Far East Kingdoms

Southern Khorasan (Quhistan / Kohistan) (South Asia)

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The ancient province of Arachosia in South Asia lay largely within central areas of modern Afghanistan, and perhaps edging into western Pakistan. Prior to its late sixth century BC domination by the Achaemenid Persians, Arachosia seems to have formed part of a much larger and more poorly-defined region known as Ariana, of which the later province of Aria was the heartland.

Arachosia formed part of the crossroads between ancient Transoxiana, Persia and India. The unexpected death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC meant that his empire was fractured, but the east generally fell into the hands of the Seleucid empire.

Much of Arachosia, however, seemed to have formed part of the rival Mauryan empire until barbarian incursions saw various short-lived empires ruling within constantly shifting borders. These empires included the Kushans, Indo-Sassanids, and the eastward arm of the Sassanids. When the latter fell to a tidal wave of conquests by the newly-created Islamic empire in the seventh century AD, Arachosia was submerged within the emirate of Khorasan.

By the ninth and tenth centuries, various factions were agitating for dominance in what was generally referred to as 'Greater Khorasan'. The Samanid ruler faced internal uprisings in the tenth century, notably by the Samanid 'Subject King', Alptigin. It was the Ghaznavid ruler, Sebuktigin, who went to his assistance, defeating the rebels at Balkh and then Nishapur.

Sebuktigin was granted the title 'Nasir ud-Din' ('Hero of the Faith') while his son, Mahmud, was made governor of a northern Khorasan which was removed from Samanid authority. In time the Ghaznavids would be displaced by the Ghurids in a shifting pattern of regional dominance.

Khorasan was now permanently divided into north and south, with Southern Khorasan having been cut up into several regional power bases. It is this southern region which largely formed later eastern Persia and a good deal of modern Afghanistan. It can also be referred to as Quhistan or Kohistan, but this not quite the same as today's eastern Iranian province of South Khorasan.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from The Persian Empire, J M Cook (1983), from The Origin of the Turks and the Turkish Khanate, Gao Yang (Tenth Türk Tarih Kongresi, Ankara 1986), from The Turks in World History, Carter Vaughn Findley (Oxford University Press 2005), from Ethnogenesis in the tribal zone: The Shaping of the Turks, Peter Benjamin Golden (2005), from The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade, Susan Wise Bauer (2010), from An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples, Peter B Golden (1992), from King of the Seven Climes: A History of the Ancient Iranian World (3000 BCE - 651 CE), Khodadad Rezakhani (Touraj Daryaee, Ed, Ancient Iran Series Vol IV, 2017), from Kushan, Kushano-Sasanian, and Kidarite Coins, D Jongeward & J Cribb (American Numismatic Society, 2015), and from External Links: Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Encyclopaedia Iranica.)