Samanid Empire

The Samanid Empire was a Persianate Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia and Iran from 819 to 999. Its court helped establish New Persian as a language of literature and administration.

Saman Khuda: A local Iranian ruler traditionally regarded as the ancestor of the Samanid dynasty. The dynasty took its name from this ancestor, whose descendants entered Abbasid service.
New Persian: The modern Iranian language whose earliest literary form developed after the Islamic conquest of Persia. Samanid patronage helped establish New Persian as a language of courtly literature.
Rudaki: A Persian poet traditionally regarded as a founder of classical Persian poetry. He composed at the Samanid court, where Persian poetry received royal support.
Qarakhanid Khanate: A Turkic Muslim dynasty that ruled parts of Central Asia from the ninth to early thirteenth centuries. The Qarakhanids conquered Bukhara in 999, ending Samanid rule there.
Abbasid Caliphate: A caliphate that ruled much of the Islamic world from 750 to 1258. Samanid rulers first governed Central Asian territories as Abbasid-appointed officials.
Persianate society: Societies shaped by Persian language and cultural traditions, whether or not their populations were ethnically Persian. The Samanid court became an early center of Persianate political and literary culture.
Ferdowsi: The Persian poet who composed the epic Shahnameh, completed around 1010. His epic’s early Persian literary tradition grew partly from the culture fostered under the Samanids.
Ghaznavid Empire: A Persianate Muslim dynasty that ruled territories in Central and South Asia from 977 to 1186. The Ghaznavids took eastern Samanid territories and inherited aspects of their Persianate court culture.
Tahirid dynasty: An Iranian dynasty that governed Khorasan for the Abbasid caliphate from 821 to 873. The Tahirids preceded the Samanids as Abbasid governors in Khorasan.
Samanid dirham: A silver coin issued by the Samanid dynasty, widely circulated across Eurasian trade networks. Its circulation reflects the dynasty’s economic reach beyond its core territories.

Linked from 28 pages