Fromo Kesaro

Fromo or Phromo Kesaro (Bactrian script: ϕρoµo κησαρo, phonetical transcription of "Rome Caesar") was a king of the Turk Shahis (also known as the Kabul Shahis), a dynasty of Western Turk or mixed Western Turk-Hephthalite origin, who ruled from Kabul and Kapisa to Gandhara in the 7th to 9th centuries. In Chinese sources "Fromo Kesaro" was transcribed 拂菻罽娑 (pinyin: Fulin Jisuo; jyutping: fat1lam4 gai3so1), "Fulin" (拂菻) being the standard Tang dynasty name for "Byzantine Empire".

From 719 CE, Tegin Shah was the king of the Turk Shahis. He then abdicated in 739 CE in favour of his son Fromo Kesaro. The name "Fromo Kesaro" was the probable phonetic transcription of "Rome Caesar" in honor of Caesar, the title of the then Eastern Roman Emperor Leo III the Isaurian who had defeated their common enemy the Arabs in 717 CE. Leo III the Isaurian then sent an embassy through Central Asia in 719 CE, which travelled as far as China. The Chinese annals record that "In the first month of the seventh year of the period Kaiyuan [719 CE] their Lord [拂菻王, "the King of Fulin"] sent the Ta-shou-ling [an officer of high rank] of T'u-huo-lo [吐火羅, Tokhara] (...) to offer lions and ling-yang [antelopes], two of each. A few months after, he further sent Ta-te-seng ["priests of great virtue"] to our court with tribute."

The Turk Shahis were nominally vassals of the Chinese Tang dynasty court and regularly sent embassies for official matters. In 738 CE, Tegin Shah sent a request to abdicate in favour of his son Fromo Kesaro. These events are recorded in the Chinese annals Cefu Yuangui.

In the 27th year [of Emperor Xuanzong i.e. 739 CE] the king Wusan Tele Sa [for Khorasan Tegin Shah] submitted a memorial requesting that due to his old age, his son Fulin Jipo [for Fulin Jisuo 拂菻罽娑] may succeed him on the throne. The Emperor agreed and dispatched an envoy to confer the King's title on him through an Imperial Edict.

— Cefu Yuangui (冊府元龜), Vol. 964.

Kabulistan was the heartland of the Turk Shahi domain, which at times included Zabulistan and Gandhara. Some of their coins were minted in eastern Gandhara, in the Turk Shahi's winter capital of Hund (Udabhandapura). During their rule, the Turk Shahi were in constant conflict against the eastward expansion of the Abbasid Caliphate. Circa 650 CE, the Arabs attacked Shahi territory from the west, and captured Kabul. But the Turk Shahi were able to mount a counter-offensive and repulsed the Arabs, taking back the areas of Kabul and Zabulistan (around Ghazni), as well as the region of Arachosia as far as Kandahar. The Arabs again failed to capture Kabul and Zabulistan in 697-698 CE, and their general Yazid ibn Ziyad was killed in the action.

Fromo Kesaro appears to have fought vigorously against the Arabs. The Arabs are known to have been forced to pay tribute to Fromo Kesaro, since Sasanian coins and coins of Arab governors were overstruck on the rim with the following text in the Bactrian script describing his victory over the Arabs:

Obverse: ϕρoµo κησαρo βαγo χoαδηo κιδo βo ταzικανo χoργo
Reverse:oδo σαo βo σαβαγo ατo ι µo βo γαινδo
Fromo Kesaro, the Majestic Sovereign, [is] who defeated the Arabs and laid a tax [on them]. Thus they sent it.