Arachosia

Arachosia was a historic area and a province in the southeast of the ancient Persian Empire and other ancient empires. Arachosia was in the south of present-day Afghanistan and in neighboring Pakistan. In the center Arachosiens the city of Kandahar was founded by Alexander the Great.

Name

The ancient territory is in Avestan Vendidad ( the -ax ᵛ a- not - Avestish origin) and in Vedic Sanskrit as Sarasvati as Haraxvaitī: means (meaning Rich in ponds ) and was thus a mythical world river comparable to Anahita. In the Behistun inscription Arachosia is referred to Old Persian Harauvatiya and Harahuvatiš and brought a revolt against his Great King Darius I in context. In the Elamite language, the region is (r ) -ra- u -ma- ti - iš, Ha ( r) -ru -ma- ti - iš, hyrwty reproduced as Ha and the like and the Aramaic language as Haraxvatī, as well as in Babylonian as KUR a- ru -ha -at- ti and a- ru - has.

Under Arachosia ( Latinized form of the Greek Arachosia ), the area was known only after Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Achaemenid Empire and settled Greeks also in this area. In Ptolemy and Strabo, among many other cities also the name of a capital city and a river is narrated that have been called both Arachotus. The river is to be identified with the Arghandab River.

The Arabs and other western historians and geographers used the names Arokhaj, Rokhaj, Al - rokhaj, raw Kaj or just raw for quite Arachosia

Location

Arachosia was an area which was located on the bottom of today's Afghanistan and Pakistan (specifically Balochistan ) and handed perhaps even partially to the Indus river. An accurate location of its borders is not possible until now. According to the traditions of some Greek chroniclers and historians were Arachosiens neighboring countries in the West Drangiana, Sattagidien, Maka, in the south Gedrosia, in the north Gandhara, possibly also Bactria, where there is no evidence that the Kabultal to Bactria belonged despite the extremely similar culture and language, and on the east Sindhu (present-day Sindh ). The largest city in the region is still Kandahar ( Iskandar - Alexander), which was founded by Alexander the Great as Alexandria in Arachosia. By Claudius Ptolemy, we know that the Greeks could build more cities in Arachosia.

Isidore of Charax is often quoted, because he described Arachosia in the 1st century BC. He mentioned the Greek population and cities, which probably date from the time of the Graeco - Bactrians and Indo- Greeks.

Resident

In Arachosia many ethnic groups were in the ancient world are home, including Iranian and non -Iranian peoples. The most significant ethnic group were called the so-called Eoritae / Arattas / Arora, also Arokha or even raw. There was also the ethnicities of Rhoplutäer, the Sidris / Satris and the so-called Parsaetäer. Surprisingly, all of these strains do not occur in the traditions of Herodotus, nor the name of the region as Arachosia or the population as Arachosier, but more likely they are to the Thaminäern (Greek: Thaminaei ) to identify what Hinsch reads out that between the ethnic groups probably gave power struggles and the old ruling class, the Thaminäer, were replaced by a new strain of Arachosier. A background this could be the Alexander campaign against Persia and other previous wars against the Persian Empire have been, which in the east, the Persian Empire was greatly shaken, and a power vacuum was created. Another ancient and religiously significant strain in Nordwestarachosien were the vedasprechdende Pakhas / Paktas / Pakat ( Herodotus called them Paktyans ), probably the ancestors of today dardischen Paschais mentioned the Mughal emperor, among others, by Marco Polo and Babur and designated as a significant Hindu population of Khorasan. Other peoples were the Iranian Ormuren and other once widespread peoples such as the Gawars that only minorities are still today.

Today, only very few of the original population Arachosiens in the Kandahar region and living environment, either because they form only very small groups or because they left with the advent of Islam and the Islamization of their lands. So left the first Eoritae Kandahar between the 8th and the 10th century and fled to India by the Islamized Ghaznavids and Persians to escape the settled partly in their territories, insofar as not all Hindus and Buddhists were Islamized.

History

The north and northwest Arachosiens were part of the Median Empire before 550 BC, a satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire was. Alexander the Great conquered Arachosia during his conquest of Persia in the 320 years BC and founded there Kandahar. The region later became part of the Seleucid Empire, which was then 305 assigned to the Mauryan Empire BC for the purpose of the alliance. The Shunga dynasty expelled the Mauryas 185 BC, but shortly thereafter she lost Arachosia to the Greco- Bactrian Kingdom. Middle of the 2nd century BC, it became part of the Indo- Greek kingdom.

The Indo- Scythians expelled the Indo- Greeks middle of the 1st century BC, but lost himself the region in the early 1st century AD the Parthians and Indo- Parthians. The Kuschanreich sales later, the Parthians and ruled here until it was conquered by the Persian Sasanian 230. The Sasanian put a vassal or family members who were known as Kuschanschahs. 360 the Kuschanschahs were conquered by the Chioniten, which in turn were ousted by the Kidaritendynastie end of the 4th century. The Kidariten in turn were replaced by 470 by the Hephthalites, who were defeated by 560 by an alliance of Sassanids and Turks. Arachosia was part of the surviving Kuschano - Hephtalitischen Empire of Kapisa, then Kabul before it - from indigenous local princes with the title " Zunbil " ruled - was repeatedly attacked by the Muslim Arabs and the Saffarids, Tahirids and Samanids and conquered several times. To 870 were the Kuschano - Hephtaliten who were also known as Turki Shahi dynasty, replaced by the Hindu Shahi. Later, in the early 11th century, Arachosia fell to the Ghaznavids.

Religion

Until the arrival of Islam in the 7th century, large parts Arachosiens were marked buddhist and partly Hindu.