Tārīkh-i Īrān

Journal of history of Iran)

Volume 16 (2023)

Volume 15 (2022)

Volume 14 (2021)

Volume 13 (2020)

Volume 12 (2019)

Volume 11 (2018)

Volume 10 (2017)

Volume 9 (2016)

Volume 8 (2015)

Volume 7 (2014)

Volume 6 (2013)

Volume 5 (2012)

Volume 4 (2011)

Volume 3 (2010)

Volume 2 (2009)

Volume 1 (2008)

Shedding Light on the Old Ahvaz through Sassanid and Islamic Texts and a Conjecture about the Location of Sassanid City of Ram Ardashir

Rouhollah Mojtahedzadeh

Volume 16, Issue 1 , March 2023, , Pages 167-186

https://doi.org/10.48308/irhj.2023.103331

Abstract

There is very little information about the beginnings of Ahwaz. Although the establishment of an urban settlement in this area is speculated as from the Elamite period onwards, the ... Read More There is very little information about the beginnings of Ahwaz. Although the establishment of an urban settlement in this area is speculated as from the Elamite period onwards, the oldest historical and archeological evidence about this city does not go beyond the Sassanid or Parthian era. According to the Sassanid texts, such as the Šahrestānīhā ī Ērānšahr (The Provincial Capitals of Iran), and a large number of Islamic chronicles, at this time, a city called “Hormuz Ardeshir” was built by Ardeshir Babakan or his grandson Hormuz Ardeshir in this area. According to narratives, like many pre-Islamic Iranian cities, this city had a bifurcated structure - the civil and the administrative sections-which were called Hujistan Vajar and the Hormuz Ardeshir respectively. With the advent of Islam, the administrative section disappeared but the civil section remained with the Arbicized name of “Suq-al-Ahvaz”, although the narration is not without ambiguity and confusion. This article, to obtain a more accurate picture of these narrations and consequently the old Ahvaz, seeks to take a closer look at the founding narrations of Ahvaz using historical research method and by analyzing and comparing these narrations. In addition to removing the above-mentioned ambiguity and confusion, such a study can provide good support for research on history identity and field studies on the current Ahvaz, as one of the legacies of Iran’s urban planning history. The results provide a new narrative on the formation of Ahvaz during the Sassanid era, which is slightly different from previous accounts. At the same time, it can provide a more appropriate combination of different and sometimes contradictory narrations about this city. Furthermore, it can offer a new hypothesis about the location of Ram Ardeshir or Ramesh Ardeshir, one of the first cities founded by Ardeshir Babakan. According to this research, Hormuz Ardeshir and Hūjistan Vajar are both names of the same place, i.e. the civil section of the Sassanid city, which continued to exist even after the advent of Islam by becoming “Suq-al-Ahvaz”. On the other hand, the administrative section and the first Sassanid city in this area was Ram Ardeshir or Ramesh Ardeshir, which disappeared in the Islamic era; a fact that probably led to the confusion of the geographical and historical texts of the Islamic era about its location.