The Karluks, the Oghuz and the Tahirids

In the late 8th and early 9th centuries the Caliphate weakened because of uprisings and civil wars, which opened the way for independent states. In the mid-8th century the Karluk state arose in Zhetysu with its capital at Suyab; its ruler was called yabghu, and by the mid-10th century most Karluks were Muslim. In the late 9th and early 10th centuries the Oghuz state with its capital at Yangikent formed around the Syr Darya basin and the Aral; part of the Oghuz later moved west under the Seljuks. After Harun al-Rashid’s death his sons Amin and Ma’mun fought for the throne in 809–813, and Ma’mun took Baghdad with the help of the Herat noble Tahir ibn Husayn. Tahir became governor of Khorasan in 821 and in 822 removed the caliph’s name from the khutba, becoming in effect independent. Before the Tahirids (821–873), Samankhudat’s grandsons Nuh, Ahmad, Yahya and Ilyas had been appointed governors of Samarkand, Fergana, Chach and Herat. In 873 the Saffarids led by the coppersmith Yaqub ibn Layth took Nishapur and ended Tahirid rule.