" in Encyclopædia Iranica. Accessed November 2010 "At the time of the Arab incursions into Transoxania, Osrušana had its own line of Iranian princes, the Afšins (Ebn Ḵordāḏbeh, p. 40), of whom the most famous was the general of the caliph Moʿtaṣem (q.v. 833-42), the Afšin Ḵayḏar or Ḥaydar b. Kāvus (d. 841; see AFŠIN)", "The region was little urbanized, and it long preserved its ancient Iranian feudal and patriarchal society. " «افشین» عنوان موروثی شاهان اسروشنه در آن زمان بوده‌است. «افشین» نسخه عربی «پِشین» (Pišīn) در پارسی میانه، یا همتای آن در یکی از دیگر زبان‌های ایرانی میانه (به ویژه سغدی)، و به باور برخی از زبان‌شناسان، به معنی "شیر درنده" است؛ این نام نهایتا از واژه اوستایی «"پیسینه"» (-Pisinah) ریشه گرفته است. به باور مینورسکی، «افشین» ریشه سغدی دارد.V. Minorsky, "Studies in Caucasian history", Cambridge University Press, 1957, (footnote on page 111). زمانی که اعراب برای نخستین بار بر منطقه اشروسنه دست یافتند، ساکنان بومی این ناحیه را مردمان ایرانی تشکیل می‌دادند، و شاهزادگانی با عنوان «افشین» بر این ناحیه و مردمان آن فرمان می‌راندند.Kramers, J.H. "Usrūshana." Encyclopaedia of Islam. Edited by: P. Bearman , Th. Bianquis , C.E. Bosworth , E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2007 به‌طور کلی افشین یک ایرانی محسوب می‌شود.Lewis,Bernard. "The Political Language of Islam", Published by University of Chicago Press, 1991. excerpt from pg 482: "Babak's Iranianizing Rebellion in Azerbaijan gave occasion for sentiments at the capital to harden against men who were sympathetic to the more explicitly Iranian tradition. Victor (837) over Babak was al-Afshin, who was the hereditary Persian ruler of a district beyond the Oxus, but also a masterful general for the caliph."Clifford Edmund Bosworth (Translator with Commentary), The History of al-Tabari Vol. 33 "Storm and Stress along the Northern Frontiers of the 'Abbasid Caliphate: The Caliphate of al-Mu'tasim A.D. 833-842/A.H. 218-227", SUNY Press, 1991. Footenote 176 on pg 59: "Abu Dulaf's contigent of volunteers from lower Iraq would be mainly Arabs, and there seems in fact to have been hostility between him, as a representative of Arab influence at the caliphate court, and the Iranian Al-Afshin"P.B. Golden, "Khazar Turkic Ghulams in Caliphal Service", Journial Asiatique, 2004, vol. 292. pg 292:Some of the soldiers were slaves, others, such as al-Afshin, the scion of a ruling Central Asian (Ustrushana/Ushrusana) Iranian family, clearly were not".Mottahedeh, Roy, "The Abbassid Caliphate in Iran", Cambridge History of Iran, IV, ed. R.N. Frye, 57-89. 1975 pg 75:" Al Mu'atism chose for this task the Afshin, the Iranian king of Ushrusuna".D. Pipes. Turks in Early Muslim Service — JTS, 1978, 2, 85—96. excerpt:"Although two classical sources claim him a Turk, he came from Farghana, an Iranian cultural region and was not usually considered Turkish" ولی به هر حال دو منبع کلاسیک (و برخی از نویسندگان) وی را ترک معرفی می‌کند.Sourdel, D. "The Abbasid Caliphate." Pages 104-39 in P.M. Holt, Ann K.S. Lambton, and Bernard Lewis (eds.), The Cambridge History of Islam, I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970. Quote from Pg 125: "and finally of Mazyar, a local chieftain of Tabaristan, against whom the caliph sent the Turkish general Afshin, the conqueror of Babak" او از یک منطقه فرهنگی ایرانی آمده که عموماً ترک به حساب نمی‌آمدند. این دوگانگی از آنجا به وجود آمده‌است که نویسندگان عرب واژه ترک را به صورت بی قاعده برای نیروهای تازه خلیفه که در میان آن‌ها برخی از ایرانی‌تباران فرغانه و اسروشنه نیز بودند بکار می‌بردند.M.A. Shaban, “Islamic History”, Cambridge University Press, v.2 1978. Page 63:"These new troops were the so-called “Turks”. It must be said without hesitation that this is the most misleading misnomer which has led some scholars to harp ad nauseam on utterly unfounded interpretation of the following era, during which they unreasonably ascribe all events to Turkish domination. In fact the great majority of these troops were not Turks. It has been frequently pointed out that Arabic sources use the term Turk in a very loose manner. The Hephthalites are referred to as Turks, so are the peoples of Gurgan, Khwarizm and Sistan. Indeed, with the exception of the Soghdians, Arabic sources refer to all peoples not subjects of the Sassanian empire as Turks. In Samarra separate quarters were provided for new recruits from every locality. The group from Farghana were called after their district, and the name continued in usage because it was easy to pronounce. But such groups as the Ishtakhanjiyya, the Isbijabbiya and groups from similar localities who were in small numbers at first, were lumped together under the general term Turks, because of the obvious difficulties the Arabs had in pronouncing such foreign names. The Khazars who also came from small localities which could not even be identified, as they were mostly nomads, were perhaps the only group that deserved to be called Turks on the ground of racial affinity. However, other groups from Transcaucasia were classed together with the Khazars under the general description."ʻUthmān Sayyid Aḥmad Ismāʻīl Bīlī, "Prelude to the Generals", Published by Garnet & Ithaca Press, 2001. pg 47:"The name Turk was given to all these troops, despite the inclusion amongst them of some elements of Iranian origin, Ferghana, Ushrusana, and Shash – places were in fact the centers were the slave material was collected together...Judging from the specific names of their origin, Soghd, Farghana, Urshusuna, Shahs, the majority of them might have been of Iranian origin" به نوشته ابوالفضل بیهقی نام افشین، «اشناس» بوده‌است، ضبط مشهور در این کلمه به ضم اول است، اما بعضی از افاضل آن را به فتح اول [یعنی اَشناس] نیز آورده‌اند.