Tārīkh-i Īrān

Mesopotamian Origin of the Devil’s Image in Gnostic and Zurvanite Cults

Toufiq Hosseini

Volume 16, Issue 1 , March 2023, , Pages 17-33

https://doi.org/10.48308/irhj.2023.103281

Abstract

Belief in evil is one of the long-standing and widespread themes in human religious thoughts. A Belief, which is rooted in the idea of imbalance and corruption in existence. In the ... Read More

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.

Priestly Lineage of the Sasanids

Shahram Jalilian

Volume 14, Issue 2 , October 2021, , Pages 23-69

https://doi.org/10.52547/irhj.14.2.23

Abstract

Reviewing the narration of Muhammad ibn Jarir Tabari (died: 310 AH) on Sāsān, the ancestor of the Sasanians and his connection with the fire temple of the goddess Anāhitā in Pars ... Read More

Iranian and Gnostic Roots of Manichaean Apocalyptic Beliefs

Toufiq Hosseini

Volume 14, Issue 1 , September 2021, , Pages 65-80

https://doi.org/10.52547/irhj.14.1.65

Abstract

Analysis of the roots of Manichaean Beliefs, one of obscure and archaic religion, is the one of most important topics that has always been studied by scholars of religion. In fact, ... Read More

Articles in Press

Current Issue

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)

Main Subjects = Ancient history

Mesopotamian Origin of the Devil’s Image in Gnostic and Zurvanite Cults

Abstract

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

Abstract

Priestly Lineage of the Sasanids

Abstract

Iranian and Gnostic Roots of Manichaean Apocalyptic Beliefs

Abstract