{{short description|King of the Turk Shahis}} {{Infobox royalty | name = Fromo Kesaro<br/>{{lang|xbc-Grek|ϕρoµo κησαρo}}<br/>''"Rome Caesar"'' | title = Majestic Sovereign | succession = Turk Shahi King | image = Phromo Kesaro. circa 738-745 CE.jpg | image_size = 300 | caption = Sasanian-style silver coin of Fromo Kesaro, circa 738-745 CE. Corrupted legend ''spwl'' in Pahlavi. In the outer margin in Bactrian: {{lang|xbc-Grek|ϕρoµo κησαρo βαγo χoαδηo}} {{Transliteration|xbc|phromo kesaro zeoro bago xodeo}} "Fromo Kesaro, the Majestic Sovereign".<ref name="legend"/> | reign = 739-745 CE | coronation = | full name = | predecessor = Tegin Shah | successor = Bo Fuzhun | queen = | spouse = | issue = | royal house = | dynasty = | father = | mother = | birth_date = | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | burial_date = | burial_place = | religion = }} [[File:Fromo Kesaro coin with name on coinage (Inscriptional - Bacrian cursive - Greek cursive -Roman).jpg|thumb|300px|Bactrian script reading of "Fromo Kesaro" ({{lang|xbc-Grek|ϕρoµo κησαρo}}, "Rome Caesar") on the coinage of the ruler, with Greek script and Latin script correspondence. The final "υ" after the name is the Greek genitive, i.e. "Of...".<ref name="legend">{{Cite book |last1=Dani |first1=Ahmad Hasan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=883OZBe2sMYC&pg=PA380 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations, A.D. 250 to 750 |last2=Litvinsky |first2=B. A. |date=1 January 1996 |publisher=UNESCO |isbn=978-92-3-103211-0 |page=380 |language=en |quote="The legends are written only in Bactrian and Pahlavi scripts and languages. They run as follows: obverse (11 h) (1) GDH (2) ’p < zwt > (2 h) (1) bg (2) h. wtyp (The glory increased! The Majestic Sovereign); on the rim around, ϕρoµo κησαρo βαγo χoαδηo (Fromo Kesaro, the Majestic Sovereign); reverse (10 h) ŠT’ (2 h) h. wndy ([minted in his] 6th [regnal year at] Hund)."}}</ref><ref>Readings with photographs in "New Coins of Fromo Kēsaro" by Helmut Humbach in: G. Pollet (ed.), "India and the Ancient World. History, trade and culture before A.D. 650". Professor P.H.L. Eggermont jubilee volume. Leuven 1987, 81-85, [https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/30872542769_3.jpg plates. XI-XIII]</ref>]] {{Location map+ |West Asia |float = right |width = 300 |caption = Approximate location of the Turk Shahis |nodiv = 1 |mini = 1 |relief = yes |places = {{location map~ |West Asia |lat=40.5|N |long=65|E |label=<div talign=center>TOKHARA<br>YABGHUS</div>|position=bottom |label_size=50|mark=File:1000x1.png|marksize=0}} {{location map~ |West Asia |lat=37.5|N |long=70.5|E |label=<div talign=center>'''TURK<br>SHAHIS'''</div>|position=bottom |label_size=60|mark=File:1000x1.png|marksize=0}} {{location map~ |West Asia |lat=35|N |long=55|E |label=ABBASID<br>CALIPHATE|position=bottom |label_size=70|mark=File:1000x1.png|marksize=0}} {{location map~ |West Asia |lat=45|N |long=65|E |label=WESTERN TURKS|position=bottom |label_size=70|mark=File:1000x1.png|marksize=0}} {{location map~ |West Asia |lat=22|N |long=74|E |label=CHALUKYAS|position=bottom |label_size=70|mark=File:1000x1.png|marksize=0}} {{location map~ |West Asia |lat=31|N |long=73|E |label=<div talign=center>GUJARA-<br>PRATIHARA</div>|position=bottom |label_size=70|mark=File:1000x1.png|marksize=0}} {{location map~ |West Asia |lat=39|N |long=74|E |label=TANG |position=right |label_size=90|mark=File:1x1.png|marksize=0}} }} [[File:Gesar Gruschke.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Fromo Kesaro in a mural depicting the Tibetan Epic of King Gesar.]] '''Fromo''' or '''Phromo Kesaro''' (Bactrian script: {{lang|xbc-Grek|ϕρoµo κησαρo}}, phonetical transcription of "Rome Caesar") was a king of the Turk Shahis (also known as the Kabul Shahis), a dynasty of Western Turk or mixed Western Turk-Hephthalite origin, who ruled from Kabul and Kapisa to Gandhara in the 7th to 9th centuries.<ref name="HJK58">{{Cite book |last=Kim |first=Hyun Jin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mcf4CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT61 |title=The Huns |date=19 November 2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-34090-4 |pages=58–59 |language=en}}</ref> In Chinese sources "Fromo Kesaro" was transcribed {{lang|lzh-Hant|拂菻罽娑}} (pinyin: {{Transliteration|lzh|pinyin|Fulin Jisuo}}; jyutping: {{lang|lzh|fat1lam4 gai3so1}}), "Fulin" ({{lang|lzh|拂菻}}) being the standard Tang dynasty name for "Byzantine Empire".<ref name="AR37">{{Cite book |last1=Rahman |first1=Abdur |url=http://journals.uop.edu.pk/papers/AP_v15_37to42.pdf |title=Afghanistan. Ancien Carrefour entre l'Est et l'Ouest (New Light on Khingal, Turk and Hindu Shahis) |last2=Bopearachchi (Ed.) |first2=Osmund |last3=Boussac (Ed.) |first3=Marie-Françoise |date=2002 |publisher=Brepols |isbn=2-503-51681-5 |volume=XV |location=Turnhout, Belgium |pages=37–41}}</ref><ref name="Inaba Balogh">{{Cite book |last1=Inaba |first1=Minoru |title=Hunnic Peoples in Central and South Asia: Sources for their Origin and History |last2=Balogh |first2=Dániel |publisher=Barkhuis |year=2020 |isbn=978-9-493-19401-4 |editor-last=Balogh |editor-first=Dániel |pages=103–107 |chapter=The legend of Xinnie in the seventh and eighth centuries |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=frnVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA106}}</ref><ref name="Fromo Kesaro">{{Cite journal |last=Piras |first=Andrea |title=FROMO KESARO. Echi del prestigio di Bisanzio in Asia Centrale, in Polidoro. Studi offerti ad Antonio Carile, a cura di G. Vespignani (Centro italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo), Spoleto 2013, pp. 671-690. |url=https://www.academia.edu/5340750 |language=en |page=681}}</ref>
==Origin of the name "Rome Caesar"== From 719 CE, Tegin Shah was the king of the Turk Shahis. He then abdicated in 739 CE in favour of his son Fromo Kesaro. The name "Fromo Kesaro" was the probable phonetic transcription of "Rome Caesar" in honor of {{lang|la|Caesar}}, the title of the then Eastern Roman Emperor Leo III the Isaurian who had defeated their common enemy the Arabs in 717 CE.<ref name="HJK58" />{{efn|{{harvnb|Martin|2011|p=127}}:"He received this laudatory epithet because he, like the Byzantines, was successful at holding back the Muslim conquerors."}} Leo III the Isaurian then sent an embassy through Central Asia in 719 CE, which travelled as far as China.<ref name="HJK58" /> The Chinese annals record that "In the first month of the seventh year of the period Kaiyuan [719 CE] their Lord [拂菻王, "the King of Fulin"] sent the Ta-shou-ling [an officer of high rank] of T'u-huo-lo [吐火羅, Tokhara] (...) to offer lions and ling-yang [antelopes], two of each. A few months after, he further sent Ta-te-seng ["priests of great virtue"] to our court with tribute."<ref>Old Book of Tang (舊唐書 ''Jiu Tangshu''), ch. 198 (written mid-10th century C.E.), for 618-906 C.E: "[http://chinesenotes.com/jiutangshu/jiutangshu210.html 開元七年正月，其主遣吐火羅大首領獻獅子、羚羊各二。不數月，又遣大德僧來朝貢]" quoted in English translation in {{Cite book |last=Hirth |first=F. |url=https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/romchin1.html |title=China and the Roman Orient: Researches into their Ancient and Mediaeval Relations as Represented in Old Chinese Records |date=1885 |location=Shanghai & Hong Kong}}</ref>
==Investiture of Fromo Kesaro in 738/739 CE== The Turk Shahis were nominally vassals of the Chinese Tang dynasty court and regularly sent embassies for official matters. In 738 CE, Tegin Shah sent a request to abdicate in favour of his son Fromo Kesaro. These events are recorded in the Chinese annals Cefu Yuangui.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kuwayama |first=S. |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39251127.pdf |title=Across the Hindukush of the First Millennium: a collection of papers |date=2002 |publisher=INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN HUMANITIES KYOTO UNIVERSITY |pages=195–196}}</ref> {{blockquote|In the 27th year [of Emperor Xuanzong i.e. 739 CE] the king ''Wusan Tele Sa'' [for Khorasan Tegin Shah] submitted a memorial requesting that due to his old age, his son Fulin Jipo [for Fulin Jisuo 拂菻罽娑] may succeed him on the throne. The Emperor agreed and dispatched an envoy to confer the King's title on him through an Imperial Edict.|Cefu Yuangui (冊府元龜), Vol. 964.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Balogh |first=Dániel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=frnVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA104 |title=Hunnic Peoples in Central and South Asia: Sources for their Origin and History |date=12 March 2020 |publisher=Barkhuis |isbn=978-94-93194-01-4 |page=104 |language=en |quote=Chinese original: 二十七年,其王烏散特勒灑以年老,上表請以子(THY:以嫡子)拂菻罽婆嗣位,許之,仍降使冊命。}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kuwayama |first=S. |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39251127.pdf |title=Across the Hindukush of the First Millennium: a collection of papers |date=2002 |publisher=INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN HUMANITIES KYOTO UNIVERSITY |pages=195–196}}</ref>}}
==Conflict with the Arabs== Kabulistan was the heartland of the Turk Shahi domain, which at times included Zabulistan<ref name="Turk Shahi">{{Cite web |title=15. The Rutbils of Zabulistan and the "Emperor of Rome" |url=http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase15?language=en |access-date=July 22, 2017 |publisher=Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna |newspaper=Pro.geo.univie.ac.at |archive-date=August 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170802204758/http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase15?language=en |url-status=dead }}</ref> and Gandhara. Some of their coins were minted in eastern Gandhara, in the Turk Shahi's winter capital of Hund (Udabhandapura).<ref name="legend"/> During their rule, the Turk Shahi were in constant conflict against the eastward expansion of the Abbasid Caliphate.<ref name="HJK58" /> Circa 650 CE, the Arabs attacked Shahi territory from the west, and captured Kabul.<ref name="HJK58" /> But the Turk Shahi were able to mount a counter-offensive and repulsed the Arabs, taking back the areas of Kabul and Zabulistan (around Ghazni), as well as the region of Arachosia as far as Kandahar.<ref name="HJK58" /> The Arabs again failed to capture Kabul and Zabulistan in 697-698 CE, and their general Yazid ibn Ziyad was killed in the action.<ref name="HJK58" />
Fromo Kesaro appears to have fought vigorously against the Arabs. The Arabs are known to have been forced to pay tribute to Fromo Kesaro, since Sasanian coins and coins of Arab governors were overstruck on the rim with the following text in the Bactrian script describing his victory over the Arabs:<ref name="Overstrike">{{Cite book |last1=Dani |first1=Ahmad Hasan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=883OZBe2sMYC&pg=PA381 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The crossroads of civilizations, A.D. 250 to 750 |last2=Litvinsky |first2=B. A. |date=1 January 1996 |publisher=UNESCO |isbn=978-92-3-103211-0 |pages=381–382 |language=en}}</ref>
{{blockquote|[[File:Sasanian drachm with Phromo kesaro Bactrian legend overstrike.jpg|thumb|left|Sasanian drachm with Fromo Kesaro obverse and reverse rim overstrike in Bactrian.<ref>"New Coins of Fromo Kēsaro" by Helmut Humbach in: G. Pollet (ed.), "India and the Ancient World. History, trade and culture before A.D. 650". Professor P.H.L. Eggermont jubilee volume. Leuven 1987, 81-85, [https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/30872542769_3.jpg plates. XI-XIII]</ref><ref name="Inscription" />]]''Obverse:'' {{lang|xbc-Grek|ϕρoµo κησαρo βαγo χoαδηo κιδo βo ταzικανo χoργo}}<br>''Reverse:''{{lang|xbc-Grek|oδo σαo βo σαβαγo ατo ι µo βo γαινδo}}<br> ''Fromo Kesaro, the Majestic Sovereign, [is] who defeated the Arabs and laid a tax [on them]. Thus they sent it.''|Rim legend of Arab and Sasanian coins overstruck by Fromo Kesaro.<ref name="Overstrike" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Charlton |first=Evan |title=India in the ancient world |date=1987 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=9780333124291 |location=London}}</ref><ref name="Inscription">{{Cite book |last=Harmatta |first=János |url=https://www.academia.edu/35651106 |title=History of Civilizations of Central Asia |date=1996 |publisher=United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization |isbn=92-3-103211-9 |location=Paris |page=374}}</ref>{{efn|The study of these new coins originally appeared in "New Coins of Fromo Kēsaro" by Helmut Humbach in: G. Pollet (ed.), "India and the Ancient World. History, trade and culture before A.D. 650". Professor P.H.L. Eggermont jubilee volume. Leuven 1987, 81-85, [https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/30872542769_3.jpg plates. XI-XIII]}} }}
The victories of Fromo Kesaro against the Arabs may have forged the Tibetan epic legend of King Phrom Ge-sar.<ref name="HJK58" /><ref name="Overstrike" />
==Succession== {{multiple image|perrow = 2|total_width = 400|caption_align = center | align = right | direction = horizontal | header = | image1 = Coin of Phromo Kesaro, circa 738-745 CE Æ Drachm.jpg | caption1 = Base metal (Æ) drachm of Phromo Kesaro, circa 738-745 CE. The legend in front reads ζηβoρo (intended κησαρo, ''kesaro'' "Caesar".) | image2 = Fromo Kesaro Æ Drachm profile, circa 738-745 CE.jpg | caption2 = Profile from coinage. | footer = }} In 745 CE, Fromo Kesaro sent a request to the Chinese court in order to abdicate in favour of his son Bo Fuzun (勃匐準, his name is only known from Chinese sources). These events are again recorded in the Chinese annals ''Jiu Tangshu'' and ''Tang Huiyao''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kuwayama |first=S. |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39251127.pdf |title=Across the Hindukush of the First Millennium: a collection of papers |date=2002 |publisher=INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN HUMANITIES KYOTO UNIVERSITY |page=259}}</ref> {{blockquote|In the 4th year of the Tianbao reign [745 CE]{{efn|Tianbao (天寶, 742–756), era name used by Emperor Xuanzong of Tang}} another imperial edict was issued to make his [Fromo Kesar's] son Bo Fuzun succeed him on the throne as the King of Jibin and Wuchang. He was conferred the title of "General of Left Stalwart Guard".|Old Book of Tang, Book 198.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Balogh |first=Dániel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=frnVDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA104 |title=Hunnic Peoples in Central and South Asia: Sources for their Origin and History |date=12 March 2020 |publisher=Barkhuis |isbn=978-94-93194-01-4 |page=104 |language=en |quote=Chinese original: 天寶四年，又冊其子勃匐準為襲罽賓及烏萇國王，仍授左驍衛將軍。}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kuwayama |first=S. |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/39251127.pdf |title=Across the Hindukush of the First Millennium: a collection of papers |date=2002 |publisher=INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN HUMANITIES KYOTO UNIVERSITY |page=259}}</ref>}}
The Turk Shahis eventually weakened against the Arabs in the late 9th century CE.<ref name="HJK58" /> Kandahar, Kabul and Zabul were lost to the Arabs, while in Gandhara the Hindu Shahi took over. The last Shahi ruler of Kabul, Lagaturman, was deposed by a Brahmin minister, possibly named Vakkadeva,<ref>D. W. Macdowall, "The Shahis of Kabul and Gandhara" ''Numismatic Chronicle'', Seventh Series, Vol. III, 1968, pp. 189-224, see extracts in R. T. Mohan, ''AFGHANISTAN REVISITED'' … Appendix –B, pp. 164-68</ref><ref>Raizada Harichand Vaid, ''Gulshane Mohyali'', II, pp. 83 and 183-84.</ref><ref>H. G. Raverty, Tr. ''Tabaqat-i-Nasiri'' of Maulana Minhaj-ud-din, Vol. I, p. 82</ref> in c. 850, signaling the end of the Buddhist Turk Shahi dynasty, and the beginning of the Hindu Shahi dynasty of Kabul.<ref name="Zabul">{{Cite web |title=16. The Hindu Shahis in Kabulistan and Gandhara and the Arab conquest |url=http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase16?language=en |access-date=July 22, 2017 |publisher=Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna |newspaper=Pro.geo.univie.ac.at |archive-date=March 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210310235911/http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase16?language=en |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Notes== {{Turk Shahi rulers}} {{notelist}}
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
==Sources== *{{Cite book |last=Martin |first=Dan |title=Islam and Tibet: Interactions Along the Musk Routes |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-7546-6956-2 |editor-last=Akasoy |editor-first=Anna |location=Farnham, Surrey |pages=117–144 |chapter=Greek and Islamic Medicines' Historical Contact with Tibet |editor-last2=Burnett |editor-first2=Charles |editor-last3=Yoeli-Tlalim |editor-first3=Ronit |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZfWXIfbynwYC&pg=PA117}}
{{s-start}} {{s-bef|before=Tegin Shah}} {{s-ttl|title=Turk Shahis|years=738-745 CE}} {{s-aft|after=Bo Fuzhun}} {{s-end}}
{{Afghanistan topics}}
Category:Kabul Shahi Category:8th-century monarchs in Asia