Afrighid dynasty

Afrighid dynasty
305–995
Map of the Afrighid dynasty (Green color)
Capital		Kath (city)
Languages		Khwarezmian language, Middle Persian
Religion		Zoroastrianism, later Islam in the 9th century.
Government		Monarchy
Khwarezm-Shah
•	305–???	Afrig (last)
•	967–995	Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad (last)
Historical era		Middle Ages
•	Established	305
•	Ma'munid conquest of Khwarezm.	995
Succeeded by Ma'munids

The Afrighids (from 305 to 995 AD) (Persian: آفریغیان-آل آفریغ‎‎) were a native Chorasmian Iranian dynasty who ruled over the ancient kingdom of Chorasmia until 995 AD. Over time, they were under the suzerainty of the Sassanid Empire, the Hephthalite Empire, the Göktürk Khaganate, the Umayyad Caliphate and the Samanid Empire.

Al-Biruni, the native Chorasmian scholar, mentions twenty-two members of the Afrighid dynasty for a total span of 690 years with an average rule of 31 years for each ruler. According to him, the Afrighids ruled from 305 AD, through the Arab conquests under Qotayba b. Moslem in 93/712, and up to their overthrow in 385/995 by the rising rival family of Ma'munids. The main source on the Afrighids prior to Islam is also Al-Biruni. Part of the reason for the gap in information about this dynasty is mentioned by Al-Biruni.

Al-Biruni states:

It has been suggested that 'Afrigh' is the Arabicized of 'Abriz' in Persian (آبریز where water flows, a reference to the geography of Khwarazm and its abundant water). However, Dr. Parviz Azkai, in his annotations on Al-Biruni's Chronology of Ancient Nations, explains that this is a popular etymology. Azkai explains that Afrigh was originally Ap-Air-ig meaning from the Aryan descent: ap or af is the same in 'afrashtan' (Persian: افراشتن) to raise; air is the root meaning Aryan as seen in Iraj, and Eran/Iran (land of Aryan); and -ig is the suffix of relation in Iranian languages and cognate to '-ic' in English or '-ique' in French.

The ancient Iranian kingdom of Khwarazm had been ruled until 995 by the old established line of Afrighids of Kath. Khwarazm, or the classical Chorasmia, was the well irrigated and rich agricultural region of lower Oxus. Surrounded by all sides by steppe land and desert, it was geographically isolated from other areas of civilization. This isolation allowed it to maintain a separate distinctive Iranian language and culture .Khwarazm was one of the early areas of Iranian civilization, and the local Chorasmian historian, Al-Biruni traces civilization there beyond the first millennium BC. Before the 8th century, there had only been few ineffectual Arab raids on the fringes of Chorasmia from the directions of Khorasan and Transoxania. But in 712 AD, Qutayba ibn Muslim was able to intervene in a civil war between the Afrighid Shah and his brother Khorrazad. Two Arab invasions lead to much destruction as Al-Biruni notes. Once the Arabs withdrew from their raid, the Shahs recovered power in Chorasmia and they continued to adhere to their ancestral faith, which according to Al-Biruni was Zoroastrianism. The local shahs continued to ally with local Iranian princes, Soghdian merchants and even Turks and Chinese in order to resist the Arabs.