Zamindawar

Coordinates: 32°28′02″N 65°16′28″E / 32.4672°N 65.2745°E / 32.4672; 65.2745
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Zamindawar is a

Naw Zad, Kajaki and Sangin districts. It was a district of hills, and of wide, well populated, and fertile valleys watered by important tributaries of the Helmand. The principal town was Musa Qala, which stands on the banks of a river of the same name, about 60 km north of the city of Grishk.[1]

This region was headquarters to the

Sir Donald Stewart's force at the Battle of Ahmed Khel previously. The control of Zamindawar was regarded by the British-Indian forces as the key to the position for safeguarding the route between Herat and Kandahar during the Second Anglo-Afghan War.[1]

Middle-Persian original Zūn-dātbar, "Zun the Justice-giver".[2] The geographical name Zamindawar would also reflect this, from Middle-Persian Zamin-i dātbar (Land of the Justice-giver).[2]

The temple of Zun

According to author André Wink,

In southern and eastern Afghanistan, the regions of Zamindawar (Zamin I Datbar or land of the justice giver, the classical Archosia) and Zabulistan or Zabul (Jabala,

Persia. It is clear however that in the seventh to the ninth centuries the Zunbils and their kinsmen the Kabulshahs ruled over a predominantly Indian rather than a Persian realm. The Arab geographers, in effect commonly speak of that king of "Al Hind" ...(who) bore the title of Zunbil.[3]

South of the

Hindu, not Buddhist or Zoroastrian."[4]

In 643 AD the non-Muslim Zunbils assembled a large army and attempted to invade

Abdur Rahman bin Samara along with 6,000 Arab Muslims penetrated the Zunbil territory and made their way to the shrine of Zun in Zamindawar, which was believed to be located about three miles south of Musa Qala in today's Helmand Province of Afghanistan. The General of the Arab army "broke of a hand of the idol and plucked out the rubies which were its eyes in order to persuade the Marzbān of Sīstān of the god's worthlessness."[5]

The Kabul Shahi ruled north of the Zunbil territory, which included

Gandahara
. The Arabs reached Kabul with the message of Islam but were not able to rule for long. The Kabul Shahis decided to build a giant wall around the city to prevent more Arab invasions, this wall is still visible today.

Istahkrí
, 921 AD

Predominantly

Central Asian features was also the God Zun from which the Zunbils derived their name .[8]

Marqart maintained that Zunbil or Zhunbil is the correct form and Ratbil a corruption, and it was he who connected the title with the God Zun or Zhun whose temple lay in Zamindawar before the arrival of

Amr b Layth conquered the area as far as Kabul.[8]

With

Bust as the key points between the commerce between India and Persia, Zamindawar had become an important pilgrimage center.[8]

If the Hepthalites were basically Indo-European, politically and culturally the realms of Zabul and Kabul were considered as a part of Al-Hind on the eve of Muslim conquest. The Chachnama for example contains numerous references to Zabul under the corrupt form of ‘Ramal’ or ‘Ranmal’ showing close contacts and marriage relationships between the rulers and subordinate chiefs of Sind and Kashmir and the King of Zabul in the seventh century. The relationships between these Indian rulers on the north-western frontier appear to have been in constant flux but it seems a safe conclusion that the King of Kashmir had established a claim of suzerainty over Zabul—as he had over other Indian Kings.[9][10]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Zamindawar". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 953.
  2. ^ a b Bosworth, Clifford Edmund. 2002. The Encyclopaedia of Islam. Leiden: Brill. Zamindawar. p.439.
  3. ISBN 978-0-391-04173-8
  4. ^ André Wink, Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Brill 1990. p 118
  5. ^ André Wink, Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Brill 1990. p 120
  6. ^ Afghanistan: mensen, politiek, economie, cultuur, milieu by Willem Vogelsang, Edition: illustrated Published by Wiley-Blackwell, 2002 Page 188
  7. ^ "A.—The Hindu Kings of Kábul (p.3)". Sir H. M. Elliot. London: Packard Humanities Institute. 1867–1877. Retrieved September 18, 2010.
  8. ^ a b c Al-Hind, the making of the Indo-Islamic world: Early medieval India and the expansion of Islam 7th to 11th centuries, Volume 1, by André Wink page 18
  9. ^ André Wink, Al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Brill 1990. p 117
  10. ISBN 978-0-391-04173-8
    .

32°28′02″N 65°16′28″E / 32.4672°N 65.2745°E / 32.4672; 65.2745

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