USTRUSHANA (Sudujshana, Usrushana, Eastern Chao)

A nation in Transoxiana. The Ustrushana were situated northeast of Samarkand and south of the Syr Darya river. Their traditional capital was Nawmanjikat . The population was a mixture of Iranic Soghdians and Turks, with a Turkic (probably Oghuz) ruling class.

The rulers of the Ustrushana went by the title of "Afshin". The Ustrushana, like other Turkic tribes of Transoxiana, initially resisted Muslim incursions under the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates, but in 822 CE the ruling Afshin, Kawush, converted to Islam and became a vassal of the Caliph.

Kawush's son, Khaydar, became a general in the Abbasid army. In 841 he was arrested in Samarra on suspicion of plotting against the Caliphate with foreign elements, including the Khazars and other Turkic peoples. Khaydar starved to death in prison.

Their are indications that semi-autonomous Afshins continued to rule over the Ustrushana after control of the region was wrested from the Abbasids by the Saffarids and, soon after, the Samanids.

Sources

Usrushana on Regnal Chronologies