Spread of Islam (7-13 th century)
1 Afghanistan during the pre-Islamic period was influenced by the Hellenistic, Buddhist,and Hindu, cultures besides these cultures China and Rome also influenced the region.
2 the year AD 642 marked the beginning of the Arab conquest of the Middle East. In the battle of Nahavand the Arabs overpowered the Sassanian Empire. in the next 10 years the Arabs overthrew the remaining Parthianian and Byzantine empires.
3 by 652 AD, the Arabs invaded and conquered Afghanistan, thus begin the emergance of Islamic faith in Afghanistan.
4 Islam took a more welcome face in Afghanistan under the early Abbasid Caliphs , who reigned in Baghdad around 750.
5 Abbasid rule began to crumble after the death of the fabled Harun-al Rashid in 806 and than onwards only nominal power lingered for another 450 years.
6 by mid ninth century many semi independent principalities emerged ,especially in the eastern provinces
7 Tahir Foshanj of Herat and his descendants, the Tahirids ruled Khorasan from 821-873. they lost to Yaqub bin Layth Saffari from Zaranj in Seistan and brought the whole of presant day Afghanistan and parts of Iran and Indus Valley.
8 he conqured Kabul for Islam around 870 and broke the Hindu, Buddhist rule in the region
9 about the same time the Samanids , a Persian muslim dynasty founded by Saman Khuda (819-864) establish itself at Bokhara and Samarkand and their made those cities and later Balkh the center of art ,literature ,architecture ,pottery and learning
10 among some of the famous poets of these region are Abu-Abdulla Jaffar known as Rodaki, Shaku Balkhi, Shahid Balkhi, and the Tragic poetess Rabia Balkhi and many more
11 in 900 the Samanids won dominion over all the Saffarid lands, thereby uniting Afghanistan together with Transoxiana and lands north of Oxus river
12 around 960 AD they start feeling the pressure from the north of the new Central Asian conquerors the Mongols and Turks who later became the campioans of Islam in Afghanistan and Central Asia and also spread it to south Asia.
13 the present division of Afghanistan between the north and south was the legacy of the Samanid rule becoz they established their rule in the balkh region and they detribalised the tribes of northern region and made it an urbanised area were art and literature florished while as the southern regions remained tribal and the influnce of Samanid rule least effected them and also due to this the people of northern region considered themselves more cultured then the people of southern region
14 during the peaceful reign of Abbasid rule trade flourished and the great Persian cultural revivalism begun and the eastern cities take a leading role in the spreading of islam but also art , learning, architecture,and the cities like Herat, Balkh ,Samarkand and Bokhara in the north. Afghanistan played the same role as it played during the Greko-Bactrain and Kushan period ie bending of diverse culture and their assimilation