Samanids

Rouran epoch Göktürk epoch Uyghur epoch Kirghiz epoch

Rouran First Göktürk Tang rule Second Göktürk Uyghur Kirghiz Huns Western Göktürk Türgesh Karluk Khazar

Rouran 400–554
First Göktürk 552–630
Tang rule 630–682
Second Göktürk 682–744
Uyghur 744–840
Kirghiz 840–924
Huns 370–469
Western Göktürk 552–659
Türgesh 699–766
Karluk 766–800
Khazar 650–969

The Samanids were small nobles from the region of Termez. They ruled Samarkand from 819 under the Tahirid governors of Nishapur.^[1] From 874, under Isma’il ibn Ahmad, they were independent in all but name. In 892 Isma’il moved the capital to Bukhara. He took all of eastern Iran and Transoxiana.^[1] Isma’il is often called the founder of the dynasty. The family, however, had held Transoxiana since the beginning of the ninth century.^[2]

In the tenth century the Samanid trade no longer carried the Sogdian name. It had also lost some of the economic and social traits of the earlier Sogdian trade.^[3] The Samanid trade ran north-west from Bukhara through Khorezm to the Volga. Samanid coins are unknown in China.^[4] North of Isfijab lay a buffer zone between the empire and the Turkic tribes, which paid Bukhara only a symbolic tribute. There the Samanids settled warriors of the faith as protection against surprises from the steppe.^[5] In 893 Isma’il raided Taraz on the Talas. He turned its church into a mosque.^[6]^[7] He took fifteen thousand captives, among them the wife of the Karluk yabgu.^[7]

In the second half of the tenth century, dynastic quarrels troubled the dynasty. The Turkic guards of the rulers took a growing part in them. The dynasty fell in 999 to the Karakhanids.^[1]