Sarouyeh ( fa, سارویه) was a large library in ancient pre-Islamic

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 ...

. The 10th century chronicler

Ahmad ibn Rustah Ahmad ibn Rustah Isfahani ( fa, احمد ابن رسته اصفهانی ''Aḥmad ibn Rusta Iṣfahānī''), more commonly known as Ibn Rustah (, also spelled ''Ibn Rusta'' and ''Ibn Ruste''), was a tenth-century Persian explorer and geographer ...

refers to it as "Sarough" (). The ''Fars Nameh'' of Ibn Balkhi calls it ''Haft Halkeh'' (). The library, located near where the city of

Isfahan Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its Achaemenid empire, ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in Sassanian Empire, middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Regio ...

is today, is written by some sources to have been from the era of

Tahmuras Tahmuras or Tahmures ( fa, تهمورث ,طهمورث, ; from Avestan ''Taxma Urupi'', meaning ''strong fox'') was the third Shah of the Pishdadian dynasty of Iran (Persia) according to Ferdowsi's epic poem, the ''Shahnameh''. He is considered th ...

, in ancient Iran. Majmal al-tawarikh also mentions the library. Ibn Sa'd al-Iṣfahānī, in the surviving translation of his book ''Maḥāsin-i Eṣfahān'' ''()'' edited by

Abbas Eqbal Ashtiani Abbas Eqbal Ashtiani ( fa, عباس اقبال آشتیانی; 1896-97 – February 10, 1956) was an Iranian literary scholar, historian, translator, and man of letters. Eqbal Ashtiani was born in Ashtian. He was educated at Dar ul-Funun (House ...

, gives both the real and the mythical traditions of the foundation and re-foundation of the library.

Abbas Milani Abbas Malekzadeh Milani ( fa, عباس ملک‌زاده میلانی; born 1949) is an Iranian-American historian, educator, and author. Milani is a visiting professor of Political Science, and the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of the Ira ...

describes the fortified collection of writings and documents as such: :"Though only a few pages of its vast holdings have survived, we know of its grandeur through the testimony of its contemporaries, who compared it, in terms of the awe it inspired, to the Egyptian pyramids".

. ''Lost Wisdom''. 2004. Mage Publishers. p. 15.

References

Defunct libraries Libraries in Iran History of Isfahan Province Sasanian castles Ancient libraries Fortifications in Iran Parthian architecture {{iran-stub