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| Siege of Herat | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Muslim conquest of Persia | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| House of Karen Hephthalites | Rashidun Caliphate | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Unknown | Ahnaf ibn Qais | ||||||||
  Location within Afghanistan | |||||||||
The siege of Herat was part of the Islamic conquest of Persia which was commanded by Ahnaf ibn Qais.
Caliph Umar (634-644) launched an offensive against the Sassanid Persian Empire in 642, and by 651 the Empire was destroyed. However, parts of Khorasan were held by Sasanian loyalists helped by their Hephthalite allies.
In 651 the mission of conquering Khurasan was assigned to Ahnaf ibn Qais by Abdullah ibn Aamir. Abdullah started to march in 650 from Fars and took a short and less frequent route via Rayy, while Ahnaf then marched north directly to Merv, in present-day Turkmenistan. [1] Later Ahnaf was sent by Abdullah to lead the vanguard of banu Tamim and 1000 Asawira through Quhistan. The people of Tabasyin later revolted from the caliphate just to be reconquered by Ahnaf who now exacted heavier tool of tax. Ahnaf continued to advance. At first Herat agreed peace and pay Jizya. [2]
In 652, Ahnaf was forced to attack Herat again after the latter was once again revolting. He defeated the ruler of Herat and once again made a treaty with him. However, the ruler of Herat along with the Karenids and many other natives of Khorasan, later rebelled against the Arabs, but were defeated at the battle of Badghis.
The Muslim conquests of Afghanistan began during the Muslim conquest of Persia as the Arab Muslims migrated eastwards to Khorasan, Sistan and Transoxiana. Fifteen years after the battle of Nahāvand in 642 AD, they controlled all Sasanian domains except in Afghanistan. Fuller Islamization was not achieved until the period between 10th and 12th centuries under Ghaznavid and Ghurid dynasties who patronized Muslim religious institutions.
Herāt is an oasis city and the third-largest city in Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains in the fertile valley of the Hari River in the western part of the country. An ancient civilization on the Silk Road between West Asia, Central Asia, and South Asia, it serves as a regional hub in the country's west.
Year 651 (DCLI) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 651 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.
The Muslim conquest of Persia, also called the Muslim conquest of Iran, the Arab conquest of Persia, or the Arab conquest of Iran, was a major military campaign undertaken by the Rashidun Caliphate between 632 and 654. As part of the early Muslim conquests, which had begun under Muhammad in 622, it led to the fall of the Sasanian Empire and the eventual decline of Zoroastrianism, which had been predominant throughout Persia as the nation's official religion. The persecution of Zoroastrians by the early Muslims during and after this conflict prompted many of them to flee eastward to India, where they were granted refuge by various kings.
Greater Khorasan is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau in West and Central Asia that encompasses western and northern Afghanistan, northeastern Iran, the eastern halves of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, western Tajikistan, and portions of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
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