
The Samanid Empire was a Sunni Persian empire which existed in Khorasan and Transoxiana from 819 to 999, with Samarkand and Bukhara serving as its capitals. It was founded by the brothers Nuh ibn Asad, Ahmad ibn Asad, Yahya ibn Asad, and Ilyas ibn Asad, who ruled territory as Abbasid vassals, and, in 892, Ismail Samani united the Samanid state under one ruler and broke free of Abbasid authority. That same year, the capital moved from Samarkand to Bukhara, which came to rival Arab Baghdad in its splendor. The Samanids revived Persian culture and language more than the Buyids and Saffarids, claiming the heritage of the Sassanid Empire. In 962, the Samanid ghulam Alptigin mutinied and seized Khorasan for himself, founding the Ghaznavid Empire. The Karakhanids seized control of Transoxiana, and the Samanids and Buyids established successor states.