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Shapur I's Inscription At The Ka'ba-ye Zartosht
Shapur I's Ka'ba-ye Zartosht inscription (shortened as Shapur-KZ, ŠKZ, SKZ), also referred to as The Great Inscription of Shapur I, and ''Res Gestae Divi Saporis'' (RGDS), is a trilingual inscription made during the reign of the Sasanian king Shapur I (240–270) after his victories over the Romans. The inscription is carved on the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht, a stone quadrangular and stepped structure located in Naqsh-e Rustam, an ancient necropolis located northwest of Persepolis, in today's Fars province, Iran. The inscription dates to . Content The inscription is written in Middle Persian, Parthian, and Greek, containing 35, 30, and 70 lines, respectively. The Middle Persian variant is partially damaged, while the Greek and Parthian versions are better preserved, although they are not exactly the same as the Middle Persian text. In this inscription, Shapur introduces himself, mentions his genealogy, enumerates the provinces of his empire, describes his campaigns against the Roman Emp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Naqsh-e Rostam
Naqsh-e Rostam (; , ) is an ancient archeological site and necropolis located about 13 km northwest of Persepolis, in Fars province, Iran. A collection of ancient Iranian rock reliefs are cut into the face of the mountain and the mountain contains the final resting place of four Achaemenid kings, notably king Darius the Great and his son, Xerxes. This site is of great significance to the history of Iran and to Iranians, as it contains various archeological sites carved into the rock wall through time for more than a millennium from the Elamites and Achaemenids to Sassanians. It lies a few hundred meters from Naqsh-e Rajab, with a further four Sassanid rock reliefs, three celebrating kings and one a high priest. Naqsh-e Rostam is the necropolis of the Achaemenid dynasty ( 550–330 BC), with four large tombs cut high into the cliff face. These have mainly architectural decoration, but the facades include large panels over the doorways, each very similar in conten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khuzestan
Khuzestan province () is one of the 31 Provinces of Iran. Located in the southwest of the country, the province borders Iraq and the Persian Gulf, covering an area of . Its capital is the city of Ahvaz. Since 2014, it has been part of Iran's Region 4. Etymology Once one of the most critical regions of the Ancient Near East, Khuzestan comprises much of what historians refer to as ancient Elam, whose capital was in Susa. The Old Persian term for Elam was when they conquered it from the Elamites. This element is present in the modern name. Khuzestan, meaning "the Land of the Khuz," refers to the original inhabitants of this province. In the Achaemenid Empire, this term is ''Huza'' or ''Huja'', as in the inscription on the tomb of Darius the Great at Naqsh-e Rostam. They are the "Shushan" of Hebrew sources, a borrowing from Elamite ''Šuša''. In Middle Persian, the term evolved into "Khuz" and "Kuzi." The pre-Islamic Partho-Sasanian inscriptions give the province the na ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Balasagan
Balāsagān (an Iranian toponym meaning "country of Balas"; Armenian: ''Bałasakan'', the inhabitants known as '' Bałasičkʻ,'' Arabic: ''Balāsajān''/''Balāšajān''), also known as Bazgan, was a region located in the area of the Kura and Aras rivers, adjacent to the Caspian Sea. To the south, it bordered Atropatene/ Adurbadagan and Gilan. It roughly corresponded to the Armenian province of Paytakaran, albeit extending farther into the north. It has been suggested that under the Sasanians the region extended as far as the stronghold of Derbent, albeit this remains disputed. The heartland of Balasagan was the ''Dasht i-Bałasakan'' ("Balasagan plain") which corresponds to the Mughan plain. During the late Sasanian era, Balasagan was included in the northern quadrant (''kust'') of Adurbadagan. History Pre-Islamic period The region is first attested as a Sasanian province in the SKZ inscription of Shapur I () separately from Caucasian Albania, which indicates that it wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caucasian Albania
Caucasian Albania is a modern exonym for a former state located in ancient times in the Caucasus, mostly in what is now Azerbaijan (where both of its capitals were located). The modern endonyms for the area are ''Aghwank'' and ''Aluank'', among the Udi people, who regard themselves as descended from the inhabitants of Caucasian Albania. However, its original endonym is unknown. The name Albania is derived from the Ancient Greek name and Latin , created from Greek sources that incorrectly translated the Armenian language. The prefix "Caucasian" is used to avoid confusion with Albania in the Balkans, which has no geographical or historical connections to Caucasian Albania. Little is known of the region's prehistory, including the origins of Caucasian Albania as a geographical and/or ethnolinguistic concept. In the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, the area south of the Greater Caucasus and north of the Lesser Caucasus was divided between Caucasian Albania in the east, Kingd ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albania (satrapy)
Caucasian Albania (Middle Persian: ''Arān, Ardān'', Armenian: ''Ałuank'') was a kingdom in the Caucasus, which was under the suzerainty of the Sasanian Empire from 252 to 636. Caucasian Albania should not be confused with European Albania. The toponym was created from Greek sources who incorrectly translated the Armenian language. History In 252/3 Albania, along with Iberia and Armenia, was conquered and annexed by the Sasanian king Shapur I (). Albania retained its monarchy, although the king had no real power and most civil, religious, and military authority lay with the Sasanian ''marzban'' ("margrave") of the territory. In 297 the Treaty of Nisibis stipulated the re-establishment of the Roman protectorate over Iberia, but Albania remained an integral part of the Sasanian Empire. In the middle of the 4th century the king of Albania, Urnayr, arrived in Armenia and was baptized by Gregory the Illuminator, but Christianity spread in Albania slowly, and the Albanian king remain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mingrelia
Mingrelia or Samegrelo ( ka, სამეგრელო, tr ; ) is a historic province in the western part of Georgia, formerly known as Odishi. It is primarily inhabited by the Mingrelians, a subgroup of Georgians. Geography and climate Mingrelia is bordered by the secessionist region of Abkhazia to the north-west, Svaneti to the north, Imereti to the east, Guria to the south and the Black Sea to the west. Administratively, the historic province of Mingrelia is incorporated joined with the northern part of the neighboring mountainous province of Svaneti to form the Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region, the capital of which is Mingrelia's main city, Zugdidi.Tim Burford As it is the case with most Black Sea coastal areas of Georgia, Mingrelia's climate is subtropical with frequent rains. The coastal areas have many marshlands despite the Soviet Georgian authorities' efforts to dry them up. These marshlands contain many rare birds and animals not found in other parts of the coun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Machelonia
The Machelones ( ka, მახელონები) (Machelônes, Machelonoi; ) were a Colchian tribe located to the far south of the Phasis (modern-day Rioni River, western Georgia). There are several references to them in Classical sources. This group may be the Machorones of Pliny (NH 6.4.11) who placed them between the Ophis (modern Of, Turkey) and Prytanis rivers.Edwards, Robert W. (1988), The Vale of Kola: A Final Preliminary Report on the Marchlands of Northeast Turkey, pp. 129-131. ''Dumbarton Oaks Papers'', Vol. 42. The 1st century AD writer Lucian also comments about the Machlyai and their ruler, but the account seems to be entirely fictional. Ptolemy, in the early 2nd century AD, mentions the town of Mechlessos on the border of Colchis, but adds nothing substantive. His contemporary author, Arrian, lists on a west to east orientation the Sannoi, Drilae, Machelonoi, Heniochoi, Zudreitai, and Lazoi (''Perip''. 1 1.1-2). Writing in the early 3rd century about ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kartli
Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role in the ethnic and political consolidation of the Georgians in the Middle Ages. Kartli had no strictly defined boundaries and they significantly fluctuated in the course of history. After the partition of the kingdom of Georgia in the 15th century, Kartli became a separate kingdom with its capital at Tbilisi. The historical lands of Kartli are currently divided among several administrative regions of Georgia. The Georgians living in the historical lands of Kartli are known as Kartlelebi (ქართლელები) and comprise one of the largest geographic subgroups of the Georgian people. Most of them are Eastern Orthodox Christians adhering to the national Georgian Orthodox Church and speak a dialect which is the basis of the mod ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sasanian Iberia
Sasanian Iberia ( ka, სასანური ქართლი, tr; Middle Persian: 𐭥𐭫𐭥𐭰𐭠𐭭, ''wirōzān/wiruzān/wiručān'') was the period the Kingdom of Iberia ( Kartli, eastern Georgia) was under the suzerainty of the Sasanian Empire. The period includes when it was ruled by ''Marzbans'' (governors) appointed by the Sasanid Iranian king, and later through the Principality of Iberia. History The Georgian kingdoms were contested between the Sasanids and the neighboring rivalling Roman-Byzantine Empire ever since the 3rd century. Over the span of the next hundreds of years, both the Byzantines and the Sasanids managed to establish hegemony over these regions. At the few remaining times, the Georgian kings managed to retain their autonomy. Sasanian governance was established for the first time early on in the Sasanian era, during the reign of king Shapur I (r. 240-270). In 284, the Sasanians secured the Iberian throne for an Iranian prince from the House of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sasanian Armenia
Sasanian Armenia, also known as Persian Armenia and Persarmenia ( – ''Parskahayastan''), may either refer to the periods in which Armenia ( – ''Armin'') was under the suzerainty of the Sasanian Empire or specifically to the parts of Armenia under its control such as after the partition of 387 when parts of western Armenia were incorporated into the Eastern Roman Empire while the rest of Armenia came under Sasanian suzerainty but maintained its existing kingdom until 428. In 428, Armenian nobles petitioned Bahram V to depose Artaxias IV (r. 422);''Introduction to Christian Caucasian History:II: States and Dynasties of the Formative Period'', Cyril Toumanoff, Traditio, Vol. 17, 1961, Fordham University, 6. Bahram V (r. 420–438) abolished the Kingdom of Armenia and appointed Veh Mihr Shapur as ''marzban'' (governor of a frontier province, "margrave") of the country, which marked the start of a new era known as the Marzpanate period ( – ''Marzpanakan Hayastan''), a perio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adurbadagan
Adurbadagan (Middle Persian: ''Ādurbādagān/Āδarbāyagān'', Parthian: ''Āturpātākān'') was a northwestern province in the Sasanian Empire, corresponding almost entirely to the present-day Azerbaijan region in Iran. Governed by a ''marzban'' ("margrave"), it functioned as an important frontier (and later religious) region against the neighbouring country of Armenia. The capital of the province was Ganzak. Etymology ''Ādurbādagān'' is the Middle Persian spelling of the Parthian ''Āturpātākān'', which is derived from the name of the former satrap of the area, Atropates (Āturpāt). It is attested in Georgian as ''Adarbadagan'' and in Armenian as ''Atrpatakan''. Geography While Middle Persian texts are vague and incomprehensible about the geography of Adurbadagan, New Persian and Arabic texts are clearer. According to the 9th-century Persian geographer Ibn Khordadbeh, the following cities were part of the province; Ardabil, Bagavan, Balwankirgh, Barza, Barza ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arbayistan
Arbāyistān ( �rbstn; Middle Persian: ''Arbāyistān'', ''Arāwastān'', ''Arwāstān''; Armenian: ''Arvastan'') or Beth Arabaye ( Syriac: ''Bēṯ ʿArbāyē'') was a Sasanian province in Late Antiquity. Due to its situation and its road systems, the province was a source of income from commercial traffic, as well as a constant area of contention during the Roman–Persian Wars. The province reached across Upper Mesopotamia toward the Khabur and north to the lower districts of Armenia; it bordered Adiabene in the east, Armenia in the north and Asoristan in the south. On the west, it bordered the Roman provinces of Osroene and Mesopotamia. The principal city of the Arbayistan province was Nisibis and it also included the fortress of Sisauranon. Name ''Arbāyistān'' (from Old Persian ''Arabāya-stāna'') is mentioned in Shapur I's inscription at the Ka'ba-ye Zartosht. The terms ''Arbāyistān'' and Syriac ''Beth ʿArbaye'' literally mean "land of the Arabs", using the su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
