Asad was an early Samanid

Samanid

The Samani dynasty , also known as the Samanid Empire, or simply Samanids was a Persian state and empire in Central Asia and Greater Iran, named after its founder Saman Khuda, who converted to Sunni Islam despite being from Zoroastrian theocratic nobility...

. He was the son of Saman Khuda

Saman Khuda

Saman Khuda was the founder of the Samanid dynasty – The House of Saman. He was a landowner from the village of Saman in Balkh province in northern Afghanistan, who arrived in the early 8th century in Merv to the court of the Caliphal governor of Khorasan, Asad ibn ‘Abd Allah al-Qasri , adopted...

, the founder of the Samanid dynasty.

According to tradition, Asad was named by his father in honor of the Caliphal

Caliphate

The term caliphate, "dominion of a caliph " , refers to the first system of government established in Islam and represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah...

 governor of Khurasan

Greater Khorasan

Greater Khorasan or Ancient Khorasan is a historical region of Greater Iran mentioned in sources from Sassanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than current three provinces of Khorasan in Iran...

 Asad ibn 'Abd-Allah al-Qasri (723

723

Year 723 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 723 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Religion :* Saint Boniface fells Thor's Oak near...

-727

727

Year 727 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 727 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Byzantine Empire :* Umayyad troops under Abdallah...

), who had converted Saman to Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

. Asad had four sons: Nuh

Nuh ibn Asad

Nuh I ibn Asad was a Samanid ruler of Samarkand . He was a son of Asad.In 819 Nuh was appointed authority over the city of Samarkand by Caliph Al-Ma'mun's governor of Khurasan, Ghassan ibn 'Abbad, as a reward for his support against the rebel Rafi' ibn Laith. He continued to rule over the city...

, Ahmad

Ahmad ibn Asad

Ahmad was a Samanid ruler of Ferghana and Samarkand . He was a son of Asad.In 819 Ahmad was granted authority over the city of Ferghana by Caliph Al-Ma'mun's governor of Khorasan, Ghassan ibn 'Abbad, as a reward for his support against the rebel Rafi' ibn Laith...

, Yahya

Yahya ibn Asad

Yahya was a Samanid ruler of Shash and Samarkand . He was a son of Asad.In 819 Yahya was granted authority over the city of Shash by Caliph Al-Ma'mun's governor of Khurasan, Ghassan ibn 'Abbad, as a reward for his support against the rebel Rafi' ibn Laith...

, and Ilyas

Ilyas ibn Asad

Ilyas ibn Asad was a Samanid ruler of Herat . He was one of the four sons of Asad.In 819 Ilyas was granted authority over the city of Herat by Caliph Al-Ma'mun's governor of Khorasan, Ghassan ibn 'Abbad, as a reward for his support against the rebel Rafi' ibn Laith. Unlike his other three...

. Caliph al-Mamun appointed Asad's sons to be rulers of Samarqand, Ferghana, Shash and Ustrushana, and Hirat, and thus the dynasty of rulers was started. The famous Samanid ruler Ismail I (Ismail Samani) (892-907) was Asad's grandson and the son of Ahmad.

External links

• To the Question of the Origin of the Samanids by Shamsiddin S. Kamoliddin, in Transoxiana
  Transoxiana
  Transoxiana is the ancient name used for the portion of Central Asia corresponding approximately with modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, southern Kyrgystan and southwest Kazakhstan. Geographically, it is the region between the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers...
  
  10, July 2005.