| Pars Pārs | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Province of theSasanian Empire | |||||||||||
| 224–651 | |||||||||||
 Map of Pars during the late Sasanian era | |||||||||||
| Capital | Istakhr | ||||||||||
| Historical era | Late Antiquity | ||||||||||
• Established | 224 | ||||||||||
| 651 | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Today part of | Iran | ||||||||||
Pars (Middle Persian: 𐭯𐭠𐭫𐭮𐭩Pārs)[1] was aSasanian province inLate Antiquity, which almost corresponded to the present-day province ofFars. The province borderedKhuzestan in the west,Kirman in the east,Spahan in the north, andMazun in the south.
The Middle Persian name of "Pārs" is derived from Pārsā (𐎱𐎠𐎼𐎿), theOld Persian of the region. The English name Persia and Greek namePersis derives from this region.[2][3]
Ardashir-Khwarrah (Middle Persian:Arđaxšēr-Xwarra, meaning "glory ofArdashir") was founded by the firstSasanian kingArdashir I (r. 224–242), who madeGor (also founded around the same time) its capital. It was the seat of thedriyōšān jādag-gōw ud dādwar (advocate),mowbed (chief priest) andandarzbad (councilor) of Pars.
It formed the southwestern administrative division of Pars, and consisted of a mountainous countryside of the southernZagros Mountains—much of the territory inhabited later by theQashqai tribe; with its mountainous terrain and extreme temperature, this was regarded by the geographers as a "sardsīr" (cold zone). The Zagros mountains and the coastal plain, along thePersian Gulf, however, was regarded by the geographers as a garmsīr (hot zone). In the center of the circular city of Gor, there was a tower-like structure calledTerbal, which was similar to aBuddhiststupa. Furthermore, there was also afire-temple which the 10th-centuryArab historianal-Masudi reportedly visited.[4]
Istakhr (Middle Persian:Staxr) served as an administrative and religious centre under the Sasanian Empire, which it had done sinceAchaemenid times. TheAnahid fire-temple was the "ideological heart of the empire." It was also the home town of the Sasanians.
Darabgerd (Middle Persian:Dārāvkirt, meaning "Darab did it") was a town founded during theParthian era, and was turned into an administrative division by Ardashir I after he took conquered it.[5]
Shapur-Khwarrah (Middle Persian:Šāpuhr-Xwarra, meaning "glory ofShapur") was founded by the second Sasanian kingShapur I (r. 240–270).
Arrajan (Middle Persian:Argān), also known as Veh-az-Amid-Kavadh, was a late administrative division founded in the early 6th century byKavadh I (r. 498–531), who attached a small part ofKhuzestan to it[6] and settledprisoners of war fromAmid andMartyropolis in the place.
Ardashir I's conquest of Pars started from the early 200s and ended in ca. 223; the province was originally divided between several local rulers, who were vassals of the Parthian Empire. Ardashir's conquest began when he succeeded Tiri as theargbed (fortress commander) of the castle of Darabgerd. From there he marched to the nearby place of Gobanan, where he killed its king, Pasin. He thereafter marched to a place named Konus and killed its king,Manuchihr. He then invaded Lurwir and killed its king, Dara. In ca. 205/6, Ardashir urged his fatherPapak to revolt and killGochihr, the powerful ruler ofIstakhr; Papak successfully managed to do that, but appointed his other son Shapur as his heir, which enraged Ardashir and made him fortify himself in another place in Pars, where he later founded Gor.
Papak died a few years later, which gave Ardashir the opportunity to rebel against Shapur, who died in 211/2 after an accident. Ardashir spent the rest of the following years fighting other local rulers of Pars and its surroundings, such as the Parthian dynastMihrak, who ruledAbarsas andJahrom. By 223, Ardashir was the undisputed king of Pars, and the following year defeated and killed the last Parthian king,Artabanus V.
During the childhood ofShapur II (r. 309–379),Arab nomads made several incursions into Pars, where they raided Gor and its surroundings.[7]
In the early 5th century, a bridge was built in Gor by the Sasanian minister (wuzurg framadār)Mihr Narseh, who was a native ofAbruwan, a subdistrict in Ardashir-Khwarrah. An inscription was also written on the bridge, which says; "This bridge was built by order of Mihr-Narseh, wuzurg framadār, for his soul's sake and at his own expense... Whoever has come on this road let him give a blessing to Mihr-Narseh and his sons for that he thus bridged this crossing."[8] Furthermore, he also founded four villages with a fire-temple in each of them. The name of the fire-temples were; Faraz-mara-awar-khwadaya, Zurwandadan, Kardadan, and Mahgushnaspan. He had a fifth fire-temple constructed in Abruwan, which may have been the Barin fire-temple that the 10th-centuryPersian geographerEstakhri visited, who stated that the fire-temple had an inscription that stated 30,000dirhams was spent for its construction.[9] Sometime before 540, adiocese was established in Gor.[4]
The Muslim invasion of Pars first began in 638/9, when the Rashidun governor ofBahrain,al-'Ala' ibn al-Hadrami, who after having defeated some rebellious Arab tribes, seized an island in thePersian Gulf.[10] Although al-'Ala' and the rest of the Arabs had been ordered to not invade Pars or its surrounding islands, he and his men continued their raids into the province. Al-'Ala quickly prepared an army which was divided into three groups, one underal-Jarud ibn Mu'alla, the second underal-Sawwar ibn Hammam and the third underKhulayd ibn al-Mundhir ibn Sawa. When the first group entered Pars, it was quickly defeated and al-Jarud was killed.[10]
The same thing soon happened to the second group. However, things proved to be more fortunate with the third group; Khulayd managed to keep them on bay, but was unable to withdraw back to Bahrain due to the Sasanians blocking his way at the sea.[10] Umar, founding out about al-'Ala's invasion of Pars, had him replaced withSa'd ibn Abi Waqqas as the governor of Bahrain. Umar then orderedUtbah ibn Ghazwan to send reinforcements to Khulayd. When the reinforcements arrived, Khulayd and some of his men managed successfully to withdraw back to Bahrain, while the rest withdrew toBasra.[10]
In ca. 643,Uthman ibn Abi al-As seizedBishapur, and made a peace treaty with the inhabitants of the city.In 19/644, al-'Ala' once again attacked Pars from Bahrain, reaching as far as Istakhr, until he was repelled by the governor (marzban) of Pars,Shahrag.[11] Some time later, Uthman ibn Abi al-As managed to establish a military base atTawwaj, and shortly defeated and killed Shahrag nearRew-shahr (however other sources states that it was his brother who did it). A Persian convert toIslam, Hormoz ibn Hayyan al-'Abdi, was shortly sent by Uthman ibn Abi al-'As to attack a fortress known as Senez on the coast of Pars.[12] After the accession ofUthman ibn Affan as the newCaliph of the Rashidun Caliphate on 11 November, the inhabitants of Bishapur under the leadership of Shahrag's brother declared independence, but were defeated.[12] However the date for this revolt mains disputed, as the Persian historianal-Baladhuri states that it occurred in 646.[13]
In 648,'Abd-Allah ibn al-'Ash'ari forced the governor of Istakhr, Mahak, to surrender the city. However, this was not the final conquest of Istakhr, as the inhabitants of the city would later rebel in 649/50 while its newly appointed governor,'Abd-Allah ibn 'Amir was trying to captureGor. The military governor of the province, 'Ubayd Allah ibn Ma'mar, was defeated and killed. In 650/1, the Sasanian emperorYazdegerd III went to Istakhr and tried to plan an organized resistance against the Arabs, and after some time he went to Gor, but Istakhr failed to put up a strong resistance, and was soon sacked by the Arabs, who killed over 40,000 defenders. The Arabs then quickly seized Gor,Kazerun andSiraf, while Yazdegerd III fled toKirman.[11] Thus ended the Muslim conquest of Pars, however, the inhabitants of the province would later several times rebel against the Arabs.[11]
The majority of Pars' inhabitants wereZoroastrians, which is confirmed by the linguistic and historical evidence found in the region, such as the burial practices found in the region and "that theAvesta was canonized on the basis of the tradition of Pars." A largeChristian community also lived in Pars, due to the large deportation of inhabitants from the Roman Empire by Shapur I to the province.
