Sistan

Sīstān () is a border region in eastern Iran (see Sistan and Baluchestan Province), southwestern Afghanistan (see Nimruz Province) and northern tip of Southwestern Pakistan (see Balochistan Province). Sistan derives its name from 'Sakastan', which Sistan was once the westernmost part of. Sakastan comes from the from Old Iranian: Zaranka "waterland" ; Pashto Dzaranda "Watermill / waterland") It appears that it was the Pashto word for this country that was hellenized in to Drangiana. Saka, is the later, Persian version of the Pashto Dzaranda (with the eventual addition of the istan suffix in order to form Sakastan. This word was eventually condensed in to Sistan. The Saffarids (861-1003 CE), one of the early Iranian dynasties of the Islamic era, were originally rulers of Sistan.

In the Shahnameh, Sistan is also referred to as Zabulistan, after Zabol, a city in the region. In Ferdowsi's epic, Zabulistan is in turn described to be the homeland of the mythological hero Rostam.

History of Sistan

Later the area was occupied by Aryan tribes related to the Indo-Aryans and Iranian Peoples. 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. In the 3rd century BC, Macedonian king Alexander the Great (known in East as Sikander) annexed the region during his conquest of the Persian Empire and founded the colony of "Alexandria in Arachosia" (modern Kandahar).

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.

After the mid 2nd century BC, much of the Indo-Greek Kingdom was overrun by tribes known as the Indo-Scythians or Sakas, from which Sistan (from Sakastan) eventually derived its name. The Indo-Scythians were defeated around 100 BC by the Parthian Empire, which briefly lost the region to its Suren vassals (the Indo-Parthian) around 20 AD, before the region was conquered by the Kushan Empire in the mid 1st century AD. 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 Sistan in by 565 AD, but lost the area to the Arab Rashidun Caliphate after the mid 640s. (For Sistan's history after the Islamic conquest, see History sections of Afghanistan and Iran).

The Saffarids (861-1003 CE), one of the early Iranian dynasties of the Islamic era, were originally rulers of Sistan.

Sistan has a very strong connection with Zoroastrianism and during Sassanid times Lake Hamun was one of two pilgrimage sites for followers of that religion. In Zoroastrian tradition, the lake is the keeper of Zoroaster's seed and just before the final renovation of the world, three maidens will enter the lake, each then giving birth to the saoshyans who will be the saviours of mankind at the final renovation of the world.

The most famous archaeological sites in Sistan are Shahr-e Sukhteh and the site on Kuh-e Khwajeh, a hill rising up as an island in the middle of Lake Hamun.

See also

References

Category:Historical regions of Afghanistan Category:Persian history Category:History of Iran Category:Pre-Islamic heritage of Iran Category:Persian mythology Category:Shahnameh Category:Sites along the Silk Road Category:Zoroastrian history Category:Afghanistan–Iran border