Sijistan

Sistān ( fa, سیستان), known in ancient times as Sakastān ( fa, سَكاستان, "the land of the Saka"), is a historical and geographical region in present-day Eastern Iran ( Sistan and Baluchestan Province) and Southern Afghanistan ( Nimruz, Helmand, Kandahar). Largely desert, the region is bisected by the Helmand River, the largest river in Afghanistan, which empties into the Hamun Lake that forms part of the border between the two countries.

Etymology

Sistan derives its name from ''Sakastan'' ("the land of the Saka"). The Sakas were a Scythian tribe which from the 2nd century BC to the 1st century migrated to the Iranian Plateau and Indus valley, where they carved a kingdom known as the Indo-Scythian Kingdom. In the Bundahishn, a Zoroastrian scripture written in Pahlavi, the province is called "Seyansih". After the Arab conquest of Iran, the province became known as Sijistan/Sistan.

The more ancient Old Persian name of the region - prior to Saka dominance - was ''zaranka'' ("waterland"). This older form is also the root of the name Zaranj, capital of the Afghan Nimruz Province.

According to ''Encyclopædia Iranica'',
:The name of the country and its inhabitants is first attested as Old Persian ''z-r-k'' (i.e., Zranka) in the great Bīsotūn inscription of Darius I, apparently the original name. This form is reflected in the Elamite (Sir-ra-an-qa and variants), Babylonian (Za-ra-an-ga), and Egyptian (''srng'' or ''srnḳ'') versions of the Achaemenid royal inscriptions, as well as in Greek Zarángai, Zarangaîoi, Zarangianḗ (Arrian; Isidore of Charax), and Sarángai (Herodotus) and in Latin Zarangae ( Pliny). Instead of this original form, characterized by non-Persian z (perhaps from proto-IE. palatal ''*γ'' or ''*γh''), in some Greek sources (chiefly those dependent upon the historians of Alexander the Great) the perhaps hypercorrect Persianized variant (cf. Belardi, p. 183) with initial d-, *Dranka (or even *Dranga?), reflected in Greek Drángai, Drangḗ, Drangēnḗ, Drangi(a)nḗ (Ctesias; Polybius; Strabo; Diodorus; Ptolemy; Arrian; Stephanus Byzantius) and Latin Drangae, Drangiana, Drangiani (Curtius Rufus; Pliny; Ammianus Marcellinus; Justin) or Drancaeus ( Valerius Flaccus, ''Argonautica'' 6.106, 6.507) occurs.

In the Shahnameh, Sistan is also referred to as Zabulistan, after the region in the eastern part of present-day Afghanistan. In Ferdowsi's epic, Zabulistan is in turn described to be the homeland of the mythological hero Rostam.

History

Early history

In prehistoric times, the Jiroft Civilization covered parts of Sistan and Kerman Province (possibly as early as the 3rd millennium BC). It is best known from excavations of the archaeological site of Shahr-i Sokhta, a massive third millennium BC city. Other smaller sites have been identified in the region in surveys by American archaeologists Walter Fairservis and George Dales. The site of Nad-i Ali in Afghan Sistan has also been claimed to date from the Bronze Age (Benseval and Francfort 1994).

Earlier the area was occupied by Indian tribes related to the Aryans and Iranian peoples and the Kingdom of Gandhar and Shak-sthan, mentioned in Mahabharat, were established. Eventually a kingdom known as Arachosia was formed, parts of which were ruled by the Medean Empire by 600 BC. The Medes were overthrown by the Achaemenid Persian Empire in 550 BC, and the rest Arachosia was soon annexed. The archaeological site of Dahan-i Gholaman was a major Achaemenid centre. In the 4th century BC, Macedonian king Alexander the Great annexed the region during his conquest of the Persian Empire and founded the colony of " Alexandria in Arachosia". The city of Bost, now encompassed in modern Lashkargah, was also developed as a Hellenistic centre.

Alexander's Empire fragmented after his death, and Arachosia came under control of the Seleucid Empire, which traded it to the Mauryan dynasty of India in 305 BC. After the fall of the Mauryans, the region fell to their Greco-Bactrian allies in 180 BC, before breaking away and becoming part of the Indo-Greek Kingdom. Indo-Parthian king Gondophares was leader of Sakastan around c. 20–10 BCE as it was part of the Indo-Parthian Kingdom which was also called Gedrosia, its Hellenistic name.

After the mid 2nd century BC, much of the Indo-Greek Kingdom was overrun by tribes known as the Indo-Scythians or Saka, from which Sistan (from Sakastan) eventually derived its name.

Around 100 BC, the Indo-Scythians were defeated by Mithridates II of Parthia (r. c. 124–91 BC) and the region of Sakastan was incorporated into the Parthian Empire. Parthian governors such as Tanlismaidates ruled the land.

The Parthian Empire then briefly lost the region to its Suren vassals (Indo-Parthian) around 20 AD. The regions of Sistan, and Punjab were ruled together by the Indo-Parthians. As the Kushan Empire expanded in the mid 1st century AD, the Indo-Parthian lost their Indian dominions and recentered on Turan and Sakastan.

The Kushans were defeated by the Sassanid Persian Empire in the mid 3rd century, first becoming part of a vassal Kushansha state, before being overrun by the Hephthalites in the mid 5th century. Sassanid armies reconquered Sakastan in by 565 AD, but lost the area to the Arab Rashidun Caliphate after the mid 640s.

Sasanian era

The province was formed in ca. 240, during the reign of Shapur I, in his effort to centralise the empire; before that, the province was under the rule of the Parthian Suren Kingdom, whose ruler Ardashir Sakanshah became a Sasanian vassal during the reign of Shapur's father Ardashir I (r. 224–242), who also had the ancient city Zrang rebuilt, which became the capital of the province. Shapur's son Narseh was the first to appointed as the governor of province, which he would govern until 271, when the Sasanian prince Hormizd was appointed as the new governor. Later in ca. 281, Hormizd revolted against his cousin Bahram II. During the revolt, the people of Sakastan was one of his supporters. Nevertheless, Bahram II managed to suppress the revolt in 283, and appointed his son Bahram III as the governor of the province.

During his early reign, Shapur II (r. 309–379) appointed his brother Shapur Sakanshah as the governor of Sakastan. Peroz I (r. 459–484), during his early reign, put an end to dynastic rule in province by appointing a Karenid as its governor. The reason behind the appointment was to avoid further family conflict in the province, and in order to gain more direct control of the province.

Islamic conquest

During the Muslim conquest of Persia, the last Sasanian king Yazdegerd III fled to Sakastan in the mid-640s, where its governor Aparviz (who was more or less independent), helped him. However, Yazdegerd III quickly ended this support when he demanded tax money that he had failed to pay.

In 650, Abd-Allah ibn Amir, after having secured his position in Kerman, sent an army under Mujashi ibn Mas'ud to Sakastan. After having crossed the Dasht-i Lut desert, Mujashi ibn Mas'ud arrived to Sakastan. However, he suffered a heavy defeat and was forced to retreat.

One year later, Abd-Allah ibn Amir sent an army under Rabi ibn Ziyad Harithi to Sakastan. After some time, he reached Zaliq, a border town between Kirman and Sakastan, where he forced the dehqan of the town to acknowledge Rashidun authority. He then did the same at the fortress of Karkuya, which had a famous fire temple, which is mentioned in the Tarikh-i Sistan. He then continued to seize more land in the province. He thereafter besieged Zrang, and after a heavy battle outside the city, Aparviz and his men surrendered. When Aparviz went to Rabi t