Their eponym was Sāmān-Khodā, a landlord in the district of Balkh and, according to the dynasty’s claims, a descendant of Bahrām Chūbīn, the Sasanian general. Sāmān became Muslim. His four grandsons were rewarded for services to the caliph al-Maʾmūn (reigned 813–833) and received the caliph’s investiture for areas…
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