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OSRUˆANA,
a
district
of
medieval
Islamic
Transoxania
lying
to
the
east
of
Samarqand
(q.v.)
on
the
upper
reaches
of
the
Zarafæa@n
river
or
Nahr-e
Sáogd.
It
extended
northwards
to
the
southern
bend
of
the
Syr
Darya
and
the
western
fringes
of
Farghana
(see
FARGÚAÚNA),
and
southwestwards
to
the
Bottama@n
mountains,
which
separated
the
upper
Oxus
basin
and
its
right-bank
tributaries
from
the
Syr
Darya
valley.
It
was
accordingly
traversed
by
the
highway
linking
Samarqand
with
Farghana.
The
exact
form
of
the
Iranian
name
Osruæana
is
not
clear
from
the
sources,
but
the
forms
given
in
Háodud
al-¿a@lam
(q.v.,
tr.
Minorsky,
pp.
63,
115,
comm.
354),
indicate
an
original
*Soruæna.
Osruæana
was
a
region
comprising
plains,
whose
fertility,
agricultural
richness,
and
pasturelands
are
praised
by
the
geographers,
and
hills
and,
in
the
south,
the
Bottama@n
mountains
(rising
up
to
over
5,000
m),
which
were
usually
reckoned
as
belonging
to
it
administratively.
The
mountains
were
rich
in
minerals;
and
gold,
silver,
sal
ammoniac,
and
vitriol
were
obtained
from
them
and
exported;
above
all,
local
iron
ore
was
made
up
into
tools
and
weapons
at
the
towns
of
Marsmanda
and
Ma@nk/Mink
and
sent
as
far
as
Khorasan
and
Iraq
(Ebn
Kòorda@dòbeh,
p.
38;
Ebn
Háawqal,
pp.
505-06;
tr.
Kramers,
pp.
483-84).
The
region
was
little
urbanized,
and
it
long
preserved
its
ancient
Iranian
feudal
and
patriarchal
society.
The
main
settlement,
described
by
the
early
geographers
as
the
ruler's
residence,
was
*Bunjikatò
(Háodud
al-¿a@lam,
tr.
Kramers,
p.
115,
spelt
Navinjkat;
cf.
Markwart,
Wehrot
und
Arang,
pp.
81,
162).
It
was
identified
by
Barthold,
who
surveyed
the
ruins
of
the
area
in
1894,
with
ˆahresta@n,
some
25
km
from
the
modern
Ura-Tyube
at
the
entrance
to
the
Farghana
valley
(Turkestan3,
p.
166).
It
was
flourishing
and
populous
in
the
10th
century,
and
Ebn
Háawqal
(q.v.)
estimated
its
male
population
at
10,000.
There
was
a
citadel,
a
walled
inner
town,
and
a
walled
suburb,
in
which
was
situated
the
administrative
building
(da@r
al-ema@ra).
Streams
from
nearby
hills
supplied
irrigation
water
and
drove
ten
mills
(Ebn
Háawqal,
pp.
503-04;
tr.
Kramers,
p.
482;
Maqdesi,
p.
277).
Next
in
size
and
importance
came
Za@nin
or
Sarsanda,
likewise
walled
and
fortified
and
a
staging
post
on
the
Samarqand-Farghana
road.
Dizak
or
Jizak,
also
situated
in
the
plains,
was
a
rallying
point
for
ghazis
or
fighters
for
the
faith,
who
made
raids
from
there
into
the
Turkish
steppes;
amongst
its
many
reba@tás
(see
"Riba@tá,"
in
EI2)
was
one
at
Kòodaysar
built
by
the
Afæin
(q.v.,
see
below;Ebn
Háawqal,
pp.
504-5,
tr.
pp.
482-83;
Maqdesi,
pp.
277-78).
At
the
time
of
the
Arab
incursions
into
Transoxania,
Osruæana
had
its
own
line
of
Iranian
princes,
the
Afæins
(Ebn
Kòorda@dòbeh,
p.
40),
of
whom
the
most
famous
was
the
general
of
the
caliph
Mo¿tasáem
(q.v.
833-42),
the
Afæin
Kòaydòar
or
Háaydar
b.
Ka@vus
(d.
841;
see
AFˆIN).
Bottama@n
may
have
been
a
separate
administrative
district,
since
Ebn
Kòorda@dòbeh
(q.v.,
p.
29)
says
that
it
had
its
own
malek
with
the
curious
title
(which
must
be
a
corrupt
spelling)
of
Ebn
Na¿na@¿
"possessor
of
mint."
In
this
latter
region
lay
the
original
home
of
the
Sogdian
magnate
Abu'l-Sa@j
Divda@d,
commander
in
the
service
of
Motawakkel
(847-61)
and
progenitor
of
the
later
line
of
Sajid
governors
in
Azerbaijan
(see
SAJIDS).
Osruæana,
a
region
strongly
under
Iranian
cultural
influence,
for
long
strenuously
resisted
the
Arab
invaders.
The
governor
of
Khorasan,
Qotayba
b.
Moslem,
is
said
to
have
fought
there
"wearers
of
black,"
and
the
last
Omayyad
governor,
Nasár
b.
Sayya@r,
invaded
it
and
concluded
treaties
with
the
local
rulers
of
the
middle
and
upper
Syr
Darya
regions
(called
in
the
Arabic
sources
dehqa@ns,
q.v.;
see
Gibb,
pp.
49,
90).
According
to
T'ang
dynastic
annals,
the
ruler
of
Osruæana
in
752
tried
vainly
to
get
Chinese
help
against
the
Arabs
(Barthold,
Turkestan3,
p.
196).
It
did
not
submit
definitively
to
the
Arabs
till
Ma÷mun's
(r.
813-33)
caliphate
in
about
820.
The
Afæin
Ka@vus
submitted,
but,
despite
the
killing
of
his
son
Kòaydòar
or
Háaydar
(see
above),
members
of
the
line
continued
to
rule
in
Osruæana,
minting
their
own
coins
there
until
893,
though
theoretically
under
Samanid
suzerainty.
Thereafter,
the
Samanid
Amir
Esma@¿il
b.
Ahámad
(q.v.,
r.
892-907)
brought
it
under
his
direct
authority
and
incorporated
into
his
empire.
With
the
fall
of
the
Samanids
at
the
end
of
the
10th
century,
the
region
passed
under
Turkish
Qarakhanid
(see
ILAK-KHANIDS)
control;
and
the
process
of
Turcification,
which
would
be
completed
in
the
more
northerly
part
of
the
region
by
modern
times,
now
begins.
The
name
Osruæana
drops
out
of
use
by
the
time
of
the
Mongol
invasions.
In
the
mid-19th
century,
the
main
town
of
the
region,
Ura
Tyube,
lay
in
a
frontier
zone
disputed
by
the
Khans
of
Bukhara
and
Khokand;
in
1866
it
was
captured
by
the
Russians
advancing
into
Central
Asia.
Shortly
after
this,
the
American
traveler
Eugene
Schuyler
(I,
pp.
308-13)
describes
his
journey
through
what
was
the
region
of
Osruæana.
The
lowland
parts
of
medieval
Osruæana
now
fall
mainly
within
the
easternmost
part
of
the
republic
of
Uzbekistan,
and
the
Bottama@n
mountains
within
the
northern
part
of
the
republic
of
Tajikistan.
Bibliography:
Sources.
Ebn
Háawqal,
pp.
503-07;
tr.
Kramers,
pp.
481-85.
Ebn
Kòorda@dòbeh,
pp.
29,
38-40.
Esátáakòri,
pp.
326-27,
336,
343.
Hodud
al-¿a@lam,
tr.
Minorsky,
pp.
63,
115,
comm.
354.
Maqdesi,
pp.
277-78.
Ya@qut,
Bolda@n
(Beirut),
I,
p.
197.
Studies.
Barthold,
Turkestan3,
pp.
165-69
(gives
the
exiguous
scraps
of
historical
information
in
the
Arabic
sources).
C.
E.
Bosworth,
"Usru@shana,"
in
EI2
X,
pp.
924-25.
H.
A.
R.
Gibb,
The
Arab
Conquests
in
Central
Asia,
London,
1923,
pp.
48-50,
90-92.
Le
Strange,
Lands,
pp.
474-76.
J.
Markwart,
Wehrot
und
Arang.
Untersuchungen
zur
mythischen
und
geschichtlichen
Landeskunde
von
Ostiran,
Leiden,
1938,
pp.
78-81,
160-62.
E.
Schuyler,
Turkistan.
Notes
of
a
Journey
in
Russian
Turkistan,
Khokand,
Bukhara,
and
Kuldja,
2
vols.,
London,
1876,
I,
pp.
308-13.
(C.
Edmund
Bosworth)
June
6,
2005 |