Greater Khorasan

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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