Sajāwand (Dari/Pashto: سجاوند) is a village in Baraki Barak district, Logar province, Afghanistan.
Name
Sajāwand was known in the early Islamic era as Sakāwand or Sagāwand (Persian: سکاوند\سگاوند), also Shakāwand (شکاوند) in the writings of Al-Biruni, Arabized into Sajāwand from the 10th-century onwards. This name may stem from the Pali word सक्क (Sakka) used as an epithet for the god Indra, the Vedic King of the Gods (being synonymous with the locally venerated god Zhūn) and the possessive suffix -vant. This understanding is supported by the notes of the Chinese traveler monk Xuanzang, who in the 7th-century CE described the site as the Śunāsīra mountain, Śunāsīra being another epithet for Indra. In medieval sources the town has also been known under the name Bahāwand (Persian: بهاوند) meaning "place of (great) value".
History
The Pre-Islamic era
The first known mention of the site which is today known as Sajāwand is in the notes of the Chinese traveler monk Xuanzang. In the year 644 CE, during his stay in the country of Jāguda (known in Persian as Zābulistān), he writes about the religious practices of the country as being Mahayana Buddhist and pagan with the majority of worshippers venerating the god Śunā (Pashto: ږون/ږو). He describes the home of this deity as being the Śunāsīra mountain, where people came "from far and near and high and low", even attracting kings, ministers, officials and common people of regions where different customs were observed, to pay homage and make donations."They either offer gold, silver, and rare gems or present sheep, horses, and other domestic animals to the god in competition with each other to show their piety and sincerity. Therefore gold and silver are scattered all over the ground, and sheep and horses fill up the valley. Nobody dares to covet them, for everyone is eager to make offerings to the god. To those who respect and serve the heretics and practice asceticism whole-heartedly, the god imparts magical incantations, of which the heretics make effective use in most cases; for the treatment of disease, they are quite efficacious."- Xuanzang, 644 CE
Saffarid era
In the 9th-century CE Sajawand would come to play a central role in the regional politics of the southern Hindu Kush. As the Saffarid brothers Ya'qūb and 'Amr ibn al-Layth set out from Zaranj on their very successful plundering and conquering of the mostly Hindu and Buddhist regions east of Nimruz, local royal families were decimated to such a degree that holy places such as Zamindawar and Sakawand became exposed to Muslim onslaught. With the defeat of its last surrounding patrons in 870 CE, the Saffarid commander Fardghān was appointed as governor of Zabulistan under the command of four thousand horsemen. Hearing of the wealth of the temple of Sakāwand, he led his army against it, took the temple, smashed its idols and overthrew its Zhūn worshipping guardians. Distributing some of the plunder among his troops, Fardghān sent the rest to 'Amr ibn al-Layth asking for reinforcements against the certain reaction of the Hindu rulers of Zabulistans eastern border. Hearing of the fall of Sakawand, the Hindu Shahi Kallar of Kabul raised an army to retake the temple, though was ultimately unable to compete with the Saffarids greater numbers.
As 'Amr ibn al-Layth was defeated by the Samanids at the battle of Balkh in 901 CE, Saffarid influence over Zabulistan waned and Sakawand once again became a dependency of local Hindu-Buddhist dynasties such as the Bamiyan Sher, the Loyaks of Zabulistan, the Hindu Shahis of Kabul and the kings of Parwan.
Ghaznavid era
With the defeat of the Bamiyan Sher as well as the expulsion of Abu Bakr Loyak from Ghazni by the Samanid slave-commander Alp Tegin in 962 CE, Sajawand fell under Ghaznavid control. Greatly benefiting from the surge of loot flowing into Ghazni under the rule of Mahmud and his sons, Sajawand recovered as a bustling town, producing a number of great Islamic scholars of the 12th century, most notably Muhammad ibn Tayfour Sajawandi and Siraj ud-Din Muhammad ibn Abd ur-Rashid Sajawandi.