Greater Khorasan or
Ancient Khorasan () (also written
Khurasan) is a
historical region of
Iran mentioned in sources from Sasanid and Islamic eras which "frequently" had a denotation wider than
current three provinces of Khurasan in Iran. It also included parts of
Afghanistan,
Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan,
Tajikstan,
Khorasan in its proper sense comprised principally the cities of
Nishapur and
Tus (now in Iran),
Balkh and
Herat (now in Afghanistan),
Merv (now in Turkmenistan), and
Samarqand and
Bukhara (now in
Uzbekistan). However, the name has been used in the past to cover a larger region that encompassed most of
Transoxiana and
Soghdiana in the north, extended westward to the
Caspian Sea, southward to include the
Sistan desert and eastward to the
Hindu Kush mountains in Afghanistan. Arab geographers even spoke of its extending to the boundaries of ancient
India, possibly as far as the
Indus valley, in what is now
Pakistan.The Encyclopedia of Islam, Brill 1979, Vol.5, page 56: "Early Islamic usage often regarded everywhere east of western Persia, or what was subsequently termed 'Irak 'Adjami,...
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