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Khurasan Road
The (Great) Khurasan Road was the great trunk road connecting Mesopotamia to the Iranian Plateau and thence to Central Asia, China, and the Indus Valley. It is very well-documented in the Abbasid period, when it connected the core of the capital city of Baghdad with the northeastern province of Khurasan. History Archaeological findings suggest the road was in regular use in the 3rd millennium BC, connecting Central Asia with Mesopotamia. During the Achamenid period, the road constituted the eastern segment of the Royal Road system. Course The Achaemenid road began from the Median capital city of Ecbatana and terminated at the Central Asian city of Bactra ( Balkh), passing through Rhagae ( Rey), the Caspian Gates (modern Tang-e Sar-e Darra), Hyrcania, and Parthia. The Grand Trunk Road connected Bactra to the Indus Valley. The Khurasan Road is possibly the best documented of the roads of the Abbasid realm; not only is it described in detail by Ibn Rustah, but most othe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyrcania
Hyrcania () ( el, ''Hyrkania'', Old Persian: 𐎺𐎼𐎣𐎠𐎴 ''Varkâna'',Lendering (1996) Middle Persian: 𐭢𐭥𐭫𐭢𐭠𐭭 ''Gurgān'', Akkadian: ''Urqananu'') is a historical region composed of the land south-east of the Caspian Sea in modern-day Iran and Turkmenistan, bound in the south by the Alborz mountain range and the Kopet Dag in the east. The region served as a satrapy (province) of the Median Empire, a sub-province of the Achaemenid Empire, and a province within its successors, the Seleucid, Arsacid and Sasanian empires. Hyrcania bordered Parthia to the east (later known as Abarshahr), Dihistan to the north, Media to the south and Mardia to the west. Etymology ''Hyrcania'' () is the Greek name for the region, a borrowing from the Old Persian ''Verkâna'' as recorded in Darius the Great's Behistun Inscription (522 BC), as well as in other Old Persian cuneiform inscriptions. ''Verkā'' means "wolf" in Old Iranian, cf. Avestan ''vəhrkō'', Gila ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dastagird
Dastagird (also spelled as Dastgerd, Dastigird and Daskara), was an ancient Sasanian city in present-day Iraq, and was close to its capital, Ctesiphon. Originally known as Artemita, the city was rebuilt and renamed by king Hormizd I (r. 270-271). During the reign of king Khosrow I (r. 531-579), the city greatly expanded and had its own court, palace and fortress. During this period, the city also got a secondary name, Khosrow-shad-Kavadh. During the reign of the latter's grandson, Khosrow II (r. 590-628), Dastagird became a royal residence of the Sasanians. In 628, Dastagird was sacked by the Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ... emperor Heraclius. After that, the city completely disappears from sources. Sources * * * * Sasanian cities Former popul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sassanian
The Sasanian () or Sassanid Empire, officially known as the Empire of Iranians (, ) and also referred to by historians as the Neo-Persian Empire, was the last Iranian empire before the early Muslim conquests of the 7th-8th centuries AD. Named after the House of Sasan, it endured for over four centuries, from 224 to 651 AD, making it the longest-lived Persian imperial dynasty. The Sasanian Empire succeeded the Parthian Empire, and re-established the Persians as a major power in late antiquity alongside its neighbouring arch-rival, the Roman Empire (after 395 the Byzantine Empire).Norman A. Stillman ''The Jews of Arab Lands'' pp 22 Jewish Publication Society, 1979 International Congress of Byzantine Studies ''Proceedings of the 21st International Congress of Byzantine Studies, London, 21–26 August 2006, Volumes 1–3'' pp 29. Ashgate Pub Co, 2006 The empire was founded by Ardashir I, an Iranian ruler who rose to power as Parthia weakened from internal strife and wars with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Malik
Malik, Mallik, Melik, Malka, Malek, Maleek, Malick, Mallick, or Melekh ( phn, 𐤌𐤋𐤊; ar, ملك; he, מֶלֶךְ) is the Semitic term translating to "king", recorded in East Semitic and Arabic, and as mlk in Northwest Semitic during the Late Bronze Age (e.g. Aramaic, Canaanite, Hebrew). Although the early forms of the name were to be found among the pre-Arab and pre-Islamic Semites of the Levant, Canaan, and Mesopotamia, it has since been adopted in various other, mainly but not exclusively Islamized or Arabized non-Semitic Asian languages for their ruling princes and to render kings elsewhere. It is also sometimes used in derived meanings. The female version of Malik is Malikah ( ar, ملكة; or its various spellings such as Malekeh or Melike), meaning "queen". The name Malik was originally found among various pre-Arab and non-Muslim Semitic peoples such as the indigenous ethnic Assyrians of Iraq, Amorites, Jews, Arameans, Mandeans, Syriacs, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ba'quba
Baqubah ( ar, بَعْقُوبَة; BGN: Ba‘qūbah; also spelled Baquba and Baqouba) is the capital of Iraq's Diyala Governorate. The city is located some to the northeast of Baghdad, on the Diyala River. In 2003 it had an estimated population of some 467,900 people. Baqubah served as a way station between Baghdad and Khorasan on the medieval Khorasan Road. During the Abbasid Caliphate, it was known for its date and fruit orchards, irrigated by the Nahrawan Canal. It is now known as the centre of Iraq's commercial orange groves. Demography and ethnography Demographic composition of Baqubah has been a shifting phenomenon since the independence of Iraq. Consequently, the city served as a springboard for violence against the Shias in Baghdad and others, from 2003 to 2008 (see below for chronological detail). Then in 2014, it became a seat for the ISIS terrorists, raining violence against the Shia population once again. Following these events, the Iraqi Shia militias such a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nahrawan Canal
The Nahrevan Canal (Persian: کانال نرهوان) was a major irrigation system of the Sassanid and early Islamic periods in central Iraq, along the eastern banks of the Tigris and the lower course of the Diyala River. Created in the 6th century, it reached its peak under the Abbasid Caliphate, when it served the main water supply for the Abbasid capital of Baghdad, while the regions irrigated by it served as the city's main breadbasket. Its destruction and progressive abandonment from the mid-10th century onwards mirror the Abbasid Caliphate's decline. History The first irrigation works along the Diyala River were undertaken in Parthian times. Indeed, it may be that the lower part of the Nahrawan Canal was originally the lower course of the Diyala.Morony (1993), pp. 912–913 The large-scale canal system of early medieval times however was created in the reign of the Sassanid ruler Khosrau I (), who also established it as a separate administrative district (''Bazidjan Khu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khurasan Road From Al-Rayy To Naysabur
Greater Khorāsān,Dabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 or Khorāsān ( pal, Xwarāsān; fa, خراسان ), is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau between Western and Central Asia. The name ''Khorāsān'' is Persian and means "where the sun arrives from" or "the Eastern Province".Sykes, M. (1914). "Khorasan: The Eastern Province of Persia". ''Journal of the Royal Society of Arts'', 62(3196), 279-286.A compound of ''khwar'' (meaning "sun") and ''āsān'' (from ''āyān'', literally meaning "to come" or "coming" or "about to come"). Thus the name ''Khorasan'' (or ''Khorāyān'' ) means "sunrise", viz. " Orient, East"Humbach, Helmut, and Djelani Davari, "Nāmé Xorāsān", Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz; Persian translation by Djelani Davari, published in Iranian Languages Studies Website. MacKenzie, D. (1971). ''A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary'' (p. 95). London: Oxford University ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Al-Mansur
Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Manṣūr (; ar, أبو جعفر عبد الله بن محمد المنصور; 95 AH – 158 AH/714 CE – 6 October 775 CE) usually known simply as by his laqab Al-Manṣūr (المنصور) was the second Abbasid caliph, reigning from 136 AH to 158 AH (754 CE – 775 CE) succeeding his brother al-Saffah (). He is known for founding the 'Round City' of Madinat al-Salam, which was to become the core of imperial Baghdad. Modern historians regard Al-Mansur as the real founder of the Abbasid Caliphate, one of the largest polities in world history, for his role in stabilizing and institutionalizing the dynasty.''The Cambridge History of Islam, volume 1: The Formation of the Islamic World'', ed. Chase F Robinson, March 2011 Background and early life According to Al-Suyuti's ''History of the Caliphs'', Al-Mansur lived 95 AH – 158 AH (714 CE – 6 October 775 CE). Al-Mansur was born at the home of the Abbasid family in Humeima ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ibn Khordadbeh
Abu'l-Qasim Ubaydallah ibn Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh ( ar, ابوالقاسم عبیدالله ابن خرداذبه; 820/825–913), commonly known as Ibn Khordadbeh (also spelled Ibn Khurradadhbih; ), was a high-ranking Persian bureaucrat and geographer in the Abbasid Caliphate. He is the author of the earliest surviving Arabic book of administrative geography. Biography Ibn Khordadbeh was the son of Abdallah ibn Khordadbeh, who had governed the northern Iranian region of Tabaristan under the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun (), and in 816/17 conquered the neighbouring region of Daylam, as well as repelled the Bavandid ''ispahbadh'' (ruler) Shahriyar I () from the highlands of Tabaristan. Ibn Khordadbeh's grandfather was Khordadbeh, a former Zoroastrian who was convinced by the Barmakids to convert to Islam. He may have been the same person as Khordadbeh al-Razi, who had provided Abu'l-Hasan al-Mada'ini (died 843) the details regarding the flight of the last Sasanian emperor Ya ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Qudama Ibn Ja'far
Qudāma ibn Jaʿfar al-Kātib al-Baghdādī ( ar, قدامة بن جعفر الكاتب البغدادي; c. 873 – c. 932/948), was a Syriac scholar and administrator for the Abbasid Caliphate. Life Little is known with certainty about Qudama's life and work. He was probably born ca. 873/874, possibly at Basra. His grandfather was a Syriac Christian. Whether it was his grandfather, or he himself, who converted to Islam under Muktafi bi-Allah in ca. 902–908 is unclear. Ibn al-Nadim described him as a master of literary style, a polished writer and distinguished philosopher of Logic despite having an uneducated father. He held various junior administrative positions in the caliphal secretariat in Baghdad, and eventually rose to a senior post the treasury department. Various dates for his death have been supplied, ranging from 932 to 939/940 and 948. Works Of his several books on philosophy, history, philology, and administration, only three survive: * the ''Kitab al-Kharaj'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 born in Rosta district, Isfahan, Persia. He wrote a geographical compendium known as ''Kitāb al-A‘lāq al-Nafīsa'' ( ar, كتاب الأعلاق النفيسة, ''Book of Precious Records''). The information on his home town of Isfahan is especially extensive and valuable. Ibn Rustah states that, while for other lands he had to depend on second-hand reports, often acquired with great difficulty and with no means of checking their veracity, for Isfahan he could use his own experience and observations or statements from others known to be reliable. Thus we have a description of the twenty districts (''rostaqs'') of Isfahan containing details not found in other geographers' works. Concerning the town itself, we learn that it was perfectl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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