Ostikan
Encyclopedia
Ostikan was the title of various oriental provincial governor
s.
(+634) has established the theocratic rule of Islam
on most of the sparsely populated Arabian peninsula, the armies of the next caliphs victoriously planted the green banner of the new religion in vast territories conquered on the neighboring giaur (infidel) empires of Persia (extinguishing the Zoroastrian -dualist pagan- Sassanids) and Byzantium
(the Christian remnant that still considered itself the continuation of the Roman Empire, but was thus reduced in Asia to Anatolia and completely swept out of Northern Africa, while it kept losing European territories to mainly Germanic and Slavonic invaders).
Just like the conquering Romans had been culturally converted to the Greco-oriental Hellenism, the simple tribal Arabs were seduced by the far more sophisticated civilization of those old, rich empires. One feature they had to adopt immediately was the introduction of a 'provincial' level of administration, corresponding to the Byzantine theme and the Persian satrapy.
The governors of these first permanent Muslim provinces were entitled ostikan, sometimes also styled Emir
(a generic Arabic term for leader, then mainly applied to generals) as they were primarily required to keep up the military potential (for defense and holy war against infidels) and maintain order internally.
Most provinces were in or just around the former Sassanid Persia, often continuing old satrapies and/or surviving as modern provinces. Not counting the caliph's new home region of Syria
, nor Egypt
(including eastern Libya
; both only recently lost by Byzantium
to the Sassanids), these were Iraq
and Mesopotamia
(both Arabized, around ancient Ctesiphon
and modern Baghdad
respectively around ancient Nineveh
and modern Mosul
), Khuzestan around ancient Susa
, still partly Arabic), Armenia
, Iberia
(i.e. Trans-Caucasian Georgia), Arran-Schirwan (east of it) all three of the northern front, Azerbaijan
(a Turkic people) and the ethnic heart of Iran
(Fars which is the eponymous home province, Djibal -the ancient Media
-, Gilan, Tabaristan and Djurdjan
(all three on the Caspian Sea
coast), Kerman
, Sistan
and Khorasan
(including Herat
in present Afghanistan
); under the Omayyad dynasty (661-750) the caliphate expanded further east, adding Sindh
(now southern Pakistan
), Zabulistan
(including Kabul
and Ghazna, later the eponymous seat of a mighty break-away Ghaznavid dynasty) and in Central Asia Tocharistan (around Balkh
) and Transoxania (Sogdia, Fergana
and Mawara An-Nahr, with Samarkand
).
In Northern Africa, west of Egypt (hence the Arabic word maghreb 'the west', also adopted in western languages via the French colonizer) the provinces included Tripolis and Barka (in present Libya) and Ifriqiya (i.e. former Africa : the heartland of the Byzantinian Exarchate of Carthage, with its new capitals Kairouan and Tunis, hence the modern name Tunisia) in the former Byzantinian coastal region, and further conquests west and south, in the ancient homeland of the Berbers known as Barbary, mainly the new province named Maghrib (still the Arabic name of the modern sherifian kingdom of Morocco, but including the east of modern Algeria).
, the autocratic Pahlevi-shah
did not reintroduce the Satrap
of his ancient Achaemenid model (as continued by Alexander and his Hellenistic diadochs, Seleucids as well as the Lagid 'Ptolemies' in Egypt; and by the Parthia
ns and by the Sassanids), but *
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
s.
Arab caliphate
After the prophet Mohammed and his testator heir and successor Abu BakrAbu Bakr
Abu Bakr was a senior companion and the father-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He ruled over the Rashidun Caliphate from 632-634 CE when he became the first Muslim Caliph following Muhammad's death...
(+634) has established the theocratic rule of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
on most of the sparsely populated Arabian peninsula, the armies of the next caliphs victoriously planted the green banner of the new religion in vast territories conquered on the neighboring giaur (infidel) empires of Persia (extinguishing the Zoroastrian -dualist pagan- Sassanids) and Byzantium
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
(the Christian remnant that still considered itself the continuation of the Roman Empire, but was thus reduced in Asia to Anatolia and completely swept out of Northern Africa, while it kept losing European territories to mainly Germanic and Slavonic invaders).
Just like the conquering Romans had been culturally converted to the Greco-oriental Hellenism, the simple tribal Arabs were seduced by the far more sophisticated civilization of those old, rich empires. One feature they had to adopt immediately was the introduction of a 'provincial' level of administration, corresponding to the Byzantine theme and the Persian satrapy.
The governors of these first permanent Muslim provinces were entitled ostikan, sometimes also styled Emir
Emir
Emir , meaning "commander", "general", or "prince"; also transliterated as Amir, Aamir or Ameer) is a title of high office, used throughout the Muslim world...
(a generic Arabic term for leader, then mainly applied to generals) as they were primarily required to keep up the military potential (for defense and holy war against infidels) and maintain order internally.
Most provinces were in or just around the former Sassanid Persia, often continuing old satrapies and/or surviving as modern provinces. Not counting the caliph's new home region of Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, nor Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
(including eastern Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
; both only recently lost by Byzantium
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
to the Sassanids), these were Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia is a toponym for the area of the Tigris–Euphrates river system, largely corresponding to modern-day Iraq, northeastern Syria, southeastern Turkey and southwestern Iran.Widely considered to be the cradle of civilization, Bronze Age Mesopotamia included Sumer and the...
(both Arabized, around ancient Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon
Ctesiphon, the imperial capital of the Parthian Arsacids and of the Persian Sassanids, was one of the great cities of ancient Mesopotamia.The ruins of the city are located on the east bank of the Tigris, across the river from the Hellenistic city of Seleucia...
and modern Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
respectively around ancient Nineveh
Nineveh
Nineveh was an ancient Assyrian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo Assyrian Empire. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq....
and modern Mosul
Mosul
Mosul , is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some northwest of Baghdad. The original city stands on the west bank of the Tigris River, opposite the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh on the east bank, but the metropolitan area has now grown to encompass substantial...
), Khuzestan around ancient Susa
Susa
Susa was an ancient city of the Elamite, Persian and Parthian empires of Iran. It is located in the lower Zagros Mountains about east of the Tigris River, between the Karkheh and Dez Rivers....
, still partly Arabic), Armenia
Armenia
Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...
, Iberia
Caucasian Iberia
Iberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Greeks and Romans to the ancient Georgian kingdom of Kartli , corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia...
(i.e. Trans-Caucasian Georgia), Arran-Schirwan (east of it) all three of the northern front, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
(a Turkic people) and the ethnic heart of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
(Fars which is the eponymous home province, Djibal -the ancient Media
Medes
The MedesThe Medes...
-, Gilan, Tabaristan and Djurdjan
Gorgan
Gorgan Some east of Gorgan is the Golestan National Park. The city has a regional airport and several universities. Gorgan Airport was opened in September 2005.-Etymology:...
(all three on the Caspian Sea
Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the world's largest lake or a full-fledged sea. The sea has a surface area of and a volume of...
coast), Kerman
Kerman
- Geological characteristics :For the Iranian paleontologists, Kerman has always been considered a fossil paradise. Finding new dinosaur footprints in 2005 has now revealed new hopes for paleontologists to better understand the history of this area.- Economy :...
, Sistan
Sistan
Sīstān is a border region in eastern Iran , southwestern Afghanistan and northern tip of Southwestern Pakistan .-Etymology:...
and Khorasan
Greater Khorasan
Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...
(including Herat
Herat
Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...
in present Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
); under the Omayyad dynasty (661-750) the caliphate expanded further east, adding Sindh
Sindh
Sindh historically referred to as Ba'ab-ul-Islam , is one of the four provinces of Pakistan and historically is home to the Sindhi people. It is also locally known as the "Mehran". Though Muslims form the largest religious group in Sindh, a good number of Christians, Zoroastrians and Hindus can...
(now southern Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
), Zabulistan
Zabulistan
Zabulistan , also spelled Zabolestan, is a historical region in the border area of today's Iran and Afghanistan.-History of Zabulistan:...
(including Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...
and Ghazna, later the eponymous seat of a mighty break-away Ghaznavid dynasty) and in Central Asia Tocharistan (around Balkh
Balkh
Balkh , was an ancient city and centre of Zoroastrianism in what is now northern Afghanistan. Today it is a small town in the province of Balkh, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some south of the Amu Darya. It was one of the major cities of Khorasan...
) and Transoxania (Sogdia, Fergana
Fergana
Fergana is a city , the capital of Fergana Province in eastern Uzbekistan, at the southern edge of the Fergana Valley in southern Central Asia, cutting across the borders of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan...
and Mawara An-Nahr, with Samarkand
Samarkand
Although a Persian-speaking region, it was not united politically with Iran most of the times between the disintegration of the Seleucid Empire and the Arab conquest . In the 6th century it was within the domain of the Turkic kingdom of the Göktürks.At the start of the 8th century Samarkand came...
).
In Northern Africa, west of Egypt (hence the Arabic word maghreb 'the west', also adopted in western languages via the French colonizer) the provinces included Tripolis and Barka (in present Libya) and Ifriqiya (i.e. former Africa : the heartland of the Byzantinian Exarchate of Carthage, with its new capitals Kairouan and Tunis, hence the modern name Tunisia) in the former Byzantinian coastal region, and further conquests west and south, in the ancient homeland of the Berbers known as Barbary, mainly the new province named Maghrib (still the Arabic name of the modern sherifian kingdom of Morocco, but including the east of modern Algeria).
Persia
In his modern, as much western as Islamic empire of IranIran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, the autocratic Pahlevi-shah
Shah
Shāh is the title of the ruler of certain Southwest Asian and Central Asian countries, especially Persia , and derives from the Persian word shah, meaning "king".-History:...
did not reintroduce the Satrap
Satrap
Satrap was the name given to the governors of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as the Sassanid Empire and the Hellenistic empires....
of his ancient Achaemenid model (as continued by Alexander and his Hellenistic diadochs, Seleucids as well as the Lagid 'Ptolemies' in Egypt; and by the Parthia
Parthia
Parthia is a region of north-eastern Iran, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Arsacid dynasty, rulers of the Parthian Empire....
ns and by the Sassanids), but *