The
Samanid Empire (,
Samaniyan), also known as the
Samanid dynasty,
Samanid Emirate, or simply
Samanids, was a
Sunni Iranian empire, ruling from 819 to 999. The empire was mostly centered in
Khorasan and
Transoxiana during its existence, but at its greatest extent, the empire encompassed all of today's
Afghanistan, and large parts of
Iran,
Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan,
Kyrgyzstan,
Kazakhstan and
Pakistan.