Where is Khurasan? Researching End Times

Abu Huraira (ra) reports that Rasulullah (saw) said:

“Armies carrying black flags will come from Khurasan, no power will be able to stop them and they will finally reach Eela (Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem) where they will erect their flags”

Where is Khurasan Actually? (The Making of Bilad-e-Khurasan?)

Research Paper by Bilal Khan, March 30, 2008

{The paper is purely for research purposes; briefly doing a comparative analysis of the End of Times prophecies with the current geo-political conditions & state and non-state players in the back drop of Bush Administration’s Crusade Mentality}

The Ancient Khurasan:

The ancient Khurasan was the last eastern province of the Persian Empire. Khurasan, in Persian, means the “land of the sunrise”, a natural synonym for East. The term was loosely applied to territories of Persia east and north east of Dasht-e-Kavir.

Emperor Babur wrote in his memoirs (1) that Indians used to call all non-Indians as Khurasanis. Regarding the boundary of Hindustan (India) and Khurasan, it is written: “On the road between Hindustan and Khurasan, there are two great marts: the one Kabul, the other Kandahar.”

In modern day world the ancient Khurasan is divided into five central Asian countries i.e.

1. Iran
2. Afghanistan
3. Tajikistan
4. Turkmenistan
5. Uzbekistan

The largest part of the ancient Khurasan is in Afghanistan today. The present day cities of these modern countries would give a better idea of the geographical map of the ancient Khurasan. These cities include:

1. Nishapur and Tus in Iran.
2. Herat, Balkh, Ghazni and Kabul in Afghanistan
3. Khujand and Panjakent in Tajikistan
4. Merv and Sanjan in Turkmenistan
5. Samarqand and Bukhara in Uzbekistan