Sīstān is a border region in eastern
IranIran , 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...
(see Sistan and Baluchestan Province), southwestern
AfghanistanAfghanistan , 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...
(see
Nimruz ProvinceNimruz is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, in the south-west of the country on the borders of Iran and Pakistan. The name Nimruz means "mid-day" or "half-day" in Persian. Nimruz covers 41,000 km² and has a population of 149,000...
) and northern tip of Southwestern
PakistanPakistan , 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...
(see Balochistan Province).
Etymology
Sistan derives its name from
SakastanSakastan or Sakaistan or Sakasthan is a term indicating certain regions of the South Asia where the Scythians or Sakas settled around 100 BC. Sakastan region includes southern Afghanistan; Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh provinces of Pakistan; also includes Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and...
, which Sistan was once the westernmost part of. The name Sakastan, on its part, derives from Old Persian
zaranka ("waterland"; cf. Pashto
dzaranda). This older form is also the root of the name
ZaranjZaranj or Zarang is a border town in south-western Afghanistan, with a population of approximately 49,851 people as of 2004. It is the capital of Nimruz province and is situated next to Milak, Iran. It is linked by highways with Lashkar Gah to the east, Farah to the north and Zabol in Iran to the...
, capital of the Afghan
Nimruz ProvinceNimruz is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, in the south-west of the country on the borders of Iran and Pakistan. The name Nimruz means "mid-day" or "half-day" in Persian. Nimruz covers 41,000 km² and has a population of 149,000...
.
In the
ShahnamehThe Shahnameh or Shah-nama is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c.977 and 1010 AD and is the national epic of Iran and related societies...
, Sistan is also referred to as
ZabulistanZabulistan , also spelled Zabolestan, is a historical region in the border area of today's Iran and Afghanistan.-History of Zabulistan:...
, after
ZabolZabol is a city in and the capital of Zabol County, Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran. Zabol lies on the border with both Afghanistan and Pakistan. At the 2006 census, its population was 130,642, in 27,867 families....
, a city in the region. In Ferdowsi's epic, Zabulistan is in turn described to be the homeland of the mythological hero
RostamRostam is the national hero of Greater Iran from Zabulistan in Persian mythology and son of Zal and Rudaba. In some ways, the position of Rostam in the historical tradition is parallel to that of Surena, the hero of the Carrhae. His figure was endowed with many features of the historical...
.
History of Sistan
In prehistoric times, the
Jiroft CivilizationA "Jiroft culture" has been postulated as an early Bronze Age archaeological culture, located in what is now Iran's Sistan and Kermān Provinces....
covered parts of Sistan and
Kerman Province (possibly as early as the 3rd millennium BC).
Later the area was occupied by
AryanAryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
tribes related to the
Indo-AryansIndo-Aryan is an ethno-linguistic term referring to the wide collection of peoples united as native speakers of the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-Iranian family of Indo-European languages...
and
Iranian PeoplesThe Iranian peoples are an Indo-European ethnic-linguistic group, consisting of the speakers of Iranian languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, as such forming a branch of Indo-European-speaking peoples...
. Eventually a kingdom known as
ArachosiaArachosia is the Latinized form of the Greek name of an Achaemenid and Seleucid governorate in the eastern part of their respective empires, around modern-day southern Afghanistan. The Greek term "Arachosia" corresponds to the Iranian land of Harauti which was between Kandahar in Afghanistan and...
was formed, parts of which were ruled by the
Medean Empire
by 600 BC. The Medes were overthrown by the
Achaemenid Persian EmpireThe Achaemenid Empire , sometimes known as First Persian Empire and/or Persian Empire, was founded in the 6th century BCE by Cyrus the Great who overthrew the Median confederation...
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 ArachosiaAlexandria in Arachosia was a city in ancient times that is now called Kandahar in Afghanistan. It was one of the seventy-plus cities founded or renamed by Alexander the Great. Arachosia is the Greek name of an ancient province of the Achaemenid, Seleucid and Parthian empires...
" (modern
KandaharKandahar is the second largest city in Afghanistan, with a population of about 512,200 as of 2011. It is the capital of Kandahar Province, located in the south of the country at about 1,005 m above sea level...
).
Alexander's Empire fragmented after his death, and Arachosia came under control of the
Seleucid EmpireThe Seleucid Empire was a Greek-Macedonian state that was created out of the eastern conquests of Alexander the Great. At the height of its power, it included central Anatolia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, Persia, today's Turkmenistan, Pamir and parts of Pakistan.The Seleucid Empire was a major centre...
, 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-ScythiansIndo-Scythians is a term used to refer to Sakas , who migrated into Bactria, Sogdiana, Arachosia, Gandhara, Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 4th century CE....
or Sakas, from which Sistan (from
SakastanSakastan or Sakaistan or Sakasthan is a term indicating certain regions of the South Asia where the Scythians or Sakas settled around 100 BC. Sakastan region includes southern Afghanistan; Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh provinces of Pakistan; also includes Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and...
) eventually derived its name. The Indo-Scythians were defeated around 100 BC by the
Parthian EmpireThe Parthian Empire , also known as the Arsacid Empire , was a major Iranian political and cultural power in ancient Persia...
, which briefly lost the region to its Suren vassals (the Indo-Parthian) around 20 AD, before the region was conquered by the
Kushan EmpireThe Kushan Empire originally formed in the early 1st century AD under Kujula Kadphises in the territories of ancient Bactria on either side of the middle course of the Oxus in what is now northern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and southern Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.During the 1st and early 2nd centuries...
in the mid 1st century AD. The Kushans were defeated by the
Sassanid Persian EmpireThe Sassanid Empire , known to its inhabitants as Ērānshahr and Ērān in Middle Persian and resulting in the New Persian terms Iranshahr and Iran , was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, ruled by the Sasanian Dynasty from 224 to 651...
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
RashidunThe Rightly Guided Caliphs or The Righteous Caliphs is a term used in Sunni Islam to refer to the first four Caliphs who established the Rashidun Caliphate. The concept of "Rightly Guided Caliphs" originated with the Abbasid Dynasty...
Caliphate after the mid 640s. (For Sistan's history after the Islamic conquest, see History sections of
AfghanistanAfghanistan , 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...
and
IranIran , 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...
).
Islamic Conquest
The Saffarids (861-1002 CE), one of the early Iranian dynasties of the Islamic era, were originally rulers of Sistan.
Mahmud of GhazniMahmud of Ghazni , actually ', was the most prominent ruler of the Ghaznavid dynasty who ruled from 997 until his death in 1030 in the eastern Iranian lands. Mahmud turned the former provincial city of Ghazni into the wealthy capital of an extensive empire which covered most of today's Iran,...
invaded Sistan in 1002, ending the Saffarid dynasty. A year later, Sistan revolted. In response, Mahmud brought an army to suppress the revolt. Mahmud's Hindu troops sacked the mosque of Zarang massacring the Moslems inside.
Sistan has a very strong connection with
ZoroastrianismZoroastrianism is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of prophet Zoroaster and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in Greater Iran.In Zoroastrianism, the Creator Ahura Mazda is all good, and no evil...
and during Sassanid times
Lake HamunLake Hāmūn or Hamoun Oasis is a term applied to wetlands in endorheic Sīstān Basin on the on the Irano-Lake Hāmūn or Hamoun Oasis is a term applied to [[wetland]]s in [[Endorheic_basin|endorheic]] [[Sistan_Basin|Sīstān Basin]] on the on the [[Iran]]o-Lake Hāmūn or Hamoun Oasis is a term...
was one of two pilgrimage sites for followers of that religion. In Zoroastrian tradition, the lake is the keeper of
ZoroasterZoroaster , also known as Zarathustra , was a prophet and the founder of Zoroastrianism who was either born in North Western or Eastern Iran. He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, hymns which are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrianism...
's seed and just before the final renovation of the world, three maidens will enter the lake, each then giving birth to the
saoshyansSaoshyant is a figure of Zoroastrian eschatology who brings about the final renovation of the world, the Frashokereti. The Avestan language name literally means "one who brings benefit," and is also used as common noun.-In scripture:...
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
- Al-Sijistani
Al-Sijistani refers to people from the historic Sijistan region in present-day Sistan, the border region of eastern Iran and southwestern Afghanistan...
- prominent people who have been identified with the region
- Daryācheh-ye Sīstan
Daryācheh-ye Sīstan is a lake on the international border between Afghanistan and Iran. It is in the Sistan region and it is in the Lash wa Juwayn District of the Farah Province of Afghanistan. The Harut River flows into the lake on the Afghanistan side of the border....
- transborder lake in the Sistan region