The Farighunids were an Iranian dynasty

Dynasty

A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...

 of Guzgan

Guzgan

Guzgan was the medieval term for a principality roughly centered on modern Gurziwan, Faryab Province, Afghanistan. Historically, Guzgan extended beyond the boundaries of modern Faryab and Jowzjan Province, as far as Sar-e Pol Province...

 (modern-day northern Afghanistan) in the late 9th, 10th and early 11th centuries.

Political and Military History

The first Farighunid amir mentioned is Ahmad b. Farighun. Ahmad, together with the Banijurid Abu Dawud Muhammad b. Ahmad, was compelled to recognize the Saffarid Amr bin Laith

Amr bin Laith

Amr-i Laith Saffari was the second ruler of the Saffarid dynasty of Iran who ruled .In the beginning he was a mule-hirer. He was Yaqub bin Laith as-Saffar's younger brother who fought alongside his older brother and in 875 became Governor of Herat....

 as his suzerain. Only a short time afterwards, Amr was defeated and captured by the Samanids; Ahmad transferred his allegiance to them around this time. The Farighunids would remain Samanid vassals until the overthrow of the latter at the end of the 10th century. Ahmad was succeeded by his son Abu'l Haret Muhammad expanded the influence of the Farighunids, collecting tribute from certain parts of Ghor.

Abu'l Haret died probably some time after 982 and his son Abu'l Haret Ahmad was drawn into the conflicts that took place within the Samanid amirate during its decline. He was ordered by his suzerain Nuh b. Mansur

Nuh II of Samanid

Nuh II was amir of the Sāmānids . He was the son of Mansur I.-Beginning and Middle of Reign:Having ascended the throne as a youth, Nuh was assisted by his mother and his vizier Abu'l-Husain 'Abd-Allah ibn Ahmad 'Utbi. Sometime around his ascension, the Karakhanids invaded and captured the upper...

 to attack the rebel Fa'iq, but was defeated by him. The Farighunids developed marriage alliances with the Ghaznavids; Abu'l Haret's daughter had married Sebük Tigin

Sebük Tigin

Abu Mansur Sabuktigin , also spelled as Sabuktagin, Sabuktakin, Sebüktegin and Sebük Tigin, is generally regarded by historians as the founder of the Ghaznavid Empire...

's son Mahmud, while Mahmud's sister had married Abu'l Haret's son Abu Nasr Muhammad. Abu'l Haret assisted Sebük Tigin's forces at Herat

Herat

Herāt is the capital of Herat province in Afghanistan. It is the third largest city of Afghanistan, with a population of about 397,456 as of 2006. It is situated in the valley of the Hari River, which flows from the mountains of central Afghanistan to the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan...

 against Fa'iq and the Simjurid Abu 'Ali, a battle in which the Ghaznavids and Farighunids were victorious. The Ghaznavids soon afterwards supplanted the Samanids in 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...

, and the Farighunids become Ghaznavid vassals.

Abu'l Haret died in c. 1000 and Abu Nasr Muhammad succeeded him. Abu Nasr enjoyed the confidence of Mahmud of Ghazna; in 1008 he fought in the center of the Ghaznavid line against the Karakhanids outside Balkh

Balkh

Balkh , was an ancient city and centre of Zoroastrianism in what is now northern Afghanistan. Today it is a small town in the province of Balkh, about 20 kilometers northwest of the provincial capital, Mazar-e Sharif, and some south of the Amu Darya. It was one of the major cities of Khorasan...

 and in the following year escorted Mahmud during his campaign in India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. He also married off a daughter to Mahmud's son Muhammad of Ghazna. When Abu Nasr died in around 1010 Muhammad took over the rule of Guzgan, even though Abu Nasr had left a son, Hasan. This marked the end of Farighunid rule.

Cultural Significance

The Farighunids had a significant impact of many prominent individuals in the arts and sciences at the time. Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi Two great poets, Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadhani

Badi' al-Zaman al-Hamadhani

Badi' al-Zamān al-Hamadāni or al-Hamadhāni was a Medieval Arab man of letters born in Hamathah . He is best known for his work the maqamat, a collection of 52 episodic stories of a rogue, Abu al-Fath al-Iskandari, as recounted by a narrator, 'Isa b. Hisham...

 and Abul-Fath Bosti, addressed poems to them, and the author of the Hudud al-'alam

Hudud ul-'alam min al-mashriq ila al-maghrib

Ḥudūd al-ʿĀlam , meaning The Limits of The World, is a tenth century geography book written in Persian by an unknown author from Jōzjān.- Contents :...

, the first geographical treatise to be written in New Persian, dedicated the work to Abu'l Haret Muhammad in 982/3. The Farighunids may also have had connections with the encyclopedist Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi

Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khwarizmi

Abū ʿAbdallāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf al-Kātib al-Khwārizmī, also referred to as al-Balkhī, was a tenth century Persian encyclopedist and the author of the early encyclopedia Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm in the Arabic language....

 and another encyclopedist named Isaiah b. Farighun, who wrote the Jawame' al-'ulum for the Muhtajid

Al Muhtaj

The Al-i Muhtaj or Muhtajids was an Iranian or Arabicized Iranian ruling family of the small principality of Chaghaniyan. They ruled during the 10th and early 11th centuries.-Early history:...

 amir Abu 'Ali Chaghani

Abu 'Ali Chaghani

Abu 'Ali Ahmad Chaghani was the Muhtajid ruler of Chaghaniyan and governor of Samanid Khurasan . He was the son of Muhammad b. Muzaffar....

.

Sources

• Bosworth, C. E. "Al-e Farigun." Encyclopedia Iranica. 25 September 2006.