they only form very small groups or because they left their areas with the rise of Islam and Islamization. The first Eoritae left Kandahar between the 8th and 10th centuries and fled to India to escape the Islamized Ghaznavids and Persians , some of whom settled in their areas unless all Hindus and Buddhists were Islamized.

history

The north and northwest of Arachosia were part of the Median Empire before 550 BC. Became a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire. Alexander the Great conquered Arachosia during his conquest of Persia in the 320s BC. And founded Kandahar. The region later became part of the Seleucid Empire , which then became part of 305 BC. BC was ceded to the Maurya Empire for the purpose of an alliance . The Shunga dynasty eliminated the Mauryas in 185 BC. BC, but shortly afterwards they lost Arachosia to the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom . Middle of the 2nd century BC It became part of the Indo-Greek Empire .

The Indo-Scythians destroyed most of the dominions of the Indo-Greeks in the middle of the 1st century BC. BC, but lost the region themselves to the Parthians and Indo-Parthians in the early 1st century AD . The Cushan Empire later expelled the Parthians and ruled here until it was defeated by the Persian Sassanids in 230 . The Sassanids appointed vassals or family members known as Kushanshahs. Around 360 the Kushanshahs were subjugated by the Chionites , who in turn were ousted by the Kidarite dynasty at the end of the 4th century . The Kidarites, for their part, were replaced by the Hephthalites around 470 , who were defeated around 560 by an alliance of Sassanids and Turks . Arachosia became part of the surviving Kushano-Hephtalite Empire of Kapisa , then Kabul, before it was repeatedly attacked and repeatedly conquered by the Muslim Arabs as well as the Saffarids , Tahirids and Samanids - ruled by local local princes with the title " Zunbil " . Around 870, the Kushano Hephtalites, also known as the Turki Shahi dynasty, were replaced by the Hindu Shahi . Later, in the early 11th century, Arachosia fell to the Ghaznavids.

religion

Until the arrival of Islam in the 7th century, large parts of Arachosia were shaped by Zoroastrians . The area is said to have played a very important role in the development of Zoroastrianism , so the Avesta first came to Persis through Arachosia , which is why some call it the "second fatherland of Zoroastrianism".

literature

  • Richard Nelson Frye : The Heritage of Persia. World Publishing Company, Cleveland OH 1966.
  • John E. Hill (Translator): The Western Regions according to the Hou Hanshu. The Xiyu juan. "Chapter on the Western Regions". From Hou Hanshu 88. Draft annotated English translation. 2nd edition. September 2003, online .
  • John E. Hill: The Peoples of the West from the Weilue魏 略by Yu Huan魚 豢. A Third Century Chinese Account Composed between 239 and 265 CE. Draft annotated English translation. September 2004, online .
  • Wilhelm Tomaschek : Arachosia . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 1, Stuttgart 1895, Col. 368 f.
  • Arnold J. Toynbee : Between Oxus and Jumna. Oxford University Press, London et al. 1961.
  • Willem Vogelsang: Early historical Arachosia in South-east Afghanistan; Meeting place between East and West. In: Iranica antiqua. Vol. 20, 1985, ISSN  0021-0870 , pp. 55-99, doi : 10.2143 / IA.20.0.2014078 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexandria Arachosia
  2. ↑ Lommel 1954: pp. 405-413
  3. ↑ cf. RA Bowman, Aramaic Ritual Texts from Persepolis, Chicago, 1970, p. 192b
  4. ↑ DSf 39, XPh 16 and Persepolis tablets; see RT Hallock, Persepolis Fortification Tablets, Chicago, 1969, p. 691a
  5. ↑ Strabo 11.8.9, eis Arachōtoùs tḕn pólin; Pliny, op. Cit., 6.61 Arachosiorum oppidum
  6. ^ Meyers Lexikon, 1905, Arachosien: "Alexandreia Arachoton, the present Kandahar": Alexandreia Arachoton = Alexandria in Arachosien
  7. ↑ Arachosia . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica (English, including references)
  8. ↑ ... it is true that there are ten good day trips from Badascian [Badakhschan] around noon to a province in the east called Pasciai, where they have their own language. The people are idolaters, they worship idols, and they are brown people. They know some sorcery and devil arts, and they invoke demons all the time. The men wear rings and hoops made of gold, silver, pearls and precious stones on their ears, depending on their ability and very skillfully worked. They are very malevolent and malicious guys, cruelly refined in their customs ...
  9. ↑ electricpulp.com: ARACHOSIA - Encyclopaedia Iranica. Accessed February 17, 2017 .
  10. ^ Gnoli Gherardo .: The idea of ​​Iran. An essay on its origin . S. 133 .