Saman Khuda

Saman Khuda (Saman Khoda, Saman-khudat; Persian: سامان‌خدا، سامان‌خدات) was an 8th-century Iranian noble whose descendants (the House of Saman) later became rulers of Khurasan (the Samanid Empire). He was a Dehqan from the village of Saman in Balkh province in present-day northern Afghanistan.^[1] In the early 8th century, he came to Merv, seat of the Caliphal governor of Khorasan, Asad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Qasri (ruled 723-727). Saman was originally a Zoroastrian.^[2] However, he was so impressed with the piety of Asad ibn 'Abd-Allah al-Qasri, that he converted to Islam.^[3] He named his son Asad, allegedly in the governor's honor.

Caliph al-Mamun (786-833) subsequently appointed Asad's four sons – Saman Khuda's grandsons – as governors of Samarkand, Ferghana, Shash and Ustrushana, and Herat in recognition of their role in the suppression of a revolt.^[4] This began the House of Saman; Saman Khuda's great-grandson Isma'il ibn Ahmad (849-907) became Amir of Transoxiana and Khorasan.

Saman was a 4th or 5th generation descendant of Bahram Chobin,^[4][5] a noble of the ancient House of Mihran, who played an important role in the history of the later Sassanian Empire.^[6]

Family tree

Bahram Gushnasp

Mardansina

Unknown

Bahram Chobin

Gorduya

Gordiya

Noshrad

Mihran Bahram-i Chubin

Shapur

Siyavakhsh

Toghmath

Jotman

Saman Khuda

References

1. Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. The New Islamic Dynasties: A Chronological and Genealogical Manual p. 162
2. Dhalla, M. N. History of Zoroastrianism (1938) Part 6, Chapter XLIII
3. Mohammad Taher, Encyclopaedic Survey of Islamic Culture, p. 84
4. Shamsiddin Kamoliddin, "To the Question of the Origin of the Samanids", Transoxiana 10 (July 2005).
5. Narshaki (trans. R. N. Frye), History of Bukhara, p. 79
6. R. N. Frye, The Golden Age of Persia, London: Butler & Tanner Ltd., 1996, p. 200.

Sources

• Frye, R.N. (1975). "The Sāmānids". In Frye, R.N. (ed.). The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 4: From the Arab Invasion to the Saljuqs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 136–161. ISBN 0-521-20093-8.