al-Afshin

Al-Afshin, an Abbasid commander who fought Babak al-Khurrami. He is mentioned in the battle of his companions with Adhin, Babak's commander, in 222 AH. ¹

Al-Mas'udi relates that he met the king of the Romans in 223 AH, fought him and defeated him, and killed most of his patricians. He quotes him as saying that he was king, and that kings keep some of one another. Al-Mu'tasim crowned him with a jewelled golden crown. ³

He relates that al-Mazyar confessed before him at Samarra that he had sent him to rebel. He was arrested and died in prison. He was crucified at the Gate of the Commons and burned with idols that had been brought to him. ³

The year of his death is not recorded in the museum's data and needs an additional source.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.), signed W. Barthold and H. A. R. Gibb, explains that afshin was a pre-Islamic title borne by the native rulers of Ushrusana, the mountain district between Samarkand and Khujanda. The Muslims subjected the province in 178/794–5, and its ruler Kawus accepted Islam in 207/822. His son Haydar, known in Islamic historiography as al-Afshin, first came to notice under al-Ma'mun, when as an officer of al-Mu'tasim, the governor of Egypt, he took charge of Barqa and suppressed the Coptic and Arab rising in the Delta in 216/831, and was credited with forming the Maghariba from Delta and Western Desert recruits. Under al-Mu'tasim his chief exploit was the campaign of 220–222/835–837 against the Khurramite rebels of Adharbayjan led by Babak; he was rewarded with a crown, two jewelled swords, and the governorship of Sind besides Armenia and Adharbayjan, and played a prominent part in the Amorium campaign of 223/838. Resenting the Tahirids' control of Transoxiana, he secretly encouraged the revolt of al-Mazyar, was charged with apostasy after the defeat, and after a celebrated trial starved to death in his prison at Samarra in Sha'ban 226 (May–June 841). ⁴