Bactria

Bactria, ancient country in Central Asia; a satrapy (province) under the Achaemenids and later one of the Hellenistic states founded by the successors of Alexander the Great. It was situated between the Hindu Kush Mountains and the Oxus River (now Amu Darya) in what is now part of Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. A branch of the Hindu Kush Mountains separated it from the territories of the Sakas (Sacae), a tribe of Scythians. Its capital was Bactra, present-day Balkh, in north Afghanistan. Before the Greek conquest, Bactria was an eastern province of the Persian Empire.

Iranian peoples probably inhabited Bactria as early as the 8th century bc, and Bactra (see Balkh) may have been the cradle of the Zoroastrianism. Bactria was subjugated in the 6th century bc by Cyrus the Great of Persia, and became part of the Persian Empire. Alexander the Great conquered Bactria in 328 bc. After his death, it became a part of the Seleucid Empire until 256 bc, when the Seleucid satrap Diodotus I (reigned c. 256-235 bc) established it as a separate kingdom. The kingdom was finally overrun by the Sakas about 130 bc, and then by the Kushans, a Chinese people, who adopted Buddhism. It subsequently came under the Sasanians, the White Huns, and, in the late 7th century ad, the Arabs, who brought Islam to the region.