The existence of a cultural concept of "Iranianness" (Irāniyat) is also demonstrated in the trial of Afshin in 840, as recorded by Tabari. Afshin, the hereditary ruler of Oshrusana, on the southern bank of the middle stretch of the Syr Darya, had been charged with propagating Iranian ethno-national sentiment. Afshin acknowledged the existence of a national consciousness ("al aʿjamiyya") and his sympathies for it. "This episode clearly reveals not only the presence of a distinct awareness of Iranian cultural identity and the people who actively propagated it, but also of the existence of a concept ("al-aʿjamiya" or "Irāniyat") to convey it."