IX. Description of the Province of Fārs, in Persia, at the Beginning of the Twelfth Century a.d.

G. Le Strange

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00043112

IX. Description of the Province of Fārs, in Persia, at the Beginning of the Twelfth Century a.d.

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

G. Le Strange

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This district takes its name from Dārā [Darius] the Great, son of King Bahman ibn Isfandiyār.

Dārābjird.—This city was founded by Dārā, son of Bahman. It was built circular as though the line of circumference had been drawn with compasses. A strong fortress stood in the centre of the town, surrounded by a ditch kept full of water, and the fortress had four gates. But now the town lies all in ruins, and nought remains except the wall and the ditch. The climate here is that of the hot region, and there are date-palms. The streams of running water are of bad quality. A kind of bitumen [mūmīyā] is found [near Dārābjird] at a place up in the mountain, which bubbles up and falls drop by drop. Also there is a rock-salt found in these parts which is of seven colours where it comes to the surface of the ground.

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 44 , Issue 2 , April 1912 , pp. 311 - 339

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00043112 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1912

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^{page 311 note 1} The Dārābjird District is named by Ḥamd-Allah Mustawfī the Province of Shabānkārah, being called thus after the Kurdish tribe whose history has been given in the Introduction (p. 9). At the present day the district no longer bears this name; and Shabānkārah, now, is the name of a small sub-district, on the sea-coast, near the mouth of the Shāpūr River, one of thirteen included in the district of Dashtistān. (FNN. 209, 224.)

^{page 311 note 2} Modern Dārāb (FNN. 199, 201).

^{page 312 note 1} Now Furg and Ṭārum (FNN. 217, 218). Spelt with dotted Ṭ.

^{page 312 note 2} Presumably a tank for water.

^{page 312 note 3} Modern Fasā (FNN. 229).

^{page 312 note 4} Probably the village Kurm, which lies 3 leagues to the north of Fasā; but there is also Qaṣr Kurm, half a league to the south-east of Fasā, which is known likewise as Kūshk-i-Qādī, “the Judge's Kiosque,”at the present day. Rūnīz, Upper and Lower, is the name of two villages lying 5 and 6 leagues to the north of Fasā (FNN. 237, 238). This Rūnīz is not to be confounded with the town of Rūnīz mentioned by the older Arab geographers, a name which may be read Rūbanj (by a shifting of the diacritical points), and which lay half-way between Dārābjird and Juwaym, being of the Khasū District (1st. 107, I.H. 183).

^{page 313 note 1} In Iṣṭakhrī (109) Shaqq-ar-Rīd and Shaqq-al-Māsnān. The latter is now unknown, but the first of these districts is probably at the present day represented by the Ṣaḥrā-i-Rūd, “the plain along the river,” through which the River Rūdbār flows (FNN. 238, 326).

^{page 313 note 2} The name of the district of Ḥasū is now written Khasū, with kh, as is found in Muqaddasī (423). Iṣṭakhrī (108) spells it Ḥashūwā (see FNN. 202, where, besides the district, the village of Khasū is also mentioned). There is probably some connexion between the name of this district of Ḥasū and Ḥasūyah, the Shabānkārah chief, often mentioned in the foregoing articles, and in the Introduction. Darākān, which was once the capital of the province, according to the Itinerary given in Ḥamd-Allah Mustawfī, lay 4 leagues south of Ij. All traces of its ruins apparently have disappeared, but at the place indicated there is now the village of Darākūh, lying 10 leagues east of Fasā (FNN. 238 and Persian map). Maṣṣ or Miṣṣ is not to be found on the map, but is mentioned by the Arab geographers (1st. 107, Muq. 423), who, however, do not give us its position. Rustāq-ar-Rustāq exists some 4 leagues north of Furg (FNN. 219).

^{page 314 note 1} See below under Castles.

^{page 314 note 2} See Introduction, p. 11.

^{page 314 note 3} Ij still exists (FNN. 178), but Fustajān is wanting on the map. According to the Itinerary it lay 7 leagues from Pasā and 10 leagues from Dārābjird.

^{page 314 note 4} Not mentioned by other geographers and wanting on Persian map, and in FNN.

^{page 314 note 5} Now called Iṣṭtahbānāt (FNN. 175).

^{page 314 note 6} FNN. 186.

^{page 314 note 7} Name omitted, see below, under Castles.

^{page 314 note 8} See Introduction, p. 10. The name is omitted in the text.

^{page 315 note 1} Blank in MS. Filled in from Ḥafiẓ Abrū.

^{page 315 note 2} Mishkān or Mishkūn is a village lying 8 leagues north of Nīriz (FNN. 308). See Iṣṭakhrī, 109, note e, for variants. Muqaddasī (422) has Maskānāt.

^{page 315 note 3} So called to distinguish it from the other Juwaym lying north-west of Shīrāz. The name is now pronounced Jūyum (FNN. 182, 186).

^{page 315 note 4} See below under Castles.

^{page 316 note 1} Meaning “the Township of Fanā Khusrū”, 'Aḍud-ad-Dawlah's personal name. The site lies at a short distance to the south-east of Shirāz, at a village still known as Shīb-i-Bāzār-i. 'Aḍud-al-Dawlah, “the slope or glen of 'Adud's Market”; also called Qurā-al-Asāfil, “the Lower Villages” (FNN. 194).

^{page 316 note 2} The word used is ṭayyārāt, not found in this sense in the dictionaries. It means literally “flyings”, that is to say “extra revenues”, “surplus income”, and is used in the Shams-i-Qays, p. 11, line 10—a work written in 630 (1232)—with much the same signification. See also note by Huart, C. in the Journal Asiatique, 09–10, 1910, p. 370Google Scholar, on this word.

^{page 317 note 1} Pahan-Diz, “the Broad Fort,” according to the Fārs Nāmah Nāsirī, crowns a pointed hill 300 ells in height, half a league to the east of Shīrāz. The remains of brickwork may still be seen, and there is a wellshaft, nearly 4 ells across, cut in the rock, and going down to water at the hill base. The Sassanian king Shīrūyah is said to have imprisoned seventeen of his brothers here, for this castle existed before the days of Islām; and Yazdajird, the last of the Sassanians, kept some of his regalia here, and this treasure was found later by 'Aḍud-ad-Dawlah (FNN. 333). It is further stated in FNN. that the castle, which afterwards fell to complete ruin, had been in 327 (939) restored by the Buyid prince 'Imād-ad-Dawlah, that is to say, the uncle of 'Aḍud, but this is probably a mistake, 'Imād being put for 'Amīd above-mentioned. Who this 'Amīd-ad-Dawlah (father of Abū Ghānim) was is not very clear. Abu Ghānim is not to be found in Ibn-al-Athīr, who, however, mentions two people of the name of 'Amīd-ad-Dawlah: one (x, 23), also called 'Amīd-al-Mulk, was the son of Fakhr-ad-Dawlah ibn Juhayr, the Wazīr of the Caliph Mustaẓhir in 488 (1095); the other (xi, 260), called Abu Sa'd ibn Muḥammad, was Wazīr to Jalāl-ad-Dawlah, the Buyid, about the year 420 (1029).

^{page 318 note 1} See Introduction, p. 14.

^{page 318 note 2} FNN. 261.

^{page 319 note 1} Now called Khafr (FNN. 196).

^{page 319 note 2} Now spelt Hunīqān, with the lesser h(FNN. 198).

^{page 320 note 1} The text of Iṣṭakhrī (p. 105) in error gives this name as Tūshkānāt. The town of Bŭsbgān is the present capital of the Bulūk District, in old times doubtless called the Būshkānāt; and Shanānā of our text is the modern Sanā in the Dashtī District, lying 4 leagues to the north-west of Shambah (FNN. 212–13). See also below in the Itinerary.

^{page 320 note 2} See Introduction, p. 12.

^{page 320 note 3} It is a question whether, from the Persian text, three places or two are here mentioned. The names are not now to be found on the map, but the last name in the list may be identified with the modern Gabrī, lying 17 leagues to the north-west of Gillah Dār (FNN. 260). Iṣṭakhrī (p. 105, where many variants are noted) gives them as three separate places, none of which were large enough to possess a mosque for the Friday prayers. Mūhū he gives under the form of Hamand or Hamīd. Hamjān appears as Hajmān or ḤamhḤn. Kabrīn or Kīrīn may be Kīzrīn or Kīrzīn, the equivalent of Khārzīn, which lay one march distant from the well-known city of Kārzīn (and was not to be confounded therewith). Cf. I.H. 204, Muq. 456.

^{page 320 note 4} All three famous in the times of the Arab geographers. Kārzīn is now merely a village, Qīr is a township, and Abzar town was probably at Nīm Dih, the capital of the Afzar District, half a league east of Āb Garm (FNN. 179, 245, 246).

^{page 321 note 1} The towns of Harm and Kāriyān lie 7 and 6½ leagues respectively to the north-west of Bīd Shahr (FNN. 182). Haram or Harm is probably identical with the stage which Muqaddasī calls Hurmuz, lying one march from Kārzīn. Iṣṭakhrī, who also mentions this Hurmuz, says it had no Friday mosque, being but a small place (1st. 105, Muq. 456).

^{page 321 note 2} Tawwaj, often mentioned by the Arab geographers, has left its name to the modern district of the coast-lands near the mouth of the Shāpūr River. The site of the town is probably to be identified with the present Dih Kuhnah (Old Village), the chief town of the (modérn) Shabānkārah sub-district of the Dashtistān District (FNN. 185, 209).

^{page 321 note 3} FNN. 213.

^{page 322 note 1} The ruins of Sīrāf exist at Bandar Ṭāhirī (FNN. 224).

^{page 322 note 2} The phrase is mashra' būrīhā wa kashtīhā, and for būrī, a word not found in the dictionaries, Ḥāfiẓ Abrū has, in the corresponding passage, kārvānhā. The ordinary use of būriyāor bƋriyah is for “matting”.

^{page 322 note 3} It is to be noted that here and elsewhere it would seem that Kaysh was the family name of the Amīr of Qays Island.

^{page 323 note 1} The text has jurm wa zarāfah, and Ḥāfiẓ Abrū, in the corresponding passage, has jurm-i-zarāfah, “the crimes of giraffes.” For this it is proposed to read charm, “leather,” and ẓarāfah as plural of ẓarf, “a pot or vessel.” But the reading must be faulty, and the translation is very uncertain.

^{page 323 note 2} For Ramm or Zamm see Introduction (p. 13). Dādhīn and Davvān are mentioned by Iṣṭakhrī, p. 112. Davān is still the name of a village lying 2½ leagues to the north of Kāzirīn, but neither Dādhīn nor Ramm Zavān occurs on the map; and as regards the latter place there is some confusion in the spelling of the name. Its position is given in the Itinerary as lying half-way between Ghundījān and Tawwaj, being 6 leagues distant from either place (and for the position of these two towns see below in the Itinerary). The name there is spelt Rawā-adh-Dhīwān, which is varied to Ramm-adh-Dhīwān in the list of the Kurdish Ramms (see Introduction, p. 13). Both these spellings, however, appear to be the Arabic form of the Persian Ramm Zavān (or Ravān possibly) given as a district and again below among the Castles. In the Arabic authorities there is much variety in the spelling by a shifting of the diacritical points. Iṣaṭakhrī (98, 114, 145) mentions it as the Kurdish Ramm of which Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṣāliḥ was chief, and spells the name variously Rawā-adh-Dhīwān and Ramm-ad-Dīwān. Again, Yāqut (ii, 821) gives it under the heading Ramm-az-Zīzān.

^{page 324 note 1} The ruins are now known as Kūshk, “the Kiosk”; the older name Jūr still lingering (FNN. 241).

^{page 324 note 2} The name is clearly written in the MS. with all the vowels marked.

^{page 325 note 1} The word used is sāyahā, “shades, shadows,” i.e. “shady places”, in this sense not found in the dictionaries.

^{page 326 note 1} See Introduction, p. 8.

^{page 326 note 2} Ṣimkān is now the name of the district of which the chief city, doubtless older Ṣimkān, is called Dīzah. Hīrak, or Habrak (for the reading is uncertain), is no longer to be found on the map. According to the Itinerary it stood half-way between Ṣimkān (Dīzah) and Kārzīn (FNN. 225).

^{page 326 note 3} The terms used are 'asīr, “squeezed” or “expressed”, and 'allāqah, “hung up,” that is, “cured,” “preserve.”

^{page 327 note 1} There is a Maymand to the east of Fīrūzābād (see FNN. 305). But possibly the chief town of the Nāband District is intended, lying on the coast to the east of Sīrāf, as mentioned by Iṣṭakhrī (p. 104). This is no longer to be found on the map.

^{page 327 note 2} The MS. is clear, but there is doubt as to the reading. Iṣṭakhrī (pp. 105 and 136) apparently mentions the same place under the spelling Jībrĭn. It is wanting on the map.

^{page 327 note 3} Sarvistān exists and Kūbanjān is presumably equivalent to the modern Kūhinjān (FNN. 221, 223). Yāqūt (iv, 316) gives Kūbanjān as “a village of the Shīrāz (District)”. Probably it is identical with al-Ūsbanjān, which Iṣṭakhrī (p. 136) mentions, coupling it with Sarvistān.

^{page 328 note 1} Not marked on the map.

^{page 328 note 2} From the accounts of the Arab geographers the Abū Zuhayr Coast lay near Sīrāf, while the 'Umārah Coast was opposite the Island of Qays. Neither name now is found on the map.

^{page 328 note 3} The town of Lāghīr exists near the bend of the Thakān River, 6 leagues north-west of Khunj (FNN. 198). Kaharjān is no longer to be found, but Iṣṭakhrī mentions it as upon the Thakṣṭn River (which he calls the Shādkān), Kaharjān coming below Nāband and above Dasht Dastaqān on the sea-coast (1st. 106, IH. 191).

^{page 328 note 4} Neither Kurān nor the Irāhistān District is to be found on the present map. Kurān, however, is given in the Itineraries as situated 8 leagues from Lāghir and four days march from Sīrāf.

^{page 329 note 1} The Paris MS. gives the name as Jābī; the corresponding passage in Ḥafiẓ Abrū has Jānī; he is apparently not mentioned by Ibn-al-Athīr.

^{page 330 note 1} Spelt Ḥūshī for the second time, and Khūrashī in the Paris MS. It is not mentioned by the Arab geographers. Najīram, according to Iṣṭakhri (p. 34), lay to the north of Sīrāf. Neither names now occur on the map, but Najīram is probably identical with the present harbour of Bandar Dayyur in the Dashtī District (FNN. 217).

^{page 330 note 2} Huzū is probably the modern Chīrū, in the Shīb Kūh sub-district of Lāristān, lying 10 leagues west of Chāruk. In Iṣṭakhrī (p. 163) the name occurs variously as Sīrū, Sūrū, or Shāhrū. Sāviyah may be a clerical error, for which we should read Tāvūnah, the name of a village lying 1 league to the westward of Chāruk (FNN. 289).

^{page 330 note 3} Modern Shāpūr (FNN. 247). Written variously in the MS. Bishāvbūr and in the Paris copy Bi-Shāpūr, and in error Nīshāpūr with other variants. The name originally was Bih-Shāpūr, “the Good Thing of King Sapor.”

^{page 331 note 1} Of the Shabānkārah; see Introduction, p. 12.

^{page 331 note 2} The district of Jirrah exists, and the town of that name is probably to be identified with the modern Ishfāyiqān (FNN. 185). For the Māṣaram District see below in the Itineraries.

^{page 332 note 1} The MS. is without diacritical points, and in ruzz-i-kharājī the first word may, instead of ruzz, “rice,” be read as zar, “gold” (i.e. money), or raz, “grapes.” The translation is uncertain.

^{page 332 note 2} Mūr of Jirrah no longer exists, but 4½ leagues to the north of Kāzirūn there is the village of Mūrdak, which may have a connexion with the name (FNN. 255).

^{page 332 note 3} No town of Ghundījān now exists, but from its position as given in the Itinerary modern Jamīlah probably occupies its site (FNN. 195).

^{page 332 note 4} FNN. 195.

^{page 332 note 5} Baḥs, “lacking,” and bāryāh, with the sense, not given in the dictionaries, of “abundant”. These words occur again below.

^{page 332 note 6} Bāsht is now the chief town of the Bāvī sub-district in Kūh Gilūyah (FNN. 271). This probably marks the site of Anburān, mentioned also by Iṣṭakhrī (p. 110), but the names Anburān and Qūṭā are now unknown, and the Arab geographers make no mention of Bāsht Qūṭā.

^{page 333 note 1} The modern Dū Gunbadān (Two Domes), lying 8 leagues west of modern Bāsht.

^{page 333 note 2} Tīr Murdān exists, and Jūyikān, which Iṣṭakhrī writes Jūyikhān (p. 110), is modern Chawgān, lying 4 leagues east of Fahliyān (FNN. 303, 304). Kharrārah (position given in the Itineraries), Dūdmān, and Dih Gawz (Nut Village) are not to be found on the modern maps, for this Dūdmān cannot be the present village of that name lying 1 league south-east of Shīrāz.

^{page 334 note 1} The reading of the name is uncertain, and this Abū Naṣr is not mentioned in Ibn-al-Athīr.

^{page 334 note 2} The modern district is called Churām, of which the chief town is called Tall-Gird, “Round Hill,” lying 10 leagues north-east of Bīhbahān. The name of Bāzrang, frequently mentioned by the Arab geographers, has disappeared from the map, as also is wanting the town of Zīr, which Muqaddasī (p. 389) writes Zīz. Sumayram, now called Samīram, lies 4 leagues to the south-west of Isfadrān (FNN. 220, 273).

^{page 334 note 3} Spelling most uncertain, and apparently no longer to be found on the map. Variants may be read Sīmbakht, Salīmsat, Salīmnahast, etc.; and it is probably the place given in Iṣṭakhrī (p. 113) as As-Saljān (with many variants).

^{page 334 note 4} Khullār lies 9 leagues north-west of Shīrāz and 5 leagues beyond Guyūm (Juwaym) (FNN. 191).

^{page 335 note 1} Dīh 'Alī, now more generally called Dālī, lies 4½ leagues south-east of Ardakān. The name of Khumāyijān, mentioned by Iṣṭakhrī (p. 111) as a district, but with no town large enough to possess a mosque for the Friday prayers, has disappeared from the map.

^{page 337 note 1} Of the Shabānkārah; see Introduction, p. 12.

^{page 337 note 2} Probably Mūr of Jirrah, see above under Jirrah. Shitashgān is unknown.

^{page 337 note 3} Now known as Nawbandagān (FNN. 303).

^{page 338 note 1} See FNN. 303.

^{page 338 note 2} Otherwise called the Meadow-land of Shidān and mentioned below, but its situation, unfortunately, is nowhere given.

^{page 339 note 1} “The Country of Sapor” is still found on the map (FNN. 266). According to Muqaddasī its chief town was called Jūmah (the Township), and Hinduwān or Hindījān was within its limits (Muq. 422, 1st. 113).

^{page 339 note 2} Kūh Gīlūyah is still the name for the great province, with many subdistricts, occupying all the mountain region to the north-west of Fārs (FNN. 262). For Zir or Zīz see above under Ṣarām.

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IX. Description of the Province of Fārs, in Persia, at the Beginning of the Twelfth Century a.d.

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