Bactria

Bactria (/ˈbæktriə/; Bactrian: βαχλο, Bakhlo), or Bactriana, was an ancient Iranian civilization in Central Asia based in the area south of the Oxus River (modern Amu Darya) and north of the mountains of the Hindu Kush, an area within the north of modern Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Bactria was strategically located south of Sogdia and the western part of the Pamir Mountains. The extensive mountain ranges acted as protective "walls" on three sides, with the Pamir on the north and the Hindu Kush on south forming a junction with the Karakoram range towards the east.

Called "beautiful Bactria, crowned with flags" by the Avesta, the region is considered, in the Zoroastrian faith, to be one of the "sixteen perfect Iranian lands" that the supreme deity, Ahura Mazda, had created. It was once a small and independent kingdom struggling to exist against nomadic Turanians. One of the early centres of Zoroastrianism, and capital of the legendary Kayanian dynasty, Bactria is mentioned in the Behistun Inscription of Darius the Great as one of the satrapies of the Achaemenid Empire; it was a special satrapy, ruled by a crown prince or an intended heir. Bactria was the centre of Iranian resistance against the Greek Macedonian invaders after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire in the 4th century BC, but eventually fell to Alexander the Great.

After the death of Alexander, Bactria was annexed by his general, Seleucus I.^{[citation needed]} The Seleucids lost the region after the region declared independence by the satrap Diodotus I; thus began the history of the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek, Kingdoms. By the second century BC, Bactria was conquered by the Parthian Empire, and, in the early first century, the Kushan Empire, believed to be formed by the Yuezhi conquered the Bactrian territories. Bactrian (natively known as ariao, 'Iranian'), an Eastern Iranian language, was the common language of Bactria and surroundings areas in ancient until early medieval times.

Shapur I, the second Sasanian King of Kings of Iran, conquered western parts of the Kushan Empire in the 3rd century, and the remaining Kushano-Sasanian Kingdom was established. The Sasanians lost Bactria in the 4th century, but reconquered it in the 6th century.

The Islamization of Bactria began with the Muslim conquest of Iran in the 7th century. The capital city of Bactra was centre of an Iranian Renaissance in the 8th and 9th centuries, and New Persian as an independent literary language first emerged in this region. The Samanid Empire was formed in Eastern Iran by the descendants of Saman Khuda, a Persian from Bactria, beginning the spread of the Persian language in the region and the decline of the Bactrian language.

The modern English name of the region is Bactria. Historically, the region was first mentioned in Avestan as Bakhdi in Old Persian. This later developed into Bāxtriš in Middle Persian and Baxl in New Persian. The modern name is derived from the Ancient Greek: Βακτριανή (Romanized Greek term: Baktrianē), which is the Hellenized version of the Bactrian endonym. Other cognates include βαχλο (Romanized: Bakhlo). بلخ (Romanized: Balx), Chinese 大夏 (pinyin: Dàxià), Latin Bactriana. The region was mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts as बाह्लीक or Bāhlīka.

Wilhelm Eilers proposed that the region was named after the Balkh River (in Greek transliteration Βάκτρος) from underlying Bāxtri-, itself meaning 'she who divides', from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhag- 'to divide' (whence also Avestan bag- and Old Indic bháj-).

Bactria is the geographic location after which Bactrian camels are named.