Zunbils

The city of Ghazni was the capital of the Zunbils.

According to Chinese sources, in particular the chronicles of the Cefu Yuangui, The Turk in Kabul were vasals of the Yabghus of Tokharistan. When a young brother of the Yabghu Pantu Nili, named Puluo (僕羅 púluó in Chinese sources), visited the court of the Tang Dynasty in Xi'an in 718 AD, he gave an gave an account of the military forces in the Tokharistan region.[19] Puluo described the power of "the Kings of Tokharistan", explaining that "Two hundred and twelve kingdoms, governors and prefects" recognize the authority of the Yabghus, and that it has been so since the time of his grand-father, that is, probably since the time of the establishment of the Yabghus of Tokharistan.[20] This account also shows that the Yabghu of Tokharistan ruled a vast area circa 718 AD, formed of the territories north and south of the Hindu Kush, including the areas of Kabul and Zabul.[21] Finally, Puluo reaffirmed the loyalty of Yabghu Pantu Nili towards the Tang Dynasty.[20]

Part of the Chinese entry for this account by Puluo is:

On the Dingwei day of the eleventh month in the sixth year of the Kaiyuan era, Ashi Tegin Puluo writes to the emperor: Tokhara Yabghu, his elder brother, is controlling as his subordinates two hundred and twelve persons, such as the local kings of various states, dudu (Governors-General), and cishi (heads of regional governments). The king of Zabul rules two hundred thousand soldiers and horses, the king of Kabul two hundred thousand, each king of Khuttal, Chaghanian, Jiesu, Shughnan, Evdal, Kumedha Wa'khan, Guzganan, Bamiyan, Lteyuedejzan, and Badakhshan fifty thousand."

— Cefu Yuangui 3.5. Fanyan in Vol. 999 (Claims, Foreign Subjects), 718 AD.[22]

The Zunbils were affected by Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent.

In 653-4 AD, an army of around 6,000 Arabs were led by General Abdur Rahman bin Samara of the Rashidun Caliphate, and they arrived to the shrine of Zoon in Zamindawar. It is reported that General Abdur Rahman "broke off a hand of the idol and plucked out the rubies which were its eyes in order to persuade the Marzbān of Sīstān of the god's worthlessness."[23] The General explained to the Marzbān: "my intention was to show you that this idol can do neither any harm nor good."[24]

In 698 Ubayd Allah ibn Abi Bakra of the Umayyad Caliphate lead an 'Army of Destruction' against the Zunbils, was defeated and was forced to offer a large tribute, give hostages including three of his sons and take an oath not to invade Zunbil again.[25] About 700 Ibn al-Ash'ath tried again with the 'Peacock Army' which led to a mutiny.[26]

Arabic sources recount that, after the Abbasids came to power in 750, the Zunbils made submissions to the third Abbasid Caliph al-Mahdi (r. 775–785), but these appear to have been nominal acts,[27] and the people of the region continued to resist Muslim rule.[28] The Muslim historian Ya'qubi (died 897/8) in his Ta'rikh ("History"), recounts that Al-Mahdi asked for, and apparently obtained, the submission of various Central Asian rulers, including that of the Zunbils.[29] The original account by Ya'qubi reads:

Al-Mahdī sent messengers to the kings, calling on them to submit, and most of them submitted to him. Among them were the king of Kābul Shāh, whose name was Ḥanḥal; the king of Ṭabaristān, the Iṣbahbadh; the king of Soghdia, the Ikhshīd; the king of Tukhāristān, Sharwin; the king of Bamiyan, the Shīr; the king of Farghana, ------ ; the king of Usrūshana, Afshīn; the king of the Kharlukhiyya, Jabghūya; the king of Sijistān, Zunbīl; the king of Turks, Tarkhan; the king of Tibet, Ḥ-h-w-r-n; the king of Sind, al-Rāy; the king of China, Baghbür; the king of India and Atrāḥ, Wahūfūr; and the king of the Tughuz-ghuz, Khāqān.

— Ya'qubi (died 897/8), Ta'rikh ("History")[30][31]

C.E. Bosworth writes that:

Statue of Yaqub bin Laith al-Saffar (r. 861–879 AD), conqueror of the Zunbils, in Dezful, Iran.

One of the most important aspects of early Saffarids policy of significance for the spread of Islam in Afghanistan and on the borders of India long after their empire had collapsed was that of expansion into east Afghanistan. The early Arab governors of Sistan had at times penetrated as far as Ghazna and Kabul, but these had been little more than slave and plunder raids. There was a fierce resistance from the local rulers of these regions, above all from the line of Zunbils who ruled in Zamindavar and Zabulistan and who were probably epigoni of the southern Hepthalite or Chionite kingdom of Zabul; on more than one occasion, these Zunbils inflicted sharp defeats on the Muslims. The Zunbils were linked with the Turk-Shahs of the Turk Shahi dynasty; the whole river valley was at this time culturally and religiously an outpost of the Indian world, as of course it had been in the earlier centuries during the heyday of the Buddhist Gandhara civilization.[32]

The Zunbils were finally defeated in 870 AD by Muslim conquerors. Yaqub bin Laith al-Saffar (r. 861–879 AD, founder of the Saffarid dynasty, vanquished the Zunbils and conquered the entire territory from his base in Sistan.[3]

The Zunbils worshiped a deity called Zhūn (or Zūn), from whom they derived their name.[34] He is represented with flames radiating from his head on coins. Statues were adorned with gold and used rubies for eyes. Huen Tsang calls him "sunagir".[18]

The origin and nature of Zhun is disputed. M. Shenkar in his study comes to the conclusion that Zhun was possibly connected to the deity of the river Oxus, the modern river Amudarya. Furthermore he holds it most likely that Zhun was the greatest deity worshiped in Zabulistan.[12] F. Grenet believes that Zhun might have been connected with the Iranian solar deity Mithra.[12] Zhun has been linked with the Hindu god Aditya at Multan, pre-Buddhist religious and kingship practices of Tibet as well as Shaivism.[11] Some scholars have considered the cult to be neither Buddhist nor Zoroastrian, but primarily Hindu.[35] Scholars point out the connections between the Iranian god Zhun/Zun and the Hindu god Shiva, suggesting a syncretic mixture of the Iranian and Indian gods in the Indo-Iranian borderlands of ancient Bactria.[35]

His shrine lay on a sacred mountain in Zamindawar. Originally he appears to have been brought there by Hepthalites, displacing an earlier god on the same site. Parallels have been noted with the pre-Buddhist monarchy of Tibet, next to Zoroastrian influence on its ritual. Whatever his origins, he was certainly superimposed on a mountain and on a pre-existing mountain god while merging with Shaiva doctrines of worship.[10]

Other scholars however have connected Zun with the Sassanid Zoroastrian deity Zurvān, the deity of time.

"Regarding origin of Žuna, Xuanzang had only mentioned that it was initially brought to Kapisa, later Begram from “far” and later moved to Zabul. There is no consensus as to who brought it and when. By identifying Žun with Sassanian Zurvān, the cult of Žun or *Zruvān can be viewed in a much wider context of Iranian history and religious developments. Žun, Like Zurvān, most likely represented the "god of time", a heresy in Zoroastrianism, which originated in response to the religious reforms introduced during second half of Achaemenid Empire. The cosmopolitan nature of the god is consistent with the variety of religions practiced in the region prior to the Islamization of Afghanistan."[35]

According to Gulman S, its Afghan followers were, most probably, initially Zoroastrians. Mention of Žun and its devotees disappeared with the end of Žunbil dynasty of Zabulistan in 870. Its followers, according to Ibn Athir, accepted Islam.[35]

According to N. Sims-Williams:[12]

"It is not unlikely that Zhun derives from the Iranian Zurwan."

Ulf Jäger states: We should interpret “Zhun” as the name of the ancient Iranian deity of time, “Zurwan”.[12]