On its western side, the region was bordered by the great Carmanian desert and to the north it was bound by the Oxus river. To the south and east, it was bordered by the Hindu Kush mountain range. The region was mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts as बाह्लीक or Bāhlīka.īactria was located in Central Asia in an area that comprises most of modern-day Afghanistan and parts of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. بلخ ( Romanized: Balx), Chinese 大夏 ( pinyin: Dàxià), Latin Bactriana. Other cognates include βαχλο ( Romanized: Bakhlo). The modern name is derived from the Ancient Greek: Βακτριανή ( Romanized Greek term: Baktrianē), which is the Hellenized version of the Bactrian endonym. This later developed into Bāxtriš in Middle Persian and Baxl in New Persian. Historically, the region was first mentioned in Avestan as Bakhdi in Old Persian. The modern English name of the region is Bactria. Bactrian, an Eastern Iranian language, was the common language of Bactria and surroundings areas in ancient and early medieval times.īactria between the Hindu Kush (south), Pamirs (east), south branch of Tianshan (north).įerghana Valley to the north western Tarim Basin to the east. The Samanid Empire was formed in Eastern Iran by the descendants of Saman Khuda, a Persian from Bactria thus started spread of Persian language in the region and decline of Bactrian language. With the Muslim conquest of Iran in the 7th century, Islamization of Bactria began.īactria was centre of an Iranian Renaissance in the 8th and 9th centuries, and New Persian as an independent literary language first emerged in this region. The Sasanians lost Bactria in the 4th century however, it was reconquered in the 6th century. Shapur I, the second Sasanian King of Kings of Iran, conquered western parts of the Kushan Empire in the 3rd century, and the Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom was formed. By the 2nd century BC, Bactria was conquered by the Parthian Empire, and in the early 1st century, the Kushan Empire was formed by the Yuezhi in the Bactrian territories. Nevertheless, the Seleucids lost the region after the declaration of independence by the satrap of Bactria, Diodotus I thus began the history of the Greco-Bactrian and the later Indo-Greek Kingdoms.
After the death of Alexander, Bactria was annexed by his general, Seleucus I. Bactria was the centre of Iranian resistance against the Macedonian invaders after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire in the 4th century BC, but eventually fell to Alexander the Great. One of the early centres of Zoroastrianism and capital of the legendary Kayanian kings of Iran, Bactria is mentioned in the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great as one of the satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire it was a special satrapy and was ruled by a crown prince or an intended heir. Ĭalled "beautiful Bactria, crowned with flags" by the Avesta, the region is one of the sixteen perfect Iranian lands that the supreme deity Ahura Mazda had created. Bactria ( / ˈ b æ k t r i ə/ Bactrian: βαχλο, Bakhlo), or Bactriana, was an ancient region in Central Asia in Amu Darya's middle stream, stretching north of the Hindu Kush, west of the Pamirs and south of the Gissar range, covering the northern part of Afghanistan, southwestern Tajikistan and southeastern Uzbekistan.
0 kommentar(er)
