Zunbil

Zunbil ( Zunbīl ) was the local ruler title of the non-Muslim princes of Zabulistan and Zamindawar (ancient Arachosia , Arabic ar-Ruḫḫaǧ ) in present-day Afghanistan in the early Islamic period (ie until the 9th century) . Just like the neighboring Ghur and other inaccessible areas of Iran, the Zunbil principality was able to successfully defend itself against submission by the Arabs (see Islamic expansion ) for a long time and was consequently Islamized very late. In the Arabic historical sources, the ruler title is mostly given in the form of Rutbīl or Ratbīl .

etymology

Presumably it is a theophoric title that contains the word "Zūn" (or "Žūn"), the name of the (alleged) god of a mysterious religious community in the region of Zamīndāwar, northwest of today's Kandahar , over the Arabic and Saffarid ones Sources reported. The belief and cult of this community has been little explored. According to the interpretation of Chinese sources by Marquarts and de Groots in 1915, the king of Ts'ao is said to have worn a crown with a golden fish head and to have been related to the Sogdians . The temple of Zun could have been recognized by a large fish skeleton on display; this indicates a trading deity. It is clear that the Zunbils were certainly not Zoroastrians or Buddhists .

Another suggestion is the derivation of the Persian cognomen zanda-pīl ("lively elephant"), which the Arab (!) Conquerors supposedly gave the Zunbil when they faced him on the battlefield. Although this derivation is historically proven, for various reasons it is rather implausible.

The few historical sources written in Arabic are uncertain about the correct pronunciation of the word. Different pronunciation forms are given, all of which can be traced back to the Middle Persian spelling “ZNBYL” or “ZUBYL”. The different reading of the first two syllables as "ZU" or "ZN" results from the ligature of the first two characters in the Middle Persian Pahlavi script . If you prefer to read with “ZU”, the final syllable “-L” can become “-R” through a Rhotazism , but this is not the rule. Thus a reading as Zubīl or Zubīr (Arabicized Zubair ) is also possible without any problems.

history

The Zunbil, allied with the Kabul Shahs , who were possibly related to the historical Hephthalites , were among the bitterest opponents of the Muslim caliphate for around 200 years - from the 7th to the 9th centuries of the Christian era - and as such were again and again the target of campaigns. The Zunbil's territory was repeatedly occupied and the prince was temporarily forced to pay tribute, but neither the Umayyads nor the Abbasids succeeded in bringing the mountainous region in the east of present-day Afghanistan permanently under the rule of Islam. It was only with the rise of the Persian Saffarids in Khorasan and the military triumph of Yaqub ibn al-Laith as-Saffar to Kabul that the Zunbil rule came to an end and the region was successfully Islamized in the decades to come.

Chronology of the main events

661 (under Muawiya I ): after he had already subjugated large parts of the area east of Sistan under the third caliph Uthman and captured a golden statue of the god Zun (with two rubies for eyes) in Zamindawar, Abd al-Rahman ibn conquered Samura on behalf of Abdullah ibn Amir (the Umayyad governor of Basra ) returns Bust and other possessions of the Zunbil and also takes Kabul

after 665: the Arab rule over the Zunbil principality is lost again

673: the Zunbil has to agree to pay 1 million dirham tribute to the caliphate

681: an Arab army under Yazid ibn Ziyad is defeated by the Zunbil

685: the Zunbil can be beaten and killed after attacking Sistan (after 683)

693/94: the new Zunbil can repel an Arab army

698: a punitive expedition to Zabulistan under Ubaidallah ibn Abi Bakra also fails because of the bitter resistance of the Zunbil

699: Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Aschath tries to systematically subjugate the territory of the Zunbil (establishment of garrisons), but then withdraws in rebellion against al-Hajjaj ibn Yusuf

711: Qutaiba ibn Muslim forces the Zunbil to pay tribute

under Umar II. (r. 717–20): the Zunbil stops paying tribute to the caliphate

865: Capturing slaves and great wealth, the Saffarid ruler Yaqub ibn al-Laith also conquers the east of what is now Afghanistan, killing Zunbil (who is allied with Salih ibn an-Nadr), while other members of the ruling family are captured

867: a cousin of Zunbils, who was appointed governor of the Saffarids in Ruḫḫaǧ , tries unsuccessfully to rebel against Yaqub

869: the son of Zunbils (Firuz ibn Kabk?) Manages to escape from Bust and raise an army, but has to retreat to Kabul, where Yaqub 870 or 872 (during the conquest of the city) finally catches him again

Alternative attempts at interpretation

According to the German numismatist and Iranist Volker Popp , whose work is being published as part of the Inârah research group led by Karl-Heinz Ohlig and Christoph Luxenberg , the title "Zunbil", which is in the Middle Persian form "ZNBYL-ān" ("belonging to the Zunbil") ; with the Middle Persian patronymic suffix “-ān”) over several years (53-69 AH ) on inscriptions in the Kirman region , the original framework history of the “counter caliphate of Abdallah ibn az-Zubair ” in traditional Islamic historiography can be traced .

According to this new thesis, which has received little attention in Islamic studies and which is in stark contrast to traditional historiography, the history of the “counter-caliphate” is based on a misreading and misinterpretation of Middle Persian sources in that the title of the adversaries of the caliphate is not used by later Muslim historians was misinterpreted as "Zunbil", but (Arabicized) "Zubair" and accordingly a new framework story - this time in Mecca and not in eastern Iran - around the (fictional) Abdallah ibn az-Zubair was invented to explain certain historical events .

This observation correlates in part with coins found in the east of the former Caliphate, from the ancient Sassanid coinage facility Darābgard (Arab. Darābdschird be attributed), traditionally Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr. On the coins an unspecified "Abdallah (ʿAbd Allaah)" is attested (this title, which can be translated as "Servant of God", was the usual designation of the rulers and can also be found on all Umaiyad coins), but this is in the simultaneously completed Kirman inscriptions clearly confirmed as a "ZNBYL-ān" (ie "[the] servant of God belonging to the Zunbil"). A brief supremacy of the Hephthalites in the now Umaiyad Marw is also historically secured by coinage.

In addition, there is the observation that the territory of az-Zubair in Iran, according to traditional historiography, coincides with that of the "ZNBYL-ān". In addition, according to established research on Islam, there is no archaeological evidence or evidence independent of traditional Muslim historiography for the work or for the existence of an Abdallah ibn az-Zubair on the Arabian Peninsula.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c C. E. Bosworth: Zunbīl. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam. (EI2). Brill, suffering. CD version.
↑ Joseph Marquart, Johann Jakob Maria de Groot : The kingdom of Zābul and the god Žūn from 6. – 9. Century. In: Gotthold Weil (Hrsg.): Festschrift Eduard Sachau on the seventieth birthday dedicated by friends and students. Reimer, Berlin 1915, pp. 248-292 .
↑ H. Miyakawa and A. Kollautz: A document on long-distance trade between Byzantium and China at the time of Theophylact In: Byzantinische Zeitschrift , p. 14 (Appendix). De Gruyter January 1984. ISSN 1868-9027 .
^ CE Bosworth: Zūn. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam . (EI2). Brill, suffering. CD version.
^ Henrik Samuel Nyberg : A Manual of Pahlavi. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1964, p. 158.
↑ ^a ^b Volker Popp: Biblical structures in the Islamic presentation of history. In: Markus Groß, Karl-Heinz Ohlig (Ed.): Schlaglichter. The first two Islamic centuries (= Inârah. Writings on the early history of Islam and on the Koran. Vol. 3). Schiler, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89930-224-0 , pp. 35-92, here pp. 87 ff.
↑ cf. Inârah. Institute for Research into the Early History of Islam and the Koran. Saarbrücken, 2011, homepage of the official website.
↑ cf. John Walker: Some New Arab-Sassanian Coins. In: The Numismatic Chronicle, and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society. 6th Series, Vol. 12, 1952, ISSN 0078-2696 , pp. 106-110.

[EIzunbil-1] C. E. Bosworth: Zunbīl. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam. (EI2). Brill, suffering. CD version.

[2] Joseph Marquart, Johann Jakob Maria de Groot : The kingdom of Zābul and the god Žūn from 6. – 9. Century. In: Gotthold Weil (Hrsg.): Festschrift Eduard Sachau on the seventieth birthday dedicated by friends and students. Reimer, Berlin 1915, pp. 248-292 .

[Miya-3] H. Miyakawa and A. Kollautz: A document on long-distance trade between Byzantium and China at the time of Theophylact In: Byzantinische Zeitschrift , p. 14 (Appendix). De Gruyter January 1984. ISSN 1868-9027 .

[4] CE Bosworth: Zūn. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam . (EI2). Brill, suffering. CD version.

[5] Henrik Samuel Nyberg : A Manual of Pahlavi. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1964, p. 158.

[Popp-6] Volker Popp: Biblical structures in the Islamic presentation of history. In: Markus Groß, Karl-Heinz Ohlig (Ed.): Schlaglichter. The first two Islamic centuries (= Inârah. Writings on the early history of Islam and on the Koran. Vol. 3). Schiler, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89930-224-0 , pp. 35-92, here pp. 87 ff.

[7] . Inârah. Institute for Research into the Early History of Islam and the Koran. Saarbrücken, 2011, homepage of the official website.

[8] . John Walker: Some New Arab-Sassanian Coins. In: The Numismatic Chronicle, and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society. 6th Series, Vol. 12, 1952, ISSN 0078-2696 , pp. 106-110.