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Sunday, February 2, 2014

The Arab Conquest of Shambala 624-870 AD

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"…."In 624 AD, a Moslem invasion weakened the Kingdom of Śambhala"……..(The Blue Annals: Part 10 (Kalachakra)…Tibetan Historical Text completed in 1476 AD, written by Gö Lotsāwa Zhönnu Pel

"….870 A.D. marks the first time that the Kingdom of Shambhala actually came under Moslem domination…",,,,Dharma Fellowship of His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa

"The success of Phrom Gesar in overwhelming an intrusive Arab army, sometime between 739-745, may have formed the historic core behind the Gesar epic."…..History of civilizations of Central Asia

Click on the map to enlarge

Timeline of Islam in Central Asia......

622 AD… Hijira - Islamic calendar (AH, Anno Hegirae) begins.

632… Death of Muhammad

633-42….Muslim armies take the Fertile Crescent (Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia), North African coast, parts of Persian and Byzantine Empires

"Arabs occupied Persia in 642 (during the Caliphate of Uthman, 644-656 AD). Attracted by grandeur and wealth of Balkh, they attacked it in 645 AD.

In 653-4 AD, an army of around 6,000 Arabs were led by General Abdur Rahman bin Samara and they arrived to the shrine of Zoon in Zamindawar.

In the year 650 Abdullah bin Amer came to Kerman (Kirman, Parvan Province)."

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663 AD...."powerful Persian Barmakids family. When Balkh the native town of Barmakids fell to the Arabs in 663, Khalid ibn Barmak and his brothers moved to the garrison town of Basra in Iraq, where they converted to Islam.

"By 669 the Western Turks were undergoing considerable political turmoil and Tri Du-srong, the emperor of Tibet, was actively extending his power in Central Asia by means of continuous bloody warfare and pillage. The neighboring Turkish Shahi kingdoms of Kapisa (Shambhala) and Uddiyana were also both being hard pressed on their southwesterly flank by the inexorable expansion of the southern Arab Moslems."…http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/pramodavajra.htm

"the Kingdom of Uddiyana was divided between two countries, to the North and South. To the North, it bordered on the land of Shambhala (i.e., the Kingdom of Kapisa), while to the South was Lankapuri."

..In AD 671 Muslim armies seized Kabul and the capital was moved to Udabhandapura, where they became known as the Rajas of Hindustan."…..André Wink, Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam: 7th-11th Centuries, (Brill, 2002),

"In 672 an Arab governor of Sistan, Abbad ibn Ziyad, raided the frontier of Al-Hind and crossed the desert to Gandhara, but quickly retreated again. The marauder Obaidallah crossed the Sita River and made a raid on Kabul in 698 only to meet with defeat and humiliation. Vincent Smith, in Early History of India, states that the Turkishahiya dynasty continued to rule over Kabul and Gandhara up until the advent of the Saffarids in the ninth century. Forced by the inevitable advance of Islam on the west, they then moved their capital from Kapisa to Wahund on the Indus, whence they contin­ued as the Hindushahiya dynasty. This was in 870 A.D. and marks the first time that the KINGDOM OF SHAMBHALA actually came under Moslem domination. The Hindushahis recaptured Kabul and the rest of their Kingdom after the death of the conqueror Yaqub but never again maintained Kapisa as their capital.".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury….Dharma Fellowship of His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje......

"the Turki Shahis" during this era were carrying on "intermittent wars with the Arab invaders from the seventh to the middle of the ninth century A.D."

By 711 A.D. Moslem raiders would descend on Sind under the command of Muhammad ibn Qasim.

""The Arabs could bring Balkh under their control in 715 AD only, inspite of strong resistance offered by the Balkh people. Qutayba bin Muslim al-Bahili, an Arab General was Governor of Khurasan and the east from 705-715. He established a firm Arab hold in lands beyond the oxus. He fought and killed Tarkhan Nizak in Tokharistan (Bactria) in 715.

"In 721 Turgesh forces, led by Kül Chor, defeated the Caliphal army commanded by Sa'id ibn Abdu'l-Aziz near Samarkand. Sa'id's successor, Al-Kharashi, massacred Turks and Sogdian refugees in Khujand, causing an influx of refugees towards the Turgesh. In 724 Caliph Hisham sent a new governor to Khorasan, Muslim ibn Sa'id, with orders to crush the "Turks" once and for all, but, confronted by Suluk, Muslim hardly managed to reach Samarkand with a handful of survivors after the so-called "Day of Thirst"."

"In 734 an early Abbasid follower, al-Harith ibn Surayj, rose in revolt against Umayyad rule and took Balkh and Marv before defecting to the Turgesh three years later, defeated."

751 AD….The Battle of Talas in 751 AD was a conflict between the Arab Abbasid Caliphate and the Chinese Tang Dynasty, then under Emperor Xuanzong (together with various other peoples and nations associated with the geographical territory involved) for control not only of the Syr Darya region, but also a strategic area of Central Asia. The Battle of Talas marked the end of the Tang Dynasty's western expansion of their territory."

794 AD….the Shahis, who continued to offer stubborn resistance to Muslim onslaughts, finally moved their capital from Kapisa to Kabul in about AD 794.

870 AD…Zunbil, also written as Zhunbil, was a dynasty south of the Hindu Kush in southern Afghanistan. They ruled from the early 7th century until the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan in 870 AD

870 A.D. and marks the first time that the Kingdom of Shambhala actually came under Moslem domination.

879 AD….Kabul Shahis remained in Kabul until AD 879 when Ya'qub-i Laith Saffari, the founder of the Saffarid dynasty, conquered the city.

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"In the 7th century, the Persian Empire's province of Sistan extended from the modern day Iranian province of Sistan to central Afghanistan and the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Sistan was captured during the reign of Umar, and like other provinces of the Persian Empire, it also broke into revolt during Uthmans reign in 649…..Zunbil, also written as Zhunbil, was a dynasty south of the Hindu Kush in southern Afghanistan. They ruled from the early 7th century until the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan in 870 AD…..In 653-4 AD, an army of around 6,000 Arabs were led by General Abdur Rahman bin Samara and they arrived to the shrine of Zoon in Zamindawar. It is reported that General Abdur Rahman "broke of 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." The General explained to the Marzbān: "my intention was to show you that this idol can do neither any harm nor good." At this point the people of southern Afghanistan accepted Islam for the first time.,,,,the Aruna mountain, located in Kapisa, to Tsu-ko-cha (Zabul)… In the year 650 Abdullah bin Amer came to Kerman. He sent Zabi bin Ziyad Haresi to Seistan who came to the Helmand valley and made peace with Pervez, the governor of Zaranj. Zabi ruled for two and half years and after him Abdul Rahman bin Samara became governor of Zaranj…."

"In subsequent years, the Muslim armies returned with large reinforcements and Kabul was swept when the Shahi ruler agreed to pay tribute to the conquerors. For strategical reasons, the Shahis, who continued to offer stubborn resistance to Muslim onslaughts, finally moved their capital from Kapisa to Kabul in about AD 794. Kabul Shahis remained in Kabul until AD 879 when Ya'qub-i Laith Saffari, the founder of the Saffarid dynasty, conquered the city. Kabul Shahis had built a defensive wall all around the Kabul city to protect it against the army of Muslim Saffarids. The remains of these walls are still visible over the mountains which are located inside the Kabul city."….. Kohzad, Ahmad Ali, "Kabul Shāhāni Berahmanī", 1944, Kabul

"In the 7th century, the Persian Empire's province of Sistan extended from the modern day Iranian province of Sistan to central Afghanistan and the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Sistan was captured during the reign of Umar, and like other provinces of the Persian Empire, it also broke into revolt during Uthmans reign in 649…..Zunbil, also written as Zhunbil, was a dynasty south of the Hindu Kush in southern Afghanistan. They ruled from the early 7th century until the Islamic conquest of Afghanistan in 870 AD…..In 653-4 AD, an army of around 6,000 Arabs were led by General Abdur Rahman bin Samara and they arrived to the shrine of Zoon in Zamindawar. It is reported that General Abdur Rahman "broke of 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." The General explained to the Marzbān: "my intention was to show you that this idol can do neither any harm nor good." At this point the people of southern Afghanistan accepted Islam for the first time.,,,,the Aruna mountain….

KIDARITE KINGDOM, ….."In the middle of the 4th century AD a Kushan vassal in Pakistan, Kidara by name, rose to power and overthrew the old Kushan dynasty. We call his declining domain the “Kidarite kingdom” but he thought of himself as a Kushan, and so styled himself on his coins. Though he is named as King (Shah) on his coins, it seems that Kidara was probably the head of a confederacy of warlords whose descendants ruled their principalities and issued coins in their own right. …. According to Chinese accounts of the period the Kidarite lands continued to experience the peaceful prosperity of elder Kushan days, though there was a significant reduction in the grandeur quotient due to lack of surplus funds……The Kidarite regime of faded glory succumbed to a social disaster. The whole region - Afghanistan to northern India - was invaded by people eed in Kapisa, to Tsu-ko-cha (Zabul)… In the year 650 Abdullah bin Amer came to Kerman Kirman, Parvan Province.) ….."

"The success of the Turk Fromo Kesaro in overwhelming an intrusive Arab army, sometime between 739-745, may have formed the historic core behind the Gesar epic in Tibet. In the records of the earliest rulers of Ladakh, Baltistan and Gilgit, whose countries were later overrun by incursive Tibetans, royal ancestry is connected to the Bactrian Gesar."......Harmatta, J.; Litvinsky, B. A. (1999). "Tokharistan and Gandhara under Western Türk rule (650-750)". In Dani, Ahmad Hasan. History of civilizations of Central Asia 3. Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 367–402. ISBN 978-81-208-1540-7. Retrieved 15 July 2011

"Vohra 1996, p. 217 writes that these coins with the title Fromo Kesaro appear to refer to the successor of Sahi Tegin (700-738 CE:Chinese:烏散特勤灑:MC:uo-sân d'ɘk-g'iɘn ṣai=*Horsān tegin šāhi 'Tegin, king of Khurasan'), ruler of the Second Turki Śāhi dynasty at Kapisa-Udyana, whose reign was between 738 and 745 C.E., and who is identified with the 'Frōm Kēsar' (拂菻罽婆: Fúlǐn jìpó:North Western Tang pfvyr-lḭum-kḭe-sâ) of the Tang shu. SeeHarmatta & Litvinsky 1999, pp. 376,380)."....Vohra, Rohit (1996). "Early History of Ladakh: Mythic Lore % Fabulation: A preliminary note on the conjectural history of the 1st millennium A.D.". In Osmaston, Henry; Denwood, Philip. Recent research on Ladakh 4 & 5: proceedings of the fourth and fifth international colloquia on Ladakh. Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 216–234. ISBN 978-81-208-1404-2. Retrieved 16 July 2011.

"By 669 the Western Turks were undergoing considerable political turmoil and Tri Du-srong, the emperor of Tibet, was actively extending his power in Central Asia by means of continuous bloody warfare and pillage. The neighboring Turkish Shahi kingdoms of Kapisa (Shambhala) and Uddiyana were also both being hard pressed on their southwesterly flank by the inexorable expansion of the southern Arab Moslems."…http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/pramodavajra.htm

Ramashankar Tripathi tells us that although "hardly anything is known of the Turki Shahis" during this era, nevertheless it is certain they were carrying on "intermittent wars with the Arab invaders from the seventh to the middle of the ninth century A.D."

By 711 A.D. Moslem raiders would descend on Sind under the command of Muhammad ibn Qasim. The Middle East was in turmoil and continuous political tensions swept the settled regions of Central Asia. It need not be surprising, therefore, that in this time of crisis an attempt was made on the life of the holy father of our sacred tradition. It was around the same time that a wandering trader in fine cloth, from the Valley of Cina, came to Uddiyana. By chance the young trader met Acarya Pramodavajra and, impressed by the Master's saintliness, asked to receive transmission (agama) and empowerment (abhiseka). Perceiving that here was a vessel worthy to receive the most excellent teachings, Sri Pramodavajra initiated the young man into the meditation and mantra practice of Vajrasattva. The young man's name was Simha, the Lion. Later, as Sri Simha, he would be known as a main lineage holder of the Master's teachings.

In a notation to folio 96A of Taranatha's History of Buddhism in India, V.P. Vasil'ev confirms the old tradition of the 84 Mahasiddhas that the Kingdom of Uddiyana was divided between two countries, to the North and South. To the North, it bordered on the land of Shambhala (i.e., the Kingdom of Kapisa), while to the South was Lankapuri. A tenth century king of Uddiyana, named Indrabhuti, had a sister called Laksminkara, who married King Jalendra of Lankapuri. It was to this Lankapuri, with its famous Malaya mount, that Pramodavajra traveled when he left Uddiyana….http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/pramodavajra.htm#top

"Arabs occupied Persia in 642 (during the Caliphate of Uthman, 644-656 AD). Attracted by grandeur and wealth of Balkh, they attacked it in 645 AD. It was only in 653 when Arab commander, al-Ahnaf raided the town again and compelled it to pay tribute. The Arab hold over the town, however, remained tenuous. The area was brought under Arabs' control only after it was reconquered by Muawiya in 663 AD. Prof. Upasak describes the effect of this conquest in these words: "The Arabs plundered the town and killed the people indiscriminately. It is said that they raided the famous Buddhist shrine of Nava-Vihara, which the Arab historians call 'Nava Bahara' and describe it as one of the magnificent places which, comprised a range of 360 cells around the high stupas'. They plundered the gems and jewels that were studded on many images and stupas and took away the wealth accumulated in the Vihara but probably did no considerable harm to other monastic buildings or to the monks residing there".....http://ikashmir.net/rktamiri/barmarks.html

663 AD...."powerful Persian Barmakids family. When Balkh the native town of Barmakids fell to the Arabs in 663, Khalid ibn Barmak and his brothers moved to the garrison town of Basra in Iraq, where they converted to Islam. Their ancestor was a Pramukh (corrupted by the Arabs to Barmak), a title borne by the high priest in the Buddhist temple of Nawbahār."

"The Arabs could bring Balkh under their control in 715 AD only, inspite of strong resistance offered by the Balkh people. Qutayba bin Muslim al-Bahili, an Arab General was Governor of Khurasan and the east from 705-715. He established a firm Arab hold in lands beyond the oxus. He fought and killed Tarkhan Nizak in Tokharistan (Bactria) in 715. In the wake of Arab conquest the resident monks of the Vihara were either killed or forced to abandon their faith. The Viharas were razed to the ground. Priceless treasures in the form of manuscripts in the libraries of monasteries were consigned to ashes. Presently, only the ancient wall of the town, which once encircled it, stands partially. Nava-Vihara stands in ruins, near Takhta-i-Rustam."....http://ikashmir.net/rktamiri/barmarks.html

Dharma Fellowship of His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje......"In 672 an Arab governor of Sistan, Abbad ibn Ziyad, raided the frontier of Al-Hind and crossed the desert to Gandhara, but quickly retreated again. The marauder Obaidallah crossed the Sita River and made a raid on Kabul in 698 only to meet with defeat and humiliation. Vincent Smith, in Early History of India, states that the Turkishahiya dynasty continued to rule over Kabul and Gandhara up until the advent of the Saffarids in the ninth century. Forced by the inevitable advance of Islam on the west, they then moved their capital from Kapisa to Wahund on the Indus, whence they contin­ued as the Hindushahiya dynasty. This was in 870 A.D. and marks the first time that the KINGDOM OF SHAMBHALA actually came under Moslem domination. The Hindushahis recaptured Kabul and the rest of their Kingdom after the death of the conqueror Yaqub but never again maintained Kapisa as their capital.".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury

Website of His Holiness the 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Urgyen Trinley Dorje………."Legend reports that Vasubandhu came from the "Kingdom of Shambhala' (approximately, modern Begram, otherwise known as the ancient kingdom of Kapisha, north of Kabul) located in the Afghanistan region, north-west of Peshawar....Bagram (بگرام Bagrám), founded as Alexandria on the Caucasus and known in medieval times as Kapisa, is a small town and seat in Bagram District in Parwan Province of Afghanistan, about 60 kilometers north of the capital Kabul….in the old tradition of the 84 Mahasiddhas that the Kingdom of Uddiyana was divided between two countries, to the North and South. To the North, it bordered on the land of Shambhala (i.e., the Kingdom of Kapisa)…….….http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/pramodavajra.htm"….

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….February 2014

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