Band-i Qīr ( fa, بندقير, meaning '
bitumen
Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...
dam', also
Romanize
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
d as Band-e Qīr, Band-e Qir, and Band Qīr; also known as Bid Ghir) is a village in
Miyan Ab Rural District
Miyan Ab Rural District ( fa, دهستان ميان آب) is a rural district (''dehestan'') in the Central District of Shushtar County, Khuzestan Province, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Pers ...
, in the
Central District of
Shushtar County
Shushtar County ( fa, شهرستان شوشتر) is in Khuzestan province, Khuzestan province, Iran. The capital of the county is the city of Shushtar. At the 2006 census, the county's population was 182,282 in 37,656 households. Retrieved 31 ...
,
Khuzestan Province
Khuzestan Province (also spelled Xuzestan; fa, استان خوزستان ''Ostān-e Xūzestān'') is one of the 31 provinces of Iran. It is in the southwest of the country, bordering Iraq and the Persian Gulf. Its capital is Ahvaz and it covers ...
,
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
. At the 2006 census, its population was 446, in 73 families.
History: Rustam Kuwādh and ʿAskar Mukram
Band-i Qīr lies on or adjacent to two earlier settlements. In the
Sāsānid period, the town Rustam Kuwādh (also spelled ''Rostag Kavad'') flourished at the site. Rustam Kuwādh was destroyed during the Arab/Muslim conquests of the seventh century CE.
Around this time, ʿAskar Mukram ( ar, عسکر مکرم, whose name means 'Mukram's encampment') was founded nearby, near the confluence of the canal
Āb-i Gargar and the river
Kārūn. Although the early history of the settlement is obscure (with the early accounts of
al-Balādhurī
ʾAḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Jābir al-Balādhurī ( ar, أحمد بن يحيى بن جابر البلاذري) was a 9th-century Muslim historian. One of the eminent Middle Eastern historians of his age, he spent most of his life in Baghdad and ...
and
al-Ṭabarī
( ar, أبو جعفر محمد بن جرير بن يزيد الطبري), more commonly known as al-Ṭabarī (), was a Muslim historian and scholar from Amol, Tabaristan. Among the most prominent figures of the Islamic Golden Age, al-Tabari i ...
conflicting), the tenth-century ''
Ḥudūd al-ʿālam'' describes the town as large and prosperous, lying on both sides of the Āb-i Gargar. A Būyid mint was based there at the same time. Later in the Middle Ages, however, the town fell into disuse.
[Matthew S. Gordon, 'ʿAskar Mukram', ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', 3rd edn, ed. by Kate Fleet and others (Leiden: Brill, 2007-), .] Noted inhabitants included
Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarī (d. after 1009).
[C. E. Bosworth,]
ʿASKAR MOKRAM
, ''Encyclopaedia Iranica'', Vol. II, Fasc. 7, p. 768.
The extensive ruins of ʿAskar Mukram remain at Band-i Qīr.
References
Populated places in Shushtar County
{{Shushtar-geo-stub