Khaydhar ibn Kawus | |
|---|---|
 Afshin, upon the camel, parades Babak, upon the elephant, into Samarra. Persian miniature created in 16th-century Safavid Iran, from a copy of Abu Ali Bal'ami's 10th-century Tarikhnama | |
| Nickname(s) | al-Afshin |
| Born | 8th century Osrushana |
| Died | June 841 Samarra |
| Allegiance | Abbasid Caliphate |
| Service | Abbasid army |
| Rank | General |
Ḥaydar ibn Kāwūs (Arabic: حيدر بن كاوس, Persian: خِیذَر اِبنِ کاووس, romanized: Kheyzar ebn-e Kāvus), better known by his hereditary title of al-Afshīn (Arabic: الأفشين, Persian: اَفشین, romanized: Afshin), was a senior general of Sogdian Iranian descent at the court of the Abbasid caliphs and a vassal prince of Oshrusana. He played a leading role in the campaigns of Caliph al-Mu'tasim, and was responsible for the suppression of the rebellion of Babak Khorramdin and for his battlefield victory over the Byzantine emperor Theophilos during the Amorium campaign. Eventually he was suspected of disloyalty and was arrested, tried and then executed in June 841.[1][2][3]
- ^ C. Edmund Bosworth(2005), "OSRUŠANA" in Encyclopædia Iranica. Accessed November 2010 [1] "At the time of the Arab incursions into Transoxania, Osrušana had its own line of Iranian princes, the Afšins (Ebn Ḵordāḏbeh, p. 40), of whom the most famous was the general of the caliph Moʿtaṣem (q.v. 833-42), the Afšin Ḵayḏar or Ḥaydar b. Kāvus (d. 841; see AFŠIN)", "The region was little urbanized, and it long preserved its ancient Iranian feudal and patriarchal society. "
- ^ C.E. Bosworth. "Afshin". Encyclopedia Iranica.
During the reign of the caliph Mahdi (158-69/775-85) the Afshin of Oshrusana is mentioned among several Iranian and Turkish rulers of Transoxania and the Central Asian steppes who submitted nominally to him (Yaqubi, II, p. 479)
- ^ Bahramian, Ali; Negahban, Farzin. "Afshīn" Encyclopaedia Islamica. Editors-in-Chief: Wilferd Madelung and, Farhad Daftary. Brill Online, 2014. 15 September 2014